It's been awhile. I experience significant wrestling burnout the last quarter of 2018 and I'm still recovering. But here goes:
U-STYLE (4/28/04)
Hiroyuki Ito vs. Naoki Kimura
Kimura shows a bit more color here, playing dirty with the forearm and fist rubs, but it's mostly Ito on top with front mounts. At one point, he gets the standing leglock ala Volk Han, working it into a single leg crab. Kimura lets loose on him for a half a second with strikes before but he can't get much of anything going and Ito keeps downing him with kicks and knees, finally tapping him with the heel hook. Dirty little diddy.
Koichiro Kimura vs. Junji Tanaka
Love that Junji's rocking the "Texas Body Shop" shorts. He's okay in this match but he's out powered and outmaneuvered by Kimura, who shows his prowess early on going for armbars and wristlocks. Junji tries to cling to holds but Kimura will palm thrust him off and stretch him. Kimura wins via cross heel hold in a nothing match.
Ryuki Ueyama vs. MAX Miyazawa
I liked this one quite a bit. MAX is much more rough and tumble compared to Ueyama's quickness on the mat and ability to grab holds out of nowhere. Max gets some throws, has some pretty decent kicks, and counters out of an armbar attempt with a powerbomb. There's a spot where Ryuki spikes the shit out of MAX with a front necklock takedown. In the end, Ueyama starts landing some kicks and takes him out with a high kick to the head.
Manabu Hara vs. Crafter M
I love that Crafter has on this shitty mask and trashbag pants and compression shirt and wrestles barefoot but he kind of rules? It works. It's perfectly mid-2000s. Other than his German suplex, Hara is mediocre in just about everything else he does. He's trying to snap off kicks while Crafter slip-n-slides around the mat, grabbing limbs and putting him in predicaments. Hara can't powerbomb out of a triangle hold but he does hit a snap suplex>armbar combo and when that doesn't work, he hits his big German suplex into the rear naked choke for the tap out.
Yasuhito Namekawa vs. Shoichi Ichimiya
Ichimiya looks like Hideki Szuki turned into Mr. Gannosuke. He sucks. He tries overwhelm Namekawa with palm thrusts but that's about it for him. He looks so uncomfortable in there getting pummeled and fooled by fake out strike and the ref finally calls it.
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kazuki Okubo
Okubo gives zero shits regarding Tamura and Tamura's like, "alright, we'll see what happens." Okubo expends all his energy early on with fun strike exchanges, mostly mid to low kicks and face slaps. But then Okubo burns out quickly, which allows Tamura to be more selective. I mean, he'll give Okubo openings but poor Okubo is zapped. Double wristlock into the armbar by Tamura sends him scramblign for the ropes. Then Tamura just starts toying with him and Okubo is trying, bless him, and by the end, he's swinging drunkenly and FINALLY gets a single leg crab on Tamura. But Tamura keeps blasting him with kicks while Okubo staggers around, swiping at Tamura, who dances around the attempts and pops him with shots, finally putting Okubo to pasture with midkicks.
Masahito Kakihara vs. Kyosuke Sasaki
A dope match on paper but pretty underwhelming in execution. Kakihara, of course, comes out strong with the kicks and open hands. Sasaki's got the "U" shaved into the side of his head so you know he's ready to roll around the mat. But Kaki is slappy and stays aggressive, knocking Sasaki down with slaps, kicks, knees, etc. Sasaki's able to snag the single leg and then turns it into a cross kneebar, putting Kaki on the rocks. But ultimately, Kaki grabs the side headlock and wrenches it on, tapping Sasaki. Decent match from an okay show. Nothing high end to report.
