Sportiva Entertainment
I saw one of their shows in the cagematch front page and was intrigued. Not sure how it happened but I started watching their
latest show completely blind, looking stuff up as I went.
Sportiva Entertainment is a pro wrestling promotion based in Nagoya. I was surprised to find out that they hold their shows
in a bar called Sportiva Arena. Their gimmick is that every Wednesday night they sell hot curry and rice and hold a small wrestling show,
called Sportiva Wednesday Curry Pro Wrestling. I was lucky to see that they upload all of their shows on their
Youtube channel.
I have to say I am pretty lucky that they upload their shows on Youtube for free, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to watch
their show at all. Lots of smaller Japanese indie companies like to upload their shows on obscure Japan-only streaming services,
or have their shows PPV-only, which is too expensive a cost for a broke uni student like me to justify.
Now when I first learned of this gimmick I was a bit worried about the wrestling of this show. But I am happy to say that, despite
all the gimmicks, the tiny size of the bar and the ramshackle production, I found their wrestling to be surprisingly good!
Their wrestling has a very old school vibe that I appreciate. It has to be said that the very small but rowdy crowd, the dinky ring,
the whole shebang is quite quaint, very cozy and heartwarming. Below is a rundown of the show I watched, but I will add more if I
watch a show of theirs again!
Rewatch page-style.
=== Watched ===
Sportiva Wednesday Curry Pro Wrestling 10/12/2025 
First Sportiva show I ever watched!
- Ryutaro Ono vs. Masanori Kanu Watanabe
- According to cagematch that these two guys are rookies... Honestly you could never tell they've
been wrestling for less than a year just by looking at them, they have confidence when moving around
the ring, their offense is crisp and they had a pretty good match. Watanabe sweep kicks (!) Ono
to counter a roundhouse kick. There's some good gutwrench suplexes by both men. Ryutaro
effortlessly does a hook kick followed by a suplex! Really impressive. While Watanabe seems to
be ahead most of the time, Ono steals the win with a schoolboy. It's not too flashy but
even the most basic moves have an impact, something you can't say about many veterans.
- Butada Butahiko & Tomoya Hasegawa vs. Shinya Ishida & Yu Shimizu
- I was a bit worried when Butada Butahiko who was in his pjs and was wearing a pig mask and Tomoya Hasegawa,
a middle aged guy wearing a Mayu Iwatani shirt (ahhh Marigold!!!) came in. But I was surprised to see
that both ar very competent wrestlers! There was some comedy starting off, which is always welcome in my wrestling,
with the collar & elbow and monocycle spots between Hasegawa and Shimizu. It gets serious as it goes on,
especially when Ishida comes in, who is a black hole of charisma and just spams athletically impressive
moves without any rhyme or reason. He is more of the type of wrestler I expected to see in these shows and that is
to say, he's not very good at anything other than jumping about. Finishing stretch is pretty heated,
pig mask Butada does a gutwrench, a vertical suplex and follows up with a sick looking brainbuster. He goes for the pin
but Shimizu manages to roll him up, grab the tights and get the three! Butada goes berserk and literally
bodyslams everyone, including the ref and some seconds. Another enjoyable match and the Butada shenanigans were
also entertaining.
- Intelligent Sensational Grand Passion Mask No. 4 & Michio Kageyama vs. Ali Najima & Yuta Oya
- A serviceable main event, although I think the opener was a bit better. Kageyama has such cool look and aura
but I wouldn't say he has the crispest offense. He represents Pro Wrestling Team DERA, which is a promotion I've
never heard of before either, with a quick look I find out that unfortunately they don't upload their shows on youtube...
Well, you can't win them all... Grand Passion Mask is from 666! I'd love to see some shows of theirs. People say they're on
NicoNico, but last time I checked, their last uploaded show is really old. Of the homegrown darlings, Ali Najima's beef
with Michio Kageyama seems to drive the story of the match, but it was Yuta Oya who really got me invested in this match. It
seems like he is shoot blind, which makes his wrestling style really unique. He had some great irish whip spots where he flops
to sell the power he puts behind them. He sold a pk kick and a neckbreaker like death, and that was when I was hooked.
Intelligent Sensational Grand Passion Mask No. 4 reversed a sharpshooter from Oya into a modified figure four beautifully,
I was so impressed! Why don't more people use that reversal, it looks like it makes a lot of sense. Oya selled it like all the
pain in the world came to him at once. He was really good at making everything he does look like it meant something, it was raw,
unpolished, it looked like he was fighting for real. Najima and Kageyama get back in and I check out again, the final stretch
ending with Kageyama standing tall. There were some unique stuff in here! Post-match four trainees get in the ring and do some squats
which I thought was a nice touch. Also, four trainees! Damn! A promotion like Pro Wrestling NOAH has never had four trainees
at once! Good for them!
I thought this show was pretty cute and fun. Will I watch Sportiva again? Mayyyybe, although I wouldn't feel bad if this was just
a one-time thing. The actual wrestling is solid and old-school but not anything too special. I felt like the in-house experience would be
miles better, with the curry and rice and the other 20 people in attendance. It would make you feel like you belonged.
Damn I'm never writing this much again for a single show. Took too damn long!
=== Watch Later ===
Sportiva Wednesday Curry Pro Wrestling Super Deluxe Special 17/12/2025
I should definitely watch this Sportiva Entertainment "supershow"! There's tons of matches and even Fuminori Abe
makes an appearance! Yes, Fuminori Abe of Kakuto Tanteidan fame! He really jumps at every opportunity to work these
types of heartwarming shows doesn't he... Minoru Fujita also makes an appearance. Main event is Ali Najima & Masanori
Kanu Watanabe vs. Ryuma Sekimo & Ryutaro Ono, homegrown darlings and Big Japan youngster Ryuma Sekimo... what an odd choice...
I wouldn't have it any other way!!!
