Keita Yano Documentation #6

Keita Yano vs Roberto Tanaka, Ice Ribbon 3/10/2008 - GREAT

It's very early no-ring Keita. Say what you will about Emi Sakura, but she gave Keita the chance to explore this unique avenue of pro wrestling very early on. Roberto Tanaka apparently would go on to become Ultimate Spider Jr. (I am not sure there is an Ultimate Spider Sr.). Tanaka was a kick padded indy worker here which is just fine. He looked like a competent pro wrestler and had no problem going at it with Keita in a Keita style match. Some nice matwork early on, with Keita who at this point was a BattlARTS guy already dabbling into llaves and WoS type grappling, but also keeping that shootstyle in it. Tanaka gets stretched a lot, but also looked talented. He had a very nice takeover, and I really liked how he countered Keitas bridging chokehold. Tanaka has some hard kicks, really brains Keita in the head at one point, and nice dropkicks, including one where he flies off a chair which is a high spot in this small office space. Last 5 minutes are really awesome with both guys throwing vicious strikes and trying to submit each other. I was impressed they kept a solid pace for 15 minutes, even knowing Keita can be really great without a ring the stuff they did here put most other wrestlers to shame. Great match leaning slightly towards EPIC even which I did not expect coming in but holy fuck the last minutes of strike exchanges were great, Keita was beastly here clocking Tanakas jaw with european uppercuts and at one point just jumping on him and raining punches.

Keita Yano vs Ultimate Spider Jr, Wallabee 12/28/2014 - FUN

Another round of Keita magic in the Cerberus Dojo. His opponent, Ultimate Spider Jr was game to get torn up by Yanos llaves, but did not add much to the match up to that point. Yano domating a guy on the ground is always fun. Spider came a bit into his own a bit when he started fouling Yano and beating on him with pylons. Yano retaliated with a huge tope from the mat into the rows of the crowd. Instead of continueing the match in that spicier direction they settled for regular indy style ending run including Yano going for a tornado DDT off of the strength training equipment. Very fun match but I thought Spider Jr. didn't deliver much special and while Yano was good it did not quite stray into that realm of madness that makes a Cerberus Dojo classic.

Keita Yano Documentation Project

Keita Yano Documentation Project #1

Keita Yano vs. Sanshu Tsubakichi, BattlARTS 1/17/2010 - FUN

This was one of those B-Rules matches which means all grappling. Yano wasn't on the same level as a pure grappler as 10 years later but it was a fun 5 minutes. There's a cool spot where Yano chokes out Tsubakichi over the rope and some gritty submissions especially enjoyed the weird leg hook Yano busted out. Perfectly fun stuff

Keita Yano vs. Sanshu Tsubakichi, WALLABEE 4/28/2013 - FUN

3 years later, BattlARTS is gone, Yano is the Joker and he shows up in a Bruce Lee suit. It's a WALLABEE world now. This wasn't a ton different from the 2010 match, almost all grappling although it had some gritty kicks and kidney punches. Good in the same way with a neat Fujiwara-esque finish although didn't quite push in the weird and wonderful of truely great Yano matches.

Keita Yano vs. 326, WALLABE 11/30/2014 - EPIC

Now this is stuff that is making Yano a legend. 326 (Mitsuru) is this short, old, bald sleazey looking karateka. Normally grappler vs. striker would have the striker be the dominant one, but Yano is a menacing force in black metal facepaint here. He punts the poor guy all over the dojo, really hitting him with sick reckless kicks and punches. An awkward swinging lariat sends Mitsuru tumbling and coming up bloody. That seems to have woke him up as he plants a nasty spin kick in Yanos face. Now both these guys are bleeding and at each others throats trading sick headbutts. When Yano started raining punches from mount it looked like he wanted to kill the guy. Also loved him hurling 326 by the scruff and the big belly to belly suplex. Short, intense, violent, pure sleaze gold. Also really dug the post match.

Assorted Japan Indy Wrestling

 

Keita Yano vs. Taro Yamada (WALLABEE, 6/14/2012)

Damn great match, I imagine if Yano had never stunk up BattlARTS and instead was only known for doing weird technical matches while wearing his joker makeup and clown singlet in a tiny gym we’d all be Yano superfans. Taro Yamada is the last guy in Japan still holding up the T2P style matwork and one of the most underrated grapplers on the independent scene. This was 25 minutes of matwork that was like a great IWRG style title match. It was a mix of Yamadas llave holds with Yano going along and some cool RINGs-like leglock work thrown in, with both guys doing a great job escaping and transitioning between holds. Whole match felt fresh and competitive and never was like a derivative or weird LARP, these guys were trying to pop each others shoulders and/or ankles the whole time. There were one or two geeky moments where Yano did some “rope running” although it was more like a comedy spot with Yano hooting like an owl, and both these moments lead to cool spots, one where Yamada actually trips Keita with a drop down and another where Yano tricks Yamada into his special hold. There wasn’t some kind of story if you are into that but there were a few great nearfalls and I deeply respect these two for just grappling it out for 25 minutes without slowing down, and never throwing a strike or even a body slam, it was all submissions and funky cradle pins (especially loved Yamadas weird Delfin Clutch variation), just really tightly worked stuff that wouldn’t look out of place in a WoS or lucha title match. I did love Yanos dickish knee slide across Yamadas face and the moment where Yano had enough of the llave holds and challenged Yamada to an amateur match was really cool. Finish was great aswell. Best Yano match I’ve seen by far and actively a great match, which is a major shocker. Yamada played a huge part too but I’ll be damned if Yano wasn’t feeling it that night. Apparently there have been a few matches between these two and I look forward to checking them all out but as it stands this is the best I’ve seen from Yano by a mile.

Yu Iizuka vs. ZIMA Yoshida (RAW 9/30/2018)

ZIMA Yoshida makes his return to the blog. This Yu Izuka is a HEAT-UP guy. While Heat-Up is technically the follow promotion to Style-E, it doesn’t really do shootstyle, but Izuka works full shootstyle here, and actually looks like a guy with lineage to Tamura. Really promising performance from Iizuka, throwing wild spin kicks and looking in cool submissions while doing lightning smooth mat transitions. Our man ZIMA is overwhelmed but he manages to lock in a cool leg lock/neck crank submission of his own. Def. Would’ve liked this to go longer.

Hideki Suzuki & MIKAMI vs. UTOMARO & Yuiga (Batos Cafe, ?/?/??)

Not a pleasant match. Yuiga is a NEO-wrestler who has been working scum indies for 20 years. She tries to take it to Hideki Suzuki in this, who responds by punting her in really violent, unpredictable ways. Yuiga is throwing some crowbar shots and sick headbutts but it seems Suzuki is untouchable. He even no-sells UTOMARO completely. Their match up is really intense and it builds to a great moment where Yuiga is finally able to get something in when she counters a sleeper attempt into a judo throw and tries to sink into a desperation armbar. MIKAMI and UTOMARO basically just provide some fluff between the Yuiga vs. Hideki sections. Great sleeper hold finish.