Kota Ibushi vs. YOSHIHIKO - Ironman Heavymetalweight and KO-D Openweight Championship match - DDT (2009)
Two great Japanese wrestling stars of Dramatic Dream Team go one-on-one with each other's title on the line. Kota Ibushi was the KO-D champ at the time while YOSHIHIKO (dressed as Hulk Hogan) was the reigning Ironman Heavymetalweight champ - a title that is defended under 24/7 rules just as the Hardcore title once was back in the states. The seemingly normal title match soon becomes a 30 minute slobberknocker!
PS: I heard that YOSHIHIKO stiffed Ibushi pretty good in this match due to some backstage heat/bad blood between one another. Maybe that Infinity Destroyer YOSHIHIKO delivered to Ibushi was a little more personal than perceived.
I sure hope YOSHIHIKO gets signed to WWE soon so his career can really blow up!
Low Ki vs. Kota Ibushi vs. Prince Devitt (c) - IWGP Junior Heavyweight title 3-way match - NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome (2013)
English commentary provided by E C Dubs Commentary.
Every year New Japan Pro Wrestling holds the Japanese version of Wrestlemania (sort of) in the Tokyo Dome on the 4th of January. This year was the 7th time it was known as Wrestle Kingdom.
Also this year, Low Ki decided he wanted to be Agent 47 from the Hitman video game series. Apparently the serious mannered NJPW did not take kindly to his attire and found it quite disrespectful. About a month later he was released.
As for the match: it's pretty much what you would expect from a 3-way of this caliber and three of the top junior heavyweights today. Ibushi (from the Japanese promotion, DDT) does his classic combos like the the missing moonsault into a standing moonsault and is always a thrill to watch - while Prince Devitt, who I haven't seen a lot of matches of yet, was also very impressive.
Bonus:
This is probably the first wrestling highlights video that doesn't feature a really terrible song...
El Generico vs. Nick Jackson vs. Kota Ibushi vs. Jigsaw - Chikara King of Trios (2009)
Now to be honest, I haven't seen a lot of Chikara, a still relatively unknown independent promotion that has actually been around since 2002. I will say this though: I've only seen/heard good things about this company and from what I've seen, I've enjoyed. While similar to other promotions like Ring of Honor where they take pride in "professional" wrestling and the true art behind it, Chikara actually has a much sillier side, whereas ROH is pretty dead serious most of the time - the only weakness I've seen from that respective brand of pro wrestling. Chikara also incorporates colorful characters and luchadore style that comes with a sort of Japanese wrestling and cosplay feel to it which actually works and makes sense as the whole roster can still wrestle their way out of paper bags... Something most WWE superstars today surely can't do.
Anyways, this is probably one of Chikara's greatest matches. I'm not just saying that because people say that on Youtube either, I truthfully believe this to be hell of a must-see match for any fan of pro wrestling. Every character brings a great amount of agility and ring-saviness to this match and every second is a thrill to watch. Yes, a lot of it does look like a very choreographed dance number that these young athletes recite every night but hey, I don't care. It's damn entertaining and actually very talented. Can you do a moonsault off the top rope, land on your feet, and then do a standing moonsault right after?
Really?
Prove it.
This match comes from King of Trios 2009: Night two were all four individuals had wrestled in a group of three with respected teammates usually from a related aspect such as company i.e. Nick Jackson (one half of the Young Bucks) and El Generico whom both represented Pro Wrestling Guerrilla the night before as they were title holders of that company at the time. Also, Japanese wrestling sensation, Kota Ibushi (winner of this match) wrestled in a team comprised of DDT wrestlers, a Japanese promotion Ibushi currently works for and actually has had a number of intense matches with El Generico just like this one.
The only time this match got a little hairy was when El Generico went to give Ibushi the "Brainbuster" from the top rope and it actually looks like Generico loses a hold of Ibushi and he lands awkwardly on the turnbuckle. However, the commentators say that he kicked out of the Brainbuster on the way down so you could counter out to stick Generico with an amazing "super-reverse-rana".
