2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Suzuki vs. Sekimoto

31. Hideki Suzuki vs. Daisuke Sekimoto BJW 11/11

ER: Mostly minimalist big boys battle, nice and tidy at 15 minutes with the first 10 minutes all snug holds. They do a lot of little things I like, holding onto headlocks when one guy tries to push off, or holding onto a cravate while the other tries to snapmare out, or Sekimoto holding onto a hammerlock while Suzuki tries snapmaring out. They take their time on hold application and escapes, so when you see Suzuki slowly straightening and bending Sekimoto's arm out behind him you're sitting there thinking a muscle tear is more likely than Sekimoto keeping that arm. Sekimoto not having a neck makes some things look cool, like seeing him work through escaping a headscissors, and I love how they didn't even go for any kind of highspot until 2/3 of the way through, with Suzuki dropping Sekimoto hard with a backbreaker into a cradled pin. We got this awesome moment where Suzuki locks in an octopus hold and Sekimoto crab walks a super long way, slowly, to the ropes to break, all while Suzuki is just putting heavy weight into the hold. The rest of this hits hard, with a nasty lariat collision, heavy dropkick under the chin by Suzuki, a couple jaw shuddering elbows by Suzuki, tough Saito suplex by Sekimoto, a beastly punt right to Sekimoto's chest, and a great short finishing run: Suzuki hits a hard elbow, Sekimoto clonks him with a big headbutt, traps his arms and headbutts his chest, then fights his way over for a German suplex. Non-overkill heavyweight wrestling plays so well.

PAS: I really like Suzuki holding it down for all the MUGA fans out there. Sekimoto has been a guy we have been low voters on for a while, he tends to get really into no-selling and spamming moves, it is clear that his destiny is a guy who holds on to a headlock. His big mutant baby body is perfect visually for holding on to a headlock and he looks like he is going to pop Suzuki's head like an overripe melon. Suzuki works at his own pace, everyone else in wrestling is ready to move on the next thing, he is going to let everything marinate. I loved all of the little adjustments both guys make and how painful even the smallest move looks. When they crank it up, they don't all of a sudden forget what they did before, everything is still deliberate and super painful looking. Suzuki can make a backbreaker look like he broke your back. I loved that finish run too, totally bought the headbutt/german combo being brutal enough to put Suzuki down. Excellent match, on par with the Jumbo vs. Robinson match I watched for NFF but in half the time, and it is a real credit to say that they are working at the level of Jumbo and Robinson.


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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Fuke vs. Fujiwara

77. Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Takaku Fuke BJW 8/14

PAS: Fujiwara will be 70 next year and it is pretty amazing that he can work UWF style matches at this level at this age. Fuke is a Fujiwara trainee who worked UWF and PWFG before a long Osaka Pro run. This was total class stuff, outside of some wrinkles I could easily see this match on a PWFG show in 1993 (and it is really Fuke who looks older, Fujiwara looked 70 when he was 40). I really enjoyed the opening grappling, Fuke took Fujiwara's back and Fujiwara did a bunch of cool counters using Fuke's ankle. Really liked the standup too, Fuke was throwing sharp fast slaps, but you expose your arm to Fujiwara, bad things are going to happen, and we get a slick armbar counter for the win.

ER: Quick and breezy, and I'll echo Phil with how impressed I am with 70 year old Fujiwara still doing transitions and blocking armbars and getting slapped in the neck and ear like young Fujiwara. I'm a fan of any kind of wrestling that incorporates some kind of points deduction for rope breaks or knock downs; it adds extra wrinkles to the structure (not that we need to add too many more wrinkles to a match where the mean age is nearly 60). I even liked the ROH Pure Championship. As much as l enjoyed the stuff on the mat, I really perked up once they stood and Fuke got a flash knock down. Oh, it's *that* kind of match, is it? Fuke had these cool wind up slaps, like he was trying to pick someone off third, and he would wind up and unleash a long arm into Fujiwara's ear and neck, then rattle off some thigh kicks, and it's still fun seeing Fujiwara get pushed around standing, wavering, leg buckling, slapping back, looking for a limb to catch. They tease us with him quickly turning a dodged palm strike into an armbar, but Fuke wisely breaks. But right after Fujiwara catches a kick and begins lifting Fuke's leg, seemingly in standstill, giving Fuke the option of a hyperextended off balance leg, or wild card. Fuke opts for wild card and Fujiwara catches the arm in the middle. Satisfying.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Suzuki vs. Nomura

15. Hideki Suzuki vs. Takuya Nomura BJW 6/20

PAS: This is pure uncut shootstyle, no baby laxative here. No rope running, just hard BattlArts style asskicking. Suzuki is really great and grounding a guy with strong amateur wrestling, while Nomura has more of a martial arts base. There was also a cool hierarchy thing going on, with Nomura trying to take down the more experienced grappler. This was really technically solid, but had plenty of flash. The spot where Nomura goes to the eyes so he can put on a crossarmbreaker was some Yoji Anjo/ Takeshi Ono shootstyle dick god stuff. I also really dug Suzuki on top, as he was loosening Nomura up with slaps, and then threw one huge illegal punch that looked like it might have smashed Nomura's eye socket.  Loved the finish too, with Suzuki basically trying to Jason Elam Nomura's head, I loved how on the second kick, the ref didn't even stop the fight, everyone just ran in.

ER: I really liked their 2016 series, which was very early in Nomura's career, and the early matches were basically a big bully steamrolling a young boy in entertaining fashion. Now the young boy has a couple years under his belt, he's filled out a bit, and has some nice confidence. It was exciting seeing Nomura overwhelm Suzuki a couple times and really make him back up and cower. Nomura was really pitbull intense on the mat, but even when his arm is getting bent at terrible angles he still looks disturbingly calm. At one point Nomura gets a full extension armbar, and Suzuki panics a bit and tries to unwrap Nomura's legs, can't, so starts shifting and rolling and winds up in a pretty nasty crossface with his arm still extended, but eventually gets out. Suzuki is a huge beefy guy and it's impressive to see Nomura hold his own, trying to finesse while Suzuki tries to just power his way through. I loved Nomura getting a tight keylock and Suzuki just starting slight maneuvering without use of his left arm; he's resigned to the fact that that arm ain't useful at the moment, so he is just shifting weight and working to escape. Nomura is tenacious and we all knew this was building to him getting popped, and boy does he. Nomura lands a great German suplex and has Suzuki on the ropes, but eventually Suzuki lands in top position and hits a gross punch right to the hinge of the jaw, a total dead eyed dick move. Suzuki opts for the finish of Kurisu/Jado, hitting a high kick and then letting tension mount as Nomura is on all fours, essentially waiting to be decapitated. Suzuki lands two nasty punts, no more match is needed.


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Be Imitators of Me as I am of Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Masahito Kakihara BJW 8/14/17 - FUN

PAS: Kakihara has been retired for a decade and this was the main event of a Kakihara produced show which was sort of a UWF reunion. This was a sparring match, and was basically Fujiwara tapping Kakihara over and over again, it was a complete squash, like a Ju-Jitsu Purple belt sparring with a Gracie. It was pretty awesome to watch Fujiwara spar though, to see all the different ways he has to counter an attack into a submission, he would let Kakihara grab a kneebar, only to reverse it and tap him, he let Kakihara grab his back only to crank his ankle. At one point Fujiwara mimed smoking a cigarette and when he was done smoking he cranked an arm. Really enjoyed watching Fujiwara do his thing, but I have no idea why Kakihara would come out of retirement, stage a show and book himself to be smushed in the main event.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Suzuki v. Okabayashi

14. Hideki Suzuki v. Yuji Okabayashi BJW 5/5

ER: A big stubborn meathead versus a big calculating meathead, yes please. I appreciate the patience in this one, as it's a Japanese heavyweight singles match that doesn't really see it's first elbow smash until 14 minutes in. This was all about Suzuki crushing and bending Okabayashi's arm in terrible ways, and Okabayashi being a big lug with tunnel vision. Both went in with game plans, both stick to those game plans, one game plan was smarter. The opening knucklelocks were really great, adding some new twists to the match start test of strength, two beefy dudes just locking hands and trying to muscle each other around, looking like they were genuinely putting everything into it. Suzuki goes after the arm from there and it's all nasty, all of it. Okabayashi does not look like a very pliable dude, and Suzuki works armbars and hammerlocks and Okabayashi just wants to use that damn arm. We get a killer camel clutch with Okabayashi bending Suzuki's jaw back with his right arm, while Suzuki rips at his left arm. Okabayashi sold all the arm work great, like a wounded animal who still needed to use his arm and had to work through it to survive. The arm factored into a lot of the match, and by the time Suzuki started throwing blows Oka was at a disadvantage, almost as if Suzuki was purposely keeping Okabayashi's mind off of this turning into a bombfest (Oka threw a couple of his mammoth chops earlier, two blocked by Suzuki, one landed, which is probably when Suzuki thought "I'm gonna have to take that arm, son"). I thought the fighting spirit spot was stupid, but could be convinced that it was Oka's last gasp, using the bad arm for a nasty lariat but it not being enough, and Suzuki - surviving it - really smells blood. Him maneuvering into the match ending octopus hold was awesome, and the elbows to soften Oka up were gross (especially the diving one to a seated Oka). Every moment of this match felt like a struggle, selling put over the rewarding work, just a super satisfying modern Japanese heavyweight match.

PAS: This was really fun, I am not a fan of the Strong BJ guys, but this was a good Okabayashi performance mixed with a great Suzuki performance. Suzuki is one of the only guys still working the MUGA style, and this was a like a classic Osamu Nishimura match. I loved the simplicity and the violence of Suzuki's arm work, lots of bending the elbow awkwardly, pressing his thumbs into soft joints and muscles, just grinding violent stuff. The camel clutch spot was awesome. Suzuki is countering the clutch by mangling the bad arm, but Okaybayashi refuses to let go and tries to rip off Suzuki's jaw with one arm. I really hated the "suplexes don't hurt me" section by Okaybayashi, and after avoiding it the whole match, the had to succumb to the stupid "make faces and hit each other" strike section. Still the actually finish was great, and I loved how Suzuki worked that Octupus until Okabayashi had to quit.


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2016 Hideki Suzuki Deep Dive

After reading some reviews on PWO I decided to check out some Hideki Suzuki. He was always a guy I dug fighting MMA guys on occasional IGF shows and have really dug checking out what he is doing now. With all of the BattlArts dudes AWOL, and New Japan pretty much being pin up models doing near falls,  Suzuki matches might be the closest thing to my kind of Puro out there.

Hideki Suzuki/Yoshihisa Uto v. Yasufumi Nakanoue/Yuji Okabayashi BJW 5/30

PAS: Not sure why Nakanoue and Suzuki want to murder each other, but they sure as shit do and this was totally awesome. They start potatoing each other in the aisle and can't be pulled apart with the ref throwing the whole match out 50 seconds in. They scream at each other on the microphone and they restart the match and they go back to beating on each other with concussion causing headbutts and leaping headstomps, eventually Suzuki beats up his partner because he was trying to keep him from slaughtering Nakanoue. I love this kind of stuff, felt like a classic WAR v. NJ match or a Kazunari Murakami fight.

ER: I couldn't begin to explain to you what exactly the hell is happening here, other than Suzuki looks like such a nice man in still photos - what with his parted hair and a little goatee like you'd typically see on that guy who wheeled the TV/VCR cart into your classroom - but he clearly has a major problem with possibly every man, and wants to elbow them hard in the face and then kick them  in the face like a real snot. Nakanoue, Okabayashi, his own partner Uto, random ring boys, his elbows want nothing more than to feel their faces. Okabayashi is a big dude and I loved him ripping apart Uto to end the match, almost taunting Suzuki (who was on the floor kicking face) and locking on one of the nastier camel clutches you've seen. This kind of match doesn't happen a lot so we should all soak it in when it does.

Hideki Suzuki v. Takuya Nomura BJW 6/29

PAS: Really fun kicker v. grappler match, Nomura has fast hands and nice kicks and Suzuki responds by just beasting him with wrestling. He has these great looking takedowns and amateur wrestling small packages, where he folds Nomura like a blanket he is putting in a hamper. Nomura had his moments, but this was all about Suzuki as an old school MUGA asskicker, headlock takeovers, Boston crabs and a backbreaker which looked literal rather then figurative, a little one sided, but cool shit. I am going to have to go on a Suzuki binge.

ER: Fun WorldWide match worked nothing like you ever saw on WorldWide. I like Suzuki putting a somewhat angry twist on young lion style. His elbows really rattle, his Boston crab made my back hurt (seriously if he had slipped and lost his footing it looked like he would have snapped Nomura right in half), and as Phil mentioned all the simple stuff like small packages just look so snug and more painful. He's like Osamu Nishimura crossed with Yuki Ishikawa, which made me kind of drool just by typing that.

Hideki Suzuki v. Takuya Nomura BJW 7/9

PAS: Ok I am in on this little mini feud. Nomura is a rookie and this is a nice progression for him after their match in June. Suzuki is still chucking this kid around, but he has a little harder time keeping a grip on him. Nomura lands some nice kicks, and there is a very cool counter where he slips an uppercut and gets a great backslide which Suzuki rolls through right into a Nomura kick. Nomura even survives the backbreaker which put him down. I am in the bag for Suzuki, and think this Nomura kid might get pretty good.

ER: Really fun rematch with Nomura coming back more aggressive, and the crowd picking up on his aggression and encouraging him. Suzuki is a bully to him without ever coming across overtly dickish, just holding him down with his weight advantage but not taking cheap shots. Felt like those old Pancrase matches where a guy could go for the kill but would rather have an exciting fight, and then almost ends up getting caught. Nomura having Suzuki scrambling for the ropes to break a sub was a great moment, a thing that took me from watching a match to see Suzuki administer a beating, to seeing a rookie pull off an upset. But Suzuki is too tough and you can see him kinda casually turn it into overdrive, laying back on that Boston crab and half crab, slamming that backbreaker, and then deciding things should just be over with a crazy swift and violent butterfly slam. I think I may be watching more Big Japan this year...


ER: Well, Phil went on a deep dive and he dragged me under the water with him. Suzuki really does scratch an itch. Evolve needs to start bringing him in, in a move that will surely sell few extra tickets. Anyway, the awesome and wild tag match landed on our 2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST. But if you got a spare 20 minutes, you'll be able to watch every match in this review.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Hama v. Okabayashi

12. Ryoto Hama v. Yuji Okabayashi BJW 1/24

ER: I am a reputed fan of giant fat dudes in pro wrestling, and they don't really come fatter than Hama. Ryoto Hama is slightly shorter than me, but weighs almost 3x as much as me. If I one day decide to throw an additional 300 lb. on my frame, I would be Hama. I don't know how these guys do it. I got aches and pains on my body, just from life and sports and what not. But I don't have to deal with the knee/back/body pain that comes with carrying around extra weight, never mind a few hundred pounds of extra weight. Hama is limited but athletic, and a match like this will rely on Okabayashi being willing to get plastered with 450+ pounds of Hama splatting onto him. And thankfully for us, Okabayashi is more than willing. We laugh as Oka tries bullying Hama in the ropes, and Oka ends up standing to the side so all we can read on Hama's mawashi is HAM. And from there, Hama goes full HAM on Okabayashi. We get some big chops, though certainly powerful Oka's do not move Hama. We get some shoulderblocks which just seems like a death wish for Oka to attempt. Sure enough, he slams into Hama, gets knocked down, and Hama drops the biggest and best damn leaping elbow you've seen right onto Oka. Hama would continue his run of awesome giant fat guy offense, with a rolling senton, big butt offense, a huge sunset flip splat, but Oka starts turning things around after Hama misses his fast low splash. Oka starts in with big lariats but goes for one too many as Hama leaves his feet for a terrific crossbody. Hama punishes him with two splashes which I thought was certainly it. But he gets greedy and goes to the corner for presumably a banzai drop, leading to Okabayashi lariating him right in his giant butt before powerbombing him, then hitting two massive big splashes for the win, with Hama likely not able to roll over, like a centuries old giant tortoise. Okabayashi was a nut for taking all of Hama's excess fat guy offense, and I appreciate him for that. (also, might have to dig back and review all Akebono/Hama tag matches from earlier this decade).

PAS: Man alive Hama has gotten fat, I remember him as a regular sized fat guy and he is end of the road Yokozuna fat now. He is really great at using his fat, his elbow drops and barrell roles look like they are lung collapsing. I liked how Okabayashi sold each smush like he was going to throw up. He also knows that if you are going to hit a fat guy in the throat you had better hit him. I also totally bought the finish, Hama may be hard to knock down, but if you knock him down he is going have some trouble getting up. Really fun match.


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Best of Japan 2000-2009: Kintaro Kanemura vs. Ryuji Yamakawa, BJPW 2/22/00

3. Kintaro Kanemura vs. Ryuji Yamakawa, BJPW 2/22/00

Kanemura is always a sleazy favorite of mine and man he is a monster to start this one, doing the most plausible RVD "throw chair you catch I kick" possible, flattening Yamakawa with two nasty fat sentons (one big one off the top, the other off the top to the floor right after Yamakawa gets tossed from the ring through a folding chair fort). But Kanemura just plays big in general. He's like Adam Dunn in that he hits big when he hits, and misses big when he misses. Yeah he crushed Yamakawa with a couple sentons, but he also caved in his own chest on a missed turnbuckle charge and flew horizontally like a frisbee into the ring post in one of the greatest postings I've ever seen. Picture Sandman taking his trademark ring barrier bump, but into the ringpost. I need to start tracking down current Apache Pro.

There is so much brutality in this and like a total sicko I kept wanting more. Kanemura drops Yamakawa on chairs with the Axe Driver? Mooooore. Yamakawa gets powerbombed off the stage through a table below, except he's lined up poorly so basically only the back of his head goes through the table? Yesssss. I will rewind. Both men are savagely stupid in this, with Kanemura never quite topping his ringpost bump but still leaning way into clotheslines. Yamakawa throws one that really knocks Kanemura sideways, like a drunk guy running face first into a lamp post (and only kinda makes up for getting concussed through a table and getting dumped through tons of chairs). Aside from all his cool offense, Kanemura is also Necro Butcher-precise with his chair shots and table shots. For a man who looks like he has zero muscle, Kanemura swings a full table at Yamakawa's face with the strength of Giancarlo Stanton hitting a ball into the upper deck (jeez can you tell baseball season has started? Maybe these comparisons would fit better if I were reviewing Osaka Pro).

I was praying for some stupid spots and reckless behavior in this one, and it beyond delivered in stupid sleaze. And while the whole thing was overkill, it never felt like overkill to me. It felt like two freaks REALLY wanting to win and I thought the build was great. Plus there's just something beautiful about the waves created by a man in tight white pants getting thrown through dozens of shiny folding chairs.


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Best of Japan 2000-2009: Ryuji Yamakawa vs. Tomoaki Honma, BJPW 1/2/00

1. Ryuji Yamakawa vs. Tomoaki Honma, BJPW 1/2/00

This match was what got me back into death matches years and years ago. I'm pretty sure the first tape in most tape traders' collection was some sort of death match. Either the IWA Death match tourney, or some FMW tape, or a W*ing comp, or the Sabu/Funk Born to Be Wired match, or something like that. My first tape I traded for was a compilation of all sorts of death matches, from fire to barbed wire to one with a live snake. The tape blew my mind. I don't know what I was expecting, but the tape was weirder in ways I hadn't thought about. I thought the matches would be big spectacles, not sad little events in half empty gyms fought by pudgy guys in jeans, with no production value. It may have been foolish to expect glamour from something called "death matches", but somehow it was seamier than I expected, not so much due to the violence, but for the realization that the payoffs for rolling around in glass couldn't be that big when the promotion appeared to be holding its show in a parking lot and didn't seem to have an actual ring. So I had bought into the gimmick of death matches, and quickly realized it was a gimmick . Although good lord in retrospect I should probably be thankful I wandered into something as harmless as Japanese death matches. It's hard to say why death matches appealed to me yet something like Faces of Death or Mondo Cane sounds like my worst type of nightmare that I wouldn't be able to unsee. But whatever the appeal, it faded fast as the matches just didn't have enough substance to hold my attention. And then Yamakawa and Honma arrived and added death match insanity to the strong style of wrestling that teenage me was becoming obsessed with.

Feeling out process here is really good as they both really struggle around the barbed wire boards. Soon Honma gets thrown into one of the boards, but awesomely runs up the board and backflips away from it, then throws Yamakawa into it. Honma has a really great running elbow, too. We go wandering through the crowd for awhile, getting tossed into some chairs, wandering while grabbing each others' heads...and then Yamakawa gets powerbombed on the stage...and then gets brainbustered...and is busted open. And things are getting awesome. Yamakawa has really great kicks to Honma's dome.

Back in the ring and they fight on the apron, and Honma is great as he throws his full body into preventing his bod from getting suplexed from the ring to the floor, breaks free and blasts Yamakawa with a running elbow (all of Honma's roaring elbows were brutal in this, which is nice since I had no problem buying them as a finish) that sends him flying to the floor and Honma hits an out of control somersault tope. And we then get a series of absolutely insane spots, like powerbombs into barbed wire, Yamakawa takes a rana to the floor into barbed wire, a fucking rana off the top to the floor through barbed wire, and the whole time that giant nail board is looming at ringside. This whole thing is just nuts, and just as much fun 14 years later.


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