Makai Club #1

1999 was definitely the year where RINGS went an extra step into shoot style before eventually going full MMA, even having to "worked" shoots like Tamura v Kanehara to make Tamura look strong going into the Frank Shamrock fight. It made for some great matches. I wish they stuck with it longer but MMA was booming around this time.

Awesome match with a somewhat surprising finish. From what I can tell, Adonis was awarded the match via ref stoppage but obviously Backlund didn't lose the title, so perhaps this is a Dusty Finish. It happened under Greg Valentine so it’s not a total blindsiding decision. This went through plenty of motions. Adonis, similar to Valentine in the Intercontinental Title match, stalls to start off, working the crowd against him and pissing Backlund off in the process. The body of the match was Backlund messing with Adonis, relentlessly schooling him on the ground and making a game of not letting go of Adonis’ wrist for such a long time which progressed into Adonis bashing Backlund’s nose in (something Barry Windham claimed wouldn’t be out of the ordinary when Adonis wrestled you) and then his forehead. Backlund bled a gusher and that turned the match into a nasty fight. This had the best of everything Backlund has to offer. Great technical wrestling and highly underrated brawling skill, although that was Adonis’ baby in this instance. The peak of Adonis as a wrestler? ****1/4

The first big match of the Kawada/ Misawa partnership. Not their first televised match together but this is likely the true start of Kawada being Misawa’s #2 and he serves him well. Kawada is still in a Junior Heavyweight phase, hitting a bloody moonsault of all things onto Jumbo Tsuruta as well as a springboard cross body but he’s starting to mature in the striking department. Early on, he whiffed a few spinning heel kicks but when Yatsu came in, Kawada transported himself two years into the future and blasted him with precise, violent kicks and a lariat. Jumbo bounces back after losing to Misawa, blindsiding him on the apron at the first chance he got, then attacking his knee before besting Kawada in the finish. He and Yatsu were on their last days as a unit but they worked well as the heel side, despite Jumbo’s clear popularity. Yatsu offensively was solid but his role was to establish Kawada most of all. I do wish that we got more wars between Yatsu and Kawada as the fighting #2s but Taue wasn’t a bad choice (replacement?), I suppose. Misawa is red hot but his performance is probably the most flawed as his selling isn’t too great and he got outshined by Kawada a little. But he gets protected in the loss, so it was good booking by Baba. ***3/4

The Day Of The Three Kings is here! After the 21st December match ended with Hansen hanging Calon with the Bull Rope, it was only natural what was next and soon enough, Colon challenged Hansen to a Texas Bull Rope match. Overconfident, Hansen put his Puerto Rican career on the line. This was an excellent, excellent match built around violence. Violent punches, violent use of the bull rope. Just pure violence and blood. There is a ton of drama in the closing stretch because the two sell their desperation to hit all four corners so brilliantly. There is so much struggle when it comes to hitting that final corner with the other wrestler using all their weight to pull you back. So much energy is slowly wasted away until you have to give up and try again. That final minute with Colon holding onto Hansen with all his might before back dropping him and getting the corner himself after Hansen tried to lariat him was amazing. High level drama. ****1/4

This was pretty bitching, if you ask me. This was Williams pounding on Hansen, beating him at his own game (brawling) for the most part as well as using his wrestling skills to ground Hansen. Hansen was very unselfish in his performance. He bled a bit and he sold a lot. Hansen on the backfoot is probably the best version of him. Hansen hit a wicked Western Lariat to close the match. Wonderful match. ***3/4

This was awesome. Oliver was not interested in friendly sportsmanship. He was more interested in grinding Royal’s knee joints into dust. Oliver adopted sneaky tactics such as grinding his fist into Royal’s limbs while locking on any hold that was available to him. Royal’s revenge spots were amazing. The crowd hated Oliver so any time Royal would crack his face with a forearm, they were cheering or Royal like crazy. Excellent match. This is something that I should check out more often. ****1/4

I adored El Gayo in this. His character work was very subtle and smartly worked into the narrative of the match. He started well, staying one step ahead of Corn on every movement; hanging on to the hammerlock, escaping Corn’s headscissors attempts while busting out some awesomely innovative bearhug into move combos before losing the advantage to the craftly Corn and losing the fall. After that, he got more underhanded and while never fully cheating, he was more sneaky than the classy Jacky Corn, who replied with beastly hammer throws. Eat your heart out Tomohiro Ishii, this is how you throw an elbow. And his uppercuts were sublime, too. Luis El Gayo’s selling of the strikes was excellent as well. He’d fire some off himself but when he got rocked, we, the audience, knew it. The result of the second fall was surprising as Gayo fell once more to a Corn bridging pin. Obviously not every match is 50/50 and these results happen to establish hierarchy, which is valuable when exploring a time like this with seemingly no other data to give context, but it still shocked me. Corn offered his hand and Gayo shook it with grace. The great character work continued until the very end. And oh, before I forget, RIPDCORD TOMBSTONE! ****

DDT D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 In Yokohama - 06/11/2021 D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 Block A Match: Jun Akiyama vs. Yuji Hino Impressive main event performance by Hino. He is much more vulnerable and interesting against Akiyama, where he’s the smaller guy than against the Junior Heavyweights of the roster. He couldn’t slap his way through it as Akiyama can give as good as he gets alongside the technical skill that comes with it. Akiyama attacked the arm of Hino, forcing Hino into new ideas. Hino’s selling was really good; better than I would’ve thought. He was very sympathetic and it made me want him to win. Akiyama put him over like a champ as well. Akiyama tends to lose in upset ways - in 3-5 minutes - that don’t actually put the person over *as a star* but this was a better example of that. ***3/4 DDT D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 In Shinjuku - 10/11/2021 D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 Block B Match: Konosuke Takeshita vs. MAO MAO isn’t the cleanest wrestler in DDT, being a former backyard wrestler, with it being a part of his charm but this is one of his more smoother displays in terms of striking, aerial moves and linking it all together. MAO rocked Takeshita’s jaw with punches throughout the match and bested him in a lot of exchanges. Takeshita took MAO lightly and almost lost the match because of it. Takeshita was a solid base for MAO’s aerial moves, coming up with sick counters which, in turn, made for some exciting near falls like the nearfall on the suplex. ***3/4 D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 Block B Match: Yuji Okabayashi vs. Chris Brookes This was another quality match involving Chris Brookes, wrestling’s most improved wrestler of 2021. His smaller frame really made himself a good opponent for Okabayashi to work off. He could climb around Okabayashi like Masahiro Takanashi would try, attempting any submissions that would open up. Okabayashi powered through it with brute force though. Brookes, to his credit, took the chopping and corner splashes like a champ, and kept on going despite the difference in hitting power. ***1/4 D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 Block A Match: Jun Akiyama vs. Tetsuya Endo I hate it. Even some of the greatest wrestlers of all time have the worst ideas and do the most terrible finishes. And this had a finish that’s done way more often than it should at this level. Tetsuya Endo hits a sweet Tetsuya In The Sky (Shooting Star Press), lands as clean as he usually does, and Akiyama rolls him up for an inside cradle. No. As you can tell, I hate this finish but the rest of the match lived up to what I expected. Endo worked from beneath against Akiyama, working the mat surprisingly well and being able to keep on top of the veteran with his dives but Akiyama’s style is a true and tested formula in DDT (And wrestling) and he gets success with it again. ***1/2 DDT D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 In Osaka - 14/11/2021 D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 Block B Match: Chris Brookes vs. MAO This was very experimental and idealistic, playing on the ideas of wrestling and how it could be done. In true DDT fashion. The count out teases were purposely long and played up to 10, a big wheel was used as a weapon, with a football goal in the background, they went outside of the building to have a short comedy skit. This was funny with a finish that fit it all. Brookes trapped MAO in a block of bins (?) while upside down to prevent MAO getting back in the ring for the count out. Even in this style of match, the match had a story. It was a little long though. And some of the early traditional wrestling offence didn’t look good, whatsoever. The charm was the comedy. ***1/2 D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 Block B Match: HARASHIMA vs. Konosuke Takeshita HARASHIMA loses another match in the D-Ou GP. This time, to the ace of the promotion who convincingly is the better of the two judging from the performances. HARASHIMA edged Takeshita out with his grappling, because of the attack on the arm but Takeshita controlled and bested him in most other ways. Takeshita was able to successfully avoid HARASHIMA’s biggest hits, using the momentum of the missed Somato to hit the rolling German Suplex. The lack of a big match setting aside, this was a main event level match (that wasn’t the main event). ***3/4 D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 Block B Match: Yuji Okabayashi vs. Kazusada Higuchi There are quite few visuals in wrestling that I enjoy more than sweat bouncing off someone's chest after a hard chop;. That’s when you know that so much energy and power was thrown beyond the strikes. Higuchi more than showed his worth, taking the chops and lariats, and everything else that Okabayashi threw at him and gave it back, along with a Claw which had way more drama behind it than a clawhold should have in the year 2021. That was down to the incredible selling from both sides to make it a credible finish, alongside everything else they did in the amazing closing stretch. This was somewhat of a clash of two giants that were slugging it away, fighting and struggling in a highly competitive match. ****1/4 DDT D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 In Korakuen Hall - 21/11/2021 D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 Block B Match: HARASHIMA vs. Yuji Okabayashi As Okabyashi hoisted HARASHIMA onto his shoulders, desperate wrenching down on the torture rack manoeuvre, HARASHIMA hangs on until the bell rings, signianlling the 30 minute time limit, sending Okabayashi one step out of the tournament, redeeming himself after losing every match. It reads like a movie synopsis. It truly does. And on top of a great narrative that it told, it gave us the best of both wrestlers. We get a classic Okabayashi strike exchange with HARASHIMA offering his violent kicks to match Okabyashi’s chops but we get some of the excellent grappling early in the match from HARASHIMA. This was a great, great match for a ton of reasons. **** D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 Block B Match: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Kazusada Higuchi I didn’t expect Takeshita to definitively put away Higuchi to advance to the finals. It was a fun sprint, allowing for Takeshita to come off super strong which a lot of companies tend not to do with their top babyfaces, opting for the underdog approach (which Takeshita never really suited being) but Higuchi could’ve, should’ve got more shine and kept the same idea. Especially coming off that amazing match against Okabayashi on the prior show. ***

DDT Get Alive 2021 - 12/10/2021 KO-D Tag Team Title Match: The 37KAMIINA (Konosuke Takeshita & Shunma Katsumata) (c) vs. DISASTER BOX (HARASHIMA & Naomi Yoshimura) The strength of this match was the great teamwork of Takeshita and Shunma Katsumata. They were a well oiled unit, not only making constant saves whenever one was on the backfoot, but linking up together offensively, too, pulling out terrific double team moves and sequences. Including an avalanche rolling senton ala The Quebecers. Together, they were able to control most of the match, isolating Yoshimura from HARASHIMA and almost winning out in the end. Yoshimura had a strong performance though, taking both 2 on 1 when it mattered, allowing his team to make a great comeback. The closing stretch was excellent. Logical nearfalls with the finisher teases. Yoshimura got the win for his team as well to win the KO-D Tag Team Titles with the Powerbomb. **** DDT D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 In Ota-ku - 03/11/2021 D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 Block B Match: HARASHIMA vs. Kazusada Higuchi This was a strong opening bout. HARASHIMA looked keen to start quickly and began to isolate Higuchi’s leg with kicks and submissions very quickly. Higuchi had to use his array of power strikes and headbutts to escape HARASHIMA’s strategy. Higuchi's selling is really good and he usually never lets me down in that regard, despite his size and style. He always maintains that vulnerability despite being the big guy out of the core DDT wrestlers. Higuchi getting the win was cool. Hope it’s the start of a good tournament for him. ***1/2 D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 Block A Match: Jun Akiyama vs. Yuki Ueno Akiyama falls to a flash pin. Where have we heard that before? A good solid underdog performance by Ueno though. He sells well and tweaks his offence to serve his opponent greatly. Akiyama is as surly as ever and works stiff but reckless, leading to the upset. *** D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 2 Block B Match: Yuji Okabayashi vs. Konosuke Takeshita These two went 30 minutes and broke the ring. Classic heavyweight wrestling bout. Admittedly a lot of this was standard ground setting with a lot more emphasis on grappling to set up the bigger bomb spot down the stretch. Some of it was good like the greco-roman knuckle lock - who doesn’t like a good knuckle lock? - some came off a bit generic but the match’s bread and butter was the bomb-fest section of the match. Bone crunching bumps, hard hitting strikes, all the good sequences you’d imagine from these two until the bell rang at the 30 minute mark. ***1/2

Hiroshi Tanahashi hit as hard as he got in this, no doubt steaming from the real life dislike between the two but Shibata looked to be in firm control. He had the advantage of being the ace of his respective promotion (Big Mouth Loud) so he got the result and took most of the match. Shibata was a prick for the whole match, booting Tanahashi in the head and ribs in painful ways. Tanahashi being a great underdog compliments Shibata’s style really well. Shibata gets the win, which made sense for the time although it only takes a few months for it to be an odd decision in hindsight. ***3/4

The Heisei Terrorist can work his magic anywhere, including the Dome. Murakami puts in a masterful performance in both dishing out offence and taking it bleeding all over the wrestling mat. Nagata initially wrestled in the hard hitting but safe method, kicking Murkami in the chest but Murakmi turned around and showed none of the same courtesy, socking Nagata hard in the check bones and wildey throwing soccer kicks. It wasn’t until the middle of the match where Nagata put some venom in his strikes. Nagata survived Murkami’s onslaught and began his comeback on the outside, where he clashed with the Big Mouth Loud wrestlers, Yoshiaki Fujiwara in particular. Murakami got bloody in the process, and bad headbutts aside, Nagata went to town on the cut, eventually blasting Murakami in the face with a kick. We get a couple of nail biting nearfalls before Nagata wins via a backdrop. More chaos after the match with more brawling and bad blood. Great match once between these two. And a great post match brawl to top it all of. This should’ve been higher. Murakmi certainly had the prestige even without Nagata being involved. ****

Masato Tanaka vs. Daisuke Sekimoto - BJW - 02/01/2006 I guess it's apt that the only place I can find this match, without looking deeper, is a porn site. It's rare I have to watch wrestling while going incognito yet here we are. All for a young Daisuke Sekimoto, who looks the exact same in 2006 as he does now in 2021. Ditto with Tanaka, really, although he's a bit thicker. This is a proto-strong division style match with a lot of heavy strikes and bomb throwing. It's not long before some of the more dangerous bumps come into play. Sekimoto reverses a suplex on the apron to hit one of his own, then Sekimoto later gets planted with a friend tornado ddt in the crowd onto a pile of chairs. The match seemed to reset itself with Tanaka working the leg before getting into the meat of the match. The closing stretch was typical Masato Tanaka Kings Road inspired wrestling done poorly. Nearfalls and not much selling but the crowd was into the action and Sekimoto got a rub going 50/50 with an indie legend. **1/2

Tag Team matches in Lucha I’ve found usually lie between great and average and while this had superb maestro work in the first fall between Blue Panther and Hijo del Santo, this was fairly mediocre when La Máscara was involved which was often. Even when paired against Blue Panther, he was sloppy and one step out of place for every little spot. Tarzan Boy was better, having some neat exchanges with Santo, who looked really slick himself. The highlight of the match was Santo hitting a rolling senton on Tarzan Boy and hitting a tope in the corner onto Blue Panther in one fluid motion. Beautiful. Santo and La Máscara win via a roll up/sub combo. **3/4

This was a pretty good trios match with the tecnicos winning the first fall and the rudos having to catch. We get some good Rey v Psicosis spots that would become famous worldwide in a few years. Nothing spectacular but it was awesome to see in context. One of the best moments of the match was Misterioso teasing a tope onto Heavy Metal, who cowered away on the outside before smacking Psicosis and Estrada on the apron. That was a cool spot. Volador had some great moves as well like his quebrada onto Heavy Metal. And his team work with Misterioso is always good. Tirantes had one of his signature moments, not counting the tecnicos pin but counting the pin after Estrada fouled Misterioso and pinned him. Boo. Speaking of Estrada; many people said that he looked out of it in this match (on drugs). I dunno about that but this wasn't one of his better performances. ***1/2

The Minis got a great reaction from the hot Los Angeles crowd. Sagrada got a big pop and Octagoncito got an even better response as the match progressed. The crowd was electric but the action was nothing more than solid. The rudo team had some neat double team moves, like when they launched Sagrada six feet in the air. Sagrada had some cool spots when making his hot tags (Octagoncito was the one bumping and selling for the mspt part) but this didn't peak too high. The finish was nice with Sagrada pinning with a sunset flip. ***

Another AAA main event where the story and the chaos is the focus and not who is winning the falls. Let's try to make sense of things. First things first, watch the handheld version of this to see the entrances. Powerful stuff. The seconds are just as important to the match than one of the wrestlers (Cien Caras) is, with Diamond Dallas Page and Los Gringos Loco, who accompanied Jake Roberts, attacking Cien Caras after he'd been eliminated by Konnan (via an assist from Roberts). This led to a handshake between Cien Caras and Konnan later in the match. Roberts was being a huge dick at ringside, spitting on people, throwing drinks into people's faces, attacking Mascarita Sagrada, slamming him onto the floor. Then when it's finally him vd Konnan alone, he has no interest in wrestling and quickly gets the DQ. Everyone gets involved. It's very chaotic and slightly incoherent but it's quite a sight ultimately. ***1/2 for everything

Love Machine and Guerrero have their immigrant schtick down pat already, doing swimming gestures on the mat which angered the LA crowd (aka a lot of Mexican immigrants). There was so much heat for the rudos and the match was mostly built around adding fuel to the fire. The wrestling was really great at times. Santo and Eddy have tremendous chemistry and they had some great exchanges with Santo finding multiple ways to arm drag Eddy around the ring, which pisses Eddy off. The second fall meanders in little but the third fall picked up back where the first fall left off with Los Gringos Locos bullying Blue Panther and antagonizing the tenico side any time they could. Cool semi main event that brought LGL’s character work into the mix. ***1/2

It's these arguments that make me adamant that Bryan isn't the greatest of all time, because while his case has all the elements of being so, comparing him to guys like Mitsuharu Misawa, causes that to fall apart, for the lack of a better word. That might sound like a scathing opinion but I don't think there is much that Bryan does better than Misawa. Misawa put in some of the all time great performances in the greatest matches. Misawa is highly innovative and creative offensively and is the greatest comeback wrestler ever. Misawa was always a tremendous seller, always nuanced and subtle in the way he sold pain. He was the top dog in All Japan (and NOAH) but when it came to vulnerability, he had a knack for creating those dangerous moments for himself that got the crowd buying him losing which is more difficult than it sounds. Depth and versatility can be a better tricky because Misawa wrestled in All Japan but whenever he stepped out of his confort zone, he seemed capable. The Tiger Mask II run is a black mark, admittedly, but he still had some great matches against Kobayashi, Jumbo Tsuruta, etc. Bryan has all of these things at a high level but Misawa stands way above him in my initial opinions and when I deeply think about it.

Don't be too excited for the next set of Antonio Honda matches. This is a rarity. He is very much a comedy wrestler with a very specific routine that involves him telling dirty jokes and tripping. If I would recommend anything, it's the GENTARO match he had a month or two prior to this for the Interim belt (Dick Togo was ill or something so Honda replaced him)

Great match. The booking of having young Muto as the last man puts him over huge while making the elders of the other team, Choshu and Fujianmi in this case, look even stronger in victory. Maeda took charge when it came to Inoki which is typical Maeda. But the best thing about his method is that it was the same way that Ueda eliminated him in a previous Team Inoki vs Team UWF Match. All the other wrestlers added great performances and heat to the match. That and the molent hot crowd made this one hell o a match. ****1/4

Where was this RIkio when he won the GHC Heavyweight title? When he tackled Murakami, the place exploded. Murakami got the better of him, naturally but Rikio held his own in these shining moments of the match. The Ogawa v Misawa stuff was pretty rocking in terms of atmosphere but the spots could've been better. Misawa in this environment though is interesting. That’s what I’ll say. ***

Fun match but the weird finish and lack of truly quality moments keep this back for me. The Honda/Hashimoto exchanges are good and I wish we’d get more from them but there is some charm to the Inoue and Hashimoto stuff too. Inoue’s bumps are weird for Hashimoto’s strikes but I wouldn’t expect anything different from him. Yasuda’s involvement was harmless despite his poor reputation as a worker. The match was perfectly watchable, and could be described as a solid semi main event involving one big star and 3 moderately popular acts. ***

Sugiura was terrific in this. He absolutely schooled Otsuka on the mat with his aggression and skill. Otsuka got some of the more dangerous holds in but Suigura led almost all the exchanges and escaped the guillotines easily enough by shifting his (and Otsuka’s hip) upwards. The match wasn’t filled with high spots but the grappling was simple and compelling. The headbutt exchange leading to the blood helped give the match its reputation, but the quality came from Sugiura working the mat. ***1/2

Deathmatches are their biggest drawing card. They always get bigger crowds on a Deathmatch main event over the Strong division matches barring special occasions such as Elgin vs Sekimoto. And I don't think they have enough hot prospects who could be drawing stars in the making to sacrifice losing the DM fans to build the traditional wrestling fanbase up.

I dunno where they are going with the Ospreay stuff but I think they should play it safe and go back to Okada for a while.