Puroresu Show Reviews

Welcome to a very special Puroresu review! In addition to my usual views of the match, I’ve added comments from my lovely significant other, Trish! She’s no stranger to watching wrestling, but this is her first time watching Japanese death matches!

Big Japan Death Match Wars #35
6/8/2005 pt.1
MEN'S Teioh & MASADA VS Daikokubo Benkei & Abdullah Kobayashi
That’s funny, I don’t remember MASADA being a gaijin??? This match was clipped a bit, but was surprisingly fun. Kobayashi did most of the work for his team, but Benkei was actually entertaining for the bits he was in the ring and the crowd loved him for actually attempting a suicide dive! Not really a lot from this one, but what was shown was passable.
Match Rating: *
Trish’s comment: How old is that bald guy in the coveralls?

BJW Death Match Title - 300 Light Tube Death Match: Ryuji Ito VS Takashi Sasaki
This was one of the most BRUTAL death matches I’ve ever seen! You had 300 light tubes surrounding the ring ropes and lining the ring mat, and they just about used ALL of them including the home made toys they brought with them! Just seconds into the match and already they are bleeding from having light tubes smashed over each other’s heads, and of course there was broken glass all over the ring as a result of it making even the simplest move hurt more as well as both guys taking damage from doing the most basic moves like dropkicks and suplexes, but that didn’t stop them from doing them anyway! They just went at it with no concern for their own well being, and you could see the results from all the cuts and how bloody their backs and arms were!
You got to have a high level of respect for these guys to do what they were doing here, suplexes, brainbusters, splashes and powerbombs all on broken glass! You really cringe at some of the things they were willing to put their bodies through to have an incredible match. I truly believe all the hype behind Ryuji Ito now, and give Sasaki a lot of credit as well as both men put on a fantastic contest that wasn’t just a spotfest. Even if it wasn’t a death match environment, these two have the talent to pull out an awesome contest. It truly deserves the rating I give these two for the match.
Match Rating: *****!!!
Trish’s comment: These two guys are crazy! Eric, if you ever get involved in pro wrestling, you better NOT take part in anything that involves light tubes and broken glass!

Big Japan Death Match Wars #36
6/8/2005 pt.2
Hadcore Match: Daisuke Sekimoto & Kintaro Kanemura VS Bad Boy Hido & GENTARO
The story of this match was Sekimoto trying to avenge a loss over Hido from one of the previous shows. Sekimoto is jacked, like a Japanese Brock Lesner, but I noticed it hinders his mobility. The mass really helps when he’s throwing STIFF lariats though! He also has a good rolling German as well as a slow high angle German. He even did this really cool spot where he lifted GENTARO in a torture rack with a ladder! Sekimoto is a little green, but is being pushed as the future of the company, and I can definitely see him there in a few years having great matches with Ryuji Ito.
Kanemura has lost some serious weight since the last time I saw him. It’s good to see him working full speed and injury free for a change. The man can definitely still go and has a lot of good years left in him.
I haven’t seen much of GENTARO, but much like his AkaRangers tag partner, Takashi Sasaki, he showed a lot of potential here! The guy would make a great addition to any promotion’s junior heavyweight division. He’s a great high flyer and even had the balls to do a balcony dive to put Sekimoto through a table! He also did a sweet Van Terminator to Kanemura who was hung upside down on a ladder!
Hido sucks. That’s probably the reason why they made this a tag match instead of a singles match. The guy didn’t really do anything, and even his Hido-chan Bomber lariat is lame. Hido sucks.
Overall, the match was entertaining with the crowd heavily behind Sekimoto and GENTARO did an ace job of carrying the work load for his team.
Match Rating: *1/2
Trish’s comment: Sekimoto’s got a lot of muscle, but he can hardly move because of the mass. I don’t get the lame dance Kanemura did in his intro. GENTARO is nuts for jumping off a balcony. Hido sucks and didn’t deserve the win.

Madness of Massacre Death Match: “Kokusenshi” Jaki Numazawa VS Jun Kasai
A little Chainsaw Charlie action from Numazawa as he comes out with a chainsaw and causes havoc in the audience on his way to the ring! I love Numazawa’s gothic Dark Angel look. Kasai comes out with a little toy of his own: a board of RAZORS attached to a crucifix! Bare in mind these two are best friends (they even started off the match with a big KISS in the centre of the ring!), but they tried to KILL each other here!
The match started off really slow with Numazawa selling a hurt back after Kasai splashed him through a table, but then business really picked up after Numazawa powerbombed Kasai on the razor board! You could instantly see a whole lot of cuts on his back and the match became a blood bath from there! Numazawa just went psycho and even covered the ring with a bucket of THUMBTACKS! And we’re barely halfway through the match! What follows are a whole lot of sick and bloody spots which are definitely not for the weak of heart. For example, Numazawa stuffing tacks into Kasai’s mouth before slapping them out! And of course every move they did after hurt both of them since the ring mat was littered in tacks, but they didn’t seem to care! Can you even imagine what it’s like to do a German suplex-hold and a frog splash onto thumbtacks?!? I just watched the CZW Tournament of Death a few weeks ago, but even this was a new level of SICK!
After the match, they had a fun in ring interview where Kasai said something that actually got bleeped out, and than the fans started chanting it, so we got a chant of bleeps! You gotta give the Crazy Monkey credit for leaving normal wrestling in Zero-1 and actually coming back to do this death match madness.
Match Rating: ****1/4
Trish’s comment: These two guys are even more insane than the other two! Eric, you better stay away from razor boards and thumbtacks as well!

Big Japan Death Match Wars #37
6/8/2005 pt.3
Katsumasa Inoue & Hiroyuki Kondo VS Hyoma & Hajime Ishikawa
This was actually the opening match of the whole show. Kondo & Inoue are the young lions of the company and work well as a team. Inoue has got this really unique submission hold that’s like a sharpshooter, but he locks the guy’s arms instead!
I really like Hyoma’s punk look. Doesn’t hurt that he’s a decent indy worker as well. His partner Ishikawa is also from the indy scene if I’m not mistaken, and just looked decent.
Not really a lot to the opener, but there was this one cool spot where Kondo and Inoue gave Hyoma a triple decker superplex, while Inoue gave Ishikawa piledriver at the same time!
Match Rating: ½*
Trish’s comment: Boring.

Shadow WX & Yuichi Taniguchi VS Mammoth Sasaki & Tetsuhiro Kuroda
Kuroda was just SUPER-over in this one! Even more than local hero WX it seemed! Rookie Taniguchi did some fun comedy bits which combined with Kuroda’s unmatched charisma and overall overness in the match, made it entertaining at least. I thought it was hilarious the way Taniguchi screamed “Okasan!” (mother) when he got kicked in the balls.
There was one MAJOR f*** up by Sasaki in the match where he swung a chair at Taniguchi and lost his grip on it, and the chair flew into the audience somewhere! Don’t know if the chair hit anyone, but Sasaki did some big apologizing in his interview after the match, which was watchable overall.
Match Rating: *1/4
Trish’s comment: These guys suck. Sasaki needs to lose the jersey and dress like a wrestler.

Baka Gaijin Falls Count Anywhere Street Fight: Mad Man Pondo VS Necro Butcher
I am a HUGE fan of the Necro Butcher! Especially after seeing him in the CZW Tournament of Death 4, and he’s a big reason I’ve decided to check out Big Japan. The guy is a bump machine, much like Mick Foley. I just hope his career isn’t cut short by all the big falls and bumps he takes. The Japanese fans also react well to the guy,
This was a great American style street fight match which had it’s share of sick spots like using a staple gun on each other! They sort of took it a step further when Pondo stapled Butcher’s lip to the turnbuckle! But overall, Butcher made this match by bumping and blading for Pondo big time, taking a slam off the top turnbuckle to the floor, taking a load of unprotected chair shots including Pondo dropping a table on his head, getting tossed off the stage through a pile of chairs, as well as getting his forehead carved by Pondo with a jacknife!
Pondo himself took some bumps, including a sick frankensteiner off the top out of the ring through a pile of tables and chairs! You’d probably find it hard to believe that despite all the carnage they put each other through, the match was won with an actual wrestling move!
I like what Pondo said after the match about how even though they are friends, they are willing to kick each other’s ass for the fans, the yen, the beer and the chicks!
Match Rating: ***
Trish’s comment: These guys look old, and Butcher is crazy for bumping like he does.

Overall: Eventhough this event was separated into three parts, I highly recommend checking it out if you’re a fan of wild and bloody death matches, or are keen to check out something different. It seems I always stumble into something new in Puroresu no matter how long I’ve been following it. And this is just another example of it.

Labels: BJW