Minoru Tanaka vs. Takehiro Murahama (NJPW, 4/20/01)

Takehiro Murahama had a pretty damn great debut year in 2000 Osaka Pro and by the following year, he's challenging dreamy New Japan junior ace, Minoru Tanaka, for the the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title. This was a really good match and a culmination of everything Murahama had picked up on during his rookie year. For the most part, the early goings were evenly-matched, with both dudes utilizing some neat takedowns and submission workarounds. Minoru has his working boots laced tight for this, with a little extra salsa thrown into his kicks. At one point, they are both struggling over a leglock, slapping each other in the face, until Murahama smartens up, ducks, and tries to take control of the leg but Minoru ends up taking him to the ropes. And then he proceeds to throw him with an awesomely scary Saito suplex.

When Murahama gets back into the ring, he looks like he's about to lock up with Minoru and then suddenly pops him upside the head with a high kick. His submission work looked good here, as he works through a double wristlock into an armbar, which Minoru tries to finagle his way out of. The crowd was super into the nearfalls in the backhalf of the match, which included a sweet snap German suplex by Murahama and Minoru surprisingly busting himself open off repeated headbutts. In the end, Minoru dumps with a release German and taps him with the armbar to retain. A great showing from Murahama and an impressive performance from Minoru.

Minoru Tanaka vs. TAKA Michinoku (PWFG, 5/19/95)

Holy shit, this rules. It’s liquid hot magma right out of the gate as Minoru immediately starts slapping at TAKA, and then they scramble fiercely around the mat, fighting over a leglock, getting pissy in front mounts with their strikes, including some well-placed palm thrusts from Minoru. Minoru delivers an awesome shoot package Gotch-style piledriver…I don’t even know how else to describe it (see above)…then transitions into the single leg. He may be without his glorious locks here but Minoru’s still swanky as fuck, with his smooth leg trap counter into the kneebar. He’s either taking TAKA to the bottom rope or he’s stuffing him with kicks.  They trade suplexes (love TAKA’s snap belly-to-belly) but when TAKA tries for the German, Minoru answers with the wakigatame takedown and when that doesn’t do the trick, he just stomps TAKA in the back of the head. He tries to finish off TAKA with a high kick but TAKA’s able to counter into the single leg and crank it back to submit Minoru. Love this match.

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Minoru Tanaka (BattlARTS, 5/27/98)

A breezy, shoot-inspired juniors match, with handsome Minoru showboating early on with an armbar takedown and a kip up as he plays to the crowd. For the most part, this was an evenly based match, where it seemed like one well-placed submission could end it. The dueling legwork was, for the most part, the crux of this match, with Mochizuki being more of the aggressor with it, chopping at Minoru’s legs with kicks to set up the holds – loved Minoru’s stumbled selling. Both guys were throwing hard kicks, especially Minoru, and at one point, he feeds Mochizuki a nasty kick in the corner. Lots of springboarding around from Mochi and a nearfall off a German suplex hold but Minoru goes from the Minoru Special II (one of my all-time favorite flash moves) to the Minori Special to tap Mochizuki.