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. 

Hiro Tonai vs. Kyu Mogami (K-DOJO, 2/25/16)

Solid submission work throughout, with a great payoff in the end. Some basic 'catch point' wrestling to open. Tonai shows his ring awareness early on with the rolls throughs and maintaining the arm control. Mogami works the neck with a cravate and I like how he incorporates the knees into the hold. Overall great counterwork, especially from Tonai. At one point, he sweeps the leg out from Mogami and hits a gnarly kick to the injured arm. He keeps forcing Mogami to the ropes but Mogami fights back and traps Tonai in like a grounded octopus hold. When he tries for the fisherman suplex, Tonai gets a hold of the arm and Mogami quickly rolls through to escape. After Mogami hits a fisherman suplex for two, they go counter-for-counter with the submission attempts until Mogami can pin Tonai's shoulders to the mat for a believable nearfall. Without missing a beat, Mogami goes right back into the grounded octopus hold. After fighting out, Tonai counters a whip attempt into a cool springboard armbreaker and goes right into the seated armbreaker. Mogami makes one last go at the ropes but Tonai rolls him through and quickly re-asserts the armbreaker, forcing him to submit. The crowd was invested, the matwork technically sound. Really good match.