2025 Matchguide Week 52

 Leon & AKARI vs Moeka Haruhi & Rydeen Hagane, Pure-J 7/13

Dojo matches can be a mixed bag. Either you get something comedic or generic, or something that completely blows the expectations away. This was on the blowaway side. It's fun to watch these wrestlers have exchanges without relying too much on taking bumps. Lots of fast moving standing exchanges early on that were nifty. AKARI continues to impress although she was more hard hitting. Rydeen Hagane is also still a really fun power house, who mixes up the formula of the match a bit. Loved her going beast mode on AKARI after AKARI did the somewhat cutesy foot choke in the ropes, and she makes things more interesting simply by being hard to pick up for something like a suplex, and her hard lariats and big power moves were on point. Finishing stretch was super elaborate as they mix up all the possible pairings which each one making for a cool match up. Leon is ever classy and makes everyone else look good, and Haruhi continues to make any finishing stretch she's in fun with her violent offense and surprising knack for cool reversals. The ending of this was just two wrestlers frantically going for a pin fall and it was probably the most credible and breathless of that kind of exchange I've seen in quite some time. 20 minutes that flew by in a breeze with a lot of good stuff in it.

Kenichiro Arai vs Ayumu Honda, Tenryu Project 9/23

Excellent chess match. Arai is truely one of the most interesting guys going when he gets going, and Honda has seemingly been thoroughly Yanoified and is fully embracing the weird technical wrestling. Lots of takedowns from odd angles, neat tie-ups, cool bits of struggle and making something out of basic moves. Thought Arai could've sold Hondas arm work a bit more, but aside from that this really rocked. I can't say much more than that, they grappled a lot and did their thing and it was never boring and just a really good match. Either you love it or you won't care for it.

Takumi Iroha vs Senka Akatsuki, Marvelous 10/19

Well crafted match that avoided the typical overdog vs underdog tropes you'd expect. Typically, you'd have the veteran no-selling the rookie a bunch. Not the case here, because Iroha knows Senka is an animal and will maul her if given the chance. After Akatsukis early takedown and elbows, Iroha made sure to stay all over her. I really liked Akatsukis comeback, which just consisted of yanking Iroha off the apron and smashing her into the steel pole. It was a hell of a lot closer to something Roddy Piper would do in 1983 in the Mid South Coloseum than your typical 2025 transition. Finishing run had a few great moments: teasing Senkas signature deadlift suplex, a big slap that almost KO'd Akatsuki and Senka then going for the shoot pin, and Iroha just having enough and trying to snap an arm. Iroha also dialed back the thighslapping a bit and wrestled more like a female version of Hashimoto - loved her big spin kick that landed square in Akatsukis face. Really good, borderline great match, and one hell of a stepping stone for Senka who is being made to look like a killer.

Paul Ishida vs ASUKA The World, XGF 2025/11/23

More delightfully demented carnage from XGF. This starts somewhat lighthearted as ASUKA takes it to Paul with a Super Nintendo, but quickly turns as seedy and deranged as you want your nihilistic backyard wrestling deathmatches to be. They go to brawl in this big dark hall with ASUKA dripping blood on the floor and the shoots looking like something out of the Descent as they brawl in the darkness. Tons of inventive and nasty spots, I was particular to Ishida mimicking spurting sparks onto Asuka, although the ladder dropkick neckbreaking spot was also incredibly nasty. The long shot where ASUKA, covered in blood and with oil all over him falling around on the floor while Ishida was getting ready to run him over with a truck was straight out of a horror movie. Thought ASUKA was pretty great here as a bloody mess, he had some great offense too, great jumping kick and a great backdrop suplex that twisted Ishida around. Ishida was reliably trollish and gloriously seedy here too. I think this didn't need to be 25 minutes but that's really my only critique. Ghouls should have a field day with this.

Marino Saihara vs Rico Fukunaga, AWG 12/20

AWG puts up the big match for their main title for free, just like that! Really good match too! It's a short match too so you basically get all killer no filler. Lots of hard kicks, cool bits of struggle,  a few neat counters, and both of them going for the kill. Saihara had been the dominant champion for a while now so Fukunaga who had been in her shadow was pulling all the stops. There was a sense of desperation, even when Saihara was just able to lock 2 fingers together when trying for a crossface chickenwing. Loved the use of the savate kicks by Fukunaga, and her big reversal of Saiharas stalling german suplex was completely spectacular. I'm not sure what was up with Fukunagas weird catapult but other than that everything looked really good, not UWF level but good. I can't say much more than that, it's just well worked match between two wrestlers with believable hard hitting offense who put in some thought into their matches and an earnest effort, everything was sold and there was nothing that felt trite or by the numbers, it's just really good stuff all around and another great little chapter in AWGs current outstanding run.

2025 Matchguide 

2025 Matchguide Week 50

 
Kotaro Nasu vs Yukito, Heat-Up 5/25

A very good little quasi-shootstyle match. Reminded me a lot of a Fu-Ten undercard match which is a very good thing in 2025. Yukito continues to be decent while Nasu continues to elevate things by being really vicious. He had some of the most vicious kicks and open hands I've seen all year in this. Him looking in a cool calf slicer and then going in further on Yukitos leg with brutal low kicks was quite good, poignant shootstyle action. There was also a nice punishing aspect since Nasu is the veteran so he is obligated to try and kick right though Yukito. It's really really fun and if it hadn't been for the somewhat awkward insertion of a few irish whip moves it would've been one of my favourite singles matches of the year. My man Nasu deserves more recognition (and more bookings so I can watch him more, dammit).

Sareee vs Chihiro Hashimoto, Sendai Girls 11/16

A no-brainer great match up that delivers pretty much what you expect. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by the opening half of this which was really good, smart pro wrestling. We get some cool matwork where Hashimoto shows off her Alexander Otsuka-ish cartwheels and granby rolls and what not, dominating Sareee in cool ways, then cutting her of with those massive body checks. It was great stuff. Sareee was fighting against a wall here, and she had to figure out how to get by and start bombing her with her signature crowbar dropkicks and stomps. Sareee then trying to break Hashimoto leg with nasty twisting legbars and diving stomps was quite great. Of course, that legwork was pretty much forgotten as soon as Hashimoto got back on offense. They have their obligatory 'we both no sell a suplex' moment and the match is a lot less interesting suddenly. Some Takaiwa-ish crowbar strikes, headbutts, bombs and lariats happen to get me back into the match. After some more trite no-selling we get at least a graceful finish. I really wonder if it's possible for a Japanese big match to exist these days without a bunch of suplex no-selling. Even the crowd seems bored of that stuff at this point. It's a slight let down because there was a bunch of objectively really great work here.


Shinya Aoki vs T-Hawk, GLEAT 10/9

As usual, Aoki provides plenty of entertainment toying with his opponent on the mat and trying to force his shoulders down for the pin in painful looking ways. T-Hawk knocking him off the top rope and then proceeding to bitch slap him around on the floor was some surprisingly adept brawling considering T-Hawk is a Dragon Gate guy. Still, I thought Aoki needs to learn how to sell. I get that he's supposed to be a monster but he shouldn't be making stupid faces after getting punched in the face. As such the end of the match was a bit underwhelming. Fair play to T-Hawk as throwing Shinya Aoki into a row of chairs and then bitchslapping him was probably the greatest thing he ever did.

 

AKARI vs Crea, PURE-J 5/16

Impressive 2/3 falls match between two skillful wrestlers. Crea is quite the fun hard hitting machine with her boots and chops and AKARI had lots of nifty lucha-esque takedowns and submissions attempts. Though Crea also had some good submission work of her own. There was some quite evil stomping and smacks to the face here. Really liked the struggle over the tarantula attempt. Creas jumping big boot thing that she does is awesome. The match felt gritty and most importantly, they fought really hard in all 3 falls and had an unpredictable match that had some thought put into everything down to how they built up things throughout all the 3 falls without going cookie cutter. Definitely felt like more people should have their eyes on these two. Admittedly, Crea could've done with a bit less slapping of the thigh, but other than this was great. 

2025 Matchguide 

2025 Matchguide Week 48

 Yasu Urano vs Akito, 11/16
Two guys grappling in the dojo for 60 minutes and livestreaming it seemingly from a phone camera. That is pretty much the most reverseviperhold match that can happen in 2025, so I am obligated to love it, but there was a ton of great stuff going on here. Akito is a total grappling freak, the guy was in the junior olympics and he used to wrestle Yasushi Sato 3 times a month in his Sportiva days. He rarely gets to show off that kind of talent in DDT, so I am glad he got to let out his freak in this. Really a great showing as he mixed in a ton of sweet techniques, some great leg grapevine moves, unique pins, the guy has a knack for this kind of clinical mat wrestling match. Urano is such a deceptive technician, he doesn't have quite the flashy techniqe of Akito, but he can really get down and gritty, at times he would just snatch an arm and armdrag Akito down really aggressively. He is also really vocal and was constantly letting out these miserable death rattles, like this match was totally killing him, and Akito would really cinch in any headlock or sleeper so hard that you buy wheezing old Yasu Urano passing out in the moment. They do get in a ton of neat details and unique touches, really a study of how you can work each hold to the maximum. It is a bit slow here and there and they do lose steam a bit towards the end, though I appreciate they didn't even try to tack on a bunch of nearfalls, they just kept struggling and resisting down to the last minute and that rules. I get that this is a highly specific type of match that these two probably did because they would get a kick out of it more than everyone else. But fuck if you wanna see some slick leg grapevines and awesome inventive headscissor work and shoulder exploding armbar pins and more gritty struggling over takedowns and pins and leglocks than you can imagine this is the match for you. Definitely one of my favourite bouts of the year, old school and raw passion for pro wrestling at its purest.

 Leon & Makoto vs Moeka Haruhi & Misa Kagura, PURE-J 6/29

Super enjoyable joshi tag that doesn't waste much time and just delivers non-stop action the joshi way. Everything felt nice and aggressive here, these 4 all have offense that hits hard. Kagura, who is yet another girly girl in a frilly pink dress looks solid. Makoto is putting a lot of force into her kicks these days, she was really fun here kicking people out the way with her big boots. Leon is classy as always, I could watch her impale people with spears all day long, and her tilt a whirl slams are great. Haruhi may have been the best of the bunch, her offense is plenty violent, just crushing people with double stomps and knee drops, and she has some impressive wrestling skill with cool suplexes, making intelligent use of the straight jacket hold, and even catching Leon in a crafty pin. Finishing run had a lot of fun creative stuff and never loses your attention. It wasn't a super deep match or anything but there wasn't any egregious noselling or overkill either and sometimes you just wanna watch 4 cool wrestlers go full bore.

Ali Najima & Tomoki Hatano vs Takahiro Hirakimoto & Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 11/26
Najima vs Yu Shimizu feud continues, which makes this fun. Hatano is a bit of a downgrade compared to yuta Oya in the tag from the previous week to say the least. Hirakimoto is still in the black trunks rookie phase and only doing a body slam and suplex, but he's alright. As a result the match did not go as deep as the tag from the weak before but it's nice to see Najima and Shimizu continueing their animosities. The finish builds right on the tag from the week before and that's always a nice thing to see.


Senka Akatsuki & Seri Yamaoka vs Takumi Iroha & Sareee, Marvelous 10/24
Usual good stuff from this crew. Akatsuki and Yamaoka are facing two monsters, but they are still busy having contempt for each other. A bit predictable, but reliable rookie vs veterans stuff, and they do surprise you with some things they bust out. Senka has been good all year long, at this point it's just a matter of when she will do the next step. Iroha and Sareee did their thing pretty much, and Seri was fairly impressive here.

Marino Saihara & Sakura Mizushima vs Anri & Yukina Uehara (AWG 7/11)

Fast paced, quite hard hitting pro wrestling that doesn't waste your time. I have no idea why AWG athresses are taking wrestling more seriously than almost everyone else in the country but here it is, there were no jokes here, no cutesy stuff, they just wrestled a really convincing match. Anri is another AWG wrestler that looks deceptively harmless but is actually really intense. This was mostly about Saihara vs Anri, with Saihara playing the veteran that can't be knocked down and Anri being a really good underdog that keeps coming back. I really liked how they seemed to go for the traditional rookie beatdown at first, but then Anri was able to catch Mizushima with a surprise thrust kick to the throat and then lock in this really cool rolling strangle hold while Uehara kept Saihara at bay. Mizushima is also in the process of becoming a really respectable wrestler. The moment where she caught Ueharas kick and landed her painful looking leg breaker was great and example of great timing as Uehara seemed to be in control and about to gain momentum. I also dug how they protected the submissions. When Mizushima went for her signature bridging figure 4, it was broken up just as she went into the bridge. Later, Saihara was trying to lock in a chickenwing crossface with all her might, the tension building as she started to get her fingers together and then the submission being broken at the last second. It's basic stuff but you rarely see it done like this these days. Once it came down to Anri vs Saihara it was really intense stuff and just really good wrestling. The finish is Saihara landing a jumping knee strike to Anris face, hitting a judo throw and locking in a plain straight armbar and cranking it for the tap, which is a really FUTEN finish to happen in 2025. Am I saying this is a FUTEN match? Hell no, but the energy is a ton of fun. AWG has one hell of a back catalogue with even minor matches like this being really compelling.

2025 Matchguide
 

Exploring Pure-J Pt. II

 Leon & AKARI vs Rydeen Hagane & KAZUKI, Pure-J 7/4/2021

It’s a bit of a shame that this Pure-J stuff is so under the radar. Sure, it’s behind a paywall on their YouTube channel, but matches like this are well worth a couple dollars. For a dojo show tag match this was pretty great. Awesome hard hitting exchanges between Leon and Rydeen, and Kazuki and AKARI more than hold up. Rydeen is a really fun powerhouse, and the more I watch Leon the more I think she’s one of the best wrestlers around. Leon is just so incredibly sharp, and her ability to build bigger moments is what makes her stand out. Just the way she will set up her signatures to hit them in more exciting ways make her stand out. AKARI is really cool here, lots of slick leglock takeovers from her, and KAZUKI also brought some fun stuff to the table mostly focussing on attacking peoples mid section here. Some great cut off and double team spots as well.

Leon vs Rydeen Hagane, Pure-J 7/22/2021

Badass match between two great wrestlers. I don’t know why you don’t hear more praise for Rydeen Hagane, she brings a lot of cool shit to the table. Just the way she would slam Leon down with a cool judo throw really sets her apart from other heavyweight monster types. This was a really good long form title match with an unpredictable layout. Obviously Leon is a huge show with all the cool stuff she can do, but I thought Hagane also held up, and it turned into a hard fought match. Big vs little psychology was in place and it provided lots of neat moments, Leon putting on scarecrow submissions, Rydeen powering out of Leons offense in cool ways, Leon finding nifty ways to slow down Rydeen etc. Rydeen has a few impressive reversals of Leons stuff, picking her up for hard slams and big throws occasionally. I also loved Leon increasing the grittiness of the match, headbutting Rydeen in the back of the head to set up a suplex, her spin kicks hitting like a truck, double stomping Rydeen for good measure etc. Leon just comes across as such a force in this, cool submissions, hard hitting, slick movements, and Hagane was an impressive tough wall trying to swat her down. Great stuff that should be on peoples radars when it comes to 2020s joshi.

KAZUKI vs Rydeen Hagane, Pure-J 4/10/2022

KAZUKI is hit and miss, but she was hitting it here. Basically Rydeen Hagane starts dropping bombs immediately on Kazuki, swatting her with some hard hitting lariats. It looks like KAZUKI is done in, but she is able to knee Hagane in the head and go for the arm. KAZUKI then does an impressive job stopping the monster by going for the arm relentlessly and hitting cool knee attacks, I love any wrestler who makes something like a kitchen sink look special. KAZUKI had some really cool arm attacks such as a nifty monkey flip into an armbar. I continue to enjoy Hagane as she continues to add touches that make her matches more interesting than the usual heavyweight affair, in this case trying to strangle KAZUKI with a nasty sleeper when she went for a too predictable arm attack. Cool stuff and the finish with the weird armlock was badass.

Hanako Nakamori vs Leon, Pure-J 7/18/2022

Some really good fast paced hard hitting pro wrestling here. Obviously these two have offense for days, but the way they move between everything is outstanding. Pretty much no let down in this at all, and they pull off some really slick stuff. Really like their dynamic with Nakamori having her vicious kicks and Leon focussing on her spear variations. There was some leg work which Nakamori didn’t really sell, which is too bad because Leon did a nice job taking her leg out locking in some cool leglocks and hitting a nifty spear to the leg, Leon is just the queen of the spear if you ask me. Finishing run had some evil moments such as a few vicious headbutts, Leon throwing a straight punch at one point and Nakamori kicking her in the face. Not as good as their matches earlier in the decade, Nakamoris kick were looking a little weak here and there and there were some things that felt a little cliché like the double KO spots, that said this was still well worth watching.

Pro Wrestling in 2025 Week 16

 
Rydeen Hagane vs Chie Ozora, Pure-J 4/5

Pretty fun, I continue to dig Rydeen Hagane big matches. And Chie Ozora turns into a really serious wrestler when in a big match. Good big vs little match here with Chie barraging Hagane with her offense, cool quick dropkicks and armbars. You really got the sense Ozora was giving everything she had and her wild eyed determination was fantastic. There's not really any other wrestler around that I know of doing the face painted monster thing and while Hagane is no Aja Kong, she is pretty good in her own right. The match had a few great moments i.e. Hagane powering out of the hanging armbar which was a great simple monster spot. I also liked that Hagane finished the match fairly quickly. Ozora gave her best shot but once she was caught Hagane made pretty quick work of her. It's a different vibe for a title match and I would like to it more often that a big match doesn't get all drawn out for no reason.

Shinya Aoki & Keigo Nakamura vs Minoru Suzuki & Akito, DDT 3/29

Aoki and Suzuki grappling was pretty fun. Can't imagine Suzuki looking much better in 2025 honestly. He still tries, god bless him, and Aoki does some freaky scarecrowd submissions and such. Aoki is obviously really fun to watch grappling and I am sad Mutoha ended before we got to see him have a match there, however unlikely that may have been. The rest of the match was alright, but pretty much a standard indy fare. Nakamura displays some cool athleticism, but in the case of things like his bridge roll over, it looks cool, but I am not sure it makes sense. That seems to be the theme of a lot of pro wrestling in 2025, doing things to show that you can do them, not because they make sense. Akitos thing is all about attacking someones legs, and he does have some cool leg attacks, but Nakamura spends pretty much 0 effort on selling it. I get that being a selling nazi is kind of pointless, but still, you don't have to rub it in my face that you are putting no thought into what you are doing. I know Akito had a ton of awesome looking grappleriffic matches with Yasushi Sato in the past which made me interested in watching him grapple with Shinya Aoki, but sadly that doesn't happen at all in this match.

CHANGO & Kengo Mashimo vs Shiori Asahi & Takuro Niki, 2AW 4/6

CHANGO vs Asahi is a pretty banging match up. I've always enjoyed Asahi, thought he had cool spots and above average fundamentals, but he might be on his way to becoming a godhead now. He's in a kung fu suit now and wrestling like he devoured Kenichiro Arais soul. Their matwork was great, lots of both guys slipping into armlocks in slick ways, Asahi even busted out his old banana split submission with CHANGO countering in cool fashion. CHANGO wrestles a lot like Tajiri, very slick with lots of unique spots, he's really fun to watch.They settle into Mashimo & CHANGO attacking Asahis arm, which lead to this cool armbreaker/sleeper hold battle, which is a basic spot but they really made it look amazing here. The finish settles for CHANGO vs Asahi again, with CHANGO having some awesome counters for Asahis signature sweep kicks that look great. Mashimo and Niki pretty much just do very generic indy wrestling here, its alright and doesn't take up a big part of the match, you could've pretty much edited their sections out and ended with a kickass CHANGO vs Shiori Asashi match, which really needs to happen on a Mutoha revival show or something.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup

2025 Wrestling Week 11

 Hanako Nakamori & Leon vs Crea & Moeka Haruhi, Pure-J 3/9

Really good go-go tag with lots of quality exchanges throughout. Everyone here is really fun to watch. Nakamori still has vicious kicks, Crea is a really fun energetic enforcer booting people in the face, and Leon hasn't lost anything in all these years. I wasn't familiar with Haruhi but she was pretty cool too, she had some really violent double stomps and cool ways to stretch opponents. They bust out some bigger spots than you'd expect from a dojo show and the finish is a damn finish. Real quality stuff, just all 4 of them going hard and it was really cool.

Chon Shiryu & Leon vs Mei Suruga & Baliyan Akki, Choco Pro 2/2/225

This was a MOVEZ~ match but it was a pretty fun one. Shiryu is still really awesome and can bust out awesome exchanges and nifty things like no tomorrow. Enjoyed Leon a lot as always, her team with Shiryu is really random but they have some cool moments together. The cutesy act of Akki and Suruga isn't for me, but they also did some cool stuff especially Suruga. The finish was really cool as the constant double team assisted moves blew back up in their face and it was the kind of nifty touch Shiryu is so damn good at pulling off.

Yuta Oya & Ali Najima vs Konaka & Shinya Ishida, Sportiva 2/26

Another week, another quality match from Sportiva. These 4 guys are some of my favourites in the world to watch so it's really nice to see them all square off in a tag match. First half is really solid, we get to see Konaka grappling with Najima which is always cool, while Najimas skillset is stil basic he will only get better wrestling guys like Konaka on the regular. I like how Shinya Ishida is always a total dick to Oya, fully taking advantage of his blindness to attack him. The 2nd half is really really good - I don't know what got into them, but Ishida suddenly starts wrestling like Yasushi Sato and busting out a bunch of awesome Russian Leg Sweep variations, even a cool Russian Leg Sweep into a submission hold. Konaka would join he madness with some Russian Leg Sweeps of his own and even a Russian Leg Sweep into a pin. Both these guys wrestled Sato a lot, and sadly I don't think we have any of the Sato vs Ishida and only a few Sato vs Konaka matches, but if that was not a distant homage to the Russian Leg Sweep god then I don't know. Some really nifty counters in this, especially those around Oyas signature sidewalk slam and harai goshi. Those are two cool moves to build nifty counters around. Really cool, really unique stuff that would absolutely recommend everyone to check out, don't sleep on this just because it happens in a tiny sportsbar, it's easily some of the best wrestling around.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup

2025 Wrestling Week 10

 Crea vs AKARI, Pure-J 3/2

Never seen these two before, based on this they are pretty cool. Lots of slick transitions and submissions here, especially from AKARI who seems like a really cool wrestler. Creas offense was more straight forward and punishing, lots of boots to the face, I dug her, she also had a really cool wristlock suplex. The pace and energy here is really good for a mid card match. I didn't like some of the no selling, I think that is unnecessary for a match in the middle of the card, but the finish was pretty nice.


Rydeen Hagane vs Crea, Pure-J 2/2

Really good title match, nice to see that Pure-J is still putting on the real thing. Basically Rydeen Hagane is a big monster and Crea comes at her with all her might. Thought Crea looked really good here, her stiff elbows and boots looked great, and those almost-deadweight suplex on her much bigger opponent were damn impressive. I cared more about that build to a basic German Suplex than pretty much anything in any other joshi big match I've seen so far. Hagane is a credible monster, this is mostly the Crea show but Hagane just nuked her at the end. I didn't like the superkicks, that move is just overused to death, but it's a minor complaint since everything else was good.

Oleg Boltin vs Konosuke Takeshita, NJPW 2/11

Boltin is this beastly Kazakh wrestler. I made the mistake of assuming that he would be like a soviet shooter in  New Japan, but this isn't 1989 anymore and he just wrestles a more generic style with some power spots thrown in, like 2002 Brock Lesnar. This was a bit like something that could be a Smackdown! main event. Boltin knocks him down with a shoulderblock and then Takeshita soon works his arm for a bit to slow him down. Boltins arm hurts so he can't hit all his crazy throws, then his arm doesn't hurt and he hits all his crazy throws. They go into this really trite elbow exchange and some more. There's some fun to be had here with Boltin manhandling Takeshita in riduculous ways. Takeshita is solid but never seems to leave a huge impression on me. His elbows looked off. He's not as good as Crea when it comes to fighting a monster. I think Boltin vs 2006 Fit Finlay would be awesome.

2025 Wrestling Roundup

Exploring PURE-J

 

Leon vs Yuu, Pure-J 5/4/2022

Great title match. The more I watch Leon the more I realize she’s one of the most skilled wrestlers around. Yuu is a pretty simplistic straight forward wrestler, all splashes, sentons and thundering chops, and it’s really fun to watch Leon work a big match around that. Basically the story here is that Yuu is a brick wall and Leon would have to barrage her to break her down. Really enjoyed the submission work here. There wasn’t any limbwork or something like that, it was very in the moment with Leon going for a rolling kimura at one point and Yuu just grabbing the sleeper when she could. Love Leons spears and her making sure to target Yuus mid section some more when she hit her big splash. I admit Yuu isn’t super interesting and could’ve done a better job with her selling here or there but other than that this a really good match, really puts the PURE in PURE-J as they stayed in the ring the whole time and did a straight forward match with no bullshit, something that wouldn’t hurt to see in other joshi organizations.

Blanca Maho vs Momo Tani, Pure-J 10/14/2024

Blanca Maho is this ex-kickboxer who throws lots of awesome kicks, so it’s really nice to see her in a lengthy singles match for a title. I am not familiar with Momo Tani, she is one of those frail looking wrestlers with a very pretty outfit, so I wasn’t sure how good she would be, but it turns out she’s a competent wrestlers too with lots of cool knee strikes, and she looked good when she was on top controlling the match with holds. She also had some cool suplexes and a slick transition where she moved herself to the ring apron. Just her foreram smashes need some work. Mahos kicks were awesome, her chest kicks were really popping Momo, and she has a bunch of different variations, and this match has a really good pace without becoming too much. Really fun to check this out, Blanca Maho looks to be a star in the making.

Chie Ozora vs Risa Sera, 9/15/2024

This is a really good match, mainly because of Chie Ozora. Ozora is this really non-threatening wrestler, she’s short, wears a hoodie in the ring, and doesn’t exactly have a dangerous build, but oh my god she does give her opponent hell here. Really really good fired up underdog performance from her. I loved her viciously going for the arm, and she just kept coming. Sera won’t blow your mind, but she does a good job keeping Ozora down with nasty knee drops and her arm selling was solid. Some great spots and nearfalls here especially Ozoras roll ups. Great underdog vs champion match.

Megumi Yabushita vs KAZUKI, Pure-J 5/3/2022

It’s too bad Megumi Yabushita doesn’t make tape often, because even at 50 years old she looked cool as fuck here. She had all these awesome slick legbar reversals and a judo throw that spiked her opponent. KAZUKI kind of sucked here, but sometimes you just want to enjoy a cool one woman show. The finish is a flying armbar. I’ve probably seen a thousand flying armbars and this one may have been the most spectacular I’ve seen ever.

2025 Wrestling Week 9

 
Ari Najima vs Yuta Oya, Sportiva 2/24

Another very good little performance from the Sportiva super rookies. I love the absence of bullshit and rope running in Oyas matches. This was really straight forward, two guys hitting the mat, with Najima eventually working over Oyas arm with nasty cranks and kicks. Another great harai goshi spot from Oya here, and I loved the intense fighting for the sharpshooter with Najima selling his back. Really simple but enjoyable match.

Leon vs Hanako Nakamori, PURE-J 2/16/2025

These two had some of my favourite matches of the last decade. This was a 2 count pinfall match with the extra rule that there was a plastic circle in the middle of the ring and if you touch it you lose. That is a lot of bullshit ruleset. These two have a ton of fun ways to work around "the middle is lava" and clearly still have awesome chemistry. Lots of fun to be had here and some wild body control and ring positioning stuff (I imagine working a match where you can't touch the middle of the ring is pretty hard with most wrestlers being trained to work towards the middle). Still I want to see these two get up and face each other in a straight match again.

Ai Houzan vs Senka Akatsuki, Marvelous 1/4

Really enjoyed their shoot pinfall match, so I decided to check this out. Starts a little mundane but soon turns into hard as fuck match with Houzan beathing the hell out of the rookie. Lots of evil slaps and stomps from her. Sick moment where Akatsuki really cracks Houzan with a headbutt and Chigusa on commentary cracks up. Last couple minutes were pretty intense with Akatsuki trying to hit a bodyslam for the finish. For a wrestler whose signature moves are 'body slam' and 'intensely worked pinfall' she's really cool.

Ryo Mizunami & Sonoko Kato vs Mio Momono & Yurika Oka, OZ Academy 2/9

A lot of this was very good, but a lot of this was also not my cup of tea. One of the most annoying things about modern wrestling is the insistence of getting all your contrived sequences in, especially when you are a  babyface tag team. Lots of hitting 3 or 4 moves after another really fast that just comes across like Momono & Oka were just running through their offense with none of it meaning much. I kind of hate the Motor City Machineguns for infecting wrestling with this shit. That said a lot of what Oka & Momono did was really solid and some of the sequences were genuinely impressive, so maybe I am just a miserable negative bastard. I was impressed with Kato and Mizunami. No offense to Momono and Oka, but once Kato stepped into the ring the match got about ten times more real. Her kicks are still vicious and she never looked out of place in this fast paced go-go match, which goes pretty hard considering she's 48. I also dig Mizunami when she's not goofing around. Her leg drops and Honda-ish shoulder chokes are great. Also, watching Momono doing the second half of the match with her injured arm in a bandage was pretty insane. I'd say this was very good for a modern style match.

2025 Wrestling Roundup

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup

Command Bolshoi Treasure Trove #4

 Command Bolshoi & Megumi Yabushita vs. KAZUKI & Sachie Abe, JWP 1/11/2009

Pretty much a monster showing from Bolshoi and Yabushita, who spent pretty much the whole match armbaring their opponents left and right. Abe and Kazuki couldn‘t get in any offense unless they used double teams. That dynamic made this match really entertaining. I always love Yabushita as her „throw and armbar“ style pretty much sends opponents into survival mode right from the start. Bolshoi was just ridiculous here. Abe looked like a decent worker doing Jaguar Yokota moves. KAZUKI was a bit indyriffic here or there, but I liked how she tried to counter Yabushita with judo moves of her own and I loved her tomoe nage into a pin. Really good little match due to how they worked the dynamic.

Command Bolshoi vs. Konami, Pure-J 8/11/2017

Really cool Velocity shootstyle match which should have been on my radar in 2017. Konami is one of the few promising modern day joshi workers. The wrestling in this was like a cross between BattlARTS and ARSION. All slick legbars and the occasional high kick from Konami. It‘s probably no coincidence Konami has one of her best showings I‘ve seen against Bolshoi. The calf slicer sequence in this was incredible. It was just a 7 minute match, but backed with cool matwork and peppered with a few great sequences. Reminded me of those 7 minute Ishikawa/Otsuka matches which is high high praise.

Command Bolshoi vs. KAZUKI, JWP 10/13/2013

Another really good match. I wasn‘t sure about KAZUKI before, but she was convincing here. This was almost all on the mat and just a duel of arm- and leglocks. KAZUKI busted out another cool tomoe nage into an armbar, and her selling after she got caught in Bolshois leg stretches was great. Basically Bolshoi doing a Virus style mat contest, and it was cool as hell.

Command Bolshoi vs. Hanako Nakamori, PURE-J 1/14/2018

Another excellent match, which felt like one of the best joshi matches in years. I haven‘t seen Nakamori before, but she was this big lady who liked to throw stiff kicks, and she was pretty good. As usual with Bolshoi matches there was some great, tricked out matwork, with Nakamori also bringing stuff to the table such as locking in a cool Takogatame. There was an absolutely sick Volk Han-like sleeper from Bolshoi that left Nakamoris face turning blue. The later goings of the match were exciting with Nakamori landing some FUTEN level kicks in Bolshois face, and Bolshoi firing back with her trademark shotais. The most impressive thing was how well the match flowed, there were sections were one of them was focussing on attacking an arm or a leg but it never went long and never felt like filler, and all the transitions fell into place naturally. Just a tremendous pace for a 20 minute match without feeling go-go.

Command Bolshoi Treasure Trove #3

 

Command Bolshoi vs. Saori Anou, PURE-J 9/13/2017

GREAT 4 minute sprint! I‘ve never seen Anou before, and while she was a bit of a generic joshi worker she was a perfectly good dance partner for Bolshoi. This was the Bolshoi show, though. She packed the match with neat pins, badass submissions and open palm strikes. Her timing was fantastic and her turning Anous aggression against herself was really cool. Loved the carny BJJ moves and the finish.

Command Bolshoi vs. Erika Watanabe, JWP 11/14/2004

Have never noticed Erika Watanabe before, but she was quite good here. She does some neat submission work and has cool judo throw offense and that makes a nice match up against Bolshoi. This was just 8 minutes of cool exchanges with no down time.

Command Bolshoi vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki, JWP 12/7/2003

These two have some truely great chemistry together, and it‘s cool to get an early match up between them. Kuragaki was a bit less thick here so this was less of a big vs. Little match, and more of a straight up 50/50 no thrills encounter. Some really good lucharesu exchanges here, at this point I don‘t need to establish both of them have really good offense, and Kuragaki has really pretty flying moves and armdrags along with her intricate power moves and holds. Finishing run was great with Kuragaki busting out some huge suplexes and some great spots centered around headbutts and lariats before a highly complicated technical move decides the match. The match could‘ve used a bit more of a story but the action was very good and these two really know how to accentuate their stuff. These shoot headbutts were awesome, and not just due to being violent but also do to being timed perfectly.

 

Command Bolshoi & Dynamite Kansai vs. Cutie Suzuki & Plum Mariko, JWP 7/10/1994

Great match – which was mostly about Kansai being an unstoppable juggernaut, and Suzuki and Mariko trying to find ways to deal with her. There were a couple really good, intense exchanges – loved Kansais opening barrage punting Suzuki around the ring. Mariko catching a Kansai high kick and turning it into an Achilles Hold forcing Kansai to scramble for the ropes was such a small, simple moment executed just tight enough to make everything look so much more real. I‘m also always amazed about what mean stomps and elbows Suzuki throws. Then she tried ripping out Kansais nose. Their interactions throughout were pretty great. Bolshoi was pretty early in her stage of being Bolshoi, when she came in she was working at a more generic joshi pace, but doing some cool spots including one awesome tricky leg grab and throwing big suplexes. The finishing run was great with Kansai constantly being put over as a monster while Bolshoi was trying to itch out a win.

Command Bolshoi vs. Hikari Fukuoka, JWP 9/23/1993

Another pretty great match, which I have no problem calling a minor classic. These two definitely felt like rookies here, but they built a big match, and they did it well, and told a tremendous story. They start slow with some cool hold for hold work and basic arm drags which they do very well, then build to some big suplexes and flying moves and finally a really effective dueling limbwork story. Bolshoi in her early days was a different creature, she did more flying moves, she had these cool one legged dropkicks, and her submission work was more basic, but incredibly tight, and she reminded me a bit of Otani. Fukuoka has a bandage on her shoulder and that shoulder comes into play in a really natural way. Bolshoi doesn‘t attack it initially but after a couple moves Fukuoka starts favouring it, and when Bolshoi doesn‘t get the pin with her regular offense she starts going after that shoulder. Fukuoka in turn attacks Bolshois back, which also makes a ton of sense, I am wounded so I‘m gonna wound you to, and her back slams and stretches and nasty dropkicks were cool. It‘s strange that Fukuoka was a Manami Toyota worshipper at this point but she sold that shoulder better than anything I‘ve ever seen Toyota sell. The finishing stretch was really great with Fukuoka going for back stretches and suplexes and Bolshoi going for Uranages and all kinds of arm submissions, there were a few moments of tremendous struggle plus some nice desperation. At one point Bolshoi went for a Tiger Feint dive fake and Fukuoka just grabs her and yanks her outside only for Bolshoi to brutalize her further with a chair. Epic last pinfall too.