MERRY KURISUMAS! Holiday Greetings & Haphazard Beatings From Kurisu & Sons

           (Written by jom)

    Happy holidays! Hope you've all been well since the last time I put the proverbial pen to the proverbial paper. A combination of a busy life and brutal indecision has kept me away from the blog. I've planned out and cancelled at least three different large-scale projects meant for the blog since the last post in October, and I'll surely think up and scrap a few more before the year ends. Now don't fret: I do have a special project planned for the blog in the coming months for any of you that would care about a thing like that, and I plan to continue the Spitball Reviews series as well. I've escaped my rut, just in time for the holiday season. To celebrate, I'm writing about one of my biggest hyperfixations in wrestling: the Kurisu lineage. Masanobu Kurisu's influence goes far beyond instances of extreme liberty-taking, as Kurisu's gym (appropriately named Kurisu Gym) was the birthplace for a number of notable names, ranging from actual megastars to some of the scummiest sleaze indie workers you've ever seen. As this holiday is truly all about family, let's check in on what the Kurisu household has done over the past thirty or so years. 

Masanobu Kurisu vs. Keigo Kurihara (WAR 01/05/1994)

    The only match on the docket to not include exclusively Kurisu trainees, as this match features papa Kurisu himself. The Kurisu WAR run can generally be defined as "fun." He's still a bastard, a purveyor of chair-based violence, but he's also a fan favorite, more than happy to please the crowd with all his antics. Keigo Kurihara, meanwhile, is one of the many forgotten karatekas in wrestling history. Based on the commentary, he comes from Masashi Aoyagi's Seishin Kaikan dojo. As such, this is worked as a different style fight, a format Kurisu is deceptively adept in. One of the core tenants of different style fighting is the presence of different styles. It seems on the nose, but wrestlers choosing to focus entirely on certain aspects of their work to counteract their opponent is vital for the format. Masanobu Kurisu never has to worry about this problem because he's the most "pro wrestling" pro wrestler to walk planet earth. He's a real angry beast with all his stomping and slamming, dragging around Kurihara by the legs and recklessly throwing him out of the ring. Kurihara is able to get little bits of vengeance through his karate, but he's definitely a little floatier than most of the other Seishin Kaikan guys. Still, when his strikes land, they land, and when they don't, Kurisu is there to punish. Is it the best Kurisu different style fight? No, not by a long shot. Still, it's a perfectly fine match in an incredible genre, and the crowd eats it up. Hard to go wrong here. 

Match Rating: B

Green Fire Okumura vs. Blue Fire Kikuzawa (PWC 02/16/1995)

    It feels bizarre to cover this match in this blog post. This is a first round match from the rookie tournament on the Stray Dog Legend show, an event that honestly deserves its own coverage on the blog. I'm sure I'll at least talk about the main event in the future, once I finally bite the bullet and start working on my Shunji Takano dissertation. Anyways, Okumura and Kikuzawa are two of the earliest Kurisu trainees to make a splash on the wrestling scene, and this is especially early into their runs. Even if you combined both men's careers at this point, it still wouldn't be close to a year of experience. Still, they're here to rock the house, and they do so in style. Both men have their bombs that they throw incredibly well, and they pad everything out with solid matwork and quality pacing. Kikuzawa is a ball of fire with his flying kicks and insane suicide dive, while Okumura is always trying to crush him with massive lariats and a beauty of a moonsault. It's a real popcorn match from the halfway point onwards, lots of flash with enough substance to keep it worthwhile. Considering just how early both men are into their careers, this is a real feather in the cap and a clear sign that both had big things ahead of them.

Match Rating: B

Akira Kawabata vs. Tadanobu Fujisawa (Pro Wrestling X 03/30/2002)

    Seven years later, two more Kurisu trainees are brought in to rock the house. This takes place a few years after the J2000 exodus (more on that later), and there's a good chance this is the most exposure the final generation of Kurisu Gym trainees ever got before the gym shut down in 2004. Kawabata and Fujisawa are a significantly more experienced than their first generation counterparts were in the previous match, as Kawabata debuted in 1998 and Fujisawa debuted in 2000. More contrasts come in the match itself, as rather than working a fast-paced junior style bombfest, Kawabata and Fujisawa are more interested in heavyweight hits and deliberate grappling. It doesn't land perfectly, but that's not entirely on the two of them. They're wrestling for nobody but themselves, as the crowd can't be bothered to care. Nobody came to see two Kurisu rookies have a slower-paced and orthodox match. Everyone's here for Onita theatre, and these two are not on the bill. Still, they make the best of it, with both men hunting for armbars and pulling out some cool spots, like Fujisawa's early spear to cut off a shoulder tackle exchange, as well as Kawabata's gross kicks and shoteis. The match's slower moments really feel slow thanks to the silent crowd, but a lot of the work does hold up pretty well. I hope these two know that somewhere out there, there's a dude from the United States that appreciates this match a lot more than the people in the crowd did.

Match Rating: B-

Kenji Fukimoto & Takuya Fujiwara vs. Riki Senshu & Junpuku Yamamoto (J2K 11/07/2004)

    A little bit of an info dump before getting into this. J2K is a rare existence: an exodus fed formed out of an exodus fed. In 1999, Hiroaki Moriya led a exodus from Kurisu Gym to form his promotion J2000. The majority of Kurisu Gym wrestlers left with him, including Ryo Tamiyasu, the future Riki Senshu. Only a few years into J2000's existence, cracks began to form between Moriya and the duo of Tamiyasu and Kenji Fukimoto. Tamiyasu eventually decided to retire in 2002, hosting the retirement event in his newly-formed promotion, J2K. Within a year, half of the J2000 roster would leave to join J2K alongside Tamiyasu and Fukimoto, and Tamiyasu would return in 2003 to act as one of J2K's top stars. It's such a fascinating tale of wrestling politics and individual visions leading to the Osaka sleaze indies being run by two different groups of Kurisu trainees. Now, regarding the match at hand: I love this match. I've probably seen it ten times. It's one of my favorite matches to come out of the Kurisu family, with all four guys willing to go buck wild on one another while having a match on a kindergarten's playground. Fukimoto and Fujiwara are so mean and vicious, throwing tons of closed fists, stiff kicks, and full-force stomps to different parts of Senshu and Yamamoto's bodies, while also working like a well-oiled machine during all of their tandem offense. The face team responds with equal viciousness and some really great house of fire spots, especially Yamamoto's spears and Senshu's lariat barrage. Everyone hits their bombs so well, but more than that, everyone is just so explosive in everything they do. A common trend among Kurisu trainees is vocalization, and everyone here is always yelling or cursing at each other in a way that makes all of it feels so heated. Is there the occasional instance of sloppiness, a slip-up here or there? Absolutely! Even considering that, this match has such a genuine spirit to it. It feels like a fight, a wrestling match with so much emotion pouring out of that ring. Every person here deserved the world; the fact that Fukimoto is the only one working at a higher level nowadays is a damn shame.

Match Rating: A-

Takafumi Ito vs. Ikuto Hidaka (ZERO1 09/12/2012)

    We end our journey through the faces of Kurisu Gym with two of the earliest members, and two men that went on very different paths in their careers. Hidaka and Ito joined around the same time, quickly becoming best friends, before leaving around the same time as well. Both headed from Osaka to Tokyo, where Hidaka would join the Animal Hamaguchi gym and the Battlarts dojo, while Ito would abandon professional wrestling entirely and instead join Pancrase as its first homegrown fighter. Ten years before this match, Hidaka made his MMA debut in DEEP against Ito, losing via chokehold. One year before this match, Ito made his pro wrestling debut in ZERO1 against Hidaka, losing via head kick. Now, 20 years after their time in Kurisu Gym, the two face off once more as part of the Tenka-Ichi tournament. What we end up getting is a generally fun shoot style brawl, albeit one with some notable issues. I'm generally a Hidaka low-voter, and a solid amount of his bad habits shone through even with the three minute runtime. His strikes, while mostly alright, had a few moments of just looking pretty painless, and he had to shoe-in some "fighting spirit" type yelling and a dumb double head kick spot. Ito also showed some roughness to his work, but I feel more comfortable excusing him since all of his issues clearly stemmed from him being so new to pro wrestling. Still, both guys had their moments, with Ito's grappling being the key highlight of the match, pulling out some nice holds and a massive uranage. Hidaka generally did a good job of fighting back while also pulling out a bomb or two like his sick reverse DDT. Even with its faults, I still think this was solid enough, and, similar to the Okumura/Kikuzawa match covered earlier, was clear evidence that Ito had a ton of potential in him at this point.

Match Rating: B-

Spitball Reviews #6

         (Written by jom)

Masao Ando vs. Takahiro Tababa (Mutoha 04/20/2019)

    A matchup that's happened so much, the fans in Japan gave it a nickname! "Aka Oni v Ao Oni", or red demon (Tababa) versus blue demon (Ando). Pretty fitting name in my honest opinion. Ando and Tababa are two of the best tubby crowbars in a modern Japanese indie scene shockingly filled with quality tubby crowbars. With how the industry in general has progressed, you'd think that type of wrestler would be a dying breed, but there's inexplicably more of them around than anyone knows what to do with. These two are given ten minutes to beat the tar out of each other in front of a small Mutoha crowd, and there are very few people more qualified for that type of environment than Ando and Tababa. Even if I've referred to them both as crowbars and demons, they're not the exact same wrestlers, and the little changes in execution between the two are really where this rivalry shines. Ando is an incredibly labored wrestler. Everything he does feels heavy and strained, every kick taking so much power from Ando that it causes his whole body to move with his leg. A universal human experience is every person's first time swinging a large stick. We've felt our own bodies move almost involuntarily, rotating with as much force as possible to send that stick to high heaven. Masao Ando has large sticks for limbs, and he's doing his damndest to swing them directly into the head of Tababa. On the opposite end, Tababa is a precision fighter. Every strike lands with all of the force focused on the sharpest point. When he kicks, the point of his boot is what connects with Ando's ribs. When he knees, the kneecap is what flies into Ando's gut. This isn't an exact summation of his striking, but it's clear that's what his intent is. Ando is full force everything, and Tababa is concentrated power. Beyond all of that pontificating, this is just a great brawl of a shoot style match. Ando slams Tababa hard multiple times throughout the match and nearly breaks his neck with a german suplex, and Tababa's unrelenting with his hyperextending holds and kick flurries. With many matches, the action builds until it boils over and turns into something uncontrollable. This match exists in a state of being boiled over from bell to bell. An amazing display of how awesome wrestling can be when two guys really work like they want to kick each other's asses. 

Match Rating: A-

Ryo Tamiyasu vs. Junpuku Yamamoto (J2K 09/23/2003)

    Ryo Tamiyasu makes his official return to pro wrestling. I've actually covered his initial return as Riki Senshu on the blog before (in one of my favorite posts from last year), but the name "Ryo Tamiyasu" hadn't been listed on a matchcard since his retirement until now, so there's the official part of it. Any time I watch work involving the J2K guys, I'm always fascinated by the commonalities of their work - the little touches that link all of them back to Masanobu Kurisu. Tamiyasu and Yamamoto are two of the strongest examples when it comes to Kurisu's influence on his trainees. Both love to vocalize. Both have the execution of basics down pat, and aren't afraid to rely on those basics instead of pushing themselves to "innovate" or needlessly change their offense up. Both turn up the heat by introducing more force into their movements. As such, this match is the tightly-worked, hard-hitting affair that I tend to love. It clocks in at just under ten minutes but manages to properly tell the story of a high stakes main event without feeling rushed or forced. Tamiyasu's punches and Yamamoto's uppercuts regularly have audible connection, and an exclamation point is placed at the end of every movement with both men's yelling and shit-talking. Looking beyond all the smaller detail work and connections to Kurisu, both are just so awesome at throwing bombs, especially in a match where the bomb-throwing is built so well considering how little time they use to build it. Yamamoto's piledrivers are disgusting and reckless in the best way, and Tamiyasu's out-of-nowhere northern lights bomb completely blew me away. Maybe you could complain about a match this short having such a climactic-feeling finishing stretch, or you could point out the one or two times where the men could've tightened up the match structure and spacing between work. I won't though. This was great, a total blast of a watch and further proof that Kurisu built an army of monster workers throughout the 90s that'll never truly get the appreciation they deserve.

Match Rating: A-

Masakazu Fukuda vs. Masaaki Mochizuki (WYF 08/04/1998)

    The key singles match of the endless WYF vs. Buko Dojo rivalry. The feud kicked off in early 1997, and here we are over a year later. Karatekas hold a grudge. Rather than being a different style fight, this ends up more as Fukuda and Mochizuki successfully predicting the juniors style of the 2000s. Both men are really talented and know how to get into their spots well, and they pull off a ton of little counter sequences, none of which ever go so long that it loses the magic. Mochizuki is a monster kicker who's gone from Kitao's poster child for his karate revolution to a truly masterful hybrid junior. Fukuda fights back against Mochizuki's quick feet with real mat supremacy, grinding him down with arm holds after a mishap results in Mochizuki slamming his arm into the ring post. Does the limb work lead anywhere? Not particularly, but it fills time well and never goes too long as to require some sort of bigger payoff or heightened attention to selling. Honestly, as I write this, I wonder why I loved this match so much. There's so many things about this match that I hold against matches that occurred in the last five years. Limb selling that goes nowhere? check. A somewhat stupid opening spot? They did the double dropkick, so check. An abrupt no-sell? check. On paper, this match has no right getting as much love from me as it does. I think what makes this match different from many other matches to feature these same tropes is not only that this match predates many of those matches by multiple decades, but also that these two execute these spots so well that I really don't care. The no-sell is especially forgiven, as a Mochizuki DDT is immediately no-sold by Fukuda into a deep armbar. There's a quickness and urgency to it that takes it from a corny "I power up through fighting spirit!!!" shitshow and turns it into a genuine burst of energy at the sight of a perfect opportunity. I'd say this is a great match if you turn your brain off, but it's honestly great enough that the brain can stay entirely on and still find a ton to enjoy here. I pray that I one day get to peek into the reality where both these guys found a home in a more fitting fed in their later years like Battlarts or ZERO1. This type of work would've done them very kindly.

Match Rating: A-

Hiroshi Watanabe vs. Phantom Funakoshi (SGP 05/04/1998)

    Is this the best match to ever happen at a flea market? At least within SGP's flea market show history, there's a few contenders, like the great space war where one of the Brahmans breaks an incredibly expensive Astro Boy statue, forcing Great Sasuke to buy it and use it in the next great space war. Still, this has to be the standout match of that catalogue. Watanabe is a Kotetsu Yamamoto trainee and Funakoshi is an Inoki idolizer, so they deliver the type of technical masterclass that would've blown a lot of people's minds if it didn't happen in front of passively-interested passersby. It feels like a higher level midcard match ripped right out of early 1980s NJPW, with incredible displays of body control like Watanabe's awe-inspiring escape from a knuckle-lock, and a real smorgasbord (I should have to pay a tax for using this word) of slick counters for holds and even slicker counters for counters. The work both guys put into all of their holds is laudable as well. Funakoshi spends a solid section of the early match trying his damndest to maintain a side headlock, and the way he rotates his body on the ground to keep Watanabe away from breaking the grip is immaculate. They stick to the grappling for a solid 2/3rds of the match, but once they get rolling with everything else, the quality stays just as high. Both men throw out some really great suplexes, like Watanabe's textbook german or Funakoshi's super impressive uranage. Watanabe even goes to the top rope and hits a crazy looking diving splash for a close 2.9. I try to avoid just listing moves as much as I can, but I honestly don't know what else to do with this match outside of repeatedly stating how perfect the work is. It's a match displaced out of time, meant for a raucous Korakuen Hall in 1982 instead of a flea market sixteen years later. It's no wonder that Watanabe would lead the charge with high-level grappling in the 21st century with Mumeijuku/Mutoha, and it's honestly a damn shame that Funakoshi never got to work there before hanging up the boots earlier this year. This one's available from Hasegawa for only $2. Bite the bullet and enjoy what may be the best technical wrestling match of 1998.

Match Rating: A

MIKAMI vs. Kuishinbo Kamen (Kamen Produce 12/15/2010)

    Kuishinbo Kamen's mask has angry eyes for this one. You know it's time to get serious. MIKAMI and Kamen actually have a ton of history, producing some great work in the 90s as both partners and opponents. This is their first time meeting in the ring since Kamen became Kamen, and I guess there was a score to settle? Kamen is an entirely different beast than usual in this match. Gone are the bits and goofs; say hello to Great Kabuki-style uppercuts and punt kicks. This is one of those real great juniors matches that pretty successfully blends a lot of different work together thanks to the talents of both men. MIKAMI and Kamen seamlessly flow from clean and pretty grappling to gritty punching and slapping to high octane juniors sprinting, all while maintaining a great pace and properly escalating everything. MIKAMI gets a busted mouth from all the Kabuki uppercuts and while he never really responds with equivalent violence, he more than makes up for it with massive bombs, like the ludicrous spot on the outside you really need to see to believe. The fans being so behind Kamen for the entire match is almost shocking considering his viciousness, albeit it makes complete sense. This is Kuishinbo Kamen's arena. These are Kuishinbo Kamen's people. Better to cheer on the devil you know than surrender your hopes to the hot guy you don't. Luckily, MIKAMI never tries to go for a sympathetic babyface-in-peril angle, and relies entirely on himself with tricked-out juniors work and a great mind for countering. His flying codebreaker is such an awesome move, easily the best execution of that move I've ever seen and perfectly combo'd with one of his always-great schoolboy pins. Speaking of schoolboys, the cradle rush near the end of this match is so great, and truly works here as opposed to a lot of other matches with this type of spot. MIKAMI and Kamen are trickster juniors and have been for their entire careers. They've won tons of matches with roll-ups and cradles, so out of everyone to spend a minute going for just those, these two are the most apt for the occasion. Even with some moments of dead air, this feels undeniable to me. A wonderful encounter, the type that makes me long for the reality where these two faced off at their physical peaks around 2003.

Match Rating: A-

Spitball Reviews #5

        (Written by jom)

Kazuki Okubo vs. Kozo Urita (Kingdom Ehrgeiz 06/16/2018)

    Kingdom Ehrgeiz is the MMA promotion originally known as the shoot style fed Kingdom. Kozo Urita is an unmasked Tiger Shark. This match takes place under TWF rules, which is basically UWF rules but with three minute rounds. I think that's all the explaining I need to get out of the way? Anyways, this was cool. It's a shoot style match between a Kiyoshi Tamura trainee and a Satoru Sayama trainee, so that's probably not the most shocking news in the world. It's interesting how both guys really fall into those categories in the match. While both are capable strikers, Urita's strikes land with a lot more oomph, and all of his knockdowns come from his striking. At the same time, Okubo tends to outclass Urita on the ground, hunting for armbars and triangle chokes while also pulling out a great capture suplex for a down count early own. The match progresses pretty naturally and has an awesome ending stretch, including a random American (probably an MMA fighter on the show) being heard in the background, seemingly convinced this is a shoot and very confused by the pro wrestling decisions made by both guys. This would be a lesser match in UWF or UWFi, and isn't even the most impressive thing in 2024 when HARD HIT and even GLEAT have hosted better matches. Still, I enjoyed it. Newly-discovered footage of Tiger Shark is something I'll always happily watch.

Match Rating: B-

First Tiger Mask & Toshio Fujiwara vs. Satoshi Kobayashi & Hayato Sakurai (Fujiwara Festival 12/05/2004)

    These "let the martial artists do some pro wrestling" type matches have always fascinated me. They're a peek into the general philosophy towards wrestling as a combat sport in Japan, compared to how it is in America. When MMA fighters have made the jump to pro wrestling stateside, many of those fighters have been derided by MMA fans and looked down upon by certain wrestling fans. There's a real "stay in your lane" kind of mentality from both sides of this stupid war between two of the most annoying fanbases in the world. In Japan, a lot of people seem to have a lot more respect for both forms of entertainment, and workers from both sides getting to test the waters is generally appreciated and cheered on. There's an acceptance of both being individual sports, but also a clear understanding of the constant and objectively vital crossovers between the two over the last hundred or so years. Pro wrestling birthed MMA and all that noise. This isn't meant to be a history lesson, nor is it meant to be an "America sux, Japan number one" think piece; it's just an observation I've had many times being put into writing. Anyways, Sayama comes out and his nameplate says "former WWF Junior Heavyweight" on it which is very funny. A real light-hearted joke for a light-hearted match. There's a handful of serious kickboxing-type exchanges (and Satoshi Kobayashi strikes me as the type of guy who would've done great in some serious pro wrestling), but this is more about popping the crowd with old man Fujiwara antics. The pro wrestling Fujiwara is the guest referee and he's having a fun time too, throwing around kickboxer Fujiwara for his disrespect and sharing some alcohol with him. Is there much else to say about the match? Not really! It's a deeply unserious affair, but one I had fun watching nonetheless.

Match Rating: B-

Riki Hyakumangoku vs. Chindeka Kizoku (KIW 12/12/2015)

    I've tried to stop myself from context-dumping at the start of match write-ups, as I've done that so much in the past and it doesn't tend to read well. However, I feel like this requires context. Kansai International Wrestling is potentially the first uni-born pro feds, predating groups like Guts World and SHI-EN by multiple years. JWA Tokai went pro first, but Tokai was an amateur group and not a university one, so KIW takes that crown. Hyakumangoku and Kizoku are day one KIW guys, with both working the first KIW show in 1999 and continuing to work even to this day. Hell, they just faced each other again last year! Both are tribute acts too, with Kizoku being a Flair idolizer, and Hyakumangoku unsurprisingly working like Riki Choshu. I came into this expecting the match to just be a fun little thing, with both guys doing half-hearted tribute spots and the crowd happy to cheer anything at all. That's how a lot of these matches go! This was not that. There was nothing half-hearted about this. Both men were so committed to their act that it kind of blows me away. One of the most striking things about the match was how great the execution was. It wasn't just great execution either. It felt like the type of movements you'd see decades prior, with lots of focus on proper limb placement and working their way into maneuvers rather than just executing them. There was still some fun work throughout the match, like Kizoku repeatedly bribing the referee into breaking up Hyakumangoku's holds, and the eventual payoff of Kizoku running out of money was pretty spectacular. There were hard lariats, gritty elbow-grinding legwork, and even an incredibly hot finishing stretch. Honestly, I know these two have it in them to do something truly spectacular, just based on the match here. As it stands, this is still borderline great.

Match Rating: B+

Asian Cougar, Masked Halcon, & Tokai Bushido V3 vs. Tomoya Adachi, Spider Warrior, & Heaven (ZIPANG 03/06/1998)

    Before I even start talking about the match, what a venue. From my understanding, this was the only time a wrestling event ever took place in Ebisu East Gallery, which really sucks. This would've been a cool small venue for a lot of the indies of the time to hold shows in. At least ZIPANG got to make their debut on such sacred land. They also made a great choice for their main event; this rocked! This was six guys with a lot of love for and training in lucha libre getting to work a big lucharesu fireworks display. Like many of the other notable lucharesu tags of the era, everyone got their own moments to shine. Cougar and Adachi were unsurprisingly the biggest standouts. By 1998, Cougar is dangerously close to figuring out the perfect spotfest formula, and a lot of the spots he pulled out here would continue to appear for the rest of his career. Adachi was similarly far along in his own formula, albeit he would continue to rewrite said formula for the next 26 years. They only got the chance to face off once in the match, but their encounter was probably the cleanest and most explosive of the whole bunch. Bushido very nearly earned a namedrop alongside Cougar and Adachi, as he was pulling all of his spots off perfectly, including hitting one of the best rider kicks I've ever seen him do. Spider and Halcon served similar purposes as trusted hands with highly developed basics, and each got to pull off their own greatly executed running attack at least five times (Spider's dropkick and Halcon's flying cross chop). Heaven was probably the least of the six, but he still managed to do some great sequences with Cougar as the two Hamada trainees and hit one of the coolest outside dives of the match's customary dive train. Outside of going spot-for-spot, there isn't much else to say. There were moments of roughness and ending the match with the not-so-interesting pairing of Heaven and Halcon probably wasn't the best move, but this match was a lot of fun and I'll probably revisit it many times in the future.

Match Rating: B

Ryuma Go & Masahiko Takasugi vs. Masashi Aoyagi & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga (Pioneer Senshi 03/15/1990)

    JCTV channel, please go back to uploading. You posted Battlarts and W*ING in 1080p. You gave us previously lost matches like this. Please come back, we miss you... Anyways, here's Pioneer Senshi! A different style tag! Wahoo! This match, at its best, is a Masashi Aoyagi showcase. Aoyagi is a true monster for the first few years of his career. He's a monster for his entire career, but the early Aoyagi matches feel like extended executions. He's in full spiritual black hood here, as he lays into Go and Takasugi for nearly 20 minutes with full force kicks to the face and ribs. He also blades pretty early on and we get to see the always great visual of a white gi stained red. Ryuma Go is his primary dance partner, and while Go can't fill Onita's different style shoes, he can certain fit his own pair. He's solid enough early on, locking in counter holds and going for the occasional strike or throw, but it's only after he starts bleeding that he really excels. Go's a very rigid wrestler, with jerky and stiff movements, but his movements become a lot more sympathetic when his face is covered in blood and it looks like he's collapsing from both the pain and the blood loss. Matsunaga is a good sidekick for Aoyagi. His kicks don't land as well and he's a little too willing to play the submission game for my liking, but he's still an Aoyagi-trained karateka. And then there's Takasugi. Masahiko Takasugi is a bad different style fighter. As a wrestler in a different style fight, your job is to A. sell like a madman, and B. take advantage of every opportunity to the highest extent. You should be a victim. You should fight like hell. Masahiko Takasugi generally doesn't sell much and constantly tries to put on holds. For all of Go and Aoyagi's awesome blood-filled brawling, Takasugi is happy to lay on the ground with Matsunaga for minutes on end, applying worthless double wristlocks and heel hooks. He takes a few moments to show that he could be good if he wanted to, hitting an admittedly mindblowing backdrop and pulling off a great hot tag where he full force stomped Matsunaga's head at least 20 times. Those moments are a fraction of his whole performance though, and he's in the ring much more than Ryuma Go. As a whole, this just ends up being pretty damn good. If Go had a better tag partner, this could've been something really special.

Match Rating: B-

Spitball Reviews #4

(Written by jom)

Southern Cross vs. Tadanobu Fujisawa (H.EVolution 10/12/2014)

    Inexplicably, this is a really good match. I've talked about both of these guys before when reviewing K-WEST, but only Fujisawa elicited praise. He's an incredibly competent Kurisu trainee with the capabilities to be a scary brutalizer, fitting for someone with his lineage. Southern Cross, meanwhile, is bad! I last saw him in 2010 when he wore a mask and had a lanky build, but here he is in 2014, unmasked and possessing the body type of a divorced father. His previously-seen work was sloppy, boring, and practically screamed "I shouldn't be within 500 feet of a wrestling ring". He always came off as the type of wrestler you'd only see "succeed" in a place like FU*CK!, a promotion that would treat his lack of skills like a skill itself. I came into this hoping it would just be a Fujisawa squash, a chance for him to be mean and cruel to a tomato can worker and make me happy with unnecessary violence. What we end up getting is still pretty close to this, but Cross got all the chances he needed to prove that a lot can change in four years. For all of Fujisawa's dick kicks and stiff shots, Cross returned fire with impressive chops and displays of raw power, like a really snappy Tenryu-style powerbomb. He does a damn good job on the receiving end of things, selling Fujisawa's shots with a lot of grunting and recoiling. His blood getting all over his white pants after a Fujisawa shoot headbutt is just the icing on top. I think the best way to describe this match would be a display of Southern Cross's will. The Fujisawa bullying is sick and gross and all that, but I can't help but come away from this with the lasting image of Cross's bloody visage and never-say-die attitude. An infinitely impressive performance from someone I never would've thought could deliver such a thing.

Asian Cougar & Great Sensei vs. Tarzan Goto & Masked Saturn (Samurai Project 01/25/1998)

    I only tracked this match down because of an old Japanese blog post talking about a supposed incident where Goto stabbed Cougar in his left arm with a broken broom and gave Cougar massive scars. That incident never takes place in this match and I have no idea whether the writer was misremembering which Goto vs. Cougar match it was or if it was just a plain ol' lie. Regardless, I have to find that writer's contact information and try to thank them. This match, as a whole, is borderline great. Sensei and Saturn (Hiroshi Hatanaka and Mitsunobu Kikuzawa respectively) only exist to detract. Sensei is a botch machine who slows the pace even if he has some good strikes. Saturn hits good punches and big moves but does nothing to further the match itself. The only two men that mattered on this day were Asian Cougar and Tarzan Goto. 1998 is part of that heavenly period of time where Goto could be put into any situation and deliver a great performance just by being himself, and when Goto wanted to put a little extra effort in? That's when you got the type of stuff that changed my entire perspective on wrestling. 1998 is also the start of Asian Cougar's run as one of the best spotfest workers of all time, but it's also when he sets himself into that role without much deviation for the rest of his career. I love Cougar and I've been very vocal on this blog about how much I love him, but I'd be the first to tell you he's never exhibited much range. He's got a winning formula and very little reason to do much else. This is different; this is the first Cougar performance I've seen where the man is truly a victim. Goto smashes dozens of chairs over his body, throws a table at his head, stabs his face with a broom snapped in half. Cougar's golden mask gets ripped wide open to expose a bright red ocean underneath his skin. Cougar bumps and staggers and collapses like a wounded deer, hopping around looking for any chance to escape. Cougar's greatest work comes once he's able to fight back. No slingshot leg drops; every single leg drop is done off the top rope for maximum damage to himself and his opponent. I've never seen Cougar so reliant on the top rope, so willing to bust his ass to hurt someone that much more. It's a subtle change to his moveset, a single rope difference between Cougar's regular arsenal, and yet it feels like the world has shifted. If this was a Cougar and Goto singles match with even more work between both, there's a chance it could've turned out as something truly special. As it stands though, it's an amazing preview of a match I truly didn't know I needed so badly. 

Minoru Tanaka vs. MIKAMI (Batos Cafe 12/15/2019)

    Two junior legends finally getting to duke it out in a singles match, albeit at least a decade past their primes. Let's get one thing straight right off the bat: 2019 Minoru Tanaka is not 1999 Minoru Tanaka, and 2019 MIKAMI is not 2005 MIKAMI. These aren't the greatest freak athletes in the world anymore. These are two veterans of the indie scene with a lot less to give than they had during the glory days. Coming into this match expecting to see these two busting out the flips and dives like the Y2K apocalypse hadn't happened yet would be a fool's errand. This is a match way more focused on what they can do rather than what they can't, and it benefits greatly from that mentality. Both men have their spots they've perfected over the years, and they do a great job of blending their work together into a seamless match. Minoru Tanaka is, of course, great. Even in his late 40s he still has great execution on all of his work, and, more than anything, he's dependable. At the same time, he's not particularly interested in getting out of his comfort zone. He's much happier using ol' reliable in the exact same way he always does rather than change up his game this late in his career. That's what makes MIKAMI stand out so much more. MIKAMI is a master at taking the pre-established and turning it into something new. He's hit a hundred Mickey Boomerangs throughout his career, but here he is at 45, hitting one on the apron. I've seen him put wrestlers in the Stinger since the mid-2000s, but I've never seen him set it up with repeated double axe handles between the shoulder blades. They're changes to the arsenal that might come off as unnoteworthy to some, but it shows a willingness to keep things fresh that many of MIKAMI's peers don't possess. When MIKAMI eventually calls it quits, wrestling will be losing one of the greatest and most under-appreciated minds in the history of the sport.

Kenji Fukimoto & Hideaki Sumi vs. Necro Butcher & Mad Man Pondo (FU*CK! 05/04/2007)

    I bought this whole DVD just for this match. Sure, there's other matches on the show that I'd enjoy checking out. If this match didn't happen I'd still probably get it! The fact is this match did happen, and it was the overwhelming force which motivated me to get this DVD. Necro Butcher is possibly the greatest American wrestler of all time, and Sumi is the greatest karate pro wrestler of the 21st century. In my mind, putting them together is money. In execution, it is ABSOLUTELY money. Sumi and Necro do so much great work here, from Necro pantomiming at Sumi that his karate will not work against his brawling, to Sumi's karate doing a damn good job against him after all. Necro is wonderful on selling duty and fights back with lots of gut punches and face grabbing, and after getting embarrassed by Sumi's karate flurries he commits himself to Sabu'ing chairs at Sumi randomly throughout the match. Considering this, Fukimoto and Pondo should be afterthoughts, but both put in their own quality performances. Pondo is in full plunder mode, pulling out a massive knife to cut up Fukimoto's face and beating down both Fukimoto and Sumi with random metal objects. Fukimoto is almost entirely on selling duty, getting bloodied up and screaming for his life, but eventually fights back with some great lariats. This is sadly only eight minutes and there are a handful of awkward miscommunication moments, but, for the most part, this delivers on expectations.

Yusha Amon vs. Minoru Suzuki (Tokyo Tama Luchas 08/18/2013)

    I don't like Minoru Suzuki. I understand the appeal of the "murder grandpa", although I don't agree with its validity, nor do I have any interest in talking with anyone that calls Suzuki that nickname unironically. A regular Suzuki match, at best, is funny because of how bad he is. He's an uncaring "legend" who collects paychecks by putting in the least amount of effort possible during wrestling matches. He's been a consistent net negative on professional wrestling since returning in the 2000s, after spending 10 years having fixed fights in Pancrase. The only type of Minoru Suzuki I truly find interesting is the Minoru Suzuki that works against the best and brightest of the scum indies. Whether it's the New Year's Summit tag where he plastered Keita yano around Korakuen Hall or one of the many neighborhood-spanning brawls he's done in places like Hokuto Pro, something about getting to work in the shoddiest promotions in Japan motivates Suzuki to actually care about his wrestling. This match is no exception, with Suzuki facing international man of mystery and possible Solar trainee Yusha Amon in Amon's own promotion. Minoru Suzuki's performance here isn't particularly out of the ordinary for a Suzuki match of the time, but there's something about the way Suzuki revels in Amon's lack of ability that really works to make me enjoy him here. He spends much of the early match refusing to sell or cooperate with him, laughing along with the crowd at his flubs and failures while grinding him down with the most basic holds possible, posing for photos along the way. He completely disregards all of Amon's offense, and the few times he does acknowledge it he completely denies it. The standout moment from the first two falls of the match (it's worked under "Mexico Rules") is easily when Amon goes for a flying cross chop and gets literally kicked out of the air. It's almost like Suzuki is working a comedy match while Amon is trying his damndest to work seriously. When Amon does start forcing Suzuki to work a little seriously, it feels like a life-changing event for Amon, proof that he can be a force to be reckoned with in professional wrestling. That period of time doesn't last long, but God bless him for getting to have that happen at all. Is this a legitimately great match? I don't know. There's a lot of talking to the crowd, a little to0 much reliance on Suzuki's usual schtick, and I just have bias against the guy. Still, I had way more fun with this than I ever thought I'd have with a 2010s Minoru Suzuki match.

Ranking Every Dive From The CMLL Japan 18 Man Dive Train

 (Written by jom)

    So, this is a first.

    I'm honestly not sure what exactly inspired me to create this, but I have a few good guesses. I love doing match reviews, but I also hate doing match reviews. It's easy to fall into formula and lose any personality or truly interesting ideas in the sea of spot-by-spot recapping. That's not to say that writing about spots is inherently bad! My good friend Ciel does a great job of balancing match coverage with his own takes and analysis. However, I pretty much hate almost all of the writing I've done this way. I've tried my damndest to abandon that style and feel like I've recently reached a good balance of my own, but I still feel pangs of disappointment whenever I finish a review and think "man, is that really all I had to say?" As such, I've felt like I need to do something different for a while. Something more fun in concept.

    These thoughts coincided with the public release of my new website, GL2JL. I've always loved Japanese luchadores as a concept and wanted a platform to share that love, and I've also always wanted to create an old school GeoCities style website, so I was able to kill two birds with one stone. I've been in a lucha libre mindset since starting work on this project, and I've been watching more lucha in general, so I was planning to talk about more lucha-adjacent wrestling here (or to just break my weird unwritten rule entirely and talk about wrestling outside of Japan).

    Finally, I only learned about this spot by chance. I was scrolling through Mr. Cacao's YouTube channel, looking for cool Michinoku handhelds to watch, and I stumbled across a YT Short on the channel titled "The Legendary 18-Man Consecutive Tope!!" I don't know why, but the moment I saw the title, I thought to myself "I should write about this." And thus, after three paragraphs of incessant rambling, here we are.

    The match itself is a battle royal from the 02/04/1997 CMLL Japan show, featuring pretty much every wrestler who worked the show. You should watch it! It's a fun match even when you ignore the endless tope sequence. I'll be ranking every dive in the match, giving my thoughts on each dive as they come until one stands alone on the mountaintop.

18. Negro Casas

    Casas is one of those guys on pretty much every person's shortlist as one of the best ever. I have friends that consider him the greatest wrestler of all time. Even with my limited exposure to his work, he's one of the most gritty and physically emotive wrestlers I've ever seen. He's in numerous all-timer matches, has been working at a high level for a scary number of decades, and just generally one of the coolest wrestlers of all time.

    So what the fuck happened here?

    This is maybe the lowest effort dive possible. In a way, it's almost impressive. He doesn't run off the ropes; he jogs towards them at a slightly brisk pace. He doesn't actually jump himself; he gets Kendo to do the heavy lifting. He's not even engaged enough to do some sort of cool dive to redeem himself! He just hits the most basic plancha with such low airtime that Ultraman has to rush forward to save him. Ultraman didn't need to take that bump. He sacrificed his own body to save shitty ass Negro Casas and his shitty ass plancha. Ultraman Jr. is a hero and Negro Casas is the world's biggest bitch. 

17. Cadaver de Ultratumba

    Another basic plancha. Cadaver de Ultratumba's name is significantly cooler than this plancha. "Corpse from Beyond the Grave." How sick is that? His cousin's named Guerrero de la Muerte ("Warrior of Death"). Do awesome names just run in the family? Anyways, he hit a plancha. It's fine, I guess. I appreciate a quality plancha! This is not a particularly quality plancha, but at least he tried. That puts him miles above Negro Casas. Plus, Kendo running away from taking the dive is incredibly funny. Oh, Ultraman. You didn't deserve this treatment.

16. Bestia Salvaje

    Bestia Salvaje! Another cool wrestler right here. I remember seeing him do some awesome work in WAR. Sadly, his dive here isn't good. For a guy called "wild beast," he seems to be chock full of uncertainty. Hesitating on the run and fucking up the distance? C'mon Bestia, puff your chest out! Have some confidence in yourself! You were doing a great job in WAR back in 1993. Maybe 1997 was just a rough year for him. He did lose his hair in both 1995 and 1996; that would crush the conviction of any man. Hopefully he was on the up-swing after this show (note: Salvaje would continue to lose his hair on a near-yearly basis for the next six years).

15. Black Warrior

    It's an Asai moonsault. It's fine? I don't know, it's not particularly inspiring to me. The execution is fine but it just does very little for me personally. Maybe it's because Black Warrior very casually walked into position. I really don't know! I'd understand this being higher up for other people, but I can't be bothered to care about it. 

14. Mascara Magica

    Once again, this doesn't do much for me. I have this over Black Warrior's moonsault because Magica gets some good air and the camera angle for the dive is cool. I also appreciate Mascara Magica's purple gear and his motif being the letter M. He reminds me of Majin Buu, who, similar to Cadaver de Ultratumba's name, is significantly more interesting to me than the dive at hand. 

13. Apolo Dantes

    I told you I appreciate a good plancha! Dantes has a nice snap to his execution, really throwing his arms out as wide as he can for maximum coverage. I also like his very motivated walk to the ropes. This is a man on a mission and his mission is to throw himself at Bestia Salvaje like a bag of trash into a dumpster. It's still a basic plancha, though. This match has so much more to offer than that.

12. Pirata Morgan

    Theoretically, this somersault plancha is about equal to Dantes' normal plancha. However, Morgan masterfully counters Dantes' purposeful strut with a full-on front roll to the ropes. It does absolutely nothing to improve the strength of his dive, but damn it looks cool. Not much else to point out besides Pirata Morgan's eyepatch being cool, but you already knew that. 

11. El Rayo de Jalisco Jr.

    This is actually the last dive of the entire tope train, and you can tell because Jalisco decides to really milk it for as much as it's worth. That's some Hulk Hogan level hotdogging right there. Jalisco follows it up with a pretty awesome dive so it all works out. I like to imagine he let out a "BELLY FLOOOOOP" victory scream as he did it.

10. Kendo

    Kendo has been a notable part of two separate dives on the list so far. So how's his own dive? Pretty damn good! I love the technique to this one. Kendo seemingly has enough leaping ability to clear the rope unaided, but he still pushes himself off the top for extra velocity. Maybe it was a receipt to Casas for doing such a fucking bad dive. I'll stop dwelling on that now, I promise. 

9. Ultraman Jr.

    ...So Ultraman has already proven himself as a hero for saving the life of the world's biggest pussy Negro Casas (last one I promise). Here he is also proving his own worth as a tope train participant! This is a really nice tope suicida! I always really fuck with a good tope suicida. It's a basic move, but, when done right, it can feel like a gamechanger in any match. Ultraman always had a great tope suicida, and this is just textbook for him. Maybe that's why it isn't higher, though. Considering the other tope suicidas I've seen him hit, this one doesn't really stand out. It does serve as a great mid-point for the list, since everything before this ranged from AWFUL to pretty sick, and everything after this starts from great and just keeps getting greater. 

8. Rey Bucanero

    I haven't watched a Bucanero match in maybe seven years? I remember watching a handful of Bucanero matches when I was first getting into NJPW because he was a Bullet Club associate. Writing that out now pisses me off, so I'm gonna watch some Rey Bucanero later and redeem myself. 

    Anyways, this rocks. I've spoken at length about how much I love Asian Cougar's suicide tope atomico, and while this one may not be as good as Cougar's, it's still a suicide tope atomico. God bless you, Rey Bucanero. Sorry for only watching the matches where you teamed with Karl Anderson and Tama Tonga.

7. SHINOBI

    SHINOBI was the one tasked with igniting the burning flame of the tope train. That's a needlessly wordy way of saying he went first. And god bless him, he set a great precedent. SHINOBI's moonsault plancha is a thing to behold. He has a PCO-esque lack of grace, albeit he's way smaller than PCO and has slightly better execution, really smashing into Espectro Jr. with some nice velocity. 

    Speaking of, how tragic is Espectro? 

    Imagine sitting backstage as all the boys discuss this crazy idea for an 18-man tope sequence, only for someone to put their hand on your shoulder and say "not you, pal." You have to sit outside and watch as your peers get to blow the minds of a packed KBS Hall. Everyone in the match has just made history. Everyone except you. But I respect you, Espectro Jr. You are the first brick laid. You are the pyre SHINOBI set ablaze. You are the foundation of this masterpiece. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten. 

6. Felino

    I remember when I first saw Felino sevenish years ago, my first thought was "damn, Puma King's been around for a long time, huh?" I used to be kind of dumb. I still am, but c'mon, they have basically the exact same gear! Learning Felino is Puma King's dad explained a lot. They both wear the same gear and they both rule. This dive is so awesome, man. I love a good triangle dive and Felino always had a great one. I almost want to rate this one higher, but I've also seen Felino do this with a much smoother execution, and that's the biggest thing holding it back. 

5. Mr. Niebla

    God, I love this one. 

    I've never seen Mr. Niebla before, but he was awesome in this match. Besides this dive, he also hit an awesome missile dropkick and died on one of the grossest avalanche powerbombs I've ever seen. I'm definitely going to be looking more into Niebla's work going forward, so if anyone has Niebla recommendations, let me know. 

    The dive itself is a real beauty. The moonsault plancha has basically flawless execution, with a perfect balance between height and distance. Now, is the rope run before the moonsault kinda fucking stupid? Maybe. Maybe. But I look at it from a video game perspective: that rope run was just Mr. Niebla building up special attack damage. I can't fault a guy for trying to fill his meter before the big move. 

4. Lizmark

    I thought there was an error with the show's listing at first. This is 1997. This should be Lizmark Jr., right? I mean the guy was on WCW TV around this time having awesome matches with Glacier and Yuji Nagata. There's no way his dad could be pulling off stuff like this, right?

    This is god damn Lizmark.

    We've reached the stage where I will call everything perfect, because this is a truly perfect diving plancha. The arms and legs thrown back like he's a spider monkey jumping across a river. The force of the dive taking him nearly all the way across the ring. Hell, even the connection is perfect, with Morgan doing a classic catch-and-roll to receive the dive. I love this. I love Lizmark. I do wonder why his son turned into such a freak in Lucha Libre USA, but that's entirely besides the point. Lizmark can do no wrong.

3. Arkangel de la Muerte

    Arkangel de la Muerte. 

    Really, that's all I need to write. If you know Arkangel, you probably aren't shocked to see him this high up. He's also one of my favorite luchadores ever, something I've mentioned on the blog before. I have heavy Arkangel bias.

    I don't think that matters much here.

    Arkangel's borderline hilarious running combined with Dantes' slight assist leads to the highest velocity dive of the entire sequence, and he slams into Felino like a runaway train. This is like the Undertaker Mania dive, except infinitely cooler and pulled off by a wrestler worlds better than that jabroni. I love you, Arkangel de la Muerte.

2. El Hijo del Santo

    Honestly, I feel bad not putting this at the top spot. 

    The Santo bullet suicida might be the dive in all of lucha libre. It's one of the most important and recognizable topes of all time, and also comfortably sits as one of the best. The way Santo’s silver dome almost magnetizes to the chin of Espectro Jr. is awe-inspiring. It's like Santo always knows the perfect angle to fly directly into his opponent and crack a few teeth. Once again, for lack of a better term, everything about this dive is perfect. And yet, it's forced to sit in second place.

1. Super Astro

    This. This is the peak of wrestling. This is the culmination of over 100 years of innovation. This is the final frontier. Everything after this has been done to diminished returns.

    Take everything I've ever said about Arkangel and apply it to Super Astro. I love this dude with all of my heart. He has such an incredible build, like a png of a normal beefy wrestler put into Photoshop and shrunk vertically. A guy with this body should not be able to do the things Super Astro is able to do, and yet he goes each movement with such ease, like a man created by god to be a luchador.

    Now, some of you may be thinking, "but jooooom, you can't include the tiger feint and the little kick in the dive! That's unfair!!" If you are one of these people, I have two things to say. Firstly, does it really matter? The suicide tope atomico is enough to secure the top spot.

    Secondly, go fuck yourself. This is my list, and in my list, I include Super Astro bitching out Apolo Dantes. Make your own list if you don't like it. Super Astro wins. Super Astro always wins. Just... don't search for a photo of him unmasked. That's the one time Super Astro was truly fighting a losing battle.

    If you like the list, let me know! This was almost entirely me just riffing and it was a ton of fun to make. Maybe I'll find another dive train to rank in the future. Until next time.