2025 Wrestling Roundup Week 27

 Ari Najima vs Masanori Watanabe, Sportiva 7/9

The U-Style-in-a-sportsbar-resurrgence continues. Some great grappling exchanges here, with Najima looking really good, he may be one of the best guys on earth right now, which is pretty crazy considering his debut was like a year ago, but I guess when you wrestle twice a week for a year you get good fast. Both guys deciding to do shootstyle grappling on the floor was a crazy moment and they actually continued to do grappling. Liked how Najima, after just getting entangled in an armbar by Watanabe continued to sell an arm/shoulder injury throughout. Back in the ring we get some more scrappy exchanges and Watanabe kicking Najima in the bad shoulder and hitting cool arm takeovers. Headbutt exchange leading to the running headbutt was pretty sick too. Ending felt premature, but I guess these two will fight each other a lot more, at least I hope so because this definitely made me excited to see these two develop a full on rivalry. Great stuff, more passion, skill and energy on display here than in a lot of matches on much bigger shows, Sportiva is on a roll.

Asuka Fujitaki vs Yuria Hime, STARDOM 6/4

This was good pro wrestling. Basically Yuria tries to hit fast and hard to take down the bigger Fujitaki. When Fujitaki tried to give Hime the rookie treatment with a boston crab (that Hime desperately tried to avoid), Hime came back with some quite vicious big boots. I also dug how they built to the bodyslam. Fujitaki doesn't do the cool submissions she showcased in the YuuRi match, but she is effective her putting down her opponent with basic lariats. Good basic all action match, the one let down was a somewhat awkward transitoin into Yurias skullsmasher move thing.

Utami Hayashishita & Mayu Iwatani & Seri Yamaoka vs Takumi Iroha & Senka Akatsuki & Sora Ayame, Marigold 6/17

Interpromotional joshi action! They put all these rookies in the main event so they know what kinda gold they have on their hands right now. And this largely delivers. First Yamaoka vs Senka exchange is a lot of fun. Then the intensity picks up a lot when Iroha tags in and starts waffling Seri. Iroha did a great job carrying herself like a badass in this and delivering character moments. Hayashishita is cool but I thought she could've carried herself as bigger considering she's the world champion of this promotion. I mean, her getting shoved around by the rookies is fun, but  I thought her later exchanges with Senka would've been a bigger deal if she had established herself as more of a badass earlier. Iwatani is hit and miss but was able to engage in some hot exchanges largely thanks to Iroha. But the match delivers the Senka moments that you want. Her testing herself against Utami is fun, she had a killer sleeper hold at one point and the SHOOT PIN~ is still strong. Also the match needed more Seri. Still, a really fun match that delivers more complex action than you'd expect going in and made me invested in this little Marigold/Marvelous feud.


Averno, Dr. Cerebro, Euforia, Volador Jr. & Xelhua vs. Blue Panther, Hologram, Neon, Valiente & Virus (ACTION 5/24/2025)

20 minutes of non-stop goodness. Your GOATS Blue Panther and Virus looked insane, and everyone else was a ton of fun. Match had a little bit of everything: cool lucha matwork, but they move on to standing exchanges pretty fast, lots of dives, complicated highspots from Neon and Hologram, and thankfully also plenty of rudo antics. Loved the rudo stuff honestly as it was just right to stop the match from becoming a total exhibition. Also loved Euforias little monster run, and Valientes highflying was really impressive considering he must be pretty old by now. Blue Panther continues to be the greatest plucky old man in wrestling, and Virus still looked like the best guy in the match. A lot of cool highspots but Holograms no brakes suicide dive probably took the cake. Finish looked too easy, but sometimes you just gotta take it home and give the fans a feel good moment.

White Moriyama vs Ari Najima, HEAT-UP 6/1

It's White Moriyama for real this time! Once again, this had the weird rules with 1st round being kickboxing, 2nd grappling and 3rd is straight forward everything goes. Kickboxing was alright, with a few punches landing pretty hard, grappling round was pretty intense where it seemed neither wanted to give up the advantage. And finally in the 3rd it's a pretty awesome breakdown with Najima really laying into Moriyama with hard shots. Moriyama seemed to have slowed down and looked like dead meat, but then started giving Najima back as good as he got. Last strike exchange was downright savage and the finish was rad. Seems Moriyama has only stepped a few times in the ring this year which is regrettable because he can clearly still go.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup 

2025 Wrestling Roundup Week 26

Shinya Ishida & Yu Shimizu vs Ari Najima & Masanori Watanabe 7/2

Really good match from Sportiva this week. Solid no frills pro wrestling early on and a bunch of really good stuff in the second half. Once again, I was really impressed by Yu Shimizu. His brutal elbows rule and he's always doing something nifty. His boot that knocked Watanabe off the apron was straight out of 90s AJPW. Ishida stuck to his stuff, but he looked slick and did a bunch of awesome quick exchanges with Najima in the second half. Najima has also grown to the point where he now keeps up with more complicated stuff pretty well. Watanabe is still green-ish but he's really good when he's grappling or attacking someones arm. The finish was Shimizu mauling him with elbows and Watanabe trying to break Shimizus elbow with nasty kicks and elbows. Very good stuff, I can't wait to see another singles match between these guys.

Senka Akatsuki vs DASH Chisako, Tenryu Project 5/21

Great little match that brought some sick violence worthy of WAR. DASH just beat the hell out of young Senka here, some crazy violent slaps and dropkicks and stomps on display. Senka takes a big beating, but you know it all can change when she gets her opponents shoulders down and starts working for the pin. The shoot pin still rules. I liked when DASH did the 'okay, hit me' Senka was immediately right there and started to maul her with open hands, Senka is pretty big. Some great cutoffs from DASH here. I'm digging this 2025 joshi resurgence, you know the passion is back when a throwaway match on a mens show is this heated, and it all started with Senka.


Ari Najima vs Yukito, HEAT-UP 5/3

This had the rule  that it was a rounds match with the 1st round being kickboxing with gloves, 2nd round being grappling only and the 3rd just regular pro wrestling. Kickboxing part was alright, they were holding back a little. Grappling part was really good, Najima is clearly really good at this kind of slick shootstyle grappling and it was nice that he get to test himself like this. 3rd round was also really fun with both guys kicking and slapping each other in fun ways and developing good intensity, check out Aris arm selling. Good stuff but I'd like to see just a proper shootstyle match between them because at just 3 minute rounds this felt a little short.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup 

2022 MOTY List Update #6

Akira Jo & Yusaku Ito vs. White Moriyama & Kyosuke Sasaki, HEAT-UP 12/25/2022

Fun sleazeballs vs. shooters type match. Akira Jo used to be an Inoki guy, but he's really lost his way and become something that crawled out of a Masao Orihara type primordial soup. Lots of Jo/Ito trying to rake eyes and getting punished by stiff kicks and entangled in submissions. They worked had and worked an unusual structure with the outmatched heels being almost the underdogs. Ex-Futen guys were quite good, with Moriyama maybe being the best guy in the match. The main reason I am adding this though is the finish, where Moriyama and Ito were absolutely annihilating each other with FUTEN level headbutts and kicks. Didn't know that schlub Ito had that in him. Maybe the best finish of 2022

CHANGO vs. TORU, TTT 10/15/2022

Surprisingly good match. CHANGO reminded me a bit of a guy like AKIRA or Eddie Guerrero, a scuzzy technical heel who was willing to do whatever it takes to win. This includes lots of clever cheating and use of foreign objects, faking an injury, some gritty legwork on TORU’s leg, bailing cowardly, even using the apron to tie up his opponent. He also had a pretty violent looking diving knee to TORUs head, and some cool looking jumping axe kicks. Both guys trading stiff shots while fighting over a superplex reminded me of one of those stubborn 90s NJPW junior title matches, and the culmination was a sick headbutt that draw hardway blood. CHANGOs big dive was also pretty spectacular and felt epic due to happening late in the match at a critical point. The spray was a visually impressive foreign object to use and looked gnarly in combination with the blood. Toru was a bit subdued in the first half of the match, but his jaw-cracking elbows to put down the annoying CHANGO were great, I also loved his big dropkick which landed flush in CHANGOs face and he carried himself like Chango was not on his level the whole time and Changos counter tactics felt desperate in the process. Excellent big match in total.

2022 MOTY List

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #10

 Takeshi Ono vs. White Moriyama, FUTEN 1/30/2011 - EPIC

I loved this, a real testament to the greatness of Ono. This was Moriyamas (initial) retirement and while he has never shown much, he was game to engage in a FUTEN level war. Normally you‘d associate retirement matches with feel good moments and the retiree getting their shit in, but that wasn‘t the case here as Ono was incredibly vicious throughout and just trying to turn Moriyama into a pulp. Just a super competitive match even outside the violence, really dug the opening grappling with Ono stuffing Moriyamas takedown attempts and doing some excellent guardwork. Onos relentlesness however may have been at its peak here as he caught Moriyama with a nasty stomp during a scramble in the ropes and then just demolished him with sick punches and kicks and ungodly knees. Ending run felt shockingly epic for a Moriyama match as he uncorked some gnarly head spiking suplexes while maintaining a sense of struggle, Moriyama getting a bloody nose and trying not to get punched out, refusing to die on his sword while getting his face perforated by Onos kicks etc. It works because of how bad Ono was stomping Moriyama earlier, that Moriyama reaching deep and trying to hang on actually feels epic. Strong contender for the greatest retirement match I've ever seen, and its all Ono.

Takeshi Ono & Junji.com vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Tiger Mask IV, BattlARTS 2/14/1999 - FUN

Fun match which may have been BattlARTS hybrid style at its most experimental. These guys were going back and forth from working lucharesu exchanges to shootstyle mat scrambles. Hidaka and Tiger Mask IV tore it up. Ono looked great too, but he spent too much time on the apron. When he was in the ring he went from kicking and punching people really hard, to working cool submissions, to stooging like an expert rudo. Junji was in most of the time and he is the weakest guy in the match, although still decent when he wasn’t hitting sloppy dropkicks. Cool match which felt hard fought, but I wanted more Ono content.

Takeshi Ono & Masao Orihara vs. junji.com & Ricky Banderas, BattlARTS 4/26/1999 - FUN

We only got about 5 minutes of this, which is too bad because it looked like a really good match. Junji cleaning house was fun, and Orihara and Ono are real fuckers beating the piss out of him. Banderas seems really out of place in this but does fine dropping some bombs. Finish is spectacular with Ono hitting a spider german, Orihara moonsaulting over him before Ono dives outside and Orihara gets the win with an abdominal stretch of all things. Tonpachi Machine Guns rule, man.

 

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White Moriyamas Return to Pro Wrestling Part 2

 

White Moriyama & Takafumi Ito vs. Raito Shimitsu & Tetsuya Ido, Heat-Up 2/19/2021

This was probably the best Heat-Up match I’ve seen so far. It had the smooth matwork and stiffness of the previous matches, plus a story, and they worked a breathless pace. Moriyama and Shimitsu have heat now, and all their exchanges felt heated, even tho there was no crowd. We start right with Moriyama taking Shimitsu down and going for the kill with an armbar, before Shimitsu throws him off. We get a cool slick Ito/Ido matwork section  before they move into Shimitsu and Ido working over Moriyama mostly involving Shimitsu throwing Moriyama around. Really good comeback tease spot where Moriyama takes out Shimitsus bad leg. His actual comeback ends up being great too as he just catches Ido flush in the face with a spin kick. Extended finishing stretch built around Shimitsu uncorking all of his great looking throws and Moriyama rolling out a dozen submission reversals (with Shimitsu once again doing a really good job selling those submissions) was really good. At one point, Shimitsu got out of a triangle choke by just spinning Moriyama around, which was something I had never seen before. Heat Up is looking really promising right now putting out some of the best neo-shootstyle work.

White Moriyama vs. Takafumi Ito, HEAT-UP 10/22/2020

Man, promotions really missed the boat not giving Takafumi Ito more to do in the 10s. I really liked this match, they did some cagey defensive work early trying to crack each other, before Moriyama cranked up the pace just trying to catch a hold later. Ito looks crafty and the finish with him trapping both of Moriyamas arms before sinking in a choke was great.

White Moriyama vs. Hiroshi Watanabe, Heat-Up 12/24/2020

Ridiculously fun match built around Moriyama trying to use his shootstyle and Watanabe catching him in side headlocks, abdominal stretches and O’Connor roles. Great finish with Moriyama spinning around and into a heel hook that nearly twisted Watanabes foot off. I wish it had gone longer. It seems Watanabe considers himself over the hill at this point which is said because I love the guy.

White Moriyamas Return to Pro-Wrestling

Man, White Moriyamas return to pro wrestling completely flew under my radar. He was never the 5th best guy in FUTEN or U-Style, but by 2021 standards he's basically Tamura. 

 White Moriyama vs. Tetsuya Ido, Heat-Up 2/28/21

 This was a really fun, unpredictable 10 minute match with a surprising amount of hate. Ido is a kick padded kid who acts all cocky towards veteran Moriyama. Moriyama puts him in his place with some slick, fast grappling, so Ido retaliates with an awesome stomp to Moriyamas face. Ido kicks hard and his spinning choke is a fun false finish, so I am completely fine. Finishing run was really cool with Moriyama giving Ido the business with his kicks, including throwing these cool Tamura style leaping kicks, and some slick U-Style grappling. You can tell Moriyamas grappling is a class above what most guys can do these days the way he would move in and out of submissions. Dug all the slick leg locks.

White Moriyama & Takafumi Ito vs. Raito Shimitsu & Tetsuya Ido, Head-Up 1/29/2021

Really good little match. We get some really good U-STYLE opening grappling to start. Most of the Japanese wrestlers we’ve seen in the last 10 years doing that kind of wrestling have been old veterans, so it was nice to see Shimitsu and Ido step up and show they have no problem doing that kind of wrestling. I haven’t seen Takafumi Ito in a while, but he looked good here. He had some cool leg stretches, and this really cool cravate choke that nearly popped Shimitsus head off. Shimitsus head was turning really blue and pale while in that. Shimitsu came in with a bandage on his leg, and Moriyama and Ito work over it a bit. Really cool spot where Shimitsu tries using his typical idiot strength but fails due to his leg. Shimitsus selling in general down the stretch was really good. The finish was built around Shimitsu trying to hit his power moves with Moriyama countering them. It wasn’t as grand as the stuff we saw in other matches but it was cool. I am pleasantly surprised by Heat-Up delivering the goods with these matches, why is GLEAT not using these boys?

White Moriyama vs. Raito Shimitsu, Heat-Up 2/25/2021

Fun 5 minute sprint built around Shimitsu trying to crush Moriyama with his throws and Moriyama countering him and kicking him in the head. Shimitsu acted a bit like a Sekimoto clone here, but in the end Moriyama put him to sleep, so I wasn’t bothered. Moriyama had some slick counters and surprisingly violent kicks.

White Moriyama vs. Yu Iizuka, Heat-Up 11/26/2020

7 minute sprint where they hit the mat and don’t slow down, grabbing holds left and right. Very nice to see this kind of slick matwork again. At this point I’m used to seeing wrestling where there’s always at least one guy in a match who really sucks, but Iizuka looks like the real deal here and holds up very well. Very promising young wrestler.

Takeshi Ono Documentation #5

Takeshi Ono vs. Carl Greco, BattlARTS 11/5/1997 - GREAT

1997 was probably the period where you could take almost any random BattlARTS match and it would be the #1 best match to happen in 2020 for months. Carl Greco was a barefoot machine here, lord in heaven what a great grappler he was. This is all about Ono trying to out-slick the beast. Some absolutely fantastic grappling and holds here, and Ono throwing strikes feels like he's trying to equalize the situation in order to not get steamrolled. Great nearfalls here, including an absolutely awesome Octopus Stretch that Ono sunk in like he wanted the tap out more than anything else in his life. This was a second match on the card and went eleven minutes, you get the sense if they had gone for a slightly more grandiose finishing stretch with some big strike exchanges and near KO this would've moved into serious MOTYC territory, but for that type of second 11 minute match on the card this was damn great.

Takeshi Ono & Manabu Hara & White Moriyama vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Brahman Shu & Brahman Kei (FUTEN 4/24/2010) - EPIC

FUTEN baby. Ultra-stiff fast paced basically shootstyle brawl where everyone lays into each other with the stiffest punches, headbutts and lariats pro wrestling has ever seen. This is not even remembered as one of the greater matches from that brief but sweet run of FUTEN actually making tape in 2010, but it’s chock full of fantastic and violent exchanges. Just the opening exchange with Ikeda and Hara trying to pulverize each other was fantastic. I have seen some people object to the Brahmans in Futen before, but they are fine here, working stiff and their comedy spot was over quickly and didn’t derail the match. One of them also had this sick leaping headbutt. Hara looks great coming in for his hot tag crushing everyone, and Moriyama is really good in his fired up youngster role. Ono isn’t in the match a ton but he looks great lighting up dudes with punches and kicks and stretching them with nasty submissions. His exchange with Ikeda was insane and the highlight of the match by far. Ikeda was working this match like an injured but still super tough and dangerous beast. His chemistry with Ono is really no worse than his chemistry with Yuki Ishikawa, except Ono is in more of an aggressor role. The finish is between Ikeda and Moriyama and basically about Moriyama trying to slowly chop the boss down and getting met with brutal punts kicks and straight rights. Absolutely dope material, it’s too sad FUTEN only started regularily releasing DVDs in 2010.

 

Takeshi Ono & Junji.com vs. Azteca & Daiyu Kawauchi (BattlARTS 2/12/1999) - SKIPPABLE

I would’ve liked to see how the KAGEKI boys would mesh with the BattlARTS crew, but they only showed about 30 seconds of this. Seemed like a pro style match with the only Ono content being a nasty double stomp and him octopus stretching young nondescript Kawauchi for the finish.

 Takeshi Ono & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Katsumi Usuda, BattlARTS 1/21/1997 - EPIC

This was some truely high end BattlARTS tag team action. The first thing you notice is how on point all 4 guys on the mat were. The opening exchanges felt slick like U-Style matwork and always highly competitive, with the violence upgraded to BattlARTS standards. The brutality was of the charts here. The "tag team partners running in to make the save from a submission" where some of the must vicious I've seen and felt like PRIDE ground stomping, Ikeda at one point started throwing mule kicks on the ground, and Usuda and Ono threw some kicks that looked like nobody would get up from them. Man I don't even care whether there was a story or anything this match because the work was so frantic, hard fought and believable and sold so, so well I was 100% engrossed the entire time. The match also felt like it could end at anytime: at one point, Ikeda got his leg worked over with a few kicks from Ono and nice holds by Ishikawa (note the teamwork there), then Ono landed a series of skull crushing kicks on him. Ikeda believably beat the count, but his entire body language was such that you could see he was moments away from being finished, so he did the only reasonable thing and quietly slipped to his corner to tag out before collapsing like a broken man. That may have been my favourite moment of the match and it made the finish feel even sweeter where it feels like Ishikawa and Ono have the match in the bag and Ikeda just comes in and turns Ono's lights out to set up the finish. All 4 guys had career highlight performances, Ono did some stuff on the mat only he could do, Usuda stepped up big time and Ishikawa and Ikeda had some incredible exchanges together. Great, great match and a really compelling fusion of top notch shootstyle matwork, brawling and top level stiffness.

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST