superkix

Hell yeah, love me a good Akiyama squash. This ruled. Shiga coming out of the gate confident, going after Akiyama's arm, and then whiffing on the plancha, which is the beginning of his end. I thought Shiga's selling on the beatdown was terrific, especially after the choke. Akiyama was such a dick though -- the way he ragdolls Shiga into the guardrail, the stiff boots and slaps, the double stomp from the top rope. Jun repeatedly slapping his way out of Shiga's arm control was awesome, then he just destroys him with a cradle tombstone. The way Shiga is trying to climb up Jun's leg after the Exploder was perfect, before Jun quickly submits him with the side headlock. Oh, and Dad Kobashi watching from the back. Great shot.

This was a lot of fun, with some neat exchanges and everyone getting their chance to shine -- oh, and Doc Wagner showboating around and stooging with Kashin. Nothing is really sold but whatever, they got some token legwork in. I liked Kashin scooting over to the corner with Kanemoto in the leglock. His lowblock>blockbuster combo on Takaiwa looked awesome. More Ohtani/Casas interactions would've been good but the two count off the la magistral cradle was great.

Thank YOU for your support! Agree, Togo/Sasaki has largely flown under the radar but rules.

The final three matches have been confirmed for KIMERA's 12/31 debut at the Tokyo Dome. The matches were announced by Akira Maeda during an appearance on a morning variety show to promote "CRYSTALIZED HEARTS IN TOKYO", in which the full card was revealed. When asked about his match against Vader, Maeda said that he does not share the same intimidation that others have of Vader. He will rely on his technique to take Vader down to the ground and submit him to become the promotion's first heavyweight champion. When asked about the direction of the company following the new year, Maeda said they are planning to run events twice a month from Tokyo. He hinted at a "Hybrid Rules" tournament in the coming months. Final Card KIMERA "CRYSTALIZED HEARTS IN TOKYO", 12/31 Tokyo Dome 1. Hybrid Rules: Tatsuo Nakano vs. Willie Peeters 2. Catch Rules: Yuki Ishikawa vs. Osamu Nishimura 3. Strong Rules: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Yuji Nagata 4. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament, Round 1 ~ Hybrid Rules: Dan Severn & Bart Vale vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Gene Lydick 5. Catch Rules: Minoru Suzuki vs. Grom Zaza 6. Hybrid Rules: Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Dick Leon-Vrij 7. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament, Round 1 ~ Strong Rules: Chris Jericho & Lance Storm vs. Akira Nogami & Shinjiro Ohtani 8. Hybrid Rules: Masakatsu Funaki vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 9. KIMERA Light Heavyweight Title, 1st Match ~ Catch Rules: Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. Masanobu Fuchi 10. Strong Rules: Bob Backlund vs. Shiro Koshinaka 11. Catch Rules: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Hiroshi Hase 12. KIMERA Heavyweight Title ~ Hybrid Rules: Akira Maeda vs. Vader

The relentlessness in which Akiyama comes at Misawa and stays on him throughout is incredible. I loved the opening stretch building to Misawa's apron elbow, with Misawa especially looking spry and energized. He's got to make sure Akiyama's ready for the challenge so he throws him a few snug lovetap elbows. Akiyama's neckwork after Misawa crashes and burns on the guardrail was extensive and brutal, with the apron Exploder and awesome neck cranks. Misawa's selling is terrific too, and Akiyama doesn't let him build too much momentum, dropping kicking him out of the ring and escalating the attack on the neck. I love how Misawa's veteran comeback toward the end starts with him busting open Akiyama's nose with a nasty knee drop to the face. But Akiyama won't lay down for him and I thought the fighting spirit Exploders were the perfect transition point heading into the finishing stretch. Fantastic match.

Closing out 2017 with Episode 8! Here's the direct link. https://fightingnetworkfriends.podiant.co/e/35b11bd7e2d11c/ to stream, or subscribe to the RSS feed. You can also search us on Apple Podcasts. FNF #008: 2017 Year End Wrap-Up & Awards Topics Discussed: - 6 awards about 2017, 6 awards looking back at the first 7 episodes of the show, Hideki Suzuki, Kazuchika Okada, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Tatsuo Nakano, the list goes on and on. The boys deviate from their usually scheduled shit, but have a blast and give each other matches to watch as presents at the end of the show. X-Mas Present Matches: 3/12/17 - Ilja Dragunov vs. WALTER (wXw) 5/5/17 - Hideki Suzuki vs. Yuji Okabayashi (BJW) 2/26/17 - Arez vs. Belial vs. Impulso (Lucha Libre WMC) 4/14/17 - Dick Togo vs. Daisuke Sasaki (DDT/DAMNATION PRODUCE) Youtube Playlist: http://tinyurl.com/fnf006 Follow us on Twitter: @fightfriends @trillyrobinson @bren_patrick Email at: [email protected] Youtube at: http://tinyurl.com/FightFriends

I liked Kobashi working around the injured ribs early on, wincing through his offense as he tries to keep Vader down but like the killer at the end of the movie, Vader never stays down. He lumbers around, targeting Kobashi with his grunty ribwork, clobbering shots, and ragdoll throws. Him tearing off the bandaging was good stuff and Kobashi sold well enough to make up for Vader's limitations. Vader goes to town with the German suplexes and chokeslams but Kobashi spirits through the pain to win the match. Kobashi doesn't fire off much on Kobashi but the big moonsault was a fun tease and him bouncing off Vader with the first lariat attempt and leveling him with the second was a neat finish. Solid stuff.

Simple but smart junior heavyweight wrestling. This isn't a match that is going to blow many away and that's okay, that's not what they were setting out to do. But it had a little bit of everything, including a great counter-based approach, a couple of high risk spots, and a little comedy with the ropes shenanigans, Asahi's cobra strike, and the ref bumps. Shiori Asahi has a lot of the right tools, especially in his counterwork, but he tends to try to do too much in his matches. He was more grounded here (sometimes not by choice) but he's got a lot of neat touches to his style, like his simple counter to a side headlock. Sasaki goes after the neck early on to set-up for his crossface hold, and like Asahi, he's wrestling more of a grounded approach, though he does pull out his great diving elbow drop to the outside. I thought the octopus hold merry-go-round was fun, and I loved Asahi's answer to the backslide struggle by slipping through the legs into a swanky pin attempt. He's able to slip out of the crossface holds a few times but when Sasaki finally catches him, he uses the crossover version and Asahi quickly taps. An easy, breezy watch.

Yeah, this was a lot of fun. Daichi Hashimoto in All Japan is like night and day compared to Big Japan. He's so much more motivated and over with the fans. I really liked the simple opening between he and Aoyagi, who has also had quite the breakout year along with Nomura. Loved Daichi repeatedly kicking Nomura on the outside, forcing him to take a seat. You had Nomura and Kamitani throwing their big boy weight around, really solid action building to the finish, a hot crowd who really bit onto Aoyagi's German suplex hold nearfall. Good, simple, tag team wrestling.

That six man tag with Can Am & Owen looks awesome..

Love Vader preempting the match with a double bird “Fuck you!”. The first half of this match was solid enough, with Akiyama and Kobashi working over Vader’s knee. I liked when Kobashi had Vader in the half crab and Akiyama dropkicks the knee a couple times -- good subtle selling from Vader throughout. The match picks up as Akiyama gets put on the rocks and suplexed around by Vader and Williams. I thought Williams connected with some good stiff clobbering blows. The final minutes of the match heading toward the finish was full of big boy bombs, including Exploders from Akiyama, powerbombs and powerslams, and Vader hitting the Vader Bomb onto Kobashi for a terrific nearfall. That finish with Kenta getting dumped on his head with the dragon suplex and then chokeslammed was brutal.

A good sub-ten minute scrap. Seiken's a guy I was unfamiliar with going into this but he's a pretty heavy striker, maybe a kickboxer. I liked the early exchanges, with Seiken overwhelming Kengo out of the gate, and then Kengo settling into the more self-assured bruiser role, swatting down Seiken's wheel kick and stooging around with his weaker follow-up kicks. Then he gets caught in the grill with a second wheel kick and a solebutt to the gut. Mashimo dominated the finishing stretch with suplexes and head kicks -- the kick that buckled Seiken's knee looked especially nasty. Fun stuff.

Yeah, this was decent BattlARTS fun. Nagai's kicks look pretty good and that's really about but I agree with the above that he looked a lot better on the mat when paired with Ishikawa, utilizing a lot of rolling holds. The back-and-forth limbwork was okay -- Ikeda blew off the arm work but I thought Ishikawa always does a good job selling the leg. After Nagai hits the belly-to-belly and tries to powerbomb Ishikawa, Otsuka springboards in with this big dropkick save. I also liked Ikeda hitting all these low kicks from every direction to a grounded Ishikawa but I'm in the Ishikawa>Ikeda camp. Cool finish with the rear headbutt into the choke.

This wasn't very exciting. Kotsubo's decent, love the singlet with the pastel rainbow splashes, but he didn't really bring much to this match to elevate it above the autopilot fluff Minoru defense. This was mostly Minoru showcasing himself, which is mostly armbar takedowns and a couple of back suplexes. I wouldn't mind seeing more of Kotsubo against a different opponent but this match is very forgettable.

What I enjoy about Shamrock is how exciting he makes the groundwork look as he slides around the mat and snaps off takedowns and uses his strong quickness to overwhelm his opponent. Naoki, on the other hand, doesn’t do a whole lot on the ground – in fact, it’s more or less him grabbing an arm or a leg and holding it there. This is noticeably evident late in the match when he has control of Shamrock’s leg and doesn’t do shit with it. The matwork wasn't all that exciting but there were some neat moments, like Shamrock using the headscissors to try and get a hold of the arm. Shamrock's strikes are more miss than hit but he's got some great-looking suplexes. And that Sano finish was sweet. Good stuff.

Episode 7 is now available. Here's the direct link. https://fightingnetworkfriends.podiant.co/e/35b11bd7e2d11c/ to stream, or subscribe to the RSS feed. You can also search us on Apple Podcasts. FNF #007: PWFG 7/26/91 Live Watch Matches: 7/26/91 PWFG "All for One and One for All" - featuring a sickkkkkkk Sano/Suzuki match. Youtube Playlist: http://tinyurl.com/fnf006 Follow us on Twitter: @fightfriends @trillyrobinson @bren_patrick Email at: [email protected] Youtube at: http://tinyurl.com/FightFriends

In the weeks leading up to "CRYSTALIZED HEARTS IN TOKYO" on December 31st, KIMERA held a number of small, intimate exhibitions, showcasing the different styles of the promotion. These events allowed fans to meet-and-greet with the likes of Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, and Bob Backlund. In addition, each representative of the style held a free seminar for young wrestlers, perhaps as a way to scout new talent but also as a way to generate interest. Maeda was present at Hotel East 21, along with two young "hybrid" fighters in Yoshihisa Yamamoto and Masayuki Naruse, who participated in a match under "Hybrid Rules". During the even, Maeda announced another match for the big 12/31 show, featuring Kiyoshi Tamura against Masakatsu Funaki in a "Hybrid Rules" match. Maeda also promised to defeat Vader to become the promotion's first champion. -Hybrid Rules- Yoshihisa Yamamoto beat Masayuki Naruse (11:27) by submission (jujigatame). At the new KIMERA Dojo (formally the U.W.F. Dojo), Fujiwara was on hand to provide a submission seminar as well as to showcase a "Catch Rules" match between two of his young pupils, Kazuo Takahashi and Yusuke Fuke. Fujiwara continued to promote the 12/31 event and added another match to the already stacked card: a "Catch Rules" match featuring Georgian wrestler, Grom Zaza, against Minoru Suzuki! -Catch Rules- Kazuo Takahashi beat Yusuke Fuke (8:56) by submission (heel hook). Bob Backlund was at the Tokyo Prince Hotel along with young Canadian wrestlers, Chris Jericho and Lance Storm, to further promote the event. Backlund held a short training seminar and told some funny stories before Jericho and Storm wrestled a match under the "Strong Rules". Backlund announced another match to the 12/31 event, featuring Kensuke Sasaki against Yuji Nagata under "Strong Rules". -Strong Rules- Lance Storm beat Chris Jericho (12:33) by submission (single leg crab hold). Updated Card: KIMERA "CRYSTALIZED HEARTS IN TOKYO", 12/31 Tokyo Dome 1. Strong Rules: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Yuji Nagata 2. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament, Round 1 ~ Hybrid Rules: Dan Severn & Bart Vale vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Gene Lydick 3. Catch Rules: Minoru Suzuki vs. Grom Zaza 4. KIMERA Openweight Tag Team Title Tournament, Round 1 ~ Strong Rules: Chris Jericho & Lance Storm vs. Akira Nogami & Shinjiro Ohtani 5. Hybrid Rules: Masakatsu Funaki vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 6. KIMERA Light Heavyweight Title, 1st Match ~ Catch Rules: Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. Masanobu Fuchi 7. Strong Rules: Bob Backlund vs. Shiro Koshinaka 8. Catch Rules: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Hiroshi Hase 9. KIMERA Heavyweight Title ~ Hybrid Rules: Akira Maeda vs. Vader

This was decent. I liked the back-and-forth struggle to get a takedown and lock in something substantial. Frye was working like a heel here, cutting off Sasaki's offense with submission holds and I thought Sasaki did a good job of selling. That Frye bump on the leg trip was crazy, which led to Sasaki cutting him out at the leg with the lariat on the apron to set-up the Sharpshooter. A big set of lariats from Kensuke and that's all she wrote.

No, thank YOU!

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x60ml9p

This was pretty fun and an easy watch. Kanemoto stiffing it out with Takaiwa and Ohtani is always a fun. I thought Ohtani's corner boots looked especially nasty here. And of course, Ohtani whiffing on the springboard attempt was inadvertently great. Part of me feels like the more superior team would've been Takaiwa and Wagner Jr. but it was nice seeing him mix it up with the harder-hitting juniors. That Michinoku Driver finish out of nowhere was awesome.

Vrij has one of the best villainous appearances in shoot-style, looking like he was pulled straight from the cast of Cyborg. Not only does he look like he a heel, he acts the part too, which is interesting for a shoot-style promotion to have such an obvious heel. He’s an absolute dick to Maeda with his shitty face slaps, blatant chokes, and snarling provocations. He tries to intimidate Maeda with his big action movie roundhouses but he’s also nippy with his kicks and he's got great reflexes. He’s able to snatch a foot mid-kick and get a quick takedown. On the mat, however, Maeda’s more skilled and he supplements his groundwork with a couple suplex throws, including what looks like a capture buster. In the end, experience pays off for Maeda. Easily the best match of the show.

This was probably the best match on the 1/30 BattlARTS show, with a simple structure, good performance from Sano working on top with his bullying lucha-esque matwork, and Minoru working underneath, looking for the armbar throughout. I liked the idea of Minoru’s ankle being an exposed weakness, even when he’s trying to get something going on the ground, and I thought his selling, for the most part, was good. Him hobbling out of the ring at one point was a nice touch. Sano did a good job of selling the armbar as his biggest threat and Minoru was able to pull off a number of takedowns, including a cool rolling armbar counter to the lariat. I always like when the more dominant, sure-footed guy has to take a walk around the ring to re-think his life. The hybrid junior-ness of the match was hit or miss with some of the back-and-forth exchanges, especially when Minoru’s on offense, but we get some neat suplexes and the armbar paying off for Minoru in the end.

This was alright. Too much Nagai on top, working whatever leg holds on the mat, but when he was up on his feet, whipping kicks and powerbombs, it was fun and Ikeda always takes a good beating. I liked the opening, with Ikeda taking head kicks but still backdropping him and trying to tap him with an armbar, only to get bamboozled and freak out in Nagai's leglock.

The best thing Yone does in this match is walk out wearing a "I Heart M.Y." shirt. This was a pretty fun BattlArts exhibition with comedy undertones that wasn't really heading anywhere but to have fun. I mean, Ishikawa worked with a smile half the time. I can always watch Ishikawa on the mat and his scrappy exchanges with the spastic Greco. Really like Ishikawa's backchops. Otsuka's such a stud -- he really should've been a bigger star somewhere. He smacks Yone around, dumps him with a German, hits a great-looking seated dropkick in the corner. I agree that it would've been nice to see more of the grounded opening between Ishikawa and Otsuka but there some fun BatiBati spots and a cool finish -- a pretty harmless tag match, in my opinion.