Puroresu Show Reviews

January 24, 2004 Osaka
AAA VS Japan: Esther Moreno, Alebrije & Pimpenela VS Commando Boirshoi, TAKA Michinoku & Dansyoku Dieno
There was a HUGE pop for TAKA from the Osaka crowd when he came out! They cheered him on even if he still heeled them. This match was pretty much like the mix six person tag from the previous show, but a bit more time was given to the women, and TAKA had more trouble with the Dieno and Pimpinela than Kaz did. There was this fun spot where Pimpinela dove under the bottom rope, slapped Boirshoi, who slapped Dieno, who dry humped TAKA, who turned around only to get kissed smack dab on the lips by Pimpinela! One thing I’ve noticed about Pimpinela is how deceptive he really is. Despite the disturbing gay gimmick, he can really go and work some impressive high impact moves.
I’m continued to be impressed by Esther Moreno here as she has a great look and attitude in the ring. The fact that she speaks fluent Japanese also helped her connect with the crowd that was also in to her. For those of you who’ve never seen her before, Boirshoi is really small. Kinda like Rey Mysterio, but I don’t think she’s as talented. She also wrestles comedy matches under the name Boirshoi Kid where she dresses like a clown.
This was a fun entertaining match overall like the previous show, though I wasn’t too big on the ending where TAKA accidentally superkicked Boirshoi and bickered with Dino instead of either of them making the save when Moreno pinned her right in front of them.
Match Rating: **

AAA VS LLL: Mascara Sagrada, Mascarita Sagrada, Oriental & El Zorro VS Psicosis, Mini Psicosis, Mr. Aguila & Charly Manson
This reminded me of all those lucha matches WCW used to have, but the only guys worth watching here were Zorro, Aguila and Oriental since it was clipped down a bit and they were given more time, as well as the midgets, which I still don’t dig being put over guys twice their size. The ending of this was one was a bit surprising as it came out of nowhere also and it took the crowd off guard a bit also.
Match Rating: **

2/3 Falls Mixed Tag Titles Match: Chessman & Tiffany © VS Elektro Shock & Lady Apache
This one started off good enough, but ended up so bad that even the Japanese audience seemed loss and disinterested in the action. Can’t really blame them since it got to the point where both teams just looked green as they were very sluggish and seemed to have lost all their timing, and the finishing shots even lacked any impact to make it believable. Heck, the sports entertainment type finish didn’t help things either when the referee go bumped and Charly Manson came out and threw coffee in Electro Shock’s face, leading to Chessman hitting a second rope moonsault and waiting almost forever for the referee to recover and make the count. The crowd seemed to just give them sympathy applause when it was all over. It sort of baffles me how two guys with great looking gimmicks and experience like Chessman and Electro Shock could put on a Heidenreich-level performance, especially in front of a crowd that knows it’s wrestling better than most.
Match Rating: *

AAA VS LLL: Jun Akiyama, Latin Lover, La Parka Jr. & Gronda VS Juventud Guerrera, Cibernetico, Abizmo Negro & Ghefar
Bit of a surprise at the start of this as Akiyama’s alter ego, Shura came out and was then beat down by the LLL team with zero help from the AAA guys. I was really surprised at this till suddenly Akiyama’s Sterness theme kicks in and he comes out wearing the AAA colors! And as soon as he steps in the ring, both the AAA and LLL guys clear out!
After the debacle of a main event on the previous show, it was good to see the guys finally given the chance to work. Though I was still a bit disappointed in Gronda’s performance, as all he did was demonstrate his strength by throwing a few big clotheslines and giving spinebusters to his opponents.
Akiyama and Juvi had some really good exchanges, and despite the size difference, Akiyama let Juvi get in a good amount of offense. Akiyama of course got in his fair share of offense and even matched highlflying skills as he made a big dive out of the ring at one point!
A lot of focus also seemed to be given to Latin Lover as he worked a good portion of the match for his team as well as getting the winning pinfall on Cibernetico again at the end of it. I liked Cibernetico’s look, but he didn’t really do anything special in the match. It was also good to see La Parka add some comedy to match.
They really should have put on something like this for the Tokyo crowd too, instead of what they went with.
Match Rating: ***

Overall: Some things of note about both shows; There were two referees for the AAA VS LLL matches, each counting the fall for their respective sides. They have some really good entrances and really dig using Rammstein songs for their entrance themes. And I really like the ring announcer who does a good job of getting the crowd riled up for the match and into the wrestlers, in an almost circus type way of doing it.
With some good and some bad, this was definitely an interesting pair of shows AAA put on for their Japanese tour. I definitely recommend checking it out, though you might have to adjust your thinking if you've never seen these AAA guys work before.

Labels: Joshi, Misc Indies