Ma Stump Puller

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)

Decent match that's built on the young pricks in Amano/Sato trying to overcome Dynamite's immense advantages over both of them. Dynamite hits like a truck and was very much still capable of hitting all of her best hits while Bolshoi handles the brunt of the working exchanges, using a lot of her lucha knowledge to keep things grounded. Most of the first half is taken up by Amano doing solid feeding/selling and really getting over her struggle to stay in the game despite being firmly outclassed. This match basically lives and dies by how much you like outside brawling because oh boy there's a decent chunk of it here. Lots of the typical hierarchy no-selling shtick, etc etc. Definitely feels like a Dynamite match all things considered. Pretty great spot where Sato keeps trying to knock Dynamite out of the SDL she's got on Amano with dropkicks to the head but keeps getting no sold. Dynamite takes all of them (and some of these look real nasty all things considered) before getting out of the hold herself and killing Sato with some awful stiff punts to the head, including one right to the back to finish off. Dynamite eventually starts to take bumps when she gets double teamed and has a couple of times where cracks start to show in her usually pretty tough stature before she can just snap back into things with another big kick or something of that sort so the usual business there. Bolshoi's stuff by comparison isn't as good as she's mostly there to do some generic work and sell for the other two, namely with leg work. She does get some Ogawa-like moments where she gets to be the sneaky technical master she will eventually become but it's mostly her not really doing a whole lot interesting and: even worse: it's by design. Sato is a perfectly fine GAEA-style worker who would find her niche as a mean hoss a few years down the line, as of now she's just really just hanging around here for the most part. There are some moments where you see bits of her throwing some aggression but no awesome tackles or huge power spots = instantly forgettable for me ngl. Loads of technically competent bits, strikes mostly bleh (Dynamite has to try to sell her weak ass backhand and it's rather depressing) just there for the most part. The match kinda just ends rather than building much. Amano lands a good few German suplexes for near falls before Dynamite marches in to control things again, Bolshoi and co go on the top rope and she hits a top rope Uranage to get the pin. No real tension built there apart from one or two near falls and there was no big burst of violence to really cement this as the turning point, just more or less a big spot into the end. Not bad, just hamstrung by this being built around Dynamite (who is still great, mind) taking up a lot of the time doing her usual routine against two people who positively don't threaten her at all. Bolshoi has to wrestle a featureless style as to not get in the way of this so no fancy lucha work, just loads of holds and slams that grind the pace down. Sato was fine and Amano was a bit iffy in places but mostly felt really good going up against the pair, especially Dynamite whom probably would've been a solid match for her at this point. All in all not BAD per-se but lacking in a real epic aspect to get it beyond just "fine" tier bar a good performance off Dynamite doing her usual formula.

Entrapped by the limitations of late-Toyota matches, but still pretty good. Shida/Kagetsu make a decent unit with their respective shtick and the vets do a good job conveying that all things considered, giving them enough time to cement themselves as threats despite their relative greeness. Toyota of course NEEDS to get all of her shit in so we have just a big chunk of her doing all of her usual wacky flips, once you get past that and you have Kage/Amano just beating the piss out of each other then this starts to pick up real well especially with that one spot where Kage tries doing Aja's escape out of a German suplex by falling down and throwing a kick only for Amano to hit a headbutt right when they flop down lol. There's some goofy comedy as Toyota tries to send Amano flying into Kage with a top rope dropkick but that naturally just causes her to flop over and get almost pinned instead, leading to the younger pair getting in a small bit of control work until the lead for the finish. That consisted mostly of Amano doing sick submission counters while Kage sold well and milked the drama of their struggle well all things considered. The finish being a combo of Toyota's heel kick + Amano pulling off some Bolshoi-tier tricked out reverse Fujiwara armbar to get the tap was especially nifty and played well on teamwork being a big factor here as a whole. All in all, surprisingly strong burst of action that played to everyone's strengths and a definite highlight of the Amano/Toyota duo as a unit.

would be funny if they do a wrestlemania 9 and have rock lose in 10 minutes due to nonsense then cody jumps in for the last 20 after rocky can't continue rock/roman is still pretty based though (I'll make up for NOAH not getting their Muto/Rock match they were asking for last year)

Cody knows better than to mess with Black Adam #hierarchyofpower

pretty good event despite the lack of surprises in the male rumble. Felt like the crowd were a bit weak as well around about the end (wasn't helped by the middle part being just full of mid-card dudes lol) but all in all I'd say was enjoyable stuff

Even when mercilessly cut (to 5 minutes, no less) this was pretty cool as a epilogue to their incredible 2011 tag match. Amano had to contend with getting kicked in the head a lot by a relentless Kana who ultimately felt more confident standing up than grappling, so she used that as a clutch to basically try to balance things out by turning this into a grapplefest whenever she could. It definitely feels like a Bati-Bati match by nature as most of this came down to just who could stand to throw the sickest strikes to counter the other with the suplexes being used as a big punctuation mark whenever a breakthrough was made and one of them wanted to try to settle things quick. There's no polite lame forearm exchanges or patient waiting for the next moment to strike, it's just these two basically finding different ways to mangle the other while not trying to die themselves in the process. Of course in the end this is fruitless as the two simply are too violent with each other and are incapable of meeting the count of 10 after a particularly nasty headbutt/kick exchange between the two leaves them incapable of standing, thus making this a draw. Annoying finish, yes, but given we've seen what a long match between the two essentially looks like I'm not complaining that much. Really awesome burst of nastiness that cut deep and quick for how little of this was left on the table. Fast-food violence I'd say describes this well. Further documentation here

Fujinami's longevity definitely has to be commended: even after 2006 he has occasionally good matches with game opponents (Funaki in 2015/Tamura in 2021) he has goofy spectacle showings (Mascaras in 2011/endless vet matches) and generally will always give out a competent performance even at his most phoned in. Of course he was gonna be in the top 100 regardless of the above, it's just a nice feature to put on top of everything else. I'm a sucker for wrestlers who have great volume of work and he most definitely qualifies.

A potential dream match between two of the best Joshi grapplers of the time turns out to be not what it could've potentially been, but still nevertheless a fun watch. It was not a shocker than this was a banger by any extent of the imagination even with the clipping taking about 4 minutes off the runtime. Yagi is a similarly awesome grappler that was chronically overlooked because of her being rather undersized even by Joshi standards, which is a shame because she's real smooth here. Loads of snug grappling transitions and sequences that even the Michinoku crowd had to woo and ahh at points because these two are just that damn good at getting submission wrestling over without needing to grind the match to a dead halt like a Shamrock/Funaki tend to do. Any match that incorporates a Electric Chair lift into a cross armbreaker is pretty much instantly going to be something worth watching in my mind. Some awkward bits with the faster moments as Amano isn't the most seasoned at this point but none that break the flow of the match completely. Yagi takes from a Fujiwara finish as she takes a vicious German suplex in order to snap on a lightning-fast Fujiwara armbar only to then hit the ropes just as things seemingly start to get real hairy. Amano like a goof tries for one herself immediately after only for Yagi to hit a awesome side-backdrop pin into cross armbreaker to finish this off conclusively with a another cool moment. Fun small outing that really makes you wish Amano dipped her toe into ARSION at some point: the whole shoot vibe that had would've worked wonders for something like this, especially with more time and a crowd conditioned to enjoy the grappling more so than anything else. Further documentation here

Sonoko Kato was a GAEA trainee who's had her fair share of solid matches; more of a shooty kind of wrestler than anything flashy, injuries dragging down her potential sadly long before she could've done anything substantial bar winning tag gold with a young Meiko (good company there.) She got her incredible second wind in OZ and wrestles to this day if you can believe it. Anyway, this was really good: Amano at this point had mastered the art of the sub-15 TV match and knew how to get a lot of quality out of relatively small portions of time. The starting sequences were established around cool basic grappling and Amano aping random Osamu Nishimura spots for the fun of it. Kato gets pissed off with the goofy ahh nonsense and turns this into a brawl where we got some nice scrappy moments and cool spots with Amano doing a DDT on the outside and Kato hitting a apron senton. Outside of a awkward botch where Amano seemingly can't get in position for her diving second rope headbutt the in-ring stuff ruled. Loads of stiff shots from Kato as she can do all of these floaty senton attacks in the corner or turtle kicks while Amano mostly had to rely on technical counters and using her durable head to get leverage here with savage headbutts. Kato seems unstoppable as she throws out multiple big kicks and a meaty top rope leg drop, but can't get a proper good 3-count despite her best attempts. I thought the tension was well-put together here as Amano had to chain up stuff like the snap Tiger Suplex or fake out running headbutt to try to equal things out, really got the match going with the sheer speed of it at points. Goofy finish through: having Amano basically no sell Kato's big finish and multiple headkicks so she could then win with a random small package out of nowhere felt a bit politick by nature. Bar that through this was pretty good! A bit shaky in places as I think the two try to get a bit too cute with how speedy this could get, mostly this was just really well constructed wrestling bits that never got to a truly great level but were still extremely enjoyable, especially with how they'd work in the striking portions into everything else. Another solid late-Amano outing.