Puroresu Show Reviews

Taped live from the Namihaya Dome in Osaka, it’s Osaka Pro Wrestling’s annual Osaka Hurricane show, this year celebrating seven years in the business! First thing you’ll notice obviously is that the show obviously isn’t a sell out, and on an even weirder note, there’s a kid in the audience dressed like a giant yellow turd!?! Yeah…

I should state right now the grave injustice Osaka Pro dealt it’s fans here since for some unknown reason they nixed the 8-man World’s No.1 Title match from the Samurai TV broadcast of the show! That one match was my main reason for wanting to check out the show, and was also the reason it took me this long to getting to watch the show since there wasn’t much to look forward to without it. With that rant out of the way, it’s on the show!

~Fight Future With Hope~: La Uchida VS Atsushi Kotoge
Uchida is the senior here with at least a year experience over Kotoge, yet he’s still wearing the plain black rookie trunks whereas Kotoge is at least wearing pants with a design on it, even if it is white and pink. Kotoge is still using the regular rookie arsenal though, but showed a lot of resilience taking some big moves from Uchida.
Uchida seems to have jacked up since the last time I saw him, and he’s got some nice moves added to his arsenal, like a big time tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, and he’s also probably the first person I’ve ever seen do a triple-rolling Samoan drop! I was fearful that this match was going to end with the “Boston Crab of Doom” that puts away so many rookies, but Kotoge was able to escape before finally being put away by a pari of Michinoku Drivers that Uchida calls the LED.
Your basic rookie match with a little more fire behind it since this is the biggest OPro show of the year.
Match Rating: *

~Starting Point Revolution – Monster Extermination!~: Miracle Man VS Kaiju King Mandora
Wow, this was BAD. Even if it was a comedy gimmick match for the kids, the execution of both guys here was just BAD. Early in the match Miracle almost completely misses a dive out of the ring and planted his face on the floor. Mandora seemed to miss his timing on a few spots, and everything all together was just plain sloppy. Add to that, after getting nearly ZERO offense in on the match, Miracle hits one weak looking snap suplex followed by the Miracle Tornado to win the match in short order. BAD.
Match Rating: 1/2* (for Miracle’s face plant on the concrete floor)

~WAR!~: Hisakatsu Ohya & Takaku Fuke VS Masamune & Hideyoshi
It was great to see Ohya in action again as he was always a favorite of mine from FMW. He didn’t get much offense in the match, but he what he did mattered as he hit several of his trademark killer backdrop suplexes, which also help scored the win for his team when he hit a pair of them on Masamune.
Former Pancrase fighter Fuke had been working a lot with OPro, and does show some promise even if his kicks are rather weak looking, but he delivers a great German suplex and I think he’s the only guy I’ve seen who’s been able to chain it into a chicken wing submission hold!
Masamune & Hideyoshi of the Vendaval heel faction are definitely good as a team together, and Masamune is also impressive in his own right as he moves with lightning speed as had some great moves in his arsenal like the one where he swings around his opponent’s arm into a reverse DDT from a standing position!
Fun match overall when things broke down in the final sprint.
Match Rating: *1/2

~True Justice For Osaka~: Osaka Pro Tag Titles Decision Match: Billy Ken Kid & Black Buffalo VS Tigers Mask & Flash Moon
Now this was a ton of fun! Nothing but none-stop action from bell-to-bell, and they literally didn’t let up for a minute! Flash Moon might be new on the scene, but he’s definitely a good high-flyer, and takes some good bumps. Hearing him scream in pain after the double stomp from BKK made me cringe.
But seriously, everyone put out their best for this one, and the new No.1 Heel of the company, Billy Ken Kid, gained momentum for his Vendaval group when he pinned Flash with his new Beltigo finisher, which is a safer version of the Joker Driver (Electric chair pick up into a head-drop cradle). Definitely the first match of the night that the crowd was heavily behind.
Match Rating: ***1/2

~Master-Apprentice Confrontation of Fate~ Osaka Pro Title: Super Dolphin (C) VS Super Delfin
Delfin is dressed all in black like a heel, and Dolphin looks like mini-Big Boss MA-G-MA!
This match was really one-sided with Delfin constantly attacking Dolphin’s bad leg with multiple-leg submission locks and attacks. Other than all the rest holds, this was a pretty good main event caliber match, with both guys pulling out some moves I’d never seen before, like Dolphin’s cross-legged death valley driver, and Delfin’s Delfin Special #0, which was a slingshot German suplex-hold he won the match with.
Solid effort from both, but it probably would have been a lot better if Dolphin wasn’t injured and the match wasn’t so one sided due to it.
Match Rating: **1/2

Overall: They couldn’t even give us CLIPS of the World’s No.1 Title match?!? The two main events really saved this from being a really mediocre show. It would have been three matches if they didn’t cut out the comedy match. A new chapter for Osaka Pro begins with this show every year, unfortunately they’ve changed so much that I’ve just lost interest.

Labels: Osaka Pro