Happy New Year! Kenichiro Arai vs. GENTARO Broadway!

 

3. Kenichiro Arai vs. GENTARO Mutoha Pro 2/5/23

MD: One can make the argument that the two most important elements of wrestling are struggle and consequence. If you wanted to elaborate a bit, you could call it the illusion or perception of struggle and the narrative force of consequence. Basically, everything has to allow for enough suspension of disbelief that one can perceive real struggle between the two combatants and the things that happen have to have meaning and weight in the overall narrative. Wrestling has to create it's own seamless reality (which is different than seeming real) and then things have to matter within that reality. 

This was an amazing example of both of those elements. GENTARO and Arai wrestled for an hour. At no point did anything, even the simplest front face lock, feel like it came easy. They would grapple through four or five permeations of positioning attempts before a more familiar hold emerged. That emergent hold could be as basic as a top wristlock or as complex as GENTARO's rowboat stretch, but the process to reach that point was so grueling and competitive that each and every distinct submission attempt that was ultimately locked on felt like a massive accomplishment and also a massive threat to the recipient. That was true for every distinct reversal or escape as well, often drawing appreciative applause from the crowd. Likewise, almost every pin attempt took three or four disparate bits of leverage manipulation and gamemanship to maneuver into and because of the amount of effort and friction involved, each one felt like it could lead to a fall.

That leads to consequence. It worked here a bit like a feedback loop. Because they were putting so much effort into laboriously ensuring that every hold was its own individual strategic war, something undeniably worth fighting for, it was easy to portray the effect of even the slightest bit of joint manipulation. If snatching a hold meant so much to each wrestler and if avoiding being in a hold meant so much to each wrestler, obviously there was considerable pain and damage that would be inflicted. Moreover, and this is where things get really interesting, it meant that there was a calculated risk in each and every grasp of a limb and shift of a body. If nothing ventured, nothing could be gained, but every venture brought with it danger. 

Every hold and momentum shift in this match came out of a series of openings created and diverted through multiple attempt to gain advantage. GENTARO was more aggressive and unyielding, working three or four different positions to latch on a hold. Arai was canny and crafty, arguably the more defensive wrestler, always with a canny trick in his holster. Early on GENTARO pried a leg away and went for a takedown through multiple switches and attempts, only for Arai to come down directly upon him, knee first. The match was full of moments like that, GENTARO pressing and pressing and Arai having to devise a surprising answer. Here's another example that sums up the match well: later after GENTARO took the initial fall (again through an unyielding and continuous manipulation of one limb after another, slowly and patient), Arai became overaggressive due to the need to even the odds and GENTARO was able to capitalize. In this match, however, every advantage taken was also a potential risk. GENTARO stretched his advantage to open distance and charge Arai only for Arai to capture him in a flipping scissors hold and squeeze his way to earning the second fall of the match. Here, every attempt at offense was also a risk to be countered. 

This reminded me, as much of anything else, of the great 1983 French Catch bout between Mr. Montreal and Guy Mercier when the two of them were up there in age and putting their all into every hold as well. This maybe had more gamesmanship, whereas that was worked more in-and-out with multiple escape attempts that built upon one another. Here, past a lengthy series of headscissors by GENTARO, no one was allowed to keep such a hold for long. That was except, of course, the finishing sequence of figure-fours; Arai had obtained that monkey paw wish of an actual advantage, providing him the tantalizing hope of a kneedrop off the turnbuckles. He crashed and burned, paying for his hubris (one does not try to wrestle so big in a match this intimate) and allowing GENTARO to start on the knee. It came a price, for it provided Arai with a leg and ankle to work on as well, and the two would trade such holds back and forth up until the time limit expired. 

All in all, this was as exhausting for the viewer as it was for the wrestlers, the logical conclusion to the notion that every exchange, every touch, every torque can matter in the moment of a match, stretched out over the span of an hour. There was no point that they weren't competing, weren't struggling against one another, and all of it mattered. Here, there was always the potential of dire consequence, certainly to failure, but even to success. 

ER: I've spent much of my year writing thousands of words about 2 minute WCW matches from 25 years ago, now I am going to write just a couple hundred words on the longest match I've watched in several years, showcasing what I loved about it.  

The Mutoha ring announcer on crutches, and the way GENTARO smirks when that ring announcer with plantar fasciitis begins to call him "Arai". 

Arai's double arm barred takedown and the way he clasps his hands on his side head and arm choke; how he shoot monkey flips GENTARO like Super Dragon monkey flipping a fan or grabs a headlock and sinks down into a squat, putting his weight onto GENTARO; the way a backdrop bump hits different when it comes 45 minutes into a match.    

I like that by the time GENTARO starts working pins (around 30 minutes in) I had forgotten that this match could have even ended by pinfall, lulled into the seriousness of traditional pro wrestling moves being treated as actual struggle. 

GENTARO's grounded headscissors that looked like it was turning Arai's head grayish purple, and how he gets paid back for that tight headscissors 45 minutes later to end the 2nd fall; the way he hesitates slightly while applying a Sharpshooter and has to suddenly scramble when Arai notices that hesitation. 

GENTARO has one of the coolest cradles - not flashy, not something that would read in a GIF, but an honest cradle - not long after losing the 2nd fall, cradling Arai's left leg and forcing Arai's own weight down on him to smother him. When Arai manages to shift out of it he twists his boot over GENTARO's wrist, which might be the only underhanded act the entire hour. 

Reversed back and forth inside cradles are still going to look silly, but you can appreciate the way Arai crosses his ankles and how each man looks like they're actively resisting the momentum shifts back and forth. They show the difficulty in actually getting a crucifix pin, how much energy you would have to exert to muscle a man your own size over like that. 

The figure four battle is worth the price of admission on its own. The way GENTARO is forcing Arai's ankle down with his elbow knowing that doing so only makes Arai twist on his ankle harder, breathing life into a move we've all seen performed for our entire lives as wrestling fans, a figure four used as the culmination of an hour long match in front of upwards of 50 people in a small building in Saitama. 

2023 MOTY MASTER LIST 

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Five Years of Found Footage Friday: EARLIEST KOBASHI~! KAWADA~! A SAWYER~! A MICHAELS~! ARAI~! SATO~!

MD: We started this on May 25, 2018 given the weekly footage we were getting from the WWE Network and the wellspring of handhelds that were popping up from Japan ebay. Somehow, amazingly, we've kept it up for five whole years, at least three matches a week. It went from being New to being Found, but that's more for the alliteration than to smooth the possibility that some of this stuff had been out there before. While yes, some had, there's no downplaying just how amazing it is that we have been able to find three new matches a week, without fail, for five years. And that's with us first consolidating French Catch and now the Panamanian Lucha to Tuesdays. Let's face it, we live in remarkable times. In some ways, while getting all the way through the French footage was an accomplishment, us being able to find things to watch that have been outside of our broader community week in and week out for five whole years is more of a challenge. It's not all in one place. Someone posts it. We find it. We vet it. We expand the  knowledge of what's been out there. It represents the ethos of the blog as much as anything; digging in the crates, leaving no stone unturned, watching matches that might not pass some sort of old conventional wisdom test to ascertain their quality, spreading the news far and wide. The master list is mostly updated. We plan on foraging on so long as there is still footage to be found. Hopefully people have enjoyed this. Hopefully people find it useful and interesting. 

Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi AJPW 8/30/88

MD:  It's just the first encounter between Kobashi and Kawada. It's just the earliest full match on tape of Kobashi. Totally outside our circle until the last year or two. No big deal right? And hey, it's good. Or at least, it's good for the experience level at play. There's a certain pluckiness to Kobashi here, a certain creativity towards the finishing stretch, certainly a willingness to lean into Kawada's kicks. Most of his offense is the sort of inexperienced technical stuff you'd expect: dropkicks, cross-bodies, a very fun short arm scissors. Kawada, meanwhile, was more fully developed, quick to throw kicks or just take Kobashi's head off with a back elbow or the clothesline that ended it. They played with the spin kicks, with Kawada missing as many as he hit. They worked in a missed body press and senton. Kobashi tried to contain Kawada by working his arm but it didn't help him against the kicks. Raw talent but full of potential. You get the sense watching this that these two were outright refusing to work the typical undercard match and that, as time would go on, they would absolutely refuse to be constrained. Kobashi had been a fan who refused to take no for an answer and in Kawada he had a game partner to stretch the rules. Even this early, there was an inkling of what was to come. 

ER: Nothing like a Kobashi vs. Kawada match as we all remember them: Kobashi in his classic blue trunks, Kawada in his classic red tights, just the classic Kobashi Blue vs. Kawada Red. As Matt said, this is the earliest Kobashi match we have in full on tape. And I love these early matches of favorites, because we get to see them working completely different from any era where people know them. Kobashi works like a full on young boy, with painful arm work and a snug short arm scissors, some crossbody blocks, and a super impactful back bump missile dropkick. Kawada was my favorite worker in the world for a stretch, but I do not and have not ever liked Footloose Kawada. Here, Kawada works literally exactly like young Misawa, like they were just trying to make a Misawa clone and Kawada was like 0.7 Misawa. Kawada threw sidekicks and a leaping solebutt almost exactly like Tiger Mask Misawa, hit a full weight senton exactly like him (which lead to a great moment later when he ducks a middle buckle Kobashi crossbody and then barely misses him with a senton which he had hit earlier). 

Kobashi works over Kawada's arm for 2/3 of the runtime - you know, all those matches where guys target Kawada's infamously lethal left arm and not his legs - and the arm work is painful enough that I don't really care that it has nothing whatsoever to do with the finishing "moves" stretch. Kobashi is someone I think had kind of middling stomach kicks, so it was cool seeing an 80-matches-in Kobashi just haul off on Kawada's arms with kicks thrown exactly like his stomach kicks, only really good. Kobashi's crossbodies land heavy and he leans into and bumps for offense differently than he would just a few years later. His bumping is faster and more upended, exciting. When Kawada lands a couple of his spinkicks (the ones thrown like Misawa spinkicks, not Kawada spinkicks) Kobashi gets just rocked with them, flying out with his heels in the air. Kawada's back elbow kind of whiffs (which could have been due to Kobashi bumping big and slightly early for it) but his clothesline is a 100% finisher level clothesline. Kobashi worked that left arm all match, forgetting that Kawada can hook that man's neck with impressive force with the right. What a clothesline. 

Bart Sawyer vs. Chris Michaels (Dog Collar) USA Pro 2001

MD:  So much of this worked for what I was looking for that I'm going to lead with what didn't work: 1.) While Sawyer bled plenty, Michaels didn't bleed despite the violence probably warranting it. There was a spot towards the middle where he went soaring into the ringpost. While I would have preferred the chain to open him up, I would have gladly accepted that doing it and then the chain serving as a focal point to woundwork. We got neither. 2.) The chain was too long. That had its pros and cons. It allowed for a few nice spots, including Sawyer pulling Michaels off the top to the floor into a dive. It meant that there was a ton of slack for hanging attempts or wrapping it around the fist or elbow and it allowed for crotchings in key moments. On the other hand, it took away from that intimate sense of desperation where the two parties just can't get away from one another that you expect in a dog collar match. This lacked that sort of close-quarters atmosphere. 3.) There was no finish; the New South came out to hang both wrestlers instead. But that's TN wrestling for you. It had to lead to the next thing. Between this and the Wildside channel we get bits and pieces of the Sawyer/Michaels feud and never all at once, so I'm not entirely sure what led up to this and where it was going, but this definitely would have made me want to buy a ticket to see what happened next. It just didn't make for the most compelling ending twenty years later.

As for what absolutely worked, the transitions were all great. Whenever there was a shift in momentum, it stemmed from either a mistake, an opportunistic moment, or just Michaels powering through and fighting back. They were varied and creative and used the chain well. They kept it moving. They kept it violent. The chain added to the match but it wasn't the entirety of it and sometimes, trying to utilize it too much backfired. It was a living, existent entity within the match just like you'd want it to be, and the hate and disdain between Michaels and Sawyer bled through, and not just through Sawyer's lacerated forehead. So not a perfect dog collar match, but certainly one with a lot going for it.

Kenichiro Arai vs. Yasushi Sato Mutoha Wrestling 11/3/20

MD: Grappling worked about as hard as grappling can be worked interspersed with larger than life yet entirely stoic character flourishes out of Arai. Sato had the intensity advantage, the striking advantage, probably the grappling advantage, but Arai's developed into a tricky bastard. Early on that'd just be a refusal to engage. By the middle, he'd be missing knee drops off the top and selling his knee to lure Sato into a figure-four so he could immediately turn it over and gloat. And then, towards the end, he'd just outright go for a eye. For most of it, though, he was cool, calm, and collected, biding his time, patiently waiting for a mistake or an opening, while goading Sato forward into either. Despite that, by the end of this, he was a sweaty mess, just a testament to how hard they were going and how much work, torque, and struggle was put into each and every hold. This was a Sebastian special but it was a great middle ground between pure technique and pure shtick.

ER: Kenichiro Arai is one of many criminally underwritten-about wrestlers in Segunda Caida's history. For a guy I've liked throughout his whole career, you wouldn't really know that by reading us. But he's great, and he's wrestled constantly with no kind of break since my teens, and no matter what fed he's spent time in he has always come across as someone wrestling and moving completely unlike anyone else in that fed. From his beginnings as weird headbutt offense guy in Toryumon, to his current vibe of grease monkey who moonlights as a carnival wrestler, he's stood out in unique ways the whole time. He moves and reacts differently. Moving differently is cool. Remember when all of us saw Johnny Saint for the first time and instantly knew that the reactions and timing was different? Kenichiro Arai moves different, and so, does offense differently than anyone. He works a busy yet simple style, acting calm while pushing the match in his direction; stylish, without style. He can grab a wrist or foot and not necessarily work a hold like Fujiwara, but just kind of twist and grip without letting up. Strong Grip based wrestling. 

The feeling out process is cool and has cool little things that you don't see, like Arai catching a dropkick to the ribs while sliding into a dropdown, or the way he just kind of knocks Sato down with a close shove and trip, like messy shootstyle. In fact, a lot of this match is pro wrestling style as theatrical shootstyle. They never treat it like shootstyle, but there's a sincerity in selling the pro wrestling holds that makes this come off as important. Sato is Mutoha's ace and in Arai he's up against a guy who's blowing into town for the first time and already working as the established ace. That gives things a cool energy. There are a lot of convincing cradled pins, and things jump up a level when Arai misses - intentionally or not - a kneedrop off the top. His missed kneedrop leads to an actual dramatic and painful looking figure 4 exchange, where he suckers Sato into doing one that he instantly reverses (complete with finger pointed to temple), before Sato reverses it back and it leads to a series of painful submissions. Grapevined legs, rolling heel hooks, a nicely leveraged trailer hitch, all of them looking like straight pro wrestling but with a BattlArts sensibility. Also, an excellent standing sub into a fought-for back suplex plainly shows that there is absolutely NO give in this ring, as Arai drops Sato in a way that makes it look like he was suplexed in a parking lot. How was this the first Arai match we've written about? Guess we need to keep watching wrestling. 

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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