ME FEAR NO ONE, OH NO HEAR COME, THE FUTEN SHOGUN, KILLER TO THE EARDRUM- Futen 9/26/10

Takahiro Oba vs Ryuichi Sekine

Oba is basically the 2010s FUTEN Alexander Otsuka. He isn't going to get into a slugfest if he can avoid it, he will grapple the ever living fuck out of you, and he is maybe a little goofy. This was the most serious I have seen Oba, as this match was basically shenanigansless. Sekine plays the role of the firery rookie and while he may be a bit bland, he brought the goods here. Oba dominates early throwing Sekine around and twisting his limbs in painfully looking ways. Sekine gets a great comeback as he is able to get to his feet and throw some nasty kicks which Oba sold great. They have a really exciting end run to the match which ends with Oba escaping a near KO and grabbing a takedown and putting on a vicious kneebar. Excellent match, and a really great performance by Oba who is really becoming a favorite of mine.

Tamon Honda vs Kazuki Okubo

This match was structurally very similar to the first match, with Honda playing the roll of the veteran grappler and Okubo being the younger kicker. Honda had some nice tight holds and throws, his finishing guillotine was especially slick, and he sold his leg well. Still Okubo didn't contribute a ton, and the match never really built to much. Honda is always worth watching but the match was forgettable overall

Koichiro Kimura vs Brahman Shu/Brahman Kei

Kimura is the one FUTEN act I normally don't care for. He has had exclusively lethargic squash matches. He works stiff, but it's FUTEN, you are going to have to bring more to the table. This was by far the best of the Kimura matches however. The two on one aspect amped up the pace of the match, and the Brahman's were great as planes flying around King Kong. They actually got some pretty exiting near falls, and hit some cool double teams. It also seems like they kick harder every month which is something I appreciate.

Makoto Hashi/Manabu Suruga vs Kengo Mashimo/Madoka

This match had 3/4ths awesome FUTEN guys and when those guys matched up with each other it was good stuff. Mashimo vs. Hashi was basically a poor man's precursor to the Hashi vs. Ikeda stuff, full of hairline splitting headbutts and nasty kicks to the legs kidneys and face. Suruga is the blandest of the high end FUTEN guys, but he is a really solid wrestler and especially great at this style. His grappling, kicks, selling is all top notch. Unfortunately the hairless DDT junior with the Beiber hair brought his 4Liiean juniors workrate horseshit into my FUTEN match. Hashi beats him up some, but doesn't beat him up nearly enough. If he is going to do his rope running and flipping, I wan't Hashi to headbutt the algebra out of him. The good was good, but I don't think it outweighed the bad.

Daisuke Ikeda vs Takeshi Ono

Pretty much the wrestling version of Hagler v. Hearns round 1. The bell rings and Ikeda runs right into an Ono right hand and it goes from there. The story of this match is that Ono is the lower ranked member of their tag team (Apparently called Team Taco, Japan is weird) and he is going to throw the kitchen sink to take out Ikeda. Ono is a buzzsaw, throwing vicious punches in bunches square into Ikeda face and body. Ikeda absorbs these shots and fires back with big punches and kicks of his own. The finish is amazing wrestling, they both quickly counte multiple submission attempts, with Ono slipping out and landing a hellacious knee to the back of Ikeda's head, I expected cerebral fluid to fly out of his nostrils. Ono gets mount and starts pounding out Ikeda but gets caught in an awesome armbar from the bottom and is forced to tap. The best under five minute match I have ever seen, even though it was short it was a complete satisfying. Everything I love about FUTEN in one intense blast, the wrestling equivalent of a Bad Brains song.