European Rounds: Hiroshi Watanabe vs. Ultraman Robin, Mumejuku 12/8/2007
Nothing says indy sleaze like Ultraman Robin. Every Robin match I‘ve seen has been pretty bad, but Watanabe carries him no problem. Robin doesn‘t look good here, his brief run of standing offense is so non-athletic and embarassing, but he is okay rolling on the mat, and Watanabe is the man. If Watanabe can get a 25 minute match this good out of someone as bad as Robin, then there‘s no limit to what the man can do. This was the usual MUGA style match with Watanabe doing plenty of cool twisting up Robin and neat pin attempts. Especially dug his weird modified indian deathlock. Last round was great as Watanabe was hellbent on grappling it out with Robin until he connected with a rotten enzuigiri out of nowhere.
Hiroshi Watanabe vs. Kosei Maeda, Mumejuku 6/2/2007
Apparently this is from the very first Mumejuku (or Mumejuku-related) show, and what a match to set the tone! Maeda has kickpads and throws some surprisingly violent strikes, and this had the feel of an 80s NJPW vs. UWF match, and that‘s a really cool type of match to start a promotion with. I thought Maeda was along for the ride initially, but he started to win me over as the grappling went on. As usual, plenty of crafty holds and counters from Watanabe, and Maeda did some bigger moves than you normally see in these maestro style matches. Watanabe‘s Inoki inspired-but-not-quite-straight-up-ripping-him-off act was great and the finish was really cool. Another gem, really.
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