The Fighting Detectives are back for their fifth and apparently last show! These Battlarts tribute events put on by the Astronauts have been some of the most consistent wrestling to watch over the last few years. While they may have peaked with their first outing, these shows often end up producing some of my favourite matches of the year. Let’s hope this one is no exception. We’ve got a six-match card to review, so let’s get into it. 

Match 1 Kosuke Sato & Ryuma Sekimo vs. Ali Najima & Hinata Kasai

Our first match sees BJPW’s Kosuke Sato and Ryuma Sekimo team up to face Sportiva’s Ali Najima and DDT’s Hinata Kasai. Beside Kasai, I’m not overly familiar with these wrestlers. I’ve seen a few matches here and there, but not enough to really form an opinion. Even Kasai has not been given enough of an opportunity in DDT yet for me to have any strong thoughts on the guy. All that is to say that this match, and these four wrestlers really, really impressed me. If the job of a wrestler is to make you want to watch them again, then they all pass with flying colours.

This match’s best quality is how frantic all four competitors feel: their desperation to get in as many quick hits as possible. Every second that could be empty space is instead filled with someone trying to throw a headbutt or slap across the face. This gives the match a breakneck pace that it does not let up on. But the high pace doesn’t mean they sacrifice match structure, with some great working over of Kasai where he gets to show off his fantastic spaghetti-leg selling.

This whole match really reminds me of peak BJPW Astronauts tags. In its combination of Battlart style striking with more modern japanese tag match structure. All tucked into a tight eleven minute runtime.  However, this match has a critical flaw, a lot of the strikes suck. The criticism doesn’t really apply to Najima, who definitely looked like the most complete wrestler out here. But the other three really needed to put a bit more sauce on their hits.

Their heart is in the right place, even if their execution is not.

Still, this is a great match that I highly recommend you watch. I know I’m certainly going to go out of my way to catch more of these four’s work.

Rating: *** ¾

Match 2 Yasu Urano vs. Manabu Hara

A, I suppose, fine but thoroughly skippable match. It’s structured pretty much how you’d expect: it starts with slow-paced, and some could say boring, groundwork before escalating into a more strike-based affair, though it always returns to the submissions.

There is some cool stuff to be found in the grappling, but my problem is how disconnected the opening sequence feels from the rest of the match. Add in a pretty nothing performance from Urano, and there’s just not much to get excited about.

Yeah, like I said, I’d give this one a skip.

Rating: **

Match 3 Ikuto Hidaka, Itsuki Aoki & Maika Ozaki vs. Kakeru Sekiguchi, Masked Hokakudo & Rina Amikura

Another match where I’m not familiar with a lot of the wrestlers involved. My joshi watching from the last few years has been almost entirely Sendai Girls, and this match reminded me why. That’s not strictly true. I’ve been watching a bit of Marvelous recently, so I’ve seen an Aoki match or two, but nothing that’s really left an impact. I do like her gimmick of shouting. No idea who Masked Hokarudo is, and based on my research, neither does anyone else. Then, of course, there is Hidaka, who I love. But unlike the opening tag, these wrestlers did not make me want to seek out more of their work.

This match is bad. Like, really bad. All these joshi wrestlers suck. They wrestle in such a weightless, lifeless way. Not a single move looks like it lands. They wrestle it like it’s a comedy match, but there’s no joke. Just not a style of wrestling I get anything out of.

Hokarudo seems like a competent wrestler, and seeing Hidaka still do it is fun. The ending stretch of this match, that’s just the two of them, is the only bit of the match I enjoyed.

Bad match!

Rating: * ¾

Match 4 Tanomusaku Toba & Yuko Miyamoto vs. MAO & Masashi Takeda

No matter where I go, I cannot escape MAO.

Some very sick stuff in this match, but also some very MAO stuff in it as well. Toba’s still got it. That’s the big takeaway from this match. He’s so, so good in this. In an ideal world, this would just be a Takeda vs. Toba singles match. Miyamoto does nothing, and MAO actively distracts from it. But those two have such great chemistry. Their mat work is brilliant. The often boring feeling-out period is so compelling, the way they struggle over the little moments. And then, when they’re trying to catch each other with a strike to knock them out cold, it’s just brilliant.

MAO sucks, though. His no sells are terrible. He’s terrible. That dumb face he pulls to be able to take Toba’s punches is so dumb.

A real mixed bag of a match, but it benefits from not outstaying its welcome.

Rating: ** ¾

Match 5 Minoru Fujita vs. Keita Yano 

Just two of the coolest looking wreslters ever. Fujita comes out with a sack on his head which he takes off to reveal a knock off power rangers villain mask he’s wearing. Hes out spouting a shirt that says ‘Im divorced fuck the world M.Fujita’ just a man we can all stride to be. Yano comes out in his penchant joker mask and Beanie. 

This is the standard Yano slightly comedic technically wrestling style and it’s just a type of wrestling that just really works for me. Fujita plays his role in this perfectly too. The comedy can be found in Yano frequent  targeting of Fujita foot either by biting or stepping on it, the way Yano sells a piledriver by just standing up and flopping out of the ring ric flair style. The mat work itself as you would expect is brilliant the way it escalates in the depression each opponent feels to get to the rope is just sublime.

The match probably does go on for too long. There’s a tighter version of this that’s twelve or so minutes that’s probably a bit better. It’s not a match for everyone but if you are a fan of Yano’s work I really recommend you go out of your way to watch this.

Rating: *** ½

Match 6 Fuminori Abe, Shuji Ishikawa & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Ali Najima, Daisuke Ikeda & Kazunari Murakami

As a reward for picking up the win in the opening tag, Najima gets to pull double duty by joining a match with five of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Shuji and Abe are still in the “best in the world” conversation, and while Father Time might have slightly caught up to Yuki, Ikeda, and Murakami, they’re still incredible.

Can Najima hold his own? Not only does he hold his own, he outwrestles all of them. That is my takeaway from this match and really this whole show. Najima is a star who deserves a lot more attention than he’s getting. When he’s getting worked over during an extended sequence, the punishment he takes from his three opponents is absolutely brutal, but his sympathetic selling and excellent use of the Steamboat rule have you desperately rooting for his comeback. You can feel it in the crowd. Even though he is by far the smallest draw in this match, it’s his name the fans are chanting. When the match breaks down into crowd brawling and the wrestlers pair off, he is more than capable of matching Abe’s face slaps. Just a great, great performance.

As for everyone else in the match, yeah, it’s pretty good. Murakami is still a great sleazy bag of shit, and Ikeda’s punches are still godly. To be critical, you don’t get that moment where Ikeda and Ishikawa roll back the years and really lay into each other. All of their interactions are just them lying on the mat in submission holds, stretching for the ropes.

The finish is sick: Murakami just wallops Abe to death with his kicks.

A fun match with one truly great performance from Najima.

Rating: *** ½

Full shows thoughts

A mixed bag, but still a fun show. I’d recommend watching the opener and the last two matches. Unlike previous shows, no bout is going to be in the MOTY conversation, and the show itself certainly won’t be in any Show of the Year discussions.

Still, it’s a good show. And Najima is one to keep an eye on.