Forever Forward Fridays

Masato Tanaka VS Bryan Keith - DEFY 10/13/2023

CJD: After a long and winding joshi journey on Fridays ever since our Yoneyama VS Sakura hair match we featured last August (!!), we came out of things with a brutal '90s deathmatch a few weeks back, and now an indie dream match from late last year. Pro wrestling man. It's about the journey, not the destination, right? We've seen Tanaka have this match in the US many times over the years, and it's not a perfect match in terms of selling or structure or whatever. But it's damn fun and the crowd loves it and I was totally along for the ride. Keith is relatively new to me and I was super impressed with how he carried himself in this match. If you want this style of Tanaka dream match, Dangan brings it at a high level too. Hats off to both of these guys for this one.

JJZ: Man I love DEFY. In my 20s I would have definitely set out to get a ton of DEFY DVDs. You did a fantastic job of getting back on track here baby cakes. Keith is brand new to me I think. Nothing is coming to mind. But I'll agree CJD, he really works like he's been there before and that the moment is not too big for him. Dude's got some good intensity and can bang. Now it blows my mind that Tanaka can still go to this level after all the death matches and chair shots and powerbombs and just sick spots he has taken. This match is 27 year after that death match we played. That's a lot of bumps man. Tip of the cap to his journey. Loved the finish. I think it really made Keith look strong without taking anything away from Tanaka.

Forever Forward Fridays

Hayabusa/Masato Tanaka/Koji Nakagawa vs WING Kanemura/Mitsuhiro Matsunaga/Bad Boy Hido - FMW No Rope Barbed Wire Spider Net Double Hell DeathMatch 1/10/1996

JJZ: Before I even start talking about the match, shout out to Bret FMW for making this insane top 100 FMW matches playlist that we're sharing this from. Now Chris, if I had to describe this match to you in only a few words it would be a car crash. This match is crazy man. All over the place to the point if you blink you're gonna miss something. The way they are filming so far out makes it seem a little less brutal, but the match is the definition of brutal. I can not tell you the last time I watched a Matsunaga match and you know how much I loved him back in the day. Poor Tanaka man. He took some rough bumps. Blows my mind he still works at a high level to this day. Everyone added to this match honestly. Looks like they were building to a rematch that I'd love to see one day...

CJD: So this is taking us far from our Forever Forward Fridays themes here. But I know where I'm going to take this little detour next, and it's going to loop right back into the highway my friend. And as far as FFF pays tribute to the independent spirit of pro wrestling, well this is sure fucking it right here. What they're doing for this size crowd, with this level of bells and whistles, you can really see how FMW had that brief moment of blazing glory. In a strange way this reminded me of our Funks tag last Tuesday, in how it never stopped building and stuck the landing. Every spot added purpose and a feeling of escalation. Nakagawa wrestled like half the match wrapped in barbed wire!! Hayabusa had such a hero aura about him and it was awesome seeing such opposite sides of his career with these two matches of his. Bret is good people indeed, he's done amazing work chronicling the history of FMW over the years and I never would have seen this absolute gem of a match without him. Thank you BAHU!!