Ma Stump Puller

I'm not sure how you could really quantify it in a possible GWE 100 case lol. It's fun comedy work but it's hardly the main reason why someone might pick Sawa. I tend to think about that kind of stuff in the same fashion as the Baba Family 90's tags; it exists, it's there, you can be a fan of it, it's just not necessarily a make or break for anyone involved.

I might be necro-bumping this (it's a cool thread so I don't feel that bad about it, but still) but the idea of putting Kendo Kashin as a "badass" is just...I'd have no idea even where to start with that. Yes he was a legitimate Greco-Roman wrestler....most of the time the dude was either getting his ass beat or doing silly troll antics in his actual pro-wres matches. I love the dude but I wouldn't say he's a mean shooter like Fujita. And yes Fujita was very much based, his era of work was largely overhated for years for being "the dark years of wrestling" despite every single company either overtly dying (GAEA, ZERO-ONE, etc) or having to use yakuza to threaten people to buy tickets to attempt to even stay afloat (NOAH and co). The dark years had more to do with rapid economical downturn than because one main event ran only 9 minutes and included Josh Barnett or Bas Rutten lol. I'm glad he has gotten the chance to at least keep doing the style that put him on the map, at least.

A really good example of pure sloppy BEEF kino. Akebono struggles with intensity that Ishikawa brings in spades and Ake brings a remarkably rare example of Ishikawa not being able to do his usual dominant giant routine as he's not the biggest man in the room as per usual, so we really get a nice little sprint that mixes things up ever so slightly between the two. If you weren't a fan of Ake control sequences then this won't be up your alley but I personally got into fairly easily thanks to the above reasons since this had a dynamic going for it that you aren't really going to see much anywhere else. Ishikawa just in the middle goes right into the crazy stiff knees and forearms to the head alongside an truly terrifying piledriver that Ake then responds with some big strikes and a goofy lariat. He then tries for his own botched Yokozuna Impact piledriver where he just falls over mid-move and Ishikawa also then jumps too early for, creating this weird delayed effect where the move basically happened, reset, then happened even worse lol. The actual finish was legitimately great as Ake got slapped uber hard alongside some scary stiff headbutts that he then responds with by doing his own huge sumo slap and a even worse Yokozuna Impact where he doesn't even get a quarter up without falling over mid-move, felt like something you'd see from the very peak of head-drop mania 90's AJPW when every big spot had to be modified to be even more risky than it already was. Ake gets all gassed up after this immense effort and leans on his opponent on the ground before finally nailing the move the third time for the finish after a brief pause. This was really sloppy but uber enjoyable at the same time BECAUSE of that sloppiness, especially with two huge heavyweights like these two where anything could realistically finish the match. Akebono is at that point in his career where he's starting to have legitimate issues getting around; this match doesn't really attempt to disguise that in any subtle manner; at the same time though you could tell he was really giving it his all despite said issues, landing a bunch of surprisingly solid strikes and meshing with Ishikawa well. He knew the memo from the first stiff headbutt and he damn well keeps that dangerous feeling all the way to the ending. I'm kinda glad we're past the mid-2010's smarky era of "well Akebono sucked because he had a bad match with big show once" because it means matches like these can get their actual flowers.

Naruse being a RINGS vet meant that he could carry the task of doing this random Inoki-Ism match to build Bas up for his Nagata match fairly well. This mostly had a good rhythm to it with a lot of back and forth in stand-up with Naruse using some wildly impractical kicks that barely hit their mark when he uses them. Bas here is a lot more methodical with how he conducts himself, tending to focus less on random big pushes to action and more of a calm approach to things & using submissions only when Naru tries to go for takedowns, preferring to work stand-up instead for the most part. This goes on for a good couple of minutes until Naruse makes the mistake of poking the bear by landing a loud slap to the side of Bas' head and trying to rush in right after. He in return gets a incredibly awesome receipt in a vicious Teep kick to the body and probably one of the best roundhouses in recorded history as he just smacks Naruse right the fuck down with what could only be really described as baseball bat-levels of force to the side of his head. The camera only briefly catches it but you can see Bas himself mouth "oh shit" immediately right after. Naruse barely gets up and he looks legitimately rocked from the shot with big wide open eyes and zero expression in his face, yet is still able to recover enough to land a Capture Suplex into an Achilles Tendon hold to slow things down. The two have a cool struggle over some leg holds as Naru grabs Bas' other leg for a neat toe hold to force a rope escape. We get a awesome counter to a takedown right after as Bas underhooks Naru's arms mid-tackle and hits a big knee to rock him to the ground for a tight looking rear naked choke for another escape. There's some hope thrown in as Bas hits a combo of head shots but Naruse is able to just about catch one into ankle lock; we have this amazing visual of Bas just a second faster reaching the ropes before Naru could drag him into the middle of the ring and perhaps even get a miraculous win out of the whole thing. Once that last inch of hope is gone this doesn't attempt to even pretend the two are even. Bas rocks Naru with a series of vicious shots and when he attempts to hide in open guard presumably to try to bait some grappling Bas just punches him in the stomach until he gets his ass back up lol. Actual finish is great with another big roundhouse to the head finishing things off in dramatic fashion as Naruse slowly flops to the ground for a KO win. This is honestly pretty great as a whole even if the start starts, well, rather slow. Not bad, mind you; just slow. It definitely takes a bit to get into things and the action you are fed to presumably keep you at the table isn't the most exciting. I will say that the second half starts off incredible with the slap to the head by Naruse and it basically never stops being uber-tense and exciting all the way to the finish, carrying no real way to predict what will happen next to boot. Bas has this truly unique aura of unpredictability and danger where any single strike/hold could potentially be a conclusive finish: something Naruse sells very well with how apprehensive he is to even commit to much of anything for the start. But of course, eventually, curiosity gets the better of him: he thinks he can chase the dragon and make something of himself here. He pays for that hubris. A lot. That by itself really makes the match what it is....alongside some sick strikes but hey, sue me.

A pretty fascinating baby-Taue match that has only recently been aired in full. Well ok, it's not THAT fascinating once the match starts but still. The two do a lot of big-man stuff as they tussle in a collar and elbow for about a minute or so until hitting the ropes, having Hansen just say random gibberish to pop the crowd. Taue is surprisingly successful with a side headlock for pretty much the entire first half of this and I'd say Hansen does well enough trying to get it over; when he eventually gets to the corner ropes to break out of the first one he acts frazzled and agitated over the whole affair, immediately running back into Taue's clinch and getting stuck back in another headlock as punishment for being reckless. They tease Hansen going for the Choshu backdrop counter out of it a couple of times but just isn't able to really do so due to presumably Taue's sumo-induced base strength, letting him keep control of the hold even despite being lifted off his feet ever so slightly. Hansen logically then tries to break the hold by trying to use blunt force by attempting to move Taue's hands away from his head and is also slightly successful at this before getting shoved back to the mat again, firmly being outclassed. It's not exactly the most compelling work in the world but it definitely contains within itself a endearing look here at Hansen's ability to make Taue look so strong out of something as simple as being incapable of getting out of a headlock. Compare with their 1989 match where Hansen squashed Taue in a couple of minutes and you can definitely see the improvements already before any real fancy work is performed, Taue is much more of a threat and Hansen is cognisant to showcase that visually for a long duration of the match. Hansen's explosion of violence as soon as he gets the rope break is really well done, with him hammering at Taue's head with forearms and dragging him outside for a small scuffle involving chairs and choking. Taue ends up miraculously snapping back on the headlock due to some random Misawa-lite forearms of his own. This time Hansen is a bit more prepared for the headlock, using a particularly nasty side neck crank to peel Taue away that felt shockingly technical for a guy who's main gimmick was being a wild cowboy. Most of the second half is focused around Hansen's strikes, mainly on his opponent's bandaged forehead. He throws in some decent power moves to truly exaggerate his dominance, multiple scoop slams and elbow drops to Taue's head to boot. Taue gets in a couple of neat comebacks that are noticeably very uncreative; he tries for Misawa's forearms again, he does Hansen's scoop slams and elbow drops right after he's just done them, hell he even throws in a Hogan leg drop right after for a near fall lol. His rookie tendencies bite him again as he attempts an suplex on his far larger opponent and inevitably pays for it with a weird modified suplex off the ropes and a DDT, but Taue hits the ropes. Hansen primes the crowd for a Western Lariat, it's only Taue's bad instincts (throwing Hansen off the ropes and attempting a shoulder charge when he knew the Lariat was coming!) that let him land the move for the big finish. This was a fairly low-impact match but had a ton of strong psychology that, led by Hansen, gives Taue a good platform to showcase his early abilities at doing a more protracted 70's style showing. I think Taue himself also does a decent job here, bumping and selling well when it mattered while also showcasing that freakish strength that'll be his whole shtick later on. His lack of creativity is a fascinating bit and shows that he isn't quite there yet; he can certainly pretend to be Misawa with his forearm shots or Hansen with his slams, that doesn't really make him either of them in terms of success though and it shows given how he eventually fails with both approaches. He's trying to lend from Jumbo with the headlock sthick to boot and while it gives him the most success you clearly see that he has no gameplan beyond that in-match and has yet to truly find his niche yet. Either way it's a really interesting singles performance from both.

Also done a C&A on Amano that really goes deep into some cool stuff

Other Deep Dive stuff Introduction Carlos Amano's pretty based, but I was really bothered a few months back because there just wasn't much if any comprehensive coverage on WHAT matches represented her coolness factor the best, especially to a more casual audience that didn't have the time to really discover these sort of things. This totally original thread that hasn't stolen a lick of creative value will attempt to document and list pretty much every major match (alongside some random selections) of her career....minus some showings that I either wasn't able to cover or wasn't bothered to do so, like the VKF tags (mostly boring) her Kamen matches (they suck) and a good few of her really early 1995/early 96 matches (pretty much all of them have nothing of value). Outside of that I hope that this is a valuable resource to anyone looking to get into this era of wrestling as it's immensely rewarding once you get a hang of what to try to find. Matches will be sorted as what you definitely haven't seen elsewhere: EPIC, GREAT, FUN or SKIPPABLE. I will add in a DECENT for matches that aren't necessarily reaching the point of being "fun" nor truly skippable either. Kinda like a 6/10 rating if that makes any sense. I also do dates in the Euro style so it's day/month/year in case anyone is confused at first. Some matches have their own pages on here so I will just link to those when necessary. 1995 Reiko Amano vs Tomoko Miyaguchi JWP (16/06/95): DECENT Reiko Amano vs Bolshoi Kid JWP (10/31/95): FUN 1996 Reiko Amano vs Bolshoi Kid JWP (07/04/96): FUN Reiko Amano & Tomoko Miyaguchi vs Command Bolshoi & Kanako Motoya JWP (21/04/96): DECENT Reiko Amano vs The Bloody Phoenix AJW (18/05/96): SKIPPABLE Reiko Amano & Mayumi Ozaki vs Dynamite Kansai & Tomoko Miyaguchi JWP (16/06/96): GREAT Reiko Amano & Chikayo Nagashima vs Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato GAEA (16/11/96): DECENT 1997 Reiko Amano & Mayumi Ozaki vs Devil Masami & Hikari Fukuoka JWP (09.02.97): GREAT Rieko Amano & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Megumi Kudo & RIE JWP (08/04/97): FUN Reiko Amano & Chikayo Nagashima vs Akira Hokuto & Maiko Matsumoto GAEA (21/04/97: DECENT Reiko Amano vs Tomoko Miyaguchi JWP (10/05/97): DECENT, BORDERING ON FUN Reiko Amano, Chikayo Nagashima, Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato vs Chigusa Nagayo, Devil Masami, Meiko Satomura & Tomoko Miyaguchi JWP (08/06/97): FUN Reiko Amano vs Kumiko Maekawa JWP (17/08/97): DECENT Reiko Amano & Chikayo Nagashima vs Meiko Satomura & Toshie Uematsu GAEA (30/11/97): FUN 1998 Reiko Amano & Sugar Sato vs Command Bolshoi & Dynamite Kansai JWP (11/02/98): DECENT Reiko Amano vs Mayumi Ozaki JWP (06/03/98): EPIC Rieko Amano vs Tomoko Miyaguchi JWP (10/05/98): GREAT Reiko Amano vs Kanako Motoya JWP (14/06/98): FUN Reiko Amano & Chikayo Nagashima vs Sonoko Kato & Toshie Uematsu OZ Academy (21/06/98): DECENT 1999 Reiko Amano vs Meiko Satomura GAEA (17/01/99): EPIC Carlos Amano & Aja Kong vs Meiko Satomura & Toshiyo Yamada OZ Academy (28/02/99): FUN Carlos Amano vs Azumi Hyuga JWP (23/09/99): GREAT 2001 Carlos Amano vs Hiromi Yagi Michinoku Pro (14/01/01): FUN Carlos Amano & Chikayo Nagashima vs Meiko Satomura & Sumie Sakai OZ Academy (18/02/01): FUN Carlos Amano & Hiromi Yagi vs Chaparita ASARI & Yuka Shiina NEO (04/05/01): FUN Carlos Amano vs Ran YuYu JWP (10/09/01): GREAT Carlos Amano & Meiko Satomura vs Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada GAEA (24/09/01): FUN Carlos Amano & Chigusa Nagayo vs. Chikayo Nagashima & Toshiyo Yamada GAEA (28/10/01): FUN Carlos Amano vs. Toshie Uematsu GAEA (15/12/01): DECENT 2002 Carlos Amano & Aja Kong vs Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada GAEA (13/01/02): SKIPPABLE Carlos Amano vs Aya Sakurai GAEA (13/01/02): DECENT Carlos Amano, Chikayo Nagashima & Mayumi Ozaki vs Chigusa Nagayo, Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada GAEA (14/01/02): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Azumi Hyuga JWP (23/02/02): EPIC Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai vs Chigusa Nagayo & Sakura Hirota GAEA (17/03/02): FUN Carlos Amano & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Devil Masami & Toshie Uematsu GAEA (07/04/02): SKIPPABLE Carlos Amano vs Aja Kong OZ Academy (11/05/02): FUN Carlos Amano vs Sugar Sato GAEA (18/05/02): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Chikayo Nagashima GAEA (26/05/02): FUN Carlos Amano vs Ayako Hamada GAEA (02/06/02): GREAT Carlos Amano & Chikayo Nagashima vs Ayako Hamada & Chigusa Nagayo GAEA (30/06/02): FUN Carlos Amano vs Command Bolshoi JWP (15/09/02): GREAT Carlos Amano vs Command Bolshoi JWP (23/09/02): EPIC Carlos Amano vs Ran YuYu GAEA (20/10/02): FUN 2003 Carlos Amano vs Chikayo Nagashima GAEA (06/04/03): FUN Carlos Amano & Mima Shimoda vs Aja Kong & Lioness Asuka OZ Academy (31/08/03): DECENT 2004 Carlos Amano vs Mariko Yoshida GAEA (30/04/04): EPIC Carlos Amano vs Amazing Kong OZ Academy (08/08/04): FUN Carlos Amano vs Mayumi Ozaki OZ Academy (08/08/04): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Manami Toyota GAEA (16/10/04): DECENT Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota vs Ayako Hamada & Dynamite Kansai GAEA (17/10/04): DECENT 2005 Carlos Amano & Chigusa Nagayo vs AKINO & Mariko Yoshida GAEA (16/01/05): FUN Carlos Amano & AKINO vs Ran YuYu & Toshie Uematsu GAEA (11/02/05): FUN Carlos Amano vs Aja Kong (10/04/05): GREAT Carlos Amano & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato OZ Academy (26/06/05): FUN 2006 Carlos Amano vs Kaoru Ito OZ Academy (22/01/06): FUN Carlos Amano vs Mika Nishio OZ Academy (03/23/06): FUN Carlos Amano vs Mayumi Ozaki OZ Academy (30/04/06): SKIPPABLE Carlos Amano vs Yurie Kaneko Sendai Girls (11/11/06): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Mayumi Ozaki OZ Academy (30/12/06): GREAT Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai vs Ran YuYu & Yuki Miyazaki OZ Academy (30/12/06): DECENT 2007 Carlos Amano vs Chikayo Nagashima OZ Academy (28/01/07): FUN Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai vs Eagle Sawai & Takako Inoue OZ Academy (28/01/07): FUN Carlos Amano vs GAMI OZ Academy (04/05/07): SKIPPABLE Carlos Amano vs Kyoko Kimura Battlarts (13/05/07): EPIC Carlos Amano vs AKINO OZ Academy (10/06/07): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Kaori Yoneyama OZ Academy (21/10/07): GREAT 2008 Carlos Amano vs Aja Kong OZ Academy (13/01/08): EPIC Carlos Amano vs Ryo Mizunami Sendai Girls (24/02/08): GREAT Carlos Amano vs Mayumi Ozaki OZ Academy (12/04/08): FUN Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai vs Aja Kong & Manami Toyota (07/06/08): FUN Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai vs Chikayo Nagashima & Sonoko Kato OZ Academy (13/07/08): FUN Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai vs. KAORU & Mayumi Ozaki OZ Academy (10/08/08): FUN Carlos Amano & Azumi Hyuga vs Chikayo Nagashima & Meiko Satomura JWP (28/12/08): DECENT Carlos Amano, Devil Masami & Dynamite Kansai vs Aja Kong, Ran YuYu & Toshie Uematsu Marvelous Night V (30/12/08): FUN 2009 Carlos Amano & Tomoka Nakagawa vs AKINO & Ayumi Kurihara OZ Academy (22/09/09): DECENT Carlos Amano, Azumi Hyuga & Command Bolshoi vs Harley Saito, Mayumi Ozaki & Shinobu Kandori OZ Academy (16/08/09): DECENT 2010 Carlos Amano vs Manami Toyota OZ Academy (10/01/10): ??? Carlos Amano vs Manami Toyota OZ Academy (07/02/10): ??? Carlos Amano vs Manami Toyota OZ Academy (21/02/10): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Manami Toyota OZ Academy (14/03/10): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Manami Toyota OZ Academy (04/04/10): FUN Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota vs Aja Kong & Kaoru Ito OZ Academy (13/06/10): FUN Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota vs Aja Kong & Yoshiko Tamura OZ Academy (22/08/10): DECENT 2011 Carlos Amano & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Kana & Yoshiaki Fujiwara Kana Pro (10/01/11): GREAT Carlos Amano, Manami Toyota & Nao Komatsu vs. Hiren, Io Shirai & Mio Shirai OZ Academy (10/04/11): DECENT Carlos Amano, GAMI & Manami Toyota vs Chikayo Nagashima, Hiren & Mayumi Ozaki OZ Academy (03/11/11): SKIPPABLE Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Yumi Ohka OZ Academy (18/12/11): DECENT 2012 Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota vs Aja Kong & Sonoko Kato OZ Academy (15/01/12): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Tomoka Nakagawa OZ Academy (26/02/12): SKIPPABLE Carlos Amano vs Shuu Shibutani WAVE (10/10/12): DECENT Carlos Amano & Ran YuYu vs Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki OZ Academy (09/12/12): FUN Carlos Amano vs Mayumi Ozaki Sendai Girls (15/12/12): SKIPPABLE 2013 Carlos Amano vs Tsubasa Kuragaki OZ Academy (10/02/13): SKIPPABLE? Carlos Amano & Meiko Satomura vs Aja Kong & Hikaru Shida OZ Academy (10/03/13): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Aya Mizunami WAVE (27/03/13): FUN Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai vs AKINO & Hiroyo Matsumoto OZ Academy (12/05/13): DECENT Carlos Amano, Hailey Hatred, Hiroyo Matsumoto & Mio Shirai vs. DASH Chisako, Kagetsu, Meiko Satomura & Sendai Sachiko Michinoku Pro (30/06/13): DECENT Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai vs Aja Kong & Ayako Hamada OZ Academy (14/07/13): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Manami Toyota OZ Academy (11/08/13): ??? Carlos Amano vs Kana OZ Academy (15/09/13): GREAT Carlos Amano vs Sonoko Kato OZ Academy (10/11/13): FUN 2014 Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota vs Hikaru Shida & Kagetsu OZ Academy (02/03/14): FUN Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota vs Hiroyo Matsumoto & Kaori Yoneyama OZ Academy (16/04/14): SKIPPABLE Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota vs. Dynamite Kansai & Kaori Yoneyama OZ Academy (11/05/14): DECENT Conclusion seems to be good wrestler idk

This for a good while was only available as a chopped up match that removed the majority of the starting grappling exchanges, which for a match like this you'd kinda want to see out of these two lol. Thankfully the full version has now shown up and not shockingly is very good. Mainly what works about this match (as well as any involving this two, really) is that they compliment each other well. Amano I've found does her best work when using her technical wizardry first and foremost, mainly in give-and-take formulas where she mostly has heelish tendencies during her control spots, attacking weak limbs like a injured shoulder or a bad leg as the main lead-in for everything else on the table. Meiko around this point excelled at emoting/selling, working from under a more confident opponent alongside throwing out crazy bombs to get the maximum amount of action. You can see how that pairing works before this even started. The first 5/10 minutes is mostly dedicated to grappling, mainly Amano using Meiko's bandaged arm to do some cool submission spots. The bit where she counters a toe-hold by forcing Meiko's head down to pop up her shoulder for a double-wrist lock in mount was really cool, not anything you'd see today at all or done that smoothly anyway. The grappling isn't insanely complex (Meiko was never particularly known for her mat-work to be fair) but is carried well by the pacing, with both getting the chance to slap on holds and sell pretty strongly, though Meiko stands out as the far greater of the two when it came to just communicating a mix of pain/frustration. It bubbles through when she's trying to use her bad shoulder for stuff and clearly hurting. Stuff like the Boston Crab for instance; typically only dangerous for rookies; is put over as much more dangerous than otherwise because Meiko can't use her arms to push herself up (which is the usual kayfabed way to deal with that kind of move) so she's forced instead to slowly crawl to the ropes. The middle portion diversifies by throwing in OZ Acad interfering and some outside brawling. This stuff is fairly fine yet not my cup of tea all things considered. I don't think it's done bad or anything though and the crowd are clearly very into it from the get-go so I can't moan too much lol. Meiko's improvised brawling with her throwing water bottles and buckets was funny though. They do pick up the intensity well as Meiko throws some convincingly solid strikes (including a shockingly sick ankle lock counter to a roundhouse while on the top rope!!!) and really gets the crowd invested in her comebacks. In turn they amp up the interference to establish that while Amano is fairly good, she just doesn't have the edge in striking that her opponent does, forcing her to exploit the arm more. One bit they had here was like her doing a underhook suplex into butterfly lock which looked absolutely nasty, shocked no one tried to steal that. Last third is mostly focused around the threat of Amano's many armbreaker transitions, which was a treat for someone like myself who had a good idea of what they were going to use (the one off the top rope, the standing one) with a couple of interesting changes and mix-ups that honestly I hadn't seen before. They build up the interference even more to the point of them basically just turning into a mob hurling chairs around. Satomura's mastery of doing these sort of chaotic finishing stretches where there are counters on counters into big moves is well documented but it definitely shines here, with her playing dead for submissions before somehow almost managing to hit the DVD anyway. It's the big death-move of the match and clearly the one she needs to hit yet every attempt just never seems to work properly, with loads of teases and cute transitions into it that ultimately never get enough time to breathe before the next counter. Alas there is one botch where they seem to fuck up the timing on the ending as the ref counts Meiko out during a arm triangle. The bell is even rung and then they awkwardly just continue anyway. It's bizarre and doesn't add anything to the match bar being confusing. Other than that it was basically next to perfect as we get a couple of big roundhouses by Meiko into a huge underhook for the symbolic three count (interference again rip) before Amano eventually reverses out of one too many bombs and manages to win with a rolling armbreaker. As I said above this match works primarily because the two involved are great matches for the other; every one of their matches is good to great, this being their best naturally given the fantastic blend of tense grappling with a ton of drama to get the crowd from fairly cold to being all over this by the end. I wouldn't say in terms of Amano matches that this was as up there as Yoshida '04/Bolshoi '02/Hyuga '02 as all of those are just a bit more focused on the technical side of things, a bit cleaner, a bit more varied etc. Top 10? Yeah sure, definitely.

This was a fairly fascinating watch all things considered. It's wrestled under what is essentially NJPW's Different Style Rules, basically no pins, submissions/KO only etc. It's the only Amano match that is overtly shoot-style (while the Kana tags are wrestled as such pinfalls were still allowed, not counting her jd' MMA match either because that wasn't worked) and as such is quite the oddity. Maekawa with her Karate background basically acts as the striker here while Amano with her amateur background was shooting much more and trying to get submissions. They get that over very easily by having Amano's first action in the match be a double leg takedown which led to Maekawa going for the ropes when she lost the mount and then almost had her back taken trying to escape, then had Amano be cowering in the corner taking leg kicks when they got back in stand-up. Even if you knew absolutely nothing about the pair you get exactly what is being communicated here just from watching their first exchange. As a whole I think this while functionally decent doesn't really hit the mark in any real way possible in that the exciting parts of a shoot-style match (the technique, rapid changes in momentum, sick counters) just aren't really here for the most part. There's lots of tentative sitting in open mount and the pacing is particularly slow by the second round, especially when Maekawa takes charge on the mat since that's not really her avenue. While the actual work was for sure competent (Amano especially snaps on a super quick armbreaker out of full mount that really shocked the crowd near the beginning) it just never quite peaks at any point worth mentioning, instead trucking along at a safe but rather plain pace. They did do better than some of the dogshit UWF-I undercards in prior years though so that's saying.....something, at least? I thought the ending was goofy as fuck as Amano at the very start of the third round tries to run in with a dropkick and predictively does nothing, getting kicked in the head for a long knockdown. Amano gets back up, Maekawa just roundhouses her head off again to finish the match with a KO. As I said above this had a interesting premise with fairly talented workers, it just never really got all that exciting. There's lots of downtime on the mat and less time seeing Maekawa land huge clunky kicks to the face and head; never a good thing in my book. Amano definitely showed a more amateur-style with a bunch of solid tricky takedowns and some submissions that I think could've been a interesting style to contrast with, say, ARISON-era Yoshida or Yagi. This just lacked a real hook to really sink my teeth into, which is a shame because this matchup on paper had a lot of potential.

epic

Other Deep Dive stuff Fun/weird match that had some great work at a time where Keita was a bit inconsistent quality-wise. Ryuji Walter (usually named "Ryuji Walters" on his singlet) is another one of those mysterious Japanese uber indie guys that despite being trained by the legendary Boris Malenko has sparingly appeared....well anywhere, really, bar this promotion and some self-promoted indies that maybe made tape. He apparently trained for Inoki's UFO promotion yet it went under before he could show up so he just kinda lingered around the indie scene. Walter still seemingly trains a fair number of wrestlers to this day but any substantial info is lost to the sands of pre-2010's internet obscurity. Keita attacks mid-entrance and works on the leg with some good work while we get the occasional goofy spot that he just lets slip through the usually clean technique out of him, a common occurrence at the time and one of the main issues with his Batti run. I thought the two otherwise were cooking with the major focus on leg submissions and counters, with Ryuji having some good transitions while ultimately getting worn down by Keita's prior leg work and thus not being able to keep the aggression going even when he was seemingly on the upswing. Keita throws in some relatively novel outside work involving chairs and the very apron being involved, which was very outside the spectrum of action you'd usually see out of a Battlarts 2.0 match. Ryuji gets in some great worked punches in response and sells quite well in terms of getting over his leg troubles enough that you believe the hole he gets stuck in as it gets bigger and bigger from the deficit caused by Keita's relentless knee attacks. It helps that when Keita gets too goofy with his WoS homages that Ryuji has the sensible mindset to rein things back with sick punches and knees to distract you from that stuff. The only thing that hurt the match as a whole was the abrupt ending which had Keita get knocked down, get up, then smacked enough with punches that the ref calls the thing off for a TKO victory for Ryuji. It certainly had some dramatics to it (with some...questionable selling by Keita mind you) but it came a bit too soon and just as things were starting to tense up after a fairly long control segment. It's a shame as well because this pairing feels like something that could've been way expanded, especially in the next few years when Keita becomes a rogue and starts wrestling epics in basements and backyard gyms. Without the constrains involved here you could see how this could've progressed into more of a dirty scrap with some real huge dramatics to boot. Certainly a match that definitely could've been much greater if it happened down the line. That said, this is still fairly solid by itself. Keita really invokes the GOAT Yoshinari Ogawa here with his prolonged control spots and ability to get you invested throughout despite the length and breadth of said control spots. Ryuji's little counters on the mat here and there were pretty cool; his Kimura attempt while in a heel hook and some fancy exchanges of toe-holds/Achilles Tendon struggles made me pretty much a instant fan of him, and I was really hooked when he starts throwing some very hefty stand-up bombs. Nothing that out there but definitely a real fun and overlooked 7-minute sprint.

Honestly you could throw any singles Amano/Ran match in there, they have great chemistry all things considered. The 1998 match is their most ambitious mat-heavy work though so it's a good addition to throw in Haven't watched the Meiko 2002 match but that should be good. It's a real shame that their 2013 rematch in OZ got clipped to 2 minutes because they always bounced off each other especially well.

Alright so I actually wanted to put out a proper watch list as soon as I had got through basically nearly every comprehensive Amano match worth watching minus the occasional filler tag or two lol. Jetlag didn't throw recommendations up above, so consider this the unofficial version I suppose. It can be tricky finding 2000's OZ and whatnot but there are sites and resources worth searching out if you dig. Best of: singles vs Mayumi Ozaki (03.06.1998 JWP) vs Tomoko Miyaguchi (05.10.1998 JWP) vs Meiko Satomura (01.17.1999 GAEA) vs Azumi Hyuga (09.23.1999 JWP) vs Azumi Hyuga II (02.23.2002 Neo-JWP) Any Command Bolshoi match she had/was involved in 2002 vs Mariko Yoshida (04.30.2004 GAEA) vs Aja Kong (04.10.2005 GAEA) vs Kyoko Kimura (05.13.2007 Battlarts 2.0) vs Kaori Yoneyama (10.21.2007 OZ Academy) vs Aja Kong II (01.13.2008 OZ Academy) vs Mayumi Ozaki II (04.12.2008 OZ Academy) vs Kana (09.15.2013 OZ Academy) vs Sonoko Kato (11.10.2013 OZ Academy) Best of: tags w/ Tomoko Miyaguchi vs Command Bolshoi & Kanako Motoya (04.21.1996 JWP) w/ Mayumi Ozaki vs Devil Masami & Hikari Fukuoka (02.09.1997 JWP) w/ Chikayo Nagashima vs Meiko Satomura & Toshie Uematsu (11.30.1997 GAEA) w/ Aja Kong vs Meiko Satomura & Toshiyo Yamada (02.28.1999 OZ Academy) w/ Hiromi Yagi vs Chaparita ASARI & Yuka Shiina (05.04.2001 NEO) w/ Meiko Satomura vs Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada (09.24.2001 GAEA) w/ Chigusa Nagayo vs AKINO & Mariko Yoshida (01.16.2005 GAEA) w/ Dynamite Kansai vs Eagle Sawai & Takako Inoue (01.28.2007 OZ Academy) w/ Yuki Ishikawa vs Kana & Yoshiaki Fujiwara (01.10.2011 Kana Pro II) w/ Manami Toyota vs Hikaru Shida & Kagetsu (02.03.2014 OZ Academy)

I'm fairly high on Kaito. He's a great base for getting good matches out of basically anyone that wrestles him for big-time matches, namely because of his generous selling and ability to accommodate a wide spectrum of styles. My main issues are fairly easy to explain: 1. His strikes are dynamic but not particularly hard-hitting, making it hard for him to seem legit against actual solid hitters 2. His Keiji Muto inspired work sucks (every "mentor Muto" gimmick has been awful all the way back to young Sanada in AJPW when he was green and overpushed) 3. He tends to overuse particular formulas way past being enjoyable (see his 2018 title run where EVERY match was the same "Kaito gets his ass kicked for 80% of the match, comeback with a couple of moves, cut-off, repeat until finish" bit for bit for two bloody years) He also has a issue of not really being able to make his own style. His first gimmick was doing Misawa-cosplay without what really made Misawa's tick, how he's doing the same for Muto. His best matches come when someone gets past that barrier and drags out his terrific selling and emoting like in the Yoshinari Ogawa clinics, Kenoh, Muto etc. Kaito is great on a technical basis but needs direction to really have great matches rather than just good.

I'm not gonna go into the "what was legit in Pancrase and what wasn't" debate because I feel like that's a dead end. Purely judging on his confirmed pro-style work. Honestly I would stick Bas on as a potential 100 to 90 pick tbh. He definitely took to wrestling pretty easily and understood how to work really flashy and impactful Inoki-Ism bouts at a time where guys like Tana and co were stinking cards up trying the same thing. He seemed like a bit of a crowbar based on him accidently nearly knocking out like half of the people he wrestled. With that said: you could put him with a more experienced worker and he could do really solid stuff for the time. His Nishimura match is absolutely one of those where he's definitely semi-carried (especially when you see him do weird incomplete Frankensteiners and dropkicks lol) yet still got how to communicate correctly how to sell Nishimura's holds, scrambling for rope breaks and communicating his frustration at not being able to get the big KO a hell of a lot better than many modern big time wrestlers today. Dude had a unique aura of danger that lent itself nicely to the trope of "anything could end the match" formula that Inoki-Ism lended itself to so much. Control doesn't have it included but also absolutely watch the Nakanishi match as well for a super fun styles clash.

Complete batshit insanity as per expected from EXIT events. These two are battling with chains as ropes while in some dodgy basement with a camera setup that feels like some garbage CCTV from 1993 recording. The first half is focused firmly around holds. Fugo is not really a hold guy whatsoever and is a rather weird/unconventional opponent for Keita in this regard, but he still has the tools alongside Keita's milking of said tools to make this work as a concept. Fugo wasn't complex when it came to what he did in this section; mostly just grabbing ankles/arms or necks and going from there, while Keita would pull off some typically tricked out counters to show off his advantages. It's nothing awful and the two do get a good feeling for the other after a while of wangling. Fugo gets pissed after a good 15/20 minutes of tense grappling, unleashing a gross headbutt while in mount alongside slaps to really rattle him, firmly establishing the real start of the peak here. What helps a ton is that the low quality + the sheer bizarreness of the setting lends itself to a very fine layer of imagination being able to creep in when you're actually watching this. For instance, Fugo throwing on a tight headlock to drag Keita down to the mat would probably look fairly mediocre by its lonesome if it was in a well-lighted area with an actual good quality camera recording, but in here it looks like Keita's whole face is getting squished thanks to the visuals being scuffed, adding that sleazy backstreet feeling to everything that makes it twice as dangerous. They play off each other well here as Keita tries to match Fugo in sheer violence, mostly fails to do so as he simply doesn't have the sheer violent energy to really test him there. We get a good bit where that's reflected by Keita losing his cool trying to submit a deadweight Fugo and letting loose with his own headbutts, only to end up losing all of his advantage because those same reckless headbutts ended up doing more damage to him than his opponent. There's a good theme of frustration wherein Keita as the young kid is getting pissed and impatient with multiple moments like the above where he just pushes his luck way too far and ends up seriously hurting because of it. The finish is abrupt! Keita is being knocked around for close 10 counts with vicious strikes, forcing him to hit a real abrupt backdrop on Fugo after some struggle and getting a desperation armbar on him for maximum dramatics, really invoking some Inoki vibes as he just manages to squeeze out a victory out of a match he was seemingly outmatched in. It's a bizarre feature that definitely builds itself inherently towards alienating most people even trying to watch due to the quality (let alone the wrestling) yet still has lots of endearing stuff in it. Both guys carry a ton of intensity and the work done is nothing fancy but said intensity just helps that a ton to get it over. It's a more interesting encounter for Keita because he simply isn't able to show off as much because his opponent sandbags him on the fancier IIave material forcing him to get more simple and focus on selling: something that I think he's still great at anyway. Really good gritty work that you should absolutely attempt to watch at some point.

Keita Yano It had to happen at some point! Insanely innovative with his unique blend of IIave/shoot-style, Keita Yano has pushed the envelope of what constitutes a wrestling match for about a decade+ at this point. He's had NWA-style 60 minute features, battles in garages and local gyms, fought on playmats for an audience of a couple dozen at best, wrestled every single major Japanese indie name you can probably list off using Google and then some, in doing so got the attention of even legends like Tenryu who have made him mainstays of his promotion to this very day. What really gets the guy over is not just his sheer versatility; it's his ability to make any format of match seem impressive quality-wise. Even when he has to do more sanitized conventional "epic" main event outings he clearly proves that being in a actual wrestling ring doesn't hurt his quality one bit. It's the truly weird stuff that really consolidates his GWE case though, and it really helps that even with all of my extensive footage watching of the guy I still don't think everything's been covered yet. Vs Fujita Hayato (Battlarts 06.08.2008) Vs GENTARO (Apache Pro 04.17.2009) Vs Fugo Fugo Yumeji (EXIT 11.28.2010) Vs Taro Yamada (Wallabee Pro 6.14.2012) Vs Manabu Hara (Wallabee Pro 07.28.2013) Vs Iori Sugawara (Taiheiyo Pro 02.16.2014) Vs 326 (Taihieiyo Pro 11.30.2014) Vs Taro Yamada (Kani KING 01.25.2015) Vs Hideaki Sumi (Wallabee Pro 11.29.2015) Vs Great Zako (Unemployment 10.21.2018) Hikaru Sato trilogy (Tenryu Project 13/08/2021/09.19.2022/11.13.2022)

I did actually watch their trilogy of PWFG matches (which ended with a 40 MINUTE stint btw rough stuff) while going through Funaki PWFG stuff. My conclusion was that the first match was the best; it only goes on for about 20 minutes, good enough action and has a underlining intensity to it that is solely missing from their later two matches. From a pure technical side the two are mechanically brilliant, but they just do not click together in terms of making what they do look interesting for anyone else; there's just too much bloat to take with the good stuff. Pancrase would've died a sad death if every main event was like those matches. It's the same issue UWF Original had with every major match going at least 10 minutes too long.

Heart failure, apparently. Rather sad end to one of the most prolific sumo wrestlers of all time and arguably one of the biggest draws ever. RIP.

Other Deep Dive stuff??? Entertaining but awkward encounter. Now me personally I'd like to think that these two could really have had a good to great match if this was, say, at least 1999/2000 Takayama and St. Clair was a bit younger. There's a good mix between the pair's technical backgrounds (Clair's WoS antics opposed to Takayama's UWF/Takada training) that COULD have worked. The issue is that this is a German Catch match, so effort is already not going to be particularly immense on either side. The other is Takayama; this is way too early for him to have a great match; he'd only had at this point a couple of years of fairly mediocre matches in UWF-I undercards wherein he definitely didn't feel like a finished product. He's still very gangly and a bit all over the place here quality-wise, making it hard for him to really get a groove going with how awkward he is. Clair though in seemingly uncharted waters with this being a Shoot-style match is actually fairly well equipped given his legitimate grappling background, being able to throw a couple of cool takedowns to kick things off. He's mostly working on the outside by getting kicked and hit with knees a bunch by his opponent, however. The best way I can describe Tony here is that he's basically playing the Fujiwara role; having to rely on smart takedowns and occasional cheeky antics to circumvent having zero stand-up to work with. That comparison grew ever stronger when I seen him rope Taka into trying for a knuckle lock only to pull into a Fujiwara armbar instead which is a beat for beat spot the guy would throw out. Things got more interesting on the ground as Taka tried to take control with wrestling only for Clair to take his back and try for a facelock, leading to him knocking Taka down with some goofy kicks for his own that admittedly didn't look great lol. He still sells great for some knees and roundhouses to the head, eating yet another knockdown. While recovering Taka ambushes him with a near naked choke, presumably getting a yellow card in the process. Tony throws in some more exciting offence in the last third with a cool Enzuigiri counter to a single leg attempt and a back suplex that he tells Taka to no sell while he frumps on the ground. I'm not quite sure what the thought process was with that, was he trying to sell the head work or what? Tony gets up and gets in a awesome leg-catch takedown into a toe hold to force a rope break. What happens after, however, is unfortunately one of those examples of just bad luck spoiling things. The two get tangled in the ropes and exchange knees. Tony's to Taka's chest, while his is right to the groin, getting him a red card and the DQ loss by the ref. I thought initially that this was worked, but when I seen Takayama clearly very apologetic and breaking character as the heel enforcer he'd been this entire match to help the guy up I knew otherwise. It's a unfortunate thing because this was really picking up just before that moment and probably would've carried itself to a solid enough match what with the more urgent pacing. As it stands it's more of a fascinating odd-couple pairing than anything else with a great performance by St. Clair to really get over the young (ish) big lad with huge bumps and a smart structure, never got firmly off the ground though.

Not the match that I think these two could have (especially in today's climate) but a brilliant callback to WWF New Gen match layouts by two guys who are nerdy enough to get what made those work. GENTARO works the back intently from the very start, finding every chance possible to throw Keita around and use his weight to just basically bully the guy bit for bit like a Bret match. That in turn gets him cocky and allows Keita to snap back with sharp elbow smashes and shots to the gut to try to get a edge, but he gets overpowered after a short brawl outside. Keita again tries to work on limbs when he dodges a top rope knee drop with a smooth calf slicer, GENTARO rolls through into a really nasty leverage-based armbar where his whole bottom half is directly on Keita's arm. Generally the match functioned like this; Keita would get his ass kicked and worked in holds/spots until GENTARO started to slack off, letting him slip in a counter or two when this happened but still getting firmly getting outclassed when he'd inevitably get countered. Keita's great selling combined with masterful slick counters made this fairly predictable formula absolutely fantastic to watch, especially as they alternated between limbs getting ripped apart and selling said limb getting ripped, GENTARO mostly keeping ahead with his experience. Keita works the leg more which lets him grab on some holds on it, leading to a clever spot where GENTARO uses the rope leverage to escape getting stuck in a Scorpion Death Lock by grabbing onto his straps to pull him outside with him in what was basically a 1-1 redo of a old Bret spot as per standard. GENTARO gets him back in for some snug offence before Keita jumps out of a bow and arrow to grab on a slick double wrist lock to try to get the upset. GENTARO was actually stuck here as his attempt to roll out just ends up with him stuck in a Fujiwara, forcing him to cheat with an eye rake. They did slightly (on Keita's side, mind) when they were trying to do the old backroll pushup bit, albeit the actual powerbomb G ended up doing at the end looked fairly nasty. Finish was easy to get as Keita got caught in a armbar trying to escape a German suplex and had to tap out to a deep Cobra Twist. Lots of old 90's-style cat and mouse antics here and built mostly around grappling so it translated real well into things. Keita is positively nowhere near his better years as a performer and does at times have issues with the more athletic spots dotted around here, generally doing better when selling and bumping than trying to measure up offence. GENTARO is pretty much always consistent as hell and he was the same here given his range of work looked pretty much all snug and solid, with some amazing technical work out of him when attacking limbs. Good heat he got for Keita as well and fairly generous all things considered. Rematch in 2024 would be nice, thanks

I'm not super well-versed into Navarro matches (those examples are dire, though) from what you are describing it sounds a LOT like the same problem Steve Wright had where he was more occupied showcasing how many great holds he knew rather than getting his opponent or anything else over. If it is then I can totally understand why there's such a apprehension to vote for the guy.

Smith/Fujiwara is absolutely worth searching out for the 3 or so minutes that aired, it's basically his Holy Grail of lost footage alongside the missing Korakuen match with Kawada and the 30 minute draw he had with Fuji in 2001 (real unfortunate for the last one given those two would've cooked good)

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/other-wrestling/ajpws-yutaka-yoshie-passes-away-following-match-in-takasaki Apparently he fell ill after having a to be televised match (in his hometown, no less) and passed away before he could get to hospital. Incredibly sad news all things considered. Not sure if AJPW will still upload the event as-is or will omit the match altogether. Either way, RIP.

Sound quality of this was burning hot ass as per Battlarts 2.0. standards but was regardless pretty good as a match. Narita is a full on MMA guy with martial arts credentials so he knew how to sprawl and move around with authority, making for a fairly engaging series of opening exchanges as the two did some seriously nifty grappling of the time. They also threw in some great aggression with a lot of nasty shots to the head (Narita's got gloves on so he can legally throw full on punches, something he attempts to do here a fair bunch) while Keita pulled off a ton of his usual tricky Catch wrestling tricks, in particular throwing down a rough Cravat to pull his opponent down to the mat and throwing knees to the back of the head when his opponent tried escaping. Generally this had a good balance of Keita doing his nerdy grappling while Narita attempted to compete at points with some really tricked out shit (he does like a headscissors double wrist lock combo at one point, was hype) while focusing more on strikes to transition and score knockdowns, firmly staying ahead for most of the match. Middle half has Narita focus on the armbreaker with a couple of smooth standing transitions, forcing Keita to pull guard by going to the floor. Narita does this awesome Sakuraba roll while having hooked one of Keita's feet, letting him move into a standing ankle lock before landing a fairly safe German suplex when his opponent tried standing up to escape. Last third was conventional; the two sold the fatigue of the last work strongly, Keita especially having to really grind from underneath by abusing rope escapes and doing bonkers pro-wrestling nonsense to try to stay in the game. He catches Narita out with knees to the head + big dropkick, going for a side Robertson-style headscissors as bait so he can snap on a really fucking tight LeBell Lock to get the shock tapout victory. There's a solid roughness to this that I really appreciate in that the two actually feel like they're duking out and thinking about their next move. There's some pauses, some little spaces between strikes or holds which really sells the experience so much more than two guys effortlessly bouncing around the place with a thousand counters a minute which for the record is always a rather weak experience for myself. This was rough-and-tumble Bati-Bati as it should generally look like thankfully. Quite a shame Narita never did a whole lot given he was quite the talent and probably would've been at least a RINGS mainstay if he'd been around 15 years ago, guy had the striking and fairly unique grappling to show off. Keita despite being hit and miss during this time looked pretty impressive here.