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.

Assorted Japanese Indy Wrestling starring ISAMI

 No, we are not talking about the K-Dojo trainee/Big Japan deathmatch guy Isami Kodaka in this post. This ISAMI is a karateka who seems to be in his 40s or 50s and works scummy underbelly Japan indies. There must have been a hundred guys like that - businessmen with black belts who randomly decided to get into the ring for a few one of matches, as long as they stick to what they know I am going to enjoy them doing their thing. This ISAMI isn't exactly Masashi Aoyagi, but he has uploaded some matches against interesting opponents to his YouTube channel, which is prime fodder for this blog.

ISAMI vs. Gajo, ?? 8/19/2020(?)

This takes place in a ring with chains instead of ropes. That is the signature of Fugo Fugo Yumeji's Underground Wrestling EXIT, but I'm not sure this is that promotion. Gajo is a massive bald dude who works a bit like a sleazy Kaz Fujita and doesn't make tape nearly enough. This was rounds and just two dudes beating on each other, no grappling or throws, just Gajo wailing on this with big open palm strikes and ISAMI firing back with karate offense. The whole thing is over in about 7 minutes and it has a real CAPTURE vibe. For such a minimalist fight there were a few neat things, such as Gajo getting caught when he tried rushing the karateka early, and the big Ikedaesque lariat to the side of the head that downed ISAMI. It's always refreshing to see a stiff Japanese match with no elbow smashes or shoulder blocks.

ISAMI vs. Rikiya Fudo, 3/17/2019

Rikiya Fudo is YUSAKU (Shimoda) who used to work DDT undercards and CAPTURE. So he has experience doing these kind of minimalist crowbarfests, and he looked good crowbarring the fuck out of ISAMI here. Just pummeling the guy with vader hammers and elbow drops. Fudo is a bit more pro-wrestling like than Gajo, but he really does all his pro wrestling things in a crowbar fashion, hitting a really hard legdrop and a big splash that ISAMI sold like he was gonna puke on the mat. Love this kind of abject violent squash.

ISAMI vs. Yuki Ishikawa, 12/25/2018

For some reason, I don't recall many Ishikawa matches where he faces a pure striker like this. Of course, Ishikawa rules, and this ended up being another near squash. ISAMI really beat on Ishikawa nowhere near as hard as you need to beat on Ishikawa. This had the most grappling of any matches so far and is really the Ishikawa show, which I enjoy. Another neat finish.

Koki Kitahara Documentation #3

 Koki Kitahara & Johta vs. Nobuyuki Kurashima & Masayuki Mineno  (CAPTURE 12/8/2002) - GREAT

Exactly what Capture promises, 4 guys just beating eachother silly in savage ways. The Mineno/Johta sections were really fun with both guys throwing fast hands and kicks, all ultra stiff of course. Then you had the heavyweights – both Kitahara and Kurashima looked like they were twice the size of either Johta or Mineno – bullying the little guys around. Kurashima is a MUGA boy and he mostly sticks to matwork here, altough he does punish opponents with some brutal throws and inventive submissions. At one point he did a Backlund lift from an armbar into almost a One Winged Angel. Kitahara was an absolute bastard once again, stomping on Minenos face and sucker punching him from behind. Match is really good shootstyle in parts but starts breaking down into chaos towards the end with the referee losing control over who is legal and who isn't, so you would get Kurashima tackling Kitahara while Mineno would try to kick him in the face. Still this is what Capture promise and each fall had a great finish.

Koki Kitahara vs. Nobuyuki Kurashima  (CAPTURE 3/8/2003) - GREAT

Nifty little battle considering Kitahara is Sayama trained and a Tenryu disciple while Kurashima is one of Fujinamis MUGA boys. Kurashima is naturally at home on the mat and Kitahara is actually willing to work the mat against him. However Kitahara has the advantage because he is a bastard. Kitahara brutally kicks him in the jaw while exchanging leglocks and follows with more boots to the face. Kurashima makes some desperation takedown attempts until Kitahara catches (captures) him for the tap. 

 Koki Kitahara vs. Daiyu Kawauchi (CAPTURE 3/8/2003) - EPIC

Really gritty violent streetfight, the kind of mix of shootstyle and back alley fight that you don't get anywhere else except maybe FUTEN. Kawauchi was more aggressive and overzealous here so Kitahara just absolutely beat his ass in between taunting him. I've learned that in CAPTURE, each wrestler only has 3 guardrail breaks so the submissions feel much more meaningful. The finish is just a slaughter a suplex on that thin mat that just feels nuts. Good stuff that the fans got really into and I hope this isn't the last I see of Capture International. 

Koki Kitahara & YUSAKU vs. Tomohiro Ishii & DAISAKU (Capture 5/30/2000) - EPIC

Oh but this match is a goodie. You have Tomohiro Ishii pre-Choshuism and CAPTURE boy since the beginning, aswell as the unseen should-have-been-a-star DAISAKU (Shimoda) and his twin brother YUSAKU (Shimoda and half a dozen other names) rocking the gloves and ready to throw down. I'll never understand what motivates these indy guys to get punched in the face in a basement in front of 70 people but I'll always enjoy watching. This goes about 6 minutes and it's basically all 4 guys kicking the crap out of eachother. Really liked the lumpy boys who like to kick hard sections between Ishii and YUSAKU and the attempted fraticide between YUSAKU and DAISAKU was pretty brutal aswell. Daisaku has some huge kicks and thai knees while Yusaku sticks to more traditional pro wrestling stuff punches and knees stuff executed with a CAPTURE sized vicious streak. Also really liked Ishii in his Kawada wannabe tights flying at Kitahara with huge kicks. And Kitahara is just a major asskicker spinkicking dudes in the face here. By no means is this intelligent or well rounded pro wrestling, it's arguably shootstyle in it's most primitive form, and that's why I love it and want to see every single match in this style ever done. So Kitahara if you're reading this there's someone who cares, and Kitahara's neighbours if you are reading this please break into his garage and steal all his VHS tapes for us and don't get spin kicked in the face doing that.

 KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

Tanomusaku Toba Documentation #2

 

 

Tanomusaku Toba & MIKAMI & Super Uchu Power vs. Issei Fujisawa & Yuki Nishino & Takashi Sasaki (DDT 1/16/2001) - GREAT

Man DDT used to be awesome, what the fuck happened to that company?! This was 6 dudes who have no problem cracking each other hard cracking eachother really hard for 11 minutes. Fujisawa is a Kensuke Sasaki lookalike doing a tribute gimmick, and while that would result in a lot of lame jokes nowadays here he plays his shtick completely straight. He makes for a really effective underdog and comes back throwing hard crowbar lariats. Super Uchu Power is so menacing and awesome in these matches, like Super Dragon without the humor, in a match where everyone is working stiff he cracks dudes extra hard, anytime he is in there with Fujisawa you expect him to kick that poor little dudes face in. MIKAMI also has no problem hitting stiff dropkicks and just crushing dudes with full bodyweight sentons and double stomps, how have I never heard anyone talk about how awesome that guy is?! Toba is of course the man punching everyone in the face. He had some particularily great exchanges with Takashi Sasaki (man I’m pissed about how that guy wasted the rest of his career) and busted out some fun out of nowhere rollups. The match was a grandstand Toba exchange in the finishing stretch away from reaching into EPIC territory and these guys were working an undercard match on a small show, why don’t we get pro wrestling this cool anymore?!

Tanomusaku Toba vs. Hiroyuki Nozawa (DDT 3/16/2008) - FUN

This was from DDTs Hard Hit shootstyle shows. Nozawa is an MMA fighter and kind of underdog against Toba here. Fun structure where Toba is anticipating Nozawas attacks early on to land some big KO blows until Nozawa is able to anticipate Tobas counters and finally able to bring the match to the mat where can score. Once again, Toba proves himself to have a knack for the dramatic finish, in this case Nozawa has only one point left and is frantically bombarded with strikes until he is able to catch a submission and get the surprise tapout.

Tanomusaku Toba & Koichiro Kimura vs. Sanshiro Takagi & Exciting Yoshida (DDT 7/6/2000) - EPIC

This was from the early period when DDT wasn’t yet a full on entertainment company but rather a diverse style blend that reflected the sleaze indies of the 90s that preceded it. This was a great sprint. I would’ve liked it a bit more if it was more of a straight up destruction of Takagi & Yoshida at the hands of the Toba/Kimura crowbar team, but it still ended up being really good. Takagi can be hit or miss with his WWF imitation shit, but the opening segment where he caught a Toba barrage and dropped him with a deadlift uranage followed by a People’s Elbow spot was kind of badass. Lots of violent exchanges throughout with Toba & Kimura throwing serious potatoes, there is an awesome floor brawling section between Takagi and Toba that looked like a street fight. Kimura was put over as a real monster at this point, whenever he would come in he would just crush dudes with kicks and bombs. He also did all those BattlARTS level violent saves that whenever someone put a submission on Toba he runs in to kick their head in. Exciting Yoshida is a guy who was doing an Animal Hamaguchi tribute act, and this is probably his finest performance ever. The cool thing about Toba is that he gets guys who are otherwise dull to throw potatoes and come up with realistic comebacks, and that was the case here. Him and Yoshida were just brutalizing each other, and the finishing run that saw Yoshida throwing brutal shoot headbutts and Otsuka level suplexes was totally awesome. Our boxing gloved hero just keeps delivering the good shit.

Tanomusaku Toba & Chotaro Kamoi & Ichiro Yaguchi & Exciting Yoshida vs. Kengo Takai & Yusaku Shimoda & King Lion & Kurokage (DDT 3/25/1998) - SKIPPABLE

Well, this was the flipside of watching old Japan indy wrestling. Boy there were some shitty wrestlers in this match. Yaguchi has to be among the worst Japanese wrestlers ever for someone who got booked so much, and Kamoi is like a super shitty version of Toba. There was also a heel valet with boxing gloves that would run in to hit shitty punches, really no reason for this amount of shitty boxers in a match that has TOBA. Takai continues to be brutally bad at his role, really barely hitting anything, and King Lion is some guy in a singlet and a goofy mask who looked like your big brother play wrestling a pillow when he was in the ring. Tobas punches and spin kicks looked awesome as always and he did a great turnbuckle run into a springboard move (which gives me my clickbaiting GIF of the week), but yeah. Outside of the Toba parts and a brief moment when Super Uchu Power ran in to brawl with Kazumasa Nihei this was just bad.

 

TANOMUSAKU TOBA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST