Puroresu Show Reviews

Death Match Wars #41
8/14/2005 Part 1
Bad Boy Hidoh, GENTARO & Hyoma VS MEN’S Teioh, Asian Cougar & Zach Gowen
Our favorite one-legged teen wrestler in Big Japan. Yeah, I’m being sarcastic. Zach added a new swinging neck-breaker to his arsenal, but it’s still the same punching bag, two move wrestler from TNA and WWE. Of course, he was the target of the Hidoh led heel team, and he more or less proved that he’s not the best person to give the hot tag too as he was easily taken out. Teioh was still nice enough to give him the pin though.
This is my first time seeing Asian Cougar in action, and he looked good. He did this awesome apron to floor senton onto two chairs placed on GENTARO. Personally, I think he would make a good team with Hyoma as they look almost similar. Hidoh and Teioh didn’t really do much in this one, but for some reason Hidoh took it upon himself to attack the commentary team. Of course it didn’t help that the guy was laughing while Hidoh was strangling him.
Match Rating: *

Light Tube Death Match: Daisuke Sekimoto VS “Kokutenshi” Jaki Numazawa
Numazawa is out to avenge a loss to Sekimoto from a previous encounter, and if your expecting blood, they got it by the pint here! But what more could you expect when light tubes are involved? How about Numazawa going all Mr. Pogo on Sekimoto with a sickle? Numazawa did an innovative camel clutch, but instead of the chin lock, he pulled back on a sickle across Sekimoto’s forehead! He even brought out an old New Jack favorite and carved Sekimoto’s head with a cheese grater! And when broken glass and weapons aren’t enough, how about throwing in a couple a thousand thumbtacks?!!
Of course Sekimoto wasn’t all fodder here for our favorite death match psychopath. He got some good offense in, being the fan favorite and all, but it just seemed to me like he didn’t fit into the death match environment. Sure he bled and bumped like a trooper, but the guy still needs some work. He dominated with his power early on, and tossed Numazawa like a ragdoll. But I thought he wasted a prop when he placed a HUGE light tube crucifix across Numazawa and broke it in half with a simple lariat.
Numazawa has had better death matches, but this was still entertaining and a good setup for Numazawa/Kasai VS Kobayashi/Sekimoto later down the line. You gotta love the way Numazawa starts his after match promo by breathing heavily and slowly turning into his maniacal laugh.
Match Rating: ***

Death Match Wars #42
8/14/2005 Part 2
We start off this episode at the Big Japan dojo (complete with a stack of light tubes at the door!) where a press conference with our favorite blood letting freaks Jaki Numazawa (in a smart suit) and Jun Kasai (dressed only in his Fila underwear!?!), and it’s announced that Kasai will go one-on-one with gaijin ace Mad Man Pondo. Have no idea what they were saying, but they actually bleeped out some of the things Kasai said!

Daikokubo Benkei & Yuki Ishikawa VS Yuichi Taniguchi & Katsumasa Inoue
Inoue reminds me of Tomoaki Honma and is really growing on me. He has some good exchanges with Ishikawa and definitely took it as a learning experience from the UWFi / Pancrase veteran. It will definitely be interesting to see how Inoue develops in the years to come. He already has that Ryuji Ito look of determination to him, and just needs to work on his mat skills and he’ll definitely be a contender in the future.
Taniguchi did his usual routine of unique comedy. Interesting to see him up against Benkei since the two usually team together, but they played off each other really well. Benkei isn’t that bad in the ring either, he’s just slow moving with signs of knee troubles from a long career in the business.
Fun match, and I like the funny promo after the match where Taniguchi bad mouthed Ishikawa only to get chased off in the parking lot!
Match Rating: *

Abdullah Kobayashi & Shadow WX VS “Mr. Insanity” JC Bailey & 2 Tuff Tony
This was cut down a lot, and mostly focused on Kobayashi beating down Tony. They went all the way out to the concession stand where Kobayashi stuffed a kebab in Tony’s mouth before giving him a diving elbow drop off the concession table! Other than that was all brawling, and Kobayashi kicking out of the Tony Driver (Axe Guillotine Driver), and the gaijins screwed the home team out of the win when Tony pinned Kobayashi with a powerbomb out of the corner and putting his feet high on the ropes for leverage. WX instantly attacked the ref for making the 3-count when he could obviously see what Tony was doing.
Match Rating: ½*

Ryuji Ito & Takashi Sasaki VS Mammoth Sasaki & MASADA
Damn! I was about to write this up as just another tag match, but then things got really INSANE! First it was the usual brawl out into the crowd where Ito locked Mammoth in a tarantula on an erected scaffolding! Back to the ring for more brawling, and then MASADA does something crazy I’ve never seen before: he set his bare hand on FIRE to deliver a big punch to Sasaki! From there MASADA wheeled over the huge scaffolding structure and looked to dive out on Sasaki from the top, but Ito made the save and launched MASADA off the scaffold through a stack of chairs in the ring! Ito than followed up with a HUGE Dragon Splash off the scaffold for the win! Definitely a surprise considering everything else on the show so far!
Match Rating: **1/2

Mad Man Pondo VS Jun Kasai
Man, Kasai still has a lot of sick welts on his back from the razor board match with Numazawa from awhile back. I was also wondering where Numazawa was since Pondo has 2 Tuff Tony in his corner and he constantly helped Pondo to cheat.
Starts off with the usual brawling out into the crowd and such, and Pondo dominated most of the match thanks to Tony’s help. Kasai bled big time thanks to Pondo carving his head with a pocket knife, but things got really interesting when he finally was able to bounce back. Probably the sickest spot of the match was Pondo giving Kasai a piledriver off the second rope through a burning table! Kasai retaliated giving Pondo a diving chair to the head with a chair that was set on fire!
This match was ok, it’s just too bad we had to wait till the end for the good stuff to come out.
Match Rating: **

Overall: What? No Necro Butcher? What the heck. Good shows overall, with the must see stuff being Numazawa/Sekimoto and the Ito/Sasaki VS Mammoth/MASADA tag match. Don’t expect too much though.

Labels: BJW