Assorted Japan Indy Wrestling

 

Keita Yano vs. Taro Yamada (WALLABEE, 6/14/2012)

Damn great match, I imagine if Yano had never stunk up BattlARTS and instead was only known for doing weird technical matches while wearing his joker makeup and clown singlet in a tiny gym we’d all be Yano superfans. Taro Yamada is the last guy in Japan still holding up the T2P style matwork and one of the most underrated grapplers on the independent scene. This was 25 minutes of matwork that was like a great IWRG style title match. It was a mix of Yamadas llave holds with Yano going along and some cool RINGs-like leglock work thrown in, with both guys doing a great job escaping and transitioning between holds. Whole match felt fresh and competitive and never was like a derivative or weird LARP, these guys were trying to pop each others shoulders and/or ankles the whole time. There were one or two geeky moments where Yano did some “rope running” although it was more like a comedy spot with Yano hooting like an owl, and both these moments lead to cool spots, one where Yamada actually trips Keita with a drop down and another where Yano tricks Yamada into his special hold. There wasn’t some kind of story if you are into that but there were a few great nearfalls and I deeply respect these two for just grappling it out for 25 minutes without slowing down, and never throwing a strike or even a body slam, it was all submissions and funky cradle pins (especially loved Yamadas weird Delfin Clutch variation), just really tightly worked stuff that wouldn’t look out of place in a WoS or lucha title match. I did love Yanos dickish knee slide across Yamadas face and the moment where Yano had enough of the llave holds and challenged Yamada to an amateur match was really cool. Finish was great aswell. Best Yano match I’ve seen by far and actively a great match, which is a major shocker. Yamada played a huge part too but I’ll be damned if Yano wasn’t feeling it that night. Apparently there have been a few matches between these two and I look forward to checking them all out but as it stands this is the best I’ve seen from Yano by a mile.

Yu Iizuka vs. ZIMA Yoshida (RAW 9/30/2018)

ZIMA Yoshida makes his return to the blog. This Yu Izuka is a HEAT-UP guy. While Heat-Up is technically the follow promotion to Style-E, it doesn’t really do shootstyle, but Izuka works full shootstyle here, and actually looks like a guy with lineage to Tamura. Really promising performance from Iizuka, throwing wild spin kicks and looking in cool submissions while doing lightning smooth mat transitions. Our man ZIMA is overwhelmed but he manages to lock in a cool leg lock/neck crank submission of his own. Def. Would’ve liked this to go longer.

Hideki Suzuki & MIKAMI vs. UTOMARO & Yuiga (Batos Cafe, ?/?/??)

Not a pleasant match. Yuiga is a NEO-wrestler who has been working scum indies for 20 years. She tries to take it to Hideki Suzuki in this, who responds by punting her in really violent, unpredictable ways. Yuiga is throwing some crowbar shots and sick headbutts but it seems Suzuki is untouchable. He even no-sells UTOMARO completely. Their match up is really intense and it builds to a great moment where Yuiga is finally able to get something in when she counters a sleeper attempt into a judo throw and tries to sink into a desperation armbar. MIKAMI and UTOMARO basically just provide some fluff between the Yuiga vs. Hideki sections. Great sleeper hold finish.

Some 2020 pro-wrestling worth watching

 I am admittedly pretty hard on wrestling in the year of our lord 2020. There is more of it than ever, and it all sucks harder than ever, not to mention the virus delivering a near-death blow to an already struggling industry as promoters and wrestlers failed to come up with experimental solutions to the given problem and instead gave us some pro wrestling that feels even dumber, even more forced and more Jackass-like than ever before. However, there have been some bright spots, and I am going to highlight some of them in this post.

Junichi Hanawa vs. Takahiro Tababa, H-Production ?/?/2020

Meth lab BattlARTS style match taking place in a small bar without a ring. Hanawa is dumpy and balding. I've never seen him before, but the way I know Japanese sleaze indies he probably has been running his own micro-shootstyle shows since 1993. This was really entertaining thanks to some unexpected psycho stiffness and Hanawas tough old man charisma. Tababa was doing some subtle heel tactics in between crowbarring his opponent. The brawling portion where they ventured into the street was a bit of a letdown, but there was a funny spill down a ramp and a kneedrop off of a railing. The finish was very good with both guys throwings some brutal strikes and the German suplex on the floor has to be the spot of the year.

Junichi Hanawa vs. ZIMA Yoshida ?/?/2020

This seems to be taking place in Hanawas backyard garden in the pouring making it essential pandemy era viewing material. Another fun unexpectedly stiff little match that had some pretty nasty low kicks and shotais and some neat matwork. ZIMA describes himself as the self-declared Volk Han of Adachi but with the hair and condition of Andrej Kopylov.

Takanori Ito vs. Yutaka Yoshie (GLEAT ?/2020)

GLEAT is uploading random exhibition matches to their YouTube. I didn’t really like the first GLEAT show, but if they are to continue giving Yutaka Yoshie things to do they are getting on my good side. Takanori Ito is one of the GLEAT boys with a shooter gimmick. He isn’t very impressive, especially not if you compare him to Pioneer Senshi rookies, but he has a decent enough variety of strikes, and he didn’t do any stupid shit like 99% of modern pro wrestlers too. So this ended up being a good no frills match. Yoshie doesn’t really enage in shootstyle, but he is really fun here potatoeing the young guy, working simple pro-style holds in a very snug and no-nonsense way, and absorbing Itos strikes with his blubber. Nasty nasty finish.