superkix

If you like mat wrangling, then this is the match for you. Rush is a burly individual with an amateur background and for over ten minutes, he and Takahashi jockey for leverage on the ground, with Rush using his size to his advantage. Takahashi's focus is the arm and the struggle for armbar is a reoccurring and often compelling theme of the match. There's a couple of slams throughout but this mostly takes place on the ground, and finishes on the ground, as Mark hits a powerslam and taps Takahashi with a nice snug side headlock. Pretty good stuff.

The pace these two work throughout is pretty incredible, even when they're blown up 15-20 minutes in. Right from the get-go, they scramble around with the crowd buzzing, trying to get something locked in long enough without getting thrown off. Suzuki keeps going for the armbar but Sano isn't give him an inch. He'll slap at Sano's thigh, trying to break open the arm -- I loved his slap to the face>fireman's carry takeover into the armbar attempt. The stand-up striking felt very heated at times, and some of the open hands and palms exchanged look/sound real nasty. At one point, Sano has Suzuki in a rear naked choke and Suzuki is slapping himself to stay coherent, it's great. Finally, Suzuki says "enough with the armbar" and grabs a single leg crab, but he can't maintain it and the time limit expires with them fighting over a leglock. Pretty great draw.

The best match in RINGS up this point in the promotion’s history (imo) and a big improvement upon their first match. Nobody maneuvers around the canvas like Han, the way he utilizes his gangly legs to counter and maintain control over Maeda, or hooking Maeda’s arm with his free leg to prevent a rope break. He’s aware of his positioning and his opponent’s positioning at all times, and there’s very little wasted movement. I loved the explosiveness of the opening, with Han landing his spinning backhand and going into the neck crank. He knows he can’t outstrike Maeda so he tries to keep him grounded by targeting the leg and knee. To counter this, Maeda tries to be aggressive on the mat. He’s able to hit a half hatch suplex into the double wristlock attempt, and I thought the crossface chickenwing struggle was really great. He levels Han with an awesome spinning wheel kick, but Han’s quick to force Maeda back to the ropes after a rolling kneebar. In the end, they both fight over the leg submission and Han is able to secure it first, forcing Maeda to submit.

This was a lot of fun. Tedoradze throws some badass suplexes -- I mean, he doesn’t do much else, as in his strikes look weak and he isn’t that good on the mat, but boy, he can hit a deadlift German or a deadlift Olympic Slam. He’s fired the heck up right out of the great, press slamming Kimura like he’s nothing. Kimura takes advantage of Tedoradze’s lack of ground skills with an early takedown into an armbar. He also throws a pretty sweet suplex himself and isn’t afraid to kick, which Tengiz almost cartoonish-ly oversells toward the end before Kimura submits him.

Buzariashvili is such a shitbag here, blowing off Maeda’s kicks, taunting him or waving at the fans like a dope. Of course, he’s not going to trade kicks with Maeda so he opts to suplex>submit him instead, delivering a cool belly-to-belly>armbar and his own version of the capture suplex>front necklock. The struggle on the mat really added to the bigger narrative, as Maeda has to contend with him on the ground because his kicks aren’t effective. He’s able to catch him in that nasty facelock he likes to utilize every now and then but Ramazki makes the ropes. In the end, all that provoking bites Ramazi in the ass…or rather, the face, as Maeda catches him with a snug kick to the chin. a few knees, and second face kick. The finish sucks though. Maeda gets him in the single leg, trips while trying to maintain control, and Ramazi still taps out.

KIMERA Heavyweight Champion, Vader, who returned to the United States after his victory over Akira Maeda, conducted his first interview since winning the title. First and foremost, he credited Maeda with giving him a strong challenge but that no one was stronger than Vader. When asked about his next challenger, between Bob Backlund or Hiroshi Hase, Vader said it didn't matter who won the match, they would both fall to his power. He said he didn't want to "break Backlund's hip" but that Hase was a nobody and that he doesn't have time for nobodies. Regardless of the winner, Vader confirmed that the title would be defended under "Strong Rules". He was then asked if he would consider defending his title under "Catch Rules", to which Vader laughed and walked off. Meanwhile, three more matches were added to KIMERA's return show on 1/28. Shiro Koshinaka and Kazuo Yamazaki will face off under "Strong Rules", while Georgian freestyle wrestler, Grom Zaza, returns to take on Kiyoshi Tamura under "Catch Rules". Finally, Dick Vrij is set to face Yoshihiro Takayama under "Hybrid Rules." KIMERA "CERULEAN BREEZE IN YOKOHAMA", 1/28 Yokohama Arena 1. Hybrid Rules: Dick Vrij vs. Yoshihiro Takayama 2. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament, Round 1 ~ Strong Rules: Kensuke Sasaki & Yuji Nagata vs. Kazuo Takahashi & Yusuke Fuke 3. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament, Round 1 ~ Hybrid Rules: Mitsuya Nagai & Masahito Kakihara vs. Masayuki Naruse & Yoshihisa Yamamoto 4. Catch Rules: Grom Zaza vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 5. Strong Rules: Shiro Koshinaka vs, Kazuo Yamazaki 6. KIMERA Light Heavyweight Title, 2nd Match ~ Hybrid Rules: Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. Masanobu Fuchi 7. Catch Rules: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Minoru Suzuki 8. #1 Contendership - Strong Rules: Bob Backlund vs. Hiroshi Hase 9. Hybrid Rules: Akira Maeda vs. Masakatsu Funaki

A good but long match that felt its length and dragged in parts. Suzuki is still very compelling as the aging predator and while this wasn't quite at the level of his WK12 match or the Okada G1 match from, it definitely righted some of the wrongs from last year's New Beginning in Sapporo. Almost immediately, they establish that Tanahashi's knee is the crux of this match and I liked that he tried to get the jump on Minoru by working Minoru's knee to set up the cloverleaf. Suzuki starts in with the bullying, the headbutt and the hanging armbar and big chairshot to the back, but as Tanahashi begins heating up, the match begins to cool down. Suzuki laughing in Tanahahsi's face at his shitty elbows was good and the cut-off dropkick but the real match begins after Tanahashi hurts his knee on the High Fly Flow. That's where Suzuki really excels at picking it apart and reveling in Tanahashi's suffering. Terrific selling from Tanahashi as he struggles to fight back and stay on his feet, which allows Suzuki to dropkick the leg out from him and go right back to gnawing on the knee with submissions. He peppers it with little shit kicks, throws a couple of big slaps, and spikes him with the Gotch-style piledriver, but Suzuki doesn't want the pin. He wants Tanahashi to give up, which Tanahashi refuses to do until Red Shoes finally has no choice but to call it. The nasty submission work from Suzuki coupled with Tanahashi's sad, hurt ace performance was excellent; however, the midsection was mostly filler and had this been 5-10 minutes shorter, this would have been a completely awesome match instead of awesome in parts.

I thought this was on par with their second match in terms of quality but obviously, less of a Dick Vrij beatdown and more of an evenly-matched contest. I like that it immediately builds off their previous encounter with Maeda catching Vrij’s first kick and delivering the capture suplex. But he can’t follow up and for the most part, neither has the advantage. Vrij targets Maeda’s bum left leg and Maeda’s selling is always subtle but good, in that his movements are a little slower and his kicks weaker, which Vrij taunts him with. As Vrij begins to show off some of that dominance with his strikes, knocking Maeda on his ass a few times and busting his nose with a kick, Maeda’s able to squeeze out the victory by snagging a heel hook out of nowhere.

Scrappy underdogs are a staple of Japanese pro-wrestling and when you throw them into a shoot-style setting -- like Masahito Kakihara, for example – you often get more heart and hunger than actual skill. Even if they aren’t landing half of their strikes, they’re constantly snapping off kicks and attempting little flourishes. On the tails, you’ve got the persevering, more methodical grappler, who absorbs the blows and waits until his opponent tires himself out to strike on the mat. Nagai is the wild scrapper to Kimura’s cool submission specialist. Kimura waiting to catch that one stray kick, get the takedown, and score the submission. His counterwork and transitions are solid – there’s a point where he goes from a neck crank to an armbar to a nasty front guillotine. But Nagai keeps throwing kicks and knees, slapping Kimura in the face when he catches a foot to prevent the takedown. The match is a slog at times, and had five or so minutes been cut, this would’ve been even better. By the end of it, Kimura’s cooked and helpless against Nagai, who keeps swatting at him with big open hands and landing knees against the ropes. I liked the dueling headbutts toward the end as a desperate means to end the match but ultimately, the scrapper Nagai wins out.

This was like good cop/bad cop. Peeters is the good cop (not really, because he’s kind of a dick himself…just not a Dick Vrij). He has this nervous energy about him when he’s trying to defend against Vrij’s strikes and he misses about 70% of everything he throws but that doesn’t stop him from trying with 100% effort. He keeps unloading on Dick with knees and his flamboyant kicks but lands few of them, and scores even fewer knockdowns. On the other side, you have bad cop Dick Vrij, who isn’t quite as dick-ish as he was in those Maeda matches, but he’s still as imposing and aggressive. One thing that I enjoy about Vrij is how responsive he is to Peeter’s offense, grabbing a foot off a kick or a hold off a takedown. At one point, he has Willie in a jujigatame and when Willie tries to shimmy out of it, Dick holds on with the reverse armbar. And, of course, he kicks really hard, lifting Willie off the mat at points. Sloppy and chaotic but fun.

This was long and by the end of it, they’re both exhausted and flailing around with slaps, but there were some neat moments on the mat, as neither is particular good at striking, and Grom utilizies some cool takedowns and slams, including a cradle-style backdrop. Kimura does have some snappy kicks and palm thrusts but his mat game is his strong suit, and he’s able to send Grom to the ropes a few times by targeting the leg. Grom, on the otherhand, utilizies more innovative submissions, like his double leg half crab or his shoot STF. In the end, Grom is able to cinch in the choke to submit Kimura.

You already see the greatness that is to come from Han. Sure, awkward moments pop up from being unsure how to hold back or dropping the illusion of defense. Conditioning, or lack thereof, also plays a big factor, which allows Maeda to take his head off with a big spinning heel kick near the end. He’s never been a big striker, although he’ll throw a couple face slaps here and there, or the occasional chest headbutt, but his meat-and-potatoes are his takedowns and submission attempts. He manages a cool rolling armbar or kneebar takedown, and at one point, he seemingly DDTs Maeda. The last couple of minutes are a lot of fun, with Maeda pissing off Han and eating a uranage before snagging Han’s leg to pick up the submission win.

Tons of action and spoils, with everyone playing a role, but Murahama being the one this match was built around. He sells a good beating from the heels. I loved Togo breaking up Murahama's reverse armbar takedown and soaking up the heat. Delphin delivers a neat backdrop hold onto Buffalo but at the end, gets creamed with a Buffalo lariat over the ropes. The finish was fun, too, as Murahama collapses on the corner whip but pops up to hit the finishing kick. Fun stuff.

One thing I love about pro-wrestling is a good, hard-hitting, extended squash match, and Kawada knows how to squash his way into my heart. After a stalemate opening, Fuchi slaps Kawada in the face to let him know that he’s the vet and Kawada starts hacking at Fuchi’s leg with kicks…you know, because Fuchi doesn’t wear kneepads so it’s an easy target. Hamstring kicks, face kicks, nasty stomps to the head, slaps, extended wristlock sequences – Kawada gives you a bit of everything. Fuchi finally catches a kick, dropkicks Kawada’s opposite knee, which is such a great counter, then proceeds to step right on his fucking face. When Kawada is peppering Fuchi with those shitty little face kicks, Fuchi stands up like “what!”, and Kawada slaps him and puts him back down for more shitty face kicks. Awesome moment. Fuchi heats up toward the end, delivering three consecutive backdrops to Kawada but that’s about the only whiff of victory he gets before Kawada builds to the folding powerbomb finish. My kind of match.

Going in, I had no idea who Bert Kops Jr. was but I liked the name (I like all juniors) and I liked what he brought to the match. Awesome full-rotation takedowns, deadlift suplexes and some heavy kicks compared to Willie’s more light-footed approach. Peeters is such a lovable dweeb. Between his fake out punches, his anxious defense, and his shitty little strikes to the face, you can’t not love him. He incorporates a lot of fancy movements, which are more pretty than effective, but he does land some hard strikes, including a big knee to Bert's face that wins him the match. A fun, fast-paced match worth checking out from an otherwise disappointing show.

Whereas Maeda was the cool elder statesman of their first encounter, Vrij turned on his cybernetic eye and zeroed in on Maeda with some heavy strikes, in a display of total aggression and dominance. He’s relentless with his kicks and knees, even against the ropes, almost knocking Maeda out of the ring at one point. He continues to be a shithead here with his slaps and he really pops Maeda’s legs with those kicks. I thought Maeda’s selling was pretty great as he gets cut down and limps back to his feet. He doesn’t get much off on Dick in terms of offense, aside from a half hatch suplex into an armbar. But Dick escapes and promptly destroys him to even the series. Not as good as their first encounter but still a pretty fun match.

After a successful debut show at the Tokyo Dome, Akira Maeda made the announcement this afternoon at a small press conference that KIMERA would be holding its second event in Yokohama on 1/28. The event, coolly dubbed "CERULEAN BREEZE IN YOKOHAMA", will take place from the Yokohama Arena. A number of matches were revealed for the show, including two more matches in the KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament, as well as the second match in the KIMERA Light Heavyweight Title series -- this time, under Hybrid Rules. In addition, Maeda announced that a new contender to the KIMERA Heavyweight Title would be decided at the show, in a Strong Rules match between Hiroshi Hase and Bob Backlund. The winner will receive a shot at the current champ, Vader, in February. Maeda himself said he would be wrestling who he sees as a future star of the promotion, Masakatsu Funaki, under Hybrid Rules, while Yoshiaki Fujiwara would face off with another young face in Minoru Suzuki. When asked about his loss to Vader, Maeda admitted that his technique had failed him because he underestimated Vader's size. When asked about a rematch, Maeda said he would have to get at the back of the line and work his way back to a title shot. KIMERA "CERULEAN BREEZE IN YOKOHAMA", 1/28 Yokohama Arena 1. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament, Round 1 ~ Strong Rules: Kensuke Sasaki & Yuji Nagata vs. Kazuo Takahashi & Yusuke Fuke 2. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament, Round 1 ~ Hybrid Rules: Mitsuya Nagai & Masahito Kakihara vs. Masayuki Naruse & Yoshihisa Yamamoto 3. KIMERA Light Heavyweight Title, 2nd Match ~ Hybrid Rules: Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. Masanobu Fuchi 4. Catch Rules: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Minoru Suzuki 5. #1 Contendership - Strong Rules: Bob Backlund vs. Hiroshi Hase 6. Hybrid Rules: Akira Maeda vs. Masakatsu Funaki

A fun contrast of styles, with Tamura utilizing his smooth takedowns to stay on top of Nakano and look for an opening on the mat. The match takes a bit to get going but when Tamura goes for a double leg takedown, he runs smack into Nakano's classic reflex knee to the face. That gives Nakano a bit of confidence, as he starts trying to bulldoze Tamura down but of course, Tamura being Tamura manages to find a way to coolly reverse a hold or counter the attack. At one point, Tamura tries for a headlock takedown and Nakano grabs a rear choke – almost a crossface chickenwing – and drags him down to the canvas. Tamura continues trying to get holds on Nakano but the little meatball doesn't really budge...so he starts smacking him around instead, or dumping him straight on top of his head with a waterwheel throw. Nakano keeps fighting 'til the very end as he tries elbowing out of the hold before submitting.

Nothing spectacular but a refreshing, simplistic exhibition with good struggle on the mat and suplexes that felt important. For a guy who doesn’t wrestle much, Barnett showed good agility, and his takedowns and transitions looked better than Thatcher, who was, more or less, on auto-pilot here. There wasn't much heat to this, the crowd was weird, and the selling was minimal but Barnett's strikes and suplexes looked great (poor Thatcher doesn't know how to throw a good kick) and the finish was cool, with Barnett laying into Thatcher with a stiff combo in the corner to set up the Capture Buster.

This had some pretty great moments, especially from Ohtani and his interactions with Kanemoto but I thought Takaiwa probably sold the stiffness better than anyone and Minoru got in a few good licks, as well. Ohtani punching Kanemoto in the corner and the ref not doing shit about it was pretty funny, and then him just laying into Koji with the hard slaps. And then later, taunting Kanemoto on the apron as he hits a couple basement dropkicks to Minoru. Of course, we get the face washes, including a high kick version. At one point, Minoru cracks Takaiwa with a real nasty kick to the face in the corner, which Takaiwa sold pretty well. Then we get the merry-go-round with all four men before they hit the fial stretch, which is full of very frantic exchanges that add to the overall excitement. The fans were losing their shit by the end of it, and Minoru's dragon suplex > cross armbreaker was a cool way for him to get the nod.

This was great. The exchanges between Murahama and Hoshikawa were definitely the highlight. As much as I like Murahama, I'm becoming a big fan of Hoshikawa. Cool dad vibes and his shit always connects and looks very crisp. As Murahama's getting beaten down and struggling to make it to Delphin, Hoshikawa is bullying him with these condescending little kicks and cuts off his momentum by catching a kick and capture suplexing him. He's got a pretty snap Northern Lights suplex hold and that diving kick that finishes off Murahama looked brutal. Delphin didn't get too much time to shine and Yakushiji in his Bruce Lee attire was interesting but the stuff between Murahama/Hoshikawa ruled, and Murahama busting out the tope con hilo and being all proud about it afterwards was awesome.

This was alright. I mean, it's always neat seeing Hamada get in there and add a little salsa to the competition, but Minoru was on auto-pilot for much of the match. These intergender tags have been my first exposure to Fukawa, who I thought has some pretty cranky submission holds, and it was fun seeing her mix it up with Hamada. Overall though, it dragged and some of the exchanges looked clumsy.

Hi Chad. This wasn't very good. It was muddled and sloppy and Yone really stunk it up (you know, aside from KO'ing Hidaka with the Muscle Buster). I love that the ref fucks up Yone's rope-run spot. Hidaka tries to do some of his junior-y things but Yone's so awkward in how he handles them. The exchanges between Minoru and Hidaka were copy-and-paste from any other match you've seen them together in. Oh, and Otsuka was there, too. Yone sells his fisherman buster like death. But again, not very good.

Another cool mat-focused match, with Taira's unpredictability and perseverance being a key part of this. Early into the match, he shows Usuda's he ready for the strike game, catching a kick and planting him with the capture suplex. Usuda tries going after the arm on the mat, then switches to the leg, but Taira catching him in these unrefined submission predicaments. Loved when he traps Usuda's arm and then grabs his face and arm, trying to wrench him away from the ropes. Toward the end, Taira is relentless with his targeting of Usuda's leg and keeps taking him down until Usuda has no choice but to give up.

I really enjoyed this. Very much an Ono showcase of reversals, takedowns, and slipping through Ishikawa's more experienced fingers to a snag a leg or pop him with a couple of kicks. Real slick matwork, with Ishikawa mostly weathering Ono's combos in order to find an opening for the usual takedown>submission. But Ono proves to be a bit more wily than he probably anticipated. I liked the sequence where Ishikawa catches one of his punches and tries to take him down with the armbar, but Ono cartwheels out of it and moves into a rear waistlock. He has a lot of answers of Ishikawa's defense but in the end, taps out to the vet. Cool stuff.