LLI 1991 Nezahualcoyotl Arena Neza, UWA Middleweight Title: Negro Casas vs. Hijo del Santo 15:15 (3:22, 3:11, 8:42).
DC: This match was shown on a UWA Hijo del Santo commercial tape from the early ‘90s. It possibly took place in March 1991, but this is merely a guess on my part. Negro Casas really took it to Hijo del Santo on the mat during the first fall. Being quite the accomplished technical wrestler himself, Santo was able to counter on several occasions. However, Casas was able to score a quick pinfall via la casita. In the second fall, Casas decided to keep going for a mat-based attack. Once again, Santo was able to turn things around, displaying his own grappling skills. After some more fast-paced action, Casas took a big bump, and Santo saw an opening to apply the camel clutch, which resulted in Santo winning the second fall. In the third fall, Santo was initially the aggressor, determined to make Casas submit once again. Towards the end of the match, Santo hit a tope suicida and a plancha off the top rope to the floor. Out of nowhere, Casas was able to find a way to apply a sasorigatame for the win. This was a very good match, but it wasn't quite the classic you'd hope to see from these two. ***½ 

NJPW 4/19/91 Okinawa Ounoyama Gymnasium, Top of the Super Juniors II: Negro Casas vs. Jushin Thunder Liger 6:52.
DC: Negro Casas did several cool-looking moves, and he tried to be more hard-hitting while mostly still doing lucha style offense. When Jushin Thunder Liger was able to fight back, he hit a tremendous somersault plancha to the floor. However, Casas scored a flash pin by using the ropes less than seven minutes into the match. The work was very good, as was the execution for the most part, but it was just a really short spotfest that was fun to watch. Good match. ***¼ 

NJPW 4/28/91 Omiya Skate Center, Top of the Super Juniors II: Negro Casas vs. Pegasus Kid 11:52.
DC: The work was very good, and this was almost twice as long as Negro Casas' match with Jushin Thunder Liger nine days earlier, but the longer time didn't result in more action. Pegasus Kid displayed some solid offense though. Pegasus hadn't quite hit his peak yet, and he was missing some of the intensity he would become known for. Good match. ***

RINGS 12/23/97 Fukuoka Kokusai Center, Mega-Battle Semi-Final: Akira Maeda vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 14:44.
DC: This was more exciting than most Akira Maeda matches from the late 1990s, thanks to Kiyoshi Tamura's high workrate and high-quality ability. Tamura was arguably the best worker in the world at the time. Maeda was overall quite alright here, but he didn't do anything really special. He was mostly relying on his name value at the time, and he didn't provide anything really exceptional in terms of in-ring quality. The main thing to know about this match is that it was not only Tamura's first ever win over Maeda, but also the only match Maeda ever lost to a native in RINGS. Good match. ***

RINGS 1/21/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, MEGA-BATTLE Final, RINGS Openweight Title Decision Match: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Mikhail Ilyukhin 18:12.
DC: This was a lot more interesting than their match from 10/25/96. Mikhail Ilyukhin had shown improvement since then, but the main reason this match was this good was because of Kiyoshi Tamura. It was Tamura who really made this match feel urgent and special, thanks to his ability to constantly move and be in a position that would enhance the match. Compared to 13 months prior, Ilyukhin seemed to understand better how to contribute to a shoot style match in a useful and somewhat realistic manner. Ilyukhin was obviously still outworked by the great Tamura, but at least Ilyukhin was able to come across as somewhat of a serious threat here, as it wasn't just Tamura working hard to try to make it seem Ilyukhin was able to do anything back of significant value. Ilyukhin seeming more sure and confident than previously also helped in this match being worthy of such a high-profile title match. Both men took each other seriously, and both were able to display a healthy balance between cautiousness and courageousness. Tamura's display of technical matwork was tremendous, not just because of his ability to execute and apply holds, but also because of his ability to make the matwork appear to be competitive thanks to his understanding of how to be in the right position at all times and how to be able to leave an opportunity for his opponent to find an opening. In other words, this was yet another great performance by Tamura in which he showed why he was one of the very best wrestlers in the world at the time (and arguably THE best). Excellent match. ****

RINGS 3/28/98 Tokyo Bay NK Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Dick Vrij 7:46.
DC: This was twice as long as Kiyoshi Tamura's 6/29/96 RINGS debut against Dick Vrij. This match didn't exceed expectations by any means, though. What they did was definitely all well done, but it wasn't on the level of most of Tamura's matches from around that time. Vrij didn't seem as energetic as in some of his most memorable matches, and this only helped further emphasize that this was basically a walk in the park for Tamura. Good match. ***

RINGS 6/27/98 Tokyo Bay NK Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka 30:00.
DC: This was almost as great as their 4/22/97 match. Both competitors focused a lot on trying to make this worked shoot as realistic as possible. The only downside of the match was the lack of urgency and overall lack of speed shown in this match. While the cautiousness displayed could be seen as wise, it also was just a bit too much cautiousness. I guess the fact that this was going to go 30 minutes wasn't helpful in this respect. It definitely feels that this would have been (even) better if it was slightly shorter. In fact, it's probably because of the 4/22/97 match being about half the length of this 6/27/98 match that the 4/22/97 match felt like an even better attempt of creating a match that was realistic and featured plenty of struggle. The 4/22/97 Tamura vs. Kosaka match was less flashy and spectacular than the Tamura vs. Han matches, but this 6/27/98 Tamura vs. Kosaka match was even less flashy and spectacular than any of those matches, and it feels like Tamura and Kosaka couldn't quite get across the struggle and snugness they were able to get across in the 4/22/97 match. Luckily, there were several instances in which flashes of urgency and speed were shown. Also, a display of high-quality technique was shown all the way through. While this was a high-quality pro wrestling match, it wasn't necessarily that much more realistic than many previous matches we've seen from Kiyoshi Tamura. That being said, this match against Tsuyoshi Kosaka was quite realistic overall (far more realistic than most pro wrestling matches), and this realism helped make this match stand out as one of the top candidates for 1998 MOTY. This certainly isn't the most exciting Tamura match out there, but it's one of his many great displays of wrestling as (martial) art. Great match. ****½

RINGS 9/21/98 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto 18:52.
DC: As always, Kiyoshi Tamura was great at doing the right thing at the right time. He acted and reacted appropriately in a manner that would make his opponent look like a serious threat. Yoshihisa Yamamoto did well for himself here, but he relied on Tamura's greatness to make it appear there was a good amount of flow to his work, especially during the early minutes. The best part about Yamamoto's performance was that there were several flashes of urgency in which he really put it over that he was trying his best. Especially as the match went on, it seemed like Yamamoto was finding his groove more. This enabled Tamura to show more aggression himself, as things were looking more competitive. The second half of the match was definitely better than the first half of the match, as there was a lot more combativeness shown in the second half. While the work was generally really good in this match, there just wasn't enough excitement and not enough memorable moments in the first half of the match to really make this an excellent match overall. All in all, this was roughly on the same level as their match from 12/19/96. These two would end up having a much more memorable match in 1999, but we'll get to that later. Very good match. ***¾

RINGS 1/23/99 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka 9:42.
DC: This was a so-called ‘ranking match' between Kiyoshi Tamura and Tsuyoshi Kosaka, who were rank #1 and #2. The expectations for this match were quite high, as they had previously had great matches against each other on 4/22/97 and 6/27/98. They both were quite heedful in their approach early on, which made sense since they were both aware of the other's high-level capabilities. The match was quite realistic, but they still tried to keep things somewhat exciting in order to not let the realism get too much in the way of the viewer's enjoyment. This was a work, but it was around a time when RINGS started favoring shoots more. Thus, it was worked more in a way to make it seem like a shoot, which is something they did quite well, but it feels this bias towards more shootiness has been having an impact on the overall quality of worked matches that potentially could have been better. This was also the case with the Volk Han vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara match preceding this match, which turned out to be merely a very good match after looking more like an excellent match on paper going into the match. There was a really good moment towards the end that had Tamura show a lot of intensity as he was in the process of knocking Kosaka down. Things definitely seemed to be going well for Tamura. However, soon after, Kosaka threw Tamura to the mat and made Tamura tap. This finish really came out of nowhere. From a worked pro wrestling perspective, they probably should have either made this match more urgent from the start if they were going to work a shorter match than they usually do, or they probably should have been given more time to present something more along the lines of their previous battles. From the perspective of RINGS trying to be more shooty, what they presented here was a realistic bout that ended in a manner that seemed completely plausible. All in all, it's hard to not see this as a very unsatisfying match, though, as it didn't live up to be the potentially great match it should have been. Very good match. ***½ 

RINGS 3/22/99 Tokyo Bay NK Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs Hiromitsu Kanehara 20:14.
DC: When AJPW's legendary Giant Baba died on 1/31/99, it felt like it was symbolic of the death of the glory years of traditional old school puroresu. In the meantime, RINGS was certainly doing an excellent job providing puroresu fans with an interesting product during times when puroresu was clearly struggling to hold on to its glory from previous years and struggling with winds of change. RINGS had been pushing the limits when it came to realism in puroresu. Here in this match, two of the most memorable shoot style workers of the ‘90s finally faced each other. This was the first and only time Kiyoshi Tamura and Hiromitsu Kanehara wrestled each other, as they were somehow never booked to wrestle each other when they were both two of the most exciting workers in UWF-I during the early-mid 90s. Kanehara was slightly more aggressive than Tamura early on, but Tamura felt more dangerous because of his ability to suddenly display threatening counters. They were constantly making the other struggle, and they were constantly trying to get in a better position. This match never had a dull moment. These two showed they were highly skilled technical wrestlers. Of course, we knew that Tamura would display his tremendous ability, but it was nice to see Kanehara finally being involved in a highly competitive match for the first time in quite a while. Kanehara had always shown tremendous potential during his first years in the business, but at some point he somehow kinda got lost in the shuffle. Here in this match, he certainly gave Tamura a run for his money. The stand-up portions were brief compared to the more lengthy mat-based portions, as these two naturally seemed to gravitate towards matwork in this match. Tamura seemed to wait for Kanehara to make a mistake, and this made Kanehara's approach slightly more apprehensive as the match went on. While that meant the action wasn't exactly fast paced, there was at least always something going on, and the way they wrestled made this match intriguing from start to finish. It took over 13 minutes for Kanehara to start losing his first point, which says a lot about how evenly matched these two were. Around the 20-minute mark, Tamura's patience got rewarded, as he finally caught Kanehara in a position that Kanehara wasn't able to get out of, as Kanehara tapped out to Tamura's armbar. It feels like we knew this would happen, but the 20-minute journey was an intriguing one and certainly one worth watching. This was the best Kanehara match since Masakazu ‘better than Akira' Maeda had retired (for those who don't know about this, check out the Kanehara vs. better Maeda matches from 1992). Tamura was the stronger performer in this match, but Kanehara certainly deserves credit for being a competitive opponent who was capable of being a tough opponent for Tamura to get by. It would have been nice if there was some more flashiness shown, but since this was the era in which RINGS pushed for more realism, we can say that this match was one that didn't suffer from the focus on more realism, as these two did a great job of making this look realistic while having an intriguing worked wrestling match. Excellent match. ****¼ 

RINGS 4/23/99 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Frank Shamrock 20:00.
DC: This was possibly an actual shoot. It's possible that it was a work to some degree, though. Perhaps it was a worked shoot? It was definitely approached differently than most wrestlers would approach a worked match, which pretty much makes it plausible this was indeed a legit shoot. There was urgency shown whenever there was danger, and every single thing they did felt like it had importance. If Kiyoshi Tamura hadn't already proven himself to be the best pro wrestler in the world by that point, his performance here (shoot or not) confirms that he was indeed the very best. Of course, we have to give tremendous credit to Frank (Juarez) Shamrock, the adopted brother of Ken Wayne Shamrock, for his contribution to the match, as he's clearly one of the most highly skilled grapplers. Frank had been involved in shoot fighting/MMA since 1994. Since I don't know when I'll be talking about Frank Shamrock again, I just want to say that his fight vs. Cung Le from Strikeforce 3/29/08 is probably the best MMA match I have ever seen in my life. Anyway, after 20 minutes of tremendous struggle from both Tamura and Frank, the match ended as a draw. It's possible that they were told to basically shoot but not finish each other off and go to a 20-minute draw. There are some portions during the second half of the match that seem like they were holding back, although it's possible they were simply exhausted from grappling competitively for 20 minutes straight. Either way, the grappling was great and this was truly a fascinating match from start to finish. Great match. ****½ 

RINGS 6/24/99 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto 20:00.
DC: This was definitely a work, but it was a great one. This started off with some tremendous flashy, fast-paced counter wrestling. In fact, this match featured a lot more flashiness than any match we've recently seen from Kiyoshi Tamura in RINGS, which had been very realistic to the point that a lot of it truly resembled shoot wrestling. It was the flashiest Tamura match since his great 9/26/97 match against Volk Han. It was also the best Tamura match since the 9/26/97 match, but not necessarily because of the flashiness. That's not to say that this match wasn't realistic, as this was obviously way more realistic than virtually any other pro wrestling in the world at that point, as the quality and sincerity of pro wrestling differed extremely with, for example, the seriousness and realisticness of RINGS on one end of the spectrum, and the absurdness and lunacy of American sports-entertainment. In a year that saw extremely ridiculous angles from a certain sports-entertainment league from the States, such as Big Boss Man feeding Al Snow his own pet dog, at least in RINGS you wouldn't have to worry about seeing garbage like that. In this extremely high-quality shoot style puroresu match, Yoshihisa Yamamoto proved to be a super competitive opponent for Tamura. This match was certainly a lot better than the previous battles between these two (12/19/96 and 9/21/98, which were very good matches). This may have been Yamamoto's best performance ever. His enthusiasm and urgency really played a big role in this match being so exciting to watch. The technical wrestling displayed in this match was amazing. Yamamoto was the aggressor, while Tamura, as always, was extremely dangerous whenever he was able to find an opening to counter. Yamamoto was so aggressive that he received a yellow card at some point, which also marked the first lost point in this bout. Tamura remained calm and confident in his ability to turn things around when needed. The work, while flashy for 1999 RINGS standards, was intense and dramatic. The urgency shown was another key factor for this match being awesome. These two were so into what they were doing in this match, that as a viewer, you were drawn into this match to the point that you'd be sitting on the edge of your seat in anticipation of what they were going to do next. It's certainly no surprise that the crowd reaction was tremendous during this match. As the match progressed, Tamura found himself getting more opportunities to turn the tide, but Yamamoto kept showing his great determination to succeed. The match mostly took place on the mat, but they would occasionally engage in intense stand-up striking. No matter what they did, it was all done with passionate intensity. The final minutes were particularly super dramatic and fierce. This is one of the best pro wrestling matches ever. Great match! *****

U-STYLE 2/15/03 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Wataru Sakata 11:44.
DC: U-STYLE was formed by Kiyoshi Tamura, and it's a league in the vein of Tamura's shoot style pro wrestling style that he performed prior to focusing on shoots in late ‘99. A large part of the roster were actually Tamura's students, including the talented Ryuki Ueyama, who was Tamura's top student. Wataru Sakata had been a RINGS undercarder most of his career. Tamura offered a handshake, but Sakata literally hit Tamura with a slap in the face. Tamura did a really good job of avoiding several attempted moves early on by reacting quickly and smoothly. A bit later on in the match, Sakata showed that he was quite capable of catching and avoiding Tamura's offense himself. This was overall a really well performed shoot style match. It had a nice balance of being quite realistic (for worked standards) and quite entertaining at the same time. There was a good amount of intensity, especially towards the more dramatic later portions of the match. Excellent match. ****

U-STYLE 12/9/03 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs Katsuhisa Fujii 7:48.
DC: Katsuhisa Fujii was an MMA fighter with a judo and amateur wrestling background who also was a pro wrestler. Most of his pro wrestling matches that year took place in the ZERO-ONE league. Because of him being an MMA fighter, he obviously was a natural fit in U-STYLE. The match started off intensely, with some good stand-up striking by both, and a surprising takedown by Fujii. As the match went on, Fujii kept trying to go for takedowns while Kiyoshi Tamura tried to nail Fujii with some wicked kicks. It was clear that Tamura was still on top of his game here as a worker, and it was nice that his opponent was eager to impress. It was an exciting match with a great display of struggle by both participants. Fujii certainly gave Tamura a run for his money until Tamura scored the flash submission win that didn't come easy. Excellent match. ****

U-STYLE 2/4/04 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka 15:51.
DC: This was the fourth meeting between Kiyoshi Tamura and Tsuyoshi Kosaka. Their previous three meetings were all in RINGS (a great 4.75-star match on 4/22/97, a great 4.5-star match on 6/27/98, a very good 3.5-star match on 1/23/99). The match started off with some solid mat wrestling. This was quite a lengthy portion of the match, which almost caused concern about whether or not this would be a disappointing match. Luckily, things started becoming more exciting soon. Much to Kosaka's delight, Tamura was the first to lose a point when he went for a rope break. The action started picking up when more stand-up striking started happening. Tamura knocked Kosaka down, which tied the score. However, Kosaka then ended up doing the same, giving him the advantage in points again. Tamura was now eager to equalize again, and he managed to do so as he went for a submission hold that caused Kosaka to grab the ropes. Towards the end of the match, the crowd got more and more into it, especially now that Tamura had Kosaka stuck in a half Boston crab, everyone's favorite shoot style hold. Kosaka knew it wouldn't be a good idea to go for a rope break again, since he was running low on points, but he had no choice. The match eventually ended when Tamura made Kosaka tap to an armbar. This was a fun and interesting match that showed that these two still had it in them to deliver a match highly worthy of recommendation. The work was of high quality throughout this bout. Excellent match. ****

U-STYLE 3/13/04 Osaka Umeda Sky Building Stella Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs Kyosuke Sasaki 15:22.
DC: Kyosuke Sasake, who would end up becoming known as Hitamaru Sasaski in the 2010s in Kyushu Pro, gave a pretty good showing here, but he failed to really impress as much as he probably could have done in this match against the great Kiyoshi Tamura. The work was always very good, but it seemed like Sasaki couldn't quite be much of a threat, to the point where it became clear Sasaki was simply just not ready yet to be in a main event against Tamura himself. Tamura just kept going on with whatever worked for him at the moment, but Sasaki seemed to have trouble really putting his stamp on the match. While this was a somewhat disappointing match, it probably served its purpose as somewhat of a reality check and even a bit of a wrestling lesson for Sasaki. Tamura was like a relentless teacher and deserves credit for not being interested in making too many concessions and sticking to his game plan. Good match. ***

U-STYLE 8/18/04 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, 1st Champion Decision Tournament Semifinal: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Hiroyuki Ito 11:12.
DC: Hiroyuki Ito was kinda sloppy and not good enough to really be a threat, making this feel like an extended squash with Kiyoshi Tamura showing a lot of mercy before finishing his opponent off. Still, thanks to Tamura's great understanding of how to work a shoot style match combined with his knowledge of elevating weaker opponents to higher levels, this match was worth watching. Good match. ***¼

U-STYLE 8/18/04 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, 1st Champion Decision Tournament Final: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Alexander Otsuka 6:55.
DC: This was kinda short, and Alexander Otsuka wasn't much of a threat, especially since he appeared to have a hurt arm. Kiyoshi Tamura kicking the living daylights out of Otsuka was fun to watch, though. Good match. *** 

U-STYLE 12/7/04 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura & Takaku Fuke vs. Ryuki Ueyama & Seichi Ikemoto 20:30.
DC: It was interesting to see Kiyoshi Tamura battle with his top student, Ryuki Ueyama. They grappled on the mat quite intensely in a high-quality display of true U-STYLE wrestling. Takaku Fuke isn't the most fascinating shoot style wrestler, but his shoot style experience came in handy here. Fuke was around even back when Newborn UWF still existed, and he went to PWFG once Newborn UWF folded. Seichi Ikemoto gave an excellent showing. Ikemoto would end up becoming one of the best shoot style workers in GLEAT's Lidet UWF division in the early 2020s. It was interesting to see Ikemoto during these earlier years of his career. He fought quite intensely against Tamura, as the two battled in some of the most intriguing moments of the match. They provided some superb technical wrestling with a great sense of struggle, and spectacular moments whenever counter opportunities were explored. Tamura gave an excellent showing, as expected, but Ikemoto definitely gave him a run for his money here. Excellent match. ****¼  

U-STYLE 11/23/05 Tokyo Ariake Coliseum: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Josh Barnett 16:10.
DC: This bout certainly followed some of the typical aspects of the classic tale of David and Goliath, as Barnett was a much larger man with approximately fifty pounds more weight and approximately five inches more height than Tamura. However, they didn't overdo the story of David vs. Goliath here, though, which was probably a good thing, since this match otherwise would have been more like a UWF-I Super Vader match filled with unrealistic American-style pro wrestling spots (which probably would have led to a match much less good, as Barnett isn't nearly as good of a worker Vader was). Just like it was a good thing they also didn't overdo the true story of Tamura being a much better technician. Some of the little details in Kiyoshi Tamura's work show his impeccable greatness. For instance, whenever Josh Barnett would apply a catch hold that didn't particularly seem like a cause for immediate concern, Tamura would sell the hold exactly as such. Tamura didn't do this to belittle the ability of the big American MMA fighter, but he did this in order to maintain his consistency when it came to be as sincere as possible whenever he performed in a worked shoot style contest, which is a valuable aspiration, especially now that Tamura had several years of experience as a legit MMA fighter under his belt. This was certainly not a bad match, but Barnett simply isn't a very exciting worker, which is one of the main reasons this was a rather disappointing match for a Tamura match. Of course, one could actually say that we knew this match really never was going to be better than just good due to Barnett's limitations as a performer, which means that in the end, this match actually met its relatively low expectations. Tamura's performance was great, because he did whatever he could to enhance the quality of the match to maximum levels, which was in this case, three stars. Good match. ***

IGF 6/29/07 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan: Kiyoshi Tamura & Ryuki Ueyama vs. Hidehisa Matsuda & Yuki Kotake 15:47.
DC: This U-STYLE tag match took place at the first IGF (Inoki Genome Federation) show. IGF was a league Antonio Inoki had founded after leaving NJPW. Kiyoshi Tamura was great, as usual. His top student, Ryuki Ueyama, was particularly eager to show his abilities, and he threw many great kicks and showed great movement. The opposition, however, while they tried their best, were not capable of really giving Tamura & Ueayama a run for their money. While this was good, it felt like merely an exhibition of what U-STYLE was all about, which was a lot more interesting than anything that would follow on this show. Good match. ***¼