ECW: 25th August 2009

Been away for a couple of weeks (Edinburgh Fringe 2009 oh yeah), so let's get back into some wrestling. I've a review of Summerslam coming - goodish show (there's more). I'm also thinking of doing a Great Sasuke project, based on my growing love of Sasuke this year, and my lack of M-Pro watching from the early to mid 1990s. Thoughts, my regular readers?

So, the Extreme Championship Wrestling. Regal on this stick is good times, especially him reaching breaking point as Christian taunts him with "eight seconds" and the Bill stuff. And who else in wrestling can get away with a finger wag? (If nobody thinks about Hogan, I'll get away with this)

Goldust and Sheamus get a video package. Not Rock-Austin, but then that would be pretty weird. Shorter match, but intense. So many WWE feuds, even the headline ones, don't convey the hatred that I'm getting from this series. I was delighted with the non-finish because I want to see a no-dq based gimmick match, and see Dustin go out it.

Zack Ryder makes the tag match for me. The ridculous way he refuse to take a tag because he's fixing his knee pads, and shouting orders at Benjamin, much to Shelton's displeasure was as entertaining as anything. Yoshi gets some kicks in, but this was all about the angle and the feud. And here's a question - whose the worst Tyler? Reks or Black? Both are bigger athletic guys who can jump around a bit, which seems to be the only thing they bring. I'm going with Black because Reks is just a third show undercard guy, while Black is pushed as a guy as good as Danielson or McGuiness.

Main event is just great. Not often you see such a long TV match with such protracted level of violence. Regal makes everything look killer. Christian can't match him for striking ability, although he has a go. What he can do is take big bumps and sell like the best babyface in the company that he is. The arm wringer off the apron was nasty. Regal's selling is also great. He makes Christian's elbow to the face look like he'd been shot, even though it was probably pretty safe. They both convey the overall toll of the match - watch Regal collapse near the end for a pin cover. I loved the finish - Christian impulsively lashes out at Koslov over the previous week's beatings, provoking the interference which costs him the match. That final knee was exactly violent enough to cap off this match. Right to the top of my WWE MOTY list for you. Almost.

DRAGON GATE - Infinity 142

First a quick look at the Warriors-5 Produce Infinity 140. I haven't watched the Mochi Produce 141 yet, but there's no real rush on that.

The W-5 show was bags of fun.

-Rocker/Wrassler Ricky Fuji did an awesome concert with all the wrestlers at ringside and Great Sasuke doing awesome air guitar and air drums.

-Pretty solid tag with KAGE and Susumu taking on some of the M-Pro guys.

-Main event was one of the funniest matches of the year. I had a smile on my face the whole time. Good action too! I really like OMEGA.

142

Susumu Yokosuka & KAGETORA vs. CIMA & Gamma

Teammates collide in wonderful wonderful gear!!!! Seriously CIMA and Gamma's get-up needs to be seen to be believed. Fun brawling, and plenty of W-5 antics which have really grown on me. "OOOOOO!". Nice action down the stretch, CIMA was going for the kill on KAGE and he got caught with an AWESOME cradle that I've never seen before. Good match.

Highlights

Naruki Doi, Naoki Tanisaki{W} (6:52 Implant) Akira Tozawa{L}, Dragon Kid

Yasushi Kanda, Kenichiro Arai{W} (10:03 Low Blow->Samson Clutch) Masato Yoshino{L}, BxB Hulk

Two fun looking matches here. Would have like to see non-clipped versions. Points of note include Naoki de-pantsing himself for the finish (his unique way of debuting new gear) and Araken attacking a BxB dancer (which is a first to my knowledge).

YAMATO & Shingo Takagi vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Katsuhiko Nakajima

This is like as saliva inducing a match as I could have fathomed. And it lived up to the hype. Awesome, hard hitting match. Really great chemistry between the teams and they busted out lots of cool stuff like the TOPÉ MASAAKI (which I adore). Came down to Shingo and Kats with the time limit ticking down. Great finishing stretch, with brutal forearms from Takagi and kicks from Nakajima. Big pull apart after the time limit expired.

Funny skit with Speed Muscle in Philadelphia trying to rent a car closed the show.

Overall a really fun episode. One of the best of the year.

Infinity 142 - 8.5/10

Big Japan: 2nd January 2009

And I finally move into 2009. The consensus appears to be that these next few months of Big Japan shows are packed with loads of quality matches, especially with the tag league, so I'm excited. I've never seen a promotion put so much into getting new guys over quickly as BJW has with its recent additions, which can only be good because lots of 2008 suffered from a feeling of stagnation.

From now on, my policy is to ignore Men's Club matches for the purpose of review unless particularly prompted to discuss them by something extraordinary, because it's just pointless. I end up saying the same things over and over. We also get a few minutes from the rookies, which made me want to see Okabayashi vs. Hoshino soon, and a slapstick hardcore match with all the usual guys that wasn't any good at all, but seemed to make the crowd laugh.

There are two really worthwhile tag matches on the show. The match between Mammoth and Sekimoto and Yoshihiro Sasaki and Shinya Ishikawa started out and developed a lot like most of the formers recent title defences. I thought Ishikawa was fine taking offence - he's not the most dramatic seller but it got the job done, and he shows plenty of intensity when fighting back against two guys he's physically outmatched by. Sasaki's hot tag section last only a couple of minutes before being cut-off again, and it looks like a standard finish where the weaker team member, although showing a lot of fight, is finally overcome and his partner can't save him.

However, the surprising thing here is that, partially by opportunity, the momentum shifts back towards Ishikawa and Sasaki - Ishikawa delivers two great dropkicks, the first squarely in Mammoth's chest, knocking him down, and the second off the apron to the outside in the spot of the match (the speed of the dive and Mammoth bumping his head to the concrete made it). This leaves Sekimoto and Sasaki alone, and Sasaki crushes him with a top rope DVD and two big lariats for the win. And I'll tell you something - I bemoan Sekimoto not being able to sell anything, but he looked shaken and dazed five minutes after the pinfall, really putting over the finish. This was an underdog victory that caused a audible reaction of surprise from me - I loved the shock and delight when Sasaki realises he's won. I don't want to overstate the performances here, which were pretty typical - the emphasis being on the aggression on attack rather than the selling on defence, which is only half the job. But the layout of this, especially with the unexpected finish, and the natural progression in the momentum elevated this above all the other Mammoth/Sekimoto matches since last July.

The main event lighttube tag match between Miyamoto and Sasaki and Ito and Shuji Ishikawa was terrific (although I acknowledge that so far no-one agree with me). This match has two stories being played out. Firstly, it's about Shuji Ishikawa developing as a deathmatch wrestler. Watch his early tentativeness with the lighttube, and the way he charges with it but manages to stop before hitting the turnbuckle when Sasaki moves (thus showing he's not fully committed to the attack). The match really kicks off at that point - the opening brawling was just preliminary as both teams test each other. Ishikawa takes a ton of lighttube shots, the second headkick one from Sasaki making him bleed hugely for the ear. He sells it all like he's in shock, which I love given the story. Also, he comes back at the end with the spot of the match - a huge running lighttube-assisted knee-strike.

The second story is about Miyamoto struggling to take his rightful place as new champion. Sasaki looks dominant here, driving the offence and saving his partner when needed. Miyamoto is frequently the guy Ito and Ishikawa are able to turn the tables on. Ito catches Miyamoto with a kick to a lighttube as Miyamoto sets up for his moonsault. At the end, it is Miyamoto who takes the loss for his team, further establishing the story that I would expect to feature in the coming months. Overall, a very positive start to the year, and the emphasis stays with the new guys and Miyamoto, I'm likely to enjoy this promotion a great deal.

WWE: All the TV August 11th - 14th

I watched ECW, Superstars and Smackdown this week, like most weeks. I tend to review ECW and Superstars because they are wrestling focused. Smackdown is usually good for one long TV match, but has more angle stuff that isn't worth reviewing. But ever since Punk won the title and began the turn, I've watched every show. And it hasn't disappointed - his promo work as a heel and his performances in matches all the way through have been so much better than anything he's done in WWE since joining in 2006. Last week's title match was the best example yet - his post-match beatdown, shouting "Fixing him up so I can break him again" to the EMTs, forcing the stretcher guys to take the long way around the ring just cemented him as my favourite current heel in wrestling. Matt Hardy's return is also intriguing, and his heel turn momentum was ruined by injury so I could quite happily watch months of Punk vs. Matt main events.

ECW packed five matches and an interview segment in this week, two of which were dull squashes. I want to know where the Kozlov-Jackson stuff is going. I'm still pulling for homoerotic courtship ritual. Zack Ryder busting out a hand-phone and a "Call me" on his way to the ring added another layer of dorkiness to a character I'm fast falling in love with. Matt Striker questioning whether Yoshi Tatsu had even seen a superhero before was utterly ridiculous and borderline offensive. He's not from a cave, he's from Japan. He used to wrestle with Jushin Liger, whose whole look was based on a superhero, and who you, Matt Striker, have referenced before.

The only particularly good bit of wrestling was Regal-Dreamer, which was Regal dragging Dreamer through to a good six minute TV match by virtue of the fact that at times, Regal can look like the most vicious man on the planet. He's relentless when attack a limb and his strikes always look deadly. Maybe I'm being unfair to Dreamer, whose job here was to eat a beating and set up Christian vs. Regal, which has the potential to top MOTY lists, based on their few recent encounters.

I enjoyed Smackdown, aside for the dull Khali-Kane stuff. Kane is never as violent or sadistic as he is made out to be. Unlike Mike Knox, who came across like an absolute psycho after dropping Finlay on the steps. I look forward to Matches. The Finlay-Ziggler match was fine, as Finlay pulled a game Ziggler through a pretty stiff little TV match - I enjoyed the return of the ring apron spot, but Ziggler's boot, catching Finaly between it and the ringpost was spot of the match and looked really nasty.

Punk vs. Morrison was also good. Some people just work better as a heel or a face. With Punk, his strike based offence is much more suited to working heel, and now he's fully turned, he's free to drop in also sorts of violent kicks, like those knees at the end with Morrison in the tree of woe. The knee drop on the apron looked really great. The match is carried along by Punk, with Morrison contributing his flashy offence (It's a standing shooting star press. How are both commentators continually messing this up). The GTS looked great as well, as Morrison sold the blow like he'd been shot.

I'm glad they didn't do something stupid like bury the Hart Dynasty in the main - but I don't understand why this needed to be a handicap in the first place. Why couldn't an injured Jeff take on one of them, lose because of his injury, which affects his standing not a little but raises that of his opponent? The stuff post match sets up what could be a really good match next week - I'm excited to see Matt Hardy again. Smackdown has the freshest main event scene in the company since, what, 2002?

I've saved Superstars until last, because it featured the match of the week in Goldust vs. Sheamus. I loved the early intensity to signify the bad feelings between the two, Sheamus pushing Dustin away from a tie up, and Dustin using the momentum to come off the ropes felt like the sort of thing someone would do when tussling over a grudge. There were some great punches by Dustin, and his selling made There were some great punches by Dustin, and his selling made Sheamus look mighty. He's so old school in the way he draws the crowd in - there's a lot of upper mid-card guys who are being heavily pushed who wouldn't have gotten that sort of response. I've struggled to get into Sheamus yet - there's not something I could say 'yeah, he does that well' or 'I like that move' - but I thought his simple moveset worked well here, especially with the way Dustin sold it all. The reactions after the roll-up were great too. The first two five minute matches were good, but give Dustin ten minutes, and he makes for great TV.

Big Japan: 19th December 2008

Big end-of-year show, and they manage to pack a lot into two hours, albeit with some clipping of the unimportant stuff, which is not worth discussing.

We get a barbed-wire board tag with three of the Big Japan new guys (and Inematsu, whose been doing this for a while now). At the moment, I think I prefer guys like Isami taking a beating rather than working a fairly even tag match with similarly ranked guys. Can't fault the effort though, as all the guys bump hard through a 12 minute sprint, but it doesn't have the solid structure and story that a underdog-type match does. If you wanted me to pick a highlight, it would be Hoshino carrying on his crazy habit of splaying his back against something metal.

The six man with all the deathmatch guys didn't really do it for me, and wasn't helped by the editing. The match does a good job of elevating Shuji Ishikawa, who saves his partners over and over and ends up on the winning end of most exchanges. Obviously, he's not taking the same level of nutty violence as someone like Sasaki or Kasai, but he looks fun knocking everyone down with his size.

I ending up liking the tag titles match. The opening is pretty standard stuff, Sekimotos ignores some leg work and Mammoth is an entertaining hot tag, with his lariats and his theft of the Ligerbomb. Actually, it was a novel change watching Sekimoto and Mammoth work the other end of the tag formula. The last eight or so minutes after the hot tag were where this got entertaining - everyone goes at full speed and while Sekimoto is a deeply flawed wrestler, he knows how to get the crowd going with all of his energy. I enjoyed Liger here - especially forcing Sekimoto to sell the leg at least for a time with his persistent stomps and submission work. He matches up well against the bigger Mammoth; I liked his palmstrikes and koppou kick out of nowhere, and Mammoth sold them well. I could watch a singles between the two as a lesser Liger vs. Hashimoto type match.

Really, the show hinged on the success of the title match, and I've gone back and forth on this, which generally indicates it wasn't a huge success. The opening is definitely weak, especially the ridiculously slow bit where Miyamoto regroups in the crowd and Shadow WX does nothing by the side of the ring and some weakish brawling. Given the lack of weapons, they at least pace the two big spots well, although WX annoyed me by barely selling any of the damage of barbedwire and explosions. In fact, my biggest complaint of the whole thing is WX looks like he isn't entirely interested - watch him roll slowly out of a bridged german suplex instead of work nearfall. His lariats lack force and aside from one bit when he rips off his t-shirt, he generally seems to lack any fire. It's not even selling fatigue, because he's like it from the start. Obviously, I'm not the guy breaking glass over my chest or getting barbed wire in my head. Miyamoto's victory is a pleasing moment though, even if it wasn't the amazing dramatic conclusion to the chase that I'd hoped for.

2008 is now done. I'll try and do a top ten list of 2008 Big Japan matches soon. I think we can all agree that this wasn't an excellent year overall, especially compared to 2006 and 2007, but there's good in there if you look hard enough.

Michinoku Pro: 19th June 2009

I watched this show, which is basically three trios matches and a title match. I have to say that I really liked the Satos tag match. The opening few minutes are a really energetic, borderline-wild brawl, they do two heat section (one on Nohashi, and one on Dick Togo, who gets to resume his role from the last show as a fantastic face-in-peril) before the finisher stretch, which was fine. I enjoy the Sato twin schtick, as I do most of the time that guys in Japan wrestle as actual heels (Yuji Hino is the other example I'd use) The other trios were more or less standard undercard lucharesu stuff - some comedy, dives, lots of moves and little of any real substance.

So to the main event. In the month of June, Sasuke wrestled two serious title matches. Not that Ridiculous Sasuke isn't a lot of fun, but a its nice to see a bit of a change. Both men bring something more to this match that most junior matches (and to be fair, most matches). Hayato "Jr" Fujita is developing into an excellent champion, with his own surly, cocky personality - watch as his stalks around the ring - and a simple but deadly moveset. He's solid on the mat and isn't afraid lay into his strikes. His role here is as the man to be beaten, and because of his strong ground game and striking ability, he requires someone to take the offence to him. Sasuke is the veteran, broken down by years of matches like this and the high-impact style of the 1990s. While he wrestles comedy matches these days, here he looks to recreate the Sasuke of the previous decade and win the title. To beat Hayato, he has to use his big moves and take big chances.

So what we get is a 90s junior in a 40 year-old body. The highspots still come, but they don't flow as fast or as smoothly as they might have done in 1994. There's less stuff in between, except selling fatigue or damage. I've got to say that the selling from both guys here is impeccable - the match lasts 28 minutes, but it doesn't feel like one of those junior matches that go on and on for the sake of creating an epic - the selling of fatigue and cumulative damage paces all the big moves, and makes each one seem like a match-winning opportunity. Neither man hops up to pop the crowd with the sort of fighting-spirit comeback that typify a lot of juniors matches, usually to their detriment.

Sasuke comes up with four legitimately insane high spots - the missed apron dive, the top rope plancha, the rope dropkick to the outside and the no hand top con giro to a pile of chairs (Hayato moved). I think it's through these highspots that the story is built - Sasuke's risk do not all pay off, but when they do, he moves closer to winning. The placing of these four spots allow the momentum to shift back and forth. Hayato remains defensive, waiting for an opportunity when one of these chances backfires to really go for the win. After the missed tope, you get the sense that the momentum has really shifted back to Hayato - Sasuke still fights away, blocking a series of strikes with a desperate arm-trap overhead suplex and pulling out his biggest moves, including the Fire Thunder Bomb, but the champion eventually overcomes this final effort with more strikes and a couple of other bigger moves (a german suplex and a plancha of his own).

Really excellent match, an obvious lock for my top 20 (it's probably a top 5 match right now) - go and watch it now.

Craig's Puro MOTY 2009 (so far)

Thought I'd post my current on-going MOTY list for puro matches only, based on what I've managed to watch so far. Most of this is based on my thoughts watching the matches first time around, so positions may change. Also, some of the odder choices will probably fall off once I get more caught up. I've not really started on 2009 Big Japan yet, as its one of the promotions I watch every show for, and I've just receive the latest batch. I'd expect a lot more BJW in this list by the end (I watched the March deathmatch tag online). Regular readers will know I also watch Z-1 and K-Dojo shows, but I don't expect many entries to this list from that.

I've got Ditch's recommend lists, and I pick and choose which matches from the big three to watch, based on existing prejudices. I did watch both Nakajima vs. KENTA matches and disliked them both. I've still got the two big NJ vs. NOAH tags from early in the year to watch. I've only just started the Champions Carnival, and randomly watched the one G-1 match online yesterday, out of curiousity as much as anything. I've got that one Ishii LOCK-UP match from April to rewatch, because I couldn't decide how much I liked it. Feel free to make a case for you favourites so far in the comments, and I'll try and give them a fair viewing.

1. Miyamoto & Sasaki vs Isami & Takeda, March 26th, Big Japan
2. Hayato "Jr" Fujita vs. The Great Sasuke, 19th June, M-Pro
3. Otsuka vs. Yamamoto, February 14th, Battlarts
4. KENTA vs. Jun Akiyama, May 17th, NOAH
5. Kea/Suzuki vs. Suwama/Kondo March 14th, AJPW
6. Hirooki Goto vs. Giant Bernard, March 22nd, NJPW
7. Usuda vs. Yoshikawa, February 14th, Battlarts
8. Nakamura vs Goto, August 7th, NJPW
9. Sawa and Hayato vs Tiger Shark and Saito, April 12th, Battlarts
10. Mutoh vs. Takayama, April 5th, AJPW
11. Togo, Yoshitsune and Rasse vs. Kei Sato, Shu Sato and Ooma, March 1st, M-Pro
12. TAKA Michinoku vs. The Great Sasuke, June 9th, K-Dojo
13. KENTA vs Marvin, June 4th, NOAH
14. Yoshie vs. Ishii March 15th, NJPW
15. Mascarita Dorada vs. Pequeno Damien 666, March 20th, Ultimo Dragon Produce

Big Japan: 21st November 2008 (part two)

So, the other matches from this show don't lend themselves to much detailed reviewing. Case in point, another Men's Club eight-man tag. They actually have a slight storyline going on at this time, with the (sort-of) feud between MENS's Teioh and Oishi. The basis of the feud is a lot of words in Japanese and the UWA Middleweight title, of which I understand only the latter. Men's Club matches are visually impressive and brainless, wrestled at a ridiculous pace and specifically designed not to be taken seriously. So throwing words like "long-term selling" or "building drama" are a waste of time. Unlike Dragon Gate, which building an entire promotion on this style, this is more like an entertaining sideshow, and I have no objection to that. Taking that onboard, this match itself was pretty forgettable, and a lot of the spots were recycled.

I enjoyed the hardcore tag match with new guys Hoshino and Takeda and opponents Ito and Shuji Ishikawa. Takeda is transforming from a quasi-shoot style guy into a deathmatch worker, which is interesting to watch - there is a slight feeling that he's learning how to add hardcore elements to his existing offence (for example, a number of suplexes onto chairs). I like Hoshino for being insane enough to use his body as a weapon, despite how much damage it would do him - the high point of this match is his top rope senton to the outside on Ishikawa. He's not the strongest guy or the fastest guy so he resorts to these sorts of spots to gain an advantage. Fun brawl, mainly on the rookies side.

It would have been nice to see something story develop with the Sekimoto/Mammoth tag title run, rather than a series of fairly meaningless title defences. This episode they defend against two lower card veteran in Taniguchi and Benkei. This went pretty much as expected - after a couple of early exchanges, Sekimoto and Mammoth dominate, Taniguchi makes a (not very) hot tag, the challengers make a bit of a comeback before the champions prove too strong. Formulaic stuff, but not offensive.

I watched the December 14th show, but decided it wasn't interesting enough to write-up. I'll do the big year-end show next time.

Big Japan: 21st November 2008 (part one)

I have a secret pro-wrestling confession: I enjoy watching Masada. I don't know why. I never did when he was in the Carnage Crew in ROH, but I find I've enjoyed loads of his Big Japan matches in the past year. I didn't like his title match with Ito, but his singles with Hoshino and Sasaki were a lot of fun. Plus, him doing MEN's Teioh spots on the last show with the rest of Men's Club was hilarious. He wrestles at a good pace, especially when brawling around the arena, which can often have a lot of deadtime. I like how he sets up weapon or hardcore spots quickly too - it's "right, here's a weapon, that goes there, let's do a move now".

Anyway, I enjoyed his match with Isami Kodaka. Like the Hoshino match, he dominates and delivers a pretty violent beating, but allows Kodaka a decent amount in the comeback. I liked the weapon-based stuff with the ladder and the barbed wire for credibility more than the reverse hurricanrana (as impressive looking as that was). Other violent highlights include Masada (sort-of) catching Isami from a plancha to the outside, then german suplexing him into the chairs, and the now-obligatory powerbomb onto a ladder, with Isami's head landing on the metal. Fun stuff.

Thing I like most about Big Japan is the variety in styles you get on a single show. As well as the heavily-gimmick deathmatch stuff and the hardcore brawling stuff, there's the lucharesu-type Men's Club matches and the non-hardcore heavyweight division (generally, the Sekimoto matches). Increasingly, however, I've found the latter to be the blandest. I don't understand why, of all the new Big Japan rookies, people particularly care about Shinya Ishikawa, who does the fighting-spirit act like half the Japanese indie scene, and I don't feel he particularly distinguishes himself. I've enjoyed Yoshihiro Sasaki in the past, especially some of his matches Z1 in 2007, and he is best in short bursts, which his role in this tag allowed for. Only bit I really liked was the struggle at the end, with Kondo going for his submission finish, and having Ishikawa fight away from it or Sasaki break it up until it finally got the win. The rest was a little generic.

The main event was one of those deathmatches where Abby Jr decides he's going to take a bunch of crazy spots, bleed, bump and sell his way through twenty minutes. Miyamoto brings out a giant light-tube hand and breaks the whole thing over Abby's head. The lighttubes on the rope were too close together to break with the usual back bump, so Abby dives face first through ten of them. Twice. He headbutts lighttubes into Sasaki's chest and chops through five of them with his hand, in a fit of overexburance. Abby Jr is good times.

As to the rest of the match, they managed a good pace, and the three way tag format meant something was always going on with one of the pairings. It also led to some of the slightly goofy spots that multi-man matches do, but this was more of a crowd-pleaser than anything deeply serious. The main story of the match, aside that was all about establishing Miyamoto as the next challenger for the title, which would have been exciting for me if I hadn't already seen the resulting title match, and thought it was rubbish.

Part two to follow.

BattlArts: 12th April 2009

It's been a long time since some BattlArts emerged, so I'm looking forward to this. I've actually got the whole show this time, rather than just the top few matches, courtesy of Lenny.

The opener is between Ryuji Walter and Sanchu Tsubakichi - I know neither. Ryuji Walter takes some energetic submission stuff from his opponent, before absolutely destroying him with just stream of sick strikes. This isn't good by any objective criteria, but it certainly gets a visceral reaction. Chihiro Oikawa vs. Esui is a similar experiment in watching two wrestlers I haven't seen before, as I often pick and choose my BattlArts matches and don't watch the undercard stuff as much. I thought this was fine and quite basic, Esui had her submission and Oikawa had her strikes.

Munenori Sawa/Fujita Jr Hayato vs. Tiger Shark/Akifumi Saito, was, I think, my favourite match on the card. Really, really simple match, with about 80% of it being kicks - all four guys whaling into each other until one doesn't get up. I love Hayato's attitude, and he stalks around the ring. Saito takes a quite heroic beating. Tiger Shark combines my three loves of sharks, tigers, and wrestling characters based on sharks and tigers. He has only short spells in this, but looks right at home. I loved his exchange of punches with Sawa, and his sneaky strike as Sawa winds up for a big punch.

Next, Yoshikawa vs. Yano. Lukie on DVDVR says this is an important match because its one of the first big matches between the new generation of BattlArts guys. But this was awful. Yoshikawa wasn't great, but I wasn't offended by what he was doing. Yano was appalling. I've seen people describe a person's performance as embarrassingly bad before, but I never knew what that was like until I saw this. He should never throw uppercuts. He should never do that deranged jilted lover drunk on gin attack. He should never use the ropes as a springboard. The matwork was weak - clearly, neither guy is a natural on the mat, and if I wanted to draw a positive from this match it would be that I have renewed admiration for Usuda because I really liked the matwork in his matches with both guys.

And the main event is Yamamoto/Super Tiger vs. Ishikawa/Usuda. It wasn't blowaway amazing, but certainly good enough. Everyone matches up at least once, and its hard to pick which bit was best - Yamamoto began all his sections with immense energy, and has nice long sections on the mat with both his opponents; Super Tiger lands some nasty-looking kicks - his big spinning one was right on the mark and looked great. Ishikawa and Usuda do exactly as they always do - great on the mat, plenty manly standing up. I liked the pace and the build through matwork to strikes to some high impact stuff at the end to finish off Yamamoto. Selling was good, particularly by Yamamoto and Ishikawa.