The wonderful world of Japanese indies

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v Ishinriki (SWS, 12/12/91)

This was from a co-produced WWF/SWS event and it might be the most non-WWF match to ever take place on a card that WWF had anything to do with. It was more PWFG than even SWS and the Dome setting made for a cool atmosphere. What a fun, niggly little fight. I really have no clue how good Ishinriki is. He's an ex-sumo guy but way smaller than your other ex-sumo guys who turned to pro wrestling and to my knowledge I've never seen him in anything else. I'd need to see more to get a proper handle on him because this could've been a Fujiwara broomstick show for all I know. I mean, Fujiwara was spectacular. He was at his derisory best here, ruffling Ishinriki's hair on a corner break, giving him a mocking "well done, champ" pat as he would catch strikes, waiting until Ishinriki went to the top rope before walking away with a smirk on his face, just fucking with the guy as the crowd ate it up completely. Then Ishinriki would turn up the nastiness and you could see it getting to Fujiwara. The first headbutt he threw was an absolute peach and I don't think Ishinriki expected it, but it was Ishinriki who started it with a slap. You don't usually see Fujiwara throw kick combos and often when he does they're sort of condescending, but he about took Ishinriki's jaw off with a head kick and it was one of the all-time great Fujiwara spots. Ishinriki getting frustrated and throwing crowbar uppercuts, head stomps and liver kicks ruled. It annoyed Fujiwara in kind and as the match went on that attitude of his had a growing menace to it. I don't even know how he managed to apply that armbar the way he did but you can add it to the highlight reel of Fujiwara flash finishes. These guys had another match this year which is...well that's pretty random, right?


Yuki Ishikawa & Tamaoki Honma v Katsumi Usuda & Minoru Fujita (Battlarts, 3/5/98)

I had no idea Honma ever worked Battlarts. I wasn't sure how he'd fit coming from a deathmatch fed and all, but he took to the style pretty well and we knew already that he wasn't shy about hitting and being hit really fucking hard. Ishikawa was absolutely world class here, which shouldn't really be surprising but it's been a minute since I've watched him. His exchanges with Usuda were stellar and there was one moment where he countered a headbutt by punching Usuda dead in the nose. Everything he did on the mat looked great as well, just airtight and ferocious. Fujita is still a touch raw but I thought he was a really good underdog, everything was frantic and his scrambling and striking was rapid fast. Other than the goofy fighting spirit part midway through he was more or less on top form, and even the fighting spirit part was more delayed selling than outright no-selling, so lesser of two evils and whatnot.


Candy Okutsu v Mikiko Futagami (ARSION, 4/17/98)

Really neat sprint, not too big on the extended selling but super scrappy and you had something cool happening literally every thirty seconds. Initially I figured they were going for a full on bombfest, but they pretty quickly developed a story of Futagami trying to take Candy's arm home with her. She was reversing all sorts of shit with all sorts of shit and constantly found ways to grab that arm, whether it be in kimuras, armbars, key locks, anything that was there to be grabbed she grabbed. Not all of it was completely smooth, but for the most part that scrappiness prevented it from coming off as an exhibition. Candy is always really fun and everything she did was at hyper speed, the parts where she'd sprint up turnbuckles, reel off several German suplexes in a row, everything with a real sense of desperation to it. In maybe the coolest spot of the match she bolted up to the top rope and hit a cross body to the outside, but as she landed Futagami somehow managed to transition straight into a cross armbreaker. Futagami's striking added another layer as well and she really came off like a pitbull. Some of those palm strikes were Liger-esque. I had to double check to see if there wasn't a clip job in here somewhere because no way did this feel like thirteen minutes. I guess if that's not the sign of a good sprint I don't know what is.


Candy Okutsu v Yumi Fukawa (ARSION, 5/5/98)

Pretty awesome little lucharesu/shoot style hybrid. For about fourteen of these seventeen minutes this kind of felt like an amalgamation of M-Pro and Battlarts. That's a fairly absurd amount of praise coming from someone who loves both of those promotions to death, but that was the vibe I was getting so fair fucks to them for pulling it off. They started out with a burst of rope-running and a fake out dive, then settled into a more mat-based contest with the lucha aspect in the background. Fukawa is a pocket rocket of a wrestler and I always dig her working the mat, but the eye-opener here was Candy. This might be the best I've seen her look working holds and that even includes her bouts with Yoshida. I don't know how Fukawa didn't end up paralyzed during this because she landed square on the top of her head off a whiffed Lionsault...and then she tried to just re-do the spot straight after and landed square on the top of her head AGAIN. It's hard to knock her and I thought Candy did okay covering for it, but it did take a wee bit of steam out of the last few minutes. Still, the fact she was even able to finish the match was impressive in itself and a few dodgy transitions towards the end wasn't the worst thing in the world. I liked this a ton.