Well, it's been three weeks since our last chapter. I've been dealing with a lot in my personal life due to the college semester ending and just haven't had the time or energy to watch wrestling. However, I'm finally done with my exams and back home, so I think it's about time we wrote another chapter in our story. This time, we are once again in Korakuen Hall for Michinoku founder Great Sasuke's 20th anniversary tour, and tonight he gets to face off against Fujita "Jr." Hayato for the Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Championship. Will Sasuke, as broken down as he is, deliver the goods tonight? Only one way to find out.
The show started out pretty somberly, as if you saw the date and you know your puro history, you'd realize this show was taking place only 6 days after the death of the legendary Mitsuharu Misawa. However, only two days after his passing, widely respected referee Ted Tanabe also tragically died during a match. Tanabe is much less recognized by the general wrestling fandom, but he was extremely important to Michinoku Pro as well as many other promotions he worked in. The show begins with a 10 bell salute to both men, and emotions are fully on display from almost everyone, with both Shinzaki and the ring announcer breaking down at different points during the ceremony (the ring announcer actually starts to cry during the announcement of the 10 bell salute, and I nearly started crying myself). Misawa and Tanabe are two absolute legends of Japanese wrestling, and may they rest in peace.
Ken45 vs. Kenbai
This is Kenbai’s television debut, and my immediate thought was "he looks like Yoshitsune". I know that most likely he isn't meant to be a replacement of Yoshitsune and instead just has a similar character, but since my knowledge of Japanese culture is lacking at best, I'll probably compare them much more than I should. Kenbai is pretty solid as a stereotypical M-pro high flyer, busting out moves like a quesadora bulldog and a nice Mysteriorana. However, the real star of the match is Ken45. He continues to impress me just like every other show so far, as he just has that little extra “oomf” to his moves I love so much. He did a lot of great stuff, but I feel like I just need to mention that someone needs to steal his Pumphandle Powerbomb, because it's one of the coolest moves I've ever seen. He also has some great comedy chops, like when he punched Kenbai directly in the ass and got so proud of himself after doing it, or when Kenbai went for a rebound dropkick, Ken caught himself on the ropes, and then yelled at Kenbai that he’s an idiot. The finish has Ken doing his balls kick into lariat combo before fucking murdering Kenbai with a FIREMAN'S CARRY TOMBSTONE. Jesus I wasn't expecting that. This was a perfectly good opener and served as a solid introduction to Kenbai but Ken45 definitely overdelivered as he always does. B-
Yapper Man 1 & Yapper Man 2 vs. Kinya Oyanagi & Rui Hiugaji
The Yappers are the former Shibaten and Rei, and the fact we will never see our kappa god again makes me very sad. Satoshi Kajiwara inserts himself into this match and a mysterious theme plays, and the Yappers announce their surprise partner is ULTIMO DRAGON, WHO GETS A GIANT FUCKING POP. Most indy promotions nowadays could only fucking dream of the reaction Dragon got. I guess since the Yappers fought all the time as their previous characters the chemistry naturally built because the Yapper Men fucking rule. Ultimo still moves like its the late 90s too, the ability he has will never not amaze me. At one point Ultimo calls for the asai moonsault which the crowd goes nuts for but Hiugaji stops him and gets booed to hell for it. There’s a couple spots/moments in the match that are rough as hell (the most egregious being a botched springboard arm drag where Hiugaji just falls over mid move), but overall this never gets into the offensive category. Dragon wins for his team with the always cool Asai DDT. I didn't talk about the other team at all because I'm not sure if they successfully did one meaningful piece of offense the entire match, but this was a really good showcase for the Yappers and Dragon who going forward will consider M-Pro his home promotion. Normally, I would rate a showcase match like this a C, but the dragon pop was just so good, it deserves at least one boost because of it. C+
Kowloon (Maguro Ooma, Takeshi Minamino, & Rasse) vs. Kesen Numajiro, MEN's Teioh, & TAKA Michinoku
Rasse has joined Kowloon it seems, as there's no information pertaining to why he's teaming with Kowloon but he’s cooperating fully with them so whatever. Teioh is in a much more serious role than his match in the first chapter, showing off his generally solid in-ring ability. Kesen is once again throwing around his iron ass, so that got a big pop from me. However, Minamino surprisingly impressed me the most in this match, hitting a sweet combo into a KENTA style knee along with an airplane spin DVD. Where was this Minamino at the other shows? He and Ooma also do a great German suplex/chokeslam combo where Minamino seemingly slams Numajiro as hard as he can into the mat, and Rasse follows up with a nice 450. TAKA breaks up the cover and does pretty good on offense, hitting a sweet jumping super kick before soon after finishing Rasse off with a Michinoku Driver. This was fine but totally skippable, at least it helped show me that Minamino isn’t a lost cause. C+
Jinsei Shinzaki, Dick Togo, & Tiger Mask vs. Kowloon (The Sato Brothers & Shinjitsu Nohashi)
I’ve figured out that Kei Sato wears gloves and Shu Sato doesn’t, and my life is now so much easier. Nohashi has betrayed Shinzaki and joined Kowloon (this time with a prematch promo explaining his turn on his mentor), and appropriately they start the match against each other. You can tell there’s a certain level of respect Shinzaki just doesn't have for Nohashi, as a lot of the beginning has him just holding down Nohashi like he doesn't even acknowledge him. Nohashi slaps Shinzaki for the disrespect and Shinzaki grabs him by the throat and rushes them both over the top rope (a spot I’ll never get tired of). A great crowd brawl breaks out as the Satos do their thing, Togo does his legendary worked punches, and Shinzaki and Nohashi fight with real hate. Tiger is the only one never shown during the brawl, making me wonder if he channeled the spirit of Bruiser Brody for a brawling performance for the ages. We'll never know I guess. Tiger lays into Nohashi in the ring with mean chest kicks before tagging in Togo and I feel like I don’t need to say anything about how great he was. Shinzaki comes back in soon after and the stomp he does to Nohashi is goddamn terrifying, just crushing Nohashi's ribs. He looks more disappointed in Nohashi than upset he betrayed him, like a father watching his son never live up to his expectations. Tiger comes back and slaps the taste out of Nohashi’s mouth before doing a moonsault double knees, and when the Satos break up the subsequent cover Tiger grabs Kei and throws him out of the ring with some real force behind it. He tags in Togo who does a diving stomp to Nohashi I actually cringed at. All of the actions in this match make Shinzaki’s team seem like total fucking heels and Nohashi looks like the definition of a beaten down babyface trying to make a hot tag, but the story of Shinzaki calling in his friends to help teach Nohashi a fucking lesson allows this dynamic to work without damaging the match's flow. The eventual comeback from Nohashi and the Satos is great too, and the control spot they do after this really helps to make sure we know that Kowloon are the real bad guys. This is in no small part because they do this grinding work on Dick Togo, a man who literally cannot do a bad babyface sell job, stumbling around and reaching in any direction for a savior. His own hot tag spot is amazing as the Satos go for a poetry in motion but Togo jumps off Kei's back before Shu can and dropkicks Shu into next week. He tags in Tiger who does a sweet fucking quebradora to Nohashi, and at this point Ken45 runs in to try and help the Kowloon team but Tiger takes him out along with the Satos. This breaks down into my favorite segment of any Michinoku 6-man, each person running in to replace their fallen partner and show their stuff, with Nohashi in particular doing a great job against Togo until he gets a lariat that knocks him out of his fucking shoes. Shinzaki tries to Chokeslam Kei after this but Kei turns it into a cross armbar, which turns into a triangle choke, which Shinzaki then escapes with a nasty fucking bucklebomb. Finally, the face team does a triple submission (Octopus from Tiger, Crossface from Togo, and Gokuraku-Gatame from Shinzaki) and gets the win. This match not only had better highspots than the 6-man from chapter one, but also more heat and emotional investment than the 6-man from chapter two. It was an absolutely out of nowhere barn burner, and a match that should be seen by as many people as possible. A-
Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Title
The Great Sasuke vs. Fujita "Jr." Hayato(c)
Hayato comes out with the Belt strapped around his back, and god he’s just the best isn't he. Sasuke decides the best course of action when facing Hayato is taking the immediate advantage by rushing him, which just results in Hayato dodging and kicking his shit in. They roll outside and Sasuke takes advantage, which lets him run back in and do a middle rope dropkick to Hayato. He smacks the small of his back against the apron edge in the process and just doesn’t even register is, proving Sasuke has to have a back made of steel. When they get back in Hayato takes advantage and at one point is just full mount over Sasuke raining down palm thrusts to the side of his head. Sasuke is actually solid in the mma department as well, at one point catching a kick, headbutting Hayato’s leg, and capture suplexing him. At this point the match definitely slows down, as Hayato tries to maintain a certain level of activity even in moments like the rest spot headlock, but it's pretty clear that Sasuke is only good at intermittent bursts of energy and inhuman bumps at this point in his career. For example, he eventually gets the advantage with Hayato on the apron and climbs up to the top, going for an elbow drop that Hayato rolls out of the way of, and Sasuke just eats shit. At another point, Sasuke hits his signature Tope atomico from the corner to the outside, which actually lands perfectly (I make note of this because every time I've seen him do this move he's eaten shit even when connecting, so this was surprising during the watch). However, because Sasuke is just insane at this point, he follows it up with a rider kick from that same corner, and on landing it looks like he broke both ankles. Sasuke hits what commentary calls a “Phoenix Swanton” which is probably exactly what you’re thinking it is, very similar to that springboard senton Hayabusa used to do but from the top rope instead. When that doesn’t get the job done, Sasuke goes out and grabs a bunch of chairs before doing a snap suplex onto them. He goes in and tries to do a running swanton out of the ring onto Hayato on the pile but Hayato avoids it and Sasuke, of course, eats shit. Even after this Sasuke is able to take the advantage again before Hayato rushes him on the top rope with his sick step-up roundhouse, sending him outside for the apron PK, before HITTING A SPRINGBOARD CROSSBODY TO THE OUTSIDE? THIS IS A RARE HAYATO INDEED. Hayato pulls him back in and hits a couple head kicks for a close 2 count, before finally hitting the Helm and winning the match. I honestly really wanted to like this, but it went 28 minutes and it sure felt like it. Sasuke just isn’t good at doing these long, drawn-out title matches, and Hayato definitely did the best he could with Sasuke but it wasn’t enough to save this from feeling long as hell. However, Sasuke’s willingness to destroy his body on multiple occasions cannot be ignored, and Hayato, as I said, did the best he could. I can't say it was better than the last match, but it was definitely a lot closer to it than a Sasuke singles match has any right to be. B
After the match, Shinzaki talks directly to Hayato, and tells him that he has found Hayato's future "rival". This person has been scouted and trained by Shinzaki just like Hayato was, and actually has more martial arts experience than Hayato had when he first entered professional wrestling. Out walks, for the first time, our 2nd protagonist in this story, Kenoh. Words are exchanged between the men, and our next title match is set. GODBLESS Vs. Fist King. Oh baby, it's time for a war.
Overall Thoughts
This show was pretty good. I felt that the main event was the only real disappointment, but I also knew going into it that Sasuke is a broken old man, and in any other scenario a main event Sasuke singles match probably would've gotten a worse score, so he and Hayato deserve credit for somewhat working around his general wear-and-tear. However, the semi-main was absolutely fantastic, and is so far the 2nd best match of the series, only falling behind Hayato/Yoshitsune. I'm pretty excited for the next show, and I hope to have the next review out a lot faster than last time.
OVERALL GRADE: B
No comments:
Post a Comment