JWP 10/21/07 Tokyo Shinjuku FACE, JWP Junior & POP Title Match: Arisa Nakajima vs. Misaki Ohata 10:31.
DC: After becoming the Princess of Princess Champion, Arisa Nakajima was the one who started the tradition of defending the title alongside the JWP Junior Title. Misaki Ohata kept showing improvement around this time, and she certainly showed the potential to get even better. As we know, she would become one of the more reliable performers in joshi puroresu during the 2010s. When you watch Nakajima’s matches from 2007, you can tell that her confidence and her ability to work smoothly are gradually improving. The good thing about this match was that they wouldn’t give each other an inch of space, and they stayed on top of each other. Ohata surprised Nakajima by grabbing Nakajima’s arm and transitioned into juji gatame immediately after Nakajima kicked out of a cover that came after a cross body by Ohata. Nakajima even kept selling the right arm, which was the arm that took the punishment. Nakajima knew that Ohata wasn’t here to play around, so she started increasing the pressure and going for submission holds herself. They didn’t stick to a single game plan, they just went with whatever worked in the moment. If there was an opening for a missile dropkick, Nakajima took advantage of it. Ohata went for juji gatame again, but Nakajima managed to reach the ropes. Nakajima managed to get the upper hand again and score the win via the Cuty special. This was a good match. The workrate was high, and the action was intriguing. This was arguably Nakajima’s best match and best performance up until that point in her career. ***¼ 

IBUKI 11/11/07 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING: Arisa Nakajima vs. Mariko Yoshida 12:38.
DC: Arisa Nakajima kept attacking Mariko Yoshida as much as she could. Yoshida has a big reputation, so Nakajima naturally saw it as a great opportunity to prove herself in this match.  Yoshida, on the other hand, wrestled this match rather cautiously. Of course, this was the penultimate year of Yoshida as a full-time pro wrestler, so she wasn’t as hungry as she was back in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. Also, maybe she wanted to see what Nakajima was capable of before going for the expected win. Nakajima was a pretty good worker at this point in her career, and she was clearly still growing as an in-ring performer. Things were going quite well for Nakajima in this match. However, towards the end, Yoshida gradually had things going her way more. Nakajima managed to escape defeat for a little while, but eventually, the submission expert Yoshida caught Nakajima’s arm when Nakajima went for a strike. Nakajima was like a fly caught in spider Yoshida’s web. There was no way out for Nakajima, and it was the end of the contest. Nakajima gave a valiant effort, but Yoshida showed why going into the match, she was the favorite to win. ***¼ 

JWP 12/31/07 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Arisa Nakajima & Hiroyo Matsumoto & Hanako Kobayashi vs. Tyrannosaurus Okuda & Aoi Kizuki & Aya Yuki 19:29.
DC: This started off pretty wild with even the teams not coming to an agreement about who was going to start first, so everyone just started pounding away. The workrate was high, as everyone wanted to impress. These six workers were all young workers who had been trying their best all year, and what better way than to end the year with going all out and delivering a match worth recommending? They worked very hard, but they didn’t necessarily always work very smart. However, the effort was so strong that this should pretty much be considered a good match just based on effort and passion alone. It helped that there were some good sequences and good moves, of course. Aya Yuki was not on the level of the others, but it didn’t matter since this match was like a blizzard hammering the prairies, as the pace and action never slowed down. Arisa Nakajima almost scored the win after a missile dropkick on Okuda. After some more high-speed action, Nakajima finally scored the victory for her team by pinning Okuda via the Cuty special. After the match, Nakajima was rightfully chosen as the MVP of the JWP juniors, and she received the fighting spirit award. ***¼    

JWP 6/13/08 Tokyo Itabashi Green Hall: Arisa Nakajima & Kana vs. Tojuki Leon & Kaori Yoneyama 30:00.
DC: At this point in her career, Arisa was so dedicated to making her performances as sincere as possible. Her selling and timing were extremely good. She clearly tried to make sure that whatever she did made sense at that moment in time. Tojuki Leon gave a very focused performance, making her a real threat for the opposition. Kana worked hard and she was very good, but her style was a bit different at the time, as she didn’t do as many kicks or submission holds; her offense mainly consisted of butt bumps. Her selling and timing were certainly superb. Leon & Yoneyama worked together well as a team, and they showed no mercy for their opponents. Yoneyama was quite a serious worker at the time, especially compared to her later years. Out of all these four, Yoneyama probably stood out the least in this match, but that’s hardly a knock on her work, since the other three were three of the very best workers in joshi puroresu at the time. Both teams tried to make tags regularly to try to keep a fresh team member in the ring. All four gave a strong effort in this high-workrate bout. These four just kept going for 30 minutes straight. Excellent match! ****¼  

IBUKI 9/28/08 Tokyo Shinkiba 1st RING: Arisa Nakajima & Tojuki Leon vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Ray 8:24 of 16:36.
DC: Hiroyo Matsumoto gave Nakajima a rough time. Ray had improved a lot around that time, but she hadn’t quite hit her prime yet. All four wrestlers showed lots of enthusiasm and passion. Ray hit a beautiful moonsault that almost got her the win over Leon, but Nakajima broke up the cover. Nakajima suplexed Ray off the top, and Leon followed it up with a tremendous frog splash. Matsumoto broke up the pin. The action increasingly got more intense, and there were several close near falls. Leon almost pinned Ray after a spear, but Ray kicked out. ***¼ 

IBUKI 12/21/08 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, JWP Junior & POP Double Title: Arisa Nakajima vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto 20:49.
DC: This was wrestled at a relatively slow pace. Matsumoto’s offense looked rough and not-so-interesting when she did the more generic power-type moves, but her offense was more interesting when she tried more technical stuff and moves that require more skill than simply bumping into your opponent. What made this match good was the effort. What this match lacked in intriguing sequences during the early part of the match, it made up for in displays of struggle. Later on in the match, we got to see more fast-paced and exciting action. Matsumoto took a big bump when Nakajima pulled her off the apron to the floor. Once Matsumoto was back in the ring, Nakajima executed missile dropkicks from each corner. Matsumoto kicked out and was able to continue. Nakajima became more relentless, and showed that she wanted to put Matsumoto away as soon as possible now that Matsumoto was pretty groggy. However, Matsumoto has so much strength and energy that it’s hard to keep her down for too long. This resulted in a lot of back-and-forth action. The selling in this match was really good, and this really played a big part in the quality of the match. A hard right fist by Nakajima bloodied Matsumoto’s mouth. This didn’t stop Matsumoto, and Matsumoto got the win after a sitout powerbomb. ***½  

JWP 3/8/09 Tokyo Kitasenju Theater 1010: Kayoko Haruyama & Arisa Nakajima vs. Azumi Hyuga & Tojuki Leon 16:24. DC: The match started off with Arisa Nakajima and Leon working on the mat. Once Hyuga was tagged in, she worked over Nakajima’s leg a bit. When Haruyama entered the ring, the matwork ended. Leon increased the pace of the match, and she hit a tremendous no-hands springboard dropkick to the floor on both opponents. Nakajima showed a lot of urgency and tried to pin Leon. Leon and Arisa were the two most outstanding workers in the match. Hyuga didn’t really get involved too much, and Haruyama was a step or three behind the others in terms of workrate. It was a good match, but it seemed like it never really hit its potential. This show being filmed from the balcony didn’t help, of course, because it doesn’t make the moves off the top rope look as impressive as they are. Haruyama pinned Hyuga to win the match, which was a good match overall. ***¼ 

DDT 9/10/22 Osaka Nishinari Kumin Center: Minoru Suzuki & Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Shinya Aoki & HARASHIMA 15:57. DC: Minoru Suzuki and Shinya Aoki started this match off for their respective teams. They focused on grappling. They countered each other’s holds on the mat, and tried to get the advantage over the other. In other words, the early parts of this match was all about perfectly logical wrestling. When Aoki had Suzuki in a figure-four-esque submission hold, Suzuki started screaming at Aoki and managed to escape the hold by twisting Aoki’s ankle. HARASHIMA, who has spent most of his 21-year career in DDT, was tagged in. Suzuki then tagged Yukio Sakaguchi in. Aoki and Sakaguchi continued the grappling theme of this match. At some point, we were back to where we started with Suzuki taking on Aoki. It was still a very even match so far. Aoki put Suzuki in a reverse figure-four, and Suzuki had to grab the ropes to escape. A frustrated Suzuki dragged Aoki to the floor and started hitting Aoki with a chair. Suzuki threw Aoki back into the ring, and he started running towards Aoki and hit Aoki with kicks. Suzuki went for a piledriver, but Aoki countered into a Fujiwara armbar. Suzuki was in trouble, but managed to reach the ropes with one of his legs. Aoki then was able to execute an armbar on Suzuki, who once again had to use the ropes to escape. This wasn’t a UWF Rules match or anything like that, so there were unlimited rope escapes, as usual. Aoki and Suzuki then started trading elbow smashes. Some of the smashes looked more convincing than others, but at least they didn’t sell in an exaggerated manner. Suzuki’s final elbow smash took Aoki down. Now it was time for Sakaguchi and HARASHIMA to square off again. They had a kick exchange. HARASHIMA grabbed Sakaguchi’s leg during the strike exchange and hit a Michinoku Driver that was followed up with a poison rana. Sakuchi then hit a jumping kick right in HARASHIMA’s face and that was the end of this match. Sakaguchi scored the pinfall over HARASHIMA in a match that was quite good overall. This match mostly stood out because it was very grappling-oriented early on, and later it became more striking-oriented. The main event of this show, Konosuke Takeshita vs. Daisuke Sasaki, was a more standard puroresu match, but it was quite a decent match that DDT fans will likely appreciate. Another noteworthy DDT match took place on 9/25/22 when Kazusada Higuchi successfully defended the KO-D Title against Takeshita in a match that was good overall but was focused too much on unnecessary dangerous headbutts. ***¼ 

TJPW 10/9/22 Tokyo Dome City Hall, Princess of Princess Title: Shoko Nakajima vs. Yuka Sakazaki 22:44.
DC: The in-ring rivalry between these two goes back several years. An example of a very good match between these two that took place years ago is their match from 7/23/16, which was back when these two were still helping establish Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling as a league to pay some closer attention to. Nowadays, Shoko Nakajima and Yuka Sakazaki are among the most experienced workers in TJPW, showing the newer talent how it’s done in the ring. Unfortunately, not many of the newer workers in TJPW have really shown that they are capable of stepping up to the plate. Of course, that doesn’t take any enjoyment away from this match between two of the best in TJPW. Early in the match, there was a nice somersault tope suicida by Nakajima. Sakazaki worked over Nakajima’s leg for a bit and slowed the pace down. Nakajima went for a 619, Sakazaki avoided it and hit a 619 of her own. Nakajima went for a dive between the bottom and second rope to the floor, but Sakazaki caught her and slammed her on the floor. Sakazaki showed a lot of strength when she had Nakajima over her shoulder while standing on the second rope and hit a spinning slam. This is a move she calls the Magical Merry-Go-Round, but this is usually not executed while standing on the ropes. Sakazaki executed several hard elbow smashes, and Nakajima tried her best to match them. When Sakazaki was setting herself up for a springboard move, Nakajima hit a 619 to the leg, which was followed up with a 619 over the top to the back of the head. Nakajima then hit a senton on the apron. Nakajima went for a senton off the top rope into the ring, but Sakazaki moved. Sakazaki hit the Magical Merry-Go-Round and followed it up with a springboard somersault plancha. This got Sakazaki the win. Sakazaki became the new holder of the POP Championship, which is the main singles championship in TJPW. After the match, they hugged each other with tears in their eyes. It was a beautiful ending to a very good match. The huracarranas executed by both Nakajima and Sakazaki didn’t look very good, but other than that, the execution was quite good throughout this match. The pace wasn’t very high, and they did focus a lot on selling, but they never overdid this methodical-type approach, so there was always something interesting going on. The build to the finish was well done with a particularly satisfying climactic finish. ***½ 

UFC on ESPN 42 12/3/22

Philip Rowe vs. Niko Price R3 3:26. Price kept the pressure on, and took a lot of chances, doing his best to keep Rowe from being able to use his reach and technical striking advantages. This really required a tont of energy from Price, who was coming off a 14 month layoff due to surgery on both knees. Price was winning the first, but Rowe wobbled him with a right hand 3 1/2 minutes in. Price was marginally outlanding Rowe through two rounds due to outthrowing Rowe 2-1, but Rowe had a clear edge when it went to the ground, including back control late in the second. Rowe was probably up 2 rounds, but both were pretty close. Price was understandably slowing down after throwing about 200 shots in the first two rounds, but his heart didn't waver, and he came out strong in the third, hurting Rowe with an overhand right and pursuing him all out, trying to find some way to finish, including a good clinch knee. Rowe went down from an uppercut, and Price momentarily had mount, but was only concerned with pounding Rowe out, so he mostly just had a knee on Rowe's stomach while he was dropping elbows from the side. Price used all his remaining energy trying for the finish, and when Rowe finally got up midway through the round, Price was essentially out on his feet just from exhaustion. Rowe was so hurt that it took him 35 seconds to finally throw a strike even though Price was moving in super slow motion throwing the occasional drunken punch. Once Rowe landed though, he realized that Price was beyond done, and Price couldn't avoid anything Rowe was throwing because that would require actual movement. It didn't take long for Price to go down to his knees, and although he got right back up, he took a big uppercut in the process and was still unable to defend anything, so Marc Goddard had to step in. Good match.

Stephen Thompson vs. Kevin Holland 4R. This fight was just wild, in the best possible way. It had the action of a slugfest and a brawl, but was instead very skillful and technical, with timing and variety, especially from Wonderboy, who never gets a chance to really show what he can do in standup because everyone is just trying to take him down ASAP. It's hard to know hot to describe this even, beyond saying Thompson's work was arguably the greatest striking performance we've witnessed in the octagon, as he did all sorts of crazy things, but in a remarkably well trained manner that really somehow wasn't leaving too many openings for Holland. After hours of the insufferable Michael Bisping droning on about fighters needing to win rather than be entertaining, as if most of these UFC fights haven't been dull enough lately, it was refreshing to see a main event where Kevin Holland, in particular, predictably chose to be exciting rather than to take his opportunities to lay on the opponent to try to "win" rounds. Both Thompson & Holland have been wrestlefucked of late, and basically had a gentleman's agreement not to grapple. This was more advantageous to Thompson, both because he's the better striker and the worse grappler, and it was Holland who really had some opportunties to lay that he didn't take advantage of, though Thompson did let Holland up at the end of the 4th when there was so little time left that he had no chance to do anything further in standup, but potentially might have got a stoppage with a few big ground strikes. So yeah, Holland, to some extent, brought this beating on himself, but this felt like an old school theme match where it was about Holland trying to find out how high a level he could reach rather than fearing failure to the point he just tried to do everything he could to avoid it. This resulted in a true standup classic, as Thompson got to show the extent of his karate skill and variety, and Holland was able to somewhat match him early on with his power, though breaking his hand in the 1st round really made it a difficult road for him against a better mover who didn't slow down, and was able to land the left hand almost every time he threw it. Holland fought some of the first round the way I thought he needed to fight, pressuring, being unorthodox, making it chaotic. When he sat back, Thompson was just way too fast and technical for him, and would chip away with the low kick or front kick to set up his hands, his speed and movement making it difficult for Holland to make him pay for any of this. Even though Thompson did a great job of timing Holland coming in and landing the big left hand, Holland was really the one who had to make something happen. And he did that with one big right hand follow up, hurting Thompson midway through the 1st. This was definitely a great round, as Thompson recovered quickly, and began to work his high kicks in, while continuing to be money with the left hand. Thompson had most of the other good shots in this round, but Holland cut him early on, and the one signature shot plus this being the only round he outlanded Wonderboy was enough for Holland to arguably edge the round. Due to Wonderboy having the speed, and just being so experienced in striking, it was difficult for Holland to fool him with anything, and even his reach advantage wasn't quite enough though Thompson clearly had to work harder than usual to attack with punches. When Thompson went on offense, Holland had to respect so many more options, and it was much more difficult to defend. Also, Thompson had the timing and accuracy to choose to counter rather than evade. For instance, when Holland would throw a single low kick, Wonderboy would gladly just eat it in exchange for countering with the left straight. As the fight progressed, Wonderboy really relaxed and found his rhythm, flowing effortlessly with high kicks, jumping switch kicks, charging punch combinations, whatever he could think of to keep Holland off balance. Everything from Wonderboy was so technical though too, and one of the reasons he was winning was simply that his strikes were straighter/more direct. It was amazing how much Thompson could cover with his punch combinations, and still land so often and so cleanly, when Holland knew it was coming but just couldn't back away or come up with an answer quick enough to stop it. Thompson was really letting loose in the third, landing a sidekick to the face, spinning high kick, just crazy stuff. The fight was getting more and more one-sided, but the action was so great that it wasn't really lessening the enjoyment. Look, it was definitely helping that Thompson didn't have to fear the takedown, and Holland grew more and more reticent to throw the broken right hand as the fight progressed, but that didn't lessen how impressive Thompson's striking was, it just helped facilitate some of it. Holland's corner was yelling at him that they were down 2-1, so they wanted him to wrestle. He did some clinching against the cage early in the 4th, and Thompson was cut badly from an accidental headbutt. Holland finally gave in, trying for the takedown after Thompson hurt Holland badly with two liver kicks, but by then it was too late. The worst in the business, Dan Miragliotta, who earlier in the night forgot to restart the fight on the ground after the doctor checked the cut around the eye of the fighter on the bottom (Darren Elkins), soon stopped the fight when Holland bucked over against the cage, then 30 seconds later, after Holland protested the foul, restarted it because it was actually due to a punch on the belt that arguably caught the edge of the cup. If Miragliotta were a movie character, he would be the idiot slots manager DeNiro gets stuck with in Casino because his uncle is chief judge and his brother-in-law/second cousin is County Commissioner, who is too dumb to realize the slot machines are rigged despite three jackpots in 20 minutes, the odds of which he himself guesses must be "in the millions, maybe more." Holland was now standing against the cage, trying to just avoid and perhaps using it so he wouldn't get knocked down if he didn't. Wonderboy was just having fun mixing high kicks and spinning high kicks to try to take him out in spectacular fashion. The Holland zombie, who has never been knocked down in his UFC career, and absorbed at least ten shots that would have dropped most other fighters, finally went down to a left hook with in the final seconds of the 4th, but it still wasn't ruled a knockdown. In any case, he was done, and his cornerman Bob Perez didn't try to talk him into coming out for the 5th when Holland told him that was it. The knock against this fight is it wasn't competitive enough after the 1st round, in part because Holland was injured and in part because Holland was more interested in testing his skills against a superior striker than trying to negate him, but the entertainment was increased as the fight progressed even though the intensity was decreased. This is definitely one of the best fights of the year, if not the best. I don't have an issue with anyone calling it merely excellent because it wasn't super dramatic, but it definitely had the most spectacular action we've seen from UFC this year. Great match.