Exploring various Japanese YouTube Channels

Masao Ando vs Yuki Toyoura, R-Planning 8/25/2024

Cool match up since Masao Andos is everyones favourite thickly built indy shooter boy and Toyoura is a mysterious guy with origins in JWA Tokai. Since Ando also has history with the JWA sphere that makes this interesting. And they deliver a really fun indy big boys match! Ando is really cool here as always kicking his opponent really hard and attacking his arms with painful looking submissions and hard kicks to the shoulder. Toyoura had some impressive offense including a huge dropkick and even bigger springboard dropkick which was impressive since he doesn’t exactly look like a small guy. He also wasn’t afraid to fire back with hard chops. Short and fun match with the right spirit being in place.

 

 

 Manabu Hara vs CHANGO, 10/1/2017

This was such an interesting match, and pretty much entirely due to CHANGO. Not that Hara is bad, but Chango brings such a fresh vibe with his animalistic vibe and unconventional tactics. He's not exactly a shoot grappler, but he's not a push over on the mat either. His scrambling, trying to pounce on Hara and grabbing limbs was a lot of fun and it made for a cool match up. CHANGO baiting Hara into doing a macho exchange and then hurting his leg was a really smart moment and should be stolen by pro wrestlers everywhere. Chango then proceeded to give Hara a good working over with a few unique leg attack spots. There were cool moments such as Hara having Chango in an anklelock while upside down, as well as a cool tarantula-esque leg stretch in the ropes that was pretty unique. Chango then proceeded to try and win the match with the old WWF No Mercy trick of locking in a submission on the floor and waiting until the countout. The finish was this great sequence of CHANGO trying to pin Hara with Hara reversing into armlocks repeatedly and CHANGO doing all these great pins. It really was some fine fine wrestling. 

 

Koji Kanemoto & Badmax Fujinaga vs Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Yusaku Ito, Kasuyaro Pro Wrestling 7/1/2018

What a sleaze soaked wonder of a match. This was a shortlived Fujinaga/Yasshi promotion it seems, seems this was held in a small club room or something. Imagine going to your local venue to see legends the caliber of Kanemoto and Takaiwa kick the shit out of some local guys. Seeing Takaiwa and Kanemoto lock up here and doing some hard hitting wrestling was quite enjoyable. Takiawa is old, slow, still hits heavy like a track. Kanemoto is quite a bit more nimble and hasn’t lost much of a step at all. He was good as ever being a prick here kicking the crap out of people. The real story are your sleazebag shooters Fujinaga and Ito, though. You could tell they were both hyped to be in the ring with legends and they were laying everything in extra hard, and both of them took some hard as hell beatings from the big names. Ito especially gets at it with Kanemoto and it’s a lot of fun. I really liked how Kanemoto, instead of falling into a macho exchange, just judo tripped Ito and then locked in a smothering Dragon Sleeper. We do get all your Kanemoto and Takaiwa signatures – the nasty face wash, the jaw cracking lariats, and there’s even a brief segment where they face off. The finishing run is Fujinaga vs Ito, and while Fujinaga is a bit of a clumsy wrestler he gets in some good hits carried by the energy of the lineup that he is in. Ito is ever reliable as your sleaze karateka with cool kicks who will occasionally try to maul someone with headbutts. As a match this was pretty much your typical indy main event tag formula with the stiffness and sleaze factor dialed way up and it was immensely enjoyable.

 

2022 MOTY Project #4

 

Konaka Pale One vs. ONRYO, 666 1/10/2022

It‘s the spooky ghost vs. The spooky yoga master. No way on earth I wasn‘t gonna love this match. Onryo looked rough as hell, seemingly gassing and flubbing things, but thanks to Konaka the match still ended up being good. Indy guys like him deserve a ton of credit for mixing their more esoteric inventive offense with super solid old school wrestling. He can do both elaborate fancy stuff like the absolutely insane Asai DDT into the sukhasana pose as well as hit a really great basic knee drop, set himself up for a posting in a fun way and work a snug sleeper. Not to mention his throat chops. All in all Konakas stuff feels like the best possible cross of modern day juniors wrestling and an old US territory TV match. Konaka also did a good job selling Onryos filler legwork and making things like the figure 4 look like a struggle. Things pick up in a big way for the finishing stretch thanks to Onryo uncorking his big bombs, with Konaka getting absolutely spiked on a Tiger Driver. The ending mix of impact moves, Konakas cleverness (using a surprise corner choke to set up a springboard move was really great) plus Onryos propensity to end matches with pin combos and/or blasting his opponenent with radiation dust was super cool. And Konaka countering the Onryo clutch has to be the spot of the year. This was a bit sluggish here and there due to Onryo but if Konaka has a few more performances like this he might make a run for sleeper wrestler of the year.

Yujiro Yamamoto vs. 801 Kenichi & Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 3/9/2022

I am counting this as a handicap gauntlet match, because Yamamoto faces both opponents in matches with a 10 minute time limit right after another, and he has a pretty great performance here going 20 minutes against these scrubs. Kenichi had a lot of grappling with Kenichi not being very useful but Yamamoto being good enough to carry things. Surprisingly Kenichi had some nice suplexes and Yamamoto built some good stuff around that. Really dug Yamamotos shoulder dislocating armbars from underneath. Kenichis vader hammers were really ugly but he got tagged hard by Yamamotos kicks and open hands. Shimizu match was just a rush. I thought Shimizu was gonna suck from his flabby look and shitty opening dropkick, but he had some solid submission work, and he was game to get hit really hard. Yamamoto just bludgeons him with nasty stabbing elbows and kicks. There was this great moment where Shimizu went for an abdominal stretch and Yamamoto battered his way out of it. Great Yamamoto performance.

 

GENTARO vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa, FREEDOMS 7/9/2022

Why they had to JIP this one? What we saw was damn good. Basically Takaiwa braining Gentaro with disgusting elbows and lariats and Gentaro trying to contain him with some excellent arm attack work. Gentaro looked really good like the hair to a Nishimura type but doing his own thing. Loved all the submission attempts and his beautiful suplexes. Takaiwas selling wasn't super expressive but he sold that he was pushed to the limit and his arm was bothering him which is more than you can expect form Takaiwa. The ending turned into a Takaiwa bombfest but the actual finish was memorable with Takaiwas arm going limp on a lariat and Gentaro getting punched in the face in really nasty fashion. Last counter was a thing of beauty.

 

2022 MOTY List

Over the Future 4: Kotaru Nasus Return Match 3/6/2022

 Raito Shimizu vs. Super Macho Monkey

I've enjoyed these two before. I was hoping they would do a quasi shootstyle match since that is where Monkey seems most comfortable, but they just kind of did a very basic undercard indy match. I would've liked this with some matwork, I still enjoy Shimizu doing his thing, any guy with a nice gutwrench suplex and torture rack is on my good side in 2022, but Monkey isn't that kind of pro wrestler yet.

Keisuke Goto vs. Gabai-jichan

I was hoping to see Goto do more serious stuff after his CAPTURE outing, but he is stuck with Gabai-jichan here. Gabai-jichan is doing an old man with a walking cane gmmick. Amazing how much silly shit you can do with a walking cane in a wrestling match, but the joke gets old fast. I would've preferred them to run Goto vs. Shimizu instead and put Monkey in the skippable match.

Rikiya Fudo vs. Daisaku Shimoda

Fudo is must watch in 2022 as far as I'm concerned simply for working every match in insanely violent fashion. And Shimoda is his twin brother. This was pretty much the sleazier 2022 version of a WAR heavyweight match, two lumpy dudes cracking each other with really violent shots. Once again Fudos ground attacks were brutal as hell, just chest crushing elbow drops and splashes. The pace was slow and both these guys are clearly really beaten up but they had their working boots on. I like how they never resorted to stupid I hit you-you hit me stuff but also kept cracking each other. The missed vader hammer into backslide was also a surprisingly nice spot. The ending was just them standing on the floor stubbornly cracking each other while the ref counted them out and you have to respect this kind of brotherly rivalry. I enjoyed this a lot.

2/3 Falls: Manabu Hara & Hayato Mashita vs. Kotaru Nasu & Tatsuhito Takaiwa

Takaiwa is almost 50 and still doing these kind of hard hitting matches, god bless him. This was a lot of fun, had a good pace and everyone was hitting hard. I wanted some shootstyle exchanges but you can't have it all I guess. Still really enjoyed all these guys kicking the snot out of each other. Hara is ever solid, and Nasu and Mashita looked pretty decent too for two guys who never impressed me much in their youth, but they are older and lumpier now and really lay in their kicks. 2/3 falls rule made for some fun psychology and in-peril sections. Someone really needs to restart BattlARTS and consistently book all these indy shooters so they can find their groove again and do matches like this on the regular.

The Library

Assorted ZERO1

 

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Riki Choshu, ZERO1 2/29/2004

I had no idea this match happened. I can kind of see why it was largely forgotten – these two are broken down, and they do a short match, without an overly dramatic ending, at a time when most tape nerds where hungering for NOAHesque epics. But fuck, the match between these two was still happening. The first 6 or 7 minutes of this is guys stubbornly trying to crack eachother, really trading brutal kicks and chops where the other looks like he really doesn‘t want to get kicked and chopped. There‘s not even a back bump but it‘s really compelling. Hashimotos shoulder selling ruled and Choshu has some nice kicks to the shoulder. Hashimoto clutching his shoulder after the Scorpion lock was a nice touch. These two are really the kings of these kind of ultra-simplistic, nasty, uncooperative strikes exchanges. Eventually, after the opening established that both guys are broken down and hurting, Choshu gets Hashimoto up for a superplex. And Hashimoto takes that superplex in really brutal fashion, really barely getting over, landing on his shoulders. It feels like a big spot, and then Choshu hits another, even crazier superplex where he nearly spikes Hashimoto. Really probably the most „Damn he killed him“ a superplex has ever felt in a match. Eventually it gets to the usual Choshu stubbornly trying to take Hashimotos head off with lariats while Hash refuses to go down. Choshu sold the finish in a weird way, which is probably the reason this doesn‘t get talked about match. But damn I was amazed by these two guys just cracking each other.

7 vs. 4 Elimination Match: Shinya Hashimoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Yoshihito Sasaki & Shinsuke Z Yamagasa & Kohei Sato & Hirotaka Yokoi & Osamu Namiguchi vs. Riki Choshu & Tomohiro Ishii & Takashi Uwano & Ichiro Yaguchi, Z1 12/14/2003

Extremely fun elimination match which was just a wild spectacle. Everyone jumping in and getting eliminated real fast, seconds get involved, all building to the epic Hashimoto vs. Choshu faceoff. Every single exchanges was on the money, you had the black trunks guys throwing beautiful suplexes and dropkicks, Yokoi punching people in the face, Takaiwa crowbarring people, etc. Ishii got to look tough as he does. Last Hashimoto/Choshu showdown was short but super intense, both guys just wasting each other with brutal punches and kicks. That low kick Hashimoto threw to take out Choshu has to be among those great subtle things that end up looking awesome that Hashimoto just has a thing for.

Fugofugo Yumeji & Takao Ohmori vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Mitsuhide Hirasawa, Z1 2/17/2008

About the rawest 90 seconds in pro wrestling you will ever see. It‘s Z1 vs. NJPW, Nakanishi and Hirasawa rush their opponents to start. We get Yumeji trying to stand up to Nakanishi who‘s just a big old tank. Fugo tries to scramble his brains with those crazy jumping headbutts he does and Nakanishi punches him in the throat then just turns his lights out with one of the crazier lariats I‘ve ever seen. Harrowing.

The Call of the Underground #2: Underground Wrestling EXIT 9/12/2010

 Watch

 

 Kazuhiko Ogasawara vs. Kenji Takeshima

Pretty cool opening match due to both guys not holding back. Ogasawara has really violent punches and kicks, and Takeshima would eat them, take him down and pepper him with stiff elbows of his own. It's a super simple match formula but they make it work by waffling the hell out of each other and working some cool Lawler/Mantell exhausted exchanges from their knees. Dug how Ogasawara would kick Takeshima in the face to break out of submissions. Almost felt too epic for an opener.

Knight King Jully & Bomber Iwata vs. Johta & Nichiryu

Bomber Iwata has boxing gloves and I goes does a thaiboxing thing. Jully is another thick guy with MMA shorts. Nichiryu is lumpy and balding. This was pretty fun when Jota was in the ring as he was energetically trading beatings with the two guys on the opposite team. The parts where Nichiryu were okay but nothing memorable. Unfortunately he ended up being in for most of the match. Still decent amount of stiffness and no stupid ideas in their wrestling.

Mohan Dragon vs. Nyudo

Mohan Dragon is a foreigner with boxing gloves. Nyudo is a pudgy guy who wears a Fugofugo style singlet. I wonder if he has Fugos boy? This was 3 minutes of guys doing stand up and hitting each other. Dragon clearly had the feel of a guy who couldn't make his punches and kicks look all that good as he wasn't used to throwing them in worked matches. Nothing to see here really.

Toshiya Kurenai vs. Sanshu Tsubakichi

Apparently Kurenai is the EXIT Underground champion. He has MMA gloves and seems to be doing an aggressive striker thing. Aside from some fun moments of said aggressive striking this was also forgettable. Things got a bit more intense towards the end but mediocre old Tsubakichi, after falling out of the ring which could have heated the match up just fizzled out.

Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Kana

Fun discovery. This was worked extremely logical, basically a near squash with Takaiwa dominating most of the way and Kana only getting in desperation stuff. Some really good matwork, and Kana is really good at working this kind of match as she knows exactly how to pick her spots. Takaiwa was devastating her, even something like an elbow drop he did looked super violent, and her one big comeback where she teed off with kicks and a big punch was cool before she got her lights put out.

Fugofugo Yumeji & Jaguar Rogovski vs. Kikujiro Umezawa & Onryo

It‘s pretty cool to see Onryo in this environment. He gave a really good performance, blowing radiation dust at people and then really laying in kicks and elbows. Rogovski was a fun guy in a mask with MMA gloves who liked to throw hard punches and spin kicks, kind of working like a Toba and stand in. And Umezawa and Yumeji mauled each other something fierce once again. Goodness gracious. EXIT Umezawa continues to impress me, as he is really credible as a tough monster and he also had some fun Sumo vs. MMA feeling exchanges against Rogovski. But the thing that will stay in your mind is that horrifying headbutt Fugo lands on Umezawa. Fun main event all around.

The Library

Going through Shodates Best Matches of the 90s List Part 5

 The List

231. Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Shinjiro Ohtani vs. Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka, NJPW 10/11/1999 

This has to be among the stiffest matches I‘ve ever seen the NJPW juniors division produce. Seriously, they went out of their way to make every second of this as unpleasant as possible. Kicks, smacks, Otani facescrapes, Takaiwas level, everything was executed at maximum violence. Even something like a Takaiwa elbow drop landed with a smack. Loved the pissed off exchanges involving Otani and Kanemoto. Everyone here was catching hands, though. You know it‘s great when even Tanaka is laying it in and taking beatings. The match didn‘t have some kind of arc or story, it was just one violent exchange after another. It builds to some huge sequences before the finish, though. Takaiwa looked great pounding dudes into paste with his multiple powerbombs and death valley drivers. Greatest junior match in the Dome ever? It was certainly the loudest.

 

234. Mayumi Ozaki & Cutie Suzuki vs. Dynamite Kansai & Sumiko Saito, JWP 8/9/1992

Ah let‘s see… fast pace, hot crowd, insanely stiff, simple moves…? It‘s the early 90s baby~! Seriously pro wrestling just doesn‘t feel like this anymore and it‘s sad. This was hard working and exciting. Sumiko Saito was a rookie who didn‘t stay around for long, but she looked tenacious here. She was paired with Kansai who as usual acted as a super asskicker, so you got a match built around Kansai kicking ass when she was tagged in, and Saito getting her ass kicked when she was tagged out. As usual Ozaki looks good working against Kansai, and Cutie throws some beautiful suplexes. The stretching holds actually felt meaningful in this due to Saito fighting hard and trying to evade the rookie beatdown. Couple really good moments here. Notice how epic the superplex reversal felt due to both womens selling. This was 2 Count Rules for some reason and while it didn‘t really factor into the psychology much it made their athleticism more impressive I guess.

 

31. Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Georgi Kandarahki, RINGS 7/13/1993

Young Yoshihisa Yamamoto takes on Georgi Kandarahki… Kandealaki… Keandelaki..?? Ahh to hell with it! Kandarahki has boxing gloves, a singlet and boxer trunks. He looks like a basketball player decided to be a boxer. Yamamoto doesn‘t have gloves. If you can get over the silliness of that, this was pretty fun. Kandarahki throws lots of nice combinations and this had some heated moments where he came close to punching out Yamamoto who fired back with spirit. Obviously Yamamoto was gonna dominate on the ground but they do a pretty decent job making it not too obvious or drab. This went 5 rounds (OF COURSE!!!) and didn‘t drag and was pretty fun overall. So… the 31.th best match of all of the 90s? Probably not but I enjoyed discovering this for Yamamotos fire and Kandarahkis cool punches.

GWE Watching #6: Tsuyoshi Kikuchi

 

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa, NOAH 11/25/2001

Man, NOAH missed out not giving Kikuchi a big singles run. It would’ve made me care about NOAHs junior title much more than all that shit involving guys like Marufuji and Kanemaru. This was super raw, hard hitting pro wrestling. There was some no selling because Takaiwa is who he is, but they make up for it by trying to kill eachother. At one point Kikuchi was getting into his machoism asking Takaiwa to hit him harder and Takaiwa almost caved his face in with a sick dropkick. Kikuchi repaid him later with an insane headbutt. I enjoyed the leg work Kikuchi did, even if Takaiwa pretty much ignored it. Takaiwa kind of redeemed himself taking a really great corner bump and then almost dying on a spider german suplex. Finishing run had plenty of brutality, including Takaiwa swatting Kikuchi off the ropes and Kikuchi countering the endless Powerbomb in a really cool spot.

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Jushin Liger, NOAH 5/21/2004

A match I‘ve never heard of until I decided to YouTube search Kikuchi today. I‘m surprised by that, because this was pretty excellent. I guess it didn‘t fit the kind of nearfall-ladden fast paced junior epic mold that was en vogue with fans at the time. But, this delivers the kind of scrappy, uncooperative exchanges you want from this. Kikuchi looks great here opening with an awesome sliding enzuigiri and big, microphone enhanced headbutts. There‘s some great dueling armwork, with both guys selling fantastically. I really liked Kikuchi playing hard ass shrugging off Ligers basic throws and Liger then gleefully tearing apart his bandaged shoulder. It‘s a great mixture of looking tough as hell and vulnerable which Kikuchi does extremely well. Loved the spot where Kikuchi went in turn to choke Liger with his bandage and Liger headbutting his bad shoulder. The match was full of gritty struggle like that, such as Kikuchi manhandling Liger by the mask, or trying to shrug off his palm strikes. Ref spots were fun and didn‘t hurt the match, and the match ended on two perfect nearfalls. Very refreshing stuff.

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Akitoshi Saito, NOAH 7/27/2001

Kikuchi is ranked way lower than Saito, but he won‘t go down without a fight! This was two guys mauling each other and it was pretty great. Notice how the match never turned into a predictable „I hit you – you hit me“ slog. There were a few smart moments: Kikuchi rolling outside and the grabbing a streetfight leglock was really great. As was him going down from a single slap from Saito and having to go for the leg again. Really dug his leg stretch in the ropes. Saito doesn‘t really sell the legwork and wins pretty easily to show that he is much stronger, which prevents this from being great, but I really loved Kikuchis performance.

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Akira Taue, AJPW 1/21/1992

Kikuchi vs. Taue, in 1992! What a matchup! And this is just wonderful. Taue gets huge heel reactions. He doesn‘t do much out of the ordinary, except try to rip Kikuchi in half with some mean submissions and just generally act like a jerk, but Kikuchi, man! He was at his best here, bumping big, selling, and being so ferocious when attacking Taue. At point Taue does a neck chop and Kikuchi does this pained collapsing sell. He really makes you believe in a neck chop like few other wrestlers. Last couple minutes had some fantastic and were just lovely. Kikuchi wanted that German Suplex like all hell, and YOU believe in it. Just a short little houseshow match, but an example of what makes Kikuchi so special.

2002 MOTY Project Update #12

 Kohei Sato & Ryouji Sai vs. Hirotaka Yokoi & Wataru Sakata (ZERO1 5/23/2002)

Stiff, uncooperative shootstyle pro wrestling. Apparently this was Yokois first match ever and he looked good right from the get go. Whenever Sato & Sai got too uppity he would start throwing punches. I also loved how he kept blocking Sais irish whip attempts and, once he had Sai prone, ran the ropes himself and blasted him with a huge dropkick. Sakata is at his best when he acts like a dick and there was plenty of that here. I also liked how he acted like he was a class above all these greenhorns. There were some brutal saves in this match aswell. Sai took a big beating, getting bloodied by a Sakata spin kick and punched in the face by Yokoi. Sato & Sai were effective underdogs here, never getting in too much offense, and when they got something it would hit with a thud.

Wataru Sakata vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa (ZERO1 5/3/2002)

Sakata had the vibe of someone who was just getting the hang of how to pro wrestle here, but after a somewhat tentative opening this turned into a shockingly good match. Takaiwa has been efficient against shooters and this was no exception. Sakata had it all over Takaiwa here, basically making him his punching bag, working submission counters and throwing him around with massive suplexes. Takaiwas only chance was to crowbar Sakata into oblivion. Muscling Sakata into the Death Valley Bomb may have been Takaiwas finest moment ever here. We get lots of brutal lariats (obviously), but Takaiwa really earns his salt eating one nasty kick from Sakata after another, getting double stomped and almost submitted a couple times. Awesome jaw breaking finish.

 

Shinjiro Otani & Masato Tanaka vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Katsumi Usuda (ZERO1 5/3/2002)

BattlARTS vs. ZERO1 feud continues. And this was a real good match! I mean, that shouldn't come as a surprise, but I was expecting something fishy to happen here. But nope, they get to do their thing for 15+ minutes. Plenty of hate, stiff shots and neat moments, of course. There was lots of back and forth, altough nothing egregious. I guess this was the Z1 guys giving a shot at working a BattlARTS style rhythm. No shootstyle matwork besides a few counters, but lots of nice snug work. Tanaka was pretty efficient working with the BattlARTS dudes and Ohtani kept the crowd into it with his charisma.  

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Nathan Jones (ZERO1 1/6/2002)

VAST ENERGY. This match was a total freakshow, but had far too many great moments not to love it. After working a lithany of martial artists in the 90s and being the king of the Tokyo Dome, Hashimoto has retired to his own remote island to live out his vision of what pro wrestling is supposed to be – some weird combination of Memphis and RINGS. Broken down 2000s Hashimoto is still a seriously great pro wrestler, and him destroying this freak of nature here was damn impressive. Jones really laid into Hashimoto who sold the beating huge. This also included Jones working an iron claw that Hashimoto sold like his skull was about to get crushed, Hashimoto and Jones working 70s Mighty Inoue/Andre spots, bearhug etc. Jones was a mixture of wooden and awkward and impressively athletic, he had this huge elbow drop, flies over the top rope, impressive leaping clothesline etc. And Hashimoto really lays into him too, hitting every part of the body with a thud, trying to find the weak spot. Hash chopping the shoulder while Jones was trying to hit lariats was pretty awesome, other great moments include: Jones powering out of Hashimotos armhold attempts, Hashimoto chopping away at the throat as well as his body shot combo, Hashimoto coming up with a bloody lip, a borderline exhausted Hashimoto locking in a basic leglock that ends up inescapable for Jones etc.

 Naoya Ogawa vs. Shinjiro Ohtani (ZERO1 3/2/2002)

Big awesome spectacle. Ohtani rushes Ogawa kicking him in the face, and Kazunari Murakami is ringside causing trouble. Ogawa has his haters, but to me his greatness is undeniable as he is pretty much the best possible japanese Goldberg. When hits the first judo throw on Ohtani he just drills him into the mat, and when he follows up kicking Ohtani he looks like a killing machine. He looks like he will destroy a guy in 2 minutes, but his selling is such that it always looks like the other guy can believably make a comeback. I also love how he took a german suplex with his big lanky frame. Ohtani of course rules punching Ogawa in the balls and selling the beatdown huge especially the last STO where he was just laid out as if he had his neck broken.

Wataru Sakata vs. Kohei Sato (ZERO1 6/27/2002)

Okay now, seems like Sakata was really getting it at this point. Sato has looked solid all year doing shootstyle matwork, but he wasn't really capable of creating great moments on his own. Here there were a number of great, well timed moments, most of them involving Sakata almost KO'ing Sato. Every movement counted here. Most importantly, Sakata looked like he was ready to snap this pasty nerd in half.

 

2002 MOTY PROJECT MASTER LIST

2002 MOTY List Update #8

Shinya Hashimoto vs Masato Tanaka (ZERO1 3/2/2002)

Tanaka disrespects the belt, and Hashimoto makes an example of him. This is among the greatest squash matches of all time, as Hashimoto looks like an unstoppable killing machine, and Tanaka looks like the gutsiest dude on earth for surviving. Tanaka is „deathmatch tough“ so you buy him surviving all the punishing blows and maybe decking Hashimoto with a potatoe of his own. Him being unable to hold on to a sleeper simply because he took a beating to every part of his body was pretty great aswell. Still this was all about Hashimoto destroying a poor fella. He may be the best ever at utilizing a basic karate chop to look like a badass. 

Shinjiro Otani & Masato Tanaka vs. Wataru Sakata & Hirotaka Yokoi (ZERO1 7/7/2002)

Two shooters demolish a pair of established stars. Really fun uncooperative stiff battle. Tanaka potatoeing shooters is certainly way more interesting than what he is usually doing. Really good babyface performance from him as he absorbed a nasty nasty assbeating, all his throws were really well timed. And Sakata is basically a violent killing machine in 2002. His high knee has become one of my favourite strikes in pro wrestling ever. Yokoi was pretty game as a guy with gloves pounding on dudes. Otani outgrappling Yokoi repeatedly was really fun. Also, that out of nowhere missile dropkick was just amazing and one of the best spots of the year. Yokoi being able to hang with Otani for a bit by beating him silly during the finishing during the finishing section was really cool. The finish itself has Otani rolling out the Dragon Suplex and while a Dragon Suplex is pretty much a transition move now here it felt like you were watching the poor guy get killed.

Shinya Hashimoto & Katsuhiko Ogasawara vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Tatsuhito Takaiwa (ZERO1 8/2/2002)

Plenty brutal match that was characterized by Hashimoto looking great and and Ogasawara having an absolute meltdown, resulting in some gritty highly uncooperative exchanges. Ogasawara seemed too concerned with protecting himself so Takaiwa at one point just starts decking him for real. To make up for the chaos surrounding the karateka, there were some damn good exchanges between Takaiwa and Hashimoto. Hashimoto looked peak level sharp, including busting out some awesome submission counters dropping his full weight on Takaiwas shoulder, and Takaiwa looked great as a gutsy underdog trying to cut through him with lariats. There were some choice Fujiwara/Hash exchanges too altough Fujiwara went to his comedy later.

Ryouji Sai vs. Hirotaka Yokoi (ZERO1 6/27/2002)

Another fun, scrappy, hate filled bout. Both guys were spitting venom and fighting like maniacs. Sai was pretty lively here, way better than the duller Nagata I've seen him be in other matches, he was throwing fists at Yokoi and putting up a major fight. His suplexes ruled. Yokoi aside from being a glove wearing shooter who will batter opponents with punches and chokes has really fun mugging facial expressions here. I loved all the non-clean hit strikes. Best 5 minute match of the year?

 Shinjiro Ohtani & Masato Tanaka vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Katsuhiko Ogasawara (ZERO1 9/16/2002)

This was pretty much 4 guys potatoeing each other hard to great entertainment value. I am digging Ogasawara, as anytime he's in the ring guys crank up the intensity and really crowbar him across the ring. Ohtani is especially nasty in this. Ogasawara also dishes out some pretty great looking kicks here. Tanaka looked damn good here, as his exchanges with Hashimoto were reminescent of their singles match. Tanaka tried working the leg, and he is quite good at basic things like shooting in for a takedown to get a leg, and then Hashimoto would feel disrespected and just maul him. The sports entertainment moment with Tanaka turning on Otani and leaving the match was stupid and prevents this from being higher on the list, although the nasty 2 on 1 thrashing Otani ate after that was one of the more harrowing pay offs to such an angle I can remember.

 

2002 MOTY Master List