2026 Matchguide #1

 Masanori Watanabe & Yuta Oya vs. Ryutaro Ono & Ali Najima, Sportiva 1/7

Good main event from Sportiva to open the year. Opening floor brawling wasn't anything brilliant though it was energetic hard hitting pro wrestling and just watching Yuta Oya do anything is always interesting. Second half of the match is quite fun - there's a great exchange between Najima and Oya culminating in Najima hitting a really violent headbutt. It comes down to Ohno vs. Watanabe as Ohno has been kind of in Watanabes shadow so he tries to put him down with basic boston crabs etc while Watanabe is always angling for a leg submission. They make it pretty interesting and it's good shit along with the continued interactions between Oya and Najima. I cannot overstate how incredible Oya is, and because he's blind you get those odd plausible moment like Najima just sneaking past him to break up a nearfall.

Sho Mizuno & Ryuya Matsufusa vs Tigers Mask & Aran Sano, Osaka Pro 2/22

An enjoyable big match, the recent Osaka Pro resurgence is really cool. Some modernisms hampered this a bit (kind of slow pace, some thighslapping) but overall it delivers a lot of good hard hitting action. Matsufusa is the ace of Osaka Pro right now and he has some fun athleticism and I guess that's his thing. Aran Sano is quite generic - though he has some good offense later in the match, he showed pretty much 0 personality. Nothing against guys like that, but it does make one long for the days of the likes of Ashura Hara or Hiromichi Fuyuki when it comes to secondary guys. The main reason I liked this match was Tigers Mask and Sho Mizuno. Tigers Mask in his old days has become a really cool wrestler, like a sleazy hybrid of Takeshi Ono and Tajiri, nonchalantly kicking guys really hard, employing scummy tactics, and his out of nowhere Necro bump was really gritty. Really made me want to check out more of him. Sho Mizuno is the guy who was coming up in the sleazy ranks of Kobe Meriken last year and now he's looking like quite the budding talent. He's a really enjoyable underdog with his hard kicks. His jumping knees ruled and the finishing run between him and Sano is quality stuff. Naturally I enjoyed Tigers and Mizuno the most in this match because I am just that kind of person though Matsufusa and Sano were also bringing it. 

 

Senka Akatsuki vs Chihiro Hashimoto, Sendai Girls 2/15

Awesome match, it was kind of inevitable. Akatsukis whole thing the past year has been being this tenacious rookie who shoot pins people and doesn't back down, now she faces the grappling monster herself. This was allll about tenacity, struggle and making the most out of basic things, so it was pretty much my kind of pro wrestling to a tee. Opening headlock work was basic but fairly great as they made everything look like a struggle. That opening sequence of headlocks and shoulder blocks may have been about 500 times better than those things usually are. Hashimoto always looked like the more expert wrestler when grappling - dug that headlock escape - but Akatsuki would always try to forearm her hard or catch her with basic shoulder blocks. Akatsukis entire thing at this point is that her moveset is still very basic but she can still chip away, do some damage, get the most out of everything and eventually force a pin, and it's really gold. Hashimoto cinching in a body scissor only for Senka to reverse into a boston crab may be the closest we get to Jaguar Yokota/Jackie Sato in 2026 and that rules that I'm even watching a match that forces the comparison. Hashimoto getting slapped and trying to bash Senkas head in in retaliation was reminescent of a Shinya Hashimoto match. Intense pin struggle with Hashimotoo reversing to get on top and then slamming Senka was also perfect. One of the best rookie/veteran matches in a long time.

 
PSYCHO vs. Shuichiro Katsumura, Ganbare Pro 3/28/2026

Great 10 minute match. PSYCHO is awesome as a dirtbag technical wrestler who just wants to steal a pinfall, and Katsumura has gotten quite good by now. Really liked how Katsumura immediately went for the arm after hitting a kick to PSYCHOs shoulder which always adds to the 'everything matters' feel. PSYCHO taking control by catching Katsumura with a dirty trip and hitting a really fast kneedrop was great. Him hitting the springboard backflip was also pretty awesome considering he must be pretty old by now. Katsumuras counters were downright masterful, especially loved the Yoshida-esque sweep to armbar. I am not sure how I feel about Katsumura using the Go 2 Sleep as a transition move and then hitting an elbow drop like a CM Punk tribute, but it was kinda funny. Great finish courtesy of PSYCHO, too.

 

Mari & MARU vs. Rio & Sakura Mizushima, AWG 5/16

Another fun match from AWG. Again, the match had a complex layout and told a story, making it more interesting than your typical Japanese match these days. Rio and Mizushima are still a bit on the goofy side, but there was plenty of serious wrestling with Mizushima showing she could keep up better and better against the heel duo of Mari and MARU. She looked quite good, of course it's not hard when you're facing two pro heels like these two but she looked on point. Rio was the story of the match as she was the one who would have to dig deep and push herself and it made for some compelling moments. The highlight was easily the creatively set up 3 on 1 splash they did. Mari and MARU were reliable as ever providing some punishing offense and stooging extremely well.

Yujiro Yamamoto vs Yu Shimizu, Kobe Meriken 4/10

I'd be shocked if I see a more violent match this year. This was a midcard match on a sportsbar show, I like both guys and expected a decent effort, but these two unleashed hell on earth at each other here. Just some of the hardest elbows and slaps you will ever see. Shimizu was trying to scramble Yamamotos brains to paste and Yamamoto looked like a demon here. Initially Yamamoto was shrugging off anything that Shimizu threw at him, probably not taking him seriously, until Shimizu was able to knock him back. After that Yamamoto started targeting Shimizus leg with some brutal low kicks and knee-crushing technical moves. This was definitely the most inspired I've seen Yamamoto in a long time, he was torturing Shimizu in Fuchi-ish ways and also busted out a bunch of great flash submission counters. He also kept increasing the violence, by the end he was cracking Shimizu with FUTEN-esque kicks to the head. Shimizu was mostly the underdog here, while he was mostly getting trashed I always dig his scrappy vibe and simplistic backdrops/sleeper/elbow approach. Really liked how he just car crashed into the back of Yamamotos head with an elbow, and his flash rear naked choke may be my favourite spot in wrestling. There was also some great struggle over the backdrop suplex. That said this was just a downright evil fight but pretty great for what it was.

Bocky Kong vs. TATSUYA, Health Pro 4/12/2026

Hell yeah. Give me 2 tubby asskickers like this painting out their pro wrestling vision. This also happened to be a titanic 30 minute epic were they basically worship 90s IWGP heavyweight or WAR style. Can these two men who exist in the most obscure bowels of pro wrestling pull it off? Hell yeah they can. What I liked about this was that it felt not a single minute was wasted. They make the whole thing competitive, every single move here feels like offense intended to damage, never like time wasting. Most of the early goings they spend grappling with a lot of hanging on to side headlocks and cravates. Those holds seem fairly basic but with the way they were hanging on and really wrenching them they make it really compelling. There were a ton of cool moments too. I loved the way TATSUYA would keep clubbing his way out of the cravate hold, really making it look like he was trying to chop Bockys arm off. So often escapes from holds just look graceful or buttery smooth with all the struggle missing, these escapes looked painful and brutal. Really loved Bocky Kongs Honda-like arm takeover. It feels like it's 10 or 15 minutes of both guys just trying to squeeze heads into grape  juice or crank necks with their holds, with the occasional explosion. Only 15 minutes in does a shoulderblock exchange occur, and it really feels like two guys recklessly crashing into each other. I even liked the bodyslam war they started, so exhausting and they both were rolling dropping bombs with those body slams. When they start hitting they really hit each other insanely hard. Kong worships Hashimoto like no tomorrow so he's all chest kicks, neck chops and neck-cranking DDTs. TATSUA works really simplistic with his chops and lariats but it's all cool. Again, they do simple stuff but with a lot of intensity and in an unpredictable things-happening-as-they-do way that makes it really compelling to watch. Yes, it may be a bit long, but I was hooked all the way through. What these two lack in refinement they make up for in spades with attitude and spirit. Really loved how they tied it together by going for their headlocks and cravates again towards the end to set up the finish. A hard fought, hard hitting war with lots of awesome moments, I really enjoyed this.
 

2026 Matchguide 

Assorted Mutoha

 As always, buy them on X or thebase!

Unicorn Rules: Yasushi Sato & Konaka & G Valion vs. Hiroshi Watanabe & Masamune & Super Crafter U, Mutoha 7/22/2021

35 minutes of sweet wrestling, like you expect from this killer lineup. This was Unicorn Road rules which means the 1^st fall was a singles between Konaka and Crafter, 2^nd a tag between Sato/Valion and Watanabe/Masamune and the 3^rd a 6 man between all participiants. Konaka/Crafter was really good, the shootstyle submissions of Crafter mesh very well with Konakas more esoteric pro style approach and it was awesome to watch Konaka figure his way out of Crafters shoot leglocks, really good little technical match and Crafter blasting his opponent with brutal looking kicks was awesome as always. 2^nd fall had some awesome grappling from Masamune and sweet exchanges between him and Yasushi Sato. Masamune is really good when he’s just grappling and not doing Kurt Angle shit, he had some amazing counters, honestly he may have been the best guy in the match, he looked like a grappling machine. I would’ve liked to see a bit more of Sato vs Masamune because these two just trying to put the other guys shoulders down for the 3 is always awesome to watch, but then again I always want to watch more Yasushi Sato. Valion is the weakest guy in the match, I was interested in what he would bring to the table but in this murderers row of fantastic grapplers he doesn’t stand out a ton but he was alright and I liked his series of quick DDTs and odd submission. 3^rd fall didn’t have as much grappling and some slightly odd moments such as a random ref bump that had no effect on the match, however both teams looked like they were trying to finish the match and Yasushi Sato held the ending run together with his cool submissions, russian leg sweeps and neat touches. This was kind of like a pro wrestling mixtape with 6 really unique wrestlers bringing a ton to the table, just really cool to watch.

Kenichiro Arai vs. Masamune, 3/19/2022

30 minutes of mostly matwork. Strictly for the technical wrestling freaks but if you can’t get into something like that, what the hell are you doing reading this? They started out basic but put some amazing details into their otherwise basic holds and transitions, and continued in that fashion throughout the match putting some gritty struggle into hings. Masamune is always game to just grapple it out and it was really cool watching him trying to put Arais shoulders down for the 3 with his more amateur style flourishes while Arai is just the king of grabbing a basic hold and cranking it to the maximum. Arai paying tribute to Giant Baba with an ultra tight full nelson into the leg nelson was a really nice moment. I really liked how Arai sold vulnerability by selling his leg after missing a knee drop and seemed to be close to self destruction when he went for a couple flying axe handles. I am a bit tired of ankle locks at this point but Masamune chess match approach to the hold worked for me. They meandered a bit on occasion but overall this was very good and fascinating to watch if you were a fan of GENTARO/Arai already this should definitely go on your watch list too.

 

Kenji Takeshima vs. Hikaru Sato Mutoha 11/14/2015

Pretty badass no-ring shootstyle match that exceeded expectations. This match is compelling because of their difference in ranking and because of how competitive they make it feel. They really put over the fact that Satos kicks are bombs, Takeshima was Fujiwaralike in catching them early on and taking Sato down, however as soon as Sato started landing the kicks Takeshima was getting destroyed. Takeshima comes back hitting a desperation headbutt and they go into this Lawler/Mantell style headbutt exchange while selling the accumulating brain trauma. Eventually they start shit talking each others promotions (causing the 20 people in attendance to start a “BattlARTS” chant). They move back into a straight shootstyle finish. I love how Takeshima laid on that Achilles Hold, he really looked like he wanted to force the tap more than anything else in his life. Good, really competitive feeling stuff, pretty unexpected from a match with no ring in front of 20 people.

PSYCHO vs Koju Takeda, Mutoha 1/14/2018

Bit of a different favour for Mutoha with this match. No extended technical wrestling section this is just PSYCHO putting a scumbag rudo beating on Takeda. A lot of really cool stuff from PSYCHO in this, trying to screw Takedas neck with some nasty moves, knees to the face, hard elbows, and his cool cross armbar variations. Takeda is a 666 guy who is ridiculously good looking, in terms of wrestling he does just basic stuff but all well executed and I guess that’s just fine, he is a good foil for scummy PSYCHO. Really fun match that serves as an excellent showcase for all the cool stuff PSYCHO can do.

 

Mutoha Premium 2/16/2025

As always, buy it from the source on X or  the base!

 

Hideya Iso vs Crusher Takahashi

A cool opening match between two fighters who look older than dirt that still have more fire in them than you expect. As is the style of Mutoha they spend a lot of time grappling on the ground, but they do a cool job keeping it unpredictable and going at a fairly quick pace. A lot of this felt like an old Mid South TV match from the early 80s or 70s. Crusher still throws some of the greatest punches you will see in pro wrestling. I also loved when he did the Mutoh leg snap thing because he's so massive. You don't expect it given his size and age and when he does it it looks like he really snapped Isos leg and that's what makes it awesome. Iso was also pretty fired up - he would hit these really cool jumping enzuigiris. I don't recall many instances in the past where I saw Hideya Iso, who is as stoic and grappling-oriented as they come leaving his feet, but his enzugiris looked great. I also went crazy when he tried to hit the German suplex on Crusher. And the finish was really cool too. A nice way to open this card.

Unicorn Rules:
Kenichiro Arai & CHANGO & PSYCHO vs. GENTARO & Akira Jo & Taro Yamada

As any die hard Mutoha fan knows, a Unicorn rules match is a 2/3 falls where the first fall is a 1 vs 1 match, the 2nd a 2 vs 2 match with the remaining participiants and the 3rd a 6 man tag with everyone involved. This always creates an interesting dynamic. The story of this match were CHANGO and PSYCHO, who I believe appeared in MUTOHA for the first time. They are technically skilled, but they are also scumbags and not afraid to steal a win using foul tactics. That was heavily felt when they put the Mutoha regulars under pressure with their underhand moves. Really this was some highly intelligent pro wrestling where you could never be sure what would happen next, and everyones tactics were really cool, with PSYCHO and CHANGO also providing plenty of slick technical moves. It was awesome to watch Yamada and Jo turn the tables on them. Obviously, the best part of this was the 3rd fall, however. They all just get down and wrestle and it reminded me of the best of the CMLL Ciberneticos. Everyone on the Mutoha team is among the best grapplers in the world and CHANGO and PSYCHO showed that they can handle themselves with them, I especially enjoyed PSYCHOs twistiness and penchant for odd angle moves, he is really interesting to watch. Man alive GENTARO is just an absolute grappling master at this point in time. He and Arai probably stood out in the biggest way, GENTARO for his classiness, and Arai for his talent at turning the most miniscule actions into something memorable. Arai really wrestles to prove a point, what he does is just a giant flex of his intelligence and skill. There was this takedown he did where he stepped on Akira Jos foot and painfully drove his knee into Akiras leg that was amazing and I will probably remember that move more than anything else this year. There was also this great segment he worked against Yamada built around snapping Yamada down in really forceful ways. At the end we get another grandstand exchange between Arai and GENTARO so yes this is really worthwhile. Yamada and Akira Jo are kind of supporting players but everyone who is familiar with them knows how good they are and they showed their classy skill level in contrast to the scumminess of CHANGO and PSYCHO, Jo with his great suplexes and submission skill and Yamada with his penchant for quirky technical wrestling. In the end this ended up being extremely enjoyable, highly skillful wrestling with a multilayered story and everyone looking great. I cannot say enough to praise the craftsmanship of all these guys. I came out of this wanting to see singles match between everyone involved, and that's why I hope Mutoha will continue, or that at least another promotion will see the potential in these matchups here. A great match that stands out in a big way in the 2025 wrestling landscape.

Yasushi Sato vs Shoji Ohno

The last gong of Mutoha for now, and this is a memorable match. This was really freaking amazing as well. You had the usual enjoyable technical pro wrestling that is the signature of Mutoha, but this also told a great story. Yasushi Sato is the defiant champion, unwilling to be humbled by the young spry 40 year old challenger Shoji Ohno. We know Sato is a master wrestler, who is always tireless and rarely humbled, so seeing Ono getting in his head and forcing him to show a meaner streak was something else. Ohno is so cool in Mutoha and this match is a fantastic conclusion to his Mutoha trilogy with his 2 amazing singles matches last year. He has technical skill, but he is also really straight forward and goes for the kill when he can, and his palm strike rush is the coolest thing in wrestling. The second half here was really great with Ono being relentless, going after Satos neck with sick looking stretches and a desperate Sato trying to comeback and increasing the violence with headbutts and Ono just drilling him. Outstanding big match, what a way to end Mutoha for now. Hopefully to come back some time, but in the meantime we should cherish the amazing wrestling they gave us, a totally unique and charming style of wrestling in the modern era!

 The Library

2025 Wrestling Week 6

 Hideaki Sumi vs Sho Mizuno, KOBE Meriken 1/31

I love to see my man Hideaki Sumi show up. For those who don't know, he's this aging karateka with a grey mullet with really precise hard hitting kicks, so he's awesome. He can grapple too, so he's more interesting than your typical karateka. I haven't seen Sho Mizuni before, and he doesn't even have a Cagematch profile, but he has a half-mullet-half-iro and he does pretty well here. He also has kickpads and is not afraid to kick hard, and he had some cool slick rides on the ground. But you want to watch this because it's two japanese guys with mullets in a bar kicking and smacking the hell out of each other and for that it really delivers. Some cool moments in this and the finish was a brutalizing. This gets the full indy sleaze point.

Yujiro Yamamoto vs Takaku Fuke, KOBE Meriken 2/7/2025

Well it's a good run for Kobe Meriken right now. These two square of doing some nice shootstyle grappling. It was pretty uncooperative stuff but there were a number of cool moments, in particular Yujiro Yamamoto dragging Fuke around by a nasty double wristlock, and Yamamoto having a really cool throw counter to an attempted Russian tie from Fuke. The part where Yamamoto went for an irish whip was a little weird, I have no idea why he keeps forcing that into his matches. But the last couple minutes they went back to shootstyle. Fuke is getting cloes to 60 now and has been wrestling for around 35 years, which is pretty insane. He is not mindblowing at this point but he doesn't exactly suck either, and Yamamoto has no problem keeping this moving. Pretty enjoyable.

Shinya Ishida vs Yuta Oya, Sportiva 2/5

Yuta Oya continues to deliver. How this man is not a sensation is beyond me. 40 years old, blind, and the best rookie going right now. This was a really impressive little match. It kind of reminded me a bit of early 90s AJPW. It was a pro-style match, but rather unpredictable. Really good "rookie does a surprising job controlling the veteran" performance from Oya. He would hurl Ishida around with his judo throws and catch him with out of nowhere power moves. And Ishida is good as he usually is. I don't have a ton to say here, I am just asking people to watch this and see for themselves. Really good under 10 minute match.

PSYCHO vs Leo Isaka, Marvelous 2/4

I enjoyed this a lot too. Some great technical wrestling here. They did some really cool transitions and reversals, making the usual standard opening chain wrestling actually interesting. PSYCHO was great - he looked like a great technician, surprisingly athletic, and his leg selling was top notch. I have no idea how a guy like him with his iro and tattered clothes somehow ends up being a great technician but here we are. Isaka looked good too. Really looking forward to check out PSYCHOs upcoming match in MUTOHA after this.

2025 Wrestling Roundup

GENTARO Matches

 

GENTARO vs El Samurai, FREEDOMS 9/27/2009

Very nice little gem. They easily could’ve coasted and done the bare minimum and it would have been a good match, but instead they wrestle this like it’s a tribute to Samurai vs Otani from 1996. GENTARO was certainly riding high in the late 2000s cementing himself as workhorse doing technical epics left and right, and late career Samurai is extremely game. Lots of pretty great targeted limb work, the opening segment is basically 5 minutes of Samurai stubbornly going after Gentaros arm/shoulder with nasty kimuras and stomps, then Gentaro goes for the leg. It leads to some great subtly building selling. I love that Samurai still throws really good punches and stomps – his punches to GENTAROs nose were woe-inducing, and despite having slowed down he still looks like he’s no pushover for his younger opponent. This is very much wrestlers wrestler stuff but it’s exactly what you’d hope for if you know what these two are capable of.

GENTARO vs PSYCHO, YMZ 7/21/2014

With PSYCHO being announced for the next Mutoha show, I had to check this out. The first half of the match was kind of slow and dragged down by lazy heel tactics, but it actually gets good when they start doing what I like best, hitting the mat and trying to tap each other out and hitting some awesome reversals. We all know GENTARO is the king of making minimalistic mat stuff look awesome and he does lean into that here, but PSYCHO also has lots of really cool stuff in his sleeve. His cross arm/leglocks were pretty cool and he also had a nasty looking shin choke thing. They both get really into fighting over a Sharpshooter and it was probably some of the greatest Sharpshooter work I’ve honestly seen ever, with both guys busting out some really great reversals that I’ve not seen before, even for such a classic hold.

Osamu Nishimura vs. GENTARO, VKF 11/16/2015

Very nice match because they didn‘t go the predictable routine. Instead of tons of holds, they worked this as Nishimura the maestro teaching GENTARO a lesson. Nishimura would outgrapple him, and when GENTARO tried to go for punches Nishimura would absolutely rattle him with sick uppercuts. There was one really cool reversal from Nish where he twisted his way out of a bow and arrow and locked in a tight legbar on GENTARO. Very smartly worked match with a lot of selling where every move meant something. Very old school, probably the last great Nishimura match with GENTARO being a great dance partner and knowing his role perfectly.