The Comprehensive Survival Tobita

               (Written by jom)

    Honestly, I'm kinda shocked it's taken me so long to start this.

    Masaru Tobita made his professional wrestling debut in Pro Wrestling Crusaders on April 17th, 1994. Originally a student wrestler, Tobita's career began quietly... and by quietly, I mean that within a year, he had already donned the "Doku Gas Mask" persona, quickly setting the stage for his future career path with wild brawls and flamethrowers.

    Tobita would stick with PWC for two years along with working in promotions like WXY and West Japan (under both his real name and the Doku Gas Mask gimmick), before leaving PWC in 1996 to become a freelance wrestler. He would quickly take to working for DDT along with other PWC alumni like Sanshiro Takagi and Kazushige Nosawa, and on May 25th, 1998, Tobita would officially change names, becoming known as Survival Tobita.

    Tobita's legend would truly begin on March 29th, 1999, with the first Saitama Pro Wrestling Company event. Saitama Pro (also known as SPWC) would be Tobita's first venture into promoting his own shows, and would also mark the first battle in Survival Tobita's long and storied career as a monster hunter. In the main event of the show, Tobita would take on "Genshi Enjin" Virgon, a massive ape-man possessing extreme strength and a wild temperament. Tobita would be beaten horribly, constantly thrown around by this monstrous creature, until, finally, he found a way to overcome Virgon's inhuman power and dropped him on his neck with a brutal piledriver, slaying the beast and changing wrestling forever. Tobita was no longer just a normal professional wrestler.

    Tobita had become a bonafide superhero.

    In the coming years after this, Tobita would take on different oddities invading our normal world, including swamp monsters, robots, phantom swordsmen, the living incarnation of bicycles, and of course, his arch-rival, Mokujin Ken (also known as Ken the Box). Each and every time these monsters came, Tobita would fight with his life on the line to not only gain victory, but also to save the entire world from their villainy. Tobita became the final line of defense between Earth's peace and impending doom. Even when he didn't win, Tobita's efforts would prove valiant, and he would always end every battle with a long, passionate speech for all those in attendance, creating a rabid cult energy around himself and the conflicts he had against the great dangers of the universe. 

    He wouldn't only face these monsters, however.

    Through a combination of the wild skirmishes Tobita had with the forces of evil and the strange yet deeply engaging charisma he had as an everyman forced to do battle with these malevolent fiends, Tobita's name began to appear on larger and larger events. He appeared in FMW during its dying days. He teamed with Great Sasuke and Ultraman Robin in a Great Space War. He even faced Jun Akiyama in All Japan Pro Wrestling for the GAORA TV Championship. Tobita had gone from just another rookie in the low-level PWC organization to an underground legend of professional wrestling. He even continues to wrestle to this very day, having last wrestled Freddie Krueger in a street fight in August of 2021, while also sporadically promoting his shows for his current promotion, Unemployment Pro Wrestling, or UEW for short.

    As a wrestler, Tobita isn't the most technically adept in the ring, but he possesses an energy and fighting spirit like no other. He can throw some mean strikes, including hard lariats and massive cross chops. His powerbombs and piledrivers always land with a thudding impact. His most endearing trait, however, is his gruff demeanor, constantly portraying a slightly angry, slightly drunk ordinary person, facing off against the extraordinary forces that come after him. Watching Tobita engage in combat against some of the most bizarre existences in professional wrestling history, all with a straight face and an almost apathetic demeanor, is truly one of the greatest joys I have ever gotten out of this hobby as a whole.

    In my own opinion, Survival Tobita is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, able to maximize his limited abilities to their full potential and create some of the most memorable matches in history. I can only hope that these reviews will serve to introduce some of you to the legendary "Mediocre Superman", and show you why he deserves his place in the metaphorical Mt. Olympus of professional wrestling.

Reviewed Matches (in Chronological Order):

Doku Gas Mask vs. Crusher Takahashi (West Japan 06/21/1995) - B+

Survival Tobita vs. Genshi Enjin Virgon (SPWC 03/29/1999) - A-

Survival Tobita vs. Jido Senshi Gardan (SPWC 12/23/1999) - B

Survival Tobita vs. Kodo Fuyuki (FMW 04/15/2001) - B-

Survival Tobita, TAKA Michinoku, Iori Sugawara, Daigoro Kashiwa, Teppei Ishizaka, & GENTARO vs. Koji Ishinriki, Crusher Takahashi, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Kazunori Yoshida, Kosei Maeda, & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa (PWC 09/17/2003) - B+

Survival Tobita vs. H. N. Tokunakinozomu Kotoba no Bōryoku Kaijin (SPWC 03/30/2008) - B+

Survival Tobita vs. Takaku Fuke (FU*CK! 03/28/2010) - A+

Survival Tobita vs. Kancho Nagase (Saburoku Combat 05/19/2013) - B

Survival Tobita vs. Miyako Matsumoto (Ice Ribbon 08/25/2013) - B

Survival Tobita vs. Jun Akiyama (AJPW 05/19/2018) - B+

Survival Tobita vs. Dan Severn (TCW 03/13/2019) - C+

Survival Tobita vs. Takahiro Tababa (West Mexico 12/01/2020) - A+

The Comprehensive Super Rider

              (Written by jom)

    In professional wrestling and especially in Japanese professional wrestling, there have been a lot of "tie-in" wrestlers. Guys like Jushin Thunder Liger sit at the helm of this category, with more obscure tie-ins such as WYF's Cosmic Angels and Ultraman Robin acting as the official wrestling representatives for the own respective brands. However, the most famous of all of these tie-ins is most definitely the Tiger Mask persona, which is undeniably most connected to Satoru Sayama. Sayama's legacy forever shaped professional wrestling, both in the pro and shoot styles, and he himself ended up having a direct hand in keeping that legacy alive through his training. Guys like Koki Kitahara, Naomichi Marufuji, Naoyuki Taira, Super Tiger II, and Tiger Mask IV all went through Sayama's arduous training in the Super Tiger Gym. However, the man we're talking about in this article is not only one of Sayama's first proteges, but a fellow tie-in wrestler as well.

    That man is Kamen Shooter Super Rider.

    Kamen Shooter Super Rider (or Super Rider for short) began his combat sports life in high school as an amateur wrestler. He became the team captain and ran the club with his deputy captain Mitsuharu Misawa, leading the clubs other members including Toshiaki Kawada. He won the National High School Overall Wrestling Tournament in 1980 and went to college on a wrestling scholarship, winning another tournament in 1982 and losing in 1984 to a future Olympic medalist. He would enter into the Super Tiger Gym after graduating from college. Rider got his start in Shooto in 1989, amassing a very respectable 6-3 record and even becoming the first ever welterweight champion in 1991. He would make his pro wrestling debut in late 1993, appearing in SPWF as Hopper King and sticking with that name for a few years, working on the lower level indies in places such as PWC, IWA Kakuto Shijuku, and West Japan.

    At the beginning of 1996, Hopper would start using the name "Super Rider" in PWC, but he would change it to "Kamen Shooter Super Rider" in May of that year. Toei, the owners of the Kamen Rider brand, very quickly let Super Rider know that he did not have permission to use the name, and planned to license their own wrestler to keep Rider from continuing to use it. However, Rider (joined by Sayama himself), would go to the Toei headquarters and plead with them to allow him to use the name, exclaiming his love for Kamen Rider and his deep desire to represent the brand in professional wrestling. Toei would have a change of heart after this, and in December of that year, Kamen Shooter Super Rider would become officially recognized as Toei's professional wrestling representative of the Kamen Rider brand.

    Following the death of PWC, Rider joined some of his friends from the promotion in the creation of DDT, serving as one of its early top stars and helping shape the organization into the juggernaut it is today. After 2000, Super Rider left DDT, mainly splitting his time from then on between TAMA and Battlarts before disappearing almost altogether in 2001. His protege Super Rider II took over his spot in both promotions, and Rider only made a handful of appearances until 2005, when he was officially brought into Sayama's RJPW promotion to work in the front office. In 2007, Rider returned to semi-activity after making an appearance at the DDT 10th anniversary show, becoming a regular in the midcards of RJPW shows. He'd stay in that position for nearly 15 years until seemingly leaving the group in 2022, but he's continued to wrestle in lower-scale indies ever since. He's even left one final mark on combat sports, as both of his sons have become MMA fighters, and his eldest son Shooto (yes, named after THAT Shooto) currently has a 27-9 record, racking up win after win in places like ZST, DEEP, and Rizin.

    Rider's reputation has always been somewhat divisive. A lot of people either love or hate him, but I personally fall on the former side of the argument. Really, my biggest hope for this series is to show some people why I think this guy is so awesome. The more people that know how great Super Rider is, the better.

Reviewed Matches (in Chronological Order):

Hopper King & Hiroshi Shimada vs. Black Hole 1 & 2 (IWA Kakuto Shijuku 05/14/1995) - B

Hopper King & Koichiro Kimura vs. Black Hole & Fumio Akiyama (West Japan 06/21/1995) - A-

Super Rider vs. Uchu Power X (PWC 05/06/1996) - A-

Super Rider & Super Uchuu Power vs. Sanshiro Takagi & Kazushige Nosawa (DDT 03/25/1997) - B+

Super Rider, Asian Cougar, & Thanomsak Toba vs. Kazunori Yoshida, Koichiro Kimura, & Takao Iwasaki (DDT 11/20/1999) - B

Super Rider, Asian Cougar, & Thanomsak Toba vs. Yusaku, Daisaku, & Yuki Nishino (DDT 11/20/1999) - B+

Super Rider, Asian Cougar, & Yuki Nishino vs. Nihao, Thanomsak Toba, & Takashi Sasaki (DDT 11/25/1999) - A-

Super Rider vs. Takeshi Ono (Battlarts 01/07/2001) - B

Super Rider vs. Junji.com (Battlarts 01/28/2001) - B+

Super Rider vs. Takeshi Ono (Battlarts 06/02/2001) - A-

Super Rider vs. Tomohiro Ishii (RJPW 03/01/2009) - B

Super Rider vs. Hayato Mashita (RJPW 06/17/2010) - B-

Super Rider & Tiger Shark vs. Hideki Hosaka & Kazuhiko Matsuzaki (RJPW 12/07/2012) - B

Super Rider & Yuko Miyamoto vs. TORU & Takafumi Ito (SSPW 07/29/2021) - B

Super Rider & Wild Pony vs. Junichi Hanawa & KURO-OBI (H-Production 08/11/2024) - B

The Comprehensive Rikiya Fudo

             (Written by jom)

    There have been a number of wrestlers in Japan who have "reinvented" themselves. Guys like Minoru Fujita and Genkai immediately spring to mind, both having gone through different styles of wrestling and morphing their presentations to be almost entirely different from how they started. In this conversation though, there's very few wrestlers who can match up in reinvention abilities to Rikiya Fudo.

    Originally debuting under his real name of Yusaku Shimoda, Shimoda first entered wrestling in 1997 for DDT, starting off by himself before being joined by his twin Daisaku only a year later. They would stick to DDT and CAPTURE International until 2000, when the twins transferred to Wrestle Yume Factory. When WYF collapsed only a year later, Daisaku went to BJW while Yusaku was invited to the fledgling ZERO1 with a number of other former WYF wrestlers. Yusaku would stay there for a while, spending his first few years as Kuroge Wagyuta before settling on the name Rikiya Fudo in late 2004. He would stick with ZERO1 for a few more years before going freelance in 2007, mostly working shows for Kazushigumi and MAKEHEN while also still doing sporadic dates for ZERO1. Between then and now he would become an official roster member for both Kacho Fugetsu and LAND'S END, but would only be with both for a relatively short amount of time. Currently, Fudo is still a freelancer, mostly working for CAPTURE International, the same place he wrestled nearly 25 years ago.

    Stylistically, Fudo has completely changed since his start. In his early days, he was definitely a hard hitter, but was more of a "strong style" type wrestler than anything. As he spent more time in ZERO1, he became much more of a "beefy" wrestler with hard lariats and bull-like energy, hence his ring name (Kuroge Wagyuta literally means "Japanese Black Beef"). However, his biggest change came towards the end of his time as a ZERO1 roster member, when he put on much more weight and muscle, tried out a singlet, and became what can best be described as "Sleaze Vader". Disgusting Vader hammers, thunderous chops, and tons of maneuvers based around crushing his opponents with his absolute mass. To this day he's still wrestling in this style, feeling like one of currently wrestling's greatest "force of nature" guys.

    I've been a massive Fudo fan for years now, and his current career renaissance as one of CAPTURE's top guys has been wonderful to see. Hopefully his insane performances there will get him more opportunities to show the world just how great he is, but for now, at least I'll try to do my part by reviewing as many matches of his as possible.

Reviewed Matches (in Chronological Order):

Yusaku & Daisaku vs. Yuichi Taniguchi & Sanshiro Takagi (DDT 04/04/1999) - B+

Yusaku, Daisaku, & Yuki Nishino vs. Kazunori Yoshida, Koichiro Kimura, & Takao Iwasaki (DDT 11/20/1999) - B-

Yusaku & Koki Kitahara vs. Daisaku & Tomohiro Ishii (CAPTURE International 05/30/2000) - B

Rikiya Fudo & Hirotaka Yokoi vs. Kazushi Miyamoto & Tomoaki Honma (Kings Road 05/26/2006) - A-

Rikiya Fudo & Daisaku Shimoda vs. Shuji Ishikawa & Keita Yano (WMF 06/28/2008) - A-

Rikiya Fudo & Daisaku Shimoda vs. Masato Shibata & Kotaro Nasu (U-FILE 10/13/2013) - B

Rikiya Fudo vs. Daisuke Kanehira (HEAT-UP! 06/19/2020) - A

Rikiya Fudo vs. Naoya Nomura (CAPTURE International 05/08/2022) - A

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):

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

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

Kei Tsukada vs. Takeshi Miyamoto (Union Pro 12/25/1994) - B+

Isamu Teranishi & Takeshi Miyamoto vs. Masahiko Takasugi & Kei Tsukada (Tokyo Pro 02/23/1995) - B-

Kei Tsukada vs. Takeshi Miyamoto (Go Gundan 01/16/1996) - A

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