Comprehensive Super Rider #4

        (Written by jom, photo credit to Extreme Party)

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

    I cannot say enough how great it is that so much early DDT has appeared throughout the years, because good lord, what a murderers' row. I've talked a lot about most of the people in this match, but somehow, I've never talked about Ni Hao before this. It makes sense considering just how little of his work is available, but really, every time a prime Ni Hao match is found, it feels like a cause for celebration. Ni Hao was Koki Kitahara's protege and the crown prince of CAPTURE, working at the top of CAPTURE cards while also starting the original REAL BLOOD with Tomohiro Ishii. He's a scrappy as hell shooter who can do tight grappling while throwing bombs with the best of them, usually working as a fired-up underdog but sometimes showcasing a mean streak reminiscent of his mentor. I honestly believe that Ni Hao could've been something special in pro wrestling given more exposure, and in an alternate universe, he was one of the top prospects of the dying days of the first Battlarts.

    With a match like this, I would usually focus on the best performers, only giving a little bit of time to the lesser men. That's gonna be hard to do for this match though, because everyone was fucking killing it! Rider and Ni Hao were of course my focus points for the match, and they had some magic lineal Sayamaist exchanges throughout. Their work together was the slowest of the match, but it absolutely worked with both guys being really deliberate and fighting for all their holds. Even with noting how slow they worked though, Rider served as the pace-setter for this match by rushing Ni Hao with an insane running Rider Kick right when the bell rang (shown below) before just flinging himself out of the ring with a huge suicide dive. Their work against other wrestlers was really cool too, with Ni Hao busting out a huge waterwheel drop on Nishino and Rider having some pretty awesome exchanges with Toba.

    Toba and Sasaki were the perfect asskickers to put with Ni Hao to build a total monster team. Toba was sadly not in the match as much as you'd hope, but he always made the most of his time, peppering guys with nasty punches and throwing cracking kicks. His aforementioned work with Rider was really cool, and he also got a nice moment with Nishino where Nishino just ate all of Toba's strikes before getting nearly knocked out cold by a brutal right hook. Sasaki was also on point here, coming in and throwing mean kicks while also dropping dudes on their heads with big lariats and a dangerous D-Geist. This team even had some really nice chemistry as a unit, doing some awesome combos including this one where Sasaki and Toba each threw a stiff as hell shot before Ni Hao dropped Cougar on his head with a german suplex:

    Nishino and Cougar both did some really immense stuff in this match as well. Nishino came into this match painfully aware of the asskicking he was gonna get from the Ni Hao/Toba/Sasaki trio, and decided to make sure he got his own licks in, throwing some thunderous chops and busting out a few huge moves like a perfect powerslam he hit on Ni Hao. He even got this really awesome hulk-up moment with the trio were all beating down on him, throwing those gross chops of his at Ni Hao and Sasaki before smashing Toba with a brutal headbutt. Cougar wasn't as much of an asskicker as the other five in this match, but he still held his own with some truly awe-inspiring spots. Cougar is, in my opinion, probably one of the best "spots" guys ever, tending to work matches focused entirely on pulling off the Cougar classics, but making sure every time to integrate them into the match as smoothly and naturally as possible. There were slingshot leg drops galore, and every single one of them fucking rocked, especially the ludicrous one he hit on Sasaki while Nishino had him held over the top rope. Cougar's moves outside of the slingshot leg drops rocked too, especially one amazing dive he hit on Sasaki. Really, he was the most dependable guy in the match when it came to doing crazy shit, and he did as much crazy shit as he could.

    In the end, Cougar missed a big diving headbutt on Sasaki, leading to a decapitating lariat from Sasaki getting the win for his team. As a whole, this match was great, just lots of smash-mouth wrestling and insane moments. There were absolutely some slight botches and a few moments of roughness, but none of it ever really detracted from the match. Only real point of criticism I can levy at this is that it made me sad that we never got a Ni Hao/Rider singles match in CAPTURE, as that would've probably been the perfect environment for them to do the gritty matwork and stiff striking they showed off here. Other than that, awesome stuff from early DDT, and a great showcase of the talents of all six guys involved.

Rating: A-

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

    Two years later, we are in Tokyo FM Hall for a B-Rule match between Rider and Junji.com (AKA Junji Inazuma AKA Mach Junji AKA Junji Tanaka). B-Rule is a pretty complex ruleset, with the wrestlers only being allowed to grapple while also sharing five rope breaks rather than having a set amount for each of them. Any time either of them uses a rope break, the overall amount of allowed breaks will go down (ex: one person grabbing the ropes twice and the other person grabbing them three times would result in all the rope breaks being used up). After five total breaks have occurred, the ref will no longer break up a hold when someone is in the ropes. If a match goes to a time limit draw, the winner is decided based on who grabbed the ropes the least amount of times, and if both are equal in rope usage, the loser is the one who grabbed the ropes first. This probably seems overly complicated (it is), but it's resulted in some really awesome and creative spots before, so I personally enjoy the ruleset a good deal.

    This, of course, ended up being a very cool little match, with Junji and Rider approaching the match with pretty differing ideologies on grappling. Junji primarily utilized his speed rigid technique to constantly hunt for holds he knew how to apply, using more basic holds like cross armbars and rear naked chokes that he could confidently execute without having to worry about spending too much time thinking about the hold. Meanwhile, Rider was all about fluidity and slick movement on the mat, looking out for stray limbs to latch onto and transitioning between holds to find the right way to apply the most amount of pain. 

    Outside of solely the grappling, there were some really interesting story beats primarily based around Rider and his aggressive style of working. At multiple points, Rider had to fight back his instincts telling him to throw punches or kicks (with the ref having to remind Rider over and over again that this wasn't under Seikendo rules), and a few times, Rider took a little long to let go of holds when Junji had a rope break. This culminated pretty well when Rider took a few extra seconds to let go of a kneebar, and in response, Junji busted out a lightning-fast kneebar of his own immediately after, forcing Rider to go straight for the ropes.

    It wasn't long after this though that Rider put on a deep STF, forcing Junji to use the final rope break in the match. Both men kept the intensity up as they approached the ending stretch, and Junji got his own chance to do some creative work, using the ropes to pull himself up while Rider had him in a kneebar and gain enough leverage to apply a tight cross heel hold. Rider would get revenge for this however, as when Junji had him in a front necklock soon after this, Rider kicked himself off of one of the corners, breaking the necklock by slamming down Junji hard. Without hesitation, Rider pounced on him and got a perfect cross armbar in for the tapout victory.

    I thought this was really good for what it was. It never entered into full-on great territory for me, but instead stayed at a very solid level of quality before finishing with a fun and well-built ending. Grappling matches like this are definitely an acquired taste, but if you're able to ride along for pure matwork and drama derived from holds and transitions, then you'll probably enjoy this match too.

Rating: B+

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

    Back to normal pro wrestling, we are now 11 years older and in the midst of WAR~! For god knows how long, Sayama and Atsushi Onita have been leading their armies into bloody and violent conflict (a lot of multi-man tag matches), and of course, first lieutenant Super Rider is here to fight on the front lines. He's teaming with favorite of the blog and fellow Seikendo trainee Tiger Shark against Hideki Hosaka and Kazuhiko Matsuzaki. Hosaka is really just a wrestler that exists, a solid enough worker who has never really inspired any strong feelings in me. Matsuzaki meanwhile is  one of the most consistently great indie guys of the last 30 years. With pro wrestling training under Ryuma Go and karate training under Masashi Aoyagi, he's been practically built to be one of the best sleaze indie guys in the world, and getting to see him at any point is always a treat.

    Once again, Rider delivers a fun enough match. The invader army of Hosaka and Matsuzaki were pretty cool here, mainly Matsuzaki. He was throwing some really nice worked punches and when he got to do some offense he busted out some great shit like his signature flying neckbreaker drop and the beautiful backdrop suplex shown below. Hosaka was mostly nothing here as always, but he did at least have one very fun moment where he stopped a pinfall attempt by attacking the referee. Dumb shit like that just appeals to me a lot, I don't know what else to say. 

    The real stars here were Shark and Rider though. Tiger Shark was really able to step up in this match and was honestly borderline great, especially in the ending stretch. He threw hard kicks, pulled off some really nice big moves like a weird snap side powerslam and a mean tombstone piledriver, and the moonsault he hit on Matsuzaki was an absolute thing of beauty. That moonsault led directly into the finish too, as when Matsuzaki kicked out, Shark immediately grabbed his arm and locked in the always awesome Shark Death By Lock II to get the win for team Real Japan.

Nearly 13 years to the day, Rider once again started the match with an insane suicide dive, this one being even crazier than the one he hit on Ni Hao as he actually flew over the guardrail and into the crowd. The Super Rider suicide dive is slowly becoming one of my favorite dives ever because this guy really throws himself out of the ring like he has a death wish. While Rider mostly stuck to busting out the classics like the Rider flying cross chop, Rider flipping senton, and Rider elbow drop, the Rider classics are my jam so I was having the time of my life. Plus, he hit another suicide dive later on in the match. This man was 50 years old busting out planchas for fun. Absolute legend.

    This match wasn't some incredible epic or anything like that. It was a throwaway midcard tag match on a throwaway Real Japan show (and Real Japan itself is a throwaway promotion). However, there was still some really fun stuff going on here, and the ending stretch between Shark and Matsuzaki was awesome. Plus, two different Super Rider suicide dives. What more can you ask for?

Rating: B

Shinjuku Same vs. Thanomsak Toba: A Tale of Boxing Gloves

                 (Written by jom)

    Mirror matches are usually pretty fun stuff. At their worst, they have the potential to be boring slogs where two guys just do the same moves to each other over and over again without many interesting developments, but at their best, they can highlights the minute differences between two wrestlers, helping to increase appreciation for both and their respective styles. They can also be really good if the two guys do the same moves but very stiff, because wrestling is just simple like that. Case in point, these three matches between Rocky-inspired boxer Shinjuku Same and Thai kickboxer Thanomsak Toba. While I'm excited to see if they play on the differences in offense between these two glove-wearing menaces, I also know that they'll punch each other in the face a lot during these matches, and that's all it takes to greatly entertain my dumb gorilla brain.

Shinjuku Same vs. Thanomsak Toba (WEW 05/03/2003)

    Right when the match starts, that "minute difference" thing I mentioned is established as a focal point. Toba comes in with some belter leg kicks, kicks so hard that Same is forced outside the ring and spends about 40 seconds just walking around, reconsidering the life choices that led to this match. Eventually Toba opens the ropes up to let him back in, and Same takes that opportunity to stomp on Toba's foot and set his sites on the leg. Immediately, the match is set with Toba utilizing his non-punch arsenal to get control, and Same relying on asshole heel tactics and pro-wrestling style leg targeting to counteract Toba's wider range of striking.

    Well, at least that's what seems to happen at first, with that story I described playing out for about the first two minutes. Toba uses some great stiff knees and kicks while Same attacks the leg and even pulled off a cool capture suplex. After Same counters a Toba middle knee with a punch though, this abruptly turns into the boxing glove bombfest you'd expect from these two. I'm not gonna complain about that too much though, because the bombs thrown were fucking immense. Toba is great here as a much faster fighter, throwing tons of peppering punches and kicks that add up in damage. Same meanwhile throws punches at a much slower rate, but each one has such a high level of power that it ends up leveling out.

    The ending stretch featured some especially big bombs thrown, as both guys were nearly drained of all their energy and were just willing themselves forward to throw the hardest punches they could. I do think that the early portion of the match being completely abandoned kinda sucked, but the violence behind those punches in the latter half of the match cannot be denied. A very solid start to these two's match series.

Rating: B

Shinjuku Same vs. Thanomsak Toba (Apache Pro 12/30/2007)

    Four years removed from their last match, Same and Toba once again meet in the ring. This is a boxer vs. boxer match right from the get-go, with both guys only needing to do a little feeling out until Same is able to catch Toba with a left jab that nearly sends him tumbling out of the ring. In a moment that could've been a smart callback or just a case of lucky coincidence, Toba leaves the ring after that punch and walks around a little to get his bearings, a near-perfect mirror of what Same did in their match from 2003.

    After that point, this ascends into a pure and violent fight. Toba and Same throw some crazy punches, and Toba lays into Same with some extremely stiff kicks. Toba is especially great this time around, letting loose with some insane combinations like the one pictured below. There's tons of great knockdown moments, like when Same is able to pull off the same counter punches he did in 2003 and gets a knockdown on Toba, or when Toba is able to do the same on Same. Eventually, both guys just start taking turns teeing off on each other with punches straight to the face, which is maybe the easiest way to earn a place in my heart. The finishing stretch was absolutely phenomenal too, and really needs to be seen because there's no way I could do it justice.

    While looking for any potential pictures taken featuring both men, I stumbled across a thread made on a Japanese forum, made the same day as this show's broadcast and solely focused on this match. One of the commenters on that forum said "It was a barroom brawl" and I have to agree. This was like if two pro fighters got into an argument at a bar, found some gloves, and just started throwing live rounds while a little tipsy. Rough, scrappy, violent, and a damn good viewing experience.

Rating: B+

Shinjuku Same vs. Thanomsak Toba (XWF 08/06/2008)

    In a nice moment that pays off the last two matches they've had, neither man leaves the ring in the early portion. Both Same and Toba take some at least one stiff shot, but are able to just eat it without needing to get their bearings like before. They know each other entirely now, and are able to go to war without hesitation.

    And go to war they do! Both guys throw some stiff shots as usual in this one, but this time Toba is the one with a clear-cut game plan. He starts throwing his usual belter leg kicks with even more force than before, and very quickly Same is grabbing the leg and actually taking downs from the leg kicks. Toba is a like a shark to blood (very ironic), and the noises of those leg kicks are truly horrifying stuff. In a good moment that once again is probably just a coincidence but still wraps up the overarching story nicely, Same takes one particularly gross leg kick and nearly ends up falling out of the ring, but he makes sure to stop himself and continues on without break. Eventually though, Same is forced to leave, not because he was overwhelmed though. For the first time in this series, Toba breaks the down count by throwing a hard kick at Same while he still wasn't up yet.

    What follows next is the most dramatic fight they've had, as Same and Toba both seem to enter a new level of hate because of that violation of an honor-based rule. Same goes wild with his punches and even pulls out some big pro-wrestling type stuff like fucking dragon screws, meanwhile Toba throws punches, kicks, and knees with truly nuclear force. The final stretch of the match is the most face-punching ending they've done and my god is it phenomenal. 

    Overall, I truly believe this is their best match together, and it's honestly not even much of a contest. While the other two were chock-full with stiffness and cool moments, this match had all of that at some of the highest level, and a clearly cohesive and well-told story. One of the best martial artist matches of the 21st century.

Rating: A-

Comprehensive Rikiya Fudo/Super Rider #3 (DDT 11/20/1999)

                    (Written by jom)

    For the first time, two Comprehensives in one! The matches I'm reviewing today are all from the 11/20/1999 DDT show, which featured a one-night round robin trios tournament. Rider and Fudo (under his Yusaku name) both participated in the tournament in the B block, so that means we got 3 matches featuring them from this show, as well as the only recorded interactions between Rider and Fudo, so I'm very excited to see how those pan out.

Yusaku, Daisaku, & Yuki Nishino vs. Kazunori Yoshida, Koichiro Kimura, & Takao Iwasaki

    Starting off this special edition of comprehensive is the Shimoda bros, and they're teaming with Yuki Nishino, a former SPWF guy who throws awesome headbutts and moves at a really violent pace. Yoshida is another guy I've been a big fan of, as is Kimura. I've honestly never seen Iwasaki before this match, but the fact he was put on a team with Yoshida and Kimura makes me think he's probably solid enough.

    This was pretty sweet and extremely heated. Nishino was solid here, doing some nice grappling and hitting a few bombs like one crazy backdrop suplex on Yoshida. Daisaku was also pretty good, laying in some kicks and knees with real force and doing some cool scrappy work against Kimura and Iwasaki. Yusaku was definitely the best part of his team though, as he was just a beast here. He started the match by plowing through Yoshida with a lariat, and he kept that energy the entire time he was in the ring, with some big lariats and headbutts. He also hit some awesome bombs like this great sit-out spinebuster:

    For the other team in the match, everyone involved ended up having a good showing. Iwasaki was alright here, not really doing anything crazy but throwing some cool kicks. Yoshida also was a little more reserved than I've usually seen him, but he still busted out some great stuff like an awesome pop-up dropkick. Kimura was the most notable member of the team, purely through the level of violence he inflicted on the Shimoda bros, especially Yusaku. Honestly, with how hard he was hitting them and how little he was getting hit himself, I think that he might've been genuinely shooting on Yusaku. He doesn't have the greatest reputation for taking care of other wrestlers, so it wouldn't be entirely out of character. At bare minimum though, it made for some real sick stuff, like the combo seen below where Kimura just beat the dogshit out of Yusaku before putting on a really mean standing armbar.

    Overall, this had some pretty crazy sections, but as a whole felt somewhat disjointed. Still, those moments it did have were really good, so if you are just interested in seeing guys do cool shit to each other without the need for clean pacing and structure, you'd probably be pretty into this match.

Rating: B-

Super Rider, Asian Cougar, & Thanomsak Toba vs. Kazunori Yoshida, Koichiro Kimura, & Takao Iwasaki

    Next up we have the Yoshida/Kimura/Iwasaki team from the previous match taking on the sleaze legends team of Rider, Cougar, and Toba. I've of course talked at length about how great Rider is, and I just talked in the most recent post before this about how awesome Cougar is. Toba is someone I've somehow not covered until now, but he's maybe one of my favorite martial artist type wrestlers of all time. He throws some extremely violent punches and kicks, with his spinning backfist being maybe the greatest of all time.

    This match ended up being pretty awesome! Cougar was cool busting out some of his usual big spots like the corner kneel kick into slingshot leg drop, and he also got to hit some stuff I have rarely seen from him, including a crazy tope over the corner. He wasn't part of the match as much as Rider or Toba, but he made his contributions felt for the parts he was in. Toba was a god damn menace here, throwing his trademark horrific strikes, including a lightning-quick flurry of punches that he threw at all three of his opponents (with his sequence against Yoshida gif'd below). He also threw some genuinely scary kicks at Kimura, including one that hit Kimura's jaw with one of the loudest cracks I've heard in a while. Rider, for his part, was also really cool here, doing some phenomenal grappling with Kimura and laying in a few hard strikes like some brutal headbutts on Iwasaki. He even had a few fun moments, like doing a spot where he kept fucking up a scoop slam because he's more of a fighter than a wrestler, eventually leading to the payoff of him actually doing one correctly, with the crowd popping big for it.

    All three guys on the other side of the ring more than held up their end of the match too. Kimura was great in this one, doing some really solid grappling with Rider and hitting some big bombs like an awesome butterfly suplex into an armbar, or the great transition into a fujiwara armbar seen below. He definitely wasn't working with the level of hate he had in the previous match, but he made up for that with some overall extremely solid mat work. Iwasaki was much better here than he was in the last match, pretty much being in a sink-or-swim situation with Toba and responding by throwing some strong kicks and pulling out big holds, like a stiff side headlock. Yoshida was probably the best part of the match for his team though, as he got to hit a ton of awesome stuff even with the roof of the building being so low. He hit a great springboard dropkick, an awesome suicide dive, and a crazy springboard arm drag which he really shouldn't have been able to pull off considering how little space he had to do it.

    This was better than the last match I went over, albeit not by a ton. I think all six men put in a really solid performance, but the match never really brought itself up to being great or anything like that. As it stands though, this was still a really enjoyable match.

Rating: B

Super Rider, Asian Cougar, & Thanomsak Toba vs. Yusaku, Daisaku, & Yuki Nishino

    Finally, we have arrived to the match I was most excited for going into this. Not only does this have the only known interactions between Rikiya Fudo and Super Rider, but it also features 4 other extremely awesome wrestlers as part of the match. This actually takes place before the match I just reviewed, but considering the importance of this match in terms of the blog, I'm reviewing it last.

    ...having said that, let's rip the bandaid off now: Yusaku didn't enter this match once. My best guess is that the dude was still pretty fucked up from the beating he got from Kimura, leading to him only entering the ring at the end to do a little bit of brawling with Toba during the finish. It fucking sucks to see that Yusaku and Rider seemingly never actually had any interactions in their careers after all, but at least this match still ruled very hard. Nishino is really damn great in this match compared to the last one he was in. While he had a solid performance there, he was fighting like his life was on the line in this match, throwing some gnarly headbutts including one to Cougar that sent him flying off the apron and into the crowd. Daisaku rocked even harder than him, busting out some awesome grappling against Rider such as when he countered Rider's triangle choke into a kneebar. He also did some great strikes and combos, like the flurry of high kicks he threw at Toba, as well as this great combo:

    Asian Cougar was pretty awesome here (it's very rare for him to not be at least awesome). He pretty much just hit the classics, but not only do the Asian Cougar classics rule, he also hit them with a lot of urgency. He did the slingshot leg drops (both inside and outside the ring), he hit his awesome running corner kneel kick, etc. Toba was really good too, laying in some hard strikes on Daisaku like a combo that led into a pretty disgusting kick straight to Daisaku's face. The best part of the match to me though was Super Rider, who had a truly awesome performance. He hit some mean strikes, such as a pinpoint solebutt to Nishino's jaw, as well as some stiff mounted punches to Daisaku. He pulled off some great grappling, like a great transition into an armbar from a wristlock and the gif seen below of him countering a snapmare perfectly into a kneebar. He even bust out some high spots, like a crazy suicide dive he hit on Nishino, as well as the always awsome rider kick.

    Overall, I really enjoyed the work we got in this match. It was honestly pretty short (a little over 7 minutes long) , and the fact that Yusaku did literally nothing probably damaged the rating enough to guarantee it wasn't gonna get into the A-grade range, but it was still a really sweet six man tag and everyone who participated put on a really fun performance.

Rating: B+