Yuji Nagata vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima (NJPW, 7/30/16)

My girlfriend watched part of this with me and asked "are they really slapping each other?" Yup. Hard. This was a lot of fun, with Nakajima heeling it up early on and getting the jump on Nagata. Both guys sold so well, especially with Nakajima taking some of those knees, and Nagata wasn't holding anything back. Stiff elbows and knees and that slapfest near the end was a great way to cap it off. Grumpy Nagata is the best and the ref can hardly contain him. I liked Nakajima's leg-based strategy, sometimes using it as almost a cheap means of getting out of a hairy situation. If he can take out the old man knees, he can avoid the old man knee strikes. He's able to turn the tables in his favor and finish off Nagata with the PK > brainbuster combo. As good as this was, it suffered from some pretty bad camera work. Nakajima's matured so much and I would love to see him out of the NOAH cesspool and into New Japan. 

Kento Miyahara vs. Jun Akiyama (AJPW, 7/23/16)

This was easily Kento Miyahara's best title defense, and probably his best match of the year so far. It's still a Kento Miyahara match though. Still the same "ace" tropes, the convenient selling, the no-sold superplex rush, but the dynamic between he and Akiyama made this feel special. The grizzled ace that never was, love tapping Miyahara on the face like "let's do this, kid." And the new cocky ace returning the favor like, "here we go, old man." The danger of the front necklock was built well into the match as Akiyama does a number on Kento's neck in preparation, like his piledriver, a reverse DDT on the apron, and a brainbuster. I love his elbow strikes to the neck. Miyahara's selling was okay at best, but he sold in other ways that helped flesh this thing out. The aftermath of the apron spot and Miyahara just barely making it back into the ring only to be met with a running knee and deep front necklock. Great stuff. Akiyama brings the best out of Miyahara's performance, and he was near perfect in this. The risky headbutt during the elbow exchange, his disbelief in Miyahara surviving the EXPLODER '98! and his sad final stand (not literal), crawling through the knee strikes until Kento finally puts him down like a lame horse with last shot. Miyahara's hardest fought defense and a damn fine performance from Akiyama. 

Yuji Okabayashi vs. Hideyoshi Kamitani (7/24/16)

Oh man, here we go. The culmination of all those shoulder blocks and chops, plus Kamitani rocking a spiffy new haircut (and still missing his tooth from the brutal 6/29 six-man encounter). This was about as raw as it gets. There was nothing pretty or flashy about it. Just two dudes slugging it out. Okabayashi clobbers Kamitani with a lariat early on, and Kamitani sells it like death on the outside. Okabayashi is too much of a big boss for Kamitani in the early goings and even when he manages to hit the scoop slam, it takes a lot out of him. Okabayashi continues to try and break the baby-faced killer's spirit, derailing any momentum Kamitani starts building. When Kamitani comes back after a gutwrench slam, he tries putting the big boss to sleep but Yuji fights out and goes ape shit on Kamitani with chops in the corner. Kamitani explodes out with a lariat and lands some brutal shots to the face but again, Okabayashi cuts off his momentum and tries a finishing run of a lariat, a brainbuster and the Golem Splash but Kamitani ain't dying today and Okabayashi can't believe it! I loved Kamitani's counter to the powerbomb with baby boots to the face. Hard slaps, big headbutts, a minor mishap with the powerbomb counter, but Kamitani won't let that little fuck up derail him and he manages to put the big boss down for good after two backdrops! A slow build but plenty of fire and brutality heading into the finishing stretch. Great stuff! 

Evolution of Takuya Nomura

Evolution of Takuya Nomura

Takuya Nomura first caught my attention in his 5/12 D-RIZE tag match against Aoki & Sato. He showed a lot of potential at the outset but lost some of his confidence after Sato bullies him. Upon reviewing some of his matches from the past month or so, you can definitely see an evolution of confidence as he begins to find his comfort zone as a ground-and-pound wrestler. For only having debuted in April of this year, Nomura has a promising future. 

Takuya Nomura & Yasufumi Nakanoue vs. Hideki Suzuki & Atsushi Maruyama

 (BJW, 6/20/16)

Nomura and Maruyama are more supporting characters for the heated feud between Suzuki and Nakanoue, which rears it beautifully ugly head midway through the match. Nomura and Suzuki get in a bit of groundwork before Nakanoue gets the tag and immediately goes after the departing Suzuki, elbowing him off the apron. But Suzuki manages to keep his cool. Nomura and Suzuki get one more exchange, in which Suzuki forcefully wrenches the arm and takes him down to the mat. When Nakanoue and Suzuki square off in the ring, Suzuki finally lets loose and we get some awesome, pissy strikes. As the fight spills to the outside, I find myself paying more attention to the brawl then what's happening inside the ring between Nomura and Maruyama. In fact, they also seem a bit distracted by what's going on. Maruyama pins Nomura after a buzzsaw kick but Suzuki and Nakanoue still go at it until they're finally pulled apart. You're in this for the Suzuki/Nakanoue encounter but on a whole, decent tag action and work from Nomura. 

Takuya Nomura vs. Hideki Suzuki (BJW, 6/29/16)

This was a fun little tango with Suzuki. Nomura is still a little green and at times, looks lost when working the mat with Suzuki, but his fire and intensity is great. Suzuki plays more of a defensive role here as Nomura comes at him early with slaps. There’s a nice counter by Suzuki out of the rear waistlock but when he encourages Nomura to work the mat with him, Nomura responds with a leaping double stop. There’s a fun spot as Nomura slaps his way out of a leglock and a little later, he counters a European uppercut with an armbar takedown. I like that he stays on top of Suzuki, going right back to the armbar after Suzuki kicks out of a PK. After wearing Nomura down with a killer crab hold, Suzuki hits a big backbreaker for the win.

Takuya Nomura vs. Hideki Suzuki (BJW, 7/9/16)

In his follow-up match with Suzuki, Nomura is fiery and super confident; a constant thorn in Suzuki’s side. He doesn’t let up, persistently slipping through Suzuki’s fingers, who again, works more of a cautious defense. Nomura’s mat and counter work continues to improve. He again tries to hard slap his way out of a leglock and smoothly gets to a front neck chancery on Suzuki. There’s an awkward moment as Suzuki rolls through to a front mount but doesn’t do anything and Nomura escapes. In a great spot, Nomura easily counters a European uppercut with a backslide and fires off a PK, a suplex, and a second PK. Eventually, Suzuki catches him with a backbreaker, and after wearing him down with a crab hold/single leg crab, Suzuki hits a big double arm suplex for the win. Nomura will only get better and better, and 2017 could be a very interesting year for him.

Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yuko Miyamoto (DDT, 7/3/16)

This was easily Takeshita's strongest performance of the year, and the best KO-D Openweight Title match of 2016. Even though you didn't have the strong sense Miyamoto was going to win this thing, he sure gave Takeshita hell, smartly working the leg with Takeshita doing a good job of keeping it relevant. Even during questionable offensive runs, only one of which came to mind, he still acknowledges the bum leg. Miyamoto's leg-focused attacks looked crisp and effective, from the initial chopping down of Takeshita with dropkicks to simple things, like an elbow drop to the back of the knee. After Takeshita escapes the calf hold, we get some big offense, including a dragon suplex, a German suplex hold counter, and a desperate out-of-nowhere Fire Thunder Driver from Miyamoto. But when he goes for the moonsault, Takeshita sacrifices his bad leg to block it. The final elbow battle was fun. Miyamoto gets a shot in that knocks Takeshita down but he half mad-dogs, half collapses into Miyamoto's elbows in a great moment, before accessing his crazy elbow side. There's a couple of counters and pin attempts before Takeshita ends up hitting a beautiful roll-through German suplex hold for the win. Really fun match, thanks to the focused legwork from Miyamoto, the competent selling of Takeshita, and some big main event-style offense. 

Ayato Yoshida vs. Kyu Mogami (K-DOJO, 5/5/16)

Since watching the one day Super  J-Cup qualifying tournament in K-DOJO, I’ve been wanting to check out some more of Ayato Yoshida. His 5/5 K-METAL LEAGUE match-up with Mogami was a pure and simple textbook wrestling match, with nothing too pretentious. It was a back-and-forth struggle of the sleeper hold/chickenwing facelock versus Mogami’s butterfly lock, supplemented with strikes. Ayato had some particularly hard-hitting open hands and a great looking high kick to the head.  After a flash pin attempt, Mogami smartly rolls right back into his butterfly lock. Unlike most of the Super J-Cup tournament matches, the finish wasn’t rife with poorly executed “junior movez”. After blocking the fisherman buster, Ayato outslaps Mogami, hitting another high kick to the head before dumping him with a big backdrop for the win. Simple, effective, and fun...my kind of match. 

Shuji Ishikawa & Kohei Sato vs. Daichi Hashimoto & Kazuki Hashimoto (BJW, 2/7/14)

This was a fun spitfire underdog match with tons of heavy striking for all your heavy striking needs. You've got Surfer Sato destroying K.Hash with big bad elbows, Ishikawa manhandling D.Hash with a stretch muffler. Twin Towers do a good job of bullying K.Hash, inflicting a little punishment and making the quick tags. Effective. Little D.Hash gets in a bunch of snappy kicks and an especially head-droppy back suplex on Sato. I really liked Ishikawa's arm-trap headbutts into the arm-trap suplex. After K.Hash finally topples Sato, he and Daichi trade kicks before Kazuki lands a nasty PK. The ankle hold didn't make much sense for this kind of match as there was no real sense of danger. The failed submission attempt leads to a final onslaught by Sato, including his piledriver and a German suplex hold for three. Good stuff.