U-STYLE (2005)

Well, technically, only one show took place in 2005 but it had a couple of matches worth checking out.

Frank Shamrock vs. Daisuke Nakamura (U-STYLE, 11/25/05)

This was a blast, with a high energy opening and fun, chaotic scrambles on the mat. Just a good, competitive, well-worked shoot-style match. Shamrock was especially good here, between his taunting Nakamura to punch his abs to just deadlifting him with a front necklock. That looked pretty gross. All of his submissions and strikes looked snug. Nakamura, on the other hand, kept whiffing on his takedowns, which Shamrock would capitalize on, mainly by wrecking the shit out of his ankle. He's able to get a straight armbar on Shamrock but Frank takes the match with a nice heel hook. Good stuff.

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Josh Barnett (U-STYLE, 11/25/05)

Match of the night, with Barnett in beast mode. He may not as quick as Tamura but he uses his size to his advantage and stays on top of Tamura. Him just flipping Tamura over his head by the leg was a great show of strength. After Tamura downs him with a pretty nasty knee to the face, Barnett rages with a brutal uranage followed by a deadlift German. POWERFUL~!  Tamura's able to crank on the armbar but Josh is close enough to the ropes for a break. They trade kicks, Barnett plants him with the capture buster but when he tries to double dip, Tamura grabs the armbar again and finally taps him. A super fun David vs. Goliath match-up.

Josh Barnett vs. Chris Dickinson (GCW, 9/14/19)

I'm not that familiar with Chris Dickinson but he looked okay here - his grappling is whatever but Barnett did a good job of giving him enough to create the illusion. Some of his kicks looked good and they came off more like cheap shots to stun Barnett, who clearly had the advantage on the mat. Good escalation into some shoot suplexes, including a very cool deadlift German from Dickinson and some nasty follow-up kicks, which leads to the finishing stretch and Barnett putting him away with a gutwrench powerbomb>knees>head kick combo. It didn't hit the same highs as Barnett/Suzuki but still a very good match.

Josh Barnett's Bloodspot (GCW, 4/4/19)

Jonathan Gresham vs. Masashi Takeda

Takeda is soaking it all up and it's a blast to watch. He outwrestles Gresham in the opening exchange, headbutts the floor, and picks a fight with Gresham, whom I haven't seen much of, but clicked well with Takeda, who can do everything when it comes to professional wrestling. The last few minutes encapsulate the pro-wrestling love -- crazy slaps and flying armbars out of nowhere, pounding away at bloody eyeballs and a KO finish that looked like a KO finish. Can't think of a better sprint in 2019. 

Hideki Suzuki vs. Timothy Thatcher

A very good match, with Hideki's control and/or fighting for control being the best part of it, as Thatcher works sell well underneath. Slow build but a hot finish. Suzuki's shitty boots, face kicks and elbows alway look so insane, and Thatcher can cut loose when he wants to - that Hideki sell off the European uppercut was especially great. Super strong finish for Hideki, who comes into U.S. looking like a master.  

Minoru Suzuki vs. Josh Barnett

The early tradeoffs on the mat were very good, and the cool little Suzuki nuances added to them - I really liked his punch to set-up the leglock. And Barnett's good at throwing his weight into the exchanges - him tossing Suzuki like a sack of potatoes to get out of that snug side headlock was great. When Suzuki is forced to wrestle, he's still top-notch. His transition into the crucifix kneebar was slick. But the match stumbles a bit following the piledriver tease and doesn't have nearly the same chaos factor at Takeda/Gresham until they're wildly slapping each other to a draw. The highs are high enough and it's probably Suzuki's best singles performance of the year. 

Hideki Suzuki vs. Josh Barnett (IGF, 12/31/11)

On the English HDNet broadcast, one of the commentators referred to the matwork as "dirty grappling", which fit well here, considering these two grunty dudes trying to manage the opposing bulk -- opposing bulk well-versed in the same catch-as-catch-can approach. Between the leg jockeying and the back-and-forth for arm control, Suzuki and Barnett conveyed the struggle of not only applying the holds, but keeping them locked on, and exhaustion of throwing around that weight working against them. This was my first exposure to Hideki Suzuki and it was clear to me early on that there's a lot to love from him as a worker. The fact that he just reaches in and coolly slaps Barnett across the face says a lot. He had a good grasp of selling with subtly, which he did here with the leg Barnett kept going after. I haven't seen much of Barnett's pro-wrestling career but I like that he's scrappy and rough-edged. He'll boot Hideki in the face before applying the single leg before transitioning into a brutal-looking STF. The powerbomb and suplexes were an awesome component of this match to establish itself as "strong style pro-wrestling" but within that, there were cool touches, like Barnett going back to the arm after each suplex, or Hideki using his weight as a counterweight to Barnett's throws. Barnett destroying Hideki with the Northern Lights Bomb from seemingly out of nowhere was the cherry on top of it all. Awesome match that only gets better on re-watch.