Puroresu Show Reviews

Hardcore Tag Match: Mad Man Pondo & Jason Ray VS Bad Boy Hido & MASADA
You gotta love Pondo. One minute he’s trying to stab Hido with a switchblade, and the next he’s busting out a la majistral cradle to try and get a flash pin! Pondo & MASADA were easily the guys to watch in this one. Despite his mostly brawling tactics, Pondo really is enjoyable to watch since he knows to play to the crowd, unlike say Hido. It’s good to know Pondo doesn’t rely solely on garbage spots and can actually wrestle when required.
Somebody tell me why I’ve never heard of MASADA on the US indy scene? This kid has a lot of potential seeing how he’s willing to blade and bump like he does (remember the flaming punch a while back?). He took Pondo’s knife to the head, and a sick bump when Pondo hit a flipping senton onto a stop sign on MASADA’s face! This kid is definitely earning his stripes and hopefully one day he gets recognized for his hard work in BJW.
I don’t really get Jason Ray’s homage to Jimmy Snuka gimmick where he puts on a leopard skin bandana. He really didn’t do much here other than missing a moonsault and dropping the fall to MASADA courtesy of a Death Valley Driver.
Hido = Boring. Nuff said.
Match Rating: *1/2

Shadow WX & Mammoth Sasaki VS Kintaro Kanemura & Yuchi Taniguchi
Who would have expected this match to be mostly comedy spots? Sure I was expecting Taniguchi’s unique brand of loud mouthed comedy, but I wasn’t expecting everyone in the match to fool around like they did here. Just when you think they were getting serious, something comedic has to happen thanks to Taniguchi. Bare in mind this is also the semi-final match of the show and not an undercard match!
But like I said, Kanemura, WX & Sasaki all played up the comedy bits themselves, from Kanemura being Taniguchi’s cross-chopping oniisan, to WX working the two-handed butt poke attack and Sasaki playing the big dumb guy! There was even a fun spot where Kanemura put an STF on Sasaki, than WX locked one on Kanemura, and Taniguchi locked one on WX!
There was some good stuff also when they weren’t all playing around. Other than the usual brawl into the audience and ruin the seating arrangements, WX stole Kanemura’s table dive spot when he dove off the top and put Kanemura through a table! Also an interesting spot where Sasaki gave Taniguchi & Kanemura a double backdrop off the top while they superplexed WX!
This was an enjoyable fun match overall, and the closing double brainbuster spot was cool too. Just another match on the road for WX & Mammoth to the tag titles.
Match Rating: **1/2

Backstage the comedy music is playing as we see the tag team champions Abdullah Kobayashi & Daisuke Sekimoto cutting a promo of sorts. Kobayashi says a few things and some of it gets bleeped out before he gives Sekimoto a headbutt and walks off! The ‘Macho Man’ song by the Village People hits and Sekimoto does his muscle pose before following after Kobayashi.

BJW Tag Team Titles – 200 Light Tube Death Match: Abdullah Kobayashi & Daisuke Sekimoto VS MEN’S Teioh & “Kokutenshi” Jaki Numazawa
I loved the way this one started off with Teioh & Numazawa “blending in” to the audience by sitting with them and attacking the tag champions from behind when they came.
The usual fun broken glass brawl in this one. It didn’t take long for the light tubes to be broken all over the place and sometimes it looked like the glass could hit the audience. The challengers dominated early on thanks to their subterfuge attack, and I liked the way Teioh breaks light tubes over his opponents heads with rolling elbow strikes. Teioh even did this unique move where he place Kobayashi & Sekimoto’s legs locked in a figure four around a bundle of light tubes before he sits back pulling on the light tubes and breaking them between the tag champions legs!
The champions were finally able to mount a comeback and they took out Teioh by attacking his leg which had a history of problems if I’m not mistakem, with Kobayashi breaking light tubes on it with a big elbow drop! With Teioh out of commission, it was up to Numazawa to do all he could to win the gold, including breaking a bundle of light tubes on Kobayashi with a flipping senton off the top rope!
Just when it looked like Numazawa had the tag titles in the bag, Sekimoto did his always impressive dead-lift German suplex by lifting Numazawa out of the pinning position and flipping him over! Kobayashi then drops Numazawa on his head with the Koba-Driver, Sekimoto hits a big powerbomb, and Kobayashi finishes off Numazawa by breaking a bundle of light tubes on him with a big diving elbow drop off the top to retain the tag titles.
Really strong match overall, but I guess I expected just a tad bit more like some table spots or something. It gets boring when all they do is break light tubes over each other, even if it’s funny watching Numazawa giggle like a little girl when he does it.
Match Rating: ***

Overall: A good show from start to finish with something for everyone. I was just a tad bit disappointed in the main event as the more I watch these light tube matches, the more redundant the spots seem.

Labels: BJW