(Written by jom, photo credit to Extreme Party)
Super Rider, Asian Cougar, & Yuki Nishino vs. Nihao, Thanomsak Toba, & Takashi Sasaki (DDT 11/25/1999)
I cannot say enough how great it is that so much early DDT has appeared throughout the years, because good lord, what a murderers' row. I've talked a lot about most of the people in this match, but somehow, I've never talked about Nihao before this. It makes sense considering just how little of his work is available, but really, every time a prime Nihao match is found, it feels like a cause for celebration. Nihao was Koki Kitahara's protege and the crown prince of CAPTURE, working at the top of CAPTURE cards while also starting the original REAL BLOOD with Tomohiro Ishii. He's a scrappy as hell shooter who can do tight grappling while throwing bombs with the best of them, usually working as a fired-up underdog but sometimes showcasing a mean streak reminiscent of his mentor. I honestly believe that Nihao could've been something special in pro wrestling given more exposure, and in an alternate universe, he was one of the top prospects of the dying days of the first Battlarts.
With a match like this, I would usually focus on the best performers, only giving a little bit of time to the lesser men. That's gonna be hard to do for this match though, because everyone was fucking killing it! Rider and Nihao were of course my focus points for the match, and they had some magic lineal Sayamaist exchanges throughout. Their work together was the slowest of the match, but it absolutely worked with both guys being really deliberate and fighting for all their holds. Even with noting how slow they worked though, Rider served as the pace-setter for this match by rushing Nihao with an insane running Rider Kick right when the bell rang (shown below) before just flinging himself out of the ring with a huge suicide dive. Their work against other wrestlers was really cool too, with Nihao busting out a huge waterwheel drop on Nishino and Rider having some pretty awesome exchanges with Toba.
Toba and Sasaki were the perfect asskickers to put with Nihao to build a total monster team. Toba was sadly not in the match as much as you'd hope, but he always made the most of his time, peppering guys with nasty punches and throwing cracking kicks. His aforementioned work with Rider was really cool, and he also got a nice moment with Nishino where Nishino just ate all of Toba's strikes before getting nearly knocked out cold by a brutal right hook. Sasaki was also on point here, coming in and throwing mean kicks while also dropping dudes on their heads with big lariats and a dangerous D-Geist. This team even had some really nice chemistry as a unit, doing some awesome combos including this one where Sasaki and Toba each threw a stiff as hell shot before Nihao dropped Cougar on his head with a german suplex:
Nishino and Cougar both did some really immense stuff in this match as well. Nishino came into this match painfully aware of the asskicking he was gonna get from the Nihao/Toba/Sasaki trio, and decided to make sure he got his own licks in, throwing some thunderous chops and busting out a few huge moves like a perfect powerslam he hit on Nihao. He even got this really awesome hulk-up moment with the trio were all beating down on him, throwing those gross chops of his at Nihao and Sasaki before smashing Toba with a brutal headbutt. Cougar wasn't as much of an asskicker as the other five in this match, but he still held his own with some truly awe-inspiring spots. Cougar is, in my opinion, probably one of the best "spots" guys ever, tending to work matches focused entirely on pulling off the Cougar classics, but making sure every time to integrate them into the match as smoothly and naturally as possible. There were slingshot leg drops galore, and every single one of them fucking rocked, especially the ludicrous one he hit on Sasaki while Nishino had him held over the top rope. Cougar's moves outside of the slingshot leg drops rocked too, especially one amazing dive he hit on Sasaki. Really, he was the most dependable guy in the match when it came to doing crazy shit, and he did as much crazy shit as he could.
In the end, Cougar missed a big diving headbutt on Sasaki, leading to a decapitating lariat from Sasaki getting the win for his team. As a whole, this match was great, just lots of smash-mouth wrestling and insane moments. There were absolutely some slight botches and a few moments of roughness, but none of it ever really detracted from the match. Only real point of criticism I can levy at this is that it made me sad that we never got a Nihao/Rider singles match in CAPTURE, as that would've probably been the perfect environment for them to do the gritty matwork and stiff striking they showed off here. Other than that, awesome stuff from early DDT, and a great showcase of the talents of all six guys involved.
Rating: A-
Super Rider vs. Junji.com (Battlarts 01/28/2001)
Two years later, we are in Tokyo FM Hall for a B-Rule match between Rider and Junji.com (AKA Junji Inazuma AKA Mach Junji AKA Junji Tanaka). B-Rule is a pretty complex ruleset, with the wrestlers only being allowed to grapple while also sharing five rope breaks rather than having a set amount for each of them. Any time either of them uses a rope break, the overall amount of allowed breaks will go down (ex: one person grabbing the ropes twice and the other person grabbing them three times would result in all the rope breaks being used up). After five total breaks have occurred, the ref will no longer break up a hold when someone is in the ropes. If a match goes to a time limit draw, the winner is decided based on who grabbed the ropes the least amount of times, and if both are equal in rope usage, the loser is the one who grabbed the ropes first. This probably seems overly complicated (it is), but it's resulted in some really awesome and creative spots before, so I personally enjoy the ruleset a good deal.
This, of course, ended up being a very cool little match, with Junji and Rider approaching the match with pretty differing ideologies on grappling. Junji primarily utilized his speed rigid technique to constantly hunt for holds he knew how to apply, using more basic holds like cross armbars and rear naked chokes that he could confidently execute without having to worry about spending too much time thinking about the hold. Meanwhile, Rider was all about fluidity and slick movement on the mat, looking out for stray limbs to latch onto and transitioning between holds to find the right way to apply the most amount of pain.
Outside of solely the grappling, there were some really interesting story beats primarily based around Rider and his aggressive style of working. At multiple points, Rider had to fight back his instincts telling him to throw punches or kicks (with the ref having to remind Rider over and over again that this wasn't under Seikendo rules), and a few times, Rider took a little long to let go of holds when Junji had a rope break. This culminated pretty well when Rider took a few extra seconds to let go of a kneebar, and in response, Junji busted out a lightning-fast kneebar of his own immediately after, forcing Rider to go straight for the ropes.
It wasn't long after this though that Rider put on a deep STF, forcing Junji to use the final rope break in the match. Both men kept the intensity up as they approached the ending stretch, and Junji got his own chance to do some creative work, using the ropes to pull himself up while Rider had him in a kneebar and gain enough leverage to apply a tight cross heel hold. Rider would get revenge for this however, as when Junji had him in a front necklock soon after this, Rider kicked himself off of one of the corners, breaking the necklock by slamming down Junji hard. Without hesitation, Rider pounced on him and got a perfect cross armbar in for the tapout victory.
I thought this was really good for what it was. It never entered into full-on great territory for me, but instead stayed at a very solid level of quality before finishing with a fun and well-built ending. Grappling matches like this are definitely an acquired taste, but if you're able to ride along for pure matwork and drama derived from holds and transitions, then you'll probably enjoy this match too.
Rating: B+
Super Rider & Tiger Shark vs. Hideki Hosaka & Kazuhiko Matsuzaki (RJPW 12/07/2012)
Back to normal pro wrestling, we are now 11 years older and in the midst of WAR~! For god knows how long, Sayama and Atsushi Onita have been leading their armies into bloody and violent conflict (a lot of multi-man tag matches), and of course, first lieutenant Super Rider is here to fight on the front lines. He's teaming with favorite of the blog and fellow Seikendo trainee Tiger Shark against Hideki Hosaka and Kazuhiko Matsuzaki. Hosaka is really just a wrestler that exists, a solid enough worker who has never really inspired any strong feelings in me. Matsuzaki meanwhile is one of the most consistently great indie guys of the last 30 years. With pro wrestling training under Ryuma Go and karate training under Masashi Aoyagi, he's been practically built to be one of the best sleaze indie guys in the world, and getting to see him at any point is always a treat.
Once again, Rider delivers a fun enough match. The invader army of Hosaka and Matsuzaki were pretty cool here, mainly Matsuzaki. He was throwing some really nice worked punches and when he got to do some offense he busted out some great shit like his signature flying neckbreaker drop and the beautiful backdrop suplex shown below. Hosaka was mostly nothing here as always, but he did at least have one very fun moment where he stopped a pinfall attempt by attacking the referee. Dumb shit like that just appeals to me a lot, I don't know what else to say.
The real stars here were Shark and Rider though. Tiger Shark was really able to step up in this match and was honestly borderline great, especially in the ending stretch. He threw hard kicks, pulled off some really nice big moves like a weird snap side powerslam and a mean tombstone piledriver, and the moonsault he hit on Matsuzaki was an absolute thing of beauty. That moonsault led directly into the finish too, as when Matsuzaki kicked out, Shark immediately grabbed his arm and locked in the always awesome Shark Death By Lock II to get the win for team Real Japan.
Nearly 13 years to the day, Rider once again started the match with an insane suicide dive, this one being even crazier than the one he hit on Nihao as he actually flew over the guardrail and into the crowd. The Super Rider suicide dive is slowly becoming one of my favorite dives ever because this guy really throws himself out of the ring like he has a death wish. While Rider mostly stuck to busting out the classics like the Rider flying cross chop, Rider flipping senton, and Rider elbow drop, the Rider classics are my jam so I was having the time of my life. Plus, he hit another suicide dive later on in the match. This man was 50 years old busting out planchas for fun. Absolute legend.
This match wasn't some incredible epic or anything like that. It was a throwaway midcard tag match on a throwaway Real Japan show (and Real Japan itself is a throwaway promotion). However, there was still some really fun stuff going on here, and the ending stretch between Shark and Matsuzaki was awesome. Plus, two different Super Rider suicide dives. What more can you ask for?
Rating: B