guidedbyrocketscomp

 Daioh QUALLT vs Takehiro Murahama, Osaka Pro 3/17/2000

This was when Murahama was doing his unstoppable shoot boxer act in Osaka Pro, which has to be one of the craziest single runs of a rookie anywhere ever. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Daioh QUALLT singles match, but after seeing this, fuck I need more of this Daioh QUALLT in my life. Basically QUALLT is a monster with caveman like strength and serious force in anything he did. He was just mauling Murahama, and Murahama was fighting back with some monster punch combos and knees of his own. This was just two guys putting insane violence into everything they threw at each other. Eventually Murahama starts getting the advantage, leading to a distraction, and then QUALLT blowing mist and trying to strangle Murahama with a rope. Totally crazy, and there’s a crazy post match too with an angry Murahama punching Delfin in the face really hard. God does this make all current wrestling look lame as hell.

Kenichiro Arai & Taku Iwasa vs Ryo Saito & Susumu Yokosuka, Dragon Gate 8/9/2008

No-ring Dragon Gate!! I love no-ring wrestling, and in this case removing the ring and just wrestling on a mat in Korakuen Hall adds exactly what a Dragon Gate match needs to be actually compelling. Any bumps look hard as fuck, and as such the wrestlers here were desperate to avoid even a bodyslam or suplex. This makes the stakes feel higher, and adds that little something that Dragon Gate normally often lacks: urgency, struggle, meaning… the crowd for this was molten hot too, so they were feeling the vibe as well. That said, Arai and Iwasa are awesome here. Really great unit of a tag team. Their team moves were awesome, and they did a great job cutting off the mat. We all know Arai as the crafty master, and he is crafty here, taking some hard as fuck and awesome looking back body drops on the mat, locking in slick sleepers and abdominal stretches – but he is also awesome as a lanky guy throwing bombs and cracking people with headbutts. Iwasa also looked quite good – he was hitting damn hard, and he almost ripped a guy apart with a cool submission at one point. Some awesome sequences and double team stuff here. Saito and Yokosuka aren’t much to write home about, but their offense is solid enough and I appreciate a guy like Saito just bringing hard lariats and spiking people with suplexes instead of doing something overly cute. Just a lot of good, brutal, heated action here.

The Moondogs vs The Warrior & Spirit of America (USWA 1991)

Somebody tells me to watch the Moondogs, I watch the Moondogs. The Warrior and Spirit of America are such a sight. They look just goofy and rip-off enough to be complete jobbers but also have good bodies and could plausible something of a deal in a small league like USWA. There is no question to what goes down here. Moondogs lay a savage pounding on these goofballs. Punching them in the face, throwing them around the ring, even bringing out chairs. There’s such an uncaring savage aura about the Moondogs that makes them awesome. They are not there to impress, they are there to kick ass, and that makes everything more impressive because it doesn’t come across as tryhard. The finish – something of a diving elbow while the opponent is held in a backbreaker position – looks like a total decapitation. And then they bust out a hurty looking big splash too for good measure. Great studio TV squash match.

Cactus Jack vs Arachnaman, WCW 1991(?)

I’ve never actually seen an Arachnaman match before. I’ve only ever just seen grainy stills of him. So here he is against Cactus Jack too of all people! Arachnaman – who I think is Brad Armstrong – actually tries to go all scientific on Jack. He hits some rollups and works the arm, even trying to snap it over the rope like he’s a spidery Regal. Armstrong tries to add a bit of flavour with his stances etc. I could see him being in a fun match against Great Muta as long as there’s blood and mask ripping, but that could be said about nearly everyone. Jack actually takes a back body drop on the floor in this nothing match against a guy saddled with a shit gimmick. Arachnamans finish is the ground abdominal stretch pin. I appreciate the Inokiism, but he is a bit sloppy in his application, and Jack quickly takes it home with a shitty jumping facebuster and holding Arachnamans costume for the pin. Well, know I can say that I know about Arachnaman.

GWE Watching: Kenichiro Arai

 
Kenichiro Arai vs Shunsuke Sayama, FREEDOMS 5/22/2019

Really freaking good match. Sayama is a relentless kicker here, and Arai does a really nice sleazier Fujiwara performance taking him apart. His takedowns and holds came across as really forceful and he looked like he belonged with a shooter. Some really nasty armlocks and finger bending from Arai, and I loved how he constantly went for the piledriver. Sayama laid into him good. I really liked how Sayama was able to sink into a choke and then kick a dizzy Arai in his bald head, but then his feet gave out because Arai had twisted them up previously. Match had a relentless pace and they never really let up. Strong recommendation.

Kenichiro Arai vs Keita Yano, VKF 2019/10/31 - GREAT


It's the battle of the sleaze grappling gods! Really fun old school type match as you expect. They do some good stuff working around a full nelson hold for a while, and Keita looks slick as a cat. Arai does an almost Flair-like performance mostly getting eaten up by Yano and bumping for him. Yano is pretty great at eating someone up since he has so much cool shit he can do. Once in a while Arai would do something sneaky, like jab him in the throat or nastily bend his wrist to gain control, but Yano would cradle him or tie him in a submission pretty quickly. I wanted there to be a little more aggression and nastiness but this was a middle of the card match not some kind of epic main event, so it was pretty good for what it was.

 

Kenichiro Arai vs Susumu Yokosuka, Dragon Gate 10/6/2023

Immensely fun match. This was supposed to be some kind of revival match for the old Toryumon class, but actually Arai comes in carrying the Haoh title and does a full on 70s technician performance, cranking headlocks and cravates. There was some of the old hard headed drunken master Arai in there, and that is fun too. I love how Arai will turn a basic hold like a headscissor or hammerlock into a holy shit spot. Also loved the work around the Tiger Suplex, the build to the top rope jawbreaker etc. Yokosukas more explosive offense is cool in contrast to Arais big brain technical shit. Very very nice match and another case for the variety of match Arai can pull off. Lengthy technical epic, wrestler vs shooter, sneaky stooging heel, the man is like the swiss army knife of the Japanese idies right now.

Keita Yano Documentation