HARD HIT Ryo Kawamuras Retirement ~ Complete Disposal 11/29/2025

 Kenta Hattori vs Ryutaro Watanabe
 

Pretty much what could be considered a light sparring session. Both these guys certainly looked like they could grapple, but there weren't a ton of highlights to what they were doing or anything. Hattori had this really cool sleeper hold into a Russian Leg Sweep. I thought that was cool. Solidly executed but forgettable stuff otherwise.

Yukito vs Takuma Uchiyama

Serious shootstyle, where they didn't hold back when it came to kicking and slapping each other hard. The grappling is decent and I liked the increase of aggression whenever either guy dropped a point. Nothing super great or anything but it's decent shootstyle wrestling. Uchiyama, I think is an MMA guy and based and this he would make good if he just continued to do shootstyle. I continue to enjoy Yukito, he does well for a 50 year old guy and I hope to see him more outside HEAT-UP.

Takahiro Tababa vs Koki Fujimoto

Kobe Merikens shooter boy Fujimoto shows up in his karate gi. This was a bit conservative when they were grappling as basically Tababa used Fujimotos gi to his advantage and Fujimoto couldn't do much, but it was really fun whenever they started beating the shit out of each other. We all know Tababa is a pitbull, but Fujimoto was standing up to him. Even knocking him down twice in succession, and on the 3rd the bell actually rang but referee Nikkan Lee had the decision reversed. Maybe Tababa was KOd legit as he seemed to struggle to get his senses, but then he threw Fujimoto with an incredible hard German Suplex and finished him with a nasty gi choke. I'm really gonna need a rematch between them in Kobe Merikena after Koki was robbed like this, regardless I am really happy to see guys like Fujimoto emerging in the Japan indy scene and branching out.

Hideki Sekine vs KURO-OBI

Pretty much a grappling match, and it was some nice slick grappling. KURO-OBI clearly has some BJJ skill as he transitions really nice and smooth from all kinds of esoteric leglocks and positions. Hideki Sekine is a real monster of a man. In the times of Giant Baba and Strong Kobayashi he probably would have been considered exceptionally handsome and he'd rock an afro or something and have epic battles with those guys and the tabloids would write about his affairs but the times have changed and now they call him Shrek. His grappling felt a bit like he was being overly nice, like if he really tried he could rip any mortal man in half but he was playing nice. But the one time he went for that old school wrestling leg split that harkened back to Giant Baba and it's the one thing in the match that really made the crowd wake up. Really good grappling otherwise and there was a cool finish, but I kinda wanted to see Sekine fight Gilbet Leduc and work a match around a bearhug or a canadian backbreaker or something like that. Talk about being out of time.

Takuya Wada vs Tyson Maeguchi

Two not very exciting wrestlers in a mediocre match. They tried to do the routine with Maeguchi being the dangerous striker, but he really doesn't hit any impressive strikes. Wada just kind of keeps him at bay with some forgettable grappling for the most part. And worst of all they just kind of went to a 10 minute draw without either guy really pressing for a win at point. Yeah, you don't need to know more about this than the first sentence I wrote.

Minoru Suzuki & Takafumi Ito vs Yoshiki Takahashi & Mitsuhisa Sunabe

Takahashi comes out rocking the Yasushi Sato tough old man with greying hair, wrestling shoes and baggy trunks look, AND a badass Pirata Morgan eyepatch on top of all that. So that alone makes this worth checking out. Takahashi had some slick takedowns here, I would've liked to see him more in the match. Ito and Sunabe did some really slick grappling that was great to watch and easily the best shootstyle grappling I've seen in a while. I'm puzzled by the career trajectory of Mitsuhisa Sunabe, who has been around a long time and popping up once or twice on OZ Academy cards. What's up with this connection to Oz Academy of all places? Regardless, Suzuki just has to shoehorn in a bunch of comedy stuff. The finishing sequence between him and Sunabe was cool, but otherwise, Suzuki was really bleh here. It's an old man grappling match, wtf are you doing shoehorning your old comedy spots in? You really need to settle down sometimes, Minoru Suzuki.

Ryo Kawamura vs Hikaru Sato

The final match of Ryo Kawamuras career, and a somewhat bittersweet reminder that this man could've been a lot more as a wrestler. After a somewhat tentative beginning where Kawamura easily lost a point, this turns into a pretty great shootstyle encounter. Both guys really palm striked the hell out of each other, and there were some choice submission counters. More importantly the story of the match was Kawamuras absolute determination to edge out one last triumph and really popping Sato with his shots. Great, super intense stuff, really some of the best work of the year here even when it feels like a short match, both guys displayed a ton of passion here and it was just really enthralling. 

The Library 

2025 Matchguide Week 50

 
Kotaro Nasu vs Yukito, Heat-Up 5/25

A very good little quasi-shootstyle match. Reminded me a lot of a Fu-Ten undercard match which is a very good thing in 2025. Yukito continues to be decent while Nasu continues to elevate things by being really vicious. He had some of the most vicious kicks and open hands I've seen all year in this. Him looking in a cool calf slicer and then going in further on Yukitos leg with brutal low kicks was quite good, poignant shootstyle action. There was also a nice punishing aspect since Nasu is the veteran so he is obligated to try and kick right though Yukito. It's really really fun and if it hadn't been for the somewhat awkward insertion of a few irish whip moves it would've been one of my favourite singles matches of the year. My man Nasu deserves more recognition (and more bookings so I can watch him more, dammit).

Sareee vs Chihiro Hashimoto, Sendai Girls 11/16

A no-brainer great match up that delivers pretty much what you expect. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by the opening half of this which was really good, smart pro wrestling. We get some cool matwork where Hashimoto shows off her Alexander Otsuka-ish cartwheels and granby rolls and what not, dominating Sareee in cool ways, then cutting her of with those massive body checks. It was great stuff. Sareee was fighting against a wall here, and she had to figure out how to get by and start bombing her with her signature crowbar dropkicks and stomps. Sareee then trying to break Hashimoto leg with nasty twisting legbars and diving stomps was quite great. Of course, that legwork was pretty much forgotten as soon as Hashimoto got back on offense. They have their obligatory 'we both no sell a suplex' moment and the match is a lot less interesting suddenly. Some Takaiwa-ish crowbar strikes, headbutts, bombs and lariats happen to get me back into the match. After some more trite no-selling we get at least a graceful finish. I really wonder if it's possible for a Japanese big match to exist these days without a bunch of suplex no-selling. Even the crowd seems bored of that stuff at this point. It's a slight let down because there was a bunch of objectively really great work here.


Shinya Aoki vs T-Hawk, GLEAT 10/9

As usual, Aoki provides plenty of entertainment toying with his opponent on the mat and trying to force his shoulders down for the pin in painful looking ways. T-Hawk knocking him off the top rope and then proceeding to bitch slap him around on the floor was some surprisingly adept brawling considering T-Hawk is a Dragon Gate guy. Still, I thought Aoki needs to learn how to sell. I get that he's supposed to be a monster but he shouldn't be making stupid faces after getting punched in the face. As such the end of the match was a bit underwhelming. Fair play to T-Hawk as throwing Shinya Aoki into a row of chairs and then bitchslapping him was probably the greatest thing he ever did.

 

AKARI vs Crea, PURE-J 5/16

Impressive 2/3 falls match between two skillful wrestlers. Crea is quite the fun hard hitting machine with her boots and chops and AKARI had lots of nifty lucha-esque takedowns and submissions attempts. Though Crea also had some good submission work of her own. There was some quite evil stomping and smacks to the face here. Really liked the struggle over the tarantula attempt. Creas jumping big boot thing that she does is awesome. The match felt gritty and most importantly, they fought really hard in all 3 falls and had an unpredictable match that had some thought put into everything down to how they built up things throughout all the 3 falls without going cookie cutter. Definitely felt like more people should have their eyes on these two. Admittedly, Crea could've done with a bit less slapping of the thigh, but other than this was great. 

2025 Matchguide 

2025 Matchguide Week 45

 Shinya Ishida & Ali Najima & Masanori Watanabe vs Yu Shimizu & Yuta Oya & Ryutaro Ohno, Sportiva 11/12

Sportiva with an all star 6 man tag! And yeah this resembled one of those 90s AJPW 6 mans just in a sportsbar. A bit less grand in scope if you will, but everyone here got to do some fun wrestling and it ended up being a very well put together super enjoyable match. Starts out nice and basic. Shimizu always looks great in these tags, in this case by kicking things off booting people off the apron and putting effort into working an abdominal stretch. We do get touches of everyone doing what they do best and giving an impression of what has made Sportiva such a good promotion this year. We get a great Najima/Oya exchange, which made me think we're due for another singles match between them. Their progression continues as they keep going toe to toe, and the same goes for Najima standing up to higher ranked guys like Ishida in a bigger way now. Ohno is still in his rookie role, but we know he can be fun doing his thing. This was a lot of fun and a reminder that this crew is one of the best things going in 2025 altough I am thirsting after some singles matches between any two of these guys.

Yukito vs Bomber Okuno, HEAT-UP 9/13

I quite like Yukito. In a world full of guys with a shootstyle moveset, an actual Kiyoshi Tamura trainee is always a welcome change of pace. Even more interesting is the fact that he's a 47 year old rookie, although you don't really notice his age. This is not shootstyle or anything, but just the way Yukito would aggressively hook his boody into Okuno and take him down loos just legit enough for it to get my attention. The match soon becomes about Okunos toughness. Okuno is more of a Jun Izumida type guy: hard head, slow moving, doesn't do many things. He's often trite, but in this match Yukito gets just on his grill enough that everything becomes a bit more contemptful, making this match interesting. Okuno would keep shrugging of Yukitos kicks, laying back into him with really hard elbows and headbutts, and rattle him with cool outdated offense like Coconut Crushers or falling headbutts. It's compelling precisely because it's not your typical even steven match up. Okuno would absorb Yukitos kicks and then just grab him and slam him really hard again. It becomes about Yukito trying to crack a tough, stubborn opponent. When he finally starts gaining momentum and starts to get ahold of Okunos arm, it really feels like he was going for the kill rather than getting in some cute reversals. Some really nice desperation down the stretch here with those submissions, and you do get those kicks vs hard head spots and Bomber cracking Yukito really hard. Super simple but highly enjoyable match.

Mari & Haruka Ishikawa vs Yui Tensho & Sakura Mizushima, AWG 2/24

'nother good match from AWG. Aside from a few light hearted moments, this delivered plenty of good action. Yui Tensho was in goofball mode early, trying to hit the AXE BOMBA~, which lead to Mari and Haruka doing an Anderson Bros style job working over her arm. We got see some good armwork from both of them. When Mizushima tagged in, I thought she would be one of these idol types - you know, very skinny, hits flimsy dropkicks and rollups, but she tried to take out Maris leg with some pretty brutal double stomps. Her dropkicks aren't amazing but I thought she was pretty effective as she always knew what to do. Loved Mari putting her in her place with some hard kicks and then almost ripping her in half with a crazy submission. Second half was about Tensho vs Haruka Ishikawa. Tensho cut back the goofiness and I thought Ishikawa was quite efffective pouncing on Tensho with sentons over and over, she looked like a pitbull. They just build to the axe bomber and it's good stuff. I like that Tensho getting a win over Maris team was made to feel like a big deal.

Mari vs Sakura Mizushima, AWG 3/16

Their exchanges in the February tag hinted at a good match, and this pretty much delivered just that! This was pretty great overdog vs underdog stuff. Mari outclassed Mizushima initially, and the match quickly turned into a nasty trashing with Maris kicks and sadism. Mizushima took one of the hardest throws into a row of chairs I've ever seen (and think of the ground that covers in joshi). Mizushima was able to catch one of Maris kicks and hit this nasty move where she dropped her entire body weight on Maris leg. She then proceeded to drop some more nasty double stomps on Maris leg. That legwork is very brief and doesn't slow Mari down too hard, probably since they wanted to keep Mari being the overdog, but it gives Mizushima some breathing space to mount a comeback. Thought the match was pretty much perfectly laid out with Mizushima getting just the right amount of desperate and urgent hopespots and Maris cutoffs being hard and mean. Mind you, Sakura could be a bit better when it comes to footwork and the force of her execution, but for what her role is she does pretty well. Also loved Maris quick use of the Gory Special. Very good stuff and Mari continues to deliver. 

2025 Wrestling Roundup 

2025 Wrestling Roundup Week 29

 Tsuyoshi Michibata vs Tatsunori Oya, Kobe Meriken 5/23

No clue who this Oya guy is, but he tries to rush Michibata at the bell. Michibata proceeds to kick the absolute shit out of Oya. And slaps the shit out of him too for good measure. After taking a bunch of savage kicks Oya makes a somewhat crummy comeback hitting a flimsy X-Factor. He continues to get on track a bit locking in some submissions but is soon stopped dead in his straight when he runs into a Michibata knee to the face. Oya clumsily tries going for the arm but is soon put to sleep. Amazing the things that can happen in a tiny sportsbar.

Tanomusaku Toba & Tyson Maeguchi vs Takuya Wada & Shuichiro Katsumura, Ganbare Pro 6/1 - FUN

Kickboxers vs shooters! Pretty good action here. Even with a bunch of younger and faster guys around, I think Toba was probably the best guy in the match. He'd aggressively try to elbow people in the head, and sell vulnerability which made things interesting, then blast punch people in the face. That said Maeguchi was also pretty fun. He had some cool fast combos and good energy. Couple neat exchanges involving him down the stretch and a great finish. Wada and Katsumura don't leave a huge impression but they are solid enough. Good stuff.

Akito vs Yuya Koroku, DDT 6/1

Yuya Koroku is another wrestler from DDTs never ending supply wrestlers who are somewhat-competent-but-not-terribly-interesting-to-me. This was mostly WoS style chain wrestling and pretty fun. Akito is pretty good doing this stuff, not a master but it was fun watching him block Korokus basic escape attempts. Dug all the slick pin attempts. Koroku goes along fine and the veteran vs upstart aspect adds a bit of flavor. 

Ali Najima & Masanori Kanu Watanabe vs Shota Marlon Miwa & Yukito, HEAT UP 7/12

This was about 8 minutes long and pretty great. We get some fun shootstyle grappling between Watanabe and Yukito at the beginning with Yukito once again looking very capable. Once Najima gets in the ring the match immediately becomes really stiff. Najima is turning into the most exciting wrestler on earth with his hard kicks and crazy running headbutts. I am also digging his use of the firemans carry. Almost everything he hit in this match rattled people and it's really fun. Shota Marlon Miwa is this skinny guy in karate pants but he seemed capable and also hit a really great axe kick at one point. BattlARTS-style KO finish was really cool. A lot of great action in a very short time, this was a winner.

Utami Hayashishita vs Takumi Iroha, Marigold 7/16

A lot of really good work in this. Thought the build from Iroha being the (convincing) overdog to Utami taking her down a peg and levelling the field by doing some pretty fun legwork was really good. There were a few awesome touches and they did an excellent job building to the big bombs, like there was remarkably little move spam for such a long match. Thought they both did a pretty good job selling the work on the back and leg. That said, holy fuck 56 minutes is too long for these two at this point, just way too much bloat. The match already started out slow, and 20 minutes in they were already at a snails pace doing constant double downs and things like that to stretch out the match to the maximum. The finish wasn't exactly Kandori vs Hokuto either. Edit it down to like 30 or even 40 minutes and add a better ending and you'd have the match of the year.

2025 Wrestling Roundup

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation