(Written by jom)
How long has it been since the last one of these? Two YEARS??? Jesus Christ. It's about time we jump back on the Battle Hopper and ride into the night with our good friend, Mr. Shooter Super Rider.
Super Rider vs. Uchu Power X (PWC 05/09/1996)
PWC's two big bad shooters collide in the holy temple. This is a "No Rope Escape Instant Knockout" match, which means that there are no rope escapes and any shot that would usually initiate a down count will instead immediately end the match. This is a match that demands perfection in fighting. Any slip-up can be catastrophic, and any door left open may be the path to defeat. Rider and Uchu, however, are two legitimate monster shooters, and this feels like the closest the sleaze indies ever came to delivering a superfight. Everything that happens here is struggled for and fought over. There are counters on counters to an almost comedic extent, like Uchu's armbar-countering slam being countered into a heel hook by Rider, only for Uchu to counter that by keeping himself standing and slapping the taste out of Rider's mouth. That leads me to my biggest compliment for this match: it never felt like they were holding back. Especially with a match type like this, there's almost an expectation that they would rein it in and avoid throwing real killshots, focusing entirely on the groundwork to fill time. While matwork does make up a good chunk of this match, there's absolutely enough stand-and-bang to keep me happy, and every strike is thrown full-force. Kicks let out shotgun blasts and shoteis ring my ears as much as it rang theirs. Even with my glowing evaluation, it's not a faultless match. Especially around rounds three and four (this is five 3-minute rounds, by the way), this match slightly suffers from the RINGS problem; that is, some of the matwork just doesn't have enough happening to keep me locked onto the match. There's just a bit too much sitting in mount position to ignore, even if it happens so little that it only barely affects my enjoyment overall. To all the shoot style fans in attendance, seek this one out. It's the sleaziest UWFi midcard classic you've never seen.
Match Rating: A-
Super Rider vs. Hayato Mashita (RJPW 06/17/2010)
Hayato Mashita is not someone I have any particular interest in. He's probably the least interesting Sayama trainee of them all. Don't get me wrong, I've seen him in good matches, but I'd be hard pressed to say he was the reason any match was ever great. He's always had the problem of being particularly rough around the edges and generally boring compared to his peers in the world of 21st century shooters. Having said all of that, this is probably one of his best performances ever. Mashita is legitimately mean here, jumping Rider before the bell and letting loose with kicks, punches, and headbutts aplenty. He also does a perfectly fine job of targeting Rider's hurt leg, kicking it out and working it over with holds just enough to make it an understood problem for Rider. He's still very rough, but that roughness lends a lot to the grittiness of his beatdowns, so it somewhat works out for him. He also still has no idea how to run the ropes three years into his career, and his kicks are embarrassingly quiet, but I just appreciate how god damn motivated he was here. Anyways, Rider ruled as usual. He's no longer a spring chicken, but he's still got a hop in his step and a snap in his kicks. His rolling elbow is gnarly and his suicide dive is, well, suicidal. He even busts out the rare diving RIDER ELBOW, which not only looked really cool, but also gave me a great photo for the top of the blog post. It's not a great match, and it's certainly nowhere near the last one we talked about, but I had fun with this one. A real feather in the cap kind of match for Mashita, but just another Thursday in the office for Rider.
Match Rating: B-
Super Rider & Wild Pony vs. Junichi Hanawa & KURO-OBI (H-Production 08/11/2024)
We've reached the big '24. Kamen Shooter Super Rider is 62 years old. A documentary on his career and current life has just premiered in Japan. No, really! I haven't watched it yet (and I have no idea how I would) but it's really cool to see something like this made. Rider's such an important figure in both MMA and pro wrestling in ways that very few people know or realize. Anyways, here's Old Man Rider wrestling in the world's smallest bar, working in a ring with chain ropes and so little room outside of it that both teams have to stand on the same side of the "apron" when outside. We're so deep in the muck here that we're practically swimming in it. Look beyond this strange environment filled with anime girl masks and moth beasts though and you're left with a pretty damn good match. This is the oldest of the taped Old Man Rider performances, and while he's clearly slowed down, he's still moving a lot better than a man in his 60s should, with his grappling against KURO-OBI being particularly inspiring. It's fascinating to see him doing restless sprawling and scrambling against a masked shooter in 1996, only to skip forward 28 years and see him do it again. This time around it's a little less hungry and a little more "two brown belts having a somewhat spirited spar," but the hold escapes feel desperate enough that the rolling never enters into unserious territory. Outside of this work, the match is generally Rider and Wild Pony attacking Hanawa's leg, and they do a good job of wearing it down convincingly. Pony might actually be my favorite part of the match sans Rider. He's worked under many names and you've probably never seen a single one of his matches, but Pony is a long-time scum indie veteran, and he's clearly so damn good from the small handful of his matches we have. He busts out some nice leg snaps and stomps, along with nailing a beautiful heel kick late in the match. He also hits a super snappy body slam as a kill move at one point, which actually works because the Tokyo Underground Arena ring might be the worst thing to bump on in the whole world. Hanawa and KURO-OBI are both cool enough and play their parts well, but the Rider and Pony team is really what keeps you paying attention here. Another fun outing from Rider and further evidence that we should try and track down as much footage of Wild Pony as possible.
Match Rating: B
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