A Look At.. Akira Jo #1

With just 30 years of age, Akira Jo has seen many different places, many different people and many

different things. When Akira visited the first class of Elementary School, he was trained by two

legendary shoot-style figures of the game in the as legendary dojo called UWF Snakepit. You

probably know who it is, right? He was trained by Billy Robinson himself and Shigeo Miyato, who

at time was also the General Manager of a special promotion called Inoki Genome Federation. It’s

already clear from the name of the promotion that New Japan Pro-Wrestling founder Antonio Inoki was involved.

On November 3rd, 2009, Akira made his pro-wrestling debut at the tenth show of Inoki Genome

Federation. He was competing against fellow debutant Keisuke Okuda, whom you may be familiar

with from his tenure with Dragongate Pro-Wrestling. On that day, he was only fifteen years and

eleven months of age. During his time with IGF, he encountered several people who could be

categorized as „Really? He was there?“ to „Jesus Christ, please not him“. He not only fought battles

with familiar foes like Hideki Suzuki, Kento Miyahara or Munenori Sawa, but also obscure ones

such as Jay Bradley, Vladimir Kozlov and, of course, Bob Sapp.

Akira Jo would remain with IGF until summer 2013 before taking a four-year-long hiatus from Pro-Wrestling, returning in summer 2017 to Inoki Genome Federation. After only three months, he became a freelancer and began his journey through the Japanese indies. The range of promotions he worked for from now on is astonishing: Kazushi Gumi, Kani KING, Batos Cafe, Mutoha, H- Production and with BASARA, Total Triumph Team and most notably HEAT UP being even the biggest ones.

What is even more significant is that Akira Jo established his own promotion called Alma Libre in

2018. Although Alma Libre has only held twenty-two shows to this day, it is certainly an achievement to have his own wrestling company.

Over the past fourteen years as a pro-wrestler, Akira Jo has definitely changed. He began his career as an IGF job guy, but soon became a much cooler looking, more (Indy) sleazier guy with a nice vibe to his character and optics. In the first A LOOK AT series on KENKA, I’ll be reviewing as many matches as I can to spread some love for the wrestler I review. So, let’s have A LOOK AT.. Akira Jo!

Kento Miyahara vs. Akira Jo (IGF, 02/05/2011)

So starting off the series with a match from Jo's early days sounded like a fantastic idea to me. Doing it with a match against today's topstar of All Japan Pro-Wrestling sounded even more intruging. Neither of those guys looked like their today's version, almost unrecognizable.

Akira started the match more aggressive, trying to slap and kick Miyahara whenever he could. Despite his inexperience, it was pretty obvious that Jo was better on the mat, trying to get Kento into a leg lock. It ticked all the boxes in terms of slaps, kicks and some mat work, but also missed some decent selling of Akira, who ignored the fact Kento worked his leg to set up the winning boston crab. 
RATING: 4/10

Taro Yamada vs. Akira Jo (MUTOHA, 02/05/2023)

YOU CAN BUY THIS MATCH FROM THAT GUY

Mutoha made some waves last year when a hype went through western wrestling social media and almost everybody watched the one hour long draw between Haoh Champion Kenichiro Arai and Pro Wrestling FREEDOMS man GENTARO. The match made my personal MOTY-list and I was not alone with liking the match as you could see it ranked on a very good #33 place in the Voices Of Wrestling MOTY Voting with two first-place votes.

Taro Yamada is 39-year-old and is contracted to 666. He was trained by Onryo and Mr. Gannosuke wrestled under many different names in his 17-year-long career as a pro-wrestler. Yamada wrestled for many different promotions so far, most notably for smaller ones such as Secret Base, Guts World or Itabashi Pro. What is more important for us is the fact that Taro Yamada was the inaugural Haoh Champion of Mutoha Pro-Wrestling, he held the title for 556 days and defended the title once against Akira Jo. 

So that is the spice we needed for the match. They started the match with some smooth grappling, especially Yamada looked excellent here. He came up with creative and cool counter to Jo's holds. It's literally impossible to take notes for every hold happening, which is always hard to do in a grappling heavy match. To be fair, I don't know every move they did, clinching in appealing holds and smooth looking counters. 

Yamada did some sort of a Chikara Special, after that they transitioned into a rolling pinfall battle, which was very cool. The small crowd acknowledged the effort from both of these guys with the first loud round of applause. Yamada got the control, but Jo came out and immediately put Yamada in a half boston crab. Yamada escaped via the ropes and the action went right back onto the mat.

Further into the match, it became more aggressive. Both competitors wanted to end the match, but both men were able to escape via the ropes within the last few seconds. Akira landed a suplex out of nowhere. They were able to breathe for a moment after that move. Akira tried it once again, putting Yamada on the ropes and kicking him right in the face.  

They fought on the apron, where Yamada did a headbutt to Akira. Jo answered with a superkick and a spinebuster and both wrestlers felt outside of the ring and needed some rest. Yamada made it back to the ring at nineteen, but after being kicked twice to the face, he bailed out yet again. Jo hit Yamada with a headbutt and an unprotected elbow shot, only to be kicked out of the ring seconds later.

The latter even came through the ropes with a dive! After that they prevented each other from going back into the squared circle with a spinebuster, kicks and more - The match went to a draw via double count out. This was very enjoyable to watch.
RATING: 7.5/10

Minoru Tanaka vs. Akira Jo (Kani KING Produce, 01/29/2020)

WATCH

This match took place on the very last Kani KING show at the Ice Ribbon Dojo aka Wrestle

Budokan in Saitama and Akira’s opponent was none other than one of my favourites out there:

Minoru Tanaka.

Tanaka is a world-beater, stepping into the ring for three decades now, winning championships in

the biggest organisations Japan has to offer, but also wrestling in much smaller places over the last years. A year later „The Special One“ would sign a contract with GLEAT where he will celebrate

another renaissance in his career.

Akira wanted to shake Tanaka’s hand, but the veteran was unsure about it at first. Eventually, he

shook his hand and the small crowd was happy. They start with some grappling where Akira had the upper hand. Tanaka needed some time to breathe slowly and always having a look where the ropes are to save himself.

Akira used his bigger body to tackle Tanaka away, and he could even connect with a kick to the

open back. „The Special One“ came back with a beautiful dropkick and retaliate the kick to the

open back, too. The crowd was super into the fight and especially into the big star.

Akira connected with some impressive throws and almost got the win after he hit a superkick

followed by a knee strike. But Tanaka did what he can do best. He targeted Akira’s arm, applied two

armbars in the course of the match and surprised Jo with his Minoru Special, where he steps one leg over one arm and flips it into a cross armbar. Beautiful done! This was a nice little match. 

RATING: 6/10