Last chapter, we saw the crowning of Fujita "Jr." Hayato as the new Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Champion in an astounding match. This time, Michinoku Pro celebrates the hometown hero and Hayato's mentor, Jinsei Shinzaki, in a tag match featuring the legendary Masahiro Chono. Will this event live up to the bar that the last one set? Probably not, but let's see if it will anyways!
Shinjitsu Nohashi vs. Rui Hiugaji
This was honestly a really good opener, and a great example of both guy's work at this point. Hiugaji has a real mean spirit in his strikes and grappling, and Nohashi is extremely solid as a Michi-style junior. For the first 8 minutes, they work a really simple and solid match, but Hiugaji lands his beautiful elbow drop and soon after Nohashi does a nasty spike rana into his sweet triple jump dropkick. They do some great stuff for 3 more minutes, before Nohashi is able to win with a crucifix driver. It was originally just a solid match, but that last section was absolutely great, both guys got to showcase not only what they're good at but also really made me excited to see how they progress in their career through this project. B-
Rei & Toudai Rahman vs. Ken45 & Shibaten
Ken doesn't look like he’s happy to be part of this weird fucking collection. Shibaten goes through the crowd scaring small children like a duck/turtle/Chuck Taylor hybrid. Everyone in the ring is terrified of Shibaten, Rahman and Kei literally fight over who has to start the match with him. Rahman has some of the shittiest gear ever but he’s pretty solid. Ken is able to cheat because Shibaten is so gross and creepy that the ref is distracted trying to stay away from him. Not only is Shibaten great in character, but wrestling wise he’s probably the best besides Ken, easily making him the star of this match. Ken’s pop-up balls kick into a lariat is such a great combo. Kei had a pretty great knee, but right after that got a 2 count he hit a good springboard dropkick to win. The dropkick was good, but that knee was so much more impressive that it felt like the match ended on the wrong move. This is the last time we will see Rei and Shibaten, and not having that creepy fuck around will be kinda sad, as this match convinced me that Shibaten was a good gimmick (okay, not the match, I just wish I could've seen him make more children cry). It wasn't something I'd say to seek out, but as a midcard match it serves its purpose well. C+
Kesen Numajiro vs. Flying Kid Ichihara
Calling Ichihara, who looks every bit of 40, a “flying kid” is pretty funny. Ichihara gets a clap for himself going at the start, so Numajiro leaves the ring, walks all the way to the entrance area, and gets the crowd to clap for him as he walks back. King shit. I joked about his age but Ichihara is more agile at 40 than I am at 18 so props to him. Numajiro has a seemingly endless amount of ass-throwing offense, including a good hip attack off the apron. After this though, the match slows down hard and I honestly considered quitting because of how boring it got. They go back into some more active stuff and this is when I truly realize the only thing Ichihara has going for him is that he’s kinda agile. He’s so generic and boring to watch especially compared to the charismatic Numajiro. He especially doesn’t fit in Michinoku pro since, as a lucharesu promotion, a majority of the roster is better than him at the one thing he's good at. Numajiro hits a great slingshot leg drop and then a good muscle buster but Ichihara gets his foot on the ropes. Numajiro, out of pure malice, slaps Ichiharas thigh for revenge. As I said, king shit. Ichihara gets the advantage and does a pretty good moonsault, and when Numajiro goes for another muscle buster, Ichihara reverses into a small package for the win. There is no justice in this world. Kesen dragged an enjoyable match out of Ichihara, but imagining him against anyone with less charisma than Kesen sends shivers down my spine. C
Rasse, Yoshitsune, & Dick Togo vs. Kowloon (Maguro Ooma & The Sato Brothers)
In the prematch promo, one of the Sato brothers is wearing a great shirt that has a pic of a zombie and the text “we are going to eat you”. If someone can find this for sale please let me know. The match starts out with some quick exchanges which Togo and Ooma do the best, their sequence felt right out of 90s Michi, and that's more proof that Dick Togo is absolutely timeless, able to bust out sequences like this for over 10 years. The Sato brothers are amazing as always, doing their great crowd brawling and being general assholes. Dick Togo gets thrown into a ring post and he’s fucking pouring blood. This starts an amazing selling performance by Togo, including one of the Satos taking out a metal spike and jabbing Togo in the head. Togo needs to teach a masterclass on selling because he’s an absolute god at the drunken stumble sell. Togo starts to make a comeback with his great punches, but the Satos and Ooma won't lose control that easily. They're just bullying whoever is in the ring until the face team takes advantage and hits a great combination, with Togo hitting a spinebuster, Rasse hitting a springboard swanton, and Yoshitsune hitting a running SSP. Togo goes to ascend for the senton but sees a Sato nearby and does a cannonball off the apron onto him instead. Kowloon takes advantage later on and shows how great they are at working together, at one point busting out a sweet sit-out shield triple powerbomb. There's a little bit more of back-and-forth left, but eventually Yoshitsune takes advantage for his team and hits a shooting star press for the win. I didn't mention it last chapter, but Yoshitsune's SSP might be the most beautiful in history. This could’ve easily been just another good Michinoku trios match, but Togo’s bloody selling and fiery comeback took this to the next level. I’d consider it at the same level as the one from the last show, as while that match was a really high quality version of the usual Michinoku trios match, this one was different from those with a great story running throughout. B+
Kowloon (Fujita "Jr." Hayato & Takeshi Minamino) vs. Jinsei Shinzaki & Masahiro Chono
Jinsei had a really cool entrance as usual but then Chono came out and I remembered how fucking baller he is, his theme has to be in consideration for the greatest of all time. Chono starts protesting about Kowloon being there and Minamino calls them to all get up around the ring, but Hayato signals for them to back down and not get involved, he doesn’t need his posse to back him up against these old fuckers. Shinzaki and Hayato start out with some solid grappling until Hayato slaps him, at which point Shinzaki grips him by the throat, chucks him out the ring, and just starts fucking mauling him around the ring. Chono comes in and it’s clear who the crowd is most excited to see. I’ve heard a lot about how apparently Chono got shitty with age, but honestly he seemed fine here, he did a lot of old man bumping but since he's an old man it doesn't trouble me much. Chono and Minamino are definitely approaching this match as a fun spot show main event, but when Shinzaki and Hayato get in the ring together there’s just some level of hate there that almost feels genuine. Only 3 months ago Shinzaki was holding back tears of joy giving Hayato the title, and now he’s able to make it look like he wants to fucking kill him. Kowloon tries to do a train attack on Shinzaki, but he reverses it at Hayato's ending knee, then takes out each member one at a time with some sweet throat thrusts and thrust kicks, before hitting the praying rope walk and tagging Chono in to do a diving shoulder block. Definitely didn’t expect that from him. I haven't talked about him specifically but Minamino was fine in this match. Personally I’ve never really been into him, he just feels pretty generic, but he also did a pretty good death valley driver so I might start to change my opinion on him. Shinzaki and Chono do a pretty cool thrust kick into yakuza into chokeslam combo. This leads to the finish with Shinzaki putting Minamino in the straight jacket choke (which I now know is called “Gokuraku-Gatame”). Chono catches Hayato before he can break it up and somewhat sloppily applies an STF, which allows Shinzaki to make Minamino give up. Weird little moment after this, as although Shinzaki gets the win for the team they start playing Chono’s theme. I’m not really complaining though, it’s a fucking bop. This match was fine, each person did good and the exchanges between Shinzaki and Hayato were the definite highlight, but at the same time it wasn’t really anything special in-ring wise. It wasn't meant to be a barn-burner though, so I can at least say I got what I expected. B-
Overall Thoughts
This is definitely a step below the last show, but I'm not sure any show could've done better than that one. This show didn't have any bad matches, but I feel like I couldn't really recommend any of them besides the trios match. If Togo appears every time after this and Ichihara never appears again, I will be a happy man.
OVERALL GRADE: C+
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