Big Mouth LOUD

[Jetlag]

BE MAD WITH ATTACK!!! BML was a japanese indy from a time when there were a fuckload of japanese indies. The guy behind it was former NJPW Fumihiko Uwai and the point of BML was to be some sort of Neo NJPW and keep it's spirit while Actual NJPW was drifting away into La La Land under Tanahashi. For a promotion with so many awesome guys (Fujiwara! Kurisu! BattlARTS dudes! Random MMA stiffs! Murakami!) BML gets kind of slept on. A guy on YouTube was nice enough to upload all of it, so time to give it a look.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNOfKmK5nZIurQ8fUk26GcA/videos

Show 1 - BML "Illusion" 9/11/2005

Osamu Kido vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

I love a fed that begins with two old guys doing essentially a maestro match. It was a little weird that while Kido was much smaller than Fujiwara here they didn't play the size difference up much, but what do ya want. Also, I can't recall the last time I saw a Fujiwara match where he was this respectful to an opponent and never came across as eating the other guy up. They actually start this working in the extinct early 80s NJPW native vs. native junior style with monkey flips and stuff and it's all fun, until a few minutes in they get into what you expect these two to get into and start fighting over armbars on the ground. Kido is such an underrated guy, actually may have outworked Fujiwara as he moved swiftly and gracefully and just had so many awesome defensive spots. Fujiwara would sink into his signature Armbar, but couldn't actually get a submission because of Kido's resistance, so had to continue working. This style is much less fancy than Johnny Saint or Navarro/Solar maestro matches, but really hard fought. Kido also had these nifty knee lifts to the face. Kido pretty much ruled. Embarassing finish where the timekeeper guy forgets there is a timelimit and Fujiwara has to explain to him the match is over. Still, what a trip to watch.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Katsumi Usuda

I love a fed that follows a technical match with something really violent. This was pretty much high end BattlARTS violence in a 5 minute Velocity match form. Usuda did a slick submission counter at one point, but the rest of the match was just these two killing eachother. To be honest, the match was kind of stupid as they busted out all these stiff shots and neither the lightning fast spinning backfist to the face nor the absolutely terrifying running square hook to the jaw followed by brutal lariat combo ended the match nor did any of the brutal kicks they threw. I don't expect a random undercard match from a defunct vanity indy fed to have some sense though. If this happened on some WCW syndie show it would be legendary. They killed eachother, and it was good.

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hiroyuki Ito

See, this is what I'm missing from current puro. A martial artist vs. barrel chested powerhouse match that has some sense. No cute signature moves or 2.9999 forced epic bullshit, just two guys with a lot of anger going at eachother. The key here was the pacing as they moved back and forth from doing mat stuff to knocking the piss out of eachother very nicely. Honestly, Ishii was kind of poor in this match and I think Ito may have carried it. Ishii did a bunch of his "Here is my chest, please hit it so people will see I am very tough" shit and for a guy who's a Choshu kid he doesn't really know how to be very charismatic. Ito did a bunch of nifty dodging and acting like a dipshit (especially loved him pussying out of an Ishii headbutt and just waffling him in the face). His knees and slaps were also brutal. I also liked his selling towards the end where he keeps trying to withstand Ishii's force only for Ishii to hit him with nastier and nastier shots until his body went completly limp.

Riki Choshu & Takashi Uwano vs. Buck Quatermain & Steve Madison

Okay, now these are some name gaijins! To his credit, Madison was pretty solid, doing some nice wrestling, mocking Choshu and clubbering his boy in the face at one point. Quatermain on the other hand was pretty worthless. It didn't really matter as this was a Choshu style tag where guys just run in and hit their stuff. Uwano's stuff looked really nice, as he can stomp and kick and throw a bodyslam, and Choshu can do whatever he wants anyways.

Enson Inoue vs. Gerard Gordeau

Okay, now for the really amazing stuff. This was shockingly fun. Gordeau as a tattooed bum who will rip your eye out wouldn't look out of place in a Tarantino movie and Enson gets to be hero, withstanding the eyepokes and taking him down a bunch. Shockingly entertaining 3 minute bout.

Alexander Otsuka vs. Yuki Ishikawa

A really great match. If you haven't seen it go watch it. It's pretty much a distillate of what these two were doing in BattlARTS over the years packaged into a neat sub 15 minute highlight. Some beautiful, unorthodox grappling on the mat leading to brutal headbutts and punch and then a bunch of spine compressing suplexes before a great finish with an excellent build to it. Usuda/Ikeda in the undercard was the awesome 5 minute Velocity match, this is the awesome 12 minute Regal/Benoit main event. Except it's better.

Katsuyori Shibata vs. Kazunari Murakami

The big main event with a lot of prominent guys in the audience watching! Young Shibata obviously had a big weight on his shoulders going into this match, but they got up gave a spirited performance. Murakami is a great guy, but didn't act as crazy as I expected him to. They just collided into eachother throwing everything they had, spin kicks, punches and frantic mat scrambles. It wasn't anything truely elite and the finish could have used a little more pomp, but they never lost the crowd and gave them the reckless spin kicks and epic staredowns a good main event needs. Not on the level of the semi main when it comes to skill, but I prefer this stuff over whatever Shibata is doing in Actual NJPW these days.

[Childs]

I love Big Mouth Loud as a concept. Love the roster of guys they used. Love the wolf logo. But unfortunately, they might have peaked with their first show. I look forward to your reviews, however, as I haven't revisited these shows in a few years.

[superkix]

I recently re-watched Shibata's BML work and yeah, it's not the most compelling stuff. I think my favorite match was against Nakajima.

[Bierschwale]

Quartermain was also booked by Muga, which makes more sense because he was a Dory Jr. trainee, but still kinda bizarre. Why not just go all in and book Adam Windsor?

[Jetlag]

Show 2 - BML "Illusion 2" 12/29/2005

 

Don Arakawa vs. Osamu Kido

 

BML opening veteran's match series continues! Well, Arakawa is a hell of a step down from Fujiwara, altough I really like the guy. I'd really love to read an interview of him. For a guy who comes out of the woodwork to work his comedy bits in random indy undercards he is pretty rad. Can go on the mat and has hurty looking low end offense. This was mostly a Kido squash which is fine. BML doesn't have their own black tights and boots rookies to do basic spots so they let the old guys do these basic spots in the opener. So you see really great wristlock, side headlock, back elbow and small package in this opening match but no dropkick or Boston Crab. Also the Kido Clutch is such a great move. I enjoyed these 4 minutes.

 

Munenori Sawa vs. Manabu Hara

 

Hey look, it's Sawa when he wasn't annoying! Hey look it's Hara actually making tape!! This kind of match is interesting to watch 9 years later and knowing what happened. I could imagine watching this in 2006 and getting pretty excited for the future of japanese quasi shootstyle wrestling. Really, really fun young guys BattlARTS style match. Hara is the superior wrestler, while Sawa is just really aggressive. They move back and forth between grappling and just straight up kicking the shit out of eachother, both standing and on the ground. Some of the scenes here resembled a version of PRIDE here without the face stomping. Sawa couldn't hang much with Hara on the mat so he just clobbered away at his face however he could. Hara is really polished and does some neat wrestling and throws and did he mention he also kicks the shit out of Sawa? Those U-Style guys weren't afraid to lay in brutal slaps. I really dug the build to the finish here with Sawa selling that he's slowly tanking and fading away but still getting shots in with Hara trying to catch him. Match ended when it should. This match hit all the spots.

 

Katsumi Usuda vs. Masanobu Kurisu

 

Kurisu looks the same as he does in 1990. Fun match but weird layout. Essentially Kurisu eats Usuda up for few minutes like this was a rookie vs. veteran match except Usuda is a veteran himself. Then Usuda gets busted open, spilling a fountain of blood from his forehead and then chokes Kurisu out. It even took him quit a while to choke Kurisu out. Like I said, fun match due to Kurisu-ishness (stiff headbutts and chairshots) and the Usuda bladejob as a great visual but they're not doing Usuda favours with this booking.

 

Yuki Ishikawa & Hiroyuki Ito vs. Kengo Mashimo & KAZMA

 

Hey, one of these guys would go on to be in WWE, can you guess which one??? Kazma was seriously terrible here. Picture the most generic, lame japanese indy heavyweight that doesn't sell. It didn't really matter because Ishikawa can carry a stiff like this no problem. Seriously, Ishikawa was magic anytime he was in the ring here. At this point he was like Casas or Regal. He could just do whatever he liked and it would be enjoyable, working interesting exchanges with a guy as dull as KAZMA like it was nothing. Ito didn't feel to be 100 % at home in this pro style environment, but he did at one point punch Kazma in the throat. After a fun body of the match the finish was between Ito and Mashimo, two iffy guys (for this environment) at this point, but they delivered something good. I don't know if there was a serious miscommunication or something but Mashimo just escalated the violence out of nowhere and attempted to cave Ito's face in. Then he essentially finished Ito off like a bitch which was a change of pace from previous, mostly even finishes. Pretty intense stuff, the kind you watch these obscure indy cards for.

 

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Akitoshi Saito

 

Saito hands Fujiwara a bottle of alc before the match. Fujiwara accepts it without reacting much then proceeds to beat the snot of Saito. What on earth was this match supposed to be? They didn't seem to know themselves. On the debut show, Fujiwara was respectful towards his opponent, this was the complete opposite. He came across as this mad bugger who wouldn't stop unless killed. Match was violent and had it's moments, such as neat Fujiwara counters or Saito dumping the old bastard on his head with a great deadlift throw, but there were also weird pauses and restarts and comedic bits. Then Saito busts out the fucking BLACK MIST and things go... well, they don't go haywire, but let's just say this was a damn weird match which had it's moments.

 

Petey Williams vs. AJ Styles

 

HEY LOOK ITS A BLOODY X-DIVISION MATCH!!! BML for stylistic diversity! I will go out and say that this type of match is not for me. Technically there is nothing wrong here, but the execution left something to be desired, to put it mildly. I'm sure there are a lot of people who will be totally into this match. I am not familiar with the history of AJ Styles and Petey Williams so can't comment on how this ranks compared to the baseline of their usual work together. I can see somebody who put AJ in his Top 30 during the GOAT project watching this and thinking it's really rad that AJ did stuff like this on random japanese shoot indy cards. They opened with some fast wristlock exchanges before going through a series of mirror sequences where guys would drop down, kick, shoot at the same time etc. establishing that these two men are equal. Then they took turns running through their signature spots and offense. They made sure to do a lot of elaborate reversal sequences and quirky move combos, e.g. backslide into northern lights suplex, suplex dropped into a neckbreaker, tilt a whirl into a suplex into a swinging neckbreaker into a russian legsweep and so forth. At one point, Petey decided to step on AJ's balls which AJ counters by a german suplex. I have never had my balls stepped on or been nearby such a situation as that is not my fetish so can't comment on how natural this type of counter is. Petey sells a springboard elbow by doing a Billy Gunn style flip bump. Then later Petey hits his finisher but can't pin AJ because AJ is in the ropes. Petey was very shocked at this and even had to readjust his hair. Maybe he was unsettled as he was normally used to hearing fans chant "This is wrestling" at this point of the match. Again nothing wrong with this match, I liked some bits here and there such as the AJ knee drops and modified Fuerza bump, aside from that I felt my soul fossilizing while I watched this.

 

Kazunari Murakami vs. Enson Inoue

 

Okay, after watching this, my soul feels fine again. Enson scores a takedown and Murakami slips outside the ring, then Enson goes crazy drags Murakami across the arena and bloodies him up. We don't get to see what exactly happens because photographers are blocking the camera. This whole match felt like it was worked for the cameras. Lots of pauses where we get to look at Murakami bleeding on the floor, Murakami covered in blood giving Enson the death stare, crazy looking tattood Enson covered in Murakami's blood, Murakami looking bemused and taking off his gloves etc. There was fuck all workrate here, which is not to berate this match because I'm sure if this happened on a WWE PPV with Brock slotted into Enson's place people would be praising him as a wrestling genius and saying how he's Top 5 all time. The theatrics worked and Enson, while sloppy, looked like he was out to kill Murakami (who made for a surprisingly good babyface) and took a reckless spill to the outside. Murakami without the gloves wasn't what I expected but what they were going for made sense and absolutely worked. Give this a shot if you like a crazy fight.

 

Katsuyori Shibata vs. Satoshi Kojima

 

Man, there are worlds between this and the main event of the first show. These shows are such mixed bag in terms of style. This was worked like one of these "indy heavyweight main events" with Kojima doing some AJPW spots. That means this was much less chaotic and had "no selling" and "strike exchange" spots etc. Given that I'm not a big fan of these matches or Kojima this was pretty good. The most glaring thing about BML is what a loss Shibata was for NJPW. He pretty much carried this match with his simple, varied, and utterly painful looking offense, submissions and selling. I can't take guys like Kojima seriously: he would get the shit kicked out of him by Shibata and respond with this really lame generic japanese heavyweight shit. Whenever things went to the mat Kojima fell asleep, seemingly not knowing what to do at all. They were smart enough not to go for a complete faux AJPW style match and instead the story of the match was Shibata's struggle, something that he portrayed very well and you could smell the Hashimoto influence in the last couple minutes. Another strong main event.

 

Another really fun show that was a breeze to watch despite being longer than the first one. I have to say that the booking is all over the place though. E.g. Enson was the face against heel Gerard previously, in his match here he was getting heel reactions and Murakami of all people was the good guy. Random insertion of a workrate gaijin match, I guess to make the japanese guys less spotty. I'm not gonna scratch my head at these things though.

 

 

[Jetlag]

Show 3 - BML "Reallusion" 3/4/2006

 

The guy who is uploading all the BML stuff hasn't uploaded this show in full, but claims that he will put up the rest of it in 2017 (talk about someone who knows how to get people invested in his channel). To avoid delays and to follow the stories of Shibata/Murakami/Usuda, I will simply add the random thrown together undercards later and continue watching what is uploaded so far.

 

Katsumi Usuda vs. Hiroyuki Ito

 

The first thing that stands out is that this show took place in a big building and they had a gigantic banner with the BML logo on it hanging out, with the two wrestlers being eyed by that wrathful wolf. How cool is that? I assume buying such a large banner is kind of pointless because you can almost never use it, but whatever. It looked badass. And this match was fine. It was pretty much shootstyle with Usuda doing some Fujiwara headbutts and counters. Ito seemed better on the mat and on standup, so those counters were pretty much Usuda's only chance to get by in this match. Ito continues to look really good as he understands the balance between aggression and selling perfectly, but he kind of ate Usuda up. I am really starting to wonder what Usuda's story in this company is supposed to be as he just constantly gets the worst end. I guess he is just the jobber of the BML trio.

 

Kazunari Murakami & Egan Inoue vs. Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka

 

This one of those matchups you just can't wrap your brain around. Nagata and Murakami had a really good singles match together at some point. Iizuka hasn't turned into Tiger Jeet Singh at this point. Inoue is just reckless. This match was a trainwreck and an enjoyable one at that. Murakami was at his best here punching dudes in the face and in the balls. His exchanges with Nagata were the highlight of the match and came across as second rate Ishikawa/Ikeda, which I mean as a positive. They did this exhausted Lawler/Mantell exchange on their knees that was so good. And the rest of the match had some nice moments with nifty counters and Murakami getting dumped on his head at one point. I'm not going to pretend Inoue's sections were good but they weren't dull either. Match devolves into chaos and that seemed like the logical conclusion, even if things were bordering on silly as you had two clownfaces in Murakami and Nagata in there.

 

Katsuyori Shibata vs. Alan Karaev

 

Karaev is this giant russian blob-like dude who uses an iron claw for a finisher. No idea where they found this guy, but he feels like he should be in a different dimension. Fighting Big Show or Otto Wanz or Tenryu in WAR or something. This was mostly Karaev manhandling tiny Shibata around which was amusing enough, but I felt he looked like a giant baby with his "swatting at flies" style palm strikes. The crowd were postively into this and Shibata however, who had no chance but to go for a flash submission against the giant. And he succeeded in that in less than 4 minutes. I'd say this match achieved what they were going for, but can't help but feel feel that the full potential of Alan Karaev was squandered.

[G. Badger]

All of the BML stuff is loaded. I'll pick up the ball a little bit since there are some really unique, interesting, dream match ups. I don't wanna go through the whole shows like Jetlag has graciously done but, others are more than welcome.

 

I'll post the cards for show #4 & #5 from Quebrada's site.

 

BIG MOUTH ILLUSION 3 taped 3/22/06 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (show #4)

 

Osamu Kido vs Masanobu Kurisu

Yoshitsune vs Rasse

Yuki Ishikawa & Muneki Sawa vs Manabu Hara & Katsumi Usuda

Minoru Suzuki vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Kensuke Sasaki vs Kazunari Murakami

Katsuyori Shibata vs Hidetaka Monma

 

BIG MOUTH ILLUSION 4 taped 4/19/06 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (show # 5)

Exhibition Match: Osamu Kido vs. Ultimo Dragon

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Hiroyuki Ito

Don Arakawa vs. Muneki Sawa

Alan Karaev vs. Katsumi Usuda

Ensen Inoue vs. Manabu Hara

Kazunari Murakami & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Minoru Suzuki

Katsuyori Shibata vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima

[G. Badger]

I'd like to get around to watching the Suzuki vs Fujiwara match from show # 4 but, not today.

 

The rest of the card looks OK. Pretty sure I watched Kido vs Kurisu over the summer

 

I'll skip to show #5 where I watched the dream tag match & the main event. I probably wouldn't watch a Shibata or Nakajima match from this year but, for some reason I'll watch one from 11 years ago

 

Kazunari Murakami & Kensuke Sasaki vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Minoru Suzuki- Wow, this was fantastic! Awesome character & heel work from Suzuki and Fujiwara. Sasaki had minimal in-ring time but, was maximum in his effectiveness. Match showcased some comedy, hard way blood, and a really satisfying finishing stretch. Fujiwara at 100 years old here still was very very dangerous and didn't hold the match back one bit. Great match!

 

Katsuyori Shibata vs Katsuhiko Nakajima - Battle of the young stars in K-Hall! Kicks, slaps, elbows and all the other stuff you'd expect outta these two lads. 'jima is outranked and outclassed in 2006 so its a lotta guts and guile from him...well and kicks...he does kick a bit. 12 minute match is just right. Nice compact stuff. Not sure I would have booked this after the tag but, Shibata is the ace so to speak. Highly recommended.

 

I'll try and finish out BML's brief run in similar fashion. Should be a day or so as there 3 more shows.

[ShittyLittleBoots]

I just actually finished watching all of Shibata's matches in BML. His run there was really great & well worth the watch!

[G. Badger]

I agree! I had no idea some of these matches existed. I'm looking forward to his match vs Kensuke and the tag match vs the NOAH guys. Also the final tag match with Takayama has potential.

 

BIG MOUTH ILLUSION 5 6/18/06 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (show #6)

 

Mad Dogs (Mad Dog Goto & Mad Dog Ohara) vs. Hiroyuki Ito & Yuki Ishikawa

 

Naomichi Marufuji & Takeshi Morishima vs. Katsuyori Shibata & Kota Ibushi

 

Great Yuta (Yutaka Yoshie) & Kazunari Murakami vs. Minoru Suzuki & Yoshiaki Fujiwara

 

 

BIG MOUTH ILLUSION 6 taped 7/2/06 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (show #7)

 

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Great Kabukicito (Taro Nohashi)

 

Don Arakawa vs. Riki Sensyu

 

AKIRA vs. Yoshitsune

 

Enson Inoue & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Mad Dogs (Mad Dog Goto & Mad Dog Ohara)

 

Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Munenori Sawa

 

Katsumi Usuda & Kazunari Murakami & Manabu Hara vs. Voodoo Murders (Shuji Kondo & TARU & "brother" YASSHI)

 

Kensuke Sasaki vs. Katsuyori Shibata

 

BIG MOUTH ILLUSION 7 8/20/06 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (show #8, final show...I believe)

 

Hiroyuki Ito & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Mad Dogs (Mad Dog Goto & Mad Dog Ohara)

 

Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita vs. Katsumi Usuda & Manabu Hara

 

Katsuyori Shibata vs. TARU

 

Minoru Suzuki & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Kazunari Murakami & Yuji Nagata

[G. Badger]

Naomichi Marufuji & Takeshi Morishima vs Katsuyori Shibata & Kota Ibushi From show #6. This was pretty good but not great. Shibata was awesome with Marufuji. His stuff was off the charts with Morishima though. Wow, they really just pounded each other. This lost steam as it went on and sorta ended once Big Takeshi was in there alone with Ibushi (who looked to be like 145 pounds soaking wet). 16 minute match should have been a couple longer. Perhaps Shibata was hurt?

 

I'm tempted to watch the Fujiwara & Suzuki tag from the same show. Its 20+ minutes so, it could be great or boring as hell...

[G. Badger]

Yeah, the Fujiwara tag match was alright but, I quit half way through. I just didn't have the patience for it.

 

Just finished Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Munenori Sawa from show #7. Hot damn this was nifty UWF in NJ type match. Plus its around 7 minutes long so, its all good stuff. Nakajima looks badass in it. Highly recommend checking this one out.

 

Kensuke Sasaki vs. Katsuyori Shibata

 

I was wholly pleased with the match but, Shibata-bata really needs something more than middle kicks in his arsenal. It got rather repetitive... I was waiting for it to be Kensuke's turn to lay the smack down. All in all it was exactly what I wanted as rank dictated the outcome even before the bell rang. Highly recommended despite it's flaws.

 

Kensuke Office's appearances in BML have been a boon to the shows.

[G. Badger]

Minoru Suzuki & Yoshihiro Takayama vs Kazunari Murakami & Yuji Nagata (show #8) This one, the last match of BML did not disappoint. It is all the striking grappling goodness that I'd hoped for. Minoru Suzuki and Takayama are total awesome destroyer heels. Referee Wada even won't put up with their crap. Nagata is the awesome hero. But, man Murakami was great too. The finish is good but, after the bell was rung and Suzuki starts redecoration of K-hall, that's when I thought this was a damn great match. I'd like to rewatch it because it seems like it could be a mid 2000s Indy classic.

[Edwin]

Loved BML. Haven't watched any of their stuff since back when it surfaced originally, but I remember that Ishii/Ito match from the first show being great back then. I also really dug Murakami ans Shibata's runs here. Also Sawa was a guy who had a mixed reputation back then. Some loved him, others clearly disliked him. I personally dug him. I also remember the backlash from foreign fans questioning why BML would put Styles vs. Williams on one of their cards.

 

Gerard Gordeau had some pro-wrestling experience as he worked in UWF in the 80's and he's also most famously known for having sent Telia Tulia's teeth flying into the crowd with a kick in less than a minute in the first UFC fight ever. He also had a poorly executed worked shoot with Takada on one of the early PRIDE events.

 

Enson Inoue is legit bad ass. Forgot he had some worked stuff too. I should go back and watch the Murakami, Shibata and Enson matches on these.

 

Good stuff.

[SPS]

Gerard Gordeau had some pro-wrestling experience as he worked in UWF in the 80's and he's also most famously known for having sent Telia Tulia's teeth flying into the crowd with a kick in less than a minute in the first UFC fight ever. He also had a poorly executed worked shoot with Takada on one of the early PRIDE events.

 

Gerard Gordeau never fought in PRIDE nor worked with Nobuhiko Takada. He worked with Maeda in Newborn UWF in 1988 and fought in Vale Tudo Japan '95 where he lost to Yuki Nakai. Gordeau illegally eye gouged Nakai during the fight who then lost the sight of his right eye from the gouging. Gordeau is a coward and a scumbag.

[Edwin]

 

Gerard Gordeau had some pro-wrestling experience as he worked in UWF in the 80's and he's also most famously known for having sent Telia Tulia's teeth flying into the crowd with a kick in less than a minute in the first UFC fight ever. He also had a poorly executed worked shoot with Takada on one of the early PRIDE events.

 

Gerard Gordeau never fought in PRIDE nor worked with Nobuhiko Takada. He worked with Maeda in Newborn UWF in 1988 and fought in Vale Tudo Japan '95 where he lost to Yuki Nakai. Gordeau illegally eye gouged Nakai during the fight who then lost the sight of his right eye from the gouging. Gordeau is a coward and a scumbag.

 

Right... I got him confused with Kyle Sturgeon...

[G. Badger]

Ha! Even more reason to skip his matches

[cactus]

I'm making my through all the Big Mouth Loud shows and I'm having a blast so far! 

BML Illusion (9/11/2005)            

Osamu Kido vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
This was two old pros having a friendly contest. Both men were in their mid-fifties at this point, but both are still nimble and can move around fluidly. One thing I found impressive is that there wasn't a single flat back bump to be found here. The match goes 15 minutes and it's entirely built around the ground game. Fujiwara is constantly going for his signature hold and then Kidd tries to slap on a Fujiwara Armbar of his own. Despite not taking any bumps, Fujiwara adds some violence by getting hardway colour by getting his face rammed multiple times into the ring post. The finish felt like a letdown, with Fujiwara releasing a hold just before the time limit expires when Fujiwara accepts that the hold won't beat Kiddo. ★★½

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Katsumi Usuda
There is some old BattlArts beef between these two that has yet to be squashed as Usada attacks Ikeda as soon as this begins. This was a sprint with plenty of great strikes and Ikeda fighting from underneath to start with. Usada just overwhelms him with flurries of strikes and it's not until Ikeda catches him with a punch that would make Jerry Lawler proud before he can make a comeback. Usada can survive Ikeda's picture-perfect Death Valley Driver but goes night-night when Ikeda drops him with a stiff Brainbuster. This goes five minutes and it is five minutes well spent. ★★★½

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hiroyuki Ito
Although we can see glimpses of Stone Pitbull Ishii in the way that he squares up during the strike exchanges, Ito forces Ishii to play the mat game more and this doesn't feel like a strong style spectacle like many of Ishii's NJPW epics. Ito impressed me here, with each of his strikes feeling more desperate and aggressive as the match went on. Ishii absolutely murders Ito with a series of lariats before getting the win. This match makes me wish we got Ishii in BattleArts as he would be a great fit there. ★★★¾

Buck Quartermain & Steve Madison vs. Riki Choshu & Takashi Uwano
Riki Choshu and WWF/WCW journeyman Buck Quartermain mixing it up in Japan in 2005 is a rather random pairing, although the match is nothing to write home about. It's rather colourless for the first five minutes, but Madison ending a strike exchange early by going low on Uwano puts the crowd behind Uwano and gets some heat for the gaijins. Madison gets some further heat by putting on Riki's Scorpion Deathlock on Uwano, to which Choshu responds by coming in to attack Madison. There is quite a bit of sloppiness here, which mainly came from the foreigners. I was quite surprised that Choshu's team lost, even if Uwano was the man who takes to pin. ★★¼

Enson Inoue vs. Gerard Gordeau
Inoue is a MMA fighter who has been working in PRIDE, whereas Gordeau is a karateka and kickboxer who appeared on the first-ever UFC card. As soon as the bell rings, Gordeau levels Inoue with a high kick that sees him roll out of the ring, the audience comes alive and stays hot during the rest of this 3-minute freak show bout. This was fun for what it was. Gordeau uses the same dirty tactics that garnered him controversy during his MMA career. He wasn't a natural heel, but he was unlikable enough that I was rooting for Inoue to remove his arm from his body when he locked in the armbar, although that might just be because I just noticed that Gordeau had a fucking Swazitka tattoo. ★★★

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka
I've seen better from both men but this is still worth watching. You know what you are getting out of these two. Big suplexes from Otsuka and stiff punches from Ishikawa. Ishikawa has to be one of the best punchers. We get a close-up shot of him raining down strikes and you cannot see through them. They look completely legit! This starts with a lot of matwork and they then start pulling out the strikes when tempers begin to rise. The way that Otsuka used a Frankensteiner in this shoot-style flavoured bout and had it not look a hair out of place was masterful. Ishikawa is able to struggle his way out of trouble and puts Otsuka to sleep. ★★★½

Katsuyori Shibata vs. Kazunari Murakami   
Yeah, I thought this wasn't as good as I was hoping. I was expecting the main event between two of my favourites to knock it out of the park, but the resulting match is just good and it never gets into that second gear. They kick this off with a lot of energy and they never let this drop. We get a lot of hard strikes and some uninteresting strike trading spots. I was quite surprised to see Shibata looking at the lights when this ended as I thought BML was built to progress Shibata. ★★★

BML Illusion 2 (12/29/2005)

Osamu Kido vs. Don Arakawa
Two old boys open the proceedings in a light-hearted match. Arakawa is a veteran who models himself after Rikidozan to pop the older fans in attendance. He is a comedy worker who gets a few chuckles from the audience by getting kicked up the arse by Kido and the remarks he makes when he is in pain. Although I wouldn't recommend this match, I would be against more cards opening with an easy-going match to let the card build up naturally, especially if it gives fans more of a chance to see older wrestlers play the hits and not expect them to keep up with the younger generation. ★★½

Munenori Sawa vs. Manabu Hara
Hara and Sawa work a competitive match that would fit at home within a BattlArts ring. Sawa tries to get a reaction out of Sawa by jabbing him while they are working on the mat. This eventually causes Hara to snap and he unloads a barrage of strikes, making Sawa's strategy come back to bite him in the ass. Hara has an arsenal of crisp throws to use against his opponent. Hara's assault causes Sawa to defend himself by throwing fiery strikes of his own as this match reaches its crescendo. We get a completely organic strike exchange before a beautifully executed flash Armbar puts a bow on this one. ★★★½

Masanobu Kurisu vs. Katsumi Usuda
I was expecting a bit more from this given its decent rating on Cagematch. It ends just as it is getting interesting. Kurisu is a guy that I'm not overly familiar with, but he impressed me with his performance here. He is in his mid-fifties here but he can still hang with Usuda, who is nearly two decades younger than him. Kurisu is a constant rule breaker and isn't afraid to get cheap when they wrestle on the mat or to roughhouse Usuda with some stiff headbutts. Once he gets nowhere wrestling this like a wrestling match, Kurisu starts to wallop Usuda with some sickening chair shots that draw blood. Just as they start to build some drama, this is over once Usuda is able to put his opponent to sleep. I wish we got at least a few more minutes of Usuda trying to mount his comeback instead of the anticlimactic ending we got here. ★★½

KAZMA & Kengo Mashimo vs. Hiroyuki Ito & Yuki Ishikawa
KAZMA and Mashimo aren't afraid to bend the rules as they work over Ito. Mashimo can throw a strike well and can sell one well too. He throws a kick so hard that the audience gasps. He tries to return to this trick later in the match, but Ito scouts Mashimo out and counters this by catching him in a submission. This was a slick counter and a nice bit of continuity. Ito has been cleary taking advice from Ishikawa as he throws some decent punches from the top mount position. While I wished we got more Ishikawa in this match, this was stiff as hell and it put over Mashimo well. ★★★

Akitoshi Saito vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Fujiwara is gifted a bottle of whiskey by Saito, and Fujiwara thanks him by jumping Saito with a combination of slaps as soon as the bell rings. This match has an ongoing bit with the guest referee where Yamamoto would fight back if a wrestler takes any liberties. This results in the match finish when Saito spits at Yamamoto and they get into a scruff before Yamamoto awards the DQ victory to Fujiwara. This was a weak finish and there wasn't much here except the guest referee hijinks. Even in a match that I didn't care all that much for, Fujiwara is always at least watchable. ★★

Petey Williams vs. AJ Styles
I was expecting them to phone in your average X Division bout, but these guys brought the goods. They open the match with the typical We Are Equals sequences, but they keep it fresh by having some interesting exchanges and ideas that feel different than the usual cliche spots you would find in your stereotypical indy match of its era. Watching this reminded me how much better AJ Styles was than your average American indie guy of the time despite having the same wrestling style. Petey can go as well, as he impressively chains multiple suplexes together. The crowd pop hard for both men and they seem shocked by the sight of the Canadian Destroyer. This isn't the type of match that I expected to find in Big Mouth Loud, but I'm glad it's here and it added a completely different style to the card. ★★★¾

Kazunari Murakami vs. Enson Inoue
This was a fuckin' war! In under ten minutes, these two put on a hell of a fight where Murakami goes from an arrogant menace to a heroic babyface. Murakami gets dominated on the mat and has to retreat. Inoue follows and we get some natural crowd brawling. They separate and we get many great shots that show that the once cocky Murakami is now doubting himself. He's able to land a flurry on Inoue, but makes the mistake of turning his back on Inoue, who clocks him and draws blood. A lot of time is spent with Murakami on the outside and Inoue in the ring, daring Murakami to step into the ring. This was never boring and I was completely sucked into the drama. Murakami gets the crowd behind him once Inoue plays it cheap by not releasing a hold when Murakami is in the ropes. What they managed to achieve here in 10 minutes is impressive. ★★★★

Satoshi Kojima vs. Katsuyori Shibata 
I liked this overall, but there were plenty of modern tropes here that had me rolling my eyes and taking me out of the match. We get some uninteresting strike exchanges and Shibata's no-selling of the Ace Crushers by using his fighting spirit was corny as hell. They were able to pull me back into the match after Kojima landed a CCD on the outside. Shibata focusing on taking out Kojima's lariating arm and the aggression he showed were two things that I dug from him. Kojima is great at being a condescending bully. We get some more boring no-selling before Kojima puts Shibata away, but with Shibata looking strong in defeat. ★★★

BML Reallusion (2/26/2006)

Manabu Hara & Osamu Kido vs. Don Arakawa & Munenori Sawa
The younger guys being here meant that this had more physicality than your standard Big Mouth Loud opener, with the older guys working their usual simpler style that has a strong emphasis on comedy. Arakawa's comedic mannerisms and charisma go a long way to hide his physical limitations. One spot seems him jabbing Hara up the arse! The younger guys and older gentlemen mostly kept to themselves outside of this interaction, with Kido's involvement and contribution to this match being very minimal. ★★★

Katsumi Usuda vs. Hiroyuki Ito
This takes a while to get going, with the first few minutes being a colourless BattleArts-style match. Usuda adds some urgency into play by lunging forward with a stiff headbutt. It takes a while for Ito to do anything interesting, but Usuda forces him to fire back with some aggression by hitting him hard and Ito potatoes his opponent with some receipts. We get some decent arm selling from Ito once Usuda nearly gets the win after a flash armbar. This was decent, once it got going. ★★★

Masanobu Kurisu vs. Tatsuo Nakano
Given Kurisu's age, he takes some hard strikes here. This wasn't a particularly exciting bout though, with much of the match seeing both men in the standing position feeling each other out. This pairing felt like a style clash. Once playing this straight gets him nowhere, Kurisu reverts to his chair swinging ways. After getting a few chair shots in, Nakano fires out and puts Kurisu in a front guillotine. Instead of losing the match the honourable way, Kurisu goes out as a scumbag by getting himself disqualified with a low blow. ★½

Jinsei Shinzaki & Yoshitsune vs. Alexander Otsuka & Rasse
Shinzaki was stuck in house show mode and didn't bring anything to the table perhaps getting a few more butts in seats due to his name value. Rasse and Yoshitsune have some lightning-quick sequences during the opening few minutes. I wish we got more chances to see Otsuka work with Yoshitsune as they mesh well, with Yoshitsune's natural athleticism working well with Otsuka's arsenal of deadly suplexes. Yoshitsune is an excellent high flyer with textbook technique and I think he should have gotten a bigger break. He does a 619 during the finish and the commentators mention Rey Mysterio, who Yoshitsune reminds me a lot of during Rey's early years. ★★½

Takashi Iizuka & Yuji Nagata vs. Enson Inoue & Kazunari Murakami
Murakami and Inoue are teaming up after they pummeled each other into respecting each other at the last Big Mouth Loud show. Nagata and Murakami immediately go for each and they beat the hell out of each other. Nagata has to be restrained by his tag team partner. Inoue might not have the buckets of charisma that his tag partner has, but he establishes himself as a dickhead by walking over Iizuka to exit a mount and to walk over to make a tag. Murakami and Nagata get into a strike exchange that I was not a fan of (no man should be standing after taking a head blow from Murakami! ) Both men eventually get the match thrown out as they are unable to separate. There is stuff here that I wasn't a fan of, but Nagata and Murakami brought the hatred here, and that's all wrestling needs at the end of the day. ★★★¼

Katsuyori Shibata vs. Alan Karaev     
Karaev is an absoulte unit. He looks like a shaved bear. Despite Karaev having zero pro-wrestling experience, this match is a total spectacle and did more for Shibata than any of his two previous Big Mouth Loud bouts. Shibata sold his ass off for Karaev's offence and put over the jeopardy he was in by his anguished facial expressions. Shibata shows fire and works at a frantic pace and Karaev can do his bit without it looking cooperative. Karaev's offence is limited to him palm away at Shibata with his massive hands and throwing him around, but it works in the context of this match. Shibata's only hope is when he can wrestle Karaev to the mat by grabbing a heel when he is in a dangerous position. This match doesn't even touch the four-minute mark, but they were able to milk so much drama out of this.  ★★★½