AJW 4/27/87, 2/3 Falls WWWA World Tag Team Title Match: Hisako Uno & Yumiko Hotta vs. Red Typhoons (Kazue Nagahori & Yumi Ogura) 10:06, 6:17, 3:05
PA: I don’t know where to start with this one, as there is a lot going on here. This is the infamous match where Hisako Uno takes a tombstone piledriver from the second rope from Yumi Ogura and works through a legitimately broken neck. Akira Hokuto (still Hisako Uno here) is known for being one of the best workers ever (male or female), one of the toughest (this match went a long way to cementing that legacy), and also one of the most reckless. If she wasn’t injuring herself, she was injuring her opponent, so it’s ironic that her career was temporarily ended through no fault of her own. Yumi Ogura, who was a good worker, particularly with Nagahori by this point, seemed to lose her confidence and motivation after this, and could never be described as ‘good’ again. In some ways, it was a breakthrough match for Yumiko Hotta, who had been pushed hard as a junior, but aside from sharing a vague resemblance to Chigusa Nagayo, had done nothing whatsoever to warrant it. The first fall is good, with the Red Typhoons being the more skilled of the two teams. Uno’s explosions make up for it, though generally not for long, with Hotta, who is the biggest of the four, actually being more capable of holding her own for longer periods. By the end of the fall, Ogura immediately blunted Uno, leading to the tombstone spot that put the Typhoons up 1-0. The break between falls was abnormally long, and more uncomfortable than watching Uno take another piledriver later in the match, was watching referee Bob Yazawa pulling on Uno’s neck between falls, as she was insisting it was just ‘jammed’. The second fall started with Uno wisely tagging out to Hotta. Hotta was out for revenge, and immediately took over and slaughtered Nagahori with kicks until she had to bail from the ring. Ogura’s turn came next, and she got it worse, with Hotta knocking her silly with head kicks and knocking a tooth out (Bull Nakano told a funny story that all the girls at ringside were hunting for the missing tooth and laughing that the Matsunaga’s would have to pay the dentist bill, though it wasn’t established if the tooth was actually recovered or not). The match had a high level of intensity in general, but especially this passage which made Hotta come across like a real badass. Ogura was out of it, so they had to take another break, and then Uno tagged in to get her own shots in. Ogura was able to tag out and Nagahori took over, leading to another piledriver on Uno. A missed diving senton from Ogura allowed Uno to tag Hotta again, and Hotta was able to even things up to 1-1 with a sloppy throw from the top rope. In the third fall, Hotta tried to kick Nagahori’s head off again, since that had worked well in the second fall, but Nagahori was able to duck this time and score her spinning kicks to put Hotta down. Hotta kept trying to come back, but Nagahori kept knocking her down, leading to the Red Typhoons winning the tag belts, ending Uno & Hotta’s reign after only 12 days. Uno ultimately wasn't in as much as I remembered, but the whole time she's in you're just cringing at everything that happens (especially that second piledriver). I have this as the 6th best joshi match of 1987 behind 9/14 Tag League The Best '87: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo vs. Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno, 2/26 WWWA World Single Title Next Challenge Decision Match: Lioness Asuka vs. Chigusa Nagayo, 10/20 WWWA World Single & All Pacific Double Title Match: Yukari Omori vs. Chigusa Nagayo, 4/15 WWWA World Single Title Match: Lioness Asuka vs. Yukari Omori, & 1/4 Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagayo vs. Yumi Ogura & Kazue Nagahori . ****

Universal 3/2/90 Nagoya Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium: Negro Casas vs. Yoshihiro Asai 11:42.
DC: This was the semi-main event of the show (the main event was a good Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo match, which wasn’t as good as the very good Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo match from 3/5/90). It was a solid match that really started taking off during the final minute or two. Negro Casas and Yoshihiro Asai started this match off by two working several good lucha sequences together. Then there was a lot of random back-and-forth stuff that didn’t seem to necessarily lead to anything in particular. Things picked up again with the more spectacular lucha sequences a bit later in the match. Basically any time they went to the mat, it felt more like they were killing time and/or just doing stuff for the sake of it. At least the pace was always consistently moderately fast, which ensured the match never felt dull, as there was always at least something happening at a more than acceptable pace. Things got a bit more heated when they engaged in a short but fired-up slap exchange. After Casas was knocked to the floor, Asai launched himself and hit a tope over the top rope onto Casas on the floor. After the action went back into the ring, Casas hit a cool-looking jumping spin kick. Casas also hit a cool-looking plancha off the top rope onto Asai on the floor. Once back into the ring, Asai was determined to take Casas out, as Casas was starting to get a bit too much of the upper hand in this bout. Asai hit a quebrada and was soon after able to beat Casas with a bridging German suplex. While it was enjoyable for what it was, it was at the same time also slightly disappointing when you consider these were on paper two of the best junior heavyweight workers in the world at the time. Luckily, they would have a better match on 6/7/90. Good match. ***¼ 

Universal 3/5/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Negro Casas & Espanto Jr. vs. Super Astro & Lizmark 9:31.
DC: This match was a lot of fun. It was a Mexican lucha match in Japan in Gran Hamada’s lucharesu league Federacion Universal de Lucha Libre (Universal). Super Astro gave a strong showing here, displaying his tremendous high flying skills. Near the end of the match, Casas took a big bump to the floor and then got hit with a tremendous tope suicida by Super Astro. It feels like this match would have benefitted from a few more minutes of match time, but what we got here was certainly fun to watch. Everyone worked well here, but Super Astro was the true superstar here. Good match. ***¼ 

Universal 6/7/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, UWA World Middleweight Title: Yoshihiro Asai vs. Negro Casas 15:59.
DC: This was a more intense version of their 3/2/90 match. Whether they were on the mat or not, there was a certain sense of struggle, and things felt less random than in their previous match. The matwork here was title match-worthy. They were constantly trying to keep the upper hand and to avoid letting the other gain any real momentum. All the sequences looked smooth, and the execution generally was very good. At some point, Asai hit a nice tope over the top rope to the floor. A bit later on, Asai went for a quebrada, but Casas stepped aside. Casas was in control for the next few minutes and hit a plancha off the top to the floor onto Asai. Once back in the ring, the action started culminating into several near-fall sequences. Eventually, Asai hit a quebrada and pinned Casas via a bridging German suplex to win the match. Very good match. ***¾  

UWF-I 2/14/93 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 15:03.
DC: This was a very good match, but it could only be so good, as Nobuhiko Takada was the big star and it was always going to be a Takada match, no matter how superb Kiyoshi Tamura’s performance was going to be. This was definitely better than what you’d usually see in a Takada UWF-I main event, but it wasn’t on the level of the best matches Tamura had in UWF-I. Part of the reason is that Tamura had to kinda dumb down his own work in order to not outshine the big star too much, as Takada wasn’t nearly as dynamic as workers like Yoji Anjo or Kazuo Yamazaki. It was nice to see Tamura get a chance to fight the top star in a main event match though. Very good match. ***½

UWF-I 5/6/93 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Naoki Sano 19:26.
DC: Neither worker was in any hurry here, for some reason. The work was definitely very good, but the match never lived up to its potential. The grappling was all very technical and well done, but it lacked fire. Naoki Sano’s career hasn’t been very consistent at all. He’d been inconsistent when it came to his performances, but also when it came to the way he’s being booked (which possibly partially explains his inconsistent performances). Sano’s lack of energy gave Kiyoshi Tamura the opportunity to see this match as just a relatively light workout. While everything they did was more than just pretty good, it was certainly not memorable for a Tamura match. Of course, Tamura has given us several excellent and great performances over the years that it’s easy to be disappointed by a match of his that is less than excellent. Good match. ***¼

UWF-I 8/13/93 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Nobuhiko Takada & Kiyoshi Tamura vs.  Gary Albright & Dan Severn 21:39.
DC: Six months prior, we saw Kiyoshi Tamura wrestle top star Nobuhiko Takada in the main event, but this time Tamura is teaming with him in the semi main event. Their opponents in this semi main event were gaijin workers Gary Albright and Dan Severn, who have been known to drag the quality of UWF-I shows down quite a bit due to them not being that good as workers. However, this was an interesting opportunity for top worker Tamura to not only carry his overpushed partner, but also carry the opposition. That was surely some heavy luggage for Tamura to carry on this occasion. Tamura’s great skills definitely elevated the quality of this match. While he was an accomplished amateur wrestler, it became clear that Severn didn’t really have an idea of how to be good at worked pro wrestling matches. Tamura did an excellent job of balancing between giving Severn opportunities and taking care of business himself. Takada vs. Albright was the main story of the match, and they initially showed a lot of energy when they faced off here. Tamura vs. Albright provided some heated underdog vs. big man moments, while Takada vs. Albright provided us with some heated top dog vs. big man moments. Tamura was easily the worker of the match, but credit to Albright for being quite good in his role. Takada ended up doing a submission job to Albright. Very good match. ***½

UWF-I 10/4/93 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yuko Miyato 8:19.
DC: Kiyoshi Tamura really stood out in this league because of his tremendous speed and sense of urgency. UWF-I was quite fun to watch overall, but Tamura often stood out as the best worker on the card due to his ability to have faster, more exciting and dynamic bouts than most were capable of. His ability to transition into other moves and his ability to counter wrestle in a fluent manner really made him the main reason to keep an eye on any of his matches, regardless of his opponents, because as a fan of high-quality pro wrestling, you’d want to see what Tamura does next with a variety of opponents of different skill levels. UWF-I booker Yuko Miyato certainly was a capable worker, but he was never really top level. Still, he must have known that Tamura was going to enhance the quality of this match. Tamura got the opportunity to show his stuff, but Miyato appeared to up his workrate quite a bit here as well, seemingly because of the great Tamura being his opponent. Miyato got some good moves in. Tamura was such a clever worker, always finding openings and so good at reacting in a logical yet still somewhat realistic way. Just when the action was getting hotter, the match was over, as Tamura made Miyato tap out. It was certainly a nice victory for Tamura. This bout was potentially on its way to excellence, but it turned out to be only eight minutes long. Without worrying about what this match could have been and about whether or not this match was too short, if we focus on what we got, it’s not an exceptional match, but it was definitely a lot of fun to see Tamura do his thing. Very good match. ***½ 

UWF-I 2/25/94 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara 13:46.
DC: It’s nice to see this being the main event, as these two were arguably the most talented workers in the league at the time. Masahito Kakihara started off with a flurry of hand strikes that temporarily got Kiyoshi Tamura a little overwhelmed until Tamura took Kakihara to the mat. What followed was some interesting mat wrestling that featured counters and counter attempts by both. What was so good about this display of mat wrestling was that both didn’t just give in easily, as they did an excellent job of bringing forth the illusion that the opponent really had to work to create an opening. In other words, this was excellent shoot style wrestling. What they also did well was change the dynamic of the fight whenever they went into stand up striking mode. On the mat, they were cautious and somewhat calculated in their approach, trying to think a few steps ahead, but when the stand up striking took place, they displayed urgency and aggression in order to not give the opponent too many chances to anticipate the next moves. That being said, the finish came somewhat abruptly from a quick counter on the mat when Kakihara successfully countered and made Tamura tap. This would have been a truly excellent match if they would have gone on for a few minutes longer, as they were on their way to build towards what potentially could have been a fascinating climax. Instead, we got a quick counter on the mat, which in a way was perfect, because it warranted the heedfulness displayed on the mat earlier. However, for sheer entertainment value, the abrupt finish was a slight disappointment, especially since it came less than 14 minutes into a main event that had potential to deliver more. While it was enjoyable to see these two wrestle each other deservingly in the main event, it’s hard not to feel that this match slightly under delivered. They did an excellent job working this in a relatively realistic way though. Very good match. ***¾

UWF-I 5/6/94 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Pro Wrestling World Tournament Round 2: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Naoki Sano 13:52.
DC: The second round, which was essentially the quarter finals, featured the final eight competitors of this tournament. After Kiyoshi Tamura had put away Bad News Allen rather easily in a short but decent match, his next opponent was someone he had faced in the past, Naoki Sano. On 5/6/93, Tamura vs. Sano was a good but disappointing match. To get to the second round in this ‘94 Pro Wrestling World Tournament, Sano had to get past Tatsuo Nakano in the first round. This second-round match between Tamura and Sano started off somewhat slowly, as Tamura seemed to to anticipate Sano’s rather deliberate approach and wait for Sano to make a mistake. The way Tamura executed a German suplex was really cool, because he positioned himself in a manner that made it hard for Sano to block or counter the move, and then Tamura executed the move once the moment was perfect for it. This way, Tamura kinda reminded Sano that he wasn’t here to play, as he emphasized that he really was approaching this with the right shoot style wrestling mindset. Even during the stand up striking, Tamura gave Sano no choice but to stay focused and come up with something good. Tamura’s confidence would nearly come across as arrogance if we wouldn’t be aware of his tremendous dedication and fighting spirit. In a fun moment, Sano managed to temporarily get Tamura to fall on his back when Tamura avoided a high kick, but ever the spectacular performer, Tamura simply did a kip-up and was back on his feet in no time, much to the delight of the spectators. Sano tried to remain as focused as possible, although he clearly didn’t have the tremendous energy that Tamura had, not only because Tamura was roughly five years younger than Sano, but Tamura appeared to have a strong desire to become the best performer he could possibly be, while Sano’s career seemed to be perennially at a crossroads of sorts. Tamura’s will to win shone through in his performance here, and it was deserving and fitting that Tamura came through on the mat and transitioned into a Kimura lock for the submission victory. This match was more fun to watch than their previous match, mostly thanks to Tamura’s performance in this particular match being stronger, but while Sano was good, it feels we once again didn’t get to see a memorable performance from him. It was competitive enough to stay interesting for the most part, but in the end, it didn’t feel like Sano was able to get into the groove here. Very good. ***½ 

UWF-I 6/10/94 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Pro Wrestling World Tournament Semifinal: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Super Vader 7:14.
DC: Super Vader was definitely a super heavyweight, as he was roughly twice as heavy as Kiyoshi Tamura. Super Vader had been making a big impact in UWF-I ever since his first appearance in the league in May 1993, after having made his name in NJPW and WCW, where he held world titles. Vader certainly wasn’t the most realistic shoot style wrestler, but he was oftentimes an entertaining one. His uniqueness also made him somewhat of a novelty act. It was interesting to see how Tamura was going to approach this match. Tamura showed no fear and slapped Vader instead of offering a handshake. Tamura got some good kicks in, and he used his quickness and determination to avoid getting trapped in the clutches of Vader’s strength. Vader did quite a good job selling for Tamura, which helped make this match more exciting and less squash-like. In fact, it was quite competitive, at least relatively speaking. In the end, Tamura got knocked down several times by Vader’s heavy blows before the inevitable defeat. While it was obvious from the start that Tamura wasn’t going to win this match, they did a very good job of making it seem as competitive as possible, given that Vader was basically squashing everyone not named Nobuhiko Takada. While this was only a seven-minute match, at least Tamura lasted longer against Vader than anyone not named Takada had in the UWF-I. Good match. ***¼  

UWF-I 1/16/95 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Gene Lydick 9:09.
DC: The fifth match on this show, Masahito Kakihara & Yoji Anjo vs. Naoki Sano & Kazushi Sakuraba, was an excellent match that is worth seeking out. Here, in the sixth match on this show, Gene Lydick, who had been one of the better gaijin workers in UWF-I, certainly gave a strong effort against the best worker in the UWF-I. Tamura did a really good job making this bout intriguing, as the way Tamura positioned himself and approached Lydick created openings for Lydick to capitalize on. Tamura would then counter when appropriate. Despite Lydick trying hard, it seems this match was only going to be so good, considering Lydick wasn't a top-tier worker. Lydick was a bit too deliberate at times, but Tamura’s smoothness on offense and defense made the match feel like it flowed relatively well. It feels like Lydick is probably more likely to excel in tag team matches because of his explosive but inconsistent amateur wrestling style, although, if he faces top-quality opponents like Tamura here, it’s clear that he is able to partake in a good match. All in all, this was an enjoyable match that saw Tamura carry Lydick really well. Very good match. ***½ 

UWF-I 2/18/95 Tokyo Bay NK Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara 2:06.
DC: This may or may not have been a shoot. Tamura’s first actual shoot had taken place on 5/8/92, which was a fight in which he defeated American boxer Matthew Saad Muhammad in only 34 seconds. Masahito Kakihara started super urgently and attacked Tamura with a flurry of hand strikes. Tamura used his grappling skills to his advantage and took Kakihara to the mat and stayed in control. Kakihara managed to escape and counter, but Tamura applied a sleeper so tight that Kakihara went out. It was a short match, but it was fascinating, and you could tell both were very skilled wrestlers. It kinda looked like a shoot because they worked more aggressively, but there were some small moments that kinda made it seem like it may have been a well-executed work. It’s hard to tell if this was a shoot or not, because in the mid 1990s, MMA wasn’t what it is nowadays. Either way, shoot or not, this was a good match. ***

UWF-I 5/17/95 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 11:16.
DC: They were cautious at the start. Kiyoshi Tamura showed his tremendous ability to work quick counters. Kazuo Yamazaki was solid, but he utilized his more cerebral approach, not wanting to take too many risks and being a bit deliberate and slow. Tamura was a lot more flashy, but he respected Yamazaki’s approach, and decided to try to keep things on the mat as well. After the lengthy session of matwork, they switched to some stand-up striking. In general, in this match, Yamazaki was quite slow, which meant Tamura could do more damage by using his speed advantage. This was easily the best match on a rather average UWF-I show. While the work was very good overall, if Yamazaki would have shown more speed and urgency, the match would have been more dramatic and interesting. Ironically, the finish came when Yamazaki showed a flash of urgency at the right time. This finish showed that no matter how the match goes, a finish can come out of nowhere if someone can take advantage of an opening that has been presented. Good match. ***¼

UWF-I Fukuoka Hakata Starlanes: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara 6:19.
DC: Just like their previous meeting on 2/18/95, this may or may not have been a shoot. This was fascinating. The two best workers of the league facing each other in what was essentially a worked shoot. Tamura was smartly using rope breaks, knowing that he would eventually probably be able to score a submission victory. That’s exactly what happened, as Tamura used all his power to apply the jujigatame for the win. It looked like it could have been a shoot, but it was more than likely simply a worked shoot in a shoot style league, an illusion within the illusion, if you will. Speaking of shoots, later that year, Tamura would defeat Patrick Smith at a K-1 event on 12/9/95 in only 55 seconds, as Tamura basically went straight for the kill. Very good. ***½

UWF-I 3/1/96 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kazushi Sakuraba 8:42.
DC: During the faster parts early in the match, this was worked in a super urgent manner. They kept trying to out wrestle each other on the mat, and because the other was prepared for it, they had to keep increasing the speed with which they moved and countered. Then there were slower moments as well, but they were still intriguing, as those parts were only slower because they didn’t want to make a mistake and were sensing the other was about to make a move that could be countered. Kiyoshi Tamura was the more vicous of the two when it came to stand-up combat. Kazushi Sakuraba was more comfortable taking the match to the mat, since he felt he could certainly give Tamura a run for his money on the mat. The matwork remained intriguing, because they didn’t just go along with what the other was doing, and they were making an effort to make the other struggle as much as possible. Sakuraba found out the hard way that you can’t leave Tamura with any chance on the mat, though, as Tamura got the opportunity to apply an ankle submission hold for the win. Sakuraba showed some frustration after the match, because he had done so well but lost due to Tamura just needing one opportunity to apply an ankle lock. Very good match. ***¾ 

UWF-I 5/27/96 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kazushi Sakuraba 9:01.
DC: The stand-up striking was more exciting than in their 3/1/96 match. Kiyoshi Tamura was still significantly stronger in stand up than Kazushi Sakuraba, but there was a cool moment that saw Tamura go for a jumping kick, but Sakuraba saw it coming and knocked Tamura down after kicking Tamura in mid air. While this match was good at all times, it wasn’t nearly as exciting as their previous match together. One of the reasons for this is that the matwork was less urgent and didn’t have as many intriguing counter moments as in the 3/1/96 match. The fact that this was the opening match didn’t help matters, but Tamura would soon jump ship to the RINGS league anyway (which was understandable since UWF-I was seemingly getting less shoot style and more show style since they began working with New Japan). The match never really got too heated, and Tamura suddenly won with a flying armbar. Good match. ***

SEAdLINNNG 12/13/17 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Arisa Nakajima vs. Tsukasa Fujimoto 30:00
PA: Best Friends spending 30 minutes trying to kill each other, what more could you want? Fujimoto is not one of my favorite wrestlers but Arisa seems to love nothing more than beating the crap out of her, and they always bring out the best in each other. They went hard right from the start spilling to the outside, Nakajima was throwing a chair and had to be restrained from using a ladder, just in case there was any thought of a friendly encounter. They went into some slower matwork, trying to find an opening. You always had the sense it was going to blow up again whenever someone did, and sure enough, it resulted in a great sequence where Fujimoto snapmared Nakajima for a soccer kick, went for a PK, Nakajima rolled back and nipped up, went for a wheelbarrow roll, Fujimoto did a handspring to get out of that, tried another PK, which Arisa again rolled back to avoid. Then just when it looked like Nakajima was going to get a run of offense, Fujimoto took a brief opening to dropkick Nakajima out of the ring. And just when you thought we were going to see the Manami crowd clap plancha from Tsukasa, Nakajima wasn’t having that, and flung a chair at her head. I’m sorry for the excessive play by play, but I wanted to highlight how great this entire sequence was, there was nothing complicated move-wise about it, but it was done so smoothly with no hesitation at all, it was unpredictable and everything had intent behind it. They didn’t let up afterwards either, they kept slugging at each other and took turns soccer kicking each other just to prove they could take it. Every time it appeared they were going to settle down, there would be an explosion soon after. The possibility of a 30 minute broadway was not something that would even cross your mind until the time actually approached. The match had a lot of brawling through the middle, and they were escalating their spots to where it could have been confused for a finishing run, but they left a lot for the final third. I’ll gladly admit to being really impressed with Fujimoto for most of the match, though Arisa keeping her away from getting contrived and predictable was definitely happening. The only spot I really didn’t like was Fujimoto doing the Manami Toyota missile dropkick from each turnbuckle spot, which was slow and took the intensity down with her more focused on crowd approval than her opponent. The last 10 minutes saw a lot more selling, as they’d been worn down from beating the crap out of each other. They were hitting bigger spots looking for a victory, there were some close calls but ultimately they were unable to follow up to actually find one. There isn’t really a satisfying way to end a broadway, so I won’t hold the finish against it, it’s always some kind of ‘if there were only 2 more seconds on the clock’ thing or it ends up with some anticlimactic brawling. Here, it was the former, with Fujimoto hitting her JOCS and the referee getting a one count. I don’t think it’s a question of whether this is women’s MOTY for 2017, it’s a question of whether it’s MOTD. A really great match. Really impressive stamina to go as hard as they did for 30 minutes, there wasn’t any time wasting, and just about everything they did was high quality, from their execution of moves to the stiff striking. A real antithesis to the contrived, slow, drawn out “epic” matches we are plagued with today. ****3/4

DC: You wouldn’t know they were Best Friends and great tag team partners if you didn’t know their history, as they beat the living daylights out of each other from the start of this match. They clearly went into this match with the intention to put their respective competitive nature at display here. Perhaps the best aspect of this match was that everything was done with a lot of intensity. Holds were applied in a very snug manner, and they were both constantly trying to make the other fight to get the upper hand. The workrate was high, and the execution of the moves was done superbly. There were several moments where things looked very uncooperative, which really enhanced the feeling that this was not just another match. Tsukasa Fujimoto’s kicks were thrown in a ferocious manner and looked very stiff. Tsukka also threw some amazing dropkicks, which were reminders of her dropkicks arguably being some of the best in all of pro wrestling. One of Arisa’s most effective-looking moves in this match was a tremendous DDT on the apron while coming off the top rope. Later in the match, Arisa executed a beautiful moonsault that was one of the best-looking moonsaults Arisa has ever executed. It looked like a finish was going to happen, as Tsukka was ready to put Arisa away with the Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex, but then the time limit expired. Despite this match going 30 minutes, they were able to keep the action going at all times. What a great pro wrestling match! This was the best Arisa vs. Tsukka singles match they ever worked together, even better than the excellent Ice Ribbon 12/28/14 match, the great JWP 12/28/14 match, the excellent Ice Ribbon 3/26/17 match, the excellent 4/29/22 SEAdLINNNG match and the excellent 4/30/22 Ice Ribbon match. ****¾

8/26/23 London, England Copper Box Arena: Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi 20:08.
DC: I am fortunate enough to be able to say that I witnessed this match live in person, and it’s the best match I ever watched live in person. However, this review is based on my experience of watching this match on my laptop a month after the show took place, not factoring in the fantastic live experience. The main thing about this match was that the tremendous spots in this match were for the most part all excellently and smoothly executed. These two were obviously quite familiar with each other, as they had had several memorable matches against each other in the past (in NJPW), most notably their great matches on 6/5/19, 3/21/21 and 5/4/21. In particular, Will Ospreay was very impressive in this match at RevPro’s 11th anniversary show, and one could describe this match as the Will Ospreay show, despite Shingo Takagi obviously also playing a role in the high quality of the match (and it was particularly their familiarity that likely helped make this match great). It wasn’t a super fast-paced match, but it certainly wasn’t a slow-paced match either, and the action kept flowing nicely as the match went on, climaxing nicely in the final minutes. It was mostly about spots in this match, but the spots were all cool-looking and quite impressively-executed spots. This wasn’t quite as great as their amazingly great 5-star 6/5/19 match, but that match is an all-time great match. This was more exciting than their great 4.5-star 3/21/21 match, and this was also more entertaining to watch than their really long but great 4.5-star 5/4/21 match (although one could say that the 5/4/21 match had clearly more and better storytelling going on with more of a display of a competitive struggle, as in the 5/4/21 match, they overcame the limitations that anyone would face when being told to work a 44-minute match by making the most out of the situation, since they arguably worked the best possible modern long match you could imagine anyone having these days due to their effort and ability to tell a story, unlike the usual overrated ‘BS Road Style Epics’ even though 44 minutes is obviously too long for almost any wrestling match). For those who are keeping track of all their matches, Ospreay and Takagi also had a 3.75-star match on 8/6/22, but that was easily their weakest match (‘only’ a very good match). They also had an excellent 4-star match on 9/27/20, their second-’worst’ singles match together. What made this match stand out was that everything they did felt genuine and felt like they really gave the best effort possible on this night at the Copper Box Arena in East London, while clearly having in mind to deliver an exciting spot-fest like classic. At the very worst, this was their fourth-best match together, but I’d suggest that this was actually their second-best singles match against each other and the second-best pro wrestling match of the year behind the great 4.75-star NJPW 1/4/23 Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay match. Also, this Ospreay vs. Takagi match is easily one of the very best matches to have ever taken place in the United Kingdom. In fact, I’d suggest that it arguably belongs in the top five matches to have ever taken place in Europe along with France’s 5/2/57 Gilbert Cesca vs. Billy Catanzaro, England’s 9/13/78 Marc Rocco vs. Marty Jones, England’s 6/24/81 Johnny Saint vs. Ken Joyce and England’s RevPro 11/10/17 Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Will Ospreay. Ospreay really showed why he is arguably the best pro wrestler in the world today. It’s not just the fancy highspots, it’s the fact that he’s able to deliver what people want from pro wrestling today more so than any other wrestler in the world today while being accessible to a variety of fans across the world. By the way, it’s also nice that the RevPro booker knows where Takagi belongs on a card, unlike NJPW booker Gedo, who continues to be viewed as a great booker through some sort of magical thinking by the masses. Either way, this match is highly recommended, especially for those who really enjoy Ospreay’s work. Great match. ****½