Oriental Pro 1/20/1993

 Oriental Pro 1/20/1993

1. Kazuhiko Matsuzaki vs. Ryo Miyake
2. Miguel Perez Jr. vs. The Winger
3. Yoshihiko Abe vs. Katsumi Hirano
4. Great Sasuke & TAKA Michinoku vs. Super Delfin & Terry Boy
5. Handicap: Toyonari Fujita & Hideo Takayama vs. Masahiko Takasugi
6. OPW vs. W*ING Elimination Gauntlet Match: Kazuhiko Matsuzaki & Nobutaka Araya & Hiroshi Itakura vs. Masayoshi Motegi & The Winger & W*ing Kanemura

This was another fun Oriental Pro card. You're always going to get some largely unspectacular but snug and solid pro wrestling with Oriental Pro, which is much needed these days. You had a nice 10 minute draw in the opener with enough stiff shots to keep it interesting, a nasty one sided wrestler vs. karateka squash where Abe kicks Hirano in the eye over and over and his students jump into the ring axe kicking Oriental Pro wrestlers after the match, plus a fun squash in the Takasugi handicap match where he just tears up the future Badboy Hido and Magnitude Kishiwada.

The standout matches were a) the M-Pro tag, where they worked a straight match with no shtick and basically showed off their superior athleticism and skill level and b) the main event.

The opening half of this was fascinating and made my respect for Masayoshi Motegi shoot up tenfold. Motegi came in with a bandaged shoulder. His first opponent was Kazuhiko Matsuzaki, who immediately begand attacking that shoulder which made their basic opening exchanges highly interesting. Motegis amateur moves were great and Matsuzaki looked like a mini-Hashimoto when he started throwing kicks. Motegi caught him in a surprise suplex though and quickly put him away, leading to Motegi vs. Araya being next.

Araya, who was skinny at this point, then proceeded to tear up Motegis shoulder for another solid 10 minutes, inbetween throwing him around and hitting stiff chops and clotheslines. It probably got excessive as Motegi just kept surviving, but it was fascinating to watch Motegi get out of one armbar attempt after another through bridging etc. Araya also had a bandaged lower back, and his immediate desperation selling when Motegi was able to hit a basic slam followed by a half crab was great. The spot where Araya attempted a lift and collapsed followed by Motegi going for his german suplex only for his destroyed shoulder to give out was great and the last pinfall was epic. One of the best payoffs to an injury centered matchup I've ever seen.

The weakest matchup there was Winger/Itakura, although it was pretty much the best use of Winger I can imagine as he got in a series of quick hopespots before being handily put away by Itakura, who was pretty much the ace of Oriental Pro at this point.

The last matchup was Itakura vs. Kanemura, which promised to be interesting as Kanemura was already a sick freak at this stage. It started out strong with Kanemura eating a nasty surprise savate kick and powerbomb, then he started biting and using chairs. Itakura came back bleeding and they produced a dramatic finish which such a big convoluted match deserved. Overall all the parts of the match worked by themselves and also formed a compelling whole interacting with eachother, which is why I'm nominating it as one thing.

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