SWalker's Weekly 5 - Ryukyu Battle Festa, Catch Factory & Arai/GENTARO (02/17-02/23)

 

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!

 

Mutoha 02/16/25

Man, Hasegawa is a madman for making these Mutoha shows available so quickly. I pulled the trigger right after I went on a Crusher Takahashi & Kenichiro Arai marathon this week, so I'm really excited for their upcoming matches on this show! The show took place in the Ice Ribbon Dojo TODAY!

Crusher Takahashi vs. Hideya Iso

If you read my first blog post from today, I had two Crusher Takahashi singles matches on that list. Takahashi is a big man who throws great punches and is a really great seller. From Iso I've only seen one match so far (from the first Mumeijuku show).

The match starts with some chain wrestling and mat-based grappling. Crusher and Ito then reverse their opponents' locks in the first great moments of the match. Crusher Takahashi then concentrates on his opponent's legs. He throws some closed fist punches to Iso's head. Iso works from underneath and has to take a lot of punishment from Takahashi until he turns a sleeper hold into an armbar. Takahashi gets out by breaking the ropes. Iso tries for a rollup after missing the German suplex but only gets a 2. After some offence from Crusher, Iso hits a dropkick and enzuigiri and now tries to lock in the manjigatame. After finally locking it in, he gets the win by submission.

Kenichiro Arai, CHANGO & PSYCHO vs. GENTARO, Akira Jo & Taro Yamada

This is a Unicorn-style match. The rules are as follows:

• There are three matches with a combined 61-Minute Time Limit
• The first match is a singles match
• The second match is a tag match with the two remaining participants of each team
• If no team has won both previous matches, the final match will be a 3 on 3 tag match

After the initial scramble to get into the first match, we get GENTARO vs. Kenichiro Arai!!! I To this day I have not seen their 61 minute time limit match from 2023, but I have already bought it. I want to wait for a special occasion to watch this match. So I was hyped for a little sneak peek from them. Unfortunately, after a distraction from CHANGO, GENTARO gets low blown by PSYCHO before the match really starts and Arai gets the first win for his team with a roll-up. I am sad!

So the second match is PSYCHO & CHANGO vs. Akira Jo & Taro Yamada. I've already seen the Keita Yano / Taro Yamada match from 2015 this week, so I'm pretty hyped to get some more Yamada on my plate with this match. CHANGO & PSYCHO have been a long-running tag team, so it comes as no surprise that they work really well together. Both teams brawl a bit on the outside and the heel team tries everything to get a count out win. This backfires and after a dive by Yamada on both PSYCHO & CHANGO, they fail to get back in the ring. Jo & Yamada equalise the score!

The third match starts with both tag teams clearing each other out of the ring and now we get GENTARO vs. Kenichiro Arai! I am not sad anymore! Here ends part 1 of the video! See you next week!

No, just kidding. Part 2 starts with Arai & GENTARO grappling. Like I said, I haven't seen the 61 minute time limit draw, but I've seen enough wrestling from both men to know what I'm getting into. PSYCHO gets tagged in and he scambles around a bit with GENTARO, Yamada and later Akira Jo. He nicely counters Jos' hold into a submission of his own and tags in CHANGO. After that Jo & Arai face each other. Jo gets Arai into his corner and we are back to him & GENTARO. There are a lot of quick tag outs in both teams, so basically all the individual matches are covered in this part of the match. CHANGO & Yamada have a really cool short mat-based sequence in this part of the match. After a really nice sequence between PSYCHO & Jo where they trade chops and PSYCHO does a crazy looking top rope knee drop from the corner, they are back at it again between GENTARO & Arai. 

I think I know where this is going! The GENTARO/Arai match features prominently in this 6-man tag portion of the match. And yet, after all their meetings in Mutoha, there has never been a clear winner between the two in any of their matches. After Arai's roll-up in the first fall, this has to be the equaliser between these two. Arai escapes GENTARO's submission and then refuses to tap out to either of his teammates, instead giving them a slap in the face. Grappling continues between the two men, with Arai resorting to tactics such as pulling his opponent's hair. Arai tries to cover GENTARO after a diving attack but only gets a 2. Arai goes to the top rope again and still only gets a 2. Arai tries a third time but this time GENTARO counters, rolls Arai up and gets the 3-count for the win! GENTARO, Yamada & Jo win the match.

Overall the 3 vs. 3 was the best part of the match. I was really sad about the first fall, but in hindsight it makes sense to give both GENTARO & Arai a win over each other. Maybe we will see a rematch between them in the future! (I don't speak Japanese, so I would be very interested to hear what Arai said after the match)  

BTW Ref. Suzuki (YouTube | @GambleSurvivor) does wear a GoPro on his head. So I am fairly certain this match will be on his YouTube channel in the future!

Yasushi Sato vs. Shoji Ohno

This is for the Haoh title. Sato is the current champion, having won it last December in a barn burner against Kenichiro Arai. I am not really familiar with Shoji Ohno. He is a guy from EAGLE Pro, so I am quite interested to see where this goes. Before the match they slapped each other in the face before they started to bump fists. Especially Ohno's slap had so much power!

They start with some grappling. Sato is a master of his craft and he and Sato have a nice scramble on the mat early on. Ohno goes for his opponent's shoulder in the early part of the match, but then transitions to the ankle and leg. Sato does a Russian Legsweep into a pin and gets a 2. Ohno then goes for the Legsweep himself and hits it three times on Sato to fire him up. He hits another one in return and it looks great. They trade some hard hitting chops. Sato counters the Irish Whip and hits Ohno with a dropkick. Ohno then escapes the submission attempt on his leg by breaking the rope. Sato locks in the camel clutch but Ohno also escapes via the rope. Sato is getting really mean in this part of the match! 

Ohno gets a roll up pin for a two count and then hits a brainbuster to send Sato to the mat. Ohno is now in control and sends Sato off the apron to the floor with a bulldog variation. Ohno now looks for another submission, targeting Sato's neck and upper back. He gets him into a sleeper hold and transitions to a dragon sleeper and then a pin, but is unsuccessful. 

Ohno tries a lariat into the corner but Sato counters with a body shot. A slam from Sato follows and he is now on top again and hits a legsweep. After a submission attempt, where Ohno escapes over the rope, another legsweep follows, which gets a two count. Sato attacks Ohno in the corner, a sick headbutt follows, but Ohno counters a knee attempt and hits Sato with a big slap to the face. Still only 2 for the pinfall! A Michinoku Driver follows but still only gets a 2! 

Ohno now concentrates on Sato's arm and shoulder and tries for a submission, but Sato escapes with a rope break. Ohno looks to finish the match with another Michinoku Driver, but Sato rolls him up for the win! All in all, a very entertaining match that continues the high in-ring standard of Mutoha's main events!

The End

To conclude, we have had three very entertaining matches. Each had a different style, so there is probably a match for everyone out there. Overall I would definitely recommend the unicorn style match the most, both the tag and the 6 man tag were really good. I hope, that Mutoha does not go to hiatus for a long time and their chairman Yoshino gets well soon!   

I wrote about 5 hours ago that I did not really know when the next post would be on this blog. So 5 hours later, here it is. All thanks to Hasegawa-san and his damn fast video editing skills! Have a nice week! :D

SWalker's Weekly 5 - Crusher Takahashi, Kenichiro Arai and Hirooki Goto (02/10-02/16)

Sometimes life is very hard. My life is generally pretty good, but some weeks just drain your energy like vampires. Luckily, watching wrestling is one of the things I do in the evenings to relax. I do some research, find some cool matches and just watch them until I get tired. Watching wrestling is basically my escape from the hard life outside and luckily my wife is okay with me spending a lot of my free time doing it.

Maybe this will become a weekly occurrence when I have the time, but here are my top 5 matches I watched this week!

Kenichiro Arai vs. Crusher Takahashi - Mutoha 07/07/24

I recently pulled the trigger and finally bought some Mutoha matches from Hasegawa. After the buzz created by the Arai/GENTARO match in 2023, I knew I was in for a great ride. I am relatively well known to some of the wrestlers in these small feds from Japan, so I have not seen much of Crusher Takahashi's matches. Takahashi has been wrestling mainly on EAGLE & Mutoha cards the last few years. I have probably seen about 10 of his matches in total, but I am already a big fan. He is almost 60 years old, but throws punches like a god and is a really, really big seller. Everyone who watches this kind of match knows how great Arai is. So no surprise that this is an excellent match.

Kenichiro Arai vs. Mikiya Sasaki - MeriPro 07/05/24

Speaking of Kenichiro Arai matches, here is another one from one of the Meriken Friday Night shows in 2024. 

His opponent is Mikiya Sasaki, who I have mainly seen on these shows.I recently wrote on Bluesky that I was quickly becoming a big Mikiya Sasaki fan and this match played a big part in that.Sasaki is very versatile - he does comedy really well, but also shines in this technical, mat-based match. 

That is basically my idea of an ideal match:60 minutes of Iron Man, mat-based, technical, small ring in a bloody tiny bar in Kobe, Japan. I like the vibe, the length, the lights, the psychology - it is just so relaxing to watch two masters of their craft go at it in a pretty funky environment.I really enjoyed it and it was worth every minute! 

YouTube

Takahiro Tababa & Super Crafter U vs. FUMA & Shodai Nakagawa - Ganko Pro 03/23/23

Researching and watching these little shows from Japan is always fun.One thing that comes up a lot is the name Super Crafter U. The man behind the mask, Yoshihisa Hamano, works many different gimmicks in all these Japanese promotions.One of them is the current Leatherface, who worked for BJW a few years ago.This match is short and fun. It takes place in a shopping centre somewhere in Japan and without a ring.They botched the finish a bit, but there were some really fun spots in it.I really recommend watching it if you have about 10 minutes to spare!On a related note, some of my wrestling-related searches in the near future will be Takahiro Tababa.Quite interested in checking out a few more of his matches.

YouTube

Crusher Takahashi vs. Kazunori Yoshida - EAGLE 04/25/21

After watching Arai/Takahashi I quickly found this match between Crusher Takahashi and EAGLE Pro owner Kazunori Yoshida.This match took place when Covid was hitting the world hard, so there is no audience in this match.Takahashi beats Yoshida in about 17 minutes in an old school, hard hitting match with great selling from Takahashi.I will try to keep the EAGLE watch train going in the coming days and weeks and hope to find many more matches like this on their Youtube channel.Unfortunately there do not seem to be many matches of them from the last 2-3 years.

YouTube

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hirooki Goto - NJPW 02/11/25

I don't watch much New Japan these days.The promotion lost me a few years ago.Occasionally I will watch some individual matches and shows.But it is not like back in the day when I basically watched every tour show they did.The matches and storylines are not as compelling as they used to be.This match is an exception. The moment of Goto finally winning the big one is a culmination of all the lost matches he had for the main title in NJPW. I was invested in this match, the crowd was hot. Definitely a MOTYC for me and I am looking forward to Goto/Tanahashi & Goto/Nagata. But despite this great match and the storytelling in it, there are some dark spots. Could NJPW pull the trigger on Goto sooner? Where does that leave ZSJ? I doubt it will bring back long term excitement for me, but it will probably be good while it lasts... Probably...

NJPW World

I am relatively new to blogging myself, so thank you internet stranger for reading this! You are awesome!Have a good week, maybe I'll be back next week!

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This is my blog for all things related to my wrestling fandom, especially about (Indy) wrestling from Japan! Have fun reading!