TSUYOSHI OKADA VS. YUJIRO YAMAMOTO (MERIKEN PRO, 01/10/2025)

Once again, it's that time of the year again. KENKA is finally back after a month long hiatus, and yes that had to do with some private life-related stuff and my little interest in wrestling over the last couple of months. I watched stuff, yes, but it was just way less than the months before that. I recently watched some KOBE Meriken Pro, a small fed from Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture run by BADMAX Fujinaga and YASSHI I guess. They run shows out of Fujinaga's bar, play aggressive 2000 style techno music and other genres, and sometimes there were real gems to watch.

WATCH IT HERE

We have Tsuyoshi Okada on the one side, a former mixed martial arts fighter, and Yujiro Yamamoto on the other side, a student of the legendary Yuki Ishikawa and Battlarts veteran. We're here for some Bati-Bati action with an ambiance you won't find anywhere else in Japan, except inside Motomachi Ringsoul at KOBE Meriken Pro-Wrestling. The vibe around Meriken Pro is very special and attracts even people who aren't familiar with Japanese wrestling smaller, than New Japan.

These two start immediately with kicks and slaps we love to see from two wrestlers with such a background. They went to the ground to have a grappling exchange, with back and forth changes. It looked good and smooth from the high-angle perspective. Meriken Pro offers us their shows. The transitions they made were fun, Okada was surprisingly fun here, not saying he is not good, but it was better than what I had in mind.

I really loved the sit-down slap battle they had. The few people in the bar loved that too and popped when they got back on their feet and started kicking each other pretty hard.Yamamoto almost got the win with a suplex, but his penalty kick was defended by Okada who hit a german to get the upperhand.

The match had a decent amount of time and Okada as well as Yamamoto did everything you want to see in those 7-ish minutes. Slaps, Kicks, Grappling, Elbows, Forearms - Awesome! However the finish was a bit abrupt. After a big forearm clash, Okada just put Yamamoto down and his shoulder were down for three seconds. Overall I enjoyed the match and I highly recommend to watch some Meriken Pro if you want to see something different.