Matches #9 (2025 Indie Lucha Edition)

 Hey y'all, back with more matches! All of these are gonna be ones from lucha indie shows.

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Tonalli vs. Aero Boy (Rompiendo Madres 9/7/2025) - FUN

Tonalli is easily one of the best (if not the best) rudos on the scene and he's only 27! He's got a great mind for an indie luchador on the younger side; feels like he just gets it. Knows exactly when to knock his opponents down and knows when it's his turn to get his ass beat.

Aero Boy doesn't let up and makes the most of every chance he gets at Tonalli. Haven't seen much of him before, but I like him here. Shows a ton of urgency and makes it feel more like a struggle to overcome Tonalli. In today's day and age, it's harder for me to care about/want to root against a rudo as cool and talented as Tonalli, but Aero Boy does well at making me believe in what he's got going and his offense doesn't get as annoying as I expected it to.

Yeah, he's got better matches for sure, but I would definitely show this to anyone who likes Tonalli or thinks he'd be up their alley. Love him. He does a good job at grounding things, literally and figuratively.

Erick Ortiz vs. Enigma Extremo (Panther Promotions Arena Coliseo Reynosa 8/17/2025) - GOOD

I've seen only like one other Enigma Extremo match before and it was him tagging with the indie GOD Erick Ortiz back in Feburary of this year and I thought he was awesome in that. The easiest way to win me over on first watch is to do sick shit that's dangerous and he did that and then some in the tag. What a delightful surprise to see that these two did a singles against each other last month.

Starts off with some cool llaveo between the two before heading into more bump-freak territory. What's surprising is that Erick Ortiz isn't the one doing said bump-freak stuff, it's Enigma Extremo. I remember him doing some nuts stuff in that February tag but holyyy; I shrieked at some of the moves he took here.

Also while I have my complaints with matches that start off with grappling to fill time and then dropping it as soon as the match leaves the opening minutes, I am more lenient when it comes to llaveo because it feels more exhibition-like in nature already. Also while I wish they did more of it, I still thought the grappling was enjoyable.

Erick Ortiz is great. Enigma Extremo is starting to climb up my list of guys I should be paying more attention to.

Avisman vs. Feroz (Lucha Memes Coacalco Patrio 9/14/2025) - GREAT

Speaking of good llaveo, AVISMAN~! My current pick for wrestler of the year, there's nothing I can think of that this dude can't do. He's matwork looks magical, he can do the blood-soaked brawls, also has done more "exciting" stuff with some of his matches that are more all-around. I don't know how this is the first time I'm talking about him on here.

I've never heard of Feroz before but figured I'd give him a watch after seeing him get a match announced against Xelhua. I love Avisman and it's hard to have a bad match with him, so why not give this a watch?

This leans more into that aforementioned all-around type of Avisman match, but both of these guys are so good at everything they go for. Feroz can hang in there with Avisman's grappling, and they beat the hell out of each other on the outside for a bit in this match. Avisman is of course the tecnico in Coliseo Coacalco and the crowd's completely behind him. Feroz is a strong force standing in the way and fills the role pretty well. It especially shows in the latter portion where he's just destroying Avisman with the big moves, and Avisman just keeps fighting on. Finish is satisfying too.

Loved this match. Everyone should watch more Avisman and I think I'll be watching more of this Feroz dude in the future (excited now to see how that Xelhua match goes).

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I love indie lucha libre.

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.

Matches #8

Hey y'all! Back already with more matches to talk about.

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Matt Mako vs. Katsuyori Shibata (Ring of Honor 9/11/2025) - GOOD

This was under ROH's Pure Rules and aired on the 9/18/2025 episode of Honor Club.

Was a big fan of this matchup, I think it ended up being even better than the two Lee Moriarty/Xelhua matches that ROH just ran that I also liked a lot. I've never really connected with Pure Rules like longer-tenured Ring Of Honor fans seem to, so I don't think there's a lot of guys left in the U.S. that I'd want to see in the match type. But Mako is definitely one of them, more than Shibata even.

While they have been getting better at it as of late, AEW has always seemed to struggle with hierarchy in their match structure 90% of the time and I wish they could borrow more from ROH in that regard. This isn't a perfect example of that, but I feel it's really interesting to see how this match goes about showing it. Of course, it's easiest to see that Shibata is outplaying Mako when he forces him to use all 3 of his rope-breaks very early on in the match, before Shibata himself even uses one of his own. Shibata is gonna out-grapple Mako, sounds about right. Mako then has to resort to his striking instead, and Shibata beats him there too. He's just not going to be able to beat him by any traditional/"pure" means but he's gonna keep running into that brick wall, hoping it comes crashing down.

I also love seeing when someone that actually knows what they're doing goes out there and showcases some real jiu-jitsu discipline like Mako does. His transitions are incredible here and it's nice to see Shibata in his most grapple-focused match in years.

Felino, Místico & Volador Jr. vs. Averno, Mephisto & Olímpico (CMLL 6/18/2004) - SKIPPABLE

This was the debut of Místico under the gimmick and was re-released by CMLL last year to celebrate his 20th anniversary. Also, Fray Tormenta comes out to second Místico during his entrance, yes!!

Místico starting off with Olímpico just feels like the right decision. Místico doesn't feel like he's moving as mythically (if that doesn't make sense, just think about Hijo del Santo moves) yet at this point in his career, but Olímpico has always felt like a reliable hand to me. It also creates an opening for rudo trios offense on Felino and Volador Jr. while Místico chills on the outside in that first fall.

Second fall goes pretty similarly, in the sense that Felino and Volador are carrying the load after Místico gets a cool spot in. To be fair, they're sick as hell and I love the both of them. Rudos have some great stooging of course.

Místico/Mephisto and Volador Jr./Averno are great pairings in the third fall. There's a lot of points in the match that just feel like a regular two on two match between the Felino/Volador Jr. and Averno/Mephisto, while Olímpico and Místico do their own thing. They are the opening and closing of the match and while this a perfectly fine debut, there's still a bit of novelty behind seeing those two do their spots in a historically significant moment as the four other guys are having a much more interesting match (albeit, one that could've been better).

They should run this back in 2025 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara but move Felino to the rudo side to replace Olímpico and then put Rey Bucanero on the tecnico side.

Great Muta vs. The Great Kabuki (WAR 5/24/1993) - FUN

I don't really know how great this match could've been (or even ended up being), but I love blood in my wrestling. Yeah, yeah, yeah, call me insane or whatever, I see blood and I like the match. I don't even wish to spoil how gnarly the blood in this match is, but it's basically the one thing I wanted to talk about that I feel like I have to.

Kabuki has blood squirting out of his forehead after just a few minutes. It's one of the sickest visuals I've seen in a match and also one of the most concerning. I don't usually love a lot of Muta/Muto matches because a lot of them fall into a boring, control-heavy formula. This still has some of that but the blood does so much to keep me engaged and the match didn't go too long either. I can't hate this.

Jon Cortez vs. Steve Grey (World of Sport 7/27/1981) - GOOD

Usually am put off by a lot of the WoS stuff I've seen but this was the first time watching a match from there that was a recommendation, so I wanted to give it a fair chance. A lot of the other stuff I've seen has too much "wink-wink, nudge-nudge" grappling that's without much struggle and it makes it really hard for me to get into it, but I tried going into this with the mindset that not all wrestling is going to fall into the mold of a match that I love and that's alright!

Funny enough though, there was actually a lot of great struggling in this! The earlier rounds made me feel like I was watching a match from decades before this took place, which is great. I love when there's a focus on a hold as "simple" as a headlock. The suspense builds perfectly to when the first forearm strike gets thrown later on.

I even like the simplicity of the finish and didn't feel necessarily let down by it or anything. I liked both of these guys, but I think I'm gonna seek out more Steve Grey for sure.

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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.

Matches #7

Hey again y'all! Been really enjoying the wrestling I have been watching as of late and it's felt like I've been spending a lot more time watching and less time writing, so let's fix that by talking about some of the stuff I've seen recently.

Before we get to that though, I really wanted to give a major thank you to everyone who was involved with anything relating to the Thanomsak Toba interview I posted earlier this month. Loads of people read it, reposted, had very nice things to say, and some friends even helped me put a number of those questions together. I think that whole process was one of the coolest things I've been a part of in regards to anything I've put out there for wrestling, so I am eternally grateful for how much people seemed to like that.

Now, on to some matches!

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Judas el Traidor vs. Heddi Karaoui (Lucha Memes/Coachelas Lucha Libre 10/22/2023) - FUN

This was my first time watching a Heddi Karaoui match, after it popped up in my recommended feed and I saw it was against Judas el Traidor (who is one of my favorite independent wrestlers in the world right now). I've heard many things about Karaoi and his grappling ability so I was excited to see how this matchup would go because Judas can do it all: Great grappler, brawler, can strike, knows how to work against all levels of experience.

Arena Coliseo Coacalco is basically Judas's domain and you can tell. The crowd is really behind him and generally I thought this crowd was nice, as this usually tends to be one of my go-to favorite venues for dream matches with a llave focus. Karaoui was good at playing into the dynamic by resorting to rolling outside and more power-based holds as opposed to stuff that's more technically sound and visually appealing.

I didn't understand why there was the strike-off near the end, even if the striking itself wasn't bad. Either way, this match is 16 minutes of mostly llave that I'd imagine fans of any of these wrestlers would enjoy. I wonder what this match would look like had Judas went for some brawling and Heddi would have to try adapting or relying even more on keeping his opponent neutralized by the holds.

Sasaki Complete Jr. vs. Kota Watanabe (CWP Overdrive 7/12/2025) - GOOD

This tournament final match was for the vacant/new CWP Middleweight Title. 

I can't say with 100% certainty that these two are student/amateur/hobbyist wrestlers but I'd like to think so, considering they both combine for less than 100 matches total despite the pooled 12ish years of experience between the two (and also the fact that they have primarily wrestled for CWP). 

To be honest though, you could've told me that Sasaki Complete Jr. was a Sportiva rookie or Big Japan young boy and I would've believed it, and I mean that as a compliment to the highest regard. His kicks are what I can describe only as "sharp", if that makes sense. That's not to say Watanabe is not any good either, he's got some promise too. He does a good job working from under in this, which is pretty important given the type of match they're working here.

I felt that Sasaki was great at being that boss for Watanabe to overcome and was very compelling when he was dominating. It also seemed like this was best for Watanabe as I was moved much more by his "passive" selling than his offense in the later portions.

I'd recommend this match if you're into more amaresu stuff.

Junkyard Dog vs. The Grappler (Mid-South Wrestling 6/9/1982) - FUN

This was a Mid-South Louisiana Title match that aired on the 6/19/1982 episode of television.

It's a short one but a goodie still. I don't like giving play-by-play on these (for various reasons), but I think the finish is the best display of what this match is about: The Grappler's laying on the outside and while Junkyard Dog is waiting for him to come back inside, The Assassin attacks JYD. JYD hits what is seemingly a metal plate in Assassin's forehead (he's wearing a mask so I don't know), realizes this, and then attacks the back of his head instead. More interferences happen and the match has to get thrown out, but the crowd goes wild as Ted DiBiase makes the save and he stands triumphant alongside Junkyard Dog in the ring.

Simple (I know that explanation may have seemed complicated but I promise it's an easy watch), rewarding pro wrestling.

Osamu Nishimura vs. Yuji Nagata (NJPW Toukon Spirito Guerriero 6/2/2005) - SKIPPABLE

This was from a 2005 NJPW tour in Italy and seemed to be lost for 15 years, until a fancam of the match was uploaded onto YouTube in 2019. Apparently the full tour is out there, but I couldn't find anything other than this match anywhere.

This is also "European Rounds", meaning there's five 3-minute rounds and also the ref can give yellow and red cards up to his discretion. I actually like how creative they get with the stipulation compared to how they usually would be wrestling each other. I feel they do a good job of working within the stipulation, but I do have some gripes with the match.

As opposed to something like the CWP or Mid-South matches, I really struggled with getting myself invested in the match. There wasn't enough struggle and little-to-no urgency from both sides. In his own review of this match on the Handwerk blog, Simon wrote, "Nagata gets more technical than usual, and Nishimura gets madder than usual". Unfortunately, that's all this match really was to me: Nagata and Nishimura wrestling each other's match and just that.

I'm going to say that no one should take the "SKIPPABLE" at face value though. I do appreciate Nishimura's selling performance and this match is generally a neat novelty. I'm sure others would enjoy this match more than me.

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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.

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.