Jetlag
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The second show starts with your usual decent undercard. Ito/Yoshida was a very basic opening match which had the simple story of Yoshida going for the same takedown over and over until Ito starts preventing it until he catches him. Yoshida didn't add much aside from one nice hold for a cool nearfall. Hara/Echigo was a nice long match that was also not super flash but they kept it moving and kept working small highlights into it with Echigo landing nice throws and Hara getting nice near K.O.s and making a nice rush in the last minute. Nothing mindblowing but I liked it and stuff like this helps the audience to respect the workers and the rules more. The Fujii match was another squash and while he is not an impressive squash machine it was amusing to watch him slap the tattooed goon to death. I did not like Murahama/Sasaki much as Murahama is the Minoru Tanaka of this promotion with his tendency to do soft matwork and contrived spots. Kyosuke shows potential but this was at best watchable. Okubo was way over his head in the Semi Main Event. I actually would have liked Sakata to squash him to reassert his dominance but they start working throwaway shootstyle before Sakata decides to brutalize him some with hard slaps, knuckles in the face etc. Bread and butter rookie/veteran stuff with Okubo getting his token nearfalls but it ended up being fine. The main event was just an insanely fun match with Mishima coming in as an outsider to Pro Wrestling and winning everyones hearts with his tricked out wonky holds and kicks. Not a master Tamura carryjob but with him you cannot have a bad shootstyle match and a worker like Mishima is must watch. Crazy handspring kicks that look credible and weird pull-his-torso-apart submissions, the man had it all.
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This is the last Capture footage which is from Kitaharas YouTube channel. There is also a highlight video which has more clips that seem to be from matches in the 90s. I have no idea why you would have this stuff filmed and leave no trace of distribution but god knows what is going on in a guy like Kitaharas head when they start a promotion like this. Masashi Aoyagi vs. Nihao (Capture 7/4/1999) This is our sole taste of 90s Capture International. It's Aoyagi working a somewhat regular undercard match against Kitahara's boy Nihao (who would go on to be in U-Style – CAPTURE can get you somewhere). Aoyagi working holds isn't quite the same as Aoyagi working a crazy spectacle, but I probably liked this better than Aoyagis undercard work in Wrestle Yume Factory. Aoyagi sure does give Nihao the business with stiff kicks and punches to the mid section and there is one truely brutal near KO. The finish is a really nice moment too. I didn't get a ton from Nihao here but he looked fine. Koki Kitahara & YUSAKU vs. Tomohiro Ishii & DAISAKU (Capture 5/30/2000) Oh but this match is a goodie. You have Tomohiro Ishii pre-Choshuism and CAPTURE boy since the beginning, aswell as the unseen should-have-been-a-star DAISAKU (Shimoda) and his twin brother YUSAKU (Shimoda and half a dozen other names) rocking the gloves and ready to throw down. I'll never understand what motivates these indy guys to get punched in the face in a basement in front of 70 people but I'll always enjoy watching. This goes about 6 minutes and it's basically all 4 guys kicking the crap out of eachother. Really liked the lumpy boys who like to kick hard sections between Ishii and YUSAKU and the attempted fraticide between YUSAKU and DAISAKU was pretty brutal aswell. Daisaku has some huge kicks and thai knees while Yusaku sticks to more traditional pro wrestling stuff punches and knees stuff executed with a CAPTURE sized vicious streak. Also really liked Ishii in his Kawada wannabe tights flying at Kitahara with huge kicks. By no means is this intelligent or well rounded pro wrestling, it's arguably shootstyle in it's most primitive form, and that's why I love it and want to see every single match in this style ever done. So Kitahara if you're reading this there's someone who cares, and Kitahara's neighbours if you are reading this please break into his garage and steal all his VHS tapes for us and don't get spin kicked in the face doing that.
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This was the best of the Forgotten Kawada TC Defenses I watched today and a borderline classic. And the reason for that is, of course, Osamu Nishimura. Nish often gets branded as a novelty worker who just does tribute matches imitating Dory Funk Jr spots, which is simply not true, as he does a bonafide job working a true Kings Road style match against Kawadas strike based style here. Not forcing him to work his trademark style at all, just building a really good match around his signature spots while educating the crowd on the importance of Backslides and Abdominal Stretches, telling a story and all while never losing his composure. The opening sees Nishimura ambushing Kawada and targeting his leg, they then proceed to work a basic exchange, Kawada goes for a cheapshot but Nish blocks him and hits back, showing he's prepared. They continue in this vein, with Kawada lacing into Nishimura with strikes only for Nishimura to fire back on him, often punching or headbutting him in the eye. This causes Kawada to actually get fired up and look like a dangerous striker against Nishimuras more toned down offense like getting punched and headbutted in the eye actually shook him after years of getting elbowed, kicked, chopped etc. There is some excellently executed legwork and a flawless build to a Figure 4 which was full of struggle and great. Kawadas selling was pretty hit and miss as per usual during this period but I actually thought it was acceptable. The finishing run was really great, well put together stuff with plenty of neat spots and I thought it was largely carried by Nishimuras amazing charisma, he is such a wrestling master with how he manages to work his stuff with so much urgency, he really yanks on Kawadas neck when he goes for a sleeper, he would also go from an Abdominal Stretch to a pin to an armbar trying to force the tap, like he was trying everything he knew to get that win. His bumping is also up there with the best of the 90s death seekers, as when he takes a back suplex his head and feet touch the ground at about the same time but he folds his neck up. I thought his performance here was close to Hondas GHC challenge in 2003. Kawada had one of his better nights on his TC run too, I really liked how he would sell Nishimuras finer strikes and really liked the Octopus Hold into Stretch Plum as a Fuck You to Nishimuras lineage. Great stuff and one of the few matches where you'll see Kawada carried.
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Pretty by the numbers japanese big match but not bad. Sasaki gets the advantage using his power early on, finisher on the floor, some limbwork ensues, lots of stiff shots etc. It's a formula that works and these two are good at it. Sasaki is pretty fly here hitting a big plancha to the floor and really walloping Kawada with potatoes. There is some neck work which ends up not being of much importance but leads to some fun moments. Sasaki cosplays 90s Kobashi by chopping Kawada in the neck and hitting flimsy bulldogs, it also leads to a pretty sick piledriver. Kawada was halfway into lazy mode as he had some nice transitions such as kicking Sasaki in the face when he tried his silly facebuster or slipping underneath for the cheap powerbomb, but he would also just go back on offense at other times. Kind of dumb finishing stretch, but not offensively dumb.
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Man, I had no idea Frye challenging for the Triple Crown was a thing. Judging from Fryes workrate here he really should've been IWGP champion. The first half of this was mindblowing – Frye did a great job selling for Kawada, while also engaging in some of the most violent punch exchanges in pro wrestling history. Really great stuff with Kawada getting rocked repeatedly and desperately trying to shut the MMA fighter down. Unfortunately the way Kawada completely dominated Frye in the second half and no sold all his comebacks was terrible and killed the match.
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Most overlooked match between two big names in japanese wrestling history? I never even knew this one happened. It was a pretty fun match, altough far in the shadow of their 2000 encounter. You get those two smacking and punching eachother a lot, so that is really fun of course, and also some of Crazy Tenryu with him throwing chairs and making use of the Spider Suplex etc. Unfortunately Lazy Kawada was in effect here with him ignoring some fun legwork Tenryu was doing and no selling his way back on offense later, he also seemed to have a lot of light on his enzuigiris. On the other hand, him coughing after getting chopped in the throat was a nice touch. Perfectly good match otherwise.
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I'm gonna join in here for a bit. I've seen bits of U-Style but never the whole thing in one go, so I'll have a go. The debut show (2/15/2003) had a decent undercard with Ito/Ueyama being the one standout match to deliver some high end shootstyle action. Ueyama feels very Tamura inspired with his almost dance like knee grinding and position switching on the ground. The match obviously had lots of good matwork with the opening exchange being perhaps the dopest on the show, and then Ito, after almost getting submitted, starts doing his dismissive mugging and "I will bite you" grin. Lots of feisty palm strikes. I don't remember Kyosuke Sasaki being a "crazy matwork" type but he had to bring it against the bigger RINGS veteran Namekawa and he had some cool stuff. Especially liked the Triangle Chokes. I didn't care much for Murahamas cute spots and hokey selling and Okubo was seriously bland. There is a big difference between Murahama selling a near submission and Hiroyuki Ito or Sakata doing it. The main event was obviously the best match and had everything a Tamura match entails. The good thing about U-Style is that they didn't do straight up UWF or RINGS worship but instead it was this exciting new take on shootstyle with faster pace, shorter matches and submissions being more important. Great mix of slick, athletic matwork with intelligent pacing and strong standup sections. Tamura comes across as a very dangerous force but he mostly works even with fellow RINGS leftover Sakata. Sakata is someone who seems to rough his opponent up a little more than average, it didn't come across strongly here but he had his moments. Really liked how tough the body shots here felt. Whenever Tamura shows vulnerability Sakata goes after him and his crazy desperation assault after almost getting KO'd was the highlight of the match. Some really great submission nearfalls while keeping it believable.
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Capture 3/8/2003 Yasuhiro Yamagami vs. Masaki Sawai Koki Kitahara vs. Nobuyuki Kurashima Daiyu Kawauchi vs. Jiraiya Johta vs. Masayuki Mineno Kitahara vs. Daiyu Kawauchi Yamagami/Sawai – Yamagami is bigger and aggressive and punches and kicks Sawai some. Not much going on in this match as Sawai had his hands full trying to defend himself and gets caught and tapped quickly anyways. Kitahara/Kurashima was a nifty little battle. Kurashima is naturally at home on the mat and Kitahara is actually willing to work the mat against him. However Kitahara has the advantage because he is a bastard. Kitahara brutally kicks him in the jaw while exchanging leglocks and follows with more boots to the face. Kurashima makes some desperation takedown attempts until Kitahara catches (captures) him for the tap. Kawauchi/Jiraya sounded cool on paper if it had been that aggressive Kawauchi from the previous show. Instead he mostly let Jiraya grapple him some before some shotais finally woke him up and he finished the match with the lift and drop and then a shootstyle Jackhammer. Pretty throwaway match aside from the cool finish. Johta/Mineno was another rounds match only this time they had MMA gloves. Why the rounds? Hey, look these ring girls (mat girls?) are totally HOT! They got Capture International style bikinis!!! The match was really good as these two just kick the hell out of eachother and also have good grappling and throws. Basically the worlds greatest worked Shooto. It works because there's no back and forth strike trading, just two guys throwing and evading really fast and aggressively. Little premature ending as this was only half as long as their boxing gloves match, but the finish was pretty damn brutal so what the hell. Kitahara/Kawauchi was basically just a gritty uncooperative streetfight. Kawauchi was more aggressive and overzealous here so Kitahara just absolutely beat his ass in between taunting him. Good stuff that the fans got really into and I hope this isn't the last I see of Capture International.
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It's Ishikawa facing the most insignificant first period BattlARTS guy on a random AJPW card in the 2nd match on the card. It can't be more than just a fun little exhibition? And well that's WRONG because these two just do one of the most brutal under 5 minute sprints of the decade. Crowd brawling that looks legit (why is Ishikawa, a quasi shootstyle working Inoki worshipper arguably the best crowd brawler in japanese wrestling history?), some of the stiffest slaps you'll ever see, and then probably the stiffest Enzugiri you'll see ever, insane Maeda/Fujinami blood, stoppage drama... yeah this kicked ass.
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Well, I assume the main event is what everyone in attendance bought their tickets for. Exactly what Capture promises, 4 guys just beating eachother silly in savage ways. The Mineno/Johta sections were really fun with both guys throwing fast hands and kicks, all ultra stiff of course. Then you had the heavyweights – both Kitahara and Kurashima looked like they were twice the size of either Johta or Mineno – bullying the little guys around. Kurashima is a MUGA boy and he mostly sticks to matwork here, altough he does punish opponents with some brutal throws and inventive submissions. At one point he did a Backlund lift from an armbar into almost a One Winged Angel. Kitahara was an absolute bastard once again, stomping on Minenos face and sucker punching him from behind. Match is really good shootstyle in parts but starts breaking down into chaos towards the end with the referee losing control over who is legal and who isn't, so you would get Kurashima tackling Kitahara while Mineno would try to kick him in the face. Still this is what Capture promise and each fall had a great finish. -
The main event had little story to it but was a string of cool moments. You had Shunji Takano working as sleazy Jumbo Tsuruta walloping everyone with huge kicks and knees, George Takano & Oya having a great moment trading shotais and Nagasaki in his working boots hitting the mat and dishing out big kicks. Oyas execution was sharper than later in FMW but he didn't seem to have a clue on how to add direction to the match. Just when things started to get heated when Nagasaki said Fuck This and went to blast Shunji Takano with the chairs as Kendo Nagasaki does an Umanosuke Ueda run in happens and the match just ends. Kind of a bullshit thing to end your main event of a Korakuen Hall show like this but I actually want to see more NOW now.
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Arakawa/Kawabata was also unexpectedly great as it was that classic japanese material of two tubby guys trading big fucking beatings. Arakawa is known as a comedy worker and while there are some laughs and exaggerated body language this is competitive. Starts great with Kawabata slapping him and Arakawa dumping him with a huge german suplex. Lots of hurty looking slaps and Arakawa punches ensue. We also get some fun Arakawa matwork aswell as a dive tease. This was the most inspired I've seen Kawabata look as he would really lay into Arakawa with kicks and palms and ram him like a bull. What does it say about Kawabata that his most inspired performance is some fancam undercard match against a comedy wrestler from some long forgotten offshoot company?
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Capture 12/8/2002 Masake Sawai vs. Hayato Minami Takayuki Nakazato vs. Seiji Nakamura Cry vs. Jiraiya Koki Kitahara & Johta vs. Nobuyuki Kurashima & Masayuki Mineno The opener was about 4 of decent shootstyle grappling. Again liked Minamis tenacity aspecially when he was again working for an armlock from underneath. Nothing much to get from this kind of match though. In the 2nd match is actually a guy whose name sounds like Seiji Nakamura, not Kazunobu Nakamura as Lynchs matchlist says. It's pretty much irrelevant as Pancrase shorts wearing Nakazato armbars him in about 5 seconds. Cry vs. Jiraiya was some utterly bizarre shit. Cry is a masked guy in all yellow who does some weird exaggerated mannerism comedy while the folks who bought tickets for a CAPTURE show sit there and stare in silence. After about 10 minute of somewhat awkward and not at all good shootstyle grappling Cry gets the win. Not a good night to be Jiraiya. Well, I assume the main event is what everyone in attendance bought their tickets for. Exactly what Capture promises, 4 guys just beating eachother silly in savage ways. The Mineno/Johta sections were really fun with both guys throwing fast hands and kicks, all ultra stiff of course. Then you had the heavyweights – both Kitahara and Kurashima looked like they were twice the size of either Johta or Mineno – bullying the little guys around. Kurashima is a MUGA boy and he mostly sticks to matwork here, altough he does punish opponents with some brutal throws and inventive submissions. At one point he did a Backlund lift from an armbar into almost a One Winged Angel. Kitahara was an absolute bastard once again, stomping on Minenos face and sucker punching him from behind. Match is really good shootstyle in parts but starts breaking down into chaos towards the end with the referee losing control over who is legal and who isn't, so you would get Kurashima tackling Kitahara while Mineno would try to kick him in the face. Still this is what Capture promise and each fall had a great finish.
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Reggie Bennett Sighting!!! While there was no ARSION matwork in this match, it was a really fun houseshow tag. The US gals added significant big/little psychology to the match. This was also a nice nuanced Devil performance, as she put over the massive physical advantage of the foreigners while retaining her own monster status by doing cool things such as selling her own arm and shoulder after landing a big lariat or breathing heavily after hitting a bodyslam. Bennett & Power looked good on offense aswell, hitting nice elbow drops, big powerslams etc. Match includes a sumo standoff and buildup to a vertical suple ex. Also thought the structure was good with Cuty being severely disadvantaged and Masami saving her repeatedly leading to a cool unique finish.
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Oooh baby. The highlight in this was of course Kansai and Saito pulverizing each other with thudding kicks. BattlARTSian rhythm at times. I was also shocked how well Madusa did here. I mean, I've liked her WWF stuff against Bull and so on, but she fit really well here, hitting her kicks on point, engaging in good exchanges, and nailing the submissions and suplexes. She looked better doing that hybrid shooter stuff and kicking Devil Masami in the chin than a lot of girls today with a much bigger fanbase. Speaking of Masami, she was energetic and played her usual role of the explosive powerhouse that will turn the match around by blasting someone with fat powerbombs and lariats if given the chance. This had more structure than the usual JWP tag, we get some hot opening exchanges, before some backwork on Saito is teased, then Masami helps her out and we get Kansai in peril instead. Masamis intrusiveness ends up backfiring later. The finish was a little cute but nothing offensive. Not quite the stone cold classic that the first couple minutes were hinting at but a far above average match nonetheless.
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Harley Saito & Devil Masami vs. Dynamite Kansai & Madusa (JWP 12/7/1991) Oooh baby. The highlight in this was of course Kansai and Saito pulverizing each other with thudding kicks. BattlARTSian rhythm at times. I was also shocked how well Madusa did here. I mean, I've liked her WWF stuff against Bull and so on, but she fit really well here, hitting her kicks on point, engaging in good exchanges, and nailing the submissions and suplexes. She looked better doing that hybrid shooter stuff and kicking Devil Masami in the chin than a lot of girls today with a much bigger fanbase. Speaking of Masami, she was energetic and played her usual role of the explosive powerhouse that will turn the match around by blasting someone with fat powerbombs and lariats if given the chance. This had more structure than the usual JWP tag, we get some hot opening exchanges, before some backwork on Saito is teased, then Masami helps her out and we get Kansai in peril instead. Masamis intrusiveness ends up backfiring later. The finish was a little cute but nothing offensive. Not quite the stone cold classic that the first couple minutes were hinting at but a far above average match nonetheless. 10/23/91: Cuty Suzuki & Devil Masami vs. Reggie Bennett & Terri Power Reggie Bennett Sighting!!! While there was no ARSION matwork in this match, it was a really fun houseshow tag. The US gals added significant big/little psychology to the match. This was also a nice nuanced Devil performance, as she put over the massive physical advantage of the foreigners while retaining her own monster status by doing cool things such as selling her own arm and shoulder after landing a big lariat or breathing heavily after hitting a bodyslam. Bennett & Power looked good on offense aswell, hitting nice elbow drops, big powerslams etc. Match includes a sumo standoff and buildup to a vertical suple ex. Also thought the structure was good with Cuty being severely disadvantaged and Masami saving her repeatedly leading to a cool unique finish. 12/1/91 Osaka: Reggie Bennett & Terri Power vs. Eagle Sawai & Dynamite Kansai The previous match was a fun little match due to character dynamics and big/little psychology. This was Reggie & Terri stepping up for a stiff heavyweight clash. And they did pretty well too. Nothing as nuanced here as Devils selling in the previous match but they had no problem stepping up to trade big blows with Kansai. There were some hints at Kansai and Sawai having to use double teams to cut Reggie down but the match had no real depth. I was also surprised how easily Kansai beat Reggie. I mean, you have a big gaijin lady who can work, surely you might want to set her up as a bigger threat? 12/7/91: Eagle Sawaii & Dynamite Kansai & Reiko Hoshino vs. Itsuki Yamazaki & Harley Saito & Hikari Fukuoka Joshi sprint no better or worse than any other you've seen. Tag in, do a couple moves, tag out. I actually like these JWP sprints a little more than the AJW equivalents because everyone has really solid offense and they only go 13 minutes. Fukuoka was fully embracing Toyotaism here and took some bad abuse from Kansai and Sawai. Hoshinos dive was easily the highlight. Saito and Kansai interactions could've made this something noteworthy but they only interacted briefly.
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Fun as hell little undercard trios centered around Nakano and Fuyuki hating eachothers guts. They are immediately at eachothers throat and trading beatings, Nakano asks Fuyuki to tag in etc. This is broken up by some weird and wonderful Sano/Ishikawa workrate interactions with Ishikawa hitting an awesome tubby old man plancha. However it's back to hatred and soon Nakano has punched a beeding wound into Fuyukis forehead. Then we get Kabuki punching and kicking a bloody Fuyuki in the face (as it should be). Fuyuki is quite the good sympathetic babyface here, doing his high pitched yelling etc. The finishing run is really fun too with Takahi Ishikawa being fired up, Kabuki hitting superkicks. Finally Nakano goes to town on Fuyuki with the chair. These two probably faced eachother at a Pioneer Senshi houseshow or something and we only got a taste here, but it really elevated what could have been a throwaway undercard tag.
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Well executed fast paced multiman matched. Just the right mix of character work and bomb throwing. Loved the highly unpredictable opening exchanges. Loved Haku, who is both a menacing beast and really agile, Nakano is a good underdog trying to topple Tenryu here, and the Tenryu/Ishikawa/Hara team is a murderers row of charismatic bulldozers. Not much extended selling or great transitions but enough tubby guys cracking eachother hard to keep you entertained.
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On 1/5 we got a couple very good trios matches, and one week later we get the singles matches we want to see most coming out of each. Booking can be so easy. And this was a great little match between two overlooked workers. We start in great simplistic fashion with both guys really cranking a side headlock and a wastelock each. The whole match they did a great job working around simple moves. Pierroth Jr. works over Mogurs shoulder using repeated armdrags, really whipping him into the mat and Mogur wincing. Later Mogur gets some nice revenge by locking in ultra tight headscissors, he has a brutal looking armwringer too that drives Pierroths shoulder into the mat. They do some more swanky lucha moves aswell such as a cool sequence where they move from a pin attempt into tombstone reversals, and Pierroth has a few cool submissions including a sweet crucifix lock. There is some cheating – after all Pierroth Jr. had reduced Mogur to a bloody pulp the week before – and he hits one of the sneakier low blows you'll see here - but they deliver a great sheninangless 3rd fall. Pierroth Jr. destroying Mogur by picking him up and ramming him into the posts repeatedly ruled. Mogur builds a nice comeback out of that and we get a classic lucha third fall with crazy dives, desperation selling for an attempted surfboard etc. I bit on the nearfall for the crucixion hold and I really liked how they would take short breathers to how how spent they were. Finish was a simple move and worked. Not the most epic lucha title match, no top rope moves or big bumps, but they made everything they did count and built a great match. Classy stuff, maybe a hidden gem (does it count as hidden if it was on OJ's blog?).
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Minis get to stretch out for 3 long falls and do their thing and the result is accordingly good. Lots of fun matwork and armdrags ensue. Pequeno Goliath carries himself with some amazing swagger. The standout was obviously Mascarita Sagrada who just does amazing stuff. Lots of complex sequences built around whacky armdrag variations. I liked how the rudos would continue with their tactics throughout the 3rd fall, building to another great technico comeback. They tease a big Espectrito/Mascarita showdown which is the hottest matchup here but end the match a little prematurely. Still, nothing to complain when you get 20+ minutes of quality lucha.
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Good title match as you'd expect from two of mexicos most reliable workmen. However the match was a little short and it lacked the selling that the previous Pierroth/Mogur match had. On the other hand it was more spectacular with big dives and both guys taking huge bumps for maximum drama. I would've liked to see more matwork.
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So just a couple days ago after watching that tag I looked up Fujiwaras matches in SWS and how did this fly under my radar? This was really good and an excellent example of how to work a quasi-shootstyle match in a big stadium. Ishinriki has looked good in matches I've seen him in, but he completely blew me away here. Pretty unique structure with Fujiwara not being very dominant at all as Ishinriki constantly pushed him. It makes sense for a sumo guy to have a strong standing game to prevent getting thrown as shown here. The sumo rushes ruled obviously as did Fujiwaras sudden kick combos. This is a rare match where Fujiwara gets frustrated throughout. Ishinriki landing PRIDE stomps on the ground made me wish more juniors would try to set up a flying move like that. Classic finish. This had great heat, nasty strikes throughout and a couple big moments.
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Minami/Iwashita was a nifty undercard shootstyle bout. Won't make you forget U-Style but probably a Top 10 japanese match if it happened tod- ah I'll shut up. Really dug the tenacity and struggle over everything while keeping a steady pace. Highlights include Minami locking Iwashitas arm behind his back and surviving a nasty guillotine while his face turned blue. They have the MMA gloves but aside from a few body punches and low kicks they stick to grappling. Neat finish with several cool armlock variations before one forces the tap.
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Mineno vs. Johta (or Jyota?) was a boxing gloves match because every japanese sleaze indy company has an annoying guy on the booking team who constantly goes „But where is the booooooxing match?“. They actually do some grappling with double leg takedowns, armbars and suplexes but it was of course limited. However these two guys absolutely slaughtered eachother in the standup with awesome fast punches and spin kicks. No pussy shit here for sure. Plus you get the fun aspect of guys awkwardly falling into the guardrails when getting kicked. This is rounds so they work some actually cool „safed by the bell“ moments. I am stoked to check out these boys in a match with regular MMA gloves.
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I assume the main event is like the quintessential Capture match. Lots of wild swinging punches and kicks that connect with full force. Kawauchi, who I saw in his debut match at a 1998 KAGEKI show against Masakazu Fukuda would go on to work Osaka Pro as Hideyoshi and is now grizzled veteran GENKAI in Kyushi Pro, so he has quite the history of japanese indy wrestling. Kawauchi is good as the energetic youngster here with explosive takedowns and pummeling violently on the ground. Ichimiya who is some comedy character in DDT looks credible here as a heavyweight shooter. His super violent, quick assault on Kawauchi in the 2nd fall using the guardrail may have been the highlight of the match. His extremely vocal selling also added some more grit. Kitahara is as you expect. His punches and kicks were Ikeda level but I was also surprised how brutal his chokes (or choke setups) felt. He also got his "Kitahara is a bastard" moment when he kicked Ichimiya in his bandaged arm. The matwork here is mostly working punches from mount and has a really smothering feel to it, though there is the occasional submission attempt and the finish is a neat submission counter. The match is short enough so it totally works.