Assorted Japan Indy Wrestling

 

2/3 Falls: GENTARO vs. Masamune, VKF 9/23/2008

Borderline modern classic where they go balls deep going 60 minutes, and succeed. Who knew GENTARO would be the modern day Jack Briscoe having all these 60 minute epics? This starts with both guys doing some fun matwork before they settle into the main groove of the match: both guys doing gruelling body part work and struggling over basic holds. Gentaro starts the fun by working over Masamunes arm and Masamune defends himself by cinching tight headlocks and working his neck. Gentaro kept trying to force a tap with armbars while some of Masamunes holds damn near seemed to pull his head off so the work never got stale. They end the first fall on a cool note and then settle into doing some dueling legwork. The transition from armwork/neckwork into the legwork was pretty impeccable as they didn‘t just move on to do another thing, there was a logical shift in necessary strategies. Duelling legwork was also pretty intense and bordered on a Destroyer classic. Gentaro sunk in some Figure 4s and there was a great moment where Masamune countered one of them by grabbing Gentaros leg and trying to twist it off. There‘s also some absolutely stellar work around Gentaros Sharpshooter. I was expecting them to keep grinding it out on the mat, but they settle into a cool finishing run with some great pin attempts, nearfalls and choice counters, while keeping the focus on the leg stuff. Last move was just a thing of beauty. Yes this was slow and a bit repetitive in parts, but both guys did a phenomenal job struggling in and out of holds, and it all felt spontanteous. Really a gem of a match, if you are the kind of purist who can get into a cool 40 minutes of brainy duelling limbwork.

 

DAISAKU & YUSAKU & Naoshi Sano & YOSHIYA & Ishinriki vs. Masayoshi Motegi & Hirofumi Miura & Shinigami & Fukumentaro & Shigeo Kato, NMC Pro 10/21/2001

Fun sleazy brawl with zombies, karatekas and wrestlers brawling all over the building, bleeding, and taking mean bumps. There is a car at ring side and a good chunk of time is spent with guys taking nasty bumps into the car. Sano was quite the whipping boy here, taking a fisherman buster on top of the car, and another one on top of a truck, before getting carved open with a hatchet. These guys all have no problem working stiff and throwing big suplexes so the non brawling portions were cool too although the match suffered a bit from having only one camera.

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation Project #10

 

MIKAMI, Super Uchu Power, Tomohiko Hashimoto & Tanomusaku Toba vs Shoichi Ichinomiya, Tomohiro Ishii, GENTARO & YOSHIYA (DDT 10/30/01, Elimination Match) - FUN

This was an Elimination match which kind of showcased the amount of WWF fandom that was going on in DDT. Toba was only in this for a short time, but he looked damn great potatoeing dudes as usual. He also took some big ragdoll bumps during his FIP section. Tomohiro Ishii was kind of working like a regular heel wrestler here, which was a bit underwhelming considering how awesome he was when he was a stiff psycho during this time period, but there was a great moment where Toba woke him up and he started throwing big damn potatoes. The non-Toba portions were good but never reached those early violent heights again. It builds to a WWF style finishing run with Shoichi Ichimiya doing heel run ins, Mikami overcoming a 2 on 1 scenario, all the heels attacking with Stone Cold Uchu Power running in to lay everyone out only for a sudden heel turn to happen. I liked GENTARO a lot in this, such a cool unique wrestler in his early days with his blend of athleticism and WWF New Generation era worship, and MIKAMIs athleticism is also really fun, but I thought it got a little silly down the stretch. Still, someone who’s really into WWF Elimination Matches will probably dig this a lot.

 

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Futoshi Miwa (DDT 5/29/2004) - FUN

Futoshi Miwa is one of those DDT-style wrestlers with a fat nerdy kid gimmick. This was a shockingly decent match, mostly because Miwa knew how to wrestle like a fat kid, and Toba was beating this nerd pretty hard. Initially Miwa would act smug as Tobas kicks were bouncing off of his blubber, so Toba just brutalized him in the corner with punches. It looked like the ref was gonna stop the match but Miwa came back with a triumphant run of fatboy offense, just burying poor Toba under his blubber.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. MIKAMI, DDT 4/4/2010 - GREAT

This was way better. Short and to the point. MIKAMI tries to rush Toba and runs right into a big right hand. After that MIKAMI is eating shit until he is able to spin kick Toba in the face. MIKAMI looks really good here. He doesn’t do any kickboxing, but he has good matwork, highspots landing with a thud. And Toba always comes back punching or kicking him really hard. Apparently this was Tobas return match and he does feel slightly rusty, uncharacteristically whiffing on an axe kick. I hope I can find a match between these two in their peak period.

Tanomusaku Toba & Nihao vs. Takashi Sasaki & Asian Cougar (DDT 11/27/1999) - EPIC

Another excellent match from the DDT crew. Nihao looked very good here. It’s weird that you have to scour the earth for Nihao footage. The boy could go and easily would’ve been a great addition to the BattlARTS undercard scene. Good on the mat, cool suplexes, and perfectly able to engage in a stiff battle. He controlled the early parts of this while Toba would occasionally enter the ring to nail someone with unpredictable kicks and punches. I also really enjoyed Asian Cougar in this. He may seem like a spot monkey who just runs through his shit, but all of his spots where very well timed here and he knew how to fly into the scenery to crush someone at all the right moments. The match also had a great dive sequence. Toba is such a great addition to a hybrid junior tag like this. His springboard kick to the face is so reckless and awesome. The finish is between him and Sasaki and another great entry in their kickass rivalry.

 

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

IWA Japan WELCOME THE WORLD CHAMPION TOUR '97 10/27/1997

 Yuji Kito vs. Yoshiya Yamashita 

Emi Motokawa vs. Sachie Nishibori 

Tigre Oriental vs. Tortuga
Freddy Krueger vs. Katsumi Hirano

Keisuke Yamada & Keizo Matsuda & Takeshi Sato vs. Akinori Tsukioka & The Great Takeru & Perseus

Leatherface vs. The Great Kabuki

Another strong late 90s IWA Japan card. Opener was solid, girl match was pretty fun. I think I prefer IWA Japan girl undercard matches over AJW undercard matches at this point since they don‘t do things like hitting three dropkicks in a row for no reaosn. Nishibori looked good in that match hitting swank ranas and whatnot. Tigre Oriental is a guy who is listed as only working Japanese indies like KAGEKI and watching the match I couldn‘t tell if he‘s a backyarder, a Japanese guy who attended a training camp in Mexico, or just a really shitty luchador. He takes about 80 % of the offense in the match but Tortuga still gets the biggest pops with his rope walk comedy spot and a way too sick flip dive to the floor for a semi-comedy guy in a goofy costume.

The 6 man tag was really good. Mostly basic, but tight and fast paced action. Takeshi Sato and Tsukioka were the best guys in the match, Sato hitting stiff kicks and working fun semi-shootstyle exchanges, including dropping Perseus on his head with an out of nowhere Capture Suplex, and Tsukioka being really energetic kicking dudes in the eye. The match went 22 minutes with no letdown and they didn‘t clip once which I appreciated. Kabuki/Leatherface was also really fun, just two big long haired dudes flying into the furniture and pasting each other with punches.

Daikokubo Benkei vs. Dan Severn

What a weird main event. Benkai is big and can push Severn into the ropes, but looks completely out of his depth. Severn mauls him, bloodying Benkais eye, and about 5 minutes into this Benkai taps out. Severn is really good at these savage fights, but even knowing how shitty Benkai is I was hoping he would take it to Severn at least a little. 

 

THE LIBRARY 

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #4

Tanomusaku Toba & Super Rider & Neo Winger vs. Phantom Funakoshi & Exciting Yoshida & Yuki Nishino (DDT 12/22/1999) - GREAT

Wonderful matchup, the kind that exemplifies the charm of 90s indy sleaze. Everyone here is a unique character with their own style, and they mesh really well. Rider was in his goofy Seikendo suit and working a mix between highflyer and submission wrestler while almost knocking himself out on dives, Funakoshi a mysterious MUGAesque technician, Exciting Yoshida a goofy IWE tribute heel, and of course our boxing gloved hero Toba. Toba really is the MVP in this match potatoeing everybody and always getting the best out of everyone, when you are facing Toba you are guaranteed to get punched in the face, so everyone fires back with unusual piss and vinegar. I especially loved Nishino crushing him with sick running headbutts. Phantom Funakoshi always looks like a real worker in these matches, working fun MUGA vs. Seikendo exchanges against Super Rider and channeling Fujiwara when he was facing Toba, I’d love to see more of him. Exciting Yoshida was a bit weird, he kept trying to no-sell Toba and getting punched and spin kicked in the face, and also did a bunch of banana peel heel spots, then again he also worked a sick headbutt exchange at one point so I can’t hate the guy. There’s also more shootstyle floor brawling involving Toba and a crafty finish between Super Rider and Funakoshi. Neo Winger blew, but wasn’t in the match much. Really everything you can ask for from a match up full of random indy dudes from forgotten sleaze feds (how often do you get Nihei Gumi, Seikendo, DDT and SPWF representatives in one match?).

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI & Kengo Takai vs. Masahiko Orihara & Neo Iceman & Onryo (DDT 1/30/2000) - FUN

This had some shady guys typical of DDT at the time. Masahiko Orihara is a Masao Orihara clone in a goofy mask, and kind of wrestles like a poor mans Masao Orihara, while Neo Iceman looks like a guy who forgot his wrestling gear so he enters the ring in street clothes and a random mask they had lying around. Both guys were okay though, aside from one funny moment where Orihara went for an RVD move and fell on his head. Takai was in the rookie underdog role and kind of rough, he blew his clothesline and dropkick, how the hell can you not hit your clothesline and dropkick when you’re a japanese rookie? That said Toba had an awesome moment where he came in and worked over Neo Iceman with stiff blows, and I continue to leave young MIKAMI, he gets good exchanges out of everyone and when he’s throwing out highspots he’s just crushing dudes. Onryo was good but these two carried the show. Kind of an undercard tag with some rough and some nice moments, but I had fun.

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI vs. GENTARO & YOSHIYA (DDT 11/30/2001) - EPIC

Great great match, a true hidden hidden gem. Even knowing that Toba can be really great, MIKAMI being pretty good around this time and GENTARO very talented, this far exceeded expectations. Mostly because the psychology in the match was super, and everyone played their role to perfection. MIKAMI comes into this with a cast on his wrist, and he does a really great almost Misawa-ish wounded ace performance here. He really sold that shit to absolute perfection, being wary of it the entire match, being unable to follow up his own moves etc. Toba is great here throwing wild strikes, and then GENTARO & YOSHIYA swoop in with a fantastic Anderson Brothersesque performance isolating Toba. These guys were really zoning in on Tobas leg, and while the legwork wasn’t sold in a major way (the main story was Mikamis wrist) it was really good and Toba got ragdolled hard, he is so tiny that even something like a Shinbreaker can be made to look brutal. Thought Gentaro looked just amazing here, and Yoshiya was fun as a Taue-ish big dude booting peoples heads off and acting like a dick. Toba punching Yoshiyas lights out was really fun, and then we get to the awesome finish. Really tremendous stuff, it’s insane how things like this fell under the rug when this kind of smart+brutal pro wrestling is a direction Japanese wrestling should’ve kept going in.

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Shinjuku Shark (Apache Pro 12/30/2007) - GREAT

Shinjuku Shark is a boxer who has been working sleaze indy shows since forever. With his shaggy hair and lanky frame, he looks kinda like Tobas dad. But he never had a big run in any promotion, mostly doing sleazy shit in promotions like FMW, while Toba at least has a series of DDT main events to his name, not to mention that Shark can’t use his feet. Shark is essentially the underdog here and Toba dominates him early until Shark is able to down with him with a big surprise punch. After that it’s like the last 5 minutes of an epic FUTEN match with both guys trading big combos and Shark mostly coming back using his toughness and puncher’s chance. You don’t really expect much from a match involving two boxing gloved guys but I actually ended up wanting this to go longer.

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST