Friday, April 29, 2022

Random Lucha

El Golpeador/Gremlin/Dr. Cerebro vs Mastadonte/Tony Rivera/El Oriental, AAA 5/11/1996

I‘m guessing this is from an AAA show where they aired the match with the local guys. It‘s funny how you can watch a random lucha local guy opener and find a bunch of really good wrestlers you don‘t hear much of. Mastadonte is a big fat guy and Golpeador a scuzzy rudo who stooges for the fat guys fatness in really amusing ways, the part where he got scared of one technico and then ran right into a belly attack was an amazing bit of stooging. Along with that you had some really great workrate sections, Oriental looks just spectacular matching up with Gremlin and Dr. Cerebro here. It was nice to see a young Dr. Cerebro, who at this point looked like the much better Dr. Wagner Jr., acting like a jerk, stooging extremely well and making everything look seemless. He had very cool chemistry with Tony Rivera where they did more solid moves like snug clotheslines and missile dropkicks as opposed to the crazy headscissors and armdrags of Oriental. Another highlight was Orientals inside arm suplex which was a really Honda move for a 90s luchador to bust out. Nice unpredictable structure where they play with your expectations of a classic trios structure so when you expect a rudo beatdown to start, it doesn‘t. Interesting finish too as Mastadonte turns on his technico partners and they lay waste to the technicos in a 4 on 2 beatdown before another luchador in zubaz pants makes the safe. Great tag overall though.

1996

Really great match which may very well be an overlooked classic. Just 6 really great wrestlers with charisma working 3 stretched out falls, which is about all you need to produce a great lucha trios. Just one great exchange after another. I really liked how Mini Frisbee started out working some more grounded but cool armdrag variation, but things soon went into overdrive when Baby Rabbit tagged in. That guy had some truely amazing movements, it's gotta be hard diving through the ropes when you are barely the height of the middle ropes but he had no problem. Technicos start busting out dives in the first fall so the rudos had to move. Great extended rudo beatdown with numerous cut offs and a gradual technico comeback. Lucha beatdowns can be trite but that wasn't the case here, the rudos booted people in the face, hit powerbombs on that unforgiving ring and generally strew the faces bodies all over the places. There was a cool moment where Frisbee and somebody blew a sequence but recovered seamlessly, and a dance off between Munequito and La Parkita. Gotta say this Super Munequito has to be a way better wrestler than the big version. The celebration after the 3rd fall felt truely earned, not only because the match felt like a struggle but because they absolutely nailed everything.

Mini Vader & Mini Mankind vs. La Parkita & Mascarita Sagrada Jr., AAA 1/10/1997

MINI VADER. MINI MANKIND. The ref is Mini Tirantes! They have a Mini Paul Bearer! But Mini Paul Bearer is taller than either of them, so I guess the scale was off. This was some good stuff. Mascarita Sagrada Jr. is of course ultra spectacular (apparently he's Baby Rabbit), but Parkita is a really good technico also. Swag dance moves and fast arm drags. He had a really nice moment where he got some real pop on a pop-up rana into a spinning headscissor thing that may have been the most spectacular moment of the match. I dug Mini Vader a lot here, as he was hitting punches but also really booting peoples heads off with thrust kicks and hitting gnarly power bombs while also being an excellent base. Apparently he's Espectrito who had lost his mask, being Mini Vader a bit longer could've produced some cool match ups but he went back to being Espectrito soon. Weak finish but everything up to that point was all kinds of fun, sometimes you wanna watch a match like this.

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

2022 MOTY Project Update #1

Hitamaru Sasaki & Kodai Nozaki vs. Minoru Tanaka & Soma Watanabe, Kyushu Pro 4/23/2022

Once again, Kyushu Pro produces a really fun shootstyle match. This was all about my boy Kodai Nozaki who has the thickest legs in the world and is a machine here with his vader hammers and big throws. He really forces the GLEAT boys to get competitive, and he can grapple too. I love that his scarf hold is a credible nearfall simply because Nozaki is so massive. Sasaki did some slick grappling in the first half. This is all about the last 4 minutes or so, though. Watanabe showed good instinct going for Nozakis leg, but Nozai caught him and then proceeded to absolutely nuke him like it was a BattlARTS match. Awesome stuff. Tanaka is the blandest wrestler of all time doing the same stuff for the last 25 years, but he was okay here and got out of the way when Sasaki and Watanabe did a hot finish. Good shit and my man Nozaki deserves more.

Masahiro Takanashi vs. Chon Shiryu, Choco Pro 1/22/2022

I'll start by talking about the problems with this match. It was a bit silly, a bit too long, and there was some sloppiness mostly caused by them wrestling on this pillow mat where you probably don't have good footing. Aside from all that, it was a really good match and another case for Takanashi being the one good big match worker in Japan. Starts with some nice grappling, but they soon move to the meat of the match. Takanashis vicious matwork vs. Shiryus awesome Jackie Chan moves. Shiryu really knew how to bounce around that little room and those windows. The back roll handspring through the window was just awesome and so were all the diving kicks and stomps, and the bounce of the ceiling into a reckless headbutt has to be among the most insane things I've seen in a while. Takanashis style is a mix of sadistic Fuchi leg stretches and innovative stuff that works like using the stool on the leg. As I said there is some sloppiness and the match goes a bit long, but they both sold their butts off, built really well to some big spots and kept me enthralled in the match the whole way, there was never a moment where I said "fuck this" which is quite rare for 2022 wrestling.

2022 MOTY List

2022 MOTY Project

THE LIST:

Monday, April 25, 2022

Karateka vs. Pro Wrestler matches!

Iori Sugawara vs. Ninja Lee, Kazushi-Gumi 1/19/2018

Great little match, exactly what we are looking for on this blog. Ninja Lee is a masked guy doing some mortal kombat stuff and Sugawara is this veteran karateka who can work a really solid pro wrestling match, and they are fighting each other in a chain ring. Lee can really throw out of nowhere axe kicks and fast hands, and Sugawara is like a Finlay with karate kicks here, working snug holds, using the chain ropes, trying to rip the mask, but also working the guy over with nasty kicks. I love a match where two sleazy guys give their all and they gave their all, stiff work, unpulled kicks, hard suplexes and STO on the not very giving ring mat, this ruled.

Hideaki Sumi vs. A-Z, FU*CK 8/22/2021

I don‘t know why we have to watch FU*CK now to get good shootstyle but here we are. Sumi is older here and has silver dyed hair like an anime character and you can see he‘s developed into a really cool worker. A-Z is some kick padded skinny guy who I assume is young (who knows, he might be 40) and Sumi really punishes him, really thudding kicks and bare knuckle punches. Sumi knows how to beat on a guy and then hit a huge kick for accentuation. His Tenryu-style enzuigir where he barely leaves the ground is great and his spinning wheel kick landed flush in A-Zs face. There is some decent groundwork (Sumi can put on holds) and it‘s just a way better match than it had any right to be in a promotion as sleazy as FU*CK worked for a Twitcast that maybe 20 people bought. A-Z looked alright but Sumi looked like a Katsumi Usuda type worker who can have a good little match against anyone.

Akitoshi Saito vs. Juyong Kim, Seishin Kaikan 7/13/1991

At this point, wrestler vs. Karateka is pretty much the only kind of pro wrestling I‘ll accept. This was violent, out of control, just perfect, Saito is an Aoyagi protege and he did his master proud here. Kim is a thickly built Korean pro wrestler (I assume), and while he looks strong he looks like was not ready for the punishment Saito would give him here. This is young nimble Saito and he just tries to crush this guy, it looks like one of his spin kicks bloodied Kims nose or lip. Kim hits some nice suplex including a really gritty butterfly suplex where he just muscles Saito over, the kind of suplexes where it looked like the other guy wasn‘t going along at all but still flew. At the second round Kim just grabs a chair and demolishes Saito, which is what you should do after you got uncessarily brutalized by a karateka in a foreign country, why did nobody ever run Steve Austin vs. A karateka? Saito comes back guns blazing though and the ending is awesome, as Saito takes off his jacket throws it in Kims face and then knees blinded Kim in the head until he stays down. Gotta love pro wrestling.

Friday, April 22, 2022

Assorted NOAH

Makoto Hashi vs. Takeshi Rikioh, NOAH 3/3/2001

Really good little match. What made it good was that both guys did some actual neat wrestling and not just stiffing each other and doing shoulderblocks all the time. That would‘ve been good, but we got something more complex here. Hashi is outgunned at the beginning, so he decides to wrestle Rikioh down. Normally the wrestling in these heavyweight matches is insanely simplistic, but Hashi did a neat job working over Rikiohs, hitting neat headbutts and locking in a cool rolling neck crank. Rikioh also had this nasty move where he dragged Hashi over his shoulder. When Rikioh was clearly wobbly from Hashis chokes, he came back by almost shattering Hashis eardrum with a big slap. He then tried ripping Hashi in half with a boston crab that would‘ve ended most rookies. The crowd sensed this and got behind Hashi big time. Some actually neat bearhug work ensues, and Hashi makes a really good comeback gradually working his way back in while selling the back work. Last few minutes were on fire with Rikioh trying to shut down Hashi with brutal sumo rushes and lariats. Also, there were some ungodly slaps throughout.

Takashi Sugiura & Tamon Honda vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takao Ohmori, NOAH 1/18/2001

Sugiura was less than 10 matches into his career at this point, so he was in his singlet and using a more amaresuish style. And damn you wish he had kept working like that his whole career because he was awesome in this, really taking it to No Fear and twisting them in knots while not backing down. The ending with him throwing Takayama around before getting caught with a nasty kitchen sink was awesome too. Everyone else was kind of doing their thing, but I was surprised that Ohmori looked pretty good. He was working in almost a heel technician way to isolate Sugiura and hit a really nice dropkick and thrust kick. Takayama didn‘t and Honda didn‘t do a ton but they were solid and Sugiura was the real story of the match, anyways.

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Over the Future 4: Kotaru Nasus Return Match 3/6/2022

Raito Shimizu vs. Super Macho Monkey

I've enjoyed these two before. I was hoping they would do a quasi shootstyle match since that is where Monkey seems most comfortable, but they just kind of did a very basic undercard indy match. I would've liked this with some matwork, I still enjoy Shimizu doing his thing, any guy with a nice gutwrench suplex and torture rack is on my good side in 2022, but Monkey isn't that kind of pro wrestler yet.

Keisuke Goto vs. Gabai-jichan

I was hoping to see Goto do more serious stuff after his CAPTURE outing, but he is stuck with Gabai-jichan here. Gabai-jichan is doing an old man with a walking cane gmmick. Amazing how much silly shit you can do with a walking cane in a wrestling match, but the joke gets old fast. I would've preferred them to run Goto vs. Shimizu instead and put Monkey in the skippable match.

Rikiya Fudo vs. Daisaku Shimoda

Fudo is must watch in 2022 as far as I'm concerned simply for working every match in insanely violent fashion. And Shimoda is his twin brother. This was pretty much the sleazier 2022 version of a WAR heavyweight match, two lumpy dudes cracking each other with really violent shots. Once again Fudos ground attacks were brutal as hell, just chest crushing elbow drops and splashes. The pace was slow and both these guys are clearly really beaten up but they had their working boots on. I like how they never resorted to stupid I hit you-you hit me stuff but also kept cracking each other. The missed vader hammer into backslide was also a surprisingly nice spot. The ending was just them standing on the floor stubbornly cracking each other while the ref counted them out and you have to respect this kind of brotherly rivalry. I enjoyed this a lot.

2/3 Falls: Manabu Hara & Hayato Mashita vs. Kotaru Nasu & Tatsuhito Takaiwa

Takaiwa is almost 50 and still doing these kind of hard hitting matches, god bless him. This was a lot of fun, had a good pace and everyone was hitting hard. I wanted some shootstyle exchanges but you can't have it all I guess. Still really enjoyed all these guys kicking the snot out of each other. Hara is ever solid, and Nasu and Mashita looked pretty decent too for two guys who never impressed me much in their youth, but they are older and lumpier now and really lay in their kicks. 2/3 falls rule made for some fun psychology and in-peril sections. Someone really needs to restart BattlARTS and consistently book all these indy shooters so they can find their groove again and do matches like this on the regular.

The Library

Monday, April 18, 2022

Enter the Riki Sensyu Office

Riki Senshu vs. Osamu Kido, Riki Office 2/11/2007

Choshu imitaro Riki Senshu is questionable, but him booking himself against puro legends provides entertainment. Kido is really old here but quite the maestro, he has some really fun and spry armwork and a cool reversal of Senshus Fake Scorpion Deathlock. Senshu clocks him with a pretty hard lariat but falls to the Kido clutch. I think this went 7 minutes or so but it was a cool match for Old Man Kido.

Riki Senshu & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Yuki Ishikawa, Riki Office 9/25/2011

Another entertaining Senshu match. Fujiwara and Fujinami were definitely collecting paychecks here, but their sections are still fun. And Senshu came across like an eccentric guy who was far weaker than Choshu but using his style effectively. He also took a beating from Fujiwara. Ishikawa had some decent sections against him but the match was a bit too short to make room for another transcendent Ishikawa performance. Still fun to see.

Riki Senshu vs. Kenji Fukimoto, Riki Office 1/14/2008

These two are Kurisu trainees and they produce a really great, serious sleaze brawl with old school psychology, the first real gem of this last footage motherload. Opening was a lot of fun with Senshu smacking sleazeball Fukimoto around and hitting cool neck chops, establishing him as the more dominant force. As soon as they spilt to the floor they went to town with absolutely hideous chairshots on each other. Fukimoto was able to brutalize and bloody Senshu but because of Senshus bomb dropping style Fukimoto quickly became the underdog. I have to say Senshu looked great here, his mixture of head trauma and slowly bleeding out selling kept things interesting and made him look vulnerable, and his out of nowhere backdrops and lariats ruled. It builds to a hard fought bomb dropping war with some neat learned psychology that was done right and leads to an absolutely crazy bump that was sold perfectly and added to the match. Also have to say Senshus slow, half dead kickout was one of the best I've ever seen. I really have to give these two a ton of credit here, for two indy sleazeballs they really went all out to create their masterpiece here, it easily could have been a cringy mark show but it ended up violent and engrossing, they nailed it.

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