Puroresu Show Reviews

SUMMER IMPACT 9/03/2006

Nobutaka Araya VS Kikutaro
The usual fun comedy from Kikutaro, but he did show some strength when he actually managed to get Araya up for a delayed vertical suplex! Unfortunately he put Araya back safely on his feet when his back gave out! Araya picked up the win with a really soft looking lariat.
Match Rating: *

Masanobu Fuchi VS Akira Raijin
Clipped down to about a minute. We see Raijin dropping headbutts on Fuchi before Fuchi folds him with a pair of backdrop suplexes and pinned with an inside cradle.
Match Rating: N/A

NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA VS Nobukazu Hirai & Ryuji Hijikata
Heavily clipped down again. MAZADA catches Hijikata’s leg out of a PK and turns it into a Ki-Krusher! Hirai breaks the count and NOSAWA brawls with him out to the floor. MAZADA runs into a kick from Hijikata, and Hijikata debuts his new running jumping kick to the face to get the win. The move looks cool, but you gotta question it’s authenticity as a finisher since we’ve seen loads of kicks like those before.
Match Rating: N/A

A good build-up video of the Kea/Suzuki Triple Crown match. They showed Suzuki watching from the stands during Kea’s first title defense against Kawada, and was actually yawning at the match! Kea would of course win the match, with Kawada passing the torch as it would seem. And Suzuki would continue to insult Kea as champion leading up to tonight’s match.

All Japan Triple Crown: Taiyo Kea [C] VS Minoru Suzuki
I’d like to state for the record that I really hate Referee Stop finishes for pro-wrestling matches. Unless it’s a serious injury, the referee shouldn’t really stop the match. It might add realism, and probably protects the rep of some wrestlers since they weren’t really beaten, but it would be better in cases like this match if the referee did the 3-count hand check instead of instantly stopping the match when Kea seemed out of it in Suzuki’s sleeper. I mean, how many times in pro-wrestling have we seen a guy go down to a sleeper, but make the miraculous recovery when the referee checks his arm for the 3 count?
Bad finish aside, this was a really good match. They tore into each other at the start, trying to take each other down and each trying to clamp on a sleeper. Suzuki actually gets the sleeper, but Kea counters with a big backdrop, but Suzuki pops up and delivered one of his own! Suzuki manages to gain control and work over Kea’s arm with a sick looking hanging triangle on the ropes, followed by multiple attacks to Kea’s arm and shoulder, but all that went out the door when Kea fought back and was using his arm like nothing happened, hitting the TKO, spiking Suzuki on his head with the Surfing Suplex, and hitting the TKO 34th for a near fall. Suzuki battles back but is unable to put Kea away with the Gotch-style piledriver. Suzuki even did a rather dangerous looking cross-armed piledriver move that couldn’t keep Kea down. He was finally able to clamp on the sleeper leading to the finish where he would win the Triple Crown.
Suzuki immediately disrespects the belts by actually standing on them before leaving!
Match Rating: ***1/2

Labels: AJPW