Masaaki Mochizuki vs Yuji Yasuraoka - Kitao Dojo, June 14th 1994
Been on a bit of a Mochi kick as of late and I’ve been looking up some of his older matches as well as his Dragon Gate/Toryumon matches. On my search it seems I found Mochizuki’s 2nd match ever according to Cagematch, which is neat. The match didn’t last long though, only 2-3 minutes long but it was a fine few minutes. Mochizuki had a nice nice kicks and had some nifty counters to Yasuraoka’s grappling. One point in the match, Yasuraoka gave Mochizuki a nasty slap and had a new suplexes that looked pretty good. The match ended by KO after a Mochizuki head kick to Yasuraoka. This was promising to say the least, I may have to look some some of their WAR matches because there is quite a few to see these two face off again. NR
Masaaki Mochizuki vs Minoru Tanaka - Battlearts, May 27th 1998
Pretty good match. Good mix of good striking and well done submissions including a lovely transition into a crossarm bar by Tanaka which got him the win. Pretty intense for the most part, loads of urgency to the match which is what Battlarts is mostly about. ***½
Masaaki Mochizuki vs Jushin Thunder Liger - NJPW Best Of The Super Junior VI Day Five, May 23rd 1999
Interesting match because Mochizuki is the more dominant of the two here. Mochizuki starts working on the legs in the early parts of the math with a tight looking heel hook and then transitions into working on the arm. Liger fights back of course and gets the win. Pretty standard match from a structure standpoint but a bunch of fun to watch. ***½
Masaaki Mochizuki vs Tomohiro Ishii - WAR 8 Years Later, July 13th 2000
Ishii in the late 90's/Early 00's is basically a Kawada cosplay or at least looks like one. They look oddly similar. The match starts of with Mochizuki kicks the shit out of Ishii and Ishii replies with working on his legs. Though that didn't last long and Mochi started to brutalise Ishii’s legs with some nasty kicks and leg submissions. Ishii is a great babyface in peril, selling Mochizuki’s offence really well and does a great job at getting the crowd root for him. The finishing stretch was okay. Ishii was doing the generic puro offence, lariats and tiger suplexes etc but Mochi’s kicks were a big factor to overcome and Mochi got the win. Not to the level of what they would both go at later in their careers but there were glimpses. ***¼
Masaaki Mochizuki vs CIMA vs. Darkness Dragon vs. Dragon Kid vs. Magnum TOKYO (Five Way Steel Cage Escape Mask Vs. Hair Match) - Toryumon Japan Absolutamente, September 30th 2001
Nice to see an early addition to the cages matches that happen at Dead Or Alive every year. It wasn’t as good as them but it’s was still very good and highly enjoyable. CIMA’s escape was really clever with him showing off his stretched by pulling himself up using the parts. As was Darkness Dragon’s. It had some comedy moments which was hilarious and it didn’t seem out of place at all considering the stipulation and put over the urgency of the especapes. ****
Masaaki Mochizuki vs CIMA - Dragon Gate The Gate Of Legend, December 16th 2004
Great match with an incredible ending with a hot crowd. Both respected each other well and never tried to cheat eachother out of the match. This was a straight match with them telegraphing what each other was going to do like CIMA stopping the Sankakugeri by Mochi very quickly and Mochi blocking the Schwein from CIMA. The match was full of net counters like that and it added to the story greatly. Fantastic match and big pop for Mochi when he won. ****¼
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