2009 Match of the Year

Daisuke Ikeda/Takeshi Ono vs. Manabu Suruga/Takahiro Oba FUTEN 4/26/09

PAS: The kind of harrowingly violent shootstyle tag war which FUTEN mastered. Oba is kind of a lanky goofy guy who has some big impressive throws, kind of like Otsuka stretched out on a rack, Surugu is the former Manabu Hara, who was never the most electric BattlArts guy, but perfectly willing to engage in a war, and Ikeda and Ono are Ikeda and Ono, two of the best to ever do it. Lots of great tag work early by Ikeda and Ono as they work over Suruga and Oba's legs like hyper violent Anderson's. These matches usually build to long one on one violent war of attrition sections. We get two of them here, the first is a great Ono vs. Oba battle with Ono fighting off his back, locking in submissions while dodging Oba's stomps and leaps, it ends with a big fight over a grounded octopus, while Manabu is fighting desperately against Ikeda to make the save. We then get a violent Ikeda vs. Suruga section with both guys landing hellacious shots and both end up glassy eyed and spent. FUTEN maybe my favorite wrestling promotion ever, and this was the best thing going in 2009 for sure.

ER: This was a match with a lot of little stories going on throughout it, with some cool shifts in control, and all four guys getting great moments in the spotlight. I've seen this tag several times, but not for a few years now. For some reason this time I got really invested in Oba's arc. Oba is pretty easily the weakest contributor in the match, but I think that's more a testament to how strong the match is, that his performance here is the weak link. He starts the match as a bumbling goof, erases that image with a great hot tag that makes him look like a real badass, then by the time he's doing comedy stuff again he's practically a folk hero, the comedy coming from a place of confidence now instead of incompetence. It was a cool mid match transition and really added to things, but the others got those moments too. Ikeda was confident veteran who got a couple of awesome late match fighting babyface moments, the first after Suruga savagely drops him with a Tiger Driver '91. It looked like something that someone shouldn't get up from, but Ikeda barely does and his new vulnerability makes him more of a hero. Ono is the great lost BattlArts guy who basically started working only quarterly after Batt, and always looked as good as ever. Here he gets to show off his great speed and precise striking, and contributes huge to the drama with an awesome save for Ikeda. Suruga came in at the end of the Batt run and is much younger than Ikeda/Ono, but here he gets to show that he can hang with the vets, and peaks with the stretch run where he looks like he can destroy Ikeda singlehandedly, dropping him mightily with two German suplexes and that crushing Tiger Driver. All men work cool submission moments, like Ikeda muscling his way out of a headlock by moving his neck behind Oba's back, or Ikeda getting his arm stomped on, or Suruga getting his knee yanked around; but we got cool pro wrestling moments too, none more pro wrestling than Ikeda and Ono pulling off a Doomsday Device in a shootstyle match, and Ikeda dropping one of the nastier post-Hashimoto brainbusters, or Suruga dragging his body to finally tag out after taking some ruthless shots, and then collapsing on the ring apron to recover. And of course every moment in between these moments is peppered with hard leg kicks, clonking Ikeda headbutts, fast Ono rabbit punches, and full body Suruga strikes. A match where everyone came out of this looking powerful, a unique and awesome tag match deserving of being the 2009 champ.


ALL TIME MOTY LIST

Read more!

2010 Match of the Year

Daisuke Ikeda/Takahiro Oba v. Makoto Hashi/Kengo Mashimo FUTEN 10/24/10

PAS: A truly transcendent piece of wrestling violence. The match starts with a little jiving and taunting, especially by Ikeda and Obo, although in true FUTEN fashion that includes a teeth loosening Ikeda kick to Mashimo's face. I also really liked how Oba used his taunt as a way to feint out Hashi and get a takedown. The middle section of this match was pretty damn great too, with each pairing getting a chance to stretch out a bit and show some things. Oba had some truly impressive grappling exchanges with Hashi as they were grabbing limbs and throats and twisting and cracking. We also got to see Ikeda and Mashimo kick each other in the face, thighs and ribs, Mashimo and Oba do their thing and some teases of the Ikeda v. Hashi hellstorm yet to come.

Then like most of these matches, it comes down to two guys battling it out, and sweet Christ on the Cross dying for our sins, do they battle it out. Hashi and Ikeda just rip into each other with about the most brutal exchanges I have ever seen. The final showdown is basically Lawler v. Dutch with withering headbutts instead of punches. It was truly vile. They have a very cool mini story here, unlike most back and forth strike exchanges in Puro, this wasn't a battle of equals. Ikeda is the big bad killer, he has been for a long time, still when he is cracking skulls with Hashi he is being outpunched. He is like a boxer who has finally run into someone with heavier hands. He can't go toe to toe, but never learned to do anything else. Early in this showdown he takes a sickening headbutt and stumbles to his corner, Oba slaps him hard in the face to say "You are Daisuke By God Ikeda, this is your house, there no tagging out, go beat that motherfuckers ass." By the end of the showdown, we see Oba in the corner cringing, you can see him thinking "He is going to die in that ring, I should have let him tag out." The FUTEN camerawork was great here, we get some amazing closeups of the bruised and bloody foreheads of both guys, it was pretty spectacular. When Chris Nowitski autopsies their brains, they are going to look like spoiled bananas. The ending of this was epic, Hashi hits a big slap, and one final headbutt dropping Ikeda. They go for a ten count, and as Ikeda raises at 9, you get this great shot of an exhausted Hashi. He has this terrified look on his face, he unloaded it all and the monster didn't stay down. It didn't matter what followed, Ikeda walked through hell and mentally broke him. Professional wrestling at it's absolute best.

ER: Man Phil has been crushing some of these MOTY reviews. He covered most anything you could love about this match, but it really is something else. This is so different from so many other, similar matches, even within the fed itself. The structure is so odd and cool. You get all the different match ups that don't often happen, and then you get the king willing to die on his cross for a long, long home stretch. But it's not Mashimo and Hashi cutting off the ring, it's this wild perseverance that is encouraged by Oba, and not believed by Mashimo or Hashi. Well, eventually they believe. Ikeda is able to portray both vulnerable and unbeatable all at once, and this is an amazing performance. He had a couple of beasts to work with, as Mashimo has all sorts of kicks from weird angles and throws some of the sharpest knees you've seen. He gets nervous first though, seeing that insanity in Ikeda's eyes and leaving things up to Hashi. And Hashi is a monster. He's got this weird soft body that you know could also rip you in half, an epic fail Minoru Suzuki haircut, and this weird feminine swamp thing face; oh, and also an ability to headbutt the math skills out of Ikeda. But this is much more than guys stiffing each other. There is palpable drama behind these strikes, and the more you keep wondering why one of them is standing back up for more, the more you cheer them on. Ikeda's staggering around, going on muscle memory; Oba is rooting him on after laying a lot of groundwork early; Mashimo tired himself out trying to take down the minotaur; and now Hashi in his weird dominant cynicism is left to finish him off. Just as Ikeda is vulnerable and unbeatable, Hashi is masterful at being cocky and nervous all at once. The forehead altering headbutts stand out here, but it's all good. The strikes are killer, the throws are often unexpected, and the stand ups are filled with drama. Just all out classic pro wrestling.

ALL TIME MOTY LIST

Read more!

Digging in the Crates Podcast #2

Welcome to Episode #2 of the Digging in the Crates Podcast. Phil is joined by Kris Zellner as we add four more matches to the ongoing Schneider Comp, We also add some non-wrestling recommendations at the end.

Digging in the Crates episode #2


Here are some links to matches

Cactus Jack v. Tarzan Goto 10/5/95

Daisuke Ikeda/Takahiro Oba v. Kengo Mashimo/Makoto Hashi 10/24/10

Dean Malenko v. Bobby Eaton 4/27/97


Brazo Jr. v. Kortiz 9/24/14

Tattletales

The Violent Century by Lavie Tidhar

Read more!

COME QUIETLY, FUTEN RULES SOCIETY, BECAUSE OF VARIETY SO MAINTAIN YOUR HIGH ANXIETY- Futen 10/24/10

Manabu Suruga vs Brahman Kei

Really good midcard FUTEN match. I am all the way on board with the Brahman's at this point. They initially irritated me a bit, but the FUTENish aspects in their game are strong enough, that the goofy shit can be forgiven. Here Kei hangs all the way with Suruga in striking and grappling. There are nice submissions and reversals by both guys here, and Kei kicks hard. The finish was very cool with Kei fighting desperately to avoid being J-Drillered, which allows Suruga to use that leverage to lock on the Rings of Saturn instead.

Koichiro Kimura vs Kazuki Okubo

This was more competitive then your normal Kimura match and thus a little more compelling. I especially liked the brutal kicks to the temple Kimura landed on a prone Okuba. Still neither of these guys are particularly charismatic, and Kimura can't really sell. So watchable, but it wasn't good.

Tamon Honda vs Brahman Shu

Another good Brahman's singles match. Shu worked over Honda's leg with nasty kicks, which Honda sold well. This allowed Shu to get some nice nearfalls on submissions before getting wasted by Honda's cool offense. There was a couple of especially nifty counters, Shu lands a nasty triangle out of a powerbomb attempt, which almost puts Honda to sleep. There is also a point where Shut tries to roll into a kneebar and instead get hurled with a german. The delivering of Shu into the eternal torment of Olympic Hell was great too. I love watching Honda do his thing.

Takeshi Ono vs Ryuji Hijikata

This is another entry in Takeshi Ono's best in the world reel. Hijikata has some selling issues, he was kind of bland faced throughout, and there was points were he shrugged off what Ono was throwing at him. Still when it came to throw shots, he threw them, including a nasty big knee, and he did stand right in front of Takeshi Ono and get cracked in the mouth. Ono unloaded the arsenal here, nasty awesome looking submissions including a beautiful Calf Slicer, and an awesome Octopus which he turned to an armbar. His selling was great too, as he really got over Hijikata's offense, as there was some cool KO near falls all about Ono selling desperation. I wouldn't mind Hijikata sticking around for a while to see if he could wash some of the All Japan juniors stench off of him, it isn't off yet though.

Daisuke Ikeda/Takahiro Oba vs Kengo Mashimo/Makoto Hashi

A truly transcendent piece of wrestling violence. This match was as good anything done in this style since the 2008 BattlArts elimination match, and right up there with PARK v. Mesias and Gringos v. Terry/Cerebro/Che for the best thing done this year. The match starts with a little jiving and taunting, especially by Ikeda and Obo, although in true FUTEN fashion that includes a teeth loosening Ikeda kick to Mashimo's face. I also really liked how Oba used his taunt as a way to feint out Hashi and get a takedown. The middle section of this match was pretty damn great too, with each pairing getting a chance to stretch out a bit and show some things. Oba had some truly impressive grappling exchanges with Hashi as they were grabbing limbs and throats and twisting and cracking. We also got to see Ikeda and Mashimo kick each other in the face, thighs and ribs, Mashimo and Oba do their thing and some teases of the Ikeda v. Hashi hellstorm yet to come.

Then like most of these matches, it comes down to two guys battling it out, and sweet Christ on the Cross dying for our sins, do they battle it out. Hashi and Ikeda just rip into each other with about the most brutal exchanges I have ever seen. The final showdown is basically Lawler v. Dutch with withering headbutts instead of punches. It was truly vile. They have a very cool mini story here, unlike most back and forth strike exchanges in Puro, this wasn't a battle of equals. Ikeda is the big bad killer, he has been for a long time, still when he is cracking skulls with Hashi he is being outpunched. He is like a boxer who has finally run into someone with heavier hands. He can't go toe to toe, but never learned to do anything else. Early in this showdown he takes a sickening headbutt and stumbles to his corner, Oba slaps him hard in the face to say "Your are Daisuke By God Ikeda, this is your house, there no tagging out, go beat that motherfuckers ass." By the end of the showdown, we see Oba in the corner cringing, you can see him thinking "He is going to die in that ring, I should have let him tag out." The FUTEN camerawork was great here, we get some amazing closeups of the bruised and bloody foreheads of both guys, it was pretty spectacular. When Chris Nowitski autopsies their brains, they are going to look like spoiled bananas. The ending of this was epic, Hashi hits a big slap, and one final headbutt dropping Ikeda. They go for a ten count, and as Ikeda raises at 9, you get this great shot of an exhausted Hashi. He has this terrified look on his face, he unloaded it all and the monster didn't stay down. It didn't matter what followed, Ikeda walked through hell and mentally broke him. Professional wrestling at it's absolute best.

Read more!

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.

Read more!

ONE WHO JUST REPRESENTS THE FUTEN CLICK, WITH THE GAME AND SOUL, OF AN OLD SCHOOL FLICK- Futen 4/22/10

A mysterious benefactor delivered the April show. It was a great fucking show too.

Mitsuya Nagai v. Shoichi Uchida

This is a competitive squash with Uchida showing some piss and vinegar, but he basically gets overwhelmed. Nagai does twist him in some impressively nasty submissions. There are parts of the match where Uchida looks like a Cirque De Solie contortionist.

Koichi Kimura v. Rui Hiugaji

This is pretty much a squash too, with Kimura taking about 80% of the match and winning. Kimura is a guy who will nastily squash someone, but he did some pretty disinterested selling, and Hiugaji didn't do any of the things which made him compelling in the May match against Hashi. His little drips of offense here were pretty underwhelming, including an Edgeish spear.

Tamon Honda v. Takahiro Oba

Great, great match. Really intense grappling early with Oba looking like he belonged on the mat with the Olympian. There is a great moment where we see every step of Honda setting up an Olympic Hell, from the standing wrist control, the use of that control to take him down, shifting his weight, keylocking the arm, clasping his arms and then the wrench. Sometimes fast is awesome, but slow can be great too. Oba has a great rear naked choke as well, where he really looks like he is going to pop Honda's head off his shoulders. One of my favorite near falls in recent memory with Oba winding up for a big lariat which Honda checks, catches and spins into Hell, just beautiful counter wrestling. Right up there with the best of 2010, and the best of Futen.

Makoto Hashi v. Taro Nohashi

One of the better under five minutes matches I can remember. Nohashi jumps him before the bell and they pretty much go balls to the wall the entire match. Hashi is a guy who throws rotten cantaloupe sounding headbutts as a regular spot, but man alive was there some nasty hollow echoes going on here from both guys. Finish was sick as they both place their hands behind their back and just smash their heads into each other over and over, with Hashi just streaming blood. Nohashi buckles and Hashi chokes him out. Really short, really fun.

Brahman Shu/Brahman Kei/Daisuke Ikeda v. Takeshi Ono/Manabu Suruga/White Moriyama

Hell of a main event. Here is the Daisuke Ikeda we know and love. Brahmans continue to grow on me as they were delivering an appropriate level of violence. There were really kicking the shit out of Moriyama in really unsafe places, back of the neck, the throat, the temple, and their water bottle spot looked less like a comedy spot and more like a waterboarding.I loved Surgura coming in and wasting everyone with lariats. Of course the highlight of this match was Ono v. Ikeda and it delivered what you wanted it to. Ono was unloading, multiple punch combinations, rights, lefts, bodyshots, leaving it all out there, and Ikeda does some very cool selling, and rolling with the punches and when he fires back he does it with impact. The finishing run with Moriyama v. Ikeda was awesome too, with Moriyama also throwing the kitchen sink at Ikeda desperately trying to slay the dragon, but he falls to that thudding right hand. Great match to end a great card. Futen is the best.

Read more!

ON GUARD I'LL LET YOU TRY MY FUTEN STYLE - Futen 7/25/10

You can pick this up from

damian1488@hotmail.com

This is the best overall of the three shows, even with missing Ikeda

Manabu Suruga vs Kazuki Okubo

Fun match with Okubo in his traditional role of fired up youngster. Suruga was great in the veteran role, he dominates early establishing his role, and when Okubo does get a run of offense, he sells his ass off and you really buy into the possibility of a big upset. The cross armbreaker he wins with really feels like a desperation hold, like Suruga thought to himself "fuck I am in real trouble I had better take this kid out."

Taro Nohashi vs Peace Man

Peace man is one of those weird Japanese comedy gimmicks which I am not culturally able to understand. Match itself had some nice moments, there is a baseline with Futen matches. The work is usually going to be stiff enough and make enough sense, that it won't fall below a certain point.

Koichiro Kimura vs Makoto Hashi

Another good Hashi match, as he seems to beat Kimura into giving a shit. Hashi plays underdog here as well as he played overdog in his Hiugaji match. Kimura is really violent here, laying in some vicious stomps in the corner and unleashing a zit poppingly tight neck crank. Short match but intense and fun.

Takahiro Oba/Brahman Shu/Brahman Kei vs Tamon Honda/Kengo Mashimo/Ryuichi Sekine

My favorite of the Brahman matches and they are starting to grow on me. It is pretty cool how Oba's shtick works just as well as dickish heel stuff as it works as babyface spots. He and Mashimo work a lot of the same spots they worked in their singles matches, with the face/heel switched and it still was good shit. Sekine takes the beating again and the heels are great at kicking his ass, and he gets his ass kicked. Honda is great when he is in, but isn't in enough, I did love the duel German suplexes with Mashimo. Fun finish run and this is a match I could see non-shoot fans digging a bunch too.

Takeshi Ono vs Mitsuya Nagai

Great singles match, and another amazing performance by Ono, who really cemented himself in my eyes as one of the best wrestlers in the world. Nagai is a flawed wrestler, but he is a great crowbar and he is brutal here, just beating the hell out of the smaller guy. Ono has brought a knife to a gunfight and just great taking a beating and selling absolute desperation. He starts out trying to go toe to toe with Nagai but gets overwhelmed, and by the end all he is left with is desperately diving for submissions, only to see Nagai shrug them off and lay in a bigger beating. Some of the elbows from the top Nagai was landing looked as violent as Wanderlei Silva elbows, nothing is pulled in Futen. Ono somehow grabbing the octopus felt like watching a real amazing sports comeback. I think this is a little behind the May tag, but is another killer Futen drop. Man someone has to get their back catalogue, I need to see ever match they have ever run.

Read more!

MAKE WAY FOR THE MERGE OF TRAFFIC, FUTEN COMING THROUGH WITH FULL METAL JACKET-Futen 6/27/10

You can pick this up from

damian1488@hotmail.com

Daisuke Ikeda vs Hajime Moriyama

This might be or only chance to see 2010 Futen Ikeda and he is who we thought he was. Ikeda comes in with a tightly wrapped forearm which Moriyama's saw as his one chance to get past the boss. Ikeda shows his dominance early by taking Moriyama to the mat and applying the single nastiest overhand wristlock I have ever seen. It looks early like a blowout until Moriyama starts whipping kicks to the arm. The match continues on that path, with Ikeda unloading with his stuff, while Moriyama kept working over his injury, which lead Ikeda to drop his hands and created other openings. It could have used a little more dramatic final act, but a fun match.

Koichiro Kimura vs Kazuki Okubo

This was structurally similar to the previous match, with Kimura in the role of the grizzled veteran. Okubo was aggressive and the match was stiff, but Kimura seemed not to give a fuck. Even when he was getting hit, he looked like he was about to check his watch. It kind of reminded of the dull Inoki v. random gajin matches I watched while picking stuff for the 80's NJ set. The couple of moments where Kimura actually sold and cared were pretty good, but those were few and far between.

Brahman Shu/Brahman Kei vs Takeshi Ono/Ryuichi Sekine

I enjoyed the Brahmans in this match a lot more then in the previous show (or really ever before.) They were playing the role of nasty veterans working over a rookie and they nastily worked over said rookie. The kicks and punches were flying and landing, and they bust up Sekine's mouth and spit on him while kicking his ass. We get pissed off Ono getting his revenge and he looks great doing it, there is still too much Takeshi on the apron for my tastes. Still the match had some nice drama and Sekine showed some grit, and I no longer dread the Brahman's dragging down a card.

Makoto Hashi vs Manabu Suruga

I enjoyed this although it was the least of three big singles matches on the show. They do some nice grappling early, but everything is pretty much a preface to the end run which has two minutes of both guys just smashing their heads into each other ram style. It is pretty nasty stuff with Hashi splitting himself open. The final KO headbutt felt like a KO headbutt, weird finish, violent, but not the kind of back and forth story some of the other matches told.

Kengo Mashimo vs Takahiro Oba

Really good singles match, Mashimo continues to impress me. He is really great as a violent bully, and while Oba does some goofy things he has great charisma and for some reason his goofy shit doesn't bother me the way Sawa's shtick does. We had some solid grappling early with Mashimo really wrenching in some holds. Oba then tries his running windmill punches, and I like how Mashimo just steps to the side and blasts him with kicks, knocks him down, and then does this great asshole stroll around the ring. They also nicely work around Oba's airplane spin, as it gets countered early and then when he hits it, there is an actual dramatic double KO near fall off an airplane spin of all things. Finish was great with both guys throwing bombs and Oba earning Mashimo's respect before getting caught and finished.

Read more!

FUTEN KILLER BEES, WE ON A SWARM - Futen 5/30/10

Max Lanicault got in 3 COUNT THEM 3 Futen shows and I got them all, bizarrely we only get one Ikeda match in the batch, but there is plenty other good looking stuff. Max is cheap so email him at

damian1488@hotmail.com

if you want it, and you want it.

Shoichi Uchida vs Kazuki Okubo

Pretty basic undercard singles match except with the stiffness dialed up to 11 Futen style. So slaps and kicks, with all the slaps and kicks landing with bad intentions. These shows are filmed in almost a Black Terry Jr. super close up handheld style which really accentuates the violence. Finish was really great with Uchida hitting almost an Oklahoma Stampede Northern Lights bomb, top rope dropkick to the next and then a crossface choke. Okubo fights to the ropes almost gets the break, before Uchida torques back on the neck for the tap. I really liked the way they teased a near fall, but ended up just ending the match.

Makoto Hashi vs. Rui Hiugaji

I have never seen Hiugaji before (and he doesn't show up again) but he is a guy who knows he is in Futen. Just a disgusting violent match, they have some breathtakingly stiff and fast exchanges in this match. At one point Hiugaji rears back and lands an overhand right full force into Hashi's throat, another time Hashi hits a spinning back fist to the back of Hiugaji's head. Hashi was doing a lot of countering and absorbing, as Hiugaji would go on these flurries and Hashi would kick back in the pocket, block, dodge and counter. It was a really great Fujiwaraish/Bernard Hopkinish performance by Hashi. Hiugaji is so aggressive he ends up punching himself out and Hashi ends up sinking in the choke. Great match

Brahman Shu/Brahman Kei vs. Tamon Honda/Hajime Moriyama

The Brahmans are ex-Toryuman and don't really feel like they belong in this fed, working a kind of generic juniors tag style. There was some nice scrambling between a Brahman and Moriyama early, but that was the only thing either Brahman did which impressed me. Honda is always great although there really wasn't enough of him. He works like kind of a monster as he dominates the action when we get to see him. The Brahman's win with a KO kick on Moriyama which was preposterously weak compared to most of the kicks in this fed. This is Futen son, if you are going to win with a kick, you had better win with a kick.

Mitsuya Nagai vs. Taro Nohashi

A squash with Nagai working as Big John Studd. Nohashi tries to bodyslam him and fails, ect. Nothing to see here.

Takahiro Oba/Takeshi Ono vs. Kengo Mashimo/Manabu Suruga

Tremendous match which may even be better then the great 2009 Futen tag. Right up there with PARK v. Mesias and the best IWRG matches from 2010. Mashimo and Surgura are bad asses in this laying in big time beatings on Oba and Ono who are both great at selling nasty shots, and are super charismatic fighting back. Ono is really well known for being a smirking douchebag, and it is shocking how great he is as a guy on an apron ralling his partner, or a guy taking a big beting. I really enjoyed Mashimo in this as he would exchange and then get sick of it, and just grab his opponent and hurl them to the side, he also laid in with some really thudding kicks. Some of the coolest selling of the year from Ono and Oba there are multiple moments of facial selling which I actually verbally marked out for. There is a great moment where Ono takes a German suplex into the turnbuckle and his eyes rolls up in his head and he slightly shakes, while trying to punch his legs to get feeling in them. Finish run is just Ono and Suruga in your traditional Ikeda v. Ishikawa role, where their partners clear out and they just go after each other, 15th round in Manila style. Ono lands some of the best uppercuts I have ever seen in wrestling, and the finish is a fucking finish.

Read more!

FUTEN- 4/9/09

PAS: MOTHERFUCKING FUTEN

TAKA Michinoku vs Shoichi Uchida

TKG: Hey it’s a TAKA match with no superkicks. This is our first taste of Futen. Stylisitically it is worked as a basic undercard indy juniors match with no rope running and a bit more matwork. While there was no rope running, there still was lots of running offense. I don’t think I’ve seen Uchida before, and TAKA does a yeoman’s job of selling for his power offense and lots of really loose crossfaces. I can’t imagine wanting to watch Uchida v a guy who can’t sell as well as TAKA.

PAS: Yeah I didn’t get much of a sense of Uchida, but he didn’t do a ton for me. Most of the match was worked around Uchida’s crossface and TAKA’s facelock. I guess you don’t need a really tight crossface to buy it as a finish in 2009, but it had the look of a Helmsely crossface.

Kengo Mashimo vs Shinjitsu Nohashi

TKG: I was kind of expecting more Mashimo stiffness. Surprisingly, Nohashi was the guy who brought more stiffness to the table for the body of the match. Nohashi had some nasty face stomps and running headbutts. Got the sense that these guys have a touring match worked out and instead of doing something different here, just tried to force it in.

PAS: You don’t expect the midget Shinzaki to be the guy laying it in, but his stomps were by far the highlight of the match. I do prefer these kind of modified Indy juniors matches to whatever Keita Yano is supposed to be doing in BattlArts undercards, but it isn’t anything special.

Mitsuya Nagai & White Moriyama vs Shu Sato & Kei Sato

TKG: Nagai hasn’t had a good match in ages and he looked like complete crap running in for his hot tag fired up offense. Thankfully he wasn’t in this match much. I kind of liked White Moriyama here as his offense was good looking and he was good at working the face in peril role. The Satos are odd in that their stuff can either look super super gentle or absolutely nasty with no middle ground.

PAS: Moriyama comes in with a bandage on his face, and by the first couple of minutes it gets kicked off, and you see a nasty gash on his cheek. It nicely adds to the violence of the Sato’s kicks. I really liked the early Moriyama mat work, he had really fast amateur rides. The Sato’s were pretty good at bringing their indy shtick and working it in this environment, they landed a really stiff top rope dropkick for example.


Koichiro Kimura vs Hayato Jr Fujita

TKG: This was mostly Fujita bringing it to Kimura with Kimura occasionally catching and twisting the fuck out of Fujita. I don’t remember Kimura working like this before. He sold Fujita’s stuff well and when he put him in a sub they were some of the most twisting dislocating subs you’ll see in pro wrestling. I especially liked the half crab he put n for a near fall in the middle of match.

PAS: Fujita is a guy who I have really enjoyed in the past, but he seemed to be pulling his kicks a bit. Kind of weird thing to be doing in Futen of all places. The violence of Kimura’s submission made up for the lack of violence in the strikes though.


Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono vs Manabu Suruga & Takahiro Oba

TKG: So the thing with Hara is he’s always been a guy who doesn’t sell on the level of the top level BattlArts guys. But here he is really spectacular in role of underdog babyface. I mean this is the best I can ever remember Hara looking. I don’t know what really to make of Oba. He’s really charismatic and has lots of awkward ogreish offense. Not sure if he’s over in a legit Rufus R Jones way or in a more ironic Hack Myers way. But his stuff amused me. But for lots of this it didn’t feel like it mattered who the faces were. As this was just a spectacular Ikeda/Ono as MX performance where they whipped out all their shit allowing both faces to work long in peril section. Ono for a guy who I haven’t seen in forever was as nasty and disdainful as I remember him.

PAS: Just a totally spectacular match. Ono and Ikeda are an amazing heel tag team, like a super violent Anderson brothers as they spend much of the match isolating each guy and murdering them. Ikeda is so great at stopping people from making saves, when Ono is torturing Oba, Ikeda and Suruga(Hara) have this mini Greco pummeling brawl while Hara tries desperately for a save. The finish run with Ikeda and Suruga is as great as any Ikeda v. Ishikawa struggle. They have this spectacular finishing punch section, which combines a violent BattlArts punch exchange with a almost Lawler v. Mantel fatigue war. I don’t remember seeing Oba before, and he had some super goofy shit, but in some way it worked well. He kind of kept throwing himself at the heels in weird way, including smashing Ikeda in the face with his taint. And don’t forget about fuckin Ono who was as huge a cunt as he was ten years ago. He may have been the best guy in the match, stomping, kicking and twisting guys in pretzels. I am going to want to watch it again, but it feels on first watch like the 2009 MOTY.

Read more!