Yujiro Yamamoto

[Dylan Waco]

Discuss Here.

[Jetlag]

Good example of a shootstylist who was really great right out of the gate. For 3 years this guy produced a string of high quality undercard matches with some incredible carry jobs under his belt. Great on the mat, great at structuring matches, great at telling a story through subtle selling and mannerisms, and a really great moveset to top it off. And then BattlARTS closes and his career kind of ends. I was excited to see him popping up in HARD HIT again but he hasn't done anything worthwhile there. It would have been interesting to see what he would have done in NJPW had he been accepted into their dojo.

[Jetlag]

Yujiro Yamamoto has had a nice little ressurgence in recent times working good to great matches in his own promotion and other tiny places:

 

 

Yujiro Yamamoto vs. KATSUO, Dounan Pro Wrestling(?) 3/31/2019

These two had a very good main event in Yamamotos BATTLE And ARTS promotion, so I was delighted to find another match between the two! The BAP match was a match built around Katsuo being a monster and demolishing Yamamoto. This was about Yamamoto picking apart Katsuo with shoot strikes and nasty arm stretches and Katsuo being a tough guy absorbing punishment and firing back with KO worthy potatoe lariats and headbutts of his own. One thing was constant: these two potatoed the daylights out of each other. Yamamoto is quite the offensive tank combining cool arm submissions with a variety of kicks, knees, elbows and open hand strikes. He even mixes in a cool Kido Clutch at one point. And Katsuo is really solid in his role. Fun fun match.

 

Manabu Hara/Keita Yano vs. Yujiro Yamamoto/Katsuo, BAP 2/11/2020

 

SR: Fun indy main event tag built around the main matchup of Hara vs. Yamamoto. Those two had some slick U-Style exchanges early which really made me long for a straight shootstyle match between them. They are both a lot more beaten up than in their primes from 10 years ago, but they still had no problem throwing some surprisingly dangerous suplexes and really smacking each other. Yano, to my surprise, did not ruin the match. He was mostly kept out of it and his one brief run of offense consisted of some stretches which worked. I also enjoyed Katsuo once again as a crowbar trying to crack skulls. The finishing run was a bit of an indy run with shootstyle touches, so I dug it. The next BAP in 2021 is announced to have a Yamamoto/Hara main event, so let’s see if we can unlock that too. 

 

Yujiro Yamamoto vs. Katsuo, BAP 10/22/2019

SR: Katsuo is a Dragon System guy who used to be Cyber Kongcito. I assume he is Yamamoto's friend or owns the ring or something and that’s why he gets to be in the main event. Well, apparently he also works pretty high up the card at Hokuto Pro Wrestling (another indy that Hisakatsu Oya runs).  He was this stocky guy in a singlet and a weird hairdo, kind of like a parallel universe Fugofugo Yumeji. And just like Fugofugo he was game to have a nasty slugfest. This was Katsuo laying a brutal WAR sized beating on Yamamoto, big chops, crowbar lariats, jaw loosening elbows and open hand strikes, skull cracking headbutts, the whole deal. By the end of it Yamamatos chest was a nasty shade of red and his bell seemed seriously rung. This had some back and forth strike exchanges, which can get tiresome, but I thought the purpose was to showcase Katsuo as a tough monster as he kept shrugging off Yamamotos attacks, so I bought into them. Yamamoto was working this not really like a shootstylist and more like an indy wrestler with a shootstyle gimmick, which I don’t like as much, but he timed his comebacks well and cut Katsuo down with some precise strikes of his own. Very suitable main event and I would like to see more of this Katsuo now.

 

Yujiro Yamamoto vs. Sho Karasuno, RAW 1/2/2020(?)

Yamamoto gets a shockingly good no ring match out of a local Masao Inoueish guy. Yamamoto looks insanely sharp here.

 

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Yujiro Yamamoto 10/28/18

 

A nice reminescence to their great matches 10 or so years earlier.

[DylanZero]

In the best version of the world all the BattlArts guys caught on elsewhere and had great careers against other like minded workers and Ikeda never went back to NOAH and Yano just retired 10 years ago. But unfortunately things continued and most everyone disappeared or like Yammamoto is stuck permanently in the dregs of the lowest of the low indies. This man is  still one of the better workers in Japan today and if he had a chance somewhere he could be a valuable mid-undercarder. But watching these matches, some I've seen and some even went under my radar which means they are VERY small. I just get sad watching them even though he himself is still quite good. Even if Hard Hit was a more prominent thing I could be down for it, late game BattlArts wasn't exactly selling out Budokan or anything but still. Yujiro and guys like Hara as well are guys with infinite potential and it never even got the chance to be what it should have.