Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #17

 

Takeshi Ono vs. Carl Greco, PWFG 6/18/1995 - FUN

4 minute match which really could‘ve gone a bit longer. Basically a series of intense mat scrambles, Ono is so slick and Greco tosses the fuck out of him. Just a taste of the great dynamic between these two, but it was still cool to check out. Nasty double joint breaking finish.

Takeshi Ono & Masao Orihara vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Great Sasuke, Michinoku Pro 8/16/1998 - FUN

Ono was doing his Masked Tiger gimmick and Ishikawa came in wearing a Sasuke outfit. Fun brawl which was basically a sprint with Ono flying into the ring with flying kicks and stomps and sometimes chairs and Orihara employing his usual scummy tactics. Sasuke hit some big dives and the finish was between Ishikawa and Ono and while it was brief it was as fun as you expect it to be.

Takeshi Ono & KAW KAW & Etsuko Mita vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Candy Okutsu & Ai Fujita, 3/12/2000 - SKIPPABLE

This match has the dubious honor of being the first skippable Ono match in this project. Mostly perv comedy with so many low blows and stepping on mens genitalia you have to wonder if it was the producers fetish. Girl on girl sections were kind of sloppy, and Ishikawa no selling Mitas piledriver pissed me off. There was one decent Ono/Ishikawa exchange in there but nothing you don‘t get in any other Ono match.

Takeshi Ono & Masao Orihara vs. Alexander Otsuka & Mamoru Okamoto, BattlARTS 2/7/1998 - FUN

Pretty much all 4 guys dropping bombs on each other. I expected the Tonpachi Machine Guns to dominate with their usual cheating and double teams, but instead Orihara took a big beating and Ono would rush in to save him, usually by kicking people recklessly to break up their moves. Otsuka is totally game in this kind of match, gorilla pressing Orihara and hurling him around with giant swings and suplexes like a rag doll. Eventually Ono embraces Oriharas rotten ways and punches Okamoto in the balls. The Guns continue to lay in a beating with chairs and stomps after the match. The early stages of a wonderful cooperation.

Takeshi Ono vs. Hiroyoshi Kotsubo, Futen 4/24/2005 - FUN

Nasty sub 5 minute squash. I kind of liked the opening movements with Kotsubo being a pure amateur style wrestler and Ono being the complete fighter. Kotsubo quickly proves himself to be useless hitting a crummy German suplex and lariat and Ono goes nuts punching him out. Short, painful, fun to watch.

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

EMLL in 1990 #1 - 1/5/1990

El Supremo & Hijo de Gladiador & Herodes vs. Ciclon Ramirez & Pantera II & Aguila Solitaria

Well this was just a classic lucha romp with that rudo/technico dynamics. Tons of highly entertaining technicos one upping the clumsy bad guys sequences. The rudo trio is pretty dedicated – Hijo de Gladiador takes a front flip bump when he misses a punch, and Herodes is just gleeful about his own evilness, while El Supremo has a very different presence. I liked how the rudo beatdown started with Supremo basically having enough and clocking Pantera with a stiff elbow. Of the technicos I'd say I liked Pantera II the best who has such beautiful armdrags and his trademark rope running spot altough everyone did something cool. The 3^rd fall had some really amusing chase spots. I was surprised how easily the rudos won this one. 

Angel Azteca & Super Astro & Kung Fu & Emilio Charles Jr. & Jaque Mate & Espectro Jr.

Long, quality lucha that told a story. Early on Emilio Charles Jr. gets the better of Azteca during a wrestling exchange. Of course Angel takes great offense to this and immediately goes after Emilio. Azteca going out of his way to ram into Emilio with a huge forearm while in the middle of a rope running exchange with Espectro was straight out of the AJPW playbook. Of course Emilio Jr. makes him pay dearly later when he slaps the hell out of him during the beatdown. That along may have been the highlight of the match along with Aztecas bumping, including flying with his back into the edge of the ring apron. Of course Super Astro and Kung Fu also do lots of fun wrestling. Astro is such a trip to watch with the insane height on all flying moves, while Kung Fu manages to not suck doing his faux martial arts stuff and hitting weird/cool kicks, punches and leg trips. We also get the awesome and devastating tope to the floor from Super Astro aswell as Emilio Charles Jr. not falling for The Star.

El Dandy & Mogur & Popitekus vs. Pierroth Jr. & MS-1 & Ulises

Quality main event. There are some rudo interference shenanigans early on, but we get a long 1^st fall with everyone wrestling. You know it's gonna be good when El Dandy is in his Kazuo Yamazaki tights and UWF kickpads. I especially liked the Dandy/MS-1 matchup. MS-1 is a trickier grappler than he looks like and they play up the size difference. Popitekus is an awesome big tubby luchador and also way brave as he bumps bigger and more often than a guy his size should. Pierroth Jr. deciding to work over Mogur with stiff kicks to the spine was quite unexpected and things took a harsh turn when Mogur decided to fight fire with fire and also rip his mask. Pierroth cracks him open and we got ourselves a heated third fall with a bloody and beaten Mogur trying to stand up to him. At one point El Dandy was hitting these fast enzuigiris and spin wheel kicks before Mogur clocked Pierroth Jr. with a desperation lariat for a big nearfall and it's like this is NJPW now or something. Cool finish which reminds the fans every move is important. I think the match didn't even have a dive so reminder that lucha can be cutting edge and economic too.

 THE LIBRARY

RIP Brazo de Plata

 

Brazo de Plata vs. Universo 2000, CMLL 12/16/1997

What a great little match. CMLL in 1997 was rapid firing all time classics at it‘s audience, so I‘m not surprised this isn‘t talked about much, but it‘s a rare Porky title match. Brazo de Plata was doing it all here, hitting the mat doing cool exchanges and busting out cool holds. Porky really works his weight too, he is hard to get off his feet, and when he comes charging he just blows Universo 2000 away. His splashes hit like a ton of bricks. Universo is getting eaten up until he trips Brazo while he‘s working an indian deathlock. It‘s such a minimal spot but Porky really sells that minor trip like a big deal, he is a powerful fat guy and a heavy hitter, but he will also take heavy falls. Universo then just leans back and Plata is trapped likea beached whale. The 3rd fall wasn‘t as epic as the first 2 promised but we get an awesome Porky dive plus a crafty finish.

80s Europe #5

 

Johnny Saint vs. Steve Grey, 1/31/1981

Here‘s something you don‘t see every day: a WoS sprint. This was no rounds with 10 minute time limit. Just a barrage of pin attempts and credible nearfalls. Plenty of fast, intricate rope running too. Greys dropkicks ruled. And Saint completely tuned out the jokes for a change. Very nice stuff.

Jon Cortez vs. Bobby Barnes, 3/31/1981

Great match. Holy lord was Cortez brilliant here. I mean, he is usually brilliant, but he was just completely on here. Barnes was a proficient wrestler himself but Cortez had him with his back against the wall here. Cortez was busting out all kinds of graceful transitions and even made shit like the trite Zach Sabre escape look great. I love that Barnes transition to offense is him and Cortez going into an unusually grumpy amateur style scramble for a pin attempt and then Barnes just stands up and stomps Cortez. Barnes doesn‘t even work an exaggerated heel persona here, he is just pissed off with being shown up and goes to boot this jocks ass. Barnes launched a vicious heel assault full of underhand punches and vicious forearms and Cortez made some slick comebacks. Cortez dropkicks were just great. This was a formula match for sure but executed on a ridiculously high level.

Jim Breaks vs. Steve Grey, 5/12/1981

Another excellent signature Breaks match. Breaks played fair early but snapped soon. As usual, plenty of great armwork. Grey didn‘t leave his imprint on this match like others but he was as technically brilliant as they come and they crowd loved him. 

 

1980s EURO COMPENDIUM

LLPW Ichi Mouda Jin 10/9/1994

 

Shinobu Kandori vs. Mikiko Futagami

This was totally awesome. It easily could‘ve been a bullshit squash, but we get little Futagami stepping up to Kandori, and Kandori letting her shine while retaining her on status as the ultimate badass. Starts out great with Futagami fucking slapping and spitting on Kandori. Obviously there were gonna be beatings in this match, but both girls also hit the mat and Kandori allows Futagami to look on her level. GAMI is such a cool stoic grappler, and Kandori really sets herself up as a foil for that stoic charisma by amping up her own presence, she‘s like The Rock reacting to Futagami trying to blindside her. The grappling was super cool with Kandori using her shoot submissions and Futagami mixing in lucha holds and pins in seamless fashion. Along with that there were some serious beatings in the match, Futagami tries to cut down Kandori with some vicious running boots and Kandori pays her back with some super gnarly boot scrapes (the kind of simple thing which Kandori has a knack for making it look really violent). Fantastic finish too. I was shocked when this ended and the graphic showed it only went 9 minutes, it felt like a much bigger match with a ton of content to it.

Mizuki Endo vs. Michiko Ohmukai

Hey look, it‘s Michiko Ohmukai. This was fun due to how into it the crowd was. As a match it was just two young workers running through their offense – with Endo having little high impact offense and mostly grounding Ohmukai with holds. Ohmukai had some cool knees to the back of the head and some really cool bridging. Endo picks up the win with a cool double stomp, though, which surprised me.

Miki Handa vs. Carol Midori

Extremely generic match between two generic workers. Surprise suplex to start, then half crab a bunch to kill time before somebody hits a random move. Add a bunch of pointless legwork and you have yourself a bonafide nothing match! The finishing sequences were well executed, but again, nothing that will stick in your mind.

Harley Saito vs. Rumi Kazama

Kazama doesn‘t have much of a rep, but time and time again she proves that she could go. I was surprised they started this out with a bunch of lucha armdrags and counters. It felt like two veterans trying to prove they were on a different skill level, and it was cool. Harley though soon reminded everyone who she was by blindsiding Kazama with an absolutely rotten kick to the face in the middle of an exchange. The following kick battle as awesome. Kazama fired back with some ringers of her own and Saito just wasted her with high kicks in the corner. After that series of BattlARTS level near Kos they settle down into a pro-style finishing run which was a bit disappointing but still cool. Kazama does some cool Dragon Sleeper work and whips out a spinning wheel kick from the top. I like that Harleys tiger suplex was protected. Really good little match overall.

Noriyo Tateno & Kurenai Yasha & Michiko Nagashima vs. Eagle Sawai & Jenn Yukari & Jun Yamashita

This is not something people would seek out on paper, but it ended up being pretty fun. Basically an escalating violent tag. Jenn Yukari is Yukari Osawa who I didn‘t like much but she was fun here kicking people hard. Yamashita is some rookie who debuted just 2 months before and played the underdog taking a beating. Kurenai was super cool as usual. It‘s remarkable how she doesn‘t do martial arts kicks or anything but stays vicious looking and interesting on offense. Sawai played the Tenryu role having staredons and always looking like a big deal when she stepped into the ring simply by running people over with her size, and she‘s fun in that role. I expected more brawling and blood and the finish was a bit sudden (although cool) but this was a good main event overall.

THE LIBRARY

2021 MOTY Project Update #3

 6. Yu Iizuka vs. Takuya Nomura, GLEAT 7/22/2021

Basically a slightly stiffer U-Style match. Both guys beat the hell out of eachother with shots to the body and later open hand strikes. Nomura is always great in shootstyle matches, I have no idea why he wasn't utilized as the Hiroyuki Ito of GLEAT from the beginning. Nomuras submissions were great as usual too and both guys produced some slick mat exchanges. This is all about the last minute where Iizuka is down 2-1 and both guys start throwing hell at each other with Nomura trying to stay on his feet. Very satisfying use of the points system.

2021 MOTY Project MASTER LIST

Koki Kitahara Documentation #12

 

Koki Kitahara & Jun Kikuchi vs. Koji Kitao & Abdullah The Butcher, WAR 6/6/1997 - GREAT

This was pretty much 4 wrestlers who can beat on someone in cool ways beating on eachother in cool ways. Kitao and Abby sure ain‘t gonna bump, what can our man Kitahara and young barefoot Kikuchi do? But Kitahara gets in a surprising amount of offense on Kitao. Loved him walking over and blasting him with a kick to the face, hope Kitao didn‘t beat up Kitaharas wife after the match for that. Abby is all throat thrusts here, although he does cut up Kikuchi at one point, and I loved the moment where he caught a Kitahara kick and chopped him in the throat. He even takes a monkey flip bump at one point. This went about 10 minutes and came out just right and way more interesting than you‘d think.

Koki Kitahara & Osamu Tachihikari vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Koji Kitao, WAR 10/6/1997 - FUN

I am annoyed with Kitahara facing Kitao so much, but I guess I have arranged myself with Kitao somewhat. He will club people in fun ways, hit a nice senton and recklessly piledrive someone. His uranage here was kinda shitty, though. Tachhihikari was unusually effective as a big tubby guy putting the boots down. Kitahara carried this kicking people in the face, brutalizing Mochizuki and spitting on Kitao. Mochizuki isn‘t what you‘d call a polished shootstylist but Kitahara gets some fun hold exchanges out of him. Fun moments where Buko Dojo guys try interferring in the match and piling on Tachihikari. Any WAR match where tubby guys potatoe each other is going to be fun at minimum and this also had the Kitahara factor.

Koki Kitahara vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki, WAR 4/2/1995 - EPIC

These two do a sleazy massacre as well as anyone in wrestling history, and this ended up being just great. Kitahara has a rep for being a violent crowbar, but Fuyuki totally matches him in violence. Fuyuki splits Kitahara open with some nasty headbutts and a hyper brutal chairshot and Kitahara has a bloody brow and lips. Fuyuki ends up spitting blood from a Kitahara choke and it‘s all one big violent toe to toe fight. There are some almost Memphis-like touches, such as Fuyuki tagging Kitahara with punches only to get spin kicked in the face, as well as Jado spraying something in Kitaharas face. The spray attack looked almost as violent as all the brutal headbutts and kicks to the face in the match. I also loved the spot where Kitahara hit this rope assisted enzuigiri. This was pretty much a sleazier Hashimoto/Tenryu match and I loved it.

KOKI KITAHARA DOCUMENTATION PROJECT