Saturday, April 16, 2022

The Comprehensive CMA Gym

            (Written by jom)

    In 1993, two of the strongest killers in pro wrestling history made their debuts: Kei Tsukada and Takeshi Miyamoto. Tsukada first made his debut on June 10th for W*ING (unless you count the legit boxing matches he had on NJPW shows in the late 80s), defeating Ryo Miyake. Only 3 months later, Miyamoto would defeat Keisuke Yamada at an Oriental Pro show on September 16th. Both matches were contested under Different Style rules, with Tsukada being a boxer and Miyamoto being a karateka. Around this point, these two would seem to develop a kinship over their bond of being martial artists in the world of sleaze pro wrestling, and in 1994, the two would found the Chunkyo Martial Arts Federation, or CMA Gym.

    It was also in 1994 that the two of them would start to be pit against each other, which would very quickly be found to be an amazing idea, as both guys would absolutely brutalize each other in their matches. Tsukada fought like a prototype of Thanomsak Toba, throwing insane punch flurries and blending in some pretty insane highspots based around finding creative ways to break Miyamoto's face. Miyamoto, meanwhile, came off like the hardest fucking karateka to step into a ring. He unloaded some of the grossest kicks I've ever seen, and even had some unexpected grappling game which rounded him out to being a total destroyer no matter if he was standing or on the mat. They became famous on the sleaze indies for their brutal fights, with the feud spanning multiple promotions and coming to be known as "Indy's Favorite Counting Song" ("counting song" being a term seemingly used for long-spanning rivalries) among fans. Eventually, they would start to fade out from the pro wrestling world, with both seemingly gone entirely by the end of 1998.

    In the first Comprehensive series on the Dragon Screw blog, I'll be reviewing as many taped matches featuring Miyamoto and Tsukada as I can, and hopefully by doing this, I'll be exposing more people to the legend of the CMA Gym.

Reviewed Matches (in Chronological Order):

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