Comprehensive CMA Gym #2

                 (Written by jom)

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

    We're back with another CMA Gym article, and of course we're gonna start with one of their straight singles matches to get back into the zone.

    This was pretty similar to the other 1994 singles match reviewed previously, with the main story of the match being Miyamoto using his stiff kicks and grappling ability to fight back against Tsukada's boxing glove onslaught. There were some pretty stiff brawling in the first round, with both guys taking pot shots as much as they could, and the crowd was all there for it which was a really great addition.

    Of the two of them, Miyamoto definitely was more impressive, busting out his sick kicks but also hitting a few wrestling moves which I was not expecting. He let loose a couple really nasty combos, like one that led into a skull-cracking reverse roundhouse kick, and another (shown below) where he tried to scramble Tsukada's brains with some head kicks before spiking him on the top of his head with a DDT.

    Overall, I think this was pretty good, but a step down from the match they would have in Union again two months later. Still, when it comes to these two, you'll always be getting quality.

Rating: B

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

    This, on paper, is a very similar match to one reviewed in the previous post (except this time the partners are swapped and Miyake is subbing in for Teranishi). As such, I was expecting this to be just kinda fun but nothing more.

    I was wrong! This was pretty crazy. Miyake and Takasugi had a few moments to shine in the match, with Miyake at one point throwing Tsukada like a missile and Takasugi hitting a stiff lariat and hip attack, but the majority of what was shown was Miyamoto/Tsukada, and my god I don't know what was in the water but some of the stuff they did was insane. Miyamoto threw some of the hardest kicks I've ever seen him throw, with multiple having an audible thud upon contact with Tsukada. This included one head kick that was particularly loud, and actually made me pause the match for a minute to get my bearings back. Probably the most brutal besides that one was this kick directly to Tsukada's neck, which, once again, made a horrifying sound:

    Tsukada wasn't here just to eat shots from Miyamoto though, as he totally dished out some in kind. He threw tons of punch combos, let Miyake throw him like a lawn dart out of the ring onto Miyamoto, and he even was able to hit the diving punch, which looked beast as always. Probably the hardest combo he threw all match can be seen below, where he nearly knocked Miyamoto's whole head off the rest of his body.

    I thought going into this that there was no way this match would be able to reach the level of the last one. In the end though, I think this one actually edged the last one out just a bit. Miyamoto and Tsukada brought even more violence to the table, and Miyake and Takasugi not only held up their own ends of the match, but their contributions ended up elevating the match even more. Overall, another beautiful chapter in the CMA Gym wars.

Rating: B+

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

    Our first ever review as part of this project that doesn't include both gym leaders! Here Miyamoto is taking on Ho Des Minh (aka Poison Sawada and a bunch of other names) for Minh's CMA Certified Heavyweight Championship. As far as I can tell this is the only recorded match for this title, but I'd love to find more considering they'd all probably include either Miyamoto or Tsukada.

    This ended up being pretty solid, albeit a little disappointing. Minh was pretty solid here, working over Miyamoto's leg at different points, such as when he caught a kick and hit a dragon screw, before transitioning into a figure four leglock. He also got to do some of the cool moves in his arsenal, particularly the killer butterfly DDT he does.

    Miyamoto, meanwhile, was solid too, but it was pretty clear his intensity was kinda gone, and there were some clear missteps that reflect a guy who up to that point had spent a lot of his career working different style fights against one person. Even with all that, his kicks landed with a solid amount of thud still, and he did get to bust out a few cool moves like a solid german suplex.

    Overall, this was a solid enough match, but you could really tell Miyamoto was more suited for the weird borderline shoots he had against Tsukada. Minh absolutely did a good job in his role has the pro wrestling bad guy, it was just a case of stylistic difference not being able to entirely mix.

Rating: B-

West Japan 06/21/1995

           (Written by jom)

Masahiko Kochi vs. Kenichi Kawasaki

    West Japan starts out their only Korakuen show right with a batch of rookie matches. Kawasaki is a complete unknown, I tried looking into him but couldn't find any info at all. Kochi is a personal favorite of mine, a really solid worker in his prime who could throw some really hard kicks and had an amazing spinning wheel kick. However, this was not even a full year into his career, so I honestly wasn't expecting much.

    It's pretty good I came in with that expectation because this match was nothing. While the whole match was about 12 minutes long, this was clipped down to not even 2 minutes (the beginning of a show full of mostly unnecessary clipping). Kawasaki was fine, doing a cool roll-up at one point, but that's really his only contribution worth noting. Kochi was also mostly fine, he actually threw some of those kicks I was talking about and even did a wheel kick, but it wasn't done that well. The match ended after Kochi reversed a small package into his own small package.

    Again, this wasn't bad or anything, but overall what we got made this out to be a very nothing match.

Rating: C

Toyonari Fujita vs. Diablo

    Now here is a match I had some hopes for. Fujita is of course the future Magnitude Kishiwada, taking on fellow future Osaka top heel Diablo. Both guys are very early into their careers, with Fujita having debuted less than 2 years prior to this, and Diablo being only 8 months into professional wrestling (while also wearing some very different gear than what we'd come to recognize him for). Even though both guys were definitely still getting their acts together, I did have some confidence this would be good.

    Luckily, I ended up being right about that, at least based on what we saw. Diablo sadly wasn't shown getting much offense in, however of the few things he did, they pretty much all rocked, especially this great diving headbutt by him.

    However, the real star of the match was definitely Fujita. The way he worked here was in sharp contrast to how he would end up working only a few years later, as the wrestler Fujita was at this point was more akin to the IWA Japan juniors guys than anything else. He hit some great dives, nasty suplexes, and capped it all off with a pretty gnarly powerbomb. 

    Eventually however, both of the competitors were unable to get a pinfall or submission before the 20 minute time limit ran out, resulting in a draw. The fact we were only shown three fucking minutes of this match is pretty annoying, but at least the three minutes we got to see were pretty damn solid.

Rating: B-

Doku Gas Mask vs. Crusher Takahashi

    Crusher Takahashi is one of my favorite guys on the sleaze scene, a worker with his heart on his sleeve and an undying love for Terry Funk, capable of throwing punches and selling in a way that would almost definitely make Funk himself proud. Doku Gas Mask is of course the one and only Survival Tobita, playing the gimmick that introduced him to the world of flamethrowers, a world that he would embrace for the rest of his career. To truly cement that, here's Mask's "pre-match promo", which is just him walking up the Korakuen stairs with flamethrower in hand:

    While the match overall didn't give me much to say, this was just so much fun. Takahashi is a wonderful babyface with a great punch who can sell his ass off for anything and everything Mask throws at him, and Mask is great as a monsterish force of nature, throwing some really gross headbutts: 

    There were some nice interactions involving Mask's mostly ineffective manager, some person in all red with a big stick. Neither guy really did anything notably great in terms of moves, but the way this was worked and how invested the crowd got made this a total blast. Eventually, Mask won by reversing Takahashi's spinning toe hold into a small package.

    After the match, Mask attempted to incinerate Takahashi with the flamethrower, but Takahashi was able to catch his arms, fighting him off and just chucking the flamethrower out of the ring. Mask tried to throw a chair at him from the outside but Takahashi caught it and threw it back, and Mask's manager attempted to do the same but his chair ended up hitting off the ring post and flying back at him, to the glee of the audience.

    This match was again clipped down to just around 2 minutes, but the overall match was only about 8 minutes long so this really didn't hurt as bad as the last two. Both guys played their roles really well and the crowd were so into everything they were doing. Just a great fun old school match featuring two guys who are genuinely great at delivering that type of match.

Rating: B+

Black Hole & Fumio Akiyama vs. Hopper King & Koichiro Kimura

    As you can see from the title of this match, this one is actually on YouTube, courtesy of the wonderful IndyPuroresu channel. This match had a ton of potential just from the names, as it features four dudes with awesome attires and fucked attitudes going at it in a "shooting style" tag match. This was probably the match I had the most hope for on the whole show, and my lord did it deliver.

    Akiyama was great here, fighting with a real ferocity to everything he did, at one point sweeping out Kimura's legs and just going nuts on him with strikes. Pretty much everything Akiyama did felt so legit, he really felt like he was fighting for his life against Rider and Kimura for the whole match. Black Hole was great too, acting as like a weird space alien judoka version of Vader. For a lot of offense thrown his way, he would just absorb it with his big fuckin belly like a god, and he threw some real stiff clubbing blows in combination with some absolutely beautiful throws.

    Kimura was an absolute beast during his times fighting. He had some absolutely awesome moments like ducking a head kick from Akiyama to pick his other ankle, or when he just started brawling with Akiyama and Black Hole. Hopper King (aka Super Rider) was probably the best part of this whole match however. He threw some fucking amazing punches and kicks, absolutely obliterating whoever he was in the ring with at any time, while also doing some awesome grappling on the mat. 

    Eventually, the match ended in one of the best finishes I've seen in a long time, which I honestly won't even say since you should really go out of your way to check this match out. It's less than 10 minutes long and absolutely worth your time. Just an insanely stiff fight, real sleazy bati-bati featuring four of the best at working a style like this.

Rating: A-

Hiroshi Shimada, Kenichiro Yukimura, & Shigeo Okumura vs. Hiroshi Hatanaka, Masaru Toi, & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa

    Following up that insane intergalactic shoot-style match, here we have a who's who of the 90s sleaze scene. Shimada is a big fucker with some great athleticism, Yukimura is a solid juniors worker, Okumura is a pretty nice rounded wrestler, Hatanaka is an absolute bruiser, Toi is a pretty sweet juniors guy, and Kikuzawa is (at this point) another solid all-rounder.

    This was pretty damn good, albeit not reaching my expectations but still being a pretty fun watch. Everyone had a moment to shine or two, with Shimada probably putting in the best performance. He was an absolute beast here, just chucking Toi and Kikuzawa around like they weighed nothing while also having a really awesome segment where he used Kikuzawa and Toi against each other like they were human battering rams. Kikuzawa was able to put on a great performance too, getting some revenge on Shimada later in the match with this absolute beauty of a suicide dive:

    Around this point, the match breaks down, with tons of brawling on the outside. Hatanaka is able to get in the ring with Yukimura and while Yukimura is able to get some nice offense in, he's no match for the absolute monster that is Hatanaka, with Hatanaka's onslaught leading to this borderline unprofessional beatdown:

    After this, Toi hit a crossbody on Yukimura for the win. Overall, I think the match was pretty solid stuff, however it did feel kinda disjointed and some people like Okumura and Toi contributed far less than I would've liked them to have.

Rating: B

Flag Deathmatch: Mitsuteru Tokuda vs. Ho Des Minh

    Just like the shooter tag match, this match has also been uploaded to YouTube by IndyPuroresu. The rules of this match are pretty simple: to win, you have to pin your opponent with their flag on top of them. Ho Des Minh is the weird Chinese militant gimmick of Poison Sawada, coming to the ring with a god damn combat knife like he's planning to murder Tokuda. Tokuda at this point was the top guy in West Japan, and it seems that he and Minh had been feuding for a while up to this point. 

    Honestly, the best way to describe this match is that it just fucking ruled. Tokuda and Minh brawled like mad all around the arena, throwing each other into chairs and going nuts with some awesome spots, like Tokuda doing an amazing judo throw on Minh while Minh was on the top rope. They also were both able to do some crazy table spots, such as this absolute beauty of a DDT by Minh:

    Or this genuinely insane suplex by Tokuda:

    This may be surprising, but I'm actually going to leave talking about the match at this. The whole match is less than 10 minutes just like the insane tag, and some of these spots just have to be seen to be believed. A top-tier hardcore brawl with an insanely hyped up crowd, this is a career performance from both Minh and Tokuda. Definite recommendation that you check this one out ASAP.

Rating: A