Puroresu Show Reviews

Here’s the setup: 666 is Onryo’s little indy promotion in Japan who runs small shows every now and then with a weird theme of ghosts, demons etc, since Onryo himself is supposed to be a zombie. To that end, this little show is being held in a tent, with the ring announcer/time keeper wearing ghost make up and DDT referee Grace Asano dressed as a goth girl! And the announce team calling the action with live microphones so the whole arena can hear what they say, leading to awkward moments where the wrestlers in the ring and the fans in the audience react to what they say!

Shinobu & Lingerie Muto VS Yuko Miyamoto & ISAMI
ISAMI & Miyamoto were going for a badass entrance where they rode in on a big bike with Miyamoto waving the team banner, but with such a small area to move in, Miyamoto fell off a few times!
Match itself was a fun back and forth high-flyer match. Muto did the usual Muto impersonation spots as well as a few comedy ones like distracting referee Grace Asano by asking her to check out his brassiere and such! Shinobu reminds me of a young Magnum TOKYO, with the AV star gimmick, and the kid even looks like Magnum! He had some fun moves to, like the Sex Bomber lariat and the S.E.X (Shinobu EXtacy) shooting star press!
Miyamoto & ISAMI are a cool high-flying tandem who dress alike, something seriously missing from tag teams these days. There was this one cool spot where Miyamoto gave Muto a super kick as Muto tried for a shining wizard on ISAMI and he caught him in mid air! This was quickly followed up by a Shinobu hitting ISAMI with a shining wizard off Miyamoto’s back! Great fun stuff throughout.
Match Rating: **

Ojisan & Obasan VS Naoshi Sano
Ojisan is Big Japan’s resident chainsaw wielding madman, Jaki Numazawa, only he’s dressed as an old man! Obasan on the other hand is a little girl in ghost paint with a meat cleaver! She’s actually quite popular in 666 as she not only wrestles odd comedy matches, but also does guest commentary with hilarious little kid remarks!
This was a short oddball match with regular indy worker Sano trading holds with Ojisan, but there was this one funny break in the action when Ojisan had Sano in a single leg crab, and Obasan who joined the guest commentary team remarked that it was a joshi puro move! Sano immediately stood up and approached the announce table, bad mouthing Obasan’s call before going back to the ring and getting back in the single leg crab position!
The finish saw Obasan get back in the ring and hit Sano with the meat cleaver before delivering a 619, and Ojisan hit a diving headbutt off the top for the win! Just plain fun overall.
Match Rating: *

NG Battle Royal featuring HERO!, Baby-M, Mammoth Sasaki, The Great Takeru, Jet 666, Asian Panther & ???
Now the rules for this unique battle royal are that the wrestlers are each wearing a shirt, and written on the back of it is a move that they are NOT allowed to do during the match! If they do the move that’s listed on the back of they’re shirts, they are instantly eliminated! The problem here being that the moves are usually something they are known for, and since everyone can see what’s on your shirt except you, expect to see a lot of backstabbing as they try to bait each other into pulling out that move to get eliminated!
The match was clipped down a bit, but they showed all the fun eliminations and how everyone got baited in to pull off their NG move by each other. Another very fun match overall.
Match Rating: *1/2

Baka meets Baka VS Kamisama meets Otosama: The Crazy SKB & Jun Kasai VS Jesus & Buddha
Interesting to note that Jesus & Buddha’s names where bleeped out. Can’t say that they don’t have some standards here.
The match itself was wild as the ring was surrounded with holy sticks which were used as weapons throughout the match, and than you had SKB and his crazy fireworks fetish and the wild spots he’d pull, like dipping Buddha’s head in a pot of firecrackers before banging the pot with a baseball bat, and wearing a crash helmet of firecrackers as he dove off the top with a body press!
A wild, but fun match despite the live crowd being in a dangerous position every now and then due to the sparks from SKB’s fireworks.
Match Rating: **

A look back to MIKAMI at the Cruiser’s Game press conference announcing his offshoot promotion. A mysterious paper airplane than flies into the room and rams into MIKAMI (Actually, Onryo carried the plane in and threw it at him, but no one can see him since he’s a ghost!). MIKAMI unfolds the plane and it’s a flier for the 666 show! Under the main event, it lists Onryo as facing “X”, and MIKAMI decides to step up and be the “X” in the match since the two had a killer singles match at Korakuen Hall before. The press conference ends with MIKAMI posing in a faceoff with an imaginary Onryo, but he can’t see the real one standing right behind him, since well, he’s a ghost!

Onryo 10th Anniversary Match: Onryo VS MIKAMI
Now this was a really fun spot fest of a match that had MIKAMI dominate Onryo for most of the match with high flying offense and innovative ladder spots. So when Onryo finds himself being outgunned by the DDT ace, what does he do? He becomes INVISIBLE! But that was only for a split second before MIKAMI caught on to his location and took control again! That was nothing compared to his next trick though, as they brawled out to the floor and Onryo gave MIKAMI a suplex on the entrance stage. The two rushed to try to get back in the ring, and MIKAMI looked like he was going to beat Onryo to the ring when suddenly his right leg was clasped by a severed hand which pulled him back and prevented him from getting back in the ring! So the match ended in a double count out!
MIKAMI isn’t satisfied with the outcome and calls out Onryo to continue the match! Onryo himself rings the bell and dashes back to the ring to continue the madness, which included Onryo actually taking his shirt off to reveal a HUGE tattoo on his back and he went all the way up the ladder to miss a big swanton. MIKAMI would follow suit up the ladder and connect with the swanton, but only get a near fall! And out of nowhere, Onryo is able to lock the Onryo-clutch to get the flash pinfall!
This was a great match even if it was a bit one sided, and kudos to MIKAMI for putting over his buddy in the end.
Match Rating: ***

The surprises don’t end there, as after the match, Onryo picks up the microphone and actually SPEAKS! He thanks MIKAMI and gets a big hug from his friend. Onryo than thanks the fans and apologizes to his parents (?!?). The show ends with special guest MEN’S Teioh giving a speech on the history of Onryo’s 10 year career, in a less than serious manner judging from all the laughs, and even the dead man himself cracks a few smiles! Show finally ends with all the wrestlers tossing Onryo into the air and finally posing for the press to close out this really fun show.

Labels: Misc Indies

Dory Funk Jr. & Katsuhiko Nakajima VS Abdullah the Butcher & Giant Kimala
It’s about 25 minutes into the show before the first match even starts! This was mostly a big out of ring brawl, cause that’s all Butcher knows how to do anymore and all Dory can do is throw forearm shots. Lumbering Kimala at least showed he can still wow the crowd when he did a great flying lariat/elbow type attack on Nakajima. There wasn’t much they youngster could do here either other than throw kicks, and get beat down by his bigger opponents. This is easily a match you can fast forward past, cause you won’t miss much.
Match Rating: ½*

Jan “the Giant” Nortje & Sam Greco VS The Predator & Giant Bernard
Nortje & Greco did a really fun promo before the match. Aside from being hyped as a super-heavyweight tag match, the main focus was Bernard VS Nortje to see who the true giant is. Former WCW prospect Sam Greco actually looked really good here. He showed some good offense, and was really good as selling a beating. I only got annoyed at all the times he yelled “Hey” when throwing strikes. Nortje wasn’t spectacular and looked out of place at times, but he did get some good offense in himself. Nortje moves really well when he wants to. Predator had some good exchanges with Greco, but I noticed for someone who’s making waves in Japan, Giant Bernard really didn’t look all that impressive here. Not sure if it was because of who he was working with, but I thought he could have done a lot better. But overall, this was an enjoyable super-heavyweight match.
Match Rating: *

Chuck Palumbo & Johnny Stamboli VS Bubba Ray & D-Von
I found it funny that despite representing the Voodoo Murders, Palumbo & Stamboli are still referred to as the FBI. I also liked how the commentator referred to Team 3D’s style not as “hardcore”, but “table-core”! These two teams put on a good American style tag match. They did a good job actually building up the match to the sprint climax where they got all their spots in. I also found it really funny hearing Bubba shout “lariato!” everytime he did one! You also gotta give YASSHI credit for taking the table-bomb despite his injured foot and still selling being put through a table just days before.
Match Rating: *1/2

WRESTLE-1 Grand Prix Round 2 Match: Kohei Suwama VS Minoru Suzuki
Well, if you heard this match went too long for it’s own good, than you heard right! There just seemed to be too much mat work from Suzuki (like he usually does) in this one, and it was up to Suwama to make things interesting with his barrage of suplexes, like the very good half-nelson he delivered, and a triple German, with each suplex being a different variation! Also note that Suwama is beginning to look like Hirotaka Yokoi for some reason. Something that took away from the match was Suzuki confronting referee Kyohei Wada, and give Wada credit cause he didn’t back down from Suzuki’s intimidation! That right there is why he’s the best referee in Japan, and he even earned Suzuki’s respect it seemed as Suzuki raised his hand after the match! Overall, this match would have benefited from being only 10 minutes instead of 17, with more of a fast paced sprint than what they did here, but still ok.
Match Rating: *1/2

WRESTLE-1 Grand Prix Round 2 Match: Don Frye VS Jamal
Good to say Frye wasn’t totally out of shape as the pictures of the match would depict. His muscles are just starting to go flabby, but he can still work a match at least. I noticed Jamal is also wearing padded boots since he added that kick combo to his arsenal. We’ll probably never see it now that he’s back with WWE though. The match itself was mostly Frye keeping Jamal grounded with submission attempts, but Jamal would snatch Frye up out of nowhere and drop him on his head with a Samoan Driver! This spot looked really SICK since Frye didn’t look like he tucked his head in.
Match Rating: *

Akebono & Scorpio VS Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa
This was the first match of the night that the crowd really got into. My first time seeing Akebono in action and he was impressive to say the least, though you could hear Scorpio giving him instructions at times. The crowd loved seeing Akebono and Misawa go at it, and Misawa did his best sell job in awhile as he actually looked like he was in trouble when ‘Bono was in charge. Of course there was the awkward ending bit where Misawa hit the big elbow shots again which led to the finish and Akebono kicked out after the three, making it look like a bit of a fluke. It protects ‘Bono I guess.
Scorpio carried most of the work for his team, which isn’t really bad since he was entertaining and hit some good offense, and Ogawa did good too getting as good as he was giving. Probably the best match on the show so far.
Match Rating: **

WRESTLE-1 Grand Prix Round 2 Match: Kensuke Sasaki VS Great Muta
Hate to say it, but there is nothing more redundant than watching a Great Muta match as everything is just so routine. Other than the look and spraying the mist, there really isn’t any difference from Keiji Mutoh himself. Even against the likes of Kensuke Sasaki it doesn’t look much different from any other recent Muta match, even if Sasaki did bleed for him. You gotta hate it when guys like Muta take a big move like getting slammed on a steel chair and just pop up like nothing happened.
Match Rating: ½*

WRESTLE-1 Grand Prix Round 2 Match: Bob Sapp VS Jun Akiyama
Trust Akiyama to be the man to carry Bob Sapp to the best match of his career, but even that isn’t saying much about this. I don’t think it was as bad as most people made it out to be, since Akiyama gave Sapp a heck of a beating. Akiyama even managed to toss Sapp in an Exploder! Akiyama of course bumped for Sapp, including taking a big chokeslam through an announce table and the big Beast-bomb at the end. Not the best main event in the world, but still watchable.
Match Rating: **

Overall: Ok, this might actually be the worst overall puroresu show I’ve watched this year. Sure the matches had potential, but there was nothing here you’ll remember, unlike the first show that had a MOTY candidate in Akiyama/Shibata and the excellent Kaz Hayashi VS AJ Styles match. I say only watch this show if you can get it for free somewhere.

Labels: Misc Indies

January 24, 2004 Osaka
AAA VS Japan: Esther Moreno, Alebrije & Pimpenela VS Commando Boirshoi, TAKA Michinoku & Dansyoku Dieno
There was a HUGE pop for TAKA from the Osaka crowd when he came out! They cheered him on even if he still heeled them. This match was pretty much like the mix six person tag from the previous show, but a bit more time was given to the women, and TAKA had more trouble with the Dieno and Pimpinela than Kaz did. There was this fun spot where Pimpinela dove under the bottom rope, slapped Boirshoi, who slapped Dieno, who dry humped TAKA, who turned around only to get kissed smack dab on the lips by Pimpinela! One thing I’ve noticed about Pimpinela is how deceptive he really is. Despite the disturbing gay gimmick, he can really go and work some impressive high impact moves.
I’m continued to be impressed by Esther Moreno here as she has a great look and attitude in the ring. The fact that she speaks fluent Japanese also helped her connect with the crowd that was also in to her. For those of you who’ve never seen her before, Boirshoi is really small. Kinda like Rey Mysterio, but I don’t think she’s as talented. She also wrestles comedy matches under the name Boirshoi Kid where she dresses like a clown.
This was a fun entertaining match overall like the previous show, though I wasn’t too big on the ending where TAKA accidentally superkicked Boirshoi and bickered with Dino instead of either of them making the save when Moreno pinned her right in front of them.
Match Rating: **

AAA VS LLL: Mascara Sagrada, Mascarita Sagrada, Oriental & El Zorro VS Psicosis, Mini Psicosis, Mr. Aguila & Charly Manson
This reminded me of all those lucha matches WCW used to have, but the only guys worth watching here were Zorro, Aguila and Oriental since it was clipped down a bit and they were given more time, as well as the midgets, which I still don’t dig being put over guys twice their size. The ending of this was one was a bit surprising as it came out of nowhere also and it took the crowd off guard a bit also.
Match Rating: **

2/3 Falls Mixed Tag Titles Match: Chessman & Tiffany © VS Elektro Shock & Lady Apache
This one started off good enough, but ended up so bad that even the Japanese audience seemed loss and disinterested in the action. Can’t really blame them since it got to the point where both teams just looked green as they were very sluggish and seemed to have lost all their timing, and the finishing shots even lacked any impact to make it believable. Heck, the sports entertainment type finish didn’t help things either when the referee go bumped and Charly Manson came out and threw coffee in Electro Shock’s face, leading to Chessman hitting a second rope moonsault and waiting almost forever for the referee to recover and make the count. The crowd seemed to just give them sympathy applause when it was all over. It sort of baffles me how two guys with great looking gimmicks and experience like Chessman and Electro Shock could put on a Heidenreich-level performance, especially in front of a crowd that knows it’s wrestling better than most.
Match Rating: *

AAA VS LLL: Jun Akiyama, Latin Lover, La Parka Jr. & Gronda VS Juventud Guerrera, Cibernetico, Abizmo Negro & Ghefar
Bit of a surprise at the start of this as Akiyama’s alter ego, Shura came out and was then beat down by the LLL team with zero help from the AAA guys. I was really surprised at this till suddenly Akiyama’s Sterness theme kicks in and he comes out wearing the AAA colors! And as soon as he steps in the ring, both the AAA and LLL guys clear out!
After the debacle of a main event on the previous show, it was good to see the guys finally given the chance to work. Though I was still a bit disappointed in Gronda’s performance, as all he did was demonstrate his strength by throwing a few big clotheslines and giving spinebusters to his opponents.
Akiyama and Juvi had some really good exchanges, and despite the size difference, Akiyama let Juvi get in a good amount of offense. Akiyama of course got in his fair share of offense and even matched highlflying skills as he made a big dive out of the ring at one point!
A lot of focus also seemed to be given to Latin Lover as he worked a good portion of the match for his team as well as getting the winning pinfall on Cibernetico again at the end of it. I liked Cibernetico’s look, but he didn’t really do anything special in the match. It was also good to see La Parka add some comedy to match.
They really should have put on something like this for the Tokyo crowd too, instead of what they went with.
Match Rating: ***

Overall: Some things of note about both shows; There were two referees for the AAA VS LLL matches, each counting the fall for their respective sides. They have some really good entrances and really dig using Rammstein songs for their entrance themes. And I really like the ring announcer who does a good job of getting the crowd riled up for the match and into the wrestlers, in an almost circus type way of doing it.
With some good and some bad, this was definitely an interesting pair of shows AAA put on for their Japanese tour. I definitely recommend checking it out, though you might have to adjust your thinking if you've never seen these AAA guys work before.

Labels: Joshi, Misc Indies

My review of this event will be split in half since it covers two shows AAA did in Japan. Check back soon for my review of the Osaka event.
And this review contains SPOILERS.

January 23, 2004 Tokyo
Show kicks off with a sort of ring cleansing ritual as two girls and a guy dressed in traditional outfits come out and do some sort of traditional dance.

AAA VS Japan: Alebrije, Esther Moreno & Pimpenela Escarlata VS Ayako Hamada, Kazu Hayashi & Dansyoku Dieno
It sucked to be an ikeman like Kaz in this one as he was hounded by Dieno (gay) and Pimpenela (drag queen) all night! There was a surprisingly big pop for Pimpenela when he made his (?) entrance even if he did grab and kiss a few audience members! But that was nothing compared to when Dieno came out! Not only did he get a huge pop from the crowd, but he jumped right in and ran all around Korakuen Hall lunging at any male he could get his hands off! That is, EXCEPT Pimpenela, who he almost threw up when he saw him!
Alebrije is supposed to be somekind of demon/sea creature, and he has a mini by the name of Cuije following him around. At least I think Cuije is a midget. Could be a 5 year old kid under that costume for all I know. Anyways, despite his look, Alebrije has some pretty good moves, and can execute a few good diving attacks as well. He sorta reminds me of the Kaiju Mandoras from Osaka Pro back in the day.
Esther Moreno’s look is based on the X-Men character Storm. And she ROCKS in the ring! I think I might already have a fav Latina lucha wrestler! Plus, she has a great looking rack too XP
Anyways, the match itself was a pretty good mix of highflying action and comedy antics. Dieno & Pimpenela started things off on a real funny note as they bickered and pulled hair like little girls! Even the referee wasn’t spared! Or Kaz for that matter, who was in heel mode for most of the night as that was the only way to keep Dieno & Pimpenela off his back! It was also fun watching Ayako Hamada (who came out wearing SIX championship belts!!!) play up the scared little girl bit when confronting Alebrije! Cuije even got involved at one point, doing some cool dives. There was also the fun “everybody dives out on everybody else” spot, and some spots that didn’t go as smooth due to miscommunications. Still, a very fun opener for the show.
Match Rating: **1/2

Mascara Sagrada & Mascarita Sagrada VS Psicosis & Mini Psicosis
If there’s one thing I’ll never understand, nor do I want to understand, is when someone has to put over a midget. That’s what Mascarita is, a midget clone of Mascara. The two hold some kind of mix tag titles and Mascarita has several other belts too! Mini-Psicosis isn’t really a midget, just smaller then the original Psicosis, kinda like Mini Crazy-Max in Toryumon X. But it just makes me shake my head to see someone put over a guy literally half his size and sell his offense. Sure it looked good and impressive, but it just didn’t click with me.
It was interesting to see Psicosis go back to his old masked gimmick and full body suit after being unmasked in WCW several years back, but the guy sure hasn’t lost a step when it comes to his ringwork. Mascara is no slouch either despite the obvious guy he has that sticks out in the ninja outfit he wears.
A good match overall, even if the midgets don’t catch my fancy.
Match Rating: **

LLL VS AAA Captain’s Fall Elimination Match: Juventud Guerrera ©, Mr. Aguila, Charly Manson, Ghefar & Tiffany VS Jushin Thunder Liger ©, Oriental, El Zorro, Electro Shock & Lady Apache
Based on what info I could dig up, LLL is sorta like a heel NWO faction within AAA, and is led by Juventud Guerrera. Mr. Aguila is of course former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Esse Rios. Charly Manson is a guy using a Marilyn Manson shock-rocker gimmick, and wrestles like a brawler. Ghefar is a guy in a rubber suit of armor wearing a demonic skull-like mask. He looks impressive, but his skills leave much to be desired. The gimmick would probably work better if he was 7-feet tall I think. Tiffany is actually an American girl and she can work quite well.
Electro Shock and Lady Apache are a real life married couple who also wrestle together as a mixed tag team. I like Electro Shock’s look, but his work could use some touching up. It’s pretty obvious where El Zorro got his gimmick from. Funny he was carrying a Singapore cane instead of a saber though. The man also holds two HUGE belts, though I’m not sure what titles they are. Oriental I’ve seen recently when he worked the 2005 Osaka Hurricane show, but he was ten time better here than he was there! He was actually working the high-flying fast paced style I was expecting at Hurricane here. So maybe his injuries did play a part in his match with Daio Beetle?
Jushin Thunder Liger needs no introduction, but the man was severely BOOED by the Japanese crowd! And this was when he was still a babyface! Starting from when he was announced as the team captain for AAA. Probably cause it meant there was no chance in hell of him losing the match, right? WRONG! Despite the fact he was dominating the match and getting some incredible heat for it, he actually LOST the match to LLL team captain Juventud Guerrera!
Fun bit after the end of the match where Juvi taunted Liger and challenged him for the GHC Jr. title that he currently held. Juvi even cited beating Liger for the IWGP Jr. Title back when they were in WCW to infuriate Liger even more!
The only problem I had with this match was that it was clipped to the point that many of the eliminations were left out. Would have been fun to see how the whole thing went.
Match Rating: ***

AAA VS LLL: Latin Lover, La Parka & Gronda VS Abismo Negro, Cibernetico & Chessman
I haven’t seen Latin Lover since his short stint in WCW and a few appearances in the then WWF, same goes for Cibernetico who worked a few WWF shows, including a six-man tag on one of the Royal Rumble PPVs. Well, Latin Lover is the “Sexy Dancing Playboy”, ie. a gigolo who dances for the girls, and he gave a lapdance to a lucky fan in the audience during his intro. Cibernetico on the other hand is one of the top heels, and I’m guessing he’s also the world champion cause he came out wearing a HUGE belt. I know some of the other wrestlers that came out previously had some big belts like El Zorro did, but this was just HUGE and he could have worn it as a chest protector!
We all know who La Parka is from his stint as the “chairman” of WCW, and it was fun to see him again, especially doing his dancing entrance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller! We all also probably know Abismo Negro from his work in TNA, but the guy added some pyro to his intro here, that being he lights up and shoots flames from a spray can. Chessman looks like a buffed up version of the red ‘n’ black Sting from WCW, but wearing Kane’s old ring gear! He’s not 7-feet tall though.
And then we have Gronda. THE DEVIL! The man comes out in a big cape and a Spawn mask, but he drops the cape to reveal his chiseled frame, which includes drawn outlines of his muscles to give them more emphasis, but it’s when he unmasks and reveals his Devil mask complete with horns and fangs, that’s the really cool part as it’s all made to look like part of his body, which is painted up red too!
Unfortunately, the match itself was just piss-poor. After an initial contact of Gronda using his power advantage, the match gets clipped and cut to almost the end where the rudo LLL team are beating up the AAA team with a lot of outside interference! Gronda even is down as he gets his bad leg worked on by the rudos. Juvi than calls out team AAA, who of course respond and a big brawl erupts, and in the middle of all this, Latin Lover manages to steal a pin on Cibernetico to win the match for team AAA!
Match Rating: Sports Entertainment Level DUD

The show ends with team AAA, and Jushin Liger, celebrating in the ring. Check back soon for my review of the second day of the tour from Osaka, Japan, as well as my oveall thoughts on the shows.

For more information on AAA in Japan, visit HERE

Labels: Joshi, Misc Indies

Warning! This review contains spoilers!

Los Carros Exoticos (Gallardo, Lambo Miura & Murcielago) VS Mini CRAZY-MAX (Mini-CIMA, SUWA-cito & Small Dandy Fujii) VS Los Salseros Japonesas (Pineapple Hanai, Mango Fukuda & Takeshi Minaminno)
This is a three-way elimination match, with the winning team members having to face each other in a second three-way elimination match right after this to crown a new UWA Welterweight champion. The title was held up due to some controversy.
The good thing about multi-person tag matches like this is that everything moves fast and so they get to bust out their moves faster so we can check out what they are about.
Los Carros Exoticos are 3-guys dressed up as race cars! From what I’ve seen here, they work a very Lucha-style, which is fast with lots of dives and highspots. I’m sure they can do more than that, but I’d have to watch more of them to know for sure. I’ve heard a lot of praise for Gallardo on the net though.
Mini Crazy Max are a sad imitation of the originals. Other than Small Dandy Fuji, Mini-CIMA and SUWA-cito are mirror images of the originals, but lack the talent. For example, Mini-CIMA almost botched the Mad Splash. Why Ultimo Dragon couldn’t come up with an original concept (or none at all) for these guys is beyond me as making miniatures of the originals is like placing the “New” tag at the beginning or “2000” tag at the end of the names, which usually never work.
Los Salseros Japonesas definitely had the most potential from the three teams here. Takeshi Minaminno is the leader and the most into the Salsa band gimmick, as he’s also the best dancer. Pineapple Hanai is the green haired youngster with the guitar, though I don’t know if he can actually play the thing. Mango Fukuda is a HUGE heavyweight powerhouse of the group, though he also sticks out like a sore thumb in the colorful attire.
This was a very good opener with a lot of fast paced action, big spots and even some comedy thrown in. Like I mentioned above, a good way to introduce you to the three teams involved.
Match Rating: ***1/4

UWA Welterweight Title
Pineapple Hanai VS Mango Fukuda VS Takeshi Minaminno
Poor Mango is booted out of the match cause he’s a heavyweight and no way near being a welterweight. The big man does however return later when Hanai and Minaminno knock each other out and gets a big pop when he tries to get the win on his downed teammates! Hanai and Minaminao recover and work together to officially eliminate the big man from the match and continue an excellent bout between the two. This was said to be Hanai’s breakout match as prior to this he hadn’t shown much potential.
Everyone on the internet wasn’t kidding when they said Dragon Gate should have picked these guys up cause they have so much potential to be major heel players wherever they go.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Manabu Murakami VS Shinji Nohashi
Murakami looks like a bald shoot-fighter in a thong. NOT something I wanna see in a wrestling match. Shinji Nohashi on the other better just change his name to Mini-Shinzaki Jinsei, cause he’s another copy-cat gimmick. He’s got all of Shinzaki’s moves and mannerisms down, which doesn’t make for very exiting wrestling here. Murakami with the thong on the other hand likes using jumping hip attacks.
Match Rating: *1/2

King Ali Baba VS The Karaoke Machines
King Ali Baba is a brawler in league with Abdullah the Butcher, The Sheik and Tiger Jeet Singh. In other words, he can’t wrestle for sh*t other than throwing throat jabs and brawling into the crowd disrupting the seating arrangements.
The Karaoke Machines get their name by dining their way to the ring, but I can’t tell how well the masked men work since they were just squashed here by Ali Baba. This was a big waste of time other than it set up KAB VS Toru Yano for the next big Toryumon X show as Yano made the save when KAB went on a post match rampage and was about to squash the referee with a second rope splash.
Match Rating: *

Yuji Nagata, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kaz Hayashi VS Manabu Nakanishi, Ultimo Dragon & Minoru Suzuki
Surprisingly, one of the best matches of the night, but it relied on outside talent. Suzuki was a mystery partner, and Nakanishi was not happy to be teaming with him. And as you’d expect, it lead to tensions between the teammates. Nagata was his good explosive self, and Tanahashi was even at his A-game here. Hayashi even worked well with his New Japan team mates and matched up nicely with Ultimo Dragon.
This was a good match, though the outcome was a bit predictable, but still better than most of the stuff I’ve seen from New Japan recently, which isn’t a lot anyways. Still, this could easily have been the main event of the show too.
Match Rating: ***1/2

UWA 6-Man Tag Titles:
CTU (Katsushi Takemura, Jado, & Gedo) VS Los Sailor Boys (Taiji Ishimori, Kei Sato & Shu Sato)
- This wasn’t as good as I expected it to be, mainly because the Sailor twins are REALLY green, and the CTU’s lack of selling the smaller teams offense didn’t help much either. Ishimori was OK as team leader, and he kinda reminded me of MIKAMI a bit. One of the twins got busted open the hard way, and when the other got the hot tag, he botched several spots in a row! NOT GOOD for a future prospect, and it didn’t help even more since this is the main event. The three CTU rudos who couldn’t do much more than brawl didn’t help the match all that much either and I didn’t see the point of them winning the titles since I don’t think they’ve even defended them since.
Match Rating: **

The show ends with Ultimo Dragon calling out all his students and thanking them for all their hard work and such. They then end the show with the Sailor Boys performing in the ring, and the rest of the UDG students dancing along (most rather badly) and a list of Gym graduates scrolls across the side of the screen as the show ends. Now I know when who graduated 

Overall: This was an OK show, with three good matches and three bad matches to even things up. Worth checking out for the NJPW participation like I did, and a great look at Los Salseros.

Labels: Misc Indies

Taped on 9/30/2002 during the "Club-K Super Down Town" tour, the first thing that catches your attention is how they actually managed to fit a small WWE RAW type set into Korakuen Hall, complete with a Titantron, rampway and TWO entrance ways! They also have some very neat production videos as well as Titantron intros for the wrestlers.

Kunio Toshima VS Teppei Ishizaka
Pretty good opener. Mostly standard basic stuff, but still watchable as both were over with the crowd. Their intro videos made them look better than they actually were though.
Match Rating: *1/2

Ofune VS Ayako Hamada
One of the big reasons I bought this show, TenzanTeam2K’s favorite joshi wrestler VS My favorite joshi wrestler! For a person of her status in the business, Ayako put Ofune over big time! Usually in these types of matches, the senior (Hamada) would be putting the junior (Ofune) to schoold and dominate most of the match, but that wasn’t the case here! Hamada really let the cutesy Ofune get in a ton of offense as well as letting on that Ofune could have beaten Hamada. This match was clipped a bit but still looked good. Great stuff!
Match Rating: ***1/4

Kengo Mashimo VS Izumi Kidaka
This match was under shoot rules, so what you get is a lot of heavy striking and ground submission grappling. The big strikes kept this match alive.
Match Rating: **

Surround Force Match:
DJ Nira VS Sambo Oishi VS Yu Yamagata VS Yasu Urano VS Psycho VS Mike Lee Jr. VS Apple Miyuki VS Shiori Asahi VS Joe Aoyama
The rules of a Surround Force match are that you can tag anyone at anytime, but the first pinfall or submission wins the match. This was a non-stop, quick paced match where everyone got to show a bit of what they got. This is a good way to get the rest of the card on the show without resulting in big multi-person tag matches. DJ Nira isn’t really a pro-wrestler, but an actual DJ, and he did some of the themes for the K-Dojo wrestlers. He’s also credited with being one of the best mic-men in the promotion. Nira also did some really fun comedy spots though and is MEGA over with the fans! Yu Yamagata was here mainly to help out her man Sambo Oishi, even though it’s every man and woman for themselves. Psycho is just that, PSYCHO! He didn’t do much, but what he did was very impressive. Yasu Urano worked mostly standard stuff, as well as Mike Lee Jr. Apple Miyuki seemed to take the brunt of the punishment of the match. Shiori Asahi didn’t do much noticeable, and Joe Aoyama was booked as a monster heavyweight since he basically is almost twice the size of everyone else in the match. I just wished this match was longer, but I definitely have an interest to check out more of these mega-fun matches!
Match Rating: **1/2
 
UWA/UWF Intercontinental Tag Team Titles
Mr. X & X No. 2 VS X No. 3 & X No. 5 with Ms. X
Double X VS Double X. If you bet Double X win, go collect your prize! Seriously, they may have scrapped the bottom of the barrel for their gimmicks, but these guys put on a really good match! They even pulled off some innovative moves involving their X hand signals, including a killer cross-armed, cross-legged, double argentine back-breaker! One of the best matches of the show!
Match Rating: ***1/4
 
Hi69, Pablo, Yoshiya, Ryota Chikuzen & TAKA Michinoku with Ryoko VS Miyawaki, Daigoro Kashiwa, Silver Wolf, Minoru Fujita & Shinya Makabe - 2/3 Falls Match
This was VERY good! You’d usually expect somekind of clustered spot-fest when you got ten men in a fast paced match, but everything here was well placed to together! Everyone got their spots in and Makabe being the big name heavyweight from New Japan was just a monster here! A really solid, great match to end the show!
Match Rating: ****

The show ends with a cool highlight video of TAKA’s career, from his debut up to his feud with Minoru Fujita. Some fun stuff from his Kaientai years in Michinoku Pro included ramming his car into Great Sasuke’s before running off like a thief in the night as a MAJOR pissed off Sasuke tried chasing them down on foot! Too bad they couldn’t add any footage of his WWF/WWE run.

Overall: This was BIG TIME FUN! I haven’t enjoyed a puroresu show this much since my first Osaka Pro show! Definitely a great introduction for me to TAKA’s little promotion. There is A LOT of talent here, and I only hope their other shows I plan on getting are every bit as good as this one!

Labels: Misc Indies

There have been a lot of lows for Riki Choshu's World Japan, but this show was definately one of the few highs. Maybe the only one. First thing you'll definately notice here are all the empty seats for this show to crown the first WMG Champion. Next thing you notice is the announce team says 'double J' alot when they really mean to say W.J.

WJ STRONGEST TOURNAMENT - ROUND 1: Steve Williams vs. Shiro Koshinaka
Both guys seem to still be over with the crowd. OK match. Cool spot when Williams catches Koshinake out of his butt-bomb and backdrops him. Williams wins with an off angle Doctor-Bomb that drops Koshinaka on his shoulder. **

WJ STRONGEST TOURNAMENT - ROUND 1: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Riki Choshu
Student vs Teacher. Choshu looks really old but can still trade stiff shots with his No.1 student. Sasaki gets the win with two Northern Lights Bombs. **1/2

WJ STRONGEST TOURNAMENT - ROUND 1: Kenzo Suzuki vs. Dan Bobish
Suzuki comes to the ring doing a HORRIBLE Godfather gimmick, complete with two butt-ugly hoes. God knows why, but he gives the mic to one of them and this hideous man-like voice comes out of her! Bobish on the other hand looked far more impressive. This guy could be the next Vader or Scott Norton once he polishes his ring work. He already has the look and mannerisms of a monster. Fun spot at th begining when Suzuki tries a spear, but Bobish just shoulder blocks him out of it! Questionable call on the three count as it seemed Bobish had a shoulder off the mat when the ref counted 3. **

WJ STRONGEST TOURNAMENT - ROUND 1: Takao Omori vs. Genichiro Tenryu
This was the best bout of the quarterfinal rounds! Tenryu being the tough old bastard he is, actually hit a suicide dive out of the ring on Omori! He tries to powerbomb Omori on the floor, but the Wild Heart reverses it into the Axe Guillotine Driver on the floor! Tenryu manages a comback later on a hits the 53 Yrs Old but Omori kicks out. A pair of Axe Bombers get the win for Omori. ***1/4

Masamitsu Kochi vs. Takashi Uwano
Both are green. One guy beat the other guy with a boston crab. NEXT!

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Ichiro Yaguchi
Suprisingly this was one of the best matches on the show! When I saw Yaguchi's picture on the title graphic, I knew this might just be something special cause the man has a GIMMICK! Imagine a Fallen Angel holy man-type gimmick on a near 300lbs man! He did a good job of carrying the young WJ Dojo graduate Ishii to a good passable match, doing the old big man vs little man struggle, and the crowd was into it! Yaguchi did a few powermoves, including an Angle Slam, but Ishii gets the win with an awkward brainbuster as he had trouble getting Yaguchi's huge frame up in the air. **3/4

WJ STRONGEST TOURNAMENT - SEMI-FINAL: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Steve Williams
This was Ok for what it was worth. Dunno why the fans kinda laugh everytime Williams does his quick jab punch. Sasaki advances after Williams taps to a modified leg-lock-stranglehold combination. **1/4

WJ STRONGEST TOURNAMENT - SEMI-FINAL: Kenzo Suzuki vs.Takao Omori
Thankfully Suzuki leaves the ugly women in the back for this one. Suzuki has a cool variation of the Shinning Wizard. Omori hits the Axe Bomber, but Suzuki kicks out. Omori tries another and Suzuki counters it into a weak looking cradle for the win. This one had potential to be the show-stealer, but ended way too quickly. **

Big Vader vs. Don Frye
This one started slow with a lot of submission attempts by Frye, but got better later on when they actually start trading holds. Vader hits a modified backdrop-release German suplex! Frye comes back giving Vader a German suplex of his own! Frye even bodyslams the 400-pounder at one point. Questionable call at the end when referee Tiger Hatori DQ's Frye for low-blows, but looks to me like he was targeting the thighs. Then again, Hatori also counted Vader when he clearly had a shoulder off the mat. **

WJ STRONGEST TOURNAMENT - FINAL -
WMG HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE Match: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Kenzo Suzuki
This was better than expected and a good closer for the tournament. At one point the two traded chops almost non-stop for about five straight minutes, reducing Sasaki's chest to a bloody pulp! Suzuki hits his Shinning Wizard but its not enough to keep Sasaki down. Sasaki wins after a plathora of killer lariats. ***1/4

Overall: This was an average show. The lack of fans in the seats didn't help either, but everyone working here had someone cheering them at least. I would recommend this if your a fan of the old-fashion one night single elimination tournament like me. Just don't expect too much workrate-wise though. This might be the last good show they put on, as six of the eight participants (basically all their big draws other than Choshu) have since left World Japan and became free agents, which is always the early signs of escaping a sinking ship.

Labels: Misc Indies