More from Cosmo Soldiers YouTube channel

     Cosmo Soldier & Tadahiro Fujisaki vs. Takeshi Sato & Yuji Kito, WYF 1998/3/15

Wrestle Yume Factory is one of my favourite promotions ever. WYF undercard matches like this are like pro wrestling in a lawless wasteland. There is a hearty dose of BattlARTS/WARish violence, general anarchy and an infusion of raw spirit that you don’t find like this often. It’s chaotic and glorious. This goes 15 minutes so they have some time. The first half of this was a lot of tight headlocks and groundwork, guys trying to ground each other but explosions did happen. Takeshi Sato who is IWA Japan scum is the first to really start the shenanigans as he lays with kicks hard as a brick into people. He goes for something like a dropkick or a high knee that lands awkwardly and his first instinct is to kick the other guy really hard again. Pro wrestling is a struggle against yourself as much as your opponent. Cosmo Soldier is likely here to just kick someone in the ear to get out of a hold, or dropkick them flush in the face. His dropkicks looked amazing and he is spirited trying to grapple it out with a kickpadded adversary. There’s hardly any rope running here and it makes the whole thing resemble a more serious wrestling match in the vein of BattlARTS. What these guys lack in polish they make up tenfold for by sheer willingness to bring the fight. Takeshi Sato continued to be a fiend here, randomly hitting one of the hardest enzuigiris I’ve ever seen to Fujisakis skull. Later Cosmos leg randomly gives out on him (element of chaos) and Sato would swiftly punish him by just landing this immensely beautiful and cruel high kick to his head. Fujisaki was pretty surely and great here too, working really solid early on, cinching headlocks, grabbing half crabs and leaning back hard, later uncorking his trademark hard headbutts, uncontained open hand strikes and lariating Sato straight in the face for all his sins. His turnbuckle headbutt spot looks so brutal, literally every member in the front row had their mouths open from amazement with how he drove into his skull into another persons face. Cosmo also had one of his finer days besides his leg giving out. I loved how he just absolutely spiked Sato with a uranage. Sato, of course, rolled out the ring to clutch his aching neck, and Soldier immediately followed up with a big dive. Nice and spontaneous, everyone here was living in the moment. Kito was sticking to fairly basic stuff at this point and he’s solid, his big spot was a double knee drop off the top that looked pretty hurty, and took a back-hitting headbutt from Fujisaki and got spiked on his neck by his big suplexes like a champ. Second half of this match is just a frenzy with guys trying to knock the soul out of each other, everything having maximum force and violence. Random spin kick from Takeshi Sato? Yeah, looked like it made the other guy reconsider his life choices immediately after taking it. Soldier going for his big cancun tornado? Yeah, this might as well kill the guy. At one point Fujisaki, when breaking up a submission made sure to really dig his foot into the other guys face before stomping like he was trying to crack a particularily tough walnut. Nothing held back, just for this small gym audience and a lone camera filming this to end up in storage and somehow on YouTube 28 years later. Comparing a match like this to something like Flair/Steamboat would be like comparing Cannibal Corpses A Skull Full of Maggots to the Moonlight Sonata. But sometimes I wanna listen to Cannibal Corpse. I love my Wrestle Yume Factory and this delivered hard.

Kishimen vs. Kuraudo Kondo, KAGEKI 2009/2/15

Who is this mysterious Kishimen? Perhaps Cosmo Soldiers cousin from another dimension. Online sources tell me Kuraudo Kondo is a student of Masashi Aoyagi. That might mean that he took a karate class of Aoyagi once when he was a teenager, or it might be the truth. Kondo looks like a UWF fighter, and he actually fights like a student of Aoyagi, e.g. he kicks a lot and he kicks really really hard. This is also in a kickboxing ring so you know any fall in that ring hurts like hell. Kishimen takes him down to hit a really hard elbow to his face. A not-clean break later Kishimen waffles Kondo some more with open hand hits and then absolutely spikes him with a shootstyle-DDT on his head in that unforgiving kickboxing ring. This causes Kondo to have enough of Kishimen and just starts kicking the absolute shit out of him, absolutely not holding back on any of his kicks, and slamming him right in the middle of that unforgiving ring. Kishimen takes back over with a damn abdominal stretch and it’s all awkward violence from here on. Kondo continues to hold absolutely nothing back on his kicks and I’d like to see more of his short career. Kishimen flies ass-first into Kondos face twice in this match, at first it seemed like an accident, but the second time you fully understand this man was trying to break his opponents face with his ass. Kishimen ends up cranking the nastiest chickenwing crossface I’ve ever seen for the tap. If the previous match was A Skull Full of Maggots then this is like Last Days of Humanity or Rompeprop, or your little brothers band sloppily covering Carcass or Autopsy where the singer loses his voice halfway into the song and just starts screeching… eitherways, still pretty enjoyable violent chaos.

Cosmo Soldier & Raging Bull vs. Tadahiro Fujisaki & Shigeo Kato, WYF 1/23/1998

The WYF streak continues. This starts with all these guys working holds and hitting the mat, and it has the vibe of something like a MUGA match but with that rugged WYF charm. Looking at this match is like looking at a wrestling fractal, you see deeper and deeper flourishes and details even in usually mundane things as all these guys have a unique way of doing things, and sometimes will bust out things that no one else would think of doing such as the slick entry into a stepover armbar Cosmo does here to get out of a sleeper hold. There’s some genuinely slick stuff going on between Fujisaki and Cosmo, but a big part of the fascination is that these guys might just pop each other in the mouth in totally uncalled for ways or suddenly kick someone in the face to get out of a hold. Really exploring how you can break submissions in painful ways, either by driving our own foot in someones face or having your partner come in and dropkick them right in the skull. Kato is all about ratty old school ways to hurt opponents, and doing things like randomly squeezing a cravate really hard. Raging Bull is this odd guy from Texas who somehow ended up getting trained at the WYF dojo, he’s unspectacular in the sense that he will tag in and just hit some elbow drops, but he’s kind of likable as he realizes he needs to make this stuff look urgent, so he doesn’t dull things. As always with these matches the first half is ground-based and solid peppered with guys potatoeing each other in uncalled and unpredictable ways. There are some hard Fujisaki headbutts, but things really start kicking when Cosmo breaks out of a hold by kicking Kato in the head, following with a sick enzuigiri also to the head and then absolutely spiking him with sick uranage before stubbornly trying to snap his arm. Things really get cooking in the last 7 minutes or so with all kinds of awesome scrappy action and details. You get chaotic and wild, such as Cosmo eating some reckless face stomps from Fujisaki only to grab onto his wrist and slingshot him across the ring, really making the absolute most of ‘I need to get this guy to my corner’ in an unconventional way. There are more violent submission breaks, Kato wincing in pain after taking a basic double axe handle to his bad shoulder and deciding to absolutely spike Cosmo with some mean piledrivers. The finishing run ends up being Cosmo vs. Fujisaki and it’s pretty much 3 minutes of gold. Loved how Fujisaki would stop a charging Soldier by just grabbing on to his face then headbutting him right between the eyes, then almost knock his head off with one of the hardest lariats I’ve ever seen. There’s also this amazing moment where Cosmo tried to reverse into a Fujiwara armbar, Fujisaki would stomp on his ankle really hard and Kato came in at the same time just obliterating him with superkick to the face, then Fujisaki would dump him with these awesome Otsuka-esque deadlift suplexes. Just a multitude of awesome things happening at once, and it made for a really exciting finishing run built on the solid build up of this match. Also gotta love Cosmo for being able to pull off something genuinely impressive like a big leaping rana or cool jumping kick despite all his flaws. He ended up pulling off something chaotic for the finish too and that rules. Another chapter in the book called Why Wrestle Yume Factory Was Awesome And I might Name My Three Children Cosmo Soldier, Tadahiro Fujisaki and Raging Bull

Cosmo Soldier vs. Koji Niizumi, KAGEKI 7/22/2017

I am always interested in Koji Niizumi. From what I’ve seen, he’s just this crazy hard hitter who makes people cry for their momma. To my surprise though, Cosmo Soldier was the unhinged one here. He was laying into Niizumi full force constantly, smacking him in the face, bending his legs at nasty angles with cool and unusual submissions and landing some of the hardest stomps you’ll ever see. Cosmo Soldier was so hellbent on trying every evil idea he could come up with here it made me long to see Niizumi tee off a bit more, so when he does it’s really satisfying. When it was time to give the beating back Niizumi was hitting Soldier with elbows and lariats that looked like they would take years off someones life. It built to some fine fine moments of really violent and fun pro wrestling. It seems Cosmo had overreached at the end and gassed himself out leaving him open for Niizumi to kill him off with an elbow that looked harder than the one Misawa knocked out Hansen with. A well earned victory in this title match that deserved that name. I really wish I could see more of Niizumi but until then these rare appearances of him are gems.

Cosmo Soldiers YouTube Channel

 Cosmo Soldier vs Kenta Kosugi, KAGEKI 5/6/2023

Very good match with Kosugi looking like a beast and Cosmo trying everything in the book to crack him down. Soldier hanging on to headlocks and sleeperholds and booting Kosugi in the face early on reminded me of a smartly worked early 90s AJPW match. Soldier was hitting insanely hard, both trying to crack Kosugis jaw with european uppercuts and laying really hard kicks into his body, and he had a few classy moments such as a really graceful sweep into a submission, as well as a great upside down scarecrow submission hold. Kosugi powering out of Soldiers holds was epic and he looked like a monster manhandling Soldier and ragdoll tossing him into the buckles. It builds to this really nasty finish with Soldier trying to chop through Kosugis neck with weird sideway hitting lariats and Kosugi just trying to chokeslam him through the ring. Really good, honestly probably the best singles match I’ve seen of our man Cosmo.

Cosmo Soldier vs Yoshikazu Taru, WYF 10/5/1997

Pretty fun 5 minutes. This was probably the most asskicking I’ve seen Taru dish out. He sure was confident putting a beating on Soldier here. Soldier can hit some quick takedowns but he eats lots of hard kicks and even karate chops from Taru. It looks like it’s gonna be a one sided trashing but the Soldier is able to land an awesome punch to the head and then fly recklessly into TARU with his awesome fast flip dive. It looks like Soldier can mount something, but then he knocks himself loopy while trying a suplex and seconds later is KO’d by a big Taru high kick. Fun for all the things people like indy scum wrestler vs karateka matches, and condensed into 5 minutes too.

Cosmo Soldier vs Makoto Saito, WYF 1997/5/18

This appears to be taking place in the WYF Dojo, so that alone is amazing to see. The match is fun too, as it’s basically raw unpolished BattlARTS style. Lots of tight grappling and evil strikes with both guys weaving in some big moves to keep it exciting. Saito looks really cool here, really peppering Soldier with sharp kicks. Soldier tries a few things, some come off well, like his out of nowhere headscissor takedown, some are slightly ill fated, but the spirit was there. Nothing here locks planned and it’s just really raw and uncooperative stuff. Not for the faint of the heart but sometimes a raw messy fight like this cleans the soul.

Digging into a mysterious library of obscure Japanese handheld footage

 
Headhunters vs. Shinichi Nakano & Hirofumi Miura, WYF 8/30/1995
 

The people behind the promotion known was Mutoha have also started putting up various old handhelds on their YouTube channel. Years ago WYF was the first obscure Japanese indy promotion that I fell in love with and I wished to see more of this unique fed, so I am stoked to see this stuff unveiled after decades. And this match was pretty beastly. Headhunters are awesome and extremely underrated. There's nothing like watching two face painted monsters waltz into Korakuen Hall throwing chairs around while March of the S.O.D. blares. This was almost a squash, as Headhunters dominated nearly the entire action. They have great offense so it was cool. Highlights include a brutal powerbomb that almost broke Nakanos neck, and a completely unexpected slow motion German Suplex. I loved the moment where Nakano crawled to his corner trying to make the hot tag only to find his partner was being butchered outside the ring by another Headhunter. It's such a logical thing to happen in a one sided, out of control massacre. Nakano only got in a desperation enzuigiri and some potatoe blows. Miuras brief run on offense was okay but he quickly got destroyed with the moonsault to end all moonsaults. The crowd was super hot for this and lived and died with their WYF heroes. I wish we had gotten to see a bit more of Nakano though it is remarkable that he did not die by that powerbomb. The Headhunters wreaking havoc was absolutely awesome, though.

Masaaki Mochizuki/TARU/Takashi Okamura vs Masakazu Fukuda/Kamikaze/Hiroyoshi Kotsubo WYF 3/20/1997
 

This was the first match between these 6 guys. All their matches are great, and this is in Korakuen Hall and feels especially wild because WYF fans hate the karate guys at this stage, so it feels ultra heated.  Match was pretty much the perfect mix of shootstyle and WAR-esque potatoes/scrappiness with that trademark WYF levels of unpolished, dirty fighting. Early goings were really good as WYF guys kept their opponents grounded in scrappy fashion. Even Kotsubo looked really good as he kept taking downs with explosive shooting takedowns, at one point even leading to both guys tumbling outside and brawling on the floor.  Kamikaze is impeccable in these matches, kicking people in the face, hammering a guy with punches and taunting the karatekas further. Fukuda also looked great - just hurling dudes with suplex that looked insanely forceful, and trying to crush peoples face with dropkicks and stomps. Buko Dojo guys started breaking out their kicks later and it's everything you can ask for. There's a pretty great dive sequence, Mochizuki flying at people with kicks, Buko guys breaking up pins and submissions with nasty kicks etc. Even the Kotsubo vs Taru matchup which is really shit on paper ends up being good. WYF was striking gold with  this feud in 1997, and I'm so happy we get the beginning of the feud, really heated and violent from the get go.

 

Hiroshi Watanabe & Hiroyuki Kondo vs. Crusher Takahashi & Hideya Iso (Bungee Takada Produce 11/6/2003)

Apparently this is from a show produced by Bungee Takada. It's not something I knew about or dreamed that I would see it but it's a strange and cool surprise. We love all these guys when they are old men, and they were still youngish here, so they moved a bit faster and smoother than later. They went 24 minutes without really slowing down, with lots of trying to stay on a guy, and it was a cool match. Lotta matwork, cool submissions and pin combos. Hideya Iso was looking quite unrecognizable here and did some athletic moves including a Kota Ibushi style backflip into a moonsault. Watanabe had a wild beard making him look like a Mad Dog and he was as slick and technically sound as in any other match you'll see him in. The star of the match was Crusher Takahashi, though. The man was on fire doing it all here, throwing really beautiful bridging suplex moves, his amazing Terry Funk punch combo and doing other odd stuff like busting out the Gibson leglock. You can tell he was stoked to be in a long match with a bunch of capable opponents and show off what he can do. It was one of those matches that show off what you can do even while wrestling a rather conservative wrestling style in front of a small audience. Must-watch if you are a fan of Crusher Takahashi, a really solid wrestlers-wrestler type match for everyone else too.

Tarzan Goto Documentation #14

Tarzan Goto & Ryo Miyake vs. Shinichi Nakano & Arashi, WYF 3/20/1997 - GREAT

Nice to see the beginnings of the WYF vs. Shin FMW feud. This wasn’t even a bloodbath like the later matches, it was a cool grumpy heavyweight clash which is also good enough. There’s even a point where Goto teases using a chair on Nakano but puts it down because Goto fights fair now~! Opening Goto vs. Nakano matwork was super fun, just two thicc guys looking awesome taking each other down and rolling around, Goto has a nice bridge and really swift movements for a heavyweight, both guys do a competition of who can hit the coolest wrist arm salto among other cool things. Miyake is the whipping boy in this match as he basically gets bullied a bunch by Arashi and Nakano, Nakano is really good at fucking people at and Arashi who normally sucks looked good here by acting like an asshole, taunting Miyake and even being the first guy to use a chair. Also really enjoyed Goto running over to slap some fighting spirit into his boy and sending him at people like an attack dog. I didn’t expect either Nakano or Arashi to take much punishment so Goto beating the fuck out of Arashi in the second half felt cool and unexpected. Miyake is kind of pathetic but it doesn’t stick out super bad here. Very good mean bastards fighting each other type match and always nice to see Goto putting in a good night of work doing his thing

Tarzan Goto & Jun Kikuzawa vs. Ryuji Yamakawa & Shoji Nakamaki, BJW  5/29/1997 - FUN

This was a double hell barbedwire deathmatch with some thumbtacks. That kind of stipulation means that not much wrestling will happen, so the match lives and dies on brawling. Goto is a really good brawler, his punches and boots look great and he really knows how to hit people with plunder in interesting ways, like driving the pointy end of an umbrella into peoples heads, threatening to throw a table at the audience etc. The other guys in the match are less interesting but they are willing to bleed take painful bumps into baredwire and tacks and do stupid shit. Kikuzawas dive through the wire was definitely the highlight. The match was pretty short and almost a squash with Goto largely fucking people up save for one bump he took into the tacks, but it was fun for what it was. We get some more crazy brawling after the match with Goto dragging bleeding people through the building.

El Hijo Del Santo & Atsushi Onita & Mil Mascaras vs. Negro Casas & Tarzan Goto & Nitron (Tijuana, 5/15/92) - FUN

Now this is a fever dream match up. Onita and Goto enter the ring and immediately start ramming each others heads against each other and brawling on the floor, with both guys coming up bleeding. That’s the first 2 minutes of the match. Oddly enough the Onita/Goto match up kind of takes center stage with both guys always beating the shit out of each other. The luchadores make mostly fun cameos, with Santo vs. Casas being obviously pretty damn good. It was fascinating what Casas could do with Mascaras who refuses to bump and sticks to the same stuff he’s probably been doing for 25 years at this point. Nitron is some comically large guy who’s not very good but him getting bowled around by the force of something like Mascaras flying chops or Santos flying headbutt is fun enough. And Onita and Goto are always there, bleeding and beating the shit out of each other. It was kind of awesome to see that in Tijuana, but the rest of the match was mostly just an oddity.

Tarzan Goto Master List

Assorted Japanese Handhelds

 

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Masakazu Fukuda, WYF 8/4/1998

 

This thing getting uploaded by the cameraman almost 25 years later has to be a near miracle, but then we‘ve seen a lot of miracles by now when it comes to highly improbable things ending up on the internet. This was a great striker vs. grappler matchup. Seeing Mochizuki here makes one sour that he retired to Dragon Gate, as he was throwing kicks a nd hands in a totally unpredictable and non-choreographed way here that was really cool, coupled with some swank agility. Fukudas style is really unique, he is this lanky tall guy who just glues himself to opponents when he grabs them and drags them into his throws and submissions. He also absolutely rattled Mochizukis shit with a nasty dropkick and some stiff strikes, but Mochizuki kept firing back. The match had a few Hondaish moments, at one point Mochizuki went for a punch to Fukuda and Fukuda attached himself to Mochis arm and dragged him into another hold. When Mochizuki went to recuperate Fukuda just dragged him over the ropes and threw him, with Mochizuki landing hard on all his throws. This was to the point and absolutely no nonsense with both guys giving each other little space a nd all the offense looking like it required zero cooperation, I get WYF was a niche indy back then, but this kind of indy match is a real breath of fresh air these days.

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Great Kabuki, WAR 11/9/1993

 

These two could have just punched and kicked each other and done some staredowns and it would‘ve been a quite good match, but we got something more neat here. Tenryus resume of great houseshow matches is for sure impressive. We get a fun opening with Kabuki trying to stand up to Tenryu with his great uppercuts, and Tenryu just chops and lariats him in the throat with Kabuki sells passionately. Tenryu seems to have this in the bag easily but then Kabuki catches him with a surprise thrust kick and Tenryu tumbles outside. Immediately a bunch of Heisei Ishingun goons start swarming Tenryu and brawling with his seconds. Tenryu eats chair shots while Kabuki cuts a promo. Back in the ring Tenryu is bleeding and Kabuki takes him apart punching and kicking the cut. Tenryu is able to snap a Fujiwara armbar but has to let go of the hold because his blood is blinding him in a really neat moment. Tenryus facial expressions and body language are outstanding even on a blurry handheld. His exhausted surprise abisegiris were really cool, also. Great little match due to structure and grit.

 

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki, WAR 11/8/1993

 

A unique match for Tenryu in 1993, because he fights his stablemate Fuyuki. So it‘s not gonna be an interpromotional brawl, but then, you have two tubby, surly bastards in a match, how can it not escalate? But they start wrestling, Fuyuki hits a nice scientific arm suplex and Tenryu busts out his cool leg trip. Fuyuki starts the real fun by kicking Tenryu in the back and hitting a fast belly to belly. Tenryu fires back with some light kicks to Fuyukis face, which feel almost like a reminder for Fuyuki not to try anything he would regret. They go back to wrestling and Tenryu lays a really stiff leg kick into Fuyuki, but Fuyuki shows toughness and catches Tenryu with an enzuigiri. Now it‘s Tenryus turn to not break clean and chip away at a prone Fuyuki. The whole match was built like that, lots of cool tubby guy wrestling building to explosions until both guys were punching and kicking each other in the face. I loved Fuyukis punches, and how Tenryu sold them with drool flying out his mouth as he got hit. Fuyuki worked one hell of a match getting fired up and just being this plucky fighter that wouldn‘t back down, and once again Tenryus charisma was outstanding. Some surprisingly great bits of wrestling too such as Fuyuki turning an attempted DDT into a northern lights suplex. Smart match with plenty of violence that told a simple story in a beautiful way, just a houseshow footnote for both guys in 1993 but would be a serious MOTYC if it happened now.

WYF Endless Shout 1/8/1998

 Watch

Shigeo Kato vs. Raging Bull

Raging Bull is some foreigner who somehow ended up working a few WYF shows around this time. This was almost like a TV studio squash with Kato working over Bulls arm for 7 minutes before tapping him out with a carny hold. Bull only clubbed his way out of Katos holds a few times and went down pretty easily. I think Kato did his job well here so I thought it was a cool little match but nothing must watch.

 

Tadahiro Fujisaki vs. Makoto Saito

Really good match which leaves you with a few realisations: 1. these two kids were insanely talented to have a random indy sleaze undercard match this good 2. damn, that's actually Fugofugo Yumeji and some dork from Dragon Gate before he went to Dragon Gate? 3. These two totally could have and should have been the Yuki Ishikawa and Daisuke Ikeda of sleazy King's Road style, but it just ended up not happening. AAAAAHHHHH it's maddening!! All that squandered potential!!! It's even worse than watching the kids in GAEA!! But, atleast I can watch this match and fantasy book an ideal fed centered around these guy propagating their own vision of brutal & intricate junior wrestling.

This match is a lot like two NOAH heavies having a really fun undercard bombfest. It's not flawless, but the potential for this to grow into something beautiful was there. Fujisaki has the cool wrist clutch suplexes and submissions and Saito brings the stiff spin kicks and hurty looking junior offense. The build to the finish was especially cool as it was like a mix of an AJPW "super finisher" and NJPW "You keep blocking this move, so I will use that to set up another move" moment.

 

Masashi Aoyagi & Cosmo*Soldier vs. Masayoshi Motegi & Azteca

Solid long match. The thing with these guys is you want them to bust out reckless highspots and have scrappy exchanges, so when they churn out a more polished match you‘re almost a little disappointed. That said Motegi proved himself an intelligent worker here. While his initial exchange with Aoyagi was not as heated as it would‘ve been in a 1993 W*ING vs. NJPW match, it was clear Motegi was trying to give Aoyagi as little space as possible to unleash his dangerous striking. Later, he decided to do some really solid backwork on Soldier to set up some cool submission holds. Everyone else was solid here but the match wasn‘t crazy or weird enough for a WYF undercard bout. Soldier had 2 good dives but he really needed to botch some moves.

Shinichi Shino vs. The Wolf

This is the Wolfs retirement match (although he would come back to work for WWS a few years later), which adds some emotional connection and heat. Shino isn‘t very good, but he can work a hard hitting match, and The Wolf gets in some nice kick barrages on him. Frantic pace and the crowd was really into it. I liked Shinos spinning Dragon Sleeper and his big powerbombs.

Onryo & Shinigami & Hirofumi Miura vs. Masakazu Fukuda & Hiroyoshi Kotsubo & Kamikaze, WYF 1/8/1998

Up to a point this was a really good 6 man tag. Everyone here is not super polished, but willing to take and dish out some punishment, so you got a bunch of fun scrappy exchanges. For example, Onryo sandbacked a Fukuda suplex early, so Fukuda just dropped him on his head. I also enjoy these hybrid wrestlers taking on these whacky zombies. Even Shinigami was entertaining as you got moments like KAMIKAZE turning his Iron Claw into a Fujiwara Armbar and then Shinigami would work over his stomach to set up the stomach claw. Even the Kotsubo/Miura section was good as Miura punched him in the face and Kotsubo would spit on him and hit a stiff spinning backhand. Control section on KAMIKAZE was really good, he got a table thrown on his head, bled a bunch, ate chain punches etc. The segment where he backdropped Onryo on top of Shinigami and then hit his spectacular Spaceman Moonsault while bleeding was incredible and like something out of a high level CMLL trios. Unfortunately the match fell apart a little when they had Kotsubo and Onryo engage in a long segment, they really needed to tag in Fukuda instead. KAMIKAZE looked great though spiking Onryo on his head and the ghoul outgrappling the guy in the singlet was funny.

The Library

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #14

 Tanomusaku Toba vs. Masashi Takeda, Hard Hit 7/20/2008 - FUN

Deathmatch boy Takeda wasn't half bad at shootstyle at this point. Fun grappler vs. striker match. Takeda hits some explosive takedowns and suplexes and Toba hits some brutal counterpunches. It seemed to be hitting at something bigger, but it as a fun little match. Especially dug that sick deadlift suplex Takeda hit on Toba.

Tanomusaku Toba & Seiya Morohashi vs. Tomohiko Hashimoto & Nobutaka Moribe, DDT 3/27/2005 - SKIPPABLE

Seems the quality of DDT was nosediving by this time. I didn't really care for 3/4 of the guys here. Hashimoto is a guy who has worked FUTEN so he can hit and get hit and had one or two fun exchanges, but doesn't really do anything outstanding. Toba was Toba, he had a few fun moments where punched and kicked guys hard and also ate the fuck out of a Moribe Complete Shot at one point, he also played a pretty decent Ricky Morton to a boring control segment from Hashimoto and Moribe. That sad it wasn't anything that would justify enduring the mediocre guys in this.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Keisuke Ishii, DDT 5/23/2010 - FUN

This was Toba punishing a rookie, which he does pretty well. Mostly Toba punching and kicking young Ishii really hard, while Ishii makes some scrappy young boy comebacks. Toba actually puts Ishiis boy offense over as dangerous and there was quite a high level of violence, for example Toba kicking Ishii in the face to escape a half crab. Fun 5 minutes.

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION

Tarzan Goto Documentation Project #4

 Tarzan Goto & Jun Kikuzawa vs. Masayoshi Motegi & Shinichi Nakano, WYF 8/9/1997 - GREAT

This was another piece of fucking great pro wrestling. This was not quite the same chaotic, savage massacre as the previous Goto vs. WDF guys tag, but more of a great southern style tag. Some really fun back and forth wrestling early on which was damn cool to see from such a fat guy as Goto, before Motegi ends up suicide diving right into a Goto chairshot (did I mention Motegi is actually awesome?) which sets up the heat section of Goto again mercilessly fucking up Motegi with various foreign objects, including drilling his face with an umbrella. Motegi screaming for his life while Goto was stubbornly trying to crack a beer bottle over his head before he just breaks it and carves him up gave the whole thing a Hillbilly slasher movie feel. Goto has fucking great punches, too. It all builds very well to Nakano getting the hot tag and in turn messing up everyone with his simple, violent offense. Aside from Goto being awesome you also had the future Kikutaro who at this point was a fun fatboy wrestler that gets messed up by the veterans for being a newbie, at one point Nakano just grabs him and drills his face with knee strikes. Really well worked match that blends southern psychology and japanese hierarchy thinking.

 Tarzan Goto & Jun Kikuzawa vs. Basara & Shinichi Nakano, WYF 9/23/1997 - GREAT

Another very good entry in the shockingly awesome WDF vs. Shin FMW series. In this match Nakano teams with Basara, who is a pudgy low ranked guy in an awesome mask (it has a beard). This matchup gives Nakano and Goto the opportunity to work a really nice opening match section, where both guys have great armdrags, firemans carries etc. and then kick the shit out of the lower ranked guy on the other team. Nakano stomps the hell out of future Kikutaro (take that you unfunny motherfucker!) but Basara gets it worse as Goto piledrives him on the floor, ripping his mask open and bloodying him. Goto's awesome and unique use of foreign objects continues in this match as he grabs a broom, then breaks it in half and stabs Basara in the face with the wooden splinters. It's shit that happens in any lousy deathmatch but the way Goto does it makes it look like some horrific inventive abuse. The crowd actually gets into Basara as he absorbs a beatdown and he arguably has his finest moments ever in this match (not a high bar, but it's something), including landing a big diving headbutt that leaves a pool of blood on the other guys chest. Kikuzawa also busts out the fatboy moonsault and Goto makes uses of the ring bell guy's hammer which I am always a sucker for. Really good stuff, Goto always does the same shit, but he can do no wrong in this formular and the WDF guys were perfect foils as usual.

 Tarzan Goto vs. Battle Ranger, FMW 7/31/1994 - EPIC

Really great match which was way better than a Battle Ranger match had any right to be. To be fair, Ranger brings it hard, as hard as you need when you are fighting Tarzan Goto. Ranger goes right at Goto throwing hard palm strikes. Goto goes to par terre and challenges the Ranger to grapple him which rules, but  Ranger throws a stiff kick at his shoulder instead. It's an awesome beginning to a match and it leads to Tarzan in turn levelling an epic gruesome beating on the Ranger, as he rips his mask open, bloodies him and kicks him around, all the while Tarzan was surprisingly great at eating Rangers surprise high spots. Battle Ranger was hitting hard and getting punched in the face, selling big, taking big bumps and getting tables chucked at his head, clearly having the night of his life. The fans got really into Battle Ranger too, after they initially saw him as having no chance, and Goto is really great in his psycho Tenryu role punching Ranger in the face and throwing great looking headbutts and lariats. It builds to a finish that feels extremely dramatic and violent even by FMW, they made it look as if getting your ass kicked was just as bad as getting blown up in a cage, and the stretcher job really underlines that. Fantastic Goto show against an inspiring opponent, and another case for Goto being so much more than just a gorehound.

 TARZAN GOTO DOCUMENTATION MASTER LIST

Tarzan Goto Documentation Project #2

 Atsushi Onita vs. Tarzan Goto (FMW 2/26/1991) - EPIC

Okay, wow. This was brutal as hell. Essentially the world's sleaziest WAR match. Forget about explosions and barbedwire, this was about crazy headbutts, lariats and punches in the face.

 
This was also a total fight. Normally in hardcore type matches there will be some lulls when guys are rummaging around, but here they are just killing eachother the whole way. Right out the gate they are ramming their heads into eachother, Goto's face in a pool of blood immediately, and I love how Goto was selling that he is clearly rattled by Onita's headbutts but still trying to push back. Onita comes out on top and immediately goes for a suicide dive that doesn't go well, and Goto immediately grabs a chair and waffles Onita in the face. Next you know Onita is bleeding and Goto continues to beat the life out of him, just killing him chucking tables and stomping him in the face. When that doesn't do it Goto briefly works Onita's leg to set up an STF, altough he is still laying in a fucking stiff beating kicking Onita in the hamstring.
 
One headbutt exchange later and Onita has proven that he is still tougher, sending Goto outside altough Goto immediately goes for a fucking dropkick there. Neither of these guys will stop attacking, altough Onita gets the advantage again body slamming him into chairs and landing a table-cracking piledriver that looked like a potential KO as much as anything. Back in the ring and both guys are a mess at this point. Goto with the blistering lariats and huge superfly splash again, but Onita catches him with his DDTs and goes on to drill him with the big damn powerbombs. I actually liked the "kick out at 1 spot" here, it's become such a cliche at this point, but Goto's facial expression really gets it across, he's thinking "I know I'm dead on my feet, but I'm not quitting now, fuck you" then punches Onita in the face. Onita just keeps dropping Goto with one nastier powerbomb after another until he stays down, making this almost a Steve Williams Backdrop moment.
 
I dunno. This is probably not as fine as Kawada/Taue, but in way it feels like the ultimate 90s indy sleaze massacre. It's easily the best match of that kind that I can recall seeing. It's gruesome, primitive, savage as hell and unlike many other matches of that kind had me enthralled the whole way through. Yeah maybe it's not a Top 40 match in 1991, who gives a shit. I loved this.

 

Tarzan Goto & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa vs. Masayoshi Motegi & Shinichi Nakano, WYF 8/9/1997 - GREAT

 

This was another piece of fucking great pro wrestling. This was not quite the same chaotic, savage massacre as the previous Goto vs. WDF guys tag, but more of a great southern style tag. Some really fun back and forth wrestling early on which was damn cool to see from such a fat guy as Goto, before Motegi ends up suicide diving right into a Goto chairshot (did I mention Motegi is actually awesome?) which sets up the heat section of Goto again mercilessly fucking up Motegi with various foreign objects, including drilling his face with an umbrella. Motegi screaming for his life while Goto was stubbornly trying to crack a beer bottle over his head before he just breaks it and carves him up gave the whole thing a Hillbilly slasher movie feel. Goto has fucking great punches, too. It all builds very well to Nakano getting the hot tag and in turn messing up everyone with his simple, violent offense. Aside from Goto being awesome you also had the future Kikutaro who at this point was a fun fatboy wrestler that gets messed up by the veterans for being a newbie, at one point Nakano just grabs him and drills his face with knee strikes. Really well worked match that blends southern psychology and japanese hierarchy thinking.

 

TARZAN GOTO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST 

Tarzan Goto Documentation Project #1

 Tarzan Goto & Ryo Miyake vs. Masayoshi Motegi & Shinichi Nakano, WYF  7/16/1997 - EPIC

This delivers the promise of an IWA Japan vs. Yume Factory match. Picture 4 sleazy heavyweights potatoeing the shit out of eachother, add a ton of blood and you have this match. You know it's an awesome match! Tarzan Goto is one of the most mean wreckingball wrestler dudes ever, and this match really showcases him both doing some cool actual wrestling, and fucking dudes up in really graphic ways. Motegi is very lovable as this legendary sad sack who tries really hard, and he takes a monster beating from the IWA guys, getting waffled with chairs, punched and bloodied and he fires right back with full force hits. Miyake is perfectly fine as a disdainful shitbag kneedropping and stomping dudes in their bloody face. Nakano fits perfectly in this kind of savage potatoefest as a hot tag with his eardrum shattering slaps and enzuigiris and awesome powerslam, also he comes in with a bandage over his eye resulting in some gross spots where he gets hit in the eye with chairs and headbutts that would make Terry Funk cringe. Finish was not as epic as the body of the match but kind of worked as a payoff. This pretty much ruled.

 

Tarzan Goto vs. Yoji Anjoh, Rikidozan Memorial 3/11/2000 - GREAT

 Wonderful match which delivers in spades what you want from these two in terms of sleazy shootstyle vs. sleazy garbage brawling sections. Anjoh is off the charts here working his shtick and Goto is a great contrast stoically punching and lariating the shit out of him.  There is some cool wrestling going on too with Anjoh using submissions to neutralize Goto, and Goto doing some cool wrestling himself such as stonewalling Anjohs attempts at submissions and takedowns. But in the end, you wanna watch both these guys bleed and waffle the shit out of each other and that's what happens.

TARZAN GOTO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

Wrestle Yume Factory 1/28/1996

This was very much a  mid 90s high school gym scum indy show.

Madness vs. The Wolf 

 THE MADNESS emanates the kind of terrible fascination typical of sleaze indy wrestling. He's just a big guy with a skull mask and a green flanel shirt. His entrance theme is just gurgling swamp sounds. The match was better than you'd expect. It was pretty basic, but The Wolf will kick you really hard and THE MADNESS has a nice powerslam. Being able to do 1 or 2 moves well will get you far enough in my book and this was decent like an approximation of a  good WWF Superstars match in a japanese high school gym.

Cosmo*Soldier vs. Azteca

Azteca is the most mediocre junior in all of Japanese wrestling history, but I'd say he was decent in WYF as opposed to KAGEKI where he just got really into being the poorest mans Liger. Cosmo*Soldier  had yet to reach his peak as a botchtastic wannabe hybrid shooter junior that he would become in 1997, but he flies way into my heart in this match by hitting hilariously miscalculated dive into nothing. This really wasn't good or anything but it made me laugh.

Hiroyoshi Kotsubo vs. Hirofumi Miura

This was Hiroyoshi Kotsubo actually being pretty good. Lord knows that guy sucks working BattlARTS and Futen, but will have a good performance on the most niche shows. This was like a scrappy BattlARTS match with Kotsubo being aggressive and working takedowns on suplexes. Miura is some karate gi wearing scum who tries kicking hard but Kotsubo just eats him. This ended up just a squash, although the finish with the GI choke was badass.
  

Onryo vs. Shinichi Shino

 Shinichi Shino is a W*ING guy who it seems was struggling to find his identity at this point. He looked like a mix of several different wrestlers. Onryo at this stage is really pretty useless outside of dives and taking nasty bumps. This was mostly Shino in control and only allowing Onryo to hit his spots which is how you carry Onryo. I wouldn't say Shino was particularily good here, but he kept things moving and the match ended up short enough to be alright.

Masayoshi Motegi vs. Shinigami

Bless our lord and saviour Motegi. He tries so, so hard to get a watchable match out of Shinigami. On the other hand, he is likely responsible for letting guys as shitty as Shinigami into the business. I will respect him for shouldering the burden, though. Shinigami is terrible, but there was one nifty moment where Motegi was working over his leg and put a Figure 4 on him. Shinigami then got up, seemingly no-selling the leg work but then his leg gave right out. It was a pretty cool bit of convincing zombie-like selling. Motegi ends the match with a cool submission that was like an STF without the face lock and Motegi leaning all the way on the zombies injured leg. Also Onryo hit a dive off the balconies during this, setting the Onryo dive count on this show to 4. The match still blew, though.

Arashi & Osamu Tachihikari vs. Shinichi Nakano & Kamikaze

Shinichi Nakano has to be like the japanese Black Terry, putting in subtle great performances in the most grimy unexpected places. Problem was that he barely was in the match. He is in a great opening section - where he gets his bandaged shoulder torn up - and a great end section though. Between that, there are way too many segments involving Kamikaze. The parts were Kamikaze was controlling were terrible as he was constantly calling spots in a really obvious manner. Arashi & Tachihikari may be the least of the WAR heavyweights but they are still OK delivering a beatdown. The end was great as Tachihikari ended up bloody. Nakano delivered some nasty as fuck stomps to the cut and a running punch that was Daisuke Ikeda levels of wild. There was also a great spot where Nakano, seemingly beaten, pulled Tachihikari in position for Kamikaze to hit a surprise flying move. Nakano smashing Tachihikari in the face with a chair repeatedly for the 10 count was also way more violent than I expected  for a high school gym main event.

THE LIBRARY