Puroresu Show Reviews

Dick Togo, Nobutaka Moribe & Hayate VS Ayako Hamada, AKINO & Chikayo Nagashima
Fun fast paced opener with the all male rudo team took on the joshi face team. Joined in progress with Nagashima taking the brunt of the punishment from the rudos, but once the hot tag was made the fun factor went up several notches as Hamada was the only member on her team that could match size and power with the guys, heck, physically, she was bigger than the three of them! Ayako is former ARSION tag champions with AKINO, and the duo showed they could still work together well despite not tagging together for a while. I really would have liked to have seen more of AKINO in the match too.
You gotta give Togo and the guys credit for bumping and selling for the ladies, like taking a big powerbomb from Ayako as well as a wicked DDT from AKINO, but the girls took it as well as they gave it, especially Ayako who took a great looking double-team complete shot, as well as Togo’s Pedigree and senton bomb!
Great and fun opener overall.
Match Rating: **1/2

Cosplay Death Match: Shoichi Ichimaya VS Sakura Hirota
Basically this was a cosplay contest between puroresu’s two biggest cosplayers. Basic rules were that it’s a 2/3 round contest with the winner of each round to be decided by judges decision based on their cosplay performance.
The first round was the Hustle challenge featuring Shinya Agimoto VS General Sakura Takada!
The second round was Gil Nakano VS Sakura Nakano! Gil was accompanied by Futoshi Miwa as Dump Matsumoto! Check out the nun-chuck action in this one!
And the final round was Agira Hokuto VS Sakura Kandori! Reliving a classic joshi rivalry!
Not really any wrestling involved save for the light skirmish at the end of the third round, but a fun contest to check out.
Match Rating: None
Entertainment Rating:

Dansyoku Dieno VS Aja Kong
You just knew this would be one heck of a comedy match as the two of them were already arguing earlier on during the wrestler introductions at the beginning of the show. I thought I’d seen it all from Aja when she joined Hustle, but I never thought I’d see her do the things she did here with Dieno! She took Dieno’s Dansyoku Driver and even used YinLing’s Masochist Lock! Easily one of the funniest comedy matches I’ve seen in awhile.
Match Rating: *
Entertainment Rating:

Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Mariko Yoshida VS Yuki Ishikawa & Carlos Amano
Honestly, this was the last match I expected to find some comedy gold in, and for BATTLARTS ace Yuki Ishikawa was the last person I expected to see it from since the last time I saw him it was in one hell of a bloody brawl with Ryuji Hijikata in AJPW last year.
The match started off normally with Ishikawa & Fujiwara exchanging heavy hits and submission locks, but once the women tagged in and mixed it up with the men, there were some funny and hilarious moments to be had! Especially from Ishikawa who was as close as you could come to being a downright pervert when he mixed it up with Yoshida! Even old man Fujiwara couldn’t resist planting one on Amano when he had the chance!
Of course it wasn’t all fun and games, as when the women mixed it up, we were given an FANTASTIC display of ground grappling as they showcased a clinic of mat holds, counters and reversals. Heck, when he was serious for a minute, Ishikawa even traded holds with Yoshida on the mat.
This mach would probably pass as entertaining and even though it was funny, I didn’t like the ending, but I guess it was the best way not really drop the fall at the end of it.
Match Rating: *1/2
Entertainment Rating:

Meiko Satomura Return Match: Jinsei Shinzaki & Meiko Satomura VS MEN'S Teioh & Ran Yu-Yu
Satomura is making her return match from a back injury, so naturally the opposing team decided to work over her back throughout the match. Eventhough that strategy would make sense, I wouldn’t really call it a smart booking decision since it might also re-aggravate her back injury which is not good.
The story of the match was basically Satomura getting her back worked over for the most part. I’m not sure if it’s really her gimmick, but she came out dressed in full priest gear like Shinzaki, but her style if more of an explosive submission striker. She took a lot of punishment, but looked good for what offense she got in.
Shinzaki was his usual calm collected self, and was great to watch off the hot tag when he took it to both opponents. I haven’t seen Teioh in a LONG time, but the former Big Japan champion looked good here, showing some ring smarts as well as some good submission work on Satomura’s back. There wasn’t really a lot that notable from Ran Yu-Yu, but she looked good from what I saw.
A good match overall with a great story to it and worked at a good pace. Nothing really outstanding, but nothing much wrong with it either.
Match Rating: *1/2

Barb-Wire Rope, 100,000 Light Tube Death Match: Chigusa Nagayo, Ryuji Ito & Sanshiro Takagi VS Mayumi Ozaki, Shadow WX & Abdullah Kobayashi
Quick rundown on the participants: Shadow WX is one of the original death match innovators from Big Japan Pro Wrestling. He sorta looks like a cross between Satoshi Kojima and Kintaro Kanemura these days. Abdullah Kobayashi is another death match veteran who borrows his gimmick from Abdullah the Butcher, his physique is even almost similar, but he does have a tad bit more wrestling ability. Mayumi Ozaki is a joshi legend, and no stranger to hardcore action, and not just because she once did a lesbian porn movie with Cuty Suzuki before! Of course this whole team all have death match experience under their belts, and their intro was fun as well as the two guys carried Ozaki to the ring like a queen on their shoulders.
On the face side, Ryuji Ito is the current Big Japan champion. A young ace who’s credited with being one of the best death match innovators in modern times, with actual wrestling skills to go with his death match abilities. Sanshiro Takagi is the ace of DDT, and for some wild and bizarre reason, the guy comes out wearing a full Gundam costume, complete with helmet to protect him from the impending carnage! I’ll honestly admit I don’t know much about Nagayo, but she’s a legend in the business forming a long time team with Lioness Asuka.
The match itself is a wild brawl as expected, but it was hard to take it serious for awhile when you have Takagi doing comedy spots in a Gundam suit! Thankfully he does lose the Gundam suit later n the match and gets serious as he reverts to his Stone Cold gear. The whole ring was lined with fluorescent light bulb tubes, in addition to the ones brought by the competitors. So as you can expect, it wasn’t long before there was broken glass everywhere, making a simple move like a dropkick as painful for the guy who delivers it as the guy who receives it! As expected, Nagayo was the main focal point of the match as she took a lot of punishment while her teammates were taken out rather easily and disappeared for most of the match. Everyone bled whether they wanted too or not since there was broken glass all over the ring, and it was rather interesting the things they came up with to break the light tubes over each other. I was a bit disappointed that Ozaki really didn’t do much in the ring, though she did take several light tube shots to the head. A great match to end the show, and if I’m not mistaken, Nagayo’s retirement was announced after the show.
Match Rating: **1/2

Overall: This was truly a fun show overall with a great mix of wrestling action, comedy and death matches! The comedy might out weight the actual wrestling on the show, but I’m not really complaining as it was refreshing to see something different for a change. Hopefully even though she’s retired, Nagayo will continue to book fun little shows like this from time to time.

Labels: BJW, DDT, Joshi