Assorted BattlARTS

Munenori Sawa & Yujiro Yamamoto vs Manabu Hara & SEIKEN, BattlARTS 8/21/2011

Really good scrappy match from the last days of BattlARTS. Everyone beat the shit out of each other and never backed down. Sawa cut down the goofiness, but things definitely got more serious when Yamamoto stepped in the ring. He had some intense exchanges with both Hara and SEIKEN. SEIKEN is a pretty fun character to insert into a BattlARTS match, as he doesn’t have much grappling and just tries to KO people with nasty head kicks, it makes for a cool contrast. There wasn’t a ton of grappling but Yamamoto in the brief moments did some really cool stuff. Haras brief hot tag trying to crack Sawas jaw was pretty great, too. Sawa trying to dive at Hara who was outside was pretty crazy and immediately lead to another chaotic, scrappy exchange with SEIKEN. Fun chaotic ending run with lots of stiff blows. I miss BattlARTS.

Yuki Ishikawa & Munenori Sawa vs Super Tiger II & Manabu Hara (BattlArts - 11/16/2008)

The early goings are a bit slow, tho there are a few neat moments. Hara cranks Ishikawas neck with a nasty headlock then hits him with an out of nowhere kick to the face. There's a pretty heated exchange between Sawa and STII with Sawa trying to headbutt him in the guard about 8 minutes in a flick is switched and Hara and Tiger start fucking pulverizing Sawa with brutal kicks. After that it's off to the races as they deliver a brutal beatdown on Sawa. Some breathless exchanges ensue with guys tagging each other full force, headbutts, slaps, kicks to the head. The finishing run is Super Tiger II unloading his spectacular kick arsenal on Ishikawa. STII has some crazy kicks, and he nails them all here. I also really liked the violence of Sawa and Hara trying to prevent each other from making a save. As usual with Ishikawa there are some tremendous submissions. Last 12 minutes of this or so were some of the most brutal and best BattlARTS action of the new millenium for sure.

Ikuto Hidaka vs Yuta Yoshikawa, BattlARTS 12/21/2008

Really good 10 minute match. Hidaka was hellbent on destroying Yoshikawas mid-section here, making this forever one of the greatest matches in the "matches where a guy gets his mid section destroyed" genre. Early goings were no-nonsense as Hidaka was relentless going after Yoshikawa with great looking body shots and knees, it felt like an aggressive U-Style match. When Yoshikawa takes it too the mat it actually feels like he needed to take it to the mat. Yoshikawa is low standing at this point but his brief run off offense is nice, he is able to hit a big suplex that actually feels earned and follows up blasting Hidaka with a kick. Yoshikawa punching away at Hidakas arm/shoulder was a nice touch. Hidaka denying a flying armbar, but eating a punch to the face seconds later was great. Eventually Hidaka took Yoshikawa out destroying his guts with knees and spin kicks that looked brutal. Very nice stuff and cool to see Hidaka doing something different when he could've just hit his usual spots instead.

Kakuto Tanteidan 10/12/2023

 

Hideki Suzuki vs Yu Iizuka

Nice little match to start the event. Mostly grappling, everytime Iizuka get a submission on Hideki was really cool. Iiizuka seemed to be the one pushing the pace while Suzuki mostly relied on his size and didn't do much, though he had one really neat counter to an Octopus Stretch attempt. Finish was Suzuki starting to hit elbows during the grappling and KOing Iizuka, I felt it would have been nice if we had got a bit of back and forth. I mean Iizuka has gone toe to toe with Masakazu Funaki, it wouldn't have been absurd to see him take it to Hideki a bit more.

Ikuto Hidaka & Tanomusaku Toba vs Brother Yasshi & Hikaru Sato - EPIC

Great super violent undercard tag. I wasn't sure how Yasshi would do in this, but he does pretty good and took some insane punishment. He was solid early on taking down Toba, before he tries some pro wrestling bullshit and immediately gets punched in the face HARD. Hidaka/Sato was good shootstyle stuff with Hidaka being really lively and aggressive. Match got great once Yasshi took a sick out of nowhere bump on a German suplex. Toba then turned into super violent mode and started dishing out incredibly stiff punches and kicks. Sato/Toba exchange was brief but pretty great, I definitely would've liked to see more of that. Toba/Yasshi was just awesome as Toba was brutalizing Yasshi and Yasshi started hitting these sick jumping shoot headbutts which were some of the sickest I've ever seen. Hidaka/Sato finish was excellent BattlARTS stuff with some big strikes neck crunching moves and cool submission counters. Really good quasi shootstyle undercard tag that left me wanting more, just what we need in this day and age.

Keita Yano vs Super Tiger II - GREAT

I was curious to see Yano doing shootstyle matwork, but he stuck to his british style grappling even in this context. He was pretty good, though. He did things like leaning into a shoulder pin really slowly to emphasize he was stretching his opponent in painful ways. Keita controlled about 80% of the match. Tiger sold the fuck out of that armwork and hit some ultarsharp kicks when he got fed up with being toyed with. Tigers kicks looked great and he seemed to have a lot of spark in him, I would definitely like to see more of his modern day work. He looked like a badass when he finished Keita with a couple of brutal kicks.

Yuki Ishikawa & Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Minoru Fujita

Ishikawa pretty much carried the match, always doing neat maestroish things when he was in the ring. I haven't seen Fujita in years but he looked fine doing serious wrestling here. He did the right thing immediately going for his finisher during a brief grappling section with Ishikawa. He was also fun looking out of his depth against Sekimoto and trying to pull off a counter. Sekimoto didn't really do do Bati-Bati style here, just his pro style stuff with things like Irish Whips cut out, but the random touches like his big cross body were fun. I thought the final Ishikawa/Ikeda exchange underdelivered as Ikeda looked blown up after eating some slams from Sekimoto and nearly KO'ing himself with a big running headbutt. He didn't put up much fight against Ishikawa besides some Baba chops. Slightly disappointing outing from the two though I understand Ikeda is probably on his last legs.

Fuminori Abe vs. Takuya Nomura

Sick, blood-drenched fight. I was worried Abe would bring a goofy vibe, and while there was a bit of that early on, they stuck to doing serious pro wrestling. Nomura looked really great whenever he was doing Hashimoto-like beatdowns to his goofy opponent. After getting stomped in the corner, Abe finally decided to quit the silliness and just started knuckle punching his opponent in the face. After that the match got pretty great as both guys were just violently pummeling each other. Tons of sick headbutts, at one point Abe started bleeding from the crown of his head and it was just grizzly. Abes knee to the side of Nomuras face was by far the highlight of the match. Nasty nasty finish where a bleeding and beaten down Abe was stuck in a submission like Austin in the sharpshooter. Really good shit, no downtime and both guys just punished each other, really hope they keep doing this stuff as the whole show was great from top to bottom, and this was one hell of a fight to cap it off.

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2023 MOTY List

Dradition 2016 First ~ Battle Invitation 3/29/2016

 

Nobuyuki Kurashima vs. Sanshu Tsubakichi

I’m a Kurashima fan. He has a few things he does very well, and he sticks to that. He will always do some cool matwork, engage in scrappy hard hitting, and occasionally throw a hefty suplex or drop his opponent on their head. This match didn’t have a suplex for some reason but it Kurashima adding some cool touches to the matwork such as pushing his foot into Tsubakichis face, grinding his knee into the shoulder while working an armlock etc. The scrappy hard hitting was fun too, with Tsubakichi eating a nasty headbutt early on, throwing some cool punches to the body and hitting some kicks that left Kurashimas head bouncing. Very gritty and simplistic opener so it was just the right thing.

Kazuhiro Tamura vs. CHANGO

Decent undercard action that needed a bit more matwork. It’s DRADITION, you gotta hit the mat. Tamura was coasting, but Changos scuzzy technical heel act is cool enough to carry the match. His cradles were awesome and also extremely well timed. Tamura really needed to do some matwork in this.

Seiya Sanada vs. LEONA

Surprisingly a very good match. Crowd was invested in this and they worked a bunch of basic exchanges at a nice pace building to some cool nearfalls over basic moves like a double arm suplex. LEONA did some pretty cool wrestling, I really liked the way he set up a dragon screw into a Figure 4 which felt meaningful, and his pins and cradles were really good. Sanada mostly served as an overdog to LEONA, he had some nice european uppercuts and one really slick sequence into a springboard move. I also really liked the cheekiness of him going for Dragon Sleepers on Fujinamis kid. Very worthwhile undercard match.

Kengo Mashimo & Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Mitsuya Nagai & Super Tiger II

Pretty fun match where every part was good and everybody was working really stiff and exciting. Mashimo had a good showing, really pelting people with his kicks and knees, his segment against STII was pretty good and had some really really good leg attack stuff. I liked Sekimoto fine and Nagai was fired up kicking people hard and even going after Sekimoto with a chair at one point which generated good head and buzz.

Taka Kunou vs. Masakazu Funaki

Kunou low key rules, he has that grubby tough old grappler charisma similar to someone like Osamu Kido. Funaki can’t be arsed to do more than the bare minimum but he brings some presence and something for Kunou to overcome, plus almost anything is a plausible finish. Very defensive and cagey bout early on with neither guy giving an inch as they worked some simple matwork. It builds to a really good explosion in the last few minutes mostly due to Kunou, who hits an awesome headbutt and the most awesome suplex while surviving more from Funaki than you expect. Dope shit, very far from a workrate classic but very intense and satisfying pro wrestling that feels real.

 

Tatsumi Fujinami & Hiro Saito vs. Jun Akiyama & Yuma Aoyagi

Solid if slightly short main event to close out a good card. Fujinami/Akiyama exchanges were built around both guys resisting the others signature moves in cool ways and I would've liked to see more of that. Nice to see even fossilized Hiro Saito can still hit a gnarly senton.  Aoyagi was just a rookie here and soon dutifully ate the fall.

 

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2022 MOTY List Update #5

 

Keita Yano vs. Hikaru Sato, Tenryu Project 9/19/2022 - EPIC

This was really long and thus a bit slow-paced and tentative here and there. That aside this was largely excellent. Yano did a ton of great matwork and I loved all of Satos vicious strikes, especially the constant kicks to the mid section. Sato zoning in on Yanos arm and busting out cool armbar variations was good although they may have gone a bit overboard. The finishing run had a bunch of cool Yano moments, such as for example working a takedown attempt for a ropebreak before turning it into a gritty leglock battle. I didn’t think it was the MOTY like some people – it was just a bit too long and slow for that – but it was really good stuff and worth watching all the way through.

Naoya Nomura & Hayato Mashita vs. Super Tiger II & Shingo Suzuki, DIANA 10/16/2022

This was four sleazy shooters doing a random undercard match on a joshi show. It easily could have been mailed in, but instead they busted their ass and had a match that was actually unpredictable, had no downtime, a few neat moments and was stiff and exciting. Big credit goes to Nomura who was just awesome with his out of nowhere spears and shoulder tackles. I also really enjoyed Shingo Suzuki, who apparently is a seasoned MMA fighter turned pro wrestler. He got some nice shooty exchanges out of people, and he had a really insane dive that I won't spoil. I also continue to be impressed by how STII is not completely broken down and even looking quite spirited, hitting cool spin kicks. I thought Mashita stunk a bit in the first minute of this but he wasn't bad at the end. For 9 minutes this was way way too fun.

GENKAI & Hitamaru Sasaki vs. HUB & Tigers Mask, Kyushu Pro, 11/12/2022

Once in a while I am reminded that Kyushu Pro puts on some really good matches. This was a match that showcased 4 cool unique wrestlers to the best of their abilities busting their asses, impressive considering everyone here is in their 40s. GENKAI did some really great shoulder selling, best "wounded beast" selling performance I've seen in a while, I also really liked how they didn't go for the obvious route by working his shoulder a bunch, instead people would try to tag him in the shoulder and he would overpower them, all while doing this great pained selling. HUB was really cool here, like a slithery version of Tajiri, he had a really nice opening segment against Genkai, and his weird whip thing actually looked super painful, he also had an insane right hook to Genkai when the whip didn't do it at one point and his jumping knees look great. Tigers Mask also looked good, he hit some painful looking kicks to Genkais shoulder and generally was really spry, I am annoyed his recent matches in Osaka Pro only seem to air in clips. Sasaki was the least guy in the match but he was still pretty solid, working a shootstyle mat segment against Tigers Mask. I will say his kicks and jumping knees look a bit weak compared to what Tigers Mask and HUB were doing. They worked this at a really good pace, doing plenty of tricked out stuff without going overboard, always sticking to their strengths, I actually wanted them to slow down  a bit because I was so into the story of their match. Regardless it was a really good long form match and ended at the right moment with a bunch of high notes.

2022 MOTY List

REAL BLOOD Produce 10/3/2022

Hiroshi Yamato vs. Touki Hatano

 Hiroshi Yamato continues to get all the bookings. Hatano was on the last CAPTURE show and I've learned he's a green-ish guy from HEAT-UP. He's really not very interesting and instead of doing shootstyle they just have a rather standard indy match that has the benefit of being a bit faster paced than usual. Not much stood out but there was a nice German suplex spot at one point. Inoffensive and forgettable.

Takahiro Tababa vs. Daisuke Kanehira

This was more like it. Tababa comes in and just brutalizes Kanehira with his violent kicks. Kanehira isn't super interesting but he can take and dish it out. Nice and short at 5 minutes and they build in some cool struggle and moments. loved Tababas big hip throw. Good match!

Super Tiger II vs. Ryo Inoue

Y'know, I would think STII was pretty busted in 2022, but he did a pretty solid job carrying generic AJPW rookie Ryo Inoue to a decent match. He kept things moving, had some nice big kicks and a cool submission finish. That's a lot more than I expected going into this. Worth checking out.

Mitsuki Watase vs. Keisuke Goto

I have goodwill for both of these guys, but going about 15 minutes is too much for them at this stage. There was a will, both guys were stiff and Goto kind of did a job working over Watases mid section, but the match felt like it was done in slow motion and there was so little interesting going on. Even at 2x speed it still felt slow. I can see Goto becoming a decent Hiro Saito for the modern generation but he needs to stick to shorter matches for now.

Naoya Nomura & Super Crafter U vs. Yuma Aoyagi & Atsuki Aoyagi

The Nomura/Yuma sections were just awesome here. Both guys came in with MMA gloves and just threw down and had some fantastic heated sections were they tried to jump and beat the shit out of each other. Fantastic stuff, reminded me of the best of CAPTURE or early 2000s NJPW. The match settled down a bit after their initial exchange, Atsuki Aoyagi is a pretty boy flier and really sticks out like a sore thumb with his predictable shit in a match that started as a violent fight between two badasses. Crafter working the mat felt like Negro Navarro or Fujiwara carrying a scrub which is a very good thing. Still, the more pro-style sections had enough going for the kill and sudden shoot punches that the match stayed worthwhile. I wanted more of Nomura running wild and being crazy but they went the cheap route and had Crafter eat the fall. I really really want to see more Nomura/Aoyagi after this, which was the point of the match I guess. Yuma looked pretty good too as a big bully who will punch you in the back of the head. I assume his regular glove-less work is much less interesting. Still, he was on here, and you really need to see this match for him and Nomura killing each other.

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Koki Kitahara Documentation Project #15

 Koki Kitahara vs. Akira Katayama, SWS 10/29/1991 - GREAT

Classic gritty SWS undercard action. Katayama rushes Kitahara to start, hitting a big tope where he connects his head to Kitaharas face and then goes to choke Kitahara with his shirt. Kitahara makes him pay dearly though. Every thing Kitahara executes on Katayama here looks like it was intended to murder. Katayama is a bit pedestrian but Kitahara kicks him in the mouth causing him to gush blood and bring some fight. Unbelievably gritty shit. The junior stuff was well executed too, but you want this for that kick and the visual of Katayamas bloody teeth.

 

Koki Kitahara & Yoshihiro Asai vs. Masao Orihara & Bestia Salvaje, SWS 10/30/1991 - GREAT

Basically 2 great pairings doing their thing. Salvaje was great here carrying Asai like mad and working some beautiful exchanges, and then you had young Kitahara and Orihara engaging in some super violent, scrappy exchanges. Orihara was almost unrecognizable and kickpadded here, aside from one nifty kip up he works like a crazy kickboxer trying to match Kitahara blistering him with kicks. The match escalated when Orihara walked over and kicked Kitahara in the face causing Kitahara in turn to almost crush Oriharas skull and spit on him. Just the kind of uncalled for violence only Kitahara can bring to a random junior undercard pairing. I also enjoyed Asai briefly putting a beating on Orihara. Orihara in turn totally smoke Asai with a massive moonsault to the outside. And man Salvaje looks tremendous here. Wrestling can be so simply and brilliant sometimes.

 

Koki Kitahara & Mitsuya Nagai vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Super Tiger 2, Fortune Dream 6/11/2018 - FUN

The non-Kitahara guys in this match are quite pedestrian, but Kitahara single handedly makes this a fun match. He's quite old and not as thick as in his prime anymore, but still a formidable bastard. He kicks people in the face and acts like a bastard. He even busts out a Shiranui to psych out Marufuji. All the Kitahara/Tiger exchanges were genuinely cool wrestling too and I wish we had some old man Kitahara in CAPTURE. He still hit that sweep kick with near perfect timing.

Koki Kitahara Documentation Project

CAPTURE International 3/23/2022

First CAPTURE show to make tape in 19 years baby! Purchase it here

Daisuke Kanehira vs. Mizuki Watase

Pretty fun opening match between two juniors with dyed hair where they dialed up the stiffness to 11 like it‘s CAPTURE or something. They did some alright grappling and then waffled each other fierce. Couple fun spots such as a nasty guardrail drop, missile dropkick off the guardrail that looked tricky and a nasty rolling senton into the guardrail. Reminds me of those short FUTEN opening matches, I'm not sure I would want to check out these guys doing HEAT-UP undercard matches but the CAPTURE factor upgrades everything.

Fuminori Abe & Sanshu Tsubakichi vs. JOHTA & Keisuke Goto

Now this is the real CAPTURE material. 4 lunatics beating each other to death in a basement and not holding back in the slightest. JOHTA is a 20 year CAPTURE veteran, he is clearly a bit flabby and old but still looks like a menacing force in his ADIDAS pants. Abe is great when he cuts out the bullshit, and he did cut out the bullshit here. Keisuke Goto is a guy who was apparently trained in a joshi dojo, and he is a fun thick guy who can eat nasty kicks and retaliate with full bodyweight dropping sentons. Tsubakichi is fun and works stiff, hitting some nice body punches. Abe/JOHTA interactions were great and I loved how Johta got in peoples faces, grabbing the referee by the scruff, he came across as tough and out of control. Some really violent kicks and headbutts and Abe trying to break his fist on JOHTAs thick skull. I really liked how Abe was cocky initially and seemed to have the upper hand only to end being left a bloody mess by JOHTA.

Boxing Gloves Match: Takahiro Tababa vs. Super Tiger II

It‘s a boxing gloves match, baby. Short but very entertaining because Tababa was in „Beat a man to death“ mode here. He just pounced on poor Tiger and proceeded to drive his fists into him without relenting. Tiger looks overwhelmed but he has some fun comebacks shutting down Tababas rage and he looked like he really wanted to end this as soon as possible. The kick he caught him with was awesome. I think this went 4 minutes which is just right.

Takuya Nomura vs. Hiroshi Yamato

Yamato is this ex-AJPW guy who seems to be trying to be the most booked man on the Japanese indies. He‘s EVERYWHERE. And to my surprise he is pretty good at working basement shootstyle. Lots of fun grappling (Yamato trained with Virus), and while Yamato isn‘t a crowbar shooter there are some moments where they stand up and try to slap the skin off of each other. Really liked Yamatos jumping kicks, he came across as a pro wrestler tightening up his act to hang with a badass. Nomura looked quite good as usual. The suplex bumps were insane considering how thin that mat looks and the KO finish looked like it sent the guy to another dimension. Good shit.

2/3 Falls: Naoya Nomura & Super Crafter U vs. Rikiya Fudo & Kosuke Sato

The best match on this great show. Crafter is a masked guy who can do some fun grappling and hit people hard. Sato is a kickpadded BJW guy with good energy. And Fudo is just an awesome crowbar. I wasn‘t sure how AJPW boy Nomura would do but he has great energy and is willing to kill and get killed. Comprise all that into a 10 minute match and you have yourself one hell of a fight. Also add 2/3 falls rule means that any move can be a finish. Fudo is so great here, standing tall and beating the life out of people with Vader Hammers, shoot headbutts and the most violent splashes on earth. His sumo charge that bounced the other guy into the guardrail was also fantastic. All the Fudo/Nomura exchanges were damn great. I loved that Nomura is this guy who was primed to become an AJPW main eventer and Fudo just doesn't give a fuck at all and beats him like a dog. Nomura kept hitting these great spears. I really liked how when Fudo faced the other guy, Crafter just gave him some leg kicks and tagged out, I can understand not wanting to deal with that dude. Last fall was super intense and energetic with guys catching hands, eating sick headbutts and trying to tap each other out. Pro wrestling is good again.

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