Sunday, April 18, 2021

Oriental Pro 12/3/1992

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAceUUApF_c

Wellington Wilkins Jr. vs. Katsumi Hirano

Hirano is a low level guy who likes to play shooter, and he is almost completely useless. Wilkins Jr. though gets an entertaining match out of him by eating him up completely. Wilkins looked like the total package here roughing up Hirano with submissions, cool suplexes and judo throws aswell as those nasty ground headbutts he does. The sole moment where Hirano gets to do something is when Wilkins temporarily loses balance allowing Hirano to lock in a lucky submission, which doesn't last long as Wilkins soon taps him out with a basic side headlock.

Akihiro Mikada vs. Nobutaka Araya 

I liked this more on rewatch. It's a slow paced match with a lot of holds, but there was some escalation to the holds, Mikada would try the same hold twice and Araya would reverse in cool fashion. Mikada peppering Araya with stiff kicks was a lot of fun. Match went a little too long for their own good and pro style Araya didn't show me as much at this stage, but this was solid enough for rookie undercard action.

Brian Lee vs. Masahiko Takasugi

The next bout was veteran Takasugi vs. An ultra generic blonde Brian Lee. Takasugi was still pretty spry and they worked an IWE type match with Lee roughing up his opponent and then Takasugi fighting fire with fire. Basic stuff again, and they ended the match just as it seemed to get hot. 

Yukihiro Kanemura & Masayoshi Motegi vs.Kazuhiko Matsuzaki & Hiroshi Itakura 

Fun juniors match with some piss and vinegar. I really liked Matsuzaki here, who was cracking everyone with hard headbutts and kicks, aswell as Itakura who can do both slick junior flips aswell as spin kick someone in the throat. I liked the flaring tempers, the dive sequence and the finish. I thought Kanemura went to the well too often with his STF. That was a hot move in 1992 and while it initially increased the tension, by the 3rd time he locked the move in it was reduced to a resthold. Bad psychology.

Ryuma Go & Jesse Barr vs. Ron & Don Harris (Texas Deathmatch in a cage~!) 

Good clobbering brawl with lots of blood. This kind of match would look really good-great in front of a hot US crowd but with this kind of subdued japanese crowd the whole thing felt a little dry, despite plenty of juice and fire. I liked how the crowd got into Jesse's toughness as he absorbed all of the Harris Bros high end tag team offense and the finish was a fun outsmarting the rules moment.

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