Trapped in the Cagematch: All-Winners Squad

Now that we’ve passed the rush of blood to the head that comes from being bludgeoned by wrestling, it’s time to resume our journey through some intriguing matches of March 2026.

In this edition, I covered:

• Spark Rush (Takumi Iroha & Sareee) vs. Syuri & Chihiro Hashimoto (Sareee-ISM, March 22, 2026)
• Miyu Yamashita & Arisu Endo & vs. Spark Rush (Takumi Iroha & Sareee) (TJPW, March 29, 2026)
• Mercedes Mone (c) vs. Alexxis Falcon (RevPro, March 21, 2026)
• Jay Joshua (c) vs. 1 Called Manders (RevPro, March 21, 2026)
• Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Alexander Otsuka (Michinoku Pro, March 1, 2026)
• Kohei Kinoshita, Naoki Tanizaki & TiiiDA vs. Mexa Boy’s (Aguila Oriental, Noisy Boy & Spider Fly) (MeriPro, March 27, 2026)

Spark Rush (Takumi Iroha & Sareee) vs. Syuri & Chihiro Hashimoto 
Sareee-ISM Chapter X Taiyoshin Chronicle 15th Anniversary
March 22, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 4/1/26: 5

About fourteen months ago, I started my deep dive into Sareee’s work. Her career arc fascinated me because it was a tale of resilience and resurgence. She was failed by the WWE machine and returned home humiliated by that failure. I’d argue that her career and legacy will be in a better place for having been let down by WWE. Since her return match against Chihiro Hashimoto, Sareee redefined herself through violence and intensity. She crafted feuds with Hashimoto, Syuri, Suzu Suzuki, Natsupoi, VENY, Nanae Takahashi, and others while remaining a freelancer. On a personal level, she was instrumental in rediscovering my passion for pro graps after AEW squandered my favor in 2023, and I’ll continue to treat her matches as my most-favored-wrestler priority.

Last year, I planted my flag on the contention that Sareee was the best wrestler in the world. After losing the Marigold World Championship to Utami Hayashishita and the SEAdLINNNG Beyond the Sea Championship to VENY, Sareee started a critically acclaimed feud with Syuri that lasted most of the year. During the feud, she traded the IWGP Women’s Championship with Syuri. As IWGP Women’s Champion, she found her way back to the United States to unexpectedly wrestle in Ring of Honor with and against Alex Windsor. (She also reigned as the Sukeban World Champion for most of the year and wrestled in the United States for those defenses too.) She traveled up and down Japan in search of competition.

Apart from her work as an individual, Sareee also teamed with Takumi Iroha and won the AAAW Tag Team Championship from Ryo Mizunami and Sonoko Kato. Coining themselves “Spark Rush,” they held those titles for most of 2025. With Iroha, she also wrestled the most significant Japanese female wrestler of 2025, Saya Kamitani, and Natsuko Tora at one of her Sareee-ISM shows. She also teamed with Miku Kanae in the Goddesses of Stardom Tag League and reached her block’s playoff stage.

By the end of the year, Sareee’s accolades proved that my aim was true. Eight of her eighty-eight matches in 2025 were in Cagematch’s and Voices of Wrestling’s top 200 matches of the year. For comparison:

She was the third-highest-rated wrestler in the 2025 FSM 50, and she received the Tokyo Sports Fighting Spirit Award. In her acceptance speech, she proclaimed, “I will definitely come back to this place next year.” Of course, seeing Saya Kamitani become the first woman to win the Tokyo Sports MVP Award stung her ego, as she told Tokyo Sports: “That’s precisely why I feel I have to fight her. I’m ready whenever she is; it’s down to her.”

She literally started 2026 with a very good match with MIRAI. From there, she continued to focus on wrestling tag team matches, mostly with Iroha and Kanae. Her feud with Syuri continued to simmer. When Sareee was the IWGP Women’s Champion, she drew criticism from Stardom wrestlers and fans when she told Yagami that she’d “show [her] the real deal.” So, Syuri and Yagami, two wrestlers who felt slighted by Sareee, teamed to face Sareee and the secret power in women’s wrestling, Alex Windsor. Sareee’s feud with Syuri and her focus on tag team wrestling in 2026 intersected with her standing feud with Chihiro Hashimoto in this match, the main event of the celebration of Sareee’s 15th anniversary as a wrestler.

Sareee’s grand entrance was accompanied by a live performance of “Taiyou Shin” by Shimatani Hitomi and a video recap of Sareee’s career. There was just one reference to her lost period in WWE, a clip of her posing in front of a WWE sign when she announced her signing.

Given the participants involved, my expectations for this match were sky high. Sareee and Syuri started the match, and it felt chippy and intense from the start. Sareee launched herself to the mat as Syuri ran the ropes in a meaningful, not perfunctory, way; it felt like Sareee was trying to trip Syuri the way that drop is supposed to be played.

Things only got more chippy between Syuri and Sareee from there as a simple collar-and-elbow rope break went through the ropes to the floor.

Iroha and Hashimoto entered the match to tease their own stand-off. Hashimoto dodged Iroha’s spinning heel kick, while Iroha ducked Hashimoto’s running lariat. Nonetheless, Hashimoto made clear that she still had a power advantage over Iroha, who could usually play the bully in her matches due to her height, when she bowled Iroha over with a shoulder charge. Syuri and Iroha, who was unable to tag out to Sareee, then had a literal ass kicking contest. It was a pleasure to watch, and it was surprising to see Iroha win it.

Sareee re-entered the match and did what she does best: pound Syuri with blows like Syuri owed her money, kicked her dog, insulted her mother’s cooking, and expressed an opinion, any opinion, about Star Wars: The Last Jedi on the Internet. Syuri got a running knee to the face in too, but Sareee laid her out with a superplex and a mean double stomp from the middle rope.

Unfortunately for Sareee and fortunately for us, Syuri was a lot tougher than a superplex and a double stomp. She walloped Sareee with kicks to the back, kicks to the chest, and a superplex of her own before tagging in Hashimoto. Sareee tried to avoid Hashimoto by flying around her and trapping her in submission holds and pins, but Hashimoto just shrugged her off to Sareee’s annoyance.

Iroha and Hashimoto traded submission holds with Iroha being the worse for wear, and it left her vulnerable to Syuri, who isolated her from her corner. Sareee tried to intervene, but Iroha still couldn’t incapacitate Syuri long enough to tag out. That led to Syuri catching Iroha in a submission hold that made Iroha scream so loud that I feared for my speakers.

Iroha and Syuri knocked each other down with a kick and a knee to each other’s head, so Sareee was finally able to re-enter the match. Sareee faced off against Hashimoto first and auditioned to join lesser former professional wrestlers like Jake Hager and Lance Anoa’i in Power Slap.

Hashimoto and Sareee then played off their history together by setting up Sareee’s usual roll up into a double stomp. To make the point that being in a tag match changed things, Hashimoto rolled away to dodge Sareee, which then provoked Iroha to enter the ring to back her partner up. (It should be noted that Iroha and Sareee stepped in to back each other up throughout the match while Syuri and Hashimoto were not as cohesive.) It didn’t work since Hashimoto was able to take both Iroha and Sareee down and flip to splash both of them to her immense pleasure.

We also revisited an old classic where Sareee tried and failed to powerbomb Hashimoto from the middle rope. However, Sareee had back-up now; Iroha kicked Hashimoto in the head to stun her, which enabled Sareee to actually powerbomb her.

The match transitioned into its breakdown period where the double teams became more prominent. Sareee and Iroha tried to take out Hashimoto and Syuri with simultaneous attacks from the top rope. However, Hashimoto and Syuri rolled out of the way, and Syuri attacked both Iroha and Sareee with a senton that was also a dropkick. The kick pushed Sareee into Hashimoto’s grasp for a German suplex.

Now alone, Sareee survived a big spear from Big Hash and tried to roll out of Hashimoto’s powerbomb attempt. Syuri again worked with Hashimoto by kicking Sareee in the stomach, which allowed Hashimoto to hoist Sareee up for the powerbomb. Luckily for Sareee, Iroha was able to slide back into the ring and kick Hashimoto in the top of her head to break the pin attempt. To continue the theme that Iroha and Sareee are more coordinated (never mind that they’re in mostly matching colors), they knocked Hashimoto and Syuri down with double dropkicks.

Hashimoto’s double lariat took Sareee and Iroha down, but Iroha returned to her feet long enough to kick Hashimoto and Syuri each in the face. Syuri took Iroha down with a kick too, which left Hashimoto and Sareee to face off one more time. They blasted each other with more strikes, and Sareee was able to land one of her old favorites, the running dropkick to a seated Hashimoto against the ropes.

Hashimoto again showed her tenacity and speed by going behind a running Sareee to grab her for another German suplex, which Sareee blocked. To put the finishing touch on the theme of the contrast between Iroha and Sareee’s cohesion and Hashimoto and Syuri’s individualism, Syuri accidentally kicked Hashimoto in the face when she aimed for Sareee. Iroha returned, trapped Syuri in a pin, and suplexed Hashimoto, which allowed Sareee to try to pin Hashimoto. Though it was a bit contrived, it worked to reinforce the theme.

Hashimoto kicked out. While Iroha and Syuri kept each other out of the ring, Hashimoto and Sareee traded their strongest lariats, powerbombs, and backdrop drivers. Syuri saved Hashimoto after Sareee hit multiple backdrop drivers, but Iroha chased her from the ring again. That allowed Sareee to plant Hashimoto with an arm capture backdrop driver, which finally finished Hashimoto.

Just in case my enthusiasm wasn’t clear: watch this match immediately. It’s one of the best of the year so far. There were some camera angle struggles, but they didn’t detract too much from my enjoyment.

Sareee’s comments to Tokyo Sports summed up why she remained my favorite active wrestler and the best wrestler in the world in 2026: “The ring is fundamentally a place filled with anger and a killing intent…That kind of rage is the origin of pro-wrestling, and for me, it’s something very important.” Me too, Sareee.

You can watch the match and the show on Sareee’s website; it costs 4000 yen.

Miyu Yamashita & Arisu Endo & vs. Spark Rush (Takumi Iroha & Sareee) 
TJPW Grand Princess ’26
March 29, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 4/1/26: 3

So, what do you do when you’ve had one of the best matches around the world? If you’re Sareee and Takumi Iroha, you continue the streak just seven days later against two other great wrestlers.

While Sareee (and Iroha) were working on Sareee’s beefs with Hashimoto and Syuri, they were also starting a new one with Arisu Endo and resuming an old one with Miyu Yamashita. In 2020, Sareee and Maki Ito lost to Aja Kong and Yamashita at TJPW Wrestle Princess. For the first time since 2025, Sareee returned to Tokyo Joshi Pro and to wrestle Yamashita.

This match only happened because Total Nonstop Action broke their agreement to allow Lei Ying Lee to wrestle at this show. Originally, Lee and Sareee were set to face Yamashita and Endo. In Lee’s place, TJPW worked with Marvelous to bring in Iroha, which added to the match’s intrigue since this was Iroha’s debut in TJPW. Serendipity indeed. (For more, see JamieOD’s preview of TJPW Grand Princess ’26.)

Hold on. Is that Yamashita or Kenoh?

I ran out of breath from laughing at the way Iroha’s and Sareee’s pictures slid in from the sides in their entrance video. The mashed-up entrance music certainly matched the quality of this video production.

Luckily, we’re not here for Spark Rush’s intro video or music. Now that they have an official team name, Iroha and Sareee also had coordinated outfits. Iroha’s top even replaced Marvelous’s name with the team’s, so you knew that Iroha’s serious about this team-up.

Yamashita and Sareee were snippy from the opening handshake, which promised a delightful level of violence from them in this match. They fought for advantage, and there was a weird moment where Yamashita’s kick seemed mistimed, but Sareee’s intensity broke Yamashita out of her warrior’s stoicism. They gave way to Endo and Iroha, but Iroha knocked Endo down and tried to call Yamashita back into the match. Endo then ran rings around Iroha and got her attention with a running dropkick.

No longer ignored, Endo received her reward: some kicks, a slam, and some pain from Sareee, who looked absolutely delighted that she had someone else to beat up when she tagged into the match. Still, Endo held her own and retaliated where she could until she could tag Yamashita into the match. Iroha got what she  had wanted when Yamashita entered the match, and they proceeded to kick the hell out of each other.

Yamashita and Endo traded opportunities to beat Sareee up, and Endo showed that she was willing to stand and trade with Sareee, even if it led to her eating a running dropkick.

Iroha, meanwhile, was delighted to hit Endo some more.

Endo took her lumps from Iroha as well, but she fought back and took Iroha down with a superplex.

However, as hard as Endo fought, she couldn’t overcome Iroha or Sareee alone, much less together. The only reason the match continued after Sareee hit her top rope double stomp and Iroha her swanton bomb was that Sareee was too busy celebrating to prevent Yamashita from breaking up a pin on Endo. After Sareee disposed of Yamashita, Iroha ended the match with an appropriately-named Running Three powerbomb on Endo.

On the surface, Spark Rush’s match against Syuri and Hashimoto was the more exciting match. It had more callbacks to Sareee’s history with her opponents, and the strove for (and achieved) the epic match. Here, the match was built around Endo asserting her presence to two opponents who blatantly ignored her in favor of Yamashita. Endo took her lumps from Sareee and Iroha, but she dished out enough punishment herself that Sareee and Iroha had to take her seriously by the end.

Go watch this match too. You can watch it and the show on Wrestle Universe.

Mercedes Mone (c) vs. Alexxis Falcon
RevPro High Stakes 2026
March 21, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 4/1/26: 89

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

– “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” by Robert Frost

In the end, 12 Belts Moné became No Belts Moné. Not long ago, we glanced at 12 Belts Moné’s erosion and saw that she had been reduced to just 5 Belts Moné. At the time, she still had the BODYSLAM, DW, PTW, WPW, and APAC Women’s Championship. She lost the BODYSLAM and DW Women’s Championships to Alexxis Falcon in this match, the PTW Women’s Championship to Diana Strong at PTW More Moné, More Problems (a natural title for a show anchored by Moné), and the WPW Women’s Championship to Jody Threat.

(She vacated the APAC Women’s Championship. In her newsletter, she claimed that APAC Wrestling didn’t have the budget to fly her to Malaysia to lose the title. She also claimed that they refused to coordinate with another promotion to let her lose the title elsewhere. Since she won the title at a House of Glory show, that seemed like a strange impasse for APAC Wrestling and Moné.)

As of this writing, Falcon was suffering from a title-collecting mania herself. Coming into the match, she had already won the NGW, TGW, and PROGRESS Women’s Championships. After adding the BODYSLAM and DW Women’s Championships to her collection, she also won the RevPro Undisputed British Women’s Championship from (you guessed it) Alex Windsor. So long, 12 Belts Moné. Hello, 6 Belts Falcon.

Since we know the match’s result, we can focus on some key questions:

1. Was there a better option than Alexxis Falcon to dethrone Moné?
2. Did Falcon impress in this match, when the most attention she’d ever received thus far was on her?

In theory, Moné could have lost the DW and BODYSLAM titles to any of these wrestlers who regularly appeared in RevPro in 2025 and 2026:

• I intentionally excluded Alex Windsor from this group since she is employed by AEW. She had already beaten Moné for the RevPro Undisputed British Women’s Championship. So, the impact of Windsor beating Moné for the DW and BODYSLAM Women’s Championships would have been blunted. Presumably, the next time that they wrestle would be in AEW, not RevPro.

RevPro, Discovery Wrestling, and BODYSLAM Pro Wrestling could have chose someone else to benefit from toppling Moné. It could have been a redemption for Rhio, Jayne, Kanji, or Reed, who all lost to Moné. Alternatively, it could have been Blair, Smitson, Fierce, or JGU, who would have been first time opponents for Moné. (Since Jayne and Smitson were older than 30, they would have been the least likely options. As we saw with Robbie Eagles and The Tuckman, the point is to anoint someone young.) So, why Alexxis Falcon? Did she show something during the match that proved that she was the right choice?

Since Falcon presented herself as a villain, the pairing would have put two heels together. However, Moné switched alignment for the match. As the champion who was trying to elevate Falcon, Moné had the odd role of playing the underdog. That flattened Moné’s character and took a bit away from her charm since her heelish sassiness was always so appealing.

On the other side, Falcon seemed very self-confident. However, judging by how clunky her fall to the mat for Moné’s headscissors into the Statement Maker was, she might not have been physically ready for Moné. Luckily for us, she did do some cool stuff, like this suplex.

Moné and Falcon traded control of the match without much flow. For example, Falcon scored a nearfall with the Angel’s Wings, and then Moné wiggled out of the Falcon’s Fury. She took Falcon down with a lungblower and chased her with a sunset flip powerbomb into the corner and a Meteora. Falcon struck back with a suspended Falcon’s Fury. It felt like a series of things that happened without narrative binding.

Since the match was for both the DW and the BODYSLAM Women’s titles, Moné brought two belts with her. That came into play at the conclusion when Falcon teased hitting her with one belt, which the referee stopped. So, Falcon smartly picked up the second belt, kicked Moné in the groin, and used the belt against Moné. To make this bit work, Moné had to slide over after the fact to cover the belt with her body because Falcon took slightly too long to recover from the Falcon’s Fury to do it herself.

I can see why RevPro, DW, and BODYSLAM went with Falcon over the other options. She projects self-assuredness, and setting up a heel to be the outside champion created the possibility that DW or BODYSLAM might develop a wrestler to take take down Falcon to reclaim those titles. On the other hand, the decision came with some costs. Falcon over-emoted throughout this match; one might say that she exhibited some NXT-level acting. Judging from her clunky execution at various points in the match, Falcon, at 25 years old, had room to grow technically.

Moné seemed to be moving at about 75% speed throughout the match. However, the RevPro fans didn’t seem to mind based on their reactions. She and Falcon had some creative ideas, but the execution was sub-optimal.

You can watch the match and the show on Revolution Pro Wrestling’s VOD service, RevPro OnDemand.

Jay Joshua (c) vs. 1 Called Manders 
RevPro High Stakes 2026
March 21, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 4/1/26: 125

While I appreciated that RevPro put together a recap video of Jay Joshua and 1 Called Manders’s feud over the Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship, I was not able to understand a word said during the video. All I heard was a booming, echoing mess.

From what I could gather, the story seemed simple enough. (Thankfully, the commentators also related the bits to know about their feud.) Manders had challenged Michael Oku for the title and failed at RevPro Epic Encounter 2025. In his quest to win the title, Manders defeated Joshua thrice in tag team matches: in the Great British Tag League Final at RevPro 13th Anniversary Show – Day 2, Live in Southampton 40, and in a best 2 out of 3 falls match at Live in London 105. In the last tag match, Joshua pinned Manders first, but Manders then pinned Joshua twice to win. Those who clamor for “pure sports builds” in wrestling could look to this match’s story for an example.

Dear British wrestling fans, this show took place on March 21, 2026, one day after the literal vernal equinox. It’s muppet behavior to sing a remix of “Winter Wonderland” where you replaced “Winter” with “Manders” after the ring announcer introduced him, and doubly so after the match had started. I’ll leave it to Will Ospreay to explain it in your common tongue:

Jay Joshua’s reaction told the tale.

Joshua and Manders went through the normal paces of a heavyweight match: they rammed each other with shoulder blocks, had a short strike exchange, and brawled outside for a short spell. Between setting Manders up like a seesaw on the ropes and Manders collapsing onto a fan’s shoulder in the front row, it felt more cheeky than serious. Manders tried to swing the match deeper into violent territory with a powerslam onto the concrete floor of The Hangar.

Back inside the ring, Manders and Joshua moved at what could be described charitably as a deliberate pace. It was mostly macho posturing. Manders and Joshua would dare each other to hit the other as hard as they could. We dipped a toe into nonsense when Manders kneeled down so he and Joshua could trade forearm shots to the face, which made it easy for Joshua to knock Manders over.

After Joshua targeted Manders’s right arm with an armbar and some stomps, the match, which was already moving slowly, decelerated to a crawl when Manders escaped to the outside. Rather than pressing the attack, Joshua stayed in the ring and dared Manders to return to face him. Given the context of Manders beating Joshua thrice in a row, I got why they would would think to structure the match this way. However, it still made for a pretty boring watch to see the pace stutter and stall. Even the way Joshua applied a sleeper hold felt a beat slower than it needed to be.

The match’s pace picked back up with Manders, struggling with a hurt arm, tried to push Joshua back with his offense. Though Manders and Joshua could be criticized for not showing their physical damage here, I would rather have this version of the match where they showed their tenacity by plowing through the pain to try to hurt their opponent.

The rest of the match continued with this stop-start pace that could not keep my attention. Manders had a better match against Timur the Great at New Texas Pro: Sin City Stampede during WrestleMania Week. Using Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Jeff Cobb from BJW from January 2025 as the bar, this match fell far short.

You can watch the match and the show on Revolution Pro Wrestling’s VOD service, RevPro OnDemand.

Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Alexander Otsuka
Michinoku Pro Alexander Otsuka 30th Anniversary
March 1, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 4/1/26: 253

Greetings, grappling fans. Alexander Otsuka was a legendary toughman who made the transition from pro wrestler to mixed martial arts fighter in the mid-1990s. According to Sherdog, Otsuka had a 5-13 career record, and his claim to fame was the perseverance he demonstrated in losses to Renzo Gracie (Pride 8), Ken Shamrock (Pride Grand Prix 2000: Finals), Quinton Jackson (BattlArts vs. the World), Wanderlei Silva (Pride 18 – Cold Fury), and Anderson Silva (Pride 22 – Beasts from the East 2). (Hey, he beat Bob Sapp, though it was in 2011 and it was by DQ. So, he had that going for him.)

He celebrated his 30th anniversary this year even though he made his pro wrestling debut in 1994 and MMA debut in 1995. I suppose that this might have been the 30th anniversary of his first bout in BattlArts, which was on April 6, 1996. This celebration took place in Michinoku Pro because Otsuka’s alternate persona, Otoko Sakari, made many appearances there between 2006 and 2007. Over the years, Otsuka and Sakari clashed with Shinzaki, mostly in Michinoku Pro, so he was as good a choice for Otsuka’s opponent as any.

At 54 and 59 respectively, Otsuka and Shinzaki would have a match that, on the surface, looked very different than what Jay Joshua and 1 Called Manders or Mercedes Moné and Alexxis Falcon would produce. In a way, Otsuka’s and Shinzaki’s physical limitations made the match more interesting. How would Otsuka and Shinzaki try to stretch their athleticism? What spin would they give the established wrestling plot diagram and tropes to keep our attention during the match?

As one might expect, Otsuka and Shinzaki spent a lot of time laying out what the match would be about by laying around the mat. Specifically, Shinzaki trapped Otsuka in leglocks to take away his base. With Otsuka’s reputed high pain tolerance and years of experience, Shinzaki could only hope to slow him down. (Imagine if Shinzaki and Otsuka agreed that Otsuka would lose via a quick submission at his 30th anniversary show.) All of that work on Otuska’s legs led to this surprising headscissors takedown from Otsuka:

Then, Otsuka struggled unsuccessfully to extend Shinzaki’s arm for an armbar. Otsuka switched tactics and tried to turn Shinzaki over for a Boston Crab, but Shinzaki flipped his way out. Not surprisingly, the former MMA fighter was the first to strike his opponent, and Otsuka dropped elbows and knees onto Shinzaki’s neck. Otsuka teased another Boston Crab, but he switched to a giant swing.

Aging bodies and their physical limitations can be offset (up to a point) with greater focus on selling. So, Shinzaki could still tease the ropewalk and then take a planned tumble to show the effects of Otsuka’s giant swing. Furthermore, the crowd would still be awed by this, judging by their reaction. (Watch the reaction of the woman in gray in the middle of the frame who was clapping for Shinzaki.)

This build-up was why their decision to focus on Shinzaki’s offense was confusing. After tumbling off the ropes, Shinzaki escaped Otsuka’s suplex attempt and took him down. Shinzaki then double stomped Otsuka’s midsection a couple of times, slammed him to the mat, dropped him with a superplex (that drew a great groan from Otsuka), and a (2-star) frog splash. Otsuka kept the crowd into him by reversing Shinzaki’s prayer bomb, but Shinzaki’s momentum could not be stopped. He slapped Otsuka, cartwheeled out of Otsuka’s way, bowled him over with a diving shoulder tackle, and scored a nearfall with a powerbomb.

Shinzaki’s missed diving headbutt allowed Otsuka to start his comeback, which was mostly slaps and a standing headbutt. Then, Otsuka choked Shinzaki out and pinned him for good measure.

The odd transition from Shinzaki falling off the rope and turning up his attacks almost immediately aside, this was a pleasantly gritty battle between two veterans. Otsuka’s groaning and pained faces were very believable, and Shinzaki still looked spry for his advanced age. The ending came very suddenly, though that could have been the point about the threat that a former MMA fighter posed to even a veteran like Shinzaki.

You can watch the match and the show on Wrestle Universe.

Kohei Kinoshita, Naoki Tanizaki & TiiiDA vs. Mexa Boy’s (Aguila Oriental, Noisy Boy & Spider Fly)
KOBE Meriken Pro-Wrestling
March 27, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 4/1/26: N/A

It’s been a little while since we journeyed into the grime and visited Motomachi Ringsoul. For transparency, I won’t pretend that this is a hidden great match. Nonetheless, I wanted to highlight this match because it involved Kohei Kinoshita (who was on my list of wrestlers to scout for this year’s 30 Under 30 project) and TiiiDA (whom we might recognize from the tag match from Osaka Pro).

Furthermore, independent luchadores Aguila Oriental, Noisy Boy, and Spider Fly made their first appearance in Japan this year here. We last saw Spider Fly in the party match from the third night of this year’s 16 Carat Gold tournament. He pulled off some astounding acrobatics in that match, and I was curious what he would be able to do in the smaller ring in Ringsoul. Since Spider Fly was scheduled to be in some of my highlighted matches during WrestleMania Week 2026, I thought that this might be an appetizer for what he could give us. Unfortunately, Spider Fly didn’t have a particularly good showing in the match that I was able to see.

As you’d expect, the luchadores moved at about 40% of their top speed because the MeriPro ring in Ringsoul is tiny. Things were friendly and sporting until Kohei Kinoshita, who’s fallen under YASSHI’s evil tutelage, attacked Spider Fly (I think) after a handshake. Due to the low ceiling, we got some muted fireworks from Spider Fly and the other Mexa Boy’s.

On the other hand, Kinoshita performed a neat variant of the headlock takedown.

And this fun fallaway bridging pin.

Not long after that, Naoki Tanizaki won the match with a submission hold.

It was the Hershey’s Kiss of a match: sweet but lacking any substance. I’m sure it must have been cool to watch this live in Ringsoul. After the fact on video, there wasn’t much of value here.

With all that said, let’s update our list of wrestlers under the age of 30.

1. Miu Watanabe
2. Daiki Odashima
3. MIRAI
4. Saya Kamitani
5. Starlight Kid
6. JACKY KAMEI
7. Senka Akatsuki
8. Riiita
9. Dragon Dia
10. VENY
11. Miku Kanae
12. Hazuki
13. Konami
14. Saya Iida
15. Rina
16. Arisu Endo
17. Suzume
18. Kazuma Sumi
19. Mei Seira
20. Takeshi Masada
21. Chanyota
22. Jet Wei
23. Kodai Nazaki
24. Kaisei Takechi
25. SUZAKU
26. Aran Sano
27. Yutani
28. Kohei Kinoshita
29. KANON
30. Ricky Sosa

Wrestlers considered but not ranked at this time: Junta Miyawaki, Jessica Troy, Kouga, Honori Hana, Cory Zero, JGU, Hollie Barlow, NORI, Chi Chi, Titus Alexander, Hanan, Peter Tihanyi, Zoltan, Spider Fly, Toxin, Kuro, Echika Miyabi, Shay Kassidy, Aysha, Joe Lando, Danny Black, Eli Theseus, Gabriel Aeros, Alexxis Falcon, Noisy Boy

Next time: We’ll continue to scout some possible contenders for this year’s 30 Under 30 list as we check out Rhio (not Riho and certainly not RYO), some potentially underseen wrestlers working in Australia, a wrestler from Big Japan Wrestling, a wrestler from BURST Pro Wrestling, and more. We’ll even sneak in another Sareee match.