Some more modern joshi

 Moeka Haruhi vs ASUKA (Veny), Ganbare Pro 11/23/2020

A surprisingly scrappy joshi big match where they both decided to absolutely grill each other with tons of violent offense. Thought Asuka was quite effective here as the taller sadistic asskicker booting Haruhi in the face. Apparently Haruhi used to be a teen idol (horrifying) and has only been in a handful of longer singles matches over the years, but she was quite good here. Her submissions were cool and she absolutely drilled Asuka with some insane headbutts and double stomps. She also really kept trying to rip Asuka in half with her straight jacket holds. Selling wasn’t a huge deal here but they kept a good pace with little letdown and sometimes you just wanna watch two wrestlers try to kill each other.

Mari vs MARU, AWG 12/29/2024

MARU had a run in JD Star in the early 2000s before retiring 2005. Somehow she came back 17 damn years later and now she’s having wild brawls like this. That is pretty crazy in itself, and this match is pretty damn crazy too. Reminded me of those early 2000s JD brawls in the best way. MARU provided some cool wrestling with her nifty Stretch Muffler counters and Mari is just a badass with her kick variations. Match had plenty of violent chain punches and soon, after some scrappy opening fighting it turned into a psycho bump fast. MARU taking those bumps at her age was pretty insane. I did love how Mari would just pick her up and throw her into chairs or a ladder, totally not caring about making it fancy. There was also a kick that lead to MARU spilling down the Korakuen Hall stairs which again was straight out of those old JD street fights. MARU was feeling it here, just taking totally crazy punishment and dishing it right back at her opponent. It really felt like they were trying to crush each other. In the end it seemed MARU was too caught up in trying to hurt Mari instead of winning the match, which costed her as Mari finally caught her and finished her off with a series of devastating kicks. Really good brawl that had both the big spots and the gritty fighting that is often lacking from these modern hardcore matches. Insane MARU performance and Mari looked like total badass.

 

Misaki Ohata vs Hiroe Nagahama, WAVE  10/22/2017

Very good joshi style match. Energetic Nagahama overwhelmed Ohata initially, but quickly became the underdog due to Ohatas vicious style. Ohata was pretty brutal here: trying to take Nagahamas head off with elbows, almost ripping her in half with several Fuchi-ish submissions, and dropping some vicious knees and stomps. This builds to a few increasingly desperate and great comeback attempts from Nagahama. Good stuff, they had another match the following year that was also good and pretty similiar to this but I thought this one had more of an epic well together title match vibe. At 13 minutes it's pretty compact too.

Assorted Ganbare Pro

 

ASUKA (Veny) vs Haganne Shinnou, Ganbare Pro 8/22/2020

Surprisingly very good big match. Opening had some scrappy disdainful kicks before ASUKA establishes her superior agility over Shinnou in neat ways. Shinnoue then proceeded to work over her leg. Really good legwork, especially dug all the spots where Asukas leg was caught in the ropes. Finishing run had lots of nifty moments and counters. Resisting the Ranhei felt epic, and while Asuka was never gonna sell that legwork all the way to the end it wasn’t exactly blatant no selling either. The spot where she struggled to lift Shinnou and then went for a takeover instead pretty neat. Her spinning wheel kick is also one of the best I’ve seen in a while, really hit Haganne in the face like a baseball bat. Shinnou also looked really solid in this. Quality stuff, probably one of the best matches of that cursed year 2020.

Shuichiro Katsumura vs Cherry, Ganbare Pro 4/24/2021

Judo jacket match where they basically come out and do worked BJJ. Worked BJJ can be really cool, and they did lots of fun transitions and submission attempts here without ever slowing down. There was a funny bit where Cherry did an eyepoke and pulled Katsumuras jacket over his head, but other than that this was just clean grappling and pretty fun. It’s always cool to see wrestlers showing a different skillset and Cherry looked pretty legit here. Really cool finish with the crazy gi choke.

Ken Ohka vs Naoshi Sano, Ganbare Pro 7/8/2017

BLOODBATH!! Surprisingly fun scummy heel performance from Sano here working over Ohka. He does a fine job acting like scum, and his open handed shots are pretty fun. Ohka is kind of a sleazeball too, and while he’s probably not very good, he brings a good deal of vibe with his scrappy flying tackles and the schlubby wifebeater and jeans he’s wearing. Both guys end up bleeding big and it’s fun, with Ohkas blood getting all over Sanos hands from Sanos strikes. Sano looked surprisingly competent demolishing Ohka here, and there was a fun sense of irony in how Sano would cut off Ohkas lazy comeback attempts. They are wise enough to not overstay their welcome. Just bleed big, let people soak in the spectacle, and go home.

Shuichiro Katsumura vs Tsuyoshi Okada, Ganbare Pro 8/11/2019

One of the better BattlARTS-style matches in the post-BattlARTS world that I can recall. Actually felt like an angry PANCRASE fight with both guys really hitting those palm strikes like they meant it. Great aggression and no real sense of holding back, which is awesome. The flash submissions ruled, too. Katsumura is a legit grappler so he can really do some spectacular stuff and Okada was up to the task. I loved the shootstyle version of the TKO, and his jumping knee looked like it nearly killed Katsumura. Nifty Fujiwara-esque finish. Really good for what it was, I actually wanted to see it go longer.

2025 Wrestling Week 12

 Yu Shimizu vs Leo Isaka Marvelous 3/16

A lot of big matches happening in March 2025, and here I am, excited to watch Yu Shimizu vs Leo Isaka. This was a bit slow but solid and had a really good ending. Shimizu has really come into his own providing lots of cool moments with his dragon sleeper/reverse DDT work and his rear naked choke is the best I've ever seen. Isaka is a fun fast moving babyface. It kind of rules to have a short mens match like this on a joshi card.

Meiko Satomura vs Chihiro Hashimoto, 3/21

It's Meiko on her way out vs her top student. Obviously it's a great match. Great straight forward hard hitting pro wrestling. Hashimoto is clearly Meikos best opponent in recent years and this was probably their finest match together. Hash with her grappling skill and sheer physicality really forces Meiko to show more intensity of her own. Some genuinely violent strikes, sick head kicks and Chihiro trying to take her head off with vader hammers here. Loved the constant teasing of the basic German Suplex and something like a basic powerslam from Hashimoto being a huge nearfall. I assume this was ran in a much too large building so the heat was a little subdued early on, so the crowd coming alive with a big Satomura chant breaking out late in the match was awesome. Plenty of great spots and transitions without becoming too cute, I also loved the sleeper hold. What really makes this pop as a great match is the 'passing off the torch aspect' with Hashimoto trying to topple her teacher and Meiko being so unwilling to just lay down and stay down for the 3 and trying her damndest to win the title even on the brink of retirement. Great stuff and easily one of the finest matches not just of the year but of the decade so far.

Yumiko Hotta vs VENY, Seadlinnng 3/20

Yumiko Hotta main eventing a big show in a cage match. Why? I don't know, but I'm watching it. Hotta is 58 years old. She really can't bump, she doesn't even do cool kicks anymore. They just chuck metal objects at each others heads, bleeding, Hotta punches through a chair, they use a rickety ladder to try and climb the cage... some outside interference happens and a bunch of other girls storm into the ring, one of them diving off the cage. VENY is a psychotic hero in this, taking the gnarliest bump and also moonsaulting off the cage with nobody really catching her. When she hits the red mist on Hotta it looks like she spray vomited blood on her. I can't tell if this was any good but I sure enjoyed the spectacle of it, so it was good.

Sareee vs Syuri, Sareee-ism 3/10

I'll start with the positives: they both have plenty of great looking offense and a fair amount of intensity. They really blast each other with everything they've got for 30 minutes and there are a few murderous headbutts. Maybe I was too tired while watching this, but this match just didn't click for me. It starts bad enough with the super generic beginning - perfunctory matwork where nothing happens, some lucharesu-flavoured running exchange before they exchange snapmares and kick each other in the back a lot. It gets better later on, but aside from their offense there is not really much too hook me in. There is some semblance of psychology with Sareee attacking Syuris leg to slow her down, but Syuri never really sells any of it and quickly goes back on offense anyways. Syuri keeps going for armlocks but again Sareee never really sells it and at some point the submissions start to feel like padding. With the lack of a story or focus and the only selling point being how many moves these two can hit in a lot of minutes I started to zone out. Plus, 30 minutes was far too long for this, especially since they both lack offense, so Sareee must have hit like a dozen meaningless uranages in this. At 20 this could've been pretty good, at 30 this made the most bloated early 2000s NOAH matches look fresh and conservative.

Mariah May vs Toni Storm, AEW 3/9

Fun psycho bumpfest with plenty of blood and gross out carnage. I imagine this is how people felt watching Ian vs Axl Rotten in ECW. Brawling or subtleness were non existant but this has enough broken bottle to the crotch to make up for it. Actually thought the one broken glass punch was pretty sick so it was funny they didn't continue with the taipei stuff. I also liked May constantly selling the self-damage and the hip attacks were actually nasty looking and felt innovative. Not something I would want to watch again because I would get desensitized to piledrivers and headdrops but they made the most of what they had.

 

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2025 Wrestling Week 4

 
Sareee vs Veny, SEAdLINNNG 1/17

I haven't thought about Seadlinnnng in forever. Apparently, Sareee is their ace now and has been their champ for a while, so I should probably take a look at that. I haven't seen much of VENY before, but I know she had that excellent weird light tube  match with Akito at one point. This was a lot more conventional. They start of strong with some quality groundwork before a weird outside interference happens and the brawl outside. Sareee however makes it worthwhile when she dishes out some brutal headbutts to Veny on the floor. Back in the ring, Sareee is in control for a bit and it's really good. Her vicious stomps and dropkicks are great. Veny tries to take over but is cut off in nice fashion. Finally, Veny locks on a slick submission and controls by working the arm for a bit. Veny no sells a German suplex and they start trading bombs. Honestly I thought the first half of this was a very good build, but the senseless move trading lost me. Veny kind of half asses her selling a lot and her thigh slapping thrust kicks looked like shit. Sareees offense is great, but she doesn't do much selling either at some point. There is so much "take a move, slowly get up and then do a move of your own here" that really makes me stop caring about a match. For example, Sareees top rope Fishermans Suplex wasn't even followed up by a cover, instead Sareee goes to the top on the opposite side so Veny can get up and hit a superplex. No rhyme or reason to any of this as far as I can tell. At least mix in some cool reverals or something.

Yusaku Ito vs Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 1/22

This was more good shit from SPORTIVA. Yusaku Ito is a certified scumbag who can kick hard, punch someone in the face and act like an all around thug. Shimizu just came back from a really long absence and he still looks tough, in that weird guy-who-started-wrestling-in-his-30s way. Really good wrestling here, these two deliver actually compelling elbow smashes and standing exchanges. Eventually it turns into Ito kicking away at Shimizus arm and shoulder. Itos kicks and elbows to the joint where really hurty looking and Shimizus selling was excellent. By far one of the best 'work the arm' matches I've seen in a while because Shimizus weakness was constantly nagging him, he never forgot about that injury and Ito would cut him off by attacking the arm at crucial moments. Shimizu doesn't have a ton of offense in this match, he is mostly taking an asskicking, but the few moments he gets are solid, and the work around his sleeper hold was really compelling, it leads to one of the best flash reversals into a sleeper that I've ever seen. The match also has the typical Japanese big match stuff, some quality hard hitting and head-droppy moves without going overboard, but what made this outstanding was how well they worked the arm attack stuff and those sleepers. Another banger from that little sportsbar. Lord knows how they do it but they consistently put on some of the best singles matches in all of Japan.

Guerrero Maya Jr vs Xelhua, CMLL 1/13/2025

The first few minutes of this are pretty great. Both guys hit the mat and tie each other in knots, adding cool little touches that you don't see often such as the kicking at the leg while in the indian deathlock, or the nifty trip from the overhook. Xelhua clearly has a ton of passion to be trying the crazy llaves he tries, and he has stellar body control - that bridge walkover he did is NOT easy, I can attest to that. When Maya Jr takes over attacking the mask and throwing punches and Xelhua narrowly breaking out of submissions, I thought this would've been one of the best opening falls to a title match I've seen. Unfortunately it's not 2/3 falls, it's 1 fall, so we get a couple minutes of Maya Jr. dominating and a somewhat sluggish finishing stretch. I think with a 2/3 falls match these two could burn the house down, as a 1 fall match it just falls a little short, though there was a ton of cool stuff. CMLL is definitely on the right track with young guys like Xelhua not being afraid to indulge in esoteric matwork.

Virus vs Neon, MLW 1/11/2025


Love two see luchadors show up in a US promotion to do awesome shit for 8 minutes. This was pretty tight, we get a slick mat exchange to start and then they go nuts. Virus is crazy busting out this shit at the age of 56. He looked way more nimble than, say Bobby Fish who is also on this show and looked ancient despite being  8 years younger. Neon is another one of those technicos who has no offense except shitty looking enzuigiris and really pretty dives. And his dives were pretty in this. I did prefer the slickness of Virus apron armdrag and huracanrana but I am an old Virus mark. I thought this needed maybe a Virus punch or dropkick or a slick reversal to be really great but it was a pretty strong under 10 minute sprint.

 

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