On The Mic I Score, Just Like The Yankee Two Kenju

Yuko Miyamoto/Isami Kodaka VS Takumi Tsukamoto/Toshiyuki Sakuda - Big Japan 5/13/2017

JJZ: Well this looks insane. Let's see how far they take it with this match. Isami will always just look way too skinny to be a death match wrestler to me. Everything must hurt so much more!! Tsukamoto and Sakuda don't like familiar. I haven't watched a ton of newer Big Japan though. Man, I really got a kick out of this match. It had some ridiculous stuff but then a few spots snuck in that made me laugh. We've watched some sick ass shit together so I know this won't be anything shocking to you but I think you'll get what I was going for with this one. Miyamoto really shows he is a men among boys at time. I'd love to grab a best of the decade from him at some point in the future. By the end of the match everyone did things that impressed me and I'm really excited to see what you'll be throwing back at me next week.

CJD: Ha, I was actually thinking Kodaka looked like he's put on some muscle finally at this point, and against Sakuda who's especially tiny for once I thought Isami was a legitimate threat in this match. You know I love Big Japan but there's one thing about BJW that usually comes up short and that's undercard deathmatches. (At least I'm assuming this is an undercard match, I'm not positive I have the date right on this one.) They often are there just for the sake of it, more of the snuff film aspect of deathmatches that I think critics of the genre assume they're all generally like. When deathmatches are great they have huge drama but on an undercard match it's hard to create those stakes and most BJW shows don't even try. Even worse then guys will overcompensate by doing the sickest shit imaginable to themselves in a spot nobody remembers or cares about. This match strikes a good balance with both of those issues, by not trying to do too much, and building with a nice steady pace that actually gets you invested by the end. Yankee Two Kenju are the clear favorites and control the pace but the young guns more than hold their own and make me buy that they might pull off the upset. Miyamoto does look like the best guy in the match but nobody looks bad here. It reminds me of a Kobashi/Taue VS Vader/Akiyama match I watched recently I was telling you about, where it looked can't-miss on paper but nobody looked better for it. This looked like nothing but made me look forward to the next match I watch from everyone in it. Which for some of them will be next week!
And jesus, that one bump Yuko took!!!

Bad Kana Follows You Around

Kana VS Yuko Miyamoto - Kana Box Office SGP Global Jr Heavyweight Championship 10/27/2013

CJD: I'm not going to lie, I'm a Yuko Miyamoto mark and would've played this match forward even if it was just to see what you played back. But lucky for both of us this match is actually really damn good. Kana has to work for every little bit she gets in this match and Yuko definitely does not ease up due to the intergender aspect. Watching these two Asuka matches back to back from earlier in her career I'm immediately impressed by how good she was at just plain wrestling. Her transitions into and out of holds puts a lot of other wrestlers to shame. The other thing I'm struck by is how she refuses to let a match drag. She brings energy into moments that hook you back in before your attention can even start to wander. Add in the charm of that weird tiny venue that looks like an early level boss fight in a NES game, and Ultraman Robin presenting the prestigious SGP Global Jr Heavyweight Championship, and this match was an easy choice.

JJZ: I feel like I've seen wrestling in this venue before. Any help on that CJD? I love that Miyamoto is respecting Kana at the start with his "You do belong in the ring with me" attitude. It's very inspiring to think that Kana who became Asuka has reached such great heights in the biggest wrestling company in the world. This match is the opposite of junk food. It's an art house feature. Nothing was wasted and the crowd was buzzing at times. No commentary added to the drama while the camera work really made the match feel epic. It definitely wasn't 50/50 but I never felt like Kana was getting dominated. Everything was executed well and stiff. I liked the finish and thought both wrestlers came out of this match looking great.

CJD: I THINK it's the venue BattlArts ran later on. Not positive though. Love it either way!