2021 MOTY Project Update #1

1. Josh Barnett vs. Jon Moxley,  GCW 4/8/2021

Opening grappling with Moxley using finger manipulations and face rubbing to keep with Barnett wasn't exactly U-Style but tremendously entertaining. Moxley hanging with Barnett was about as well done as possible. As soon the blood started happening the match basically turned into an incredibly intense gorefest. Moxleys DDT looked a little weak, but that's a very minor compliment. Loved all the further struggle over suplexes etc. I thought Barnetts performance was incredible here. I wouldn't be shocked if this ends up being a Match of the Decade contender.

 2. Black Terry vs. Ricky Marvin, LUCHA MEMES 4/25/2021

I loved Black Terry as a near 60 year old man ten years ago. I didn't not expect him to show up in a match this great as a near 70 year old man in 2021, but here it is. Was I expecting to get some mild enjoyment out of watching a 70 year old lucha legend? Yes. But this was a kick ass match. The type that isn't just "Good for 2021 standards", but legit stands up to any bloody brawl in any other era. Terry is older, slower, obviously. I imagined my almost 70 year old grand dad doing the stuff Terry did in this match. Suffice to say what Terry is doing is outstanding even by tough old man standards. There was no holding back, no get-arounds that would mask a far too old wrestlers inabilities... instead, they went at it and had a bloody, violent, seedy brawl. They traded hard shots, punches, shoot headbutts even - Terry takes a full on not-thighslapped kick from Marvin to his bloody face here, they brawled, and it was everything this kind of match needed. Marvin was great too, kicking Terry in the face, hitting an insane dive right into a piece of plywood. Terry hitting the shoot headbutt may be some serious "going out on his sword" material. This was just fantastic and if I can find like 5 more matches just half as good as this 2021 won't be so bad.

2021 MOTY Project

 I am not the biggest fan of the current wrestling scene, but here and there matches pop up that do tickle my fancy. They will be listed in this post.

THE LIST:

1. Sakura Hirota vs. Mio Momono vs. Miyuki Takase, WAVE 6/29/2021
2. Yusaku Ito vs Toru Sugiura, Sugiura Produce 12/10/2021
   
3. Kyosuke Sasaki vs. Daisuke Nakamura, Kyushu Pro 9/6
   
4. Masa Takanashi vs. Fuminori Abe, Gatoh Move 7/13/2021  
   
5. Josh Barnett vs. Jon Moxely, GCW 4/8/2021
   
6. Black Terry vs. Ricky Marvin, Lucha Memes 4/25/2021
   
7. Keita Yano vs. Hikaru Sato, Tenryu Project 8/13 
8. Bryan Danielson vs. Dustin Rhodes, AEW 10/23
   
9. Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Kaito Kiyomiya, NOAH 6/13/2021 
10. Yusaku Ito vs Konaka, Sportiva 9/15/2021
    
11. Josh Barnett vs. Tiger Ruas, Bloodsport 10/22
    
12. Keita Yano vs. Hikaru Sato, Tenryu Project 8/26  
13. Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki, AEW 10/15 
14. Fugofugo Yumeji & Hiroaki Moriya vs Hideaki Sumi & Yuki Toyoura, FU*CK 5/30/2021
    
15. White Moriyama & Takafumi Ito vs. Raito Shimitsu & Tetsuya Izuchi, Heat-Up 2/19/2021
    
16. White Moriyama vs. Tetsuya Izuchi, Heat-Up 2/28/2021 
17. Yu Iizuka vs. Takuya Nomura, GLEAT 7/22/2021
    

RINGS 10/14/1997

 Minoru Tanaka vs. Sanae Kikuta

Sanae Kikuta was in RINGS?! Oh, apparently this was his sole appearance. Fun match do Kikuta grappling the fuck out of Tanaka, so it was better than Tanakas usual match. Kikuta tapped him pretty quickly too.

Alexander Otsuka vs. Chris Haseman

This was awesome. They actually made Otsuka wear kickpads for this. Haseman is a big beastly dude. He throws really fast savate kicks, and is pretty aggressive and uncooperative on the mat. Otsuka doesn‘t really wrestle like his BattlARTS self here and you get to see him throw some strikes he normally wouldn‘t. He really connects hard with some palm strikes and even a big thai knee, but Haseman splits his brow open. It builds to a pretty great second half with some great heated slugging it out and fighting to the ropes. The finish is totally awesome as Otsuka escapes a number of shoulder discolating arm holds from Haseman and cranks in an armlock of his own. Haseman makes the ropes but can‘t get up. It feels like Otsuka took on a monster here, and he broke that monster.

Wataru Sakata vs. Dominic Delaney

I assume Delaney is a kickboxer. He can throw kicks and hands but on the ground he has to go for the ropes pretty much immediately.

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Elvis Sinosic

Yes, Tamura vs. A soviet shooter named Elvis! This started out fun. Elvis was this lanky guy who could grapple. Then Tamura decided to stand up and brutalize Elvis. Just tagging him hard with low kicks and open hands over and over again. That seemed like a 5 minute section of just Tamura circling around this guy and hitting him hard. Then Elvis makes a move and accidentally eye pokes Tamura. Tamura then takes him down and just ends the match cranking an armlock. Guess Elvis did something Tamura didn‘t like there.

Masayuki Naruse vs. Willie Peeters

Stiff non-cooperative looking shootstyle. Peeters works this like a great amateur wrestler who knows only one submission hold. He completely dominated Naruse on the ground and countered all his takedown attempts, but when Naruse rolled on his back Peeters would let him stand up. Naruse even gets a bloody nose and bloody lip from a failed takedown attempt. I liked Peeters immediately palm striking him in the mouth and then locking in a nasty facelock. Naruse keeps shooting for takedowns that always get reversed, and really has nothing on Peeters here. The camera keeps cutting at Maeda in the crowd and I‘m sure he would kick Naruses ass backstage. This was great when Naruse got fired up and laid into Peeters with strikes, but that was like 30 seconds of the whole thing. Naruse, why did keep going for those takedowns? You should‘ve realized you had no chance with them after he sprawled on the first 20. They also kept stopping the match due to the blood until they finally stop it at 17 minutes while Peeters never once looked in trouble. I enjoyed this, especially the sprawl show from Peeters, but it could‘ve been so much more.

THE LIBRARY

Assorted Japanese Indy Wrestling

Takashi Ishikawa & Ryo Miyake vs. Yuichi Fukaya & Shigekazu Tajiri, Tokyo Pro 2/23/1995

Is there anything that says 90s sleaze like a pair of sleazy heavyweights taking on a pair of random karatekas? Judging by the way Fukaya and Tajiri try to run the ropes here, it seems neither of them have had any wrestling training, and that rules. Both of them kick hard and they have some cool spinkicks. Miyake is pretty lame but gets his ass kicked and bleeds, and Ishikawa is predictably violent in this kicking the karatekas in the face. Fun times.

Koji Nakagawa vs. Hayabusa, FMW 10/6/1998

I just had to see this match. Nakagawa is like a proto-Ogawa here. Very ratty and sleazy. I love me a good ratboy story and this was a good one. Hayabusa initially dominates the match, hitting a reckless dive and equally reckless kneelift until Nakagawa is able to catch him in a nifty backbreaker. We get a cool Bret Hart like performance from Nakagawa working over Hayabusas back - actually making the audience give a shit about things like a camel clutch. Hayabusa no sells his way back to offense, so Nakagawa says Fuck This and busts out a fork. He stabs the fuck out of Hayabusas arm and we get a full on Funks vs. Abby/Sheikh style end run peppered up with FMW style big moves. To be fair Hayabusa sold the arm work extremely well - dug that desperate tiger driver - and the last minutes of this were really good puro epic material. Seems like an extremely underrated match considering I enjoyed myself more here than during the usual late FMW era bomb throwing.

Kinya Oyanagi vs. Kazuhiro Tamura, Secret Base 3/22/2010

Exciting match on paper, which came out really fun. I was expecting some U-Style vs. T2P matwork, but instead they did more of a junior match. These are two guys who will hit hard and wrench tight holds, so they work a really cool juniors match. Tamura works over Oyanagis arm and Oyanagi works over Tamuras leg after a cool transition. Tamura completely neglects selling the leg, but he does blast Oyanagi with some stiff kicks, so I am ambivalent to his performance here. Lots of really really neat reversals in the finishing run. Especially dug all the teases of Oyanagis Octopus Hold and the flying armbar was extremely well timed. Good stuff, made me long for an extended run of Oyanagi singles matches that never seemed to happen.

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #14

 

Takeshi Ono vs. Ryuji Hijikata, Futen 10/24/2010 - EPIC

Cool matchup due to both guys feuding in BattlARTS undercard matches 10 years earlier. Hijikata went to All Japan and got kinda rotten there, but that is no problem for Ono who carries him to his career match. Opening minutes were just great as Ono demolished Hijikata with superior striking and some beautiful submission attempts. It was almost starting to look like a squash until Hijikata got it together and decided to fire back. His suplex no sell was pretty cringy (he didn‘t even do a goofy yell) but other than that, he was willing to get hit by Ono and fired back with some big shots of his own, including a big knee right under Onos chin and a deadlift brainbuster, all of which Ono sells great. Slick finish. Not an epic match, but an epic performance from our man Takeshi Ono.

Takeshi Ono & Ikuto Hidaka vs. Ryuji Hijikata & Minoru Fujita, BattlARTS 1/30/2000 - FUN

This was basically a juniors match with the addition of Takeshi Ono punching people in the face. Him vs. Fujita was a really fun match up and I‘m sure they had a great match on a BJW house show one time or something. I also enjoyed Hidaka and Fujita facewashing each other since the apparently had broken up their tag team. Some big dives, including one from Ono. This was perfectly watchable popcorn wrestling plus face punches.

Takeshi Ono vs. Ryuji Hijikata, BattlARTS 2/13/2000 - FUN

JIP match. This full on pro style. There were the usual cool Ono counters and technical moves, plus he just blasted Hijikata with a straight right coming from the ropes and that rules. Hijikata didn‘t show much, didn‘t even throw any stiff kicks, just a nice lariat at one point. Full BattlARTS worldwide point thanks to the Ono factor though.

Takeshi Ono vs. Katsumi Usuda, BattlARTS 1/28/2001 - FUN

This was a Grappling Only match that delivered 8 minutes of slick grappling. I enjoyed it a lot. Dug all the leglock trickery, Ono using his judo and generally containing the bigger Usuda. Crafty finish. Strictly for the grappling purists, but it was really good grappling.

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST

GAEA 4/29/1997

 Toshie Uematsu vs. Sugar Sato

We only get a couple minutes of this, which is a shame because it looked like a really good match. Largely built around tight pin combos and Uematsu overcoming a leg injury. Uematsu is certainly giving that WCW Womens Cruiserweight belt some prestige in 1997.

Meiko Satomura & Sonoko Kato vs. Toshiyo Yamada & Chigusa Nagayo

Hey look, it’s Toshiyo Yamada. GAEAs top rookies run right into a brick wall in this match. Satomura and Kato tried, but they got blown off and ate an ass kicking. The two brief runs of offense felt lucky and were over as quickly as they arrived. Nagayo was definitely giving them the business in this one. Fun semi-competitive squash.

Akira Hokuto & Maiko Matsumoto vs. Mayumi Ozaki & Chikayo Nagashima

A match that was unsurprisingly centered around the animosities between Hokuto and Ozaki. I really dig Hokutos broken down but still arrogant badass act. Ozaki was fun when she was throwing hands and kicking people in the face, but I thought she was kind of no selling most of the time. Nagashima is a fun workrate partner to Ozaki but doesn’t really bring the heat. Matsumoto continues to be really effective as an underdog to her overdog partner. I didn’t love the whole match but it was good one overall.

THE LIBRARY

GWE Watching #6: Tsuyoshi Kikuchi

 

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa, NOAH 11/25/2001

Man, NOAH missed out not giving Kikuchi a big singles run. It would’ve made me care about NOAHs junior title much more than all that shit involving guys like Marufuji and Kanemaru. This was super raw, hard hitting pro wrestling. There was some no selling because Takaiwa is who he is, but they make up for it by trying to kill eachother. At one point Kikuchi was getting into his machoism asking Takaiwa to hit him harder and Takaiwa almost caved his face in with a sick dropkick. Kikuchi repaid him later with an insane headbutt. I enjoyed the leg work Kikuchi did, even if Takaiwa pretty much ignored it. Takaiwa kind of redeemed himself taking a really great corner bump and then almost dying on a spider german suplex. Finishing run had plenty of brutality, including Takaiwa swatting Kikuchi off the ropes and Kikuchi countering the endless Powerbomb in a really cool spot.

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Jushin Liger, NOAH 5/21/2004

A match I‘ve never heard of until I decided to YouTube search Kikuchi today. I‘m surprised by that, because this was pretty excellent. I guess it didn‘t fit the kind of nearfall-ladden fast paced junior epic mold that was en vogue with fans at the time. But, this delivers the kind of scrappy, uncooperative exchanges you want from this. Kikuchi looks great here opening with an awesome sliding enzuigiri and big, microphone enhanced headbutts. There‘s some great dueling armwork, with both guys selling fantastically. I really liked Kikuchi playing hard ass shrugging off Ligers basic throws and Liger then gleefully tearing apart his bandaged shoulder. It‘s a great mixture of looking tough as hell and vulnerable which Kikuchi does extremely well. Loved the spot where Kikuchi went in turn to choke Liger with his bandage and Liger headbutting his bad shoulder. The match was full of gritty struggle like that, such as Kikuchi manhandling Liger by the mask, or trying to shrug off his palm strikes. Ref spots were fun and didn‘t hurt the match, and the match ended on two perfect nearfalls. Very refreshing stuff.

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Akitoshi Saito, NOAH 7/27/2001

Kikuchi is ranked way lower than Saito, but he won‘t go down without a fight! This was two guys mauling each other and it was pretty great. Notice how the match never turned into a predictable „I hit you – you hit me“ slog. There were a few smart moments: Kikuchi rolling outside and the grabbing a streetfight leglock was really great. As was him going down from a single slap from Saito and having to go for the leg again. Really dug his leg stretch in the ropes. Saito doesn‘t really sell the legwork and wins pretty easily to show that he is much stronger, which prevents this from being great, but I really loved Kikuchis performance.

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Akira Taue, AJPW 1/21/1992

Kikuchi vs. Taue, in 1992! What a matchup! And this is just wonderful. Taue gets huge heel reactions. He doesn‘t do much out of the ordinary, except try to rip Kikuchi in half with some mean submissions and just generally act like a jerk, but Kikuchi, man! He was at his best here, bumping big, selling, and being so ferocious when attacking Taue. At point Taue does a neck chop and Kikuchi does this pained collapsing sell. He really makes you believe in a neck chop like few other wrestlers. Last couple minutes had some fantastic and were just lovely. Kikuchi wanted that German Suplex like all hell, and YOU believe in it. Just a short little houseshow match, but an example of what makes Kikuchi so special.