Puroresu Show Reviews

Wrestle Kingdom Grand Opening VIENTO DORADO: Mistico, Ryusuke Taguchi & Prince DeVitt VS Averno, Jado & Gedo
More of a showcase match to introduce Mistico to the Japanese fans. I thought the New Japan guys were more impressive than the CMLL crew since they didn’t really do anything that we haven’t seen before by other junior heavyweights in other promotions. And since it was the lucha style, there were more than a few awkward moments that broke the pace of the match since they would just stand around to play to the crowd before continuing the match.
Match Rating: *

Jushin Thunder Liger 20th Anniversary Match: Jushin Thunder Liger & Takuma Sano VS Koji Kanemoto & Wataru Inoue
Sano was really out of place in the match, and they teased how Liger & Sano couldn’t seem to function as a team since there were a few miss-timed spots that ended with them hitting each other. It was an ok match, but Liger’s 20th anniversary match deserved better than to be buried on the undercard of a big show like this.
Match Rating: *

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles: NO LIMIT (Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito) [C] VS The Motor City Machineguns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley)
Note to NJPW: If TNA are ever stupid enough to release the ‘Guns, you guys better sign them to contract! Seriously! The ‘Guns totally overshadowed NO LIMIT here as they wowed the crowd with their tandem offense and flashy speed based offense. I just hope the fact that they actually won the titles here and have been back to Japan several times since is a sign of New Japan’s interest in the duo as great workers, as compared to TNA who really have no idea what to do with them.
Match Rating: ***1/2

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Low Ki [C] VS Tiger Mask
I liked that Tiger kicked out of the Ki Krusher at the beginning of the match since he was still fresh, but I hated how after taking all the punishment from Ki that he did throughout the match that he only suddenly needed THREE moves to put him away and win the belt! A release half tiger suplex, followed by a tiger suplex-hold for a near fall and a bizarre half tiger, wrist clutch between the legs suplex hold for the win.
I think Ki deserved better, and it’s no wonder many of the IWC are hating on Tiger.
Match Rating: **

Fighting Holdings Competition: Riki Choshu, Masahiro Chono, Kurt Angle & Kevin Nash VS Karl “Machinegun” Anderson, Tomohiro Ishii, Takashi Izuka & Giant Bernard
I know Nash is broken down and his move set is down to just 2 moves now (not counting punches & kicks), but I was actually expecting to see more Nash VS Bernard action. Nothing riles up the crowd more than 2 big men going at it. The whole match was probably more about setting up the aftermath where Bernard laid out Angle with the Bernard Driver after Angle took the win with the ankle lock.
Long story short, this was the match on the card that was thrown together to get the rest of the roster onto the card, plus two TNA guys who don’t really need the exposure. It served it’s purpose in that regard.
Match Rating: *1/2

Zero-One World Heavyweight Title – Crusade for Justice: Yuji Nagata [C] VS Masato Tanaka
Take two rival promotions, put a belt on the line, and throw in a lot of HATE, and you get an awesome match! This is how you make a blood feud! Both men bleeding and still tearing into each other with all they got. I think my only complaint was that it was a bit on the short side, and maybe they could have let Tanaka kick out of a few more near falls during the ending sequence to build up even more drama, but other than that, still a fantastic match and the first one of the night to really bring the crowd alive.
Match Rating: ****
Click Here to watch highlights from this match.

New Japan VS NOAH Battle Tendencies – The Invasion: Manabu Nakanishi VS Jun Akiyama
Nakanishi’s power VS Akiyama’s cunning, and they put on a passable match based around the amateur backgrounds of both men, though amateur wrestling didn’t play into the match itself. Best spot of the match was when Nakanishi lifted Akiyama off the mat while he had him in a front neck lock and slammed him down on the mat. Akiyama escapes the Argentine Backbreaker and lays in a barrage of Exploders before taking down the big gorilla with a wrist-clutch Exploder.
Match Rating: **
Click Here to watch highlights from this match.

IWGP Tag Team Titles – Hardcore Rules: Most Violence Players (Togi Makabe & Toru Yano) [C] VS Team 3D (Brother Ray & Brother Devon)
The match that featured the infamous "bouncing" diving headbutt, where Devon does a diving headbutt and comes short by about a foot, but his impact bounces him off the mat to reach his target! It's pretty obvious that without the hardcore gimmick, Team 3D would be pulling off the worst tag matches in Japan. How these two got so lazy is beyond me, and it doesn't help that Ray likes doing comedy spots while working in Japan. Makabe & Yano really should have won this one, but then again NJPW have shown almost zero interest in getting their belts back from TNA Team 3D won the belts here.
And what is up with those kindergaren tables they used here? Did New Japan have to slash the budget to save on expenses that they couldn't afford adult sized tables to be used in the match???
Match Rating: **

New Japan VS NOAH Battle Tendencies – The Encounter: Shinsuke Nakamura & Hirooki Goto VS Mitsuharu Misawa & Takashi Sugiura
Unfortunately this would be the last time we hear Misawa's name chanted in the Tokyo Dome. But it was a heck of a match! Even though limited, you could see Misawa was doing all he could for the match. But the star of the match was easilly Sugiura who carried most of the work load for his team. And it still amazes me how Nakamura does that flying cross-armbreker of his, though he probably over did his post match celebration when he won it for his team.
Match Rating: ****1/4
*Match Highlight clip coming soon*

IWGP Heavyweight Title: Keiji Mutoh [C] VS Hiroshi Tanahashi
If you like the dragon screw leg whip, you'll just LOVE this match, as at least 80% of the offense in the match consisted of that one move from various angles and positions. People might complain about Kobashi and his use of the chops, but this was downright ridiculous! At least Tanahashi remembered to sell the knee throughout the match, but Muto really needs to find some other structure to his matches other than countless dragon screws and Shining Wizards with a figure four tossed in here and there.
Match Rating: **

Overall: It was a great show from top to bottom with more good than bad. Definitely worth checking out.

Labels: AJPW, NJPW, NOAH

Mohammed Yone & Akihiko Ito VS Takashi Okita & Kento Miyahara
I know Yone is coming off challenging Sasaki for the GHC title and all, but it didn’t look right seeing him no selling and single handedly handling two guys here! I wouldn’t mind if he was someone the size of Rikioh or Morishima, or a senior like Taue, but he is neither so it sort of buried the Kensuke Office guys for me.
Match Rating: ½*

Yoshinari Ogawa, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki VS Doug Williams, Bryan Danielson & Atsushi Aoki
I find it funny that despite the rivalry between Ogawa and Williams, that they never decided to throw them together to form a tag team, even for short term. Their styles match up well and it would have made for an interesting tandem. It was funny seeing Ogawa not wanting any part of the cheating tactics of his partners, and even took out Genba with a backdrop on the floor! It got to the point Kanemaru & Suzuki attacked Ogawa! They still ended up winning when Kotaro pinned Aoki with the Blue Destiny, but that just lead to Williams & Danielson assisting Ogawa to lay out the junior tag champions.
Match Rating: **

Akira Taue & Makoto Hashi VS Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano
Despite being the newly crowned hardcore openweight champion, Hashi was still the job guy here. I really hated that he connected with TWO of his finishers on Sano, but it still wasn’t enough to put him away! He added a nice spinning backfist to his arsenal at least, but after being with the company for so long, it wouldn’t hurt to give the guy a decent push, and being hardcore openweight champion doesn’t count.
Match Rating: *1/2

Takeshi Morishima & Takashi Sugiura VS Nigel McGuinness & Superstar Steve
The ROH rivalry between Morishima and McGuinness, the man that beat him for the ROH title, are brought to the Budokan, and two go right at it! It was a good tag match, with a solid showing for Superstar Steve, who looked more than just enhancement talent. Maybe one day he will be a superstar? It was still determined that he’s pretty low in the rank and file though, since it took Sugiura to catching him in mid-air with a German suplex-hold to be enough to put him away. And at least we got to see Morishima give McGuinness a wicked looking backdrop suplex.
Match Rating: **

Kensuke Sasaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kota Ibushi VS Mitsuharu Misawa, Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin
I actually had high hopes for this one, since there’s a good deal of talent involved. But it seemed by the end of it a lot of them messed up their timing and botched quite a few moves! I liked seeing Ibushi changed things up with his offense when instead of doing a double moonsault when his opponent rolled away, he did a moonsault followed by a standing shooting star press when his opponent rolled inward instead! I will admit though, it was a bit hard seeing Misawa take big bumps here, like Sasaki tornado-bomb, when you knew that fate that awaited him just eight months later.
Match Rating: **1/2

GHC Tag Team Titles: Akitoshi Saito & Bison Smith [C] VS Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikioh
They tried to make it look like the deck was stacked against the champions since Bison was working with a heavily taped upper body, which I hate to say resembled a bra. But he fought through the pain the champions were able to pull out a victory. I know Akiyama is more than willing to put people over, but it just damages himself when we’ve seen him take so much more in previous matches, but here it just takes a Bisontenial followed by a lariat and a Sickle of Death to put him away. I thought they could have done a better job with the near falls to build up some suspense, but you know they had the match go shorter than the usual half-hour blockbuster tag title match since they were going for the 60-minute match next.
Match Rating: **1/2

GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title & AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Title – Double Title Match: KENTA [GHC] VS Naomichi Marufuji [AJPW]
Kyohei Wada is the referee for the match. Bell rings and both men stare each other down rather than charge into each other like they have in the past. Collar and elbow tie-up, and KENTA backs Marufuji into the ropes before breaking clean. Lock up again, and Marufuji backs KENTA into the ropes. Marufuji tries a cheap shot high kick, but KENTA ducks and responds with one of his own that Marufuji blocks. Lock up again and they trade elbow strikes. KENTA hits a sobat kick and runs the ropes. Marufuji follows him and they avoid each other before KENTA tries a kick which is caught by Marufuji, who also ducks an attempt at an enzuguiri. Marufuji tries for a sliding dropkick but KENTA avoids it and they stare off. They trade positions trying to get each other’s back before trading arm-wringers back and forth. Marufuji uses a hammerlock to get KENTA onto the mat, and starts driving his knee in to work the arm. KENTA tries to get to his feet, but is grounded as Marufuji transitions from a kimura to a headscissors. KENTA teases going for the old Muga hand-stand to escape, but instead pops his head out and tries to take off Marufuji’s with a quick kick, but the AJPW Jr. champion is quick enough to avoid it.
5 MINUTES
They trade strikes and Marufuji forces KENTA into a corner with a sobat kick. He charges him but KENTA kicks him off. KENTA runs the ropes, Marufuji tries a leapfrog, but KENTA meets him in mid-air with a big jumping kick! KENTA with a double knee drop and a cover for the first 2 count of the match. Marufuji sitting in the corner as KENTA lays in several kicks and stomps. Irish whip and KENTA turns Marufuji inside out with a kitchen sink knee to the gut. He pins him for a 2 count before locking on a body scissors. Marufuji drags them to the ropes, but Referee Wada kicks the ropes away when Marufuji touches them! Seems Wada wants full contact with the ropes rather than a light touch. Marufuji is able to grip the rope with both hands to get the hold released. KENTA works the mid-section with knee strikes and body shots in the corner. Whip into the corner and KENTA follows in, catches Marufuji as he tries to kick him, ducks and head kick, but gets caught with a headscissors and Marufuji pulls him face first into the 2nd turnbuckle. Marufuji charges in and hits a big jumping elbow. Off the ropes and Marufuji runs into a big boot, but catches KENTA with a dropkick as he comes of the ropes, sending him to the outside. Marufuji tries an Asai moonsault, but KENTA kicks his legs out and both collapse out on the floor. KENTA tries to bring Marufuji back into the ring with a suplex, but Marufuji escapes by slapping him in the nose and follows with a triple jump moonsault attack for a 2 count!
10 MINUTES
KENTA flips out of a backdrop attempt and catchess Marufuji with a zero-sweep kick off the ropes. KENTA tries a running high-kick in the corner, but Marufuji ducks it and kicks out his other leg while he caught on the ropes. Marufuji seems to botch a springboard move so he ends up just kicking out KENTA’s leg again before going back to work on it. Marufuji locks on a figure four and KENTA manages to get to the ropes after struggling for a bit. Marufuji stomps and stands on KENTA’s leg in the corner. Marufuji straddles KENTA on the top rope and dropkicks his knee before bringing him back in the ring with a dragon screw. Rolling leglock by Marufuji and KENTA has to struggle to the ropes to break the hold again. KENTA tries to fire back, but Marufuji with a low dropkick to the knee to cut him off. Marufuji out on the apron and tries to dragon screw KENTA through the ropes, but KENTA fights it off with elbow strikes, and takes him down with a kick to the leg of his own followed by a kick to the body that knocks him off the apron to the floor.
15 MINUTES
KENTA rests up Marufuji climbs back into the ring. Marufuji catches KENTA with a low dropkick off the ropes, but KENTA recovers in time to drop Marufuji as he comes off the ropes with a big lariat. KENTA now with a barrage of kicks and flings Marufuji into the corner turnbuckle with a double-underhook suplex! Strike combo followed by the Busaiku Knee! Cover, but only a 2 count! KENTA tries for a powerbomb, but Marufuji escapes and drives the back of his head into the corner buckle, and follows with a kick to the back of the head. Marufuji off the ropes, but KENTA trips him into the 619 position. KENTA follows up with a springboard out of the ring driving his knees into Marufuji’s face! Both men out on the floor now. Marufuji reverses an Irish whip into the guardrail and follows in, but KENTA trips him and he crashes chest first into the steel. KENTA picks him up on his shoulders and drops him chest first on the guardrail! KENTA follows with a neckbreaker, dropping Marufuji’s back across the rail! Back into the ring and KENTA covers for a 2. KENTA starts to work on Marufuji’s neck with a pair of elbow drops and one off the second rope. Pinfall attempt gets another 2, and KENTA locks on a figure-four headlock. Marufuji struggles to the ropes to break the hold.
20 MINUTES
Neckbreaker by KENTA for another near fall. Marufuji flips out of a neckbreaker kicks KENTA as he charges him in the corner. KENTA tries to suplex him off the second rope, but Marufuji lands on his feet and kicks him in the head before driving him into the opposite corner with a knee to the back of the head for added measure. Marufuji grounds KENTA with a modified headlock, which ends up as a crossface. KENTA struggles to the ropes to break the hold. KENTA struggles to his feet and is met with a superkick followed by a kick to the back of the head, and a Shiranui! Marufuji covers for a 2 count. Marufuji tries for a second Shiranui, but KENTA pushes him off. KENTA charges in but is met with a kick to the face. Marufuji tries a springboard move out of the corner, but KENTA catches him with a stunner! KENTA places Marufuji on the ropes and goes up top, but Marufuji recovers and knocks him off the top to the floor with a springboard dropkick! Marufuji sends KENTA into the corner post before driving him into the guardrail. Back in the ring and Marufuji covers for 2 count before clamping on a sleeper. Back to their feet and Marufuji uses a cravate.
25 MINUTES
Marufuji with a snapmare before giving him a neck snapper. Marufuji off the ropes with a double stomp on KENTA’s face! KENTA rolls out of the ring in pain, but eats a dropkick in the face when he tries to get back in and the back of his head smacks the guardrail. Marufuji next with a sick brainbuster dropping KENTA’s back on the standing guardrail! KENTA struggles back into the ring to beat the count, but Marufuji then places his neck across the ropes and stands on his face! KENTA is able to struggle to his feet and trade slaps with the AJPW Jr. champion, but Marufuji takes a cheap shot at his neck. With KENTA down on his back, Marufuji gives him a swift soccer kick to the side of his head! Piledriver by Marufuji for a near fall, and Marufuji uses a sleeper hold with a body scissors to continue his work on KENTA’s neck. KENTA eventually gets to the ropes to break the hold
30 MINUTES
Marufuji props KENTA in the corner and continues his assault with a knuckle punch to the back of KENTA’s neck. KENTA reverses an Irish whip and hits Marufuji with a lariat in the corner followed by a big running kick. KENTA tries for another running move, but Marufuji follows him into the corner and hits a lariat of his own! Marufuji with an Irish whip into the ropes, but KENTA comes out with a running forearm smash and follows up with a pair of lariats. Whip into the corner again, and KENTA launches Marufuji with a big back body drop. KENTA goes up top and connect with a diving lariat for a near fall. Fisherman’s buster for another near fall. KENTA tries for the STF, but Marufuji quickly scrambles to the ropes. Marufuji trips KENTA off the ropes, and KENTA trips him right back before locking on the STF! Marufuji is able to struggle to the ropes to break the hold. KENTA tries for a tiger suplex, but Marufuji holds on to the ropes. KENTA tries a charging attack, but Marufuji ducks and KENTA flies over the top rope out to the floor. Marufuji tries a plancha, but KENTA dodges and kicks him into the guardrail. KENTA charges in, but Marufuji flips him over the guardrail into the audience. Marufuji then hits a HUGE springboard moonsault off the top rope over the guardrail out on KENTA! Shades of the GHC title match 2 years prior, but Marufuji didn’t almost kill himself again by landing throat first on the railing this time. KENTA barely beats the 10 count back into the ring as the ring announcer signals the 35 minute mark!
35 MINUTES
Marufuji with a big jumping knee in the corner, followed by a German suplex for a near fall. KENTA fights off a second German attempt, and tries a lariat but ends up in a cross-armed German position! KENTA gets to the ropes to break the hold, so Marufji changes it to a cobra clutch, and flips the GHC Jr. champion down to the mat with a triangle cobra clutch! KENTA struggles to his feet, but Marufuji brings him right back down with a back cracker while maintaining the cobra! Marufuji wraps his legs around KENTA’s head for added pressure! KENTA struggles and eventually makes it to the ropes to break the hold, but Marufuji instead modifies the hold into a cobra & wrist-clutch backdrop suplex-hold for a near fall! KENTA is dazed and bleeding from the mouth as Marufuji sets him up in the Tree of Woe. Marufuji springboards from corner to corner, but KENTA avoids the move by pulling himself up the corner! KENTA gets to a seating position up top, but eats a big jumping superkick!
40 MINUTES
Marufuji tries for a hurricanrana, but KENTA counters by tossing him off with a powerbomb! While Marufuji is on all fours, KENTA dives off the top with a double stomp on the back of Marufuji’s neck! KENTA covers for a 2 count. KENTA sets up Marufuji on the top rope and hits a big diving knee to his back, following with a kick off the ropes while Marufuji is in a sitting position for a near fall. Marufuji catches KENTA with a thrust kick, but gets sent over the top to the apron. KENTA hits the strike combo followed by a Busaiku Knee, knocking Marufuji off the apron onto the guardrail and almost knocking the announce table! Marufuji beats the 10 count back into the ring, but is met by a springboard missile dropkick and a barrage of high impact running kicks in the corner. Sit-out powerbomb by KENTA for a 2 count. KENTA tries for the Go 2 Sleep, but Marufuji flips out and tries for a Shiranui, but KENTA counters that wrapping him in an Octopus Stretch! Marufuji actually carries KENTA’s weight to try to get to the ropes, but loses his balance and falls down. KENTA maintains the hold and gets a pinning combination out of it for a 2 count. Strike combo by KENTA, but Marufuji follows him off the ropes and hits a Busaiku Knee of his own!
45 MINUTES
Referee counts both men down, but Marufuji to his feet first. He goes up top, but KENTA recovers as well and cuts him off. KENTA tries to superplex Marufuji out of the ring to the floor, but Marufuji is able to fight out of it. With KENTA dangling on the top rope, Marufuji makes a mad dash down the isle and hits KENTA with a dropkick! Marufuji then slams KENTA off the top down to the floor! KENTA is hurt and barely gets back in the ring in time, but Marufuji is waiting for him and hits him with the springboard dropkick from one corner of the ring to the other! High angle spinning powerbomb by Marufuji gets a 2 count! KENTA struggles to his feet and is met by a superkick followed by a Shiranui for a near fall. They trade strikes, but Marufuji drops KENTA with a lariat off the ropes for another near fall.
50 MINUTES
Marufuji sets up for another Shiranui, but KENTA blocks it, so Marufuji turns it into a flipping neckbreaker! Cover and another near fall! Frustrated, Marufuji sets up KENTA for a super Shiranui! KENTA fights it off and tries for a super tiger suplex, but Marufuji flips over and lands on his feet! He charges at KENTA with a lariat, but KENTA counters into a tiger suplex-hold for a very close 2.9! KENTA with a running knee to the back of Marufuji followed by a Busaiku Knee for another 2.9! KENTA with 3 hard kicks to the head and covers him for another near fall! KENTA tries for the Go 2 Sleep, but it’s Marufuji who catches him with a knee to the face out of the move! Both men struggle to their feet. Marufuji with a thrust kick! KENTA with a lariat! KENTA with a high kick! Marufuji with a spinning back kick to the head! Both men down again! Both men struggle to their feet again and trade strikes. KENTA with two high kicks to the head, and Marufuji responds with a spinning back kick knocking KENTA to one knee!
55 MINUTES!
Marufuji with another kick to the face and a cover for a near fall. Marufuji sets up KENTA and hits the Pole Shift! But he’s too hurt to make the cover! He eventually gets over for the pinfall, and KENTA barely lifts a shoulder for the 2 count! Marufuji tries for the Pole Shift again, but KENTA pick him up for the Go 2 Sleep! Marufuji tries to fight out with a barrage of elbow strikes, but KENTA connects with the move! KENTA crawls over for the cover, but only gets a big near fall!
57 MINUTES!!
Both men are exhausted and are fighting just to get to their feet. They both charge and take down each other with lariats, but KENTA is able to crawl over and pin Marufuji for another near fall!
58 MINUTES!!!
Marufuji with another big spin kick to the head and a cover, but KENTA gets his foot on the ropes! They get to their feet again and start throwing serious elbow strikes at each other! KENTA picks up Marufuji out of nowhere and hits another Go 2 Sleep! Cover! 1-2-2.9!
59 MINUTES!!!!
They struggle to their feet and trade strikes again! Sobat kick by Marufuji! POLE SHIFT! Marufuji with a deep cover, but only gets a 2.9 with 10 seconds left on the clock! Both men are on their knees trading strikes as the time limit comes to an end, signaling the bout as a DRAW!

Wow. They worked kind of a smart match here, and not the all out spot fest you’d expect. If you didn’t know the match ended in a draw, you could pretty much tell that was the direction it was headed since they hadn’t really busted out any of the big spots by the half way mark. All the body work from the first half of the match seemed to go out the window by the third quarter though. It was still a solid effort by both though, and a great match overall.
Match Rating: ****1/2

Overall: From top to bottom, this was another entertaining show. Maybe it had to do with the undercard matches being so short? The main event didn’t really break any new ground, but it was definitely a spectacle.

Labels: AJPW, DDT, Kensuke Office, NOAH

Golden Great League Semi Final: Magnitude Kishiwada VS KAGETORA
- I was surprised how one sided this match was with Kishiwada almost squashing KAGETORA here, save for a few hope spots. Kishiwada even pinned him arrogantly by standing over him with his hands on his chest for the win after a Last Ride. They were building up Kishiwada as a true monster as he got passed his block undefeated, even if he did cheat to beat Owashi, but seeing him give him a Last Ride was impressive.
Match Rating: *1/2

Golden Great League Semi Final: Touru Owashi VS Shuji Kondo
- Both of them have a score to settle with Kishiwada, and they went at it as almost equals, save for Owashi's size advantage. Kondo almost managed to pick up Owashi for The Original, but did manage to Jackhammer the big man for a near fall. Kondo survived a pair or running chokeslams and kicked out after two diving body presses, and finally put down the big man after a barrage of King Kong Lariats. The match was OK, but Kondo's lariats at the end didn't look like they had much impact.
Match Rating: **1/2

Ladder Match
- I don't know most of the people in this match, so I'm not even going to try to name them. This was one of the most bizzare matches I've ever seen. Right at the beginning of the match, one of the guys pulled down whatever it was they were supposed to be aiming for that was hanging above the ring, but the match continued anyway since everyone hadn't entered yet. Danshoku Dino comes out later and announces they are going to put whatever that is back up on the cable and the match and all it's whackiness continues until everyone was in and one of the Brahmans retrieve whatever it was on the cable. This match was very much like what you'd see in DDT with all the weird gimmicks and comedy spots.
Match Rating: **

Aagan Iisou VS Tokyo Gurentai: "brother" YASSHI, Sugawara & Shogo "Jet" Takagi VS NOSAWA Rongai, MAZADA & TAKEMURA
- Your standard Dragon Gate style six-man tag with a lot going on all at once. Jet makes his big return only to be pinned by a quick school-boy roll-up after hitting his trade mark Jet Punches. Why fans care so much for this guy is beyond me.
Match Rating: *

Golden Great League Finals: Magnitude Kishiwada VS Shuji Kondo
- I really hated that they had to make Kishiwada so dominant over Kondo, even with all the cheating he did. Kondo took a heck of a beating, being put through a table, sprayed with mist in the eyes, kicked out of a Last Ride, but was able to win with a pair of King Kong Lariats after Kishiwada accidentally gets black mist sprayed in his eyes by the one of the Brahmans. Really could have been a lot better.
Match Rating: **1/2

Labels: AJPW, DDT, Dragon Gate, El Dorado

Taken from the 6/28/09 “CROSSOVER ‘08” tour closer at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium.

Masanobu Fuchi, Nobukazu Hirai & Akira Raijin VS NOSAWA Rongai, MAZADA & TAKEMURA- I haven’t watched any AJPW in a while, but DAMN has Raijin completely changed his image! He seems to have dropped a ton of weight and looks almost slimmer than the Gurentai members! He’s also a lot faster and doesn’t just rely on headbutts like when he was a rookie. I wouldn’t mind if he kept the Raijin Buster though, as the Lighting Flash (fireman’s carry into a back slam) looks really weak, even if it is the set up for his moonsault finisher.

T28 & Seiya Sanada VS KAI & Antonio Thomas
Antonio Thomas is formerly one half of ex-WWE tag team, The Heartthrobs. They didn’t show a lot of him here, other then a German suplex with a superkick assist from KAI and a plancha to the outside before KAI finished off T28 with a diving body press.

Kensuke Sasaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kaz Hayashi & Manabu Soya VS TARU, Shuji Kondo, “brother” YASSHI & Rene Dupree
I REALLY like the way Dupree was pushed here! He played the part of a heel with a great physique, but at the same time the same ruthless aggression the Voodoo Murders were know for! He had a rather interesting exchange with Sasaki, which could have been built into a mini-feud to push him further towards possibly being a Triple Crown contender if they had played their cards right. Sure he still did the French Tickler, but he was a lot more serious about it and it didn’t seem like much of a comedy spot when he did it. Fun match overall, with Sasaki taking YASSHI’s head off with a sick lariat to take the win.

AJPW Triple Crown: Suwama [C] VS Osamu Nishimura
Anytime you put Nishimura in a championship match, you know your guaranteed something different than usual. Suwama has a major vendetta to settle here as Nishimura has pinned him countless times in tag matches since he won the Triple Crown. They start off with a feeling out process and some mat work where Suwama surprises Nishimura being doing the headstand to escape from a head scissors! This sort of pisses off Nishimura who eventually does the move himself, but when the match gets taken out to the floor, Nishimura whacks Suwama in the leg with the title belt and a ringside chair! This leads to Nishimura working over Suwama with the figure-four, which Suwama is able to escape and himself starts to attack Nishimura’s leg with a knee-breaker followed by the ankle-lock! I loved the spot near the end where Suwama turned the ankle-lock into a release German when Nishimura was about to escape the hold. Suwama should go back to using the Alligator Lock version of the ankle-lock. The pace picks up here as Nishimura reminds us how deadly an octopus-hold, the figure-four headlock and a cobra-twist can be! The crowd is popping here, really believing there’s a chance Suwama would submit, or a referee stoppage could be called! The crowd continues to go wild as Nishimura scored multiple near falls with quick backslides and cradles. Suwama is able to weather the storm and rally back with a barrage of suplexes followed by the Last Ride to make a successful V1.
I’m not sure how much they cut out from the original match, but it seemed to flow rather nicely from start to finish. One of Suwama’s better matches thanks to Nishimura.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Labels: AJPW

Kento Miyahara Debut Match ~ A New Dream: Kento Miyahara vs Seiya Sanada
Kensuke Office rookie vs All Japan rookie. Good new blood match, but I felt it went a little too long. Sanada wins with a high-angle Boston crab after hitting a high-angle backbreaker.

Takashi Okita Debut Match ~ A New Dream: Takashi Okita VS Takeshi Minaminao
Minaminao is an Ultimo Dragon student, and Okita is an ex-American football player. This one also felt like it went longer than necessary with Minaminao finally putting away the rookie with a Swanton bomb.

Catfish Yume no Holy Land: Catfishman, Catfishman & Catfishman VS Kikutaro, Magnitude Kishiwada & Boso Boy Raito
Fun little comedy match with these bizzare Catfishmen. Nothing much really stood out for me in this one.

Katsuhiko Nakajima Return Match ~ Future Dream First Confrontation: Katsuhiko Nakajima VS Ryuji Yamaguchi
Fun cometitive match between the returning Nakajima and rookie Yamaguchi. These two folded each other in half several times with backdrops and Germans before Nakajima hit a moonsault press to take the match.
Match Rating: *1/2

Under the Name of Dream: Kensuke Sasaki, Genichiro Tenryu, Yoshihiro Takayama & Minoru Suzuki VS Shinjiro Ohtani, Yutaka Yoshie, Akitoshi Saito & Toshiaki Kawada
A fun all star main event where everyone got to hit their spots. They even teased Suzuki heeling Kensuke when he broke up a cover Kensuke had on Ohtani! There were a lot of fun strike exchanges too and I really loved Tenryu acting like he broke his hand when he smacked Kawada on the cheek with a guh punch! Finish came with Tenryu hitting the 53-Years Old on Saito, followed by a Northern Lights Bomb from Kensuke and the Everast German Suplex-hold by Takayama for the win.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Michiyoshi Ohara and Tatsutoshi Gotoh attacked Kensuke after the match. Where were all of Kensuke's friends then?

Overall: Fun show and worth a look for the two main events.

Labels: AJPW, Kensuke Office, NJPW, NOAH, Zero-1 MAX

"Pro-Wrestling Love in Yokohama" 7/01/2007

Kikutaro VS "brother" YASSHI
Clipped down, but fun for what they managed to show, with Kikutaro using some of YASSHI's own tricks against him, including the testicular claw and testicular dragon screw! The resident comedy king couldn't put YASSHI away though, and was pinned with a quick la majistral cradle.
Match Rating: N/A

Ryuji Hijikata & AKIRA VS T28 & Katsuhiko Nakajima
Clipped down to just T28 (pronounced "Tetsuya") dropping a big diving elbow, and then Hijikata hitting him with his leg lariat finisher followed by a brainbuster and the Mususubi Press from AKIRA for the win.
Match Rating: N/A

Joe Doering & Hawaiian Lion VS Nobutaka Araya & Nobukazu Hirai
Another clipped down to the ending match. Not enough shown to give you an idea of what Doering and Lion are like in the ring if you've never seen them before. Doering hits a lariat on Hirai for the win, and the cry continues for Araya to get a serious push.
Match Rating: N/A

Miguel Hayashi Jr., Pepe Michinoku & El NOSAWA Mendoza VS Dick Togo, MAZADA & Phil Atlas
Clipped down, and I don't think we even got to see Togo get into the match! They did show the Mexican Amigos again tease a break up only to reconcile, and they showed some nice multi-person dives. NOSAWA hits a move that looks like Ricky Marvin's Santa Maria before pinning Atlas with a cradle. Whole point of this match was for MAZADA to bring out YAMADA to challenge the Amigos for another match down the line.
Match Rating: N/A

AJPW Triple Crown: Minoru Suzuki [C] VS Keiji Mutoh
I usually enjoy seeing Suzuki get his butt whooped, but I actually found myself supporting him here. Maybe because Mutoh again didn't sell as much as he should have, my main case being Suzuki puts him in an armbar and Mutoh doesn't even struggle! He instead just gets up to his feet to break the hold and immediately transitions into the figure four! Bare in mind this is after he actually did sell the move the first time Suzuki went for it.
The match was mostly built aroung Mutoh attacking Suzuki's knees, like in most Mutoh matches, only the cocky Pancrase Mission star laughed off the pain rather than show Mutoh any signs of weakness. To his credit, Mutoh gave Suzuki the biggest rub he could by actually letting the champion kick out of his trademark moonsault press! And it was after multiple Shining Wizards to boot, so kudos to Mutoh for that.
Needless to say, Suzuki managed a comeback and attacked Mutoh's bad knees. He then clamps on a heel-hold, and Mutoh fights it for as long as he can before eventually tapping out for the champion to retain in a hard-fought war.
Match Rating: ****

Labels: AJPW

2006 SHINING SERIES 10/29/2006

AHII, Ryuji Hijikata & Katsuhiko Nakajima VS Suwama, Buchanan & “brother” YASSHI
They clip this down so all the emphasis is on AHII flipping around all over the place and YASSHI taking a beating. The heels get a short advantage and triple team AHII, but some help from the chili-headed superhero’s partners, and he’s able to hit an ultra-hurricanrana on YASSHI for the win.
Match Rating: *

MAZADA VS Akira Raijin
The good thing about Raijin is he seems to add more to his arsenal each time I see him. I just wonder when the heck he’ll be elevated to more than being a job boy for so long. Even against a junior heavyweight like MAZADA, there wasn’t much he could do that MAZADA could make a quick comeback. MAZADA finishes Raijin with what looks like a fisherman’s gourdbuster.
Match Rating: *

Masanobu Fuchi & Nobukazu Hirai VS Nobutaka Araya & Kikutaro
The usual comedic miscommunications between the Baka Kyoudai, but Araya added a diving two handed butt-poke to his arsenal and used it to break up the count when Hirai had Kikutaro pinned after an Exploder. Araya accidentally butt-pokes Kikutaro, and Fuchi gives him his trademark backdrop suplex before Hirai pins him with a crucifix out of a Hirai-End (Rock Bottom).
Match Rating: *

Taiyo Kea & TAKA Michinoku VS TARU & D-Lo Brown
They clipped this one down to the point that it was all action, which is a good thing considering some of the guys involved. Seems like a lot of emphasis was put on TAKA in this one, and him being able to apply the Michinoku Driver on D-Lo was a nice highlight before TARU whacked the referee with a pipe and got his team disqualified.
Match Rating: *

A look back at the 8/27 MUTA VS TAJIRI match, and the highlights made it look better than it really was, but it did lead to the odd teaming of MUTA and TAJIRI as the ultimate heel team to take on the super babyface team of Satoshi Kojima and Kaz Hayashi, which is up next.

Great MUTA & TAJIRI VS Satoshi Kojima & Kaz Hayashi
I heard the hype behind this match, but watching it myself I didn’t think it was really all that good. It was OK for what it was, with MUTA and TAJIRI heeling it up by busting Kaz open and working him over, and MUTA scaring the kids and young ladies in the crowd while TAJIRI shrieked and taunted Kaz. Kojima gets the hot tag and over powers the opposition, but gets outsmarted by multiple mist attacks! There was also a cool double Tarantula spot with both MUTA and TAJIRI applying the moves to the face team. Unfortunately, I felt that the ending was rather anti-climatic with MUTA hitting Kaz with the Shining Wizards followed by TAJIRI getting the pin with the Buzzsaw Kick. A few near falls instead of the instant finish would have been good to make the climax more exciting.
Match Rating: ***

Labels: AJPW

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

I really liked the opening video they used, showing the history of both New Japan and All Japan and generations of great wrestlers from both East and West that came and went throughout the years.

Welcome to Tokyo Dome! New Year Funny Waltz:
Masanobu Fuchi, El Samurai & Ryusuke Taguchi VS Kikutaro, Nobutaka Araya & Akira Raijin
Fun comedy match to kick off the show. It was good to see 30,000+ fan reacting to Kikutaro’s comedy antics, even if he hasn’t done anything new in a while. The commentator put over Fuchi big time, and Raijin & Taguchi had a good showing in the ring. Interesting to see Raijin developing a finisher called the Raijin Buster, which is like a sit-out Emerald Frosion, and I’m enjoying Taguchi’s “Funky Weapon” gimmick, even if he does look a bit like a mini Mohammed Yone. Taguchi picked up the winning hitting the Dodon on Kikutaro, after Kikutaro got slammed by Fuchi’s backdrop suplex and Samurai’s reverse DDT finishers.
Once again, it almost feels like a crime that Araya is nothing more than a comedic punching bag for Kikutaro. He had the least ring time, and that was only for a comedy bit. After the match he even got low-kicked by Kikutaro when asked to do Taguchi’s victory dance, than Araya cried walked out alone with a lone spotlight on him while some sad enka music played. Something like that would imply a sympathetic type push, but of course nothing came of it.
Match Rating: *

Artistic Tag Team Battle:
Jado & Gedo VS NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA
Fun to hear there was ONE NOSAWA fan in the audience somewhere that tried to get a “Rongai!” chant going, but no one joined in!
Rather interesting to see Jado & Gedo in more of a babyface role here, as NOSAWA & MAZADA out-heeled them and were in charge of most of the match due to dirty tactics like hand-biting and eye-gouging! This match was great with a lot of action, and they even did the MAZADA countering a tombstone piledriver into a flipping tombstone piledriver spot that he did before in his junior title match with Shuji Kondo last year! Jado & Gedo were finally able to out-heel the Tokyo Gurentai when Gedo brought in a drum stick to distract the referee while Jado hit NOSAWA with a low blow, and that lead to them hitting their trademark super-bomb followed by the Superfly Splash from Gedo for the win.
I’m just wondering how much they could have upped the anti if Jado & Gedo’s IWGP junior tag titles were on the line here.
Match Rating: ***

Rockin’ Your Hearts of Fxxxing Outlaws:
Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii VS D-Lo Brown, Buchanan & Travis Tomko
A fun brawl between six big heels. Buchanan was wearing his old WWE gear for some reason. Tomko looked really good here, and fit in well with his ex-WWE fellows as the three of them have the similarity of size, power and agility. I liked watching Ishii finally get some kind of a direction now, and it’s good to see Makabe come into his own his new death match champion gimmick. I thought the ending of the match could have been a bit better than Buchanan getting hit in the back by a chair and Makabe hitting a big lariat for the pin.
Match Rating: *

Dimesion Zero:
Riki Choshu, Manabu Nakanishi, Takashi Iizuka & Naofumi Yamamoto VS Giant Bernard, TARU, Suwama & RO’Z
I enjoyed all the bits at the beginning when TARU was getting his ass kicked cause I’ve always found him annoying as heck and hate the way he bullies people even if it is his character. Then Yamamoto goes and totally flubs a float-over DDT. I was a bit worried when Nakanishi got the hot tag cause we hadn’t seen much of Suwama in action yet, but I enjoyed the power display of Nakanishi as he managed to get huge RO’Z up for the Argentine Backbreaker for a few seconds. Bernard’s sit-out Last Ride was just awesome, and he even managed a few rotations with Yamamoto above his head before slamming him down! Choshu went wild with Riki Lariats and Iizuka tossed Suwama around with a few Exploders. Suwama scores the win for the Voodoo Murders pinning Yamamoto with a backdrop-hold, Yamamoto’s own finisher.
Not sure why Bernard didn’t like that Suwama scored the win, and that lead to an altercation between the team mates, and TARU received a choke-bomb from Bernard for trying to play peace keeper.
Match Rating: **

Top of the World, Arts of War:
Koji Kanemoto, Tiger Mask, Kaz Hayashi, TAKA Michinoku & Wataru Inoue VS Jushin Thunder Liger, Minoru, Milano Collection AT, Shuji Kondo & “brother” YASSHI
All I can say after watching this is that I’d really like to see a Minoru-Kaz singles match! The two of them work really well together and it’s a waste that they didn’t follow up the animosity they had against each other here with anything.
You had ten men in this match and they all got to show something. We had a comedy spot between TAKA & YASSHI where they grab each other by the balls, there was a lot of ring-to-floor diving, and everyone actually just worked well together here. I think maybe on Liger didn’t do much in the match, with more focus on everyone else other than when the CTU/VM team were working together with multi-man beat downs on whoever was unlucky enough to be in there. Even Tiger Mask only came in at the end to get the win over YASSHI with a great tiger suplex-hold, but was still a great match overall.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Dangerous Rapture:
Shinsuke Nakamura VS Toshiaki Kawada
This was a rather interesting encounter as it features the future ace of New Japan vs. the past ace of All Japan. They did a lot of mat work and both targeted each other’s right arms. Nakamura controlled the mat game, but Kawada easily controlled the standing and striking game, forcing Nakamura to keep him grounded with submission locks. Kawada even lost his temper at one point and battered Nakamura on the mat, kicking and stomping at him like a mad man. There was also a fun no-sell sequence where both men tossed each other back and forth with suplexes, Kawada using his dangerous backdrops, and Nakamura busting out his modified backdrop, a German suplex and a tiger suplex, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen him used before. Nakamura even countered a lariat from Kawada with a SWEET flying cross armbreaker.
A few years ago this would probably have been a heavy squash in Kawada’s favor, Nakamura definitely showed his growth as he took everything Kawada dished out, and managed to kick out at just one from Kawada’s powerbomb and a two from Kawada’s brainbuster! It took a rather sick kick right to Nakamura’s face as he dove to try to dodge it to finally put Nakamura down for the 3 count after an intense physical battle.
Match Rating: ***1/2

AJPW Triple Crown:
Minoru Suzuki [C] VS Yuji Nagata
Seems like Suzuki can only have good exciting matches when he’s up against someone with a serious rivalry behind him. This wasn’t the standard MiSuzuki borefest that most of his matches tend to be thanks to Nagata bringing a Hell lot of intensity due to his hatred for Suzuki! The match only seemed to slow down for a bit when they were on the outside doing their blade jobs, but of course when Nagata bleeds it only means Demon Nagata is in the house! Unfortunately when it came to the finish, Nagata probably has no one to blame but himself for the loss since he pulled up Suzuki at 2 instead of letting referee Kyohei Wada count 3 after a sick Thunder Death Driver. That lead to Suzuki getting a second wind and rallying back to clamp on his sleeper hold which lead to a referee stoppage, which sucks since Nagata wasn’t completely out yet and the hold hadn’t been applied for too long.
Still, this match had major crowd heat going for it from start to finish, and both men turned it up.
Match Rating: ****

NJPW IWGP Heavyweight Championship:
Hiroshi Tanahashi [C] VS Taiyo Kea
Damn, did Kea make Tanahashi look like a million bucks here or what?!?
Kea dominated most of the match and was seemingly one step ahead of Tanahashi every step of the way, finding ways to counter and break up any offense Tanahashi could dish out. Credit to Tanahashi for willing to take some big moves like the TKO on the exposed floor and a head-spiking Surfing Suplex. Tanahashi also kicked out of the high-angle powerbomb that Kea used to put Kawada away in his only Triple Crown defense, as well as kicking out of the TKO 34th, but then again, Kawada kicked out of three of those consecutively so so much for it’s credibility anyway. Kea even busted out something new in the form of a sit-out powerbomb for another near fall.
On offense, Tanahashi got in most of his moves, but like I’ve said in the past they just look too weak to be credible. I liked that he modified the Dragon Sleeper into a Final Cut, and that would even make for a credible finisher. I also liked the trapped armed German suplex-hold he did before hitting a release dragon suplex followed by the High Fly Flow frog splash for the win.
It really irks me that they couldn’t have booked this as a more even back and forth contest instead of having Tanahashi play the champion in peril, but the crowd reacted well and got into it the more Tanahashi kicked out of Kea’s big moves and got any good offense in. Hate to say it, but I did find myself enjoying seeing Kea carry the match, and the only thing that would have really made this match better would have been for Tanahashi to get more offense in and give Kea more near falls like what Kea did for him.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Super Dream Tag Match – This Is Wrestle Kingdom!
Masahiro Chono & Keiji Mutoh VS Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
I just couldn’t help but notice despite how hard both teams were working, the crowd was just dead silent for most of this one, which really took away from the feel of the match. Then again, the match also felt like it didn’t have much structure at times when both teams just threw everything tooth-n-nail at each other like they were doing anything they could to get a reaction from the crowd. The fans did pop for the double submission Chono & Mutoh did to TenKoji, but were silent for when TenKoji did the same to their former mentors. The crowd also popped for a wicked double Shining Wizard/Shining Yakuza Kick which scrambled Tenzan’s brains for a bit, and loved it when both seniors did Hashimoto’s overhead chop barrage and jumping DDT, but nothing really seemed to get the crowd into it, not even the near falls at the end when Chono kicked out of Tenzan’s big moonsault. When Chono finally scored the win over Tenzan with the cross-legged STF, that also felt like it came out of nowhere. It also did jack for Tenzan since it looked like he tapped too soon and wasn’t even trying to fight to get to the ropes to break the hold.
Overall, I think this match should have gone longer as Tenzan and Kojima didn’t get to uncork their entire arsenal even, and both teams definitely could have done more to actually build something. But of course, the whole reason for this match was just to pay tribute to the late Shinya Hashimoto.
Match Rating: **1/2

Overall: A lot of good entertaining stuff on this show. Definitely check out the big 3 singles matches on the card, and the Hashimoto tribute at the end was a nice touch, if not the only reason for the main event tag match that was a little lackluster.

Labels: AJPW, NJPW

I like the intro video where they made a big deal about All Japan running a show in the Sumo Hall, as well as hyping the featured matches on the card.
We then get the usual RO@D in ring segment to greet the crowd as well as the TARU interference bit.

AHII VS Voodoo Mask
Nice build up video for this one showing how Mutoh discovered AHII while on his recent trip to Mexico. AHII has a weird looking appearance, but he has two cute red headed valets and they did a nice synchronized dance intro, much like what we usually see in Dragon Gate.
The match itself was for AHII to showcase his high-flying skills and Voodoo Mask got to show some power. I think it’s El Dorado worker KAGETORA under the Voodoo Mask gimmick, and he actually did a John Woo ala SUWA. Anyway, the ending of the match had AHII finishing off Voodoo Mask with a rather sick looking Ultra-Hurricanrana, with Voodoo Mask not getting the full flip-through and crashing right on his head from the move. They showed several replays of the move from several angles and Voodoo Mask needed a bit of help back to the locker room.
Short match, but a good high-flying debut for the guy in the strange chili shaped mask.
Match Rating: *

Masanobu Fuchi, AKIRA & Ryuji Hijikata VS Kikutaro, Nobutaka Araya & Nobukazu Hirai
So thanks to this match I’ve found out that the oddball pairing of Kikutaro & Araya are called the Baka Kyoudai (Stupid Bros.)!
It’s been said a million times that Araya deserves so much more than to just be a comedy act in All Japan. The potential is still there even if he is willing to be the straight man to Kikutaro’s comedy spots. And the match overall was rather entertaining with a good mix of comedy and good wrestling. Fuchi picks up the pin on Kikutaro with his signature inside cradle.
Match Rating: *1/2

Akira Raijin VS RO’Z
Raijin got off a barrage of rather weak looking headbutts and a missile dropkick, but otherwise it was a rather short squash for the ex-WWE superhero. He used his size and power to batter down the rookie than hit a big chokeslam followed by an awesome top rope split legged moonsault for the win.
Match Rating: *

TAKA Michinoku, D-Lo Brown & Buchanan VS Minoru Suzuki, NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA
I just couldn’t really get into this one. There was some comedy from the Suzuki-Gundan since they were at a distinct since disadvantage, like MAZADA climbing the second rope so he could be on the same height level with Buchanan to challenge him to a test of strength, but he gets iron-claw slammed off the turnbuckle for his troubles. Since TAKA was the smallest guy in the RO&D team, he was the only one that took any damage. D-Lo gets the win with the Lo-Down on NOSAWA after TAKA spiked him with the Michinoku Driver II. Still a bit of comedy after the match as Suzuki stood on NOSAWA’s fallen body to make himself taller to mouth off at the RO&D team, who did the same by all 3 standing on NOSAWA to talk back to Suzuki!
Match Rating: *

AJPW Jr. Heavyweight Title: Shuji Kondo [C] VS Kaz Hayashi
No doubt you’ve heard the hype about how good this match was, and the hype was rather justified! The fans were way into this one before it even started, and the best part was there wasn’t any outside interference from the Voodoo Murders so we had a fair contest. I think the only downside was the leg work from Kondo on Kaz that was completely no-sold by Kaz later in the match.
They started off with the usual feeling out process and tests of strength, and Kaz is the first to take the offensive, taking down Kondo with a frankensteiner out of a test of strength followed by an arm drag. Kondo catches Kaz and tosses him into the air, but Kaz flips in mid air and takes down Kondo with a big flying headscissors sending Kondo out to the floor, and Kaz follows with a big diving attack through the ropes on the champion, Kaz himself hitting the guardrail. Back in the ring and Kaz drop toe-holds Kondo, dropping him throat first on the bottome rope, and while still hanging there, Kaz hits him with a big springboard moonsault!
Kaz tries to wear down the champion some more and even puts him in a Crippler Crossface. Kaz smacks Kondo in the corner with a big running kick and tries for a tornado DDT, but Kondo tosses him off. Kaz charges in with another kick and Kondo dodges it and begins attacking Kaz’s leg. Kaz manages a short comeback and tries for a hurricanrana, but Kondo catches him in mid-air and changes it to a high-angle Boston crab. Kondo continues the attack on Kaz’s leg. Kaz makes a comeback hitting Kondo with a big handspring leg lariat off the ropes.
Kaz hits a spinebuster and follows with a springboard moonsault. He tries for a springboard senton, but Kondo rolls out of the ring. Kaz hits a sliding dropkick and follows with a big hurricanrana to Kondo out on the floor. They fight for position on the apron, and Kondo tries to spear Kaz, but Kaz catches him and gives him a DDT on the apron! This was a good example of how to use an instant replay, as no one caught the DDT until they showed the move again from a different angle! They fight on the apron again, and Kaz charges in, but gets launched up in the air, caught and slammed off the apron to the floor!
They get back in the ring and Kondo tries for a suplex, but Kaz flips over and tries for dragon suplex, but Kondo grabs him by the head and powers him over and slams him to the mat! Kondo hits a big spear for a near fall and goes back after Kaz’s leg, clamping on the Kondo-Lock (modified Texas Clover-hold) and dropping down in a grapevine to add more pressure to the move. Kaz manages to reach the ropes to break the hold and battles back with a barrage of kicks to Kondo’s head. Kaz tries for a Mysterio-rana, but doesn’t get the full flip and ends up spiking Kondo on his head, much like what happened between AHII and Voodoo Mask earlier, and it gets him a near fall!
Both men struggle to their feet and begin exchanging elbow strikes, and Kondo catches Kaz off the ropes with his elevated powerslam again, but Kaz pops up and floors Kondo with a superkick. Kaz tries for the WA4, but Kondo fights it off and tries for a powerbomb, but Kaz flips out and hits a big sunset flip for a near fall. Kaz immediately picks up Kondo and slams him with the WA4 for a near fall. Kaz goes up top and tries for a diving body press, but Kondo gets his knees up and Kaz crashes hard. Kondo goes for the King Kong Lariat, but Kaz catches him, flips around and spikes him with an Asai DDT before picking him up again and hitting the Final Cut, but only gets a near fall! Kaz tries for another Final Cut, but Kondo blocks it, turns him around, and drops Kaz on his head with a reverse brainbuster!
Back to their feet and Kondo goes for the lariat, but Kaz meets him with an elbow strike. Kondo again tries the lariat, but eats a superkick. Kondo tries it a third time and finally hits the move but it only gets him a near fall! Kondo hits a second lariat and tries for a third, but Kaz ducks it and counters with a dragon suplex-hold for a near fall. Kaz back in control now, and he picks up Kondo, adjusts his position, and drives Kondo right on his head with a WA4! It only gets another near fall. Kaz sets Kondo up on the top rope and tries for a super WA4, but Kondo counters it flipping out and spiking Kaz on his head with a Canadian Destroyer-like DDT! And even that only gets Kondo a near fall! Kondo goes up top and hits a perfect moonsault press for a near fall! Kondo tries goes in for the kill with the King Kong Lariat, but Kaz is able to get his arms up to block it, but Kondo immediately rebounds off the ropes with a second lariat and takes Kaz’s head off to finally get the 3-count and retain his title!
Like I said, the only thing about this match I didn’t like was the pointless leg work on Kaz that didn’t really play into the outcome of the match.
Match Rating: ****

Great MUTA VS TAJIRI
When you first think Great MUTA VS TAJIRI, you think instant “dream match”. But then you realize its new millennium MUTA we’re talking about, and TAJIRI hasn’t done jack since returning to Japan other than living off his name value of being an ex-WWE / ECW superstar with nowhere near the work rate he used to have. So what happens when you put the two together? A very boring match that moved at snail’s pace.
There was just too much stalling in this one. They exited the ring more than once and wasted a lot of time playing hide and seek around the ring, which made the fans laugh but I found myself reaching for the fast forward button just to get to some actual action. There was a whole lot of mist spraying as to be expected, but when they actually wrestled it was all just really bad and sluggish. MUTA actually forgot to sell getting sprayed by the mist from TAJIRI at one point, and he totally no sold TAJIRI’s buzzsaw kick finisher before spraying him with the mist for the umpteenth time, hitting the Shining Wizard, followed by the backbreaker and the moonsault for the win.
This was easily the most disappointing big match of the year if you asked me. And MUTA looked ridiculous with those two lizards on his head too.
Match Rating: *

All Japan Triple Crown: Taiyo Kea [C] VS Toshiaki Kawada
I was rather surprised at how this one played out. They started off with some rather interesting MMA style mat work, and Kawada takes control and starts to work on Kea’s leg. Kea manages to fight back and they exchange face kicks, with Kea winning out hitting the Hurricane Spike off the ropes on Kawada. Kea now works on Kawada’s eternal bad knee, hitting a knee crusher and clamping on several leg locks, as well as taking every pot shot at it he can. Kawada manages to counter another knee crusher with a big knee to Kea’s face, staggering him back. Kawada than shows why he’s one of the best at selling when his knee gives out on him when he tries his running corner face kick, and Kea tries to charge in to take advantage, but Kawada surprises everyone with a jumping face kick!
Kawada back in charge now and hits a big running lariat followed by a sick-ass brainbuster that Kea did an overkill sell-job on! Kawada pins him for a 2-count, and immediately locks on the Stretch Plum. Kea is able to get to the ropes to break the hold, so Kawada drops him on his head with a trifecta of backdrop suplexes. Kawada gets another near fall and clamps on the Stretch Plum again, which gets him another 2 count on the champion. Kawada tries for a powerbomb, but Kea flips him over. Kawada quickly gets back to his feet and hits a face kick followed by an enzu-lariat, and capped off with a big jumping face kick for a near fall. Kawada tries for the powerbomb again, and almost loses Kea, but is able to complete the move for a near fall. Kawada tries for another powerbomb, but Kea fights back and both men exchange strikes, with Kawada landing a barrage of elbows that knocks Kea on his ass. Kawada goes for the PK, and Kea just barely ducks out of the way, but Kawada catches him with a knee to the face as he tries to get to his feet. Kawada batters Kea with middle kicks and Kea asks for more, but he’s just baiting Kawada in to catch his leg and deliver a dragon screw!
Kea now back on the attack with the Kea Rush. Kawada shrugs it off and tries for a lariat, but Kea ducks it and spikes Kawada on his head with the cobra clutch suplex! They trade strikes again with Kawada winning out as he kicks Kea in the legs, but Kea surprises Kawada with a jumping chop between the eyes followed by another drilling cobra clutch suplex! Kea pins him, but Kawada almost instantly pops up at just 1! They trade strikes again, and Kea hits another big chop to the head followed by a Giant Baba running neck breaker drop for a near fall. Kea tries for a German suplex, but Kawada breaks the hold and hits a jumping kick to Kea’s shoulder. Kea responds with a super kick followed by a TKO for a near fall. They trade elbow strikes and Kea hits the Kea Rush again. He tries for a lariat, but Kawada kicks his arm, but Kea hits another one and follows it with a second TKO for a 2 count. They trade strikes again, and Kawada hits a jumping face kick that staggers Kea into the corner, and Kea responds by slamming Kawada with a big running jumping face kick! Kea picks up Kawada and hits a third TKO, but only gets a 1 count! Kea than picks up Kawada for a big high-angle powerbomb-pin for the 3 count!
Now, as good as the match was it suffered from the same problem as the junior title match earlier. Kea worked on Kawada’s knee which was an obvious weakness, but completely abandons it as the match went on. It was rather bizarre that during the big strike exchanges it was Kawada using the low kicks on Kea’s knees and not the other way around. It just spoils the structure of the match for me. And even I was saying “For God’s sakes Kea, the TKO isn’t working! Do something else already!” after the third TKO from Kea. Luckily he obliged and hit that stiff looking powerbomb at the end.
Match Rating: ****

After a short intermission from a group of dancing cheerleaders, we get a nice video montage of the career of Hiroshi Hase, which leads to the main event of the evening.

Hiroshi Hase Retirement Commemoration Match: Hiroshi Hase, Satoshi Kojima & Katsuhiko Nakajima VS TARU, Suwama & “brother” YASSHI
Now this match was a whole lot of fun from the start. Hase showed that he definitely could still go in the ring, and it’s just a shame that he’s retiring now. He had some heated exchanges with Suwama, whom he was responsible for bringing into AJPW, as they spiked each other trading urinages and backdrops. The biggest pop of the match was probably when Kensuke Sasaki got involved and did some classic tag work with his ex-tag partner Hase which the crowd loved. The only thing I would have preferred was if Hase had pinned TARU instead of designated job-boy YASSHI with his trademark Northern-Lights suplex-hold. It was also a bit sad that Hase’s retirement ceremony got cut short when they ran out of live air time for the show. Maybe they’ll show it in full on a DVD release or something if AJPW had a DVD distribution deal?
Match Rating: ****

Overall: A lot of entertaining wrestling on this show, especially the two title matches and the main event. Arigato Hase-san!

Labels: AJPW

CROSSOVER TOUR 7/03/2006

Keiji Mutoh, AKIRA & Ryuji Hijikata VS Minoru Suzuki, NOSAWA Rongai & Katsushi Takemura
The focus of the match was the on-going feud between Mutoh and Suzuki, so of course you don’t get the exciting confrontation you’d expect when two guys want at each other so badly. Instead they take it slow and do the basic mat work grappling for an advantage and leave the speedy stuff to the junior heavyweights in the match. Suzuki’s team did some heel stuff and it climax of the match was rather underwhelming, with Mutoh no-selling a Shining Wizard from NOSAWA after being put in Suzuki’s sleeper hold and hitting NOSAWA with a Shining Wizard of his own for the instant win.
Match Rating: *

We get a quick recap video of Kojima’s epic Triple Crown reign and all of his defenses, and Kea’s rise to challenge for the title as well as the past history between both men who were once also tag team champions together.

AJPW Triple Crown: Satoshi Kojima [C] VS Taiyo Kea
I was rather disappointed in this match cause the structure of it was all over the place. Nothing really seemed to stick and it was almost like they were just throwing random big moves at each other here and there.
First you had the usual feeling out process between the two, then Kea hits the Hurricane Spike and Kojima instantly recovers with a big backdrop suplex. That leads to some out of ring brawling before they get back in and Kojima totally no sells a superplex and tries for the lariat, but Kea ducks it and gives him a side Russian legsweep, shades of Giant Baba. Kea hits another for a near fall and follows with a big jumping overhead chop, but it’s not long before Kojima is back up and both men are exchanging strikes. Kea gets a near fall with a Blue Thunder-bomb after they exchange counters, but Kojima rebounds with a spinebuster-bomb off the ropes on Kea for a near fall.
They struggle to their feet and that leads to Kojima giving Kea a top rope frankensteiner. Kojima tries for the lariat, but Kea catches him off the ropes with a frankensteiner of his own for a near fall. Kea clamps on the cobra clutch and then spikes Kojima on his head THREE TIMES with consecutive cobra-clutch suplexes, but all that’s not enough to put the champion down! Kojima than has it in him to counter a lariat into a Koji-koji cutter, followed almost instantly by another. They struggle to their feet again and Kojima tosses the elbow pad and hits the lariat, but only gets a 2. Kea tries for the Kea Rush, but Kojima lariats his leg in mid air and applies an STF, making Kea struggle to reach the ropes to break the hold. Kojima hits a dragon screw leg whip and applies a figure four, again forcing Kea to struggle to get to the ropes to break the hold.
Kojima then hits a DDT, a brainbuster and a lariat in succession, but it doesn’t keep the challenger down. Kojima tries for another lariat, and Kea catches him with a Giant Baba Giant Neckbreaker Drop for a near fall. Kea hits the TKO and gets a near fall! Kea hits the Hawaiian Smasher and gets a near fall! Kea hits the Hawaii 5-0 and gets the win!
Yeah, I was rather surprised it ended just like that myself. All that in just about 19 minutes and it actually felt a bit underwhelming, even if it was good for Kea to finally win the gold.
Match Rating: ***

Overall: Hated the six-man tag, and wasn’t really impressed with the title change.

Labels: AJPW

Covering the finals of the CROSSOVER Tour Junior Heavyweight Singles League on 7/03/2006. It kicks off with a quick look at the rise and fall of “Strong” YASSHI, where he lost all his League matches, but is taking it to the next level by challenging Kensuke Sasaki tonight!

Kensuke Sasaki VS “Strong” YASSHI
YASSHI comes out to Sasaki’s old Power Warrior theme, and is even wearing the shoulder pads and face paint! He can’t match power with Sasaki, so he calls out for the Voodoo Murders to help him, but instead Akira Hokuto comes out in full make-up! The only bit of offense YASSHI is able to get in the match is a crotch-claw, but he gets distracted by Hokuto, and that leads to Sasaki & Hokuto giving him the Doomsday Device, with Hokuto diving off the top with her wooden sword to put away YASSHI on Kensuke’s shoulders and give him the win!
I was expecting YASSHI to take some heavier punishment than what he received, as he got off relatively light other than one stiff lariat from Sasaki, but he also sold the Doomsday Device by getting carried out on a stretcher! Fun match for a short burst of entertainment.
Match Rating: *1/2

A quick look at the two finalist of the Singles League, with Kaz Hayashi making a clean sweep of Block A and Katsuhiko Nakajima taking block B with 2 wins and a draw. The finals is billed as the junior heavyweight ace of All Japan VS future star of puroresu.

Junior Heavyweight Singles League Finals: Kaz Hayashi (Block A) VS Katsuhiko Nakajima (Block B)
Nakajima had a bad knee, and Kaz constantly attacked it to take away his striking ability, since Nakajima really can’t do much without his kicks. The wonderkid is still able to fight off the pain and unload some sick kicks at Kaz. The crowd was heavily behind Nakajima and Kaz heeled him for it. The pace picked up when Nakajima was able to make a come back, which lead to a sprint of near falls and big moves from both before Kaz was finally able to put the youngster away with the Final Cut after a hard fought contest.
The match ended up being a whole lot better than I thought it would be, and it’s good that Kaz won cause he arguably is the best junior heavyweight in All Japan.
Match Rating: ***

The following matches were clipped heavily, so I won’t rate them but just give a few thoughts.

Masanobu Fuchi & Nobutaka Araya VS Naoshi Sano & Toshiyuki Moriya
So the only way Araya is going to have a serious match these days is to put him in against a bunch of near-unknown indie workers? Fuchi at least looked good delivering his killer backdrops the way I wish Momota in NOAH would. Araya scored the win with a brainbuster, and it’s good to see him doing something other than comedy matches with Kikutaro.

Virus & MAZADA VS Kikutaro & Hayabusa-cito
Hayabusa himself came out to introduce Hayabusa-cito, and it was great to hear Hayabusa’s old theme again. The mini-Hayabusa was basically a carbon copy of the original, save for his size, and he did most of Hayabusa’s old high-flying spots like the Firebird Spalsh. Unfortunately he was teamed with Kikutaro, who despite looking serious for a bit, dropped the fall to Virus with a modified ankle-lock.

TAKA Michinoku & RO’Z VS Nobukazu Hirai & Akira Raijin
They only showed big RO’Z squashing Raijin, withstanding Raijin’s headbutt and slamming him down hard before finishing him with an impressive springboard moonsault!

Labels: AJPW

This show covers the 3 opening round matches of the CROSSOVER Tour Junior Heavyweight Single League on 6/29/2006. Starting off with the in ring introductions of the participants in the League, and the rules and scoring system to be used. YASSHI goes on a rant afterwards, but everyone ignores him and walks off.

Junior Heavyweight Singles League – Block B: Katsushi Takemura VS Virus
Wow. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t impressed by Virus. He doesn’t look like much at first glance, but the man can go, and definitely gave Takemura more trouble than he expected, as well as impressing and winning over the Korakuen crowd. He took a nasty bump when his leg clipped the guardrail while giving Takemura a modified flipping armdrag off the corner post outside the ring, but didn’t show any effects from it as he was still able to execute all his spots flawlessly.
I like Takemura, and I wish he’d stick around All Japan more. Despite being on the defensive for most of the bout, but did some impressive moves like a hands-free super top rope frankensteiner and a release windmill suplex. Virus made one mistake and it gave Takemura the chance to hit the M9 (F5, Verdict) for the win.
Match Rating: **

Junior Heavyweight Singles League – Block A: “Strong” YASSHI VS Ryuji Hijikata
YASSHI drops his pants and officially becomes “Strong” YASSHI! Other than his crotch grab, he actually did try some actual wrestling moves, like the majigatame (octopus-hold) and the cobra twist. He definitely frustrated Hijikata a bit, but Hijikata comes back with a SICK kick to the head to KNOCK HIM OUT for the win! That was seriously one of the best head kicks I’ve ever seen and it just came out of nowhere to shock everyone, including YASSHI himself who was out for a minute or two before getting his senses back and realizing he lost the match.
Match Rating: *1/2 (Hijikata’s KO kick alone gets 5-Stars!)

Junior Heavyweight Singles League – Block A: TAKA Michinoku VS Kaz Hayashi
The match was clipped down a bit since they went a marathon 28-minutes, with the first 18-minutes being both men targeting body parts and trying for submissions. Kaz relentlessly attacked TAKA’s bad leg and made multiple figure-four attempts, and TAKA attacked Kaz’s neck and made multiple Just Facelock attempts. The final 10-minutes or so of the match was where things got interesting as they both just let it all hang out and went toe-to-toe trading stiff strikes and trying for their pinfall finishers. I liked the closing spot where they traded multiple counters for their finishers leading to Kaz finally hitting the Final Cut for the win. Kaz definitely came out looking the better of the two, and at least TAKA remembered to sell the leg.
Match Rating: **1/2

Overall: An enjoyable edition of the battle banquet. I’d like to see more of Virus and Takemura in AJPW, and need I say more about YASSHI getting KO’d? The TAKA-Kaz match was solid and it was good that they didn’t throw it away as a quick match since both men are in the main event scene where junior heavyweights are concerned and they know each other well enough to survive as long as they did against each other.

Labels: AJPW

Katsuhiko Nakajima & Nobukazu Hirai VS Buchanan & RO’Z
This was cut down to about half the match, and mostly showed Nakajima working against Buchanan to carry the match. This is the first time I’m seeing RO’Z in AJPW, and for the short time he was in the match, he seemed to get gassed pretty quickly, though he did manage to score the win over Hirai with a cross-body block off the second turnbuckle.
Match Rating: 1/2*

Brute Issei VS Suwama
Suwama of course dominated a lot of this one. And even when Issei had an advantage, he didn’t do anything but stand there and wait for Suwama to take control again! Issei kicks out of release German suplex, but gets put away by a rather weak looking standing lariat that even had the crowd confused when he got the 3 count with it. Issei still has a long way to go in his development, but than again Suwama might have gotten pushed himself a little too soon.
Match Rating: 1/2*

Taiyo Kea, TAKA Michinoku & D-Lo Brown VS Minoru Suzuki, NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA
This match mostly teased the rivalry between Kea and Suzuki, building to their eventual Triple Crown match. Suzuki did his usual spots to annoy and agitate Kea, and thankfully he had NOSAWA & MAZADA to keep the match interesting for his team by actually wrestling instead of just mouthing off. MAZADA looks like Ricky Marvin now that he shaved his head bald. The RO&D team showed better team work since they’ve been working together longer, and Kea scored the win for his team hitting a modified TKO on NOSAWA. Suzuki scored a small measure of revenge on the RO&D team after the match by attacking Kea and taunting him though.
Match Rating: 1/2*

Hiroshi Hase Retirement Commemoration Match: Hiroshi Hase, Keiji Mutoh & Satoshi Kojima VS TARU, Shuji Kondo & “brother” YASSHI
I still question why Hase’s last matches had to be against the Voodoo Murders, even if they were the top heel team of AJPW at the time. That lead to the match being mostly a big brawl going out to the crowd several times, and Akira Hokuto and Suwama even got involved. But Hase was majorly over with the crowd, getting the biggest pops of the night everytime he was on offense, and was even able to bust out 31-rotation giant swing! Hase definitely has it in him to still put on a good match, since everything he did still looked crisp and well timed, as well as his selling of the VM offense on him. He can still do rather sick looking urinages, where he dropped YASSHI on his head with one before hitting the Northern Lights Suplex-hold for the 3-count.
Keiji Mutoh sat out more of the match than Kojima did, but at one bizarre point, he was able to brawl to the back with TARU, than come back riding a forklift truck with TARU on it, hoisting TARU up high so he couldn’t get involved in the match anymore! Kojima had a solid showing for what time he had in the match, looking like the ace of the company he should be. The Voodoo Murders played up their usual heel tactics as expected, cheating every chance they got, and Suwama even manage to inject himself in the match several times to interfere. There was one fun bit where TARU and Akira Hokuto had a weapons duel between TARU’s pipe and Hokuto’s wooden sword, with Hokuto’s sword actually bending TARU’s pipe!
Obviously this was the best match of the show, but that’s not saying much considering every match involving the Voodoo Murders is almost always the same with all the same cheating tactics leading up to the face team making the comeback and getting the hard earned win.
Match Rating: **

Overall: Everything up till the main event was really dull and uninspiring, but I actually found myself fast-forwarding past most of the main event, especially when the Voodoo Murders were on offense with their redundant cheating tactics. They did a good job of showing pre-recorded comments throughout the show from various wrestlers from AJPW and NJPW, but surprisingly none from NOAH even if they did mention Hase’s work with Misawa, Kobashi & Kawada during his AJPW run in the 90’s during the video package of Hase’s pro-wrestling career before the main event.

Labels: AJPW

RISE UP TOUR 6/10/2006
This rather special edition of the RISE UP TOUR 2006 was Keiji Mutoh’s "WRESTLE LOVE ACT 3" 610 FESTIVAL, which took place at the open air Mitsui Greenland Amusement Park Rainbow Dome. I rather like the concept, as along with the pro wrestling show, they had dancing performances and martial-arts exhibitions.

Ryuji Hijikata VS Minoru Suzuki
A lot of mat grappling and submission attempts as expected from these two former shooters. Suzuki did his usual arrogant a-hole bits while mostly controlling the ground work, as well as delivering some hard knees and slaps. But Hijikata is able to hold his own on the ground, and absorbed as much punishment as he could from Suzuki before finally tapping out to a triangle-headscissor armlock submission.
The match was rather entertaining despite the mat work, cause they kept most it short so that the match had a faster pace to it.
Match Rating: **

Funny thing after the match as NOSAWA Rongai was following Suzuki around trying to get him to join the Tokyo Gurentai, and repeating everything he was saying during his post match interview with the press. NOSAWA finally gets Suzuki’s attention when he tells him he’ll rename the group to Minoru Gundan, and Suzuki immediately agrees! It was rather hilarious and reminded me of those old Rock/Mankind segments back in WWE.

A video package of the long feud between Triple Crown champion Satoshi Kojima and “Alligator” Suwama of the Voodoo Murders. Starting in January when Suwama joined VM, to winning a direct pin over Kojima in a singles match in March, beating Kojima in the Champion Carnival semi-finals in April by count-out, and finally throwing a fireball in Kojima’s face in May! After six months, the war between these two reaches it’s climax tonight with the Triple Crown on the line!

AJPW Triple Crown: Satoshi Kojima VS Suwama
Both men seem evenly matched as the match gets underway, absorbing shots and testing each other with shoulder blocks. Suwama manages to catch Kojima off the ropes with a front suplex, but Kojima pops up and gives him a big backdrop, sending him to the outside. Kojima runs to ropes to dive out on Suwama, but “brother” YASSHI trips him and pulls him out to the rampway and stomps him, leading to the ring seconds jumping YASSHI and dragging him off! Suwama on the other hand goes after Kojima out on the ramp and they trade chops with Suwama winning out.
Back in the ring, Suwama continues to pound away on Kojima. He puts a foot on Kojima’s chest for the pinfall, but referee Wada Kyohei refuses to acknowledge it as a pin attempt unless he actually covers him! TARU mouths off at Kyohei, and Kojima rolls out of the ring and cheap shots TARU! Kojima rolls back into the ring to be stomped by Suwama, who follows with a sleeper. Kojima reaches the ropes to break the hold, and Suwama gets the steel pipe from TARU, but it’s just to distract the referee as the Voodoo Murders sneak in behind his back while trying to get the pipe from Suwama, and TARU gives Kojima the upside-down axe-kick to the crotch! Suwama goes back to work on the champion, and YASSHI distracts the referee while TARU holds Kojima for Suwama, but Kojima ducks and TARU eats a lariat from Suwama!
Kojima on the attack now with elbow strikes followed by a big lariat that sends Suwama out of the ring. Kojima dives out on Suwama with a big plancha, and sends him into the guardrail before giving him a DDT on the concrete floor! He continues to work on the challenger out on the floor for a bit before bringing him back in the ring with a suplex. Kojima unloads machine-gun chops in the corner ala Kenta Kobashi, and follows up with a corner elbow smash and the Ichauzo Bakayaro Elbow drop for a 2 count. Kojima tries for a German suplex, but Kondo distracts the referee and Suwama hits a low-blow to escape. Suwama tries for a lariat, but Kojima ducks it and delivers a release German suplex. Kojima tries for another German, but Suwama spins around to try one of his own. Kojima fights out of it and delivers a barrage of short elbows. Suwama ducks a rolling elbow and delivers a release German, but Kojima gets right back up with more elbows and connects rolling elbow before collapsing himself.
Both men struggle to their feet, and Kojima runs right into a knee to the gut. Suwama quickly rolls through and grabs Kojima in the ankle lock, but Kojima is able to reach the ropes to break the hold. Suwama charges at Kojima in the corner, but eats a pair of boots to the face. Kojima charges at Suwama, but gets caught and driven in a complete shot. Suwama again goes for the ankle lock. Kojima manages to get to the ropes again to break the hold, and Suwama slams him down with a powerbomb-hold for a near fall, and switches it to another ankle lock when Kojima kicks out! Kojima tries to kick off Suwama, but Suwama catches his leg, crosses it with the other, and twists both of them as he drops down in a grapevine, a submission move he calls the Voodoo-Lock! Kojima is a lot of pain now, and fights with all he’s got to finally reach the ropes to break the hold. Suwama signals for the finish, and sets up Kojima for the Last Ride. He jacks up Kojima, but the Triple Crown champion escapes it by taking down Suwama with a frankesteiner! Kojima struggles to his feet and backs Suwama into a corner before setting him up on the second rope. He bites Suwama in the head before delivering a big time top rope frankensteiner! Kojima goes for the lariat, but Suwama ducks it and delivers the half-nelson suplex! Kojima groggily gets to his feet and drops Suwama with a Koji-koji Cutter!
Both men struggle to their feet, and Kojima gives Suwama a brainbuster for a near fall. Kojima picks up Suwama again and drives him with the CCD for another near fall. Kojima removes his elbow pad and hits a lariat, but it only gets a ONE! Kojima tries for another, but Kojima ducks it and delivers a big time backdrop-hold for a near fall. Suwama regains his senses, and picks up Kojima to off the ground in a BEAUTIFUL dead-lift German suplex-hold for a near fall at the 20-minute mark!
Suwama hits a hard lariat which staggers the champion. He goes for another, but Kojima swats his arm away and tries for one of his own, but eats a discus lariat from the challenger! Suwama sets up Kojima and connects with the Last Ride! Suwama covers arrogantly like he always does after the move, but doesn’t have enough leverage as Kojima manages to pop a shoulder up after 2! He picks up Kojima and sets him up for a lariat, but Kojima counters taking his head off with a standing lariat! The Voodoo Murders are in panic mode now as YASSHI distracts the referee and Kondo tries to attack Kojima with a chair, but Kojima lariats the chair in his face! TARU tries to hit Kojima with the pipe, but Kojima grabs it from him and actually breaks it in two over his knee before taking out TARU with a lariat! Kojima signals for it, and blasts Suwama with a big lariat to put the challenger down for the 3 count to retain his title!
OK, I enjoyed the match, but what’s with all the inconsistencies? I thought there was too much of one guy hitting a big move only for the guy receiving it to not sell it and suddenly take control after taking several big moves previously. It just didn’t sit well with me, even the finish didn’t look convincing as Suwama had a long break in between lariats before Kojima hit the one that finish him, but that’s become a standard in Kojima title defenses by now. The match was still enjoyable though, even if I was expecting a little more intensity after all the months building up to it.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Champion Carnival winner, and next challenger for the Triple Crown, Taiyo Kea enters the ring and congratulates Kojima on the successful defense. Kojima closes out the show thanking the crowd for their support.

This episode of Battle Banquet ends with a quick News Banquet look at the latest Mutoh training session at Gold’s Gym on 6/18, with Mutoh, Kojima, Kaz Hayashi & Brute Issei leading an exercise session with 70 fans. Fun.

Overall: While I was a bit disappointed in the Triple Crown match, almost like the finish of all of Kojima’s title matches, it was still a strong match well worth checking out. I also liked the open air venue of the show, as we don't see much of those anymore.

Labels: AJPW

RISE UP TOUR 5/21/2006

Starts off with a quick look back to the 4/20/06 show where Shuji Kondo successfully defended the AJPW Jr. title against MAZADA, leading to all the junior heavyweights in All Japan arguing amongst themselves as to who would get the next shot at the champion. Masanobu Fuchi agreed to hold a Junior Heavyweight League to crown the number 1 contender, and amongst the competitors will be the returning TAKA Michinoku, and new Tokyo Gurentai member Katsushi Takemura, who will be stepping back into the AJPW ring for the first time in 2 years since challenging Kaz Hayashi for the junior title.

Katsushi Takemura & NOSAWA Rongai VS Kaz Hayashi & TAKA Michinoku
NOSAWA & Kaz start off with some quick and fun mat work before tagging TAKA & Takemura. Takemura has a distinct size and power advantage, as he was quickly able catch TAKA off the ropes with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. They trade chops and Takemura misses a corner splash, leading Kaz to tag in and take control with some speedy aerial offense, tripping up Takemura before quickly hitting a springboard Arabian press for a near fall. Kaz than hits a rather dangerous move where he goes for a backdrop, but flip Takemura over in mid-air to drop him on his stomach to chain it into a Crippler Crossface, but he almost drops Takemura on his head! Kaz really needs to be careful if he’s going to do that move more as there’s only a small margin of error when doing it.
Takemura is able to battle back and hit a big lariat followed by a German suplex-hold for a near fall. He picks up Kaz and hits the M9 (F5/Verdict) for another near fall as TAKA makes the save. NOSAWA goes after TAKA and gives him a Michinoku Driver II as Takemura rolls up Kaz with a Gedo-Clutch to get the win!
Rather short match and it was clipped a bit, but they showed some great work despite a few missed timed spots. Definitely great seeing Takemura in action again since he was seriously overlooked by NJPW when they had him.
Match Rating: *

All four men mouth off at each other after the match, promising victory in the upcoming Jr. league, even Kondo & YASSHI come out to bad mouth them saying they have no chance of winning. Kikutaro than comes out and everyone just ignores him and leaves! Just as Kikutaro is about to speak, his music kicks up again signaling for him to leave! He just drops the microphone and walks off shaking his head. Funny stuff.

We than get a look at how the Voodoo Murders have rampaging through All Japan, and how four people specifically have had enough of them and are out for revenge tonight: Akira Raijin, who had his head shaved by Suwama, Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima, for VM brutally attacking Nakajima and enraging Sasaki to the point that he got disqualified against Suwama during the Champion Carnival, and of course Triple Crown champion Satoshi Kojima, who’s had a well documented ongoing feud with Suwama and the rest of VM for months now. It’s all out war in an 8-man, 2/3 falls match next!

2/3 Falls Match: Satoshi Kojima, Kensuke Sasaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Akira Raijin VS TARU, Suwama, Shuji Kondo & “brother” YASSHI
First Fall
Match starts off as a wild brawl out into the crowd as VM make their entrance through the audience and the babyfaces decide to go out after them. Action all over the place until Kojima & YASSHI are in the ring and Kojima scores a near fall on YASSHI with a brainbuster, leading to the rest of VM heading back into the ring to help their little buddy. They beat down on Kojima till YASSHI tags in again, but he walks one circle around the Triple Crown champion and bad mouths him before tagging back out! Suwama hits a big tilt-a-whirl slam on the champion before tagging YASSHI back in again, and the little bastard again bad mouths the champ while slapping him and pointing the finger in his face. Big mistake as YASSHI rebounds off the ropes and Kojima takes his head off with a VICIOUS lariat as the rest of the team cuts off VM for Kojima to pin YASSHI to take the first fall!
Second Fall
You have to feel sorry for YASSHI as he got chopped to high heaven by Kojima & Sasaki at the start of the second fall, to the point his chest turned purple! Referee Wada Kyohei even asked him if he wanted to give up when not keeping the rest of VM at bay while Sasaki & Kojima continued to tenderize YASSHI’s chest! The little bastard finally managed to escape the ring and run half-way back up to the dressing room in pain! You could see Kondo & Suwama actually laughing as they dragged him back and tossed him back in the ring! Raijin works over him for a bit with a hard slam and a falling headbutt, before tagging Kojima who slams him with a hard backdrop and puts on YASSHI’s bandana before pinning him for a near fall. Nakajima tags in now and hits a sweet dropkick, but YASSHI is able to rebound with the testicular claw! Now it’s YASSHI’s turn for revenge as he corners Nakajima and unloads machine-gun chops on the youngster! The members of VM also tag in and take turns chopping away at him.
They continue to work over Nakajima, Suwama using his power and TARU using his heel tactics attacking Nakajima with a chair outside the ring and gauging his eyes in a camel clutch position. Nakajima is finally able to fight off YASSHI & Kondo and makes to hot tag to Sasaki who cleans house with powerslams on Kondo & Yasshi, and big armdrag on TARU, and just pummels Suwama with clubbing forearm shots. Sasaki hits the Tornado-bomb on YASSHI for a near fall. All four babyfaces in the ring take turns charging at YASSHI in the corner, and Raijin hits a big diving head butt for a near fall. Raijin attacks with more headbutts, but the rest of VM get involved to take back the advantage. Raijin manages to kick out of a really cool cannonball double team move by Kondo & YASSHI, and manages to kick out of a German suplex-hold by Suwama, but he finally got put out by a big lariat from Suwama, pulling his shoulders up just microseconds short of the 3-count. That pinfall looked REALLY close, and even the fans were confused, but referee Wada Kyohei called it a 3 giving VM the second fall.
Third Fall
Looks like there might have been a valid reason for Wada Kyohei calling the 3, as the medic jumps in the ring to check on Raijin along with the rest of the team as YASSHI grabs the mike and talks thrash on the other team (ie. He’s stalling). They finally get the OK to continue the match and we’re off with the third fall!
Raijin gets beat down, but puts up a spirited fight hitting headbutts whenever he could. He’s finally able to get a break after hitting Suwama with a spinning heel kick, and makes the tag to Kojima who goes to work on hitting a barrage of elbow drops for a near fall. Suwama manages to catch a boot by Kojima and counter it into a capture buster. He powers up Kojima in a neck-hanging tree, and chains it into a belly-to-belly suplex for a near fall. Suwama tries for a lariat, but Kojima blocks it and gives him a Kojikoji Cutter.
Kojima tosses his elbow pad and goes for the big lariat, but TARU kicks him in the back and Kondo hits him with a spear. Sasaki runs in and gives Kondo a dropkick! TARU comes in and gives Sasaki a neck-hanging-bomb! Nakajima comes in with a dropkick on TARU! YASSHI runs in and ducks a high-kick and connects with a zero-sweep kick! And Raijin comes in and takes down YASSHI with an elbow strike before Suwama takes him down with a boot to the face. Kojima & Suwama trade strikes, and Kojima wins with a rolling elbow smash ala Misawa. Kojima tries for the lariat, but Kondo ducks it and tosses the Triple Crown champion with a release German suplex. Kojima rolls right to his feet and connects with the lariat anyway! Sasaki tags in and chops away at Suwama. Suwama tries a low-blow, but doesn’t work as Sasaki clubs away at him before dropping him with a lariat. TARU & Kondo prevent Sasaki from hitting the Northern Lights Bomb, but he takes them out with a double lariat. Sasaki gives Suwama a superplex for a near fall and tags in Nakajima who hits a missile dropkick.
Nakajima drops Suwama again with a barrage of kicks. Nakajima rebounds off the ropes and gets caught in an overhead front suplex, but pops right back up on his feet to deliver a big jumping spin kick for a near fall! Nakajima off the ropes again, but TARU hits him in the back with the pipe! Suwama hits him with a lariat for a near fall. The rest of VM than take out the rest of Nakajima’s team as Suwama finishes him off with the Last Ride to win the match for the Voodoo Murders!
This match was definitely a lot of fun from start to finish, and shows that VM can actually work well in the ring without resorting to insane cheating tactics. A good showing from everyone, but only Raijin stands out as not being very impressive and still needs to work on his offense. VM’s win of course furthers the ongoing war with AJPW, as well as building up Suwama for his upcoming Triple Crown challenge.
Match Rating: ***

Post match TARU talks some smack about Sasaki and the VM try to attack the babyfaces again, but are unsuccessful as they get run out of the ring by Kojima & crew. VM brag some more about how Suwama will be the next Triple Crown champion before finally leaving.

Masanobu Fuchi VS Kikutaro
Just a few quick highlights from earlier in the evening. Kikutaro hits a barrage of butt pokes on Fuchi, till he falls out of the ring. The referee steps over the middle rope to check on Fuchi, and Kikutaro yanks the ropes intentionally giving the ref a low blow! Kikutaro than goes to check on Fuchi, and the referee crotches him in the same way! Jump to Kikutaro setting up Fuchi for a moonsault, but takes too long doing the Mutoh Puroresu Love hand gesture, giving Fuchi the chance to backdrop him off the second rope than score the win with a pair of small package-holds.
Match Rating: -

Overall: The 2/3 Falls match alone is reason enough to check out this one.

Labels: AJPW