Takuya Nomura vs. Fuminori Abe (BASARA, 11/26/19)

A 10+ minute slugger with tons of cool stuff you'd expect to see between two spunky astronauts. A little grapple action, plenty of cheeky shots, some neat counters and transitions from Abe - love his dragon screw legwhip and his simple transition into the front necklock. Of course, the fakeout slaps are great, too. Nomura's real shitty to Abe on the ground and throws plenty of suplexes, including a gnarly half nelson that Abe no sells. They ramp up the baseball punches and headbutts during the finishing stretch, until Nomura slaps off an attempt, dragon suplexes Abe and KOs him with the high kick. Nothing fancy, nothing bloated -- just two friends wrasslin' and kicking the shit out of each other.

Takuya Nomura & Fuminori Abe vs. Hikaru Sato & Takuya Wada (AJPW, 8/11/19)

Another dope Astronauts match with plenty to love on. Abe getting caught with the open hand early from Sato and his staggered sell, the intensity of the Nomura/Wada exchanges, which lead to nasty slaps and corner headbutts. And Wada's Northern lights suplex is snappy as hell. Loved Sato going nuts on Nomura with the ground-and-pound, and then Nomura German suplexing Sato as he's reaching out for the tag. Another cool spot came with Abe catching the double wrist-lock off the German suplex hold by Wada, slickly keeping it cinched in through Wada's struggled efforts. Abe's so smooth -- loved his set up to the cross kneebar on Sato before turning that into a legtrap German l. Fun mix of shoot-style and pro-wrestling with a motivated Sato turning up the heat and Abe getting plenty of time to shine. Abe and Nomura are a blast - a bit like modern day Fujiwara and Maeda. Same energy.

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.

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.

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 & Takuya Nomura vs. Kohei Sato & Kazuki Hashimoto (BJW, 12/30/17)

This is nearly seven minutes of Takuya Nomura showing off what Hideki Suzuki has taught him about being a real tough man. Suzuki has a fun leglock sequence with Sato and throws a couple of suplexes but this was mostly Nomura pissing off Sato. He immediately comes into this match kicking and smacks Sato hard across the face. Of course, Sato dishes everything back twice as hard but Nomura doesn't back down. He's able to work the mat a little with Hashimoto and looks good doing it, but he'll still throw the slaps when he can. He and Kazuki proceed to stiff each other with kicks until Nomura stops it with a nasty headbutt. Suzuki lets him finish it out against Sato and he gets him in the armbar, continuing the work the arm until Sato finally piledrives him for the win. Short and violent.

BJW/Masahito Kakihara Produce "KAKI RIDE" (8/14/17)

Big Japan helped produced this special event as a way to support Masahito Kakihara, who has been suffering from malignant lymphoma since 2014. The event saw the return of Kakihara to the ring, in a sparring session with grapple legend, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, but everything else was fought under "UWF Rules", meaning points deducted for rope breaks, knockdowns, and in the case of Minoru Suzuki, penalties. On a whole, this was a really fun show and something I'd love to see BJW produce more often. Nothing super high end but I did have a few notes on the show. 

- In his sparring session, Kakihara tapped to Fujiwara a total of ten times. There wasn't much to this, some neat little tricks by Fujiwara, but the best moment came when Fujiwara smoked and ashed an imaginary cigar while had Kakihara in a headlock. Oh yeah.

- Minoru Tanaka managed to wrestle his best match of the year in just under 3:00 against Masakatsu Funaki. Funaki immediately whaps him in the forehead with a kick, and then they scramble around the mat with a real sense of urgency, trying to sink something in. Minoru's able to escape an armbar attempt but gets caught in a triangle and taps out.

- Tatsuo Nakano, still rocking that badass mullet, fought Daisuke Nakamura in a match that definitely over delivered. You've got Nakamura flying fancy round the mat and Nakano being Nakano just knees him in the face, dumps him with an armtrap release German, and submits him with the single leg crab. 

- Hideki Suzuki once again took former student Takuya Nomura to school on the mat, being real nasty with his forearms to the face and knees to the throat. I love the way he manipulates Nomura's arm with the wristlock in order to assert dominance. It seems Nomura's learned a thing or two from their match earlier in the year, where Suzuki basically smothered him into giving up, as he's able to avoid getting suplexed by sitting down and maintains arm control long enough to force Suzuki to the ropes. He's able to let loose a little flurry of strikes but Suzuki's too good, and the finish was swanky as fuck, as Suzuki counters out of the waistlock with a front necklock and then goes into the double arm suplex hold for the submission. 

- Rocky Kawamura (sans boxing gloves) always find a way of pissing off Minoru Suzuki. Suzuki was pretty great here. After landing a few slaps, he tries for the Gotch-style piledriver because you might as well and when Kawamura avoids it, Suzuki grabs the leg and cranks away, forcing Rocky to the ropes. When Rocky uses a jujigatame on Suzuki and doesn't let go after Minoru makes the ropes, the "oh no you didn't" look on Suzuki's face is fantastic. He tries to choke out Rocky, then starts kicking, stomping, and headbutting away, receiving a couple of yellow cards from the ref. Rocky fires off a few jabs but Suzuki's able to snatch an arm and wrench in the wakigatame for the submission. 

- Naomichi Marufuji doesn't have a whole lot of experience wrestling under "UWF Rules" and when he keeps revisiting the ropes on the ground, it becomes obvious that the only way he's going to beat Takaku Fuke is via strikes. He is able to secure a keylock but that's about as close as he gets to submitting Fuke. In the end, Fuke starts laying in the slaps and knees in the corner and out of nowhere, Marufuji connects with the Koo for the KO victory. Cool shorts, Maru. 

Hideki Suzuki vs. Takuya Nomura (BJW, 4/10/17)

This is the master Hideki Suzuki at work, the teacher schooling the student. In the past, the Suzuki/Nomura matches played out like sparring sessions but this was the most "shoot-style" of the series. It was a glorious squash as Suzuki is all over Nomura like white on bread and Nomura is outmatched in about everything but his kicks, which he doesn't really get the chance to show off. Suzuki was in dominant, no shits given champ mode, grinding his taped wrists across Nomura's face, getting heat from the crowd for covering Nomura's mouth with his hand or teasing a straight choke. When Nomura cries out, it sounds legitimate as Suzuki bends and twists him to his will. There's a great spot where Suzuki hooks Nomura's leg in order to pry him open from his defensive position to apply a choke sleeper. When he rolls Nomura up for a two count, he catches the leg Nomura kicked out with and immediately starts manipulating it. There's no choreographed fluidity to it. Each hold looks like it's a struggle to apply.

They did a really good job of getting the crowd invested in the matwork, with the fans hopeful Nomura can get something on Suzuki.  When nearly gets a cross armbreaker on him but Suzuki uses his head to break it and spoil the crowd's anticipation. Finally, Nomura starts laying in with the kicks but the smart champ gets to a corner, then drops down to the mat to bait him in. Nomura starts kicking at Suzuki on the mat and in a nice little callback, tries and misses with that leaping double stomp. At one point near the end, Suzuki eases up on Nomura and as they fight over a leglock, he tells Nomura to fight harder. Suzuki finally ends the suffering, taking him down with the double wristlock and submitting him. I loved this. I probably enjoyed this more than most based on who was involved in the match but it felt authentic and it's fun to see a dominant Suzuki shooting on his baby-faced student.

Shuji Ishikawa & Kohei Sato vs. Hideki Suzuki & Takuya Nomura (BJW, 12/18/16)

This match ruled! It was easily the best match on an otherwise decent Death Vegas card and it may be my favorite Japanese tag match of the year but perhaps more importantly, it served a great platform for Takuya Nomura to showcase what he’s learned over the past year. His selling was fantastic for his experience level, from his facials to the desperation in his strikes. And he gets so excited from kicking, he sometimes slips and falls. Suzuki wasn’t phoning it in either, coming in for some suplex saves. One of the things I like about Suzuki, and it showed in his early touch-and-go with Ishikawa, is the way he’s continually moving, not allowing Ishikawa a solid grip, but shifting and feeling for a weakness or an opening. Of course, Twin Towers were brutal as always and held nothing back in their exchanges with the spunky Nomura. Sato throws the best elbows in pro-wrestling and Ishikawa and Nomura working themselves into a “shoot” was awesome. Loved Ishikawa turning one of Nomura’s kicks into a stretch muffler airplane spin.

The final confrontation between Nomura and Sato was the icing on the cake. Nomura unloads on Sato with everything he has, kicking him harder and harder, his eyes wild as he’s thinking “damn, how hard do I have to kick?!” before Sato finally collapses with his spasmodic selling. Again, Nomura shows the little things he’s picked up along the way, like when he has Sato in the cross armbreaker and he grabs the leg as Sato struggles, turning it into a pin attempt. Suzuki makes a great save after Sato hits a nasty elbow and while Nomura survives the Falcon Arrow, the follow-up piledriver is enough to put the rookie phenom down for good. Post-match, Nomura says “fuck your handshake” to Ishikawa. Awesome stuff. 

Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Takuya Nomura (BJW, 9/19/16)

This is everything I love about Takuya Nomura, coupled with Sekimoto's solid backwork and BJ Strong intensity. Right out of the gate, Nomura tries the overwhelm strategy, hitting a dropkick, elbowing away in the corner, snapping off kicks to the chest. Sekimoto quickly squashes this and clobbers away at Nomura. But Nomura is that birthday candle you can't quite blow out on the first couple of tries. The crowd's in his corner so he keeps on bringing the fight to Sekimoto. Sekimoto starts working over his back with kicks, elbow drops, scoop slams, a camel clutch, trying to immobilize Nomura. Nomura's strikes look really good here, especially the kicks. The home stretch was a lot of fun, with the two trading elbows -- Sekimoto with his clobbering shots and Nomura throwing elbows as hard as he can. When Sekimoto catches the leg, Nomura lets loose with the slaps but as he comes off the ropes, Sekimoto catches him with a Rock Bottom-style backbreaker before slapping on his shitty Sharpshooter. Nomura holds out for a bit but the referee ultimately calls for the bell. Good stuff!

Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi vs. Hideki Suzuki & Takuya Nomura (BJW, 9/22/16)

My dark horse team of the tournament -- rookie phenom, Takuya Nomura, alongside his trainer/mentor, Hideki Suzuki, taking on STRONG BJ. Going into this, I knew Suzuki/Nomura had zero chance of winning this thing but that didn't stop Nomura from giving Sekimoto and Okabayashi hell. I loved his fire in this match, especially in his initial exchange with Okabayashi, where he stuns the big boss with elbows, kicks, and a headbutt. Okabayashi chops him down and makes the tag out to Sekimoto, having had enough of Nomura's spunk. Nomura keeps bringing it no matter the odds, never letting Strong BJ bully him too much. Suzuki didn't get too much time to shine here but he and Sekimoto did have a fun exchange which resulted in some suplex throws. Hell of a performance from the young Nomura, who ultimately took the fall for his team after a top rope suplex/frog splash combo from Strong BJ. 

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.