Before the show starts we get a pre-show interview hyping the matches. What is funny though is Daichi hanging around behind them just dicking about. Kind of forget how young he still is.
- Shinobu (666) & Yuya Aoki vs. Kankuro Hoshino & Tatsuhiko Yoshino
Yoshino is here, but he's following up the last few matches and acting gradually more serious, so no selfie stick and dancing on the way to the ring. He looks mightily pissed off. Shinobu is here to carry on his feud with Yoshino. Shinobu definitely looks like he's skipped a couple of meals. After Aoki and Hoshino feel each other out Yoshino and Shinobu go at it with some stiff chops and elbows. Hoshino tags in and goes to do the usual spot where the person who has just tagged in runs over and elbows the other teams partner off the apron. Instead of waiting for the elbow Shinobu actually moves out of the way to avoid getting hit. Revolutionary.
Aoki gets isolated for a while but eventually makes enough of a comeback so that he can tag out. Aoki actually looks pretty good for the six weeks or so that he's been wrestling. Really amazing to see the difference in his kick, punch and dropkick offense against Okabayashi. He takes a wicked backbreaker before submitting to a Boston Crab applied by Yoshino.
They show the back breaker in slow-mo and he really takes it full force. Aoki does the customary bow to the crowd who give him a decent round of applause. [GOOD]
- Takayuki Ueki & Masaya Takahashi (ASUKA) vs. Shu & Kei Brahman (both FREE)
The Brahmans are here, which means they are soaking the crowd and also soaking Ueki and Takahashi. When I first started watching BJW, I'd pretty much wrote off the team of Ueki and Takahashi. Takahashi i'm still not sure off but Ueki has quietly grown into something of a favourite of mine. At first I thought he was some journeyman, boring, mid-card DM worker. But he is much more than that. He can work the DM style, the strong matches and he has the charisma to carry off a good comedy match. Plus he's only 25, so he's got years to go before he has to truly start to carry matches.
This match however, is a straight up comedy match. Ueki gets his belt taken off of him which he ends up being whipped with and also loses his pants. He also seems to have his testicles targeted for a quite a lot of this match. He takes the bowling ball to the suitcase to his balls spot. Ueki pulls a gun on one of the Brahmans who squirts him with water which makes him lose his gun. Who would have guessed that water was more powerful than a gun! He loses even more of this clothes and ends up in just a thong. His chest gets covered in this black greasy substance and one of the Brahmans ends up getting smothered in it. Ueki wins the match following the Uroboros on Kei. Essentially, both of them get tangled up and have each others face in each others bumhole. [DDT]
- Yuko Miyamoto (666) & Isami Kodaka (BASARA) vs. Tsutomu Oosugi & Hercules Senga
This was a really good match which was incredibly fast paced and after the relatively long previous match, was quite refreshing at only 7 minutes. Lots of dives and one of the longest round-the-world ddts I've seen in a while. Isami wins with a European Clutch on Senga. [GOOD]
- Kohei Sato (ZERO1), Kazuki Hashimoto & Kazumi Kikuta vs. Daichi Hashimoto, Atsushi Maruyama (FREE) & Takuya Nomura
First thing you notice is that although he his only young, Hashimoto is getting an old man pot-belly like his dad! This match is all about Nomura getting the living soul beaten out of him.
Sato hits Nomura with a wicked elbow and then just has his brutal way with him. He really does do a number on him, to the point where you start to think did Nomura crap in his boots or something. After Sato kills him, the other two then have a go. There was a particularly nasty/cool spot where Nomura makes it to the ropes with his hands to break a submission and Kazuki just boots his hand off the ropes, virtually breaking his wrist. Its horrific in its violence. Nomura tries to mount some form of come back and has a go at elbowing Sato. Who is having none of it and just smacks him back down. If this wasn't a rite of passage for nearly every rookie, you'd consider calling the police at this stage.
After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing Nomura finally gets tagged back in, he starts to have some semblance of revenge by kicking the piss out of Kazuki. Nomura and his team then apply a triple submission on Sato, who sells it like death. Nomura then starts to work Sato's arm over some more with holds and kicks but Sato just wipes him out with another vicious elbow. The end of the match sees Nomura take a Michinoku driver, a foot stomp, a double kick, an elbow to the head and finally a piledriver to end the match.
He gets absolutely destroyed throughout this match, but the crowd absolutely love him. They chant his name and go mad for the plucky youngster as he shows the quality that all good wrestlers do, fighting spirit.
[EXCELLENT]
- Pre-Ikkitosen Special Fluorescent Light ~ Bring Your Own Weapons Deathmatch: Abdullah Kobayashi, Ryuji Ito & Toshiyuki Sakuda vs. Jaki Numazawa, Masashi Takeda (FREE) & Takumi Tsukamoto (BASARA)
This is a deathmatch to hype the upcoming tournament but following on from the houseshows, it focuses a lot on Sakuda. Takeda sticks a metal pad with horrific looking spikes into Sakudas arm. As soon as its taken away, you can see the puncture marks and the trickles of blood. After that, he also takes a back drop onto multiple metal pads. Sakuda is laid out and a few lighttubes placed on top of his chest. Takeda, Tsukamoto and Numazawa have a game of rock, paper, scissors to see who's going to take the bump on top of them. Takeda loses and subsequently smashes his back on top of them.
At this points, Sakudas arms are heavily. He staples a sheet of paper to Tsuksmoto head, and then ends up getting stapled himself. Sakuda starts his come back by taking his revenge on Takeda by pushing one of those metal plates into his arm. Match ends when Numazawa hits kobayashi with the Shinto (headbutt) and follows up with the pin.
Out of all the entrants for the tournament, i'm not keen on Numazawa winning. He has a really cool look about him, but his time has gone. It wouldn't increase his standing with the crowd or his place in the promotion. He's OK in 6 man tags, but really, he's a pretty terrible wrestler.
~ Numazawa with the win over the Deathmath Heavy champion before the start of the Ikkitosen tournament next month. Kobayashi will not be competing in the tournament as his belt is the prize for the winner of the league.
~ The split blocks were announced for the “Ikkitosen ~ DEATHMATCH SURVIVOR”. The league will begin on March 5 and run through until the final match on April 8.
~ A BLOCK : Ryuji Ito, Isami Kodaka (BASARA), Kenji Fukimoto (FREEDOMS), Takumi Tsukamoto (BASARA), Takayuki Ueki, and Toshiyuki Sakuda.
~ B BLOCK : Jaki Numazawa, Yuko Miyamoto (666), Masashi Takeda (FREE), Kankuro Hoshino, Ryuichi Sekine (BASARA), and Masaya Takahashi.
- Yuji Okabayashi, Hideyoshi Kamitani & Yasufumi Nakanoue (FREE) vs. Ryota
Hama (FREE), Shogun Okamoto (FREE) & Yoshihisa Uto
Here come the big boys. Unfortunately, that means Hama. Kamitani is a young wrestler who looks awkward. He's a little bit tubby, flat footed and constantly looks like he's trying not to smile at everyones shenanigans. But he is hoss strong. With Sekimoto taking the month off, I'd like to see Kamitani and Okabayashi tag for a while.
Okabayashi tries to pick up Hama, which although he is ridiculously powerful, Hama is also ridiculously fat. Naturally, he fails and the fat fuck lands on top of him. I really like Okamoto. He does this cool E Honda slap move in the corner turnbuckles, which doesn't look as painful as a slap off Okabayashi, it sounds really cool. He does also chop the shit out of Kamitani afterwards.
Okamoto does a variety of interesting back drop variations, which all look like they hurt because of his stature. Okamoto wins following a Backdrop on Kamitani. By backdrop, I mean he gets chucked over and lands on the top part of his head. Grim. Okamoto tries to congratulate him after the match but Kamitani pushes him away, which gets the crowd into it [GOOD]
- World Strong Next Challenger Match: Ryuichi Kawakami vs. Hideki Suzuki (FREE)
Suzuki is amazing. He's not a regular BJW so he shows up sporadically. He has this unique style of Catch wrestling and strong power moves. He was trained by the legendary Billy Robinson, and it definitely shows. He has a reputation for calling matches mostly on the fly and just seeing where it goes. When I was getting back into wrestling I watched quite a few of his matches on YouTube, and while not always the most consistent, he is definitely one of the most interesting guys around today.
I really enjoyed this match, I found myself not jotting to many notes down, but just enjoying the flow of the match. Essentially Kawakami was wary of his style and of being outwrestled so he is on the back foot for most of the match. The match had a lot of grappling, and suplexes thrown in. Nothing crazy fast or violent but incredibly engaging.
Kawakami hits Suzuki with a wicked elbow which he sells incredibly well, but this only serves to take him off his guard as Suzuki surprises him with a double arm suplex for the win out of nowhere. Really nice short match, which was also a pleasant surprise. I'd just finished watching recent NOAH shows with some very long matches so a 12 minute main event was quite refreshing. I'm not marking it higher than a good because of the length, but i'd definitely try and watch it [GOOD]
~ Hideki earns the right to challenge Sekimoto for belt on 3/5 at Korakuen.
Monday, 27 February 2017
Friday, 17 February 2017
All Japan Pro-Wrestling “2017 New Year Wars”, 01/15/17 @ Hakata StarLanes, Fukuoka
~ SUSHI formally announced that he would be leaving All Japan at the end of the month. He stated that he will continue to compete as a pro-wrestler in the future, but freelance. Though it was also hinted that he also plans to do activities outside of his pro-wrestling life.
~ He requested his final match for All Japan on 1/28 to be against Jun Akiyama.
- Yohei Nakajima vs. Yusuke Okada
Nakajima is pretty good in the ring but holy crap his ring gear is terrible. It's the usual speedo undies but he has this extra garter thing which make him look like an extra for an Anne Summers party. Hard to take him serious in it. Okada is doing well for being a rookie, but it also means there is no doubt as to who is going to win.
Nakajima gets the win after applying an STF
- SUSHI, Yutaka Yoshie (FREE) & Koji Nozomi (Kageki) vs. Keisuke Ishii (DDT), Ultimo Dragon (Toryumon MEXICO) & Minoru Tanaka (FREE)
OK match but to be honest SUSHI won't be missed. Even with his retirement coming up they aren't making him look strong going out at all as he gets pinned when Ultimo Dragon just applies a La Magistral on him for the loss. Doesn't even butter him up with a move, just pins him. [Meh]
- Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato vs. Mitsuya Nagai (DRADITION) & Takeshi Minamino (Toneri Family)
Sato (he off the fringe) goes straight into the crowd with Minamino and instead of waiting for people to move he just pushes him straight into people trying to scramble out of the way. Absolutely no shits given. Minamino looks like a drunk Japanese Elvis who's having a midlife crisis. He has a really impressive hair do for a wrestler too.
Theres a bit of cheating by Nagai as he's brought this massive Makabe style chain to the ring. He ends up getting the pin following the ROD on Hikaru. The ROD is a really nice move and I've not seen it done before. I can only describe it as a double arm underhook brainbuster. Although he's got stupid hair, I really enjoy most matches that I've seen with Sato in. Would be interested to see if he can pull a singles match off though. [Good]
~ Nagai and Minamino stated that they want the Asia Tag belts.
- Jake Lee, Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi vs. Ryoji Sai (LAND’S END), Rikiya Fudo (LAND’S END) & Atsushi Maruyama (FREE)
Typical six man tag, nothing notable happened other than it featuring a couple of LAND'S END guys in it. Jake Lee looks like he's come straight from the dirty south, USA. It's not really clicked before but he has the muscular build, but not defined/roided look and he has undies which are slightly too big like all the good Gajins of the early 90's.
After the match I realised that all i'd written down was 'Jake wins following a Backdrop on Fudo'. Didn't leave a very good impression [meh]
- Suwama vs. Koji Iwamoto
I enjoyed this match as a bigger guy taking on the plucky smaller challenger style. It didn't outstay its welcome and by the end Suwama was just having his way with Iwamoto. Really throwing him around and beasting him. Suwama wins following a Last Ride where he just bounces him off the mat. [Good]
~ Suwama declared that he aims to remove the recent influx of invaders from All Japan. This stems more from Manabu Soya and now KAI’s return to competing in the promotion.
~ Suwama cannot forgive what happened years ago with most of everyone leaving and the formation of W-1. He said that he will protect All Japan as he remained to do just that in the first place.
Zeus & The Bodyguard (FREE) vs. Jun Akiyama & Kendo Kashin (FREE)
Kashin just isn't very good, but so far he's been inoffensive since I've restarted watching. I'm possibly biased from previous matches of his years back. The more I see of Zeus the more impressed I am with him and he and Akiyama have good chemistry.
Overall this was a pretty good tag. It had some hot sections where they went brawling outside and Akiyama took some nasty guardrail bumps. Zeus and Bodyguard do a nice Legion of Doom impression with a Doomsday Device. Bodyguard gets the pin following the Bounce on Kashin. [OK]
~ Even in defeat, Kashin still remained interested in challenging for the Asia Tag belts. Though Atsushi Onita wants the match to be an “Electric Current Blast Death Match”. Kashin is in total favor of the match, but Akiyama is not in favor of that match taking place. Kashin appeared frustrated at Akiyama being opposed of the match.
~ Akiyama stated that he would accept a single match against SUSHI on 1/28, that now being SUSHI’s final match as an All Japan wrestler.
- Triple Crown Championship Match: Kento Miyahara vs. Takao Omori
The last few weeks has been building up towards this match and here we get the pay off. Omori is still is an odd one to me. Older guys of his era tend to look comfortable in their position and how they are presented but Omori looks like a bit of a Dad who still thinks he's cool. He's got bleached hair (which normally means he's an asshole in puro), wears this animal skin throw thing to the ring and has leopard print undies on which say 'WILD'. All seems a bit try hard.
When I looked back at my notes i'd written this in mostly bullet points. Overall, I was definitely impressed with this match and the ending was really fun to watch, if nothing groundbreaking.
Omori gave Miyahara a piledriver onto the apron, they end up going back into the ring and for his trouble Omori hits a really good snap piledriver which Miyahara kicks out off. Miyahara definitely spams the old knee kicks, with variations on Shining Wizards and the like. He does a nice shining wizard into a brainbuster combo which could have ended the match.
Another nice exchange was when Omori misses a sliding elbow and as Miyahara sits back up, Omori just knees him back in the head which looked really brutal. Omori also gets him with a dangerous looking reverse piledriver. They run the ropes and tease a missed lariat by Omori, missed knee by Miyahara followed up by a huge lariat by Omori.
Omori takes lots and lots of knees to the face and then we get to a elbow exchange which breaks down into Miyahara just headbutting old guy Omori constantly.
Match ends when Miyahara lands the Shutdown German Suplex Hold. For this move he grabs Omori round the waist but traps both arms too, before he sends him flying he holds him still, in the air, so he can contemplate ladning on the back of his head.
After the match we get a respectful handshake to finish the show. Really, really good match with some nasty looking offense. [excellent]
~ 7th successful title defense.
~ The Bodyguard stepped forward to challenge Miyahara for the next defense.
~ Though Miyahara and Jake Lee also look for another chance to go after the World Tag belts as well.
~ He requested his final match for All Japan on 1/28 to be against Jun Akiyama.
- Yohei Nakajima vs. Yusuke Okada
Nakajima is pretty good in the ring but holy crap his ring gear is terrible. It's the usual speedo undies but he has this extra garter thing which make him look like an extra for an Anne Summers party. Hard to take him serious in it. Okada is doing well for being a rookie, but it also means there is no doubt as to who is going to win.
Nakajima gets the win after applying an STF
- SUSHI, Yutaka Yoshie (FREE) & Koji Nozomi (Kageki) vs. Keisuke Ishii (DDT), Ultimo Dragon (Toryumon MEXICO) & Minoru Tanaka (FREE)
OK match but to be honest SUSHI won't be missed. Even with his retirement coming up they aren't making him look strong going out at all as he gets pinned when Ultimo Dragon just applies a La Magistral on him for the loss. Doesn't even butter him up with a move, just pins him. [Meh]
- Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato vs. Mitsuya Nagai (DRADITION) & Takeshi Minamino (Toneri Family)
Sato (he off the fringe) goes straight into the crowd with Minamino and instead of waiting for people to move he just pushes him straight into people trying to scramble out of the way. Absolutely no shits given. Minamino looks like a drunk Japanese Elvis who's having a midlife crisis. He has a really impressive hair do for a wrestler too.
Theres a bit of cheating by Nagai as he's brought this massive Makabe style chain to the ring. He ends up getting the pin following the ROD on Hikaru. The ROD is a really nice move and I've not seen it done before. I can only describe it as a double arm underhook brainbuster. Although he's got stupid hair, I really enjoy most matches that I've seen with Sato in. Would be interested to see if he can pull a singles match off though. [Good]
~ Nagai and Minamino stated that they want the Asia Tag belts.
- Jake Lee, Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi vs. Ryoji Sai (LAND’S END), Rikiya Fudo (LAND’S END) & Atsushi Maruyama (FREE)
Typical six man tag, nothing notable happened other than it featuring a couple of LAND'S END guys in it. Jake Lee looks like he's come straight from the dirty south, USA. It's not really clicked before but he has the muscular build, but not defined/roided look and he has undies which are slightly too big like all the good Gajins of the early 90's.
After the match I realised that all i'd written down was 'Jake wins following a Backdrop on Fudo'. Didn't leave a very good impression [meh]
- Suwama vs. Koji Iwamoto
I enjoyed this match as a bigger guy taking on the plucky smaller challenger style. It didn't outstay its welcome and by the end Suwama was just having his way with Iwamoto. Really throwing him around and beasting him. Suwama wins following a Last Ride where he just bounces him off the mat. [Good]
~ Suwama declared that he aims to remove the recent influx of invaders from All Japan. This stems more from Manabu Soya and now KAI’s return to competing in the promotion.
~ Suwama cannot forgive what happened years ago with most of everyone leaving and the formation of W-1. He said that he will protect All Japan as he remained to do just that in the first place.
Zeus & The Bodyguard (FREE) vs. Jun Akiyama & Kendo Kashin (FREE)
Kashin just isn't very good, but so far he's been inoffensive since I've restarted watching. I'm possibly biased from previous matches of his years back. The more I see of Zeus the more impressed I am with him and he and Akiyama have good chemistry.
Overall this was a pretty good tag. It had some hot sections where they went brawling outside and Akiyama took some nasty guardrail bumps. Zeus and Bodyguard do a nice Legion of Doom impression with a Doomsday Device. Bodyguard gets the pin following the Bounce on Kashin. [OK]
~ Even in defeat, Kashin still remained interested in challenging for the Asia Tag belts. Though Atsushi Onita wants the match to be an “Electric Current Blast Death Match”. Kashin is in total favor of the match, but Akiyama is not in favor of that match taking place. Kashin appeared frustrated at Akiyama being opposed of the match.
~ Akiyama stated that he would accept a single match against SUSHI on 1/28, that now being SUSHI’s final match as an All Japan wrestler.
- Triple Crown Championship Match: Kento Miyahara vs. Takao Omori
The last few weeks has been building up towards this match and here we get the pay off. Omori is still is an odd one to me. Older guys of his era tend to look comfortable in their position and how they are presented but Omori looks like a bit of a Dad who still thinks he's cool. He's got bleached hair (which normally means he's an asshole in puro), wears this animal skin throw thing to the ring and has leopard print undies on which say 'WILD'. All seems a bit try hard.
When I looked back at my notes i'd written this in mostly bullet points. Overall, I was definitely impressed with this match and the ending was really fun to watch, if nothing groundbreaking.
Omori gave Miyahara a piledriver onto the apron, they end up going back into the ring and for his trouble Omori hits a really good snap piledriver which Miyahara kicks out off. Miyahara definitely spams the old knee kicks, with variations on Shining Wizards and the like. He does a nice shining wizard into a brainbuster combo which could have ended the match.
Another nice exchange was when Omori misses a sliding elbow and as Miyahara sits back up, Omori just knees him back in the head which looked really brutal. Omori also gets him with a dangerous looking reverse piledriver. They run the ropes and tease a missed lariat by Omori, missed knee by Miyahara followed up by a huge lariat by Omori.
Omori takes lots and lots of knees to the face and then we get to a elbow exchange which breaks down into Miyahara just headbutting old guy Omori constantly.
Match ends when Miyahara lands the Shutdown German Suplex Hold. For this move he grabs Omori round the waist but traps both arms too, before he sends him flying he holds him still, in the air, so he can contemplate ladning on the back of his head.
After the match we get a respectful handshake to finish the show. Really, really good match with some nasty looking offense. [excellent]
~ 7th successful title defense.
~ The Bodyguard stepped forward to challenge Miyahara for the next defense.
~ Though Miyahara and Jake Lee also look for another chance to go after the World Tag belts as well.
Thursday, 16 February 2017
All Japan Pro-Wrestling “YOKOHAMA TWILIGHT BLUES vol.3”, 01/09/17 @ Yokohama Radiant Hall, Kanagawa
- Yusuke Okada’s Debut Match: Yuma Aoyagi vs. Yusuke Okada
Considering its his debut, they really try and make a decent match out of it. They did a nice spot where Yuma whips Okada into the ropes and instead of letting him run he just slaps his back so he falls down. Okada does a terrible senton though, it looked just like a flimsy forward roll. The application of the Boston Crab looked good and as Aoyagi kept applying it, it looked like it was done with gradually more force. When Okada tapped out his feet were nearly touching his head. OK match, always interesting to catch debuts and to see their progression over the next few years. [OK]
~ The new rookie makes his debut, though in the standard welcome fashion. As for his future he aims to become the World Junior Champion first and foremost.
- Masanobu Fuchi, Isami Kodaka (BASARA) & Fuminori Abe (Sportiva) vs. Yohei Nakajima, SUSHI & Minoru Tanaka (FREE)
Altham Fuchi is like a million years old, he still moves quite well. He does his stuff and then gets out of the ring. Tanaka is 44 and can do those rolling kip ups with his head, which is unreal.
This is your typical six man comedy match which just seemed to work around getting some laughs for Fuchi. By the time it tried to get serious I'd zoned out. Yohei pins Abe after Tobiushiro Mawashigeri. [OK]
- Ice Ribbon Offer Match: Tsukasa Fujimoto & Tequila Saya vs. Tsukushi & Maruko Nagasaki
Not sure if offer is just another way to say exhibition or whether they need to impress to get more Ice Ribbon matches on future All Japan cards.
Judging by this, they should definitely have more matches. This was really good, fast paced tag match. You could see the effort they were putting in, contrasting with the half assed tag beforehand. They don't hold back. The kicks and drop kicks gave me flashbacks to the Gaea documentary. Particularly nasty one where Saya is sitting against the bottom rope and Tsukushi just dropkicks her through the ropes and decapitates her.
Ends when Tsukushi hits a nasty looking Diving Foot Stomp on Saya. Really good match, recommended viewing [Good]
- Super Tiger (RJPW) & Hikaru Sato (Pancrase MISSION) vs. Great Tiger & 5th Generation Black Tiger (both FREE)
Super fringe is back! And we get Tiger overload. There's another Tiger on the ringside for the Great Tiger team. 5th generation Black Tiger doesn't really roll off the tongue. Tiger spat into the crowd, which was a bit grim. This is a hard hitting, kick heavy, not quite shoot, but inspired by it match. I really like this style so I'm biased. The Tiger guy on the outside hits Sato with a chair (boo) which lets Great Tiger gets the pin after a Diving Headbutt on Hikaru.
After the match Sato gets his bloody stupid fringe chopped off. That's not really a bad thing. He sells it by leaving with a towel over his head! You're haircut is shit mate. [Good]
~ DARK NIGHTMARE asserted themselves over the Evolution team as BT VII went after Hikaru’s hair.
- Suwama, Joe Doering & Atsushi Aoki vs. Hideyoshi Kamitani, Daichi Hashimoto & Kazumi Kikuta (all BJW)
Big Japan boys are in town. Hashimoto looks like a low level gangster with his bandana over his face, and his towel round his waist. Not sure if he'll kick your face off or sell you weed. Starts straight away with everyone brawling until they end up in their corners. This was a good, dependable tag match. Nothing to go crazy about but it didn't drag. Kikuta gets pinned by Suwama after eating a Lariat. [OK]
~ Doering will be heading back home after a mini-welcome back tour. He stated that he will be back and even better.
- Takao Omori vs. Koji Iwamoto
This could only be described as a serviceable match. Omori has pedigree so you'll never look down at him, but at this stage of his career, you're not really looking out for his matches. I spent most of my time during this bout reading about his match with Hashimoto which got him into Misawas bad books and ended up with him going to North America for a while.
Ends when Omori hits his Axe Bomber. [OK]
- Kento Miyahara, Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura vs. Jun Akiyama, Zeus & Yutaka Yoshie (FREE)
Zeus has two belts with him which he's got crossed on his chest diagonally (if that makes sense). He looks like such a bad ass doing it. If only he was a little but taller. Haven't seen too much of Miyahara but he looks like an ace should look. He looks like a prime Tanahashi.
Starts off with in the ring and goes through the motions until Akyiama gets tagged in and everyone starts brawling outside, which gets the crowd really into it. Akyiama slams Lee to the floor. Zeus does this simple but cool thing where he chops Nomura to the mat, but keeps hold of his wrist. Pulls him to his feet, chops him again, rinse and repeat. Nomura suplexes Yoshie which is pretty impressive as he's a big lad. Builds to a finish with a lot of pin attempts and it ends when Yoshie does a Diving Body Press onto Nomura. By diving, he gets on the top rope and slips off to squash Nomura. By having it end that way it was definitely one to send the crowd home happy. [OK]
Considering its his debut, they really try and make a decent match out of it. They did a nice spot where Yuma whips Okada into the ropes and instead of letting him run he just slaps his back so he falls down. Okada does a terrible senton though, it looked just like a flimsy forward roll. The application of the Boston Crab looked good and as Aoyagi kept applying it, it looked like it was done with gradually more force. When Okada tapped out his feet were nearly touching his head. OK match, always interesting to catch debuts and to see their progression over the next few years. [OK]
~ The new rookie makes his debut, though in the standard welcome fashion. As for his future he aims to become the World Junior Champion first and foremost.
- Masanobu Fuchi, Isami Kodaka (BASARA) & Fuminori Abe (Sportiva) vs. Yohei Nakajima, SUSHI & Minoru Tanaka (FREE)
Altham Fuchi is like a million years old, he still moves quite well. He does his stuff and then gets out of the ring. Tanaka is 44 and can do those rolling kip ups with his head, which is unreal.
This is your typical six man comedy match which just seemed to work around getting some laughs for Fuchi. By the time it tried to get serious I'd zoned out. Yohei pins Abe after Tobiushiro Mawashigeri. [OK]
- Ice Ribbon Offer Match: Tsukasa Fujimoto & Tequila Saya vs. Tsukushi & Maruko Nagasaki
Not sure if offer is just another way to say exhibition or whether they need to impress to get more Ice Ribbon matches on future All Japan cards.
Judging by this, they should definitely have more matches. This was really good, fast paced tag match. You could see the effort they were putting in, contrasting with the half assed tag beforehand. They don't hold back. The kicks and drop kicks gave me flashbacks to the Gaea documentary. Particularly nasty one where Saya is sitting against the bottom rope and Tsukushi just dropkicks her through the ropes and decapitates her.
Ends when Tsukushi hits a nasty looking Diving Foot Stomp on Saya. Really good match, recommended viewing [Good]
- Super Tiger (RJPW) & Hikaru Sato (Pancrase MISSION) vs. Great Tiger & 5th Generation Black Tiger (both FREE)
Super fringe is back! And we get Tiger overload. There's another Tiger on the ringside for the Great Tiger team. 5th generation Black Tiger doesn't really roll off the tongue. Tiger spat into the crowd, which was a bit grim. This is a hard hitting, kick heavy, not quite shoot, but inspired by it match. I really like this style so I'm biased. The Tiger guy on the outside hits Sato with a chair (boo) which lets Great Tiger gets the pin after a Diving Headbutt on Hikaru.
After the match Sato gets his bloody stupid fringe chopped off. That's not really a bad thing. He sells it by leaving with a towel over his head! You're haircut is shit mate. [Good]
~ DARK NIGHTMARE asserted themselves over the Evolution team as BT VII went after Hikaru’s hair.
- Suwama, Joe Doering & Atsushi Aoki vs. Hideyoshi Kamitani, Daichi Hashimoto & Kazumi Kikuta (all BJW)
Big Japan boys are in town. Hashimoto looks like a low level gangster with his bandana over his face, and his towel round his waist. Not sure if he'll kick your face off or sell you weed. Starts straight away with everyone brawling until they end up in their corners. This was a good, dependable tag match. Nothing to go crazy about but it didn't drag. Kikuta gets pinned by Suwama after eating a Lariat. [OK]
~ Doering will be heading back home after a mini-welcome back tour. He stated that he will be back and even better.
- Takao Omori vs. Koji Iwamoto
This could only be described as a serviceable match. Omori has pedigree so you'll never look down at him, but at this stage of his career, you're not really looking out for his matches. I spent most of my time during this bout reading about his match with Hashimoto which got him into Misawas bad books and ended up with him going to North America for a while.
Ends when Omori hits his Axe Bomber. [OK]
- Kento Miyahara, Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura vs. Jun Akiyama, Zeus & Yutaka Yoshie (FREE)
Zeus has two belts with him which he's got crossed on his chest diagonally (if that makes sense). He looks like such a bad ass doing it. If only he was a little but taller. Haven't seen too much of Miyahara but he looks like an ace should look. He looks like a prime Tanahashi.
Starts off with in the ring and goes through the motions until Akyiama gets tagged in and everyone starts brawling outside, which gets the crowd really into it. Akyiama slams Lee to the floor. Zeus does this simple but cool thing where he chops Nomura to the mat, but keeps hold of his wrist. Pulls him to his feet, chops him again, rinse and repeat. Nomura suplexes Yoshie which is pretty impressive as he's a big lad. Builds to a finish with a lot of pin attempts and it ends when Yoshie does a Diving Body Press onto Nomura. By diving, he gets on the top rope and slips off to squash Nomura. By having it end that way it was definitely one to send the crowd home happy. [OK]
Tuesday, 14 February 2017
Stardom “New Year Stars” 01/03/17 @ Shinkiba 1st RING, Tokyo
~Hana Kimura could no compete due to a wrist injury. Sumie Sakai replaced her on the card.
- Azumi vs Ruaka
Um, Ruaka is 12 years old and Azumi is 14. The pair of them shouldn't be able to put together a coherent match, but they do. Azumi looks the more accomplished, but that's not a criticism of Ruaka. There are some nice moves in this match such as when Azumi had Ruaka outside on the apron and jumps over the top rope to stomp her. Ruaka has some nice looking kicks. The end of the match comes when Azumi wins with a bridging pin. They work a face/heel dynamic, and Azumi cuts a promo after the match (which is subtitled on Stardoms). I'm just amazed at how young both of these two are. [OK]
- Hiromi Mimura, Saori Anou & Arisu Nanase vs Kaori Yoneyama, Konami & Natsuko Tora
Typical lower card tag match. Some of the personalities do start to come through but at only 7 minutes it's hard to be too judgemental. Mimura wins with a La Magistral on Tora
- Momo Watanabe vs Kagetsu
Before the match Kagetsu does a promo where she complains that people keep asking her questions before a match as she's not even bothered who she's fighting. Watanabe says its her first singles match in a while so she's got lots of aggression, she then just gets up and walks out. Kagetsu comes to the ring first with one of the worst sung theme tunes ever.
Holy crap, Watanabe is just 16 years old and looks like she's ready to kill Kagetsu.
Kagetsu finds herself on the outside and instead of having Watanabe dive out, Kagetsu hides behind the audience, which is different. They both end up brawling outside and Watanabe takes a nasty bump into a load of chairs and for her troubles, gets strangled with a brush. To punish Kagetsu, the ref deliberately doesn't count a pin attempt because he's taking his time removing the brush from the ring. Watanabe gets some offense in, which consists of kicking Kagetsu in the chest, and some nasty looking drop kicks. There's a lot of back and forth as time expires for a draw as kageta was attempting a pin.
Really good match. I might be biased because I was just amazed at Watanabe being only 16. [Good]
- Kay Lee Ray & Nixon Newell vs Viper & Kris Wolf
Wolf is massively over with the crowd, who start howling for her. Viper is awesome as a big monster, Aja Kong style. Pretty cool seeing Kay Lee Ray in Stardoms after seeing her call the crowd a bunch of cunts in her Scottish accent last year in Liverpool. Starts with wolf getting ganged up until Viper gets bought in to the match, where it descends into a comedy fest.
Lots of moves from Wolf from on top of viper or being thrown around by her. Viper ends up splashing onto Wolf and in the most Scottish accent goes 'a'hm soory'. Kay Lee Ray gets the win with a Swanton Bomb on Wolf for an OK match [OK]
- Mayu Iwatani, Jungle Kyona & Shayna Baszler vs Kyoko Kimura, Sumie Sakai & Kagetsu (Oedo Tai)
Kimura is retiring soon so she's doing the rounds. She's famous for her afro (amongst other things) but she's also hard as nails after being trained in the BJW dojo. I remember seeing her doing death matches in BJW with Kobashi and Kasai etc.
Good match, with a lot of focus on Kimura, understandably. Iwatani is this tall, skinny girl but she moves quickly and has a belt called the High Speed Championship. She's been the champ for over 450+ days. Mayu gets the pin with a top rope Frankensteiner on Kagetsu who is pulling double duty. Watanabe comes back out to challenge Mayu for her title. Really good match and looking forward to the singles match at the 6th anniversary show. [good]
- Kairi Hojo 5th Anniversary Special Tag Match: Kairi Hojo & Yoko Bito (B.Y. HO) vs Io Shirai & HZK (Queen’s Quest)
You know when you watch a wrestler in the ring and they just have an aura. Even down to how they get in to the ring and wait for the other team. Shirai has that. And she's got it in buckets. She's got this bad ass Tiger mask and a ric flair-esque robe.
This match was excellent. I didn't end up writing too much about it as I was just watching and taking it in. Couple of things stood out though. Shirai got out of a Boston crab by completely folding her body over and then slapping Hojo in the face for her trouble. Shirai has a nasty looking offense. Her kicks are really brutal. She does a beautiful dead lift suplex, which she really shouldn't be able to do with the ease that she does.
Hojo wins with one of the most gorgeous Elbow Drops I've seen. It's a thing of beauty, she puts her whole body into it and just launches herself onto HZK, with her legs almost vertically in the air. [Good to]
~Kay Lee Ray & Nixon Newell challenged Hojo & Bito to a match for the Goddess of Stardom Championship on the January 15 show at Korakuen Hall
~Viper challenged Io Shirai to a match for the World of Stardom Championship on the January 15 show. Shirai accepted.
~Viper will replace Hana Kimura in the Oedo Tai trio defending the Artist of Stardom Championship on January 7.
Really good show. Definitely recommend the main event and for curiosity the opener and Watanabes match.
- Azumi vs Ruaka
Um, Ruaka is 12 years old and Azumi is 14. The pair of them shouldn't be able to put together a coherent match, but they do. Azumi looks the more accomplished, but that's not a criticism of Ruaka. There are some nice moves in this match such as when Azumi had Ruaka outside on the apron and jumps over the top rope to stomp her. Ruaka has some nice looking kicks. The end of the match comes when Azumi wins with a bridging pin. They work a face/heel dynamic, and Azumi cuts a promo after the match (which is subtitled on Stardoms). I'm just amazed at how young both of these two are. [OK]
- Hiromi Mimura, Saori Anou & Arisu Nanase vs Kaori Yoneyama, Konami & Natsuko Tora
Typical lower card tag match. Some of the personalities do start to come through but at only 7 minutes it's hard to be too judgemental. Mimura wins with a La Magistral on Tora
- Momo Watanabe vs Kagetsu
Before the match Kagetsu does a promo where she complains that people keep asking her questions before a match as she's not even bothered who she's fighting. Watanabe says its her first singles match in a while so she's got lots of aggression, she then just gets up and walks out. Kagetsu comes to the ring first with one of the worst sung theme tunes ever.
Holy crap, Watanabe is just 16 years old and looks like she's ready to kill Kagetsu.
Kagetsu finds herself on the outside and instead of having Watanabe dive out, Kagetsu hides behind the audience, which is different. They both end up brawling outside and Watanabe takes a nasty bump into a load of chairs and for her troubles, gets strangled with a brush. To punish Kagetsu, the ref deliberately doesn't count a pin attempt because he's taking his time removing the brush from the ring. Watanabe gets some offense in, which consists of kicking Kagetsu in the chest, and some nasty looking drop kicks. There's a lot of back and forth as time expires for a draw as kageta was attempting a pin.
Really good match. I might be biased because I was just amazed at Watanabe being only 16. [Good]
- Kay Lee Ray & Nixon Newell vs Viper & Kris Wolf
Wolf is massively over with the crowd, who start howling for her. Viper is awesome as a big monster, Aja Kong style. Pretty cool seeing Kay Lee Ray in Stardoms after seeing her call the crowd a bunch of cunts in her Scottish accent last year in Liverpool. Starts with wolf getting ganged up until Viper gets bought in to the match, where it descends into a comedy fest.
Lots of moves from Wolf from on top of viper or being thrown around by her. Viper ends up splashing onto Wolf and in the most Scottish accent goes 'a'hm soory'. Kay Lee Ray gets the win with a Swanton Bomb on Wolf for an OK match [OK]
- Mayu Iwatani, Jungle Kyona & Shayna Baszler vs Kyoko Kimura, Sumie Sakai & Kagetsu (Oedo Tai)
Kimura is retiring soon so she's doing the rounds. She's famous for her afro (amongst other things) but she's also hard as nails after being trained in the BJW dojo. I remember seeing her doing death matches in BJW with Kobashi and Kasai etc.
Good match, with a lot of focus on Kimura, understandably. Iwatani is this tall, skinny girl but she moves quickly and has a belt called the High Speed Championship. She's been the champ for over 450+ days. Mayu gets the pin with a top rope Frankensteiner on Kagetsu who is pulling double duty. Watanabe comes back out to challenge Mayu for her title. Really good match and looking forward to the singles match at the 6th anniversary show. [good]
- Kairi Hojo 5th Anniversary Special Tag Match: Kairi Hojo & Yoko Bito (B.Y. HO) vs Io Shirai & HZK (Queen’s Quest)
You know when you watch a wrestler in the ring and they just have an aura. Even down to how they get in to the ring and wait for the other team. Shirai has that. And she's got it in buckets. She's got this bad ass Tiger mask and a ric flair-esque robe.
This match was excellent. I didn't end up writing too much about it as I was just watching and taking it in. Couple of things stood out though. Shirai got out of a Boston crab by completely folding her body over and then slapping Hojo in the face for her trouble. Shirai has a nasty looking offense. Her kicks are really brutal. She does a beautiful dead lift suplex, which she really shouldn't be able to do with the ease that she does.
Hojo wins with one of the most gorgeous Elbow Drops I've seen. It's a thing of beauty, she puts her whole body into it and just launches herself onto HZK, with her legs almost vertically in the air. [Good to]
~Kay Lee Ray & Nixon Newell challenged Hojo & Bito to a match for the Goddess of Stardom Championship on the January 15 show at Korakuen Hall
~Viper challenged Io Shirai to a match for the World of Stardom Championship on the January 15 show. Shirai accepted.
~Viper will replace Hana Kimura in the Oedo Tai trio defending the Artist of Stardom Championship on January 7.
Really good show. Definitely recommend the main event and for curiosity the opener and Watanabes match.
Monday, 13 February 2017
Pro-Wrestling BASARA, 01/06/17 @ Shinkiba 1stRING, Tokyo
Basara is booked by the awesome Isami Kodaka, underneath the DDT umbrella. With knowing his background in BJW, I did expect this to be full of deathmatches (or at least one) along the lines of FREEDOMS but looking at the card, I've no idea who or what is coming up or what separates it from DDT.
- Madoka & Yusuke Kubo vs. Shinya Ishida & Fuminori Abe (both Sportiva)
Kubo comes to the ring with a proper guitar (not a shitty double J version) and Madoka has a Maiden shirt on so by default, they're my favourites. For one spot, Kubo ties up Abe in a hold where they roll him over with his arms tucked in so he can't escape (think Gallagher and Tozawa) and then the pair of them drop kick him in the head, which was pretty cool.
This had some really nice exchanges without descending too much into a spot fest. I was mostly impressed with Madoka, and he looks like a lanky version of Sanada. Kubo gets the win with the Hakata Ipponshime (looked like a crossface style hold) on Abe.
- Gyakuten Pro-Wrestling Saiban: Goma Ryu vs. Atsushi Matuyama (FREE) vs. Koji Iwamoto (AJPW)
This is set up like a court with the ref being the judge. I've no idea what the charges are, who the defender is but there's a lot of talking/shouting before the match starts. Ends with the announcer being pinned. No idea. [Meh]
- Ryuichi Sekine & Ryota Nakatsu vs. Takumi Tsukamoto & Hi69 (FREE)
Tsukamoto has a massive hammer/mace thing and Sekine has a hobby horse. Hi69 still looks like CIMAs scummier uncle. I'd describe this as a steady match. Nothing crazy happened but it ticked over. Started to drag towards the end and could have easily shaved off about 5 minutes. Tsukamoto gets the pin after a Tiger Suplex Hold on Sekine.
- USA-Japan New Year Battle ~ New Year! Trans Am: Trans Am ★ Hiroshi, Trans Am ★ Ryuichi & SAGAT vs. Daichi Kazato, Masamune & Tatsuhiko Yoshino
My boy Yoshino is here. He's got his selfie stick while Masamune has a blow up gym ball. The other guy on their team has a samurai sword and isn't impressed with their antics. The Trans Am team come out to the star spangled banner and are all wearing lovely USA themed outfits, except SAGAT who has a massive axe. Seriously, it's Final Fantasy size huge. Ryuichi is Kawakami from BJW.
This match fits with the ddt world. There's simulated buggery, a gym ball used in a move, nipple tweaks, bad dancing in the ring, someone gets their hair gelled etc Kawakami does a rope walk, but instead of on the top rope he does it on the apron, and teases falling off. Hiroshi hits a Perfect Plex on Kazato for the win. This was OK, but a 16 minute slow comedy match was pretty rough. [OK]
- Union MAX Championship Match: Isami Kodaka vs. FUMA
FUMA works the arm for the start of the match until Kodaka makes his comeback. FUMA starts kicking Kodaka in the chest and Kodaka does the quickest dragon screw I've ever seen, its amazing in its delivery. After that Kodaka then starts working over FUMAs leg.
This match is OK. I think that is the best I can say about it. FUMA is a rocker and in a stable with Madoka & Yusuke Kubo. I spent most of the match looking at Kodakas scars which seem to be opening and bleeding more and more throughout the match (and in the post match interview).
Match goes quite long at nearly 20 minutes when FUMA wins following the Jawbreaker. Pretty disappointed with this [OK]
~ Isami falls on his 1st title defense. FUMA becomes the 7th generation champion.
~ FUMA and his group “IRON PRIEST”, Kubo and Madoka, celebrated the win.
~ Isami called out for an inevitable rematch against the new champion.
Not a brilliant show and I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it. Even Yoshino couldn't rescue it.
- Madoka & Yusuke Kubo vs. Shinya Ishida & Fuminori Abe (both Sportiva)
Kubo comes to the ring with a proper guitar (not a shitty double J version) and Madoka has a Maiden shirt on so by default, they're my favourites. For one spot, Kubo ties up Abe in a hold where they roll him over with his arms tucked in so he can't escape (think Gallagher and Tozawa) and then the pair of them drop kick him in the head, which was pretty cool.
This had some really nice exchanges without descending too much into a spot fest. I was mostly impressed with Madoka, and he looks like a lanky version of Sanada. Kubo gets the win with the Hakata Ipponshime (looked like a crossface style hold) on Abe.
- Gyakuten Pro-Wrestling Saiban: Goma Ryu vs. Atsushi Matuyama (FREE) vs. Koji Iwamoto (AJPW)
This is set up like a court with the ref being the judge. I've no idea what the charges are, who the defender is but there's a lot of talking/shouting before the match starts. Ends with the announcer being pinned. No idea. [Meh]
- Ryuichi Sekine & Ryota Nakatsu vs. Takumi Tsukamoto & Hi69 (FREE)
Tsukamoto has a massive hammer/mace thing and Sekine has a hobby horse. Hi69 still looks like CIMAs scummier uncle. I'd describe this as a steady match. Nothing crazy happened but it ticked over. Started to drag towards the end and could have easily shaved off about 5 minutes. Tsukamoto gets the pin after a Tiger Suplex Hold on Sekine.
- USA-Japan New Year Battle ~ New Year! Trans Am: Trans Am ★ Hiroshi, Trans Am ★ Ryuichi & SAGAT vs. Daichi Kazato, Masamune & Tatsuhiko Yoshino
My boy Yoshino is here. He's got his selfie stick while Masamune has a blow up gym ball. The other guy on their team has a samurai sword and isn't impressed with their antics. The Trans Am team come out to the star spangled banner and are all wearing lovely USA themed outfits, except SAGAT who has a massive axe. Seriously, it's Final Fantasy size huge. Ryuichi is Kawakami from BJW.
This match fits with the ddt world. There's simulated buggery, a gym ball used in a move, nipple tweaks, bad dancing in the ring, someone gets their hair gelled etc Kawakami does a rope walk, but instead of on the top rope he does it on the apron, and teases falling off. Hiroshi hits a Perfect Plex on Kazato for the win. This was OK, but a 16 minute slow comedy match was pretty rough. [OK]
- Union MAX Championship Match: Isami Kodaka vs. FUMA
FUMA works the arm for the start of the match until Kodaka makes his comeback. FUMA starts kicking Kodaka in the chest and Kodaka does the quickest dragon screw I've ever seen, its amazing in its delivery. After that Kodaka then starts working over FUMAs leg.
This match is OK. I think that is the best I can say about it. FUMA is a rocker and in a stable with Madoka & Yusuke Kubo. I spent most of the match looking at Kodakas scars which seem to be opening and bleeding more and more throughout the match (and in the post match interview).
Match goes quite long at nearly 20 minutes when FUMA wins following the Jawbreaker. Pretty disappointed with this [OK]
~ Isami falls on his 1st title defense. FUMA becomes the 7th generation champion.
~ FUMA and his group “IRON PRIEST”, Kubo and Madoka, celebrated the win.
~ Isami called out for an inevitable rematch against the new champion.
Not a brilliant show and I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it. Even Yoshino couldn't rescue it.
Sunday, 12 February 2017
DDT “Shinshun Otoshidama Special!”, 01/03/17 @ Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
Holy crap does DDT look like it's doing well, the place is packed. Considering it was this obscure, mental indie promotion, it looks healthier than AJPW, which I don't know how to process, and its been going for 20 years. Starts with the obligatory new year tradition of everyone in the ring. Kasai gives a speech and I quote "happy fucking new year"
- King of Dark Championship 8 Man Tag Match: [18th Champion] Nobuhiro Shimatani, Hoshitango, Tomomitsu Matsunaga & Dai Suzuki vs. Kouki Iwasaki, Mizuki Watase, Rekka & Daiki Shimomura
We don't see this match, as the winner (loser) has to defend the belt before the show is filmed. Iwasaki wins with the Boston Crab on Shimatani.
- 3 Way Tag Match: Makoto Oishi, Shunma Katsumata & MAO vs. Sanshiro Takagi, Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata vs. Soma Takao, Gorgeous Matsuno & Cherry
Before the match, some old guy and a lady in traditional Japanese gear start to sing bad karaoke throughout the match. Quick match with Oishi winning with the Jikiden! Tornado Clutch on Hirata. Hirata seems to have a magic palm as he hits people in the neck and they go down like a sack of spuds. [DDT]
- Joey Ryan & Laura James vs. Gota Ihashi & Saki Akai
Ihashi spends most of the match trying to kiss Akai who is having none of it. Laura puts oil on joey's back and on her chest. She slides over his back to headbutt Ihashi in the balls... Match involves a lot of powerful private parts and ends when Joey superkicks Ihashi [DDT]
- Danshoku Dino & Keisuke Ishii vs Shigehiro Irie & Yasu Urano
Actually some good wrestling in this. Nice spot where there was a drop kick which drops them down to their knees followed by a quick ddt. This was followed up with simulated buggery. Irie spends the last few minutes of the match with his nose in Dinos exposed bum hole. Really. [OK]
- KUDO, Yukio Sakaguchi & Masahiro Takanashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama, Dick Togo & Guanchulo
Takayama and Dick fucking Togo - whu? An actual match! KUDO gets the win following a Diving Double Knee Drop on Guanchulo. [OK]
- DDT EXTREME Championship ~ Fluorescent Light-tube IPPON Death Match: Jun Kasai vs. Akito
Kasai is massively over here and is having his name chanted before he even appears. Being DDT, the light tube death match is literally one light tube
to win you have to have your opponent smash that solitary lighttube. They tease being pushed into it for a while. Kasai teases how nervous he is of being put through it. Akito ends up running into it, but because there's only one it doesn't break and they both look at it in amazement.
Kasai introduces another lighttube! Akito throws him into it, but doesn't win because it's not the real lighttube Kasai wins following a Reverse Tiger Driver onto the fluorescent light. This was a really fun match and they worked the single lighttube spots well. [Good]
- Daisuke Sasaki vs. Candace LeRae
Sasaki comes to the ring with a bunch of flowers, he doesn't want anything to do with this match. He gets down on one knee to present them to Candace. He's even wrote her a love letter. Sasaki doesn't want to do any offensive moves at all and regrets every punch and kick. The crowd boo him for it and he agrees with them! Until he snaps where he starts to choke her with his jacket. Candace does a cool suicide dive into a ddt followed by a footstomp from the top rope.
Ends where sasaki goes to do a superkick but doesn't want to actually go through with it so he stops, Candace then gives him the middle finger, so he shrugs, boots her in the head and then does the Vietnam Driver II for the win. After the match he asks Candace to marry him. Which she turns down, bit of back and forth and it ends with Candace suplexing him by his dick. [OK]
- Konsuke Takeshita, Antonio Honda & Kazusada Higuchi vs. Shuji IShikawa, Tetsuya Endo & Mad Pauley
This match starts in progress, which was a little surprising. I was really getting into this when halfway through Honda gets on the microphone and starts having a little chat with everyone. No idea what was said but it must have been funny because they all start corpsing in the ring.
Impressed with Endo, who is definitely in the Ibushi mould. He hits a beautiful brainbuster and gets the win with a Sky Twister Press on Honda. After the bell Hondas team have a falling out and start pushing each other around. [OK]
- KO-D Openweight Championship Match: HARASHIMA vs. Mike Bailey
They hype the match up with a really good montage, whoever they've got doing the videos are doing a better job than the most of the other promotions. They reference El Generico and Kenny Omega being past champs. Speed ball Mike Baileys gimmick is that he looks like an mma guy and has a load of quick and flashy kicks.
The start of this match wouldn't look out of place in battlearts or Pancrase. Because he uses his kicks so well Harashima concentrates on working his leg, he gets in some nasty, nasty looking leg stomps. Bailey does OK selling the leg, winces in pain after kicking Harashima for example but then he forgets and at one point and runs to do a running corkscrew moonsault.
I didn't know what to expect from a DDT main event but this was really good. Lots of nice looking kicks and a logical story throughout. Harashima wouldn't look out of place in NOAH. Harashima wins with the Somato (looks like a shining wizard variation) [excellent]
- King of Dark Championship 8 Man Tag Match: [18th Champion] Nobuhiro Shimatani, Hoshitango, Tomomitsu Matsunaga & Dai Suzuki vs. Kouki Iwasaki, Mizuki Watase, Rekka & Daiki Shimomura
We don't see this match, as the winner (loser) has to defend the belt before the show is filmed. Iwasaki wins with the Boston Crab on Shimatani.
- 3 Way Tag Match: Makoto Oishi, Shunma Katsumata & MAO vs. Sanshiro Takagi, Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata vs. Soma Takao, Gorgeous Matsuno & Cherry
Before the match, some old guy and a lady in traditional Japanese gear start to sing bad karaoke throughout the match. Quick match with Oishi winning with the Jikiden! Tornado Clutch on Hirata. Hirata seems to have a magic palm as he hits people in the neck and they go down like a sack of spuds. [DDT]
- Joey Ryan & Laura James vs. Gota Ihashi & Saki Akai
Ihashi spends most of the match trying to kiss Akai who is having none of it. Laura puts oil on joey's back and on her chest. She slides over his back to headbutt Ihashi in the balls... Match involves a lot of powerful private parts and ends when Joey superkicks Ihashi [DDT]
- Danshoku Dino & Keisuke Ishii vs Shigehiro Irie & Yasu Urano
Actually some good wrestling in this. Nice spot where there was a drop kick which drops them down to their knees followed by a quick ddt. This was followed up with simulated buggery. Irie spends the last few minutes of the match with his nose in Dinos exposed bum hole. Really. [OK]
- KUDO, Yukio Sakaguchi & Masahiro Takanashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama, Dick Togo & Guanchulo
Takayama and Dick fucking Togo - whu? An actual match! KUDO gets the win following a Diving Double Knee Drop on Guanchulo. [OK]
- DDT EXTREME Championship ~ Fluorescent Light-tube IPPON Death Match: Jun Kasai vs. Akito
Kasai is massively over here and is having his name chanted before he even appears. Being DDT, the light tube death match is literally one light tube
to win you have to have your opponent smash that solitary lighttube. They tease being pushed into it for a while. Kasai teases how nervous he is of being put through it. Akito ends up running into it, but because there's only one it doesn't break and they both look at it in amazement.Kasai introduces another lighttube! Akito throws him into it, but doesn't win because it's not the real lighttube Kasai wins following a Reverse Tiger Driver onto the fluorescent light. This was a really fun match and they worked the single lighttube spots well. [Good]
- Daisuke Sasaki vs. Candace LeRae
Sasaki comes to the ring with a bunch of flowers, he doesn't want anything to do with this match. He gets down on one knee to present them to Candace. He's even wrote her a love letter. Sasaki doesn't want to do any offensive moves at all and regrets every punch and kick. The crowd boo him for it and he agrees with them! Until he snaps where he starts to choke her with his jacket. Candace does a cool suicide dive into a ddt followed by a footstomp from the top rope.
Ends where sasaki goes to do a superkick but doesn't want to actually go through with it so he stops, Candace then gives him the middle finger, so he shrugs, boots her in the head and then does the Vietnam Driver II for the win. After the match he asks Candace to marry him. Which she turns down, bit of back and forth and it ends with Candace suplexing him by his dick. [OK]
- Konsuke Takeshita, Antonio Honda & Kazusada Higuchi vs. Shuji IShikawa, Tetsuya Endo & Mad Pauley
This match starts in progress, which was a little surprising. I was really getting into this when halfway through Honda gets on the microphone and starts having a little chat with everyone. No idea what was said but it must have been funny because they all start corpsing in the ring.
Impressed with Endo, who is definitely in the Ibushi mould. He hits a beautiful brainbuster and gets the win with a Sky Twister Press on Honda. After the bell Hondas team have a falling out and start pushing each other around. [OK]
- KO-D Openweight Championship Match: HARASHIMA vs. Mike Bailey
They hype the match up with a really good montage, whoever they've got doing the videos are doing a better job than the most of the other promotions. They reference El Generico and Kenny Omega being past champs. Speed ball Mike Baileys gimmick is that he looks like an mma guy and has a load of quick and flashy kicks.
The start of this match wouldn't look out of place in battlearts or Pancrase. Because he uses his kicks so well Harashima concentrates on working his leg, he gets in some nasty, nasty looking leg stomps. Bailey does OK selling the leg, winces in pain after kicking Harashima for example but then he forgets and at one point and runs to do a running corkscrew moonsault.
I didn't know what to expect from a DDT main event but this was really good. Lots of nice looking kicks and a logical story throughout. Harashima wouldn't look out of place in NOAH. Harashima wins with the Somato (looks like a shining wizard variation) [excellent]
All Japan Pro-Wrestling “2017 New Year Wars”, 01/03/17 @ Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
- Naoya Nomura vs. Takuya Nomura (BJW)
Takuya is a BJW rookie but there's something special about him. Although he's young and fresh faced he looks at ease in the ring and his offence really looks like it hurts. There was a section where he gets Naoya in an arm bar and the crowd go absolutely nuts as if he was going to tap, and all the more interesting with him being the company outsider.
He slaps Naoya and then just boots him in the head. The follow up pin attempt had the crowd cheering in anticipation. Naoya wins with a not very convincing spear. This was a really good match for just being shy over 8 minutes and essentially a rookie opener [Good]
~ Naoya claims a revenge win following the losses last year.
- Masanobu Fuchi, Yohei Nakajima & SUSHI vs. Osamu Nishimura (FREE), Ultimo Dragon (Toryumon MEXICO) & Koji Iwamoto
Sushi gets his own entrance just so he can do his little dance. I've no idea how or why he's popular. Yohei gets the win following the Tobiushiro-Mawashigeri on Iwamoto. I didn't actually write anything down for this match because pretty much nothing happened [meh]
- Jun Akiyama & Kendo Kashin (FREE) vs. Isami Kodaka (BASARA) & Kazuhiro Tamura (HEAT-UP)
Kodaka is teaming with Tamura from Heat Up which is a really small indy. He is the guy who has a bobble in his hair and is very protective of it. Kashin fought in Pride 15 and beat Ryan Gracie. Akyiama is a boss. Kodaka has strapping all along his back which Akyiama and Kashin take great delight in ripping off.
End stretch was Tamura widening the ropes so Kodaka can safely do a suicide dive, he misses Kashin and wipes out Sushi, which the crowd love. In the confusion akyiama does a running knee on Tamura and Kashin gets the pin. OK match with not much to it.
~ Ultimo Dragon came out and offered Akiyama to join him in Mexico for his 30th anniversary as a pro-wrestler in May. Still seems to run as a part time promotion in Mexico (every couple of months).
- Atsushi Aoki, Super Tiger (RJPW) & Hikaru Sato (Pancrase MISSION) vs. Shuji Ishikawa (FREE), Ryoji Sai (LAND’S END) & Minoru Tanaka (FREE)
Super Tiger looks like the original Tiger Mask and since he fights under the RJPW name (TM promotion, which doesn't make tape annoyingly). He even does shoot kicks like him. Sato is from Pancrase which do a mixture of shoot fights and worked shoot fights. It's a hard style to pull off well but I was always a massive fan of Battlearts and UWF-I. He has the pads over his feet so he can kick you hard. What makes it hard to take him seriously though is he has this floppy fringe thing going on. So after he kicks he, quite effeminately, has to swoosh it out of his eyes.
From this six man tag, there was only one guy was full time with All Japan which makes it hard to guess who will get or eat the pin. Ends when Ishikawa lands the Splash Mountain (like a razers edge into a powerbomb) on Hikaru. OK match, nice ending between Ishikawa and Hikaru but mostly nothing happened [OK]
~ Aoki and Minoru had a stare-down following the match, though that was then lead by the announcement of this years junior singles league.
The participants for this years “Jr. BATTLE OF GLORY” were announced.
A BLOCK
Atsushi Aoki
Koji Iwamoto
Keisuke Ishii (DDT)
Masashi Takeda (U-FILE)
Minoru Tanaka (FREE)
B BLOCK
Hikaru Sato
Yohei Nakajima
Yuma Aoyagi
Atsushi Maruyama (FREE)
Kazuhiro Tamura (HEAT-UP)
~ This year league is set to begin on February 17 at Korakuen and will run, a total of 6 events from start to finish, until February 26 in Osaka. The announced matches have been added to the monthly event cards.
- World Junior Heavyweight Championship Match: Keisuke Ishii (DDT) vs. Yuma Aoyagi
I do think it's strange that you'd have a non company guy hold one of your belts. Keisuke worked the neck of Yuma throughout this match. Including a nasty neck drop onto the apron of the ring, followed by another neck drop onto a guardrail. Keisuke wins following the High Angle Double Arm DDT. OK match, just never got fully going and felt like it would was missing something. Keisuke has a wicked running knee though. [OK]
~ 1st successful title defense.
- Kento Miyahara & Jake Lee vs. Suwama & Joe Doering
Doering still looks ace as a young stan hansen. He has fur coat and boots and looks like a crazy bear. He's so imposing in the ring. There is this one spot where he lariats Kento whilst on the apron, and then just casually saunters back to his corner. The match built around Doering and Kento finally being one on one. When it got to it, it ended pretty quickly when Kento hit the Blackout (knee to the face) to Doering. Was an OK match, but I'm more looking forward to a singles match between Doering an Kento. [Good]
~ Miyahara with a strong win over the returning Joe. Though Joe did not take the loss withstanding as he rushed after the newest debuting rookie Yusuke Okada with a heavy lariat after the match.
He stiffed the fuck out of that ring boy, it's ridiculous and it plays more in to him looking like a modern day grumpy Stan Hansen.
- World Tag Championship Match: “Big Guns” Zeus & The Bodyguard vs. “GET WILD” Takao Omori & Manabu Soya
Bodyguard looks like a smaller Japanese version of Big Poppa Pump, complete with crap tattoos. I wasn't a fan of this match. They aren't big enough to be true hosses but they also aren't quick enough to have an interesting match. I zoned out towards the end as it really started to drag. Bodyguard and Zeus retain the belts when Bodyguard hits the Bounce (Lifting Avalanche Hold Slam) on Omori.
~ Big Guns with the successful defense.
~ Zeus and Omori ended the show in celebration with the fans in attendance. In the process ending the challengers recent dominate win streak stemming from last months tag league.
~ Bodyguard hinted that he wants to challenge for the Triple Crown this year
Takuya is a BJW rookie but there's something special about him. Although he's young and fresh faced he looks at ease in the ring and his offence really looks like it hurts. There was a section where he gets Naoya in an arm bar and the crowd go absolutely nuts as if he was going to tap, and all the more interesting with him being the company outsider.
He slaps Naoya and then just boots him in the head. The follow up pin attempt had the crowd cheering in anticipation. Naoya wins with a not very convincing spear. This was a really good match for just being shy over 8 minutes and essentially a rookie opener [Good]
~ Naoya claims a revenge win following the losses last year.
- Masanobu Fuchi, Yohei Nakajima & SUSHI vs. Osamu Nishimura (FREE), Ultimo Dragon (Toryumon MEXICO) & Koji Iwamoto
Sushi gets his own entrance just so he can do his little dance. I've no idea how or why he's popular. Yohei gets the win following the Tobiushiro-Mawashigeri on Iwamoto. I didn't actually write anything down for this match because pretty much nothing happened [meh]
- Jun Akiyama & Kendo Kashin (FREE) vs. Isami Kodaka (BASARA) & Kazuhiro Tamura (HEAT-UP)
Kodaka is teaming with Tamura from Heat Up which is a really small indy. He is the guy who has a bobble in his hair and is very protective of it. Kashin fought in Pride 15 and beat Ryan Gracie. Akyiama is a boss. Kodaka has strapping all along his back which Akyiama and Kashin take great delight in ripping off.
End stretch was Tamura widening the ropes so Kodaka can safely do a suicide dive, he misses Kashin and wipes out Sushi, which the crowd love. In the confusion akyiama does a running knee on Tamura and Kashin gets the pin. OK match with not much to it.
~ Ultimo Dragon came out and offered Akiyama to join him in Mexico for his 30th anniversary as a pro-wrestler in May. Still seems to run as a part time promotion in Mexico (every couple of months).
- Atsushi Aoki, Super Tiger (RJPW) & Hikaru Sato (Pancrase MISSION) vs. Shuji Ishikawa (FREE), Ryoji Sai (LAND’S END) & Minoru Tanaka (FREE)
Super Tiger looks like the original Tiger Mask and since he fights under the RJPW name (TM promotion, which doesn't make tape annoyingly). He even does shoot kicks like him. Sato is from Pancrase which do a mixture of shoot fights and worked shoot fights. It's a hard style to pull off well but I was always a massive fan of Battlearts and UWF-I. He has the pads over his feet so he can kick you hard. What makes it hard to take him seriously though is he has this floppy fringe thing going on. So after he kicks he, quite effeminately, has to swoosh it out of his eyes.
From this six man tag, there was only one guy was full time with All Japan which makes it hard to guess who will get or eat the pin. Ends when Ishikawa lands the Splash Mountain (like a razers edge into a powerbomb) on Hikaru. OK match, nice ending between Ishikawa and Hikaru but mostly nothing happened [OK]
~ Aoki and Minoru had a stare-down following the match, though that was then lead by the announcement of this years junior singles league.
The participants for this years “Jr. BATTLE OF GLORY” were announced.
A BLOCK
Atsushi Aoki
Koji Iwamoto
Keisuke Ishii (DDT)
Masashi Takeda (U-FILE)
Minoru Tanaka (FREE)
B BLOCK
Hikaru Sato
Yohei Nakajima
Yuma Aoyagi
Atsushi Maruyama (FREE)
Kazuhiro Tamura (HEAT-UP)
~ This year league is set to begin on February 17 at Korakuen and will run, a total of 6 events from start to finish, until February 26 in Osaka. The announced matches have been added to the monthly event cards.
- World Junior Heavyweight Championship Match: Keisuke Ishii (DDT) vs. Yuma Aoyagi
I do think it's strange that you'd have a non company guy hold one of your belts. Keisuke worked the neck of Yuma throughout this match. Including a nasty neck drop onto the apron of the ring, followed by another neck drop onto a guardrail. Keisuke wins following the High Angle Double Arm DDT. OK match, just never got fully going and felt like it would was missing something. Keisuke has a wicked running knee though. [OK]
~ 1st successful title defense.
- Kento Miyahara & Jake Lee vs. Suwama & Joe Doering
Doering still looks ace as a young stan hansen. He has fur coat and boots and looks like a crazy bear. He's so imposing in the ring. There is this one spot where he lariats Kento whilst on the apron, and then just casually saunters back to his corner. The match built around Doering and Kento finally being one on one. When it got to it, it ended pretty quickly when Kento hit the Blackout (knee to the face) to Doering. Was an OK match, but I'm more looking forward to a singles match between Doering an Kento. [Good]
~ Miyahara with a strong win over the returning Joe. Though Joe did not take the loss withstanding as he rushed after the newest debuting rookie Yusuke Okada with a heavy lariat after the match.
He stiffed the fuck out of that ring boy, it's ridiculous and it plays more in to him looking like a modern day grumpy Stan Hansen.
- World Tag Championship Match: “Big Guns” Zeus & The Bodyguard vs. “GET WILD” Takao Omori & Manabu Soya
Bodyguard looks like a smaller Japanese version of Big Poppa Pump, complete with crap tattoos. I wasn't a fan of this match. They aren't big enough to be true hosses but they also aren't quick enough to have an interesting match. I zoned out towards the end as it really started to drag. Bodyguard and Zeus retain the belts when Bodyguard hits the Bounce (Lifting Avalanche Hold Slam) on Omori.
~ Big Guns with the successful defense.
~ Zeus and Omori ended the show in celebration with the fans in attendance. In the process ending the challengers recent dominate win streak stemming from last months tag league.
~ Bodyguard hinted that he wants to challenge for the Triple Crown this year
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