Wednesday, March 10, 2021

IWA Japan 8/8/1997

Keizo Matsuda vs. Keisuke Yamada

Keisuke Yamada comes in with a shaved head. Maybe this match was to apologize for their weirdly blundered main event 2 months before? This match was a lot better though and a great opener. Started fun with some tight grappling before both guys start smacking the shit out of each other. Yamada was certainly starting to look really good at this point. Although they clipped a 19 minute match in half, but what we got was really fun.


Yuji Kito vs. Hidetomo Egawa

Great 7 minute match of two black trunks rookies slugging the hell out of each other. Really not holding back on their slaps and elbows, both guys uncorking some big suplexes. Egawa looks like the real deal here and I'm sad he disappeared early. Kito is non-descript but he hits back and gets dropped on his head with the best of them. Finish was great as Kito hits a big knee drop to Egawas spine, Egawa makes the rope on the boston crab attempt but Kito just pulls back and nearly bends him in half.

The Great Takeru & Tortuga vs. Hiroyoshi Kotsubo & Kamikaze

They pretty much clipped this down to the highspots, which I'm okay with, since Kotsubo is useless. Kamikaze looked good here hitting an awesome tubby guy asai moonsault, Takeru didn't embarass himself, and Tortuga may have been the funnest guy in the match. He hit a cool springboard back senton (that Kotsubo completely failed to catch), some nice flying clotheslines and a great splash that looked more hurty than anything sloppy ass Takeru hit.

Akinori Tsukioka vs. Masao Orihara 

Great start to this as Orihara kicks Tsukioka in the face hard before going Steve Austin on him with chairs. Unfortunately a video glitch happens and the rest of the match remains a mystery. Shame shame shame, I hope Samurai TV will reair this card in the next 40 years because this was looking great.

 
CULT HEROINE MAJOR CHALLENGE: Emi Motokawa vs. Aja Kong

Half of this was also eaten up by that glitch. We do get to see Motokawa getting some token nearfalls before Kong crushes her with neck spiking suplexes and a big splash. Too bad because I as looking forward to this.


BRAND NEW HERO BIG CHALLENGE: Takeshi Sato vs. Kodo Fuyuki

Man, I could watch Fuyuki do high pitched yelling and beating the crud off of a sucker all day long. Really fun match with Sato hitting hard kicks from odd angles and Fuyuki just creaming him.


Jado & Gedo vs. The Black Hearts

It's the Black Hearts!! The masked guys did okay, but on a card where every match has been stiff and exciting so far this really didn't stand up to the level. It just kind of went along, and while Jado and Gedo probably got a kick out of working a pair of gaijins they deserved more exciting opponents.


Elimination Match, Super Extreme Monster Rumble: The Great Kabuki & Benkei Daikokubo & Katsumi Hirano vs. King Kong Bundy & Leatherface & Freddy Krueger

This was a fun gimmick where the team members come into the match after a certain time. This needed a bit less guys leaning onto eachother doing choking and more crazy brawling and blood, although I did love King Kong Bundy who was super fired up. He even picked up the win with an Argentine Hold on poor useless Hirano. That was about the most memorable thing to happen in this match. IWA Japan was in kind of a weird state at this point as the undercard matches are always more fun than the main events, but I'm sure they'll get out of the rut as soon as they figure out  Hirano and Benkei are useless.

THE LIBRARY

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