Puroresu Show Reviews

Here’s the setup: 666 is Onryo’s little indy promotion in Japan who runs small shows every now and then with a weird theme of ghosts, demons etc, since Onryo himself is supposed to be a zombie. To that end, this little show is being held in a tent, with the ring announcer/time keeper wearing ghost make up and DDT referee Grace Asano dressed as a goth girl! And the announce team calling the action with live microphones so the whole arena can hear what they say, leading to awkward moments where the wrestlers in the ring and the fans in the audience react to what they say!

Shinobu & Lingerie Muto VS Yuko Miyamoto & ISAMI
ISAMI & Miyamoto were going for a badass entrance where they rode in on a big bike with Miyamoto waving the team banner, but with such a small area to move in, Miyamoto fell off a few times!
Match itself was a fun back and forth high-flyer match. Muto did the usual Muto impersonation spots as well as a few comedy ones like distracting referee Grace Asano by asking her to check out his brassiere and such! Shinobu reminds me of a young Magnum TOKYO, with the AV star gimmick, and the kid even looks like Magnum! He had some fun moves to, like the Sex Bomber lariat and the S.E.X (Shinobu EXtacy) shooting star press!
Miyamoto & ISAMI are a cool high-flying tandem who dress alike, something seriously missing from tag teams these days. There was this one cool spot where Miyamoto gave Muto a super kick as Muto tried for a shining wizard on ISAMI and he caught him in mid air! This was quickly followed up by a Shinobu hitting ISAMI with a shining wizard off Miyamoto’s back! Great fun stuff throughout.
Match Rating: **

Ojisan & Obasan VS Naoshi Sano
Ojisan is Big Japan’s resident chainsaw wielding madman, Jaki Numazawa, only he’s dressed as an old man! Obasan on the other hand is a little girl in ghost paint with a meat cleaver! She’s actually quite popular in 666 as she not only wrestles odd comedy matches, but also does guest commentary with hilarious little kid remarks!
This was a short oddball match with regular indy worker Sano trading holds with Ojisan, but there was this one funny break in the action when Ojisan had Sano in a single leg crab, and Obasan who joined the guest commentary team remarked that it was a joshi puro move! Sano immediately stood up and approached the announce table, bad mouthing Obasan’s call before going back to the ring and getting back in the single leg crab position!
The finish saw Obasan get back in the ring and hit Sano with the meat cleaver before delivering a 619, and Ojisan hit a diving headbutt off the top for the win! Just plain fun overall.
Match Rating: *

NG Battle Royal featuring HERO!, Baby-M, Mammoth Sasaki, The Great Takeru, Jet 666, Asian Panther & ???
Now the rules for this unique battle royal are that the wrestlers are each wearing a shirt, and written on the back of it is a move that they are NOT allowed to do during the match! If they do the move that’s listed on the back of they’re shirts, they are instantly eliminated! The problem here being that the moves are usually something they are known for, and since everyone can see what’s on your shirt except you, expect to see a lot of backstabbing as they try to bait each other into pulling out that move to get eliminated!
The match was clipped down a bit, but they showed all the fun eliminations and how everyone got baited in to pull off their NG move by each other. Another very fun match overall.
Match Rating: *1/2

Baka meets Baka VS Kamisama meets Otosama: The Crazy SKB & Jun Kasai VS Jesus & Buddha
Interesting to note that Jesus & Buddha’s names where bleeped out. Can’t say that they don’t have some standards here.
The match itself was wild as the ring was surrounded with holy sticks which were used as weapons throughout the match, and than you had SKB and his crazy fireworks fetish and the wild spots he’d pull, like dipping Buddha’s head in a pot of firecrackers before banging the pot with a baseball bat, and wearing a crash helmet of firecrackers as he dove off the top with a body press!
A wild, but fun match despite the live crowd being in a dangerous position every now and then due to the sparks from SKB’s fireworks.
Match Rating: **

A look back to MIKAMI at the Cruiser’s Game press conference announcing his offshoot promotion. A mysterious paper airplane than flies into the room and rams into MIKAMI (Actually, Onryo carried the plane in and threw it at him, but no one can see him since he’s a ghost!). MIKAMI unfolds the plane and it’s a flier for the 666 show! Under the main event, it lists Onryo as facing “X”, and MIKAMI decides to step up and be the “X” in the match since the two had a killer singles match at Korakuen Hall before. The press conference ends with MIKAMI posing in a faceoff with an imaginary Onryo, but he can’t see the real one standing right behind him, since well, he’s a ghost!

Onryo 10th Anniversary Match: Onryo VS MIKAMI
Now this was a really fun spot fest of a match that had MIKAMI dominate Onryo for most of the match with high flying offense and innovative ladder spots. So when Onryo finds himself being outgunned by the DDT ace, what does he do? He becomes INVISIBLE! But that was only for a split second before MIKAMI caught on to his location and took control again! That was nothing compared to his next trick though, as they brawled out to the floor and Onryo gave MIKAMI a suplex on the entrance stage. The two rushed to try to get back in the ring, and MIKAMI looked like he was going to beat Onryo to the ring when suddenly his right leg was clasped by a severed hand which pulled him back and prevented him from getting back in the ring! So the match ended in a double count out!
MIKAMI isn’t satisfied with the outcome and calls out Onryo to continue the match! Onryo himself rings the bell and dashes back to the ring to continue the madness, which included Onryo actually taking his shirt off to reveal a HUGE tattoo on his back and he went all the way up the ladder to miss a big swanton. MIKAMI would follow suit up the ladder and connect with the swanton, but only get a near fall! And out of nowhere, Onryo is able to lock the Onryo-clutch to get the flash pinfall!
This was a great match even if it was a bit one sided, and kudos to MIKAMI for putting over his buddy in the end.
Match Rating: ***

The surprises don’t end there, as after the match, Onryo picks up the microphone and actually SPEAKS! He thanks MIKAMI and gets a big hug from his friend. Onryo than thanks the fans and apologizes to his parents (?!?). The show ends with special guest MEN’S Teioh giving a speech on the history of Onryo’s 10 year career, in a less than serious manner judging from all the laughs, and even the dead man himself cracks a few smiles! Show finally ends with all the wrestlers tossing Onryo into the air and finally posing for the press to close out this really fun show.

Labels: Misc Indies

Show starts off with a quick look back at the major events of the 1/27/06 Battle Junction PPV, followed by a quick look at Jack Evans who’s making waves in Dragon Gate thanks to his acrobatic abilities and his 630’ finisher.

Truth Gate 2/11/2006
Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Yokosuka & Kenichiro Arai VS CIMA, Shingo Takagi & Jack Evans
A lot of American Dragon Gate fans are complaining about Evans touring in Dragon Gate, but it really doesn’t matter what they think since they obviously aren’t paying attention to the Japanese fans who love his flip-floppy style and they are the ones actually paying to see the shows live. I think he’s a good addition to the variety of the roster, though I do question putting him in a stable with CIMA & Don Fujii later. At least they still haven’t put him over guys like Mochi and Susumu. He didn’t really play a big factor in the match other than a few flipping high spots and stealing the win on Araken when no one was looking.
Anyways, the whole match was a fast paced sprint with lots of great action and just a bit of clipping here and there, but still solid and fun overall.
Match Rating: **1/2

A quick look at Don Fujii making referee Yasushi Kanda’s life a living hell by beating him up member every time he lost a match. Like I said before, seems like the only way Fujii can get any heat is by beating up rookies and referees.

Magnum TOKYO & BxB Hulk VS Don Fujii & Masato Yoshino
Another high sprint match. Both sides didn’t really bust out everything, but it was still entertaining to a degree. The main story was of course Fujii getting on referee Kanda’s case again when he got pinned by Hulk via a la majistral cradle. I say continue to elevate Shingo, Doi & Yoshino, and have Fujii be the job boy of the team.
Match Rating: *

A look at Dragon Kid winning the Brave Gate title off Naruki Doi last year, followed by how Masato Yoshino has been beating Kid several times in tag matches recently with his deadly new Lightning Spiral finisher, leading up to their title match.

Truth Gate 2/05/2006
Open the Brave Gate Title: Dragon Kid VS Masato Yoshino
Clipped down from 20 minutes to about 13 minutes, but looked really good for what was shown. Blood Generation got involved early in the match so the commissioner had all factions banned from ringside for the remainder of the match. Yoshino attacked Kid’s back while Kid attacked his back in a see-saw match, with Kid being very wary of Yoshino’s Lightning Spiral which has beaten him at least twice already in recent weeks. The finish once again saw Blood Generation get involved, but Naoki Tanisaki came in to make the save and helped Kid score the win to retain the title.
Unfortunately, this all went down right in front of the commissioner and he decided to rule the match a no contest and hold up the title, which would lead to the Brave Gate League. Blood Generation are fine with the no contest decision, but DK is angry at Tanisaki for trying to help him. Why not just restart the match?!? The whole ending segment more or less ruined the vibe of the match considering it’s been done so many times in the past already in Dragon Gate.
Match Rating: **

A look back at the rise of Ryo Saito and Susumu Yokosuka and how they battled it out at the King of Gate finals back in December, and how they seem to be ready to over take their mentors, Magnum TOKYO and Masaaki Mochizuki. But up next, they are going to team with their mentors against each other!

Magnum TOKYO & Ryo Saito VS Masaaki Mochizuki & Susumu Yokosuka
Now THIS is why I love Dragon Gate! You got four of the best in the company going at it and they more than delivered here with tons of great action and near falls toward the end! I wasn’t a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to see Magnum hit his new finisher, but that is more than forgiven considering all the great action we got here, including a great spot where Mochi hit the Twister on Saito, and picked him up again and passed him to Susumu in mid air to hit the Yokosuka Cutter for a near fall! Susumu with his always killer Jumbo no Kachi lariats as well as his awesome looking Exploder suplexes.
And of course we had Ryo giving an awesome performance here and taking another step up the ladder when he actually PINNED Mochizuki with the Premium Bridge! The match was clipped down a bit, but still one of the best matches I’ve seen from Dragon Gate in a while, and I’d probably have rated it higher if it was shown in full.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Right after the match, Magnum decides to take the opportunity to call out Genichiro Tenryu at ringside for match #4 of the Ryuukon Trial Series!

Before the match starts we get a quick look back at the three previous bouts where Tenryu beat Magnum first with the 53Yrs Old brainbuster, the second with a short lariat, and the third with a modified Texas-clover hold. Will Magnum finally score his first win in this 10-match series?

Ryuukon Trial Series #4: Magnum TOKYO VS Genichiro Tenryu
The answer to my question earlier: YES! This was the match where Magnum scored the huge win over Tenryu with the AV Star Press which he hasn’t used in ages! The veteran dominated most of the match, beating Magnum in and out of the ring, but the final moments saw Magnum hit Tenryu with a sobat kick and a middle kick that had a big effect on the aged veteran, and it was enough to keep him down long enough for Magnum to go up top and hit his move for the win. Not a mat classic by any means and a little short in length, but definitely memorable thanks to finish. I also kind of surprised they would have this big upset take place in front of a small crowd like this. Definitely a good bonus bout for the live fans in attendance.
Match Rating: **

A look back at the history between Anthony W. Mori and Dream Gate champion Magnitude Kishiwada. First with Mori scoring the huge upset on Magnitude during the King of Gate when he pinned him with the Elegant Magic cradle, and this pissed off Kishiwada to the point that he cost Mori the second round match against Naruki Doi and almost broke his neck with a chair shot and Last Ride before Doi hit the Bakarate Sliding Kick into a chair on Mori’s face. Mori was out for sometime, but came back in a big way when he pinned Don Fujii in a tag match again with Elegant Magic. That would of course bring us to the January Battle Junction PPV where Mori scored the decisive win over Kishiwada in the Captain’s Fall match with the triangle choke, showing that he could indeed score a win and not just rely on a flash pin to beat the champion.

Truth Gate 2/11/2006
Open the Dream Gate Title: Magnitude Kishiwada VS Anthony W. Mori
Mori should have had the advantage in this match since Kishiwada went into it with a bad shoulder, and Mori worked over it every chance he had, but for some reason Magnitude just refused to sell any of it! Mori was still put in the position of underdog and Kishiwada tossed him around like a rag doll for most of the match. Even after Mori had his bad arm locked in a triangle-lock for several minutes, Magnitude was up throwing lariats with his bad arm like nothing had happened! I know he was supposed to be the monster champion, but I felt it really took away from the match by not having Kishiwada show any sign of punishment his supposed bad shoulder was taking. Even though Mori did get a good amount of offense in and a teased that he could have beaten MK for the title (there were even a few phantom 3 counts that the fans were going “EH?!?” over), this really did nothing to elevate Mori since Kishiwada never really showed any sign of weakness to the offense Mori got in. Just a waste of effort after a rather good build to this feud.
Match Rating: **1/2

Post match Blood Generation play Mori for a sucker as MK extends a hand of respect to Mori, who accepts only to get beat up by Blood Gen. Do-Fixer run in to make the save and we end up with a bonus 6-man tag!

Ryo Saito, Dragon Kid & Genki Horiguchi VS CIMA, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino
Now this was a great fast paced match and a great bonus for the fans. Everyone got their spots in here, and it was fun seeing Do-Fixer reverse and use one of Blood Gens own triple team moves against Yoshino! The ending was also a bit of a surprise as Genki hit the Beach Break on CIMA followed by a dragon suplex-hold by Ryo on the Blood Gen leader to score the win! It was short, but still a lot of fun.
Match Rating: ***

Post match, Ryo calls out Magnitude and officially makes his challenge for the Dream Gate title at the February Battle Junction PPV to close out this episode.

Labels: Dragon Gate