Spitball Reviews #2

      (Written by jom, photo credit to @namjunkzone)

Shinichi Hayashida vs. Fugo Fugo Yumeji (Azul Dragon Produce 01/27/2024)

    I feel like it says a lot about me that one of the only matches from this year to pull me in came from two old dudes in a random MMA gym. Fugo is a man that needs no introduction, and Hayashida is such a small figure that I have very little to introduce. He's a veteran of the Kyushu and Kyushu-adjacent indie scenes, and nowadays he mostly wrestles for Jiraiya's "Real Lucha Libre" group. Both of these men are real lumpy crowbars, and as such, there's a lot of rough control-taking in this match. Fugo escapes from a wristlock and yanks Hayashida into a headlock. Hayashida only escapes that headlock by yanking Fugo's leg out from under him. Both of these guys are also pretty broken down, so every bump is slightly off-center and tumble-y, and neither guy wants to bump in the first place. If one wants the other to take a fall, they really have to make them do it. All of that's to say that there's a palpable lack of cooperation throughout the match, which only goes to benefit it as a whole. Beyond the grappling, there's still a ton to love. Hayashida's arm work is brutal, stomping on Fugo's wrist and slamming it into the turnbuckle as hard as he can. Fugo's momentum-shifting headbutt to the chest looks like the type of move a territory Russian would use to cause a hometown babyface to have a worked heart attack, and Hayashida's toe stomps right after remind me of my little brother doing the same thing to escape from any headlock I'd put him in. It's a petty move, really uncalled for, but god damnit it works. I feel like your mileage with this match varies depending on how enthralled you get by two old vets having a slow and mean match focused on the basics. If that sounds like your kind of thing, you'll probably love this.

Match Rating: B+

Kohei Sato vs. Tomohiko Hashimoto (JWP 06/06/2000)

    JPWA having an offer match on a really small JWP show is kind of crazy, let alone that we have footage of it. Sato and Hashimoto are both in their respective REAL SHOOTER gear (MMA gloves for Shooto-ist Sato and a gi for judoka Hashimoto). I deeply respect Fujiwara and Kimura's vision to scout promising talent from a bunch of disciplines, and I wish JPWA lasted more than two shows. I also wish I had more to say about JPWA because JPWA as a concept is much more interesting than JPWA itself, including this match. This match's biggest problem is the same issue I have with some of the stuff coming out of HARD HIT nowadays: these guys are trying too hard to be "legit". Everything was tightly worked, although I'd say it was worked too tightly. Sometimes you need to loosen your guard so the other guy can pull off a really cool hold. Sometimes you need to comically scramble for the ropes to get over the danger that hold puts you in. Sometimes you need to let yourself get tagged and crumple for a dramatic down count. These guys weren't giving each other an inch which, in theory, would make the match more compelling. Instead, it just made the match feel stagnant and dull. Now, the match wasn't all bad. Hashimoto hit a few cool judo throws and even if they led nowhere they were still cool on their own. The finishing hold also looked pretty gross. Outside of that, I really couldn't care less. Thankfully both guys would embrace pro wrestling and become way more interesting only a year after this.

Match Rating: C

Dutchy Fujii JAPAN vs. Sex Inohara (University UWF 1990s)

    God, I haven't talked about student wrestling on the blog in years. Dutchy Fujii JAPAN still wrestles to this day as Great Fuji (and Hareta Kogan) and he's one of the more consistently great amaresu guys on the scene. Sex Inohara, meanwhile, is.... probably an office worker or something! I don't know!! I also don't know the date for this match, and I'm guessing the promotion based on knowing that Fujii was in the UWF group with a young GENTARO. What I do know is both of these guys are way too good at grappling. No kidding, these guys seem to have a better grasp of how to move between holds and apply pressure than the majority of guys working nowadays. The grappling takes up such a short portion of the match but sticks out like a sore thumb thirty years later. Outside of that, this match is a wonderful lesson in arm work. Not really an in-depth lesson, but instead one of those where the professor just puts a bunch of information on the board and leaves you to note it all down as fast as possible. Fujii works Inohara's arms in 1001 different ways, from stomps to kicks to wrenches to holds. Also, you may have noticed from the use of the plural form, but Fujii actually works over both of Inohara's arms rather than just one. Might that be an accident? Maybe, but I'm giving Fujii the benefit of the doubt considering he works each arm for an almost equal amount of time. Inohara gets a few openings to fight back with stereotypical 1990s juniors offense, but match is really all about Fujii and his addiction to arm work. If you like arm work, you'll probably find something to enjoy in this match. It's not really anything crazy as a whole but it's generally pretty fun and I'll always be impressed by the talent some of these guys had.

Match Rating: B-

The Great Zako vs. KEITA In THE House (Wolf Star Produce 03/03/2019)

    Great Zako? On nationally syndicated television??? Amazing. This is included on the first episode of Kacho Fugetsu's TV show on Sky PerfecTV. Keita comes out wearing a Kick-Ass mask, blue flannel, LWO sleeveless shirt, jeans, orange kneepads, and fuzzy boots. Not the best Keita gear, but I do have a soft spot for it. This is a "Singapore Cane Showdown", which you may think implies that only Singapore Canes are legal, but that would be wrong. It's really just a hardcore match, but I don't mind because Keita and Zako are awesome bizarro brawlers and I enjoyed this a good deal. You're never going to see these guys do "perfect" wrestling against each other. The basics of their matches are usually at least a little rough (and they were rougher than usual here), but there's so many compelling spots and segues that it doesn't really matter. Keita throws great punches and Zako sells them by going "GUAGH" and shaking a bunch, which somehow really works for me. Zako also slams a bag of assorted metal objects onto Keita's head which probably hurt like a bitch to take. Very few pairings in wrestling give you the chance to see one guy try to hang another with a water hose, only to follow it up with the Shawn Michaels forearm into kip-up combo. This is a match that, like basically all of their other singles matches, breaks a lot of unwritten rules of wrestling, but the blood, plunder, and genuine heart of the match do an incredible amount of heavy lifting. Is it their best match together? Hell no!! This is only a shadow of the UEW classic, but the shadow of a masterpiece still cuts an imposing figure. I'm also only just now realizing this is probably the only match they ever had in an actual wrestling ring. God bless.

Match Rating: B

Hiroshi Itakura vs. Akio Kobayashi (Kitao Dojo 02/21/1995)

    No ropes on the ring; this is like Bloodsport if it was good. Kobayashi is out here in a sleeveless gi. I can't decide whether it looks really cool or really lame. Probably somewhere in-between. Itakura meanwhile looks like 1990s Kota Ibushi, which, in a way, he kinda was! Y'know that rant I went on a little further up for Sato/Hashimoto? This match is exactly what I described as good shoot style there. Kobayashi works like a karate Kim Hyun Hwan, throwing a lot of really pretty kicks that only land half of the time but make gross audible connection when they do. Itakura is on the back foot anytime Kobayashi is able to chain together some kicks, but he does a damn good job of turning the tide with some pro wrestling bombs. The feint into a leg sweep he pulls out is really incredible. There's such a great sense of shifting control, each guy getting his moments to shine while building up the intensity towards the big finish. Super fun match, a damn shame it only went four minutes even if that runtime felt very fitting.

Match 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+

Comprehensive Rikiya Fudo #1

             (Written by jom)

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

    On paper, this match sounded amazing. Two of my favorite wrestlers in Fudo and Yano getting to face off, with based big dawg and the always reliable Daisaku being there to add their own contributions to the match. It's kinda unfair to them to try and act like they're supporting characters, but personally it was hard at first to not do that considering just how amped up I got at the prospect of Fudo/Yano interactions. Luckily, every single person in this match put in such a great performance that it holds its own as not only a match with great Fudo/Yano interactions, but also just a great match in general.

    Daisaku was really awesome here as a hardass sleazy crowbar shooter, throwing some mean mid kicks and a nice lariat. He also hits Yano with multiple sick piledrivers, really going nuts with targeting Yano's neck all throughout the match. Shuji Ishikawa was also really good, acting as the hot tag for Yano and bringing a lot of fire during his times in the ring. He was still not all the way there in terms of being THE big dawg but he was getting pretty close, throwing his always gross knees and just generally being really damn good.

    The main story of the match, however, was pretty much everything Fudo and Yano were doing. Yano was in great form here, still only just starting to introduce his more odd wrestling tropes but executing basically everything to perfection (save for one pretty bad fuck-up near the end but he recovered immediately like the GOAT he is). He was slick in his grappling and he threw some European uppercuts like his life was on the line. He even got to hit his absolutely awesome springboard dropkick to Daisaku, and it might've been the best one I've ever seen him do.

    Fudo, meanwhile, was by far the best part of this match. He was awesome squaring off against fellow beast Shuji, throwing down with real aggression and even hitting a crazy powerslam on the giant. He also did some really good stuff with his brother, like a sick total elimination type move. His best stuff was absolutely against Yano though, as he got to absolutely destroy him throughout. He treated Yano like a small child, just throwing him around with the greatest of ease and obliterating him with chops and Vader hammers. The brainbuster he hit on Yano was the best one I've ever seen him do, just a genuine attempt to cripple the young crying wolf before he could ever grace Coliseo Cerberus.

    The finish of this match was fucking great too, and really has to be seen to be believed. I think in terms of negatives there's next to none here, besides the crowd just not being super interested in treating this match with any sort of respect. They even seemed to laugh at some of Keita's Keitaisms, which makes me wanna put out a Leavelle tweet concerning Keita Yano fans being part of an exclusive club. Outside of that though, this match was genuinely terrific, and absolutely worth checking out as soon as possible.

Rating: A-

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

    Another match featuring the Shimoda Bros (or as I like to call them, the better Hardy Boyz), this time taking on STYLE-E's Masato Shibata and Kotaro Nasu at a U-FILE Camp show from 2013. On a personal note, I cannot even begin to explain how hard I've tried to obtain full U-FILE Camp shows. One from 2011 was main evented by Hikaru Sato vs. Daisuke Nakamura, and another from 2012 had not only Kazuki Okubo vs. Kotaro Nasu, but also Nakamura & Sato vs. Masato Shibata & Kyosuke Sasaki. If I can one day successfully get my hands on some of these U-FILE shows, I'll consider that my peak in the world of tape trading.

    My immediate thought is that this is an amazing mirror match, as you have on both sides a sleaze shooter teaming with a Vader tribute wrestler. And wouldn't you know it, this match was kinda worked how you would expect it from hearing that! There was a definite house show feel to it (probably coming from the fact this particular U-FILE event was mostly an MMA show with the wrestling matches as a treat), and the crowd was very much planning on enjoying this match one way or another, which just makes me sad the last match couldn't have happened in Nishi Chofu.

    Shibata and Nasu did pretty damn good here, with Nasu taking the role of babyface in peril and Shibata being the hot tag. Nasu is definitely under appreciated compared to his fellow U-FILE Camp peers, as while he's not at the level of Takeda, Sasaki, or Nakamura, he's absolutely worth talking about as a really damn good wrestler. He threw some nice strikes including some great shoteis, and his dropkick was sweet. Shibata meanwhile was fully playing the Vader role here, coming in and just laying waste to whoever he was in the ring with. He did an awesome German suplex to Fudo, and hit this absolutely crushing Vader Bomb to Daisaku:

    Once again however, the Shimoda Bros prove their superiority to all others by being general menaces here. Daisaku was once again playing the role of hardass shooter to perfection, throwing kicks and elbows while also just generally being mean. Fudo was the same, just beating up Nasu and hitting his signature spots while also doing some impressive stuff with Shibata. One of the best moments from both of them was getting to see their signature combination, I have no idea if there's a special name but you can pretty much guarantee that if you're watching a Shimoda Bros match, you'll see it.

    The finish of the match wasn't at the level of the last one, but it was still a pretty solid way to cap off the match. A generally pretty fun match with all four guys getting to do cool shit, nothing that I would cancel anything important over but if you're looking to see more from any of these four this is a match worth watching for sure.

Rating: B

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

    We are now in the current year, with this match taking place not even a full month ago. This was the 2nd round of the CAPTURE Openweight Championship tournament, and both Fudo and Nomura were coming into this with a lot of steam. They had met less than two months previously a main event tag match at CAPTURE's first show since the pandemic, and thanks to the efforts of everyone @'ing Koki Kitahara on twitter, we were finally able to see a CAPTURE show for the first time since 2003 (I'll also almost definitely be talking about that match at some point). That is to say, this match had history going into it and certain expectations of quality based on both the killer main event tag and the great 1st round matches both guys had.

    Boy, did they outdo those expectations by a landslide.

    Right from the start this was absolutely wild, with both guys just running into each other like furious bulls and not dropping that energy for the entire match. Every single strike they threw had so much intensity behind it, and any hold either of them put in looked like it could end the match just from how hard both would wrench back.

    Naoya Nomura, of course, absolutely killed it here. He's really come into his own as a CAPTURE style bruiser, throwing mean strikes and cinching in tight holds constantly, while still maintaining a lot of his pro wrestling roots. In particular, his spear is one of, if not the best spear in the world currently, absolutely obliterating Fudo with it.

    Rikiya Fudo did not come to the CAPTURE Dungeon to be outdone, and if Nomura hit hard, then Fudo hit even harder. He was like a genuine beast in this match, completely brutalizing Nomura with chops, kicks, and of course his horrific Vader hammers. He even busted out one of the most fucked up elbow drops I have ever seen, landing directly on Nomura's face, as seen below:

    They absolutely tore into each other for the whole match, and it culminated in a finish that, while divisive among people I've talked to about it, I personally think worked great based on where they wanted to go with the tournament. This is, without exaggeration, my current match of the year. It's only 5 and a half minutes long, and at no point does it ever stop keeping me captivated. A testament to the abilities of both men in this environment, and I truly hope we get to see them go at it again very soon.

Rating: A

FU*CK! 08/03/2008

          (Written by jom)

Takaku Fuke vs. Kinya Hashimoto

    Such a powerful mindset Tsubasa Shiratori must have to book a show to start with genuine MMA pioneer Takaku Fuke taking on a parody Shinya Hashimoto (complete with black tape on the side of his face to emulate Shinya's famous sideburns). Truly, maybe one of the most fun ways a show could start is a parody of a fake shooter getting dogwalked by a very real shooter. Just to get across how this match was seemingly gonna flow, Fuke not only ignored Kinya's handshake offer, but hit him with one of the hardest side-eyes I've ever seen:

    Of course, this was very much controlled by Fuke, with him absolutely laying into Kinya with some disgusting knees and kicks (at one point throwing a knee so hard at Kinya that it knocked his wig off). Fuke's really one of the more under-appreciated shooters of his era, and a lot of his work on the Kansai sleaze scene really goes to show that he could absolutely destroy anyone in the ring with him. However, Kinya actually got some of his own offense in, and his offense was actually pretty damn good! He threw some sweet kicks and actually had a mean german suplex on him, culminating in the awesome bridging german shown below.

    As expected however, no matter how great Kinya's german suplexes and kicks were, they were no match for Fuke's legitimate ass-kicking cred, and he ended up getting the win shortly after this with a deep fujiwara armbar. I went into this match thinking it would probably not be much to talk about by the end, but I was pleasantly surprised by just how good Kinya did. A really hard-hitting match and a great way to start off the show.

Rating: B

Hideki Shioda vs. Mambo Shintaro

    After the last match, I personally wouldn't wanna be one of the two people that have to follow up such a killer opener. The ones here to do that are Hideki Shioda and Mambo Shintaro. Shioda has been around for a while and has worked in a ton of different places, from BJW to DDT and of course on the Kansai sleaze scene. Shintaro meanwhile is totally an unknown here, I tried to do a little bit of digging into him but found only that he apparently worked as a referee for the most part. He was however on a pretty absurd tape I watched with some friends, where he and Mamoru Tanaka had a "Car Crash Deathmatch" in the middle of an empty parking lot, beating each other up using a Toyota bB until Shiratori started trying to run them both over using the heavily damaged car.

    While the last match surprised me by how high the quality of the wrestling ended up being, nothing could have prepared me for just how bad Shintaro would be. I am not exaggerating when I say that I've never seen someone quite as bad as Shintaro on any FU*CK! shows. This is immediately shown when, after Shioda is sent to the outside early on, Shintaro does this suicide dive:

    After this, both men brawl around the outside of DDT Dojo (where this show is taking place) and some pretty crazy shit happens. Shioda and Shintaro trade slaps while sitting on top of the front gate, Shioda puts Shintaro in two absolutely horrendous boston crabs on the outside that get Shintaro absolutely covered in soot, and Shioda tries to suplex Shintaro only for Shintaro to accidentally DDT himself on the concrete. Eventually they head back in and the match goes into overdrive with Shintaro doing some of the worst parody moves I've ever seen, including some terrible dragon screws, a combination of janky Misawa forearms (I almost forgot to mention that Shintaro came out to Spartan-X which is vital information in my opinion), maybe the worst shining wizard I've ever seen, and finally, the crème de la crème of this string of offense. I present to you... the worst backslide I have ever seen:

    Soon after this, Shioda is finally able to get some offense back in and absolutely cracks the hell outta Shintaro's jaw with a spinning wheel kick, before locking in a Kimura for the victory.

    Now, after reading all of my negativity and seeing just how bad Shintaro was, I'm sure you expect a grade like a D- or even the first ever F on the blog. Well, you would be DEAD. FUCKING. WRONG. You see, when something is this bad, when a piece of wrestling is this horribly done, I honestly think it wraps around into becoming pure art. Of course, if something is bad because of a lack of effort, that is an entirely different story. That wasn't the case here. Shintaro isn't someone who came in and didn't try, so please don't walk away from this thinking that. From everything I can tell, Shintaro was trying his god damn heart out here, and the fans were in love with everything he did, no matter how well he actually did it. By the end of the match, I was in love too. Mambo Shintaro may not be a ring general or a true king of the ring, but if there was ever a man deserving of the title of "People's Champion", it would be him. I stand by my decision and am willing to fight to the death over it, and I'm extremely excited to see any of Shintaro's other work.

Rating: A+

Ultraman Robin & Hideki Shioda vs. Lucha Master Takemaru & Kancho Nagase

    This was actually meant to be a singles match between Robin and Takemaru, but as Robin makes his entrance Nagase jumps him from behind! Takemaru and Nagase put the boots to him but here comes Shioda for the save! After some brawling on the outside all four guys get in the ring and we now have a tag match on our hands.

    Honestly, there isn't much to say about this match in terms of a story or match flow or anything like that. This was just a really well-worked match featuring four guys who have the ability to really go at it in the ring. Nagase's interactions with Shioda and especial Robin were great, with Nagase bringing some fury behind all his strikes and grappling, and Robin was definitely the best at responding to that.

    Takemaru was able to hold his own as well for sure. He was pretty damn athletic compared to everyone else on the show, doing a nice kip-up into arm drag spot and generally showing himself to be a good hand in the ring. Eventually, the match culminated in Robin hitting an awesome avalanche gutwrench suplex/powerslam hybrid move on Takemaru, before hitting him with a crossbody for the win. Again, there wasn't a ton that made this too special or anything, but it was worked well by all involved and never really outstayed its welcome.

Rating: C+

244 vs. Keita Yano

   One of Keita's rare FU*CK! appearances! Honestly, I feel like this is a place that would fit Keita well especially nowadays, but he sadly hasn't worked there a ton. He's facing 244 here, and before the match I do need to share a very important piece of information about 244. From the beginning of the show, he's been sitting at a table with Shiratori, helping out with handling the faulty sound system they're using for the show. He stays there up until it is time for this match, at which point... 244 crouches down and seems to try and hide from the audience, to then appear and make his entrance. Honestly, I deeply respect this attempt and from the get-go was ready to be a fan of his.

    Wouldn't you know it, this match was pretty damn good too. Keita was in full bully mode here, just disrespecting 244 with slaps to the back of the head and grinding his knee into 244's chin while grappling. Keita threw in a lot of little touches to his work like that, and it really gave it so much more life than just doing the holds. 244 was able to hold his own on the mat too, at one point actually getting the better of him (although Keita would quickly reverse it and go back to cruelly beating him down on the mat). It was also around this point that I noticed that future IWGP and AEW world champion Kenny Omega had taken a seat and was now watching this match. Hopefully this is just some long-term storytelling and Omega is currently working out a plan with TK to bring Yano in for a couple matches with the Blackpool Combat Club.

    The grappling eventually gives way to more contemporary wrestling, with 244 and Keita trading some mean strikes, leading into bigger and bigger attacks from both men. This culminated in this pretty sweet little moment from both guys towards the end: 

    Soon after this however, Keita fully took the advantage and tee'd off a hard combo before locking in the always amazing Yurikamone for the win. Overall, the match ended up being pretty damn well-paced and featured some awesome stuff from both guys, especially Keita who got to play the bully heel role so early into his career and did great at it. 

Rating: B

Pre-QA Blue, Pre-QA Yellow, Pre-QA Pink, Pre-QA Green, & Pre-QA Red vs. Ken Ohka, Konaka = Pale One, The Zack, Magnum Oedo, and Kenji Abe

    I'm not even going to try and talk much about this match, because a lot of stuff happened, I was very confused, and honestly I can't be bothered to try and figure it all out. It's currently 12:53 AM and I am too tired to dissect what the hell Pre-QA even is (I think an idol group parody? idk Shoichi Uchida and Takaku Fuke are wearing wigs and dresses and I'm not entirely sure what's going on).

    The most notable part of the match to me is definitely the one, the only, The Zack. He's a parody of Dwayne "The Fortnite Character" Johnson, and my lord is he good at what he does. He pretty much has the Rock stomps down to an artform, doing that weird leg shimmy Rock does before actually stomping and doing it really damn good. The best part of his offense was definitely his People's Elbow though, which I'm just gonna leave below because my god is it awesome.

    The only other notable part in my opinion is the moment that eventually leads to the finish. Konaka grabs Pre-QA Yellow(Takaku Fuke) and drags him into a back room. Both are gone for about 7 or so minutes before the door swings open. Out runs... hold on a second. What the hell? WHAT THE HELL? THAT'S... THAT'S...

    THAT'S TAKAKU = PALE ONE!!! Takaku = Pale One the cleans house with throat thrusts before getting the win for his team with a jumping senton. While the ending was actually pretty funny and all the stuff The Zack did was fun, overall the match was kind of a drag. I definitely don't understand the appeal of the Pre-QA gimmick (I guess dress & wig = funny or something) but ignoring that it was still just a meandering match with not much going for it. Oh well, at least it gave us Takaku = Pale One.

Rating: D+

HARASHIMA vs. Killer Master

    The main event of a very strange and very special show features one of the most strange and special appearances in FU*CK! history. HARASHIMA is, at this point, considered by most to be one of the best wrestlers in Japan, and it's hard to deny that. He's got a ton of talent and even as he's gotten older he's lost very little of it. Here, he's possibly in peak condition, and he's been tasked with taking on FU*CK!'s Killer Master. Unlike the ominous and threatening name, Killer Master just kinda looks like a dude. Nothing too stand-out in terms of gear or attitude, but he does come out to Iron Man by Black Sabbath so that's pretty sweet.

    What we ended up getting from the pairing of these two ended up being a pretty solid main event encounter. Similar to the opener, HARASHIMA was decidedly above Master and wasn't afraid to show it, completely brushing off Master's strikes for a good portion of the first half of the match and really going into him with his own. He also spent a lot of this match putting on an absolute clinic of back targeting, including this nasty bow and arrow stretch:

    That's not to say that Master didn't get any offense in. Far from it, when Master was able to get any amount of control he really took advantage of it to bust out some pretty awesome offense. He did a really nice running shooting star press, hit a gross missile dropkick straight to HARASHIMA's stomach, and even busted out this really good sequence when he was really starting to make his comeback:

    However, the result of the match was always clear, no matter how much of a comeback Master would be able to make. HARASHIMA eventually took back control completely and dumped Master directly onto his head with a gross implant DDT. That wasn't enough for HARASHIMA though, who did the spot of the night by doing pull-ups on a support beam on the roof before hitting a mean double knee drop to Master, leading into an extremely high angle single leg crab that got him the submission victory.

    Honestly, this was probably the perfect match to end the show. While it wasn't as good as Keita vs. 244 or as insane as Mambo vs. Shioda, it was an awesome display by Killer Master and a great powerful force performance by HARASHIMA. After the match, Master got beaten up a little by Shiratori but ended the show together in the ring, thanking everyone for coming out and supporting FU*CK!. A fitting end to a very crazy show.

Rating: B-

The Unsung Trilogy at Coliseo Cerberus: Taro Yamada vs. Keita Yano

     (Written by Jom)

       In my previous nonseries blog post "Run It Back", I noted that the rematch was a concept loved in pro wrestling. Well, the trilogy is even more cherished, probably because it's a rematch to a rematch. There have been a ton of legendary trilogies in this fake sport we love, such as Flair/Steamboat, Joe/Punk, and, for the real ones, Makabe/Thatcher. However, one trilogy has been consistently underappreciated since its conclusion, almost entirely due to many not even knowing of its existence. I aim to change that.

   

    There's a very good chance you don't recognize the "Coliseo Cerberus" mentioned in the title, and that honestly sucks. This tiny gym has been host of many shows by the lowest puro promotions on the scene, from blog favorite RAW to WALLABEE. However, no single wrestler is more connected to this arena than Keita Yano, aka KEITA In THE HOUSE. For anyone that doesn't know, Yano is a protege of Yuki Ishikawa, an amazing grappler, and the owner of the aforementioned WALLABEE. He's also a very big fan of Kendo Kashin, Bruiser Brody, and Heath Ledger's Joker. Basically, he's great. He's almost definitely had the most matches at Cerberus and more often than not you could find him having that show's best match. However, in my opinion, his best matches there have been against Taro Yamada. If you haven't read my previous three match primer on him (which I recommend checking out here), Yamada is one of the slickest technical wrestlers on the planet, using the T2P style to perfection. Not only do they share technical styles, both men actually debuted A SINGLE DAY APART, as Taro Yamada debuted on February 24th 2007, and Keita Yano debuted the following day, February 25th. If that doesn't sound like a fated rivalry, then I don't know what does.

    This is the unsung trilogy at Coliseo Cerberus, "Fighting Acupuncturist" Taro Yamada vs. "Young Crying Wolf" Keita Yano.

MUMEIJUKU 09/20/10

    This match is using five minute rounds rules, which makes sense for MUMEIJUKU, a much more grappling-based promotion. Yamada looks very much the same throughout the years so I won't be tracking his appearance, but in the five years this trilogy took place in, Yano's appearance changed drastically, so I'll be tracking that. Here, he's wearing pretty much the same gear he'd been wearing since he started in BattlArts (wetsuit with knee and elbow pads), but he does have short, orange hair and a very faint amount of Joker facepaint. He's also wearing a Chikara shirt before the match starts, which reminded me that he was in 2010's Young Lion's Cup and I should watch those matches just to see how American fans responded to the BattlArts Arthur Fleck. Before I even begin to review the match, I just wanna share one thing I wrote down while taking notes.

    "It's literally impossible for me to take notes on the grappling, because either it's too fast or so complex I can't think of what to call it before they move on to the next hold"

    Yeah, y'know what I said about Yamada doing T2P style and Yano being a Bati-Bati grappler? This is pretty much what you'd expect from that. Both guys do some great wrestling here, cinching in snug holds one after another. I'm not gonna list them all, but I will note that both of them are absolutely phenomenal at getting their opponent to the mat. The match literally starts with one of my favorite mat placements I may have ever seen, as Yamada gets in a waist lock but Yano immediately judo throws him from around his back. They both are also great at doing ankle picks, and some of the ones they were able to get actually astounded me with how creative they were. Speaking of creativity, I'm about to list some holds done by them, just so you understand why this was so hard for me to take notes on: Yano's handstand double ankle lock, Yamada's inverted crab, Yano's grounded double underhook stretch, Yamada's cross-legged Chikara Special, and Yano's grounded bridging side cravate. Maybe you can get an idea of what these look like, but seeing it actually executed is just so insane and awesome. That's not even mentioning how creative some of the transitions and pinfalls were. Also, Yano adds an extra layer to the match with all of his Yanoisms, like raking the eyes and stepping on Yamada's hand for a submission. These moves weren't done to cheat, but instead that's just kinda how Yano is. Also, he messed up a kip-up pretty badly and almost kicked someone next to the square in the face, so the accidental comedy in this match was very good too. The match's pacing was great the entire time as well. At no point did it feel like it ever slowed down, instead only hitting a timing reset every five minutes to allow them to return to building it back up. The match's end came in the third round, when Yamada, after using up all of his holds and seeing Yano still had some tricks up his sleeve, threw some nasty forearms straight at Yano's jaw. Although this definitely hurt Yano, it also signified the moment I knew that Yano was gonna win. Up to that point, not a single significant strike had been thrown, and when Yamada threw those forearms, no matter how hard they were, they proved that he had run out of ideas on the mat. Yamada escaped a cravate, hit a frankensteiner, and nearly won with a couple flash pinfall attempts, but Yano threw two bell claps with his arms and one with his legs, finally going for a sunset flip and transitioning it into a headscissors crucifix choke for the submission victory. 

    This was a really great grappling match, both guys were only 3 years into their careers and the amount of knowledge and improvisation skills they possessed on the mat were immense. Even if you dislike the total lack of striking, those few elbows Yamada threw towards the end more than made up for it. Overall, an extremely promising match between two extremely promising wrestlers.

Rating: A-

FUKAMI Matsuri 06/24/12

    Yano has definitely evolved his persona a lot in the two years between the last match and this one. He has a blonde mullet, fur boots, and is wearing gear and facepaint that seems both reminiscent of Heath Ledger and the classic Joker. He also throws out a "HUSS" when he gets announced, so I guess based on that and the boots he started to bring in the Brody influence to his character. Someone blows a whistle and we are off to the races.

    The grappling here is a lot more hesitant than the last match, as both guys surely remember how skillful their opponent was, and want to be careful about accidentally losing control early on. It's fairly even to start out, and Yano even escapes one situation and does his kip-up, still messing up like last time but getting very close to pulling it off. Yano also hasn't lost his other Yanoisms, such as the biting, but Yamada is there to meet him this time, doing some biting of his own to escape one hold Yano had him in. Yano also a new Yanoism, that being his dainty leap over drop downs, which he does with Yamada when they start to do rope rebound spots but just by running back and forth without the actual ropes. Yano does this jump three times, but gets tripped by Yamada on the fourth and lands face-first. You can probably tell that while there's a good amount more hesitancy between the two, there's also a level of playfulness to it, as both guys have a lot of respect for each other and are willing to have some fun in between wrenching on each other. Speaking of, out of all the submissions both guys pulled off, one of my favorites has to be Yano's transition from a cross ankle lock into a gnarly bow and arrow, bending Yamada so far against his knees that it looked like his spine was seconds from snapping. Yamada isn't a slouch either, doing his own back-breaking moves like a reverse cravate transitioned into bending Yano over his own back, trapping Yano's leg at the same time to make escape that much more difficult. Both guys also do great transitions and pinfalls just like before, but there was a lot of newer stuff in all these categories, as both guys are great at taking a situation like an early match lock-up not just going through the motions, instead bringing something new to the table every time. However, as much as I praise both men, Yano was definitely in more control almost the entire match. I guess that donning purple furry boots will give you a bigger power boost than expected. Yamada at many points seemed like he was on the cusp of retaking command of the match, but every time he got close Yano was there to snuff it out. Even when trying to escape situations and at least get on equal ground, Yano is able to shut that down as well, such as when he pulled of a great flying armbar, and upon Yamada trying to roll out of it, turned Yamada's roll into a triangle choke. The finish comes when Yano decides to return to the dainty leap dropdown spot, and this time when Yamada goes for the trip, Yano leaps over into a sunset flip, quickly turning that into his headscissors crucifix choke. Yamada, however, has no plans to fall to that again, and actually rolls forward turning it into a pin, which Yano escapes from but is forced to release the submission. Yamada gets up lightning fast and goes for a sliding elbow, but Yano just barely dodges, and quickly turns that into a rolling crucifix, getting the pinfall victory with an arm-trap crucifix he pulls out after other ones don't work.

    Once again, both guys are able to really make a great match in Coliseo Cerberus. This was pretty similar to the first one, especially due to the fact that once again, there were little to no actual strikes throughout, instead being almost entirely focused on the grappling acumen of those involved. However, in my honest opinion, I think their first match was just barely superior to this one. Although both guys were great here, the hesitation, while it made sense and was the right call, also meant that it just didn't match the frenetic pacing of the first bout. Don't let that take anything away from this match however, as only in this match can you see just how insane Yano can get after only two years.

Rating: B+

Kani KING Produce 01/25/15

    This match is for Yano's WALLABEE World Martial Arts Championship. Yano started this trilogy as a young boy figuring out his identity. The next time we saw him, he had more fully fleshed it out. And now, he has reached his final form, which has to be seen to be believed:

    YEAH. Underneath the kilt is a pair of union jack trunks, purple kneepads with a brace on his left knee, and his purple furry boots. Sleaze personified. However, his attire isn't the only thing that's changed. The bell rings and Yano goes for the kip up one more time... AND HE FUCKING HITS IT. LONG TERM STORYTELLING BITCHES.

    The match starts out and it's very clear this is not going to be the same as the last two matches. There's no dynamic exchanges between the two to start us off, as Yano instead immediately does a double-leg takedown and just keeps Yamada grounded entirely. He does this multiple times, at one point shooting for a double leg that sends both of them barreling into the seated fans. Yamada keeps trying for his own takedowns and holds in response, each of them more complex than Yano's basic strategy, but every single time Yano is able to catch him and just force him back down. Yano eventually starts to choke Yamada and grind his fist into the back of Yamada's head, also choosing to ignore the ref any time Yamada gets to the outline and should be getting the hold broken up. Yano even starts to chant "BORING" while in one of these holds, as he realizes him grinding this match's progression to a halt any time it starts isn't super entertaining. Finally, Yamada starts to get more and more opportunities to escape and put in his own holds, but Yano proves he wasn't being slow because of a loss of ability, as he continuously and swiftly stops each attempt, culminating in a great quebradora by Yano. Yano calls out "HUSS" and goes for a Brody boot, but Yamada catches it, SPITS IN HIS FACE, AND CATAPULTS HIM INTO A PUNCHING BAG. Yano, after being down for a while from that, slowly crawls back and holy shit he's gushing blood. Yamada sees this, probably says to himself "if you wanna bleed that bad I'll help you out", and REPEATEDLY SHOOT HEADBUTTS HIM. YAMADA HAS YANO'S BLOOD ALL OVER HIS FOREHEAD NOW. THIS IS SO FUCKED UP. The match then goes into a segment I would like to call "Taro Yamada finally decides to stop being respectful to this literal clown", since he spends the entire time shoot elbowing and headbutting the bloody Yano, all the while getting covered more and more in Yano's blood. Yamada kinda does Fugo Fugo Yumeji's all-fours headbutt too, a sickening cracking sound ringing out after smashing skulls, so Chris is probably gonna love this match. Yamada even throws in a CURB STOMP, which leaves a little puddle of blood where Yano's head got smashed into the mat. Yano eventually is able to start to hulk up, yelling "HUSS" and stomping around the mat to try and get himself enough adrenaline to fight back, the whole time being pelted by nasty elbows by Yamada. He finally goes on the attack, ending it with a fucking great Brody boot, but control soon returns to Yamada, who pays Yano back for that offense with a grounded shoot kick to the side of a seated Yano's head. Yamada works on him with more snug holds and headbutts, even eventually opening a window and using the windowsill to dive onto Yano with a double knee press ONLY TO GET A ONE COUNT. Yano fights back, dodging the sliding elbow and goes for his sunset flip into the headscissors crucifix choke, but Yamada turns it into a back cover. Yano tries two separate times to do the double bridge up to escape, and both times fucks it up about halfway into the bridge, but these repeated botches honestly helped show just how absolutely fucked Yano was from all the damage he'd sustained. Yano pushes Yamada away and hits a RUNNING DIVING HEADBUTT TO YAMADA'S FACE. Yano keeps trying to force Yamada to tap out or stay down, but Yamada just won't die and Yano picks him up for a tombstone. Yamada, in a last burst of strength, goes backwards into his own tombstone, but Yano keeps that momentum going to roll back into a tombstone of his own, CRADLES HIM, AND SPIKES HIM ON HIS FUCKING HEAD. 1. 2. 3. YANO DOES IT.

    Is this match as technically sound as the last two? not at all. Is it as slick and well-paced? Fuck no. Does it have its moments of dragging, and are there probably too many botches? Absolutely so. Did it need to go nearly 40 minutes? Probably not.

    ...And yet, this is the best match out of the three in my opinion. Maybe I'm just a sucker for violence, but the fucking pain these two went through for this match is absolutely disgusting. Yamada had to have done at least ten shoot headbutts to Yano, among the other nasty strikes he threw at him, and Yamada got bent and dropped all over the place. Yano bled everywhere, covering himself, Yamada, and the mat in it. This was nothing like the last two extremely respectful matches. This was two men fighting with the intent to kill and the willingness to take all the pain for the glory of the title. If you're looking for technical supremacy, this match is absolutely not it. Even though the grappling here was still very good, the first match will suit your tastes much better. However, if you wanna see a match that indulges in the highest excess of drama and violence, there may be no other match better than this one. Maybe this rating is too high. Maybe I'm being blinded by my bias for these two. Honestly, I don't care. I love Taro Yamada and Keita Yano, and for the blood, sweat, and tears they shed to create this, I can't, in good conscience, rate them any lower.

Rating: A+