SWalker's Weekly 5 - Ryukyu Battle Festa, Catch Factory & Arai/GENTARO from Mutoha (02/17-02/23)
This week, I began working on this post very early! Fearing I don't have enough time on the weekend and seeing some great matches this past monday, I thought it doesn't matter very much. So here it is, the second SWalker's Weekly 5!
Two matches from Ryukyu Battle Festa 2025!
I've seen many great matches last week, so I feared burning out a little this week. Monday was very harsh, I did not sleep well and life was generally very stressful. In the evening, almost before bedtime, I found a a shining, bright light on this rather cold and dark day: Ryukyu streamed their Battle Festa show on YouTube! So I've watched it & enjoyed it greatly! So there are already two of my Weekly 5's covered for this week.
Churaumi Saver & Teelan Shisa vs. Shigehiro Irie & Shuri Joe
I start with the main event: Churaumi Saver & Teelan Shisa vs. Shigehiro Irie & Shuri Joe. This match was really fun. Saver & Shisa had some nice high flying moments. Irie was great as always and he & Joe match wondefully as tag team partners. Interestingly if you would substitute Joe with Kazuaki Mihara, that would basically be a rematch for the Sou Ryuo Tag Team titles from past December. Irie becomes a regular apperance on these Ryukyu cards, netting in a total of 5 matches this year already. In my opinion, Irie excells in this environment and contrasts the high flying abilities of his opponents perfectly. I do not really now, where Shuri Joe is going and who his next oponnent for the Ryou title will be. So hopefully we find out soon. All in all this match nets in at about 14 minutes and is lots of fun! Big recommendation!
Healthy Sandals Death Match - Gurukun Mask & Orion vs. POSEIDON (Mozuku Tominaga & RYUKYU-DOG Dingo)
The second match I greatly want to recommend from this show is the HEALTHY SANDALS DEATH MATCH between Gurukun Mask & Orion vs. POSEIDON (Mozuku Tominaga & RYUKYU-DOG Dingo). Let me try to find the right words, why I recommend this match to all of you - it was dumb, very dumb indeed. But I freakin' enjoyed every minute of it. They had some interesting spots caused by them wearing these freakin' health sandals and it was just fun all the way around. If you like interesting comedy stipulations and generally love some comedy in your wrestling matches, than this is the match for you!
Also I feel really dumb for not knowing, that Orion is Ryoya Tanaka from Dragon Gate while watching Ryukyu regulary for half a year now... Oh well...
My local promotion - Catch Factory's Homecoming 2025
For 2 years now, the Catch Factory holds events almost monthly in the beautiful city of Leipzig in Germany. And with great success at that. They started in January 2023 holding events in the small & gritty Boxclub Olympia. It is a very intimate venue, that I went two two times in the last year and I had so much fun, that I will probably visit an event of theirs in about 3 weeks again if I have the time.
Since January 2024, they mostly hold their events in the even bigger Westbad, hosting about 400 to 500 fans 5 times last year. That are really spectacular numbers for a region, where wrestling was mostly more of a side note. Catch Factory uploads the matches on their Patreon, so go check them out, if you have some spare money! :)
Dieter Schwartz & Jan Davidson vs. Baklava Club (Aytac Bahar & Joshua Amaru)
In January 2025 they holded their second anniversary with their annual Homecoming show. On the card was this match for determine the inaugural Catch Factory Tag Team champions. These are probably not the most known wrestlers in the world, or even Europe or Germany, but this match was fun. The Baklava Club (yeah, named after the Turkish pastrie Baklava) are super over with the crowd since day one. They face off again Dieter Schwartz, an 8-year veteran, and Jan Davidson, a 29-year old who was trained by "Bad Bones" John Klinger. In about 13 minutes, the Baklava Club won the tag titles. This was not the most special match, but I wanted to shine a spotlight on this great fed, that gave me many hours of entertainment in the last couple of years. This match is on YouTube, so you can check it out here:
YouTube
Bryan Danielson vs. El Generico in Germany
It is Sunday evening. I just moved, have no Internet in my new flat and have not watched much wrestling this week. But I was ready and had a PWG show from Europe in my pipeline to watch. Both these guys where as great back than as they are right now, so there is no surprise, this was really good. This match is on YouTube and you should definitely check it out, if you have time!
On an unrelated note, this was match number 200 I have watched this year so far. Hope for many hundreds more! 😄
Kenichiro Arai vs. GENTARO
This was the match, that kept me up for the last few weeks - the infamous Kenichiro Arai vs. GENTARO Iron Man match from 2023 in Mutoha. I've had this on my hard drive and today I just committed and watched this masterpiece (#199 this year) as the first piece of wrestling I've watched in the new flat.
There were many great words written about this match on various platforms like Twitter, Bluesky and different blogs that highlight every important aspect of this match. And they are all wright! If you have some spare bucks, buy this match, watch this match, enjoy this match. It is one hour long, it is an intense struggle and it ends in a draw worthy of another match in the future. And hopefully it will be an long-ass Iron Man match again, with another intense struggle and maybe even longer than this one!
I will probably do another post about this match on the future, but writing this on my smartphone without Internet connection on my PC is very painful. So have a wonderful start into the new week and fingers crossed I have internet in my new apartment soon! Probably now post like this next week, because time is short. But always know, I will probably spend every part of my free time watching wrestling! As you should too!