2017 Ongoing MOTY List: GUTS Elimination

71. Dick Togo/Masao Orihara/Ryan Upin/Amigo Suzuki vs. Mr. Gannosuke/CHANGO/Guts Ishijimi/Michio Kageyama GUTS World 1/24

PAS: This was an elimination tag with hit the floor eliminations, it is a format I always enjoy in Puro, and this had a bunch of fun moments. They made the entertainment level mistake of eliminate Gannoseke and Orihara early, I want to see those sleazes match up more, and they both had cameos. Togo invents a bunch of fun ways to have "hit the floor" near falls, lots of ways to almost get knocked out and almost knock someone out. Guts was a fun energetic fat dude and CHANGO even breaks out a top rope senton which looked 85% Togo. GUTS continues to deliver.

ER: I love all these GUTS guys. My Guys, My Guts. This is really fun with pinfalls/submissions counting as well as over the top to the floor eliminations being in play. So you get silliness like 3 guys grabbing Orihara by the limbs and tossing him to the floor. And nobody seemed too interested in saving any of their partners throughout this thing. Someone would be getting pinned a few feet away and everyone would be standing on the apron leaning on the top rope. Maybe I've just been watching too much Stan Hansen lately, I'm too used to him rushing in and welting up anyone who dares attempt a pinfall on a partner of his. But this is brisk and a whole lot of fun nevertheless. Phil is right that Orihara and Gannosuke are out of this thing far, far too early, and both looked awesome in their brief runs. Orihara can make you care about a kick to the stomach, and his slingshot elbow lands fast and sharp. Gannosuke looked like a greasy freight train during his run, and his lariats hit more flush than most people in 2017 wrestling, let alone most 50 year olds. I liked his double team stuff with his not as good younger clone Kageyama, especially that quick and nasty lariat/soccer kick Total Elimination. Guts Ishijima is a spirited fat guy that will always win me over, and we got to see him splat a bunch of guys with shoulderblocks before getting wrecked by a Togo lariat. Togo was super Togo-y in this, still drives me wild with his fist drop, and I love little things like how he grapevines both legs during a small package. He's really great at teasing some over the top eliminations. We get two great ones with CHANGO catching him with a rana from the apron that almost takes both over, then we get him going for his senton only to have his partner Upin shoved into the ropes, knocking Togo off the top to the apron where he gets baseball slide dropkicked to elimination. Two really great sequences. Finish was hot with a brutal missed chairshot that tests the head and neck strength of Upin. Also of note, CHANGO's senton in this match looked even better than Togo's in this match. Lofty praise indeed. I gotta get to watching more GUTS. Do you have it?


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Dick Togo is Back in the GUTS

69. Dick Togo/Masao Orihara/Ryan Upin vs. Mr. Gannosuke//CHANGO/Michio Kageyama GUTS World 12/3/16

PAS: These Togo and Crew trios matches are quickly becoming one of my favorite under the radar things to watch. Gannosuke is old and fat, but still can turn it on when need be, he breaks out a superplex here and has a great spot where he is just throwing rabbit punches at the back of Orihara's head. This was more of an Orihara showcase for the championship team, but Togo did have a couple of awesome runs of offense. Really liked the finish run with Gannosuke's team hitting a bunch of cool double and triple teams only to be foiled by an Orihara kick to the nads.

ER: I am really digging GUTS. Guys are lumpy and the old guys can still go! I like how someone like CHANGO gets crowd chants, just this niche group of Tokyo wrestling fans, who sees CHANGO as their Bruno for whatever reason. Gannosuke was one of my favorite Japanese indy guys SO MANY years ago, and this was the first I've seen him in ages (didn't even know he still worked), and he's still clearly a guy that I dig. He has a great aura and still brings details, like that wrenching chinlock or a little extra pop on a wild superplex. Also amusing that he's teaming with his junior doppelganger Kageyama. But yes this was the Orihara show, and I love that late 40s Orihara has now become my favorite current wrestler in Japan. He looks like a thug, and wrestles like a thug. He doesn't hold back on the littlest things, his stomps and stomach kicks and missed shots always look tighter than anybody else in a match, and he has a surprisingly deep offense arsenal for someone who can come off like a kick/punch guy. I'd love to see this get to a Orihara/Gannosuke singles match, a real battle of scuzzy late 40s dudes. My favorite thing about the match was the waves the match went in and out of. It seemed like the tone shifted several times in the match, which is kind of cool. We start out wild, go into a Team Togo control period, let the legends hit their stuff, go through a long Team CHANGO double team period, just a bunch of shifts and little stories. Orihara hits a beastly chairshot and a straight boot to the balls, and to hammer home how great he is at the little things, look no further than his small package roll up to win. He already punted dude in the balls, and then he breaks out this gorgeous small package, grapevining the loose leg and everything. Beautiful attention to little things from such a dangerous man. What I would do for Finlay to come out of retirement against Orihara.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

Read more!

2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Dick Togo Busts in your GUTS

56. Dick Togo/Masao Orihara/Ryan Upin vs. CHANGO/Guts Ishijima/Michio Kageyama GUTS World 11/15

PAS: Dick Togo is back doing what he does, rocking out a six man tag. This took a bit to get going but the last 10 minutes or so are pretty freaking great. Guts Ishijima (who I guess is the ace of GUTS? Fucking Japan is weird) is an amusing fat dude with a nice leg lariat, CHANGO had some nice energy, I enjoyed Upin as a scrawny creep who will rub the toe of his boot into your eyes. This was Togo running through his stuff, we had moments of great athleticism, nasty violence and a cool finish which had your heel team running wild. Orihara didn't do a ton, but had really great basic stuff including a nasty fistdrop, and also looks like such a dirtbag that he adds something big to the gimmick. I hope we get lots of GUTS title defenses for the new champs.

ER: I'm somewhat opposite of Phil as I really loved the earlier parts of the match. I also came away from this wanting to see everything that Masao Orihara has been up to the last couple years. We all loved him as a scrawny young punk doing absurdly reckless flying and wishing death upon himself in WAR, but now he's a violent thug button man and wrestles accordingly. His two great stretches in the above-linked video are 9:00-10:30 and 13:00-14:30, and he just comes in and beats the hell out of dudes. I definitely get the strong vintage SUWA vibes, but at minimum he comes off as the world's best Okumura. He oddly works like an effective WWE heel, simple strikes, but he doesn't bite off more than he can chew. He just comes in and is aggressive as hell, then fully wins me over with a perfect fistdrop. His biggest "high spot" was probably a double stomp off the buckles, and he hit and and kept walking past his opponents, almost in a dismissive Minoru Suzuki way. I now want a regular team of near-50 year old Togo/Orihara. Phil will call me a buffoon but I loved Orihara more than Togo in this, even though Togo wrestled just as well as we've become accustomed to Togo wrestling. His slingshot senton is maybe the most impressive spot in wrestling; the way he vaults over and then gets full extension WHILE pushing himself off ropes, it's quite the sight. Upin is a little twerp whose offense never hits hard, but succeeds in being an aggravator. Someone in the US needs to steal his rope running spot where he bounded back and forth, stepping on CHANGO's face each time. Guts Ishijima had some nice fat offense and a fun laid back personality, seems like a perfect candidate for my indy fat guy investigations. This whole thing is really fun. We get early crowd brawling where you wish you had a camera on each pairing, a table gets launched off someone's head, hierarchies and little stories emerge, and most get their moments. I do wish they had played off Togo flipping off Guts. Down the stretch Guts catches Togo on the top rope and I REALLY wanted him to shove him off to the floor, but instead he just kind of tosses him to the mat. But trios matches are basically impossible to screw up as nobody has to be exposed, and this one featured a stand out Orihara/Togo performance, so it's an easy win.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

***ER: Also I hate Phil's pun in the title***

Read more!