Jom Catches Up on GLEAT Vol. 1

   (Written by Jom)

       I'll be 100% honest here: I haven't been following GLEAT. Which, knowing my own tastes, is very weird for me. I love the U-System and GLEAT seems committed to being the next promotion in the acclaimed style's history, I love Tamura and his booking (see U-Style for proof he's pretty good at it), and I love all the members of the roster we've seen so far, with both GLEAT young guns Soma Watanabe and Takanori Ito looking great. And yet, after the first GLEAT show last year, I've not watched a single Youtube match of theirs. Honestly, I still have no idea why since I would definitely enjoy those matches more than the debut show, and I say that knowing I really enjoyed that event. Luckily, this changes now. GLEAT currently has nine matches on their channel, and each match is labeled as "Experimental Match Vol. _". Starting with this post, I will be reviewing every GLEAT match on Youtube, going volume by volume.

Soma Watanabe vs. Mitsuya Nagai

    This match was also under UWFi rules, a ruleset GLEAT uses alternatingly with normal puro rules. From the start of this match, it was very clear who had the advantage. Even if you didn't know the difference of experience, Nagai shows very quickly who is more comfortable in UWFi rules, putting Watanabe in a leg lock that forces him to use one of his points to escape. From that point on, Watanabe in fighting from below, and although he's fighting hard, Nagai is consistently able to keep him down. The grappling between the two is much less slick than other matches, with Nagai being pretty old and Watanabe obviously being new to shoot style, but there's a level of roughness to it that really works. Sometimes, the grappling can be too slick and seem somewhat choreographed, but the way these two wrestle feels real and violent. Speaking of violent, Nagai is a total killer in this match, throwing some hard kicks to Watanabe's ribs and using these really good joint-popping holds, most notably a beautiful leg keylock. Watanabe isn't a slouch either though, as although his grappling definitely needs work, he does throw some okay slaps and did a great backdrop to Nagai, getting Nagai to lose a point on a down. This, however, was the only point Nagai lost. By the end of the match, the score was 4-0, with Watanabe having been forced to use up all his points on rope breaks. Nagai was able to take advantage of how worn down Watanabe was to put in this disgusting arm trapped guillotine, almost having Watanabe in a hammer lock while choking the life out of him, getting the submission victory. The match overall was pretty good. At no point did anything look bad, and the sloppiness in some of the ground exchanges never went from a positive to a negative, but at the same time nothing really notable happened. This was a good introduction to what Watanabe can do in a shoot environment, as well as a reminder of how great Nagai can be.

Rating: B

Takanori Ito vs. Yutaka Yoshie

    This whole match had some weird editing quirks, with the inside of the ring being superimposed on top of a recording of the outside of the ring (to hide whoever was out there I assume), but it never got in the way of my enjoyment of this match. Speaking of, this was really good for a lot of reasons. I haven't seen much of Yoshie and his bright pink singlet since his NJPW days, so it's great to see he's awesome as ever. He's also big as ever, which plays big into this match. He crushes Ito throughout the match with body blocks while also stopping Ito in his tracks when he starts getting momentum by just planting himself into the ground. Ito is definitely more polished than Watanabe, throwing absolutely great kicks and elbows, including a great leg sweep and spinning heel kick. He's also got some really good grappling game, and at one point is able to hit a backdrop suplex on Yoshie, which I can't begin to praise. However, no amount of kicks or suplexes can stop the absolute raw BEEF of Yoshie, who flattens Ito with a thesz press and senton, before hitting some great urakens and doing a DIVING BODY PRESS to Ito. Ito is down for the 3 count, and I assume for lot longer. This had some slow moments in the first half, with some of the basic working between the two lacking any energy, but the peaks of this match were pretty high. Hope Yoshie sticks around in GLEAT going forward, and I cannot wait to see more of Ito in singles action.

Rating: B

Takanori Ito/Soma Watanabe vs. Daisuke Sekimoto/Kaz Hayashi

    I think this match sold me on Watanabe entirely. Everyone in this match performed well, and Ito was great as the hot tag guy, but Watanabe just did his job near perfectly. Sekimoto and Ito brought some great fire early on. Actually, they brought great fire through the entire match, which is something I knew Sekimoto could do but Ito being only one step behind him in that regard was awesome to see. Hayashi has always been great, and here in a veteran juniors role he worked really well. Watanabe, however, was just at another level. His selling is notably good, really making the damage he sustained in the match apparent, but honestly, one moment in particular sold me on him. Towards the end of the match, he tried to whip Hayashi off the ropes but Hayashi countered into a handspring kick. This might be controversial, but I usually hate handspring moves. Most of the time, the person doing them isn't fast enough to make it look realistic, and it's extremely rare that the person receiving the move sells in a way to cover for that lack of speed. Watanabe sold in the right way and made it fucking work. I cannot saw enough how cool that was to me. Just moving past his selling, he has such a great arsenal too, doing an awesome forward roll forearm smash with hang-time reminiscent of KANON's volleyball spike chop (reminding me I should probably consider getting into JTO), as well as a beautiful missile dropkick. Honestly, with moves like this, I've realized Watanabe probably shouldn't spend much time with the UWFi rules matches. He's much more suited having normal puro matches, in contrast to Ito's superiority in the UWFi rules matches. Having Ito as the shooter ace and Watanabe as the puro ace would be a really cool concept for GLEAT to stand out, and both men would fit those roles perfectly given enough time to grow. Speaking of Ito, I definitely don't want to forget to mention his FALLAWAY SLAM TO SEKIMOTO. I'm not joking, Ito's strength is INSANE. He also did his backdrop again, and honestly, it has to be one of the best in the Japanese scene today, with only Hideyoshi Kamitani's backdrop coming to mind when trying to think of one done better. Again, both Sekimoto and Hayashi were great here, but I feel like I need to say just how awesome Ito and especially Watanabe were. Although Sekimoto got the win for his team with a nasty lariat, this match has made me extremely hopeful for GLEAT's two young aces.

Rating: B+

The Urban Ken Archive #2

(Written by yeelord)

    And we're back! I've watched another three Urban Ken matches and oh boy, these are some banger matchups! Unfortunately I can only provide one link as the other two are confidential. I think you'll enjoy the link I have provided though, as it's certainly a must-watch matchup.

    At this point in Kenny's career, he's made quite the name for himself, and it shows in how much he shines at this point. He's a very simple, yet very exciting wrestler that's worth all of your time! With this said, let's get into the matches

Daijiro Matsui vs. Urban Ken (BattlARTS: Nov. 26, 2000) Watch

   It's the battle of the matching gears as PRIDE's (and Takada Dojo's) own Daijiro Matsui takes on our boy who's sporting some new gear! The new gear won't last long, which is a shame as I kind of prefer it over his longer trunks. Ken has packed a lot more energy on this night and it shows as soon as the bell rings. 

    Yes, Urban Ken just speared Daijiro fucking Matsui across the damn ring... and it really sets the pace for this match. The only time this match slows down is when Daijiro leaves the ring to catch a breath. Even then, he teep kicks Ikuto Hidaka for no apparent reason other than because he can! Daijiro proved that he can be a menace if you try to take things on the mat throwing punch after punch. The ref has to separate him but he wouldn't comply. Ken does his usual schtick but Daijiro was quick to adapt to all of it. Quickly he applies a beautiful Rear Naked Choke to Ken which forces the tap out. Absolutely gloriously booked matchup in which both men got both of their shit in, it was back and forth up until the end, and had everything I could ever ask for in a match. Wondering how long this match went? 4:50. Four minutes, fifty seconds. This is quite possibly the best sub-five minute match in wrestling history. Go check this out right now!

Rating: 9/10 (Amazing) 

Alexander Otsuka vs. Urban Ken (BattlARTS: Dec. 3, 2000)

    Huge match for Kenny! He's going up against one of what I call the "Big Three of BattlARTS". The other two being Yuki Ishikawa and Daisuke Ikeda. Yes, I'm aware Ikeda was in NOAH at this point, but still. Anyway, this match went nothing like I had expected it to go. In fact, KENNY is the one who dominates this match! Yes! Almost the entire match is just Kenny showing us why he was an absolute unit not to be underestimated. Unfortunately for Otsuka, that's what he had done, underestimated. For about 5 minutes straight Ken is just giving everything to Otsuka. All of his signatures were in play here. That is until Otsuka thought to himself "Wait, what the hell am I doing?" and bonks Ken with a headbutt, sending him crashing to the mat. Otsuka had taken back his ring, locking Ken in a brutal looking half crab. Not too long afterwards Otsuka made Ken tap. Loved this match, especially when you're doing this specifically to watch Ken. This is a great match if you want to get a feel for Ken's moveset, I recommend checking this match out if you know where to find it

Rating: 7/10 (Great step in Ken's short career)

Hisakatsu Oya vs. Urban Ken (FMW: Feb. 23, 2001)

    Wait, FMW? Yes, Urban Ken had only worked 2 more matches for BattlARTS before going out on his own for a little bit before retiring. He did a few dates for Big Japan Pro Wrestling before making his way to FMW where he worked the entire Winning Road 2001 tour. Before then, he made his debut here at the very last day of the Cluster Battle 2001 tour taking on fellow matwork hero Hisakatsu Oya. The commentators are shocked at the arrival, surprisingly enough and Kenny's even sporting some new ring gear; a Dog Collar with a very long chain, classic.

    Onto the match... I don't really have to say about it. It was very back and forth and submission heavy. They didn't do much else besides trade submissions. I'll admit it got a bit boring after a while until Ken decided that he had enough of that and starting doing his slaps and spears. That didn't last very long either as Oya had caught him with a beautiful Backdrop for the three count. Slow, a bit boring in the beginning, but toward the end Ken had picked up the pace. Decent enough match if you love slow wrestling, though!

Rating: 6/10 (Very slow for the first 5 minutes)

    

Monday Night RAW #1

  (Written by Jom)

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to MONDAY... NIGHT... RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH

       ...This is probably not the RAW you were thinking of when I said that, but you couldn't pay me $100 to watch a full episode of the big Dub. Radical Athletic Wrestling is a "Kusa" (grass/sandlot, aka backyard) pro wrestling promotion in Japan that's been around for about 15 years. The roster is almost entirely made up of guys who were never trained, which actually works in the favor of the promotion. You can tell everyone in it is only doing this because they love puroresu and want to somewhat live out a dream of actually doing it. Almost all matches happen on the same giant gym mat, and while there are definitely the types of wrestlers you would expect for such a promotion, a majority of the roster actually don't give off the generic yarder vibe, as all of them are pretty solid with most matches being a weirdly cool mixture of battlarts/zero1 style wrestling. I love backyard promotions due to them entirely being passion projects, so I knew that if I had to spend every Monday night watching wrestling called RAW, it would be this. I have a playlist of seemingly every RAW match on youtube, and I'll be reviewing 3 RAW matches every Monday from now until I've gotten all of them. Also, since the promotion's whole thing is about having fun, I'm just gonna wing these reviews and write whatever I think works. Without further ado, let's begin.

Macho-Michaels vs. Ariake Shogo

    Shogo comes out and from the start I'm a fan. He walks out with his own stool to sit on, and his theme is so good that it's about to make me go on a Sheena Ringo binge just to see if all their songs are like this. Macho-Michaels (who I will refer to as Macho) is a Shawn Michaels' ripoff while Shogo is a shooter who could care less to be here, a gimmick I always love. I should mention neither of them are wearing shoes, which is pretty much customary in RAW. Shogo starts the match by hitting a nasty rolling solebutt. 15 seconds into the match and I'm already a bigger fan. Macho responds with a kinda bad flippy chain escape and a stiff dropkick, but then pulls out the WTCHAAAA pose like X-Pac. I think he might just be a big fan of the clique. My suspicions are confirmed when he pulls out the Indian deathlock, doing Michaels poses every time he falls backwards. He tries to turn this into a Muta lock at one point but Shogo simply grabs Macho's neck first. After some more grappling, Shogo starts unloading these wicked uppercut elbows, you can hear the arm to chin connection every time he throws one. At the same time he uses some overhand punches that... well, let's just say I wanna see him do a lot more upper elbows. He gets the advantage and puts in a COBRA CLUTCH MANJIGATAME? I've never seen this move before, and why the fuck haven't I, it's so cool. From this point on there's a couple very noticeable miscommunications between Shogo and Macho, mostly when Shogo has beaten on Macho a little and he obviously wants Macho to start fighting for a comeback, but Macho just kinda stands there not doing anything. It doesn't kill the flow, but it certainly hurts it. Speaking of hurt, Macho nearly kills Shogo with a body slam, letting go of him way too early and almost spiking my new fave shooter right on the top of his head. He makes up for this terrible mistake with some okay kick combos, before tuning up the band. I think to myself "well, he can't be that bad at the sweet chin music, so let's hope for the best". Turns out I had nothing to worry about, as he simply instead hit the NASTIEST FUCKING THRUST KICK IVE EVER SEEN. STRAIGHT TO THE NECK JESUS CHRIST. Because Macho has no clue what he's best at and is also somehow confused about who he's trying to imitate, he then does a running frog splash where he lands on his feet nearly a full second before falling onto Shogo. I got so scared Shogo wouldn't kick out but he did, and I guess at that point Shogo was sick of Macho's shit since he shoot punched him in the jaw and knee'd him like he was trying to kill him, getting Shogo the win. This honestly didn't do a great job as a match, but as an introduction to Shogo I'm very glad I watched this.

Rating: Shogo was great, and Macho should be directed to the nearest exit

Ashita Maeda vs. Yuuki-Robert Kawaguchi

    Maeda is, as you probably could've guessed, a total Akira Maeda cosplay wrestler, coming out to an alternate version of "Captured" and wearing a RINGS shirt along with the traditional Maeda black trunks and kickpads, also wearing black boots to complete the look while also going against the RAW rules of no shoes, meaning that he's even a rule-breaker just like his idol. Kawaguchi on the other hand comes out in full black gi with the nWo logo on the back. Why? How the fuck should I know. This is under what I assume are RINGS or UWFi rules, as there's a scoring system based on each time a person gets knocked down or has to use the ropes (and by ropes I mean a tape square used to signify the ropes). To show these points, the announcer's table has two notebook paper sheets behind it, and every time someone loses a point they tape a new paper with their current point count on top. I'm not sure why I enjoy this so much (probably because I'd wanna do the same thing if I was in a backyard fed doing shoot matches), but I certainly do. The grappling in this is definitely amateur, but at the same time that helps the struggle feel real, as this is just two dudes genuinely trying to put each other in holds they probably are thinking of on the fly. Maeda throws some nasty kicks which let out a gross sound when they connect, and I can't tell if that's because the room is so small or he's just throwing them that hard. Either way, this match is just Maeda kicks and both men doing snug grappling for less than 10 minutes until Maeda gets Kawaguchi in a pretty sick arm-trap neck crank for the victory. This wasn't great, but for two guys who weren't trained, it was still a pretty fun match, one that was actually aided by how low budget everything was. Low budget Maeda, low budget judoka, low budget RINGS system, this was simply some low budget fun.

Rating: cosplay RINGS is still RINGS baby

SAGAT vs. SG Wonder

    For anyone wondering, yes, this is that SAGAT, the BASARA dude. Turns out not only was he originally a yarder, but he was apparently considered the best yarder in Japan in 2011. No clue when this is happening, but hopefully it's around that year. This whole match felt like a weird fever dream honestly. Both dudes just drop all the normal parts of a wrestling match at multiple points, and it honestly is so cool. It starts out weird enough with Wonder doing some singing before SAGAT throws a NASTY spear out of frustration. Wonder, after getting up from the spear, then starts singing again, which makes SAGAT just kinda not care anymore and try to wait it out. Wonder takes advantage of this by getting SAGAT to get on his knees and then IMMEDIATELY GO FOR A GEDO CLUTCH. Both men trade chops before going into a Wonder limb targeting sequence, which actually works because Wonder is surprisingly good at it. What else is surprising? Oh, when SAGAT gets up and Wonder does a mean headlock takeover into a fucking superkick straight to SAGAT's face. SAGAT gets up pissed off and the two men are now throwing shoulder tackles like they wanna turn the other into roadkill. At this point it becomes less of a wrestling match and more of a turn-based battle, as each one waits for the other to hit a move, taking a normal strike exchange and turning it into a fucking bloodbath with the escalation of the strikes. Sadly, it wasn't a literal bloodbath, but I'm amazed it never got to that point since some of those strikes were totally full force. Wonder finally wins with an out of nowhere slap to the face, followed up by a rolling solebutt, before running back for his nasty lariat but slipping, allowing SAGAT to bowl into him with another shoulder tackle almost to Wonder's face. SAGAT follows it up by diving off the announcer's table for an elbow, but Wonder just gets up again, hitting a nasty german suplex into a side slam, then another shoot kick to the chest, then a running leaping superkick, AND FINALLY A POUNCE. SAGAT GETS BACK UP AGAIN AND NOW THEY ARE THROWING STIFF SLAPS. WONDER RESPONDS WITH SHOOT PUNCH AND I CANNOT TELL IF THIS IS PLANNED OR NOT. Somehow SAGAT gets control again finally and hits another shoulder tackle to the face this time, before following it up with a rear one straight to Wonder's neck. Wonder... KICKS OUT??? SAGAT IS FUCKIN PISSED, ROUNDHOUSE KICK, SPEAR, ANOTHER FUCKING KICKOUT, AND FINALLY ONE MORE SPEAR FROM SAGAT GETS THE WIN. I don't even know how to rate this because sometimes it was boring and sometimes it was so violent I couldn't take my eyes away from the screen. Those first 5 minutes of Wonder playing around and singing did not prepare me at all for what followed, but I probably won't forget this match for a little bit.

Rating: what the fuck, holy fuck, all the fucks

Three Match Primer: Taro Yamada

 (Written by Jom)

    Taro Yamada is a name that most people probably don't know. He rarely appears in a notable role in the larger puro landscape (unless you count show opening battle royales in AJPW as notable), while spending most his time in home promotion 666 and MUMEIJUKU with sparse appearances for Ice Ribbon and Gatoh Move. However, this lack of recognition says nothing about his abilities in the ring, as he constantly proves himself to be one of the most technically sound and brutally stiff pro wrestlers on the scene. He also does a wicked curb stomp, which probably tells you why I'm such a big fan of his. In the first of a (most likely sporadic) series, I will be providing three matches to showcase one of the most underappreciated workers on the puro indy scene. The best part? They're all less than 15 minutes and free to watch on youtube.

Taro Yamada vs. Shinobu

    This match only goes 6 minutes, so out of all the matches I'll talk about, this one is the best if you're crunched for time. Even though it goes such a short length, Yamada and Shinobu put it all out there in this one, not holding back in the slightest for their strikes. The match is filled with a lot of the usual pro wrestling moments that occur in longer matches, only done at a nearly 2x pace. Shinobu of course is great as always, but Yamada really does a great job not only with his grappling and striking, but also with his selling. At one point he takes a missile dropkick and goes nearly straight onto his neck for it, a moment I had to replay a couple times just because it was that good. Again, this isn't a technical war (we'll get there), but it is a perfectly succinct battle between two of 666's best workers.

Taro Yamada vs. Yu Iizuka

    In this match, Yamada takes on a recently debuted Yu Iizuka, and although Iizuka was not yet "Young Volk" in both nickname and technical proficiency, the signs of this eventual progression were definitely there. This whole match has a strong concentration on solid grappling and stiff strikes, which benefits both men greatly. At one point early, Yamada has Iizuka in a very snug stepover toehold, and Iizuka is close enough to the ropes to start reaching. Yamada notices this and is able to grab the first arm, but misses the other, showing genuine frustration at not being able to stop Iizuka from getting the ropes. This was such a small moment and ultimately probably didn't mean anything, but seeing wrestlers show real emotion at their maneuvers succeeding/failing always makes me pop hard. Also, if all this praise on the technical side of the match isn't getting you excited, this match also includes one of the most disgusting shoot headbutts I've ever seen done by Yamada. If that can't get you interested, I think you've found the wrong blog.

Taro Yamada vs. Yasushi Sato

    We've gone from a basic match with only slight technical battling, to a pretty technical match, to this technical war I alluded to previously. This is an exhibition match between Yamada and Sato, two men who had a longer match previously and would have a longer match in the future. However, even though this is almost purely chain grappling, the 10 minute length does nothing to take away from the encounter. Yasushi Sato will almost definitely get one of these primers in the future, reverseviperhold (another blogger who you should definitely check out if you haven't) once called him the "King of the Russian Legsweep" and I'm inclined to agree. Both men are extremely adept at chain grappling, and this match is just peak scientific wrestling by two of the best at the style.

    If you want to check out more of Yamada's work, I'd highly recommend his other matches with Yasushi Sato in MUMEIJUKU, along with the other three match series he had with Keita Yano/Keita IN The HOUSE at the ringless WALLABEE promotion.

 

The Urban Ken Archive #1

 (Written by yeelord)

    If you've never heard of Urban Ken, I don't blame you. his career only spanned a little under 2 years (1999-2001) and he was incredibly outshined by the rising stars of BattlARTS. However, even though he didn't do anything of note, that's not to take away from his wrestling ability. In fact, he's one of the most underrated wrestlers of BattlARTS' long history. In this post I'll be reviewing EVERY SINGLE match of his that were taped.

Ryuji Hijikata vs. Kenny (May ??, 2000)

    I might as well zip past this one since I had just saw that this was taped as I was typing the introduction. Samurai only gave us about 30 seconds of this match but it well showcased the future Urban Ken. He scored a good takedown on Hijikata before securing the Cross Armbar victory!

Rating - ??/10 (Too clipped to rate)

Takeshi Ono/Ryuji Hijikata vs. junji.com/Urban Ken (Sep. 7, 2000)

    This was a very fun, quick matchup packed with a lot of heat behind it for no reason other than because it's BattlARTS. Ono and Hijikata bring in their striking game and proves to serve them well against the two. Our boy Urban Ken is still sticking with his quick and great mat-work offense, putting in hold after hold. lots of great tag team moves being done here. With all that being said there, they might have been working a bit too fast for their own good as there were a couple moves being sloppily thrown together. Fortunately, that doesn't take away how good this match was though. Very tough to think that all 4 of these guys would have a very "under the radar" future ahead of them...

Rating - 7/10 (Very fun match!)

Naoki Sano/Naoyuki Taira vs. Katsumi Usuda/Urban Ken (Sep. 10, 2000)

    20 minute Urban Ken match, oh boy! Can't wait to watch 20 minutes of Urban Ken kicking ass? well... you're not going to get that. You see, this is one of those matches were somebody has to take the bulk of the damage, and unfortunately for us, it's the smallest man in the match Urban Ken. He has slight bursts of offense here and there. Mainly busting out his signatures (The Spear, Slaps, and the occasional Headbutt) but for the most part, he's getting the ever loving piss beaten out of him. The rest of the match is good, specifically Taira's flashy kicks and good slams (His background is Shootboxing). Usuda is a killer as per usual. And Sano brings in the more traditional Pro-Wrestling into the mix. The match ends with Sano making Kenny tap to a Boston Crab, the ol' "Young Boy Finish". All in all, it's genuinely a great match and worth your time if you need 22 minutes to kill.

Rating - 7/10 (Great match)

The Greatest Set of Wrestling Trading Cards

   (Written by yeelord)

    If you're unaware of what BBM is. Basically they're the leading force behind trading cards in Japan (at least from what I've gathered, I couldn't find a wiki for them). Among the many things they've made cards for, most notably to me and I'm sure to anyone reading this, they've made many cards for wrestling. Go on the COMC website (click here) and search for any wrestler imaginable. BBM have most likely made a card of them

    Before you adventure through their cards, let me introduce to you the subject of this post. You read the title, and no I am not overexaggerating. Behold the absolute fashion icons shown in this 2001 Pro Wrestling Noah collection. Labeled as "Off Ring" BBM gathered a bunch of the roster to just... pose in casual clothes, sweaters, jackets, sunglasses, you name it!

Here is the entire section of the "Off Ring" cards in all it's beautiful glory.