Insect's Soul: 26-50

             (Written by jom)

Tomoya Adachi vs. Asian Cougar (ZIPANG 04/27/1998)

    Wonderfully scummy and reckless lucharesu, the exact kind of thing ZIPANG excelled in. One of my favorite things about ZIPANG is just how cool a lot of the core roster is. It had a lot of fun and comedic gimmicks, but so many of the men behind the masks were just sick ass workers, and a lot of my favorite ZIPANG came from when these guys really got to put their boots on and do stuff you weren't seeing anywhere else. This is a prime example of that mindset, as Adachi and Cougar throw caution to the wind more than once in a match that feels like a struggle to win just as much as it feels like a game of one-upmanship. Both men are constantly finding ways to outdo the other's big spots, like Cougar responding to Adachi's big spaceman dive with a tope con hilo that nearly kills him. Even better is just how vocal the crowd is; this might be the loudest ZIPANG crowd ever, at least based on our recording of the show. It all comes together to end up being a sleeper favorite indie junior match of mine, a super easy watch that delivers cool move after cool move without getting lost in the act and morphing into a movez showcase. Just a real damn good time.

Tarzan Goto, Masashi Aoyagi, & Azteca vs. Dick Togo, Men's Teioh, & Sho Funaki (Indie World 07/22/1998)

    Tarzan Goto's finest hour. More than any of the explosive Onita brawls or the Miyake victimization or anything else, this is the definitive Tarzan Goto performance. Kai En Tai, in the middle of their WWF run, return to Korakuen Hall so Goto and company can remind them of what's waiting when they get back. There's a level of cruelty that goes beyond just normal wrestling violence in this match. Goto grabs any sharp object he can get his hands on to bloody up Togo, ranging from ballpoint pens to umbrellas. Aoyagi and even Azteca both follow suit with their own levels of evil, mostly in the form of punching Togo's open wound and cutting off hope spots. Kai En Tai, of course, are electric in all of their comebacks, with super bombastic offense and extensive energy, but Goto is a violent dictator hell-bent on getting his pound of flesh and quart of blood. A strong contender for my personal favorite six-man tag ever, at least of the ones to come outta Japan. 

Keisuke Yamada & Takeshi Sato vs. Mr. Pogo & Shoji Nakamaki (IWA Japan 01/17/1999)

    Keisuke Yamada deserved the world. While he eventually got his just deserts as Black Buffalo, he truly should've gotten so much more during his earlier years. This is one of his last matches ever as an IWA Japan guy, and the young IWA president puts in such an amazing spirited effort along with his shooty young gun peer against the monsters of the indie scene. Both Pogo and Nakamaki are on a warpath, swinging barbed wire bats with full force and dragging the bloody youths around Korakuen, splattering them into walls and onto merch tables. The best part of this match is how nothing ever really stops. From the moment the match starts, all four men are going at 100 miles a minute, flying around the building with all they have until the bell rings once again. It's one of the better scramble bunkhouse deathmatches of the era, and one of the final hurrahs for Yamada before transitioning into the Buffalo-masked bruiser we know him as today.

Kendo Nagasaki, Genichiro Tenryu, & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Nobutaka Araya, & Shigeo Okumura (NEW NOW 04/04/1999)

    If you've turned on this match looking for some sort of grand story of epic affair, then, honestly, you've come to the wrong place. No, this is a celebration of black eyes and bruises. Nagasaki and the crew come into this match planning to kick each other's asses, and that's exactly what they do. Everyone here has a chip on their shoulder, throwing shots with enough force to ripple the skin and bloody up the forehead. Tenryu and Fujiwara are the obvious money pairing, and they do excellent work together as always, but Nagasaki's work with Fujiwara stands out just as much, even if they get a fraction of the time together. The younger guys all prove their worth in excess, laying in their shots with full awareness that the old legends plan to give it back tenfold. They're certainly not reinventing the wheel here, but the wheel in question is an incredibly cool wheel, so there's not much of a reason to try and reinvent it. If you watch wrestling to see potshots and grudges, this match will be right up your alley.

Atsushi Onita, Sambo Asako, & Shigeo Okumura vs. Genichiro Tenryu, Ichiro Yaguchi, & Shoji Nakamaki (Onita Pro 05/13/1999)

    Absolute chaos in Korakuen. This is Onita's playground, where he calls the shots and makes all the rules. More accurately, this is Onita's world. Not many better ways to admire it than with this match. It's a gift that keeps on giving, starting hot with Onita and Tenryu teeing off on one another and somehow only going up from there. There's a distinct lack of revelry in the blood and barbed wire, with each guy finding their own point to really milk the pain and suffering for all it's worth. And god man, that crowd. Legitimately on the verge of a riot at certain points. Onita had these people in the palm of his hand, and that control translated over to every other wrestler here. Wrap it all up nicely with a botched finish leading to one of the most insane bumps ever during the recovery stage, and what you're left with is a grade-A brawl, the kind of thing only Onita has ever been able to pull off at this level.

SHINOBI vs. Arkangel de la Muerte (Sekai 06/06/1999)

    Sekai No Puroresu is a strange and almost undeniably bad wrestling company. The amount of actually good matches to come out of it could probably be counted on one hand. And yet, I can't bring myself to dislike Wally Yamaguchi's freakish brainchild. It's one of those promotions you watch more for the experience of seeing such a bizarre place, to prove that it actually exists, rather than one you watch to enjoy good wrestling. Luckily, this match is good. In fact, it's very good! SHINOBI and Arkangel are a long-tenured pairing in both Japan and Mexico at this point, and this is their 2nd-to-last match on record, coming only a few months before their great Korakuen match for CMLL Japan. It's high-end local lucha libre, if that makes any sense. There's a sense of roughness to a lot of what they do, spots that just barely go well or dangerous angles on a landing. It's the kind of match you could see on an IWRG undercard in the 2000s, albeit one that excels a lot more than it should. SHINOBI pulls off some of his best execution here, Arkangel puts in his usual great performance, and they actually take this match much farther than they probably should've for Sekai, with some awesome late-stage bombs like Arkangel's big avalanche powerbomb. There's a lot of wrestling out there better than this, but I certainly enjoy myself every time I watch it. 

Takashi Sasaki vs. Kyohei Mikami (DDT 12/22/1999)

    DDT deliver hard on their first Korakuen show ever with this absolute gem. In a way, MIKAMI and Sasaki are here to celebrate the entire past decade of juniors wrestling as the century comes to a close. There's such a seamless blend of elements from shoot style, lucha libre, classic Japanese wrestling, and even some hints of the recklessly inventive head-dropping of the forthcoming decade. It's also a wonderful celebration of both men's growth up to this point, as well as a strong preview of who they'll become over the next 20 or so years. Sasaki is a monster of a hybrid shooter, throwing nasty kicks and pulling off awesome double wristlocks, but also inventing different ways to drop MIKAMI on his head seemingly on the fly. MIKAMI, meanwhile, is The Perfect Junior, flying around Korakuen like a missile, soaring in and out of frame with the greatest of ease while pulling off crazy cross armbars and cracking Sasaki with thunderous shoteis. There's not much else to say beyond that. If you enjoy juniors wrestling, you owe it to yourself to seek this one out.

Ricky Marvin & Tigre Blanco vs. Super Cacao & Fugaz (CMLL Japan 02/12/2000)

    Don't misunderstand me here: there are better CMLL Japan matches than this. I spent extensive time debating between like five different matches for their entry into the list, and I somehow landed on the least good one. Still, this match holds a special place in my heart as the first CMLL Japan match I ever watched, back when Mr. Cacao had a bunch of those matches freely available on his YouTube channel. Like a lot of CMLL Japan, this is mostly a fireworks show, giving the fans entirely what they want (cool spots and cooler characters). While everyone gets their moments here, Tigre Blanco actually stands out the most for me, even over young dynamo Ricky Marvin. He's just such a great mind, always keeping you on your toes waiting to see what crazy bullshit he thinks up next. Again, don't watch this thinking you're getting the best of CMLL Japan. You aren't. It's just a fun little match that holds a little more sentimental value for me than it probably does for you.

Survival Tobita vs. Thanomsak Toba (EWF 02/27/2000)

    God bless EWF, Takagi and Nihei's strange attempt at "American wrestling." The only thing particularly American about it was its obsession with Royal Rumble matches, but it was such a blast, giving us some gems of matches that we really had no business getting, especially this one. This is the closest we ever got to different style Tobita, and what a joy he is, selling his ass off with Terry Funk-esque drunken stumbling and shadowboxing, only to eventually turn it around with crushing knee drops and punt kicks. Toba is Toba to the extreme, laying in his kicks hard and letting loose with rapid fire punches like nobody's business. It's a little hard to write about this match without just saying "Toba is Toba, and Tobita is Tobita, and everything is right in the world." There's not much else to say beyond that. If you like either of these two, you will enjoy this. If you like both of these two, you will really enjoy this. And if you don't like either of these two, you should watch this anyways and work on fixing your brain.

Survival Tobita vs. Bauxite Medium (SPWC 04/29/2000)

    Just watch this match. Really, just click on the link and watch it. I don't know if it's even possible for someone to be reading this without already having seen the match, but if you haven't, drop everything you're doing and turn it on. If you have seen it, you should do the same anyways. This is Tobita's magnum opus, the perfect synthesis of all his best ideas combined with one of the greatest crowds ever. Tobita even uses "Gastronger" as his Elephant Kashimashi theme of choice. It's spotless from the first second of the video to the last. I love Survival Tobita. I love Saitama Pro. I love pro wrestling.

SUWA, TARU, & Sasuke The Great vs. Dragon Kid, Tiger Mask IV, & Takashi Okamura (Toryumon 06/02/2000)

    It kind of blows my mind that nobody has ever really talked about this match, at least as far as I can tell. I mean, don't get me wrong, I get it. This match feels spiritually different from a good bit of Toryumon six-mans at the time, and I'm sure the names "Tiger Mask IV" and "Takashi Okamura" were treated like poison by the forum users around the time. Having said that, this match is GREAT. Really. This is such a blast of a tag, with a great definite face/heel split and exactly what you'd want from that sort of thing. The fouler squad do a fantastic job of brutalizing the babyfaces, especially Dragon Kid who gets his mask ripped up and his balls destroyed. The face comebacks are all so unique and great too, featuring not only the athletic wonder of Dragon Kid, but also the incredible versatility of Tiger Mask and the karate prowess of Okamura. Maybe this isn't the best representation of Toryumon as a whole around this point in time, but it's certainly one of my favorite matches from the company at this point, and one that deserves a lot more eyes on it.

Thanomsak Toba vs. Takehiro Murahama (Kingdom Ehrgeiz 09/02/2000)

    The one major negative with this match is that another exists that is most likely even better. A few months before this show, Kingdom Ehrgeiz held a much smaller event, where Toba and Murahama faced off while wearing boxing gloves. Not only do we have photos of the match, we also have proof that the match was filmed and sold on VHS, albeit exclusively at the merch table during other Kingdom Ehrgeiz shows. I am certain that this match is probably one of the best matches ever. Tragically, we do not have that match (at least not yet), and watching this one reminds me of what we're missing out on. That being said, that's pretty much it for downsides here. This match is a total blast, shoot style for a new generation with a Muay Thai fighter and a shootboxer going absolutely wild. Every hit makes a sound of death. Every submission is tight and bone-snapping. The single suplex of the match looks exactly like a shootboxing throw down to the most minute details. They even tell a damn good story of Murahama being a better fighter overall but Toba having enough wacky kicks in his arsenal to stand a chance. Really, this is immense stuff, the kind of thing that probably convinced a lot of people that shoot style as a scene wasn't about to collapse in on itself.

Mr. Pogo vs. The Wolf (WWS 08/05/2001)

    There are certainly WWS shows and matches that are more "conventional." I've seen numerous crazy deathmatches from WWS featuring a normal ring and normal wrestlers. However, that's not the WWS I came to love. The WWS I came to love is the WWS that would run mat wrestling matches at wedding receptions and political gatherings. This is that WWS, a bizarre match between Pogo and trainee Wolf at a summer festival. I've already talked about numerous Korakuen tours at this point, but, unless my short-term memory loss is kicking in, this is the first neighborhood tour included in the list. Pogo leads us on a journey through a small town in Saitama, complete with breaking into cars, powerbombs on cement, and Pogo stealing a bike to zoom away from the fans and Wolf, leading to one of my favorite shots ever as dozens of fans and wrestlers chase after him. This is more of a fever dream than a wrestling match, but it's a damn good fever dream.

Koji Ishinriki, Yusaku, Daisaku, YOSHIYA, & Naoshi Sano vs. Shinigami, Shigeo Kato, Masayoshi Motegi, Fukumen Taro, & Hirofumi Miura (NMC Produce 10/21/2001)

    I am forever thankful that Shinigami and Shigeo Kato owned a used car dealership, because the Car Crash Deathmatch is one of my favorite stipulations ever. At a rate of once per year, Shinigami and Kato would bring in at least one junk car and let the boys hit powerbombs and piledrivers on it, smash each other's heads into the windows, and generally just try to wreck the thing as badly as possible. This is the first of its kind, and, by virtue of being filmed by a single handheld camera, we end up missing a good 15% of crazy spots, only knowing they happened thanks to the sounds. Kudos to the cameraman though, because he does a damn good job capturing that remaining 85%, and he always makes sure to show us the aftermath of whatever crazy shit occurred just off frame. All ten men here go balls to the wall, not only slamming each other onto the car but also wildly swinging chairs and hitting incredibly dangerous drivers on top of scaffolding. Like all great brawls, this is almost unintelligible chaos from bell to bell, but we're able to parse out just enough of it to know it's the coolest shit ever. It's a fantastic watch, and a shortlist contender for my favorite brawls of the 2000s. 

Masato Tanaka vs. Tomoaki Honma (Rainbow Promotion 01/20/2002)

    I do not particularly like Masato Tanaka. I think that, after a certain point in his career, the majority of his matches become more about filling a forearm quota than actually delivering something of worth. He's been a shell of a wrestler for a long time, a precautionary tale of how the mightiest giants can fall when their brains turn to mush and they forget the vital concepts that make wrestling matches interesting to instead focus on cheap pops and easy paydays. All of that is to say that this Masato Tanaka is the Masato Tanaka I wish we still had today. This is a ridiculously brutal beatdown courtesy of Dangan, bloodying up Honma and sticking almost entirely to punches directed at the wound when not finding interesting and creative ways to cut off hope spots. Honma, for his part, is a very competent victim, and his big comeback entirely consisting of dangerous neck-drop moves is honestly kind of awesome. Really though, this is the Tanaka show, and he easily puts in the most Tarzan Goto-esque performance of his whole career (which is probably why I loved it so much). Probably not the "dream match" many would imagine for these two, and I am so damn thankful for that.

Sad Genius vs. Tiger Jeet Singh (UNW 03/24/2002)

    Before the bell even rings, Sad Genius cuts a promo where he asks Singh if he remembers Pearl Harbor. Tiger Jeet Singh. Tiger Jeet Singh was billed from India and lived in Canada. Welcome to UNW. Of the UNW footage we have, this is probably the best actual match, albeit a very short one. Singh kicks the shit out of the Napoleon Sad Genius, all while Genius' sister begs for him to stop and Gorgeous Matsuno keeps repeating "KILL HIM TIGER". Genius responds with a full-on scuzzy Inoki impersonation, complete with knuckle arrows and armbreakers. All of this sounds very stupid on paper, and is very stupid in execution, but it also rocks. Genius is a legitimately great worker with amazing punches and that kind of 70s silent charisma that makes him feel like a total badass. Singh is motivated way more than he has any right being, really laying into Genius and getting over his chokes without issue. I'm not going to tell you that this is some sort of "objectively" great match or anything like that. It's a great match to me though. Sad Genius please respond to your emails I really want to see you and Tsunehito Naito going 40+ minutes.

Azteca vs. Diablo (KAGEKI 06/23/2002)

    Is Diablo the greatest heel in j-indie history? Sources (me) are saying yes! This match feels like so many things, all great on their own, put together in the best way possible. There's a strong influence from the lucha libre both men learned in Mexico, especially with the way they integrate in brawling and mask-ripping, along with Azteca's very Mil Mascaras comebacks. There's also a real feeling of something more territory, lots of bullshit cutoffs and punches and a vital face/heel dynamic tapped into entirely by both men. It's not particularly often you see a guy get booed like Diablo does here, and he knows just how to milk that vitriol for all it's worth. You wouldn't be entirely off in accusing this match of being a little too long or a little too slow at certain points, but it's just such a great time that it doesn't matter to me. Azteca is a hero and this match is his quest to vanquish the biggest evil in all of Fukuoka.

Masayuki Mineno vs. Jota (CAPTURE International 10/05/2002)

    About as far away as you can get from pro wrestling while still being pro wrestling. There's no ring, both guys are wearing boxing gloves, the match has rounds, and every single shot looks legit. By god, it's CAPTURE baby. Jota and Mineno are easily the highlight of the small bit of TV footage we have from 2002 & 2003, the two young guns with rip-off Prodigy theme songs embroiled in an endless rivalry to figure out which one is more deserving of Koki Kitahara's love. There's a super interesting dichotomy at play here. Jota is this reckless street fighter who constantly throws wide swings and errant kicks in the hopes that enough Hail Marys connect and take Mineno down. Mineno, meanwhile, is a shoot-to-kill sniper rifle of a fighter, very rarely missing his shots and always making them count. The match plays out with the two bouncing back and forth with this dynamic in mind, Jota unleashing extended relentless haymakers only for Mineno to respond back with equally-destructive pinpoint combos. For a match as one-note as that may sound, they find a lot of really interesting ways to go about beating the dogshit out of each other, and the gloves to a lot more to enhance the match than hold it back. It's the high-spec basement MMA you didn't know you needed to see.

Shadow WX vs. Gosaku (WEW 04/29/2003)

    WEW isn't a fed I particularly care for, and, speaking candidly, this was a late addition to the list after watching some shows just to make sure I wasn't missing out on anything. Turns out, on WEW's random one-off ESPN broadcast, they put on possibly the best electrified light tube match I've ever seen. It feels fitting for Gosaku to be here, as he's kind of WEW: The Man to me, someone I've never been especially inspired by who blew me out of the water here. He's a desperate and tenacious asskicker, taking brutality from WX and finding his moments to dish it back out in droves. Every spot involving the tubes is done so well here, from the super scary first board break to WX's nightmarish tube crossface. I can't say enough how pleasant of a surprise this was. Easily my favorite find from working on this list, one of the only matches I've only seen once to make it onto here.

Teppei Ishizaka vs. Sambo Oishi (K-DOJO 08/31/2003)

    A pretty emphatic rookie showcase, easily the best kind of match K-DOJO ever put onto their cards. Ishizaka and Oishi are two of K-DOJO's best around this point, and this plays out exactly how it should considering the circumstances: this is the finals of K-DOJO's yearly rookie tournament, and both men had gotten to this point through incessant limb targeting, so this of course turns into full-scale limb warfare. At the same time, neither man forgets the fire needed for a good rookie clash, flying at each other with tons of energy like bulls locking horns, and they do a damn good job of maintaining that energy even in the slower moments with lots of vocalization and wrenching. You really can't go wrong with any of K-DOJO's rookie matches in this era, and this is easily the best of the bunch to me.

Daiyu Kawauchi vs. GENTARO (NIGHT-MARE 11/24/2003)

    It's fascinating to see these two men, the two prodigies lined up to be the top rivalry of a Wrestle Yume Factory that never died, finally getting the chance to have a big title match. It's even more fascinating that they worked how they did, because this is a total tribute match to 90s American pro wrestling. GENTARO and Kawauchi are two of the more outspoken fans of the style, so it isn't entirely shocking, but it's such a bizarre sight to see two guys in Battle Sphere working sequences based around the Jackhammer and the Sweet Chin Music. It's a ton of fun though, and a great example of both men's strengths. GENTARO is a master at working these kinds of sequences quickly and naturally, moving around the ring with ease and always having Kawauchi in the right spot for whatever he's planning next. Kawauchi, meanwhile, really gets to flex his muscles as a powerhouse, hoofing GENTARO around with nasty slams and throws. It's certainly not perfect, and there're some do-si-do spots that I don't particularly love, but I do find it somewhat endearing to have those spots almost always end with something like a Stone Cold Stunner. In a way, a spiritual cousin to the Ishikawa/Usuda match discussed previously.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Mammoth Sasaki (WMF 12/27/2003)

    A pretty big match for Mammoth, really his biggest test in proving whether he can be a suitable ace to lead FMW's remnants towards a better tomorrow. Even if that never came to be, I think he passed with flying colors here. Mammoth and Tenryu put in a monstrous heavyweight battle, the kind of thing that blows so much of the "bushido spirit" and "big meaty men slapping meat" bullshit nowadays out of the water. For as much back and forth chopping that occurs here, there's a much larger amount of Tenryu and Sasaki beating the breaks off of each other, with a natural-feeling back and forth thanks to Sasaki's boundless energy and Tenryu's antics with a beer bottle. This match does a great job of being both a large guy EPIC and a vindictive borderline-rookie torture, playing both tunes to perfection and delivering one of my favorite matches of Tenryu's 2000s run.  

Kenji Fukimoto vs. Masanori Ishikura (J2K 09/26/2004)

    One of the juniors matches of this era that has stuck with me a little more than it probably should've. J2K had a wonderful assortment of guys, and these are two of their best, with the almost Sayama-esque Ishikura acting as a good babyface to fight back against devious fouling Muto idolizer Fukimoto. They really play up how excellent Ishikura is at everything, letting him hold control for a lot of the match as Fukimoto has to rely on his wits and willingness to bend rules to sneak advantages. There's certainly moments of roughness here, one or two botches a long with an instance of the two just not being on the same page, but where they succeed shines much brighter than where they fail. Maybe I shouldn't love this match as much as I do, but I have J2K bias. Not much to be done in that regard.

Killing Machine 666 & Crazy SKB vs. Nakata Shacho & Tontonmaru (666 10/31/2004)

    From the moment Crazy SKB comes out in a grim reaper costume, complete with a scythe covered in sticks of dynamite, you know exactly what you're in for. This is a standout SKB brawl, with SKB and fellow untrained promoter Nakata really doing their damndest to make each other blow up. Most of the brawling simply exists as a vehicle to get from one fireworks spot to the other, but there's clearly some juice to it, with a very bizarre but hilarious through-line being the Brody vs. Funk allusions by the two company owners. Killing Machine (a B-tier Slipknot member) and Tontonmaru (a ramen shop tie-in gimmick) both mostly exist to help the presidents with their mad schemes and take bumps, but both are clearly talented workers beneath the masks, and it seems like Tontonmaru hits a 450 at one point slightly out of frame. I guess you can argue this match doesn't have much going for it besides the fireworks and craziness, but this is also a Crazy SKB match, and if you're going to criticize it for something like that then you're a pussy. Enjoy the crowd endangerment like the rest of us.

Ryuma Go, Shiro Koshinaka, Arashi, Koji Ishinriki, & Ryo Miyake vs. Tarzan Goto, Gran Hamada, Masashi Aoyagi, Masanobu Kurisu, & Kazuhiko Matsuzaki (WAP 05/02/2005)

    Easily the most Japanese match in WAP's short history. Most of the cards were filled with matchups like Alex Shelley vs. BADBOY Hido or Petey Williams vs. Phantom Funakoshi, but this right here is the "Strong Style of Showa" tribute match. It is one of the rare yet always appreciated indie old man tags, a chance for all the old vets to come together and show their stuff years after their primes. Really, that's all you'd usually expect of something like this: the classics. And yes, they absolutely deliver the classics, with everyone getting at least a moment in the match to pop off a big move or a killer combo. Even still, this match is shockingly ambitious; Aoyagi is busting out kicks he rarely did even in the 90s, Goto is breaking beer bottles to stab people in the face, and Ryuma Go is rocking on all cylinders for a man that looks more like a lego minifigure than a normal human being. There's tons of headbutts, tons of kicks, tons of heat from decades gone by. It's the kind of thing you can just throw on and enjoy without context but really learn to love with it.

Insect's Soul: 1-25

            (Written by jom)

Ryuma Go vs. Atsushi Onita (Pioneer Senshi 04/30/1989)

    The big bang event of the entire scene. Go and Onita, two of the most promising juniors of the 80s, two wayward sons of their respective majors, finally unleashed and given a Korakuen main event to show what they can do on their own merits. Turns out, they can do a lot! This is a pretty spectacular match, one that serves as the perfect introduction to both men's future works. Onita, for the most part, is already tapping into that mad brawler mindset, only really doing dives in the scariest-looking way possible and generally relying on his own skull more than his aerial abilities. Go, in turn, spends a lot of this match on the back foot, which gives him ample time to demonstrate just how great of a victim he is. They play with some interesting ideas, like Go's incessant targeting of Onita's previously-injured leg on offense, and there's genuinely some super awesome spots strewn about. More than anything though, this is two of Japan's best kept secret brawlers getting to go hog wild to start the era of independents.

Atsushi Onita vs. Masashi Aoyagi (WKA 07/02/1989)

    One of those matches I've talked about too many times in too many different places. I've called it "lightning in a bottle" on at least three separate occasions, but truly, this is the kind of existence you see once in a blue moon, a moment in time that completely reshapes the future in its image. While I can claim that the previous match is the origin point of the indies, this is the origin point of FMW. This is the origin point of practically every invasion angle. This is the origin point of the 90s different style boom across both the indies and the majors. It's bloody, mess, and most of all, real. The fans bought into it. So did the seconds at ringside. If you told me that the only people in the world that knew this was scripted were Aoyagi, Onita, and the referee, I'd believe you, but I'd still be wondering if the referee really knew. It's funny that we only got this match because UWF denied Onita at the door. In a way, this one match is Onita completely outdoing everything the UWF crew had spent years trying to achieve. This is the realest pro wrestling of all time. I love it. 

Yoshihiro Asai vs. Negro Casas (Universal 06/07/1990)

    A pretty wonderful statement piece on where this new-fangled idea of "lucharesu" would be heading, while also being wholly unique. Honestly, you could probably argue this did more to develop the juniors style in Japan as a whole than any other singular match. Casas and Asai are a wonderful pairing as evidenced by their numerous encounters around this time, and this functions as the big singles match for them to get out some of their best ideas. There's a great balance of careful wargame-esque matwork, where both guys get holds in and tried their damndest to keep the other from getting out, and the big explosive spots you'd expect from Asai especially. The scrappiness of the striking and the tightness of the holds honestly reflects as something more akin to the other UWF kicking it at this point, but it never fully goes into that shoot-style mindset. This is distinctly lucha, albeit featuring two guys that did more to blend styles than others. You can safely bet that this is Asai's best work of his career, and it's a sleeper contender for one of Casas' better matches as well. The kind of match that could start a revolution; makes sense that it kinda did.

Atsushi Onita vs. Tarzan Goto (FMW 02/26/1991)

    Easily the most difficult choice I had to make for this project. FMW presented so much variance in its 13 year lifespan. It tried and succeeded in so many different kinds of wrestling that it makes it difficult to try and pinpoint which style they did their best work in. Even if you consider FMW to be more of a major after they started running Kawasaki yearly (which, I do), that still leaves you with a few incredibly dynamic years of activity as an indie. Up until I finalized the list I was still switching between this match, their first explosions match, the Texas Death Street Fight, and Onita's match against Lee Gak Soo as prime contenders. In the end though, I went with my heart. More than any other match, this right here is FMW to me. Onita and Goto having a drag-out bloody brawl in a raucous Korakuen Hall, complete with flying tables and furious fists and all the drama you could ever want. It's messy and disgusting in just the right way, a demonstration of the endurance of the human spirit in the face of brutal conditions and unrelenting violence. It is the true soul of FMW, stripped of the pyrotechnics or light shows the company would end up being most known for. Really, it is the true soul of pro wrestling. At least, it is for me.

Mr. Pogo vs. Jason The Terrible (W*ING 05/07/1992)

    God, I love W*ING. I love a lot of promotions here, some more than W*ING, but nothing makes me want to express my adoration more than W*ING. Very few companies have presented such a stronger identity with such an enrapturing assortment of freaks and geeks quite like Quinones' lovechild. The W*ING podcast featuring myself and TrillyRobinson will be coming in 2026, I guarantee it. This match has basically everything you could want from a W*ING main event: Mr. Pogo, a horror movie monster, a strange gimmick match (The Undertaker Casket Match), a white-hot crowd, and absolute pandemonium. Pogo and Jason go on extensive tours of the Korakuen facilities with their brawling, picking up weapons as they go like they're in an RPG. Jason has these amazing clubs and totally embraces the crowd's energy throughout the match, which makes it all the better whenever Pogo has his moments where he snaps and tries to murder Jason in front of over a thousand people. Mr. Pogo even sits down on his stoop in this match and answers one of philosophy's greatest questions: why does nobody just kill the Undertaker whenever he does his sit-up spot? Overall, biblically accurate W*ING. Not much better in wrestling or in general.

Hiroshi Itakura vs. Ryuma Go (Oriental Pro 09/12/1992)

    This is a real baptism in blood. Itakura takes on his mentor as part of his trial series to prove he has what it takes to be Oriental Pro's eventual top guy (the company would die before that could happen). Itakura is full of piss and vinegar, flying at Go with dropkicks and elbows as much as he can. Ryuma Go, in turn, decides that Itakura needs intense brain damage as punishment, and spends the entire match hitting no-hand shoot headbutts. In a way, this is almost a punishment for excessive ambition, like a caveman beating his son to death with a big rock for trying to invent fire. The only time Go expands his moveset beyond clubbing blows and skull-shattering headbutts is when Itakura pushes him to heightened fury with his attempted hope spots. It's a deeply one-note match, but that one note is oh so sweet.

Koji Ishinriki vs. Umanosuke Ueda (NOW 12/11/1992)

    Very few matches have ever reflected an intent to hurt more than this one. This is more Ishinriki and Ueda's excuse to take years off of each other's lives than an actual wrestling match. Two men so opposed in appearance and ideology fighting to the death. There's a really interesting layout thanks to the difference in appearance too: when you look at Ishinriki and his chiseled physique compared to the schlubby old fart that is Ueda, you come to realize that this is a man physically capable of doing anything duking it out with a man mentally willing to do anything. Ueda is a complete monster, stumbling around in his Mil Mascaras mask and stabbing Ishinriki in the face with The Foreign Object. He's on no-sell autopilot for half the match as well, eating chairshots to the head and walking them off like nothing. Ishinriki's progressive descent into more and more violent outbursts culminates in one of the scariest finishes ever, if not the scariest. Combine all of this with one of the best handheld recordings of all time, and this might be the quintessential LiveLeak wrestling match.

Hiroshi Itakura, Hideo Takayama, & Ichiro Yaguchi vs. Jado, Gedo, & Hiromichi Fuyuki (Shin Kakuto 09/24/1994)

    Ultimate piece of shit Fuyuki is here with his two little goons to cause mayhem in a fed already on the brink of destruction. It hurts my soul for this (admittedly great) show to be our only piece of footage from Shin Kakuto's short lifespan, but man, what a match to end it on. Itakura, Takayama, and Yaguchi are a wonderful home team to get brutalized, fighting back with tons of fire and stiffness, especially the future Hido who unleashes with some insane kicks (probably as a receipt for Jado throwing a table directly at his head and making him bleed hardway). Really though, this is the Fuyuki-gun torture hour, and they do a great job of painting a purely white canvas red by the end of the match. Definitely one of the most memorable six-man tags from this era of the indies, and secretly a career highlight match for all six men involved.

Goro Tsurumi vs. Zombia II (IWA Kakuto Shijuku 12/11/1994)

    In true IWA fashion, this match starts in the middle of one already happening. Goro Tsurumi is the father of the monster wrestling genre, and this might be his magnum opus, the best creature feature in a pre-Tobita landscape. Zombia is one of the earliest and most forgotten wrestling monsters but he rules, a freak in all denim and a strange mask that looks more like a melting wolfman than a zombie, stabbing Tsurumi in the face with a Freddie Krueger glove made using a ninja rake. This match is a masterclass in Tsurumi selling; witness as he both screams in pain and stares into the crowd like Wile E. Coyote floating over a canyon. His comebacks are just as fascinating to see, as he throws punches and backfists with so much force, like the masks somehow mean the guys getting hit can't feel a thing no matter what. Sprinkle in rampant interference and a slightly drunk crowd going wild and you have one for the history books.

Poison Sawada vs. The Mummy (Union Pro 12/25/1994)

    This match is... questionable. I'm not just referring to the moral implications of live snakes being used in a wrestling match. Arguably, this match isn't very good. With Mummy's choke-heavy control segments and the few bursts of "action" leaving a little to be desired, you could get away with shitting on this match to my face. Really, I'd get it. And yet, there's something so magnetic about this match to me. Every time I watch it my eyes are glued to the screen, seated with baited breath as I watch Sawada scream and cry in any attempt to avoid assured death via snake poison. Part of that comes from the fact that this match just doesn't feel like the kind of match that would give you a resolution. I've seen enough nailboard deathmatches to know when a stipulation match is ever really going to go all-in with the stip, and this one just reeks of false promises. Until the snake bite happens. At that point, all assumptions are out the window. All anyone can do is fall headfirst into the chaos. If you were to try and watch every match I talk about in this project, this match is the one I'd be most accepting of you just skipping. However, this is one of the most "indie" matches ever, for better and for worse. You don't have to respect their arguable animal abuse, but you do have to respect their conviction.

Hayato Katayama vs. Mitsunobu Kikuzawa (Yataimura 01/07/1995)

    Super impressive lucharesu from two complete rookies in a food court. I love Yataimura. Even considering how little footage we have, the concept of a promotion running almost daily in a market is such a cool idea, and it led to the entirely-rookie roster developing into total monsters (Kuishinbo Kamen, Sanshiro Takagi, NOSAWA, etc). Here we have the future Kikutaro and what-could've-been Katayama (who actually secretly returned in 2021 after 20 years away), both only months into their respective careers, and they're given the stage to do some really fun pro wrestling. There are definitely moments where you can tell the two are early into their careers, but those moments are covered by just how well they do pretty much everything else. All of their sequences are well-timed and never boil over into self-indulgence, and they already have a great gauge of how to keep the crowd rolling. Above all else, it's a damn fun encounter, and it feels really nice to see two rookies like this experimenting and finding their footing in the wrestling world. 

Stray Dog Legend (PWC 02/16/1995)

    Hubris as high art. Shunji Takano, the Stray Dog a.k.a the Human Bazooka a.k.a the Super Dual Fuma Ninja, spends roughly 15 minutes beating up seven people before playing air guitar with a live band and celebrating with a man dressed as the joker. I have never before or since seen a more grand display of ego. It is painfully obvious that Shunji Takano believes himself to be the coolest man on planet Earth, and, to be frank, this match is a strong piece of propaganda for that argument, even if it also exposes him as a complete lunatic. Seeing Takano brawl around the arena and Shinjuku's night life with his trainees, taking a healthy amount of liberties on all of them, is some of the most absurd imagery to come out of wrestling ever. At least two people seem to get busted open for real by Takano's live rounds and reckless object swinging, and Takano can't seem to care one bit. He feels the vibe in the air and the vibe is himself. This is Shunji Takano as pro wrestling's god emperor for one night only, and we can only be thankful it lasted no longer than that.

Koki Kitahara vs. Akio Kobayashi (Kitao Dojo 02/21/1995)

    A sleeper hit from one of my favorite shows ever. When picking for Kitao Dojo, I knew I needed to take a match from the Buko tournament, but I had a bit of difficulty choosing what. After weighing my options and convincing myself to not pick the obvious Kurisu/Mochizuki match, I felt like this match deserved to be talked about the most. Kitahara and Kobayashi are so different in methodology, with Kobayashi being a shithead karateka who loves to spam awesome looking kicks, and Kitahara working like he already has the concept for CAPTURE in mind. As such, this match is disgustingly heated, worked like a mix between a final fight from Karate Kid and a back-alley mugging. It gives you all you'd want in terms of big slams and flying feet, while padding out the runtime with some very genuine-feeling mount struggles and submission work. It all adds up to make for a pretty great four minutes, secretly one of the best matches on one of the more stacked shows of the era.

Takashi Ishikawa & Ryo Miyake vs. Yuichi Fukaya & Shigekazu Tajiri (Tokyo Pro 02/23/1995)

    Starting your company out by letting the Seishin Kaikan B-Team whoop your entire roster's ass is a wonderful bit of booking genius. Hats off to Takashi Ishikawa. Forgotten Aoyagi trainees Tajiri and Fukaya are here to destroy thicky-built indie bruisers with leg kicks that could snap baseball bats, and Ishikawa is here to remind them who runs the company. Tons of mean punching, kicking, kneeing, and throwing of whatever other parts of the body these guys can figure out. Even with the basic structure of these matches being mostly adhered to, they find some pretty interesting ways to divert, especially when Ryo Miyake, the designated whooping boy, gets revenge in a manner I've never really seen in these kinds of matches, to the point even Ishikawa seems put off by the viciousness. These guys aren't blowing anyone away, but they're playing with a tried-and-true match style and finding new paths on a well-travelled road by this point. That gets big points in my book and lots of love from my heart.

Koichiro Kimura & Hopper King vs. Black Hole & Fumio Akiyama (NNP 06/21/1995)

    This right here is the real sleaze shit. Two straight shooters and two space aliens having a super heated Battlarts match a year before Battlarts even existed. They're throwing potshots and dragging each other onto the floor and crowd brawling while firing off full force body kicks and shoteis straight to the jaw. Akiyama and Kimura work with a grudge against one another, at one point rolling around in mount and raining down slaps with eardrum-bursting force. Black Hole is a big fat dude in a super awesome costume that exists to hit hammer fists and judo throws, and seeing him absorb the hardest strikes ever into his blubber and not sell at all gives me the biggest smile on my face. And Hopper King. Hopper King, man. Absolute killing machine. This has a solid contender for the most ungodly finish ever, especially if we one day get confirmation that it was a shoot. When I pass, I hope matches like this one are what people in the scene remember me for.

Kendo Nagasaki vs. Seiji Yamakawa vs. Yosuke Kobayashi vs. Bruiser Okamoto vs. Yuichi Taniguchi (BJW 07/01/1995)

    Personally, I'm just not the biggest fan of "cinematic matches." Outside of the questionable nature of what that term actually entails, a lot of the modern renditions have never hit for me on the level they have for others. They're fun novelties, sure, but I think that, for most of them, they only really thrive thanks to the nature of their production. It'd be a little hard to enjoy many of those matches if they existed on a single handheld recording. This match, placed about 20 years before the term "cinematic match" was even a thing, does not have this same issue. I think I would love this no matter how the tape was produced; it just so happens that the production here is some of the best ever. This match is best consumed as part of the full 45-minute tape, existing as a monolith of its own, a loving tribute to destruction of property directed like a natural disaster documentary. Kendo Nagasaki is a man obsessed with annihilating a small town's market square, and he uses the bodies of his four trainees to go about doing that. It's legitimately one of my favorite wrestling experiences ever, and one I've replayed at least once a month for the past two years.

Takeshi Miyamoto vs. Kei Tsukada (Go Gundan 07/30/1995)

    It feels weird for me to not choose a Ryuma Go match for the fed with "Go" in the name. Honestly, it feels pretty bad! Still, I had to include at least one of Tsukada and Miyamoto's matches, and this one is by far their best. I had a whole series dedicated to the CMA Gym rivalry on the blog many years ago, but this tape only surfaced in 2023 after we came across it on Yahoo Auctions. My god, what a discovery. This is balls to the wall unrelenting action in a way very little wrestling has ever even came close to matching. The promise of "karate vs. boxing" is delivered upon in spades, and both Miyamoto and Tsukada get their moments to flex their newly-developed pro wrestling muscles. The build to Tsukada's diving punch is so basic and yet some of the best shit I have ever seen, helped immensely by the crowd being on the verge of a riot for everything these guys do. Tsukada and Miyamoto were the greatest traveling act in all of indie wrestling history, and this was the type of performance that could convince the hundreds in attendance to turn into fully-fledged CMA deadheads.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Yuki Ishikawa (PWFG 08/12/1995)

    Somehow, this is the only instance of Ishikawa and Ikeda facing off on the list. I suppose it makes sense considering the matchup didn't happen in many different places, and I've made it my goal to generally present a wider range of indies yet undiscussed, but it still feels a little bizarre. Even more bizarre is this match, as it stands out from the pack as their most "shoot style" matchup to date. Instead of the Inoki and Baba tribute acts of the '98 encounter, or the "I will make you retire" closed fist throwing of the '05 classic, this match features both men kickpad'd up and ready to throw down with kicks and submissions. Seeing Yuki Ishikawa of all people throw rolling solebutts is certainly a strange image, but the perfect execution certainly reminds you that he was a Sayama disciple before ever stepping into Gotch's house or Fujiwara's dojo. There are still tinges of the bati-bati stylings to come in the next year or so, but this serves as more of a subtle preview of these two's future bread and butter. Instead, this is just straight-up great shoot style, and another testament to the fact that these two could really do no wrong.

Ryuma Go & Shunji Takano vs. Mr. Pogo & Imagine (Samurai Project 04/17/1996)

    Three of the most magnetic presences in j-indie history and the ghost of John Lennon rock the Korakuen Hall like few others even dare attempt. This is the Ryuma Go big match formula at its best, with the most fitting partner and opponents possible to take this to the next level. More than anything else, there's just such a perfect understanding of the energy in the room. The people love Ryuma Go. When Ryuma Go suffers, they suffer. When Ryuma Go bleeds, they bleed. When Ryuma Go triumphs, well, so do they. Pogo is a master as delivering suffering, and Go's comebacks filled with plunder and fire really feel like the best way to respond to such torture. Meanwhile, Shunji Takano is the coolest guy ever. He comes out singing along to "Touch Me" by The Doors and generally spends his time in the match stiffing the fuck out of Imagine. He's almost like a subplot to the match's general focus of The Passion Of Ryuma Go, but a welcome one indeed. If you want to see what the indies are all about in '96, this is a strong match for that. Just sit back, relax, and watch Ryuma Go put on a hard hat and headbutt Mr. Pogo.

The Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada, & Super Delfin vs. Dick Togo, Men's Teioh, & Shiryu (Michinoku Pro 01/14/1997)

    The leanest meat variant of the KDX/Seigigun tags, whittling the teams down to the three most vital members on either side and letting them duke it out as long as they need to. This is professional wrestling executed to be its very best. All six guys are so damn talented, so beyond everyone else, that they put performances I'd go so far as to call perfect. The faces are all fantastic fighting from underneath, making huge comebacks with crazy flips and displays of athleticism never matched at any point since this time period. The KDX side of the match juggle the tasks of being brutalizers, bases, and cowards against the face team, and they knock it out of the park. There are incredible displays of ambition throughout, but at no point do they ever cross into overambitious territory, nor do they ever fail to deliver on their promises. On a good day, I'd say this is genuinely the best match to come out of the KDX/Seigigun feud, better than the THESE DAYS tag or the Battlarts tag or anything else. In terms of pure wrestling excellence, there has maybe been nothing else better. 

Nobutaka Araya vs. Masaaki Mochizuki (WAR 02/08/1997)

    All cards on the table in this one. Araya and Mochizuki, the top rising stars of the heavyweights and the juniors respectively, get nearly 20 minutes to rip each other apart on a Korakuen show. Boy, do they make the most of it. This is sloppy and rough in the most WAR way imaginable, with limbs flung around with reckless abandon and moves done in such a way that death is on the doorstep with every bump. Even a body slam looks and feels like it could kill. They beat each other black and blue, with control shifting in a really natural way, moving back and forth as each guy gets the chance to rattle off just enough of their offense to snag it back. Araya's a great dominating heavyweight, a role he didn't get to play as much as he should've in WAR, and Mochizuki is an awesome victim, taking bumps like he's just been shot. The crowd is nuclear for the entire match but especially the final three minutes with all the nearfalls and big moves. This might be WAR's biggest hidden gem. 

Jado, Gedo, & Kodo Fuyuki vs. Masao Orihara, Keisuke Yamada, & The Great Kabuki (Fuyuki-gun Promotions 03/29/1997)

    In a way, this is team IWA Japan finally getting revenge for all the groups victimized by Fuyuki-gun. It starts out normal enough for a Fuyuki-gun match: lots of uncooperative fighting and early bombthrowing, general disrespect behind all of their domination, etc. Yamada eats shit for a good bit in the early portion of the match, and it all seems to be going according to plan. That is, until the IWA Japan team gets Fuyuki-gun outside and beats them half to death around the venue. IWA Japan's torture segment of the bloody and battered Fuyuki-gun is some of the best work I've seen the stable involved in, with Fuyuki constantly trying to hulk up but getting cut off every time. There's some moments of shifty melodrama that honestly work because of how hard the IWA team no-sells it, and the eventual Fuyuki-gun comeback feels monumental, somehow morphing the team from the usual dastardly heels into valiant babyfaces finally getting their house of fire. Damn good stuff, and an interesting case study for the capabilities of everyone here beyond their usual roles.

Tarzan Goto vs. Ryo Miyake (Shin FMW 06/17/1997)

    The culmination of Goto's trial of endurance, the main event of the show where he wrestled in every single match on the card. You'd expect this final match to be focused on the wear and tear catching up to Goto, giving his trainee Miyake the chance to finally stand on equal footing with such a mountainous figure. Well, how about no. When it comes to Goto, you should learn to expect the unexpected. This is instead one of Goto's most disgusting torture sessions, an exercise in gratuitous violence by father on son. Miyake looks like a butchered cow before the match is even over, covered in blood from stabs and jabs all over his body. Still, he gets his moments to fight back, and you really see flashes of Goto's ideology bleeding into him in some of these. This match, in isolation, is already pretty great. When you factor in the show it happens on and the journey to get to this match, you've got something really special. All hail Tarzan Goto.

Masashi Aoyagi & Cosmo Soldier vs. Azteca & Masayoshi Motegi (WYF 01/08/1998)

    This is a lot. Most Yume tags are, but this one especially. You've got a junior of the Liger ilk and a luchador taking on a spaceman and a karateka for nearly 20 minutes. But damn man, do they make it work. Somehow, this is one of the tightest matches to come out of the lower indies of this era, filled with really interesting matwork and control segments. Cosmo is in top form especially, struggling a lot on the ground and doing a great job with selling once Motegi and Azteca start obliterating his back. Aoyagi is also a great hot tag, coming in and going wild with the kicks while also really getting in the faces of anyone willing to step up. Combine all of that with some nasty stiffness and wonderful reckless juniors work and you have yourselves a great tag, one that feels deeply emblematic of the kind of fascinatingly varied place WYF was.

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Katsumi Usuda (Battlarts 03/06/1998)

    Battlarts, at its core, is a loving tribute to the wrestling the crew involved loves. Strip away the stiffness and absurd cardbuilding and what you have left is a group of guys absolutely obsessed with wrestling. Ishikawa and Usuda are two of the most open tribute acts, and this plays out as the stiffest, most Shooto version of an Inoki/Fujiwara match possible. Tons of crazy palm strikes and kicks combined with Manji-gatames and Waki-gatames, usually glued together by some of the coolest counters you've ever seen. Both guys are absolute killers but know how to emote enough to never come off as liberty-taking robots. They also wrap it all up with one of my favorite finishing stretches ever, cementing this at one of my top 10 favorite Battlarts matches ever.

Insect's Soul: Introduction

            (Written by jom)

    Ryuma Go invented independent wrestling. 

    From as early as the mid-1950s, smaller organizations have tried to stake their claim in a wrestling landscape dominated by the Rikidozan lineage. Groups like AJPWA and Toa Pro Wrestling sprouted up and found mild success only to close their doors within a few years, and while the efforts of these forefathers should not go unnoticed, none of these early operations really befit the term "indie." No, it would take nearly another 40 years for a promotion to come along and take the "indie" moniker and thrust it from the world of music into the wrestling sphere.

    That promotion was FMW.

    From multiple accounts, the first usage of the term "indie" in wrestling came from Atsushi Onita, who declared FMW's status as an indie organization after the first few shows. If we're going to directly credit someone for the terminology, it would be him, and that would seemingly make FMW the first indie promotion. 

    However, I disagree on that last part. While the first promotion to use the term would be FMW, the first group to fit the term would be Pioneer Senshi, started by Ryuma Go, Masahiko Takasugi, and Apollo Sugawara. Pioneer was the actual starting point of what's been called the "indie revolution", the Planck epoch of the soon-to-be flourishing scene. From it, groups like FMW and Universal spread their wings, and the indie world only branched off more and more, all following in the footsteps of Go's vision. Go himself continued to grow and innovate in the scene, starting organization after organization with stronger focuses on video sales and local pro wrestling, ideals that would only grow more prevalent with each passing year.

    Around 1995, Ryuma Go gave this interview following a Go Gundan event. Among his discussions of working a match with a broken arm and running his Atsugi Pro Wrestling shows, Go dove into how he felt about his position in the larger wrestling world, using one of his favorite proverbs to explain his ideology as a wrestler: "Even the smallest insect has a soul." That phrase has always stuck with me. In my opinion, those seven words do an incredible job of encapsulating the indie spirit, more so than anything I could ever think of. It's no secret that I love the indies, and this line really touches on why. Independent wrestling is about screaming your soul into the world, no matter however many people are there to hear your voice. 

    This project is my attempt at amplifying some of those voices.

    With the help of a few friends and with years of being way too deep into this scene, I've constructed a list of 100 matches from 100 different organizations, starting from 1989 and going all the way to 2019. Some groups are long-lived stalwarts of the scene, while others were flashes in the pan, stars that burnt out within as little as a few months. Hell, a handful of matches come from produce shows rather than fully-formed promotions, but a list like this couldn't have happened without at least a few produces being included. 

    I've limited this list to predominately male, professional organizations. I could make an entire separate list for joshi organizations, and the same can be said for the infinite number of amateur feds to spout up over the last 50 years. Those are two cans of worms I have no interest in opening here, simply because I can only do so much without losing my mind. I've also tried my best to showcase a wide range of groups and sub-scenes, but by the nature of the beast, there will be some promotions that you may be surprised to not see appear on this list. Some of these don't have enough viable footage for the project, while others (especially many shoot style companies) teeter the line between indie and major too much. You are allowed to assume I simply hate them and have no interest in showcasing them. There will also be a handful of companies that could arguably be called majors included in this project. For these, I've chosen matches from time periods where the groups were undeniably indies (PWFG after the Pancrase exodus, DDT before their first Ryogoku show, etc). 

    For the purpose of making these matches as accessible as possible, I've tried to make sure a good number of inclusions are freely available on YouTube, and for those matches, the links will be provided. That being said, a large chunk of this list will not be so easily available. There just isn't much Nagoya indie wrestling from the 2000s hanging out on the site, and I have no interest in directly linking to where stuff like that can be found for a number of reasons (rest in peace RealHeroArchive and every other wrestling drive doomed by errant public link-sharing). I've spent over six years of my life tracking down shitty virus-filled websites and exchanging emails with people all around the world to get my hands on some of the wrestling I have, so you can do the bare minimum and go looking beyond the YouTube search bar for anything not found there. I promise you, everything I talk about here exists and is available for you to watch, as long as you put in the work to find it.

    For the rest of this week, I'll be releasing the list in 25 match chunks, with each match having a relatively small blurb providing my thoughts and opinions on the match, the wrestlers, the promotion, and whatever else I think I should talk about. As much as I don't want the sole value of this project to be the list, I also don't think I should do extensive write-ups on a project mostly serving as a roadmap for a journey through the indie scene. This is just as much about the wrestling that I love as it is about getting you to watch that wrestling.

    I hope you enjoy Insect's Soul as much as I've enjoyed creating it.