Kakuto Tanteidan ~ Bokura Wa Kakuto Tanteidan (10/12/23)

 

"We are Fighting Detectives" ignited the fire and passion for Shoot-Style Wrestling again and we're here to see what Fuminori Abe and Takuya Nomura brought on the table with these five matches here. I mean we have them all from Yuki Ishikawa to Daisuke Ikeda and many others. I'm beyond excited for this show and hyped as hell.

WATCH IT HERE!

HIDEKI SUZUKI DEF. YU IIZUKA (6:56)
We start the show with Yu Iizuka from GLEAT and Hideki Suzuki who surprised me like after ten seconds with a dropkick, Iizuka went out of the ring to shake things off. The GLEAT man tried to take the fight to the mat but Suzuki was a master of the escapes and wasn't in real danger here. The GLEAT prodigy gained confident, still looking to bring Suzuki down. The latter had enough of Iizuka's game and even headbutted him while being in a hold of Iizuka. The finish was brutal and typical for Hideki, he elbowed Iizuka to the head when he was grounded and the referee stopped the fight. Fun opener! *** 1/4

HIKARU SATO & YASSHI DEF. IKUTO HIDAKA & THANOMSAK TOBA (10:41)
YASSHI and Toba began the match and it was so good already. These two hit each other so hard with strikes, I wasn't expecting this. Hikaru Sato and Ikuto Hidaka took the fight to the mat and had some real cool grappling encounter until Toba and Sato hit each other like maniacs. Man I'm so surprised that Toba is still rocking in 2023, jesus christ. The whole fight was a surprised and how motivated all four combattans were. Toba took YASSHI down twice with punches and kicks and YASSHI even used headbutts to brutalize Toba, insane stuff. The crowd was so into this, you could feel the energy at Shinjuku FACE. Hidaka and Sato were so desperated to let their respective opponent tap out and finally it was Sato who applied a Wakigatame for the win. *** 3/4

SUPER TIGER DEF. KEITA YANO (11:05)
KEITA is in the house! The Joker met Super Tiger of Real Japan Pro Wrestling, a proper student of the original Tiger Mask Satoru Sayama. I have to say the start was pretty slow and the pace wasn't nowhere near as the match prior but Keita Yano is a grappling genius and he showed it again. He did some creative holds and transitions here while dominating the fight most of the time. The problem this match had was that it followed after the explosive tag match before, so it seemed like a bit dull throughout the eleven minutes. Also the finish wasn't as strong as expected but anyway this was a solid fight. ***

DAISUKE SEKIMOTO & YUKI ISHIKAWA DEF. DAISUKE IKEDA & MINORU FUJITA (13:57)
Daisuke Ikeda and Yuki Ishikawa are hating and facing each other more than thirty years, they have incredible good chemistry with each other and will probably fight to death. The match was a real mat based fight the first minutes, even Daisuke Sekimoto took Ikeda to the ground and had him in a hold. I need to say Minoru Fujita was really cool here, I always sh*t on him when he's at FREEDOMS but he was enjoyable in this match, too. He tried to f*ck with Daisuke but the Big Japan beefy lad speared him, throwed him around and played with him. The scenes between Ikeda and Ishikawa were good, of course not as good as back in the day, but these two warriors are in their 50's. Imagine that! Ikeda and Sekimoto had some cool spots together such as the headbutt by Ikeda which nearly knocked Sekimoto out cold. *** 1/2

FUMINORI ABE DEF. TAKUYA NOMURA (19:16)
It's time for the main event between the Astronauts! The match started with some mat wrestling, grappling f*cks by Fuminori Abe and Nomura in various positions and holds. The action really kicked off in the first minutes when these two slapped, kicked and striked each other without any mercy or remorse. Nomura's strikes were so brutal looking, he even stomped on Abe's head. They were closed fists to the unprotected head and even the typical headbutts by Abe-san. This fight ticked all the boxes for me, I really loved the no remorse attitude by these two gentleman when they stomped on each other's body, hit their opponent with brutal penalty kicks to the face or smashed forearms into each other. After a brutal closed fist by Nomura, Abe bled from his scary forehead which added even more to the match. Near the end Abe hit Nomura with a knee strike which looked so brutal I had to scream though. The finish was amazing when Nomura had Abe on the edge of tapping but Abe turned Nomura into an achilles hold. Nomura screamed, tried desperately to escape, to fight Abe off but it wasn't meant to be. Nomura had to tap out to his friend. What. A. Match. **** 3/4

Seriously the whole show was a great success for shoot-style wrestling, for Abe and Nomura and for us fans. What an easy watch with five amazing matches and so easy accessible. I hope they'll bring the show as a yearly or half yearly series back.