Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Tiger Mask IV, Michinoku Pro 3/10/2001
Fun match between two juniors who like to kick hard. Mochizuki had a some scumbag seconding him who kept interferring on his behalf. It didn‘t detract from the match much and made for some fun moments. Tiger Mask IV looked slick. Mochizuki controlled a bit and he looked good potatoeing TMIV. The groundwork was a bit like a curt angle match as they just slapped on a hold and waited for the other guy to make the ropes. Good match overall.
Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Magnum Tokyo, Toryumon 7/1/2001
The first 10 or so minutes of this were really good. Mochizuki was super fun here working over Magnum with stiff karate punches and kicks. He was like a Mini Akitoshi Saito. Tokyo‘s counter armwork was really good but had no consequence at all. There was one moment where Tokyo hit a tornado ddt to the apron in a great spot but instead of going for a cover just robotically moved on to work Mochizukis arm because that was what they had planned for the match. The second half dipped pretty hard with lots of interference from Mochizukis posse. Tokyo is athletic and had some good spots particularily the springboard ranas, but most of his offense looks so dainty and weak. Some of it barely seemed to graze Mochi. Finish run had maybe a fun strike exchange but overall was just the usual 2.9999 fest. This could‘ve been better.
Masaaki Mochizuki vs. CIMA, Toryumon 4/14/2001
This was fine in terms of the moves they did, but was soul crushingly dry and uninspired. Both guys did heel spots, neither of them showed any fire, and they were going through their stuff so robotically that it felt like watching a match simulated by a computer. Mochizuki worked over CIMAs legs, which of course ended up being meaningless. As with the above two matches, there was also plenty of outside interference and more silly buggers going on with a plastic case. The finishing run had 1 or 2 cool moments but my god. This went 13 minutes and felt like an hour.
Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Minoru Fujita, Michinoku Pro 6/18/2000
I loved both these guys in the 90s, but man this was rough. They botch 2 moves in the opening sequence and it seems Fujita got injured. What followed was Mochizuki dragging Fujita around the arena for what felt like 5 minutes, lazily kicking him in an attempt to give him time to recover. Fujita kept dragging himself through the match although obviously things were off rails and they seemed to didn‘t have many ideas. They did some pretty lazy submission work. Fujita didn‘t even do the Reverse Viper Hold. This felt 10 minutes too long.
Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Great Sasuke, Michinoku Pro 6/25/2000
Fun match. This was one of those Sasuke performances where he lets his opponent kick the shit out of him and takes a bunch of reckless bumps to put him over. There was no outside interference, but Mochizuki brought a ladder and the ref went down for like 5 minutes at one point so they could do the ladder spot. You are supposed to be a martial artist, Mochizuki, your hands and feet are lethal weapons, wtf do you need a ladder for? Mochizuki kicked hard and at one point unloaded a nasty fist right to Sasukes jaw. Kinda silly finish as Mochizuki hit a Dragon Suplex but pinned himself with an improper bridge. I guess the morale is karate guys shouldn‘t do suplexes.
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