Showing posts with label shinya aoki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shinya aoki. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Pro Wrestling 2025 Week 20

 Shinya Aoki vs Kazusada Higuchi, DDT 5/6/2025

A power vs technique match up that actually feels very close to a classic puro match! I am not entirely convinced that Shinya Aoki is as good as the likes of GENTARO or Yasushi Sato yet, but he sure is scratching on their throne. This had a bunch of really fun ultra-tight, high resistance grappling. I wanted Higuchi to be a bit of a bigger badass - I mean, he does look like a cool motherfucker being a tall ex sumo with slicked back hair, and he does hit pretty hard, but I wanted him to go ham and tear up Aokis spindly body a slightly bit more. I guess not everyone can be Tenryu, but I sense there is potential in him and I should probably watch him more. The ringside brawling was slightly weak but seeing legendary grappler Aoki get bowled into chairs and retaliating by smashing someones luggage into Higuchis head was a sight. I also love how unhinged Aoki feels when he starts flying around. I hope he won't go down the Minoru Suzuki route with the crazy faces but I thought for this match it was appropriate. Great, off the wall finish. They made a brain claw a deadly hold in 2025 and you have to love that. Really really fun, Aokis little reign is such a reset for a Japanese mainstream promotion and I hope they continue further on that route.

Keita Yano vs Tsuyoshi Okada, Dove Pro 2/9 - FUN

Oh Keita. This is a rounds match with Okada having MMA gloves and they're blaring some trance electronic music throughout, ZST style. With stuff like this it's starting to feel like Yano is slowly returning to form. It's a bit slow to get going as they go for really uncooperative shootstyle ala KINGDOM, but Yano does some fun grappling. 2nd round is a lot better with Okada really knocking the hell out of Keita. Not as epic as it would've been in like 2013 when Keitas psychosis was in full bloom, but a fun little occurance and I wanna see more of gloves Okada for sure after that.

Keita Yano vs Ayumu Honda, Tenryu Project 4/25 - FUN

Usual good Keita performance working circles around a guy with graceful WoS style matwork. At first I thought this Honda guy would be along for the right, but he actually brought a little something as the match proceeded by attacking Keitas arm in a few different ways. Keitas selling was pretty good for a short match and there is a nifty finish. Nothing grand in in the scheme of Keita Yano matches but it's good that he is still doing his thing even though the camera at Tenryu Project shows seems to get further and further away from the ring.

Shiori Asahi & Makoto Oishi vs CHANGO & Ayumu Honda, 2AW 4/27

CHANGOs grip on the Japanese indy scene with scumbag technical matches continues, and he's now infecting everyone around him. After Asahi, Oishi is the next guy to just say fuck it and wrestle in a grease monkey suit. These two used to be a team of sensationally spotty and smooth juniors and to see them say fuck it and be sleazy and hit fist drops and kung fu eye pokes is low key awesome. They didn't go full Mutoha here, but this is very much a refreshingly outside the norm match. Lots of WORKING as in making small, miniscule things a focal point, such as the build to the basic 'guy hits a diving elbow to opponents arm that is held in place by tag team partner' spot. Asahis and Oishis assault on people with rapidly hit knee drops and fist drops was reminiscent of a surreal version of the Yamaha Bros, and CHANGO is CHANGO. Honda is the weakest guy in the match and doesn't stand out much early, but he does come into his own when its to work an arm, and him trying to steal the win with plain straight armbars was pretty fun. Finishing run had a lot of the super tricked out slick spots that CHANGO, Asahi and Oishi have a knack for. Lots of roll ups within rollups if you catch my drift. It's a bit of an aquired taste but if you are reading this blog I can definitely imagine you getting into this, it's worthy continuation from the Asahi/CHANGO tag from earlier in the month.

Meiko Satomura & Sareee vs Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu, Fortune Dream 4/16

Stiff, fast paced, crisp, serious pro wrestling. Maybe one of the best of the year from the women in fact when it comes to action from start to finish, and definitely worth checking out even if you've been watching all the Satomura matches. Satomura vs Hashimoto is known quality, and Sareee makes a really fun addition. Her matches earlier in the year were spotty, but I thought she was really effective here just coming and trying to crack peoples faces with vicious dropkicks. It helps that Hashimoto ate the fuck out of those dropkicks. Yuu also looked like an impressive monster. The one thing I didn't like was her weird rolling move. That felt too comical for this kind of affair. Thought the sick Sareee/Hashimoto was the highlight, until Meiko came in and she and Chihiro wailed on each other some more. Awesome. Thought the match needed a bit more Meiko vs. Chihiro duelling instead of having Chihiro and Yuu just go to hit their double teams but I guess that was the point. Also, selling wasn't super important here, but that's joshi for you sometimes. I'm gonna miss Meiko.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup 

Keita Yano Documentation

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Pro Wrestling 2025 Week 19

 Super Taira vs Ryutaro Ono, Sportiva 5/14

Ono is another Sportiva rookie who just made his debut. Given how Sportiva rookies are usually good, them having 4 of those rookies now plus a couple more workers that I really like (Taira, Ishida, Konaka..) it begs the question if Sportiva actually has the greatest roster in the world now because that is sure more interesting wrestlers than most other companies have right now. This Ono guy is chunky and old, like a middle aged businessman who decided to get in the ring, he has kickpads too but he seems like he will be a bit more of a raw fighter. But well this match isn't much about Ono, this is about my man Taira stretching and beating him around the ring. This is my first time seeing Taira in a while and he still looks like one of the best wrestlers on earth. Lots of cool groundwork of him controlling the bigger guy and there are bits of fun aggression and violence. Really hope Super Taira becomes a Sportiva mainstay again because he's clearly still on top of his game.

Masanori Watanabe vs Kengo Takai, Sportiva 5/14

Boy Takai looks over the hill. Really really over the hill, but he can still put the boots to a rookie, and that makes this pretty fun. Watanabe hits some fun, painful looking kicks to Takais arm and shoulder and does some cool arm attacks, so he continues to look promising, although at this point he still mostly gets squashed. But that's the fun in watching these Sportiva rookies develop, it's a week-to-week progress. And Takai can totally still hit a nasty lariat.

Charlie Dempsey vs Shinya Aoki, Bloodsport 4/17

Cool we got to see these two grapple it out. Standards for grappling-matches are actually kinda high in 2025 I think, so the first couple minutes were just alright, the highlight being Dempsey putting himself in the figure 4 to stretch Aokis ankle, but the last couple minutes were pretty great. Loved the intense struggle over the reverse gutwrench suplex, Aoki going for the abdominal stretch etc. Bit of a size mismatch but it was a really good match all around.

Meiko Satomura & Manami vs Chihiro Hashimoto & Aja Kong, 4/29

Obviously a really important match. Hashimoto looked like she was about to cry during the opening exchanges. Setting aside the emotional context, there was a lot of good wrestling to enjoy here. For Meiko, it's very much just her doing her thing for the last time, until about the last 3rd of the match where it kicks into high gear. The other participiants are pretty fun, though. Aja is still really compelling, kicking ass and knowing exactly when to do what, despite being really over the hill physically. Manami is fun for the most part and Chihiro is just a big old juggernaut who's really fun to watch charging into people with body checks and tossing them around. It's good wrestling until Meiko starts throwing open hands at Chihiro and Chihiro responds with Vader Hammers in kind. Meiko and Aja doing their old trademark exchanges was awesome considering how over the hill Aja looks and I loved that they put actual emotional stake into whether Satomura could beat her old nemesis finally. Very good match even setting aside the context, doesn't quite top the Mentai Kid match for me when it comes to high end retirement matches this year but it's absolutely worth watching, and what kind of person would you be if you didn't!

2025 Wrestling Roundup

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

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

Tuesday, April 8, 2025

2025 Wrestling Week 14

 Atsushi Onita, Raijin Yaguchi & The Shooter 2025 vs. Hayato Mashita, Hideki Sekine & Kazunari Murakami, SSPW 2025/3/13

Normally, I probably wouldn't watch a 2025 Onita match. But the thumbnail showed me that Murakami is also in this match, so I was intrigued. And well, this was a fun ghoulish spectacle. 2025 Onita looks and walks like he is held together by duct tape, but to hell with it, he is pro wrestling incarnate, and he still spits green mist, hits people with chairs, and bites, so he delivers. Getting bitten by 2025 Onita has to turn you into some kind of cryptid. Murakami is in his weird glittery suit and he still mugs and hits people recklessly like he's in his prime. I wish the camera had been on Murakami a little more, because he still showed plenty of energy when he was throwing chairs on someone. Hideki "Shrek" Sekine looks so grotesque like he's a One Piece character. And Mashita tried to get some fire out of his miserable existance. This is pretty fun, and it does have a moment where Onita and Murakami get in the ring at the same time and start circling each other giving menacing glares, so it delivers that money moment that you want too. A barbedwire board comes into play, and you won't believe who gets slammed into it. Also an abundance of green mist. You may want to watch this.

Senka Akatsuki & Takumi Iroha vs Seri Yamaoka & Nanae Takahashi, Marigold 3/30

Really cool match that showcases some of the top prospects in the world of womens wrestling now. Senka Akatsuki rules, literally all she has is a body slam and a shoot pin that she can beat even established wrestlers with, and it totally works, whenever she starts pinning people Korakuen Hall goes crazy because the match might now turn into a shoot. Seri Yamaoka is also well on her way to become the joshi version of Tamon Honda, with the cool unique mat transitions and amateur wrestling moves, so of course I'm really excited about her. Really liked the aggressive opening grappling, with Yamaoka trying to put the pin expert Akatsuki on her shoulders only for Akatsuki to force her to the ropes with a really tight armbar. Iroha is a bit of an odd case, by all means she has the potential to be the most badass woman on earth, and there are shades of that here, but she also likes lazy thigh slaps a lot. That said there were some awesome aggressive moments here where they stomped and slapped the shit out of each other and it was pretty great. You'd think 25 minutes would be a little long for a match with 2 rookies that have less than a year of experience combined, but I thought they did just fine thanks to the constant aggression and scrappiness throughout. You had the contrast of Iroha and Takahashi doing some more advanced stuff and then Akatsuki and Yamaoka coming in to get huge reactions with pin and suplex attempts. Really fun last couple minutes with a really good build to Yamaokas suplex and Akatsuki putting her in trouble with half nelsons. Takahashi seems over the hill but she still has her moments. Overall a really fun ride that makes me excited for the further deveopments of Seri Yamaoka and Senka Akatsuki.


Shinya Aoki vs Keigo Nakamura, DDT 2/14

Way too fun. Basically Nakamura can't do anything to Aoki, and Aoki just toys with him for a couple minutes showcasing how tight you can facelock and stretch someone without snapping them. Aoki has a bunch of cool ways to twist someone up on the mat, and watching him basically forcing a bunch of classic pro wrestling style pins in a shootstyle manner was really cool. The highlight was easily Aoki stepping on Nakamuras face. Nakamuras one hope spot is when he desperately latches onto Aokis leg but Aoki quickly thwarts that like its nothing. Pretty unique and fun to watch.

2025 Wrestling Roundup

Monday, October 11, 2021

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #15

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Shinya Aoki, DDT 1/3/2019 - GREAT

This was a boxing gloves match where Aoki would use some grappling and ground and pound. This was kind of like Rocky, Toba is broken down and slower, can he contain the new hotness? You don‘t really need to put over what a monster Aoki is, but I‘m happy they gave him a serious match like this. Toba was confident early on, but Aoki gained confidence and finally just blew him away. Few great spots, such as Toba diving for a punch on the ground only for Aoki to lock in a submission at lightning speed. Aokis ground and pound looked just brutal and I was surprised to see Toba get up from that (although barely). Close to a squash but genuinely dramatic.


Tanomusaku Toba & Hayato Sakurai & HARASHIMA vs. Masa Takanashi & Yukio Naya & Mizuki Watase, DDT 2/5/2020 - FUN


Sakurai is one hell of a team mate. And Toba wore this cool gi get up. Charming match due to those factors. Naya is this big kickpadded crowbar and had the most interesting exchanges out of everyone on his team. Toba wasn‘t involved in the match much sadly, only throwing some strikes early on before eating a beating and tagging out, but Sakurai did lots of fun shit like locking in cool flying legbars and hitting judo throws. Watase was non descript but didn‘t drag things down. Fun for the novelty of seeing Sakurai and Toba in his gi.


Tanomusaku Toba & Hikaru Sato & Rion Mizuki vs. Tsunehito Naito & Akito & Kazuki Hirata, DDT 3/27/2011 - GREAT

Tsunehito Naito~! In 2011 I had no idea who Naito was so I probably would have skipped this match, but now I know what‘s up, and got excited seeing Naito in this. Naito was 40 here and hadn‘t had a match in 10 years, but he was still bringing it. Bullying Mizuki and having quality exchanges with Toba and Sato. I know this is the Toba documentaiton, but grumpy old Naito stole the show in this grappling and throwing the shit out of everyone. The uncooperative bit where he refused to let Sato throw him out the ring ruled. I also loved him locking in the Dragon Sleeper on the floor. Toba got to have a nice finish turning Hiratas lights out. Everything else was fine. They really should bring back Naito in 2021.

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

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