Keita Yano

[10.0] "Is there anybody quite like Keita Yano? This weirdo NWA obsessed freak who was trained in the Battlarts Dojo, dresses up as The Joker, and is also basically Genichiro Tenryu's adopted son? Probably not, no. And that's what makes me gravitate so heavily towards him, he's just so unique. Whenever I watch a Keita performance, I know that I'm not gonna get that from anybody else, and I realistically can't comprehend a lot of the stuff he does! He's obviously a great grappler, one of the greatest matworkers in the business, but he's showcased this ability to switch it up, to be a solid striker, a fun plunder act, an actually funny comedy guy, it's genuinely incredible. Super excited to see what he'll be up to whenever he's back in the ring."

[10.0] "Fairly new to Keita but it didn't take much to instantly make me a fan. The Taro Yamada mat classic infront of 40 people was my first exposure and after seeing a fair bit of his stuff in Tenryu Project and across numerous indy's, he's just the man. One of the best grapplers I've seen with a real keen sense of making things unique, compelling and deliberate while also being so unpredictable with his strikes and aggression. He's always got that bubbling anger underneath all his smooth holds and transitions that just makes him so compelling. I know I've probably yet to see his best stuff but from what I have seen, I'm a huge fan."

[9.0] "Yano had a strange start to his career as a mostly good albeit generic Battlarts guy, but there was always something bubbling under the surface of the young lad that started to come though in a few ways. He started looking more and more bizarre with strange and often confusing fashion choices, he started stalling and doing weird shtick to fill the matches he would have. There's no doubt, however, that Keita Yano is a very impressive grappler. Even under all of his gimmicks you can tell he's just one of those guys who's super committed to the catch-wrestling side of the business, dude knows things and counters that even the biggest nerds would be hard-pressed to track down. Sure, he has had his clear lows: his infamous reputation in the 2010's as a rather uncooperative act who burnt bridges and shot on fellow wrestlers for real, his Brody-lite wild nature as a unpredictable force being so much so that even DDT didn't want to tempt fate with him, his own struggles with mental health: but even in those dark ages you get pretty fantastic matches out of the guy. His Wallabee material might be some of the greatest black sheep sleeper hits of the decade with multiple matches hitting levels of violence rarely seen in wrestling. In recent years he's seemingly mellowed out and basically committed full-time to being one of the best wrestlers in Tenryu Project and having probably one of the most robust trilogies with Hikaru Sato in the process. The dude is simply amazing at what he does and with his relative youth I think he's going to go down as one of the greatest indie acts ever, quite frankly."

[10.0] "Keita Yano/KEITA In THE House/Kendo Keita/KEITA In THE C/etc is unironically one of the best wrestlers of the 21st century. He's extremely talented on the mat with some of the most creative limb work in wrestling history and throws the hard uppercuts and lariats you'd expect from a Battlarts trainee. Since Battlarts has ended he's been able to seamlessly blend influences from Llave and 90s American wrestling into his style as well. His Joker/Brody hybrid persona is definitely divisive but I personally really enjoy it, nobody else in the puro scene is like him and that's definitely worth commendation. Currently he's been on a career run ever since Tenryu seemed to have fallen in love with his style and started booking him on every Tenryu Project show, with his 2021 run in that promotion putting him in the conversation for WOTY. Very excited to see what he does going forward."

[9.0] "absolutely untouchable on the mat, he's so fluent in everything he does. 2022 has been a career making year for him as Tenryu seemingly adopted him into his promotion, having some of the greatest matches that Tenryu Project has ever seen. things are only going to continue to go up for keita."

[8.0] "I used to love Yano when he was a babyface-looking grappler in the late 2000s. I'm not too sure about his "Joker meets Brody" persona but his skills on the mat remain enjoyable."