Superkicks All Day Long

Nominating: Jun Akiyama vs. Kento Miyahara (AJPW, 7/23) Yuji Okabayashi vs. Hideyoshi Kamitani (BJW, 7/24)

Nominating: Yuji Okabayashi & Yasufumi Nakanoue vs. Hideyoshi Kamitani & Daichi Hashimoto (D-RIZE, 7/5) Kamitani looked super comfortable in the ring, sold well for Okabayashi's offense (including the dreaded Argentine backbreaker), and really dialed up the intensity, especially with those open hand shots. This was all about these two going at it on and off for twenty minutes with Hash playing the enforcer roll well. Lots of heat and drama going into both time limit draws, which is rare. Fun stuff.

Nominating: Shuji Ishikawa vs. Shigehiro Irie (DDT, 6/26) Exactly what I wanted from an Ishikawa/Irie encounter. The build to the katahajime and the story that follows after Irie finally gets it locked in is great. Fun midsection work from Ishikawa supported by some great facials and selling from Irie. At one point, Ishikawa just lifts him up by his leg and boots him int he gut. And they hit each other hard. This match would feel right at home in BJW. The exhaustion of the finishing stretch played out so well. Easily one of my favorite DDT matches of the year. Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yuko Miyamoto (DDT, 7/3) Takeshita's strongest performance of the year. Although you don't have a strong sense Miyamoto is winning this thing, he sure gives Takeshita hell, smartly working the leg in a crisp and effective manner. I especially loved his elbow drop to the back of the knee. Takeshita did a good job of keeping the submission work relevant. His offense looked really impressive, and I thought the final elbow battle was a lot of fun, where he half mad dogs/half collapses into Miyamoto's strikes before letting loose with a barrage of angry elbows. Good stuff!

I'm just thinking about all the knees that would be thrown.

Not a great match or anything but it is Sawa in the flesh. https://rutube.ru/video/0b1b5c9ee77817a6e8722e1693d8bb56/

Akiyama vs. Ishikawa has potential.

Nominating: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Satoshi Kojima (NJPW, 3/19) I really enjoyed this match, more so than the Shibata/Ishii match from WK. The focused armwork, attack and ring awareness by Shibata, his mounting frustration and Kojima's exhausted determination, were all compelling pieces of the narrative. There were plenty of stiff shots, too, especially Kojima's elbows. One of Kojima's best performances in awhile.

Is Munenori Sawa back or was his 3/26 match just a one time deal?

Yeah, this was probably my favorite match of an otherwise underwhelming show. Shibata didn't hold back on Tenzan and while Tenzan's offense is nowhere near as cringeworthy, Shibata still sold it like it was. I thought KUSHIDA's performance was strong. He looked like a million bucks as champ. Ospreay is just a fill-in-the-blank opponent but he sold the armwork well enough. I'm just bored of that style. Nahito/Okada was okay. You're basically just watching to see Nahito win the title. The crowd was hot but nobody cared about Sanada. I don't blame them. Should've pulled the trigger on the Goto betrayal.

Nomination: Shuji Ishikawa vs. Hideyoshi Kamitani (BJW, 4/10) Kamitani's uphill battle against the wall of pain Ishikawa was compelling and fun to get behind, and there were quite a few surprising moments (having gone into it spoiler-free). Nothing super high end, but definitely the best match of the Strong Climb tournament.

Yes to Ishii/EVIL. Fun, sprinty bomb match. Enjoyed this more than their TV title match on 3/20.

Nominating: Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii (NJPW, 3/4/16) Easily the best Nahito match of the year. A smartly worked, entertaining match, with Naito being the great weasel dick heel he is, constantly cutting off Ishii's offense and building up to the big apron lariat spot. There's a coupl eof hiccups and it wanders a bit into overkill territory but it never gets tiresome and finishes strong.

Nominating: Shinjiro Ohtani & Masato Tanaka vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & Kohei Sato (Z1, 3/6/16) The dog-eared veteran Ohtani was great in this, showing his never day die attitude in the face of stiff opposition. There was a fun balance of old school flair with hard-hitting offense and just enough bombs to give this the main event feel.

NOMINATION - Hiro Tonai vs. Kyu Mogami (K-DOJO, 2/25/16) I liked this match quite a bit more than Aoki/Sato. Solid submission and counter work. The arm vs. neck submissions played a significant role throughout and into an exciting finish. Nothing flashy. Just good wrestling from K-DOJO.

Two lower end nominations but two of the better junior matches I've enjoyed this year: - Atsushi Maruyama vs. Hikaru Sato (AJPW, 2/12/16) A fun little cat-and-mouse match, with Maruyama doing a wonderful job of swerving everyone with the fake injury bit. I liked his endurance during the cross armbreaker sections and the finish with the low-angle Delfin Special transition into the modified armlock was great. - Atsushi Aoki vs. Hikaru Sato (AJPW, 2/21/16) First half was your standard juniors fare but the limb work was solid and played an important role throughout the match. Sato was the standout here. His kicks were stiff, his sells were compelling and his counterwork was really fun to watch. Aoki was hit or miss, especially in the latter part of the match, but he came out looking strong. I loved the ankle hold - cross armbreaker counter-for-counter sequence, and when Sato catches the headbutt with a front necklock and Aoki coutners with the Northern Lights suplex. A dramatic submission finish with Aoki's desperation showing through as he wrenches the arm and shifts to find the most deadly angle. Not perfect but pretty darn good.

Isami Kodaka vs. Masa Tanahashi (DDT, 1/31/16) - NO Match felt really clunky and long-winded. The leg vs. neck work was decent for the most part, and Isami was good here. I liked the failed German suplex hold. But the match dragged from a few awkward and slow set-ups with not a lot of payoff. Masa is good at selling vocally but doesn't really follow through physically. Wasn't bad or anything. Just not great.

Yes to Sekimoto/Sanada vs. Suzuki/Uto. Enjoyed the power vs. technique dynamic between Sekimoto and Suzuki. Kind of felt like an 'epic' style tag match condensed into 12 minutes. I agree, the final bomb sprint didn't hurt this match. Good stuff! No to Kamitani/Hama vs. Sato Ishikawa. Nothing outright bad here, but nothing memorable (aside from Ishikawa's Rainmaker-style headbutt). Hama was just kind of there so he didn't really add much to this match. Kamitani's struggle against Twin Towers was fun to watch though. Borderline no to Hashimoto/Shinobu vs. Okabayshi/Maruyama. I liked parts of this match but man, once Okabayashi got legit KO'd by Hashimoto's kick to the head, it was hard to watch him get pelted with more kicks to the head. The finish was great though.

Nominating: Minoru Suzuki vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima (NOAH, 2/24) Easy MOTYC. Awesome performances from both men. Tons of drama, tons of arm brutality, Minoru being the best heel in the world, and Nakajima fighting and suffering to get the feel good moment of the year.

Strong-Ishii (2/19) - NO I actually kind of liked the match up until the apron-to-floor backdrop. Ishii was doing a good job of selling the back, and Strong's chickenshit heel/cocky offense made sense when up against a stiff guy like Ishii. But after that spot, which was a good, emotionally-charged spot, the selling went bye-bye and there were too many contrived Roddy spots. The top rope suplex - End of Heartache - running knee sequence was just bad. It made the prior two moves seem ineffective, as Ishii needs to immediately stand up for the knee spot. Tanahashi-Omega (2/14) - NO A mixed bag for sure. Omega is a fun heel (the masked Naito moonsault being a highlight), but his over-theatrics bleeds into his selling, which he does to death. The way he throws himself into the corner after a whip. Or takes every bump by turning himself inside out. When he was working Tanahashi's shoulder, it worked. He was great, and Tanahashi's selling was solid. Tanahashi played the outnumbered face in distress and the crowd was firmly behind him but the interference did kill it for me. The first bit worked, as it led to the dramatic comeback for Tanahashi, but just as the match was picking up momentum again, they cut it off again with the stupid trash can spot and Elgin's overly-choreographed save.

Nominating: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata (2/11) I think you know what to expect here. Not as cringe-inducing as the WK match, which may be a good thing, but still the same high thresholds of pain tolerance and friendly violence. The suplex spot is silly but works, and the sleeperhold-PK finish was nice way to close it out. This felt a little more complete to me -- I think it inches out their WK bout.

Yes to Hama/Okabayashi. Fun match. Okabayashi made Hama look like a dangerous giant baby, and the crowd really loved it. The butt lariat made me laugh. A simple but well-executed story.

NOMINATION - Ryota Nakatsu vs. Ikuto Hidaka (BASARA, 1/21) Loved the underdog story and nuances here. A respectful Ryota holding back with his early strikes and Hidaka encouraging the fire. Hidaka sunk his teeth into Ryota's leg and Ryota sold the desperation. I enjoyed the figure-four sequence and Ryota clinging to Hidaka to prevent the Shawn Capture. When Nakatsu finally put some heat behind his strikes, the match lit up. The roll-through Fujiwara armbar was a nice spot and that finishing stretch was believable and spirited. Can't wait to see a rematch between these two in a couple months. I really enjoyed this.

Moved.

Kodaka vs. Takeshita - 1/3 - YES Normally, I don't care for Isami Kodaka but I liked the sort of scrappy role he played here against the physically stronger Takeshita, relying more on his trap-style submissions than trying to go blow-for-blow. Takeshita looked really good here and his offense looked powerful, with Kodaka's sells helping out. Probably in Top 5 so far this year.

Hideki Suzuki vs. Masato Tanaka - 1/1 - YES Fun strong champ vs. fiery veteran match-up. Some cool suplex throws and good matwork by Suzuki. Suzuki never really seemed like he was in danger of losing and the finish was a tad lackluster, but overall, a decent title match.