IGF - NEW Opening Series 4/5/2017

PAS: NEW is a new shootstyle fed offshoot of IGF, and at this point we will review every new shootstyle fed. Looking forward to see how this compares to AMBITION as this has a bunch of actual MMA fighters along with masters like Fujiwara and Otsuka

Shinya Aoki v. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

ER: So Fujiwara is in his late 60s, and I pray I have this mobility in 30 years. This is a match made of classic and telling Fujiwara faces. We start and he's the smug overconfident vet, taking Aoki down to the mat and tying him up in some cool ways (especially loved him picking Aoki's ankle and pulling it closer to his face while also wrenching a headlock). Before long Aoki is meeting him in a stalemate and as the tide turns a bit, we get that wonderful Fujiwara smile, recognizing that maybe he's fighting from underneath, but grinning at the challenge, almost welcoming Aoki's attacks. But by the 10 minute mark when their legs are impossibly tangled while they're fighting over wrists, the ref has to separate them and Fujiwara rolls to the floor with almost fear in his eyes. He looked like a man underwater and he needed to calibrate and try something else. So he suckers Aoki into a knucklelock that allows him to land a thrust headbutt. He wasn't making any avenues on the mat so of course the man goes to the head. Later on he lands another using the same trick. But Aoki is lanky and knows how to befuddle Fujiwara by tangling him up in limbs, and as we hit the 15 minute mark we can see a bit of desperation creeping onto Fujiwara's face as Aoki is patiently waiting for an armbar, perfectly content to play the waiting game as Fujiwara starts reaching and soon scrambling for ropes. And as soon as Fujiwara lets his guard down Aoki pounces and maneuvers into a side triangle. Killer lo fi stuff here.

PAS:  I assumed that the days of Fujiwara classics had passed, I have been working on the C+A Fujiwara project since 2009, I have found a couple of EPIC's since then, but they have all been tags and trios matches which included great performances from other wrestlers as well. Fujiwara is 67 years old, how is it possible for him to be able to work a 15 minutes singles match this good? Aoki isn't a guy who has done much pro-wrestling before, although he is one of the greatest MMA grapplers ever, he fits in to shootstyle great, he is so skilled and fast. I love how Fujiwara was working this as a guy a little outclassed on the mat, it is a foreign role for him, but Aoki is so slick that Fujiwara keeps finding himself in a compromised position. He has to resort to cheapshot headbutts to get an advantage (and man what a cheapshot headbutt it was, one of his best), I also loved how Fujiwara used wrestling grappling in a shoot context, at one point he uses a headlock to drive Aoki's knee to his temple, another time he does almost a drop toe hold to get back position, credit to the skill of both guys that it looked natural.

Katsumi Oribe v. Feng Chang Jian

PAS: Jian I would assume is a rookie from China, and this was kind of a lame rookie match. We had a long forearm exchange, which is a bummer if that is thing in rookie matches. We get some kicks, and Jian kind of blew a bodyslam. Finish was a boston crab. I didn't see much in either guy, but who knows what will happen later.

Alexander Otsuka v. Xuan Lin Dong

ER: Otsuka is looking beefy as hell now. Have we ever seen him and Negro Navarro in the same place at once? I'd never seen Lin before but I enjoyed him (he should have worn black gloves to complete the look though), came off like kind of a meathead and I dug how Otsuka handled him. There's a lot of standing grappling and Otsuka goes for his big German early, finds Lin grounding him too well, so just sidesteps and throws him backwards to the mat. Eventually he gets tired of grappling and just cracks him with a slap, and I loved how Lin stopped and staggered around before following up with an admirable forearm. But Otsuka slaps him again, and then slaps him to cut off an elbow, and THEN we get our big German. Otsuka smugly saunters over and picks him up for a big delay vertical suplex, the result academic.

PAS: Yeah Otsuka has been hitting the buffet, but he still looked awesome, I didn't think much of Dong (Eric loves Dong however, can't get enough Dong), for an MMA dude he really should hit harder, but all of the standing switch grappling looked good. Those pair of finishing suplexes are a pair of Alexander Otsuka finishing suplexes with all that that entails.

Masakatsu Funaki v. Mitsuyoshi Nakai

ER: This didn't do much for me, as Nakai looked like he didn't want to be there and Funaki looked like he was doing things at 3/4 until it was time to finish. They spend a lot of time with Funaki working a rear naked on Nakai, and there's plenty of times he has openings to do something, but it looked more like he was setting potential traps to see if Nakai could get out of them, and then just moving on when he had the satisfaction that Nakai couldn't. He easily maneuvers into an armbar, Nakai gets ropes, then Funaki decides things are just over and hits a huge high kick, then another one to the forehead, then a punt that he pulls back on. I did like him suckering Nakai into slapping him, allowing him to hit an awesome rolling kappo kick. He ends it with some kind of brutal capture piledriver. Neither guy seemed that interested in this match.

PAS: First part of this was kind of dull although it picked up a fair amount at the end. Nakai lands a nasty teeth cleaning knee lift and it wakes Funaki up and unloads on Nakai. He throws a big kick right to Nakai's temple and a punt to the chest, he finishes him off with a arm capture piledriver. If the whole match was as good as the last two minutes it would have been awesome, but the dull stuff at the beginning drags it down.

Minoru Tanaka v. Minowaman

PAS: Minoru Tanaka was never my favorite BattlArts guy, he was a little juniorish, more likely to do a flip then a punch to the mouth. He is reall skilled, and there were a lot of cool moments in this match. Minowaman is a MMA guy who doesn't fully translate his MMA charisma over to wrestling, but again he he has a ton of skill. I really liked some of the leglock work here, Minowaman has a cool reversal of a scorpion into a leg lock. This goes to a draw, and I feel like with a better finish and maybe one or two more special highlights this would have made a list, but it was still pretty enjoyable.

Josh Barnett v. Shinichi Suzukawa

PAS: I really enjoy watching Josh Barnett wrestle. He doesn't do anything flashy, but every forearm lands with a thud and he has these great slow powerful looking suplexes where he just yanks a guy up like a sack of flour. Suzukawa is a big guy with Yakuza looking tattoos who comes out really aggressive powering Barnett to the corner and hits him with some clubs. Suzukawa works a head and shoulder choke a bunch, and Barnett isn't afraid to punch him in his sake soaked kidneys to go for the break. Barnett ends up escaping and tossing him with a nice side suplex. Just a big boy shootstyle scrap and I dug it a bunch.

ER: 40 year old MMA fighter vs. disgraced sumo wrestler is about as NEW Gen  WAR as you can get, and this played like a WAR match via RINGS fight. This was filled with hard knees to the ribs, forearms to the back of the head, and these nasty as hell hardway suplexes where neither guy jumped; you just had these low angle brutal suplexes that looked like science class rockets tipped over and shot right into the ground. There are no free rides in this one, every single ankle lock and kneebar had a twist and some squirm, the head and arm chokes looked sunk, and those knees just kept getting buried into Barnett's body. Suzukawa has a great boss charisma and Barnett looks to be in better shape than during most of his MMA career. Neither guy gives the other one space, Suzukawa presses his knees into Barnett's throat in the corner and against the ropes, both competitively sandbag, and that was all kinds of awesome. Go watch this.

ER: We would have had this posted 8 months ago, but Phil needed to construct *just* the right Dong joke. And after 8 months of workshopping it, I think it's safe to say...we got it! We are adding the Fujiwara and Barnett matches to our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List, deservedly so.

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All Time MOTY List Head to Head: Futen tag V. Necro v. Minowaman

Necro Butcher v. Minowaman IGF 2/22/10

ER: What a ridiculous and wonderful clash of styles. Minowa comes out looking like every peak shape Japanese MMA guy you've seen (and coming off of giant killer wins over Bob Sapp and Choi Hong Man), and Necro Butcher comes out looking like a man who clearly lives out of his car. Minowa treats Necro with no respect, Necro makes great OOOOF sounds when Minowa kicks him in the stomach, and when Minowa tries to test Necro's fight ability by throwing blows it ends with Necro headbutting him. This is Minowa's debut for IGF and I have to wonder at this point if he had any clue who he was facing or what was going to happen. This is an important thing about some of these weird Japan-only matches: How much information was given to each of the combatants? I would love to ask that question to so many different wrestlers. How much did Greg Valentine know about BattlArts? How much did Backlund know about UWFi? At this point I believe Necro had worked exclusively for Big Japan and maybe a couple spot shows for death match-y feds. So we have a man with a lot of stuff in his car, enough stuff that he probably has to take turns carefully, versus an MMA guy who is kind of a weirdo within the realm of MMA. And before long Necro spills to the floor and looks for weapons, grabs a ring bell, and Minowa still doesn't look like he totally knows who the hell he is fighting. Soon Necro is busted wide open and not long after that Minowa has more of Necro's blood on him than Necro does. Minowa makes the mistake of trying to phone booth fight him and that not only leaves Necro the opening to punch him a bunch and bleed all over him. This match is a glorious, sloppy style clash, Necro lands a bunch of killer shots and absorbs some gross shots from Minowa, and eventually Minowa gets sick of getting shoot punched in the head and taps him with a kneebar.

PAS: Totally fun clusterfuck, with both guys doing what they do best. Necro was perfectly willing to be hit extremely hard, and hit back extremely hard, and I loved how this felt like a bar fight between an MMA fighter and a methed out hillbilly. Minowa gut shotting Necro, only to get countered by an eye rake was awesome. Necro has some of the best eye rakes in wrestling history, he really digs his filthy nails into the mucus membranes and you can see the infections forming. I loved the the Frye v. Takayama section with Minowa landing precise open hand shots and Necro flinging wild winging punching, really violent and exciting. Would have liked to see Necro get a real nearfall or two, but that wasn't what this match was really about. Totally fun, and it makes me wish Necro had a RINGS run, feels like Necro v. Tamura or Necro v. Han would have been awesome.


FUTEN Tag Review


Verdict: 

ER: I love this match, and love that it exists. Style clashes are some of my favorite wrestling out there, and they don't typically get as weird as this. But this doesn't have the drama or the pent up intensity of that FUTEN tag. Champ retains.

PAS: This is a really fun match, but more of an awesome curiosity then a real MOTY contender, glad I watched it again, but this is a pretty easy retain by the FUTEN tag.

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Hey, This Happened: Naoya Ogawa vs. Baby Hashimoto

Naoya Ogawa vs. Daichi Hashimoto IGF 12/31/15

ER: People do weird things in life to honor their fathers. Or avenge their fathers. Or...look, I don't know. Sometimes people follow in the steps of their fathers and sometimes they don't. But Naoya Ogawa has now kicked two different generations of Hashimotos directly in their eye socket. He may be the only person who gets to brag about that. My father and I both have the same middle name, Earl. But so far in our lives we have not been kicked in the eye by the same man. I have never been kicked in the eye, so anybody who has kicked my father in the eye has not yet tracked me down. Daichi Hashimoto is still very young, but probably too old to still have "going through a phase" hair. With his purple bangs you can perfectly visualize the awkward family dinners with his folks asking him how school was and Daichi just sitting there with his arms crossed, asking to be excused without even touching his food that his mother took time to prepare. But he jumps Ogawa before the bell and attacks with slaps and kicks, enough to make Ogawa roll to the floor to put some distance between. But Hash chases and then Ogawa tees right off on him, laying him out with a rough high kick. Daichi crumbles admirably. Back in and Daichi attempts some stuff from a mount but Ogawa wriggles out, punishes him, and then casually walks up behind a kneeling Hashimoto and wraps a kick around his left orbital bone. Done. Ogawa does the airplane taunt over another fallen Hashimoto; Kazuyuki Fujita, looking more and more like George the Animal Steele only with no eyebrows, gets in the ring and tries to start shit; somewhere, someone checks to see if Gary Steele or Dylan Night have children, who he can then book against Colby Corino and Daichi Hashimoto in a 4 way iron man match, to be held at some Allentown, PA Vet's building. Was that person me? Perhaps.

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