Interview/Q&A with Thanomsak Toba

Hey again y'all! If you've read the title of this post or I've discussed this with you beforehand, you know what this is: I got the very fortunate oppourtunity to ask Thanomsak Toba some questions about his career and wrestling in general.

I have so much respect for Toba, he's one of my all-time favorites, so I was kinda marking out the whole time and kept things light-hearted/fun. If you're wondering why I didn't ask more "hard-hitting" questions or whatever, yeah what can I say? This is a mark interview.

Lastly, Toba chose to accommodate me as much as possible, going as far as wanting to provide his answers in English and even answering more questions near the end despite suffering a concussion around the time this interview took place (about a month ago). Because of his kindness and my adoration for him, I didn't want to take up too much of his time. So, some of his answers may seem short and I didn't end up asking too many questions, but hopefully that gives some context as to why it turned out that way.

My words are in italics. Toba's words are in bold.

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You got your start in pro wrestling when you debuted for DDT in 1998. At that point, the organization was less than a year old. How different do you think DDT is now from the DDT that you debuted in 27 years ago? In what ways have things changed and are there wrestlers that are currently there that you would like to face?

When I debuted, the focus was on intense martial arts-style matches. But gradually, traditional American professional wrestling-style matches became popular, and now they are well established.

It has gone from being an organization based on intense fights to being a fun organization. I also like fun matches.

There is no one in the current DDT wrestlers that I want to fight. I'm already an old-fashioned guy.

Yes, it is fascinating how much wrestling around the world has moved towards that American entertainment style, whereas there's much less mainstream martial arts-style promotions. But the ones that do exist nowadays are very good still!

Speaking of martial arts, when watching your matches, I can most easily associate your wrestling style with that of Muay Thai. It has even been said that your name is a reference to the Thai boxer, Thanomsak Sithbaobay! On your Instagram page, you post many photos from the time you've spent in Thailand. What have you learned from Thailand and is there something you love most about the area?

My martial arts career began with Muay Thai. My ring name was inspired by the Thai boxer Thanomsak Sisbovee (Note: I believe this is a mistranslation of Sithbaobay, as I do not believe there’s Thai boxer with the name Sisbovee), without his permission.

I've been to Thailand many times. When I was younger, I rented an apartment in Bangkok and studied Muay Thai. Right now, Pattaya is my favorite place.

Thailand must be beautiful. Fascinating to learn how much it has tied into your career and life!

Is it true that you were trained by Koki Kitahara? He led the CAPTURE International organization that has become legendary among some overseas fans that like more niche groups due to multiple factors, including the mentality of how wrestling should be, realistic and gritty style, and how good the promotion was considering how small the venues and production were for a wrestling show.

Also, is there anything specific that you learned from being trained by Koki Kitahara (if that is true) that you feel you still use today?

I participated in Capture, but I hardly received any coaching from Kitahara-san. I was with another organization.

What do you think of wrestling in smaller organizations such as this one, which you had a number of matches in? Do you have a certain mentality when it comes to wrestling for a crowd that isn't as large, or do you feel that you wrestle the same way no matter the size of the crowd?

Whether the venue is small or big, what you do is the same.

Interesting! I apologize for the confusion then regarding Koki Kitahara. (Note: Multiple online sources seem to have always credited Kitahara with mentoring Toba because of his time in CAPTURE, but this does not seem to be accurate)

I'm sure the fans appreciate you giving your all in every match, no matter the size of the crowd.

In the near 1000 matches that you have wrestled, you've stood in the ring across from around 500 different wrestlers. Do you have an all-time favorite opponent? What about a favorite opponent of yours that you have faced in the past 5 years?

My best opponent is Ibushi Kota. In the last five years, it would be Machida Hikaru and Brother Yasshi.

Your matches with Kota Ibushi are highly acclaimed among overseas fans! Hikaru Machida is excellent and it's great that he's been in the ring with you so many times for how little matches he's had, and "brother" YASSHI is one of my personal favorites! For someone who seems as serious as you, it is cool that you enjoy wrestling with someone as laid-back as him.

As I mentioned earlier, you have shared the ring with many different opponents. Is there anyone that you have never faced before that you would like to have a match with?

There's no one I want to fight anymore.

Do you think you could beat your 25 year-old self in a fight? What would you say you've learned about yourself and your abilities since then?

When I was 25, I was training hard as a kickboxer, so there's no way I could win! In terms of strength, I've lost everything and gained nothing.

I think that despite the difference in physical strength, you can give yourself credit for the mental strength that must go into something like wrestling for over 25 years.

I am so very grateful for the time you’ve given to answer my questions. I’ll only ask a few (one or two more) more questions if that’s alright.

You've wrestled so many times across the years. Is there one specific match or moment that you’re most proud of?

The matches I'm most proud of are probably all of my matches with Ibushi. I'm also proud of competing in DDT's Nippon Budokan tournament.

I am also proud of my singles match against DJ Nira at the DDT Nagoya tournament.

All of those are excellent choices. I’m sure many fans would agree with those being highlights of your career!

Thank you once more for your time over these past conversations. I've gained a lot from your responses and I’m very excited to share them with others.

Lastly, is there anything you’d wish to say to fans overseas and across the world? Any updates on your career or just anything you’d like to share?

I had fun too, thank you. I'm so happy that overseas fans upload videos of matches I've never seen.

I'm not retiring yet, but I won't be active as much from now on. I'm looking forward to seeing videos of your past matches!

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And that's all! Again, I know this was a mark interview, but I had a lot fun with it and I'm glad Toba seemed to also enjoy answering these. It meant a lot to me lol.

Hope you enjoyed reading this! If not, that's alright too. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page.

Show Review #2 (TJPW Spring Tour Final 6/22/2025)

Hey y'all,

The world is going to shit right now (when is it not) and I decided to watch the Tokyo Joshi show to cheer me up. I was already planning to watch this one because it was going to be live at an earlier time for me, but I really felt like I needed it today, so I had to watch.

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This show was also sadly Sayuri Namba's final with the company. For the uninformed, she is one of the most iconic ring announcers in puroresu and has been with the promotion for what feels like forever. I know she is moving on to do better and bigger things, but I will certainly miss having her around as a great ring announcer as well as a wonderful character in the colorful world of TJPW.

Wakana Uehara vs Kira Summer - SKIPPABLE

WAAKAAANAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! This match was the first of two on the show for a spot in the Tokyo Princess Cup this year.

Wakana Uehara is of course a favorite of mine in the company but I have taken a liking to Kira Summer as well; she's one of the few foreigners in the current joshi world that I've been able to connect with.

This match felt pretty short, even for opener standards. Kira did good at controlling early on before Wakana got her offense in and the crowd was able to get behind her. Simple, but effective way of engaging the crowd for the rest of your show. I'm glad Wakana won as she deserves it 100%.

Toga vs Ivy Steele - SKIPPABLE

This was the second match on the show to be contested for a spot in the Princess Cup.

I do not think Ivy Steele is bad at all and I have thought that she's had fine performances in the undercard tags of bigger TJPW events, but I haven't been able to get behind what she's been doing and a large portion of her work has just been "there" for me. 

Oppositely, Toga is someone that I've thoroughly enjoyed watching matches of this year. She's really moved up my personal lists a lot recently with how she's developed and defined her in-ring style. She can be stiff, is cold and stoic, and has an undeniable fire to her. I think she's neat.

I thought the match was fine with nothing worth revisiting, though I was shocked at the outcome. I feel the Princess Cup could've greatly benefitted from having Toga in it and I wish she also did more in this match. It felt like she held back a lot and was just there as a training dummy for Ivy at points.

Yoshiko Hasegawa vs Uta Takami - FUN

This was originally schedule to be a three way match including Yuki Kamifuku, but plans changed for whatever reason.

Amidst the wave of incredible talent coming up in the joshi scene right now, Uta Takami is a name I wish more (including myself) would remember to bring up. THE future of Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling and she's already got multiple great matches in the past year.

Yoshiko Hasegawa does good at the "more experienced, stronger veteran" role that Uta excels against. Yoppy teaches Uta a lesson in getting roughed up (as usual) and it's fun to watch (as usual) Uta keep running into a brick wall.

Maki Itoh & Ren Konatsu vs Raku & Shino Suzuki - FUN

I think Maki Itoh can be really good sometimes but she didn't do much for me here. From the get go, she's the "serious" one in the match out of everyone, and she's capable of doing so with these three. I do like what she does with the dynamic, but nothing stands out.

I enjoyed Raku sleepy schtick and Shino Suzuki's tour guide stuff, I had fun with it. In hindsight, perhaps I'm being somewhat too harsh on Maki here.

Suzume & Arisu Endo vs Moka Miyamoto & Kaya Toribami - FUN

Daisy Monkey continues to be one of my favorite tag teams in the world. Suzume had a nice reign with the International Princess belt and Arisu Endo is amazing in tag settings. I also have enjoyed seeing Kaya's growth as a wrestler throughout her time in TJPW. Moka Miyamoto is one of the few roster members that I'm iffy on; She's never done anything for me but I also understand I've yet to give her a fair chance. Hopefully that'll change with Summer Sun Princess.

Shoko Nakajima & Chika Nanase vs Rika Tatsumi & Miu Watanabe - REALLY GOOD

This was the biggest Summer Sun Princess preview to me on the card and it was awesome. Rika and Miu is always gonna be a great team-up because they're two of the most skilled wrestlers in the entire world right now, and Shoko Nakajima is da beeg kaiju (this match also made me wonder how she'd fair in a lucha environment).

Chika Nanase is obviously here to take the fall, but at least there's not much of a focus on her during the match so you can kind of forget about that part. I think she's alright herself, but yeah there's not much too look forward to in her performance here.

Shoko takes a lot in this but also has the most exciting offense on the whole show. Maybe she's the best in the company, I don't know.

Match revolved around Rika and Miu finding new ways to torture Shoko and it's really fun, give it a watch.

Mizuki & Hyper Misao & Yuki Aino & Pom Harajuku vs Yuki Arai & Mahiro Kiryu & HIMAWARI & Haru Kazashiro - FUN

Star-studded main event that starts with Misao letting Namba do her intro, followed by Misao forcing her to use the trademark spray on the other team. Namba then excitedly gets the oppourtunity to ring the bell herself. Great start!

I don't necessarily enjoy Yuki Arai's work and am not excited for the PoP title match at Summer Sun Princess, but I thought the bits she did with Mizuki in this match were fine.

I'm sure I've said this elsewhere before, but Yuki Aino has some sick fashion sense.

A lot of the finishing stretch in this match goes to Haru and Pom and surprisingly, out of everyone in this match, Pom gets the win for her team!

This leads into a really emotional graduation ceremony for Namba. She cries, Pom cries, and so does the rest of the TJPW roster, who all come out to support Namba and show her love. If you don't know anything about Namba, watch the final minutes of the show and see how someone that's "just a ring announcer" can be so beloved by the whole roster and she will be dearly missed. I truly wish her the best in whatever's next for her in life.

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I know this was less focused than the last show review and my posts in general, but I hope you still enjoyed me getting an excuse to ramble about my favorite TJPW talent. If you didn't, that's alright too. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page.

Show Review! (W*ING The Name Of Wing - Take Off Again 4/22/2001)

I love writing and I want to talk about more stuff I've watched so here's another blog post already.

This one's a little different than the typical "random matches" post. I thought it'd more interesting to do a full show review! Now, the other posts are going to continue as normal, but it'd be nice to also have more concise/organized review posts like this as well.

W*ING (short for Wrestling International New Generations) was founded in 1991 and was one of the biggest deathmatch/hardcore promotions in Japan in the 90s, alongside FMW. Skip ahead some years, and the company stops regularly running shows in June of 1996. They run a show in September of that year and five in 1997, but the company is virtually dead after that.

By 2001, Mr. Pogo restarts the promotion with the show we're watching today. This show was took on the "Take Off Again" subtitle from the company's inaugural "Take Off" tours throughout their history. This particular show aired on Fighting TV Samurai! as "Battle Station" broadcast on 5/8/2001, about 2-3 weeks after the event took place.

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Broadcast starts off with some Press Conference footage containing higher-ups and guys like Matsunaga and Mr. Pogo (who's in his Ribera jacket of course) discussing the company reboot, before they cut to some of the roster members posing in front of the W*ING logo.

We also get to see the big names doing autograph signings/meet-and-greets with a pretty large crowd (I couldn't find the exact attendance number, but it's worth noting this show takes place at the Differ Ariake, which would become the home of Pro Wrestling NOAH around this time) of people as they show gets set up before the first match. And finally right before that, we get the whole roster in the ring to kick off the event. (Also holy shit, Leatherface and "Boogie Man" go crazy)

The first three matches are all VERY clipped so I'll be pretty brief with my thoughts on them.

Mongol Man vs Jet Jaguar

Can't say much about this one because we get like a minute (out of eight) of highlights of this match. Mongol Man does Mongolian Chops though so I like. I'm sure he's a lot of fun and while I've never heard of Jet Jaguar before, he has a sick look.

Hiroyoshi Kotsubo vs Hirofumi Miura

We get like three clips from this match; Miura seems like the kind of wrestler I like though: Karate guy that does a tornado DDT and moonsault.

Viking Taniguchi vs Hiroshi Shimada

Two beefy boys hit each other and then leave happily ever after.

Mitsunobu Kikuzawa vs Ryo Miyake - SKIPPABLE

This is the first full match that we get to see and I'm not sure where my expectations were at. I've seen maybe one Ryo Miyake match ever and Kikuzawa would later go on to become Kikutaro in his career.

This is also a Barbed Wire Bat match, meaning that both wrestlers must start outside the ring and then race to grab the barbed wire bat in the center of the ring after a countdown. The issue is, the bat BREAKS about 2 minutes into the match after Kikuzawa swings and misses on Miyake, instead hitting the mat.

To their credit though, the match somehow doesn't completely fall apart after this. Kikuzawa makes Miyake bleed by rubbing the cracked part of the bat (that doesn't have any barbed wire on it, mind you) into his forehead. Miyake gets some offense of his own by just bare-handing the barbed wire bat part and using it on Kikuzawa, before a backup referee throws in a completely new barbed wire bat eventually.

The brawling in the match isn't bad but isn't great, but they do a great job at pacing this around the bat break incident. Both guys do beat each other up to a lot of bleeding and the finish is nice, I can give them that.

Ichiro Yaguchi, Katsumi Hirano & Kazuhiko Matsuzaki vs Fukumen Taro, Masaru Toi & Masayoshi Motegi - FUN

This a Captain's Fall (what that seems to mean in this case that you can only win by pinning/submitting the opposing team's captain, but you cannot do so until you first eliminate their two non-captain members) match with the captains being Kazuhiko Matsuzaki and Masayoshi Motegi. Interesting on paper for a number of reasons: Ichiro Yaguchi's in this, and also it's pretty rare for me to come across a Captain's fall match outside of Mexico.

A lot of it is spent taking a beating early on, but Katsumi Hirano gets the most ring time by far in this match. To his credit, he takes some hard-hitting stuff pretty well, and then reciprocates that energy when it's his turn for offense. Maybe I'm dense, but he strikes me as a guy I'll probably seek out more from in the future, because I'm sure he probably has a match where he just beats up someone crazy-style.

I wish we got more Ichiro Yaguchi in this match but he does get some decent minutes in the final fall. He might be one of the best worst wrestlers ever and I love him for that. Sloppy, a bit too stiff, and his matches can be so scattered sometimes, yet he's still a beast. These don't end up being bugs in his game, they're features.

Yaguchi gets his team the win by pinning Motegi, who is another wrestler I've seen before this and really like.

Hideki Hosaka & Koichiro Kimura vs Boogie Man & Leatherface - FUN

Yeah, Leatherface and Boogie Man still crazy as shit. They start off just moving around the ring crazy before the bell even is rung (by Boogie Man himself), and then the match kind of splits into two. Kimura walk-and-brawls with Boogie Man in front of a crowd outside of the room while Leatherface tosses Hosaka around the chairs ringside. When the havoc cools down, everyone's back to the ring to have a "regular" match.

If there's a gripe I have with this, it's that they don't drag that opening portion out for longer. If things are getting chaotic, let the chaos ensue! If you're so easily able to reel things back in, I have a hard time believing that there was much danger in the first place. It's a bit of an unfortunate dissonance because they make Leatherface and Boogie Man seem like pretty credible threats throughout the rest of the match, of course.

Koichiro Kimura is the most technically sound wrestler in a match where no one else is, and I think I love that. He brings stoicism to an otherwise ridiculous matchup and is also just a good wrestler. He's featured the least, but that almost feels like it's for the best given everyone else that's in this.

Gedo & Jado vs Shoji Nakamaki & WING Kanemura - SKIPPABLE

This is an "Odawara Fire Revenge Bunkhouse Death Match" with no fire in it, nor does it feel like a death match. It is a fun-ish brawl for the most part, which I actually enjoyed much more than the typical Gedo & Jado match. Kanemura and Nakamaki take the crazier bumps (which there aren't many of), and then the match just feels like it goes on too long. Which is funny, considering how abrupt the ending feels.

I wouldn't call this bad, especially when I felt like the brawling stuff was good, but this is not a match I am ever going to revisit or think about again.

Hideki Hosaka, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, Ryo Miyake & The Winger vs Freddie Krueger, Mitsunobu Kikuzawa, Mr. Pogo & WING Kanemura - FUN

Matsunaga comes out drenched in barbed wire as the king does. This would've been about 4 years before he goes on to the greatest run in wrestling history in ZERO-1, but he still feels like the biggest deal in the world even here. That's obvious because he's Matsunaga and all, but he still feels like a force that needs to be neutralized in order for Team W*ING to get stuff done.

To be honest, this is just what I imagine the embodiment of the "Car Crash" (literally) match aim in TEW to be. You get a crazy weapons-filled fighting throughout the arena that's at it's best when they lean into the "Light Out Moonlight Darkness" part of the "Incredible Tag Scramble Bunkhouse Light Out Moonlight Darkness Death Match" stipulation. Seriously, there are some sickass visuals that come from the lights out portion of the match, including Matsunaga getting the life choked out of him by Freddie Kruger.

In a way, this is the best way that they could've demonstrated what W*ING, or at least this show, was about. Ryo Miyake has the star performance easily because I popped at him bringing the broken bat gimmick back from earlier, and he also takes two cringe-inducing bumps onto a pile of weapons.

Once the match ends, with little interaction between Mr. Pogo and Matsunaga, there's some stuff teased between WING Kanemura and Matsunaga instead. As far as I could tell, this wouldn't come to fruition within W*ING as the two would never share the ring in the 3 other shows the company ran, but they did meet in a singles match later in 2001 (in the "Rainbow Promotion"?) in a "Carribean Barbed Wire Spider Net Board Barbed Wire Board Spike Nail Bat & Barbed Wire Bat Scramble Bunkhouse WING Extreme Falls Count Anywhere Lights Out Death Match" that I'm sure is awesome.

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Is this show worth watching for yourself? Outside of the main event, not necessarily. I think the fun matches are fun, but they're just that. The main isn't even particularly that great but it's a cool novelty watch.

Other than that though, thank you for reading my thoughts on this show today; I hope you enjoyed. If you didn't, that's alright too. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page.

Matches I Watched #6 (involving a Fujiwara-Gumi search)

Hey again y'all! Finally getting back into the swing of things with writing and there's been a lot more wrestling stuff interesting me lately, so here I am! 

I'm not really sure what the thought process was behind picking these specific matches, but they just so happened to be what I watched today so let's get to it, shall we?

Beastman & Mad Dog Connelly vs. Bam Sullivan & Matt Tremont (JCW 6/12/2025) - GOOD

I was at the show where these teams had their original matchup last month (at JCW May Flowers 5/11/2025) and loved every second of it. It was an awesome, brutal brawl that riled up a crowd that wasn't going too crazy before that. There, they had the co-main event spot and that was for the worst as it's pretty difficult to follow that up. This time, they got the main event spot and it was even better.

In comparison to their previous match, this one is upgraded in basically every way. More chaos, more violence, and more mayhem. While I loved being there for that first one, I was a bit soured by the no contest finish after a brawl like that. It just didn't make much sense given everything else that happened in the match. Here, the "Mayhem in the Mecca" stipulation definitely allowed for more leniency in that regard and I loved the touch of the music playing throughout the match. Made it feel like it was actually different.

The brawling was great here, even if somewhat simple. Sometimes, simpler is better and that's the case for most of this one. Something in particular that stood out to me was Mad Dog's punching. He's such a good puncher, man.

I understand the point of these tags has been to build up a Mad Dog/Tremont singles, but the matches 100% can stand on their own pretty well. With that being said though, I think that finish does a great job at pushing that rivalry further.

If I had one complaint about the match, it felt like it went a few minutes too long, but I also enjoyed everything in the match so maybe not? What do I know?

This match is awesome, go watch it now.

Keita Yano vs. Tsuyoshi Okada (Dove Pro Still Dove 2/9/2025) - FUN

Was very excited to see Dove Pro release this a few weeks ago as I continue my journey in watching all the Keita Yano matches in 2025 that make tape. I haven't seen much Tsuyoshi Okada before, I believe this is my first time watching him in singles action. Keita, as usual, will be impossible for me to root against.

This is a "KOK Rules" match, meaning that there are 3 rounds, 5 minutes each. With Keita's grappling and Okada's MMA gloves, I can imagine the logic behind this being the basis of this matchup.

I really love the character that Keita Yano portrays, even if it's not always a character per se. He's a scrawny little fella that is almost always physically lesser than his opponents, yet he can sometimes find a way to get past them. In this match, he looks like he's genuinely overwhelmed whenever Tsuyoshi Okada is able to outpower him, both on the ground and on the feet. I think the finish does a great job at showing how this affects his decision-making and aggressiveness.

Nice match, I liked it. God bless Keita Yano.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Yuki Ishikawa (PWFG 8/12/1995) - GREAT

So I got a kind of interesting story about this one.

First of all, huge thank you/shoutout to Jom and his greatest, most ambitious project yet, Insect's Soul. He put in an incredible effort to shine a light on so much different amazing independent wrestling and I've learned about so many promotions and wrestlers as a result.

This was a notable inclusion on the list for multiple reasons. One, it's an Ikeda/Ishikawa match. Not just any Ikeda/Ishikawa match, but their 2nd ever. Two, it's PWFG and I was kind of shocked to see a promotion like this on the list. I get it wasn't like the biggest organization, but it's probably one of the most well-known, compared to the rest of the companies listed. And three, I could not find this match for the life of me.

You can very easily find almost all of the PWFG broadcasts on VK or Internet Archive, yet this show is weird. It doesn't seem to have been traditionally broadcast/released like the rest of the shows, and nobody had it anywhere I could find online. But, I knew it had to have been taped because Jom's listing for it had included a gif of the match that very much was from a broadcast camera, and also this was a Korakuen Hall show, I'd be shocked if it wasn't recorded anywhere.

Many hours spent searching later, I couldn't even find the show or the match on any of the pages of the tape traders I was aware of either. Losing a bit of hope of finding this (at least, finding it anytime soon), a friend had asked around about the footage in the GWE discord. A few people answered that it probably wasn't taped and that it had been on a lot of people's footage wishlists for a while. Damn.

And then, after like a day or two, somebody just sent a google drive link of the full show. Well then. That story ends there I guess.

Onto the match now.

Jom described this as Ikeda and Ishikawa's "most 'shoot-style' matchup to date" and I could see where he's coming from. Bati-Bati is fascinating because it's not shoot-style, but it's also not not shoot-style, y'know? In a way, a lot of the portrayal of struggle that shoot-style is praised for is demonstrated in a more aggressive, attacking way in Bati-Bati. I don't really understand any of this wrestling stuff much but I think there's a beauty to how that struggle is able to resonate with those who watch. Huh.

The stylistic difference between this and their other matchups make a lot more sense when you also factor in that this is taking place in Fujiwara's promotion. This feels a lot more grapple-heavy than their other encounters and the struggle is best shown through the "escape". When they roll out of the ring (multiple times), when Ikeda needs to push himself as close to the ropes as he can to get out of a submission, when Ishikawa has to counter Ikeda's counters. It's all meaningful and inspiring?

You do get some of the Ikeda/Ishikawa experience, like when they start slapping each other while Ikeda mounts Ishikawa or when Ishikawa roundhouses Ikeda for a knockdown, but even then it's different still.

Yes, this is an interesting watch for the novelty alone. It's the 2nd ever Ikeda and Ishikawa singles match and it's in PWFG. But you also get a really good wrestling match that displays another side of what these two can do to each other.

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Thank you for reading my thoughts on these matches today; I hope you enjoyed. If you didn't, that's alright too. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page.

More Matches? Yes. (Fujiwara, Sangre Chicana, and an Instant Classic)

Hey y'all! It's been a little bit longer since the last post, I know. Things have been slightly hectic lately and so some of the stuff I've been working on had to take some small delays. Fortunately though, I did want to get out a post today because I need to scratch that writing itch somehow.

The biggest reason I couldn't write much earlier in the week is because I haven't really been watching much lately. The past couple weeks have mostly been recent CMLL stuff that I've really loved, but didn't have anything to say about it other than "I recommend these matches." Two of these matches were watched only because they were suggestions from friends (as part of a mini wrestling "book club", if that makes sense).

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Super Tiger (UWF 9/7/1984) - EPIC

In response to a Matt D tweet a few weeks back that was about how a spot from a Mike Bailey vs. Kazuchika Okada match felt sport-like as opposed to feeling "real", I asked if there was anything in wrestling that could do both: make things feel real but also feel like a competition. Most of the responses were answers of shoot-style and to be fair, it makes sense. 

I thought about that a lot throughout this matchup largely because of how I already perceive Fujiwara. He's not a wrestler that seems to care for the competitive nature of shoot-style, but does a hell of a job at making what he does feel real. Rather than it feel like he just wants to out-wrestle his opponent, I almost am horrified (in the best way) at how he would instead prefer to crush whoever stands across from him.

I know it's too easy to say this (especially when it comes to shoot-style stuff), but the match truly does feel like a fight instead of a wrestling match. And I love that. Fujiwara spends the early portions of the match trying to murder Sayama and I wince at how brutal that offense looks. When Sayama gets the upper hand, he does the same and it's even more disgusting. It goes beyond the "beat the hell out of each other" scale and enters the "are they shooting???" territory in my mind.

Something that will occur throughout these matches today is my praise for the selling. Super Tiger does a great job at getting his ass beat and making you feel bad for him but the star of this show is Fujiwara by far. What sticks out is the selling of his exhaustion. For a feeling that is so common and one that the audience can relate to, I don't think there's many wrestlers ever that have sold it great. Fujiwara is on that very short list of those who can though. As I'm watching him lay there after getting destroyed by Tiger's kicks and knee drops, I start to feel like I just went through a war myself.

For someone like Fujiwara who has kind of always been an evil bastard wrestler in my eyes, I do feel sorry for him while Sayama is laying it in on him (even after Fujiwara was being just as evil to him earlier in the match!). If that's not a testament to how strong his selling is here, I don't know what is. To me, that's what selling is for.

MS-1 vs. Sangre Chicana (EMLL 50th Anniversario 9/23/1983) - EPIC

I've tried to deep-dive Sangre Chicana before but just have never gotten around to doing so, which makes me all the more glad I got to watch this recently. Both him and MS-1 are names that I've heard have some of the bloodiest brawls in all of lucha history and if there's anything I love most in wrestling, it's two awesome punchy guys making each other bleed throughout any venue.

It's a 2/3 falls hair vs hair match, and most of the first fall is spent with MS-1 keeping Chicana outside the ring after catching him off guard during his entrance. An interesting note-to-self is that throughout this ordeal, MS-1 looks scared. His body language makes him seem anxious. Almost as if he attacked Chicana before the bell because he knows he wouldn't stand a chance otherwise.

Once again, this is another match that serves as a masterclass in selling fatigue and exhaustion. Sangre Chicana showcases fantastic selling but also some of the best striking I've ever seen in wrestling. Every single punch is exaggerated just enough that all of them mean something without going too overboard that it would become cartoonish.

And they don't call him SANGRE Chicana for nothing; he bleeds buckets in this one. The visual of the bleeding itself looks awesome but what follows is even better. Throughout the course of the match, it feels like Chicana is getting stronger in real-time as soon as he starts to see his own blood. It's astoundingly easy to get behind him during this, really leaving me with wanting to watch more of his work. Only the best of the best can flip a switch and get everyone behind their big comeback solely through their bleeding (and punching).

Excellent match; maybe one of the greatest ever?

Sareee vs. Ranna Yagami (Stardom 6/8/2025) - GREAT

Let me be clear, I do love Ranna Yagami and she's someone that I do always want to cheer for. But I understand that Stardom is behind when it comes to their trainee quality compared to the rest of joshi promotions. Marvelous has Senka Akatsuki and Sora Ayame, Pro-Wrestling Evolution has ZONES and Chi Chi, Marigold has Seri Yamaoka and the recently debuting Shinno showed so much in her debut match against Mai Sakurai. While I don't think Stardom produces bad talent, their current, more lenient approach has certainly led to some of their rookies being lapped by those coming out of some of the more traditional dojos.

Sareee seems to agree too. In an interview with Tokyo Sports prior to this match, she was quoted as saying, "“Stardom wrestlers overwhelmingly lack the fighting spirit that is an important part of joshi puroresu. I have no choice but to train Ranna Yagami thoroughly in the 6/8 Korakuen show!" [credit to Shigeo on twitter for translating this quote]

Even though the interview is in-character, I think there's some truth to what she's saying. In fact, the part that sticks out the most is that she says she will "train Ranna Yagami" in their match. Sareee truly does care about the joshi scene and is not saying these things just to chastise the talent coming up in Stardom. She's trying to prove a point and push these rookies to be stronger and get further.

The best compliment I can give a match like this is that it was very reminiscent of an 80s AJPW match with the same dynamics: fiery young boy getting killed by much more experienced, grumpier old man. The match quite literally starts exactly how I'd want something like that to start, with Ranna instantly getting on the offense before Sareee could even finish making her entrance.

And going back to that point I said about Sareee wanting the best for these rookies and wanting to further them, my favorite part of this match comes pretty early on. After Ranna catches her off guard in the beginning, she continues to get some offense in on the outside. Right when she lands a couple of forearm strikes, you see the biggest smile grow on Sareee's face to the extent where she can't even hide it. She looks like a proud mom because she knows very well what she has done. She unlocked something in Ranna and pushed her. That might be my favorite wrestling moment this year.

While this match continues to be even better from there, that's the stuff I wanted to talk about for today. If you want a more in-depth look at this match, I highly suggest checking out my friend Zeph's blog when they publish their own thoughts about it!

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Thank you for listening to my thoughts on some random matches today; I hope you enjoyed reading! If you didn't, that's alright too. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page.

Art of the Apuestas: Bombero Infernal vs Cerebro Negro

There is nothing else in the world like a lucha de apuestas. Engrained in lucha libre culture, an apuestas match is typically gonna be one of the most important in a luchador's career. I read this tweet recently from mutual Chris and it got me thinking a little. What is it about an apuestas match that elevates it? Of course, the emotions will be higher just due to the nature of both participants having something on the line, but it's more than that.

In an apuestas, you're almost always putting something on the line that's bigger than any championship: your mask or hair. If you lose a championship match, you have the opportunity to win it back at some point, but you'll never get back your mask (most of the time) if you lose it. No rematch clause or championship win is going to remove the humiliation of getting your head shaved by an opponent you that makes your blood boil.

If you're facing the chance of reaching the lowest moment of your career, wouldn't you go all out to make sure that doesn't happen? Maybe you do realize that this is going to be it either way and you just want to do anything you can to make sure you make it a match to remember. The lucha de apuestas is the grandest match anyone could have the honor of being in.

Cerebro Negro, 51 years-old, is having a career renaissance in 2025. His work never really got "bad" at any point, but his output this year has been unfathomable for someone who has been going for that long and at his age. You would think that his body has taken such a beating over time that he's physically gotten worse, but no. The man is still wrestling like he's in his 30s.

Bombero Infernal is 52 years-old himself and while I haven't watched as many of his matches this year, what I have seen has been really good. Particularly, he had great performances in his bull terrier match against Cerebro Negro and then also in the preview tag match that took place 3 days before this hair vs hair matchup.

Tensions will always be increased when you have a (literal) blood feud culminating in two guys putting their hairs on the line. The match will have the vibes of a major "winner takes all, win or go home" game seven. There's nothing stopping these two from facing again, but it feels as if an unwritten agreement of "this is it" gets made when two wrestlers face off in a match like this. All the damage they've done to each other has led to this. Even if they do reignite things in the future, this will be the finale, for now.

All the blood these two have shed with each other is instantly multiplied by Bombero Infernal's blade job early in this match. I was instantly in awe of his crimson mask. It felt like he would usually be the primary bleeder in their matches against each other so far but he goes above and beyond here. The blood also ends up creating some insane visuals throughout the match.

Although Bombero Infernal seemed to be the crowd's favorite, I was definitely rooting for Cerebro Negro all the way. Again, this felt so much more meaningful than any other result of any other match, because it was! Sometimes it's nice to watch wrestling where I don't care about who wins and just see two guys go crazy, but I felt so invested in these two and this match. Nearing the closing stretch, I started pacing around the room after every kickout from Bombero Infernal, worried that he'd be able to make his comeback at any moment.

I want to talk deeper about this match at some point and maybe I will, but all else I really could say about this is please go watch it.

Anyways though, I hope you enjoyed reading this! If you didn't, that's alright too. I know this was more of a different post than usual, but I just wanted to speak a little about how I feel about apuestas matches and my experience with this one. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page!

Just Some Matches #4 (Tenryu Project)

I love Tenryu Project. And I mean EVERYTHING about Tenryu Project: the shitty video quality, the singular hard cam shot, Tenryu's raspy 75-year old voice being the only telligible on the audio side of things.

More importantly though, Tenryu Project produces booking that feels catered to me. One of my favorite wrestlers active today, Keita Yano, primarily works there. Some of my favorite joshi, such as Aja Kong, DASH Chisako, and Chi Chi have all been getting matches there. There's a large sense of unpredictability when it comes to their tournament matchups as you really don't know what you're gonna get.

As Genichiro Tenryu is being celebrated these days more than ever by fellow puro legends with his appearances at the Giant Baba Memorial Show and Kenta Kobashi's Fortune Dream 10 Produce, I figured there's no better time than right now to take a look at what the promotion's been putting out this year.

Keita Yano & Kengo vs. Hikaru Sato & Yuya Susumu (Tenryu Project Tenryu Festival 2/2/25) - FUN

This was a return match for the aforementioned Keita Yano, who was coming off a 5-month hiatus. I don't know the exact details of why he left, but I feel it's one of those things that shouldn't be speculated on in the first place. Either way, he looked like he hadn't missed a single day from what we could see in this one. He unfortunately does the least out of anyone in the match (it felt that way to me at least), but still does maximize his minutes, so to speak. I especially noticed his work in the beginning of the match with his stalling on the outside. It felt like I was watching someone truly get back into the swing of things in real-time.

I am familiar with Kengo by name only, this was the first time watching him wrestle. I must say, he made me a fan in this one. His grappling was slick and expressive, but in a way that still allowed for him to show that he knows what he's doing on that side of things. The whole time I was thinking "I really like these two as a team; hope they have a singles match at some point" and it seems that they indeed did have a singles match some weeks after this!

I don't really have much to say about Yuya Susumu. He is not bad at all, but has the least focused performance in my opinion. I just wasn't really moved by what he did and I reckon that'll change if I watch another match of his that doesn't have these guys in it.

Hikaru Sato's biggest problem in recent years has been inconsistency. You never know what kind of effort you're gonna get from Sato. Even when he does try harder, it's sometimes too much leaning towards that kickboxing direction that I tend to not care much about from him (ironically). 

Despite this, I still enjoy watching him because I can still take something away from his individual performance. While I didn't think his work here was anything special, I did appreciate some of the intricacies of what he was going for tag-wise. At one point, Susumu is trying to reach the ropes so Sato tries to lean on them to push them closer to him before the ref sees this and stops it. He also builds to the eventually matchup in the ring between himself and Yano straight from the beginning with his calling-out of Keita after he misses the chance to face him early on. It's small, but it gives more character to these interactions within the tag match environment, rather than it just being "oh well's here 4 different singles matches in one".

Nothing in this was too crazy to justify going out of your way to seek it out, but I would suggest giving this one a watch if any of these guys interest you or if you come across this show for whatever reason. Fun little match!

Naoki Tanizaki & Yusuke Kodama vs Oji Shiiba & Takuro Niki (Tenryu Project Light My Fire Vol 10 2/20/25) - GOOD

This was my introduction to the Junior Heavyweight division of Tenryu Project, and was a match to decide the next challengers for the International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles (held by Kengo and Yuya Susumu at the time of this show). The matchup starts off with your typical "feeling out" lock-ups and matwork, but I have to give credit where it's due: Naoki Tanizaki gives Oji Shiiba nothing in this opening sequence, making it feel different than the usual approach that would be taken here.

I'd argue that most of the match is just basic fundamentals and fairly by-the-numbers, yet it became easy for me to look past that because of the intensity both teams brought. Tanizaki and Kodama heeled things up big time and I loved their performances, especially Kodama's. Shiiba and Niki were the fighting underdogs that were looked down upon by the heels but still kept trying to prove themselves and they did. There were even a few points that wowed Tenryu on commentary!

The only "issue" I had with the match was Shiiba spamming that one running kick he does (you'll know it if you see it) throughout it. Mix things up for once, please! He does take a beating here though, I'll give him that.

Otherwise though, I thought this match demonstrated exactly what I'm looking for from modern Junior wrestlers. You can still be quick and have high-octane action while giving me something to latch onto and walk away with. For this match specifically, I left realizing I have to watch more of Tanizaki and Kodama (but generally I feel I need to look more into everyone in this match).

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Before I end this post, I wanted to give a minor blog update. I realize this entry is a bit more "themed" and less random than the other 3 in this series so far, and that is for a reason. It felt easier for me to write about these two matches when viewing them in the grand scheme of Tenryu Project and what it's about. I don't plan for all the future posts in this series to be as organized/themed as this one, but it was something I wanted to do as a little precursor to a larger themed project that I'm working on for the blog. 

Anyways though, I hope you enjoyed reading this! If you didn't, that's alright too. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page!

Just Some Matches #3 (Sheik, Singh, and Micros, oh my!)

Another day, another blog post! I have been having so much fun writing these lately, working on these everyday and watching/writing more about wrestling. Thank you to anyone that reads these or even just takes a look at the site, truly. Time for some more matches though!

The Sheik vs. Tiger Jeet Singh [Cage Match] (Canadian Big Time Wrestling ?/?/1975) - FUN

This match was for Sheik's United States Championship and I only found out about this match's existance because I saw that Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling had uploaded this as a part of this show's unaired pilot produced by Dave McKigney, but the footage itself has been on YouTube since 2018 I believe.

I also have historically not been a fan of cage matches that utilize a "escape the cage" stipulation to win the match, especially when you can do so through the cage door. This match's finish definitely makes it work though, but we'll get to that later.

Sheik is so good man, one of the best. My biggest takeaway from the match was how damn good his punching is. Tiger Jeet Singh has some awkward punches himself for the most part, but then lays in some really nice ones to the body near the end.

Going back to that "escape the cage through the door" point, they do some teasing in this one with a lot of the exchanges actually being them grabbing each other whenever one of them makes a run for the door. At one point, Singh takes a punch that knocks him back closer to the door, so he tries to escape then but gets stopped by Sheik. I remember thinking "that's neat" in the moment, and then they revisit that for the finish! This time though, it's Sheik who gets knocked back and flails his body onto the floor outside the cage. Creative finish that really makes you feel like Sheik robbed Tiger of the win, but also points out the hypocrisy of the fans because they would've loved for Tiger to steal that win in that earlier moment. 

There's not much else to really talk about for this one. Cool match, nice heat, Sheik is amazing, and Tiger Jeet Singh is awesome (and don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

Chamuel, KeMalito & Periquito Sacaryas vs. Duende Blanco, KeMonito & Mije - GREAT

From this Tuesday's Arena Coliseo Guadalajara show. I was watching primarily for the main event (which I still might talk about at some point in a future post), but was so blown away by this match that I felt like I needed to write about it.

The micros tore the house down at a GDL show that had some pretty big names like Atlantis, Blue Panther, Máscara Dorada, etc. For a part of the roster that I mostly saw as being there to get some laughs and pop the children in the crowd, they blew my mind. I didn't even know how this would go, as I usually associate the micros with the openers that only go one fall, not a 2/3 falls match that's in the middle of the show.

First things first, Chamuel is amazing here. I know to the casual viewer (which one could argue I am myself), KeMalito is the heat magnet for the rudo team, and it's not wrong to say that. But Chamuel takes that heat and is able to stretch it like a rubber band as far as he can without dragging it. There's one moment in particular in which he stops wrestling, leaves the ring, and just stands on the ramp as he takes in all the crowd's boos. Once he takes the initiative, KeMalito and Sacaryas are able to absorb some of that reaction so they can get some of that heat too.

On the opposite end of Chamuel's heel work, you get Duende Blanco and Mije, who do some awesome moves and brings exciting action to the match. Yeah, KeMonito is of course gonna be the center of attention for most people, but those two specifically take such a beating from the rudos. The second fall ended with Mije being late to save his partners and he has to drag KeMonito back to the corner for the next fall, but gets attacked by Sacaryas and KeMalito while doing so. This made me feel genuinely sorry for Mije and them. Good shit.

I am not sure how someone could see the crowd erupting for the first and third falls and feel like both sides didn't do their jobs perfectly here. Speaking of which, I thought this was a very well paced match all things considered. First fall feels goes by very quickly after the opening segments, the second fall sees the rudos getting some good teamwork going on to get some 2-on-1 and 3-on-1 action, and the third fall has our heroes pulling out their big spots. They get their shine, comebacks, and then the win. I did feel that the final fall did get a bit too start-stop at points but it wasn't major enough to ruin anything for me.

Really, really good match, cannot recommend this one enough.

Hope you enjoyed reading this! If you didn't, that's alright too. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page!

Just Some Matches #2 (HD Fishman in a Cage & NJPW 5x5 Elimination Tags)

Hello again, everyone! Hope whoever saw my first post enjoyed what they read and if not, that's alright too. Before I even get into wrestling stuff, I just wanted to first thank each and every one of you that either read, reposted, liked, or even just saw any of my posts about this blog. I had such a great time writing that first post and it was very gratifying to see that there's at least people besides me that enjoyed giving it a look!

It means so much to me that even one person would even go to look at the site, let alone read an entire post I made. Feeling so excited, I wanted to talk about more matches! So I asked some friends for some ideas of what they'd like to see and got 3 matches in particular for this one.

Macuarro vs. El Hijo del Fishman (Zona 23/Lucha Memes Junkyard Mania 8/18/2024) - GREAT

Given the nature of this match, I feel like it's best to just get right into it.

If this was your first time seeing Macuarro, like it was for me, I don't think anything can prepare for his look. I originally thought that Zona had grabbed a random elderly man from the crowd to get murdered by Hijo del Fishman. Which, to be completely fair, he does take a nasty beating in this match. But it's one that seems more courageous rather than "this poor old man is gonna die, this is disgusting". I think the reason this is has to do with Macuarro's ability to dish it out himself. He isn't a stranger to the junkyard; quite the opposite actually. He's a bit of a cult legend when it comes to the Zona 23 fanbase and while I didn't know that at the time I watched this match for the first time a few days after it released onto IWTV, I was definitely made into a fan of his after this performance.

The match starts off how you'd expect a Fishman match to start off if you seen him wrestle before: he takes in a lot of boos and then he brawls with his opponent around the venue before they even get in the ring. I'd be lying if I said he wasn't a formulaic worker. Most of well known matches are all against Máscara Sagrada NG and they're all almost exactly the same exact match every time. But it always works for me because I love that type of match that he goes for, a good ol' lucha walk n' brawl.

While this match does start off that way, it does take a different turn than usual for Fishman. When the match finally gets to the ring and inside the cage, he brings his typical irritated vibe. Drops a brick on Macuarro's stomach, gets him with some skewers, tries to put him through a car hood. You definitely do feel at least a little bad for Macuarro here. The change comes when he's able to move out the way and Fishman goes through the hood instead, leaving a massive opportunity open for him. Macuarro races to a bag of weapons and this is when we get to see that he's just as sick as Fishman is.

This balding, old man uses skewers of his own, a TROWEL, and even uses a hammer to break a brick on Fishman's stomach. Both of them bringing this kind of energy to the junkyard, fueled even more with a heated crowd, gives this a bit of a "dudes rock" feeling to this match. But it still feels differently than most Fishman matches, which do have a similar vibe. With his usual matches against someone like Sagrada, it's like "Yeah! Brawl around the arena and beat the hell out of each other!! Woooooo!!!". Though in this match, it's more of a "these guys want to kill each other and I'm a bit scared but the lengths they are going to do so is awesome to see".

(Also, Hijo del Fishman is really good when it comes to just absorbing all that heat from the crowd. Near the beginning of the match, the entire crowd is booing him and cheering for Macuarro, so he just stands there and takes it in, before continuing to try to murder Macuarro. Later on, there's a point where his pants start falling a little and the crowd points it out and starts to laugh at him, so he quickly pulls them up and has a real embarrassed reaction as he looks around at the crowd to see if they noticed. It's like a perfect balance between being arrogant enough to make people want to boo you, but also showing that you are actually fazed by the crowd in the end.)

This is a really sick match, in more ways than one. I'd personally recommend it to anyone who enjoys the Zona Junkyard brawls, but I don't know if I would say the same for those that don't. It's a pretty violent beating and not for the feint of heart.

Thank you to Evie for suggesting this one!

Akira Maeda, Kazuo Yamazaki, Nobuhiko Takada, Osamu Kido & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. George Takano, Kantaro Hoshino, Kengo Kimura, Shiro Koshinaka & Tatsumi Fujinami (NJPW 9/16/1986) - FUN

Thanks to Ben for suggesting both of these NJPW matches!

New Japan 5x5 elimination tags are always good. I have yet to come across one that I dislike. I love tag team wrestling, especially when you can get a number of mini singles matchups within one match. That's largely the bread and butter of these NJPW elimination tag matches, and it's no different here.

I think this match does lack a little bit in the substance department. Yes, you get the cool matchups between Fujiwara/Fujinami, Takada/Fujinami, and Takada/Koshinaka. These are huge encounters, but also feel like they're holding back. In complete fairness, everyone in this match does a good job and there's great grappling exchanges, transitions, and reversals; but I feel like even the big matchups still feel incomplete, like there wasn't enough for me to latch onto. It makes it difficult to think very critically of this one, but there's still enough good in this match to make it fun at least.

In terms of stuff I really did love in this match: Fujiwara's performance and the Takada/Koshinaka finishing matchup. 

Fujiwara is excellent at everything he does in every match, of course, but here he's real good at being a foil to Fujinami and also generally to Team NJPW. One moment that stuck with me was when Fujiwara just starts dropping headbutts on Team NJPW, one-by-one. The crowd goes crazy for it, despite Fujiwara being the opposition to their side. 

Takada and Koshinaka tease their duel a bit earlier in the match, but we actually end up getting more of it in the finishing stretch. This made it feel a lot more fulfilling than the other matchups in this one. Koshinaka gets beat up by Takada a good amount, but the crowd explodes whenever he shows anything that keeps him in the match, whether that be a kickout, hip attack, or even just not submitting immediately when Takada gets him.

Like I said, the match isn't bad at all, just a bit lackluster in my opinion. And with that being said, there's still really sick stuff in here, so it's definitely worth watching still!

Riki Choshu, Tatsumi Fujinami, Shinya Hashimoto, Masahiro Chono & Hiroshi Hase vs Genichiro Tenryu, Ashura Hara, Takashi Ishikawa, Super Strong Machine & Tatsutoshi Goto (NJPW 6/15/1993) - GOOD

You can tell shit's about to go down before this one even starts. The crowd makes some noise when the lights dim for entrances, as Tenryu leads out Team WAR. Team NJPW don't really have a designated leader, but the crowd does really love Choshu more than anyone else it seems.

Team NJPW is much more star-studded than the WAR team, but I still think I'm a bigger fan of the WAR guys going into this. Takashi Ishikawa is a personal favorite of mine and I can't wait to use this blog to talk about him more, Ashura Hara is another really good, underappreciated legend, and Super Strong Machine is a beast that was needed for a match like this.

This match is slower paced than the other one we talked about, but I enjoy it more because that's more my style for these kinds of matches. To it's credit though, the '86 match does do a really good job at not wasting a single second and making every moment count, while this match does have it's downtime points.

Tenryu is the first person to be eliminated from Team WAR and that creates this awesome sense of uncertainty and worry for the WAR guys. He gets caught off guard by Fujinami, which then creates some more tension between the two teams. Super Strong Machine offers a nice change of style by focusing on the arm of Fujinami, who's elbow is wrapped up. This leads the next few tags to become about isolating that arm still and making sure he hurts.

From this point, we get some breakups whenever the WAR guys try to tap out Fujinami, but they don't feel like regular breakups. There feels like there's a real animosity that comes from the NJPW guys that makes what would be a routine submission breakup into Choshu hitting the hell out of Tatsutoshi Goto while he puts Fujinami in a Scorpion Lock.

Speaking of which, there's a bunch of creative ideas in this one! Hase gets a giant swing that goes 20 (I think, from what I counted at least), but he gets instantly attacked as soon as he's finished with it. I'm not sure if it's a bad thing because the crowd had no time to react to that feat and Hase had no time to take it in, or if it's sick because the WAR guys don't give a shit about giving him time to breathe. Generally, the match has an innovative feeling to it, if that makes much sense. It feels like the elimination tags worked from this one.

I think while I definitely prefer this match to the previous one, I like both! This match and how it's structured is personally more geared towards my tastes.

Hope you enjoyed reading this! If you didn't, that's alright too. Let me know if you have any thoughts, criticisms, ideas, or whatever in the comments or get in touch with me on my Twitter page!

Just Some Matches (Intro! Akarangers & The Little Things That I Love)

So, this is the first post to be published by me on here! I'll use this as a mini introduction to myself, although if you've made it here, you very likely already know a bit about me. After we get past that, I'll get to a couple random match reviews!

I'm Mike, although the alias that the person reading this is probably most familiar with is "mikeawesomemike" or some variation of that name. Started watching wrestling in the later 2000s when I was younger. This mostly came in the form of WWE, but sometimes my oldest brother would be watching TNA, so I'd take a peek at the shows when he did. I don't know exactly what made me stop watching, but I know I stopped a little bit after the Rusev v. Cena feud (which I remember liking at the time) ended. I would then start watching again around WWE Clash of Champions 2020 (I distinctly remember that being near the beginning of the Roman Tribal Chief stuff), but that didn't have to do with the return of my fandom. Around that time, a friend that was into wrestling had told me to watch Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi's G1 Climax match that had happened in New Japan, because it was their favorite match ever. I had never heard of Ibushi before, and Omega was someone that I knew of loosely because of the formation of AEW being so huge. 

And so I watched the match, and it was unlike anything I'd really seen before. I was fascinated by not only that match, but the entire world of wrestling I had been missing out on outside of the WWE. And so, I began to watch more and more puro, which became more and more lucha, and then a little bit of everything else around the world. So by now, I feel I've been watching wrestling for a long portion of my life. Not as long as some of the fans that I'm inspired by (such as SegundaCaida, reverseviperhold, and Matt D, who's influences will hopefully be very prevalent on this blog) but I want to get there eventually.

"Introduction" aside, I feel it's only right to get to some match reviewing! These matches are somewhat randomly chosen, but I also felt that my thoughts on them might give some more insight on how I think about pro wrestling and the kind of stuff that I like and dislike.

Takashi Sasaki & GENTARO vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Tomohiro Ishii (WEW 9/14/2002) - GREAT

Ah, what a place to start. While I'm sure I've watched matches from here before, I know little to nothing about WEW. If this match is the one thing I'll remember the company for though, then what a way to leave an impression.

Ishii, the most popular name here today, of course, but this was a much less experienced Ishii than the one most know now. I'd personally argue that there's things that I like more about this version of him more than his New Japan era. Firstly, he walks into the ring looking like Dick Togo. This is the second biggest compliment one could receive. Then, it actually feels like he wrestles like Dick Togo. This is the biggest compliment one could receive.

Maybe it's just me being blinded by his look, but it really does feel like Ishii does a good job at filling that chickenshit bastard role against the Akarangers' "pure" babyface energy. I think that also might be me being blinded by my love for Takashi Sasaki and (especially) GENTARO though.

GENTARO is another wrestler that has had very different styles throughout his career. My first introduction to him was his incredible match against Kenichiro Arai for Mutoha. While he is amazing both in that match and this one, they are for completely different reasons. In the Mutoha match, he displays so much struggle through what he goes through himself as well as the pain he inflicts on Arai. (Anyways, enough of that match; that'll be for another time.) Yet GENTARO here, in the best, most cartoonish way possible, makes his entrance late while Takashi Sasaki is getting jumped, proceeds to take a moment to take his glasses off before running towards the ring, just to still get bested on the ramp by Ikuto Hidaka. Fantastic start.

I've said this before, but I don't want my "reviews" to turn into just play-by-plays of what goes down in the match and that is especially the case for this one, because I think you, yes YOU, should go watch this right now.

I actually want to go back though to what I mentioned earlier about Ishii (and by proxy, Ikuto Hidaka) being the chickenshit heels in this one compared Sasaki and GENTARO. Ishii and Hidaka hit hard, to no one's surprise. But what's very noticeable is how GENTARO takes that offense. He is stooging HARD here. Comically BOUNCING around the ring whenever he gets hit. And yet, that's the perfect way to garner sympathy for yourself against guys like these. Despite how "ridiculous" it might seem, it genuinely really makes you feel sorry for him. Despite how different the selling is from the Arai match, it is still the selling that makes you feel in this match!

I know I've spoken about him the least here, but Sasaki is also sick here: He does his great tag spots with GENTARO, has an exciting comeback, and generally is just cool! Not much else to say about him in this match unfortunately, but that doesn't necessarily mean he did bad.

Finally, the match reaches it's conclusion with a DQ finish right when Ishii and Hidaka are about to lose the upper hand to the Akarangers. It hurts, but in the intended way. I'm mad that the match ends there and GENTARO doesn't get a chance to win it himself, but it was also the exact point that the match should've ended at so it didn't overstay it's welcome. Pretty neat match.

Xelhua & Valiente Jr. vs. Guerrero Maya Jr. & El Hijo de Stuka Jr. (CMLL 5/3/2025) - GOOD

Firstly, what a past year Xelhua's had, am I right? Easily the most promising young guy in CMLL in my opinion, has been in a program with the fantastic Guerrero Maya Jr., and is even more exciting with the opportunities he has in Lucha Memes. His ongoing feud with the aforementioned Guerrero Maya Jr. is definetely the biggest thread going into this match, but I feel this match is still able to stand on it's own merits as well.

The little things are what matter most in this match, and Guerrero Maya Jr. shows that the most. From the creative mind that decides to go for an elbow drop to the groin, to the way he performs each specific move, even to his shocked and distraught reactions to seeing the athletic feats of Valiente Jr. right before his eyes, he is shows so much character and personality without going too far and being "over-expressive". It might just seem like regular behavior to most viewers and that's fine! But damn does it mean a lot to me.

I especially enjoyed how quick the first fall changed momentum, with Xelhua only making one mistake that caused Maya Jr. and HD Stuka Jr. to get the opening they needed to claim the fall. Makes the other falls a lot more suspenseful and gives the feeling that any counter could realistically cause the match to end.

The finish fell flat for me, I can't lie. But that isn't to take much away from the rest of the match that was really really good.

Hope whoever got this far enjoyed! I wasn't really sure how to go about most of this originally, but I feel proud of how this came out! Let me know anything I could've done better, what you liked, what you didn't like, and generally any thoughts on my writing or the matches themselves!