Puroresu Show Reviews

“Interception” 10/10/2005

Johnny Storm VS Jody Fleisch
These two Brits put on a fun spot-fest of match. And that’s all it really was, two junior-heavyweights flying around every other minute of the match, which sorta spoiled the ending spot since they seemed to be able to recover from everything they threw at each other, but it only took one rather weak looking SSP to end the match. These two have talent no doubt, but need to work on how to properly structure a match.
Match Rating: **

Remember the E: Masato Tanaka VS The Sandman
These two have never crossed paths in ECW if my memory serves me correctly, so you can understand why I so highly anticipated this encounter between two former ECW champions, even if Sandman is way past his prime and half-assed drunk all the time. He did his usual long intro going to all four corners of Korakuen Hall to share beers with the Japanese fans.
As expected, the match itself was a big garbage match brawl. They did some fun spots though, like Tanaka breaking four chairs over Sandman’s head before hammering a ladder into it with a fifth. Sandman also hit his trademark senton on a ladder spot, the top rope frankensteiner and he suplexed Tanaka off the top through a table. You gotta give Tanaka a lot of credit for willing to bump for Sandman even though he had a bad shoulder. Sandman showed he could still do some good exchanges too when they had a weapons duel with Tanaka using a chair VS Sandman’s Singapore cane. And I guess the crowd here really did “Remember the E” as they chanted “ECW!” for the big bumps.
Sandman may not have been in the best of shape, but if there is one thing he has in common with his good buddy, Tommy Dreamer, is that he’s willing to put over the younger guys despite his senior status. A good brawl overall, and I’m still hoping for that Sandman/Necro Butcher match to happen sometime while Sandman is still able.
Match Rating: **

Koji Kanemoto VS Yoshihito Sasaki
I had mixed feelings going into this one after reading at a certain New Japan fan site that Kanemoto squashed Sasaki here. Well, that really wasn’t the case, and it could be argued that Kanemoto couldn’t even finish off Sasaki and was lucky he wasn’t disqualified instead of the referee stopping the match in his favor. This was heel Kanemoto here laying it into Sasaki, who absorbed everything the Junior Charisma had to give to the point that Kanemoto had to cheat more or less, using closed fist punches just to keep Sasaki down! Sasaki even countered Kanemoto’s tiger suplex into a SICK release German suplex that flipped Kanemoto and dropped him on his head!
The reason the referee stopped the match was because Kanemoto kicked Sasaki right in the face and didn’t seem to respond when Kanemoto mounted and started throwing punches at him. Why Kanemoto wasn’t disqualified for shoving off the referee several times, I don’t know.
Sasaki was really upset at the referee for stopping the match, and he was really pissed Kanemoto was looking past him and wanted Takaiwa instead. Sasaki wanted a rematch with Kanemoto, who smugly shrugged him off and walked away.
Match Rating: ***

Overall: An entertaining show overall, ending with a real emotional angle to help further the Z1M/NJPW feud, though it would be over a month later before they actually followed up on it. Definitely worth checking out.

Labels: Zero-1 MAX