Cover The Sleaze #2

 

This was one of the most tragic things I have ever experienced in my blog history. I wanted to do some formatting for the second episode of Cover The Sleaze and I wanted to bring it online after work on February 4th. Due to some loading issues, the whole post was deleted by blogger.com and, I had a blank posting file in front of me. So what I did was put some stuff I had written for episode three into this episode, and write the rest again. Long story short: I was pissed, but now I am happy. Let's go!

Shigehiro Irie vs. Jun Masaoka (Kohei Kinoshita Produce, 01/25/2025)

WATCH

Dove Pro's Kohei Kinoshita was invited to his first self produced show "KOBE ALL WIN" at Motomachi Ringsoul with a banger of a main event between two Osaka natives. The new belt collector Shigehiro Irie versus F-SWAG/REAL HIPSTAR darling Jun Masaoka.

I loved the start of the match. Fiery action from the beginning with explosive tackles and some shit talking. Due to the fact that it was a Motomachi Ringsoul show, the camera was situated in the top corner and so we missed like a minute of the match while they were fighting outside of the ring. Masaoka used a stick to choke choke Irie, relying on heel tactics due to his way smaller stature. 

My personal highlight was the "Auf die Fresse" chants, created by the Oberhausen crowd at wXw in Germany, but here it was started by a japanese fan. Awesome! Irie was back on track with his usual repertoire, like the cannonball to the corner, suplex, and his typical explosiveness. I loved the part where Masaoka couldn't stand a chance against Irie in a forearm battle when he dropped down to his knees.

The interactions with the referee were pretty cool. Masaoka tried pushing the ref into Irie many times to get a foreign object and finally he managed to do it. The finishing sequence was amazing: Cool moves on both sides, nearfalls, and finally, Irie put Masaoka away. Although the sound was a bit off, but this was the best match we've watched in this series so far.
RATING: 8/10

Alexander Otsuka, Keita Yano & Masao Orihara vs. Hayato Mashita, Wakashoyo & Yuki Ishikawa (Real Japan Pro Wrestling, 03/16/2012)

On paper, the match looked like an awesome war, but it was not. You've got creative genius Keita Yano, the master himself Yuki Ishikawa, students of Fujiwara and Giant Baba in the match and... Wakashoyo. It has all the tools to be a great match.

The match started promising when Otsuka and Ishikawa had some fun on the mat, but now it gets a bit nasty. Mashita entered and Keita Yano on the other side, who is rocking his fur boots. This was really bad, even though I think Yano is a very good wrestler, this was not good at all. Mashita just kicked at random points and is not able to get a match together properly.

Mashita in 2012 isn't anywhere near decent, and the scenes with Keita Yano are just terrible. The bad guys beat the living sh** out of greenhorn Mashita until Wakashoyo, a former Sumo wrestler, was unable to clear the ring. FINALLY, Mashita got the hot tag to Yuki Ishikawa, and we got some decent encounters between them. Ishikawa was able to beat Yano with some forearms before tagging Wakashoyo back in. I have to say Yano sold for the Ex Sumo guy like hell, but in a funny way. 

And after long seventeen minutes, Orihara pinned Mashita after a spider suplex-moonsault combination, and the match is finally over. I didn't enjoy that one at all, and maybe I thought it could have been much better.
RATING: 3/10

GENTARO vs. Makoto Kato (Mutoha, 02/14/2016)

WATCH

This match was part of the first Mutoha show, or should I say the now renamed Mumeijuku promotion, with GENTARO, a welcoming figure in Mutoha, and Makoto Kato, a Pancrase fighter who had an indy sleaze run with all kinds of small promotions such as Batos Cafe, Kirakira Taiyo Project or CMA Pro Wrestling to name a few.

The match began with some cool looking transitions, back and forth action on the mat with Kato using a key-lock variation which looked awesome. From his appearance, Kato doesn't look like a real threat to GENTARO, and I absolutely love him outside of FREEDOMS where he just disrespects people and almost bullies them. They had some cool moments with a slap battle, a nice fiery comeback by Makoto Kato and some awesome grappling as well. 

I have to say the longer the fight gets, the more I like Kato's amateur wrestling type of look and his tactics. The whole vibe of the match is some veteran bully against an inexperience guy who fights like a lion. Indeed you could see some akward moments, when Kato took an irish whip or the bulldog due to his lack of pro-wrestling experience, but overall this short fight was quite enjoyable with some cool grappling at the beginning.
RATING: 6.5/10

Naoshi Sano vs. AK (Genki Puroresu In Mie, 03/29/2016)

WATCH

When you see a small room with at most 20 people in, you know Naoshi Sano is not far away. Sano is arguably the most THE indy sleaze person, wrestling for way over a dozen different companies each year and that for almost three decades now. AK is Ishikiri, the brother of Land's End owner Ryouji Sai.

Sano has zero respect for his opponent. He slapped him twice after a rope break and tried to use him as a punchingball, but AK fought back to avoid such things. AK did a nice standing moonsault to Sano which led to a forearm battle right after the pinfall attempt.

AK wanted to finish Sano off with a swanton bomb, but Sano rolled away and nearly secured the victory with a knee strike. After the SA-NO Splash the short match was over. There is nothing notewhorty here, just a small little match in a tiny room.
RATING: 3.5/10