Minoru Tanaka 20th Anniversary in Kyoto 05/17/2014

                      (Written by jom)

Kazuhiro Tamura vs. Alexander Otsuka

    We're starting this show commemorating Minoru Tanaka's 20th anniversary in wrestling right by featuring two people with pasts deeply tied to Tanaka himself. While Tamura is of course a trainee of Kiyoshi Tamura in U-FILE CAMP, he also spent a lot of time training under former ARSION wrestler and U-FILE CAMP trainer Yumi Fukawa. While Fukawa was training him, she got married to Minoru Tanaka, leading to Kazuhiro Tamura receiving training from Tanaka, a dream situation for Tamura considering Tanaka was possibly his favorite wrestler. Otsuka meanwhile is someone Tanaka spent the entirety of his early career with, as both of them came up in PWFG before moving to Battlarts.

    This ended up being a pretty fun little opener for the show. It started off with Tamura and Otsuka doing some alright grappling, before eventually breaking into a small chest slap exchange which led to Otsuka smacking the taste out of Tamura's mouth before smashing him with a shoot headbutt. Otsuka took over for a solid portion at this point and did some solid enough work, mostly just clubbing on Tamura and hitting stuff like a real hard european uppercut.

    Tamura was eventually able to take the advantage with his really cool run-up corkscrew senton attack (basically just Jeff Hardy's "Whisper in the Wind"), and he started to rattle off some of his usual awesome offense, like some mean slaps, a nice slingblade, and a really good missile dropkick. There was a nice little struggle over whether Tamura would be able to put on the Minoru Special, before finally Tamura hit a really mean kick to Otsuka's arm and locked in Tanaka's eponymous move.

    Otsuka was able to escape however, and soon after took back the advantage, hitting some of his own cool offense including his awesome giant swing, before finally planting Tamura with a really nice release tiger bomb to get the victory.

    This didn't really do anything special but at the same time featured two very good wrestlers hitting some of their usually good stuff for about 5 minutes. Otsuka was cool as the dominant veteran, beating down on the smaller Tamura before Tamura was able to come back and hit some of his usual awesome offense. A very enjoyable way to start the show.

Rating: B-

Hikaru Shida & Tsubasa vs. Kana & Heat

    Next up, we have Tanaka making his first appearance of the night, reviving his Heat persona from his days in NJPW and teaming with Kana to take on Tsubasa and Shida. Kana (WWE's Asuka) is of course an absolute killer at this point in her career (although she's very rarely not a killer at any point), and Shida is someone who I've seen very little of but I've heard she's at least pretty solid. Tsubasa is one of those guys that went to Mexico in the 90s to receive training in lucha libre, and he's been a very good wrestler at pretty much all points of his career, doing some great work in Osaka pro (both the original and the revived one running today).

    Sadly, I actually think this underperformed compared to the opener, as well as considering the level of talent in the ring. The match started off well enough, with Heat and Tsubasa running through a nice fast-paced juniors exchange (ending with a double dropkick because of course it did). Kana and Shida tagged in and immediately started to hit each other pretty hard, with Shida throwing some nice boots and Kana responding with some hard kicks of her own. Eventually Shida and Kana got into a fun sequence where they kept throwing hip attacks at each other, and then when Heat tagged in he immediately threw a few of his own at Shida.

    After this though, the match kinda lost steam. It's not like the actual work was bad or anything, it just felt like the energy in the match went away, and it never came back to the level it was in the early portion. Shida and Kana were definitely the better parts of the match here, with both throwing some mean strikes like Shida's gross running knees and Kana's brutal spinning backfists. Tsubasa and Heat also weren't bad, albeit Heat did very little after that early segment and Tsubasa wasn't very inspired, only really hitting a nice DDT at one point.

    Eventually, Kana got the win for her team by countering a pinfall attempt after a Falcon Arrow from Shida into a cross armbar. There was very clearly some good stuff here, but the entirety of the match felt mostly by-the-numbers and some of the sequences were too preplanned-feeling for my tastes (I know that with this type of match that's the nature of the beast, but I still don't enjoy it). It didn't help that the crowd felt absolutely dead for most of this. Overall nothing bad happened here, but very little that was memorable happened either.

Rating: C+

Manabu Hara vs. Katsumi Usuda

    While the last match ended up being disappointing, I feel almost certain in the fact that this one will meet expectations, with two of the most underrated Battlarts wrestlers facing off in a Battlarts rules match. I haven't talked about Usuda on the blog in over a year and that is a damn shame, as he's an absolute killer who works like a sleazy shoot style Fujiwara, throwing leg lift headbutts and locking in Fujiwara armbars while also busting out some crazy spinning backfists and kicks. He would actually retire only a year after this show too, facing off against none other than Minoru Tanaka in his final match. Hara meanwhile is someone that I've somehow never talked about here, which is insane considering I think he was the best pure shooter of all the 2nd Battlarts guys. He has a vibe that kinda feels like a mix of Daisuke Ikeda and, funny enough, Katsumi Usuda, blending together slick grappling with some really hard strikes and huge suplexes, all while possessing that kick-ass aura that Ikeda had in his prime. Even to this day Hara is one of the best shoot style guys in the world, and the fact he hasn't appeared in a place like GLEAT is a damn shame.

    And wouldn't you know it, this fucking rocked! Both guys were able to really lay out some of their best stuff here and it resulted in a really damn good bati-bati match. The match started out with some really nice grappling, full of struggle and tenacity that really made it worthwhile rather than just being there to pad out the match. Very soon after that though, Usuda starts throwing some hard kicks, until Hara is able to catch one and absolutely floor him with a disgusting head kick. However, Usuda is able to get one back on him, as when he gets up and Hara tries to rush him in the corner, Usuda responds with his own head kick. This immediately sets the stage of the match, with Hara utilizing his greater athleticism and tenacity to take control, while Usuda uses his veteran instincts and craftiness to try and keep on top of his younger opponent.

    On that note, there was a lot that happened here, so I'm not going to go play-by-play, but instead I'll just talk about individual performances. Hara was pretty great as the monster shooter he always is, working very well while grappling and making sure to lay in all his strikes. Probably his best work all match were his counters though, as he was able to pull out some awesome stuff like a beautiful flying armbar or a huge german suplex. He was always one step ahead of Usuda it seemed, reading his movements and responding with appropriate violence.

    Honestly though, Usuda was the better man here.

    Usuda was really embracing that Fujiwara-level evilness in him throughout this match, constantly lighting up Hara with hard strikes and grinding him down as much as he possibly could. At one point, Hara had ahold of his arm and was trying to put in a double wristlock, so Usuda responded by just grinding his elbow into the side of Hara's head. There was also this really sick moment when Usuda was mounted on Hara's back and just started wailing on him with knees, elbows, and a cracking headbutt, before getting up and punt kicking him to hell. While Hara was able to match Usuda when it came to the force behind his moves, Usuda brought a level of cruelty that Hara couldn't match.

    The end was a pretty perfect summation of the match's whole story. Usuda started to beam Hara with head kicks until Hara was able to catch one and try to lock in an ankle hold. However, Usuda just yanked his ankle out of Hara's grasp, and blasted him with two more head kicks to get the knockout victory.

    Maybe I'm just a sucker for bati-bati (I am), but I really dug this match a lot. There were some notable moments of not much going on, with both guys hesitating to engage and just trying to find a moment to strike rather than actually striking, but when they actually did start to engage, it was always real high quality stuff. The best match on the show so far, and a wonderful performance from two of the best at the bati-bati style of wrestling.

Rating: A-

Tsubo Genjin vs. Antonio Koinoki

    I really do have to appreciate Tanaka's choice to follow up such a violent and intense fight with a light-hearted comedy match. That man knows how to pace a card. Koinoki is of course really good, almost undoubtedly the best worker to come out of WGWF entirely. Genjin is a different story though. I've actually seen very few Tsubo Genjin matches myself, but I have friends that have seen a lot more and seem to despise him. It's especially weird to hear about that since in my opinion, Genjin's work as Hiroyoshi Kotsubo in places like WYF, MUGA, and Battlarts is actually pretty solid, but again, I've heard very few good things about his comedy work, so I'm coming into this with mixed expectations.

    Honestly, this wasn't some great match or anything, but for what it was, it was fine. Not much to talk about since this went 5 minutes and didn't feature anything super interesting. Koinoki was fun as always here just busting out Inoki tribute stuff like a great indian deathlock, a very good diving knee drop, and a cool cobra twist. Genjin actually had a few nice moments too, like throwing some absolutely crazy chops that bruised up Koinoki's chest pretty nicely, as well as one point when he acted like he was going to throw Koinoki at a group of fans and then just didn't. That was probably the funniest part of the match solely because the fans were freaking out about it.

    Koinoki ended up getting the win in the end with a great enzuigiri into a manjigatame. I could probably complain about some of the stuff that happened, like moments where you could tell the two were absolutely working together to do spots, but really this match never made me feel anything strong enough to either complain or highly praise. It was a match that happened, and it was never very good nor very bad.

Rating: C

HUB & Kazuki Hashimoto vs. Masked Kocho & Ryoji Sai

    In the semi-main of the show, we've got a pretty stacked tag match between four high level juniors guys. HUB is someone I haven't talked about since the Maruyama produce I reviewed, but he's just a generally great slick high flyer. Hashimoto meanwhile is a total beast, throwing crazy hard strikes including some truly sickening kicks. Ryoji Sai is also in that category of a shitkicker and has had some really good performances in Z1. Finally, Masked Kocho is making his debut in this match, however based on the body type and the specific execution of certain moves, I'm almost 100% sure this is just Shinobu from 666. I'm fine with that though since Shinobu absolutely rocks, he's a great suicidal high flyer who can throw a mean lariat along with having a killer shooting star press. It's also the first time I've talked about Shinobu since the first post I ever made on the blog, and it's been a long time coming.

    This was a solid enough match, nothing crazy but featuring some pretty cool stuff. HUB and Hashimoto were pretty damn good when in control, as both guys are very adept at working on top and really crushing opposition, and they were able to really beat the hell out of Kocho. Hashimoto laid into him with some stiff forearms and kicks, including one to the back which let out an unreasonably loud smack. He didn't do much outside of just hitting Kocho, but I wouldn't really ask much else out of him anyways. HUB meanwhile was even better in control though, doing some great work like hitting a really gross dropkick to the back of Kocho's head, or locking in a crazy hold where he had one of Kocho's arms and one of his legs trapped while also stretching the other leg over his shoulder like a stretch muffler. HUB also let loose some real mean hits with the tail on the back of his mask, which is a very legally grey maneuver and honestly probably shouldn't be allowed but it also makes a loud sound so it appeals to my caveman brain greatly.

    On the opposing side, Ryoji Sai was really the only drawback of this whole match. He had a few good moments like coming in to break up a submission by kicking Kazuki Hashimoto really damn hard, or hitting a step-up kick to Hashimoto that was also really hard, but for the most part just slowed the momentum of the match down to a noticeable degree and was more interested in doing monotonous strike exchange type wrestling. Kocho luckily carried the team on his back though, as he rocked here. He bust out some awesome stuff like a great hurricanrana and his always insane Asai moonsault, and just in general was able to do so much great high energy offense, especially when working with like-minded wrestler HUB.

    Eventually, Kocho won the match for his team with a beautiful shooting star press. While I wasn't huge on everything that happened here (especially the stuff involving Sai), I thought this was pretty damn good for the most part, and Kocho and HUB especially put in some great performances. I'll definitely be looking out to see if HUB and Shinobu have done anything together since this match.

Rating: B

Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Minoru Tanaka

    We've finally arrived at the show's main event. This is actually a first-time singles encounter between Tanaka and Sekimoto, two living legends of the Japanese wrestling scene. If you're reading this blog, you almost definitely know about both guys, so I'm not going to bore you with a long preamble, and instead I'll just get straight into the match.

    Of course this was very good stuff. Early on Tanaka and Sekimoto actually played the match out pretty evenly with Tanaka holding his own against Sekimoto in grappling and actually smartly avoiding any power-for-power stuff. Once that did begin he was absolutely outmatched, and instead took to kicking Sekimoto as hard as he could to keep the match on equal footing. However, Sekimoto's power isn't something you can just work through easily, and pretty soon Sekimoto was in control of the match. Probably the only negative portion of the match followed this, as Sekimoto slowly worked over Tanaka with some hard chops and power stuff like a boston crab. I really just wasn't super interested in what was going on here, as while Tanaka did a great job selling the pain being inflicted, I just felt like the action was so lethargic that it was taking me out of the match. It didn't help that Sekimoto also seemed to want to instigate strike exchanges way more than needed (strike exchanges in general have absolutely fallen out of favor with me after seeing so god damn many, so at this point I only really get into them if the people doing them are throwing strikes really stiffly).

    However, once Tanaka was able to finally take some level of control back, this match got really fucking good. Tanaka's actual comeback absolutely ruled, with him trying to hit a dropkick as Sekimoto rebounded but Sekimoto caught the ropes, but once Sekimoto hit the ropes again Tanaka rolled forward and jumped up to land the dropkick. Dropkicks immediately became Tanaka's bread and butter here, as he blasted Sekimoto with a ton of them, like a gross one in the corner, a great diving one off the middle rope, and one right to the face that sent Sekimoto tumbling.

    Soon after Sekimoto was able to fully get back onto equal footing, and this entered into the back and forth bomb trading you would expect this match to. While this type of wrestling isn't my favorite, both guys were absolutely pulling off some great stuff, like Tanaka's horrific diving foot stomp, or Sekimoto's huge corner lariat. Sekimoto completely redeemed himself for the boring work he did earlier too, as he turned up the pace by a lot and started going crazy with tons of awesome stuff, including one particularly great enzuigiri into a mean brainbuster.

    The finish came soon after, as Sekimoto destroyed Tanaka with a brutal lariat and followed it up with the deadlift german suplex for the win. I think that the early portion with Sekimoto in control really did hurt this match a good deal, and if that portion had been worked better this would've probably been a flat-out great match. However, once Tanaka made his comeback, this was just awesome work from both guys for the remaining duration. Sekimoto turned into the hardass bruiser hoss we all love him as, and Tanaka pulled out all the stops to try and overcome the monster in front of him. Overall, this was a really good match, and a good way to end the show.

Rating: B+

Saburoku Combat 05/19/2013

                     (Written by jom)

Yuusha Amon & Kunihiko Mitamega vs. Kira*Ann & Dark Ranger

    Starting us off is team Wallabee vs. team... something! I talked about Mitamega on the last review I did, and I'm pretty excited to watch him again after such a good performance on the WGWF show, especially since at this point he's become a part-time member of Wallabee. I've yet to talk about Yuusha Amon though, who's another Wallabee roster member and from the small amount of work I've seen so far is pretty damn good. He's also booked Minoru Suzuki and Negro Navarro on his Tokyo Tama Luchas shows, which is just so insane that I have to mention it. On the other side of the ring is Kira*Ann and Dark Ranger, two people I've never seen before. Just from the entrances, Ann isn't very notable but Ranger (not to be confused with Miracle Man who also went by Dark Ranger) is wearing a scream mask and has tights that just completely show his dick and balls, so that's certainly something.

    When looking back at my notes, I feel like I must share this section: "Amon horrifically botched an arm twist; Ranger is god awful; Ann just did one of the worst botches I have ever seen; RANGER WILL NOT STOP YELLING; oh my god this is horrible". This was a rough match to get through. Probably the worst wrestler in the match was Kira*Ann, who unlike everyone else had genuinely not a single good moment. Everything she did was sloppy and uncoordinated, especially the arm drag(?) attempt that led to the comment above. Ranger wasn't much better, working a slow motion lucha sequence against Amon and doing this incessant high pitched yelling that stopped being funny very fast. The one "good" moment of his was a giant swing, but if I was willing to let that redeem someone I'd be less angry at Otoko Sakari matches. 

    Mitamega and Amon were both okay, but neither seemed interested in working hard and they did next to nothing of note. Mitamega blocked a low blow with a ladle at one point (kinda, he didn't get into position at time but I don't fucking care enough to make it an issue) and the guy hosting the show got on the mic and laughed at it, and then later Amon hit a genuinely good backdrop suplex. Other than those two spots, their contributions were absolutely nothing.

    Truly, I cannot get across just how bad this match was. When I reviewed Hideki Shioda vs. Mambo Shintaro, I called it one of the worst matches I had ever seen, before giving it an A+. The reason behind that choice was that it felt so horrible, so monumentally bad, that it wrapped around to being amazing. It was a match that truly came to benefit from how terrible it was, turning into one of the most enjoyable natural disasters I have ever seen take place in a wrestling ring. This match didn't reach that point. It may have gotten close, but it never crossed the barrier from being "bad" to "hilariously bad".

    It also lacked any surreal moments to bring it to the level of Shinigami Shuucho vs. JET Shinomura, or Magnum Oedo & X vs. Koryuki & X. Those matches possessed a key moment that took it from being meh or bad to an insane viewing experience. Once again, this was not the case for this match. There was no intrusion from Koriki Senshu. There was no surprise gorilla. There was the ladle spot, but not only was it less interesting than those two examples, but it was also of little consequence for the rest of the match. There was only Dark Ranger and Kira*Ann, and those two are not Koriki Senshu or the surprise gorilla. In the end, this was never so bad it was good, nor was it truly memorable in any way. The only thing saving this match from an even lower rating was Amon's great backdrop suplex, and even then that can only do so much. A match that, truly, was lacking in anything of worth.

Rating: D

Kancho Nagase vs. Survival Tobita

    After seeing some of the worst the indy scene has to offer, we're following it up with a match that has a ton of promise for weirdos like me that love the sleaze scene. Nagase and Tobita are both legends of this weird shindie circuit in Japan, coming up in PWC and both doing well in their respective crafts for years since then. This is somehow the first time they've ever met in the ring according to different wrestling results sites (outside of a battle royale from DDT in 2000). I'm sure they've met at least 3 times in the past for shows that would never appear on these sites, but at bare minimum I've never seen them meet in the ring before, so I was excited to see it happen.

    And luckily, this ended up being pretty fun! Considering both guys, there was of course some of the expected roughness, but what they did here is what is what I would call spiritually correct pro-wrestling. The whole basis for this match was that Nagase is smaller than Tobita but also a hard-hitting karateka, and Tobita is a big monster who manhandles Nagase with brute force and headbutts. Nagase was pretty awesome here throwing sick chest punches and cool kicks, including his always great diving dropkick. He also did this amazing counter into his signature sleeper hold seen below, and as a whole was able to utilize his size and personal strengths to their full potential. The only criticism I have for him is that his rope rebounds are some of the worst I've seen, but considering he's a karateka, I can mostly forgive that.

    Meanwhile, Tobita was a real bastard this time around, almost coming off as one of the monsters he took on in the 90s. He tanked so many stiff shots from Nagase, responding with clubbing blows and mean headbutts, as well as some hard slams. Other highlights include a crazy jumping stomp he hit right to Nagase's neck, and his trademark piledriver (seen below). Genuinely, Tobita's piledriver might be my favorite one ever, as he always hits it with such a gross landing.

    Sadly, this did have a kinda strange and abrupt DQ finish, which, while I understood the idea behind it, I definitely wasn't a big fan of it. Even considering that and the general roughness of the match though, I still thought this was a lot of fun. Both guys played their roles really well and they told a story that was easy to understand and get into. Leave it to two sleaze indy veterans to pull me right back into this show after such a bad opener.

Rating: B

Ultra Seven vs. Ultraman Robin

    Following up a match between two sleaze workers, here we have a battle of Ultramen! I've talked Robin before, with Robin constantly surprising me by how enjoyable his matches are compared to the reputation he's always had among western fans. We haven't yet talked about Ultra Seven though, but we have talked about Masahiko Takasugi, a wrestler with striking similarities to the larger Ultraman in this match. Someone should probably look into that.

    While this was a fight between Ultramen, I wouldn't go as far as to call it an Ultramatch (I am not proud of myself for that one). Both guys were sloppy and slow, and combining that with the grappling-heavy action led to kind of a bore. Seven was alright in this one, doing some work on Robin's leg that certainly wasn't horrible. He also hit one hip attack onto a seated Robin's neck which was actually kinda cool, and did some fun dumb spots involving getting the ref beat up (referee Pink Tiger got beat up bad enough to result in referee Batten Tamagawa coming in to take his place, only for Tamagawa to get beaten up to leading to Tiger taking over the referee job once again). 

    Robin was pretty much working at the same level as Seven was here. A lot of his grappling was kinda meh, but he did have one or two cool moments, like the solid counter from a chinlock into a Fujiwara armbar seen below. Probably the coolest thing he did overall was his diving crossbody which, while not great, was one of the best ones I've seen him hit. He wasn't all positive of course (at one point he tried to do a shoulder tackle exchange or something and it just completely fell apart, resulting in him and Seven just staring at each other for a couple seconds), but it wasn't like he was horrible either.

    In the end, this match also ended in a fuck finish (stemming from all that referee assault I mentioned in the section about Seven's part in the match), but I was more okay with this one than the one from Nagase/Tobita. Overall, this wasn't anything offensive and did have a couple solid moments, but overall was just kinda boring and not worth checking out. The novelty of booking the two Ultraman guys against each other was a fun concept, and honestly if this had happened in the late 90s it could've been genuinely pretty fun, but it was never going to be good in 2013.

Rating: C

Umanosuke Ueda 2 vs. Stungun Takemura

    First we had a battle of sleaze legends, then we had a battle of Ultramen, and now, our next mirror match is a battle of mad brawlers. Stungun Takemura is a dude who seemingly loves Tiger Jeet Singh, coming out with the fencing sabre and completely addicted to sticking his tongue out Fiend-style at any point he can. Meanwhile, Umanosuke Ueda 2 (aka VINNI) is the official successor to the legendary Umanosuke Ueda, looking like a near perfect mirror image of the original blonde brawler.

    Now, I was prepared for disappointment. I have friends that have seen Takemura matches before and have said he's godawful, and I came into this somewhat expecting a mid-level match at best. To my pleasant surprise, not only was this good, but it was the best match on the show up to this point and it's not even close. Ueda was extremely solid in the ring as a flat-out wrestler here, moving with a nice crispness and commitment that a lot of wrestlers nowadays don't possess. In terms of his brawling though, he was pretty awesome beating up Takemura with some hard chest chops and mean shots with a kendo stick. He was super aggressive and really took it to Takemura at ever point. He even included some nice bigger bombs in his arsenal, particularly this great doctor bomb:

    Takemura was not being carried in this match though. He more than held up his side of the match, matching Ueda's aggression with some real devious shit. Very early into the match Takemura was already going crazy on Ueda with these truly gross throat stabs using a fork. He was able to do them so well and so quickly, and Ueda sold them perfectly, coughing up like hell and gasping for air after each one. Takemura's work with the sabre was great too, jabbing at Ueda's head and really twisting it into his wound, causing Ueda to bleed pretty hard as the match went on. Hell, he even had a killer fireball spot, using one to break up Ueda's doctor bomb. My favorite spot from this whole match though was the one shown below, where Ueda started to choke Takemura and Takemura, through sheer force of will, started to choke Ueda too, leading to them rolling out of the ring while choking each other. It's just that type of vindictive, cruel violence that really makes me remember why I'm so huge on brawlers like these.

    Throughout the match, both guys teased at multiple points getting counted out, whether by themselves or together. I bit on pretty much every tease they did considering the multiple cheap finishes seen prior on the show, and when this match eventually did end via count-out I genuinely felt like it was entirely earned. This was a genuinely awesome brawl with both guys coming out looking like total killers, and I've now come to doubt the tastes of my peers. Wrestling doesn't need to be smooth or clean or deeply layered. Sometimes, all you need is two guys willing to be mean as hell to each other, and that's exactly what we got here.

Rating: B+

Kazushi Miyamoto vs. Keizo Matsuda

    We've had three matches between similar characters so far, and to finish that theme off, we're going into real hoss territory. Kazushi Miyamoto is one of my favorite wrestlers, a former All Japan guy who traded in his set future as a top star there to become a real shitkicker on the indies with Tenryuist tendencies and a love for Scott Steiner. You're likely to see him bust out the punch/chop combo and a Steiner Screwdriver in the same match, and is there much else you can ask for? Matsuda meanwhile is another guy I'm pretty high on, starting in IWA Japan and remaining their ace for years. He's got a hard spinebuster and a mean lariat, and once again, what else could you want? This match alone is what first got me interested in buying this show, so to say I was a little excited to watch it would be an understatement.

    Wouldn't you know it, this ended up going pretty much exactly as expected. If you've seen the clip of Big E yelling "BIG MEATY MEN SLAPPING MEAT", that is this match through and through. Miyamoto was awesome as usual in this one, blasting Matsuda with these absolutely thunderous chops, creating those awesome clouds of sweat with each one. He was able to hit some of his classics too, like a great superkick, a huge backdrop suplex, and a real hard brainbuster. Of course, probably the best moves he hit all match were his lariats, including this brutal one which looked like it knocked the soul out of Matsuda:

    However, I ended up walking away from this even more impressed by Matsuda, as he was really damn great here. He was able to return fire with some brutal chops of his own, as well as hitting a few mean shoulder tackles. His power moves ruled too, pulling off a great sidewalk slam as well as somehow doing a DELAYED SUPLEX, which can be seen below. I cannot stress enough just how impressive it is that Matsuda was able to hold up such a big man like Miyamoto for so long. He even was able to respond to Miyamoto's lariats with a few awesome ones of his own. Really, Matsuda's performance here was amazing to see.

    Just like the last match, this was pretty basic compared to other matches, but it thrived through the basics that it concentrated on. Matsuda and Miyamoto beat each other up like nobody's business, and a real hoss fight like this was a great way to follow up the wild brawl before it.

Rating: B+

Super Delfin vs. Konaka = Pehlwan vs. Naoshi Sano

    We're ending this show with a truly stacked triple threat. I've talked about Konaka multiple times before, but it's been a good while since Sano has popped up on the blog (last appearing on the previous produce show I covered), and it's nice to see him back. Delfin really doesn't need an introduction, as he's a legendary juniors wrestler and widely regarded for his work both in the ring and as a promoter with Osaka Pro. Really, you could only end a show like this with a match with stars like these.

    While this ended up being a clear step down from the last two matches, it was still a lot of fun! The first half of this match was all about how Delfin and Konaka just didn't feel like dealing with Sano, actively ignoring him to work their own match and eventually telling him to leave because he kept interrupting them in an attempt to get in on the action. Sano is genuinely hilarious here, trying to creep his way into sequences like joining the ending standoff after having watched Konaka and Delfin work a whole exchange, and when he gets told to leave I genuinely cracked up pretty hard. Once Sano forces himself into the match and starts to work his own spots this turns into more of a traditional match, but really, I do have to commend everyone involved (especially Sano) for such a fun opening half.

    In terms of the actual work here, everyone did pretty well. Sano wasn't able to do much overall but he did pull out some cool stuff like some nice Texas-style punches, as well as a damn good dropkick. Konaka was also able to do some of his usual sweet spots, like his awesome throat thrusts as well as a crazy cross-legged diving senton. I love all of Konaka's cross-legged moves, but that really might be my favorite off them all. Delfin was definitely the best guy in terms of actual in-ring work (shocking, I know), hitting the classics like a stiff shotei and the slap into tornado DDT seen below. All three guys were only able to pop off a couple moves each, but they made the most of it.

    In the end, this match only went about 7 minutes long, but still ended up being really enjoyable. The two matches before it were absolutely better as individual matches, but this was definitely the best way to wrap up the show, ending it on a real high note.

Rating: B

Atsushi Maruyama Produce 01/18/2015

         (Written by jom)

Kazuaki Mihara vs. Katsumi Oribe

    Two of Maruyama/Tigers Mask's trainees square off to start the show. Oribe is nicknamed "Karate Boy" and comes out in satin pants with a gi belt design on them. This irrationally infuriates yet greatly intrigues me. Mihara meanwhile is out with with an absolutely insane mohawk and looks about 50 lbs heavier than he is today, so good on him for getting fitter.

    Sadly, this match has less to talk about once the bell rings than before it even started. Mihara was fine as the one in control, doing some okay power moves and throwing some kinda hard chest chops. Oribe just wasn't that good though. He only threw a few kicks throughout the entire match and, while fine, none of them seemed good enough to warrant literally being nicknamed "karate boy". The rest of the time he threw some meh chest chops. Finish was solid with Mihara barreling through Oribe with a nice lariat before hitting a well-executed landslide for the win.

    Not that good of a match, I guess it worked as an opener but genuinely, I can only sum up my feelings on Katsumi Oribe with one image.

Rating: C-

Bull Armor TAKUYA vs. Naoshi Sano

    Not many better ways to rebound from a disappointing match than with Naoshi motherfuckin Sano baby. Sano's one of my favorite sleaze indy guys, able to do some genuinely good wrestling when he's in the zone but almost always entertaining regardless. Bull Armor TAKUYA is a guy I only saw for the first time a few days ago, but Chris can vouch for me when I say that he's pretty sweet. He was in a battle royale from a 2007 Riki Office show and at one point did an MDickie running flex taunt into a corner splash, which immediately made him one of Chris' top sleaze boys. However, that was 2007, and this is 2015. In 2007 TAKUYA was absolutely jacked, but here he looks more like Akebono than Chris Masters. This may sound like a negative, but, as my friend Ciel put it:

    In terms of the actual match, it ended up being a pretty fun one. TAKUYA and Sano both have their own bits that they like to do, and more often than not those bits meshed pretty well, such as when Sano would do his "not a powerful wrestler" bit combined with TAKUYA's "extremely powerful wrestler and also evil laugh" bit. TAKUYA has not only gained weight in the last 8 years, but has also seemingly lost brain cells, because he was just going absolutely insane during the match. At one point he started like yelling and swinging his arms around, with both of them ending up in a flex pose. He then went completely silent for about 3 seconds before starting to do his weird evil laugh thing and ran in place for 10 seconds. I'm not entirely sure what this bit is meant to be but credit to him for the creativity. 

    The actual wrestling during this match wasn't particularly great or anything, but it was totally serviceable for the type of match they were doing. TAKUYA throws some real thunderous chops a few times, and Sano is more than game to do a little bit of hard striking of his own. TAKUYA also does a pretty sweet Vader bomb at one point, but soon after would get rolled up by Sano, resulting in Sano's victory.

    While this wasn't anything special in terms of the "action", this match still ended up being a lot of fun thanks to the really enjoyable personalities of the two involved. Comedy can be hit or miss for me but this was definitely a hit.

Rating: B-

Osamu Suganuma & Kuishinbo Kamen vs. Takoyakida & Otoko Sakari

    Y'know how I literally just said "comedy can be hit or miss for me"? Well, hello Otoko Sakari. Glad you could be here to demonstrate the latter option. If you don't know, Otoko Sakari is the comedy gimmick of the legendary Alexander Otsuka, one of my personal GOATs and an undeniably amazing wrestler in his prime. Otoko Sakari, meanwhile, fucking stinks. I've never been a fan of someone's whole gimmick being based around their private areas and gross-out humor, so whenever I see genuine all-timer Otsuka trying to force people to eat his gross ass through a loincloth, it just makes me really sad that I'm not watching him do actually cool stuff. Anyways, there's three other people in this match, including Kuishinbo Kamen (an example of good comedy wrestling!).

    I don't have a ton of notes for this match because sadly, about half of it was Sakari spots, and I just cannot bring myself to note down every time he presented his asshole to an audience member. Takoyakida wasn't great either, as he pretty just did a "funny haha" voice and pointed at his ass a few times. He might've done more but he was so nothing in the entire match I can't remember. I will say that in terms of good comedy, Suganuma and Kamen brought it in spades. Suganuma is of course the 3rd Ebessan (after Kikutaro and Flying Kid Ichihara), so he's able to do some pretty fun comedy spots such as trying to hit a running senton only to fly about 5 feet off target. Kamen is of course the best part of this match, a genuine all-time great of the comedy wrestling genre. He was an absolute dickhead this entire match, pummeling Takoyakida with closed fists and low blows. This of course culminated in maybe my favorite spot of the whole match, where Kamen does this:

What an asshole!

    Unsurprisingly, the actual wrestling was pretty solid as well. Both Kamen and Suganuma are pretty damn good in the ring, with Kamen continuing to be impressively agile over 20 years into his career at this point, and Suganuma doing some pretty cool moves as well. Takoyakida was fine, about as forgettable as a wrestler as he was as a comedian though. The most impressive/depressing part of this match was definitely Sakari, as shockingly, he could seemingly still go at this point. Maybe it was because he didn't have to work at the usual hard pace he does, but he was able to pull off the best giant swing I've ever seen him do in the 2010s. This is depressing because it happened in an Otoko Sakari match, meaning almost immediately after this he went back to trying to force his opponents to eat his ass. The match ended soon after with Suganuma hitting a genuinely great Musou for the victory.

    I think that when you look at this match outside of the Otoko Sakari stuff, it was actually kinda good. Kamen and Suganuma were both really enjoyable, and Takoyakida was perfectly fine as the guy taking all of their cool moves. However, the Otoko Sakari stuff was at least half of the entire match, and it wouldn't be right to not consider just how bad and even boring some of it made the overall match. If you enjoy that type of comedy I guess this match would be up your alley but my god I just can't bring myself to like it.

Rating: C-

Magnitude Kishiwada, Tadasuke, & Shuji Ishikawa vs. Naoki Sakurajima, Mineo Fujita, & HUB

    After three matches that ranged from meh to flat-out bad, I really needed to see something that made sitting down for this tape worth it. This match had made me excited from the second I saw it listed on the show, so going into this I was hoping that this would be the match to help me recover my drive and push me to actually stick around the the main event. Honestly, I'm a little disappointed in myself though. Why would I ever doubt that this match would kick ass?

    Not a single person in this match did a bad job on this night. Genuinely, I think every person delivered what they were meant to deliver. Sakurajima was the whipping boy for the face team, taking the brunt of the major offense and being targeted by a particularly malicious Kishiwada for most of the match, which only lead to his eventual comeback against Kishiwada being that much more impactful. Fujita was also doing great as a whipping boy in this match, albeit he got significantly more offense in. Fujita's a guy that I have extremely mixed feelings on, as on one hand he's an extremely talented juniors guy who was quite possibly the greatest WMF trainee out of the few to come out of the promotion. On the other hand, he's fully committed himself nowadays to his "EROTIC VIOLENCE" gimmick, and as said before, gimmicks based around cock and balls just aren't my thing. He's a perfect example of an exceptional wrestler who completely squanders any interest I'd have in him because he has a stupid, gross gimmick. In this match though, that isn't the case, as while he's near the peak of his wrestling abilities he also hasn't taken on the gimmick of a pervert yet so he's significantly more enjoyable. Tadasuke was pretty similar to Fujita in this match actually, being the clear whipping boy for the face team while also acting as a good spoiler, shutting down different comeback attempts. I think he definitely performed at a lesser level than he could, but that was less because of his own efforts and more because he just wasn't the center of attention at any point really.

    In terms of the best performances though, that mark definitely goes to HUB and Shuji Ishikawa. HUB was undeniably the best part of the face team, hitting all his usual spots to perfection. I'm a sucker for moves involving grey-area weaponry, and HUB's tail whip is maybe the best of that category. He's also just a genuinely amazing juniors wrestler, and even at one point hits an insane diving senton onto Kishiwada and Tadasuke stacked on top of each other. However, the best wrestler not only on the heel team, but in the entire match, was for sure the big dawg. He actually acted as the backbone for the entire match, guiding the ebbs and flows with his actions and consistently being the one to push the match forward positively, keeping it from entering into flat-out move spamming or losing heat. Ishikawa is also just one of the best of his style, and he was in full-form on this night, doing some insane power moves like a stun gun to Fujita where he threw him like a lawn dart into the ropes. He also popped off multiple of his disgusting knees, culminating in this absolutely nutty one to Fujita:

    Soon after this, the faces were able to get the advantage, with Tadasuke eventually being put down for the 3 count after being hit with a swanton bomb from Fujita followed by a beautiful frog splash from HUB.

    This was an absolute barn-burner of a match. It's honestly hard to say more than that. It went almost 20 minutes, yet at no point do I think it felt like it was going long. Every person got their moment to shine, and even if I think Tadasuke should've gotten a little bit more in the match, overall this is still one of the best 6-man tags I've seen in a very good bit of time. A wonderful palette cleanser of a match in preparation for the main event.

Rating: A-

Atsushi Maruyama vs. Daisuke Sekimoto

    For anyone that doesn't know, Atsushi Maruyama is the real name of one Tigers Mask, a common fixture of the Osaka scene. In all honesty, I've always been split on Maruyama. I think that while he's definitely talented in the ring and is a good lucharesu guy, I've always felt that his strikes left a lot to be desired, and his "Tigers Suplex" is one of the worst tiger suplexes I've ever seen. However, Sekimoto is a true future Hall of Famer (for whatever Hall of Fame he'd be able to be entered in) so I had faith that even if Maruyama shit the bed, Sekimoto would make sure this match was still at least good. In good news though, Sekimoto totally didn't need to carry the match, as Maruyama very much held up his side of the encounter.

    The match's overall story was pretty good. Maruyama spent a lot of time attacking the limbs of Sekimoto, throwing some hard strikes at the legs while primarily focusing on targeting the right arm of the muscle monster. He threw some genuinely nasty kicks to it, as well as pulling out some pretty nice submissions like a tight kimura. He also was able to pull off some pretty cool maneuvers, like countering a lariat by backflipping before locking in a tight manji-gatame. Sekimoto was in peak form here, continuing to show why his mid-10s were probably the best years of his entire career. He absolutely obliterated Maruyama with some mean chops and forearms, and also threw Maruyama around like a child with some insane suplexes. Of these suplexes though, none of them were as impressive as his outside-in deadlift german suplex, where he seemed to pick up Maruyama so casually that I genuinely didn't register that he was lifting him until he was actually starting to suplex Maruyama.

    In terms of criticisms, this match definitely was not perfect. Maruyama was hit-or-miss with some of his strikes, the biggest miss being his high kicks. Maybe it was because his low and mid-kicks were so vicious, but when he started throwing ultra-light thigh-slappy high kicks at Sekimoto, I genuinely lost interest in the whole Maruyama control segment. Also, for a lot of the earlier portion of the match Maruyama depended a lot of some pretty boring rest holds. Sekimoto isn't exempt from criticisms either, as the end of the match, while good, entirely ignored the last 90% of the match. Sekimoto was able to take control from Maruyama and started to just hit all his big match-enders, throwing two nasty lariats before hitting his beautiful deadlift german suplex for the win. While this finish was sweet in isolation, it entirely ignored the 10 or so minutes of Maruyama hyper-focused on the right arm of Sekimoto (the arm that Sekimoto hit those last few lariats with mind you). I'm not saying that Sekimoto shouldn't have hit his ending combination, because it was awesome. All I'm saying is that if that was what the ending was going to be, maybe working over his right arm wasn't the best move.

    Overall, this was a really good match between two guys who had enough chemistry to make going 20+ minutes mostly work. While I have gripes with the ending and some of Maruyama's offense choices, I can't deny that he performed well overall and definitely exceeded my expectations. Was this match better than the one before it? Absolutely not. But it told its own story and at bare minimum, I'll be thinking about that outside-in german for a while.

Rating: B