BASARA - Vajra 48 ~Isami Kodaka 15th Anniversary~ (10/1/2017)

5. Ryota Nakatsu vs. Yuko Miyamoto

Seems the CyberAgent money has allowed DDT to use copyrighted songs. This was a decent match... both of these guys are still learning. Yuko is a great death match wrestler, but he's just not as engaging working normal singles matches.

**1/4

6. IRON PRIEST (FUMA & Yusuke Kubo) & HUB vs. Ryuichi Sekine, Yuji Hino & Yasu Urano

**3/4

7. Union MAX Championship: Trans-Am ★ Ryuichi (c) vs. Isami Kodaka

This was lackluster for a main event celebrating Kodaka's 15th anniversary. Trans-Am ★ Ryuichi exposed himself as a mediocre worker with this reign. He has no depth as a wrestler, and unfortunately Kodaka couldn't drag much out of him.

**3/4

BASARA - Vajra 39 ~ Uchouten Sky (7/5/2017)

1. Heaven Summit Itadaki Block B Decision Match: FUMA vs. Trans-Am ★ Hiroshi

**1/2

3. Naoki Tanizaki vs. Takato Nakano

**

4. Tsutomu Osugi & Best Stretchman V3 vs. Yusuke Kubo & Hagane Shinno vs. Trans-Am ★ Shinya & SAGAT

**3/4

5. Magnitude Kishiwada vs. Ryota Nakatsu

***

6. Hardcore Match: Isami Kodaka & Ryuichi Sekine vs. Yasu Urano & Takumi Tsukamoto

***

7. Heaven Summit Itadaki Final - Union Pro MAX Championship: Trans-Am ★ Ryuichi (c) vs. FUMA

DUD

BASARA - 35.5 (5/12/2017)

1. Heaven Summit Itadaki 2017 Block A: Best Stretchman V3 vs. Takato Nakano

DUD

2. Heaven Summit Itadaki 2017 Block B: Ryu Gouma vs. Trans-Am ★ Hiroshi

Gouma worked the leg a bit, Hiroshi promptly made his comeback, match over. Gouma pulling out an iPad was interesting, I guess.

**

3. Heaven Summit Itadaki 2017 Block B: FUMA vs. SAGAT

Decent back and forth.

**1/2

4. Ryuichi Sekine & Takumi Tsukamoto vs. Fuminori Abe & Tatsuhiko Yoshino

*1/2

5. Heaven Summit Itadaki 2017 Block A: Trans-Am ★ Ryuichi vs. Yusuke Kubo

Yusuke Kubo moves like he's suffered a stroke these days... Ryuichi wasn't giving anything either. Another lifeless match.

*

6. Heaven Summit Itadaki 2017 Block B: Isami Kodaka vs. Ryota Nakatsu

Kodaka is the only wrestler who gave a damn on this show and he brings out the best in Nakatsu, who wasn't giving off the strongest performance in the early going. The strike exchanges were crisp and enjoyable. Kodaka has been disappointing me lately, but this was good. He is great when he sticks to what he's good at. MOTN, for what its worth.

***1/2

BASARA - Vajra 35 ~ Osaka Club Spring ~ (5/4/2017)

1. Heaven Summit Itadaki 2017 Block A: Takato Nakano vs. Yusuke Kubo

Man, when did Yusuke Kubo decide to become the most boring wrestler in the world?... His control segments were totally empty. I liked the ending; Nakano showed some fire, and then got brutalized. 

*1/2

2. Ryota Nakatsu vs. Tatsuhiko Yoshino

Future ace Ryota Nakatsu gets his nipples twisted, his dick bitten, and then gets screwed over by a paid-off referee! What a burial!

***

3. Heaven Summit Itadaki 2017 Block A: Best Stretchman V3 vs. Ryuichi Sekine

Best Stretchman has not quite lived up to the hype.

**1/2

4. Buffalo & Tsubasa vs. SAGAT & Trans-Am ★ Hiroshi

**1/2

6. Isami Kodaka vs. Naoki Tanizaki

This was worked differently than I would have expected (or hoped for) from these two... It was methodical, gradually building into the flashy exchanges that the fans wanted. When you have a Dragon Gate guy booked, you want to see that fucker just go 100 miles per hour with crazy junior action.. aw well. Good for what it was.

***1/4

7. Heaven Summit Itadaki 2017 Block A: Takumi Tsukamoto vs. Trans-Am ★ Ryuichi

Wow... what was this? It was super slow and then suddenly ended just as things were getting good.

**

BASARA - Vajra 34 ~ Shishifunjin ~ (4/29/2017)

0. Isami Kodaka vs. Takato Nakano

***3/4

2. IRON PRIEST (FUMA & Hagane Shinno) vs. Gingin BOYS (Kenshin Chikano & YO-HEY)

***1/2

3.  Super Pro Wrestling Ring Wars 2017 ~Japan Vs Trans-Am~ True Patriotic Pinfall: Fuminori Abe, Masamune & Ryuichi Sekine vs. Trans-Am ★ Tanaka, Trans-Am ★ Hiroshi & Trans-Am ★ Shinya

***

4. Dick Togo vs. Yusuke Kubo

**

5. Isami Kodaka vs. Yuji Okabayashi

***3/4

7. Union Pro MAX Championship: Trans-Am ★ Ryuichi (c) vs. Ryota Nakatsu

**3/4

BASARA - Vajra 26 ~ Tettotetsubi ~ (1/6/2017)

1. IRON PRIEST (Madoka & Yusuke Kubo) vs. Fuminori Abe & Shinya Ishida

IRON PRIEST schooling literal whos on the art of metal.

***

3. Cavalry (Ryota Nakatsu & Ryuichi Sekine) vs. Hi69 & Takumi Tsukamoto

Cavalry bores me to tears. So many interesting gimmicks in BASARA and then you have these dudes dancing around with stick horses. That said, they are solid as wrestlers. Really great match.

***1/2

4. Daichi Kazato, Masamune & Tatsuhiko Yoshino vs. SAGAT, Trans-Am ★ Hiroshi & Trans-Am ★ Ryuichi

SAGAT is a stickler for abuse. Here he gets his nipples twisted (!), has his hair shampooed (?) and then gets humped Paradise Lock-style (!?).

***

5. Union Pro MAX Championship: Isami Kodaka (c) vs. FUMA

These two have had matches in the past, but not like this. Not while FUMA had a heart of heavy metal. Good, despite some flaws such as inconsistent leg selling. Lots of creative offense on display. FUMA's chops opening up the old scars on Kodaka's chest was wicked.

***1/2

BASARA - VAJRA 25 ~SHIPPUJINRAI~ (12/25/2016)

3. Takumi Tsukamoto vs. Trans-Am ★ Ryuichi

I never thought much of Ryuichi Kawakami in Big Japan, he was another hard-hitting dude amongst hard-hitting dudes, but here in BASARA he's been allowed to show range and he's great. Match itself was mediocre.

**

4. IRON PRIEST (FUMA, Madoka & Yusuke Kubo) vs. Jun Kasai, MIKAMI & Tanomusaku Toba

Toba looks like something that blew in off the highway, but he throws gnarly punches. FUMA was getting nailed with hard hits left and right and selling amazingly. The veterans did a great job building up heat for the home team to make the comeback. FUMA's heavy metal heart refused to give in!

****

5. Jun Akiyama vs. SAGAT

SAGAT's selling was awesome in this, he's a freak show but the fans rallied behind him as bald, mean bully Akiyama had his way with him. I liked SAGAT reverting back to his crotch-chewing persona during the final sequence... only to get rocked by a big knee from Jun.

***

7. Union Pro MAX Championship (vacant): Isami Kodaka vs. Trans-Am ★ Hiroshi

There was great legwork here that was neglected in the final act which is always a pet peeve of mine, but this was pretty good. Both guys were throwing meaty slugs, especially Trans-Am's lariats.

***1/4