With Trapped in the Cagematch, Kim Wong combs through the highest-rated matches according to Cagematch’s voters in preparation for the annual FSM 50 and the year-end Match of the Year extravaganza.
Los Golpeadores (Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane) vs. Daga & Daiki Odashima
Pro Wrestling NOAH Wrestle Odyssey
October 11, 2025
Cagematch ranking as of 10/23/25: 170
We had noted that part of the Astronauts’ charm was their prolificacy. Los Golpeadores (Alpha Wolf and Dragon Bane) have been nearly equally prolific, wrestling 50 matches in 2023, 68 in 2024, and 61 so far in 2025. They’ve held NOAH’s GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships from 2023-2024 and in 2025, and they were one of the few highlights in NOAH after Mutoh said his final bye-bye and before Ozawa became OZAWA. Though they were cited as one of the company’s bright spots, they weren’t able to break through with critics and elite fans. None of their matches appeared in the Voices of Wrestling Match of the Year poll in 2022-24 or in the top 200 matches on Cagematch in 2022, 2023, or 2024.
They finally seem to have caught critical attention this year; two of their recent matches landed amongst the top 200 matches on Cagematch for 2025. Also, Alpha Wolf (27 years old) and Dragon Bane (25) were honorable mentions in Voices of Wrestling’s 2025 30 Under 30. This might be the result of a knock-on effect of OZAWA’s rise; his growing popularity draws more attention to NOAH, which in turn benefits other wrestlers whose work, good or bad, may have previously flown under the radar.
If Alpha Wolf or Dragon Bane could see that their careers would resemble Daga’s by the time they turn 37, would they consider their careers successful? Wherever Daga’s gone, he’s found success with a middling ceiling. He won a Lucha de Apuestas match against Australian Suicide at AAA’s Heroes Immortales X in 2016. He appeared on American TV with Lucha Underground and Impact Wrestling. In NOAH, he’s held many of the secondary titles: the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship, the Tag Team Championship, and the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. He’s been consistently active since he made his debut in 2008. Not many people would say that they clamor to see Daga in action, but not many would be disappointed if Daga were announced for a show either. I think it’s fair to describe him as a journeyman wrestler, though some would downgrade that description to a replacement-level wrestler.
Daga’s partner, the 24-years-old Daiki Odashima, on the other hand, has already been proclaimed a star in NOAH thanks to his performance in this match. He was also an honorable mention in this year’s VOW 30 Under 30, and he is accumulating seasoning at a rapid clip by already wrestling 79 matches in his second year. The company seems to see potential in Odashima too and scheduled singles matches against Jun Akiyama and KENTA. That interest extends beyond his bosses in NOAH. Odashima also wrestled one of NJPW’s highly regarded Young Lions, Katsuya Murashima, to a time limit draw at NJPW’s Tanahashi Jam in June.
(A quick detour to discuss Odashima’s match with Murashima:
- Nothing screams “admirably straightforward and energetic” like a young wrestler sprinting to the ring and then bouncing on their toes while they wait for their opponent.
- Because Japanese wrestlers are only allowed to have colorful clothes and fancy haircuts upon their graduation, the heart grows fonder for wrestlers with mono-colored tights and boots and simple haircuts.
- Odashima seems to be channeling Ikuhisa “Minowaman” Minowa, a fellow short wrestler who wears red tights and boots and has hair stylized upward.
- Odashima, in particular, showed a very high level of energy in the opening grappling segment. The way that he spun out of Murashima’s attempt at back control into a seated position and then sprung back into a takedown attempt delighted the grapplefuck enjoyer in me.
- Odashima’s and Murashima’s attacks, defenses, and counterattacks conveyed a desperation that invites the viewer to invest in what’s happening in the ring.
- The beefy Murashima locked Odashima up in a collar and elbow hold and effortlessly walked Odashima to the ropes, neatly reinforcing Murashima’s advantage in size and strength.
- Odashima had a very endearing smile on his face when he was able to take Murashima down after a couple of low dropkicks to Murashima’s bandaged knee. He knew that he’d identified Murashama’s weak point and was ready to pounce on it.
- Oh, this dropkick from Odashima is rad.
- I understand that inter-company politics drove the decision to end the match with a time limit draw, but the sight of Murashima and Odashima trading elbow blows with no regard to the timekeeper’s bell is very entertaining. The fact that the referee didn’t even bother breaking them up enhances the enjoyment.
- I also enjoyed that they seemed annoyed with each other and that they didn’t raise each other’s hand after the match. Instead, they jaw-jacked at each other as they left the ring. I was amused that Odashima had to leave the ring through the side gate because he’s the outside wrestler, and Murashima got to walk away on the ramp.
- I’d like to see a rematch, but I’d watch an Odashima match before I’d watch a Murashima match. Odashima seems further ahead in his development.)
Pairing a high potential wrestler on his way to making a second-year leap with a steady journeyman and giving them a bit more attention and responsibility by assigning them the tag team championships is a solid approach to nurturing the young wrestler. So, teaming Odashima and Daga is very sensible. Scheduling Odashima and Daga against the reliable Los Golpeadores in a match for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship then gives Odashima a chance to impress. Making Daga and Odashima champions signals to viewers that Odashima is important and someone whose development is worth watching.
It’s probably a good sign for Odashima when there are so many women shouting “Daiki!” during his entrance.
We started with a respectful grappling standoff, but I appreciated that Odashima refused to shake Dragon Bane’s hand. I like when there’s a bit of animosity in a respectful sporting contest. Not everything needs to be escalated to the point where a star starting pitcher throws an aging bench coach by the head to the ground, but it helps to establish verisimilitude if the possibility for that escalation is there.
Daga entered the match, probably to the delight of the sole fan who chanted for him, but he’s no match for Alpha Wolf’s striking power. He’s able to bring Wolf to the corner so Odashima, who’s smaller than Daga, could take a crack at him too, which seems poorly thought out since Daga himself couldn’t stand toe-to-toe with Wolf. As expected, it backfired on Daga and Odashima as Bane and Wolf were able to knock Daga off the apron and double team Odashima.
Bane and Wolf bullied Odashima for a while, which was a good test to see how invested the crowd is in Odashima. Given that the fans chanted his name loudly while he was stuck in Wolf’s submission hold and groaned when Bane kicked Odashima after faking him out, I’d say that the crowd is more solidly invested in Odashima than Daga. It’s probable that they’re more invested in him than in Bane and Wolf too.
Odashima finally got some breathing space by using that rad spinning dropkick on Wolf, captured from a better angle than in the match against Murashima.
Daga entered the match to a tepid reaction, but he wasn’t deterred, energetically throwing Bane and Wolf around with lariats, a suplex, and a brainbuster. Daga also showed that he’s the wily veteran by making the wobbly Odashima take the bigger risk in a splash from the top turnbuckle to the floor while Daga tried a tope suicida that the NOAH production team failed to capture. Why work so hard when there’s a younger teammate who can do it?
As the most experienced wrestler in the match, Daga wasn’t going to be fooled by Bane’s shenanigans. I hope Daga appreciates the biggest Daga fan in the world who single-handedly is leading the charge in chants for Daga at Ryogoku Kokugikan on this day.
I appreciated that Daga would fairly consistently defend against and counter Bane’s and Wolf’s offense, subtly emphasizing his veteran experience. He could still be caught off-guard, like when Bane ambushed him with a poisoned hurricanrana, but Daga was usually able to counter Bane and Wolf.
That dynamic left Odashima, the youngest and smallest wrestler in the match, as the theoretical weak link in his team. Bane and Wolf were able to send Daga out of the ring, leaving Odashima at their mercy. They threw some spectacular bombs, like this combination of moonsaults, at Odashima, but Daga saved the match for their team.
Daga and Wolf returned to their story strand from earlier when Wolf showed once again that he was too strong for Daga to fight alone. So, we capped that story with Odashima splashing onto Wolf while he was positioning Daga for a move. Odashima then trapped Wolf with a neat pin for a nearfall that the crowd really wanted to succeed. Probably feeling himself a bit too much, Odashima expended a lot of energy hoisting Wolf with a deadlift German suplex that then left him open to a running knee strike from Bane.
(This is the third time that I felt like NOAH’s production team let this match down. They missed Daga’s tope suicida earlier in the match, and the angle they used for Daga outsmarting Bane was suboptimal. Even here, the impact would have been greater had the director and camera operator shown Wolf’s feet so we could see that Odashima really did lift Wolf for the German suplex.)
With Odashima out of the way for the moment, Bane and Daga tried a standing Spanish Fly that resulted in Daga landing awkwardly on his neck. We didn’t hear the Daga Mega-Fan cheer for that one. The Daga Mega-Fan should have cheered after Daga flipped a running Bane off of the apron to the hard floor, leaving Odashima and Wolf alone in the ring.
Bane, Daga, Wolf, and Odashima had established that even Daga couldn’t face Alpha Wolf by himself because Wolf overpowered him. Now, we resolved the story about Odashima being the potential weak link in his team here by pairing Odashima and Wolf. Wolf wailed on Odashima, but Odashima called upon his fighting spirit to pop to his feet after running into Wolf’s thrust kick.
Odashima survived the second whooping that Wolf laid on him, and he won the match for the team when Daga kicked Daga in the back, which stunned Wolf long enough for Odashima to roll him up for the upset victory. I would have been incredulous if Odashima had managed to beat Wolf on his own, and the outcome supported the story that the two of them were stronger than Wolf alone. Wolf capped Odashima’s ascension by presenting the tag team belts to him and Daga and bowing on the mat to them.
The match’s focus was on embiggening Odashima, but our focus is on assessing whether Los Golpeadores were a down ballot challenger to the Young Bucks and FTR for Tag Team of the Year. Wolf and Bane held the match together and created opportunities for Odashima to show off, so this was probably not the best choice to use to examine Los Golpeadores’ work. They had some great combination offense, but I couldn’t get a handle on their chemistry since the match’s rhythm had them work more individually than together. I got a better sense of the chemistry that Daga and Odashima had.
Overall, this was a great beautillion ball for Odashima, who showed a lot of potential in this match and the match against Murashima. I’m glad that the Daga Mega-Fan got to enjoy seeing Daga win a championship.
The match between Murashima and Odashima from Tanahashi Jam can be seen on NJPW World.
The match between Los Golpeadores and Daga & Odashima from Wrestle Odyssey can be seen on Wrestle Universe.
Next time: The last team in our survey of notable tag teams of 2025 is the most unlikely. Kyoraku Kyomei, the team of Hyper Misao and Shoko Nakajima, seems ready-made for mockery between Misao’s costume and Nakajima’s tail. How did they end up with two matches in the top 200 matches of 2025? Is this a case of joshi grade inflation? We’ll investigate their match against Miu Watanabe and Rika Tatsumi.
