2025 Wrestling Roundup Week 37

 
Grand Passion Mask #4 vs Super Taira, Sportiva 8/27

Grand Passion Mask #4 has been one of those acts that has been kind of lost on me. But this was a pretty good match! No surprise since it has Super Taira in it. The most straight wrestling I've seen GP4 do, he brought a lot of cool holds to the table, and Taira is really cool to watch as always. This had a lot of quasi-lucha style work. Cool moment where GP turned a mishappen roll up attempt by Taira into a cool Full Nelsion hold, and then a facebuster to gain control. GP proceeded to work over Taira with cool lucha holds. The second half was cool mostly because Taira is established that he can win the match whenever he ties his opponent up, either with a llave or a pin combo. GP Mask even did an Hijo del Santo style tope into a camel clutch with Taira fighting out of the camel clutch. I think fighting out of submissions is cool. This was a fun creative 10 minute undercard match that felt competitive, which is just what I need, feels like a breath of fresh air.

Ali Najima & Super Taira vs Yuta Oya & Ryutaro Ohno, Sportiva 9/17/2025

Whenever I watch a Sportiva main event, its almost guaranteed to be one of the best matches of the match. That is remarkable, and it has probably made Sportiva my favourite promotion to watch this year just because of their incredible consistency and charming recurring cast of wrestlers. This had a dream team in Najima and Taira, the continuation of the rivalry between Oya and Najima, and greenhorn Ohno showing up in a main event tag. It was good as you expect. I wish the first Taira vs Oya exchange had gone longer as these two are always fascinating against each other. Ohno is as solid in the old businessman rookie role as you need him to be. He still has to fight to hit even a bodyslam on Najima, and that makes him compelling. He also adds some cool flavour with his kicks and his chunkiness. The real story of the match is Yuta Oya being the underdog teamed with the rookie against two higher ranked wrestlers. He takes an Anderson Bros-like beating from them. There was a great moment where Najima was hitting all kinds of nasty kicks to Oya, and Taira was also bending his leg pretty hard. Tairas 'dangerous lucha maestro who uses submissions and pins like a shooter' act is really cool. There are some quality exchanges between Ohno and Taira which is really fun to see because Taira is such a unique wrestler, and then we get Oya vs Najima. Both these guys were hitting really hard and doing good stuff. The saves were also really dramatic. There are so many modern tags where it feels like there's endless saves by the partner and it starts to feel meaningless. Here there were 2 or 3 crucial saves and they were really dramatic and important. And then you have the aspect of all these guys constantly adding new stuff to their skillset. Very good match, another good chapter in the Sportsbar Kings Road.

Ali Najima & Ryutaro Ono vs Yu Shimizu & Masanori Watanabe, Sportiva 9/3

Onos return match after a 2 month absence, glad he's back. This was a short match but really hard hitting and with some nifty wrestling. Watanabe was just destroying Onos leg here with nasty low kicks. Ono is in the role that he's mostly taking a beating but he can fire back with big crowbar elbows and the occasional hard kick of his own, he's a fun chubby hard hitter. Shimizu vs Najima sprint section was really good. Najima is still building up to things like a body slam or suplex and he's always compelling, and Shimizu continues to be reliable with his simple style of hard elbows and sleepers. At one point, Najima punched him square in the face. The finish had Watanabe just obliterating Ono with a brutal headkick. Watanabe is quickly becoming a guy who's must watch in my book, and everyone else here is realiably good even in a small dose.

Yusaku Ito & Michio Kageyama vs Shinya Ishida & Konaka, Sportiva 9/3

Yusaku Ito baby. With his gritty headbutts and general scumminess always make him a highlight when he shows up. The parts where he and Ishida were beating on each other were easily the selling point of the match. Not that anything else was bad here, but the match got a bit more heated when they faced off. First with Ito starting to bitchslap Ishida and then pulling him over and raining punches on him. Later they had another gritty exchange wailing on each other in the corner. Ishida is not afraid to hit back and stomp the shit out of a guy. Aside from that refreshing scrappiness there was also some fun methodical Konaka work. Kageyama is solid but won't set your world on fire here. He's not much in the match anyways. Ito on the other hand was working his ass off having some great exchanges with Konaka and Ishida. I love that the sleeper is always a plot point in Sportiva. Quality match with an interesting layout.

Ali Najima vs Konaka, Sportiva 9/24

When I saw this would be happening I thought it would be the main event. It was the opening match, I thought it could be an amazing main event but as an opening match it was still really good. It was a classic match that was nearly all grappling with Najima attacking Konakas arm and Konaka in turn going for his leg. Lots of nifty cerebral wrestling moments and it felt like every moment counted, which made it so good. Konaka is pretty much always doing something neat, and Najima is getting really good at making simple holds interesting. I loved his nasty hammerlock takedown, so simple but cool. Konakas counters were amazing. I love the hard hitting Ali Najima but it's cool to seem him do well in this kind of chess style mat wrestling match.

Yasu Kubota vs Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 9/10

The Scum Bastard challenges for the title! Yasu Kubota is a type of wrestler that is easily underrated. What he does is very simple, straight forward, basic - but he has a knack for mixing in a few cool touches that make him stand out. And most importantly, everything matters. He's also a 51 year old geezer, so he has to be smart about what he does. Shimizu is quite unrelenting with his hard elbows and sleepers. The result is a simple, but very enjoyable and compelling match that is built around Shimizu elbowing the champion really hard, and Kubota hitting back hard slowing him down by taking out his legs and locking in a few cool holds. Shimizus elbows and sleepers are awesome and there is some gritty leg selling. It's a very old school type match with the high spots being something like a reverse DDT or lariat. I could see some people finding this boring but I really enjoyed it and I was rooting hard for Shimizu to take the title. His chokes made me jump out of my seat and a match that can make me super excited about a chokehold in 2025 has to be a really well crafted piece of wrestling. 

2025 Wrestling Matchguide 

Sportiva Wednesday Curry Pro Wrestling 8/13/2025

 Watch

 Mikiya Sasaki vs Yacchae Seven, Sportiva 8/13

 A fun opening match between two fun wrestlers. It had some jokes, but enough serious wrestling for me to like it, and it made for a pretty entertaining mix. Yacchae Seven is this energetic masked wrestler, his springboard flip senton was pretty impressive, but a lot of this was him leaping into Sasakis atomic drops and getting rolled up in comical ways. Mikiya Sasaki is another guy who worships the Funk brothers. He won't make you forget Crusher Takahashi, but he is pretty solid at what he does, and he brings some fun character touches like how he loves the old school suplex over the ropes. His dropkick to the face was genuinely impressive and this was probably the most solid I've seen him look so far. At 7 minutes they move through it pretty fast. An enjoyable match that is worth a look if you want to have some fun.
 
 Super Taira & Yasu Kubota vs Masanori Kanu Watanabe & Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 8/13
 
 Pretty much 4 cool wrestlers having a cool match. I always look forward to seeing Super Taira, and he once again proved himself to be one of the best technicians around when he grappled with Shimizu. It wasn't showing off, it was Taira being pesky and dominating his opponent, and it was cool to watch. Kubota in the past has looked a little lazy but he was surprisingly on point, despite looking gray like your uncle. He was hitting really hard elbows, and while what he did was simple it never felt like there was a wasted moment when he was in the ring. Everyone who reads my blog should know by now that I really like Watanabe and Shimizu. Shimizu once again proved his salt hitting some of the hardest elbows and having a great exchange with Kubota. Watanabe continues to get better, he blasted Taira with some devastating knees and I really liked that russian legsweep into a heel hook thing he did. Pretty much a match where everyone looked good and was doing something interesting all the time, that didn't go to long but will probably surprise you with how hard they fought. I would look forward to seeing singles matches between any of them coming out of this.
 
Konaka vs Chon Shiryu, Sportiva 8/13
 
Two gods of the indy scene meeting in a match... and an SRS rules match no less! SRS means they have to fight on the wooden floor of the bar and entering the ring leads to a countout. Oh, and you can touch an audience member for a rope break. These are two all timers when it comes to fun creative wrestling, and the wrestling on the floor adds a nice dose of insanity. We get the usual cool kung fu kicks and flying around from Shiryu, and the high pitched yelling chops from Konaka, and then they start climbing on the ceiling and using the barstools and doing some crazy flying to the floor... apparently this was a rematch from 11 years prior. I had no idea how they got the idea to deliver this rematch now but it was a spectacle and really delivers everthing you wish. Painful bumps, both guys hanging upside down from the ceiling, Shiryu hitting a kung fu flying kick over a bar stool... I think these two even in a regular match against each other would be dynamite, but this was crazy and fun in the best way.
 
Ali Najima & Yuta Oya vs Michio Kageyama & Shinya Ishida, Sportiva 8/13

Ali Najima and Yuta Oya continue to be the best story on the Japanese scene this year. This was an incredibly compelling match, with Najima and Oya throwing everything they have trying to beat their more established opponents. After an explosive beginning the veterans were able to slow the pace down, only for things to get heated again when Najima and Oya got the upper hand again. Both Najima and Oya were great here as always. Najima looked like a killer when he was circling around Kageyama kicking him in his bad arm like a shark in the water smelling blood, and he did great job showing the pain in his leg after Kageyama caught him. Oya is such a unique wrestler, he is a powerhouse but also vulnerable, it feels extra mean when he gets blasted with a kick to the face or walks into a sneaky rollup. This was a really ambitious match with multiple layers, but they all stuck to what they do well. And Oya and Najima are making things like a firemans carry or hip throw look cool. I also liked Ishida a lot here, he got blitzed early on but after getting himself together he got pretty evil stomping the hell out of people and even mocking Najimas limp. The week to week progression of the rookies is so satisfying to watch as they keep adding new touches to their game, and the willingness of Najima and Oya to win this match was palpable like in a classic match from the 90s. It really felt like getting a pin on Ishida or Kageyama meant the world to them. It absolutely feels like the best thing going right now and they are just about a year into their career, if they keep progressing like this the next 1-2 years will be insane.

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2025 Matchguide 

2025 Wrestling Roundup Week 26

Shinya Ishida & Yu Shimizu vs Ari Najima & Masanori Watanabe 7/2

Really good match from Sportiva this week. Solid no frills pro wrestling early on and a bunch of really good stuff in the second half. Once again, I was really impressed by Yu Shimizu. His brutal elbows rule and he's always doing something nifty. His boot that knocked Watanabe off the apron was straight out of 90s AJPW. Ishida stuck to his stuff, but he looked slick and did a bunch of awesome quick exchanges with Najima in the second half. Najima has also grown to the point where he now keeps up with more complicated stuff pretty well. Watanabe is still green-ish but he's really good when he's grappling or attacking someones arm. The finish was Shimizu mauling him with elbows and Watanabe trying to break Shimizus elbow with nasty kicks and elbows. Very good stuff, I can't wait to see another singles match between these guys.

Senka Akatsuki vs DASH Chisako, Tenryu Project 5/21

Great little match that brought some sick violence worthy of WAR. DASH just beat the hell out of young Senka here, some crazy violent slaps and dropkicks and stomps on display. Senka takes a big beating, but you know it all can change when she gets her opponents shoulders down and starts working for the pin. The shoot pin still rules. I liked when DASH did the 'okay, hit me' Senka was immediately right there and started to maul her with open hands, Senka is pretty big. Some great cutoffs from DASH here. I'm digging this 2025 joshi resurgence, you know the passion is back when a throwaway match on a mens show is this heated, and it all started with Senka.


Ari Najima vs Yukito, HEAT-UP 5/3

This had the rule  that it was a rounds match with the 1st round being kickboxing with gloves, 2nd round being grappling only and the 3rd just regular pro wrestling. Kickboxing part was alright, they were holding back a little. Grappling part was really good, Najima is clearly really good at this kind of slick shootstyle grappling and it was nice that he get to test himself like this. 3rd round was also really fun with both guys kicking and slapping each other in fun ways and developing good intensity, check out Aris arm selling. Good stuff but I'd like to see just a proper shootstyle match between them because at just 3 minute rounds this felt a little short.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup 

Pro Wrestling in 2025 Week 22

 Nanae Takahashi vs NORI, LLPW 4/14

When I saw this happened, I was intrigued. Not just because it's Nanae, but because it's an LLPW match! I had no idea LLPW was still around let alone that you could watch it. And yeah apparently they have put up a handful of recent matches on YouTube. I saw that apparently NORI has a decent MMA background, so she definitely fits Shinobu Kandoris mold. Don't get your hopes too high, because she largely wrestles a generic style. That said, this is quite the good little match and definitely worth watching. NORI is fairly generic, aside from a few kicks and some cool armlocks, but she makes up for it with intensity and passion. And Nanae is quite grounding these matches. It's smarter work than I recall her doing when she was in her prime, but better late than never I guess. Just Nanae grabbing a basic front headlock and snapping her opponent down was a really simple spot that immediately got me into the match. The same goes for her basic dragon screw later in the match. No rocket science here, just well executed basic pro wrestling with a good deal of struggle and urgency, and NORI occasionally connecting with some hard kicks or locking in a cool armlock to try and force a tap, with the veteran vs young upstart story being felt strongly. Absolutely give it a shot if you can get into modern joshi at all.

Seri Yamaoka vs Komomo Minami, Marigold 4/27

This caught my attention because it had some low ratings on Cagematch. A joshi match really has to be special when it gets low ratings on cagematch. The match I thought was a pretty cool showcase for all the cool shit Yamaoka can do, twisting her opponent around in Honda-ish ways. Minami didn't look bad either, she showed up in wrestling shoes and grappled a little, her offense wasn't entirely great, lots of slightly flimsy DDTs, but overall I thought there wasn't anything terribly wrong here, worth checking out to see Yamaoka against someone she can twirl around and put down for the 3 with a cool pin.

Seri Yamaoka vs Takumi Iroha, Marigold 5/24

Really good stuff I thought, that delivers pretty much what you hope with both of them doing what makes them cool, while also having a really sensible match layout. Obviously there is a world difference between them in ranking so Yamaoka is a huge underdog against Iroha. I thought they did a great job telling the story that Iroha is a nigh untouchable badass but Yamaoka could get her if she could just get ahold of her and start doing her wrestling thing. Iroha was very good here, she is one of the few modern wrestlers who when hitting stomps and kicks actually looks like she is stomping and kicking the shit out of someone, I also thought she did a great job giving Yamaoka just the right amount of offense and selling how Yamaoka was trying to sprain her ankle. Yamaoka still needs a dose of confidence but her potential is clearly enormous and she was sticking her neck out here taking an asskicking from Iroha and hitting cool suplexes and trying like hell to pin Irohas damn shoulders to the mat. I love that intense pinfall attempts are a big thing in 2025 now. I can definitely see Yamaoka tearing people apart in a years time if this continues and I look forward to it.

Ali Najima & Ryutaro Ohno vs Kanu Watanabe & Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 6/4

More good rookie action from Sportiva. It's basic, but these matches are proof that basic doesn't have to be boring. In this case we get some cool aggression between Najima and Watanabe, with all their forearms really hitting with a thud. Najima is now in the position where he has to defend his ranking against the younger upstarts and it makes things interesting. Shimizu is really reliable in his role as a old guy who hits like a truck and really cracks people with elbows. Ohno and Watanabe continue their journey into my heart, Ohno with his clunky lovable charisma and Watanabe by hitting some really hurty looking kicks to Shimizus shoulder and trying to submit him.

Yuta Oya & TORU vs Shinya Ishida & Enshu Hajime, Sportiva 6/4

Somehow Sportiva produces lots of good wrestlers on their own, but often bring in wrestlers who kind of suck into their shows. TORU isn't terrible, but he is kind of zany. Enshu Hajime is tall-ish and really skinny and kind of awkward, though he does come into his own a little when it's time to throw kicks. Oya is the glue in this match, since TORU isn't exactly treating this match too serious. It's all about Oya taking a nasty beatdown from Ishida with some hard stomps and a cool build to Oyas comeback. Then we get Hajime laying into Oya with more kicks and knees. Oya is a great gutsy wrestler, the struggle he put into his steamroller move was awesome, it was so simple but it made that whole basic ending run a whole lot better. Really nice finish with Oya absolutely spiking Hajimes skeleton-ish body with the Harai Goshi to pick up a really nice W.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup 

Konaka in the Sportiva Arena

 

Konaka vs. Sae, Sportiva 5/11/2022

Super good Konaka carryjob. Sae is kind of not very good, only having some bland offense and almost breaking her own neck when going for a Kamikaze roll, but Konaka pulls her through this 18 minute match just fine. Opening work is pretty solid with Konaka making things like taking a basic bump for a shoulder tackle satisfying by having it set up with a rope move. Soon we move on to the best part of the match, Konaka working a side headlock of Destroyer-esque greatness. Usually with side headlock segments it’s the guy stuck in the headlock making it interesting by trying different escapes, but in this case Konaka is the guy keeping things interesting by having a bunch of different ways to pull Sae back into the headlock. Later he keeps going for headlock crossfaces and neck attacks, at one point he was cranking a facelock like crazy and digging his fist into Saes face in brutal fashion, it was like something fucked up Ole Anderson or Tully Blanchard would do to a jobber in a 80s TV studio squash. Finishing stretch was really good with a bunch of cool moments centered around Sae going for a dragon sleeper of all things, a superplex bump that felt epic, Konaka missing a big attack off the top and a completely awesome finish. Real master performance from Konaka getting the most out of a limited opponent.

Konaka vs Shinya Ishida, 3/17/2021

For a white meat highflying babyface, I am pretty okay with Shinya Ishida. He has good offense, and he is capable of adding neat touches like connecting with a surprisingly punishing kick between moves, or doing some stubborn matwork. Most importantly is good enough to let Konaka do his thing and not interfere. This was a result very good. They start with some neat fast sequences before Konaka cuts off Ishida in a cool way and does some work on the arm. Ishida makes a solid comeback and then acknowledges said armwork by giving it back to Konaka in kind. Ishidas brutal stomp to Konakas ankle was probably the highlight, it looked just sick. The second half had a bunch more good stuff and neat moments that Konaka has a knack for, I also really liked the well worked chokehold segment they did, it shows Ishida is more capable than your usual spotty indy guy. Very decent stuff and anytime Konaka gets to stretch out and do his thing is a gem.

Konaka vs Kazuhiro Tamura, Sportiva 3/16/2022

I love Konaka and I know Tamura can be pretty great when he tries. Still, this slightly exceeded my expectations. Delivers exactly the kind of cool, unique matwork you hope for from the match up, and it delivers that in spades. What I love about Konaka is that because of his mysterious act, he is believable doing just about anything. I buy his weird reverse spinning toehold just as much as buy him locking in an achilles hold or rolling calf slicer. So him grappling with U-File guy Tamura is really cool. They settle for a work the arm vs work the leg story and they both have a bunch of really cool ways to attack a limb. Tamuras selling of the legwork wasn’t the greatest but our guy Konaka was stellar as always.

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 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

More Sportiva

 Shinya Ishida vs Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 11/25/2020

Sick WAR-esque match with both guys beating the fuck out of each other and showing tons of hatred. Ishida is starting to grow on me, the guy really knows how to deliver an asskicking.Yes he looks like your typical junior wrestler but when it comes to stomping a guys guts out he is much closer to Ashura Hara than someone like Marufuji. He is also very good at working momentum shifts. Him blistering Shimizu with those nasty short kicks to the chest, brutal Garvin stomps and bitchslapping him was great stuff. Shimizu is a rookie who at this point has little more than dropkicks and elbows, but he throws some fierce elbows and his dropkicks land flush in Ishidas face, really putting the Wrestling and Romance into a silent arena plague era match in a way that should have gotten more attention at the time (who can blame people, I didn't have my eye on Sportiva at this time either). Some awesome moments here where both guys are pummeling each other from the mount, and for a fairly long match they keep things fairly interesting with Shimizu really having to earn his salt. I love me a stiff war where guys land basic strikes with bad intentions and this was that kind of match.

 

Toru Sugiura & Kengo Takai vs Kyozo Furuta & Hiroaki Ura, Sportiva 5/8/2019

It’s Kyozo Furutas debut match. Since I’m writing about it you know it was a good debut match. Furuta almost immediately gets a bloody nose when Sugiura and Takai start beating him down, and you get Sugiura slapping his bloody face and Takai stepping on his nose, and Furuta gets all kinds of fired up. He did good for a young boy. And, just the fact that even getting his more established opponents up for a bodyslam for him takes enormous effort out of him makes things interesting. That and the fact he might tap out to any random boston crab. Ura was pretty fun here, too. He’s no Akiyama but his ways of catching people with dropkicks from odd angles is very cool. In a way he’s still a young boy too but more accomplished and he still surprises you with what he can achieve and what he busts out. Sugiura and Takai don’t do anything beyond the basics and they didn’t need more than that, tho Takai blasts Furuta with a pretty hefty lariat. Blood, fire and characters that get you invested. This was pro wrestling done right.

Takaya Shibayama vs Kyozo Furuta, Sportiva 5/29/2019

Takaya Shibayama is a curious wrestler. He’s pretty checked out in his late career and mailing it in most of the time, but capable of delivering good stuff in a while. Thankfully he decided to deliver the good stuff here. This was a really nice rookie vs veteran match where Shibayama guides the freshly debuted Kyozo Furuta through sensible match without relying on no-selling or extended beatdowns and stretching. Obviously he dominates a lot and it takes a while before Furuta can even get Shibayama off his feet, and things stay basic, but it’s ever dull simply because they manage to create that sense that it might just happen. And they just build every part of the match nicely. Furuta has to build up to basic stuff like even a bodyslam and even getting in something as basic as slipping underneath and hitting a forearm feels very satisfying. And Shibayama does some cool stuff in the second half, hitting some gnarly forearms, a really stiff swinging lariat and a really cool snapdown into a facelock for the tap. Furuta only had the most basic dropkick and bodyslam stuff at this point but his fire was good enough that it’s definitely a letdown that he retired before his career could really get anywhere. Still, I look forward to checking out how far that boy made it.

2024 MOTYC List #1

 

Demus vs. Mad Dog Conneely, ACTION Wrestling 4/4

This was slightly hurt by the overwhelming praise it has received, calling it the match of the year and best chain match since Valentine/Piper. It's not that good in my eyes, but it's a fun violent match. The start with the chain whip to the face was nice.  Connellys strikes in the corner looked great- I would have liked to see more like that. Connelly seems certifiably insane to bite a bleeding Demus. The brawling on the outside was fun with a bleeding Demus falling into audience members and both guys smashing each other with a huge trashcan. When Demus took control, he amped up the violence yanking Conneelly around by his shirt and the chain. The ending with the chain assisted submissions was nasty. Good stuff.

Timothy Thatcher vs Axel Tischer, Bloodsport 4/4

I have yet to watch the full show but I thought this was better than Thatcher/Makabe  (which was solid). Opening grappling was very tight and felt different, like a good hybrid of shootstyle and 50s/60s style grappling. Thankfully Tischer did not do any thigh slapping. Him coming down hard to pounce on Thatcher with nasty elbows whenever openings presented was really good. His suplexes were also great. Thatcher did not goof up the match and the "any move could end the match" factor kept things interesting. Not blowaway great but a nice surprise.

Shinya Ishida vs Hakaru Imai, Sportiva 2/22

Gritty MUGA-esque match with some unexpected hate filled stiffness. That kind of match is pretty much the only thing I care about coming out of Japan these days. Imai was great here, he's this 47 year old ghoulish looking guy who barely wrestles but somehow is really good in gritty technical matches. He looks like he struggles to bump but he is great on the mat. Imai does lots of nifty things here as they hit the ground for a grappling section that actually feels fresh and tight. Imai gets the advantage locking a short arm scissor on Ishida and then proceeds to work the arm the entire match. Ishida actually adds to the match by finding ways to kick Imai in his bald head while entangled in submissions. Imais stubbornness and constantly cranking Ishidas shoulder with nasty Fujiwara armbars and kimuras made a lot of this feel like an El Samurai match as opposed to Zack Sabre Jr esque stuff. Ishida actually doesn't have bad offense for a pretty boy wrestler, and he keeps firing back pretty stiff, making things look like a struggle  and selling the arm. As the match progressed they never lost me and kept working in nifty stuff that I like, such as awkward lariats that land hard against the side of someones head, flash submissions, odd pinning combos on the ground etc. Nice stuff that is well worth checking out in the vein of the Mutoha stuff from the past few years.

2024 MOTYC List Project

Still Going Through Sportiva

 

Yasushi Sato vs Akito, Sportiva 11/30/2011

This is the earliest Yasushi Sato I’ve found and also his only SPORTIVA appearance so far. Sato used to work for Sportiva a lot and they livestreamed weekly events for free on USTREAM but IBM deleted all the videos when they bought USTREAM, for which IBM are forever my mortal enemies. This seems to have been filmed by a fan using his iPhone, not noticing an offical stream was going on just a few feet to the right, god bless him. The match is pretty damn great too. Yasushi Sato is a spry 45 years young here and he is the Yasushi Sato we all know and love. This was all on the mat and it was so unique and cool, both guys have a clear freestyle wrestling background and it was like watching Tamon Honda vs Tamon Honda. Most pro wrestling matwork is predictable, you have a guy in a headlock and then going through counters that you’ve already seen before, that wasn’t the case here as both guys immediately start scrambling and working calf slicers and leg rides. Sato especially has such unique ways to stretch someone, including some shoulder popping arm stretches, really an expert in entangling his opponent in weird ways. Akito was really good too, he had an absolute killer counter hold to Satos signature leg grapevine, and also dropped the old man with a reckless suplex. Finish was fucking amazing too. Really hope we get more stuff like this somehow because I can’t imagine Sato being anything less than incredible even in his early days.

 

Nori da Funky vs Shinya Ishida, Sportiva 8/1/2018

This was a match where they went all out giving everything they’ve got and it ruled. I enjoy the hell out of NORI~, and Ishida ain’t a bad wrestler at this point. Ishida handled himself well during the 70s grappling exchanges with Nori, and he did a cool job working a sleeper hold, a segment that featured a neat spot where Ishida stood on his head and bounced back as Nori tried to shake him off. He also did a good job taunting Nori and making the match personal by mocking his style, and he bumped like an absolute maniac for Noris power offense, absolutely spiking himself for Noris big boots and slams. Noris was great as ever with his Bret Hart-like straight forward approach. I enjoyed the opening grappling a lot and it lead to cool transition where Nori hit a suplex while exchanging holds, then worked over Ishidas back. Ishida may have done a wee bit too many fancy pants junior moves, but what the hell, this match was about the contrast of Ishidas style to Noris, and Ishida did work some more elaborate exchange than Noris typical opponents would allow. Second half was about Ishida unloading his fancy junior offense with Nori making awesome come backs catching him. Finish was several shades more epic than a match in Sportiva Arena should logically be but what the hell. Ishidas never did anything nonsensical and everything he did looked hurty, and Nori was great as an overwhelmed monster striking back. Great match that reminded me of something like Taue/Marufuji.

Nori da Funky & Hiroaki Ura vs Hiroshi Yamato & Michio Kageyama, Sportiva 8/15/2018

I thought this would be about a big squareoff between Nori and Yamato, but no, instead the focus of the match is wee little rookie Hiroaki Ura! And they did a mighty fine job with this match! Nori mostly plays big brother saving his partner, and Yamato and Kageyama are a really good pair of pricks beating the bricks off of Ura. There ARE some good exchanges between Nori and Yamato, though Uras role takes center stage. Ura looked really good – just the way he had to work to set up something as basic as a body slam added a lot to the match, and you end up respecting him for lasting has long as he did. Kageyama is a pretty good wrestler when he gives a shit, he leathered Ura with some really hard kicks and slaps here, and Yamato understand when he has to lay it in, really blistering Ura with chops. They also decided not to do too much beatdown and stretching and gave us an exciting second half that actually had me rooting for Ura. Very simple but well done match for what they were aiming for.

Hiroaki Ura vs Kouki Iwasaki, Sportiva 9/12/2018

This was by far the best rookie vs. higher ranked guy I’ve seen in a long time. Ura only does very basic stuff, but he gets the absolute most out of it. Most importantly, he understand how to hit his stuff in unpredictable ways. Usually these matches are super formulaic and predictable, but that wasn’t the case here. I give a lot of credit to Iwasaki, who was super giving and also really cranking up the viciousness. Ura drops Iwasaki with a gnarly body slam on the floor right away, and it’s on from the get go. Ura tries working the back but gets shut down hard by a reckless backbreaker from Iwasaki. Iwasakis kicks and knees were on point, and Ura just kept coming back in interesting ways. They got the right combination of crafty and vicious. Really really good match that achieved so much in just 10 minutes.

Continueing to go through Sportiva Twitcastings

 

Kazuhiro Tamura & Daisuke Kanehira vs Nori da Funky & Fuminori Abe, Sportiva 10/25/2017

Excellent long match that delivers in spades. I like that Sportiva often start with cool extended matwork and this case we get a very nice Kanehira vs. Nori section which was very deliberate, logical and cool to watch, and then a slick U-Style matwork section between Abe and Tamura. Tamura was showing off some cool shit, he did a really cool Honda-esque arm throw, and later a neat arm stretch reversal to get out of a sleeper. The cool thing about this match is we get extended segments between Kanehira and Nori and Abe and Tamura, it was like a mash up of two really cool singles matches with occasional tag team dynamic coming into play. This was maybe the best I’ve seen Kanehira look, for some reason he throws a ton of great looking knees in this, and he matches up super well with the more deliberate style of Nori da Funky. It’s weird that a hip hop guy would wrestler like a 70s/80s guy but it’s really cool. Abe and Tamura cranking up the stiffness and busting out some spectacular counters was pretty great. It was probably genuinely some of the greatest stuff I’ve seen either guy do as there was no comedy, no absurd kickouts and no overly long strike exchanges, I guess this environment really makes guys work smarter. Because there weren’t a ton of big moves, Nori running in to obliterate a guy with a big backdrop suplex looked devastating. This match overdelivered in spades considering the tiny stage they were working, excellent stuff.

Xevious vs. Shinya Ishida, Sportiva 11/22/2017

First Xevious singles match that I’ve found and it’s a banger. This was exactly what it needed to be, Ishida doing flying, and Xevious doing whacky submissions, pin combos and hitting Ishida with some really painful looking offense, giving this the feel of Black Terry or Negro Navarro carrying an indy luchadore match, which is high praise. I am pretty okay with Shinya Ishida at this point, he is decently athletic, doesn’t do anything too cute and he makes fine comebacks. He also hits a suicide dive into nothing which is a pretty insane thing to do in this tiny bar. Xevious was great, his weird submissions and pin combos were really good, and he had all this offense targetting Ishidas back, hitting really hurty looking sentons, splashes and double stomps etc, his kicks and knees are also on point. He stooges really well for Ishidas ranas and armdrags too. Cracking match, Xevious may very well be our lord and saviour.

Nori da Funky vs 801 Kenichi, Sportiva 4/25/2018

Kenichi is super limited, but Nori does the impossible here crafting a good match around him. Seriously impressive considering how dull Kenichi looked. Nori does a Bret Hart-like job working over Kenichis leg, and Kenichi to his credit puts some effort into selling that shit. I really liked how Nori after some legwork progressed to working over Kenichis neck to set up his backdrop finisher, but went back to cutting him off at the leg when Kenichi started coming back. Finishing stretch had a few nifty moments thanks to Nori and one admittedly impressive suplex from Kenichi. Nori needs to come back to wrestling, the guy could do no wrong.

More Sportiva Twitcastings

 Fuminoru Abe & Nori da Funky Shibiresasu vs. Shinya Ishida & Yusaku Ito, Sportiva 11/30/2016

Nice match that had structure in place and all 4 guys doing a bunch of cool shit. Starts with some cool matwork, I was surprised that Yusaku Ito was a kickpadded shooter at this point, he and Abe do some nice slick shooty matwork and then we get some equally nifty traditional pro style chain wrestling between Nori and Shinya Ishida. The recent Ishida I’ve seen wasn’t good, but he was perfectly servicable here, he had a nice dive, acted like a scummy heel and was never loose or dragging the action. I once again dug Nori, he had an awesome big boot that turned Ishida inside out, and a big guy who boots peoples heads off hits different in an indy tag with a bunch of juniors. The ending is Abe vs. Ito and it’s cool sleaze shooter stuff with both guys blasting each other with cool kicks. I was amazed this match had absolutely no comedy, what happened to the indy scene, why did they all decide they wanted to be clowns at some point?

Fuminoru Abe & Yusaku Ito vs. Nori da Funky & Xevious, Sportiva 1/25/2017

Hell yeah, it’s XEVIOUS. Xevious is this fat looking dude in a mask who does all kinds of random things on offense, but it all looks hurty. He has a stiff solebutt, nasty kneedrop to the back of the head, really painful looking stretches etc. He’s really fun to watch. Not much happens in the first few minutes of his, but it turns into a good little match when Abe eats a DDT on the floor and Nori and Xev work over his neck. Neck work was really good, Ito makes a nice hot tag and has a cool exchange with Xevious leading to Ito hitting a big punch to the face. Abe vs. Nori finishing stretch was brief but pretty neat as Nori kept hitting violent offense to Abes neck. Nice little match, why is this stuff more energetic and serious than any undercard match now? This was in front of like 15 fans for crying out loud.

Yasu Kubota vs. Fuminori Abe, Sportiva 4/5/2017

This was a fun match where they do some unlikely fun matwork. Kubota is a sleazy looking guy who has been around for a really long time, and this is the best I’ve seen him look. Abe does some fun submissions and kicks targetting Kubotas arm, and Kubota comes back working Abes leg with cool stretches, ramming a bar stool into his knee etc. I also liked the weird standing stretch he busted out. All the Arn Anderson style body part targetting work was really good, and the second half where they busted out their bombs with Abe hitting spin kicks and Kubota hitting big dropkicks and drivers was a lot of fun. Limb selling wasn’t super consistant though both guys acknowledged that they were hurting and had to figure out how to transition from there. Kubota only being able to lock in his submission hold with one arm was a cool touch. It’s weird how guys like Kubota can have their best performances on the smallest shows like this.

Fuminori Abe & Kazuhiro Tamura vs. Yusaku Ito & Nori da Funky, Sportiva 5/31/2017

I’m amazed Abe was probably a more serious worker than he is now at this point. Seriously, these guys had all the reason to joke it up since they were wrestling in a sports bar, but instead they had a lengthy, serious no frills tag where everyone brought their A-game. I enjoyed Nori vs. Tamura, their grappling early on had a nice big vs little feel, and later on we get to see them really lay into each other. They have a fun dynamic going on with Noris traditional power offense and Tamuras jump kicks and flying moves. The heart and soul of this is Abe vs. Yusaku though. Both these guys were really scrappy, early on they had an exchange where Ito casually kicked Abe in the face, then later landed these really violent knee strikes to Abes head on the ground. Finishing run had both guys raining hell, hitting all their cool jumping face kicks. There were some cool moments such as Abe working a neat rolling arm scissor for a submission nearfall and Ito bumping big for a dropkick of all things. Itos punt kick was probably the highlight of the match for how out of nowhere it came and how violent it looked. Dare I say, these guys were really good at this stage.