.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Puroresu Show Reviews

Reviews of puroresu shows in my collection

Monday, June 28, 2004

 

New Japan King of IWGP 2/15/2004

A little background in case you all didn't know. "Supernova" Shinsuke Nakamura was forced to surrender the IWGP heavyweight title soon after unifying it with the NWF title when he beat Yoshihiro Takayama in the main event at Wrestling World 2004. Nakamura was fighting Takayama on injury as he hadn't completely recovered from the K-1 fight with Alexay Ignashov, and Takayama being the big striker he is spent most of that match rearranging Nakamura's looks and injuring his face, leading to Nakamura surrendering the title to take time off to heal his injuries.
New Japan officials originally organised a 6-man tournament comprising former IWGP champions Tenzan, Nagata, Takayama, Chono, Yasuda and Tenryu before turning it to an 8-man tournament after alot of whinning and complaining from Hiroshi Tanahashi, resulting in him and Kensuke Sasaki being added to the mix. On to the show!

Ryusuke Taguchi VS Hirooki Gotoh
You all know what I think of watching rookies, so I'll pass on this.
Match Rating: PASS

Yuji Nagata VS Tadao Yasuda - IWGP Tournament Match
This started off really SLOW due to Nagata overselling a leg injury when one of the Makais kicked his leg out. Yasuda lumbers around a hobbling Nagata and even puts a Nagata Lock 1 on him at one point. Suddenly Nagata just shrugs off his bad leg, revealing that he was playing possum and whooped Yasuda BIG TIME with several hard kicks and tapping out the big man with the Nagata Lock III.
Match Rating: *

Hiroyoshi Tenzan VS Kensuke Sasako - IWGP Tournament Match
Joined in progress. Sasaki looked more powerful than Tenzan here, even kicking out of the TTD at just a one count at one point! Too bad they cut off how Tenzan got busted open. And Tenzan probably wouldn't have won if Makabe hadn't had distracted Sasaki.
Match Rating: **1/2

Hiroshi Tanahashi VS Yoshihiro Takayama - IWGP Tournament Match
Joined in progress. Tanahashi actually hit an impressive German suplex on the bigger Takayama at one point, but Takayama dominated most of the match before one lucky break gave Tanahashi the big upset win. This was the longest of the quarter final matches, probably due to the slow pace.
Match Rating: **

Masahiro Chono VS Genichiro Tenryu
They slug it out for most of the match, traded strikes and chops before Tenryu hits the soccer kick into Chono's face as he was getting up, which knocked him senseless leading to the referee stop giving the win to Tenryu by TKO.
Match Rating: **

Koji Kanemoto, American Dragon & Curry Man VS Heat, Tiger Mask & Masayuki Naruse
This started out slow until American Dragon hooked it up with Heat. He might be AMERICAN Dragon, but he sure looks alot and wrestles like William Regal, but with some diving moves thrown in. It was interesting watching Christopher Daniels in his Curry Man gimmick too. Probably the best match up to this point in the show.
Match Rating: ***

Yuji Nagata VS Hiroyoshi Tenzan - IWGP Tournament Semi Final
The medic did a lousy job on Tenzan's bandage as it popped off on the opening lock-up! This was a fun match, up until Tenzan landed his knee on Nagata's face when he botched his moonsault. I'm guessing this match was suppose to go longer. The fans were all over the referee for stopping the count at two, claiming Nagata pulled a shoulder when Nagata clearly didn't move a muscle and was out cold. You could even tell Tenzan was expecting Nagata to kick out from the second pin attempt, but the referee counted 3 and the cornermen rushed the ring to attend to Nagata.
Match Rating: ***

Hiroshi Tanahashi VS Genichiro Tenryu
Tanahashi was dominated through out most of the match. Taking about THREE of Tenryu's 53Yr-Old Brainbusters and the 54Yr-Old Powerbomb, before the grumpy old man finally put away the youngster.
Match Rating: **1/2

Shinya Makabe, Yutaka Yoshie & Blue Wolf VS Makai #1, Mitsuya Nagai & Katsuyori Shibata
Makabe took every chance he got to cheapshot Shibata. Mostly the standard tag fare in this one. I like watching Yoshie and Wolf. And the Makais just bore me. Their lucky they have someone like Shibata on their team.
Match Rating: *1/2

NOAH GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match
Mitsuo Momota VS Jushin Thunder Liger

If all you know about Momota is that he worked comedy and old timer's matches in NOAH and AJPW, Then you NEED to see THIS match! The fans were heavilly behind Momota here and popped for just about everything he did. Great stuff, though I would have preferred a better ending.
Match Rating: ***

Hiroyoshi Tenzan VS Genichiro Tenryu - IWGP Tournament Finals
This was good, but felt a bit anti-climatic at the end. Maybe they told them to hold back a bit to prevent further injuries? Still, it was good that they put the belt on the right man at the end of this.
Match Rating: ***

Overall: This is a fun show, though of course it would have been preferable if none of the matches were clipped. Why they never aired an IWGP Championship tournament on pay per view is beyond me.

Labels:


Sunday, June 13, 2004

 

New Japan ULTIMATE CRUSH II 10/13/2003 Tokyo Dome Show

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match - 11-man Super Junior Rumble
Participants: Masayuki Naruse, Masahito Kakihara, El Samurai, Heat, Jushin Liger, Gedo, Katsushi Takemura, Dick Togo, Jado, Tiger Mask & Koji Kanemoto
- This was a fun match up until Takemura and company started cheating. One thing that bothered me was how Jado, Gedo and Togo were allowed to enter the ring together, as well as Takenura who entered with Tiger Mask when he attacked him from behind. Also interesting to note how none of the other Juniors who were eliminated didn't bother to help Kanemoto or Liger, maybe cause they thought it would be easier to win the title off anyone EXCEPT those two later down the line.
Match Rating: **

U-30 Openweight No. 1 Contenders Match
Blue Wolf VS Yutaka Yoshie

- This was ok. Two big guys duking it out. I don't think it was anything special, but still fun to watch.
Match Rating: **

TOA VS Shinya Makabe
- Now this was fun watching the two big guys slug it out. TOA was green and it showed, but the match still worked as they made into more of a fight than a wrestling match.
Match Rating: **1/2

Tadao Yasuda VS Osamu Nishimura
- This sucked big time watching the Makai Club's cheating tactics. I can buy Nishimura's serious promos, and he even has the look of a main eventer, but this feud didn't really do much for him.
Match Rating: Dud

Like my review of the first Ultimate Crush, I won't be reviewing the shoots, including the King of Pancrase title match.

Kazunari Murakami ¥2,000,000 Bounty Match
Katsuyori Shibata VS Kazunari Murakami

- More cheating shinanigans from the Makais. This was kinda a like a replay of the Enson/Murakami match from the first Ultimate Crush, but with Murakami in the dominant role. Except he couldn't get the job done on his own.
Match Rating: *

Super Dream Match
Masahiro Chono VS Hulk Hogan

- This was suprisingly good considering this was a Hogan match. Big heat from the crowd for Hogan who cheered everything he did no matter how weak it looked. Much like Hogan's match with The Rock, the crowd heat made this match.
Match Rating: ***1/2

10-Man New Japan VS Inoki Gun Elimination Match
Seiji Sakaguchi, Yuji Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Manabu Nakanishi & Hiroshi Tanahashi VS Yoshihiro Takayama, Kazuyuki Fujita, Shinsuke Nakamura, Minoru Suzuki & Bob Sapp
- This was fun, though the over the top rule sorta made some of the eliminations a bit too easy. If not for that rule, who knows how long this match would have went?!? Great work from both sides overall.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Overall: This was an OK show overall and luckilly NJPW has decided to stop with the MMA matches already. The overall wrestling card was OK, and fortunately the two main events delivered.

Labels:


Archives

January 2004   February 2004   March 2004   April 2004   May 2004   June 2004   July 2004   August 2004   September 2004   October 2004   November 2004   December 2004   January 2005   February 2005   March 2005   April 2005   May 2005   June 2005   July 2005   August 2005   September 2005   October 2005   November 2005   December 2005   January 2006   February 2006   March 2006   April 2006   May 2006   June 2006   July 2006   August 2006   September 2006   October 2006   November 2006   December 2006   January 2007   February 2007   March 2007   April 2007   May 2007   June 2007   January 2008   May 2008   December 2008   February 2009   March 2009   April 2009   May 2009   July 2009   August 2009   October 2009  

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?