Exploring various Japanese YouTube Channels

Masao Ando vs Yuki Toyoura, R-Planning 8/25/2024

Cool match up since Masao Andos is everyones favourite thickly built indy shooter boy and Toyoura is a mysterious guy with origins in JWA Tokai. Since Ando also has history with the JWA sphere that makes this interesting. And they deliver a really fun indy big boys match! Ando is really cool here as always kicking his opponent really hard and attacking his arms with painful looking submissions and hard kicks to the shoulder. Toyoura had some impressive offense including a huge dropkick and even bigger springboard dropkick which was impressive since he doesn’t exactly look like a small guy. He also wasn’t afraid to fire back with hard chops. Short and fun match with the right spirit being in place.

 

 

 Manabu Hara vs CHANGO, 10/1/2017

This was such an interesting match, and pretty much entirely due to CHANGO. Not that Hara is bad, but Chango brings such a fresh vibe with his animalistic vibe and unconventional tactics. He's not exactly a shoot grappler, but he's not a push over on the mat either. His scrambling, trying to pounce on Hara and grabbing limbs was a lot of fun and it made for a cool match up. CHANGO baiting Hara into doing a macho exchange and then hurting his leg was a really smart moment and should be stolen by pro wrestlers everywhere. Chango then proceeded to give Hara a good working over with a few unique leg attack spots. There were cool moments such as Hara having Chango in an anklelock while upside down, as well as a cool tarantula-esque leg stretch in the ropes that was pretty unique. Chango then proceeded to try and win the match with the old WWF No Mercy trick of locking in a submission on the floor and waiting until the countout. The finish was this great sequence of CHANGO trying to pin Hara with Hara reversing into armlocks repeatedly and CHANGO doing all these great pins. It really was some fine fine wrestling. 

 

Koji Kanemoto & Badmax Fujinaga vs Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Yusaku Ito, Kasuyaro Pro Wrestling 7/1/2018

What a sleaze soaked wonder of a match. This was a shortlived Fujinaga/Yasshi promotion it seems, seems this was held in a small club room or something. Imagine going to your local venue to see legends the caliber of Kanemoto and Takaiwa kick the shit out of some local guys. Seeing Takaiwa and Kanemoto lock up here and doing some hard hitting wrestling was quite enjoyable. Takiawa is old, slow, still hits heavy like a track. Kanemoto is quite a bit more nimble and hasn’t lost much of a step at all. He was good as ever being a prick here kicking the crap out of people. The real story are your sleazebag shooters Fujinaga and Ito, though. You could tell they were both hyped to be in the ring with legends and they were laying everything in extra hard, and both of them took some hard as hell beatings from the big names. Ito especially gets at it with Kanemoto and it’s a lot of fun. I really liked how Kanemoto, instead of falling into a macho exchange, just judo tripped Ito and then locked in a smothering Dragon Sleeper. We do get all your Kanemoto and Takaiwa signatures – the nasty face wash, the jaw cracking lariats, and there’s even a brief segment where they face off. The finishing run is Fujinaga vs Ito, and while Fujinaga is a bit of a clumsy wrestler he gets in some good hits carried by the energy of the lineup that he is in. Ito is ever reliable as your sleaze karateka with cool kicks who will occasionally try to maul someone with headbutts. As a match this was pretty much your typical indy main event tag formula with the stiffness and sleaze factor dialed way up and it was immensely enjoyable.

 

2025 Matchguide Week 42

 Masanori Watanabe vs Yusaku Ito, Sportiva 10/29


This was a short undercard match but it was cool. Watanabe is still being put through the paces, but he is already really really good. He did a lot of cool stuff during the opening grappling, and his straight forward approach of attacking the arm to set up a rolling kimura just straight up works. Ito is good as always relishing in his scummy ways. He has the seedy vibe of a delinquent hired to do some dirty work and he was putting the hurt on Watanabe with closed fist punches, boots and nasty headbutts. I also really liked the ultra tight sleeper he did, and then the knee to the face he did was really cool. Solid and worth watching.

Masamune vs Shinji Kamakura, KOBE Meriken 10/17

Masamune stretching someone in a sportsbar. This was not the amateur wrestler Masamune, he was kind of working like William Regal here, and it's pretty fun. Kamakura kind of gave me the vibe of a Japanese David Burkhead, fun pudgy guy who clashes violently into his opponent. I enjoy watching Masamune do his thing and he needs to show up on tape way more often because he's low key really good.

Keita Yano vs Koji Iwamoto, Tenryu Project 10/25 - GREAT

October 2025 was ripe with big matches for Keita Yano. I'm just getting to them, but this is a strong start. Long, drawn out technical match. Of course our lord and savior Keita really shines at that stuff, and he is doing so much cool stuff here that it carried the match no problem. His transition into a stump puller was awe inspiring. A lot of chaining, mostly based on World of Sport style but veering into Karl Gotch shootstyle territory here and there, and all done incredibly smooth and inventive. He's really become a master at this stuff no doubt about it. Iwamoto is very much the 1977 Jumbo Tsuruta to Keitas 1977 Billy Robinson, he's capable but doesn't stand out in a huge way when grappling with Keita. He does have those awesome judo throws and he hits them and that's all you really wanna see him do. Very good match all in all.

GENTARO vs Shuichiro Katsumura, FREEDOMS/Ganbare Pro 10/16

GENTARO is such a great wrestler. With him, everything feels like it master, and his old school technical moves rule of course. Who knew that building a match around struggle and nifty counters would work well? Katsumura has always struck me as good but never quite reaching 'great' level. This was probably the best matwork I've seen him to, and a lot of credit for that can go to GENTARO. At times this resembled an old UWF vs NJPW match but with better pacing and more cool moments. Really need more GENTARO singles matches like this, oh and bring back Mutoha too for that matter.

Marino Saihara vs Yui Tensho, AWG 10/1

Another quality match from AWG. This was built around Saihara with her kicks and submissions putting the heat on Tensho. Tensho would try to pounce on any kind of advantage but kept getting shut down in cool ways. The apron spot was especially good as Saihara took out Tensho with a leg kick and then just blasted her with a dropkick. Eventually Tensho found what she was looking for when she got Saihara in her reverse gory special hold, and there was some nice struggle leading up to that. They both have believable offense, there was a story, good selling and intensity... Saihara ended up beating Tensho rather easily, which I thought was fine and a bit of a cool change from the usual nearfall fest as Tensho had been desperate to put the champ away but just came short. The one not-so-good part of the match was their forearm trading, and even that lead to a cool moment with confident champion Saihara hitting a hurty looking leg kick and Tensho deciding she had enough of that.

2025 Matchguide

Keita Yano Documentation 

2025 Wrestling Roundup Week 37

 
Grand Passion Mask #4 vs Super Taira, Sportiva 8/27

Grand Passion Mask #4 has been one of those acts that has been kind of lost on me. But this was a pretty good match! No surprise since it has Super Taira in it. The most straight wrestling I've seen GP4 do, he brought a lot of cool holds to the table, and Taira is really cool to watch as always. This had a lot of quasi-lucha style work. Cool moment where GP turned a mishappen roll up attempt by Taira into a cool Full Nelsion hold, and then a facebuster to gain control. GP proceeded to work over Taira with cool lucha holds. The second half was cool mostly because Taira is established that he can win the match whenever he ties his opponent up, either with a llave or a pin combo. GP Mask even did an Hijo del Santo style tope into a camel clutch with Taira fighting out of the camel clutch. I think fighting out of submissions is cool. This was a fun creative 10 minute undercard match that felt competitive, which is just what I need, feels like a breath of fresh air.

Ali Najima & Super Taira vs Yuta Oya & Ryutaro Ohno, Sportiva 9/17/2025

Whenever I watch a Sportiva main event, its almost guaranteed to be one of the best matches of the match. That is remarkable, and it has probably made Sportiva my favourite promotion to watch this year just because of their incredible consistency and charming recurring cast of wrestlers. This had a dream team in Najima and Taira, the continuation of the rivalry between Oya and Najima, and greenhorn Ohno showing up in a main event tag. It was good as you expect. I wish the first Taira vs Oya exchange had gone longer as these two are always fascinating against each other. Ohno is as solid in the old businessman rookie role as you need him to be. He still has to fight to hit even a bodyslam on Najima, and that makes him compelling. He also adds some cool flavour with his kicks and his chunkiness. The real story of the match is Yuta Oya being the underdog teamed with the rookie against two higher ranked wrestlers. He takes an Anderson Bros-like beating from them. There was a great moment where Najima was hitting all kinds of nasty kicks to Oya, and Taira was also bending his leg pretty hard. Tairas 'dangerous lucha maestro who uses submissions and pins like a shooter' act is really cool. There are some quality exchanges between Ohno and Taira which is really fun to see because Taira is such a unique wrestler, and then we get Oya vs Najima. Both these guys were hitting really hard and doing good stuff. The saves were also really dramatic. There are so many modern tags where it feels like there's endless saves by the partner and it starts to feel meaningless. Here there were 2 or 3 crucial saves and they were really dramatic and important. And then you have the aspect of all these guys constantly adding new stuff to their skillset. Very good match, another good chapter in the Sportsbar Kings Road.

Ali Najima & Ryutaro Ono vs Yu Shimizu & Masanori Watanabe, Sportiva 9/3

Onos return match after a 2 month absence, glad he's back. This was a short match but really hard hitting and with some nifty wrestling. Watanabe was just destroying Onos leg here with nasty low kicks. Ono is in the role that he's mostly taking a beating but he can fire back with big crowbar elbows and the occasional hard kick of his own, he's a fun chubby hard hitter. Shimizu vs Najima sprint section was really good. Najima is still building up to things like a body slam or suplex and he's always compelling, and Shimizu continues to be reliable with his simple style of hard elbows and sleepers. At one point, Najima punched him square in the face. The finish had Watanabe just obliterating Ono with a brutal headkick. Watanabe is quickly becoming a guy who's must watch in my book, and everyone else here is realiably good even in a small dose.

Yusaku Ito & Michio Kageyama vs Shinya Ishida & Konaka, Sportiva 9/3

Yusaku Ito baby. With his gritty headbutts and general scumminess always make him a highlight when he shows up. The parts where he and Ishida were beating on each other were easily the selling point of the match. Not that anything else was bad here, but the match got a bit more heated when they faced off. First with Ito starting to bitchslap Ishida and then pulling him over and raining punches on him. Later they had another gritty exchange wailing on each other in the corner. Ishida is not afraid to hit back and stomp the shit out of a guy. Aside from that refreshing scrappiness there was also some fun methodical Konaka work. Kageyama is solid but won't set your world on fire here. He's not much in the match anyways. Ito on the other hand was working his ass off having some great exchanges with Konaka and Ishida. I love that the sleeper is always a plot point in Sportiva. Quality match with an interesting layout.

Ali Najima vs Konaka, Sportiva 9/24

When I saw this would be happening I thought it would be the main event. It was the opening match, I thought it could be an amazing main event but as an opening match it was still really good. It was a classic match that was nearly all grappling with Najima attacking Konakas arm and Konaka in turn going for his leg. Lots of nifty cerebral wrestling moments and it felt like every moment counted, which made it so good. Konaka is pretty much always doing something neat, and Najima is getting really good at making simple holds interesting. I loved his nasty hammerlock takedown, so simple but cool. Konakas counters were amazing. I love the hard hitting Ali Najima but it's cool to seem him do well in this kind of chess style mat wrestling match.

Yasu Kubota vs Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 9/10

The Scum Bastard challenges for the title! Yasu Kubota is a type of wrestler that is easily underrated. What he does is very simple, straight forward, basic - but he has a knack for mixing in a few cool touches that make him stand out. And most importantly, everything matters. He's also a 51 year old geezer, so he has to be smart about what he does. Shimizu is quite unrelenting with his hard elbows and sleepers. The result is a simple, but very enjoyable and compelling match that is built around Shimizu elbowing the champion really hard, and Kubota hitting back hard slowing him down by taking out his legs and locking in a few cool holds. Shimizus elbows and sleepers are awesome and there is some gritty leg selling. It's a very old school type match with the high spots being something like a reverse DDT or lariat. I could see some people finding this boring but I really enjoyed it and I was rooting hard for Shimizu to take the title. His chokes made me jump out of my seat and a match that can make me super excited about a chokehold in 2025 has to be a really well crafted piece of wrestling. 

2025 Wrestling Matchguide 

2025 Wrestling Week 4

 
Sareee vs Veny, SEAdLINNNG 1/17

I haven't thought about Seadlinnnng in forever. Apparently, Sareee is their ace now and has been their champ for a while, so I should probably take a look at that. I haven't seen much of VENY before, but I know she had that excellent weird light tube  match with Akito at one point. This was a lot more conventional. They start of strong with some quality groundwork before a weird outside interference happens and the brawl outside. Sareee however makes it worthwhile when she dishes out some brutal headbutts to Veny on the floor. Back in the ring, Sareee is in control for a bit and it's really good. Her vicious stomps and dropkicks are great. Veny tries to take over but is cut off in nice fashion. Finally, Veny locks on a slick submission and controls by working the arm for a bit. Veny no sells a German suplex and they start trading bombs. Honestly I thought the first half of this was a very good build, but the senseless move trading lost me. Veny kind of half asses her selling a lot and her thigh slapping thrust kicks looked like shit. Sareees offense is great, but she doesn't do much selling either at some point. There is so much "take a move, slowly get up and then do a move of your own here" that really makes me stop caring about a match. For example, Sareees top rope Fishermans Suplex wasn't even followed up by a cover, instead Sareee goes to the top on the opposite side so Veny can get up and hit a superplex. No rhyme or reason to any of this as far as I can tell. At least mix in some cool reverals or something.

Yusaku Ito vs Yu Shimizu, Sportiva 1/22

This was more good shit from SPORTIVA. Yusaku Ito is a certified scumbag who can kick hard, punch someone in the face and act like an all around thug. Shimizu just came back from a really long absence and he still looks tough, in that weird guy-who-started-wrestling-in-his-30s way. Really good wrestling here, these two deliver actually compelling elbow smashes and standing exchanges. Eventually it turns into Ito kicking away at Shimizus arm and shoulder. Itos kicks and elbows to the joint where really hurty looking and Shimizus selling was excellent. By far one of the best 'work the arm' matches I've seen in a while because Shimizus weakness was constantly nagging him, he never forgot about that injury and Ito would cut him off by attacking the arm at crucial moments. Shimizu doesn't have a ton of offense in this match, he is mostly taking an asskicking, but the few moments he gets are solid, and the work around his sleeper hold was really compelling, it leads to one of the best flash reversals into a sleeper that I've ever seen. The match also has the typical Japanese big match stuff, some quality hard hitting and head-droppy moves without going overboard, but what made this outstanding was how well they worked the arm attack stuff and those sleepers. Another banger from that little sportsbar. Lord knows how they do it but they consistently put on some of the best singles matches in all of Japan.

Guerrero Maya Jr vs Xelhua, CMLL 1/13/2025

The first few minutes of this are pretty great. Both guys hit the mat and tie each other in knots, adding cool little touches that you don't see often such as the kicking at the leg while in the indian deathlock, or the nifty trip from the overhook. Xelhua clearly has a ton of passion to be trying the crazy llaves he tries, and he has stellar body control - that bridge walkover he did is NOT easy, I can attest to that. When Maya Jr takes over attacking the mask and throwing punches and Xelhua narrowly breaking out of submissions, I thought this would've been one of the best opening falls to a title match I've seen. Unfortunately it's not 2/3 falls, it's 1 fall, so we get a couple minutes of Maya Jr. dominating and a somewhat sluggish finishing stretch. I think with a 2/3 falls match these two could burn the house down, as a 1 fall match it just falls a little short, though there was a ton of cool stuff. CMLL is definitely on the right track with young guys like Xelhua not being afraid to indulge in esoteric matwork.

Virus vs Neon, MLW 1/11/2025


Love two see luchadors show up in a US promotion to do awesome shit for 8 minutes. This was pretty tight, we get a slick mat exchange to start and then they go nuts. Virus is crazy busting out this shit at the age of 56. He looked way more nimble than, say Bobby Fish who is also on this show and looked ancient despite being  8 years younger. Neon is another one of those technicos who has no offense except shitty looking enzuigiris and really pretty dives. And his dives were pretty in this. I did prefer the slickness of Virus apron armdrag and huracanrana but I am an old Virus mark. I thought this needed maybe a Virus punch or dropkick or a slick reversal to be really great but it was a pretty strong under 10 minute sprint.

 

2025 Wrestling Roundup

More Twitcasting Era Sportiva

 Kazuhiro Tamura & Yusaku Ito vs 801 Kenichi & Michio Kageyama, Sportiva 6/12/2019

WOW! Absolute workhorse performance from Tamura. See I really like Sportiva matches where the guys have their working boots on. They really nail that studio TV match feel stylized to japanese wrestling where they have nifty match with few moves and working more neat touches into their exchanges. Everybody had their working boots on here, but Tamura was off the charts. He busts out a nice mat section with Kageyama. Then he gets some decent exchanges out of 801 Kenichi. Finally he does some really nice work working a body part by kicking the crap out of Kenichis shoulder and arm in painful ways. And after all that, he gets a finishing stretch out of Kenichi where Kenichi actually gets to add cool touches as they work some choice counters with Kenichi trying to turn Tamuras arm attacks into throws and slams. Considering how dull Kenichi usually is that is truly a monumental carryjob. And it wasn’t just ‘ok’ it was legit good! Kenichi turning Tamuras flying armbar attempt into a firemans carry was legit great and so were Tamuras counters to the chokebomb attempt. They actually built to Kenichis stuff as Tamura kept cutting off his comeback attempts down the stretch until Kenichi was finally able to hit it. So even a basic gutwrench suplex or lariat felt huge. Excellent stuff from Tamura. Everybody else was good do – I particularily liked Kageyamas hot tag that featured a great looking DDT and a reckless dragon screw – but Tamura owned the match. Fine fine piece of workmanship.

Hiroaki Ura & Toru Sugiura vs 801 Kenichi & Michio Kageyama, Sportiva 6/19/2019

Another very good Sportiva tag, that little sportsbar was cooking June 2019. Right at the go we get a great exchange between Sugiura and Kenichi that veered into shooty territory. Kenichi actually looks good for a change as he sweeps Sugiura off his feet to deliver some hefty looking hands before Sugiura gets back it him trying to kick his head off. Fuck, was Kenichi actually getting good that month?! He was still limited in what he actually could do, but actually energetic in what he did. Sugiura also had his working boots on which is always fun. Then Ura gets reminded that he’s still a young boy as he can’t get Kageyama up for a bodyslam then gets a beatdown. The subsequent middle proportion is good as all these guys really have their stuff down pat. Then we get a very good finish as Ura struggles hard to overcome Kenichi. Kenichi works in that role as a big block for Ura to overcome and Uras struggle is worth while. I loved how Ura get a desperation leglock on Kenichi and started beating away at his leg with fists in frustration when Kenichi made the ropes. Kenichi also dumps him with nasty suplexes that actually look good. Nice stuff and actually got me kinda excited for their singles match the following week.

Hiroaki Ura vs 801 Kenichi, Sportiva 6/26/2019

The follow up match to last weeks battle! Can 801 Kenichi keep it up and finally deliver? Well.. not really. He’s still rather limited. But, he headbutts Ura really hard during the opening exchanges and then serves as a massive block for Ura to overcome, and that is fine enough. Ura is great here, tons of fire, coming at Kenichi hard, trying to take out his leg… initially Kenichi blows off the leg attack but later his leg gives out anyway so that was pretty cool. Exciting match because I am into following Uras trajectory. He is getting to that point where he is now starting to incooperate new things, surviving more punishment than before but also getting dropped harder by Kenichis germans. It’s a cool journey to follow and it’s got me hooked.

More Sportiva Twitcastings

 

Hiroaki Ura & Kazuhiro Tamura vs Michio Kageyama & Toru Sugiura (Sportiva 1/23/2019)

Sportiva could still deliver the goods in 2019. Hiroaki Ura was their young hope, and watching his progression on the weekly bar shows is very intrigueing. The first half of this is nothing special, it’s solid enough but nothing you haven’t seen before as it’s mostly the non-Ura guys doing their thing. I will say that Toru Sugiura is always an impressive wrestler, he doesn’t get talked about much but whenever I see him he looks like one of the best guys going. Things get going when they start kicking Uras ass with Sugiura working him over with nasty stomps and face scrapes. The second half had lots of really well timed stuff and unpredictable twists inculding one nearfall that was unbelievably well done. Kageyama and Tamura also gave a shit in this match so that means they were quite good. These guys really know how to deliver a good match on these tiny shows without doing too much for their own good. In an era where everything is going for the grandiose and overboarding it’s nice to see some less is more pro wrestling where they still put in effort to make it interesting.

Hiroshi Yamato vs 801 Kenichi (Sportiva 1/30/2019)

Yamato is another really underrated wrestler. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him shoot at his full potential but he always does cool stuff and shows he understands pro wrestling well. He did an impressive job crafting a neat little match around Kenichi. His technical prowress and bits of athleticism always keep things interesting and he manages to time Kenichs stuff very well. Kenichi is rather sluggish but because Yamato paced the match around him in such a way it didn’t really matter. Kenichi had one Thesz Press that actually looked awesome because of Yamato timing it as if it caught him off guard. Yamato also had this impressive sequence where he leapt to the top rope in a spider suplex position, threw Kenichi, then hit a missile dropkick and followed with a dive to the outside. It was like something Misawa in his athletic prime would do. Very nice stuff.

Hiroaki Ura vs Yusaku Ito (Sportiva 2/6/2019)

This was really fucking great. Getting to follow Uras weekly progression from tags to singles is awesome. He is still at the stage where something like a camel clutch might finish him, so just seeing him try his damndest to take a chunk out of Ito and get as far as he can go is great and a story to be invested in. Ito is awesome here, giving Ura the chance to catch him off guard. I won’t spoil too much but Itos strikes were absolutely vicious and getting into harrowing tier in the second half. He really cracked Ura with his kicks and elbows. Ura caught Ito off guard early and immediately capitalized working the leg. It didn’t last long but Ito sold the fuck out of that and it set up this awesome moment in the second half where Ura grabbed Itos leg like a terrier. It was that moment where you felt Ura started pushing beyond his limits and it was awe inspiring. The stuff they did with the basic submissions was awesome too and the way they worked them into the match was very inventive compared to your usual cliché submission reversal stuff. And because of Uras standing and Itos selling the crowd bought a tapout finish. Ending was sick too. This was a gem, one of the best rookie vs high ranked guy I remember in an awful long time.

More Sportiva Twitcastings

 Fuminoru Abe & Nori da Funky Shibiresasu vs. Shinya Ishida & Yusaku Ito, Sportiva 11/30/2016

Nice match that had structure in place and all 4 guys doing a bunch of cool shit. Starts with some cool matwork, I was surprised that Yusaku Ito was a kickpadded shooter at this point, he and Abe do some nice slick shooty matwork and then we get some equally nifty traditional pro style chain wrestling between Nori and Shinya Ishida. The recent Ishida I’ve seen wasn’t good, but he was perfectly servicable here, he had a nice dive, acted like a scummy heel and was never loose or dragging the action. I once again dug Nori, he had an awesome big boot that turned Ishida inside out, and a big guy who boots peoples heads off hits different in an indy tag with a bunch of juniors. The ending is Abe vs. Ito and it’s cool sleaze shooter stuff with both guys blasting each other with cool kicks. I was amazed this match had absolutely no comedy, what happened to the indy scene, why did they all decide they wanted to be clowns at some point?

Fuminoru Abe & Yusaku Ito vs. Nori da Funky & Xevious, Sportiva 1/25/2017

Hell yeah, it’s XEVIOUS. Xevious is this fat looking dude in a mask who does all kinds of random things on offense, but it all looks hurty. He has a stiff solebutt, nasty kneedrop to the back of the head, really painful looking stretches etc. He’s really fun to watch. Not much happens in the first few minutes of his, but it turns into a good little match when Abe eats a DDT on the floor and Nori and Xev work over his neck. Neck work was really good, Ito makes a nice hot tag and has a cool exchange with Xevious leading to Ito hitting a big punch to the face. Abe vs. Nori finishing stretch was brief but pretty neat as Nori kept hitting violent offense to Abes neck. Nice little match, why is this stuff more energetic and serious than any undercard match now? This was in front of like 15 fans for crying out loud.

Yasu Kubota vs. Fuminori Abe, Sportiva 4/5/2017

This was a fun match where they do some unlikely fun matwork. Kubota is a sleazy looking guy who has been around for a really long time, and this is the best I’ve seen him look. Abe does some fun submissions and kicks targetting Kubotas arm, and Kubota comes back working Abes leg with cool stretches, ramming a bar stool into his knee etc. I also liked the weird standing stretch he busted out. All the Arn Anderson style body part targetting work was really good, and the second half where they busted out their bombs with Abe hitting spin kicks and Kubota hitting big dropkicks and drivers was a lot of fun. Limb selling wasn’t super consistant though both guys acknowledged that they were hurting and had to figure out how to transition from there. Kubota only being able to lock in his submission hold with one arm was a cool touch. It’s weird how guys like Kubota can have their best performances on the smallest shows like this.

Fuminori Abe & Kazuhiro Tamura vs. Yusaku Ito & Nori da Funky, Sportiva 5/31/2017

I’m amazed Abe was probably a more serious worker than he is now at this point. Seriously, these guys had all the reason to joke it up since they were wrestling in a sports bar, but instead they had a lengthy, serious no frills tag where everyone brought their A-game. I enjoyed Nori vs. Tamura, their grappling early on had a nice big vs little feel, and later on we get to see them really lay into each other. They have a fun dynamic going on with Noris traditional power offense and Tamuras jump kicks and flying moves. The heart and soul of this is Abe vs. Yusaku though. Both these guys were really scrappy, early on they had an exchange where Ito casually kicked Abe in the face, then later landed these really violent knee strikes to Abes head on the ground. Finishing run had both guys raining hell, hitting all their cool jumping face kicks. There were some cool moments such as Abe working a neat rolling arm scissor for a submission nearfall and Ito bumping big for a dropkick of all things. Itos punt kick was probably the highlight of the match for how out of nowhere it came and how violent it looked. Dare I say, these guys were really good at this stage.

Of all things... a Yusaku Ito Deep Dive

 Yusaku Ito vs. Koji Kanemoto, Kobe Meriken 3/17/2023

Yusaku Ito is this scuzzy little guy who will kick you hard and blast you with nasty headbutts. He reminds me of the indy guys who would sometimes work Fu-Ten undercard matches, he’s not quite a shooter, but he hits some awesome strikes, really makes his pro style moves hit hard and as a knack for timing a cool transition, like he’s a lost 3^rd Brahman brother or Shoichi Uchida dance partner. Kanemoto is 56 here and while he doesn’t kick as fast as he used to he will still kick a scuzzy indy guy in the face and do random dick moves like stopping Ito by kicking him really hard in the leg. This takes place in some dingy bar and is filmed by a single webcam so we don’t get the brief brawling portion outside, we just Kanemoto leaving the ring, then we hear some clanging banging noise as if from a metal tin can and when they come back Yusaku is in control so you kind of imagine what happened. Ito is not afraid to hit the old man in the face, and he earns his sault leaping into Kanemotos spin kicks and knees. Really really fun stuff.

Yusaku Ito vs. Toru Sugiura, FREEDOMS/Sugiura Pro Wrestling 12/10/2021

Sick fucking match. Japanese wrestling is in this weird state right now where most of the wrestling you see is a bunch of fucking nothing, but occasionally you will get something fucking crazy on the smallest of stages. This was worked like a big match and really great, there is lots of basic but extremely tight and well executed opening hold for hold work. You gotta appreciate that Ito is this scuzzy guy but he can also do things like hit a really slick dragon screw. Opening going reminded me of a great 90s NJPW juniors match due to the tight basic work and both guys peppering in some psycho headbutts and elbows. Toru Sugiura is kind of the scuzzy king of the Japanese indies and I liked how he established himself as a class above his opponent, 1) in terms of wrestling by reversing a leglock from Ito into a cool leglock of his own and 2) by acting deranged and scummy as fuck. Middle portion was a bit middling but the ending portion is one of the sickest finishing stretches I’ve ever seen, just pure insanity with both guys trying to annihilate each other with crazy headbutts and elbows. Just a hair below the best of FUTEN and they worked some great transitions. Match had a bunch of well executed tight wrestling, head dropping moves and truly psycho violence, Japanese indy wrestling at its best.

Yusaku Ito vs. Konaka, Sportiva 12/16/2020

 

This was a rad 7 minute match. Konaka is like a freaky lithe Arn Anderson working a studio TV match here, just constantly attacking Itos arm, while Ito beats him around the ring with his cool kicks, back elbows and headbutts. Everything Ito does lands really solidly and the Konaka arm attack stuff is great. I imagine a 20 minute match between them would be epic considering both these guys are quite the hidden gem workers but sometimes it’s cool to see two talented guys having a unique short little match that has maybe 1 or 2 back bumps.

Yusaku Ito vs. Konaka, Sportiva 9/15/2021

Well, I just said a main event between the two would be epic, and here’s a main event between the two and it’s really good! Mind you it’s a weekday show in front of like 12 people, but that’s kind of the best match these two will do. And this was really good, almost scientific. We start with some really fun matwork with Konaka doing a cool job catching Ito in pins and submissions. The transition is Ito catching Konaka with a sleeper, which Konaka fights out of but Ito keeps knocking the wind out of him with blows to the body. Ito constantly going back to locking in cool chokes was really good. Konaka is such a fun wrestler, I love how he sets up his comeback and ends up working Itos legs over. The finishing stretch was Konakas leg stretches vs. Itos chokes and it was really smart and great. These two are awesome, and it was cool to see Ito in a really good match without brain damaging stiffness that was built around cool submissions and counters.

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