Comprehensive Rikiya Fudo/Super Rider #3 (DDT 11/20/1999)

                    (Written by jom)

    For the first time, two Comprehensives in one! The matches I'm reviewing today are all from the 11/20/1999 DDT show, which featured a one-night round robin trios tournament. Rider and Fudo (under his Yusaku name) both participated in the tournament in the B block, so that means we got 3 matches featuring them from this show, as well as the only recorded interactions between Rider and Fudo, so I'm very excited to see how those pan out.

Yusaku, Daisaku, & Yuki Nishino vs. Kazunori Yoshida, Koichiro Kimura, & Takao Iwasaki

    Starting off this special edition of comprehensive is the Shimoda bros, and they're teaming with Yuki Nishino, a former SPWF guy who throws awesome headbutts and moves at a really violent pace. Yoshida is another guy I've been a big fan of, as is Kimura. I've honestly never seen Iwasaki before this match, but the fact he was put on a team with Yoshida and Kimura makes me think he's probably solid enough.

    This was pretty sweet and extremely heated. Nishino was solid here, doing some nice grappling and hitting a few bombs like one crazy backdrop suplex on Yoshida. Daisaku was also pretty good, laying in some kicks and knees with real force and doing some cool scrappy work against Kimura and Iwasaki. Yusaku was definitely the best part of his team though, as he was just a beast here. He started the match by plowing through Yoshida with a lariat, and he kept that energy the entire time he was in the ring, with some big lariats and headbutts. He also hit some awesome bombs like this great sit-out spinebuster:

    For the other team in the match, everyone involved ended up having a good showing. Iwasaki was alright here, not really doing anything crazy but throwing some cool kicks. Yoshida also was a little more reserved than I've usually seen him, but he still busted out some great stuff like an awesome pop-up dropkick. Kimura was the most notable member of the team, purely through the level of violence he inflicted on the Shimoda bros, especially Yusaku. Honestly, with how hard he was hitting them and how little he was getting hit himself, I think that he might've been genuinely shooting on Yusaku. He doesn't have the greatest reputation for taking care of other wrestlers, so it wouldn't be entirely out of character. At bare minimum though, it made for some real sick stuff, like the combo seen below where Kimura just beat the dogshit out of Yusaku before putting on a really mean standing armbar.

    Overall, this had some pretty crazy sections, but as a whole felt somewhat disjointed. Still, those moments it did have were really good, so if you are just interested in seeing guys do cool shit to each other without the need for clean pacing and structure, you'd probably be pretty into this match.

Rating: B-

Super Rider, Asian Cougar, & Thanomsak Toba vs. Kazunori Yoshida, Koichiro Kimura, & Takao Iwasaki

    Next up we have the Yoshida/Kimura/Iwasaki team from the previous match taking on the sleaze legends team of Rider, Cougar, and Toba. I've of course talked at length about how great Rider is, and I just talked in the most recent post before this about how awesome Cougar is. Toba is someone I've somehow not covered until now, but he's maybe one of my favorite martial artist type wrestlers of all time. He throws some extremely violent punches and kicks, with his spinning backfist being maybe the greatest of all time.

    This match ended up being pretty awesome! Cougar was cool busting out some of his usual big spots like the corner kneel kick into slingshot leg drop, and he also got to hit some stuff I have rarely seen from him, including a crazy tope over the corner. He wasn't part of the match as much as Rider or Toba, but he made his contributions felt for the parts he was in. Toba was a god damn menace here, throwing his trademark horrific strikes, including a lightning-quick flurry of punches that he threw at all three of his opponents (with his sequence against Yoshida gif'd below). He also threw some genuinely scary kicks at Kimura, including one that hit Kimura's jaw with one of the loudest cracks I've heard in a while. Rider, for his part, was also really cool here, doing some phenomenal grappling with Kimura and laying in a few hard strikes like some brutal headbutts on Iwasaki. He even had a few fun moments, like doing a spot where he kept fucking up a scoop slam because he's more of a fighter than a wrestler, eventually leading to the payoff of him actually doing one correctly, with the crowd popping big for it.

    All three guys on the other side of the ring more than held up their end of the match too. Kimura was great in this one, doing some really solid grappling with Rider and hitting some big bombs like an awesome butterfly suplex into an armbar, or the great transition into a fujiwara armbar seen below. He definitely wasn't working with the level of hate he had in the previous match, but he made up for that with some overall extremely solid mat work. Iwasaki was much better here than he was in the last match, pretty much being in a sink-or-swim situation with Toba and responding by throwing some strong kicks and pulling out big holds, like a stiff side headlock. Yoshida was probably the best part of the match for his team though, as he got to hit a ton of awesome stuff even with the roof of the building being so low. He hit a great springboard dropkick, an awesome suicide dive, and a crazy springboard arm drag which he really shouldn't have been able to pull off considering how little space he had to do it.

    This was better than the last match I went over, albeit not by a ton. I think all six men put in a really solid performance, but the match never really brought itself up to being great or anything like that. As it stands though, this was still a really enjoyable match.

Rating: B

Super Rider, Asian Cougar, & Thanomsak Toba vs. Yusaku, Daisaku, & Yuki Nishino

    Finally, we have arrived to the match I was most excited for going into this. Not only does this have the only known interactions between Rikiya Fudo and Super Rider, but it also features 4 other extremely awesome wrestlers as part of the match. This actually takes place before the match I just reviewed, but considering the importance of this match in terms of the blog, I'm reviewing it last.

    ...having said that, let's rip the bandaid off now: Yusaku didn't enter this match once. My best guess is that the dude was still pretty fucked up from the beating he got from Kimura, leading to him only entering the ring at the end to do a little bit of brawling with Toba during the finish. It fucking sucks to see that Yusaku and Rider seemingly never actually had any interactions in their careers after all, but at least this match still ruled very hard. Nishino is really damn great in this match compared to the last one he was in. While he had a solid performance there, he was fighting like his life was on the line in this match, throwing some gnarly headbutts including one to Cougar that sent him flying off the apron and into the crowd. Daisaku rocked even harder than him, busting out some awesome grappling against Rider such as when he countered Rider's triangle choke into a kneebar. He also did some great strikes and combos, like the flurry of high kicks he threw at Toba, as well as this great combo:

    Asian Cougar was pretty awesome here (it's very rare for him to not be at least awesome). He pretty much just hit the classics, but not only do the Asian Cougar classics rule, he also hit them with a lot of urgency. He did the slingshot leg drops (both inside and outside the ring), he hit his awesome running corner kneel kick, etc. Toba was really good too, laying in some hard strikes on Daisaku like a combo that led into a pretty disgusting kick straight to Daisaku's face. The best part of the match to me though was Super Rider, who had a truly awesome performance. He hit some mean strikes, such as a pinpoint solebutt to Nishino's jaw, as well as some stiff mounted punches to Daisaku. He pulled off some great grappling, like a great transition into an armbar from a wristlock and the gif seen below of him countering a snapmare perfectly into a kneebar. He even bust out some high spots, like a crazy suicide dive he hit on Nishino, as well as the always awsome rider kick.

    Overall, I really enjoyed the work we got in this match. It was honestly pretty short (a little over 7 minutes long) , and the fact that Yusaku did literally nothing probably damaged the rating enough to guarantee it wasn't gonna get into the A-grade range, but it was still a really sweet six man tag and everyone who participated put on a really fun performance.

Rating: B+

PWC 09/17/2003

                    (Written by jom)

TONY GUCCI & BAM-Z vs. MEN's Teioh & Ricky Fuji

    A very American match to start off this PWC show. Teioh is awesome, a really great juniors guy and tied with Togo for my favorite KDX member. Fuji is also pretty solid, he's not someone I'm a huge fan of but he's had some good performances before. GUCCI and BAM-Z are the BAGGYZ, two dudes in Gold's Gym shirts, Zubaz pants, and fanny packs. They're managed by "Miss America" and make their entrance to "Born in the USA". Truly, whoever was booking the new PWC (I believe it was Toshiyuki Moriya aka Violence Revenger/Nise Onita) was on another level. I swear to god I can recognize at least one of the BAGGYZ but I can't put a name to the face, so for now they'll just be GUCCI and BAM-Z.

    This was uh... a weird match. Nobody really did anything notable for the entirety of the match. Genuinely, outside of Fuji hitting the Kamikaze at one point, this was extremely nothing, with Fuji and Teioh doing alright work mostly based around hitting weird American wrestling moves and poses. Miss America used her boobs to distract Teioh and Fuji, and also used them to trap Teioh's hand at one point so the BAGGYZ could go for their ultimate kill move, the "BIG BAGGY BURGER". Teioh escaped and then Fuji and Teioh hit a BIG BAGGY BURGER of their own. When it comes to the BIG BAGGY BURGER though, you don't actually get to see what it is. Instead of actually showing the viewer the move... this happens:

    This is something I have never even seen in wrestling before. I cannot even begin to explain the strange emotions I feel upon seeing a slide show of a burger instead of seeing an actual move. I need to go for a walk.

Rating:

Asian Cougar & Tomoya Adachi vs. Akihiko Masuda & Katsunari Toi

    Following... that, we have a pretty cool sounding juniors match. I'm a fan of all four guys here, especially Masuda (aka Great Takeru).

    This ended up being good enough, but it had some definite faults. Masuda was weird here, as he did some of the stuff I love about him like the crazy t-pose looking dive and a couple hard kicks, but for the most part just worked like any other juniors guy rather than the sabuish masked flyer I prefer him ask. His partner Toi though was going nuts, wrestling like he should've been the junior ace of IWE by doing a bunch of mostly basic stuff really well and putting his own slight spin on it. For example, check out the Oklahoma Stampede below where he basically rolled through it and ended up hitting a Mighty Inoue senton. Also, his slingshot foot stomp to the outside is downright terrifying, it looked like it crushed Cougar's intestines.

    Cougar was also pretty damn good as usual. He mostly just hit the signature spots but all his signature spots rule, such as the springboard bulldog and the slingshot legdrop to the outside. Adachi was actually great here in my opinion, doing some really cool stuff like this awesome diving front dropkick where he got a ton of hesitation on it. He also did some great tag stuff with Cougar, like this awesome combo:

    I think that this definitely had some issues with pacing and length, as it went 14 minutes and there were some real down times in there making this feel pretty slow overall. However, there were still enough cool moments from the 4 involved that I would say it was a solid match.

Rating: B-

    For the first time ever I have to pause between matches on this write-up, because what I just saw was insane. Every match has had some form of pre-match video up to this point, but instead of a hype video or promo for the next match, the screen instead started displaying video of GENTARO hanging out by himself in the backstage area, until...

    ... his thoughts are interrupted by the arrival of Gentaro Takahashi, looking for fellow gi wearers Survival Tobita and Iori Sugawara. They have a conversation where GENTARO is chill and Gentaro Takahashi yells a lot, and then when Takahashi leaves GENTARO talks right at the camera about how crazy Gentaro Takahashi is. This is one of the most surreal experiences I have ever had watching a Japanese wrestling show.

Sosai Nagase & Karate Machine Special vs. Hajime Moriyama & Kazuhiro Tamura

    I have no idea who Machine is, but I do know Sosai (aka Kancho/Masakazu) Nagase, who I've talked about before when reviewing FU*CK! He's actually PWC alumni, originally becoming a PWC guy in late 1995 after starting his career in Mexico by training with Fray Tormenta (yes, the priest that inspired Nacho Libre). Moriyama is a U-FILE CAMP trainee and really good shoot style wrestler probably best known for his work in Fu-ten. Tamura is a guy that I talked about in the main event of the last show I reviewed, but what you may not know is that this match here? This is Tamura's debut as a professional wrestler. That's right, Tamura started his career in the wrestling business at a shitty PWC show in 2003, and I'm very excited to be able to talk about it.

    This match was actually pretty awesome! The whole basis of this match was pretty simple, with the heel karatekas using karate and pro wrestling to beat down Moriyama and Tamura, while the U-FILE boys constantly went for takedowns and throws to get Nagase and Machine on the mat and make them tap out. Machine was actually pretty cool here, doing some big kicks including a great kneel kick, and also just acting as a somewhat imposing force for Tamura especially to fight back from. Nagase was awesome and definitely the highlight of his team, throwing some real hard kicks and even hitting some bigger wrestling style moves, like this absolutely beautiful dropkick:

    Moriyama was really great here too, doing some pretty awesome stuff like a beautiful waterwheel drop into a tight armbar, as well as some really good knees and kicks. He even hit a dragon suplex near the end with absolutely ruled. Tamura was probably the most interesting guy the whole match though, not just because of what he would become in the future, but because he was absolutely living up to the "Small Tamura" nickname, grappling with some of the same ferocity and complexity that Kiyoshi Tamura did. He hit a really awesome flying armbar at one point, and probably the coolest thing he did all match was the awesome quick transitioning into an armbar seen below, which is a spot very clearly adopted from his teacher Kiyoshi.

    Overall, I think this was genuinely pretty fun and an awesome historical importance match. Seeing Tamura work at a pretty high level from the first match of his career is amazing, and everyone else was great too. Plus, I just love Different Style wrestling and this absolutely had some hints of that so I was gonna enjoy this regardless.

Rating: B

Koji Ishinriki, Crusher Takahashi, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Kazunori Yoshida, Kosei Maeda, & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa vs. TAKA Michinoku, Iori Sugawara, Daigoro Kashiwa, Teppei Ishizaka, GENTARO, & Survival Tobita

    I'd need someone to pay me for me to try and write a normal intro for this match. Everyone in this rules and I'm very excited to watch this. Also, Tobita came out with Sugawara before anyone else because they are members of Shin Piranha Gundan (named after the original Piranha Gundan of Masanobu Kurisu, Kim Duk, and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga). Gentaro Takahashi is also a member of the stable, but for some reason he wasn't able to make it to the match. Wonder where he could be. 

    This was such a blast to watch. I'm not going to give a proper rundown on everyone, and instead I'll just primarily be highlighting a few of the best performances from the match. Probably the best one overall was Kazunori Yoshida. Every single time I see this guy wrestle I'm so blown away, he genuinely comes off as one of the best juniors guys on the planet at times with some insane height to all his dives. He hit a beauty of a springboard dropkick, a beauty of a double springboard avalanche hurricanrana, and the absolutely phenomenal combo shown below. Truly, I cannot understand why no promotion was able to see this dude's talent because he has it in spades.

    Yoshida's teammate and fellow insane juniors guy Kosei Maeda also definitely deserves a shout-out. He did some really awesome stuff in this, such as an acid drop and a springboard kneel kick that looked like it took TAKA's head clean off. Kuroda, Ishinriki, and Kikuzawa were all solid too but they just mostly hit the classics without much effort. The best guy on the face team besides Yoshida was definitely Crusher Takahashi though, who, as always, came off as one of the coolest wrestlers on the planet. His punches were perfect, his chops were thudding, and he had some awesome big spots like the calf branding below. I truly think Takahashi, in his prime, was one of the best wrestlers on the planet, with a mind for wrestling that would've taken him to superstardom in an earlier decade.

    From the heel side, the only group I believe is worth mentioning is Shin Piranha Gundan. Kashiwa, Ishikaza, and TAKA all had solid moments but for the most part this was all about the gi boys. Sugawara was awesome in the few moments he got to shine, letting loose some nice kicks including a real nice enzuigiri to Ishinriki. Tobita was an absolute destroyer in the match, just wrecking guys with hard hits like one particularly cracking lariat on Ishinriki near the end. He also hit a truly disgusting pedigree on Maeda, straight up spiking him on the landing. GENTARO was probably the best part of the match outside of Yoshida. He only got to do one solid piece of offense towards the beginning though, as he ended up getting hurt and stretchered out... ONLY FOR GENTARO TAKAHASHI TO FINALLY ARRIVE AND BEAT UP THE OTHER TEAM WITH KARATE!!! Truly put a smile on my face when I saw him running in. He did some actually really cool karate stuff too, including a great kneel kick and this combination:

    This wasn't perfect for sure. There was some clear miscommunication at different points, with guys not entirely sure who should go in and who should break up a pin. However, this was still really damn fun and it was such a cool way to cap off the show.

Rating: B+

Comprehensive CMA Gym #2

                 (Written by jom)

Kei Tsukada vs. Takeshi Miyamoto (Union Pro 10/16/1994)

    We're back with another CMA Gym article, and of course we're gonna start with one of their straight singles matches to get back into the zone.

    This was pretty similar to the other 1994 singles match reviewed previously, with the main story of the match being Miyamoto using his stiff kicks and grappling ability to fight back against Tsukada's boxing glove onslaught. There were some pretty stiff brawling in the first round, with both guys taking pot shots as much as they could, and the crowd was all there for it which was a really great addition.

    Of the two of them, Miyamoto definitely was more impressive, busting out his sick kicks but also hitting a few wrestling moves which I was not expecting. He let loose a couple really nasty combos, like one that led into a skull-cracking reverse roundhouse kick, and another (shown below) where he tried to scramble Tsukada's brains with some head kicks before spiking him on the top of his head with a DDT.

    Overall, I think this was pretty good, but a step down from the match they would have in Union again two months later. Still, when it comes to these two, you'll always be getting quality.

Rating: B

Kei Tsukada & Ryo Miyake vs. Takeshi Miyamoto & Masahiko Takasugi (Go Gundan 12/21/1994)

    This, on paper, is a very similar match to one reviewed in the previous post (except this time the partners are swapped and Miyake is subbing in for Teranishi). As such, I was expecting this to be just kinda fun but nothing more.

    I was wrong! This was pretty crazy. Miyake and Takasugi had a few moments to shine in the match, with Miyake at one point throwing Tsukada like a missile and Takasugi hitting a stiff lariat and hip attack, but the majority of what was shown was Miyamoto/Tsukada, and my god I don't know what was in the water but some of the stuff they did was insane. Miyamoto threw some of the hardest kicks I've ever seen him throw, with multiple having an audible thud upon contact with Tsukada. This included one head kick that was particularly loud, and actually made me pause the match for a minute to get my bearings back. Probably the most brutal besides that one was this kick directly to Tsukada's neck, which, once again, made a horrifying sound:

    Tsukada wasn't here just to eat shots from Miyamoto though, as he totally dished out some in kind. He threw tons of punch combos, let Miyake throw him like a lawn dart out of the ring onto Miyamoto, and he even was able to hit the diving punch, which looked beast as always. Probably the hardest combo he threw all match can be seen below, where he nearly knocked Miyamoto's whole head off the rest of his body.

    I thought going into this that there was no way this match would be able to reach the level of the last one. In the end though, I think this one actually edged the last one out just a bit. Miyamoto and Tsukada brought even more violence to the table, and Miyake and Takasugi not only held up their own ends of the match, but their contributions ended up elevating the match even more. Overall, another beautiful chapter in the CMA Gym wars.

Rating: B+

Takeshi Miyamoto vs. Ho Des Minh (Samurai Project 04/17/1996)

    Our first ever review as part of this project that doesn't include both gym leaders! Here Miyamoto is taking on Ho Des Minh (aka Poison Sawada and a bunch of other names) for Minh's CMA Certified Heavyweight Championship. As far as I can tell this is the only recorded match for this title, but I'd love to find more considering they'd all probably include either Miyamoto or Tsukada.

    This ended up being pretty solid, albeit a little disappointing. Minh was pretty solid here, working over Miyamoto's leg at different points, such as when he caught a kick and hit a dragon screw, before transitioning into a figure four leglock. He also got to do some of the cool moves in his arsenal, particularly the killer butterfly DDT he does.

    Miyamoto, meanwhile, was solid too, but it was pretty clear his intensity was kinda gone, and there were some clear missteps that reflect a guy who up to that point had spent a lot of his career working different style fights against one person. Even with all that, his kicks landed with a solid amount of thud still, and he did get to bust out a few cool moves like a solid german suplex.

    Overall, this was a solid enough match, but you could really tell Miyamoto was more suited for the weird borderline shoots he had against Tsukada. Minh absolutely did a good job in his role has the pro wrestling bad guy, it was just a case of stylistic difference not being able to entirely mix.

Rating: B-

STYLE-E 03/21/2009

                   (Written by jom)

Shota vs. Takeshi Tengu

    Takeshi Tengu is a Hanzo Nakajima trainee who primarily works for Nakajima's Wrestle Gate promotion (the same place Yuya Susumu and Seiki Yoshioka got started). That's really all I can say about him, as I've never seen one of his matches before this. Shota I've seen much of though, as he's currently a personal favorite in the 2022 wrestling landscape. He does a ton of Eddie Guerrero type stuff, has some great worked punches, and his team with Kenichiro Arai as Hattoshite Good is so much fun to watch. However, the Shota here is very different from the Shota many of you probably have seen before. This is him not even a year into pro wrestling, being a trainee from the U-FILE CAMP pro wrestling class and making his debut in April of 2008.

    The match itself was pretty solid overall. Tengu did some alright juniors stuff, hitting a good one-handed bulldog and a pretty cool cartwheel into flashing elbow. Shota meanwhile was fine, he had some nice grappling towards the start, he threw a nice enzuigiri, and the highlight of the match was definitely this beautiful german suplex he hit near the end:

    And that's really about all that happened. This was short (about 5 minutes long), worked in a really basic way, and ended when it probably should've. Not really worth seeking out or anything like that, but overall this was fine and it was cool seeing Shota so early into his career.

Rating: C+

Shoichi Uchida vs. Yukihiro Abe

    Shoichi Uchida is a guy I've seen a good bit since he tends to hang around the Kansai scene. He's been a mixed bag so far with some of his matches being pretty fun and some pretty boring, but he does do some pretty sweet samoan drops so it's hard for me not to be a fan. Abe meanwhile is someone I've yet to see in action, but from the looks of it he's a DDT guy who never really ended up getting anywhere big. He came out to Cruel Angel's Thesis and wears EVA-01 gear though, so obviously DDT must've been missing out.

    And this ended up being true because Abe was awesome in this match! His grappling was actually pretty damn good, really flowing on the mat early on. He hit some pretty nice dropkicks too, especially one after Uchida kicked out of a roll-up. On the topic of roll-ups, that was the best part of Abe's offense by far, doing a ton of different ones including this beautiful counter one that looks like a reverse Gannosuke clutch:

    Uchida, for his part, was solid enough. He never really did much that impressed me or anything, but he also never did anything negative either. Towards the end he did start to hit some cool things, like the nice flowsion below and some cool samoan drops.

    This was better than the last match, albeit not by much. It had some cool moments though, and I'm definitely interested in seeing what else Abe has done that's made tape.

Rating: B-

AKINO, Kyosuke Sasaki, & Shuji Ishikawa vs. Chon Akitoshi, Masa Takanashi, & Toshihiro Sueyoshi

    I haven't seen a ton from Takanashi or Sueyoshi but they both have cool looks. As for the rest, I've seen enough work from those four to say I'm a fan of them all, especially Sasaki who for my money might be the best U-FILE trainee in terms of pure shoot style ability.

    This ended up being solid. The face team were absolutely the highlights of the match. AKINO is awesome as a tenured hard hitting wrestler, and ended up probably being my favorite part of the match. She threw some really awesome kicks and hit one particularly awesome backdrop. She also did some genuinely funny comedy stuff towards the beginning, I couldn't understand anything she or Takanashi were talking about but the fact she just refused to stop trying to talk over him was great. Sasaki was also good in that same role, coming in and just beating people up. It didn't feel like he was in a ton but when he was he did some cool stuff. Ishikawa was great as this giant monster, throwing big boots and manhandling everyone. He had the spot of the match too when he threw Akitoshi into the ring, as seen below.

    The heel group (members of the Heisei D-Shingun faction led by Ken Ohka) was also pretty good, albeit definitely not as good as the face side. Akitoshi is awesome, doing kung fu diving side kicks and shit like that. He also did some really great arm targeting stuff on AKINO, really showing how he's not just a one-trick pony with the kung fu. Takanashi was alright but god he made me mad sometimes. In terms of good he did hit a few cool moves like a leg lariat thing he did near the end, and some of his heel work was genuinely pretty good, but man he just would not stop overselling. About 50% of the time, if you hit him slightly hard he was going to flop around on the mat like a fish out of water, and it was some of the dumbest selling I've ever seen. I understand that Heisei D-Shingun is meant to be a heel faction full of guys that are over-emotive and it's meant to be somewhat hokey, but every time he did that and other horrible sells it just took me out of the match. Sueyoshi on the other hand was about as good as Takanashi but was bad for different reasons. He just felt relatively weak and untrained compared to everyone else, throwing nothing forearms and hitting moves sloppily, like he literally only started training a week before the match. At least he got to somewhat redeem himself by hitting this combination with Akitoshi:

    I think this was somewhat better than the last match, but not by a ton. It had some pretty fun moments throughout but when 2/3rds of one of the teams are lame ducks, there's a ceiling to how good the match can actually be.

Rating: B

Masato Shibata vs. Hiroshi Kosakai

    This is for Shibata's RCW International championship, a title he won from Kosakai, who originally won it at River City Wrestling in 2007 while on a short US tour. At this point, the belt was pretty much a title owned by MAKEHEN/Team Vader, so it makes sense for two MAKEHEN boys to fight for it here. Masato Shibata is the future Mad Paulie, who at this point is just a shooty hoss and a big mark for Vader (a very good combination in my own opinion). Kosakai meanwhile is a guy who I've gotten very hyped up on in the past few months, first seeing him appear on one of the Occupation of the Indiez reruns and then getting more and more into his work as I sought out more full matches. He's a hard-hitting shooter who throws some crazy knees and punches, and he has a really awesome look to him too with the silver/white/black gear and the big arm tattoo. 

    God man, this match rocked hard. Kosakai was fucking great here, throwing some disgustingly stiff kicks all over Shibata's body, but especially to his leg. He really beat the shit outta Shibata's leg, not only throwing kicks but also stomping on it and really trying to rip it apart with different holds. He didn't just throw kicks though, with the combo shown below being probably the best strike combo he did the whole match. He also somehow hit a fucking brainbuster on the 300+ pound Shibata, which I truly cannot fathom even though I saw it happen.

    Shibata more than held up his end of the match though, probably putting in an even better performance than Kosakai. His leg selling during the main portion of the match was great, even doing a running corner move with a slight limp so he could still do his moves but keep the logic of the match going. He threw some absolutely gnarly chops too, with the noise they made being WALTER level, and he also threw some vader hammers with such reckless abandon I'm shocked Kosakai didn't get legitimately fucked up by one. The best part of his whole arsenal was the suplexes though, with this combination genuinely getting me to laugh and say "holy fuck" under my breath.

    Now, did this match have some faults? Of course. Kosakai and Shibata both had no-sell moments, and Kosakai had some "KING'S ROAD~!" type shit with a one count kickout which, while significantly less offensive than usual due to the execution of the following spots, was still unneeded. But even with this, I still think this was an absolute blast, with both guys going balls to the wall throughout. A really great match, one that makes me wanna start a new comprehensive series for Kosakai ASAP.

Rating: A-

Keita Yano & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. Masashi Takeda & Jaki Numazawa

    This looks like a really fun bullshit match on paper. Yano is of course a beast, one of my personal favorites and even this early into his career he was doing a ton of fun stuff (even if he hadn't lost his mind and gone joker mode yet). Kuroda is kinda divisive among people I know but I personally enjoy his work usually, doing some fun spots and having a solid lariat. Takeda is a generational talent, while Sasaki is my favorite shoot style guy from U-FILE CAMP, Takeda is definitely my favorite overall wrestler, and in my opinion might be the greatest "deathmatch" wrestler of all time. Numazawa is another really fun deathmatch guy, and absolutely able to hold his own in normal matches too.

    And this ended up being a fun bullshit match in execution! Yano was pretty sweet here, doing his usual work but also incorporating some chair stuff into it. He hit a pretty cool combo of a codebreaker with a chair into the Yurikamome, and he also hit this awesome springboard dropkick onto Takeda with Takeda's head on a chair, as seen below. Kuroda meanwhile was fine, he didn't do anything out of the ordinary for him and he kept the match going.

    Takeda and Numazawa were both menaces here. Both frequently used chairs and Numazawa even became the only person to use a weapon besides a chair by hitting Kuroda with the ring bell. Takeda was pretty awesome here just doing his thing, hitting some cool moves like a dropkick with Keita seated in, you guessed it, another chair, as well as a pretty sick german suplex. Numazawa actually was even better in this match in my opinion, doing some really fun brawling and hitting Yano with a michinoku driver onto a pile of... wait for it. CHAIRS! The sickest spot of the match also involved a chair, and it was downright horrifying, with Takeda and Numazawa hitting a suplex on Yano onto an open chair, completely snapping the back of it.

    In the end, this ended up being pretty fun, albeit nothing must-see. No real big takeaways or anything, just a fine match featuring some cool spots and overall doing everything it needed to.

Rating: B

No Rope, No Escape: Ken Ohka vs. Kazuhiro Tamura

    This match had been built up for a good bit of time, with Ohka leading Heisei D-Shingun (a stable made up of DDT regulars and also Toshihiro Sueyoshi) with the intent of taking over STYLE-E, and Tamura leading the frontlines in fighting this invasion off. He actually lost the title to Masa Takanashi in late 2008, as well as losing a singles to Ohka at the end of the year, but he regained the belt at the show before this one, leading to the two leaders of their respective groups facing off in a match without any ring ropes (the name given for the rules is actually what they called it, which is beast). Ohka came out with his stablemates and Akitoshi flying the Heisei D-Shingun flag, while Tamura came out flanked by the rest of the STYLE-E roster draped in a STYLE-E towel.

    Wouldn't you know it, this match was a lot of fun too! Tons of great bullshit spots featuring both teams, which we will get into, but I must at least show you the first one before saying anything else because it fucking ruled:

    Ohka was pretty awesome here, doing a ton of cool heel stuff and working strongly from the top. He had some nice punches and cool spots targeting the stomach like this crazy gutwrench gutbuster and his signature rolling fireman's carry. While some of the stuff he did towards the beginning was kinda meh, he absolutely turned it up in the latter half of the match. Best spot of the night on his part was the disgusting spear pictured below. His cronies in Heisei D-Shingun also played their part perfectly, constantly getting involved and being general assholes, eventually leading to the wild brawl that would cause both teams to leave the match.

    Tamura, meanwhile, was the absolute king in this match. He layed in some awesome kicks and did some crazy big moves, like an insane spear counter into an armbar. He was really awesome in the role of the underdog too, getting the crowd behind him pretty damn well. The stuff he pulled off towards the end was awesome too, especially this absolutely blasting head kick:

    The finishing stretch was fucking insane too, with both guys looking to genuinely destroy the other's brains (Ohka using headbutts and Tamura using head kicks), and honestly just that finishing stretch made this match worth watching. Overall, a really fun main event, and a great way to end the show.

Rating: B+

NEW NOW 04/04/1999

                  (Written by jom)

Sachie Nishibori & Emi Motokawa vs. Keiko Aono & Yasha Kurenai

    Being entirely honest here, I have significantly less knowledge about these four than I really should. Nishibori and Motokawa (the future Emi Sakura) are IWA Japan wrestlers who worked frequently in other promotions and have been pretty damn solid in the small amount of their work I've seen from IWA Japan. Yasha Kurenai is someone I've only seen pictures and clips of but she looks absolutely beast, with a really sweet yankee gimmick which is honestly just a gimmick I love in general. And Aono... I've never seen before. I've definitely at least seen her name but cannot for the life of me remember if I've ever seen her wrestle.

    Wouldn't you know it, this was pretty awesome! Genuinely, this was a lot of fun with all four involved really bringing it and starting the show off right. Nishibori was doing some pretty cool stuff, hitting a great hurricanrana and a crazy dive, as well as pulling off some cool counters. Motokawa was awesome here too, moreso than Nishibori, being absolutely full of energy and going as fast as possible the entire match. Her first contribution to the match was repeatedly dropkicking Aono into oblivion so it was pretty obvious she was gonna pull off a top level performance. The two of them even had a few solid moments of teamwork, especially this crazy assisted flipping senton onto Kurenai:

    Aono was solid for the small amount of stuff I got to see her do. She did some fun power moves like her really good shoulder tackles, and at one point caught a Nishibori crossbody to hit a real nice powerslam. Kurenai was my favorite part of the match though, just completely wrecking Motokawa and especially Nishibori. She pulled off some cool stuff, like a springboard leg drop and the awesome uranage/exploder type move shown below (not really sure what to call it considering the landing).

    Overall, this rocked pretty well for the amount of it that we saw. SamuraiTV ended up clipping out over half the match which really does suck considering what we got was awesome, but I've definitely become more interested in checking out the work of all four women after this.

Rating: B

Yusaku & Daisaku vs. Yuichi Taniguchi & Sanshiro Takagi

    There's really not an introduction needed for either of the Shimoda twins (I've already covered them both enough in Yusaku/Rikiya Fudo's Comprehensive series). Taniguchi is a guy who I've never been super high on but he's almost always put in at least a serviceable performance. Takagi is based as hell. I love the resident Stone Cold cosplayer in Japan and especially during this stage in his career he was pretty great, doing some solid brawler type stuff while starting to really integrate Austinisms into his work. Sadly all the entrances were cut so no "FIREEEEEE" but it's not the end of the world.

    Once again, this was really damn good! Two for two so far on this show. Taniguchi really surprised me with how well he did here, really using his mass to pulverize the Shimoda twins with crushing corner and running splashes. He also at one point hit a genuinely great northern lights suplex which I was decidedly not expecting from someone of Taniguchi's size. Takagi was also great here, constantly turning up the heat when he was in the ring by just fighting with whoever he was there with. He had some awesome moves like his DDTs, but probably the best moment he had all match was when he came in and just started shooting on shooter Daisaku for no particular reason. Truly, Takagi is a beast.

    Yusaku, similar to Aono, was a solid power wrestler, although honestly he didn't do a ton of impressive stuff here. He hit a cool back elbow and a vader bomb, but for the most part was just fine. Daisaku on the other hand was off the fucking bean. He was honestly pretty similar to Masashi Aoyagi, coming in and popping off some hard strike combos, really making himself feel like such a threat. Probably the best of these combos came towards the end, when he hit a beauty of an axe kick before smashing Takagi's temple with a gamengiri.

    Another really good match for this show so far, even better than the last one. I think that this never really entered into enough of a next gear to be called "great", but this wasn't a match ever intended to be anything like that. It accomplished exactly what it was meant to as a lower midcard match featuring some real shitkickers, and if you're a fan of any of these guys you'd probably enjoy this.

Rating: B+

Azumi Hyuga & Ran YuYu vs. Carlos Amano & Kana Mizaki

    Basically take what I said about the opening match and increase it tenfold. I have no watching experience with anyone in here besides Carlos Amano (although I recognize all of their names). Now, having said that, I think that Amano might be a top 100 wrestler ever from the amount of work I've seen from her. She throws hard headbutts, has some insane grappling ability, and does the greatest armbar of all time, so going into this I'm at least hoping she gets to pull do two out of three of these things.

    Another pretty solid match, albeit a step below the last two. Hyuga and YuYu both did pretty good, especially YuYu. She hit some pretty awesome samoan drops, especially a really sweet one off the top rope. Hyuga hit some cool stuff of her own, such as a nice springboard dropkick and this beauty of a butterfly backbreaker:

    Mizaki and Amano both put in some pretty good performances as well. Mizaki hit a ton of sentons which I thought was cool, and also it a solid tornado DDT. Amano was absolutely the best part of the match, pulling out some real nice grappling and hitting a ton of different armbars (which made up for the complete lack of headbutts). This culminated in her hitting genuinely an extremely awesome doomsday armbar, shown below.

    While I think this match had a solid handful of cool moments, it definitely felt slightly disjointed and move-spammy. It didn't help that the way the pace went made it feel like it never really built to the finishing stretch, just going at the same tempo for the majority of the match. That said, I still think this was pretty good and I enjoyed it overall.

Rating: B

Great Takeru, Keisuke Yamada, & Keizo Matsuda vs. Shigeo Kato, Onryo, & Shinigami

    IWA Japan vs. Wrestle Yume Factory~! Starting to think Kendo Nagasaki was somehow talking to me when booking this show because this is exactly the type of match I would book if I could. Love all six of these guys, with Takeru being an awesome suicidal high-flyer, Yamada and Matsuda both being hardass bruisers, Kato being a solid heel technican, Onryo being a sleek juniors worker, and Shinigami being like if Undertaker was a member of the Von Erich family. Basically, I already was in love with this match before it even happened.

    ...And that's about as much love as it ended up getting. It pains me to say this but this match just wasn't very good. The opening of it was pretty hot with the teams brawling before leading into a solid "good guys stand tall" moment, but after that the match turned into one giant extended heat segment with very few breaks. Nothing these guys did was bad per se but it was more that they just did nothing at all. Probably the best guy in the whole match was Shinigami, who not only got to act cocky as hell and do a bunch of shittalking, but also did probably some of the most interesting stuff in terms of moves, with the best one being this pretty awesome double choke into a belly to belly suplex:

    Now, maybe this match was better than it seems. Once again, this match was the victim of some extreme clipping, with the 22 minute match being cut down to roughly 10 minutes. However, considering what we do have, I have a feeling that it wasn't, and that makes me very sad. This is probably a C- but my disappointment weighs heavy.

Rating: D+

Barbed Wire Boards Deathmatch: Tarzan Goto & Freddie Krueger vs. Shoji Nakamaki & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa

    Another match that, on paper, seems really fun. Jun Saida is someone I've never heard of before wearing a weird red mask, wrestledata says that Nakamaki teamed with Kikuzawa on this show so maybe that's his real identity but no sure way to know (EDIT: the mask came off within 3 minutes of the match, it is in fact Kikuzawa). Krueger (the IWA Japan one portrayed by Doug Gilbert) is alright, albeit he only really does good when he's being carried by someone better. However, Nakamaki and Goto are absolutely better enough wrestlers to carry if need be, with Nakamaki being a really fun hard hitting deathmatch brawler and Goto being a top 50 wrestler of all time in my own eyes. To be honest though, my expectations are out the window after that last match and I'm just kinda hoping this ends up being good.

    It's a good thing I did temper those expectations because this was totally alright. Tarzan Goto was by far the best part of the match (I would've been shocked if he wasn't), just being generally very evil and doing things like his signature bottle break spot, throwing people into the wire, and letting out an evil laugh. The best thing he did all match was the powerbomb shown below, where Kikuzawa got all sorts of wrapped up in the wire. Outside of Goto though, everyone else didn't really do much. Krueger had a couple moments of being in control on his own and they were very nothing, Kikuzawa was the whipping boy for the most part (although he did get to hit one very cool running senton onto Krueger in the wire), and Nakamaki just didn't really do anything worthwhile outside of some pretty solid brawling with Goto.

    While I think this match had a solid handful of cool moments, it definitely felt slightly disjointed and move-spammy. It didn't help that the way the pace went made it feel like it never really built to the finishing stretch, just going at the same tempo for the majority of the match. That said, I still think this was pretty good and I enjoyed it overall.

Rating: C+

Sayuri Okino & Eagle Sawai vs. Shinobu Kandori & Junko Yagi

    Once again, I know nobody hear besides one person. I've seen limited amounts of Kandori but she's always come off amazingly so I was looking forward to this match just to see more from her.

    And we are back with a genuinely good match! This was a really solid old school face/heel tag match, with Sawai and Okino constantly running interference (along with a 2nd they had with them that was in the ring for like 90% of the match) and using weapons, while Kandori and Yagi having to try and fend them off. Sawai was pretty solid here, doing some alright body blocks and being a generally imposing force but she never really did anything that wow'd me. Okino was really good as a less imposing, more annoying heel, just wailing on Kandori and Yagi with weapons like a pink kendo stick and a chain. She had a few moves she got in that were awesome too, like this sweet dropkick:

    Yagi was alright, although she didn't do much. Her main existence in the match was to get beaten up by the heels and to constantly get inches away from the tag, only to get cut off at the last second, leading to Kandori's eventual hot tag. And man, Kandori fucking rocked in this match. She was a total house of fire any time she got involved, moving with such ferocity and busting out some amazing counters like the one into an armbar show below. Her work in the finish was absolutely amazing too, with her repeatedly going for the kill on Okino while Sawai and the 2nd tried their damndest to stop her for finishing Okino off.

    Overall, this was a blast of a match. I think the only thing holding it back from greatness was just how much the 2nd was involved. If they had been a little more creative on how they got her in the match so that the ref didn't look like the biggest idiot on the planet I think this would've been a shoe-in A-, but the score it ended up with is still absolutely respectable.

Rating: B+

Shigeo Okumura, Nobutaka Araya, & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Kendo Nagasaki, Genichiro Tenryu, & Masaaki Mochizuki

    The main event of the show is here and what a clusterfuck on paper. You've got a solid all-rounder, an agile hoss, an old stiff grappler, a violent brawler, a total force of nature, and a karateka. Pretty much the perfect storm for a crazy main event tag match.

    Yeah, this match fucking rocked. It ended up being the absolutely insane brawl I was hoping for, if not even more so than I could've dreamed. I can't even begin to go over everyone's performance, genuinely not a single person wasted their spot. Of course, anything involving Fujiwara or Tenryu was money, especially when they were together in the ring. This is a few years removed from the genuine all-time classic singles match they had in WAR, and the heat from that match completely carried over because these guys tried to kill each other as much as possible.

    Nagasaki also had some awesome exchanges with Fujiwara, especially when the two just started shoot headbutting each other with reckless abandon. He was also part of maybe my favorite visual of the whole match, as when it turned into an all-out brawl Fujiwara and Tenryu were fighting in the ring, but in the background you could see Nagasaki absolutely mauling Okumura. Mochizuki did an awesome job hitting a bunch of badass karate stuff including a brutal head kick into a springboard dropkick. Araya and Okumura both were really damn good too, acting as some awesome young bruisers backing up old man Fujiwara when he needed it and just beating the dogshit outta whoever they were in the ring with.

    This was just such an amazing match. Violent, chaotic, a total shot to the heart compared to everything else leading up to it. This is the type of match that walks in, punches you in the nose, and walks out like nothing happened. Truly something special.

Rating: A