Ma Stump Puller

Definitely a late-bloomer for me, a lot of his early/middle work wasn't very interesting and I don't think his Killer Elite run with Davey has aged particularly well (especially when you have similar teams like Bad Intentions that just mogged them quality-wise) He's a good base, for sure. His monster-heel shtick is entertaining enough (even if he loses pretty much every major match, making it hard to really believe him as such) but he just doesn't have the range or actual solid quality runs for me to consider him whatsoever.

I really liked Kido in UWF 1.0. and if he'd kept on with his weird Catch/shoot hybrid much in the same fashion as Fujiwara I think there'd be more interest there, especially as the scene evolved. Sadly he came back to NJPW, had a couple of solid tags as recommended above and then kinda vanished into the mid-card vortex where he'd only be used as a reliable and consistent worker when that was needed more than ever. Would I like to stick him on a top 100? Oh hell yeah. Sadly he just doesn't have the volume of truly astonishing matches to really even start trying in that regard.

I'll bump this only to add in more matches that should be watched for Nishimura GWE analysis vs Suwama (AJPW Pro-Wrestling Love In Taiwan/11.20.2009) w/ Joe Malenko vs Masakatsu Funaki & Minoru Suzuki (Real World Tag League/11.20.2010) I'm pissed that the old AJPW Gaora channel is defunct now because it had this + more shit that could've gotten a good shake if I'd been able to snap it up. Oh well.

The stipulation seems batshit (and the match isn't too far off it in practise) but as a match this was real good. This was a eight man survival tag, for the record. The key idea is that OZ Academy as a team are massively outgunned here; Ozaki is here, sure, other than that she's surrounded by essentially rookies. Team GAEA by comparison have Nagayo/Devil/Meiko, a hellish trio that would make any prospective wrestlers shit their pants and run for the hills, insanely superior hierarchy-wise; even Meiko this early already had tag team gold for instance. There's no way you can look at these two teams and judge them equally, and thankfully the match doesn't attempt to do so. The aired version skips over some of the early eliminations with Nagashima being eliminated by Miyaguchi while she herself takes the fall to Sato in some fairly decent sequences. The pace is set at a fast one as Team OZ have to really get frantic and essentially just go through as much as humanly possible to try to balance the books here. They'll do crazy combo top rope dives and then it'd barely matter even after all that because Devil would no sell and start throwing weight around again, really making the imbalance tangible for anyone watching. The feeling of hopelessness is amped up by team GAEA just swamping the ring with their beefy brawlers before Devil is able to take out Sato with her signature rolling senton, leaving things at 2 for OZ. There's this great sequence where Amano is trying to go for submissions but there's so much shit flying between Ozaki and co with their wacky brawling that she can barely get in anything without getting kicked in the head or having Devil just do a leg drop even if she does grab a limb for something, communicating how chaotic the match was by this point. Nagayo has some amazing bully antics as she torments Amano on the mat with submissions, actively egging Ozaki on to interfere so she can get stuck fighting someone else or Nagayo herself gets to throw a stiff shot in like a stiff headbutt. She really feels like the big bad boss of the crew only getting in if she's really needed/she gets to stick the knife in to Ozaki in some way. Amano did a good job working as the feeder here, really throwing herself all over the place to try to get some sort of advantage yet typically getting her ass kicked and thrown around for her troubles. Devil generously gives her some leeway and even gets stunned one or two points before finishing with a mean double-arm powerbomb. The bit where Devil's just gleefully smiling knowing that Ozaki's basically screwed with the two having a tense standoff is real solid and the crowd immediately took to what they were dishing out here given it was being delivered by some of the GOAT's at the time. Ozaki also had a solid comeback run as she gave a ton to Satomura who in turn throws out some really frantic offence that was convincing enough to make the crowd think Oz might actually get tripped up here. She almost gets the pin to boot, it's just the combination of Oz being tough/smart with some sneaky counters that lets her barely get by with a rushed powerbomb. The last few minutes focus on Nagayo and co being dicks by trying to choke her out which only backfires due to more interference muddling the waters. Devil getting eliminated with a couple of backhands and a dodgy roll-up isn't the greatest but it helps with the tension aplenty alongside being appropriately sold as a fluke by both parties than anything serious. Crazy ending sprint with Nagayo absolutely terrified of losing as the two exchange some great fatigue-fuelled back and forth work all about hitting their bombs as much and as soon as possible while everyone else is scrapping. Ultimately Nagayo takes advantage of Oz's speed to get her up for a Running Three (while Ozaki was running, no less) and then a incredibly mean high-angle Superfreak powerbomb to get the conclusive pinfall. It's not much of a "clean" match if that makes any sense; there's not a lot of classical work to be seen here in terms of measured and "clean" wrestling. It's a lot of tag psychology paired with some tremendously great moments scattered here and there from individual performances forming to make a lovely whole that composed the match. What works about it is that everything feels very coordinated as in there's no wasted movement here, everything feels connected to everything else, there's no random filler stuck in for the sake of it and the focus on the GAEA troop naturally taking a big advantage lets the Oz and co work as underdogs, which is something that needless to say does a lot to enhance the quality of a potential mess like this as it's more up everyone's alley for people like Devil and co to wrestle on top than pretending this was even fair going in. Solid watch for sure

Every now and then NOAH will drag me in with something truly based; a 30 minute Fujita match in 2024 was most definitely something that counts towards that standard lol. This is definitely also going to be one of those matches that workrate-heavy smarks will dislike immensely because it really didn't cater a whole lot to them if at all until maybe the last few minutes. You already got people calling this the "worst match in company history" which is.....a interesting opinion given Ibushi/Marufuji is a thing but hey I'm not going to start knocking anyone for statements like that. The first 10 minutes of this were all sprawling on the mat providing a really interesting comparison between Lee's BJJ antics and Fujita's amateur wrestling background. Lee would wangle from under while Fujita was all about taking the top and controlling from there, typically forcing Lee to use the ropes multiple times to escape getting squished. He did get one or two off Fujita with some smart traps (including baiting him into a triangle armbar that shockingly forced Fujita to sell pain!) but mostly had to play it safe with someone as extensively dangerous as his opponent. We got a great bit where Lee had a Sakuraba-style armbar applied and was just throwing himself around trying to get it with some leverage, felt like something out of a random PWFG undercard. Very good stuff ngl Lee desperately tries to get back control with his cringe mindgames by trying to play around with clean breaks off the ropes; gets the piss slapped out of him for his troubles and forced into a long slog of a outside brawl. This was definitely the filler of the match though helped by Lee being completely ineffective against Fujita's stiff forearm shots making this very one-sided. Fujita basically sat on the guy inside the ring as well as he egged on for more strikes until he did the singlet strap pulldown a-la Angle and got hit with a running knee for his troubles. Lee hits some fairly tame knees; one off the apron, one running down the entrance. It didn't really go anywhere alongside the random leg work right afterwards that felt very much like a placeholder for any random hold. Last few minutes had Lee try to turn up the pressure with bombs, namely German suplexes. His stuff looked fine enough and he got over the struggle in trying to put down someone who seemingly couldn't get hindered by anything as Fujita could predictively no sell and keep trucking along. Lee loses the final forearm exchange, gets hit with a running slap alongside a shockingly safe punt kick to the head. Fujita mounts up a backdrop and sets up a Beast Bomb only to be stopped by the ref as the 30 minute time limit is hit. Really mixed feelings on this one. The grappling at the start is legit the best part of the match, no joke. Fujita as shown from the Suzuki match a few years ago can legitimately do grapplefucks with considerable skill (as long as he has a good dance partner) and Lee brings something unique with his passive work in that regard to make this a sort of cat/mouse situation where the mouse occasionally manages to do something really impactful. This does eventually turn into the usual Fujita brainless strike stuff, but Fujita is still really good at hitting hard so you can't really complain about it too much. I think what hurts the match mostly is the length (loads of filler with slow unimpactful work that either went nowhere or was just slow for the sake of stalling) and Lee who really looked awful trying to strike with Fujita. He just isn't one of those guys that can blast people convincingly like a Go or Nakajima and you really felt it here with his piddly forearms and knees. His selling and emoting the hopelessness of the situation was much lot better, really seeming dumbfounded as to how he could actually win this in places. In a way, I suppose, his poor striking played into the match dynamic of him just being well out of his depth despite all of the prior hype surrounding him. This really needed that big "oh shit" moment in the last 10 minutes to sell that though; Lee sitting on a figure-four that did fuck all just felt awkward and purely there to have a rest. If they'd gone all in with this being mostly grappling and THEN had the figure-four and strikes then I think this would've been a lot better. Still fairly enjoyable though.

more detailed diving here??? This lasted 25 minutes (! ) thankfully the action made it seem much less than that when watching. Keita is in his young boy phase yet (only 2 years wrestling btw) still had a lot of the great qualities that would continue on with him; namely his authentic aggression and incredibly nerdy technical work. Both of those come best to light when he's in there with GENTARO for obvious reasons, with the two having some really awesome tricked out Iiave-lite exchanges between each other with counters to things I've never even thought of before. Such a shame that this is the only "big" taping (bar a singles match in the same promotion that rest assured WILL be covered) of these two in action because even here you felt some strong chemistry. Sasaki is a mean fucker who chops people to death and has basically only two solutions to everything in that he either slams you hard or hits you hard until the problem is solved. Even when the pair target his arm the dude just powers into a scoop slam anyway like a beast, when him and Keita are working the leg he's basically just slamming it down or sitting on it. Wrestling needs more basic hosses like this lad ngl. Winger was the weakest as per expected given his rep yet he wasn't bad for what he was here as essentially a guy to sell and get the younger guys some shine. GENTARO was a menace as he attacked the pair while they were working on Winger and tore Sasaki's leg apart with the classic Bret routine of rope hung hip drops + turnbuckle-hung Figure-Four. They also threw in some awesome lariat shots between each other for the tag with Keita, which was shocking given Winger's work was all slow hold stuff that more or less filled time. GENTARO/Keita had some more cool hold exchanges, including Keita rolling out of a bow and arrow to snap into a side headscissors before getting rolled back into it all in the space of about 30 seconds so you can tell these two were cooking here. Really badass moment where Sasaki tries to break up a Octopus hold with a sharp chop to the back and walks off until GENTARO demands another while still applying the hold and chases him outside afterwards for a quick brawl. Generally those kind of antics made this feel a lot more hateful than it would otherwise, helped by the main players keeping that vibe up as things went further. They threw in some wild stuff near the end like a 3 person superplex and double spear to really get over Sasaki as this huge threat, him doing the Torture Rack right after to Winger was just the icing on the cake there. GENTARO ends up costing him the victory as he manages to catch Keita in a cravat to throw him at Sasaki to stop the submission. Russian leg sweeps can't cut it and Sasaki catches G out with a really well-done mid-air spear when he tries going off the second rope that put Batista's to shame. Finishing stretch felt appropriately urgent as Keita hits some really frantic quick submission counters to try to squeeze out a win (including a sweet sleeper out of a armbreaker motion). Really liked how him and GENTARO really operated near the end, things always feeling like any small counter could push things over the edge: the sleeper exchange spot, the bottom rope rebound lariat into Fujiwara armbar, that into a improvised roll-up when Keita tries rolling up and over to escape.....everything had a sort of impact to it that you just don't see typically where it mattered a lot more than it would otherwise, helped by Keita bumping and selling like crazy as the underdog here when he'd get caught trying to wiggle away. They capped it off well and didn't overindulge, finishing simply by having Keita brave through a kick to the head to hit a flash bottom rope lariat for the 3.1 pin and upset. Shockingly great tag team work that never once felt like the 25-minute mark this actually was, helped by a structure that benefited a ton by having varied and dynamic performances on display. Winger is perhaps the odd-one out in terms of simply being "decent" instead of "good" yet he still carries his own and doesn't feel left out ultimately. GENTARO felt like such a incredible maestro here, balancing very crafty technical work with good limb control, feeling mostly in control of the match when he was around. Sasaki is a terrific mini-hoss that keeps himself fairly minimalistic as a statement; no attempt to go off the ropes or do any fancy shit, he's just here to hit hard. Keita is a great contrast because he settles for technical trickery, fails mostly at it against someone clearly more experienced than him, still trucks along until he relents for just throwing himself around instead lol. Absolutely worth the watch if you can search it out.

match new w/ Osamu Kido vs Kantaro Hoshino & Masanobu Kurisu (19.12.1982) Caught via handcam footage from the event. This is pretty much what a usual Tiger Mask house-show looks like; it's more or less a balance of him doing his usual big spots and lots of slow grappling to fill the time. That however doesn't mean this wasn't good; the opposite really. Kido is a tremendously gifted technical worker and seeing "young" (well as young as you can imagine him, really) Kurisu is a treat with how mean he is without breaking any rules, yanking at hair and masks for leverage for holds or throwing in a sneaky shot here and there in lockups. His violent streak isn't as crazy as it'll be in the 90's where he's braining rookies and giving them concussions but he's got a lot to give regardless. Lot of the match felt very freestyle outside of the usual Tiger showcases so there is a mix of organic exchanges that flow half-decently and some occasional messy bits due to the lack of structure lol. Not like Sayama was going to help much here in that regard (he was never much of a guy to lead a match) though he does work well with pros like Hoshino that can consolidate his amazing atheticism into coherent sequences like what we get here. The televised footage for Hoshino mostly had him as a ally/tag partner of Mask, so it was cool to see him get to work the opposite role here as a foil. For a guy who was going on 40 he looked pretty sharp and quick, could probably outpace a lot of guys half his age these days. Kurisu's mostly here to be the gruff asshole who gets beat up by the pair namely going through some Mask spot sequences that looked really cool for what its worth. Guy got some energy out of Kido as well; rather shocking given the guy is typically really non-descript when going through matches like these, but he looked really energised when he was going through his Gotch-work and the occasional sharp boot to the chin. The second half felt a bit messy in places as the four at times kinda stumbled over their spots and didn't really have the best timing, flubbing moves in places or delaying bits to the point where it felt more awkward than it should. It felt like they were trying to escalate things yet it never really got off the ground. That's somewhat reflected by the finish; a random 450 springboard by Sayama; something that completely came out of the blue. Not unexpected, mind, given he always seemed to have random endings to his matches that at times could feel really abrupt/random as you can observe here. Granted it was still really awesome from a athletic standpoint (like you could do that today and it would still be mind-blowing much like pretty much everything else he was doing here) just felt that there could've been a better setup to it all things considered. Nothing worth really going out of your way to watch in the end even if these are four fairly talented guys trucking along. RANK: Decent Vs Dave Finlay (03.08.1983) Recently dug up by the GOAT Matt D upon requests by others and oh man is it a fun one. This is probably one of the earliest showings of Finlay in Japan if not the earliest (though there is apparently a tag match also hanging around from) and is only caught by handheld. It's also cool to see Finlay come out to Eye of the Tiger, a theme that will later become synonymous with Sayama's later UWF run and beyond. There's this great bit pre-match where they shake hands, seemingly everything is fine, but when Mask turns his back to stretch in the corner Finlay immediately starts advancing on him like a lion in the wild, only being stopped by him noticing this as does the ref. It's a great little moment that shows at once the dynamics of the match and who to root for. There are some house-showisms like Finlay stalling to complain about the crowd's super loud chants for Tiger Mask other than that this is a pretty solid outing if action is on your mind. Like with many matches around this time we were getting a firm focus away from the usual crazy lucha spots that Mask was famous for in 81/82 and more on holds and grappling; most likely influenced by Sayama's growing interest in martial arts over traditional wrestling. Finlay focuses on the arm with zeal, really getting in some nasty old-school grinding with armbars and just hurling his opponent around in places to get the most discomfort, having no respect for his opponent while also not going over the line to goofy heel. He bumps very well for when Sayama inevitably gets in his usual spots and counters, his irritation showing most of all despite the low quality of the footage. Despite that, this mostly focused on being a gritty WoS-style outing where Finlay could flex all of his great limb work while being a huge prick at the same time, something that needless to say he's VERY good at and will continue to be so until he retires. They do a solid job speeding up things in the last third with more tempo-focused offence as Mask would speed things up to try to get moves in yet would get shut down by Finlay sticking to the arm again and again for dividends until Mask finally got the edge with big kicks to the body and head. Finlay getting desperate near the end and randomly doing a top rope splash was fun to see get punished immediately with a piledriver from his opponent and they kept things pretty high-pace until the finish had Finlay get beat by a twisting backbreaker. It's quite the shame that we don't have more of young Finlay in Japan because his physicality is amazing. The guy bumps like crazy here at places and that by itself is so bizarre to see from someone who majority of the time is known for being a more heavy-set and slower wrestler, more grindy than showy. He still has that technical knowledge but he's also incredibly fast and keeps up great with his opponent when they start bouncing around the ring. He really seems like a foil who could've easily been one of the greats alongside Dynamite and Kobayashi in terms of mighty Tiger Mask foes but of course that would never happen due to Sayama leaving NJPW very soon after this. Speaking of, his performance here is definitely more muted. He still has phenomenal speed and agility yet you can also tell he was trying to pivot away from those expectations. It's not to say it's not good, given this was a house show he was never going to do a ton here anyway. This is more of a feature for Finlay and he makes a big impact as a result. Not quite the dream match that I think would've been possible between the two yet it's still a real fun outing. RANK: Good

Spider comes into this with a taped up shoulder/support, naturally that became apart of the match. This came about in a number of ways; Keita aiming to target it with his limb work, Spider having to take breaks to fix it and Keita teasing running in and attacking him, etc etc. Keita also attacked the leg whenever convenient to even things out as not to make this too one-dimensional, which was similarly cool to see. As a match this mostly composed of the two doing some tricked out lucha Llave back and forth exchanges. Spider being a Osaka Pro lifer would make you presume that he wouldn't be particularly amazing at this but he actually got to show off some skills in that regard, having some real fun bits where he's able to catch out Keita during his showy holds to do his own in turn with some dynamic counters. Keita in the middle starts ripping off Kendo Kashin spots (dude loves the guy for some reason) with some dirty chokes and stomps to throw some variation into this beyond the grappling. Spider stepped up here as well as he threw some hellish chops and forearms when they started trading. Things got a bit silly as Spider was using traffic cones as dangerous weapons alongside Keita throwing out random back rakes, yet also included some fantastic counters that got started off when Spider had a headscissors applied and his opponent slid the loose foot into a figure-four toe-hold that Fujiwara would've been proud of seeing in action. Seeing the guy use his signature knee brace (of all things? ) as a way to do even more damage when Spider tried rolling out by just jabbing it into the calf was sheer genius and one of the main reasons why I watch most random Keita Yano matches I stumble across; throwing out really awesome stuff that you aren't going to see anywhere else. We also got the usual Keita high spots as he pulled out his running senton while also some super goofy bits like him trying to use a chest fly machine as a makeshift turnbuckle for a attempted tornado DDT. The setup was.....less than amazing: Spider flipping out of it into a cutter was really cool though as was the more spotty pacing for the last third as they exchanged some big moves between each other. Keita finishes up with three tilt-a-whirl backbreakers into a fairly neat spinning Tombstone for the 3.1 pinfall. One of the more action-packed lucha inspired matches from this era of Keita/Wallabee showings and it's definitely very much as enjoyable as the more strict shoot-style ones around as well. Spider is a pretty solid foil that can strike, grapple, and has plenty of atheticism to show off despite the obviously bizarre conditions set up here. Keita does throw in the occasional amazing moment on the mat but he's more content to wrestle with a bit more shtick here as a Kashin-lite heel with back rakes, elbow smashes, etc etc. It's not a particularly endearing side of him, still say it does the job here though. Good underrated showing for this year.

HoT is a solid native heel act much in the same vein as Voodoo Murders and co before it, it's a good formula for babyfaces to work with much better than watching guys like uemura/tsuji do shitty homogenised "epics" for a hair v hair match anyway; that kind of stuff just absolutely does not rule

Ngl I don't like Okada or the overtly embarrassing trends he brought with him and his formulas but the idea that "passing the torch" is a offence put to him is beyond silly, especially given what came before. Baba didn't pass the torch; Jumbo was more of a peer to him, still lost every singles match they had together (or drew) by the time Baba did start eating L's it was well past anyone caring Jumbo gave *a* win to Misawa, went over all the other times and retired without passing any torch Inoki held the torch for long enough that Fujinami beating him didn't matter despite the momentous occasion Hashimoto kept beating all of the young guys until death Takada kept his own belt for pretty much the entirety of the UWFI to the point where it arguably killed the promotion etc etc. It's so rare that you get a clean transition between generations (Nagata/Tana) that I don't think it should be held against the guy

Naoshi Sano (704 here) and Keita have combined their sleazy powers as the new LWO to handle one half of the 2023 MOTY and Shota. Arai/Keita seems like a dream match in the making (despite them having a frankly underwhelming 2011 singles before) and their encounters definitely had a lot of enjoyable to be had as Keita would just run through the pair with random cool submissions and counters for the beginning sequences. Him and Arai have a nice little bit where they actually utilise proper pummelling technique between each other until Keita takes the arms for the cool underhook sumo spot where they throw them while said arms are trapped, always mark out for Taue spots like that so this was already a great watch. Was also very good to see that even this match with no ring/ropes still had elements of tag psychology; Arai and Shota tagging out mid-counter so they could blindside Keita repeatedly while he was busy escaping their headlocks was something you'd see out of some old ass 80's NWA tapings. Their extended attack on the arm of Keita was quite fun as well as they mixed in some old technical working holds while also just biting and stomping on it whenever the opportunity came. I'm a sucker for grindy limb work AND biting the limb so this was right up my alley. You might as well not even had Sano/704 because he does barely anything in this match until he gets the big tag after Keita got worked for the middle half. His hot tag comes about 13 minutes (this only went 15, btw) into the thing and it's mostly goofy spots (including him using a punching bag as a weapon by using it as a pendulum to bonk someone's head with). Not awful but not that amazing either by comparison. The lead in for the finish is entertaining enough as Arai does diving headbutts off the floor and window alongside Keita taking some actual impactful wrestling moves onto the mats under him. Him and Sano do the Eliminators double-team spot on Arai and Keita's able to catch him in a roll-up....only to not notice Arai tagging in his partner beforehand, letting Shota drop in and catch the guy the out with a slippery small package to get the upset win. More of a entertaining match than a good one, though that's not to say that this was bad or anything. There's some fairly good grindy hold work and the creativity of this despite the conditions is definitely to be admired. Keita also works the grand majority so we get more cool and exciting submissions rather than Sano doing dodgy dropkicks with no height to them. Arai here sadly isn't the methodical Mutoha grappler of relative wrestling indies fame; instead being his more goofy self; and as such this isn't the match that potentially could've been the contentious grappling epic that he could do with Keita. All in all a fairly low-level outing with some fun sequences and elements to admire.

more detailed diving here San Nakadai was a legit Pancrase guy who never seemed to get anywhere bar opening act for what seemingly was a fairly infrequent career. he now has the Yakuza tats to go along with his wrestling persona as a dangerous MMA guy who will kick you in the face if need be. There's a fascination with such a matchup with someone like Keita who typically had to sprawl with fairly giving Bati-Bati guys and not legit fighters. Is it warranted? I think so in this case. You see that unique matchup become apparent as Keita tries doing his little tumble roll at the very start and Sen almost by instinct tries kicking him while he's down there lol. Generally the early exchanges have Keita super apprehensive to commit to anything as his opponent does outsprawl him on the ground and catches him right in the face with a weird standing face wash off a high kick, forcing him to take a break right afterwards. It really feels like he's super ineffective in this matchup against someone who has no time for his BS and just wants to turn this into a mean brawl than a wrestling match, something that his opponent is not particularly great at. Of course Sen also does some goofy ahh nonsense like a random springboard axe handle (???) I mean it's cool, just seemed out of the blue for someone like him. They did a good job working in Keita's big break being him taking advantage of Sen's aggression to force the ref to break them up, letting him sneak in a sucker punch and chop block in turn in a cool bit. Similarly decent limb work afterwards as Keita balances attacking the leg alongside his usual quirky tendencies, throwing in the occasional lucha spot or punch to the face. Sen also kinda has that Bas Rutten selling down where he doesn't waste time laying in holds for too long, always trying to throw in some agency to make the submissions have more sense to them than otherwise by either trying to get around it or reaching for the ropes. When Keita hunts for the leg while he's in the corner he ends up socking him in the face despite him still having hold of the leg and egging on some slaps to get Keita prone for a sick knee to the head while he's balancing on one leg, real awesome spot. His short-arm lariat thrown out after is surprisingly good as well for his experience level. Finish was really simplistic: Keita caught a running PK, tried taking the leg again but ended up getting slapped into a big chokeslam for the pinfall. For what it was? I think this was fairly decent. I feel like there's a better match between these two conceptually that we simply don't see that's more heavy on the shoot-style sprawling and brawling that the first half had built in fairly well. At the same time, however, I can understand why they went for a more varied performance given they weren't exactly working with stakes or anything. For what its worth it's still intriguing by its lonesome and Sen Nakadai is shockingly quite good for a non-wrestler with minimal experience, throwing a ton of snug strikes and getting the memo down here. Keita isn't necessarily carrying here but he does do the bulk of the big selling and the whole structure (he gets beaten up for ages/dramatic counter/limb control/back and forth) feels like something he'd cook up as it is rather similar to some of his other material. All in all, fun stuff.

Tenta is one of the more famous examples because he has that WWF affiliation hanging around him. That and Rikidozan are the most famous examples (alongside Tenryu, Tadao Yasuda, Akebono etc etc) Sumo generally is one of the more popular professions to have a transition to wrestling given the similarities in training so at least in Japan there's always been a physical link between the two sports

more detailed diving here Nyuto is mostly a Mutoha/EXIT guy. Despite him looking like a fairly short and unflatteringly sleazy man (and, well....that's not wrong either) he is one of the more random mat-workers that Keita has had to face up against so he can't just do the usual dominant routine he'd otherwise do at this point and time given Nyuto is a bit less athletic and isn't really inclined for that sort of stuff. Keita's fine with that because that just means he gets to be even meaner with legit Grovit applications and loads of nasty arm work that Nyuto definitely wasn't having fun with at all. Eventually Nyuto has enough of this and goes for his kicks instead which are at least sold half-decently despite being less than convincing in places. Nyuto hits Keita with a particularly rough senton splash and you can tell at this point that this pisses off the guy a fair bit; he kicks out before even 1 when the pin is attempted, immediately gets up and starts just trying to slap the shit out of him. This in turn makes this into more of the usual mid-2010 Keita brawls where he basically shoots on the other guy for the most part. Loads of just nasty stiff strikes between the pair, Keita has the advantage eventually when they get dragged out in long back and forth bits. Nyuto in desperation decides to go all in with numerous loud headbutts so he gets those back in equal measure in a particularly horrifying spot where even the shitty camera picks up the signature bonking noise that a real headbutt provides as Keita delivers like a dozen of them in sequence. They bring it back near the end as Keita finally seems to be out after Nyuto catches him off-guard with a sucker punch headbutt only for Keita to have been playing possum as he creeps out of the arm/head choke his opponent was trying for to grab on a mean armbar for the submission win. The mat-work is really not that interesting: rather tame by the standards set by a Keita Yano performance not going to lie. Not a whole lot interesting going on in that aspect, fairly generic sprawling with Nyuto not really throwing a lot on the table. If, however, you want a Keita performance that's just him devolving into insane crazy strikes? This is a excellent choice given what he was throwing out and prepared to take in turn. Nyuto keeps up the tempo and arguably is always the one pushing the boat out that little bit further to get this more intense, moving from grappling to strikes to REALLY stiff strikes to the peak of craziness with ridiculously rough headbutts. As a Jun Izumida guy I love rough ass headbutts but this was bordering on uncomfortable in places despite the pace set before. It definitely pushes the boundaries of what one could consider a acceptable wrestling showing, not withstanding the lack of ring or ropes or....well anything, really. It feels a lot more authentic though, and at the end of the day I'm going to go for that over something more "clean" if that makes any sense.

This was a marvellous little match from what is considered Keita's most erratic and inconsistent years. The first five minutes of this is completely focused on wrist leverage.... based Lots of rolling around and spots more reminiscent of 80's Catch work you'd see in a NJPW opener or early UWF outing than anything modern as the two battled to keep control over the match through the two battling for wrist dominance with Shota having consistent counters to Keita's attempts trying to slip out and gain advantage. It was really refreshing to see something done so clean despite it being so fundamentally basic at its core as well; typically we're used to seeing a big explosion of action or some sloppy huge spots so just sticking to one thing and doing that one thing incredibly well was great to see for a change. Then you'd have Keita Yano being his usual self by trying to do throwback Steve Wright transitions and fucking them up lol. They still manage to keep things on track by still following the limb work path set up excellently at the start, which shows why you want to establish stuff like that as soon as possible for reasons like this because it makes building on it incredibly easy to do. The rest of the match follows the usual Keita formula of him sprawling and throwing out loads of shoot/Llave technique that astounds every time you see it in action. He controls the action for the middle half with arm work before getting too cocky playing around with his opponent with stomps in the corner, letting him catch Keita out with a chop block to the leg while his back was turned. Shota follows up with the Bret leg-work routine that he was similarly throwing out around this time, having him work it via the ropes with those goofy hip-attacks and ring post alongside a Bret-style figure-four using said post. solid Engrish drama built by Keita struggling to walk, refusing to surrender when asked by the ref when he's stuck on the floor leading Shota to angrily shout "STOP IT" and HE CAN'T WALK" felt like a Roman Reigns COVID-era talky segment only good this time. Continued work with a figure four bit as Keita battled for leverage by trying to wiggle around and reverse the hold. The big change in momentum was particularly nifty feigning trying to remove Shota's other leg to remove pressure to then quickly roll to the ropes to escape, cool bit despite it being in a typically overexposed spot. We get some strong Keita selling as he battles through his usual roll-ups with only one good leg, forcing him to work super defensive, sparingly being able to do moves and forcing him, as a result, to get more creative with what he actually uses. That plays into the finish as well as Shota takes too long going for the killing submission, allowing Keita to escape and snap on a very cool Cravat into shoulder pin (Keita himself describes this as a "Three Quarter Nelson Switch" so there) to win the match. As I said at the start this was a little match for sure, but it's full of just top quality technical wrestling as a whole that it's absolutely worth the watch if you can search it out. Just very minimalistic as a whole with some experimental elements thrown in places that they bizarrely make sense, like that Wright botch mentioned earlier. Any normal match that would be a fuck up that would at least disrupt everything and make the action look clumsy, here it's an actual development that adds to the match (it adds to the pre-existing limb work!!) which says a lot about how well they had this ironed out. Fun dark horse outing that flows very well for a 15-minute mini-mat wrestling epic.

This is a LONG ass match, going past 30 minutes if you can believe it. Hara, however, is a damn good guy to be working a match of this length and incredibly apt as a opponent given he faced and defeated Keita in his debut match. This is as you can imagine very mat-focused match as a whole. The matwork is really good but there is a ton of it, also doesn't attempt to make it anymore palpable either. Hara generally is the better grappler until Keita gets one of his tricked out leg-holds (think it was a inverted figure-four? ) to damage it, allowing him to get some leeway in by targeting said leg and forcing Hara to counter before grabbing something better instead like a arm or the head. This works until his opponent decides to start using strikes, which drastically changes things and adds in some good danger from any attempt to run in for takedowns. There's this awesome bit where Hara seemingly sprawls out a Keita takedown only for him to lead his foot in so he could stick his knee right on his ankle bone for a no-hand toe hold, absolutely great shit there. Keita keeps up the control with general limb work while Hara can still rely on just beating the piss out of him when it mattered and focusing on his own leg work which he could supplement with his vicious low kicks for knockdowns. The match at times becomes essentially the two in knots trying to batter the other person's limb without getting wasted on their own part, and really, is there anything better in wrestling? I also thought that Keita's leg selling in places was way better than it needed to be. The way he'd hop around and keep the bad leg out of striking range or even drop potentially winning submissions because the leg just wasn't good enough to support his weight is a novel concept that definitely has few applications in actual wrestling matches, let alone one without a ring or ropes. Most of the time you just see the person just sell in the holds before shaking their leg a bit and going right into full speed sequences; no such thing here, thankfully. Seeing the guy even pull out William Regal throwbacks out of pure frustration was a treat as well, trying to backfoot boot him on ref breaks and practically begging him to shake his hand so he could mangle him back down again. Hara definitely ruled here as well with his explosive kicks, basically pasting Keita whenever he'd get the chance with strike combos. The second half does have some erratic stuff thrown in by Keita especially (which did somehow take away from the intensity these two had done well to establish) but they brought things back to greatness in the closing moments as the two brawl with strikes, throwing out closed fists and whatnot. Keita manages to land a modified GTS where he drops the knee on Hara's back before following up with a stiff ass lariat. His hubris, however, becomes his undoing during the finishing stretch. He interrupts the ref count to try to finish him off with a head/arm choke into pin before Hara smoothly rolls around for a armbreaker. Keita ends up stuck in a triangle choke when he attempts to escape, throwing in some dramatics as he falls over trying to power out of it and ends up getting choked out for the submission loss to Hara....again. As a match it's really quite something with a unique styles clash between the more refined/strict Bati-Bati Hara vs the more Llave Keita resulting in a ton of really great engaging technical work between the two. They both respectfully bring their best here, though I think in terms of individual performances Keita did slightly better; his selling and sheer aggression at points to try to score the win felt real and absolutely fuelled by struggle to defeat someone who is in many ways the opposite of himself: a conventional clean-cut striker. Hara is a good foil for that unique dynamic and his strikes are mostly solid, yet he seemed a bit more generic by comparison. It works for the match though, making this a real easy watch despite the heavy amounts of grappling thrown in. Definitely watch this even if the prospect of watching a ringless match seems weird.

This was for the Openweight title that Kong held at this point and time. Historically Amano has always taken L's to Kong. Didn't matter the promotion or the stakes, she always got her ass kicked. She's gotten her ass...less kicked mind you (especially between their 2002/2005 matches where her stature as a rival to Kong becomes closer) as the years have went by but she's always lost anyway. To ratify this we have her meet Fujiwara for presumably more submission training. Amano's "training" with Fujiwara (seemed more like it was just getting her ass kicked over and over, but I guess that's how they did it back in the day) basically spells out that she's going to work on Aja's limbs to neutralise her strength advantage and maybe survive a potential Uraken. Of course the match is still her getting beat up for a good stint as per Aja matches go with some fairly brutal kicks to the head early on though she does get the advantage briefly with a nice dive to the outside, before course Aja quickly taking it back with a brainbuster and a safe (but brutal looking) sit-out elevated piledriver. I guess one issue with this is that the selling is a bit dodgy; it makes sense for the early match but there's a lot of doing moves right after the other person. It makes sense for Aja given her monster status, Amano less so. She covers for that by mostly trying to grapple or throwing epic headbutt combos as said moves so it at least feels more palpable as a immediate comeback as opposed to doing fancy spots. Eventually she catches her opponent out with a cool rolling Fujiwara armbar modification and this opens Aja up for more punishment as she struggles to pick up steam with only one proper good arm as she either gets countered trying to do stuff or can't hit nearly as well due to said arm. It's fairly basic work on the surface, Aja's just mastered it to the point where it feels a lot more natural than many give it credit for. She never feels like she's "acting" hurt with theatricals or Hogan-level facials, it's more like her battling with her own pain and very sparingly showing it as a result. Amano did a good job of still making this feel really desperate despite that fact with solid frantic selling and consistently trying to rip the arm off in holds, snapping on roll-ups or just ramming-speed headbutts that looked like murder; there was no real sophisticated stuff here, just loads of things that felt like they were trying to be killshots. The finishing stretch had some good drama around Aja finding her own counters to Amano's wacky headbutts, but struggling to finish due to her usually dominant Uraken arm being, well, crappy. It's the classic Aja Kong monster in peril structure and credit due, it's pretty solid, even if I think Amano surpasses her here in sheer intensity. The bit where she jumps on Kong's back to stomp her in sheer animalistic frustration after she got a rope break off a armbreaker just spelled out how desperate things seemed for her as her chances for success kept slipping away with every chance she missed to finish this as soon as possible. It gets better after watching their 2002 match where Amano tried the same arm-attack plan and got wrecked trying, so seeing her succeed but just stop right next to the finish line was understandably tense. Kong does slow near the end due to her smashing the back of her head (off a O'Connor Roll, if you can believe it) still pulls through for the numerous wacky Amano headbutt spots that ends with her going over clean. Not as perhaps good as prior versions of this match as the finish isn't really as tense or exciting (perhaps because it was overcooked with too much, I'd say) the match as a whole is still a real solid sprint (only clocking in at 13 minutes!) that never really had any downtime and kept pushing the action all the way to the end. Generally Amano matches tend to be better the shorter they are and this, I'd say, is a good indicator of that being factual.

Honestly, it all comes down to Tana having the frog splash for a finish more than anything else. Dude wrecked his knees with it, very ironic given his ties to Muto. NJPW dads also wrestled more like conventional heavyweights to boot (more strikes/slams) which might've been better for their bodies in the long run. Tana was a Shawn Michaels guy so he was never going to fit that kind of style

I think the issue is that 2001 Mutoh was 39 when he did his incredible reinvention. Not that crazy when you think of AJ having his huge WWE run in his 40's, still in a reasonable area where most guys can still go, especially guys who were as freakishly athletic like Muto was. Tana, by comparison, is 47. A lot older and most definitely a lot more banged up by comparison given he's mostly not had any major surgeries. I'd like to believe otherwise, but he just doesn't have it in him anymore nor the real savvy like his mentor to mix things up. Tana's been the same worker for the last 20 years more or less, just slower with time

more detailed diving here 30+ minutes of grappling on some random dirty mats? Must be a Keita Yano match! Not satisfied with beating each other up we instead get Yano and Yamada teaming up against some fellow indie goobers. For real though, this was fun if you can get into the grimy conditions. Yamada and Yano basically twist and bend their opponents up into some really nasty knots for a good portion of it and it's about as entertaining as you can imagine. Keita especially pulls a lot from WoS transitions here with how showy he is and to get over their whole stance as superior grapplers alongside occasionally pulling out some old-school dirty shit like jamming his foot into Baki's eye during a headlock struggle. Yamada is a quirky one here with some neat and fairly unique joint manipulation mostly on Shota's bad arm for the first half. The middle is weird in that it speeds up immensely with a snappy exchange between Tamura/Baki as they dodge around kicks from the other, but then it goes into a real long Dory-style headlock slog involving Shota and co dragging Keita into a uber long series of headlocks never-ending. I can at least say that they *tried* to make this work, Shota just isn't the guy for it though given his real lack of complexity working on the mat. I mean was it creative that they broke it by having all four blokes stuck in headlocks running into each other? Sure. Was it actually good, though? Not really. I did love the fact that this epic headlock leads to Keita getting his excuse to blade all over the place like the carny lad he is, turning the match from a technical exhibition to a mid-80's South bloodfest as things devolve into a lot of kicks and punches. We get a goofy cool spot where Keita flings himself off the window for a bootleg version of a rope-hung DDT before going into a big Brody-inspired comeback before randomly doing some cool kicks into a big running spear to even things out. They definitely got the memo for the last third as it starts right off with Yamada and Baki beating the shit out of each other with leg kicks and elbows respectfully before going into some wacky spots like Keita's signature leapfrog senton and Yamada just straight-up ripping off Super Dragon in places. Baki had some good intensity with his shots and they work in sturdy hope spots where Baki seemingly has the advantage before getting shutdown before he can do anything serious, like him throwing multiple leg kicks before Keita baits him into a ankle lock, etc etc. Really liked how it went mostly into the two basically punching Baki for pins rather than attempting fancy submissions; given they hadn't worked before it was logical that they'd instead just try to end things quickly. Shota gets in for a gloriously awful hot tag as he hits dainty offence like a Russian leg sweep, just awful shit in general. Thankfully they kept a good tempo going into the finish as Baki threw hard kicks at Yamada (including a real mean backdrop at one point) before Keita stuck in and managed to win with some uber contrived submission after a couple of backbreakers. All in all it's pretty much the exact kind of experimental match that Keita Yano was infamous for around this time, so I feel like it's going to be pretty much Marmite depending on who's having to watch it. What doesn't help is that Shota/Baki...aren't that good as opponents. Shota is a very basic wrestler who barely catches your attention in that everything he does is basic and not particularly given much flash to it, he can do everything decent but he has nothing to give against these two bar a body to move around with. Baki is better, though still suffers from not really getting a look in bar some decent moments. It really felt like Keita and co were steering the boat for the most part: given the structure of the match this was hardly surprising given they controlled most of it. I'd still say this was good though if only because it has a lot of charm and variety on the table despite the lack of a ring.

I'll only be truly happy once we get the long-awaited GENTARO/Yoshinari Ogawa clashes only then

A 30 minute draw that's NOT clipped to shit? Wow! Ran and Amano were two of the clear standout young talent at the time alongside the rest of the JWP Fab Four, so it makes sense that they'd be given the most room to stretch their legs and do work with the other. This was one of those matches where if you aren't a fan of grappling then this just isn't going to be up your alley because oh boy there's a ton of it here with so much time to burn through. Amano typically isn't very high on the pecking order but here she's supremely confident as her forte is all about mat-work and scrambling for submissions, something that is radically apparent here. She consistently forces Ran to grab for rope escapes and consistently is able to get her on the defensive; even when she's able to escape one hold she has another up her sleeve almost always to answer. They do the usual ways to make stuff like this more interesting with them slowly devolving into dirty shit to try to get the advantage (including a random stomach claw at one point? I dig it) and generally try to make things feel intense as the match goes forward and the two start to get tired of the other's antics. Around the 15 minute mark they start going into more expected work with signature spots and dives to the outside. It's not bad and the two certainly have good chemistry, but it does feel a bit sloppy in places despite the spirit going into this being a solid base, with a lot of it feeling just thrown out to pad out the time. I'd say after they tease the count-out is where the match starts to get tangibly better as they focus more on differing the two by Ran going for bombs and strikes while Amano hones in on the holds to try to eek out a win that way. There's no long-term limb selling (which can bug some) other than that I really liked how this escalated from holds and counters to big huge moments before settling back into said holds. Amano is relentless with the cross armbreaker and finds a good few fun opportunities to incorporate some tricky transitions whenever possible to get it over as the big kill-move to watch out for. Ran defends it surprisingly competently and builds it up great early on by having her grip broken and the hold extended, leading to her doing this terrific sell-job with a huge screech before barely getting to the ropes before the arm broke. With that established (x move = bad for Ran) the rest of their exchanges mostly come down to if Ran can defend against the armbreaker or if this time it'll will catch her short: simple but pretty effective I'd say. They forgo that only near the end when the 30 minute mark is ticking down to go into a couple of near fall suplexes purely out of desperation. Ran gets a couple of decent kneebars locked in before the bell sounds for the draw. As this is a single-elimination tournament however they simply can't have a draw so they restart. I thought this quick rush at the end was pretty well done. They balanced out the fatigue-selling from the end of the match with more of a roughness to how they worked in moves, generally feeling more scrappy and unclean. Ran desperately tried to finish things quick with kneebars and bombs, but Amano rode out the storm and managed to get in a big final armbreaker that simply couldn't be escaped. This is a drastic change from the usual kind of matches that JWP were throwing out at the time, and it really benefits from standing out like that; clearly intended to showcase these two future acts in a good light. I'd say this DOES achieve that goal, but the match itself does feel like a 30 minute match and definitely is not able to hide the more glaring limitations. The more scrappy parts feel a bit disjointed and there are a few too many armbreaker holds that are broken, really devaluing a move that's supposed to be hyped as being insta-death by this point and time (especially with MMA starting to get a foothold proper) The mat-work aside that is pretty sturdy despite Ran not being as complex/good on the mat as her opponent, though that's worked into the match itself bar near the end where she's able to wiggle out a few of her own. All in all still a quite fun outing, just a bit too constrained by the length. One of Amano's main strengths is her intensity and she simply can't carry that for something of this length despite her best attempts.

Incredible action-packed tag that had some standout performances from the Ozaki duo and Devil. Fukuoka isn't bad here per-se, but she definitely felt like the Jannetty of the four compared to everyone else; she's good, everyone else here just had way more work in the tank compared to her. This was a really great rush of action that came and went like it was barely 5 minutes despite going nearly 20 as everyone just hits big impactful stuff alongside really well done spots built around the dynamics of the tag itself. Amano for me stood out heavily in this match for her experience level; the bit right at the start where she gets pissed because Fukuoka and co are too busy staring daggers into Oz instead of paying attention to her and instantly goes into pitbull mode with headbutts and all sorts of scrappy shit was great aggression and really something many people with double her years couldn't really do authentically. Amano is a great emoter as well so she can flip on a dime and go into wounded rookie building a hot tag real easily despite all of the above still holding true. She takes some incredible bumps (especially one German suplex where she hurls herself so violently that she basically bangs off the middle rope in the process) and works her role as the weak link tremendously well, taking some absolutely disgusting bombs from the pair to get that over. Oz was the opposite: she could keep things under control and of course could throw out her usual crazy work when needed. She does noticeably hold back a bit both in-match and out to let Amano's terrific selling and struggle be extenuated more, only emerging to get hot tags or to stop a pin at the very last moment. Her apron work is stellar and she does a good job at getting convincingly close to outsmarting the opposing duo at points despite having to typically do so by herself. Devil was REALLY the star of the show here though. She's so economic when it comes to condensing her work down to get the maximum amount of impact; typically only needing to loom over people and do her crazy face to get good reactions. She also gets some insanely awesome power spots where she just gets to throw people around all over the place (and I do mean all over, even some far away rows of Korakuen chairs aren't safe from bodies flying at them) really seeming like a unstoppable threat that can just turn the match at any point if she gets her hands on someone. She's got some solid understated "big deal" selling as well where she sparingly takes huge bumps and instead focuses on conveying a lot through little subtle moments instead where it's more about wearing her down more than anything else. It makes the batshit crazy finish all the better of which I won't spoil because it's just that nuts. Solid match that has a lot about it to enjoy; my only real issues were the dodgy selling at points that got a bit much near the end with some questionable moments. I won't hammer that issue down too much though because it wasn't that much of a tangible issue and they were self-aware enough to finish well before it got too much.

With a bit of digging it actually isn't THAT tricky despite the censors. UWF Original didn't have a ton of foreign talent past the first few months before they started doing more Catch/shoot-work. -started working 15th of November -finished on the 5h of December (so anyone who started and ended on those exact dates would match) -seems to be American given the Miami/Japan transfer (so exclude any British workers) -original thread states he trained under Boris Malenko, mostly did dates in Florida All of this info confirms the identity as Scotty Williams, I believe (though the thread above also mentions Jim Savage, so that could also be the case lol)

can't wait for the main event to be suzuki doing forearms for 15 minutes, epic bloodsport is barely shoot-style anyway so it's gonna be more liberal than pure MMA/Inoki-Ism stuff, especially if they're trying to get tickets (worked UWF antics don't sell much there anymore)