Puroresu Show Reviews

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

It Works Hard Now Here 5/31/2006

Hirotaka Yokoi VS Mitsuya Nagai
A short match with a whole lot of submission attempts from both guys, that is until Taichi Ishikari and Kazushi Miyamoto got involved and attacked Yokoi behind the referee’s back giving Nagai the chance to hit the Hyper Knee Kuga for the win. This was supposed to be part of the ongoing rivalry with King’s Road, but there really wasn’t much of interest here either.
Match Rating: DUD

Takuya Sugawara VS Yoshihito Sasaki
Talk about getting a raw deal. Sasaki pinned Sugawara in a six-man tag and earned a shot at Sugawara’s international junior title, but Ikuto Hidaka would score a win over Sugawara with his Shawn’s Capture submission hold, which “injured” Sugawara (he tapped out rather quickly too) and because he hadn’t healed up yet, this was declared a non-title match!
Sasaki of course attacks Sugawara’s knee and Sugawara is playing up the cowardly heel bit for all he’s worth. Than comes the kicker, Sugawara tries to make a run for it out into the audience and Sasaki gives chase and catches him. He tries to carry him back to the ring with an Argentine Backbreaker, but Sugawara slips out and gives him multiple low blows before dashing back to the ring and getting Sasaki counted out at just over 5 minutes into the match! Sugawara obviously faked the knee injury and taunted Sasaki after the match.
You could already tell a screw job was coming, and I’m surprised one of the officials with authority in Z1M didn’t do anything since he was sitting right at ringside and made the announcement that it was a non-title match due to Sugawara’s “injury”! Just a waste of Sasaki’s talent.
Match Rating: DUD

NWA United National Heavyweight Title: Kohei Sato [C] VS Daisuke Sekimoto
This was a welcomed relief after the two disappointments so far! This was billed as a battle of the German suplexes, as both men have really awesome German suplexes for their finishers. Sekimoto started off strong with his strength advantage, and even hit a big suicide dive through the ropes onto the Sato on the floor. Sekimoto tried to cheat a bit by removing a corner pad and whacked Sato over the head with it. Both men spiked each other homicidal German suplexes where they dropped each other on their heads, and Sakimoto scored a near-fall on the champion with a stiff lariat and his German suplex-hold! Sekimoto removing the corner pad earlier would come back to punish him, as he missed a corner charge on Sato and rammed his shoulder all the way into the exposed corner post, and Sato scored a near-fall on him with a big tiger suplex-hold! That was it for Sekimoto though, as Sato quickly went for and scored his high-angle German suplex-hold for the 3 count to retain his title. I think the only complaint I have was the match was a bit short.
Match Rating: **1/2

Manabu Nakanishi, Takashi Iizuka & Naofumi Yamamoto VS Takao Omori, Shiro Koshinaka & Ryouji Sai
This one was a bit sluggish in places, but still a solid match that furthered the NJPW / Z1M feud. It mostly focused on Omori/Nakanishi, as well as the Yamamoto/Sai feud. A lot of back and forth action with Nakanishi scoring the win for the New Japan team pinning Sai with the Mana Bauer German suplex-hold. Koshinaka was pissed off at Sai for the loss, and the respect between Nakanishi and Omori started from here as well.
Match Rating: **

Labels: NJPW, Zero-1 MAX

S-ARENA 4/27/2006
This is a special show featuring a series of mixed tag matches at the Shin Kiba 1^st Ring, with teams representing the districts they came from.

Saitama VS Wakayama: Yoshihito Sasaki & Hikaru VS Masato Tanaka & Ariya
I think someone played a rib on Tanaka & Ariya since their graphic on the big screen features a very young looking picture of the two when they were schoolmates in secondary school!
The one thing I love about mixed tag matches in Japan is that the guys don’t hold back (much) when mixing it up with the girls and the girls give it everything they got when mixing it up with the guys. Good example being Hikaru turning Tanaka inside out with a big spear, and Tanaka hitting Hikaru full force with the Superfly Splash. Tanaka even found it in him to pull a few comedy spots, like grabbing Sasaki by the hair and tossing him joshi style! Fun match overall, with Hikaru getting the win pinning Ariya with a modified Ki Krusher, hooking the inner leg for the move.
Match Rating: **1/2

USA VS Tokyo: Steve Corino & Amazing Kong VS Kohei Sato & Ayumi Kurihara
Haven’t much of Kong’s work in a while, but she’s wearing a great new gladiator type gear which really matches her. This match was entertaining just to see mannerisms of the guys involved when they got in there with the girls. Corino heeled it up like only he can, and Sato wasn’t rather hesitant to get it on with Kong, but that all changed by the end of it when Sato pinned Kong with a great dead-lift German suplex-hold.
Match Rating: *1/2

Shimada VS Yamaguchi: Ikuto Hidaka & Toyota Manami VS Minoru Fujita & Saki Maemura
This was a lot of fun as everyone worked well together here. There was a bit of hesitation for the then GHC Jr. tag champions to mix it up, but once they got past that it was all good. The girls even did a great job, with Maemura’s flip-floppy offense being believable as a good way to take down the guys, and the legendary Toyota Manami even managed to power up Fujita for the Queen’s Ocean Cyclone Suplex! Toyota won it for her team hitting Maemura with the Japanese Cyclone Bomb, a wrist-clutch Northern Lights Bomb variation, to end a great match.
Match Rating: ***

Overall: A really fun (but short) show, which I think served a dual purpose of also advertising the districts the wrestlers are from since they also did a quick background check on the towns and such in each district before the wrestlers came out for their match.

Labels: Joshi, Zero-1 MAX

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

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

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

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

Labels: Zero-1 MAX

NWA Intercontinental Tag Titles: ROWDY (Kohei Sato & Hirotaka Yokoi) VS Pink Force (Steve Corino & Y2P-160kg) [C]
They either had a tough crowd today, or both teams really weren’t trying hard enough. I personally go with the later. You really expect more when there are titles on the line in Japan, and this worked out more like a tag match you’d see in WWE. It didn’t seem to build up to anything, and I don’t think it would have been any different if they didn’t cut out the 3 minutes that was clipped off.
Colt Cabana was in the Pink Force corner, all decked out in pink himself! It’s too bad this was a short term tandem, as it was a really fun looking gimmick. I like the variation of the 3D they did when Yoshie picked up Yokoi and passed him to Corino, before swinging him in mid-air into a TKO. Too bad the match ended with Corino rolling up Yokoi with a cradle. And why give the belts to them anyway if Yoshie was only contracted to work a handful of shows? Than again, Z1M has so many hand me down titles from defunct organizations that they really don’t mean much to hold them anyway.
Match Rating: *

Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita VS Kota Ibushi & Crazy Boy
I’m not really sure what the backstory to this match was, seems as if LAW wrestler Crazy Boy has been trying to beat Hidaka & Fujita with different partners and always coming up short, so this time he’s brought in Kota Ibushi from DDT, and he more or less made the right choice since they put on a very strong performance here.
Kota did this really fun spot where he tried for a moonsault, but Fujita rolled out of the way, but Kota landed on his feet and immediately did a standing moonsault to hit his target! Kota also gave the reigning GHC Jr. tag champions a lot of trouble with his hard kicking skills as well as his other aerial offense. He even did an awesome bridging German suplex-hold where he held a perfect bridge and his own head never touched the mat!
Crazy Boy was also rather impressive. The masked luchador has a penchant for chain combinations out of face busters, making for some great looking sequences. He even did the one manned Spanish Fly and a Diamond Dust for a pair of near falls. I really wouldn’t mind seeing more of the guy, though I wonder why he has to job so much considering he’s a champion in LAW and even brought his belt with him.
Hidaka and Fujita were at their bests as always. Even though this wasn’t a title match, both teams gave it their all and held nothing back. Hidaka scored the win for his team with his trademark Shawn Capture submission move.
Match Rating: ***

Atsushi Onita Pro-Wrestling Dedication Match: Atsushi Onita, Masato Tanaka & Lingerie Mutoh VS Ichiro Yaguchi, Yase Yaguchi & Kerberos
This was just a big brawl like the classic six-man street fight matches in FMW. Onita still looked like he could go even if the only wrestling moves he did was a piledriver on a table and his trademark Thunder Fire powerbomb. Tanaka didn’t do much other than splash Yase through a table and hit the Superfly Splash, and at least Mutoh hit the Shining Wizard for a big pop from the crowd.
Ichiro Yaguchi is an indy favorite of mine, it’s just too bad we didn’t get to see much of him in the match since most of it centered around Yase getting his ass whooped by Onita. I’m not sure who Kerberos is, but he’s a giant of a man and did an impressive iron-claw Exploder! Why we don’t see more of him in the minor league promotions is beyond me.
Overall, a nostalgic brawl of a match, with Onita scoring the pin on Yase with the Thunder Fire. Back to retirement and politics for him now.
Match Rating: *

AWA Heavyweight Title: Takao Omori VS Shinjiro Ohtani [C]
I really would have liked to have seen this match in full, as they clipped it down to about half the actual match time. Ohtani worked over Omori’s arm to take away the Axe Bomber, and tries to powerbomb him off the apron to the floor, but Omori counters it into an Axe Guillotine Driver on the apron! Why he didn’t jump off to the floor is beyond me. Back in the ring, Omori does a rolling dragon suplex into a full nelson buster for a near fall. Omori signals for the Axe Bomber, but Ohtani ducks it and hits a release German suplex! Omori pops right up and tries for the Axe again, but Ohtani again counters, this time into a full nelson suplex! Omori still doesn’t stay down and pops right up to finally hit the Axe Bomber! Both men stagger to their feet and trade strikes. Ohtani tries for the Spiral-bomb, but Omori counters it into a running Axe Guillotine Driver! It only gets him a near fall though, so he tries again for the Axe Bomber. Ohtani absorbs one and asks for another, which Omori obliges and flips Ohtani inside-out with another hard Axe Bomber to keep him down for the 3 count and crown a new champion!
Seriously though, what is it with Ohtani and lariats? He was smart enough to avoid it the first time and counter, but the second time he just stands there and takes it, like all the times he lost to Satoshi Kojima. That would probably be the only complaint I have from the match, other than the length it was cut down to. I’d probably give it a higher score if it was shown in full.
Match Rating: **1/2

Labels: Zero-1 MAX

Korakuen Hall 3/28/2006
American Wrestling School: Steve Corino VS Colt Cabana
OK, I’ll admit it, despite all the Ring of Honor shows I have in my collection, I’ve never actually watched a lot of Colt Cabana’s matches. The only one that does come to mind was the Chris Candido Memorial Match he had against Larry Sweeney & Delirious in IWA Mid South before he headed off to Japan for this very tour. And it was a rather hilarious comedy match too.
So I was a bit surprised to see him and Corino have a fun little match where they mixed in an odd bunch of comedy and chain wrestling. Rather surprising that the crowd was heavily into Cabana too. Like I already mentioned, it was fun watching them do all these chain moves and counters, as they did some things I don’t think I’ve seen before, and kudos to the referee for playing along to some of the comedy. All the grappling and counters going on, and Corino wins it with the Kido-Clutch out of nowhere for a flash 3-count.
I might have to check out more of Cabana after this one.
Match Rating: **

A quick look at the rise of Takuya Sugawara since joining Zero-One, scoring a shocking win over Minoru Fujita with some help from ex-Aagan Iisou team mate “brother” YASSHI, and then beating Ikuto Hidaka clean for the International Jr. title. Sugawara puts the bad mouth on Z1M’s junior division, so who should answer the call? Apache Pro’s GENTARO!

AWA/Z1M/UPW/WORLD-1 International Jr. Title: Takuya Sugawara [C] VS GENTARO
This was a lot of fun, save for the WWE style heel tactics used by Sugawara and his cohort, Crazy Boy. The more experienced GENTARO focused his attack on Sugawara’s knee for most of the match, and Sugawara did a good job of selling the bad wheel throughout the match. GENTARO controlled most of the match, and actually would have won with his shooting star press if Crazy Boy didn’t pull the referee out of the ring during the count. That lead to GENTARO having to fight off both Sugawara and Crazy Boy while the ref was out, as well as avoid Sugawara’s black box attacks and use it against them. I was rather surprised at GENTARO using a few of Shawn Michaels moves, like the flying forearm/kip-up bit, and the Sweet Chin Music. GENTARO even did this sweet looking sunset-flip into a Sharpshooter chain move. Give Sugawara credit though, despite the bad leg, he was still able to come out on top hitting the Shisanputa for the win. The result of the match probably would have been different if Crazy Boy wasn’t involved though.
Match Rating: **1/2

Shinjiro Ohtani, Masato Tanaka & Tatsuhito Takaiwa VS Kohei Sato, Yoshihito Sasaki & Daisuke Sekimoto
This was a great back and forth six man tag, with great showings from Sasaki & Sekimoto. Sasaki just continues to impress, and why they haven’t given him a title yet instead of hot shotting one on Sugawara is beyond me. And Sekimoto looked a whole lot stronger here compared to the tag match he’d have in Big Japan just 2 days later with Sasaki, Tanaka & Tetsuhiro Kuroda. There was also this really cool spot where the next generation team did a triple dead-lift German suplex-pin for 3 near falls at the same time! Sekimoto may have dropped the fall to Ohtani’s King Cobra-hold, but the big man definitely went down fighting as Ohtani himself was rather exhausted as he had to dropped Sekimoto on his head with several big moves before he was able to clamp on the finisher. Great match overall.
Match Rating: **1/2

Overall: I really need to catch up with my Zero-One MAX! They picked all the right matches to put on this episode as everything was enjoyable, with a good mix and variety too.

Labels: Zero-1 MAX

“MAX Around” 11/17/2005

International Jr. Heavyweight Title: Ikuto Hidaka VS Sonjay Dutt
This was an enjoyable match as they did some fun spots, but that’s where the problems with it lie as most of the match looked too “spotty”, as in everything was so conveniently set up from prior moves. Dutt got in a good amount of offense and showed a lot of flash with all his fast paced high-flying offense, he even over shot his mark on a big dive out of the ring, but Hidaka still sold it like he got the full impact of it. Hidaka’s offense just looked really limited compared to Dutt, and the really quiet Osaka crowd didn’t help things much either.
Match Rating: **

Minoru Fujita & Alex Shelley VS Gamma & Takuya Sugawara
I seriously have no idea why Sugawara is trying to pass himself off as a bad-ass heel just because of his Aagan Iisou background, and trying to start a heel team with Gamma, who was the top heel of Osaka Pro at one time. The duo work well together at least, and pulled out a few interesting double team moves. Fujita and Shelley worked well together as well, though I do get the feeling that Shelley is trying to hard at times to try and get some reaction from the crowd, yelling “Eddie” when he did the frog splash for example. I liked the double team they did when Fujita hit an enzuguiri on Gamma while Shelley did a complete shot. The match ended on a DQ when Sugawara started wailing away on everyone with a black (plastic) box.
Match Rating: *

Highlight video of “Mr. Danger” Mitsuhiro Matsunaga’s path of destruction through Zero-One MAX and the trail of blood he left in his wake. First he took out youngster Osamu Namiguchi, pinning him in a match despite stabbing him in the head repeatedly with an icepick, and doing the same to Z1M president Nakamura during the match! He then attacked Rikiya Fudo (who seriously looked like a Makoto Hashi/Masaaki Mochizuki doppelganger!), putting his head in a barb-wire vice! Fudo had the match won when he powerbombed Matsunaga on a pile of chairs, but Matsunaga blew a fireball right in Fudo’s face at POINT BLANK RANGE out of the pin!
Matsunaga would than turn his attention to attacking President Nakamura again, bloodying by gorging his head with an icepick till Kohei Sato made the save. Sato looked to be the best prospect to end Matsunaga’s reign of terror, every time it looked like Sato had the match won, Matsunaga would pull something out of his boot and stab away at him with it! Sato had the match won with his trademark German-suplex, but Matsunaga stabbed his arm out of the pin with a fork before gorging away at it, leading to a DQ. Sato’s friend and long time partner Hirotaka Yokoi would make the save and challenge Matsunaga to his specialty, the barb-wire rope death match!
Yokoi was doing well in the match, even bringing out his own custom made barb-wired boxing glove! But his luck would run out as Matsunaga would choke him out with a steel chain. So with all of Zero-One’s top young hopefuls falling to Matsunaga, who would take up the fight to the Dangerman and end the Karate Army? Young Yoshihito Sasaki would answer the call!

No Rope Barb-Wire & Spider Board Double Hell Death Match: Yoshihito Sasaki VS Mitsuhiro Matsunaga
The match was a bit short, with a lot of stalling from Matsunaga. I don’t get what the point was for trying to intimidate the fans by acting like he’s going to stab them or something since they pretty much already hate him enough as it is.
But like I always say, a great match will suck you in emotionally and get you cheering even if you already know the outcome, and that’s exactly how I felt watching Sasaki here! He took a Hell of a beating, including a powerbomb from the apron out to the floor on a barb-wire board, and Matsunaga trying to rip his ears off with a pair of pliers! You could even see Ikuto Hidaka looking genuinely concerned at ringside!
But Sasaki sucked it up and battled back, hitting Matsunaga with a barb-wire wrapped chair. Sasaki showed he even learned from his peers past mistakes in dealing with Matsunaga as he when Matsunaga tried to stab him with a screwdriver while trying a German suplex, Sasaki was quick enough to release the hold and Matsunaga stabbeb himself in the stomach! This led to Sasaki hitting the Argentine Coaster on a barb-wire barricade and picking up the win to a HUGE ovation from the crowd!
Match Rating: ***1/2

This was another huge step in Sasaki breaking out after winning the Tenkai Ichi Jr. Tournament last year, and rebounding from his loss to Kanemoto. Heck, Sasaki didn’t look like someone who should be jobbing to Kanemoto in the first place! Would Kanemoto step up and represent his company in a barb-wire match? Probably not, but tonight it was all about Sasaki who became a hero to the crowd!

Labels: Zero-1 MAX

“Interception” 10/10/2005

Johnny Storm VS Jody Fleisch
These two Brits put on a fun spot-fest of match. And that’s all it really was, two junior-heavyweights flying around every other minute of the match, which sorta spoiled the ending spot since they seemed to be able to recover from everything they threw at each other, but it only took one rather weak looking SSP to end the match. These two have talent no doubt, but need to work on how to properly structure a match.
Match Rating: **

Remember the E: Masato Tanaka VS The Sandman
These two have never crossed paths in ECW if my memory serves me correctly, so you can understand why I so highly anticipated this encounter between two former ECW champions, even if Sandman is way past his prime and half-assed drunk all the time. He did his usual long intro going to all four corners of Korakuen Hall to share beers with the Japanese fans.
As expected, the match itself was a big garbage match brawl. They did some fun spots though, like Tanaka breaking four chairs over Sandman’s head before hammering a ladder into it with a fifth. Sandman also hit his trademark senton on a ladder spot, the top rope frankensteiner and he suplexed Tanaka off the top through a table. You gotta give Tanaka a lot of credit for willing to bump for Sandman even though he had a bad shoulder. Sandman showed he could still do some good exchanges too when they had a weapons duel with Tanaka using a chair VS Sandman’s Singapore cane. And I guess the crowd here really did “Remember the E” as they chanted “ECW!” for the big bumps.
Sandman may not have been in the best of shape, but if there is one thing he has in common with his good buddy, Tommy Dreamer, is that he’s willing to put over the younger guys despite his senior status. A good brawl overall, and I’m still hoping for that Sandman/Necro Butcher match to happen sometime while Sandman is still able.
Match Rating: **

Koji Kanemoto VS Yoshihito Sasaki
I had mixed feelings going into this one after reading at a certain New Japan fan site that Kanemoto squashed Sasaki here. Well, that really wasn’t the case, and it could be argued that Kanemoto couldn’t even finish off Sasaki and was lucky he wasn’t disqualified instead of the referee stopping the match in his favor. This was heel Kanemoto here laying it into Sasaki, who absorbed everything the Junior Charisma had to give to the point that Kanemoto had to cheat more or less, using closed fist punches just to keep Sasaki down! Sasaki even countered Kanemoto’s tiger suplex into a SICK release German suplex that flipped Kanemoto and dropped him on his head!
The reason the referee stopped the match was because Kanemoto kicked Sasaki right in the face and didn’t seem to respond when Kanemoto mounted and started throwing punches at him. Why Kanemoto wasn’t disqualified for shoving off the referee several times, I don’t know.
Sasaki was really upset at the referee for stopping the match, and he was really pissed Kanemoto was looking past him and wanted Takaiwa instead. Sasaki wanted a rematch with Kanemoto, who smugly shrugged him off and walked away.
Match Rating: ***

Overall: An entertaining show overall, ending with a real emotional angle to help further the Z1M/NJPW feud, though it would be over a month later before they actually followed up on it. Definitely worth checking out.

Labels: Zero-1 MAX

“Interception” 10/09/2005 - Korakuen Hall

Takehiro Murahama VS Rikiya Fudo
Clipped down and looked to be a very mat based match. Fudo looks a lot like Tomoaki Honma now, even with the same hairdo and white colored tights! Since it was clipped down, not a lot was shown other than Jr. heavyweight Murahama using his submission skills to lock down and eventually get the submission out of Fudo.
Match Rating: ½*

Kamikaze VS Lingerie Muto
Wow, they actually had a build-up video for Muto. For the life of me I will never understand why ANYONE would want to be a Keiji Muto impersonator who wears lingerie in the ring.
Anyways, not really a lot to this one. Crowd pops for Muto hitting Keiji Muto’s spots like the dragon screw, space rolling elbow, rushing elbow etc. He even did an impressive Shining Wizard off the referee’s back! Unfortunately he would botch the moonsault and lose the match. Not a lot to say about Kamikaze either. Just applied a few rest-holds, bumped for Muto’s offense, than finished him off. I would have preferred if they cut this out and put in the Tatsuhito Takaiwa VS Takuya Sugawara match that was originally on the card but cut out of the broadcast.
Match Rating: ½*

NWA International Lightweight Tag Titles
Minoru Fujita & Ikuto Hidaka VS Johnny Storm & Joedy Flash
This was clipped a bit, but still REALLY good. A lot of fast paced, high-flying action from the gaijin duo. Flash (or Fleisch?) has a really good springboard shooting star press, and is a great high-flyer. Storm is equally as good and is definitely an insane risk taker as he hit a HUGE dive off the BALCONY of Korakuen Hall onto the defending champions! They duo even pulled off this really awesome looking double-team move where Storm German-suplexed Flash off the top rope and Flash flipped into a moonsault on Hidaka! I was really surprised at the amount of offense they got in on the champions here.
I noticed Fujita didn’t do much but bump his ass off, and Hidaka carried most of the offensive load for the team. They did have this one cool double team where Fujita would alley-oop one of his opponents into Hidaka, who would catch them out of mid-air with a sit-out powerbomb!
I guess letting the gaijins get in a ton of offense added emotion to the match as the champions were really challenged here to hang on to their titles and pushed to the limit.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Shinjiro Ohtani & The Sandman VS Masato Tanaka & Yoshihito Sasaki
They showed the Sandman’s full intro, and I literally had goosebumps seeing the reaction the Hardcore Icon received here as the fans sang along to Enter Sandman and shared beers with him on his way to the ring. But when the match actually starts, you can see Sandman is a little wasted from all the beer he’s been chugging. He got his nose busted when Tanaka smacked a steel case into his face, but he fans loved him anyway. To his credit, he hit the top rope frankensteiner on Sasaki, as well as launching him through a table. And he took several good whacks to the head with chairs and table bits too.
You could tell Tanaka wanted to soften up Sandman for their upcoming singles match as he took it to the Hardcore Icon. He was the guy trying to take Sandman’s head off with the chair and table shots. I can’t wait to see their singles match.
Ohtani seemed to have to keep Sandman in check throughout the match. But he did his usual spots and had some great exchanges with young Sasaki, taing some of his signature moves including the Argentine Coaster, and the big combination attack from Sasaki and Tanaka.
Despite Sandman’s awkwardness in the match, this was really fun to watch and I hope Sandman comes back to Japan soon. Heck, I’m secretly praying Big Japan books a death match between him and Necro Butcher!
Match Rating: ***

Overall: The two tag main events of the show were really fun to watch, and you should pick this one up for them alone. And of course you will definitely want to check it out if you’re a Sandman fan. Thumbs up from me once you get past the first two matches.

Labels: Zero-1 MAX

There’s a ECW connection to this show, but I’m not really sure what it is other than having some ex-ECW guys (Tanaka, Corino & Anderson) on the show, and the matches all had a kind of theme to them. Even the intro begins with ECW Unforgettable, but that’s about it as far as the ECW connection is concerned.

The Youngest-1: Osamu Namiguchi VS Lil' Nate
The rookie match, which I usually hate and would fast forward past them, but UPW’s Lil’ Nate kept things interesting here with his bizarre and comedic style. Everything about him is fun to watch, from his Katamari Damacy like intro theme, to his fun little offensive moves like the Three Stooges nose pull! He even managed to get the crowd to chant “Afro” for him since he said “Afro” every chance he got throughout the match! Namiguchi on the other hand sucked all the life out of the match when he was in control as like most Japanese young lions, he stuck with the basic boring offence of mat holds. Nate seriously made this match and I would seriously like to see more of this kid in Japan, as he would be a fine addition to the Jr. division of any promotion in Japan.
Match Rating: *1/2

Wrestling VS Pro Wrestling: Kevin Steen VS Takashi Sasaki
AWA’s Kevin Steen REALLY impressed me here! He looks like a big man compared to Sasaki, but he moves really well and has a great offensive move set, including one of the BEST gaijin moonsaults I’ve ever seen! It was almost Kobashi like! Add to that, the always cool package-piledriver! Like Lil’ Nate, I’m really interested to see more of Steen in Japan. Of course his opponent Takashi Sasaki was no slouch either. A veteran of the Japanese indy circuit, having worked DDT, MPro and K-Dojo as well as ZERO-1. He had a great showing here as well as he held his ground well against the big gaijin. The match was a little short, but based on the crowd reaction, they loved it as much as I did.
Match Rating: **1/2

Mixed Tag Match: Leonardo Spanky & Saki Maemura VS Steve Corino & Amazing Kong
I had a bit of difficulty getting into this match, cause on one hand Steve Corino is trying to be comical, then all of a sudden his an evil heel. This was the kind of crap that made me hate him in his one NOAH appearance. It worked better for Spanky to go from comical to serious though. Even Amazing Kong did some comedy, which is an interesting change of character as she showed some personality, especially at the end of the match where she got down and danced in the ring with Corino and Spanky! Maemura was the smallest person in the match, but she still got some good offense in, including a sweet German suplex on Kong who was twice her size! An OK match overall.
Match Rating: *1/2


ZERO-1 VS ROH – Hardest of J: Tatsuhito Takaiwa VS Ricky Reyes
Ricky Reyes is one half of the Havana Pitbulls with Rocky Romero in ROH. Unfortunately the match itself left something to be desired for as they did a lot of mat work. Not really a good representation of the junior heavyweight style, as most fans are probably more used to the high flyers and speedy guys than the more heavyweight style of Takaiwa and Reyes’ technical style. Best spot of the match was probably when Reyes had Takaiwa in a triangle-lock on the top rope, and Takaiwa powerbombed him off the top rope, but Reyes held on to the submission hold! Other than that, not really much to shout home about.
Match Rating: *1/2

Wrestling of East: Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita VS CW Anderson & Jay Lethal
Now this match was all kinds of fun, and you could easily see how Fujita & Hidaka work well as a team and are probably the best Jr. tandem in Japan next to NOAH’s KENTA & Marufuji! The duo showed some great tandem offense as well as some great individual offense. I really can’t understand why NJPW would let a talent like Minoru Fujita go after watching this. He showed a lot here compared to the usually boring NJPW Jr. division.
Ring of Honor’s Jay Lethal also showed some fighting spirit here as he worked well with Fujita & Hidaka. He pulled off a really impressive release Dragon-suplex! Hidaka even deserves credit for taking the move with a bad taped up neck! And even CW Anderson managed to keep up with the Jr. heavyweights in the match, and his delayed superplex is always impressive to view as well. Best match of the night up to this point.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Japanese E-Style: Shinjiro Ohtani & Kohei Sato VS Takao Omori & Ryoji Sai
This was about as good as the previous tag match, only it was all action and minus the psychology as they took it to each other from the opening bell. Reigning AWA champion Omori had a target on his head from Ohtani, who targeted his Axe Bomber arm. But that didn’t stop Omori from delivering a very dangerous looking Axe Guillotine Driver! Sato & Sai also targeted each other as Sai looked to surpass his significant other, as they traded a lot of strikes and Sai stomped relentless on Sato like a mad man (Or one Kazunari Murakami) at one point. They kept a good pace throughout this one and made for a really good heavyweight tag match.
Match Rating: ***

World Wrestling @ E – TLC Contest: Masato Tanaka & Alex Shelley VS Dick Togo & Sonjay Dutt
This was a TLC match, but there was no prize to claim at the top of the ladder. The match instead ends on pinfall or submission like a regular match. As you would expect, there were a lot of big moves in this match and some were even rather dangerous. There was a fun moment in the match when Tanaka hit a diving body press off the ladder putting Togo through a table, and this garnered an “ECW” chant from the audience! Some of the fans in the crowd even had ECW shirts on! Togo was busted open pretty badly in this one, but it got rather annoying the way he would wrap his head in a towel to stop the bleeding. Everytime the towel came off due to either offense or defense, he would take his time to wrap it back up again.
Dutt seems to have a really big following in Japan as there were “Dutt” chants every now and then from the audience. Pity he really didn’t do anything of note in this match other than a few big dives and acrobatics. The same could also be said for Alex Shelley, whom the Japanese audience didn’t seem to warm up through out the match despite adapting well to the hardcore nature of the match. He had some good exchanges with Dutt though, like driving Dutt through two chairs with a modified suplex, and Dutt gave him a neckbreaker on two chairs!
Of course like I mentioned earlier there were some killer bumps taken in this match, like superplexing Dutt through a table, and Dick Togo catching Tanaka off the top of the ladder with a 3D through a table! If you’ve ever seen Japanese tables, you’ll know what I mean when I say they break more than your fall in these kinds of matches! There was even a weird spot where a ladder sitting in the corner seemed to come to life and as if on queue, fell on Dutt perfectly after Shelley took him down! A very good hardcore match overall, and the Korakuen Hall crowd loved it.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Post match, this was where Tanaka made the big announcement that he would be working WWE’s ECW One Night Stand PPV, and if you’ve seen it, you already know he and Mike Awesome had the match of the night on that PPV, much like this TLC match was the highlight of this show.

Overall: This was definitely an interesting PPV worth checking out for the clash of styles between the Americans and the Japanese workers. A lot of great action in this show from the start and I recommend checking out this show.

Labels: Zero-1 MAX

The first Zero-One show I’ve ever watched and a really good show at that. The show kicks off with the COOLEST theme song/video of any of the puroresu promotions before the formal run-down of the card.

Cage Death Match: Nathan Jones VS The Predator
One of the main reasons for me to get this show was to watch Zero-One’s Steel Giant take on the one of the gaijin aces of the promotion. Also to see Nathan Jones wrestle since he never did while he was in WWE. These are two big men going at it in a steel cage, and was a good power match as they traded big moves like chokeslams, iron claws and choking each other with Predator’s chain! Both men even had no difficulty going up top to hit some big diving moves. I only didn’t like the ending as Predator’s big knee drop finisher looked really weak. Post match, Jones gave a farewell speech where he said his good-byes and claimed he would come back to Zero-One after beating Brock Lesner for the WWE title to finish his business with Predator and Hashimoto. Too bad it never happened.
Match Rating: ***

Cage Death Match: Kintaro Kanemura & Tetsuhiro Kuroda with Kodo Fuyuki VS Josh Dempsey & Sean McCully
Two Hardcore wrestlers VS a boxer and a shoot fighter! This was short but FUN as the WEW team tore into the gaijins from the start and took out the ref! Fuyuki even did his Screaming Lariat which got the crowd going and Kanemura did an insane dive off the cage! Unfortunately, the gaijins made their comeback as big Josh Dempsey KO’d Kuroda with a series of strikes for the win.
Match Rating: **

Fugofugo Yumeji, Yoshihito Sasaki & Kuroge Wagyuta VS Don Arakawa, Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Masanobu Fuchi
Mostly a comedy match with some fun spots. Fuchi was over big time with the crowd even though he was an outsider, and he didn’t hesitate to drop his opponents on their head with his backdrop. This match was OK, though I felt it really went longer than it should have.
Match Rating: **1/2

Low Ki & Frankie VS Masato Tanaka & Tatsuhito Takaiwa
This was probably the best match of the night! Low Ki was at his best here and was out to prove he could hang with the heavyweights in Tanaka. Lots of great spots in this one including Low Ki single-handedly taking on both opponents, Frankie’s always impressive Flux Capacitor, and Takaiwa and Tanaka’s awesome offense. This match is definitely a MUST SEE
Match Rating: ****

Kohei Sato & Hirotaka Yokoi VS Dos Caras Jr & Jimmy Snuka Jr
From one really good match, to one really bland one. I don’t know if Caras & Snuka are really related to the originals, but Caras does have a background in MMA. Sato and Yokoi played heel as at one point the even un-masked Caras Jr! It still wasn’t their night though, as the young Zero-One team lost when Caras hit a beautiful Gorilla Press into a German Suplex hold on Sato for the win.
Match Rating: **

Kazuhiko Ogasawara VS Kendo KaShin
Keiji Mutoh makes his way out to do guest commentary for the rest of the night before the match started. Another rivalry started by KaShin’s disrespectful ways. The match is mostly Ogasawara striking and KaShin trying for submissions, and finally getting his flying cross-armbreaker for the referee stop victory.
Match Rating: *

King Joe & King Adamo VS Steve Corino & Jeff Jarrett
Jun Kasai was in the NWA team’s corner as the Philadelphia Monkey! This was an OK match, and was interesting to see Jarrett actually do some comedy spots! Nothing really special though, save maybe Jarrett bringing back the old guitar and adding to his list of greatest hits.
Match Rating: **

World 1 Junior Tournament Finals
Naohiro Hoshikawa VS Wataru Sakata
The veteran (Hoshikawa) VS the rising star (Sakata). This was a good match as both are stiff strikers and submission experts. Add that Hoshikawa has a bad knee and Sakata a bad shoulder, and you can pretty much tell how things went with both men targeting each other’s weak spot. This is actually reminiscent of an NJPW Jr match, but it interest me more than most NJPW Jr matches.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Satoshi Kojima VS Shinjiro Otani

The second best match on the show next to the tag match earlier on. An awesome contest from two of the future aces of All Japan and Zero-One. Both men hit their spots and Ohtani would borrow Tanaka’s Diamond Dust to try and put Kojima away. But it would be Kojima’s pad-less Lariat that would take Ohtani’s head off for the win. Another MUST SEE match!
Match Rating: ****

NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship Match
Tom Howard & Matt Ghaffari VS Naoya Ogawa & Shinya Hashimoto

This was not a pretty match, and not just because of the sight of Ghaffari’s HUGE stomach. It started off good, but then ended up with a sports entertainment type finish as the referee got bumped and the gaijin side double teamed OH-GUN team ending with the Ghaffari Press, a weak looking big splash, to crown new tag champions.
Match Rating: ***

Overall: I would still recommend this show just for the two **** matches alone. There’s something here for everybody and was a good introduction to Zero-One for me, and I’m sure would be a good intro for other newbies.

Labels: Zero-1 MAX

Alexander Otsuka VS Tetsuhiro Kuroda- Fire Festival tournament match
- I was really surprised how well Otsuka was working as a wrestler here, unlike many shoot fighters who stick to the shoot style when they try to wrestle professionally. Kuroda was on form here as well, reminding me of the days when he was the top rising youngster from his FMW days. Kuroda worked Otsuka’s knee throughout the match, but Otsuka managed some good offense, including an almost Dead End like hanging German suplex, but couldn’t hold the pin due to his bad knee. Kuroda nailed a killer Lariat before locking on a figure four for the some what upset win.
Match Rating: **1/2

Kintaro Kanemura VS Yoshiaki Fujiwara - Fire Festival tournament match
- Give Fujiwara a lot of credit for working against Kanemura and taking his classic garbage spots like getting splashed through a table! Kanemura also hit a record number of low blows right in front of the referee without fear of getting disqualified! Very sports entertainment like finish when the referee got bumped and Fujiwara locked on his armbar so no one saw Kanemura tap! Kanemura then scored the win on the veteran with a rollup.
Match Rating: **1/2

Masato Tanaka, Hideki Hosaka & Kuroge Wagyuta VS Tengu Kaiser, Wataru Sakata & Yoshihito Sasaki
- You could tell Tanaka was pissed that he couldn’t make the Fire Festival finals as he stiffed the hell out of his younger opposition team. Hosaka has completely changed his image from his FMW days and really looks solid now. Tengu Kaiser looks like a bad Hayabusa copy, but works well at least. Sasaki actually hit his reverse death valley driver on big Hosaka at one point. Near the end, the veteran team hit a cool triple team diving move on Sasaki, ending with Tanaka hitting the superfly splash, but Sasaki kicked out! Tanaka then almost rips his head off with a monster lariat, but Sasaki kicks out again! Sasaki signals for the roaring elbow, but Sasaki ducks it and tries to German suplex Tanaka, and finally hits with the help of a high kick from Sakata! Tanaka finally scores the roaring elbow and hits a brainbuster for the win. This match really put Sasaki over big time as the crowd was SO into him!
Match Rating: ***1/2

Satoshi Kojima VS Kohei Sato - Fire Festival tournament match
- Kojima was in full heel mode here! All he had to do was LOOK at the crowd and they would boo him! Kojima even made young Sato look like a million bucks selling his strikes and submissions well. Sato even countered Kojima’s dreaded Lariat into a triangle arm bar at one point! Sato also did the hanging German that Otsuka used earlier for a near fall as well as hitting a series of urinages. Kojima showed his superiority in the end, almost taking young Sato’s head off with a vicious Lariat!
Match Rating: ***

Hirotaka Yokoi VS Shinjiro Ohtani - Fire Festival tournament match
- This was also surprisingly good! Yokoi is another shoot fighter turned wrestler, but sticks to his shooter roots. But Ohtani made him look like a million bucks selling his hard strikes and submissions! Wait a minute, didn’t I already say that about Kojima/Sato? Yokoi even caught Ohtani out of a Yakuza kick into a Capture Buster at one point. Ohtani being no slouch himself, wins a hard fought battle with a single leg crab submission.
Match Rating: **1/2

Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Naohiro Hoshikawa, Ikuto Hidaka & Jun Kasai VS C.W. Anderson, Josh Daniels, C.M. Punk & Vansack Acid
- This was a seriously FUN match to watch! The first few minutes was standard mat work but then, TONS of spots from all eight men, and even some fun comedy bits! There was the standard multi-man aerial assault as well as the always cool multi-finisher spot near the end. I was really impressed by Josh Daniels and Vansack Acid. At one point, Acid hit a move I can only describe as a shinning headstomp! You gotta see this to believe it! I’m not gonna give any more away, but this match is a MUST WATCH!!!
Match Rating: ***3/4

FIRE FESTIVAL FINALS
Satoshi Kojima VS Shinjiro Otani
This was an AWESOME match! Even better than their previous singles bout from the 2002 Truth Creation pay per view! They went at it straight from the opening bell and beat the daylights out of each other to the point of physical exhaustion! Both men unloaded the full extent of their arsenals. Ohtani even borrowed Tanaka’s Diamond Dust and followed it with his trademark Spiral Bomb but still couldn’t put Kojima away! Kojima hits his Lariat but Ohtani pops up and lands his Dragon Suplex for another near fall. End comes with both exhausted gladiators picking themselves up in opposite corners, eye each other, then CHARGE at each other! But Kojima DECAPITATES Ohtani with the padless lariat to win the Fire Festival!!!
Match Rating: ****

OVERALL: This was an AWESOME show from start to finish, with no Hashimoto or Ogawa anywhere in sight to drag things down. Ohtani was the booker for this year’s Fire Festival and boy he did he do a great job! Why Hashimoto doesn’t take the much needed time off to heal his battered body and let Ohtani run things, I’ll never know. But this is a totally watchable show!

Labels: Zero-1 MAX