(Written by jom)
Yusaku & Koki Kitahara vs. Daisaku & Tomohiro Ishii (CAPTURE International 05/30/2000)
Starting us off is one of the very few publicly available CAPTURE matches from before the 2022 broadcasts started. Besides this match, another on the CAPTURE channel, and three TV broadcasts from 2002-2003, there's absolutely nothing in full online. I guess we do have to thank Koki for gracing us with this match at least, because on paper, this sounds phenomenal. You have the Shimoda brothers facing off in their early shooter days, Ishii fully embracing Tenryuism and the CAPTURE ideology before Choshu ruined him, and of course, the god of CAPTURE himself, Koki fucking Kitahara. Also, Yusaku is wearing matching gear with Kitahara, which is just so powerful.
Yusaku was definitely tied for the best part of this match with Ishii. He came in and did a ton of the same stuff he does today, but with less of a domineering force behind it and more youthful enthusiasm to everything. He threw the same types of headbutts, forearms, and lariats that he hit in CAPTURE just a few months ago, but they all came off as much more energetic rather than powerful, which definitely still works and fit with him at this point considering he was a young rookie wrestler.
As said when talking about Yusaku, Ishii was absolutely tied with him as the best guy here. He came in with a lot of hate (the appropriate way to enter a match for CAPTURE), throwing a ton of closed fist punches and hard kicks, all while coming off as having little to no respect for neither Yusaku nor Kitahara. His punches especially were harrowing, as I'm 99% sure he held back nothing when just destroying the face of Yusaku.
Daisaku was also pretty damn good throughout, throwing some hard strikes and especially going in with a few stiff knees. I feel like while he didn't do a ton of memorable stuff, what he did do was really well executed and he deserves praise for that. Kitahara shockingly was the weakest link. He wasn't really a factor until half the match had gone by, and the stuff he did just wasn't as good as what the other three did. I do wanna shout out the pretty awesome powerbomb he did to Ishii onto Daisaku, definitely was not expecting to see that but it made for a memorable moment near the end of the match.
I think that overall, this match rocked a good bit, but also never really got to a point where I would call it great. It was a little disjointed overall and it never felt like it hit a 2nd gear for me, but that 1st gear it stayed in was pretty damn brutal and made for a fun watch. Also, after the match, Ishii and Kitahara get into a pull-apart brawl and Fugofugo Yumeji (who came out to try and break it up) gets hit with a stray spinning sole kick from Kitahara, which does in my eyes bump this up a grade.
Rating: B
Rikiya Fudo & Hirotaka Yokoi vs. Kazushi Miyamoto & Tomoaki Honma (Kings Road 05/26/2006)
This match is from the only Kings Road show not broadcast on Samurai! TV. Originally this whole show was thought to be completely unattainable, but thanks to Miyamoto and his absolutely awesome YouTube channel, we are finally able to watch at least a handheld the main event. There's bound to be more matches in this series from the channel considering Fudo and Miyamoto are seemingly good friends and Fudo has worked a shit ton for Miyamoto and his Kazushigumi fed. Plus, Miyamoto just barely missed out on his own Comprehensive, so you know he's got the jom seal of approval and you should definitely subscribe to his channel if you haven't already.
I also do want to say before anything else that anything said in reference to Honma here is referring to him as a wrestler and not as a person. I don't know as much as I probably should about the accusations that have been put against him, and I've heard other talks of his less than favorable character outside the ring not connected to the abuse allegations by his ex-wife. As far as I'm concerned, there's a solid chance Honma is a genuinely bad person and that shouldn't be covered up just because of his abilities in the ring. I'll probably go more into detail about my opinions on "separating art from the artist" whenever I eventually review an Apache Pro show (hell, I might even do a larger write-up about it because I think there's a lot to say), but in short anything said positively about him here is in reference to the isolated performance he did in this match, and not any sort of advocation for him to continue to wrestle today.
This was a very different tag match from the one we just covered, as while that one was based around a clear tone of brutality, this one had a lot of ebbs and flows in pacing that made it much more fleshed out. It somewhat toed the line between being a Strong BJ style beef-off with hard stiff strikes (particularly lariats) and impactful slams, and a more traditional old-school tag match with an almost house show flavor to it.
Turmeric Storm were in prime form here. Honma was very solid as he usually was at this point, doing everything with a lot of hardness and just generally being a really cohesive wrestler. Miyamoto was definitely on a much higher level than him here though. This was Miyamoto's time in the sun, working as the ace for a solidly bankrolled promotion that was on TV for every one of their shows besides this one, so of course he brought it all. He came off as the next coming of Tenryu in a lot of ways, doing a lot of similar movements and selling and even popping off some Tenryu moves like the face kicks. That's not to say he was only hitting tribute moves, as he definitely was proving that his own wrestling was just as good as the wrestling he was paying homage too, best seen here in this awesome sequence with both opponents:
Hirotaka Yokoi also put in a pretty awesome performance, busting out hard kicks and punches and doing some great MMA grappling to contrast hard with everyone else in this match having a lariat-off. He was a really great outsider to the beefy bruisers and had some great moments throughout.
However, of course, Rikiya Fudo put in a star-making performance as always. He had amazing chemistry with both guys but particularly with Miyamoto, having some real scrappy fights filled with stiff forearms and Vader hammers aplenty. He also got to do some genuinely shocking big match style moves towards the end, hitting a particularly fucked up combination on Miyamoto that had me rewind at least 10 times to watch it over and over again. The most notable move in this match however would come in the latter half when Fudo was in the ring with Honma. Honma gets thrown into the corner and...
In one stiff as fuck lariat by Fudo, Honma's throat is crushed and his voice is forever fucked. That's right, this match is the match where Honma got his now trademark scratchy voice, courtesy of a Fudo corner lariat. Knowing what we know now about Honma, there's a certain level of catharsis to seeing this.
The match overall was amazing. Everyone involved played their part to perfection and it resulted in a real gem of a match that we cannot thank Miyamoto enough for making public. Our boy Fudo was wrestling at top level here, Miyamoto was working at an equal or even higher level than Fudo, and Yokoi and Honma held their own in a match with those two behemoths. Go out of your way to see this if you can put up with Honma being in it, because it was just fucking awesome.
Rating: A-
Rikiya Fudo vs. Daisuke Kanehira (HEAT-UP! 06/19/2020)
Once again, we arrive at the 2020s for another of Fudo's more recent matches. This time he's taking on Kanehira in the HEAT-UP! dojo, wrestling in front of approximately zero fans as the pandemic was currently in full-swing when this match happened.
The lack of fans didn't stop either of these guys from going at 100% though, because they fucking killed each other here in a way that I honestly can't begin to describe properly. Kanehira was just great here, throwing some sickening chops and knees, holding his own against the larger, more dangerous Fudo. He at one point absolutely destroyed Fudo with this sickening combo, shown below:
Fudo meanwhile was in full Vader mode, doing some disgusting Vader hammers and at one point even doing his own violence party using Vader hammers and chops. He also hit his horrifying shotgun kick, which I honestly believe is the best execution of said move I might have ever seen.
Overall, this match just ruled sooooooo much. I wish my review of it could be longer and more thought-out but this is the type of match that has to be seen to be truly understood. It's just total violence from two guys that obviously came into this match planning to dish some out. For my money, one of the best matches of 2020 and a testament to just how transcendent of a wrestler Rikiya Fudo is.
Rating: A
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