Taro Yamada

[Grimmas]

Jetlag:

Taro Yamada has had an odd career. He works all kinds of undercard gigs on the Japanese indies, mostly short tags in promotions like 666 where he barely gets to do anything. Then Mutoha comes around and puts him into 20-30 minute long technical wrestling epics and he turns into an absolute monster wrestler. He along with Hiroshi Watanabe and Yasushi Sato really owes it to that promotion. Oh and he had a bunch of awesome matches with Keita Yano too. But yeah. When Taro Yamada is allowed to do stuff he absolutely is one of the best wrestlers of the 2010s-2020s. Great matworker, and beyond that has a really vicious side. His matches with Konaka, Keita Yano, Yasushi Sato, Hideya Iso etc. absolutely have some of the best wrestling you'll see and he also has some gems that go into a completely different direction like his bout with Takahiro Tababa. Fascinating wrestler and another case of someone who is completely out of nowhere great that we discovered mostly thanks to the Mutoha organizers being gentlemen and unveiling their footage to a wide audience.

Recommended matches:

vs Konaka, Mutoha 7/5/2015

Terrific match, Mutoha at its very best. It’s a rounds match that begins in a fashion inspired by World of Sport matches, with both guys displaying slick counters and moving in and out of holds very swiftly, but it quickly becomes a tangled nightmare as both guys would tie each other up in increasingly esoteric ways. Yamada was an absolute monster here, he looked like a true master of the llave style, and he just does things that nobody else does. He was tying up Konaka in so many different ways here, but also putting lots of creativity into his set ups and escapes, it was an absolute onslaught. Yamada is very much the driving force for most of the match, just tying Konaka in knots, and it seems Konaka only survives because Konaka is a flexibility demon and he can be put into contortions that not many other wrestlers could stand being put in. Although Konaka has a few moments where he really catches Yamada and it feels like a big victory each time. Not only were the submissions mind blowing, but so were their escapes from them. It was a display of mat wizardry in the truest sense. They do 20 minutes of outstanding grappling before the fifth round of 5, at which point Yamada loses his cool and finally nails Konaka with that curb stomp he likes to use. After that the time was running out and each moment felt frantic. Really edge of your seat stuff with both guys displaying incredible technical proficiency and body control while maintaining a competitive aura. I have been watching technical matches from Europe, Japan, Mexico, America for 15 years now and this was as good as any that I’ve seen.

 

vs Hideya Iso 1/13/2020

Another really good match from Mumejuku. Very mat based as you expect. Iso has that Osamu Kido-like vibe, he’s a dumpy technician who doesn’t look like much and doesn’t do fancy moves but he has that easily overlooked kind of charisma and he can pull out some cool crafty stuff. This was Isos best performance that I’ve seen and Yamada looked like one of the best wrestlers in the world. It was pretty much Isos traditional, basic skillset vs. Yamadas llave holds. Several really good mat exchanges here, I especially liked Yamada pulling off a Paradise Hold in plausible fashion. They just went out and wrestled so there wasn’t some kind of exceptional story although I was rooting for Iso to upset his opponent. Sometimes you just want to watch two guys wrestle for 20 minutes and they delivered. Gnarly finish. This stuff is why Mumei was maybe the most important promotion in the world during that time period.

vs Keita Yano, Wallabee 6/14/2012

Damn great match, I imagine if Yano had never stunk up BattlARTS and instead was only known for doing weird technical matches while wearing his joker makeup and clown singlet in a tiny gym we’d all be Yano superfans. Taro Yamada is the last guy in Japan still holding up the T2P style matwork and one of the most underrated grapplers on the independent scene. This was 25 minutes of matwork that was like a great IWRG style title match. It was a mix of Yamadas llave holds with Yano going along and some cool RINGs-like leglock work thrown in, with both guys doing a great job escaping and transitioning between holds. Whole match felt fresh and competitive and never was like a derivative or weird LARP, these guys were trying to pop each others shoulders and/or ankles the whole time. There were one or two geeky moments where Yano did some “rope running” although it was more like a comedy spot with Yano hooting like an owl, and both these moments lead to cool spots, one where Yamada actually trips Keita with a drop down and another where Yano tricks Yamada into his special hold. There wasn’t some kind of story if you are into that but there were a few great nearfalls and I deeply respect these two for just grappling it out for 25 minutes without slowing down, and never throwing a strike or even a body slam, it was all submissions and funky cradle pins (especially loved Yamadas weird Delfin Clutch variation), just really tightly worked stuff that wouldn’t look out of place in a WoS or lucha title match. I did love Yanos dickish knee slide across Yamadas face and the moment where Yano had enough of the llave holds and challenged Yamada to an amateur match was really cool. Finish was great aswell. Best Yano match I’ve seen by far and actively a great match, which is a major shocker. Yamada played a huge part too but I’ll be damned if Yano wasn’t feeling it that night. Apparently there have been a few matches between these two and I look forward to checking them all out but as it stands this is the best I’ve seen from Yano by a mile.