MATCHES FROM THE VAULT #30 – GATEWAY DRUG

HAYABUSA-CITO & SHINJITSU NOHASHI VS GOEMON & ONRYO – KASUICHI 6/22/2007

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, time to dust off the ol’ keyboard I suppose. Kasuichi! One of my all-time favourite short lived Indie promotions. The talent they used were my taste and the atmosphere of Shinjuku-Face in the mid 2000’s was fricken unmatched. That being said this particular match didn’t necessarily have the same heat as a Minoru Suzuki main event but it served its purpose as an FMW throwback match of sorts on the mid card. Rasse of Michinoku Pro fame donned the Hayabusa kit and pretty well nailed most of Hayabusa’s most well-known spots. Taro Nohashi is still only 41 in 2023 performing at a high level which is crazy considering the amount of pain he’s put his body through. When he would compete in FU-TEN he would be concussed after every match, the dude loved a shoot headbutt.

Spot of the match for me was Onryo’s springboard reverse hurricanrana , Nohashi didn’t sell it the greatest but when you take into account this match was 16 years ago a springboard reverse rana was rare as hen’s teeth. Quick shoutout to the GOAT Goemon, he’s like Kenichiro Arai before Kenichiro Arai. Never will blow you away with insane high spots but a classic heel who is safe, reliable and easy to work with. Onryo won the match with the Onryo-Clutch!

RATING – 5/10
WATCH

LEATHERFACE & ??? VS HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN & CRUSHER TAKAHASHI – CROWN 10/10/2004

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Hacksaw looks happy to be the big fish in a small pond, the crowd chanting ‘USA’ after thirty seconds was a nice touch. I’m sure Crusher would have been over the moon to team up with an American legend, 1980’s Southern wrestling is what Takahashi loves more then anything.

Hacksaw was yelling out words of encouragement like “GOOD JOB” and “THIS KID CAN FIGHT” Crusher was so happy hitting a double shoulder tackle with his idol. Unsurprisingly Crusher was honestly very sound with his work throughout. In the end Crusher pinned the masked guy with an Oklahoma stampede, following the match the American impersonating Bruiser Brody attacked the victorious duo. WILD THING HITS AND OUT COMES NISE ONITA! He immediately gets beaten up by the heels. NOW ITS AN IMPROMPTU SIX MAN TAG! Onita and Hacksaw start duelling chair shots! This is a sick atmosphere, I love it! Couple minutes later the match is thrown out due to the brawling, a fun watch to say the least. So cool to see Hacksaw work a show like this.

RATING – COOL

ASIAN COUGAR & TOMOYA ADACHI VS KATSUNARI TOI & AKIHIKO MASUDA – PWC 9/29/2003

Masuda is unmasked Great Takeru for those following along at home. Toi is in his 60’s but still working for handful of small promotions in 2023, most notable promotion he works for consistently would be Secret-Base. A great twitter follow also. Takeru looks like a small Japanese teenager who smokes cigarettes.

Within the first couple minutes Takeru pulled of a beautiful springboard plancha to the outside followed 30 seconds later by a tope con hilo from Cougar. For those who used to follow the website or know my wrestling tastes Cougar is in my top 10 workers of all-time. Though looking through a 2023 Lense I can see why the man is not even 50 and can barely walk, really saddens me to see one of the greats in such a shit state. He and Adachi would have teamed well over 100 times so their chemistry is on point. Tomoya did the Undertaker superman dive to the outside and I thought he was dead… looked awesome though. Toi did this odd lookin rolling bodyslam? I don’t know what to call it but I vibed it and will 100% steal if I wrestle again. Cougar again killing himself with a springboard leg drop to the outside, VINTAGE COUUUUUUUGAR!

40 something year old Katsunari Toi with a spingboard knee drop to the outside! This match has picked up and is tickling my fancy holy shit! Toi’s worked in front of 30,000 people but in front of 148 at the Kitazawa Town Hall he is still working his dick off. Bridging back drop suplex from Cougar sees him pick up the W! Great stuff, I haven’t watched Japanese indies for 18 months, but this match may have been my gateway drug back into the scene. Everything I love about the Sleaze.

RATING – 6.5/10
WATCH

Thanks to the Puro Archive for two of the matches I reviewed today.

Thanks to EVERYONE who has sent me messages the past 18 months. I’ve been way too anxious to even open them but in due time I will respond and hopefully reform the connections I previously had.

Thanks to Maffew for reaching out and encouraging me to write.

Thanks to everyone who supports the sleaze to this day, warms my heart to see Twitter ejaculating over a 2023 Gentaro vs Kenichiro Arai match.

Lastly please send in match recommendations via twitter. I have no Idea where to start, I’m just going to slowly work through all the stuff I still have saved on YouTube. Be back soon!