Ma Stump Puller

Other Deep Dive stuff Introduction Carlos Amano's pretty based, but I was really bothered a few months back because there just wasn't much if any comprehensive coverage on WHAT matches represented her coolness factor the best, especially to a more casual audience that didn't have the time to really discover these sort of things. This totally original thread that hasn't stolen a lick of creative value will attempt to document and list pretty much every major match (alongside some random selections) of her career....minus some showings that I either wasn't able to cover or wasn't bothered to do so, like the VKF tags (mostly boring) her Kamen matches (they suck) and a good few of her really early 1995/early 96 matches (pretty much all of them have nothing of value). Outside of that I hope that this is a valuable resource to anyone looking to get into this era of wrestling as it's immensely rewarding once you get a hang of what to try to find. Matches will be sorted as what you definitely haven't seen elsewhere: EPIC, GREAT, FUN or SKIPPABLE. I will add in a DECENT for matches that aren't necessarily reaching the point of being "fun" nor truly skippable either. Kinda like a 6/10 rating if that makes any sense. I also do dates in the Euro style so it's day/month/year in case anyone is confused at first. Some matches have their own pages on here so I will just link to those when necessary. 1995 Reiko Amano vs Tomoko Miyaguchi JWP (16/06/95): DECENT Reiko Amano vs Bolshoi Kid JWP (10/31/95): FUN 1996 Reiko Amano vs Bolshoi Kid JWP (07/04/96): FUN Reiko Amano & Tomoko Miyaguchi vs Command Bolshoi & Kanako Motoya JWP (21/04/96): DECENT Reiko Amano vs The Bloody Phoenix AJW (18/05/96): SKIPPABLE Reiko Amano & Mayumi Ozaki vs Dynamite Kansai & Tomoko Miyaguchi JWP (16/06/96): GREAT Reiko Amano & Chikayo Nagashima vs Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato GAEA (16/11/96): DECENT 1997 Reiko Amano & Mayumi Ozaki vs Devil Masami & Hikari Fukuoka JWP (09.02.97): GREAT Rieko Amano & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Megumi Kudo & RIE JWP (08/04/97): FUN Reiko Amano & Chikayo Nagashima vs Akira Hokuto & Maiko Matsumoto GAEA (21/04/97: DECENT Reiko Amano vs Tomoko Miyaguchi JWP (10/05/97): DECENT, BORDERING ON FUN Reiko Amano, Chikayo Nagashima, Mayumi Ozaki & Sugar Sato vs Chigusa Nagayo, Devil Masami, Meiko Satomura & Tomoko Miyaguchi JWP (08/06/97): FUN Reiko Amano vs Kumiko Maekawa JWP (17/08/97): DECENT Reiko Amano & Chikayo Nagashima vs Meiko Satomura & Toshie Uematsu GAEA (30/11/97): FUN 1998 Reiko Amano & Sugar Sato vs Command Bolshoi & Dynamite Kansai JWP (11/02/98): DECENT Reiko Amano vs Mayumi Ozaki JWP (06/03/98): EPIC Rieko Amano vs Tomoko Miyaguchi JWP (10/05/98): GREAT Reiko Amano vs Kanako Motoya JWP (14/06/98): FUN Reiko Amano & Chikayo Nagashima vs Sonoko Kato & Toshie Uematsu OZ Academy (21/06/98): DECENT 1999 Reiko Amano vs Meiko Satomura GAEA (17/01/99): EPIC Carlos Amano & Aja Kong vs Meiko Satomura & Toshiyo Yamada OZ Academy (28/02/99): FUN Carlos Amano vs Azumi Hyuga JWP (23/09/99): GREAT 2001 Carlos Amano vs Hiromi Yagi Michinoku Pro (14/01/01): FUN Carlos Amano & Chikayo Nagashima vs Meiko Satomura & Sumie Sakai OZ Academy (18/02/01): FUN Carlos Amano & Hiromi Yagi vs Chaparita ASARI & Yuka Shiina NEO (04/05/01): FUN Carlos Amano vs Ran YuYu JWP (10/09/01): GREAT Carlos Amano & Meiko Satomura vs Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada GAEA (24/09/01): FUN Carlos Amano & Chigusa Nagayo vs. Chikayo Nagashima & Toshiyo Yamada GAEA (28/10/01): FUN Carlos Amano vs. Toshie Uematsu GAEA (15/12/01): DECENT 2002 Carlos Amano & Aja Kong vs Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada GAEA (13/01/02): SKIPPABLE Carlos Amano vs Aya Sakurai GAEA (13/01/02): DECENT Carlos Amano, Chikayo Nagashima & Mayumi Ozaki vs Chigusa Nagayo, Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada GAEA (14/01/02): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Azumi Hyuga JWP (23/02/02): EPIC Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai vs Chigusa Nagayo & Sakura Hirota GAEA (17/03/02): FUN Carlos Amano & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Devil Masami & Toshie Uematsu GAEA (07/04/02): SKIPPABLE Carlos Amano vs Aja Kong OZ Academy (11/05/02): FUN Carlos Amano vs Sugar Sato GAEA (18/05/02): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Chikayo Nagashima GAEA (26/05/02): FUN Carlos Amano vs Ayako Hamada GAEA (02/06/02): GREAT Carlos Amano & Chikayo Nagashima vs Ayako Hamada & Chigusa Nagayo GAEA (30/06/02): FUN Carlos Amano vs Command Bolshoi JWP (15/09/02): GREAT Carlos Amano vs Command Bolshoi JWP (23/09/02): EPIC Carlos Amano vs Ran YuYu GAEA (20/10/02): FUN 2003 Carlos Amano vs Chikayo Nagashima GAEA (06/04/03): FUN Carlos Amano & Mima Shimoda vs Aja Kong & Lioness Asuka OZ Academy (31/08/03): DECENT 2004 Carlos Amano vs Mariko Yoshida GAEA (30/04/04): EPIC Carlos Amano vs Amazing Kong OZ Academy (08/08/04): FUN Carlos Amano vs Mayumi Ozaki OZ Academy (08/08/04): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Manami Toyota GAEA (16/10/04): DECENT Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota vs Ayako Hamada & Dynamite Kansai GAEA (17/10/04): DECENT 2005 Carlos Amano & Chigusa Nagayo vs AKINO & Mariko Yoshida GAEA (16/01/05): FUN Carlos Amano & AKINO vs Ran YuYu & Toshie Uematsu GAEA (11/02/05): FUN Carlos Amano vs Aja Kong (10/04/05): GREAT Carlos Amano & Mayumi Ozaki vs. Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato OZ Academy (26/06/05): FUN 2006 Carlos Amano vs Kaoru Ito OZ Academy (22/01/06): FUN Carlos Amano vs Mika Nishio OZ Academy (03/23/06): FUN Carlos Amano vs Mayumi Ozaki OZ Academy (30/04/06): SKIPPABLE Carlos Amano vs Yurie Kaneko Sendai Girls (11/11/06): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Mayumi Ozaki OZ Academy (30/12/06): GREAT Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai vs Ran YuYu & Yuki Miyazaki OZ Academy (30/12/06): DECENT 2007 Carlos Amano vs Chikayo Nagashima OZ Academy (28/01/07): FUN Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai vs Eagle Sawai & Takako Inoue OZ Academy (28/01/07): FUN Carlos Amano vs GAMI OZ Academy (04/05/07): SKIPPABLE Carlos Amano vs Kyoko Kimura Battlarts (13/05/07): EPIC Carlos Amano vs AKINO OZ Academy (10/06/07): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Kaori Yoneyama OZ Academy (21/10/07): GREAT 2008 Carlos Amano vs Aja Kong OZ Academy (13/01/08): EPIC Carlos Amano vs Ryo Mizunami Sendai Girls (24/02/08): GREAT Carlos Amano vs Mayumi Ozaki OZ Academy (12/04/08): FUN Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai vs Aja Kong & Manami Toyota (07/06/08): FUN Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai vs Chikayo Nagashima & Sonoko Kato OZ Academy (13/07/08): FUN Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai vs. KAORU & Mayumi Ozaki OZ Academy (10/08/08): FUN Carlos Amano & Azumi Hyuga vs Chikayo Nagashima & Meiko Satomura JWP (28/12/08): DECENT Carlos Amano, Devil Masami & Dynamite Kansai vs Aja Kong, Ran YuYu & Toshie Uematsu Marvelous Night V (30/12/08): FUN 2009 Carlos Amano & Tomoka Nakagawa vs AKINO & Ayumi Kurihara OZ Academy (22/09/09): DECENT Carlos Amano, Azumi Hyuga & Command Bolshoi vs Harley Saito, Mayumi Ozaki & Shinobu Kandori OZ Academy (16/08/09): DECENT 2010 Carlos Amano vs Manami Toyota OZ Academy (10/01/10): ??? Carlos Amano vs Manami Toyota OZ Academy (07/02/10): ??? Carlos Amano vs Manami Toyota OZ Academy (21/02/10): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Manami Toyota OZ Academy (14/03/10): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Manami Toyota OZ Academy (04/04/10): FUN Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota vs Aja Kong & Kaoru Ito OZ Academy (13/06/10): FUN Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota vs Aja Kong & Yoshiko Tamura OZ Academy (22/08/10): DECENT 2011 Carlos Amano & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Kana & Yoshiaki Fujiwara Kana Pro (10/01/11): GREAT Carlos Amano, Manami Toyota & Nao Komatsu vs. Hiren, Io Shirai & Mio Shirai OZ Academy (10/04/11): DECENT Carlos Amano, GAMI & Manami Toyota vs Chikayo Nagashima, Hiren & Mayumi Ozaki OZ Academy (03/11/11): SKIPPABLE Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Yumi Ohka OZ Academy (18/12/11): DECENT 2012 Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota vs Aja Kong & Sonoko Kato OZ Academy (15/01/12): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Tomoka Nakagawa OZ Academy (26/02/12): SKIPPABLE Carlos Amano vs Shuu Shibutani WAVE (10/10/12): DECENT Carlos Amano & Ran YuYu vs Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki OZ Academy (09/12/12): FUN Carlos Amano vs Mayumi Ozaki Sendai Girls (15/12/12): SKIPPABLE 2013 Carlos Amano vs Tsubasa Kuragaki OZ Academy (10/02/13): SKIPPABLE? Carlos Amano & Meiko Satomura vs Aja Kong & Hikaru Shida OZ Academy (10/03/13): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Aya Mizunami WAVE (27/03/13): FUN Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai vs AKINO & Hiroyo Matsumoto OZ Academy (12/05/13): DECENT Carlos Amano, Hailey Hatred, Hiroyo Matsumoto & Mio Shirai vs. DASH Chisako, Kagetsu, Meiko Satomura & Sendai Sachiko Michinoku Pro (30/06/13): DECENT Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai vs Aja Kong & Ayako Hamada OZ Academy (14/07/13): DECENT Carlos Amano vs Manami Toyota OZ Academy (11/08/13): ??? Carlos Amano vs Kana OZ Academy (15/09/13): GREAT Carlos Amano vs Sonoko Kato OZ Academy (10/11/13): FUN 2014 Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota vs Hikaru Shida & Kagetsu OZ Academy (02/03/14): FUN Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota vs Hiroyo Matsumoto & Kaori Yoneyama OZ Academy (16/04/14): SKIPPABLE Carlos Amano & Manami Toyota vs. Dynamite Kansai & Kaori Yoneyama OZ Academy (11/05/14): DECENT Conclusion seems to be good wrestler idk

This for a good while was only available as a chopped up match that removed the majority of the starting grappling exchanges, which for a match like this you'd kinda want to see out of these two lol. Thankfully the full version has now shown up and not shockingly is very good. Mainly what works about this match (as well as any involving this two, really) is that they compliment each other well. Amano I've found does her best work when using her technical wizardry first and foremost, mainly in give-and-take formulas where she mostly has heelish tendencies during her control spots, attacking weak limbs like a injured shoulder or a bad leg as the main lead-in for everything else on the table. Meiko around this point excelled at emoting/selling, working from under a more confident opponent alongside throwing out crazy bombs to get the maximum amount of action. You can see how that pairing works before this even started. The first 5/10 minutes is mostly dedicated to grappling, mainly Amano using Meiko's bandaged arm to do some cool submission spots. The bit where she counters a toe-hold by forcing Meiko's head down to pop up her shoulder for a double-wrist lock in mount was really cool, not anything you'd see today at all or done that smoothly anyway. The grappling isn't insanely complex (Meiko was never particularly known for her mat-work to be fair) but is carried well by the pacing, with both getting the chance to slap on holds and sell pretty strongly, though Meiko stands out as the far greater of the two when it came to just communicating a mix of pain/frustration. It bubbles through when she's trying to use her bad shoulder for stuff and clearly hurting. Stuff like the Boston Crab for instance; typically only dangerous for rookies; is put over as much more dangerous than otherwise because Meiko can't use her arms to push herself up (which is the usual kayfabed way to deal with that kind of move) so she's forced instead to slowly crawl to the ropes. The middle portion diversifies by throwing in OZ Acad interfering and some outside brawling. This stuff is fairly fine yet not my cup of tea all things considered. I don't think it's done bad or anything though and the crowd are clearly very into it from the get-go so I can't moan too much lol. Meiko's improvised brawling with her throwing water bottles and buckets was funny though. They do pick up the intensity well as Meiko throws some convincingly solid strikes (including a shockingly sick ankle lock counter to a roundhouse while on the top rope!!!) and really gets the crowd invested in her comebacks. In turn they amp up the interference to establish that while Amano is fairly good, she just doesn't have the edge in striking that her opponent does, forcing her to exploit the arm more. One bit they had here was like her doing a underhook suplex into butterfly lock which looked absolutely nasty, shocked no one tried to steal that. Last third is mostly focused around the threat of Amano's many armbreaker transitions, which was a treat for someone like myself who had a good idea of what they were going to use (the one off the top rope, the standing one) with a couple of interesting changes and mix-ups that honestly I hadn't seen before. They build up the interference even more to the point of them basically just turning into a mob hurling chairs around. Satomura's mastery of doing these sort of chaotic finishing stretches where there are counters on counters into big moves is well documented but it definitely shines here, with her playing dead for submissions before somehow almost managing to hit the DVD anyway. It's the big death-move of the match and clearly the one she needs to hit yet every attempt just never seems to work properly, with loads of teases and cute transitions into it that ultimately never get enough time to breathe before the next counter. Alas there is one botch where they seem to fuck up the timing on the ending as the ref counts Meiko out during a arm triangle. The bell is even rung and then they awkwardly just continue anyway. It's bizarre and doesn't add anything to the match bar being confusing. Other than that it was basically next to perfect as we get a couple of big roundhouses by Meiko into a huge underhook for the symbolic three count (interference again rip) before Amano eventually reverses out of one too many bombs and manages to win with a rolling armbreaker. As I said above this match works primarily because the two involved are great matches for the other; every one of their matches is good to great, this being their best naturally given the fantastic blend of tense grappling with a ton of drama to get the crowd from fairly cold to being all over this by the end. I wouldn't say in terms of Amano matches that this was as up there as Yoshida '04/Bolshoi '02/Hyuga '02 as all of those are just a bit more focused on the technical side of things, a bit cleaner, a bit more varied etc. Top 10? Yeah sure, definitely.

This was a fairly fascinating watch all things considered. It's wrestled under what is essentially NJPW's Different Style Rules, basically no pins, submissions/KO only etc. It's the only Amano match that is overtly shoot-style (while the Kana tags are wrestled as such pinfalls were still allowed, not counting her jd' MMA match either because that wasn't worked) and as such is quite the oddity. Maekawa with her Karate background basically acts as the striker here while Amano with her amateur background was shooting much more and trying to get submissions. They get that over very easily by having Amano's first action in the match be a double leg takedown which led to Maekawa going for the ropes when she lost the mount and then almost had her back taken trying to escape, then had Amano be cowering in the corner taking leg kicks when they got back in stand-up. Even if you knew absolutely nothing about the pair you get exactly what is being communicated here just from watching their first exchange. As a whole I think this while functionally decent doesn't really hit the mark in any real way possible in that the exciting parts of a shoot-style match (the technique, rapid changes in momentum, sick counters) just aren't really here for the most part. There's lots of tentative sitting in open mount and the pacing is particularly slow by the second round, especially when Maekawa takes charge on the mat since that's not really her avenue. While the actual work was for sure competent (Amano especially snaps on a super quick armbreaker out of full mount that really shocked the crowd near the beginning) it just never quite peaks at any point worth mentioning, instead trucking along at a safe but rather plain pace. They did do better than some of the dogshit UWF-I undercards in prior years though so that's saying.....something, at least? I thought the ending was goofy as fuck as Amano at the very start of the third round tries to run in with a dropkick and predictively does nothing, getting kicked in the head for a long knockdown. Amano gets back up, Maekawa just roundhouses her head off again to finish the match with a KO. As I said above this had a interesting premise with fairly talented workers, it just never really got all that exciting. There's lots of downtime on the mat and less time seeing Maekawa land huge clunky kicks to the face and head; never a good thing in my book. Amano definitely showed a more amateur-style with a bunch of solid tricky takedowns and some submissions that I think could've been a interesting style to contrast with, say, ARISON-era Yoshida or Yagi. This just lacked a real hook to really sink my teeth into, which is a shame because this matchup on paper had a lot of potential.

epic

Other Deep Dive stuff Fun/weird match that had some great work at a time where Keita was a bit inconsistent quality-wise. Ryuji Walter (usually named "Ryuji Walters" on his singlet) is another one of those mysterious Japanese uber indie guys that despite being trained by the legendary Boris Malenko has sparingly appeared....well anywhere, really, bar this promotion and some self-promoted indies that maybe made tape. He apparently trained for Inoki's UFO promotion yet it went under before he could show up so he just kinda lingered around the indie scene. Walter still seemingly trains a fair number of wrestlers to this day but any substantial info is lost to the sands of pre-2010's internet obscurity. Keita attacks mid-entrance and works on the leg with some good work while we get the occasional goofy spot that he just lets slip through the usually clean technique out of him, a common occurrence at the time and one of the main issues with his Batti run. I thought the two otherwise were cooking with the major focus on leg submissions and counters, with Ryuji having some good transitions while ultimately getting worn down by Keita's prior leg work and thus not being able to keep the aggression going even when he was seemingly on the upswing. Keita throws in some relatively novel outside work involving chairs and the very apron being involved, which was very outside the spectrum of action you'd usually see out of a Battlarts 2.0 match. Ryuji gets in some great worked punches in response and sells quite well in terms of getting over his leg troubles enough that you believe the hole he gets stuck in as it gets bigger and bigger from the deficit caused by Keita's relentless knee attacks. It helps that when Keita gets too goofy with his WoS homages that Ryuji has the sensible mindset to rein things back with sick punches and knees to distract you from that stuff. The only thing that hurt the match as a whole was the abrupt ending which had Keita get knocked down, get up, then smacked enough with punches that the ref calls the thing off for a TKO victory for Ryuji. It certainly had some dramatics to it (with some...questionable selling by Keita mind you) but it came a bit too soon and just as things were starting to tense up after a fairly long control segment. It's a shame as well because this pairing feels like something that could've been way expanded, especially in the next few years when Keita becomes a rogue and starts wrestling epics in basements and backyard gyms. Without the constrains involved here you could see how this could've progressed into more of a dirty scrap with some real huge dramatics to boot. Certainly a match that definitely could've been much greater if it happened down the line. That said, this is still fairly solid by itself. Keita really invokes the GOAT Yoshinari Ogawa here with his prolonged control spots and ability to get you invested throughout despite the length and breadth of said control spots. Ryuji's little counters on the mat here and there were pretty cool; his Kimura attempt while in a heel hook and some fancy exchanges of toe-holds/Achilles Tendon struggles made me pretty much a instant fan of him, and I was really hooked when he starts throwing some very hefty stand-up bombs. Nothing that out there but definitely a real fun and overlooked 7-minute sprint.

Honestly you could throw any singles Amano/Ran match in there, they have great chemistry all things considered. The 1998 match is their most ambitious mat-heavy work though so it's a good addition to throw in Haven't watched the Meiko 2002 match but that should be good. It's a real shame that their 2013 rematch in OZ got clipped to 2 minutes because they always bounced off each other especially well.

Alright so I actually wanted to put out a proper watch list as soon as I had got through basically nearly every comprehensive Amano match worth watching minus the occasional filler tag or two lol. Jetlag didn't throw recommendations up above, so consider this the unofficial version I suppose. It can be tricky finding 2000's OZ and whatnot but there are sites and resources worth searching out if you dig. Best of: singles vs Mayumi Ozaki (03.06.1998 JWP) vs Tomoko Miyaguchi (05.10.1998 JWP) vs Meiko Satomura (01.17.1999 GAEA) vs Azumi Hyuga (09.23.1999 JWP) vs Azumi Hyuga II (02.23.2002 Neo-JWP) Any Command Bolshoi match she had/was involved in 2002 vs Mariko Yoshida (04.30.2004 GAEA) vs Aja Kong (04.10.2005 GAEA) vs Kyoko Kimura (05.13.2007 Battlarts 2.0) vs Kaori Yoneyama (10.21.2007 OZ Academy) vs Aja Kong II (01.13.2008 OZ Academy) vs Mayumi Ozaki II (04.12.2008 OZ Academy) vs Kana (09.15.2013 OZ Academy) vs Sonoko Kato (11.10.2013 OZ Academy) Best of: tags w/ Tomoko Miyaguchi vs Command Bolshoi & Kanako Motoya (04.21.1996 JWP) w/ Mayumi Ozaki vs Devil Masami & Hikari Fukuoka (02.09.1997 JWP) w/ Chikayo Nagashima vs Meiko Satomura & Toshie Uematsu (11.30.1997 GAEA) w/ Aja Kong vs Meiko Satomura & Toshiyo Yamada (02.28.1999 OZ Academy) w/ Hiromi Yagi vs Chaparita ASARI & Yuka Shiina (05.04.2001 NEO) w/ Meiko Satomura vs Dynamite Kansai & Toshiyo Yamada (09.24.2001 GAEA) w/ Chigusa Nagayo vs AKINO & Mariko Yoshida (01.16.2005 GAEA) w/ Dynamite Kansai vs Eagle Sawai & Takako Inoue (01.28.2007 OZ Academy) w/ Yuki Ishikawa vs Kana & Yoshiaki Fujiwara (01.10.2011 Kana Pro II) w/ Manami Toyota vs Hikaru Shida & Kagetsu (02.03.2014 OZ Academy)

I'm fairly high on Kaito. He's a great base for getting good matches out of basically anyone that wrestles him for big-time matches, namely because of his generous selling and ability to accommodate a wide spectrum of styles. My main issues are fairly easy to explain: 1. His strikes are dynamic but not particularly hard-hitting, making it hard for him to seem legit against actual solid hitters 2. His Keiji Muto inspired work sucks (every "mentor Muto" gimmick has been awful all the way back to young Sanada in AJPW when he was green and overpushed) 3. He tends to overuse particular formulas way past being enjoyable (see his 2018 title run where EVERY match was the same "Kaito gets his ass kicked for 80% of the match, comeback with a couple of moves, cut-off, repeat until finish" bit for bit for two bloody years) He also has a issue of not really being able to make his own style. His first gimmick was doing Misawa-cosplay without what really made Misawa's tick, how he's doing the same for Muto. His best matches come when someone gets past that barrier and drags out his terrific selling and emoting like in the Yoshinari Ogawa clinics, Kenoh, Muto etc. Kaito is great on a technical basis but needs direction to really have great matches rather than just good.

I'm not gonna go into the "what was legit in Pancrase and what wasn't" debate because I feel like that's a dead end. Purely judging on his confirmed pro-style work. Honestly I would stick Bas on as a potential 100 to 90 pick tbh. He definitely took to wrestling pretty easily and understood how to work really flashy and impactful Inoki-Ism bouts at a time where guys like Tana and co were stinking cards up trying the same thing. He seemed like a bit of a crowbar based on him accidently nearly knocking out like half of the people he wrestled. With that said: you could put him with a more experienced worker and he could do really solid stuff for the time. His Nishimura match is absolutely one of those where he's definitely semi-carried (especially when you see him do weird incomplete Frankensteiners and dropkicks lol) yet still got how to communicate correctly how to sell Nishimura's holds, scrambling for rope breaks and communicating his frustration at not being able to get the big KO a hell of a lot better than many modern big time wrestlers today. Dude had a unique aura of danger that lent itself nicely to the trope of "anything could end the match" formula that Inoki-Ism lended itself to so much. Control doesn't have it included but also absolutely watch the Nakanishi match as well for a super fun styles clash.

Complete batshit insanity as per expected from EXIT events. These two are battling with chains as ropes while in some dodgy basement with a camera setup that feels like some garbage CCTV from 1993 recording. The first half is focused firmly around holds. Fugo is not really a hold guy whatsoever and is a rather weird/unconventional opponent for Keita in this regard, but he still has the tools alongside Keita's milking of said tools to make this work as a concept. Fugo wasn't complex when it came to what he did in this section; mostly just grabbing ankles/arms or necks and going from there, while Keita would pull off some typically tricked out counters to show off his advantages. It's nothing awful and the two do get a good feeling for the other after a while of wangling. Fugo gets pissed after a good 15/20 minutes of tense grappling, unleashing a gross headbutt while in mount alongside slaps to really rattle him, firmly establishing the real start of the peak here. What helps a ton is that the low quality + the sheer bizarreness of the setting lends itself to a very fine layer of imagination being able to creep in when you're actually watching this. For instance, Fugo throwing on a tight headlock to drag Keita down to the mat would probably look fairly mediocre by its lonesome if it was in a well-lighted area with an actual good quality camera recording, but in here it looks like Keita's whole face is getting squished thanks to the visuals being scuffed, adding that sleazy backstreet feeling to everything that makes it twice as dangerous. They play off each other well here as Keita tries to match Fugo in sheer violence, mostly fails to do so as he simply doesn't have the sheer violent energy to really test him there. We get a good bit where that's reflected by Keita losing his cool trying to submit a deadweight Fugo and letting loose with his own headbutts, only to end up losing all of his advantage because those same reckless headbutts ended up doing more damage to him than his opponent. There's a good theme of frustration wherein Keita as the young kid is getting pissed and impatient with multiple moments like the above where he just pushes his luck way too far and ends up seriously hurting because of it. The finish is abrupt! Keita is being knocked around for close 10 counts with vicious strikes, forcing him to hit a real abrupt backdrop on Fugo after some struggle and getting a desperation armbar on him for maximum dramatics, really invoking some Inoki vibes as he just manages to squeeze out a victory out of a match he was seemingly outmatched in. It's a bizarre feature that definitely builds itself inherently towards alienating most people even trying to watch due to the quality (let alone the wrestling) yet still has lots of endearing stuff in it. Both guys carry a ton of intensity and the work done is nothing fancy but said intensity just helps that a ton to get it over. It's a more interesting encounter for Keita because he simply isn't able to show off as much because his opponent sandbags him on the fancier IIave material forcing him to get more simple and focus on selling: something that I think he's still great at anyway. Really good gritty work that you should absolutely attempt to watch at some point.

Keita Yano It had to happen at some point! Insanely innovative with his unique blend of IIave/shoot-style, Keita Yano has pushed the envelope of what constitutes a wrestling match for about a decade+ at this point. He's had NWA-style 60 minute features, battles in garages and local gyms, fought on playmats for an audience of a couple dozen at best, wrestled every single major Japanese indie name you can probably list off using Google and then some, in doing so got the attention of even legends like Tenryu who have made him mainstays of his promotion to this very day. What really gets the guy over is not just his sheer versatility; it's his ability to make any format of match seem impressive quality-wise. Even when he has to do more sanitized conventional "epic" main event outings he clearly proves that being in a actual wrestling ring doesn't hurt his quality one bit. It's the truly weird stuff that really consolidates his GWE case though, and it really helps that even with all of my extensive footage watching of the guy I still don't think everything's been covered yet. Vs Fujita Hayato (Battlarts 06.08.2008) Vs GENTARO (Apache Pro 04.17.2009) Vs Fugo Fugo Yumeji (EXIT 11.28.2010) Vs Taro Yamada (Wallabee Pro 6.14.2012) Vs Manabu Hara (Wallabee Pro 07.28.2013) Vs Iori Sugawara (Taiheiyo Pro 02.16.2014) Vs 326 (Taihieiyo Pro 11.30.2014) Vs Taro Yamada (Kani KING 01.25.2015) Vs Hideaki Sumi (Wallabee Pro 11.29.2015) Vs Great Zako (Unemployment 10.21.2018) Hikaru Sato trilogy (Tenryu Project 13/08/2021/09.19.2022/11.13.2022)

I did actually watch their trilogy of PWFG matches (which ended with a 40 MINUTE stint btw rough stuff) while going through Funaki PWFG stuff. My conclusion was that the first match was the best; it only goes on for about 20 minutes, good enough action and has a underlining intensity to it that is solely missing from their later two matches. From a pure technical side the two are mechanically brilliant, but they just do not click together in terms of making what they do look interesting for anyone else; there's just too much bloat to take with the good stuff. Pancrase would've died a sad death if every main event was like those matches. It's the same issue UWF Original had with every major match going at least 10 minutes too long.

Heart failure, apparently. Rather sad end to one of the most prolific sumo wrestlers of all time and arguably one of the biggest draws ever. RIP.

Other Deep Dive stuff??? Entertaining but awkward encounter. Now me personally I'd like to think that these two could really have had a good to great match if this was, say, at least 1999/2000 Takayama and St. Clair was a bit younger. There's a good mix between the pair's technical backgrounds (Clair's WoS antics opposed to Takayama's UWF/Takada training) that COULD have worked. The issue is that this is a German Catch match, so effort is already not going to be particularly immense on either side. The other is Takayama; this is way too early for him to have a great match; he'd only had at this point a couple of years of fairly mediocre matches in UWF-I undercards wherein he definitely didn't feel like a finished product. He's still very gangly and a bit all over the place here quality-wise, making it hard for him to really get a groove going with how awkward he is. Clair though in seemingly uncharted waters with this being a Shoot-style match is actually fairly well equipped given his legitimate grappling background, being able to throw a couple of cool takedowns to kick things off. He's mostly working on the outside by getting kicked and hit with knees a bunch by his opponent, however. The best way I can describe Tony here is that he's basically playing the Fujiwara role; having to rely on smart takedowns and occasional cheeky antics to circumvent having zero stand-up to work with. That comparison grew ever stronger when I seen him rope Taka into trying for a knuckle lock only to pull into a Fujiwara armbar instead which is a beat for beat spot the guy would throw out. Things got more interesting on the ground as Taka tried to take control with wrestling only for Clair to take his back and try for a facelock, leading to him knocking Taka down with some goofy kicks for his own that admittedly didn't look great lol. He still sells great for some knees and roundhouses to the head, eating yet another knockdown. While recovering Taka ambushes him with a near naked choke, presumably getting a yellow card in the process. Tony throws in some more exciting offence in the last third with a cool Enzuigiri counter to a single leg attempt and a back suplex that he tells Taka to no sell while he frumps on the ground. I'm not quite sure what the thought process was with that, was he trying to sell the head work or what? Tony gets up and gets in a awesome leg-catch takedown into a toe hold to force a rope break. What happens after, however, is unfortunately one of those examples of just bad luck spoiling things. The two get tangled in the ropes and exchange knees. Tony's to Taka's chest, while his is right to the groin, getting him a red card and the DQ loss by the ref. I thought initially that this was worked, but when I seen Takayama clearly very apologetic and breaking character as the heel enforcer he'd been this entire match to help the guy up I knew otherwise. It's a unfortunate thing because this was really picking up just before that moment and probably would've carried itself to a solid enough match what with the more urgent pacing. As it stands it's more of a fascinating odd-couple pairing than anything else with a great performance by St. Clair to really get over the young (ish) big lad with huge bumps and a smart structure, never got firmly off the ground though.

Not the match that I think these two could have (especially in today's climate) but a brilliant callback to WWF New Gen match layouts by two guys who are nerdy enough to get what made those work. GENTARO works the back intently from the very start, finding every chance possible to throw Keita around and use his weight to just basically bully the guy bit for bit like a Bret match. That in turn gets him cocky and allows Keita to snap back with sharp elbow smashes and shots to the gut to try to get a edge, but he gets overpowered after a short brawl outside. Keita again tries to work on limbs when he dodges a top rope knee drop with a smooth calf slicer, GENTARO rolls through into a really nasty leverage-based armbar where his whole bottom half is directly on Keita's arm. Generally the match functioned like this; Keita would get his ass kicked and worked in holds/spots until GENTARO started to slack off, letting him slip in a counter or two when this happened but still getting firmly getting outclassed when he'd inevitably get countered. Keita's great selling combined with masterful slick counters made this fairly predictable formula absolutely fantastic to watch, especially as they alternated between limbs getting ripped apart and selling said limb getting ripped, GENTARO mostly keeping ahead with his experience. Keita works the leg more which lets him grab on some holds on it, leading to a clever spot where GENTARO uses the rope leverage to escape getting stuck in a Scorpion Death Lock by grabbing onto his straps to pull him outside with him in what was basically a 1-1 redo of a old Bret spot as per standard. GENTARO gets him back in for some snug offence before Keita jumps out of a bow and arrow to grab on a slick double wrist lock to try to get the upset. GENTARO was actually stuck here as his attempt to roll out just ends up with him stuck in a Fujiwara, forcing him to cheat with an eye rake. They did slightly (on Keita's side, mind) when they were trying to do the old backroll pushup bit, albeit the actual powerbomb G ended up doing at the end looked fairly nasty. Finish was easy to get as Keita got caught in a armbar trying to escape a German suplex and had to tap out to a deep Cobra Twist. Lots of old 90's-style cat and mouse antics here and built mostly around grappling so it translated real well into things. Keita is positively nowhere near his better years as a performer and does at times have issues with the more athletic spots dotted around here, generally doing better when selling and bumping than trying to measure up offence. GENTARO is pretty much always consistent as hell and he was the same here given his range of work looked pretty much all snug and solid, with some amazing technical work out of him when attacking limbs. Good heat he got for Keita as well and fairly generous all things considered. Rematch in 2024 would be nice, thanks

I'm not super well-versed into Navarro matches (those examples are dire, though) from what you are describing it sounds a LOT like the same problem Steve Wright had where he was more occupied showcasing how many great holds he knew rather than getting his opponent or anything else over. If it is then I can totally understand why there's such a apprehension to vote for the guy.

Smith/Fujiwara is absolutely worth searching out for the 3 or so minutes that aired, it's basically his Holy Grail of lost footage alongside the missing Korakuen match with Kawada and the 30 minute draw he had with Fuji in 2001 (real unfortunate for the last one given those two would've cooked good)

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/other-wrestling/ajpws-yutaka-yoshie-passes-away-following-match-in-takasaki Apparently he fell ill after having a to be televised match (in his hometown, no less) and passed away before he could get to hospital. Incredibly sad news all things considered. Not sure if AJPW will still upload the event as-is or will omit the match altogether. Either way, RIP.

Sound quality of this was burning hot ass as per Battlarts 2.0. standards but was regardless pretty good as a match. Narita is a full on MMA guy with martial arts credentials so he knew how to sprawl and move around with authority, making for a fairly engaging series of opening exchanges as the two did some seriously nifty grappling of the time. They also threw in some great aggression with a lot of nasty shots to the head (Narita's got gloves on so he can legally throw full on punches, something he attempts to do here a fair bunch) while Keita pulled off a ton of his usual tricky Catch wrestling tricks, in particular throwing down a rough Cravat to pull his opponent down to the mat and throwing knees to the back of the head when his opponent tried escaping. Generally this had a good balance of Keita doing his nerdy grappling while Narita attempted to compete at points with some really tricked out shit (he does like a headscissors double wrist lock combo at one point, was hype) while focusing more on strikes to transition and score knockdowns, firmly staying ahead for most of the match. Middle half has Narita focus on the armbreaker with a couple of smooth standing transitions, forcing Keita to pull guard by going to the floor. Narita does this awesome Sakuraba roll while having hooked one of Keita's feet, letting him move into a standing ankle lock before landing a fairly safe German suplex when his opponent tried standing up to escape. Last third was conventional; the two sold the fatigue of the last work strongly, Keita especially having to really grind from underneath by abusing rope escapes and doing bonkers pro-wrestling nonsense to try to stay in the game. He catches Narita out with knees to the head + big dropkick, going for a side Robertson-style headscissors as bait so he can snap on a really fucking tight LeBell Lock to get the shock tapout victory. There's a solid roughness to this that I really appreciate in that the two actually feel like they're duking out and thinking about their next move. There's some pauses, some little spaces between strikes or holds which really sells the experience so much more than two guys effortlessly bouncing around the place with a thousand counters a minute which for the record is always a rather weak experience for myself. This was rough-and-tumble Bati-Bati as it should generally look like thankfully. Quite a shame Narita never did a whole lot given he was quite the talent and probably would've been at least a RINGS mainstay if he'd been around 15 years ago, guy had the striking and fairly unique grappling to show off. Keita despite being hit and miss during this time looked pretty impressive here.

Definitely a late-bloomer for me, a lot of his early/middle work wasn't very interesting and I don't think his Killer Elite run with Davey has aged particularly well (especially when you have similar teams like Bad Intentions that just mogged them quality-wise) He's a good base, for sure. His monster-heel shtick is entertaining enough (even if he loses pretty much every major match, making it hard to really believe him as such) but he just doesn't have the range or actual solid quality runs for me to consider him whatsoever.

I really liked Kido in UWF 1.0. and if he'd kept on with his weird Catch/shoot hybrid much in the same fashion as Fujiwara I think there'd be more interest there, especially as the scene evolved. Sadly he came back to NJPW, had a couple of solid tags as recommended above and then kinda vanished into the mid-card vortex where he'd only be used as a reliable and consistent worker when that was needed more than ever. Would I like to stick him on a top 100? Oh hell yeah. Sadly he just doesn't have the volume of truly astonishing matches to really even start trying in that regard.

I'll bump this only to add in more matches that should be watched for Nishimura GWE analysis vs Suwama (AJPW Pro-Wrestling Love In Taiwan/11.20.2009) w/ Joe Malenko vs Masakatsu Funaki & Minoru Suzuki (Real World Tag League/11.20.2010) I'm pissed that the old AJPW Gaora channel is defunct now because it had this + more shit that could've gotten a good shake if I'd been able to snap it up. Oh well.

The stipulation seems batshit (and the match isn't too far off it in practise) but as a match this was real good. This was a eight man survival tag, for the record. The key idea is that OZ Academy as a team are massively outgunned here; Ozaki is here, sure, other than that she's surrounded by essentially rookies. Team GAEA by comparison have Nagayo/Devil/Meiko, a hellish trio that would make any prospective wrestlers shit their pants and run for the hills, insanely superior hierarchy-wise; even Meiko this early already had tag team gold for instance. There's no way you can look at these two teams and judge them equally, and thankfully the match doesn't attempt to do so. The aired version skips over some of the early eliminations with Nagashima being eliminated by Miyaguchi while she herself takes the fall to Sato in some fairly decent sequences. The pace is set at a fast one as Team OZ have to really get frantic and essentially just go through as much as humanly possible to try to balance the books here. They'll do crazy combo top rope dives and then it'd barely matter even after all that because Devil would no sell and start throwing weight around again, really making the imbalance tangible for anyone watching. The feeling of hopelessness is amped up by team GAEA just swamping the ring with their beefy brawlers before Devil is able to take out Sato with her signature rolling senton, leaving things at 2 for OZ. There's this great sequence where Amano is trying to go for submissions but there's so much shit flying between Ozaki and co with their wacky brawling that she can barely get in anything without getting kicked in the head or having Devil just do a leg drop even if she does grab a limb for something, communicating how chaotic the match was by this point. Nagayo has some amazing bully antics as she torments Amano on the mat with submissions, actively egging Ozaki on to interfere so she can get stuck fighting someone else or Nagayo herself gets to throw a stiff shot in like a stiff headbutt. She really feels like the big bad boss of the crew only getting in if she's really needed/she gets to stick the knife in to Ozaki in some way. Amano did a good job working as the feeder here, really throwing herself all over the place to try to get some sort of advantage yet typically getting her ass kicked and thrown around for her troubles. Devil generously gives her some leeway and even gets stunned one or two points before finishing with a mean double-arm powerbomb. The bit where Devil's just gleefully smiling knowing that Ozaki's basically screwed with the two having a tense standoff is real solid and the crowd immediately took to what they were dishing out here given it was being delivered by some of the GOAT's at the time. Ozaki also had a solid comeback run as she gave a ton to Satomura who in turn throws out some really frantic offence that was convincing enough to make the crowd think Oz might actually get tripped up here. She almost gets the pin to boot, it's just the combination of Oz being tough/smart with some sneaky counters that lets her barely get by with a rushed powerbomb. The last few minutes focus on Nagayo and co being dicks by trying to choke her out which only backfires due to more interference muddling the waters. Devil getting eliminated with a couple of backhands and a dodgy roll-up isn't the greatest but it helps with the tension aplenty alongside being appropriately sold as a fluke by both parties than anything serious. Crazy ending sprint with Nagayo absolutely terrified of losing as the two exchange some great fatigue-fuelled back and forth work all about hitting their bombs as much and as soon as possible while everyone else is scrapping. Ultimately Nagayo takes advantage of Oz's speed to get her up for a Running Three (while Ozaki was running, no less) and then a incredibly mean high-angle Superfreak powerbomb to get the conclusive pinfall. It's not much of a "clean" match if that makes any sense; there's not a lot of classical work to be seen here in terms of measured and "clean" wrestling. It's a lot of tag psychology paired with some tremendously great moments scattered here and there from individual performances forming to make a lovely whole that composed the match. What works about it is that everything feels very coordinated as in there's no wasted movement here, everything feels connected to everything else, there's no random filler stuck in for the sake of it and the focus on the GAEA troop naturally taking a big advantage lets the Oz and co work as underdogs, which is something that needless to say does a lot to enhance the quality of a potential mess like this as it's more up everyone's alley for people like Devil and co to wrestle on top than pretending this was even fair going in. Solid watch for sure

Every now and then NOAH will drag me in with something truly based; a 30 minute Fujita match in 2024 was most definitely something that counts towards that standard lol. This is definitely also going to be one of those matches that workrate-heavy smarks will dislike immensely because it really didn't cater a whole lot to them if at all until maybe the last few minutes. You already got people calling this the "worst match in company history" which is.....a interesting opinion given Ibushi/Marufuji is a thing but hey I'm not going to start knocking anyone for statements like that. The first 10 minutes of this were all sprawling on the mat providing a really interesting comparison between Lee's BJJ antics and Fujita's amateur wrestling background. Lee would wangle from under while Fujita was all about taking the top and controlling from there, typically forcing Lee to use the ropes multiple times to escape getting squished. He did get one or two off Fujita with some smart traps (including baiting him into a triangle armbar that shockingly forced Fujita to sell pain!) but mostly had to play it safe with someone as extensively dangerous as his opponent. We got a great bit where Lee had a Sakuraba-style armbar applied and was just throwing himself around trying to get it with some leverage, felt like something out of a random PWFG undercard. Very good stuff ngl Lee desperately tries to get back control with his cringe mindgames by trying to play around with clean breaks off the ropes; gets the piss slapped out of him for his troubles and forced into a long slog of a outside brawl. This was definitely the filler of the match though helped by Lee being completely ineffective against Fujita's stiff forearm shots making this very one-sided. Fujita basically sat on the guy inside the ring as well as he egged on for more strikes until he did the singlet strap pulldown a-la Angle and got hit with a running knee for his troubles. Lee hits some fairly tame knees; one off the apron, one running down the entrance. It didn't really go anywhere alongside the random leg work right afterwards that felt very much like a placeholder for any random hold. Last few minutes had Lee try to turn up the pressure with bombs, namely German suplexes. His stuff looked fine enough and he got over the struggle in trying to put down someone who seemingly couldn't get hindered by anything as Fujita could predictively no sell and keep trucking along. Lee loses the final forearm exchange, gets hit with a running slap alongside a shockingly safe punt kick to the head. Fujita mounts up a backdrop and sets up a Beast Bomb only to be stopped by the ref as the 30 minute time limit is hit. Really mixed feelings on this one. The grappling at the start is legit the best part of the match, no joke. Fujita as shown from the Suzuki match a few years ago can legitimately do grapplefucks with considerable skill (as long as he has a good dance partner) and Lee brings something unique with his passive work in that regard to make this a sort of cat/mouse situation where the mouse occasionally manages to do something really impactful. This does eventually turn into the usual Fujita brainless strike stuff, but Fujita is still really good at hitting hard so you can't really complain about it too much. I think what hurts the match mostly is the length (loads of filler with slow unimpactful work that either went nowhere or was just slow for the sake of stalling) and Lee who really looked awful trying to strike with Fujita. He just isn't one of those guys that can blast people convincingly like a Go or Nakajima and you really felt it here with his piddly forearms and knees. His selling and emoting the hopelessness of the situation was much lot better, really seeming dumbfounded as to how he could actually win this in places. In a way, I suppose, his poor striking played into the match dynamic of him just being well out of his depth despite all of the prior hype surrounding him. This really needed that big "oh shit" moment in the last 10 minutes to sell that though; Lee sitting on a figure-four that did fuck all just felt awkward and purely there to have a rest. If they'd gone all in with this being mostly grappling and THEN had the figure-four and strikes then I think this would've been a lot better. Still fairly enjoyable though.

more detailed diving here??? This lasted 25 minutes (! ) thankfully the action made it seem much less than that when watching. Keita is in his young boy phase yet (only 2 years wrestling btw) still had a lot of the great qualities that would continue on with him; namely his authentic aggression and incredibly nerdy technical work. Both of those come best to light when he's in there with GENTARO for obvious reasons, with the two having some really awesome tricked out Iiave-lite exchanges between each other with counters to things I've never even thought of before. Such a shame that this is the only "big" taping (bar a singles match in the same promotion that rest assured WILL be covered) of these two in action because even here you felt some strong chemistry. Sasaki is a mean fucker who chops people to death and has basically only two solutions to everything in that he either slams you hard or hits you hard until the problem is solved. Even when the pair target his arm the dude just powers into a scoop slam anyway like a beast, when him and Keita are working the leg he's basically just slamming it down or sitting on it. Wrestling needs more basic hosses like this lad ngl. Winger was the weakest as per expected given his rep yet he wasn't bad for what he was here as essentially a guy to sell and get the younger guys some shine. GENTARO was a menace as he attacked the pair while they were working on Winger and tore Sasaki's leg apart with the classic Bret routine of rope hung hip drops + turnbuckle-hung Figure-Four. They also threw in some awesome lariat shots between each other for the tag with Keita, which was shocking given Winger's work was all slow hold stuff that more or less filled time. GENTARO/Keita had some more cool hold exchanges, including Keita rolling out of a bow and arrow to snap into a side headscissors before getting rolled back into it all in the space of about 30 seconds so you can tell these two were cooking here. Really badass moment where Sasaki tries to break up a Octopus hold with a sharp chop to the back and walks off until GENTARO demands another while still applying the hold and chases him outside afterwards for a quick brawl. Generally those kind of antics made this feel a lot more hateful than it would otherwise, helped by the main players keeping that vibe up as things went further. They threw in some wild stuff near the end like a 3 person superplex and double spear to really get over Sasaki as this huge threat, him doing the Torture Rack right after to Winger was just the icing on the cake there. GENTARO ends up costing him the victory as he manages to catch Keita in a cravat to throw him at Sasaki to stop the submission. Russian leg sweeps can't cut it and Sasaki catches G out with a really well-done mid-air spear when he tries going off the second rope that put Batista's to shame. Finishing stretch felt appropriately urgent as Keita hits some really frantic quick submission counters to try to squeeze out a win (including a sweet sleeper out of a armbreaker motion). Really liked how him and GENTARO really operated near the end, things always feeling like any small counter could push things over the edge: the sleeper exchange spot, the bottom rope rebound lariat into Fujiwara armbar, that into a improvised roll-up when Keita tries rolling up and over to escape.....everything had a sort of impact to it that you just don't see typically where it mattered a lot more than it would otherwise, helped by Keita bumping and selling like crazy as the underdog here when he'd get caught trying to wiggle away. They capped it off well and didn't overindulge, finishing simply by having Keita brave through a kick to the head to hit a flash bottom rope lariat for the 3.1 pin and upset. Shockingly great tag team work that never once felt like the 25-minute mark this actually was, helped by a structure that benefited a ton by having varied and dynamic performances on display. Winger is perhaps the odd-one out in terms of simply being "decent" instead of "good" yet he still carries his own and doesn't feel left out ultimately. GENTARO felt like such a incredible maestro here, balancing very crafty technical work with good limb control, feeling mostly in control of the match when he was around. Sasaki is a terrific mini-hoss that keeps himself fairly minimalistic as a statement; no attempt to go off the ropes or do any fancy shit, he's just here to hit hard. Keita is a great contrast because he settles for technical trickery, fails mostly at it against someone clearly more experienced than him, still trucks along until he relents for just throwing himself around instead lol. Absolutely worth the watch if you can search it out.