Reputation Suicide: NSBW's Self-Inflicted Plunge Into The Abyss

                              (Written by jom)

     Modern MMA in Japan does not exist without professional wrestling. The JMMA boom of the 1990s and 2000s was built from the ground up by former professional wrestlers, most of whom were trained in the Gotch and Robinson styles of catch wrestling. In the wake of NJPW's Different Style Fights of the '70s and the UWF's nascent shoot stylings of the '80s, these wrestlers found themselves interested in applying their training and philosophies to actual combat, birthing organizations such as Shooto, RINGS, Shootboxing, and Pancrase. Just as the early '90s served as a fertile breeding ground for Japanese independent wrestling groups, that same period saw fervent development in JMMA, signaling even more prosperous times to come in the near future.

    In 1994, Masashi Aoyagi saw the incoming JMMA wave, and decided he would catch a ride. Thus was born "New Stage Battle as Wrestling," also known by the direct translations of New Fighting Wrestling & Shin Kakuto. NSBW was an organization planned to transcend the boundaries of professional wrestling and establish itself as the country's pinnacle of combat sports. NSBW, however, did not do this. NSBW didn't even last a full calendar year. Every step along the path to immortality was just another step onto a rake. Every major move only served to hurt the promotion rather than help it. By the end of its life, most wrestlers weren't even sure what the point of it all actually was. NSBW was the most doomed organization in Japanese wrestling and Japanese MMA history. It's worth looking at why. 

I. Wayward Souls

     A discussion of NSBW can't begin without a discussion of Oriental Pro Wrestling. Oriental Pro was the second attempt at an independent group by Ryuma Go & Masahiko Takasugi, two of the three men responsible for the very first independent promotion, Pioneer Senshi. Like Pioneer, Oriental Pro, while innovative and influential in its own right, was never much of a success financially. By December 1993, the company was in dire straits, as Go had already left the group behind and Takasugi's desire to freelance wasn't particularly a secret. When young aces Hiroshi Itakura and Kazuhiko Matsuzaki faced off in a dojo match to decide the company's fate, everyone already knew what the result would be. Oriental Pro's roster of rookies pledged to follow Itakura wherever he went next.

    That landing location appeared almost immediately. Even a month before the dojo match, Itakura had already publicly declared his intentions to join Masashi Aoyagi's karate dojo Seishin Kaikan as a representative wrestler. Around the same time as the dojo match, Aoyagi announced an upcoming Seishin Kaikan produce show, with Aoyagi booking himself against Itakura in the main event and populating the undercard with the former Oriental Pro roster. Aoyagi also hinted at something larger coming soon, as news broke that Aoyagi was not planning to re-sign his contract with New Japan and would instead be forming his own organization.

    According to some of the people involved in NSBW, Aoyagi wasn't the only one planning to leave New Japan for the new group. Akitoshi Saito was also strongly considering joining his mentor in the new organization, but seemingly decided at the last second to stick with New Japan instead. As such, Aoyagi would be leading the venture without him, signing on Oriental Pro representative Takeshi Tamao to be in charge of the new group's office. For the stranded Oriental Pro workers, this promotion appeared to be the oasis they had been looking for. It wouldn't retain that image for very long.

II. Identity Crisis

    On January 28th, 1994, Masashi Aoyagi formally announced the creation of New Stage Battle as Wrestling, and immediately declared Pancrase as its enemy. The impromptu press conference for NSBW's initial announcement, along with the more formal press conference four days later to reveal its logo and roster (a combination of Oriental Pro workers, Aoyagi's karate trainees, and a handful of young martial artists), contained a litany of statements from Aoyagi that left reporters confused as to what, exactly, Aoyagi was planning to promote. While NSBW was referred to explicitly as a wrestling company, it was talked about alongside shoot organizations such as Pancrase and Shooto. Aoyagi mentioned in passing that he planned to send some of NSBW's roster to participate in the Towa Cup, an openweight karate tournament happening in a few days (whether or not he actually sent anyone I don't know). He even floated the idea to reporters of doing away with a wrestling ring entirely, and instead running shows with an octagon-shaped cage. To many onlookers, NSBW appeared to be setting itself up as a full contact shootfighting organization.

    Many of the pro wrestlers were just as confused as the reporters. While they had heard that NSBW would be leaning more towards shoot style, the majority of ex-Oriental wrestlers had been left in the dark regarding how far Aoyagi planned to take it. Some of them took this as their sign to bow out on the project and try their luck at finding work elsewhere, but the majority felt that they had no other option. They had pledged to stick with Itakura, and Itakura, at least for now, planned on sticking with Aoyagi, so the rookies stayed as well. 

    As the first show approached, however, Aoyagi decided that he wasn't done confusing his roster or the reporters, as he signed up to appear on the WWF's Japan Mania Tour. Publications such as Shu Pro were quick to point out the conflict of interest in Aoyagi, a man trying to present his new organization as the toughest and most legit fighting group in the country, working a tour for the WWF, the Sports Entertainment company. Aoyagi's explanation for this wasn't much of anything either, as he simply stated that he had no reason to reject the opportunity. For the wrestlers, this felt like another sharp left turn on the path towards understanding what Aoyagi expected of them. In hindsight, it was the least confusing development these wrestlers would have to deal with over the next few months.

III. Reality Check

    Following the conclusion of NSBW's first show on February 18th, Aoyagi held a press conference with Satoru Sayama, the former Tiger Mask and founder of Shooto, to announce that the two organizations would be working together for a "full-scale conflict" between their fighters. For many of the reporters there, the actual intended content of the press conference was less interesting than the fact that Sayama would be appearing at a wrestling show for the first time in nearly 10 years, along with what many assumed would be the end goal of this alliance, a match between Aoyagi and Sayama (which both men agreed sounded like a good idea, leading Aoyagi to say it would "probably" happen later in the year).

    For NSBW's roster, this announcement of "NSBW vs. Shooto" fights was a nightmare scenario, one that only a few seemed to grasp. As one former employee explained, in a pre-PRIDE world, many people just couldn't understand the gap in fighting ability between pro wrestlers and MMA fighters, and most assumed the wrestlers would at least have some chance. NSBW's roster also attempted to level the playing field just the tiniest bit, sending a handful of the former Oriental Pro workers to a boxing gym for training, which the wrestlers promptly abandoned as they had zero interest in learning boxing. With the first fight between boxer-turned-wrestler Jun Kikawada and rising Shooto star Yuki Nakai booked for NSBW's next show, all anyone could do is hope that the NSBW wrestlers would put in a good fight.

    187 seconds.

    187 seconds is the combined runtime of all four fights to occur between NSBW and Shooto. Kikawada's 27 second tap-out set the tone for what would be a slaughter, as NSBW's chosen fighters were completely outmatched in every way against the Shooto fighters. To call the proposed "conflict" a failure on NSBW's part would be an understatement. This was a misstep of nuclear proportions, where over the span of a single week NSBW's reputation was ripped apart and burned to a crisp. The Shooto disaster would remain a dark cloud hanging over NSBW's head for the rest of its life, and, to this day, is probably the thing people remember the most about it. It was pro wrestling's first attempt at proving its strength against MMA, and it couldn't have gone any worse.

    It was also, in my opinion, only the second worst decision made by Masashi Aoyagi. The worst of them all would come a month later. 

IV. Phantom President

    On the same show where Yuki Nakai demolished Jun Kikawada, SAW practitioner and former RINGS fighter Koichiro Kimura made an appearance backstage to challenge Aoyagi to a match. In Kimura's own account of events years later, he said that he only joined for the opportunity to wrestle Aoyagi. NSBW chose to use their hot new prospect immediately, and the match between Aoyagi and Kimura would be set for April 4th, main eventing in Korakuen Hall to start NSBW's second tour, "Phoenix Championship '94."

    Nobody seems to really enjoy talking about what happened in that match.

    Aoyagi, in an interview later on, would only state that there was a "difference in direction" between the two. Kimura gave more details on what led to the affair, stating that Aoyagi invited Kimura into his locker room 30 minutes before the match and told him something that made Kimura so angry, he forced everyone else out of the room and cursed Aoyagi out before deciding "Fine, I'm going with it." One other NSBW wrestler recalled that the Kimura/Aoyagi match is where wrestling in NSBW "stopped being fun."

    The end result of the "match" was Koichiro Kimura winning via referee stoppage on a kneebar after three rounds of domination. Aoyagi seemed to protest the ruling at first before congratulating Kimura on the win, only to then announce that NSBW would be "temporarily disbanding." This, however, was not true, at least according to the NSBW offices. As soon as publications started to report on this announcement, Tamao made a statement that NSBW would be operating as usual, and that the statement had been a mistake made by "wrestler" Masashi Aoyagi. While Aoyagi had indeed only been a wrestler on paper, he was also already established as the figurehead of the company and the man behind the idea, in the same way Tenryu was positioned as top dog in relation to WAR's actual president, Masatomo Takei. Calling Aoyagi just a roster member seemed to publicly imply that Aoyagi had overstepped, and Aoyagi would return that gesture in due time.

    Aoyagi and Kimura faced off one more time, 19 days later. This match was less eventful than the last, but once again resulted in Kimura's victory, and led to Aoyagi declaring that if he lost to Kimura one more time, he would retire on the spot. That third match would never happen. Starting in May, Aoyagi began to refuse all NSBW bookings. Aoyagi spent that month wrestling for the WWF, only willing to appear at ringside for that month's NSBW Korakuen show, where Itakura practically begged Aoyagi in a post-match promo to "take care of the company." In June, Aoyagi vanished from the public eye outright.

    Aoyagi finally reappeared for the promotion in July, working three shows before skipping the tour's final event to appear in FMW. Those July shows ended up being Aoyagi's final appearances in general. Soon, members of the "Aoyagi Faction" in NSBW followed suit, with Shigekazu Tajiri, Yuichi Fukaya, and Yoshiro Ito all leaving the company to follow Aoyagi. Koichiro Kimura personally invited Aoyagi to appear one last time, at the September 24th Korakuen event, for one last "grudge settlement" match between the two. Aoyagi never responded. After Kimura's match on the show (the only NSBW show to receive a video release), Kimura took the mic and declared to the audience "You are all witnesses. Masashi Aoyagi has run away from NSBW. He will never come back."

    Most people seemed to know at that point that it was over.

V. Wasted Time

    NSBW lasted less than two months after that final Korakuen show. Attendance had been down (or, more accurately, had never been particularly up), and wrestlers were less interested than ever in appearing for the group. Even as NSBW worked out a deal with WAR and Kimura brought in some of his SAW trainees, it seemed nothing could prevent what many were viewing as inevitable.

    On November 16, 1994, NSBW ran the final show of their "DD Spirits '94" tour in the Matsusaka City General Gymnasium in Matsusaka, Mie. They reported to Shu Pro an attendance of nearly three thousand people, but, having seen enough photos from the show, I just can't say I buy that number. NSBW ran this show as a special "all card Barbed Wire Cage Deathmatch" event, where every match on the show happened surrounded by a barbed wire cage. Reportedly, the only person to actually utilize the cage in a match was Hideo Takayama, better known as BADBOY Hido. Every other match was worked as if the cage never existed at all.

    After the show, Hiroshi Itakura told the audience that he would be leaving NSBW, which many understood to mean he would be joining WAR. Kimura shook hands with Itakura before taking the mic and claiming that NSBW had another tour booked for December. While some on the roster did believe Kimura when he said this, many of the wrestlers could already feel that those December shows would never come to pass.

    The final instance of NSBW existing in any sort of manner would occur on a Shooto show on January 21, 1995. In the second fight on the card, SAW fighter and NSBW wrestler Shingo Shigeta was announced as representing the promotion, before being completely pummeled and losing in a minute to Shooto's debuting trainee, Enson Inoue. Weirdly, it makes complete sense to me that NSBW's final mark on the world of combat sports was one of their guys being fed to Shooto's most famous fighter in his debut. It's the most appropriate way for that story to end.

    You tend to find mixed feelings from NSBW guys regarding their former home. Referee Matsui, for example, looks at NSBW somewhat nostalgically as the company where he made his debut. Certainly, the one thing you can give the promotion credit for is that it debuted some awesome wrestlers, ranging from SAW's Shingo Shigeta and Fumio Akiyama, to Oriental Pro trainee Masahiko Kochi, to the former boxer Hiroshi Osumi, later known as FMW's Shinjuku Same.

    However, the majority of interviews I've found from former NSBW wrestlers make me think they'd rather not remember those days. As said by Keisuke Yamada, "it was a complete waste of a year. I gained a lot before then in Oriental Pro, and I gained a lot after in IWA Japan. I gained nothing in NSBW."

The Eternal Suffering of Takagi Sanshiro: DDT From June & July 2000

                            (Written by jom)

     I generally tend to avoid mish-mash tapes like these just so I don't have to deal with weird blog formatting that annoys me, but this one has been screaming for my attention from the DDT folder on my hard drive. It's not every day you see a TV broadcast featuring a promotion's top star getting his ass beaten on three separate occasions, let alone all in unique ways. Sanshiro Takagi put himself on the cross for DDT's prosperity, and it's only right that we witness him receive the stigmata. 

06/29) Sanshiro Takagi vs. MIKAMI

     MIKAMI's heel run after coming back from his IWA PR tour didn't last very long. I suppose he had the "too cool" issue (he was just too easy to root for), along with probably ten other reasons for why he turned face only a few months into his return. Since then, he's had a handful of individual heel performances, but he's never gone on a prolonged heel run. That makes this match almost heartbreaking because heel MIKAMI is something else. MIKAMI goes beyond the usual cockiness and bravado into a much crueler sort of work, full of little potshots and scrapes while cranking the heat up to eleven for all of his usual spots. He's still the athletic freak of nature he was before, but all of his athletic feats feel so much more pointed, more focused on hurting than wowing. He's also not afraid to throw punches, ranging from his fantastic worked ones to some jarring shoot ones, and his picks apart Takagi with big bombs like his horrifying swan dive dropkick to Takagi's knee. Takagi is always pretty solid on the back foot, and his comebacks land really well, especially thanks to MIKAMI's willingness to bump like a maniac and cry to high heaven while in Takagi's holds. It comes together to allow the two to work some really great sequences and have a natural back-and-forth flow while never losing the plot of MIKAMI being the biggest son of a bitch alive. Considering the roughness of some patches, the somewhat abrupt finish, and the unfortunate clipping, I wouldn't really call this a great match, but it has most of the elements of one, along with one of MIKAMI's sleeper greatest performances ever. I hope I one day get to peek into the alternate universe where MIKAMI's heel run lasted much longer.

07/06) Yuki Nishino vs. Naoshi Sano

    Power violence squash match. Naoshi Sano comes out in the world's largest t-shirt and hits some poses. Nishino comes out dressed like Tazz, complete with black towel and being very short. Sano gets a hot start going with a full-force dropkick and a bunch of hard chops, and then Nishino hits a single chop harder than any of Sano's and everything goes to hell for our favorite lovable loser. Yuki Nishino is a crowbar with a mean streak and Sano is just a bump in the road for him. Sano's beating is so scary that I almost considered changing the article's title to "The Eternal Suffering of Naoshi Sano". Nishino revels in violence and comes at Sano like a rabid dog. Nishino throws headbutts like he's trying to chase down his opponent, to keep them from escaping the CTE like some kind of pussy. Nishino throws lariats like he's trying to break their nose. Yuki Nishino is a demon. Another name for the "they don't make wrestlers like this anymore (and maybe that's a good thing)" file.

Poison Sawada Black vs. Mitsunobu Kikuzawa

    I have no idea why Sawada is "Poison Sawada Black" here. It's clearly a transitional phase between regular Sawada and JULIE, but it mostly consists of him having weird paint on his eyes. This match entirely exists for Kikuzawa's manager to get into heel manager shenanigans and accidentally win the Ironman Heavymetalweight belt off of Kikuzawa. The wrestling that comes before and after this is just fine. Kikuzawa has a great dropkick and Sawada does a cool rear naked choke spot, but absolutely none of it matters and the crowd does not care. Kikuzawa does an Onita-style promo after the match because who's gonna stop him.

Showa vs. MIKAMI

    We love Phantom Funakoshi, don't we folks? Here he is as SHOWA, a masked gimmick that let him crank the showa-era wrestling tributes up to eleven, so I have to assume it's his dream come true. And this is a great match! It's got a couple moving parts to it, and both guys are so talented at everything that each story to the match is told excellently. A lot of this match's early portion is focused on grappling, with both guys making good movements on the mat and getting to show their stuff while being entirely in character. Showa pulls out some big time old school holds like the bow & arrow, and MIKAMI counters with face claws out of headlocks and double boot rakes. All the bigger spots, from both men's dropkicks to the late-stage bombs, feel so well-built considering the early match work, and they usually come swiftly and naturally. In a way, this feels like the kind of thing Mumeijuku would put on years later, with more of a 2000s juniors tinge to it. MIKAMI is also the coolest wrestler ever and his bombs are incredible. I don't mean to ramble on about how cool he is after already slightly doing that in the previously discussed Takagi match, but man, he's just so cool. Nobody has ever hit sentons like MIKAMI. The match's bullshit finish is very out of nowhere but fits the general vibes of the match itself, and it's a really fun way to wrap up such a good little match. Definitely one worth going out of your way to check out.

Sanshiro Takagi & Exciting Yoshida vs. Koichiro Kimura & Thanomsak Toba

    This era of DDT, as discussed before on the blog, was weirdly reliable when it came to running bizarre hybrid shoot-style tags. The mix of WARist crowbars and martial arts expats led to a good handful of out-of-this-world brawls where guys flew at each other from across the ring to punch each other in the face. Sanshiro Takagi is decidedly not part of the usual crowd for these, but some sort of demon unlocks from his heart when put in the ring against Toba (probably caused by Toba getting up too early after the match-starting People's Stone Cold Forearm), and it turns this match into a highlight of the genre. Takagi's willingness to throw down is something to behold, throwing chops as hard as he possibly can and chucking out teep kicks to Toba's ribs every time Toba starts getting a little too hot at the wheel. Toba, of course, sells everything like death, ragdolling and bending his own body in weird ways in response to being yanked around. He also never calms down and turns every one punch into five punches because nobody else can combo like him. Kimura and Yoshida play second fiddle to both of their tag partners, but they each get extensive time to prove their worth, from Kimura's relentless soccer kicking and shoulder-dislocating crossface, to Yoshida's Hamaguchi tribute act and unhinged no-hands headbutts. Would I place this right beside the very best of the DDT shoot tags? Not exactly, but it's probably only a notch or two below the Ishii/Rider vs. Toba/Sasaki's of the world. Who knew Takagi had this kind of match in him? For all my stiffness freaks in the audience (assumedly all of you), this is essential.

07/13) No Rope Barbed Wire Death: Sanshiro Takagi vs. Atsushi Onita

    Arguably the biggest match in Sanshiro Takagi's career, at least up to this point. Takagi, the charismatic ace of the indie scene's new hotness, takes on the charismatic ace that built the indie scene itself. I have to assume most people had the same guess as to how this match would be worked, myself included: complete fireworks brawling. That was exactly how Onita had been working his matches for the last two years, and Takagi was the best opponent for a singles match of that variety. This match, however, is not complete fireworks. I'm still not exactly sure what you would even call it. The match starts hot, then enters some early slow grappling, and then just... stays there for about 15 minutes. It's jarring, confusing, and, more than anything else, a complete betrayal of expectations. And it also makes complete sense, in a way. Atsushi Onita has spent most of his career working these matches against either larger, stronger forces, or hellions more malicious than him. He's almost always played the underdog, at most standing on equal footing while still fighting from underneath. Sanshiro Takagi is not more imposing than Onita, nor is he more malicious. Sanshiro Takagi is the top guy of a new indie, and Atsushi Onita is at the top of the world. There has never been a greater power discrepancy in the history of Onita deathmatches than this one. So Onita, faced with a foe weaker than him, finally playing the one in control, simply wrestles him to death. He puts on facelocks that bend Takagi's head nearly 180 degrees, and drops his knee onto Takagi's face with his full body weight. When Takagi gets a little fired up, he punches him as hard as he can and slaps on tight sleeper holds. It's textbook rookie annihilation, the kind of beatdown old trainers would give prospective trainees to try and make them quit the dojo. Atsushi Onita is young boy'ing Sanshiro Takagi in the biggest match of Takagi's career, and I buy it. It's also, sadly, not perfect. 15 minutes is a long time for something like this, especially with the expectation that a ring surrounded by barbed wire sets, and it gets a little too slow and uneventful at some points. For as invested as the crowd is, you can definitely tell they're just as tired as you are by the time things really heat up. That heating up doesn't feel particularly natural either, as Onita and Takagi talk shit to each other in an armbar until Onita decides to give up on his rookie-beating and throw Takagi head-first into the wire. Once they reach that point, the match turns into exactly what you would expect: tons of wire bumps, tons of powerbombs, all the big kickouts and yelling you assumed would happen in the first place. It's great, and it's what I wanted. Having said that, I really do think there's something to that 15 minutes. Maybe it could've been cut down or worked a little differently, but it's the kind of match development you could only get from a mind like Onita, and I love that it happened, even if it didn't go as well as it could've. Even with its faults, this is still a great match, and it leaves one to wonder just how much farther it could've gone with a few tweaks.

Spitball Reviews #7

          (Written by jom)

Greed vs. Takashi (SED 05/24/2009)

    So... what's SED? Well, SED (short for Safety Enjoy Delight, maybe the least intimidating combination of words in wrestling history) is an amateur promotion started in 2003 that has generally been pretty active for the last 20+ years. They've run over a hundred shows, almost all of which are available on YouTube. I really appreciate the effort put into not only preserving all of these shows, but also in making them available to the public. I know literally nothing about SED or anyone involved outside of that, and this is the first SED match I've ever seen in full. Honestly, after checking this out, I'm definitely interested in watching more SED going forward! This is by no means a perfect match, or even really a great match, but it has a lot of cool stuff going for it. Takashi is the world's 2nd most blatant Naomichi Marufuji idolizer (Seth Rollins will never lose his crown) and Greed, besides having an AWESOME name, has a really cool look as "Y2K Hoodlum #2." They work some damn good juniors sequences considering the lack of actual pro training, with Greed doing an especially quality job of blending quick moves and transitions with nice heel work. He's also got a good knack for making his stuff look as mean as possible, putting some real snap on his dropkicks and throwing quick low blows regularly. As this is 2009, both men are absolutely obsessed with combos, which, while cool to a certain extent, is more funny than anything. Singular moves in this match are rare, and I never really needed to see things like a three amigos into an impaler or a superkick into three neckbreakers, but I guess I do appreciate the creativity. There are also some genuinely awesome moments of creativity, like Greed's wristlock Air Raid Crash, or Takashi's step-up guillotine leg drop. It's all the type of work you can tell is being done by amateurs, but as someone that appreciates the wrestling spirit in many forms, I see an abundance in these two. Also, Greed punching and kicking Takashi in the face fucking rocked. Expect to see more of Greed on the blog at the bare minimum. 

Match Rating: B-

Okonomi Man & Tortuga vs. El Enigma & Super Cacao (CMLL Japan 11/23/1999)

    CMLL Japan always had a really cool assortment of Japanese indie guys to fill the undercard, and here's four staples of the tours getting to battle it out. Okonomi is the future Hayate, Super Cacao is Nosawa, Enigma is MAZADA, and Tortuga is... Tortuga! This is really four Japanese guys getting the chance to show they know lucha too, and by God, they really seem to know lucha. Cacao is especially in the zone here, working the mat with that wonderful flowing kind of grappling seen in lucha that really keeps the action going and the spots rolling. Okonomi is just as impressive, maybe a little more stilted than Nosawa but easily more physically capable, and the sequences between the two are probably the closest thing to authentic lucha in this match. El Enigma is probably the most interesting part of the match, at least to me, as he actually knows how to work a match with this kind of pacing and format but does a damn good job of integrating his MUGA roots into his contributions. He gets the highlight of the match when he hits Tortuga with the dreaded nutshot uppercut directly into a real God Damner of a german suplex, the type that folds you up enough to fit into the carry-on luggage heading back to Mexico. Tortuga, IWA Japan trainee and career Guy That Exists, definitely falls in last place for this match, but even he has his moments. He's got a nice bit of snap to his arm drags and works pretty cleanly for a guy that showcased his absolutely awful push-up form on a previous CMLL Japan show. Even with this match being based around everyone getting cool stuff in, there are still some nice moments of a larger story, like Cacao and Enigma ripping into Okonomi's mask and really beating the hell out of him. It's fascinating to know that even before Gurentai existed, NOSAWA and MAZADA innately knew how to foul effectively as a unit. Even with this clipped down to about a third of the actual runtime, this still ends up being pretty damn fun.

Match Rating: B-

Masao Ando vs. Yoshihisa Mio (GENTEN 04/19/2015)

    A massive shout out to my good friend Ciel. This is one of his favorite matches ever, and probably his biggest find in his obsessive searches for any and all information regarding his favorite wrestlers. He originally stumbled across the file of this match on Yoshihisa Mio's abandoned blog, and only in the last year or so have we found that Mio himself posted the match to YouTube four years ago. This is in Masao Ando's MMA gym, where the ring ropes are literal ropes and the mats seem to be paper thin, laid on top of solid concrete. On Ando's old blog, he explained that he felt "love at first sight" when seeing Mio for the first time, and on that whim challenged Mio to face him in the main event of his produce show. I guess it was just obvious to everyone that this match would be great, and they were all damn right. This is incredibly tight professional wrestling, the kind of work where nothing is given up without struggle and everything is a process of breaking down the opponent. The matwork in this match is amazing, no two ways about it. Mio is such a fast grappler, moving across the mat with borderline Tamura speed and hunting for limbs like a starved wolf. Masao Ando, meanwhile, is a complete beast of a man himself, able to at point completely manhandle Mio and force control. The way he drags and flips Mio around almost enters the territory of disrespect, and when he finally gets around to doing more pro wrestling moves, a lot of them are just Ando treating Mio like a ragdoll. Every single bump on the World's Thinnest Ring Mat sounds like utter death. I have to imagine Ando is just a lunatic and wanted to force all the wrestlers on this show to suffer in the same way he suffers sparring in this ring on a regular basis. Honestly, I have nothing else to say that wouldn't spoil major moments of the match. Click on the link and check this out. The match is only 11 minutes long and there's no time wasted. Even with the very pro wrestling moments of this match, I have no qualms declaring it one of the best shoot style matches of the last 10 years.

Match Rating: A-

Antonio Koinoki vs. Genichiro Tenryu (WGWF 05/31/2010)

    The majority of Tenryu's best matches of the last 10 years of his career can be classified as "beatings." Old Man Tenryu wakes up on the wrong side of the bed and decides to make it someone else's problem. KENTA, Kengo, and many more were given the closest thing to a death sentence in the great sport. This is Antonio Koinoki's turn in the electric chair. Antonio Koinoki is, for all intent and purposes, a comedian; his wrestling is a joke by design. He is an inadequate Inoki, failing at the most basic spots and constantly finding ways to hurt himself doing the most innocuous things. So, how does an old Tenryu in a bad mood respond to an actual professional wrestling comedian? With maybe his most violent performance of the 21st century, that's how. He beats Koinoki within an inch of his life with some of the most ruthless punches, kicks, and chops Tenryu's thrown in his entire career, bloodying up Koinoki's mouth and legitimately putting an imprint of his boot's laces on the side of Koinoki's face. But, if you can look beyond the violence for just a moment, this match is a truly special performance for Koinoki, and one of the best examples of Tenryu's silent storytelling in this period of his career. Tenryu tells the entire story of the match through his facial expressions, going from general annoyance and frustration at this stupid jokester doing his little twirls and ineffective Inoki spots, to complete and utter rage at Koinoki's refusal to stay down. But for Koinoki, this match is proof of his resolve as a wrestler. He does all of his regular spots and eats shit as usual, but Tenryu's violence is some real life-or-death type stuff, and when put in the hot seat, Koinoki decides to keep on fighting to prove his worth as an actual wrestler, clenching his teeth and throwing his own live rounds no matter how ineffective they are. That's almost the magic of this match. Koinoki's ineffectiveness starts as just a joke, but soon turns into the crux of the match, evolving from a funny little gag to the one thing Koinoki has to overcome no matter what. He never does overcome his canonical weakness, but the enzuigiri that rattles Tenryu is all he really needs. Antonio Koinoki has the soul of a professional wrestler. Tenryu just had to rip the soul out for people to see it.

Match Rating: A-

Masashi Takeda vs. Koichiro Kimura (Kazushigumi 06/02/2009)

    Damn man, I miss when Kazushi Miyamoto posted matches from his old promotion to his YouTube channel. There's still a lot that hasn't been released, but nowadays he's too preoccupied with vlogging and hypebeasting to return to his roots. Kazushi, if you're reading this, just know I would gladly drop all plans and turn this into the official Kazushigumi blog if you uploaded all the full shows to your channel. Anyways, what an insane matchup, both on paper and in practice. This is rookie-ish Takeda still rocking that shooter brain pattern against old and fed up Koichiro Kimura. Takeda has an awesome look here, sporting some slick black trunks and white boots along with the customary MMA gloves (this is a "Kazushi Gumi Comprehensive Rules" match, which basically means it's an MMA ruleset but worked). And man, do they get some mileage outta the gloves. There's a ton of closed fist punches to the face and body from both men, but especially Kimura, who really loves to throw a shitty little jab to the jaw right before doing anything in this match. There's some really nice mat grappling moments from both men, with Kimura doing his MMA terminator schtick and Takeda fighting for survival with massive bursts of energy and impressive technique. The best work in this match absolutely comes from when these ideologies butt heads, like Takeda getting sick of Kimura's head stomps by flying to his feet and letting loose with wild haymakers and throws. Really, even though this is happening in Kazushigumi, this almost feels like it comes from an alternate world Fu-ten, where Takeshi Ono started the promotion instead of Daisuke Ikeda. Now I'm thinking about a theoretical Masashi Takeda Fu-ten run and I'm getting sad that it didn't happen. Really though, this match does enough to fill the void in my heart in that regard. I honestly really want to give this the full-on "A" rating, but I do think a few too many strikes land without the right amount of oomph (maybe more the fault of the venue's acoustics than the combatants), and it needed to go just a little longer with maybe one or two more big moments. For what it is though, this is a real Ass Kicker, God Damner, etc. A Match That Fucks The Butt and things of that nature.

Match Rating: B+

Comprehensive Super Rider #5

            (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

Onita Pro 06/27/1999

 (Written by jom)

    Okay, so y'know how I said I'd have a new Onita Pro review every two weeks? I meant five weeks. But maybe the next one will come out in three weeks! Or one week? or maybe two after all. I don't know. You don't care. Onto the review!

Survival Tobita vs. Pinch Hitter Joe vs. Rey Pandita

    This is a Saitama Pro offer match. It's presented with the tagline "THIS IS ZERO" and contested under "Survival Three Way Fuckin' Dance" rules. Every time I write one of these Onita Pro reviews, I will call Atsushi Onita a visionary. Allowing fellow visionary Tobita to run something like this is further proof of his position in the pantheon of sick ass wrestling bookers.

    Once again, who the fuck is Rey Pandita? I still have no idea who's under the mask, but honestly, I'm fine with that. Rey Pandita is Rey Pandita, and he's here to ruin someone's day with psychologically-devastating bits wrestling. Also, who the fuck is Pinch Hitter Joe??? Probably Naoshi Sano, but that's besides the point. While Pandita is absolutely an Onita gimmick, Joe is a Tobita gimmick through and through. The story goes that Tobita planned for a "man from a manhole" to be in the match. However, due to some sort of bodily fluids issue, the man couldn't make it to the show. So, a pinch hitter named Joe has taken his place.

    Survival Tobita gets his own introductory paragraph because he's the coolest motherfucker ever. My Tobita bias is probably not much of a secret (I have a whole series on the site dedicated to singing his praises), but truly, has there ever been a more powerful entrance than this one? Tobita stomps out with a cigarette in his mouth, raising the plunger over his head and using his open hand to high-five the fans. He's also using Elephant Kashimashi's "Namida no Kazu Dake" as his theme on this occasion, which, while not my favorite Tobita theme (nothing will ever be better than "Gastronger"), is probably in my top five at the very least. 

    This is a match of many phases, all of which are pretty fun. We start out with the usual comedy three-way spots (triple lockup and interrupting holds) before Pandita and Joe start teaming up on Tobita. It's around this point that I realize Pandita might be Mitsunobu Kikuzawa. There's just something about the way he pantomimes that reminds me a lot of Ebessan. Pandita is also built pretty similarly to Kikuzawa around this time, and Kikuzawa really began his time under Onita in Onita Pro, so everything seems to line up. Also, Joe pays dearly for trusting Pandita when Pandita starts trying to get one over on him, leading to a Gedo Clutch from Pandita eliminating Joe. The golden rule of Onita Pro: never trust Rey Pandita.

    At this point, the match takes a sharp turn: Pandita becomes Genshi Enjin Virgon. He starts doing all of the Virgon-isms (prowling around, hopping up and down, running into the crowd) and the monster music begins playing over the speakers. The crowd is barely invested which hurts my soul, but they still do some fun stuff, with Tobita bumping like a madman for every Pandita push and Pandita doing a good job of pretending to be Virgon. Tobita eventually hits his piledriver and locks in a figure four necklock for the KO victory.

    Honestly, not much to say about this one. It's an extremely surface-level match, and while it never does anything bad, it also never does anything particularly good. I love Tobita and I was fascinated by Pandita's Virgon tribute performance, but it really just made me want to watch more of the Tobita/Virgon matches. Pinch Hitter Joe also certainly existed. This was a fine enough opener for the show.

Match Rating: B-

Masanobu Kurisu vs. Kengo Takai

    Atsushi Onita is a monster. I take back everything good I've ever said about him. Booking this match should get you arrested. A young Kengo Takai, only a year into his professional wrestling career, is taking on Masanobu Kurisu. This is nine and a half years after the Kurisu/Akiyoshi slaughter, and here we have another case of Onita putting a plucky rookie against the king of killing rookies. Truly, these matches are the sins that will weigh heavy on Onita's soul in the afterlife.

    This goes roughly like you'd expect. Kurisu (with a shitty little ponytail) is actually a lot more giving in the early portion of the match than he was against Akiyoshi. He throws some mean headbutts and stomps, but he also lets Takai throw some big strikes of his own, and even bumps for him on a few occasions. However, Kurisu gets his hands on some chairs and all of that cooperation goes out the window. With chair in hand, Kurisu is an agent of pain. He throws an unprotected shot to the head in this match that almost made me turn away from the screen. Takai committed the crime of accepting a match against Masanobu Kurisu, and Kurisu is his executioner.

    Even after the initial chair assault, Takai still fights back, and even gets a good string of offense going, culminating in a big diving headbutt. That's probably Takai's biggest strong suit in this match: his fire. Shoji Akiyoshi had a lot of fire in him in the infamous 1989 squash, but Takai's fire feels a lot more outwardly expressed. He's yelling out to the crowd, almost hyping himself up to try and fight this old behemoth he has no chance of beating. Of course, Takai waves his muleta in front of the bull a little too much. His attempt at throwing some shoot headbutts gets no-sold. Kurisu entirely brushes off a dropkick and goes back to '89, letting loose with the headbutts, head stomps, and punt kicks that made him infamous. He even flings Takai back outside to throw more unsafe chairshots, before finally, mercifully, killing Takai with the Kurisu Special (a llave that I can't even begin to explain, but it looks like it could've snapped Takai's neck).

    This, like many "Kurisu vs. guy he can take liberties on" matches, was uncomfortable. Was it the most abhorrent of the genre? Absolutely not. Kengo Takai should pray to his god that this was a decade beyond Kurisu's peak of cruelty. But, like many of the matches from that genre, it also kinda rocked. It may be weird to say this, but there's something special about these types of young boy matches. They're full of work you could never see today. We as a society have improved enough to silently ban these matches from happening. And yet, there's something bizarrely entrancing about them. They're the ultimate fights for survival, genuine David vs. Goliath matches. Even if you're vocally cheering for the Goliath, you always silently pray for this David to have a slingshot. They never do. But one day someone might. It's an awful genre of match to exist, but I will never stop enjoying it.

Match Rating: B+

Combat Toyoda, Crusher Maedomari, Miss Mongol, & Shark Tsuchiya vs. Emi Koizumi, Killer Iwami, RIE, & Tsuppari Mack

    Fun fact! Half of this match is already retired. This is a reunion tag for a bunch of the FMW-raised women's wrestlers, and there's a lot of people here I've never seen before. Specifically, I haven't seen Koizumi, Iwami, or Mack before this match, and I've never seen RIE in this gimmick (but I've seen a fair number of Bad Nurse Nakamura matches and she fucking rules). This is also Combat Toyoda's one-time return in the form of an actual match. I don't really count battle royals as returns because there's an entirely different energy to battle royals than pretty much all other wrestling.

    Speaking of energy, this is a match all about having fun. And wouldn't you know it, it was fun! If you came into this match expecting some sort of serious clash between the face-painted freaks and the plucky underdogs, you'd probably be disappointed. This was around 85% just bits and goofs, but you could tell everyone was having a blast. 

    Any time one of the retired faces would do anything, everyone would clap and cheer (including the heel team). Toyoda gets to come in and run wild at least once, and it's cool to see her still put some power behind her lariats. There's a very fun spot near the middle where RIE does a great rolling cradle, and Koizumi completely botches her attempt at one right after. Then the faces and heels all start hyping her up, and she gets the strength to pull off a great one. If I had to pinpoint one person as a highlight, it'd probably be Tsuppari Mack, who kept hitting Maedomari in the face with a book or something. She was cool and I might need to seek out some of her work from when she was actually an active wrestler.

    All in all, I had a fun time watching this. Maybe it wasn't the most engrossing thing in the world, but that's fine. It was a real "getting the band back together" type of match, and you can't not enjoy that, at least a little bit.

Match Rating: B

Atsushi Onita, Nise Onita, & Sambo Asako vs. Katsuji Ueda, Masashi Aoyagi, & Shooter #1

    For the first time in blog history, Nise Onita is here. Nise Onita, for anyone that doesn't know, is Toshiyuki Moriya, a bonafide legend of the Japanese indie scene. Even if he wasn't always the greatest worker in the ring, he was a vital part of many important promotions from the time, and places like DDT wouldn't have become the monoliths they are without Moriya's help. Also, I'm gonna be referring to him as Moriya throughout the review, because calling him Nise sounds weird, Onita would be confusing, and Nise Onita is too long.

    Moriya is actually the primary focus on this match, as this kind of serves as an initiation into the Onita crew. Ueda and Aoyagi beat his ass over and over again, and Moriya bumps for it all because, canonically, Moriya is an incredibly weak wrestler. If Onita was a normal wrestler trying to become a God, Moriya was a normal man trying to become Onita. Moriya does get some offense in, with a lot of "swinging for the fences" strikes filled with some real passion. Both Aoyagi and Ueda crush him as much as they can, and Aoyagi especially takes exception to Moriya's fiery attempts at fighting back, at one point just raining down mounted punches on Moriya's head, busting Moriya wide open.

    Onita and Asako are both in more "supporting act" roles here rather than being at the main stage (both men still have to wrestle in the main event after all). Onita does get some great moments to shine though, and the crowd becomes rabid when Onita and Aoyagi finally get to face off. The crowd in general were super into the match here, cheering a ton of Moriya and getting unglued whenever one of the martial artists popped off a strike combo. Eventually, Ueda uncorks a punch to the back of Moriya's head, and the referee calls for the bell.

    Moriya cuts a promo after while covered in blood and he does all the Onita-isms, which gets a big pop from the crowd. The camera then cuts to backstage, where Moriya is laying on the ground, still covered in blood, in Onita's jacket.

    Honestly? I thought this was pretty damn good. Ueda and Aoyagi got to let loose with their awesome martial arts stuff, and Onita had a few moments to reignite the old different style fighting spirit within. Moriya was the real star of the match though, and he did a really great job of selling like a motherfucker. He fully understood how to do the Onita style of work, and it came off as very endearing. Asako and Shooter (oh yeah he's in this match) were pretty much nothing here, but the other four played their roles very well, and I enjoyed it as a whole. 

Match Rating: B

Anywhere Fall Street Fight: Masao Orihara & Shooter #2 vs. Exciting Yoshida & Sanshiro Takagi

    Takagi is BACK! I assumed on the last show that Takagi was challenging Luther and Hannibal to a match, but this makes a lot more sense. Takagi and Orihara had been feuding for a few years at this point (and still had another year to go before the feud ended), and this is their first encounter in Korakuen. Takagi is teaming with regular partner Exciting Yoshida and Orihara is with "Shooter #2." The original Shooter #2 was Ryo Miyake, but no telling if that's who's under the mask here.

    This starts off with Shooter and Takagi getting into a scrappy fight while Orihara throws a comically wide chair swing that Yoshida sells by jumping away. This is a pretty great precedent setter for the match, as all the actually cool stuff comes from Takagi and Shooter brawling around Korakuen, while a lot of the very funny/not good work involves Orihara and Yoshida.

    The best wrestler in this match was probably Shooter #2, who I can very safely say is Koichiro Kimura. He was just working how he usually does, only in a black mask. Him and Takagi went on a little tour of Korakuen, checking out the lobby and the hallways, before eventually landing in the crowd where Shooter started throwing a bunch of really gross kicks before crushing Takagi with a double arm suplex in the bleachers. Kimura is a really underrated worker when it comes to his versatility, and this match really helped to show just how capable he was in a brawling context. He brawls the exact way you'd hope for him to, basically doing all the same ruthless shoot style work he usually just, just on concrete instead of in a ring. I am, of course, a hardcore Kimura agenda pusher, but that doesn't change the fact that he ruled here.

    Orihara, meanwhile, fucking stunk. He really couldn't be bothered to put any effort into his work here, or at least it didn't seem like it. He did a very goofy spot with Takagi early on where they dodged each other's clothesline attempts six or seven times, before doing another stupid spot with Yoshida where they casually no-sold brainbusters back and forth. Yoshida was kinda meh here as well. he wasn't as offensively bad as Orihara, but his brawling was uninspired and his in-ring work was just acceptable.

    The match culminated with Shooter and Takagi (who was solid enough hyping up the crowd and letting Shooter kick him) doing some nice heated brawling on the Korakuen stage, before Takagi hit a fucking german suplex on Shooter to get the win. It was a really gnarly way for the match to end, so at least they wrapped everything up on a high note.

    I have very mixed feelings on this match. Takagi was cool and Shooter rocked, but Yoshida wasn't good and Orihara sucked. If this was just the Orihara/Yoshida stuff, I think this would be in the Ds range. If it was just the Takagi/Shooter work, it would be closer to a B+. I'll just split the difference in a positive way because the finish was crazy.

Match Rating: C+

No Rope Barbed Wire Double Hell Street Fight: Atsushi Onita, Mitsunobu Kikuzawa, Sambo Asako, & Shigeo Okumura vs. Genichiro Tenryu, Hiroshi Ono, Ichiro Yaguchi, & Shoji Nakamaki

    Once again, no big explanation needed. This is pretty much the same match on paper as the main event of the last show, only this time Kikuzawa and Ono have been thrown into the mix, and the stipulation has gotten bigger. Also, Tenryu is here in a button-up and tie this time around. He's all business.

    Just like the first Onita Pro main event, this was a ton of chaos and brawling, so attempting to run down the match spot-for-spot would not only be a fool's errand, it would also make for shitty writing. Instead, I'll focus on the most important wrestlers in the match.

    Firstly, let's talk about Onita and Tenryu together. They're the team captains, leading their armies into battle, and their interactions are of course the big draw. As always, they did great together. All of their encounters were equally violent and dramatic, with Tenryu letting loose with an enzuigiri within a minute of the match starting and Onita getting the boys to help him do a spike piledriver on the big man (using a chair since the top rope wasn't available). They also rehash the chair bash spot I loved from the last match, but this time Tenryu was very clearly just punishing an already hurt Onita rather than throwing a chair out of desperation. It felt like the natural evolution of the spot considering Tenryu was in control for much more of this match than he was in the previous one, and did a great job of continuing to isolate Onita from his partners.

    Speaking of Onita's partners, Shigeo Okumura. What a fucking guy. In the last review, I mentioned that Okumura came off as a million bucks, but this is the match where he truly felt like he near Tenryu and Onita's level power-scaling wise. One of the first spots of the match was Tenryu pulling off a whip cancel to keep himself from going into the wire, only for Okumura to dropkick him into the barbs anyways. Okumura constantly ran roughshod over the match, throwing chops and punches at anyone in his way and never staying down too long. He even pulled off another save like before, keeping Tenryu from killing Kikuzawa long enough for Onita to come back in and regain control for the team. I don't know how you can see his performances in Onita Pro and not walk away thinking that he had a monster of a traveling brawler career hidden within him.

    Finally, we need to talk about Mitsunobu Kikuzawa. I haven't been silent about my distaste for Kikutaro. Most of my issues stem with the plethora of matches he's had against women, because sadly, I just don't really find sexual assault funny! And his many intergender matches are filled with creep spots. I'm aware that Kikutaro's non-intergender work is an entirely different world, and I enjoy a lot of it, but I just can't ignore his VKF career. 

    All of that being said, I've always thought that Kikuzawa was a real missed opportunity, as all of his unmasked work that I've seen has been very good. This was probably one of his best performances ever, as he took the role of designated team victim for the Onita army, and my god, was he a victim. Tenryu made it his mission to force Kikuzawa to leave the industry in this match, constantly punching him in the jaw and chopping his throat, which Kikuzawa sold like hell. Kikuzawa also took the most insane spot of the whole show, a monkey flip from the ring to the barbed wire on the floor from Tenryu, which Kikuzawa sold the same way I reacted when I hit a rough bump riding my bike downhill at 13 and did a full flip directly onto the small of my back on the poorly paved road. Kikuzawa was here to die, and although he fought back as best he could, but by the end of the match, he was left bathed in own blood while wrapped in barbed wire (just like Onita was in the last main event; I see what's going on here). But he survived. He survived and made the decisive final attack for his team. Kikuzawa's body attack with his barbed wire-wrapped chest led directly into Onita's match-winning powerbomb. Kikuzawa went through hell in this match, and used that hell to win.

    After the match, there's this visually beautiful moment where Onita, Okumura, and Asako all work together to unwrap the wire around Kikuzawa, before Onita grabs his water bottle and pours it over his own head, dripping onto Kikuzawa's crimson visage and washing some of the blood away. In a sense, Kikuzawa was baptized into the Onita sphere of wrestling in this match, and this was the actual baptism.

    This was a clear sequel to the last Onita Pro main event, so it's worth comparing the two. A lot of the spots from the last match happened in this one as well (even a few of the same botches), but this match also brought a lot of new stuff to the table, especially when it came to the whole "double hell" part of the match. I do think this one slightly falters compared to the first Onita Pro main, as it doesn't stay as consistently chaotic, and the action-less parts of the match are more noticeable. Still, this match was fucking great. Again, I have bias for Onita Pro main event brawls, but I do feel like this was a very worthwhile sequel to one of the best matches ever. 

Match Rating: A

    I think this was a little worse than the previous Onita Pro show. While this show never had anything as bad as the Hannibal tag, it also felt like it never truly reached the highs of the first show, and the stagnation in quality really hurt the flow of the full show itself. The main event was still great though, so that keeps it from escaping the B-tier. Overall, solid stuff, and I'm still excited to continue going through Onita Pro.

Show Rating: B-