Hideki Suzuki vs. Takuya Nomura (BJW, 6/20/18)

This is wrestling. This is what makes for a compelling story, full of heart and fire -- not fluff and glitter. The classic tale of the student trying to best the teacher. If you go back and watch the matches between Hideki Suzuki and Takuya Nomura, you begin to see the flowering of Nomura as a wrestler. In each match, Nomura learns something new and applies it to the next, and with each new match, Hideki dominates him less and less. Nomura knows Suzuki better than almost anyone in Big Japan. He knows if you try to tangle with him early on over a lock up, you're toast. So he keeps his distance, peppering the leg with kicks and then when he finds an opportunity, he goes for it. In this case, he's able to escape the front facelock with a go behind into the rear waistlock but when he tries to go for the arm, Hideki is quick to take over and exert his dominance. Nomura smartly pops him in the ribs with a punch to escape a headlock and fights for a leglock, and you see the pain in Hideki's face when Takuya cinches in, forcing the champ to grab the rope. Selling. Hideki again re-asserts himself on the ground, squeezing Nomura in a scarf hold for a rope break. Then Nomura starts with the kicks, targeting the arm. He goes for an armbar and digs his fucking thumb into Hideki's eye in order to break his resistance and get a reverse armbar. Awesome. You can see the inexperience but at the same time, the fighting spirit, as Nomura's trying grab the arm and hold on in some kind of submission.

When Hideki is back on his feet, he's at his most vulnerable. Nomura backs him into a corner with strikes, taking him down with palm thrusts and kicking him when he's down. Of course, that only pisses off Hideki, who mounts him and lands a few palms of his own as Nomura tries to defend himself. Then, when he sees an opening, he punches Nomura in the side of head. Again, Nomura finds an opportunity with an exposed arm and tries for a double wristlock but he can't hold on and goes back to what worked before: the strikes. He lays into Hideki with some kicks, some knees, throws him with a German suplex and then lets loose on Hideki against the ropes with slaps. This is when the champ realizes if he's going to keep his belt, he needs to shut this down quick. He shoves Nomura back, laying into him with a rare (low) high kick and punts him in the face. Suzuki, lip busted, waits and then knocks him out with another punt kick. And just like that, Nomura's shot is over...but, if anything, Nomura was one of the few to find a chink in Suzuki's armor and in the next time they face each other, Suzuki is going to have to fight even harder to remain the master.

Hideki Suzuki & Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Takuya Nomura & Fuminori Abe (BJW, 5/13/18)

Oh baby, what a tag team match on paper and boy does it live up to my expectations! Tons of neat little things throughout, nasty strikes and suplexes, blood, finger biting, and zero shits given from the man Hideki Suzuki. Takuya Nomura opens the match against Daisuke Sekimoto and I love how he keeps slapping away Sekimoto's hands as he's trying to reach in...only to then straight up slap Daisuke in the face. When Fuminori Abe's in there against Suzuki, he's trying to get something on him but Hideki is too big so it's easy to get out. There's an awesome counter out of the armbar by Abe but when he tries for the armbar, Hideki maneuvers up to his feet and stomps Abe's face to break the hold, which may or may not have busted open Abe's lip. Hideki's still a dick from the apron, kicking Abe's foot off the ropes while he's in there against Sekimoto and then coming in and giving him some more shitty little kicks while he's down. Abe stuns Hideki with a spinning solebutt in the corner and when Suzuki tries for his strike combo, Abe counters the European uppercut with a leglock takedown, forcing Suzuki to the ropes.

Hideki biting Abe's fingers and casually tagging out to Sekimoto was a definite highlight of the match. Oh, and Sekimoto trying for a baseball-style lariat but sadly missing. Abe does a good job of slipping out of Hideki's single leg crab attempt and tags in Nomura, who comes at Hideki with kicks until Hideki catches a leg and capture suplexes him. Loved Nomura's pissy strikes in the corner, with him straight punching Hideki in the face! There's a pretty sweet double team into the reverse armbar by Nomura, with Abe climbing onto Sekimoto with an octopus hold. But Sekimoto powers over to kick Nomura off Hideki before dumping Abe. Then it's total destruction time for the big boys, as Hideki kills Nomura with a release dragon suplex, they Steinerize Abe to eliminate him form the equation, and finally finish off Nomura with the Sekimoto German into the Hideki double arm suplex.

Post-match, Hideyoshi Kamitani comes out like a total dweeb to challenge Hideki AGAIN but Hideki's like "fuck you, get out of my ring." Then Nomura says Suzuki is scared to put the title on the line against him and Suzuki responds that if the fans want it to happen, it will happen. Fuck yeah.

HARASHIMA vs. KUDO (DDT, 5/13/18)

These two had one of my favorite DDT matches of 2017 and once again, these two proved that their in-ring chemistry is a key to success. I've always had a soft spot for HARASHIMA's matwork, which usually doesn't go anywhere but when it's happening, I dig it. His leg trip to KUDO from the ground was especially neat. HARASHIMA is also one of the more frustrating sellers but when he's on, he's on, and here, he was on. He eats a spinning back kick to the face and I loved him immediately bailing to the outside after making it to his feet before the ten count...only for KUDO to take him out with a big dive! KUDO kicks hard and he kicked a lot in this match. His head kick toward the end of the match looked real nasty. In fact, there were quite a few strike exchanges throughout, from elbows to kicks to slaps, but everything was snug. KUDO is able to hit the hanging double knees, HARASHIMA hits the reverse frankensteiner. I really liked pulling a page from Yuko Miyamoto's playbook and spiking KUDO with the Fire Thunder Driver before finishing him off with the Somato. One of my favorite DDT matches of 2018.

TAKA Michinoku vs. TAJIRI (K-Dojo, 4/22/18)

TAJIRI's recent AJPW junior title run was met with its fair share of criticism but I actually enjoyed most of it and I dig TAJIRI's more grounded approach to wrestling in his older age. Of course, TAKA can still go, especially when he's on his home turf and not just ZSJ's mouthpiece. This was a pretty neat 10:00 match with some very good, focused armwork from TAJIRI and a couple of great kicks.  Early on, TAJIRI bails out of the ring, he wipes his face with TAKA's towel, and then he goes to work on the arm. After a high kick into the pin attempt, he catches TAKA in a double wristlock off the kickout. There's a neat little sequence into the facelock but when TAKA lifts him up for a scoop slam, TAJIRI legscissors the bad arm, allowing him to take TAKA down with a rolling double wristlock. TAKA's selling is subtle but it works. He counters the buzzsaw kick into the facelock, then uses the legscissors and wrenches on the arm. He's able to hit the Michinoku Driver but Tajiri turns it into a pin attempt and buzzsaw kicks him. In the end, though, TAKA hits another for the win. Nothing blow away but a neat little match with a great TAJIRI performance.

Hideki Suzuki vs. Daisuke Sekimoto (BJW, 5/5/18)

While not as good as their first time limit draw, this match did a lot with very little, putting the emphasis on the struggle of applying and maintain holds, and powering out of a situation. It's a slow and steady burn of classic psychology, where the champ, Hideki Suzuki, isn't able to manhandle Daisuke Sekimoto on the ground like everyone else in his title matches. Sekimoto is able to hold his own, using his strength to suppress Hideki. If you don't like Hideki Suzuki going into this match, chances are, you won't like him any more coming out of this match but he really sold well for Sekimoto, making Sekimoto's simple holds look debilitating. I love how Suzuki corners his opponents as a means of intimidation. Sekimoto uses his power to try and control Hideki, wearing him down with holds like the bear hug, which sees Hideki go limp when he tries to fight out. Hideki really works the cravate, keeping it cinched in as Sekimoto tries slamming him off, finally turning it into a neckbreaker. He manipulates the fingers of Sekimoto in order to get the cobra twist locked in, wrenching on the head and neck before Sekimoto staggers over to the ropes and dumps him outside.

Sekimoto works the back awhile, and again, some great selling by Hideki on the corner whips. At one point, Hideki needs to re-lace his boots, they shake hands, and continue their wrestling match, getting the fans invested in a traditional contest of holds. There a lot of neat touches to this match, like Sekimoto holding onto the armwhip attempt and forcing Suzuki to his knee, or rolling through with Hideki's escape attempt to maintain control. At one point, Hideki uses a cool but clunky headscissors takedown, trying clever pin attempts when he finds openings. I love how Sekimoto headbutts the leg to set up the single leg crab. The escalation in offense isn't done at the pull of trigger but builds in the same fashion as the rest of the match. Strikes are limited to a few chops and open hands and the build to Sekimoto's German suplex hold was really well done. Suzuki tries to unbuckle the deadlift German suplex attempt and Sekimoto just slams him down. When Sekimoto tries to suplex him off the ropes, Suzuki uses a low blow to escape before beating on him and hitting the scoop tombstone for a two count. Oh, and Sekimoto hits the double arm suplex and Hideki kicks out at one like "bitch, that's my move." By the end, they're sluggish and can't quite hit everything they need to in order to win the match. Sekimoto's able to finally hit the German suplex hold but Suzuki is barely able to slip out of the pin as the time limit expires.

Easily the best Suzuki match of 2018, and a definite throwback match structure that was able to draw in the fans through simplicity and struggle. Oh yeah, and Takuya Nomura ATTACKED Hideki after the match along with Fuminori Abe so...fuck yeah, we're getting a Suzuki/Nomura title match at some point.

Dick Togo vs. Takuya Nomura (BJW, 2/18/18)

Welp, I forgot to talk about a match that most definitely will be among my favorites of 2018: slick Dick Togo versus Takuya Nomura in Big Japan. I love Togo, all the little things he does, and of course, my love for Nomura is never in doubt. He understands pro-wrestling better than guys with twice his experience. Savvy matwork to start from both guys, with Togo's experience getting the edge over the younger Nomura. After Nomura kicks the ringpost outside like a dope, Togo supelxes him onto the floor, hits a running senton off the apron to the floor, and continues working the leg inside the ring, putting Nomura in the figure-four. I love how he keeps Nomura's hand away from the leg and ducks the slap attempts. Really good selling of the leg from Nomura, even when he's laying in the kicks. He's able to pull out a flash armbar off a punch attempt and then peppers Togo with some snug open hands. Really liked Togo's first crossface lock off the roll up, and then the finish, catching the PK attempt, sweeping the leg and floating up into the crossface, rolling back when Nomura reaches for the ropes to submit him. Simple formula, good psychology, an invested crowd, and under 15 minutes. This ruled.

Top Matches of 2018

Well, we made it to ten matches. Surprise surprise.

1. Hirooki Goto vs. Minoru Suzuki (NJPW, 1/4/18)
2. Hideki Suzuki vs. Takuya Nomura (BJW, 6/20/18)
3. Shotaro Ashino vs. Manabu Soya (W1, 3/14/18)
4. Takuya Nomura vs. Fuminori Abe (BJW, 1/17/18)
5. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki (NJPW, 1/27/18)
6. Zeus vs. Joe Doering (AJPW, 1/2/18)
7. Takuya Nomura vs. Dick Togo (BJW, 2/18/18)
8. HARASHIMA vs. KUDO (DDT, 5/13/18)
9. Hideki Suzuki vs. Daisuke Sekimoto (BJW, 5/5/18)
10. Takuya Nomura vs. Yuya Aoki (BJW, 3/21/18)

Koji Iwamoto vs. Fuminori Abe (Hard Hit, 3/17/18)

The boys from the Sportiva Dojo spar it out in HARD HIT, the last vestige of shoot-style in Japan. This was like 6:00 minutes long and it ruled. Fuminori Abe's slick as cat shit on linoleum against Koji Iwamoto, in his ground defense, his counters, his speed and transitions. Iwamoto's able to snag him with an armbar and when Abe tries to fancy his way out of it, Iwamoto shows good control, keeping him check. Love Abe's arm drag takedown and when Iwamoto takes him down with an STO, Abe turns it into a hammerlock, trapping the arm with his leg in order to flip him over into a guillotine check. It's awesome. The striking doesn't get to heavy and Iwamoto uses a little uranage slam but this is mostly a struggle for submissions, and after Iwamoto hits the judo throw from out of nowhere, he cinches in the scarf hold for the tap out. It'll take this over a bloated 37:14 epic any day.

Shotaro Ashino vs. Manabu Soya (W1, 3/14/18)

Now, I'm not a big fan of Wrestle-1, which is to say, I don't go out of my way to watch it: however, the reign of Shotaro Ashino has been an interesting thread to follow. Ashino is a guy who looks like a million bucks but he often came off as cosplaying a "technical wrestler" and lacked the edge that fit his throwback aesthetic. While I enjoyed his match against Manabu Soya from last year, his performance didn't quite connect with me on the level I was expecting. That being said, his rematch with Soya from last month checked most of my pro-wrestling boxes. Here, Ashino played the self-assured badass champ, and Soya the loveable Manabu Nakanishi underdog. They opened in standard fashion with Soya showing off his strength and Ashino his technique. But the match really shifted into gear with Ashino's aggressive armwork, trying to neutralize Soya's lariat while still teasing his signature ankle lock, which he's used to win all of his previous matches. Soya's selling was really good, even when mounting a comeback on offense, throwing Ashino with a big German suplex. He blasts Ashino with a gnarly headbutt but when he thinks he can finish him off with the lariat, Ashino bitchslaps the attempt away in an awesome moment and drops Soya with his own WWE German.

Ashino works the ankle lock for awhile, which results in him maneuvering the mat in order to maintain control, but the next turning point in the match was Soya's awesome superplex, which felt like the biggest move of the match (and was sold brilliantly by Ashino), despite Soya later hitting Ashino with a Death Valley Bomb and package piledriver. He's able to deliver a lariat to the back of Ashino's head but when he tries again to finish him off, Ashino catches him in a Fujiwara armbar, working that a bit, before he proceeds to remove the tape and destroy the arm with a fall-a-way armbreaker. Then he smartly traps the arm and re-applies the ankle hold. Soya's able to powerbomb his way out of an arm triangle and when Ashino catches the arm again, Soya tries to lariat him with the opposite arm. Ashino's able to duck it but Soya knees him in the gut and short-arm lariats him down for a convincing nearfall, finally turning him inside out with that brutal lariat for the win. Despite having his arm worked on through much of the match, Soya was determined to finish Ashino off with that lariat but he had to really fight for it, and you got that sense of pain and struggle from his performance. Probably my favorite match from W1 from recent memory and easily Ashino's best overall performance.

Takuya Nomura vs. Yuya Aoki (BJW, 3/21/18)

What a little banger of a match. Bulked up Takuya Nomura has been doing his best to channel Akira Maeda, incorporating things like the capture and half hatch suplex, and the crossface chickenwing, in addition to his stiff kicks. Here, he comes out of the gate throwing kicks, catching Aoki upside the head with one of them. They scramble around the mat a bit, with Aoki more than holding his own. The strike exchanged were snug and fiery, and we get some of that signature bad boy attitude from Nomura. At one point, he has Aoki in a sleeper, doesn't immediately let go in the ropes, Aoki pops him in the forehead with a kick, and Nomura gets pissy with him. I thought Aoki did a good job of playing the underdog and getting in his moments to shine, including folding Nomura in turn with a release German. They heat up the final strike exchange before Nomura hits the headbutt and submits him with the cross armlock.

Takuya Nomura vs. Fuminori Abe (BJW, 1/17/18)

I watched this match a few weeks ago, really liked it, re-watched this match last night, loved it. I mean, it's bati-bati in Big Japan, with Fuminori Abe putting on one of his best singles performances to date and, at times, overshadowing Takuya Nomura. Abe's awareness shines through early on, as he rolls through the snapmare to prevent the typical "I kick your back" spot that he did to Nomura -- loved that. His strategy is simple: keep Nomura on the ground. That's arguably Nomura's weak spot, his matwork, and Abe's able to stay on his leg, taking him to the ropes a couple of times. Nomura will get in a slap or a kick here, and he's able to catch an Abe kick and plant him with the capture suplex before going into the armbar. But just as Nomura starts heating up his strikes, Abe counters with a beautiful legscrew. In the last few minutes, they start laying in the hard strikes -- the punches, kicks, slaps, elbows -- both showing exhaustion as they stumble around the ring. I like how they lunge with into their strikes.  Nomura peppers him with a little flurry of palm thrusts, slaps on a calf hold by chopping out Abe's leg, but in the end, Abe is able to break out and trap Nomura in the manjigatame for the submission. Very cool match worked in a style that is, sadly, rarely worked these days.

Hideki Suzuki & Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Shuji Ishikawa & Kohei Sato (BJW, 1/2/18)

We get our annual Twin Towers tag match to kick off the new year and of course, it delivers. Maybe not on the same level as last year's blood-spattering match against Strong BJ, but it was still a “banger”. Sekimoto gets stuck between a rock and a hard place…the rock being Sato’s kicks and elbows and the hard place being…well, Ishikawa’s elbows. When he gets the hot tag to Suzuki, Hideki comes in with a bunch of suplexes, including a big release German that folds the Big Dawg in half, before and Ishikawa take each other out when the knee meets the elbow. Poor Daisuke gets put back between the rock and hard place, as the Twin Towers lay into him with knees and sandwich elbows. Ishikawa neutralizes Hideki with another gnarly elbow, allowing Sato to pin Sekimoto following the piledriver. Can’t complain about a ten minute slugfest.

Hirooki Goto vs. Minoru Suzuki (NJPW, 1/4/18)

Incredible performances from both men in a no-nonsense contest that really played to their individual strengths. Minoru Suzuki was at his most callous without the Suzuki-goons bringing him down, and Hirooki Goto did a fantastic job of selling that classic Suzuki sadism. In a night that was mostly about trying to outdo the overdone, this was simple, brutal, and under twenty minutes. My kind of my match. Immediately, they stagger each other with hard slaps to the face before Suzuki grabs the sleeper and hangs Goto from the turnbuckle with it -- the visual of Goto's body going limp in the corner and lying motionless on the mat was unbelievable. Suzuki doesn't let up, throwing Goto out of the ring, cracking him with a chair, then swatting him in the face while he's down. Goto tries fighting back but Suzuki only cackles and levels him with an elbow. I loved how the sleeper hold > Gotch piledriver set-up played into the match, and Suzuki connects with one of the most awesome dropkicks I've seen in quite some time. The way he unloads on poor Goto with that never-ending combination of slaps and jabs, busting open his lip...so so good. Goto is finally able to build some momentum heading into the finishing stretch, reversing the top rope sleeper into a super Ushigoroshi. He hammers Suzuki with elbows, stopping him mid-swing with a lunging headbutt, before putting him down for the count with the GTR. My current 2018 MOTY, kiddos.