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KIMERA held its return show, "CERULEAN BREEZE IN YOKOHAMA", before a sold out crowd in the Yokohoma Area. As before, all of the competitors were paraded down to the ring, with Maeda introducing the show and thanking the fans. Yoshinari Ogawa made his in-ring debut, picking up a victory over Osamu Nishimura by knockout after using a backdrop suplex. Ogawa seemed frustrated with Osamu continuing the take him down the mat and while he was able to use his craftiness to counter out, Nishimura had forced him to the ropes twice before Ogawa was able to use the suplex. That is, only after he raked Nishimura's eyes, earning him a yellow card. Under "Hybrid Rules", Tatsuo Nakano and Yuki Ishikawa slugged it out for a little over six minutes, throwing plenty of kicks, knees, and elbows in an attempt to knockout their opponent. At one point, Ishikawa was able to secure a sleeper hold but Nakano was able to break out before Yuki could drag him to the mat, and in the end, Nakano caught him with a knee to the face for the KO victory. Newcomer Duane Koslowski scored a big win over Gene Lydick in a match that featured tons of suplex throws. The two fought back-and-forth over a German suplex and Koslowski was able to sneak in with the rear waistlock, overpowering the larger Lydick with the German suplex hold for the pinfall. Backstage, Koslowski said he would like to return to KIMERA in the future. Whereas the last match featured a ton of suplexes, the "Hybrid Rules" match was all about the kicks and knees as Vrij and Takayama took turns taking shots at each other. Vrij was much more aggressive early on, but Takayama was able to rally back with a few knockdowns. He tried for a German suplex but Vrij was able to fight out and pop him in the head with a high kick for the KO. The KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament continued today, as the team of Yuji Nagata and Kensuke Sasaki beat Fujiwara-gumi's Takahashi and Fuke after Sasaki planted Fuke with the Northern Lights Bomb. Masahito Kakihara and Mitsuya Nagai were also victorious in their "Hybrid Rules" match, beating young boys Naruse and Yamamoto after Kakihara choked out Yamamoto. The semi-finalists have now been decided as these winning teams join Stars + Strikes and Sudden Impact. Kiyoshi Tamura and Georgian freestyle wrestler, Grom Zaza, wrestled a clean "Catch Rules" match. Lots of counterwork on the mat and some fireman's carry throws from Zaza up top. He wasn't much of a striker so he tried to keep Tamura grounded but Tamura was able to snag an arm and get the submission with two seconds the spare. In a "Strong Rules" match-up, Kazuo Yamazaki defeated Shiro Koshinaka when he evaded the hip attack and blasted Koshinaka with a roundhouse kick. The match was, more or less, evenly match, with Koshinaka getting the slight advantage. He nearly scored the pin after a powerbomb but Yamazaki turned the pin attempt into a triangle. Afterward, Yamazaki hinted that he would like to challenge Maeda to a "Hybrid Rules" match at some point. Jushin "Thunder" Liger even the scored in he and Masanobu Fuchi's best of three series to determine the promotion's first light heavyweight champion. Fuchi more than held his own against the more feisty Liger, catching him with some especially hard slaps to the face to score a couple of knockdowns. At one point, Liger came at him with a shotei attempt and Fuchi damn near took his head off with a dropkick. Liger was able to pin him down in a front mount and pepper him with palm thrusts to the head. Fuchi kept teasing the backdrop but Liger didn't let him hit it and ended up knocking him out with a running shotei. The two will now face each other under "Strong Rules" to crown the new champ. Minoru Suzuki may be quicker than Yoshiaki Fujiwara but the old man is craftier, and although Suzuki took him to the ropes back-to-back, using Fujiwara's signature armbar at one point, Fujiwara was able to hang in there. With less than a minute remaining, both men had utilized rope breaks twice but when Fujiwara was able to counter an armbar attempt with the wakigatame, Suzuki had no choice but to use his final rope break, awarding Fujiwara the victory. Suzuki seemed upset after the match, saying that he made a few mistakes in his match but that he wouldn't let that discourage him for continuing the train in all styles. Hiroshi Hase and Bob Backlund had a very good match under "Strong Rules" to decide who would face Vader for the KIMERA Heavyweight Title. Hase was the clear fan-favorite but Backlund put on quite the show, foregoing his normal goofiness to work in a little mean streak after Hase. He kept targeting Hase's arm to try and neutralize the uranages, and mostly kept him on the ground. Whenever Hase would make it back to his feet and start to build some momentum, Backlund would cut him off and go back to the arm. Hase tried for the giant swing but couldn't maintain his grip and this allowed Backlund a nearfall off a backdrop suplex. He tried for his crossface chickenwing but Hase was able to reverse it into a Northern Lights suplex hold for the win. Hase celebrated in the ring after his victory, and issued a statement to Vader, saying that he wanted to wrestle him for the title under "Strong Rules". The main event saw Masakatsu Funaki challenge the Big Boss, Akira Maeda, under "Hybrid Rules". During an interview earlier in the night, Funaki said he sees himself as the future of KIMERA and that Maeda has already shown that he cannot stay at the top forever. Funaki immediately opened the match with a lfurry of kicks and slaps, taking Maeda down for an seven count within the first minute. Maeda shook it off and played more of a defensive role against the more aggressive Funaki. He was able to catch a kick and tease the capture suplex, but Funaki blocked it and they went to the mat, fighting over leglocks. Funaki employed his speed and his counterwork to try and stay on top of Maeda. But Maeda was able to grab a facelock or a kimura, forcing Funaki to the ropes. Back on there feet, Funaki tried for the high kick but Maeda caught it and planted him with the capture suplex. He thought he had the match won but Funaki struggled back to his feet and when Maeda came in to finish him off, Funaki was able to deliver a German suplex into the double wristlock. Maeda, however, turned this around on Funaki and in the end, submitted him with the crossface chickenwing. The two hugged after the match and Maeda raised Funaki's arm to honor him. Funaki did not want to talk to reporters after the match but Maeda praised his skill and said that he too saw Funaki and Suzuki as the future of KIMERA. KIMERA "CERULEAN BREEZE IN YOKOHAMA", 1/28 Yokohama Arena 17,000 Fans - Super No Vacancy Full House 1. Catch Rules: Yoshinari Ogawa beat Osamu Nishimura (8:12) by KO (backdrop). 2. Hybrid Rules: Tatsuo Nakano beat Yuki Ishikawa (6:54) by KO (knee strike). 3. Strong Rules: Duane Koslowski beat Gene Lydick (8:26) with a German suplex hold. 4. Hybrid Rules: Dick Vrij beat Yoshihiro Takayama (9:11) by KO (high kick). 5. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament, Round 1 ~ Strong Rules: Kensuke Sasaki & Yuji Nagata beat Kazuo Takahashi & Yusuke Fuke (11:08) when Sasaki used the Northern Lights Bomb on Fuke. 6. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament, Round 1 ~ Hybrid Rules: Mitsuya Nagai & Masahito Kakihara beat Masayuki Naruse & Yoshihisa Yamamoto (9:22) when Kakihara used a guillotine choke on Yamamoto. 7. Catch Rules: Kiyoshi Tamura beat Grom Zaza (9:58) with an armbar. 8. Strong Rules: Kazuo Yamazaki beat Shiro Koshinaka (13:23) with a roundhouse kick. 9. KIMERA Light Heavyweight Title, 2nd Match ~ Hybrid Rules: Jushin "Thunder" Liger beat Masanobu Fuchi (14:31) by KO (shotei). 10. Catch Rules: Yoshiaki Fujiwara beat Minoru Suzuki (10:00) by decision. 11. #1 Contendership - Strong Rules: Hiroshi Hase beat Bob Backlund (18:45) with the Northern Lights suplex hold. 12. Hybrid Rules: Akira Maeda beat Masakatsu Funaki (19:21) with a crossface chickenwing.

This kind of "main event" match structure is why I enjoyed the Okada/Omega G1 Climax match-up so much: it simplifies the bombastic formula, condenses it, utilizing offensive targeting to build drama without dragging out the nearfalls in order to produce excitement for the sake of excitement. In other worse, I really enjoyed this. Kobashi coming into this match with the bum right knee but still able to say "not today, kid" with the opening exchange was great. He works a slower, more methodical pace, bringing him back into the ring with a great stalling suplex from the apron before trying to wear him out with a facelock. Then he'll explode with chops on Akiyama, breaking down his defense for the half nelson suplex. After Akiyama dropkicks the bum knee out from Kobashi, I really loved the follow-up dropkick just as Kobashi had struggled back to his feet. You get the sense Akiyama is frustrated in his submission work, with him immediately dragging Kobashi back to the middle with the cross kneelock and then booting the knee repeatedly after Kobashi makes it to the ropes again. Kobashi puffs up again on offense with his suplexes and him grabbing the kimura off the German suplex hold was pretty sweet. Loved the front necklock finish as well, with Jun not letting go after the referee calls it as if he wants to be sure he's actually beaten Kobashi. Great stuff.

Whereas Shamrock's match with Funaki from the month prior was hampered by dull matwork, this had a little more excitement on the ground thanks to Suzuki's speed. His quick counterwork and reversals made for much more compelling submission wrestling. You got the sense that they really had to fight for everything here. They each, more or less, went after each others' legs with Suzuki getting the upper hand on Shamrock. When Shamrock starts clobbering on Suzuki, Suzuki gets him in the rear waistlock, and in order to hit the German suplex, he has to deliver this awesome little combo of strikes to break Shamrock's defense. The finish was awesome, with Suzuki struggling to break out of the rear waistlock by grabbing the arm, and just when you think he's got it, Shamrock puts him in the full nelson and dragon suplexes him for the KO. The fact that Shamrock was using dragon suplexes to knockout his opponents in 1991 is incredible. Really cool match.

I enjoyed this. It gave Murahama some time to shine early on, hitting another big dive to the outside and a pretty leg lariat, before Togo rudos him on the outside with the piledriver through the table. Him basically saying "fuck you" to Murahama's chairshots was awesome before he finishes him off.

Ishikawa's already off to a hell of a 2018 and this match, given the technical difficulties, was pretty great. I really love the role HARASHIMA has established for himself as the scrappy aging ace who has quite a mean streak behind that smile. I dug his early matwork and thought it worked well against Ishikawa with the added double stomps. On the outside, Ishikawa stops his momentum by lobbing an unfolded chair at him before hitting the double stomp from the guardrail to set up the backwork. After the ropes break, they improvise with Ishikawa continuing to focus on the back and while it's a little slow, they pick it back up after Ishikawa swings HARASHIMA into the chairs. Then they start hurling bombs at one another, with HARASHIMA's selling being especially great while they're slugging it out, throwing these desperation headbutts to try and down the Big Dog. After he survives the Splash Mountain, HARASHIMA looks like hell with the bloodshot eyes and the look on Ishikawa's face like "what in the hell?" was terrific. Some really brutal knees from Ishikawa to close it down, finishing HARA off with the Giant Slam.

The final card for "CERULEAN BREEZE IN YOKOHAMA" has been released days before KIMERA's return show from the Yokohama Area. Yoshinari Ogawa makes his in-ring debut, facing off against Osamu Nishimura under "Catch Rules", while Yuki Ishikawa and Tatsuo Nakano will compete under "Hybrid Rules". A surprise has been added to the card, as American Duane Koslowski will make an appearance, wrestling against Gene Lydick under "Strong Rules". This is being viewed as a "trial" for Koslowski, who competed in the 1988 Olympics in Greco-Roman wrestling. KIMERA "CERULEAN BREEZE IN YOKOHAMA", 1/28 Yokohama Arena 1. Catch Rules: Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Osamu Nishimura 2. Hybrid Rules: Yuki Ishikawa vs. Tatsuo Nakano 3. Strong Rules: Gene Lydick vs. Duane Koslowski 4. Hybrid Rules: Dick Vrij vs. Yoshihiro Takayama 5. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament, Round 1 ~ Strong Rules: Kensuke Sasaki & Yuji Nagata vs. Kazuo Takahashi & Yusuke Fuke 6. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament, Round 1 ~ Hybrid Rules: Mitsuya Nagai & Masahito Kakihara vs. Masayuki Naruse & Yoshihisa Yamamoto 7. Catch Rules: Grom Zaza vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 8. Strong Rules: Shiro Koshinaka vs, Kazuo Yamazaki 9. KIMERA Light Heavyweight Title, 2nd Match ~ Hybrid Rules: Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. Masanobu Fuchi 10. Catch Rules: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Minoru Suzuki 11. #1 Contendership - Strong Rules: Bob Backlund vs. Hiroshi Hase 12. Hybrid Rules: Akira Maeda vs. Masakatsu Funaki

Yeah, it seems like this is mostly dead, unfortunately.

Echoing some of the sentiments above, I thought the striking, some of the throws, and the finish were the most exciting parts of an otherwise dull match. The matwork was...there, with Funaki mostly going after the ankle and Shamrock using little face slaps and defensive boots on the ground, but it wasn't very engaging and the crowd was getting restless toward the end before they heat it back up for the finish.

I mean, as far as one offs go, there's the upcoming Matt Riddle's Bloodsport on WM weekend, which is KO or submission only. Not sure if it's necessarily going to be "shoot-style" but it should be interesting to see how it's structured.

"Come on, motherfucker, show me power!" was the best part of the match.

I enjoyed this quite a bit, from Mossman's energy, to Hansen's chopping the shit out of the ringpost, to Tenryu's lumpy-ness, and Kawada being the real highlight of this match by not giving a damn. Mossman was a good punching bag for him and that final powerbomb was really cool. Hansen's presence alone will always add a couple of points and I thought he was pretty compelling here up against Tenryu.

Decent tag highlighted by the interractions between Murahama and Togo. Murahama knows how to take a beating, including a nasty chairshot to the head, but he's also able to dish it out, busting open Togo. Tsubasa was fun in his speedster role and Buffalo was there to break shit up.

A terrific three-quarters of a match, with some minor issues during the home stretch.Aagainst Buffalo, you have a neat dynamic of the babyfaced shooter against the gruff brawler trying to take it to the mat. First and foremost, Murahama’s tights are incredible – peak 90’s aesthetic circa 2000. Buffalo’s takedowns aren’t pretty but they’re effective as he takes more of a smothering approach on the canvas. Murahama’s still able to sneak out a leglock through Buffalo’s aggression and when he’s back on his feet, he pops Buffalo with a kick to the hamstring, to which Buffalo smartly rolls away from Murahama. Murahama’s spunky on the mat, running through a number of holds almost as a routine before settling on an armbar. I loved his leglock counter to the hip toss. Buffalo doesn’t hold back with the open hands and short-arm lariats, and of course, he brings the chair into play. At one point, he’s standing on Murahama’s head while he’s on the ropes and then drops a leg across the back of his neck onto the ropes. Nasty. Just as Murahama starts heating back up, he kicks the ring post, which leads to Buffalo targeting the leg with a chair and figure-four leglocks. Good in-the-moment selling from Murahama but once he pops back up to his feet and starts flinging kicks at Buffalo, he blows off the legwork and then it’s business as usual as they run through their offense to what seemed like a botched finish. A bit of a jarring transition but still, a really good match.

I thought this was the best match on the show. Ishikawa's always compelling against strike-heavy spitfires, as he's able to weather the storm and catch them with a submission. Usuda was pretty nasty with his head kicks here, and I really liked his panicked selling when Ishikawa's got a hold of his leg. Ishikawa keeps going back to the leg but Usuda's able to grab the arm off another attempt, refusing to let go after the break. Even when he's still blasting Ishikawa with kicks, he sells Ishikawa's legwork and ends up finishing Ishikawa off with the spinning backfist>choke sleeper combo. It would've been nice to see Ishikawa a little more grumpy on offense but Usuda looked good and stiff. Fun stuff.

This was fun -- Greco's a blast to watch maneuver around the mat, working leg holds and putting Taira in some predicaments. Taira wasn't bad either on the ground and he whipped out plenty of leg kicks, spin kicks, high kicks, kick kicks. I thought the triangle counter was really cool, and the finish with the double arm suplex into the butterfly hold.

This was alright, with the highlight being the exchanges between Ishikawa and Hijikata. Yone and Nagai were decent, although it would've been nice to see more interaction between Nagai and Ishikawa. Picked up toward the end but the finish was not very good.

This match a little rough around the edges but worked well for the most part, with Usuda coming in as the straight shooter and Honma the more reckless indy scrapper. Honma with the high kick at the bell, followed by the piledriver and German suplex combo was fun. Usuda mostly works a submission game, targeting a little bit of everything, and he'll supplement his groundwork with strikes. At one point, Honma flies to the outside with a great tope con hilo, piledrives Usuda on the floor and hits a scary-looking top rope dropkick to the floor. Also that armbreaker he hits on Usuda from the top was pretty gnarly. Usuda finishes the match by a high kick followed by a nasty gamengiri for the KO victory. Fun match.

The Ki/Danielson match from JAPW felt like a BattlARTS match but as far as other American shoot style stuff, I don't know what's out there. I haven't really seen much of Matt Riddle but I've heard there's a couple of matches that lean that way.

10 shows!!! Here's the direct link. https://fightingnetworkfriends.podiant.co/e/35eaae06b9f7c6/ to stream, or subscribe to the RSS feed. You can also search us on Apple Podcasts. Episode 10. FIGHTING NETWORK RINGS IN 1992 Pt. 2 We discuss the second half of shows from RINGS second year, July-December, and mainly fanboy over VOLK HAN the best to ever do it. Topics discussed: New Mexico Unemployment Our VOW 2017 MOTY Ballots RINGS Volk Han as the best rookie of all time? Dope ass Matches & More Matches: We dive deep into the second five RINGS shows put on in 1992, and highlight our favorites. All the usual faces are there, but now we have more Russians! And Willie Williams retires...then doesn't! 3/8/97 - NJPW - Great Muta Vs. Steven Regal 11/9/99 - BattlArts - Alexander Otsuka Vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga 10/10/96 - M-Pro - Johnny Saint Vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa 3/21/98 - LLPW - Shinobu Kandori Vs. Yumiko Hotta Youtube Playlist: http://tinyurl.com/fnf009 Follow us on Twitter: @fightfriends @trillyrobinson @bren_patrick Email at: [email protected] Instagram: @fightnetworkfriends Youtube at: http://tinyurl.com/FightFriends

A neat little exhibition with tons of shotgun kicks from Mochizuki and some heavy elbows from Ishii. I don't think I've ever seen Ishii deliver a tiger suplex hold but he does so here, and it's a beaut. Very much worked like an early 00's indie match. Pretty fun stuff.

This one had its fun moments, like Ohtani and Kashin's European uppercut battle, Liger puttign Kanemoto in the surfboard stretch and Kashin rubbing the wrist tape across the face from the apron, the pissy Ohtani bodyslams to set-up the signature facewashes. When Liger's in peril and the fans are chanting his name, Ohtani comes in with his springboard dropkick and immediately drags him back to his own corner. Great stuff. They ramp up the finishing stretch with lots of big offense, especially from Kanemoto, but in the end, Liger hits the brainbuster for the win after a little help from Kashin.

Nagai was straight destroyed by Dick Vrij. But he wore his heart on his sleeve, climbing back to his feet again and again to come at Dick with these flamboyant flying kicks that completely miss the mark. Vrij catches him in the nuts at one point, which stalls the match, but boy oh boy, Nagai is pissed when he stands up…only to missing another big kick in the ropes. When he catches one of Vrij’s monster kicks, Vrij reflex knees him in the face. I love a good squash match when you’ve got a scrappy little fucker like Nagai who just won’t lay down. In the end, he’s pulling himself up by handfuls of the referee’s trousers before Vrij immediately clocks him for the TKO victory.

A dream match for me, hot from the start with Zaza going nuts, the crowd losing their shit when he lifts Volk up in the fireman’s carry. For two guys not known for striking, they were quite handsy here, with quick little slaps and shit kicks in between the sweet takedowns and Han making Zaza squeal on the mat as he tries to break away. Despite Han’s fancy groundwork, which included a sweet step-over armbar, the match felt evenly matched. Han would land a spinning backhand, Grom would dump him with a couple of fireman’s carries. Then Han decimates him with the finishing a submission, which can only be described as a grounded choke STF, with Han once again utilizing his legs like a Swiss Army knife. Really good stuff.

Not great but it wasn't bad...it was solid. They work the mat to start, mostly fighting over leglocks, before Funaki starts in with the smacks and kicks, knocking Fujiwara on his ass. He comes at him with a big flurry of kicks and while Fujiwara's able to a catch a leg, he can't follow up with the leg trip and Funaki ends up taking him back down to the mat. One of the best moments of the match comes when Fujiwara's trying to get a hold of Funaki's leg while he's on the ground and Funaki pops him in the face with a defensive shin, once again dropping Funaki on his ass. Funaki doesn't let up, catching him with a hard slap in the face against the ropes and a kick to the face for another knock down. Then he unloads a barrage of body shots, open hands, kicks, but Fujiwara's a resilient and wily old fuck and won't fall. So when Funaki goes for the double leg takedown, Fujiwara snags his arm with his leg for the submission victory. Of course, Fujiwara pulls it out in the end.end.

Koslowski is about as Wonder Bread as they come, looking like 1990's Steve Rogers come to life. Wayne is Kenneth is Ken, and he brings a lot of aggression to this match, which I'm okay with. He tries to keep his distance with strikes while Duane looks to sneak in for a suplex. After taking a couple of shots to the head, Duane finally hits an All-American belly-to-belly suplex and tries for a double wristlock on the mat. He's able to bridge out of a choke and they get into a little spat of open hands before Duane belly-to-bellies him once again. At one point, Duane gives Shammy a love tap slap across the face and boy, does Wayne not like it. He soon finishes him off with the Shamrock Special #2 aka the Northern Lights suplex into the leglock. I want to see more Duane Koslowski.