Puroresu Show Reviews

NWA Intercontinental Tag Titles: ROWDY (Kohei Sato & Hirotaka Yokoi) VS Pink Force (Steve Corino & Y2P-160kg) [C]
They either had a tough crowd today, or both teams really weren’t trying hard enough. I personally go with the later. You really expect more when there are titles on the line in Japan, and this worked out more like a tag match you’d see in WWE. It didn’t seem to build up to anything, and I don’t think it would have been any different if they didn’t cut out the 3 minutes that was clipped off.
Colt Cabana was in the Pink Force corner, all decked out in pink himself! It’s too bad this was a short term tandem, as it was a really fun looking gimmick. I like the variation of the 3D they did when Yoshie picked up Yokoi and passed him to Corino, before swinging him in mid-air into a TKO. Too bad the match ended with Corino rolling up Yokoi with a cradle. And why give the belts to them anyway if Yoshie was only contracted to work a handful of shows? Than again, Z1M has so many hand me down titles from defunct organizations that they really don’t mean much to hold them anyway.
Match Rating: *

Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita VS Kota Ibushi & Crazy Boy
I’m not really sure what the backstory to this match was, seems as if LAW wrestler Crazy Boy has been trying to beat Hidaka & Fujita with different partners and always coming up short, so this time he’s brought in Kota Ibushi from DDT, and he more or less made the right choice since they put on a very strong performance here.
Kota did this really fun spot where he tried for a moonsault, but Fujita rolled out of the way, but Kota landed on his feet and immediately did a standing moonsault to hit his target! Kota also gave the reigning GHC Jr. tag champions a lot of trouble with his hard kicking skills as well as his other aerial offense. He even did an awesome bridging German suplex-hold where he held a perfect bridge and his own head never touched the mat!
Crazy Boy was also rather impressive. The masked luchador has a penchant for chain combinations out of face busters, making for some great looking sequences. He even did the one manned Spanish Fly and a Diamond Dust for a pair of near falls. I really wouldn’t mind seeing more of the guy, though I wonder why he has to job so much considering he’s a champion in LAW and even brought his belt with him.
Hidaka and Fujita were at their bests as always. Even though this wasn’t a title match, both teams gave it their all and held nothing back. Hidaka scored the win for his team with his trademark Shawn Capture submission move.
Match Rating: ***

Atsushi Onita Pro-Wrestling Dedication Match: Atsushi Onita, Masato Tanaka & Lingerie Mutoh VS Ichiro Yaguchi, Yase Yaguchi & Kerberos
This was just a big brawl like the classic six-man street fight matches in FMW. Onita still looked like he could go even if the only wrestling moves he did was a piledriver on a table and his trademark Thunder Fire powerbomb. Tanaka didn’t do much other than splash Yase through a table and hit the Superfly Splash, and at least Mutoh hit the Shining Wizard for a big pop from the crowd.
Ichiro Yaguchi is an indy favorite of mine, it’s just too bad we didn’t get to see much of him in the match since most of it centered around Yase getting his ass whooped by Onita. I’m not sure who Kerberos is, but he’s a giant of a man and did an impressive iron-claw Exploder! Why we don’t see more of him in the minor league promotions is beyond me.
Overall, a nostalgic brawl of a match, with Onita scoring the pin on Yase with the Thunder Fire. Back to retirement and politics for him now.
Match Rating: *

AWA Heavyweight Title: Takao Omori VS Shinjiro Ohtani [C]
I really would have liked to have seen this match in full, as they clipped it down to about half the actual match time. Ohtani worked over Omori’s arm to take away the Axe Bomber, and tries to powerbomb him off the apron to the floor, but Omori counters it into an Axe Guillotine Driver on the apron! Why he didn’t jump off to the floor is beyond me. Back in the ring, Omori does a rolling dragon suplex into a full nelson buster for a near fall. Omori signals for the Axe Bomber, but Ohtani ducks it and hits a release German suplex! Omori pops right up and tries for the Axe again, but Ohtani again counters, this time into a full nelson suplex! Omori still doesn’t stay down and pops right up to finally hit the Axe Bomber! Both men stagger to their feet and trade strikes. Ohtani tries for the Spiral-bomb, but Omori counters it into a running Axe Guillotine Driver! It only gets him a near fall though, so he tries again for the Axe Bomber. Ohtani absorbs one and asks for another, which Omori obliges and flips Ohtani inside-out with another hard Axe Bomber to keep him down for the 3 count and crown a new champion!
Seriously though, what is it with Ohtani and lariats? He was smart enough to avoid it the first time and counter, but the second time he just stands there and takes it, like all the times he lost to Satoshi Kojima. That would probably be the only complaint I have from the match, other than the length it was cut down to. I’d probably give it a higher score if it was shown in full.
Match Rating: **1/2

Labels: Zero-1 MAX