Puroresu Show Reviews

The first Zero-One show I’ve ever watched and a really good show at that. The show kicks off with the COOLEST theme song/video of any of the puroresu promotions before the formal run-down of the card.

Cage Death Match: Nathan Jones VS The Predator
One of the main reasons for me to get this show was to watch Zero-One’s Steel Giant take on the one of the gaijin aces of the promotion. Also to see Nathan Jones wrestle since he never did while he was in WWE. These are two big men going at it in a steel cage, and was a good power match as they traded big moves like chokeslams, iron claws and choking each other with Predator’s chain! Both men even had no difficulty going up top to hit some big diving moves. I only didn’t like the ending as Predator’s big knee drop finisher looked really weak. Post match, Jones gave a farewell speech where he said his good-byes and claimed he would come back to Zero-One after beating Brock Lesner for the WWE title to finish his business with Predator and Hashimoto. Too bad it never happened.
Match Rating: ***

Cage Death Match: Kintaro Kanemura & Tetsuhiro Kuroda with Kodo Fuyuki VS Josh Dempsey & Sean McCully
Two Hardcore wrestlers VS a boxer and a shoot fighter! This was short but FUN as the WEW team tore into the gaijins from the start and took out the ref! Fuyuki even did his Screaming Lariat which got the crowd going and Kanemura did an insane dive off the cage! Unfortunately, the gaijins made their comeback as big Josh Dempsey KO’d Kuroda with a series of strikes for the win.
Match Rating: **

Fugofugo Yumeji, Yoshihito Sasaki & Kuroge Wagyuta VS Don Arakawa, Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Masanobu Fuchi
Mostly a comedy match with some fun spots. Fuchi was over big time with the crowd even though he was an outsider, and he didn’t hesitate to drop his opponents on their head with his backdrop. This match was OK, though I felt it really went longer than it should have.
Match Rating: **1/2

Low Ki & Frankie VS Masato Tanaka & Tatsuhito Takaiwa
This was probably the best match of the night! Low Ki was at his best here and was out to prove he could hang with the heavyweights in Tanaka. Lots of great spots in this one including Low Ki single-handedly taking on both opponents, Frankie’s always impressive Flux Capacitor, and Takaiwa and Tanaka’s awesome offense. This match is definitely a MUST SEE
Match Rating: ****

Kohei Sato & Hirotaka Yokoi VS Dos Caras Jr & Jimmy Snuka Jr
From one really good match, to one really bland one. I don’t know if Caras & Snuka are really related to the originals, but Caras does have a background in MMA. Sato and Yokoi played heel as at one point the even un-masked Caras Jr! It still wasn’t their night though, as the young Zero-One team lost when Caras hit a beautiful Gorilla Press into a German Suplex hold on Sato for the win.
Match Rating: **

Kazuhiko Ogasawara VS Kendo KaShin
Keiji Mutoh makes his way out to do guest commentary for the rest of the night before the match started. Another rivalry started by KaShin’s disrespectful ways. The match is mostly Ogasawara striking and KaShin trying for submissions, and finally getting his flying cross-armbreaker for the referee stop victory.
Match Rating: *

King Joe & King Adamo VS Steve Corino & Jeff Jarrett
Jun Kasai was in the NWA team’s corner as the Philadelphia Monkey! This was an OK match, and was interesting to see Jarrett actually do some comedy spots! Nothing really special though, save maybe Jarrett bringing back the old guitar and adding to his list of greatest hits.
Match Rating: **

World 1 Junior Tournament Finals
Naohiro Hoshikawa VS Wataru Sakata
The veteran (Hoshikawa) VS the rising star (Sakata). This was a good match as both are stiff strikers and submission experts. Add that Hoshikawa has a bad knee and Sakata a bad shoulder, and you can pretty much tell how things went with both men targeting each other’s weak spot. This is actually reminiscent of an NJPW Jr match, but it interest me more than most NJPW Jr matches.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Satoshi Kojima VS Shinjiro Otani

The second best match on the show next to the tag match earlier on. An awesome contest from two of the future aces of All Japan and Zero-One. Both men hit their spots and Ohtani would borrow Tanaka’s Diamond Dust to try and put Kojima away. But it would be Kojima’s pad-less Lariat that would take Ohtani’s head off for the win. Another MUST SEE match!
Match Rating: ****

NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship Match
Tom Howard & Matt Ghaffari VS Naoya Ogawa & Shinya Hashimoto

This was not a pretty match, and not just because of the sight of Ghaffari’s HUGE stomach. It started off good, but then ended up with a sports entertainment type finish as the referee got bumped and the gaijin side double teamed OH-GUN team ending with the Ghaffari Press, a weak looking big splash, to crown new tag champions.
Match Rating: ***

Overall: I would still recommend this show just for the two **** matches alone. There’s something here for everybody and was a good introduction to Zero-One for me, and I’m sure would be a good intro for other newbies.

Labels: Zero-1 MAX