Puroresu Show Reviews

Warning! Contains SPOILERS!

Atsushi Kotoge Debut: Atsushi Kotoge VS Kabuto Daio Beetle
At first I was expecting this to be one of those debuts where the rookie gets totally squashed by the veteran, but then they surprised me by actually letting Kotoge get in some good rookie offense, and some near falls to boot! Looking at Kotoge’s physique reminds me sort of Kentaro Shiga of NOAH, very skinny and small. Beetle dominated most of the match as expected, but when everyone thought Kotoge would tap out to the dreaded half-crab of doom all rookies lose to early in their careers, the youngster would actually make it to the ropes to break the hold! Kotoge would fire back with a pair of dropkicks and a body slam, and score a near fall with a victory roll! Beetle ended up having to put the rookie away with his Drive of Beetle finisher (running Michinoku Driver), but gave props to the kid for putting up a good fight. Another surprise was the strong support from the fans Kotoge received which even surprised the announcers. This kid definitely has something going for him.
Match Rating: *

Masamune & Hideyoshi VS La Uchida & Takaku Fuke
I’m not sure where they are from, but this was also Masamune and Hideyoshi’s OPro debut. I could best describe Masamune as a pirate since he’s got an eye-patch on his mask, and Hideyoshi wears a samurai like mask and is a power fighter.
Masamune called out Pancrase Mission star Takaku Fuke to start off the match, but since he declined, we were left with Uchida taking a beating from the rudo duo for most of the match. Fuke would get the hot tag, but it would be short lived since they would get the advantage on Uchida again leading to the finish. Masamune is definitely the leader of the two since Hideyoshi is slow moving and sometimes seems unsure of what to do, but Hideyoshi’s finisher is one of the sickest finishers I’ve seen in a while, where he picks up his opponent in a gorilla press, than drives them down face first into the mat with a reverse powerbomb! There is a slim margin of error for this move, and I would hate to see it if anything ever went wrong with the delivery.
Match Rating: *1/4

Black Buffalo & Tsubasa VS Azteca & KAZE
INFINITY re-unite! Joined in progress, it was quite good for what was shown. KAGEKI star KAZE was interesting and a singles match between him and Tsubasa would show a lot of promise. Azteca sorta reminds me of Liger, since they have the same build and all. Azteca didn’t do much for what was shown, so I’m guessing they were trying to get KAZE over which he did quite well for when he was delivering offense. Not sure why, but something about Black Buffalo nowadays seems boring a bit. I don’t think he did much else in the match other than a ton of lariats, which also looked kind of sloppy, which is probably the best reason to keep him teamed with someone like Tsubasa.
Match Rating: **

Super Delfin & Kuishinbo Kamen VS Tigers Mask & 2nd Generation Ebessan
Another debut on the show! This time for the 2nd Generation Ebessan, who is obviously someone else under the mask. This new Ebessan is not the comedic loud mouth the original was, and is more of a high-flyer. There were some fun bits where the three guys in the ring had to teach Ebessan his comedy spots, and luckily Kuishinbo and Delfin could still keep some of the comedy goodness in the match.
It was ok and all, but by the end of it I was thinking they just need to drop the Ebessan gimmick altogether if he’s not going to be the comedy god he’s supposed to be. It’s no wonder they would later bring in characters like Ice Penguin to tow the comedy bits of the show. At least the new referee was willing to play along with the gags as well.
Match Rating: **
Entertainment Rating:

Osaka Pro Title: Super Dolphin VS Billy Ken Kid
Joined in progress, and looked to be a great match! Dolphin may have been the champion, but BKK was the one that looked like a star here. I think BKK also became the first person to kick out of the Dolphin Magic (Shiranui off the ropes instead of the corner). I also liked that the match was not too one sided like most OPro title matches are leading up to the finish where they both threw everything they had at each other including all their finishers before Dolphin manage to hit a second Dolphin Magic to retain his title.
Match Rating: ***

The big story of the show was what happened after the main event as Touru Owashi made his debut and single handedly destroyed both of Osaka Pro’s aces with chokeslams! He was wearing a mask, but you could easily see the shock on Dolphin’s face when Owashi entered the ring! INFINITY even stepped up to Owashi, but were held back by the ring seconds. Lucky too since I think Owashi could have destroyed them as well. Owashi bad mouthed OPro, and Buffalo retaliated with some choice words of his own to end the show.

Overall: I haven’t seen Osaka Pro for a while, but it’s obvious a lot of changes have been made! Some good and some bad, but it will be interesting to see what else they come up with in this new era of Osaka Pro Wrestling. My recommendation: Check out this show!

Labels: Osaka Pro