I watched a bunch of BJW and the only thing that caught my attention was this Saburo Inematsu match

 

Saburo Inematsu vs. Takashi Sasaki, BJW 11/13/2006

Inematsu was a K-Dojo guy who I remember being a fun addition to BJW multiman tags during this period. I think this was the only bigger singles match he got in BJW at the time, and you kind of have to wonder why because he does really well for himself. The first 5 minutes are the standard forgettable deathmatch opening and not of much interest, but the last 10 minutes or so are really compelling. Inematsu has a lot of fun offense – running headbutts, well timed axe handles, a sick backdrop suplex, big knee drops – that feels really fresh in this kind of deathmatch context. Both guys also bleed like crazy, and increased the violence by really stiffing each other with their slaps and kicks. The struggle for control was really good. When Inematsu hit his big Death Valley Bomb from the top rope it felt like a huge moment not just because it was a huge bump but because of the way Inematsu had been controlling and cutting off Sasaki, it really alerted the crowd that the outsider could put away the established guy and it was really compelling, they maintained that sense of struggle subsequently in nice fashion. I’m not a guy who’s big on deathmatch wrestling but this was really good and fresh.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #18

 Takashi Sasaki & Tanomusaku Toba vs Tomohiro Ishii & Issei Fujisawa (DDT 06/09/2001) - GREAT

We only get the last 10 minutes of a 20 minute draw, but what we get looks like a very good match. Toba being used as a human projectile was fun, I loved how Ishii turned the knife against his opponents by gorilla pressing Toba into Sasaki too. Then we get some fun Sasaki/Ishii exchanges and some awesome Toba/Fujisawa exchanges. Fujisawa was doing a Fake Kensuke Sasaki gimmick but he had no problem taking ultra stiff punches and kicks from Toba, getting fired up and dropping him him with reckless power moves. It was better than any comparable Kensuke Sasaki faceoff (maybe against Kazunari Murakami) that I‘ve seen. The build to the time limit draw was cool too and they never slowed down without just doing brainless kickouts left and right.

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI & Sanshiro Takagi vs. Takashi Sasaki & Asian Cougar & Asian Condor, Onita Pro 9/23/2001 - GREAT

Probably the best match I‘ve seen the DDT crew do in Onita Pro so far. They went 13 minutes so stretched out a bit and did some fun opening exchanges before the Asian Cougars in the match whip out their cool highspots for a frenzy in the second half. Toba/Sasaki exchanges were pretty boss as usual, kicks and punches landing with full force, and you also get to see Toba in peril as he gets ragdolled by triple team moves. Toba really is great at timing his more spectacular kicks for comebacks. The finishing stretch with Cougar hitting all his lunatic legdrops and then trying to tap out Toba was pretty exciting and even though Takagi isn‘t the greatest guy in the match he was fun too. A++ undercard material.

Tanomusaku Toba vs.  Fuminori Abe vs. Shuichiro Katsumura, Ganbare Pro 1/8/2022 - FUN

3 ways are usually gonna be stupid so they can almost never be great matches, but this was one had enough fun action and they seemed to be aware of the stupidity so they just brutalized each other like it was a chaotic fight. Toba is the oldest and most broken guy here but for some reason does the most sections, and he looks pretty good. Made me think he would still be good in NOAH undercards working in the Aoyagi role of old guy who doesn't pull punches. He was really landing some face shattering punches to Abe, who did this amusing psycho laughing. The section where they all beat on each other could have been silly but ended up looking crazy. Even the finish seemed to make fun of the concept of 3 ways. Enjoyable match overall.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project

Matches from and old Scott Mailman comp tape

 Watch

 

 Takashi Sasaki vs. Sanshiro Takagi, DDT 9/30/1999

Pretty good quasi-BattlARTS match. Sasaki was the real deal ripping out fast submissions and landing knees to Takagis face. I didn't really appreciate Takagis stomp-punches-Stone-Cold-Stunner style much next to Sasakis cutting edge spin kicks and cool Destiny Hammers, but to be fair Sasaki ate the fuck out of those Stunners. Takagi kind of redeemed himself busting out some cool backfists. Full indy scum point to this match.

Asian Cougar & Kurokage vs. Kyohei Mikami & Takashi Sasaki Onita Pro 9/16/1999

This is a really 'comp tape' match. They do some brief opening work and then get to their cool highspots. Sasaki looked good once again being surprisingly vicious to Kurokage. It's nice to have a guy who can kick ass and while punch the shit out of people inserted into a more spot oriented junior undercard match. Dive train on the concrete was really sick and the neck-crunching big move ladden ending run was choice without getting on your nerves. I miss when juniors did moves like Powerbombs or Flying Armbars instead of superkicks and canadian destroyer like shit all the time.

Asian Cougar & Yuki Nishino vs. Takashi Sasaki & GENTARO Onita Pro 12/1/1999

Even more 'comp tape' highlight reel match, since they clipped a 9 minute match down to five or so. This was worth watching though. Nishino is my boy and he and Sasaki beating on each other with lariats and running headbutts was pretty badass. After that we get a Korakuen Hall upgraded run of sick highspots mostly involving Asian Cougar. He hits the chair senton to the floor, a bunch of whacked-out legdrops right on peoples jaw etc. Sasakis spinning kick to an opponent placed against the apron was a pretty sick regular spot. Full point, once again.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #17

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. MIKAMI, DDT 4/27/1999 - GREAT

MIKAMI comes out barefoot and with MMA trunks and gloves. Amazing. This was a great little scrap. MIKAMI realizes quickly he‘s outgunned by Tobas striking and just goes for armbars left and right with Toba making dramatic escapes. The fact Mikami could do this kind of match shows why he was a special boy then. I really enjoy this kind of singular focus in shootstyle, and these two did a great job working a 5 minute match around armbars and KO blows.

 

Takashi Sasaki & Tanomusaku Toba vs MIKAMI & Super Uchu Power, DDT 8/30/2001 - GREAT

This was another match that exemplifies what made all these guys so fun back in the early 2000s. We get some cool exchanges between MIKAMI and Sasaki before Mikami and S.U. Power begin putting a beating on Sasaki. MIKAMI has quite good chemistry with the Space Monster, Uchu Power was brutally shoot throwing, stretching and kicking Sasaki, and MIKAMI held up the violence with some full bodyweight flying moves and a neat Tiger Spin kick to the face. Loved Tobas hot tag where he flew into Super Uchu Powers face with a huge, huge knee and then he proceeded to brutalize the Space Monster. Could have done with more Toba content (he only gets in after Sasaki makes the hot tag) but the finish was great with Sasaki trying to finish off Mikami and Toba running in to help with some face kicks.

Sanshiro Takagi & Fake Takagi vs Takashi Sasaki & Tanomusaku Toba, DDT 9/30/2001 - FUN

This was just a 2 minute match. Pretty much just a Toba/Sasaki control segment on Ichimiya before Ichimiya steals the pin with a flash pin to Toba. It was a really good control segment, Ichimiya has worked CAPTURE so he has no problem getting kicked in the face by Toba, and that pushes this into the FUN territory.

 Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #13

 

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. GENTARO & Takashi Sasaki, DDT 10/24/2002 - EPIC

This felt like the biggest match that DDT ran that year, and they rolled out all the spots. For that kind of match where a bunch of indy juniors roll out their spots, you can‘t get much better than having Toba in there to punch people in the face. As usual his exchanges with Sasaki were pretty violent and ballsy, and he was up there with all the super athletic guys in the match when it came to producing fireorks. He hit a big Toyota style dropkick to the floor, a nasty flying kick off the top that caught GENTARO in the chin, and a badass elbow/STO combo. GENTARO is really fun too, he was roughing up Toba with snug pro wrestling style strikes, and MIKAMIs highspots were big and crushing looking. The match didn‘t have some kind of epic story or great transitions so it as definitely popcorn material, but there was no over cooperative stuff, no thigh slapping, everything looked hurty. Even the ladder being brought up was used to add a sense of escalation and didn‘t detract from the match. Good stuff, maybe the best popcorn match of the year.

Tanomusaku Toba & Ichiro Yaguchi & Chotaro Kamoi vs. Takashi Sasaki & Kurokage & Sanshiro Takagi, DDT 6/30/1998 - GREAT

A match which was thankfully mostly about TOBA. Yaguchi and Kamoi were kind of treated like comedy jobbers, so they knew who was the man. Early Toba was beastly, his punches were less showy and landing more straightforwardly in peoples face, and he did more crazy kicks than later. Everytime he‘s in the ring the match was just relentless, him just beating on people and then getting hurled around by suplexes. He matches up against all 3 guys and everyone looks good cranking up the violence when facing him. Toba vs. Sasaki is a known guarantee for violent, ballsy exchanges by now. Kurokage is some masked junior and he looked good throwing suplexes, throwing some stiff kicks and locking in armbars. Kamoi is kind of a 99 ct store Toba, he has one fun moment where he leaps off the top rope with a punch but was pretty sloppy otherwise. Yaguchi isn‘t good but doesn‘t drag the match down either. The finish was Toba vs. Takagi and good shit. Bit long at 18 minutes but a fun watch thanks to our thai boxing hero.

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

Assorted DDT World

Super Uchu Power vs. DAISAKU (DDT 2/28/1999)

DAISAKU is a kickboxer dude who has worked CAPTURE, so can handle himself against a stiff monster. Doesn't matter though cause S.U. Power just crushes him. Daisaku puts on a good fight but is put to sleep in about 3 minutes. Very brief but very painful looking. Amazing promo after the match and Super Uchu Power struts away as the theme from Terminator 2 blasts from the speakers. All hail the Super Cosmic Force!

MIKAMI vs. Yuki Nishino (DDT 3/25/1998)

Younger years Mikami really was something. His combination of sudden athletic bursts, grappling and willingness to exchange manly assbeatings made for a quite compelling wrestler. Nishino is an SPWF guy with a crazy mullet who works kind of like a sleazy Finlay. He keeps it simple, and puts a major assbeating on Mikami, hitting some sick headbutts, chops and lariats, and Mikami cracks him back hard on the occasion, and sometimes he will hit a huge powerslam or suplex. In a different universe Nishino had Tomohiro Ishiis career. This was simple and to the point and a really fun undercard match built around two guys crushing each other until one stayed down.

 

MIKAMI vs. Takashi Sasaki, DDT 12/22/1999 

Cool, somewhat experimental junior style big match. This was Mikami as a slick junior before he started the Ladder thing, here he was just as prone to bust out slick armbar transitions aswell as fast springboard huracanranas. I really liked how they started out simple working headlocks and hammerlocks and slowly morphed into more tricked out stuff. Mikami looks damn good, technically sound and unpredictable on the mat, while pre-deathmatch kickpadded Sasaki is a perfectly good second rate Ikeda spin kicking him in the throat. The match turns into a style mix where they land stiff kicks and work flash armbars building towards AJPW style headdrops and Mikamis big flying moves. It's pretty much the ideal indy style match as they take from various styles and produce something that feels sound and fresh. The finishing run is great as they just kill eachother. Not only do they bust out the big moves, but there's also some thudding strike exchanges. When a springboard dropkick and lariat feel just as deadly as the big Emerald Frosion style finisher the execution is on point. Really cool to check this out, I would really like this type of indy wrestling to make a comeback. 

Sanshiro Takagi & Kazushige Nozawa vs. Super Uchu Power & Super Rider, DDT 3/25/1997

Out of the ruins of Pro Wrestling Crusader, a new creature emerges. Who would've thought Takagi and Nozawa would control Japanese wrestling 20 years later? And it all began with them absolutely getting their asses beat by a pair of space monsters. This was just a merciless beatdown. Takagi and Nozawa have some fire, but are outgunned. Rider has some crappy junior moves, but is good hen he is kicking the shit out of people. And Super Uchu Power was just a fearsome menace here. Always trying to pop peoples jaws with kicks and lariats or hammering them into the mat with big throws and slams. Not a pretty match, but it felt like a fight and got pretty visceral the more Takagi and Nozawa ate shit.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #12

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Yukio Sagakuchi (DDT 11/15/2019) - FUN

This was from a martial arts tournament which in style of modern DDT had a lot of silly buggers going on. Toba is an old man now and he moves a little slower. This was just a 2 minute match but there was still a really fun punch exchange and a cool finish with Toba sidestepping his higher ranked opponent and blasting him for the upset win so it’s pushed into FUN territory.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. HARASHIMA (DDT 11/15/2019) - FUN

This was the finals of the tournament. It was just a 6 minute match (probably a good think considering Toba has a gut now and looks alcoholic) with the first 3 minutes being slow anticipating moments, but the last 3 are fun enough with Toba uncorking another nasty load of potatoes in the corner and a cool finish where Harashima somehow springboard dives into a leglock which Toba frantically tries to fight out of so Harashima giant swings into a boston crab for the tap. That kind of struggle is always going to get a match on my good side.

 

Tanomusaku Toba & Takashi Sasaki & Nihao vs. Asian Cougar & Super Rider & Yuki Nishino, DDT 11/25/1999 - GREAT

Another very good early DDT tag. BattlARTS level stiffness mixed with crushing junior highspots. Plenty of brutal spinkicks. Nihao and Rider had some cool exchanges here. Both guys have lineage to Sayama with Rider being a Shooto guy and Nihao being trained by Kitahara who was Sayamas student. Nishino works like a pro wrestling crowbar and he had some really fun exchanges with Toba. He also hulked up during an attempted 3 on 1 section which was a rare macho moment in Japanese wrestling that actually meant something and was cool. Also, as usual, Cougars legdrops were just insane. The match needed more extended Toba sections to push into epic territory, but he was the Toba we all know and love.

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #10

 

MIKAMI, Super Uchu Power, Tomohiko Hashimoto & Tanomusaku Toba vs Shoichi Ichinomiya, Tomohiro Ishii, GENTARO & YOSHIYA (DDT 10/30/01, Elimination Match) - FUN

This was an Elimination match which kind of showcased the amount of WWF fandom that was going on in DDT. Toba was only in this for a short time, but he looked damn great potatoeing dudes as usual. He also took some big ragdoll bumps during his FIP section. Tomohiro Ishii was kind of working like a regular heel wrestler here, which was a bit underwhelming considering how awesome he was when he was a stiff psycho during this time period, but there was a great moment where Toba woke him up and he started throwing big damn potatoes. The non-Toba portions were good but never reached those early violent heights again. It builds to a WWF style finishing run with Shoichi Ichimiya doing heel run ins, Mikami overcoming a 2 on 1 scenario, all the heels attacking with Stone Cold Uchu Power running in to lay everyone out only for a sudden heel turn to happen. I liked GENTARO a lot in this, such a cool unique wrestler in his early days with his blend of athleticism and WWF New Generation era worship, and MIKAMIs athleticism is also really fun, but I thought it got a little silly down the stretch. Still, someone who’s really into WWF Elimination Matches will probably dig this a lot.

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Futoshi Miwa (DDT 5/29/2004) - FUN

Futoshi Miwa is one of those DDT-style wrestlers with a fat nerdy kid gimmick. This was a shockingly decent match, mostly because Miwa knew how to wrestle like a fat kid, and Toba was beating this nerd pretty hard. Initially Miwa would act smug as Tobas kicks were bouncing off of his blubber, so Toba just brutalized him in the corner with punches. It looked like the ref was gonna stop the match but Miwa came back with a triumphant run of fatboy offense, just burying poor Toba under his blubber.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. MIKAMI, DDT 4/4/2010 - GREAT

This was way better. Short and to the point. MIKAMI tries to rush Toba and runs right into a big right hand. After that MIKAMI is eating shit until he is able to spin kick Toba in the face. MIKAMI looks really good here. He doesn’t do any kickboxing, but he has good matwork, highspots landing with a thud. And Toba always comes back punching or kicking him really hard. Apparently this was Tobas return match and he does feel slightly rusty, uncharacteristically whiffing on an axe kick. I hope I can find a match between these two in their peak period.

Tanomusaku Toba & Nihao vs. Takashi Sasaki & Asian Cougar (DDT 11/27/1999) - EPIC

Another excellent match from the DDT crew. Nihao looked very good here. It’s weird that you have to scour the earth for Nihao footage. The boy could go and easily would’ve been a great addition to the BattlARTS undercard scene. Good on the mat, cool suplexes, and perfectly able to engage in a stiff battle. He controlled the early parts of this while Toba would occasionally enter the ring to nail someone with unpredictable kicks and punches. I also really enjoyed Asian Cougar in this. He may seem like a spot monkey who just runs through his shit, but all of his spots where very well timed here and he knew how to fly into the scenery to crush someone at all the right moments. The match also had a great dive sequence. Toba is such a great addition to a hybrid junior tag like this. His springboard kick to the face is so reckless and awesome. The finish is between him and Sasaki and another great entry in their kickass rivalry.

 

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #9

 

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Naomi Yoshimura & Yuki Ueno (DDT 8/15/2020) - GREAT

2020 pro wrestling always feels like a soulless husk of what it used to be. But there will always be Toba, punching people in the face. Toba was working this like a broken down old fighter. Well, he was probably for real, considering he has been doing hard hitting matches for 20+ years now. It added some character to his, sections though. When he came in to work over Yoshimura with punches it felt like a great moment. I dug MIKAMI a lot in this, he doesn’t have the crazy dives and athletic high flying anymore, but he was busting out cool transitions and flash submissions left and right. Yoshimura was also a fun guy, who felt like a poor mans Rikiya Fudo, throwing vader hammers and jaw cracking lariats. Ueno is some Ibushi clone and while he offers nothing in terms of personality, he doesn’t do anything stupid either. The ending section is between him and Toba and really made by Toba punching him in the face and taking some way bigger bumps than you’d expect from a broken down aging guy. This def. felt slow in parts and was lacking in snap compared to how Japanese wrestling used to be, but I was happy to see the Suicide Boyz still riding high in 2020 and having a good match.

 

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Takashi Sasaki & Yuki Nishino (DDT 12/14/2000) - GREAT

12 minute sprint where everyone of these guys arguably in their primes hits all the cool shit. I would’ve liked a bit more depth, preferably an in-peril section or something, but all these guys were so fun to watch at this point. Naturally I liked all of Tobas sections the most as all he does is throw hands hard and fast. Sasaki may have been his best opponent, Sasakis asskicking ability really increases tenfold when he faces Toba. Their exchanges weren’t as violent as their singles match earlier in the year, but still pretty damn stiff and make basically all current (2020) pro wrestling outside of Ishikawa/Ikeda matches look like a trained monkey show. They also took to the floor in another nasty street brawling section. MIKAMI did a lengthy nearfall section and I was expecting the finish to involve him, but thankfully Toba tagged in again and we got two more great sections between him and Sasaki/Nishino. Nishino looks good here again throwing these running headbutts. Aside from 1-2 botched spots, this delivered in spades.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Takashi Sasaki (DDT 9/30/2004) - FUN

These two had some great matches earlier in the decade. This wasn’t as great, but it was still these two beating each other to a pulp. This was Takashi Sasakis farewell match so it had the kind of emotional feeling those matches have. Neither guy was willing to go down and they were daring each other to hit each other harder and harder for the last time. I usually dislike the exhibitiony feeling Japanese stiff fests have sometimes but at least it made sense here. Also, they clipped this down to 5 minutes, which feels like a massive dick move.

Tanomusaku Toba & Seiya Morohashi vs. HERO! & KUDO (DDT 11/2/2004) - SKIPPABLE

Pretty missable match. This was a title change but felt like an undercard match. HERO! Had some cool highspots, but definitely looked green between the highspots. And KUDO felt a bit like a spotmonkey with a martial artist gimmick here. Worst of all, there was no Toba asskicking section. He did this weird Final Cut style move that looked weak. I’m glad he stopped that. It wasn’t a terrible match, but it just felt sloppy.

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

Assorted Onita Pro

 So someone put up a boatload of Onita Pro shows from 1999-2002 up on the internet archive. While I don't care a ton for Onitas late career work (although it is solid in the sense that you always get a fast paced brawl with a bunch of dudes bleeding, flying through tables and Onita doing almost nothing but hitting powerbombs and DDTs) the man was booking all kinds of weird and cool matchups on his cards using DDT guys, random luchadores and various indy scum, so that is excellent blog material.

MIKAMI & Sanshiro Takagi vs. Takashi Sasaki & DAISAKU (Onita Pro 12/26/1999)

 I see matches like this as the equivalent of a great WCW syndicated match. 6 minutes in length, and all these guys roll out their cool stuff, while maintaining a tight pace and a good level of stiffness. Lotsa stealworthy speats, my favourite being the running spin kick from Sasaki that really bent MIKAMIs spine across the ring apron. DAISAKU is a CAPTURE regular with a cool style largely based around kicking his opponents really hard. MIKAMI looked really good here as well, a guy who was comfortable both hitting slick ranas and slapping the shit out of his opponents. All his exchanges with Sasaki were really good, he hit a great dive and got turned inside out by a nasty Sasaki lariat for his troubles. Takagi is the least guy in the match but manages not to fumble anything. Full japan indy point.

Tomoya Adachi & Asian Cougar & Starman vs. NOSAWA & Heaven & Arkangel De La Muerte (Onita Pro 7/20/2000)

Bless Onita for bringing in these random luchadores. This was like a slightly sleazier approximation to an M-Pro tag. I dug Adachi here, cool dude who could both do smooth matwork and hit big dives. NOSAWA was already comfortable in his stooging role. Asian Cougar also looks good without even hitting his crazy highspots, mostly doing swank lucha armdrags instead. I was expecting them to have Arkangel and Starman married to each other, but instead they shuffle through all kinds of possible matchups, and everything went smoothly.

Takashi Sasaki vs. GENTARO (Onita Pro 3/14/2000)

Cool 8 minute match where they showcase their stuff. Starts with some cool matwork before both guys go through their bread and butter. GENTARO has some fantastic athleticism and Sasaki mostly just smacks him hard with kicks and lariats. GENTARO blows a Space Tiger dive but redeems himself immediately by hitting a springboard senton with amazing height. Full japan indy point.

Tomoya Adachi & Asian Cougar & El Matematico vs. Babe Richard & Heaven & NOSAWA, Onita Pro 5/21/2000)

 Ahhh what the hell, they flew in Matematico and Richard for one match? I assume they went on an extensive tour with ZIPANG that month in Japan. To be honest, Matematico is old as hell here and his exchanges with Richard weren’t great, but I loved his big plancha to the outside and him picking up the victory with the Muscle Hold. They also clipped this in half (whole thing went 18!!! minutes), probably for the wiser.

Masanobu Kurisu vs. Kengo Takai (Onita Pro 6/27/1999)

Kurisu beats the dogshit out of this DDT boy with the most violent headbutts, stomps and chair shots you’ve ever seen. Takai retired to Osaka Pro shortly after.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #6

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Takashi Sasaki (DDT 11/19/2000) - GREAT

Not as good as their match earlier in the year, but there was still plenty of badass violent pro wrestling going on here. Loved the opening with both guys beating the shit out of each other in the corner and Toba throwing some nice combos. There a few more spots here, such as Toba hitting his awesome apron kick and even a frankensteiner, but less Rocky-style exchanges in the finish. Takashi Sasaki once again looks really good, throwing a nice variety of kicks and these two have such excellent timing on their exchanges.

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Kota Ibushi, DDT 2/3/2008 - FUN

Sort of a kickboxing approximation to a Japanese big match. Ibushi was pretty goofy here and there too many back and forth strike exchanges. Even though the match was wrestled in Tobas style, it seemed to be all about Ibushi, which I didn’t like. There was a moment where Ibushi moonsaulted right into Tobas fist which looked really stupid. It still holds up better than your typical Japanese big match full of pointless elbow throwing and restholds, though. Lots of nasty strikes, including a great moment where Toba destroyed Ibushi in the corner. Finish was downright disgusting. Overall, his could’ve been way better.

Tanomusaku Toba & HARASHIMA vs. Takashi Sasaki & Masashi Takeda (HARD HIT 1/25/2009) - EPIC

Great great match. DDT guys have done matches with shootstyle elements in the past, but they went full on BattlARTS style here. It was nice to see the deathmatch boys go back to their roots. Harashima/Takeda grappling throughout was pretty great. It was slick U-Style matwork and a joy to watch. Takeda is actually a Tamura guy and it was nice to see he could still do that. Harashima looked really slick too. Of course, the main attraction was Toba and Sasaki going back to the kind of stuff they were doing a decade earlier. You could tell they were excited to get kill each other again. All their exchanges throughout were pretty great and pretty violent. I like how Sasaki blew a gasket for a moment, throwing Toba outside and prompting another streetfighting section, which earned him a yellow card. The finish was between Toba and Takeda and really good also. Toba was anticipating Takedas attacks (something I’ve noticed is one of his go-to tricks) and destroying him with superior strikes. Tobas spinning back elbow to Takedas throat was sick and probably the highlight of the match. Toba going into desperation mode whenever Takeda went for a suplex or submission also was fantastic. Great stuff, wish they had done this kind of thing more often.

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Hikaru Sato & Akito, DDT 9/29/2013 - GREAT

This was all about Toba vs. Sato. I’ve been pretty critical of Sato, but he was great in this match. Great opening section between him and Toba where he worked over Toba with some disgusting leg kicks. Of course, Toba came back punching his jaw out. I also loved Satos reversal to MIKAMIs 619. This is the first time I’ve seen Akito, and he stinks. However, he never got to drag the match down because Toba and Sato were constantly coming in to crush someone with brutal strikes. The finish was between MIKAMI and Akito and it was short and well executed. Apparently this was the only time Toba and Sato really interacted. Travesty.

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST 

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #3

 

  Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI & Takashi Sasaki vs. Great Takeru & Phantom Funakoshi & Asian Cougar (5/25/1998) - GREAT

Good times with the DDT crew. You see, these guys can do some basic matwork and exchanges, put a match with a solid structure together and have no problem crushing each other with big highspots and stiff blows, which is absolutely enough for me to have a good time. I continue to be impressed with Phantom Funakoshi, his arm popping submissions are awesome, and he basically holds his team together, as Asian Cougar is just a highspot freak and the Great Takeru is just pure mediocrity. Funakoshi and Toba have a particularily great exchange where both guys keeping baiting eachother until Funakoshi grabs a series of armbars, Toba gets pissed off and demolishes Funakoshis shoulder with a series of nasty strikes. This was really early into Tobas career but he looks awesome, his punches were a bit less showy than later, he did lots of ducking and stance movements, but he still had such a cool variety of strikes and was willing to get crushed by his opponents spots, he also busts out the springboard wheel kick which is an awesome reckless spot from a guy not wearing shoes. Speaking highspots, Asian Cougar is an absolute psycho in this rolling out dive after dive and crushing dudes faces with the gnarliest leg drops you’ve ever seen. Really you can watch a ton of old japan indy wrestling and always come out with refreshed appreciation for the crazy ways of Asian Cougar. Mikami and Sasaki are in their infancy stage but they do well here and Mikami is over as the DDT homeboy to have an exciting finish with even Takeru. Such cool stuff, checking out Tobas career is an awesome journey.

Tanomusaku Toba & Tomohiko Hashimoto vs. Super Uchu Power & MIKAMI (DDT 7/19/2001) - GREAT

So much fun to be had here, DDT missed the boat big time when they stopped doing hybrid shoot matches like this. Tomohiko Hashimoto is all judo throws at this point, and he and the pure striking based style of Toba make a fun team. MIKAMI for a junior can handle himself with the shooters, he hit an awesome flying armbar counter to one of Hashimotos throws, and generally sticks to offense that requires little cooperation, mostly just hitting cool sentons and open hand strikes. Super Uchu Power is totally awesome in this match, the shooter alien is such a great menacing monster crowbarring dudes with kicks like baseball bat shots, locking in shoulder popping shoot submissions and dropping ridiculous bombs. He also works some really nifty exchanges with Hashimoto, there is a cool moment where the alien goes for a gi choke and Hashimoto reverses into a Fujiwara armbar, and several great spots centered around Super Uchu Power trying to block Hashimotos STOs and other throws. Toba narrowly avoiding destruction and and catching the beast with some hard punches and backfists was great. The finish was between Toba and MIKAMI and while it wasn’t as epic as the best Toba faceoffs it was fun.

Tanomusaku Toba & Ranbo Yoshida Okuntun vs. Kota Ibushi & KUDO (DDT 8/8/2007) - EPIC

This was from a Shin FMW style show where Kota Ibushi was in every match. It was also kickboxing style tag where everyone had gloves and there were rounds. It easily could’ve been bad, but it ended up pretty awesome. We get some slow opening sparring between Toba and KUDO before Ranbo Yoshida (who I assume is a legit kickboxing outsider) tags in and rules the show the with awesome Eddy Gordo style handspring kicks. The 2^nd round begins, Ibushi & KUDO start brawling and now we get kickboxers fighting up the entrance way in their gloves. For some reason floor brawling in Japan with dudes who wear gloves always is way better. The 3^rd round is just an awesome Rocky style frenzy where everyone is throwing down and blocking punches with their face. I thought Toba/Ibushi was gonna be the obvious final pair, but instead Ranbo tagged in, decided to stiff up Ibushi with some hard knees to the gut and we got more chaotic fighting. I can’t believe Japanese wrestling just collectively decided to stop having these kind of crazy spectacles and instead just quietly replace them with slogs of soulless elbow exchanges.

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #2

 

 

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI & Super Uchu Power vs. Issei Fujisawa & Yuki Nishino & Takashi Sasaki (DDT 1/16/2001) - GREAT

Man DDT used to be awesome, what the fuck happened to that company?! This was 6 dudes who have no problem cracking each other hard cracking eachother really hard for 11 minutes. Fujisawa is a Kensuke Sasaki lookalike doing a tribute gimmick, and while that would result in a lot of lame jokes nowadays here he plays his shtick completely straight. He makes for a really effective underdog and comes back throwing hard crowbar lariats. Super Uchu Power is so menacing and awesome in these matches, like Super Dragon without the humor, in a match where everyone is working stiff he cracks dudes extra hard, anytime he is in there with Fujisawa you expect him to kick that poor little dudes face in. MIKAMI also has no problem hitting stiff dropkicks and just crushing dudes with full bodyweight sentons and double stomps, how have I never heard anyone talk about how awesome that guy is?! Toba is of course the man punching everyone in the face. He had some particularily great exchanges with Takashi Sasaki (man I’m pissed about how that guy wasted the rest of his career) and busted out some fun out of nowhere rollups. The match was a grandstand Toba exchange in the finishing stretch away from reaching into EPIC territory and these guys were working an undercard match on a small show, why don’t we get pro wrestling this cool anymore?!

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Hiroyuki Nozawa (DDT 3/16/2008) - FUN

This was from DDTs Hard Hit shootstyle shows. Nozawa is an MMA fighter and kind of underdog against Toba here. Fun structure where Toba is anticipating Nozawas attacks early on to land some big KO blows until Nozawa is able to anticipate Tobas counters and finally able to bring the match to the mat where can score. Once again, Toba proves himself to have a knack for the dramatic finish, in this case Nozawa has only one point left and is frantically bombarded with strikes until he is able to catch a submission and get the surprise tapout.

Tanomusaku Toba & Koichiro Kimura vs. Sanshiro Takagi & Exciting Yoshida (DDT 7/6/2000) - EPIC

This was from the early period when DDT wasn’t yet a full on entertainment company but rather a diverse style blend that reflected the sleaze indies of the 90s that preceded it. This was a great sprint. I would’ve liked it a bit more if it was more of a straight up destruction of Takagi & Yoshida at the hands of the Toba/Kimura crowbar team, but it still ended up being really good. Takagi can be hit or miss with his WWF imitation shit, but the opening segment where he caught a Toba barrage and dropped him with a deadlift uranage followed by a People’s Elbow spot was kind of badass. Lots of violent exchanges throughout with Toba & Kimura throwing serious potatoes, there is an awesome floor brawling section between Takagi and Toba that looked like a street fight. Kimura was put over as a real monster at this point, whenever he would come in he would just crush dudes with kicks and bombs. He also did all those BattlARTS level violent saves that whenever someone put a submission on Toba he runs in to kick their head in. Exciting Yoshida is a guy who was doing an Animal Hamaguchi tribute act, and this is probably his finest performance ever. The cool thing about Toba is that he gets guys who are otherwise dull to throw potatoes and come up with realistic comebacks, and that was the case here. Him and Yoshida were just brutalizing each other, and the finishing run that saw Yoshida throwing brutal shoot headbutts and Otsuka level suplexes was totally awesome. Our boxing gloved hero just keeps delivering the good shit.

Tanomusaku Toba & Chotaro Kamoi & Ichiro Yaguchi & Exciting Yoshida vs. Kengo Takai & Yusaku Shimoda & King Lion & Kurokage (DDT 3/25/1998) - SKIPPABLE

Well, this was the flipside of watching old Japan indy wrestling. Boy there were some shitty wrestlers in this match. Yaguchi has to be among the worst Japanese wrestlers ever for someone who got booked so much, and Kamoi is like a super shitty version of Toba. There was also a heel valet with boxing gloves that would run in to hit shitty punches, really no reason for this amount of shitty boxers in a match that has TOBA. Takai continues to be brutally bad at his role, really barely hitting anything, and King Lion is some guy in a singlet and a goofy mask who looked like your big brother play wrestling a pillow when he was in the ring. Tobas punches and spin kicks looked awesome as always and he did a great turnbuckle run into a springboard move (which gives me my clickbaiting GIF of the week), but yeah. Outside of the Toba parts and a brief moment when Super Uchu Power ran in to brawl with Kazumasa Nihei this was just bad.

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #1

Tanomusaku Toba & Takashi Sasaki vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Super Rider, DDT 4/19/2000 - EPIC

Here's your 2000 indy MOTY. No kidding, this was just awesome and shockingly better put together than you'd expect. Really makes me wish there was more footage of the DDT crew doing BattlARTS style matches. I liked the opening matwork between Sasaki and Rider a lot. It felt very raw and unrehearsed, but they still whip out some cool transitions. Watching Sasaki here made me extra sour he spent the rest of his career as a go-through-the-motions bleeder because his stuff was inspired and he hit everything with a lot of snap. He looked like a rich mans Yuji Nagata here, a slick pro style wrestler who can hang doing stiff shootstyle. Ishii was in CAPTURE mode here - basically trying to crush his opponents with every single move he did. He opens this with one of the nastiest lariats I've ever seen against skinny thaiboxer Toba and basically doesn't let up after that. Even his basic "throw guy into corner to set up a tag" looked really violent. Toba is the DDT guy who works as basically a boxer which works very well in this kind of sleaze shootstyle match. He does exactly what you want, by punching guys in the face hard a lot and getting ragdolled around. I was also really impressed with Super Rider here - he made some brief Sasaki legwork that could easily have been filler compelling by selling vulnerability. He would then shoot for takedowns and submissions to protect himself, and also maul opponents on the ground. I also loved his Volk Han like ragdoll throw on poor Toba. The Ishii/Sasaki pro style section was probably the weakest point in the match but still had enough neck compression and potatoe shots to keep you entertained, with Sasaki doing some cool things that he would later drop - presumably because his athleticism declined. I liked how Ishii, when reversing a basic suplex, immediately went for the kill by dropping Sasaki on his head. The finish is between Super Rider and Takashi Sasaki, which is a match up only the most hardcore tape nerds (i.e. me) would anticipate and it totally delivers with Rider whipping out some genuinely awesome reversals.

So there you have it, great ultra stiff quasi-shootstyle action that was actually well put together while retaining some of that sleazy underbelly of pro wrestling rawness. Maybe a low end nomination when it comes to all-timer discussion, but golly I loved checking this out. The whole thing is on the DDT Universe streaming service. 

 Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. Takashi Sasaki & Sanshiro Takagi, DDT 4/20/2000 - EPIC

Another wonderful slice of DDT pro wrestling with touches of BattlARTSian greatness. This wasn't quasi-shootstyle like the tag from the night before, altough it's still quite the stiff-fest. No idea what went into Takagi here, because he has an unusually mean edge and decides to work a rough no nonsense style, even approximating a poor mans Otsuka in his sections against Toba. Speaking of Toba, I think he is a guy mostly everyone with a little japan wrestling knowledge knows as the fun boxing guy from DDT, but is it crazy to say he might actually be an underappreciated indy great? All the involving him where once again manly as fuck and he mixed in some cool unique spots aswell as taking punishment and setting himself up as a foil to make Sasaki & Takagi look badass. Loved his crazy flying apron kick. Mikami was the weak link but still pretty good. He threw some poor punches which especially stick out in a match with Toba in it, but he also had some insane bumps and dives and hit some 2000 sleaze indy level brutal looking high spots, such as a rib crunching twisting senton. All the reckless looking headdrops – which basically saw Takagi muscling Mikami up and driving him headfirst into the mat were pretty nasty too. Sasaki once again handles himself in this kind of stiff main event. Brilliant finish. Crazy to see the DDT crew at one point did a stiff heavyweight potatoefest as good as anyone else. 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Takashi Sasaki, DDT 1/30/2000 - EPIC

Awesome CAPTURE-esque spectacle. All the strikes were just brutal and the shootstyle floor brawling a suitably crazy moment. I wasn't sure how Toba would work in this kind of main event singles match but the whole thing comes out fine. He certainly knows how to throw that spinning backfist as an exclamation point. Sasaki muscling Toba around to drop him on his head was suitably gritty. The series of violent strike exchanges and Sasaki throwing jaw loosening lariats was close to any Ishikawa/Ikeda raining hell end run I've seen, not just due to the stiffness but also due to the excellent sense of timing and Tobas sympathetic selling. Stiff as fuck brawl, DDT should go back to this stuff.