KAGEKI 04/21/2000

              (Written by jom)

    This is the show where KAGEKI decided their first top champion via single elimination tournament (plus two funky little second round matches). I've put off watching this show for a long time, mostly due to the fact that the entire first round is horrifically clipped, which would always put me in a bad mood whenever I would turn it on. At least, I thought the first round solely existed as a clipped mess. Turns out I'm an idiot and whoever uploaded the show online is The Great Deceiver: while I was under the impression that this was a VHS release, this was actually put on SKY-A TV, and the show was broken into two halves. The horrifically clipped first round was actually just quick highlights, as first round matches were shown in full a week before! Thanks to a friend of mine I finally have both broadcasts, so I might as well write about it. 

First Round: Azteca vs. Chocoball KOBE

    Company founder (and therefore strongest pick for the tournament) Azteca takes on flash-in-the-pan sleazeball shooter KOBE. Azteca is here in a very bold but usual mask, complete with little white fangs and the yellowest hair ever, which is a strong way to start the AZTECA MASK WATCH I will be partaking in as we go through this show. KOBE does not have a mask but it significantly cool even without one. He's probably the most forgotten Kitao Dojo graduate to have done anything of note, with all respect to BATAyan and the bald guy from the Jericho show. Considering just how little has made tape of him, it'd probably be pretty damn easy to make a career comp, and someone should! He's kind of like if you smashed Mochizuki and TARU together into one man and gave him a bad spray tan, stiff and athletic while also not being afraid to foul it up. He starts the match hot with a punch to the face and one of his ludicrous backfists, and he maintains that energy while on top of Azteca throughout the match, laying into him with the big kicks while also pulling out some interesting holds like a La Casita turned into an armbar. Azteca, for his part, has already begun his transformation into the Local Liger, and carries himself with a similar kind of staunch confidence, but his actual moveset falls more into the Choshu category of having five moves that you do really really well. His lariat is cracking and his kneel kick floats without losing impact. More than anything though, he's got the expressions to make a full bodysuit and mask work, and he knows when to take back the wheel from a heater like KOBE. It all comes together into a pretty fun albeit unspectacular face/heel type of match, which I'm happy to see regardless. 

First Round: Onryo vs. KAZE

    So this is less than a minute long, which somewhat limits the amount of words I can reasonably write. I will say that, generally speaking, I do appreciate a good sub-minute match, with "good" usually being up to whether that runtime makes any sort of sense. Takao Omori ruining Jun Akiyama in seven seconds is one of the coolest and boldest booking decisions of 90s All Japan, and, even if I wasn't in love with it like others were, the Iizuka/Izuchi quick kill UWF match was probably the most interesting way GLEAT could've set Izuchi up as a monster shooter (even if it had zero ramifications on his career after that). All of that is to say that this match is fine I guess. It starts hot, keeps the match hot, and then ends hot. KAZE, four months into his career, is already clearly a talented worker, and he nearly kills Onryo with a rana which is a great way to get a big thumbs up from me. Onryo hits his usual cool stuff and also has a cloud of smoke puff off of him when KAZE dropkicks him really hard. For what it is, it's cool.

First Round: Yutaka Fukuda vs. Daiyu Kawauchi

    It's always cool to see the most time given to the rookie matchup in one of these tournaments. Fukuda and Kawauchi would both go on to do greater things than anything they ever did in KAGEKI, but here they're two fresh-faced youngsters in Highspots-esque bad gear, born from the fed's dojo and ready to start figuring themselves out. They play into the style differences hard, with Fukuda hunting for armbars and hitting big kicks to soften Kawauchi up, and Kawauchi responding with power spots and big lariats. It goes beyond the moves and into the methodology as well: Fukuda is a three-dimensional fighter, pulling off a wide variety of strikes and suplexes and big shocking aerial moves to keep Kawauchi on his toes, while Kawauchi is closer to a raging bull repeatedly running head-first into a wall, just waiting for it to crack. I wouldn't dare claim that this is the cleanest piece of work (Fukuda nearly explodes his own asshole with an under-rotated 450), but considering the limited experience either man had at this point, this is really awesome stuff, borderline great as a complete match with an undeniably stellar finishing stretch.

First Round: Nasty Black Panther vs. Guerrero Diablo

    Easily my most anticipated match of the first round, but one that only somewhat delivers on expectations. This is, sadly, a little too unserious. Diablo and Nasty Black Panther (GENTARO with a sick mask and womanizer gimmick) are the two most popular heels in the company, and they start off about as high-octane as you'd hope, before quickly settling into funny haha pro wrestling. I get it, NBP is always at least a little bit of a jokester, and that's probably the best direction to go with a heel vs. heel match if they don't wanna commit to something more heinous, but I can't deny that the joke goes on a bit too long for my liking. It does lead to some good bits, especially NBP accidentally hitting the space rolling elbow on the ref, only to continue through with the bulldog like he's on autopilot. Plus, the actual moves and sequences they pull off are awesome, like NBP's Asai moonsault and Diablo's Diablo Driver. It's an enjoyable match, but it's also one that could've been the best of the first round, and instead ended up in 3rd place.

Second Round: Azteca vs. Shigeo Kato

    Now THIS. This right here. This is the shit I'm looking for. On paper, Azteca/Kato is a pairing that has potential, but I came into it prepared for a fine enough segue encounter, especially considering this is just another run on Azteca's ladder to the main event. Instead, the two of them deliver a legitimately great face/heel encounter, full of smart old school wrestling and genuinely interesting control flow. Azteca (this time wearing a more red mask, complete with little devil horns and a gaping maw) once again delivers good top guy work, but Shigeo Kato is far and away the most interesting part of this one. A man displaced out of time, his 2000s Japan work feels more fitting in a TV studio in 1984 than Tokyo Battle Sphere in 2004. He hunts for Figure Fours like the best of them, and isn't afraid to poke an eye or use the ropes for leverage. As stated before, Azteca is at his best when facing an outright heel, and this comes together as probably his second best big time singles match of this era, only behind the Diablo title match from 2002 that stands as my favorite KAGEKI match in general. Azteca is THE guy coming out of this match, with the type of furious anger in his punches held by the best hometown babyfaces, and the crowd happily bit on every kneel kick or enzuigiri he pulled off. I really can't say enough about this match. A strong casemaker for both guys as masters of local crowd pro wrestling.

Second Round: SAITO vs. Guerrero Diablo

    A reminder that sometimes, things are just going too well. Not that this match is bad. Hell, it was probably cool! Emphasis on the "probably" because this is CLIPPED. My heart is broken. What we get looks fun though, with Diablo jogging over to the face entrance as SAITO's theme starts playing to bumrush him behind the curtain. He does some nasty backwork, SAITO takes a ridiculous flat-back spill to the outside, and Diablo even gets to hit a Diablo Driver. SAITO's comeback work in response is fun, albeit we only see him do two moves thanks to the clipping. I can't really say that this was good or bad, but it probably leaned more towards good considering what we have.

Semi-Final: Onryo vs. Azteca

    What a strange state of affairs this match is. Azteca comes out with a blue oni-type mask (the worst of the three masks so far but still good), which makes me think he's gonna be evil and fight demon with demon. Not really, no. Onryo spends a lot of this match being weird and janky, which isn't too unusual for him, but also entirely devoid of a hook. For as a strange of a worker as Onryo is, he's usually able to hook me with some of his work, from the complete car crash antics to the esoteric grappling to whatever else. Here, he's seemingly going through the motions as much as he can, and Azteca does little to motivate him. The biggest issue with this match is that it has zero heat and an obvious winner, and neither man really tries to make me believe otherwise on either front. The most interesting spots come when Onryo continues Kato's earlier legwork, and when Kato himself appears to run interference and try to help Onryo win. It says a lot that all of Onryo's best work existed because of Shigeo Kato. This is closer to white noise than pro wrestling, and I feel like my brain has been entirely wiped clean.

Semi-Final: SAITO vs. Daiyu Kawauchi

    Thankfully, this is a return to form. Great high-spec juniors work here, as SAITO tries to llave Kawauchi to death and Kawauchi responds with his usual bull-headedness and lariat mindset. The early grappling is great and very emblematic of this, as SAITO completely outmatches Kawauchi and Kawauchi can only respond by chopping him from the ground or overpowering him to escape a bad position. SAITO, only a few years into wrestling himself, is already such a master at this. All of his work is so well-executed, from his perfect dropkicks to his massive hurricanranas. Seeing the future Super Shisa pull out some crazy aerial stuff is awesome too, like the missile-esque suicide dive he hit near the middle of the match. Kawauchi, for his part, is once again great as a hulking big man junior, catching SAITO with stiff shots and manhandling him well. The one thing that only just barely damages this match is the finish, which is clearly at least a little fucked up, but that does next to nothing to affect the overall quality. Similar to the Fukuda match earlier, I wouldn't go so far as to call this great, but it's clearly a sign of better things to come from both men.

Final: SAITO vs. Azteca

    Great conclusion to the tournament. SAITO and Azteca deliver probably the best possible match the two could have, complete with llave exchanges, big dives, and tremendous escalation. I appreciate Azteca (in a new version of the mask from round one, now with gold trim instead of yellow) being the only man capable of battling SAITO in llaves as the only guy to face him so far with actual lucha training. SAITO truly gets to flex his muscles in that regard here, especially his penchant for bizarre bridges and handstands. The sequences and counters the two pull off go so well too, unpredictable and interesting without ever going so far into being bullshit dancing or anything like that. In practice, this match is SAITO and Azteca having the customary big main event of the time, while cutting out the middle heat portion in favor of going directly into the bombs after the llaves. The bombs themselves rule too, from SAITO's impressive cradles and suplexes to Azteca's real dangerous looking brainbuster. The match even ends with a great super finisher type move, which feels appropriate and totally works as the finish for a match like this. Overall, another great match from Azteca, and a strong ending to a pretty damn good tournament.

IWA Kakuto Shijuku 07/16/1995

             (Written by jom)

     Returning to the Yong Dong food stalls always fills me with a joy & comfort I don't really find anywhere else. There's just something so home-y about it. For all the bizarre monsters and strange gimmicks, it's wrestling that caters well to the mostly drunk and casual crowds. IWA Kakuto Shijuku has always served as a recalibration point for when I need to throw on an hour long tape and have a good time, and this is probably one of my favorite Kakuto Shijuku tapes yet, serving as both the usual Kakuto Shijuku madness combined with a bunch of IWE tribute wrestling. Let's get into the thing.

Akihiko Masuda vs. Hiroshi Watanabe

      Biblically accurate young boy wrestling. Masuda and Watanabe are destined for greater things, only a few years away from already becoming major fixtures of the indies, but here they are as black trunks rookies throwing big kicks and suplexes aplenty. It is entirely one-dimensional pro wrestling, but it's earnest in its simple approach. Masuda has a beautiful spinning heel kick that I've never seen him do as Great Takeru, and Watanabe's suplexes are all performed perfectly, especially his fantastic bridging German. The clipping is pretty hardcore here (it's an hour long tape with eight matches to cover), but I really couldn't care less about clipping nowadays, and everything they showed was awesome. It's not hard to see why both guys turned out as well as they did when they had the execution down so well this early into their career. 

Best 2/3 Falls: Masahiko Takasugi, Isamu Teranishi, & Apollo Sugawara vs. Shigeo Okumura, Mitsunobu Kikuzawa, & Crusher Takahashi

    This is mostly the uncs getting reps in before the big reunion battle royal in the main event, but it's a fun time. Due to the clipping on the tape, we see basically nothing offense-wise on the part of the rookie trio, albeit all three are spirited in their being demolished. I could've rectified this by watching the available handhelds of the show on YouTube, but I didn't feel like doing that to be quite honest, so Mitsunobu Kikuzawa will have to settle for solely being a victim of Takasugi's 18 wheeler-esque hip attacks. The vets all get their own moments to kick ass, and Sugawara especially showed out with an awesome Arn-style DDT and a nasty lariat. Once again, more of a clip package than an actual match, but a very fun clip package indeed.

Goro Tsurumi vs. Katsuzo Oiyama

     Tsurumi celebrates his 25th year as a wrestler by having a gauntlet-type affair with two of his old IWE compatriots. Here he's facing Oiyama, who I've never seen before this but seems to be a former sumo that basically vanished after IWE died, based on his performance here, his disappearance was kind of a tragedy, cause this rocked. Lots of big punches and chops and headbutts, meat and potatoes wrestling that never regresses into "I hit you, you hit me" slop you're more likely to see nowadays. Oiyama, for a guy dressed like a big baby, hits like a motherfucker, throwing some mean chops and even meaner headbutts. Still, this is a controlled contest, never going entirely off the rails even with how heated some of the striking gets. Just a fun ass match from two fun ass workers. 

Goro Tsurumi vs. Jiro Inazuma

     And this one is even better! Inazuma (otherwise known as Gerry Morrow) actually just passed away a few days ago, and I've always meant to give him the proper deep dive since he's a real great worker and trained basically every famous wrestler to come outta Canada in the 90s. This one is more technically-minded, with some nice grappling and smarter spots between Inazuma and Tsurumi, but it also cranks up the violence as Inazuma throws straight punches to the face and Tsurumi responds with nasty backfists. All of Inazuma's headbutts are so good too, especially his jumping ones where he comes down like an avalanche onto the skull. Another good times kind of match, but once again, there's something really bubbling beneath the surface here.

Jiro Inazuma vs. Katsuzo Oiyama

    This is where it boils over. Once again rough and violent in the IWE way, hitting all the right buttons for this to end up as a perfectly solid match, only for Inazuma to really start targeting the leg. Oiyama takes umbrage at this, probably offended that Inazuma would do limb targeting to a man who hasn't worked a match in over a decade, and responds by GRABBING HIM BY THE EYE and hitting the nastiest chop of the whole night. This very quickly morphs from another heated half-brawl like the previous two into one of the nastier confrontations of the 90s, with both guys grabbing each others throats and hitting low blows over and over again. Inazuma unleashes some super mean uppercuts and Oiyama tries to cave his head in with headbutts. It's definitely the closest anything on this show has gotten to IWE's more chaotic brawls, and it ends up being a great conclusion to the super sick Tsurumi 25th Gauntlet Thing.

Chain: Super Uchu Majin vs. Masanobu Kurisu

    I have no idea who Super Uchu Majin is. When I saw him appear in Go Gundan, I thought he might be Shoji Nakamaki, but here he is working in Yokohama the exact same day that Nakamaki is working in Tokyo. Regardless, he throws great punches and lariats so he's cool in my book. He's also not at all the main focus here, as Kurisu puts in a really wonderful performance. The way he hunts for headbutts is awe-inspiring, snaking around Majin to find the perfect spot on the jaw to try and break with his skull. He also goes outside and drinks beer in the middle of the match which is objectively a really awesome thing to do. The chain really doesn't matter and this ends in a complete fuck finish, but it's a fun match overall. That fuck finish does bring out an angry Tsurumi, and it can only lead to one thing...

Goro Tsurumi & Super Uchu Majin vs. Masanobu Kurisu & Uchu Majin X

    Impromptu tag match! This goes less than two minutes and still gets clipped at some point. Maybe I'll watch those handhelds later after all. What we get here is really awesome, guys just beating each other around the ring with super stiff chops and punches, wrestling that puts hair on your chest. Really not much else to say there. I wish it went longer I guess, but the nature of the beast means that it did exactly what it meant to do.

IWE Memorial Battle Royale

    Just a damn good time. "Damn good time" seems to be the theme of the show (and every Kakuto Shijuku show for that matter), so this is a perfect way to send the fans home happy. Every guy seems very excited to get in the ring and do some brawling, to the point that Ryuma Go and Jiro Inazuma both preemptively come out before their names are even called, hanging out by the apron until they can jump in and get to working. Peak of the match is easily Oiyama getting the Charlie Brown treatment, tricked into trying to slam Sugawara only for Inazuma to push him over. I guess that makes Sugawara the football? As always, my analogies make more sense in my head than on paper. Really though, this is fun stuff, chicken soup pro wrestling that would appeal to fans that appreciate IWE, old men, food stall villages, or anything even tangentially connected.

Insect's Soul: 76-100

               (Written by jom)

Kazuhiro Tamura vs. GENTARO (Kishindo 03/31/2011)

    In a way, a passing of the torch. Tamura and GENTARO are two of Gannosuke's most trusted hands, arguably the two wrestlers he put the most stock into during his Kishindo project. They're on completely different paths at this point, with GENTARO finally stepping down from the main events and Tamura taking his step in to fill his spot. It's never something explicitly stated or even referenced at any point during the match, but it does add a tiny bit of gravity to the proceedings. The match itself is masterful. At this point in time, there were very few guys you could rely on more than these two, and they put on a top shelf main event filled with amazing dueling limbwork and wondeful cutoffs. It's honestly more adjacent to the late 80s NJPW main events than anything else on the indie scene at this point, with GENTARO filling the Choshu role to Tamura's Fujinami and doing a great job of it. Maybe I'm pushed towards saying that since this was the Choshu-idolization period of GENTARO, but it certainly feels true to me. It's a match that delivers on all fronts, and a strong proof of what made Gannosuke's two sons so special.

Masashi Takeda & Jun Kasai vs. American Psycho & Kenji Fukimoto (FREEDOMS 08/25/2011)

    It's certainly a little weird to have this match on the list rather than one of the bigger bloodletting festivals like the numerous Kasai/Takeda singles matches. I definitely considered having one of those matches on the list too, but something inside me kept saying that it could only be this match. This is a lot less of a competition to see who can bleed more, and more of a celebration of how fucking cool Takeda and Kasai are. It has quite possibly the loudest Shin-Kiba 1st RING crowd I've ever seen, all clamoring to see the two heroes kick some ass. Opposing them is personal favorite Kenji Fukimoto and AMERICAN PSYCHO. I have never seen any other matches featuring Mr. Psycho. He looks like a shit worker so I have very little interest in seeking anything else out. Somehow, him being shit completely works here. He's a proto-SHLAK, maybe the first stage in the Pokemon evolution leading to him, complete with dubious tattoos and a lack of motor skills. He says "FUCK YOU" at least seven times throughout the match like it's the only thing he knows how to say. And yet seeing this roidy freak get his ass kicked by Kasai and Takeda really makes my day. Maybe this is more of a match for me than a match for all, but as this is my list, this is the match you all get. Hopefully you enjoy it as much as I do.

Negro Navarro vs. Keita Yano (Fuchu Pro 11/20/2011)

    My favorite exhibition match ever, even if it isn't actually an exhibition match. Yano gets about eight minutes with one of his heroes, and he makes those eight minutes count, doing his damndest to show Navarro that he can hang. This match is entirely llaves, with Yano and Navarro rolling around the mat and transitioning from complex hold to complex hold. There's lots of great little spots with Navarro working this match more like a trainer than a wrestler, forcing Yano to problem-solve by refusing to just let Yano move his body around without effort, and even congratulating Yano on a few occasions for pulling out awesome holds. Yano, in-between Navarro trying to rip his limbs off, looks like he's having the time of his life, and I can imagine he probably was. You can certainly accuse this of being a little too friendly at some points, but I don't think that's really much of a problem considering the more exhibition-type feel of it all anyways. More than anything else, this is a present from booker Yusha Amon to Yano, and I think it's alright to just enjoy some grappling every once in a while. . 

Tigers Mask vs. Naoshi Sano (Stanley 04/19/2012)

    The king of the indies finally gets his Korakuen main event, and, honestly, it kind of rules. Naoshi Sano has been everywhere and done everything an indie guy can ever really dream of, and this is not only his first time main eventing wrestling's most sacred grounds, but also his first time running a show here. As such, he really puts the working boots on, delivering a great main event style match, complete with all the indie bullshit you'd expect from a Sano show but built around Sano finally getting to show his capabilities on a grand stage. Sano is one of those canon losers, the kind of wrestler built to take pins on medium-sized shows, and he's always had a reputation of being a shitty worker (a reputation I personally disagree with, but I digress), so seeing him deliver a big match of this caliber fills my heart with joy. Tigers Mask is great here too, a mean and overachieving fouler who breaks the rules in ways that almost have no greater benefit besides just being cruel. It makes Sano's hope spots feel all the more important and impactful. A match that probably only appeals this much to me, and I'm fine with that.

Ken Ohka & Ganbare Tamagawa vs. Osamu Namiguchi & Kazuhiko Ogasawara (Ganbare 05/10/2013)

    Undoubtedly the most heated match ever to take place in Ichigaya. This is the kind of drag-out brawl that Ken Ohka thrives in, really the only kind of match he should really be working considering how much better he is at it than anything else. He and Tamagawa are balls of fire against the dominating ex-Z1 duo, slamming into them with the force of a mack truck and doing their damndest to endure the Hashimotoist onslaught. Tamagawa impresses just as much as Ohka here, holding his own as an emotional babyface fighter, a stark contrast to the bizarre local comedian he is nowadays. Every time I watch this match, I just can't help but feel shocked that this wrestling isn't really happening anymore. The crowd is on fire, the wrestlers are motivated at levels never seen elsewhere, and basically everything goes right to the point that even the few slip-ups feel natural and fitting to the match. I'm also a certified brawling addict so I'm undoubtedly a biased voice in the discussion, but god damn man. This is the closest Ohka has ever gotten to being the next Onita.

Keita Yano vs. Manabu Hara (Wallabee 12/28/2013)

    Imagine being Manabu Hara in this situation. Almost seven years ago, you wrestled Keita in his debut match in front of a packed Katsura Studio crowd. He was young and hungry, full of interesting ideas and clamoring for the chance to show the world what he had in mind for wrestling. He was one of the young hopes of Battlarts. Now here you both are, six years later, and Yano is a chunky slob in strange gear and Joker facepaint, doing Bruiser Brody and Mr. Perfect spots to you in a nearly empty gym. Considering all that, it's not shocking that Hara beats him half to death here. This is a deeply Wallabee match, maybe the most Wallabee match of them all. Yano and Hara spend extensive time on the mat, with Hara shooting for clean armbars and kneelocks while Yano attempts to lock him in Negro Navarro llaves and holds that haven't been attempted since the 1960s. The eventual bombs are just as gross as they are bizarre, ranging from nasty kicks to the head to knees directly to the spine. This is gritty, nasty, and above all weird as hell, and it's a kind of wrestling you could really only see in Yano's domain. What a time Wallabee was.

Keita Yano vs. 326 (Taiheiyo Pro 11/30/2014)

    A brain breaker. Keita Yano and 326 abandon all conventional wrestling tropes and presentation to instead put together one of the most uncomfortable matches in wrestling history. Hell, even calling it a "match" might be pushing it. This is moreso a schizophrenic doing a dojo rush, finding the resident uncle and making him meet god a little earlier than planned. Yano spends most of the match barely registering 326's shots, beckoning him with "show me karate" provocations only to drag him to the ground and stomp his brains in. Even when 326 finally starts to rattle off shots that do damage, Yano just gets angrier and angrier, going from taking potshots to getting into mount and raining down closed fists. Seeing wrestlers at ringside rushing in at different points to break up the fighting only furthers just how dangerous it all feels. Maybe not a match in the traditional sense, but easily one of the best situations in wrestling history.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Kengo (Tenryu Project 04/30/2015)

    Genichiro Tenryu's penultimate singles match. Of course it's a disgusting young boy beating. Nothing else would have fit. Kengo is one of the younger juniors that Tenryu had hand-picked to lead his promotion forward, and Kengo repays this sign of respect by flying at Tenryu with stiff elbows, chops, and eventually punches, just for Tenryu to beat him back within an inch of his life. Tenryu hits over 40 closed fist punches in this one, leaving visible swelling and bruises on Kengo's face by the time this match ends. When he can't bring himself to stand anymore, he smashes his skull into Kengo's with no regard for his own brain's safety. Even as Tenryu loses more and more mobility, he wills himself onwards through hate just to punish Kengo. In a way, it honestly feels more fitting as a final match than the Okada one (even if Tenryu/Okada is the best retirement match ever). This is Tenryu's last rodeo as The Great Rookie Killer. Nobody ever did it better, and nobody ever will.

Hakaru vs. Cosmo Soldier (Jishidan 03/27/2016)

    The massive poster of Inoki hanging on the wall of the Tokai dojo is a pretty fitting mood-setter for this match. Cosmo and Hakaru, two criminally underrated workers from the deepest of the indies, put on one of the nastiest technical clinics I've ever seen. These guys work with a vengeance, ripping at limbs with the intent to break bones and tear ligaments. They're absolutely ruthless in their attempts, from Hakaru's figure four using the ropes, to Cosmo just punching Hakaru's ankle as hard as he can. There's a nice blend of stiff striking that especially shows itself in the latter half, along with some wonderful bombs spread throughout, but the real hook of this match is just how willing these two are to attack small joints and pull at parts of the body that don't enjoy being pulled. Stylistically opposed to all of the "pretty" technical work of the last 15ish years, and better off for it. 

Gurukun Mask vs. Churaumi Saver (Ryukyu Dragon 04/24/2016)

    Honestly, this is pretty conventional! I feel weird saying that, especially considering how hard I've hyped up other matches on the list as "completely different from other wrestling" or any shit like that, but this is just a true blue 2010s main event. That being said, it's a great 2010s main event, full of all the usual awesome bombs and fighting spirit, but held together by very tightly worked action and the veteran guiding hand of Gurukun. Gurukun's focus on armwork really does wonders for the match, filling in space with some great holds and genuine meanness, like his nasty lightning-fast kicks to the shoulder or the knee drop he hits on the arm later. Saver's a wonderful foil for Gurukun as well, almost a reflection of the athletic freak Gurukun was back in the 2000s as Ishikura, busting out crazy twisting sentons and nasty crucifix drivers. Really, if you can enjoy that kind of match style, you're going to love this, as it's one of the best executions of the format I've seen in a long, long time.

Kirin vs. Donguri Fujie (SHI-EN 10/03/2016)

    Arguably, a bad match! Like much of SHI-EN, there are slip-ups and botches that cannot just be ignored as honest mistakes. Kirin especially is just a sloppy wrestler, faltering whenever he tries for something grander than kicks. Even Fujie, undeniably the cleanest and most professional SHI-EN worker of the batch, has his fair share of gaffs, and the early angle regarding Kirin's sloppy interception knee goes on way too long. I cannot in good faith call this a great match, and it feels almost wrong to call it good. What this match is, though, is fucking ludicrous. Whenever these guys don't get too ambitious for their own boots, they're putting each other through hell with nasty strikes and even nastier limbwork. Fujie treats Kirin like a ragdoll, dragging him around by his hurt leg and whipping his with dragon screws intent on twisting the ankle 180 degrees. Even as this match falls apart at points, they do a solid job of reining it back in with momentary heightened stiffness. The entire ending stretch is horrifying in the best way, complete with the most violent superkick I have maybe ever seen. As much as I wish I could deny it, this match is too compelling to leave off the list. Maybe don't come into this for great wrestling, but take the ride for some of the most uncomfortable torture segments of the last decade.

Shinya Ishida & Yusaku Ito vs. Nori da Funky Shibiresasu & Fuminori Abe (Sportiva 11/30/2016)

    Ishida's theme song is Papa Roach's "To Be Loved" and Nori's theme is the Nobodyknows+ song he made for Naruto: Shippuden. Never before has a match shot me back to 2009 so quickly. This match also feels dated for its time, feeling more like something to come outta the late 90s indies than a 2016 tag. Ito and Abe are mirror match young shooters, struggling over armbars and readjusting spines with soccer kicks. Ishida is a tricky junior that feels like a lower tier Michinoku guy, capable of some big exciting spots but more so used for how capable he is in the lesser portions of the match. Nori is a great counter to this, an old school heavyweight with lots of mean big boots and backdrops. A lot of this match is also focused on the smaller moments, and while it's hard to actually see some of them thanks to the footage quality, it all works to make this match feel complete in a way a lot of matches around the same time don't. There's little if any wasted time or motion, and everything feels like a fitting step forward towards a grand conclusion. They even let the rookies finish the match out, which, in a sense, is the ethos of Sportiva as a whole. Wrestling's greatest rookie mill will always do its damndest to make its young guns learn on the job.

Tadanobu Fujisawa & Koji Kanemoto vs. Daisuke Masaoka & Yusaku Ito (Bukotsu 06/11/2017)

    Is Fujisawa the most dependable bully heel of 21st century Japanese wrestling? Maybe! Bukotsu is his domain, and you can really tell with the way he treats Masaoka and Ito here. Strip away the Kurisu trainees doing their bullying and this is a somewhat above-average tag for the time period. Thankfully, however, there is extensive bullying to be found, transforming this from something worth marginal praise into a genuinely great match that stands out a ton from its peers. Kanemoto puts on his working boots (must've been a blue moon) and actually matches up to Fujisawa's cruelty for the most part, letting loose with mean kicks and boot scrapes, at times in tandem with Fujisawa's brutality. Masaoka and Ito are a very enjoyable team of Nagoya upstarts fighting back against this treatment, with Ito doing an especially great job of being the whipping boy, responding with lots of fire and great kicks. Beatings like this really help to clarify why this kicky indie boy turned into the psychopath deathmatch worker he is today. Another piece of evidence for the "wrestlers should be meaner to each other" agenda.

Hikaru Sato vs. Daisuke Nakamura (Hard Hit 07/16/2017)

    The last time a pro wrestling match ever truly felt "UWFi-esque." Daisuke Nakamura is an absolute treasure, one of the few remaining must-sees in the world of wrestling, and Sato in 2017 is nearing his peak as a performer, not yet ready to rest on his laurels and his drunken stumble selling. As such, this almost ends up as a standard-setter for all traditional shoot style in the 2010s, a piece of work that everything else can only partially measure up to. The matwork is tight and realistic without ever slowing down or turning into a boring game of dueling heel hooks. The striking is stiff and explosive in a way that makes nearly every hit get a pop from the crowd. They use rope breaks and down counts exactly when they should, and there are a few moments that still catch me off guard on every subsequent watch. It's a match that does a damn good job of feeling like a shoot without ever abandoning the vital pro wrestling aspects that make the best shoot style feds work. A massive feather in the cap of both men, and a strong testament to the value of Hard Hit. 

Chojin Yusha G Valion vs. Takashi Uwano (BRAVES 11/04/2017)

    A sentimental favorite. I love this match. I wrote about it around two years ago in a post I now do not enjoy looking back on (just way too play-by-play, not enough digging into the match, etc). On rewatch, it holds up entirely. Takashi Uwano gets one more chance to right the wrongs of his career and have one more match against his best friend. It does the whole "two guys having a conversation through their wrestling" shit without ever actually trying to do so, nor does it ever dip into the melodrama well too deeply. There's a lot to unpack and a lot you can say regarding the match, but it generally never tries to tell those stories itself. Honestly, this match is just a real great wrestling contest with an incredible amount of emotional baggage attached. I have a lot more love for a match like that than one that tries to hammer the story home every second. I really don't know what else to say. I don't think there is much else worth saying. I'm just truly happy that this match exists.

Mr. Gannosuke vs. Kenichiro Arai (Guts World 02/03/2018)

    Gannosuke's upload of this match to YouTube features the tagline "no big moves." For as odd as that may sound, it's honestly as much of a plus as Gannosuke makes it out to be. This is a battle of the very best, two wrestling geniuses duking it out using only the bare essentials. Everything these two do is careful and thought out. Every little slip-up is capitalized upon, and every small victory is at risk of turning into total defeat without always being on alert. Araken especially a monster at taking advantage of Gannosuke's mistakes, made funny by the early angle involving him telling his boys to stay outta this match. His neckwork especially is something to behold, and Gannosuke sells it perfectly with the exact kind of desperation you would expect from an old man having his spine readjusted. This match isn't even 15 minutes long and is now available for free on YouTube. You have no excuse to not watch it. 

Mentai Kid vs. Genkai (Kyushu Pro 07/07/2018)

    The best big-time main event of the 2010 indies. All the stars are aligned. Kyushu Pro has nearly four thousand people in attendance for their 10th anniversary show. Genkai and Mentai, the two most important wrestlers to Kyushu's history, are finally getting to go at it in singles action for the first time since 2015. And man, do they go all out. Mentai is an astounding local hero, beloved by the crowd and perfect at pulling off big hope spots. He knows just the right time to give the people what they want, and endures so much to get there. Genkai, meanwhile, is the monster that makes him endure. He's a total beast of a man, hoofing around Mentai with ease and repeatedly dropping him on his head. There are at least five spots in this one that make me jump every time I see them. This is the indie answer to the massive NJPW matches of the decade, and, honestly, I put this one above many of those. A perfectly worked bombfest in the perfect environment for a bombfest like this.

Gajo vs. TB (Kazushi Gumi 07/08/2018)

    Two thickly-built shooters in a place literally called "The Underground Arena" beating each other bloody with 12-6 elbows and throat kicks. The humor is not lost on me that this match happened only a day after the Kyushu match. If that match was a victory cheer, this one is more of a guttural scream. There genuinely is more to this than guys laying into each other with unholy violence, though. Tababa and Gajo, although similarly constructed gentleman, have very different ideologies on how to win, and those come into conflict directly here. Tababa is more of a steak knife to Gajo's meat cleaver, not exactly the most scientific fighter but one that has a better range of motion and ideas, catching Gajo off guard more and letting loose with relentless shots as much as he can. Gajo, meanwhile, really only needs one big hit to turn the tides, and all of his big hits feel as big as they should. He's a Japanese Goldberg in shitty little boots and basketball shorts, trying his best to bisect Tababa with spears and send his head into another area code with lariats. It all never lets up, with the violence only finding ways to escalate even as both lose more and more blood. If you can stomach the brutality, this is one of the best matches to come out of Japan in the last decade in general, and one of my personal favorite matches ever.

Manabu Hara vs. Yuki Ishikawa (Soul Mode 07/15/2018)

    While it makes me sad that Hara's Soul Mode project never took off, I'm at least happy we got the ten or so "shows" featuring Manabu Hara and his friends beating the tar out of each other before FREEDOMS shows. This is the best match of the whole bunch to me, Hara getting one of his last chances at facing off against his trainer and mentor in a deeply-Battlarts affair. Like all great matches of the ilk, so much of the action flows together into this river of fighting, strikes turned into submissions turned into suplexes without ever feeling disjointed or easily accomplished. Old man Ishikawa is an absolute treat, as he's only grown smarter and more patient with age. Seeing him pull things out like an elbow to the shoulder blades to make Hara give up his arm for a Fujiwara really reminds me that this is a man who comfortably stands among the other giants, one of God's truest wrestlers and someone so in-tune with his wrestling. Hara, for his part, is an impressive struggler and an even better striker, and he's not afraid to beat Ishikawa within an inch of his life. It's not Battlarts, and it isn't pretending to be, but this is the closest we've gotten to it since Fu-ten died.

Yoon Kang Chul vs. Osamu Nishimura (TCW 09/27/2018)

    Nishimura using his magic powers to put together an experimental original UWF match with a certified schmuck in the middle of a money mark show. Truly, there has never been a greater sorcerer in wrestling history. Yoon Kang Chul, for as much as I love the guy and his work, is kind of not a good wrestler. It depends on who he's facing. If he's facing someone who won't get him on task, a lot of his matches can be sloppy and bizarre, albeit great in ways that appeal solely to me. When he's facing someone like Nishimura though, there's something about the guy that just works. His stilted movements and bizarre turnabouts make him look less like a jabroni and more like a titan from a bygone era. The fans for this match are just as drunk as they are electric, going wild for every little thing Chul does, and honestly, I kind of was too. From the beautifully done headscissors spot to the awe-inspiring Chul suicide dive, this is easily his best performance ever, and Nishimura does a damn good job of working the match around the fire under Chul's ass. Certainly not a spotless match, but one with a spirit that very few matches in the past 10 years have even come close to matching. 

Holiday Mask vs. The Great Zako (UEW 10/21/2018)

    Fuck, man. This is the kind of match that makes me want to reevaluate what I've been doing with my spare time these last seven years. Two lunatics, one a proud backyarder and the other a freak in Doink gear and a Super Muneco mask, working a llave-torture-into-punchout-brawl match inside the saddest studio apartment you could possibly ever find. According to all sources, this is actually a karate dojo, but it looks like the kind of dojo where the sensei sells kratom cut with fentanyl to junkies out the back window. Holiday Mask, an ascended Keita Yano, pulls from the Negro Navarro bag for the entire first half of the match, putting an unprepared Zako through llave hell with bizarre facelocks and reverse gory specials. That, on its own, is already strange enough, but things get even stranger when Zako takes one of the gnarlier bumps of the decade, splitting his head open, and that pushes Zako to finally fight back with lots of mask ripping (surprise! it's Keita Yano) and face-eating. Zako's bloody rampage is what creates this match's downward spiral, breaking down into scarier and scarier fighting and some of the most ludicrous bumps ever seen in Tobita's glorified storage closet. Not for the faint of heart, nor for those not already deep in the indie dirt. But for those that can get behind something so abnormal, this is a gift that keeps on giving. 

Hiroshi Watanabe vs. Fuminori Abe (HEAT-UP! 05/19/2019)

    HEAT-UP! midcard matches were one of the only things sustaining me for a short period of time, and stuff like this is exactly why. Here we have absolute master Watanabe going through a smart as hell 15 minute match with Abe at his most serious. This certainly touches on the whole "classic wrestler vs hybrid shoot stylist" thing it has inherently going for it, but a lot of this match is built around Abe chipping away at Watanabe's leg in interesting ways. It's never so much at one time that it feels like the central point, while at the same time almost undeniably being the strongest story of the match. Abe picks his moments to work the leg and it allows for both of them to work as usual while giving Watanabe something to sell a little more than the rest of his body. The eventual payoffs are incredible returns on investment and it helps to hold the whole thing together as one of the more interesting and driven Abe matches before his eventual de-evolution into the funny man. I miss this shit, man.

Kazunori Yoshida, Hiroyuki Kondo, & Takahiro Katori vs. Shota Nakagawa, Amigo Suzuki, & Kagura (EAGLE 05/26/2019)

    It's kind of crazy to me that it's taken this long to talk about EAGLE, considering it's the longest-lived indie in Japan, going back to the 90s. We just don't have much publicly available EAGLE footage from the early years, and only bits and pieces from the later 2010s. Thankfully, we have this match, and this is a blast. There's a very lucha presentation to all of this, with hometown heroes as the outright babyfaces against invading heels that love to foul and bully. Shockingly, Shota Nakagawa stands out as the best rudo of them all, kicking and stomping rookie Katori with a lot of dickheadedness and pulling out some awesome cutoffs. The big house of fire spots all rock, especially the ones involving Yoshida and his crazy springboard abilities even approaching his 50s. Some people may not love the antics involving Yoshida's trampoline, but I thought it was fun and felt fitting for the local operation. All in all, a real fun crowd pleaser tag, exactly what it should be.

Yuiga vs. Akira Jo (Batos Cafe 06/16/2019)

    Some clarifications are probably needed. Batos Cafe is a men's wrestling company, owned by Yuiga. Yuiga is indeed a woman, but she's spent her entire career primarily wrestling men, coming up in promotions like NIGHT-MARE and Goto Ippa. I never said this list was exclusively men, just wrestling from the male indie scene in Japan. With all that said, this match kicks ass. Yuiga and Jo both have chips on their shoulders, especially Jo, an Inoki protege stuck scumming it up down in the muck. So many of his shots here have just as much vitriol charged into them as they do force, never in the misogynist way but more in the "I should be in New Japan right now, not here" kinda way. He's constantly kicking Yuiga in the back of the head and shoving her down to stomp on her throat, which ends up being a big mistake when he pushes Yuiga to respond with shoot punches and headbutts. From that point on, it's all out war, full of shoulder-popping armbars and big drivers. Wrestling with heat like this is a real treasure nowadays, and we need to embrace it while we can.

Yohei vs. ZIMA Yoshida (Kitaike Pro 12/22/2019)

    I could talk about this match just like I've talked about basically everything else on the list. Trust me, there's shockingly a lot to say here. I could crack jokes about the pudgy bald shooters beating each other up. I could write extensively on their arena of combat, complete with a grandma blanket for a ring. I could go into detail on their shockingly quality grappling and nasty striking, especially the shoot headbutts. I just don't really want to. In a weird way, this match just means more to me than that, entirely for reasons outside of the match itself. From my memory, I first found out about this match thanks to a guy called Chris Yeelord posting about it on Twitter. It was one of the first things I talked about with Chris, and it ended up being a gateway into talking more with not only him, but also guys like Seki during the COVID Caracal streams, as well as all the awesome as fuck dudes in Shiga. Every time I watch this match, it fills me with a warm feeling that can't be properly put into words. It's a match I can directly point to as an important step towards becoming close with so many people I trust and respect in this community. So thank you, Yohei and ZIMA Yoshida. Thank you for helping me find my friends.