Puroresu Show Reviews

Taped live from the Namihaya Dome in Osaka, it’s Osaka Pro Wrestling’s annual Osaka Hurricane show, this year celebrating seven years in the business! First thing you’ll notice obviously is that the show obviously isn’t a sell out, and on an even weirder note, there’s a kid in the audience dressed like a giant yellow turd!?! Yeah…

I should state right now the grave injustice Osaka Pro dealt it’s fans here since for some unknown reason they nixed the 8-man World’s No.1 Title match from the Samurai TV broadcast of the show! That one match was my main reason for wanting to check out the show, and was also the reason it took me this long to getting to watch the show since there wasn’t much to look forward to without it. With that rant out of the way, it’s on the show!

~Fight Future With Hope~: La Uchida VS Atsushi Kotoge
Uchida is the senior here with at least a year experience over Kotoge, yet he’s still wearing the plain black rookie trunks whereas Kotoge is at least wearing pants with a design on it, even if it is white and pink. Kotoge is still using the regular rookie arsenal though, but showed a lot of resilience taking some big moves from Uchida.
Uchida seems to have jacked up since the last time I saw him, and he’s got some nice moves added to his arsenal, like a big time tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, and he’s also probably the first person I’ve ever seen do a triple-rolling Samoan drop! I was fearful that this match was going to end with the “Boston Crab of Doom” that puts away so many rookies, but Kotoge was able to escape before finally being put away by a pari of Michinoku Drivers that Uchida calls the LED.
Your basic rookie match with a little more fire behind it since this is the biggest OPro show of the year.
Match Rating: *

~Starting Point Revolution – Monster Extermination!~: Miracle Man VS Kaiju King Mandora
Wow, this was BAD. Even if it was a comedy gimmick match for the kids, the execution of both guys here was just BAD. Early in the match Miracle almost completely misses a dive out of the ring and planted his face on the floor. Mandora seemed to miss his timing on a few spots, and everything all together was just plain sloppy. Add to that, after getting nearly ZERO offense in on the match, Miracle hits one weak looking snap suplex followed by the Miracle Tornado to win the match in short order. BAD.
Match Rating: 1/2* (for Miracle’s face plant on the concrete floor)

~WAR!~: Hisakatsu Ohya & Takaku Fuke VS Masamune & Hideyoshi
It was great to see Ohya in action again as he was always a favorite of mine from FMW. He didn’t get much offense in the match, but he what he did mattered as he hit several of his trademark killer backdrop suplexes, which also help scored the win for his team when he hit a pair of them on Masamune.
Former Pancrase fighter Fuke had been working a lot with OPro, and does show some promise even if his kicks are rather weak looking, but he delivers a great German suplex and I think he’s the only guy I’ve seen who’s been able to chain it into a chicken wing submission hold!
Masamune & Hideyoshi of the Vendaval heel faction are definitely good as a team together, and Masamune is also impressive in his own right as he moves with lightning speed as had some great moves in his arsenal like the one where he swings around his opponent’s arm into a reverse DDT from a standing position!
Fun match overall when things broke down in the final sprint.
Match Rating: *1/2

~True Justice For Osaka~: Osaka Pro Tag Titles Decision Match: Billy Ken Kid & Black Buffalo VS Tigers Mask & Flash Moon
Now this was a ton of fun! Nothing but none-stop action from bell-to-bell, and they literally didn’t let up for a minute! Flash Moon might be new on the scene, but he’s definitely a good high-flyer, and takes some good bumps. Hearing him scream in pain after the double stomp from BKK made me cringe.
But seriously, everyone put out their best for this one, and the new No.1 Heel of the company, Billy Ken Kid, gained momentum for his Vendaval group when he pinned Flash with his new Beltigo finisher, which is a safer version of the Joker Driver (Electric chair pick up into a head-drop cradle). Definitely the first match of the night that the crowd was heavily behind.
Match Rating: ***1/2

~Master-Apprentice Confrontation of Fate~ Osaka Pro Title: Super Dolphin (C) VS Super Delfin
Delfin is dressed all in black like a heel, and Dolphin looks like mini-Big Boss MA-G-MA!
This match was really one-sided with Delfin constantly attacking Dolphin’s bad leg with multiple-leg submission locks and attacks. Other than all the rest holds, this was a pretty good main event caliber match, with both guys pulling out some moves I’d never seen before, like Dolphin’s cross-legged death valley driver, and Delfin’s Delfin Special #0, which was a slingshot German suplex-hold he won the match with.
Solid effort from both, but it probably would have been a lot better if Dolphin wasn’t injured and the match wasn’t so one sided due to it.
Match Rating: **1/2

Overall: They couldn’t even give us CLIPS of the World’s No.1 Title match?!? The two main events really saved this from being a really mediocre show. It would have been three matches if they didn’t cut out the comedy match. A new chapter for Osaka Pro begins with this show every year, unfortunately they’ve changed so much that I’ve just lost interest.

Labels: Osaka Pro

Warning! Contains SPOILERS!

Atsushi Kotoge Debut: Atsushi Kotoge VS Kabuto Daio Beetle
At first I was expecting this to be one of those debuts where the rookie gets totally squashed by the veteran, but then they surprised me by actually letting Kotoge get in some good rookie offense, and some near falls to boot! Looking at Kotoge’s physique reminds me sort of Kentaro Shiga of NOAH, very skinny and small. Beetle dominated most of the match as expected, but when everyone thought Kotoge would tap out to the dreaded half-crab of doom all rookies lose to early in their careers, the youngster would actually make it to the ropes to break the hold! Kotoge would fire back with a pair of dropkicks and a body slam, and score a near fall with a victory roll! Beetle ended up having to put the rookie away with his Drive of Beetle finisher (running Michinoku Driver), but gave props to the kid for putting up a good fight. Another surprise was the strong support from the fans Kotoge received which even surprised the announcers. This kid definitely has something going for him.
Match Rating: *

Masamune & Hideyoshi VS La Uchida & Takaku Fuke
I’m not sure where they are from, but this was also Masamune and Hideyoshi’s OPro debut. I could best describe Masamune as a pirate since he’s got an eye-patch on his mask, and Hideyoshi wears a samurai like mask and is a power fighter.
Masamune called out Pancrase Mission star Takaku Fuke to start off the match, but since he declined, we were left with Uchida taking a beating from the rudo duo for most of the match. Fuke would get the hot tag, but it would be short lived since they would get the advantage on Uchida again leading to the finish. Masamune is definitely the leader of the two since Hideyoshi is slow moving and sometimes seems unsure of what to do, but Hideyoshi’s finisher is one of the sickest finishers I’ve seen in a while, where he picks up his opponent in a gorilla press, than drives them down face first into the mat with a reverse powerbomb! There is a slim margin of error for this move, and I would hate to see it if anything ever went wrong with the delivery.
Match Rating: *1/4

Black Buffalo & Tsubasa VS Azteca & KAZE
INFINITY re-unite! Joined in progress, it was quite good for what was shown. KAGEKI star KAZE was interesting and a singles match between him and Tsubasa would show a lot of promise. Azteca sorta reminds me of Liger, since they have the same build and all. Azteca didn’t do much for what was shown, so I’m guessing they were trying to get KAZE over which he did quite well for when he was delivering offense. Not sure why, but something about Black Buffalo nowadays seems boring a bit. I don’t think he did much else in the match other than a ton of lariats, which also looked kind of sloppy, which is probably the best reason to keep him teamed with someone like Tsubasa.
Match Rating: **

Super Delfin & Kuishinbo Kamen VS Tigers Mask & 2nd Generation Ebessan
Another debut on the show! This time for the 2nd Generation Ebessan, who is obviously someone else under the mask. This new Ebessan is not the comedic loud mouth the original was, and is more of a high-flyer. There were some fun bits where the three guys in the ring had to teach Ebessan his comedy spots, and luckily Kuishinbo and Delfin could still keep some of the comedy goodness in the match.
It was ok and all, but by the end of it I was thinking they just need to drop the Ebessan gimmick altogether if he’s not going to be the comedy god he’s supposed to be. It’s no wonder they would later bring in characters like Ice Penguin to tow the comedy bits of the show. At least the new referee was willing to play along with the gags as well.
Match Rating: **
Entertainment Rating:

Osaka Pro Title: Super Dolphin VS Billy Ken Kid
Joined in progress, and looked to be a great match! Dolphin may have been the champion, but BKK was the one that looked like a star here. I think BKK also became the first person to kick out of the Dolphin Magic (Shiranui off the ropes instead of the corner). I also liked that the match was not too one sided like most OPro title matches are leading up to the finish where they both threw everything they had at each other including all their finishers before Dolphin manage to hit a second Dolphin Magic to retain his title.
Match Rating: ***

The big story of the show was what happened after the main event as Touru Owashi made his debut and single handedly destroyed both of Osaka Pro’s aces with chokeslams! He was wearing a mask, but you could easily see the shock on Dolphin’s face when Owashi entered the ring! INFINITY even stepped up to Owashi, but were held back by the ring seconds. Lucky too since I think Owashi could have destroyed them as well. Owashi bad mouthed OPro, and Buffalo retaliated with some choice words of his own to end the show.

Overall: I haven’t seen Osaka Pro for a while, but it’s obvious a lot of changes have been made! Some good and some bad, but it will be interesting to see what else they come up with in this new era of Osaka Pro Wrestling. My recommendation: Check out this show!

Labels: Osaka Pro

YUTAKA VS La Uchida
Don’t be fooled by the name, La Uchida is actually just a young lion given a name, kinda like YUJIRO in NJPW. He still wears the black tights and does the basics every newbie does in the ring. YUTAKA doesn’t do much to make the match all the more interesting either other than his spinning Kudo-driver finisher.
Match Rating: *1/2

Densen Man & Azteca VS Viewtiful Joe & Takaku Fuke
You could easily tell from his jaw-line that Viewtiful Joe is Gamma! And he was more of a heel than a super-hero in this match, using dirty tactics like low-blows and whacking opponents with his helmet! I couldn’t tell at first, but Densen Man is comedy worker Tortuga. He may have changed his look and gimmick, but his work style and movelist is still the same. Pancrase Mission’s Takaku Fuke was a bit of a surprise. He looked to be the serious MMA type fighter, and he is, but in the end he donned Joe’s helmet and was given magic powers! The match was pretty bland up to that point, as they tried to make it a comedy match, but of course nothing they do could match up to what Ebessan & Kuishinbo would pull off later.
Match Rating: **

2/3 Falls Handicap Match: Kendo Kobayashi & Hysteria VS Tiger’s Mask
Kobayashi is the commentator on Osaka Pro’s “Maido Pro-Wrestling” show, so you can guess he’s not a wrestler. He did do a good comedy bit when he was in the ring, but that’s all you get out of him. Hysteria on the other hand is a big disappointment compared to the luchadors I’ve seen in WCW or TNA. He just didn’t do anything really special other than a big belly slide plancha out of the ring, and I find it sad Tigers Mask was stuck with these two in an overall sloppy match.
Match Rating: *1/4

MWF Title: La Oriental VS Kabuto Daio Beetle
Japanese glam rock group King of Kings perform Beetle’s intro theme live in the ring as he makes his entrance. I like Beetle, but this sure wasn’t the best match for him to showcase his talents. For one thing, Oriental had his ribs taped, so he’s selling bad ribs, right? Well, for some reason he dominated most of the match! And doing planchas and dives out to the floor sure didn’t seem to effect him any, that is until the end of the match. It could have been a lot better cause it sort of lacked that big title match feel. Oriental had a lot of near falls on Beetle, which of course made Beetle look good, but I don’t feel that Oriental did enough to actually make Beetle look like championship material as the ending of the match just seemed to come out of nowhere.
Match Rating: ***

KVE/World’s No.1 Title: Kuishinbo Kamen (World’s No.1) VS Ebessan (World’s No.2)
They took their feud to the EXTRME with this one! The build up was EXTREME where they brawled like two girls in a cat fight! And the match itself was EXTREME! It was so EXTREME that the commissioner got attacked while making the title match proclamation! It was so EXTREME that Ebessan went on a rampage with a steel chair! It was so EXTREME that referee Matsui gave Ebessan a jumping knee attack!
I hope the Florida Brothers take notes when these two wrestle, cause without a doubt they are STILL the GODS OF COMEDY!!!
Match Rating: They don’t call them the Gods of Comedy for nothing!

Tsubasa & Jushin Thunder Liger VS The Tiger & Super Delfin
Ultimo Dragon’s new gimmick is just so LAME and BORING. He could have at least modified the look instead of blatantly ripping off the original Tiger Mask gimmick.
As for the match itself, it was all about putting Tsubasa over in his big return match, and he looked to be in good a shape as ever. Delfin giving him the rub at the end was a wise decision, and personally I think Delfin has to be the most unselfish guy in puro right now as he puts over more young guys to build new stars than any other company owner/ace in Japan. Hopefully a decent push for Tsubasa is in the works as he is one of my all time favorites in Osaka Pro.
Match Rating: ***

Osaka Pro Tag Titles: Black Buffalo & Daio QUALLT VS Perro & Billy Ken Kid
This was supposed to be Perro’s breaking out match, and he even had an image makeover to go with it where in DDT type fashion, he changed from being a loveable dog into a bad-ass wolf! But a new look can only do so much for you as they guy could hardly seem to link any offense together other than lariats, tackles and spears, and he looks like a cross between Kane and Tiger Mask! His partner Billy Ken Kid on the other hand has all the qualities of a puro star: Charisma, work-rate and a great move set. BKK practically carried his team to say the least and due to some bizarre travesty of justice, the fans were just dead silent for this one.
Match Rating: ***1/4

Osaka Pro Title: Big Boss MA-G-MA VS Super Dolphin
I’m really gonna miss MA-G-MA when he leaves Osaka Pro, and I really wished they had him lose the belt in a more convincing manner than he did here. He dominated most of the match as usual and got a ton of near falls off Dolfin, but I hated the one-hit-kill ending of the match which was similar to the Beetle/Oriental match earlier, as it made the win look more like a fluke than a guy breaking out and beating the monster champion, even if the Dolphin Special was an impressive finisher.
But this was still a good match overall and definitely recommend checking it out.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Overall: Not sure what was wrong with the Osaka crowd in attendance cause they were really quiet all night. I was thinking maybe the audience mic was turned down, but you could actually SEE the audience not really reacting other then the odd voice in the crowd. Still, it’s a good show overall and definitely worth checking out.

Labels: Osaka Pro

Michiko Ohmoukai, AKINO & Ebessan VS Momoe Nakanishi, THE APEWOMAN & Kuishinbo Kamen
A fun six-person inter-gender opener! The clowns and the 4 women even managed to get a few comedy spots out of senior AJPW referee Kyohei Wada! It was interesting to see Ebessan & Kuishinbo start a match by WRESTLING before moving on to the comedy spots, and the women did good work too. Interestingly, AKINO went from being happy babyface the first day, to hard hitting heel on this day! But she still played along well to the comedy antics of the Gods of Comedy.
Seeing the women in action during these two shows makes me hope that the joshi scene doesn’t die out in Japan despite the hard times it’s currently going through.
Match Rating: **

Kazushi Miyamoto, Taichi Ishikari, Nobukazu Hirai & Nobutaka Araya VS Big Boss MA-G-MA, Black Buffalo, Daioh QUALLT & GOA
Originally scheduled to be a tag match with MA-G-MA & QUALLT VS Miyamoto & Ishikari, till Buffalo gets on the mic and calls out AJPW and the four Kishiwada Guretai members start beating down Miyamoto & Ishikari. This brings out Hirai & Araya to make the save and we get an instant, fun eight-man tag!
This was a good match when they weren’t brawling all over the place. But it did feel a little like it was being done “by the numbers”, where two guys square off, exchange holds, the tag out to the next pair and repeat the process till everyone has entered, the we get the big eight-man brawl leading to the big “everyone hits his finisher” sequence before the match gets ended by that last pair in the ring.
I also thought this match was a bit too short, and I really would have liked to see Araya face off with MA-G-MA instead of QUALLT.
Match Rating: ***

Hardcore Match: Kintaro Kanemaru & Hideki Hosaka VS Tomoaki Honma & Jun Kasai
Two FMW veterans VS two Big Japan veterans in a hardcore match! Lots of brawling as expected with Honma getting busted open and taking the brunt of the punishment from the former Team No Respect members, including taking a sick looking splash through a LADDER! Hosaka looked good here, and decked in his BAPE gear, looked almost like ICP’s Violent J! But of course he could wrestle better. Kanemura was his usual self, busting out the pain combined with some small comedy spots here and there. I don’t think Kasai did much, but was still fun none the less, and he got along better with Honma then Miyamoto did from the previous day.
Match Rating: **1/4

Takehiro Murahama, TAKA Michinoku & Miracle Man VS Toshiaki Kawada, Ryuji Hijikata & Katsuhiko Nakajima
This was a great match, with the story of Nakajima getting the snot beat out of him. But I can’t believe they went the course of the entire match with ZERO Kawada/Murahama contact! And that was one of the things I was most looking forward to!
When Nakajima wasn’t getting stretched, TAKA was taking the heavy punishment from the team composed of three hard hitting strikers. He even took a nasty bump when Kawada kicked him off the apron and he landed right on the timekeeper’s table.
Hijikata is still a treat to watch, and I only felt that Miracle Man looked a bit out of place since he was the only one with a flashy gimmick.
Match Rating: **1/2

Super Delfin & Kensuke Sasaki VS Kazu Hayashi & Keiji Mutoh
This started out as fun, but got serious when Mutoh & Hayashi switched on total heel mode! They almost tore Delfin’s mask completely off, and at one point Mutoh attacked Akira Hokuto at ringside, whipping her into the railing, and then picking up one of Sasaki’s kids and threatening to slam them on the mat! Normally I’d expect this kind of behavior if he was under his Great Muta gimmick, but not as Mutoh. I also usually expect to see this kind of story played out in WWE.
Still, it was a good hard-hitting match, and they got the crowd into it a lot with the great ring-work, but mostly Mutoh & Hayashi’s heelish tactics, which gave the match that "big match" feel.
Match Rating:***

BAPE STA!! Tag Team Titles: Satoshi Kojima & THE APEMAN VS Arashi & E!-BAPE-Man
From the seriousness of the previous match, to the more fun main event of the night. Less than a minute into the match, and APEMAN’s identity is revealed, if you didn’t already know who it was. Kojima just shook his head and covered his face in shame when everyone found out! Even Arashi himself once again found himself in comedic situations even though he didn’t express any emotions, but was still game to play along. This was another really fun match, and of course there was some stiffness and hard shots from Kojima & Arashi to balance out the comedy from their partners. A great way to end the tour overall.
Match Rating: ***

The show ends with everyone who participated on the two shows coming out and Kojima thanking the fans for coming out and supporting them. “ICHIAOZO BAKAYARO!!!”

Overall: The second of two REALLY fun shows. Great laughs and great wrestling combined. This is definitely recommended along with the previous show, and I can’t wait to get my hands on more BAPE STA!! Pro Wrestling shows!

Labels: AJPW, Osaka Pro

All Japan / Osaka Pro BAPE STA!! Pro Wrestling
Day 1 – 5/3/2004
Footage of fans arriving and buying the cool looking BAPE gear with images of Mutoh, Kojima, Hayashi & THE APEMAN on them, as well as a few fun action figures. There's even a live DJ in the arena playing some funky beat.

Show starts with Kojima, Hayashi, THE APEMAN and the owner of BAPE coming out to welcome the fans to the show. Funny moment when Kojima was announcing the card for the night and forgot the names of some of the OPro guys, leading to Hayashi having to whisper the names in his ear.

AKINO & Momoe Nakanishi VS THE APEWOMAN & Michiko Ohmoukai
Fun joshi opener. AKINO has developed quite nicely since she was Ayako Hamada’s tag partner in ARSION, almost cute looking even. And she actually got a bit of a comedy spot out of veteran referee Kyohei Wada! Momoe is the living definition of “quicker than a hiccup” as she just moves so fast! The masked APEWOMAN did some nice acrobatics, but was mostly the punching bag for the happy face team. And Ohmoukai looked hot in her red leather outfit while she dished out the pain like the veteran she is. Seeing her all sweet and such after the match, you probably wouldn’t know it was the same person! This was a great fun match, probably marred by the cameras missing a great spot when AKINO & Momoe did stereo dives on the opposite sides of the ring.
Can’t wait to see what they can do with Ebessan & Kuishinbo Kamen on day 2!
Match Rating: **1/2

Taichi Ishikari VS Miracle Man
Clipped a bit, but didn’t look like we missed much as the match wasn’t all that good. Bit sloppy in places even. Ishikari still needs some work, and Miracle looked like he was slacking a bit, but his corkscrew twisting splash is way cool!
Match Rating: *


Tsubasa, Tigers Mask & Billy Ken Kid VS Gamma, Kazushi Miyamoto & Tomoaki Honma
This was a fun match that had a fast paced, high flying team against a more ground based, hard hitting unit. I’m not sure why, but Honma & Miyamoto seemed to have trouble getting along here, with Honma badmouthing Miyamoto several times and even during the post match interview where they almost came to blows. I haven’t seen Gamma in awhile and he was just ace here as well. I love his cruicifix-powerbomb-facebuster move (I think it’s the Gamma Slash). Billy Ken Kid even sorta reminded me of a more buff Rey Mystero, and he did show the qualities of a champion here as well! Tigers Mask was more or less the punching bag of the match, but what offense he managed to get in was cool. Really good match overall.
Match Rating: **1/2

Nobukazu Hirai & Nobutaka Araya VS TAKA Michinoku & Kintaro Kanemura
This was a really fun match thanks to Kanemura pulling off a few comedy antics! It was weird watching TAKA get bullied around and play second fiddle to Kanemura. And you had to know that with Kanemura involved, there were gonna be a few hardcore spots, and he didn’t disappoint! Brawling into the audience then driving a table into Hirai’s privates!
Araya was just a monster here compared to everyone else. I’d really like to see the big man get some kind of upper-mid card push cause he definitely has the look and the style to go with it. Hirai looks average, but definitely has to do something about his look.
This was the best match of the night so far next to the joshi match.
Match Rating: **1/2


Perro VS Arashi
Arashi had a serious game face on, but still pulled a few comedy spots with Perro and even groped his female sidekick at one point! There was nothing here to show what Pero could do other than his comedy bits though, and the small clipping didn’t help either. Match was good for a cheap laugh though.
Match Rating: *

Hideki Hosaka & Ryuji Hijikata VS Takehiro Murahama & Toshiaki Kawada
Kawada’s first match back since breaking his finger in the opening match of the AJPW 2004 Champion Carnival. His right hand is still heavily bandaged, but he’s still at throwing a devastating punch with his left as Hosaka found out! And of course, there’s Kawada’s arsenal of kicks. Hijikata VS Murahama is a singles dream match I’d like to see, especially if a title was on the line! Watching these two go at it sorta reminded me of the Murahama/Naruse match from the 2002 NJPW Cross Road show, but wasn’t as boring since it was a tag match.
Kawada was all business here as usual, even leaving almost immediately after the match. What? He’d goof around for Hustle but not for BAPE???
Match Rating: ***

The Great Kosuke, THE APEMAN & Ebe-tosan VS Keiji Mutoh, Super Delfin & Kuishinbo Kamen
Bow down to the greatness that is Ebessan & Kuishinbo Kamen! After watching the Florida Bros for some time, it was good to see some fresh material from the true Gods of Comedy! And the fact that they were in big game mode made it all more entertaining as they pulled everything together to make it look more natural and not worked. And Keiji Mutoh VS Ebetosan = Must See TV (even though it was short)!
This match wasn’t all just fun and laughs. Mutoh & Kosuke went at it hard and brought the stiffness with some great exchanges and counters, and Delfin & APEMAN (Kaz Hayashi) pulled off some great technical mat moves too. APEMAN even pulled off one of the coolest spots ever when he switched masks with Tigers Mask at ringside and then started wrestling like him!
The main event was definitely the best and most entertaining match of the night!
Match Rating: ***
Entertainment Rating: MUST SEE!

Show ends with some funny comments from Ebetosan and Great Kosuke thanking the fans for coming to the show. Everyone together then shouted Kojima's signature,"Ichiaozo Bakayaro!" catchphrase.

OVERALL: If your looking for a change from the usual hard-hitting, high-impact puroresu style and want some great entertaining wrestling that's guaranteed to give you a laugh or two, this is definately a must see show! I can't wait to watch Day 2 of the tour and review it here!

Labels: AJPW, Osaka Pro

I've had this tape sitting around for awhile, and have only just recently watched it finish. This show is part of the Osaka Tag League 2001 to crown the first Osaka Pro Tag Team Champions, as well as Chikako Shiratori's retirement show from the Delfin Arena.

Shusaku Wada VS Takashi Tachibana
The standard rookie match to kick off the show. Nothing really outstanding as usual either, though I'm guessing they do get better once they get their gimmicks later down the road.
Match Rating: *

Takehiro Murahama VS Kengo Takai
Murahama being the ace that he is really made Takai look good here as they traded equal offense. A really good rookie vs ace match. From here, Takai would go on to be the dog outift wearing PERRO. I could just imagine how that was like:
Delfin:"Takai, were finally gonna give you a push and a gimmick!"
Takai:"Arigato, Delfin-san!"
Delfin:"Good! Here's your dog suit!"
Takai:....
Match Rating:**1/4

Super Delfin, Kuishinbo Kamen & Chikako Shiratori VS Ebessan, Miracle Man & Policewoman
Shiratori's retirement match. She really didn't have much of a successfull career outside of Osaka Pro and her run as CMLL Japan Women's Champion. The usual fun goodness from Ebessan & Kamen here, though some of the spots seemed rush as if they've been doing it way too many times. Miracle Man & Delfin bring in the speedy wrestling and Shiratori & Policewoman also hit their signature spots. This was good, but the Korakuen Hall 6-person tag they'd have two months later would better both in work rate and comedy entertainment.
Match Rating: ***
Entertainment Rating: Fun

Shiratori's retirement ceremony follows as she gives her thank you speech, then her list of accomplishments are read out before the whole locker room (minus the heels) comes out to pay their respects and present flowers to her. They all then toss her up in the air several times, and she almost hits the ceiling since the Delfin arena is so small!

Osaka Pro Tag League
Kaiju Zeta Mandora & Kaiju King Mandora VS Azteca & Guerrero Diablo
This was fun as you had the brawling style of the Mandoras against the Lucha style of the KAGEKI team. The crowd was even into it, cheering on the outside team when the two fifty foot monster used some dirty tactics like choking them with a chain and such. The ending was kinda fun too as Zeta Mandora (The future Big Boss MA-G-MA), got in the face of a kid at ringside who was wearing a similar mask! He did the Kaiju pose, but the kid was more confused than scared though.
Match Rating: **1/2

Osaka Pro Tag League
Black Buffalo & Tsubasa VS Daioh Qualtt & Gamma
Two of the top seeded teams in the League, who have also developed a rivalry because of it even though both teams are heels! This was a great hard-hitting back and forth contest, with some great tandem moves thrown in and high flying stuff from Tsubasa. This was a good way to end the show, since it also had alot of good crowd heat going for it.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Overall: A pretty good show, but nothing really spectacular. You might want to get it for Shiratori's retirement, but match wise, your better off picking the 6/13/2001 Korakuen Hall show.

Labels: Osaka Pro

Shusuke Wada VS Takashi Tachibana
Both are the up and comers of Osaka Pro and pretty green in the ring. Thankfully it was short as this match did nothing for me.
Match Rating: ½*

Zeta Mandora VS Super Demekin
Surprisingly this would turn out to be one of the more entertaining matches of the night. It’s hard to take Mandora seriously due to his appearance, but he’s got quite a move set to him, and Demekin is no slouch either, though I think his gimmick is a goldfish or something. Good closing sequence with a lot of big moves used at the end.
Match Rating: **

CMLL Japan Women’s Championship
Chikako Shiratori VS La Roca
This was an OK joshi match, but nothing really special. They even did a few comedy spots which I felt had no place in a championship match that didn’t involve Ebessan and Kamen. I'm not sure, but I think La Roca later became Policewo~men.
Match Rating: **

Monkey Magic VS Ebessan VS Kuishinbo Kamen
I was really looking forward to this one, but was sadly left a bit disappointed as the match was really short. They did some fun 3-way comedy spots, but ultimately this match suffers cause at under nine minutes, was just too short to really get into.
Match Rating: **
Entertainment Rating: Good

At the end of the last match, the tape only just hit the ONE HOUR mark! To that end I was wondering what was going to fill in the space, or would the main event actually go over thirty minutes since it was under elimination rules. How wrong I was as they showed the intermission, which was a singing performance by Chikako Shiratori! It wasn’t all that good either as you could see she was just lip-synching.
After that, the ring announcer, with the help of Ebessan, demonstrated the over the top elimination rules for the main event as referee Matsui hung the purse of one million yen from the ceiling. This was all really a big waste of time and for some reason the mic never seemed to work when Ebessan was speaking. They should have given more time to the 3-way comedy match.

Elimination Ladder Match
Super Delfin, Naohiro Hoshikawa, Masato Yakushiji & Yoshihito Sugamoto VS Dick Togo, Black Buffalo, Daio Qualtt & Police~man
When you got eight guys in the ring, you can expect a bit of a cluster. And that’s EXACTLY what we got in this one! Theres a purse of 1,000,000 yen hanging from the ceiling, and team members can be eliminated by pinfall, submission, or being thrown over the top rope. There were bodies flying everywhere right from the start of this one, with too much action happening at once to keep track of. Luckily, this was the best match of the night as they did some good spots, but they were limited to what they could do with the ladders since the ceiling wasn’t that high up anyway. At least the show ended on a positive note since the rest of the show was pretty drab.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Overall: I was honestly expecting more from this show. It just sucked that they wasted a good half hour on the intermission when they could have given more time to the undercard. This would rank as just an OK house show by many. Thankfully they would be much improved later down the line.

Labels: Osaka Pro

At the time, this was Osaka Pro’s biggest show to date at the Namihaya Dome. Looks impressive from the outside, but once we get inside it turns into a bit of a very indy looking place. No wonder I hadn’t heard of any other promotion running shows there. And it just screams indy show when all the floor seats are just that, FLOOR SEATS! No chairs for the fans at ringside! And I noticed a lot of open space they could easily have used to fill in with more fans. Weird it is, but this show should be judged on the quality of the matches and not the venue, so here we go:

World’s No.1 Title
Ebessan VS Kuishinbo Kamen
They played a FIFTEEN MINUTE build-up video showing how this feud all got started, and needless to say it was pretty funny. Unfortunately, the match itself was a bit of a disappointment. Maybe they were trying to be more serious due to the storyline involved, but this could be considered a disappointment when compared to the fun stunts they would pull off later down the line.
Match Rating: **
Entertainment Rating: OK

Dynamite Kansai VS Chikako Shiratori
Shiratori’s CMLL Japan women’s title wasn’t on the line here, which was lucky because she totally got squashed by the bigger and more powerful veteran Kansai. I haven’t seen a good joshi match in awhile, and this wasn’t it.
Match Rating: *

Kaiju Zeta Mandora & Monster King Mandora VS Ultra Ace & Ultra Monkey
I’m guessing this was suppose to be some kind of comedy match as they also had a pretty good buildup video before the match started. But the match itself was really hard for me to watch, probably due to all the over the top gimmicks in the match.
Match Rating: *1/2

Black Buffalo, Daio QUALLT & Police~man VS Yoshihito Sugimoto, Tsubusa & Super Demekin
Finally! A good match! Dick Togo’s heel faction, Legion of Violence (L.O.V) take on Super Delphin’s JUSTICE group. This match seemed to push Super Demekin to the moon as he carried most of the match for his team. Still, this was pretty enjoyable to watch.
Match Rating: ***

Different Style Match
Naohiro Hoshikawa VS Takehiro Murahama
Hoshikawa’s shooter style against Murahama’s kickboxing style, set for five three minute rounds with a three knockdown/takedown rule. I still wonder if this was a legit shoot as Hoshikawa actually hit a beautiful German suplex when Murahama had his back turned. Was OK overall though.
Match Rating: **

Osaka Pro Championship Title Match
Dick Togo VS Super Delphin
The only other good match on the show. Togo is fresh off his return from the WWF and has an annoying manager here. This match was to decide the first OPro world champion, so you can pretty much predict who was gonna win. Still, a solid match to end a mostly drab show.
Match Rating: ***

Overall: This would be the first Osaka Pro show that I could probably rate as just OK, with nothing really outstanding. It runs three hours long, but about an hour of it was for all the buildup videos they used and let’s not forget the ring entrances. Thankfully, Osaka Pro would get much better than this down the road.

Labels: Osaka Pro

Osaka Pro's big Korakuen Hall show which was taped on 5/29/2001 and main evented by a big inter-promotional tag match. Much like their previous show I reviewed, I didn't really know what to expect from this one, other than high anticipation for Ebessan and Kuishinbo Kamen!

Show starts with the usual wrestlers' in ring welcome ceremony, and Ebessan is already up to his old tricks as he interupts OPro head honcho Super Delphin several times during his welcome speech which expectedly gets a laugh out of everyone!

Tigers Mask VS Azteca
I wonder if the Pro Wrestling Kageki is even still in business since Azteca works alot of OPro shows? Anyways, this was a descent show starter with a good mix of fast paced action and some mat work. I heard alot of hype for Tigers Mask, but still can't figure out why.
Match Rating: *1/2

Nise Great Nita VS Monster King Mandora
For all you who were wondering, it's not THE Great Nita, just some guy borrowing his gimmick. This was the only match that was clipped and thank God for that! Mandora looks out of shape and out of place, but HE'S the guy that has to carry the load for this match cause the Nita wannabe is just CRAP! They did a few garbage spots (sickle attack!), but that still doesn't save this match from being a DUD!

Takashi Tachibana & Shusaku Wada VS Kengo Takai & Super Demekin
This started slow, but ended up being suprisingly good. The OPro youngsters really got to show their stuff here as Tachibana & Wada try to overcome the senior team of Takai & Demekin. Good spots and double teaming made this enjoyable.
Match Rating: **

Policewo~men, Ebessan & Zeta Mandora VS Chikako Shiratori, Miracle Man & Kuishinbo Kamen
I had some high hopes for this one, and every expectation I had was surpassed ten-fold! This was honestly the most hilarious match I've ever seen! Even better than Ebessan & Kamen's 2K3 Osaka Hurricane match! The two clowns did a handfull of spots I hadn't seen before, which were hilarious of course! Then there's the joshi work from CMLL women's champion Chikako Shiratori (who's quite a babe) and Policewo~men. She might not look like it, but Policewo~men is a suprisingly good worker, and Shiratori's exchange with Ebessan is must see stuff! Miracle Man and Mandora round off the teams and eventhough they were only in a supporting role, did some good work in the match. This match is definately a must see not just for the comedy as there was also good work being done. It was good to see Ebessan and Kamen mixing it up with different opponents for a change, and the joshi wrestlers were treated as equals to the guys. This is one of those matches where it's OK for forgotten little things like logic and selling to take a back seat. I like this match so much that I've already watched it several times this week alone!
Match Rating: ***
Entertainment Rating: PRICELESS!

Tsubasa & Black Buffalo VS Daio QUALLT & Gamma - Osaka Pro Tag Team Titles
Essentially a match between two rudo teams. Gamma & QUALLT are the tag champs, but function more as individuals. This was also before QUALLT started wearing the cool masks and instead is wearing face paint, and looks more like Kane than ever! Gamma also had a manager/ valet here, though I couldn't catch her name due to the blurry audio. Match itself rocked and INFINITY were the definate underdogs here. Still, a very good match.
Match Rating: ***

El Samurai & Jushin Thunder Liger VS Takehiro Murahama & Super Delphin
The two senior aces of New Japan's Junior Division VS the two aces of Osaka Pro! This was a VERY good and entertaining match and the crowd was really into it! Great action throughout as well as a great finish made this a worthy main event and good way to top off the night.
Match Rating: ***3/4

Overall: This was a VERY good show overall and I highly recommend it! Great stuff with another must see match from the kings of comedy, good work from the regulars, and topped off with a big heated main event.

Labels: Osaka Pro

The second tape I've watched and my first taste of Osaka Pro.
Show starts with a cool formal rundown of the card as the talent come out to the isleway as their matches are announced.

Azteca vs. Black Tigers
This match was clipped down to about a minute. Looked Ok for what was shown.

Monster King Mandora & Policewo~men VS Tortuga & Night Master
Mix-tag comedy match. Also clipped down quite a bit. Looked fun considering the weird characters involved.

Kintaro Kanemura vs. Daio Quallt - Hardcore Match
This was reminicent of the old FMW days. Some garbage spots mixed with some good power wrestling moves. Quallt looked like a dead cross between Kane and the Hurricane! **

Miracle Man, Billy Ken Kid & Tigers Mask vs. Super Demekin, Kengo Takai & Yutaka Fukuda
This was clipped down rather heavilly to the ending of the match. Looked OK.

Ebessan vs. Kuishinbo Kamen - 2/3 Falls match
THIS IS IT! The main reason I bought this tape and it lived up to every hilarious expectation! All three falls are shown in full as well as the pre and post match shenanigans. This match alone is the reason you should get this tape. Don't look down on these guys however, as when it comes down to it, they can go and pull out some great highspots of their own! Ebessan came out with a troup of priestesses and took donations and blessed the crowd in his intro (His gimmikc is based on Ebisu, the Japanese God of Prosperity). Than Kuishinbo Kamen comes out and does a complete choreographed dance number with a troup of fly girls! Another fun bit was when the Referee told them to finally go at it and they did, in SLOW MOTION! There is something seriously wrong with you if you don't laugh out loud while watching this one! Match Rating: **1/2, Entertainment Rating: PRICELESS!!!

TAKA Michinoku VS GAMMA
Battle of the Rudos as Kaientai Dojo's TAKA takes on Osaka Pro's 'Master of Rudo' GAMMA! GAMMA looks so much like a miniature Masa Chono. This match was clipped down a bit but still fun to watch. Cool spot was when GAMMA had TAKA up for a Razor's Edge, and modified it flipping TAKA forward into a facebuster! Great match, though the finished seemed a bit sudden. ***

Jushin Thunder Liger & Takehiro Murahama vs. INFINITY (Tsubasa & Black Buffalo) - Osaka Pro Tag Team Titles
I swear I heard the announcer say this was a street fight match. The main story here was the rivalry between Liger and Buffalo. Buffalo is one of those guys that looks like he can't do much, but makes up for it by striking as HARD as he can throw a punch. Tsubasa was very impressive here as he carried the wrestling end for his team. Liger was his usual self, using his palm thrust of doom alot which everyone sold like a shotgun blast. Murahama seemed to be at the back of it all. Solid effort by all involved though. ***1/2

Super Delfin vs. Big Boss Ma-G-Ma - Osaka Pro Title
Watching this match, I really feel they should have went with the tag title match as the main event. This match just seem to plod along. Ma-G-Ma is kinda like a cruiserweight Vader. He's a big man, yet can pull some awesome moves and no sells most of his opponents offense. Delfin played up the underdog part well here, but like Jeff Jarrett in TNA, ultimately puts himself over in the end with a very sports entertainment-like finish. **1/4

Overall: This show was fun from beginning to end and a great introdution to Osaka Pro for me. I highly recommend it and will be searching out more Osaka Pro shows. One thing I did notice here is that Osaka Pro has something that most other major feds doesn't, and that's true entertainment value. They have something for the whole family to watch. I don't think I've ever seen so many kids in a Puroresu show audience (They were all there for the Ebessan/Kamen match). This is something I wouldn't mind seeing other feds try to replicate since everything is getting so serious these days in the wrestling world.

Labels: Osaka Pro