Puroresu Show Reviews

From the 4/13/2006 Korakuen Hall show, featuring the first defense of the GHC junior tag titles by Ikuto Hidaka and Minoru Fujita.

Takuya Sugawara & Kagetora VS GENTARO & Munanori Sawa
My first look at Kagetora, and I’d hear a bit about him being one of the top heels of El Dorado, but this guy is really small! He makes GENTARO and Sugawara almost look like heavyweights! The guy knows how to throw elbow strikes though, and he has a cool finisher where he picks his opponent up in a fireman’s carry, and slams them down in an Emerald Frosion-type slam. Sugawara is being pushed as the junior heel ace of the company, though he didn’t do much of note other than hit Sawa with the black box.
Munanori Sawa is a BattlArts worker, so he naturally has a bunch of striking and submission offense. He looks a bit like Katsuhiko Nakajima actually, and he’s got a killer looking running Shining Wizard-type knee attack!
The match was just standard fare with nothing really standing out, but a good showing for Sawa and Kagetora to the Z1M fans.
Match Rating: *

Kazuhiko Ogasawara VS Kensei Oh
I’m not sure if this was supposed to be serious or not, but this was probably one of the worse “matches” I’ve seen come out from Japan, rivaling some of the crap that is usually spewed by the likes of WWE and TNA in America. It’s supposed to be some kind of martial arts contest, but things get ridiculous halfway through when they break out the sake and try drunken fist fighting! Or more like Ogasawara just stood there drinking and no selling Kensei’s drunken offense, ending the match by a referee stop when Kensei locks a lame looking choke on Ogasawara.
Match Rating: DUD

GHC Jr. Tag Titles: Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita [C] VS Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Yoshihito Sasaki
There were things to like about this match, but at the same time there were things not to like, most obviously being the blatant no-selling of Takaiwa’s finishers by Hidaka. I don’t mind doing the 2.9 kick out spot after a big move, but it’s definitely pushing it when Hidaka kicks out of Takaiwa’s powerbomb/DVD combination, and that’s just after Takaiwa gave him a super DVD off the top rope! If Fujita made the save, I wouldn’t mind, but Hidaka did it all his own, and seconds later was back up on his feet and taking it to Takaiwa before hitting ONE Misty Flip to get the win! It was almost Dragon Gate like booking here. Yoshihito Sasaki was almost guilty of the same crime, but his was early in the match and wasn’t from any actual finishers, he just popped up a little too early and didn’t show any effects from the damage. Overall, I was a bit disappointed in this one since it felt overbooked with Takaiwa dishing out DVDs all over the place and nobody really seemed to sustain any long term damage from anybody’s attacks.
Match Rating: ***

Labels: Zero-1 MAX