IWA Japan GET THE GLORY & FUTURE TRIAL 4/29 & 5/18/1998

 4/29

Perseus & Hidetomo Egawa vs. The Great Takeru & Akinori Tsukioka

Emi Motokawa vs. Chihiro Nakano

The Great Kabuki & Arashi vs. Keisuke Yamada & Shigeo Okamura

I'm an IWA Japan fan now, because every IWA Japan card is great in it's own unique way which can not be expressed in conventional measures of quality, this being an outdoor show in front of a picturesque setting just being the icing on the cake. This was a nice three-piece, as you had the junior opener, which was basically all these guys throwing a slew of big moves and occasional BattlARTSian intermission touches from Egawa including hitting some huge belly to bellys which you do not expect from a tiny insignificant guy like him. Perseus (a guy the internet knows nothing about), for a guy who is all about Dragon Suplexes and Triple Powerbombs and all that also hits a really great powerslam. It's all pretty senseless and really fun.

Motokawa/Nakano was a shockingly good match, everything you can hope for from sleaze indy undercard girl wrestling. Nakano is former GAEA and a kickpadded alternate universe Satomura. She almost KO's Motokawa with her opening barrage and from then on it's on. Everything she does is either a nasty kick or a cool shoot submission. She rules, and why have I never heard of her? Motokawa likes to indulge in silly spots but straightens herself out her after getting kicked in the face 3 or 4 times and starts dropping Nakano with suplexes that would do Otsuka proud. They don't indulge in too many nearfalls and I am left thinking the world needs more of this mysterious Chiharu Nakano.

The main event was a stupidly good sleazy WAR battle with Arashi basically walloping everyone with stiff lariats all the time and not bumping ever and crusty old Kabuki ruling it doing you know exactly what, hitting the worlds greatest punches and superkicks. Yamada basically gets the shit beaten out of him and eats the fuck out of every lariat and superkick he gets, just drilling himself into the mat with enthusiasm. Okamura is pretty blah but he and Yamada are EAGER and Kabuki is totally carrying this by bumping like a motherfucker and getting chairs chucked in his face and making me give a shit for his nerve hold AGAIN. He teases the fist drop and eats a flying lariat in a sequence that wasn't athletically impressive or anything but awesome in context of the match. I was totally a Kabuki fan before getting into IWA Japan, but seeing him crusty, old and broken down as an improbable but determined company ace who throws fists and gets spin kicked in the face is an enlightenment.

 

5/18

The Great Takeru vs. Perseus

Keisuke Yamada & Takeshi Sato vs. Shoichi Ichinomiya & Tomohiro Ishii

The Great Kabuki & Gran Hamada vs. Keizo Matsuda & Takashi Okamura

Not as good as the 4/29 card, but still really fun indy action. Takeru/Perseus was the same deal as usual, hit all your big spots for pops and be done with it, but they actually seem to be gaining a bit in polish. The Ishii match was a motherfucking Ishii match, as Tomohiro Ishii – dressed in improbable 90s colors – throws down chucking chairs and kicking the lowly IWA Japan punks in their faces. All the Ishii interactions were gold as he gets the boys to show some piss and vinegar, nasty headbutt exchanges and kicks to the spine ensue. Some gritty legwork is there aswell, with using the old Jumbo kneebreaker over a table/chair and it's all great. Ichinomiya is a future comedy character and you can tell he is not very good at the pro wrestling. Funny moment where Ishii tries the spot from his future Shibata matches where he puffs his chest after getting kicked by Sato and Sato just flattens him. Atta boy! Now I need more 1998 Ishii too, god dammit.

The main event was as fun as it sounds on paper, with Hamada working fun sequences and hitting big high spots, and Kabuki again in the sleaze Tenryu role. Matsuda & Okamura are quite suck ass and bland, but they do a decent job ripping up Kabuki's leg and isolating the vets hitting some double teams. Match went quite long and they kept it interesting and I would've liked to see the thing in full. Best moment of the match was easily Kabuki kicking Matsuda in the face and decking him with punches from let and right.

 THE LIBRARY

IWA Japan SPRING BREEZE 3/13/1998

 

Takeshi Sato & Tortuga vs. Cosmo*Soldier & The Great Takeru

Masao Orihara & Hidetomo Egawa vs. Perseus & Akinori Tsukioka

Benkei Daikokubo & Katsumi Hirano vs. Nuruka & Shinigami

Sumie Sakai vs. Emi Motokawa

Keisuke Yamada & Keizo Matsuda & Shigeo Okumura vs. The Great Kabuki & Ryuma Go & Tarzan Goto

 

Well I'll be damned, because this was a damn cool little card where every match delivered something worthwhile. Well, except that tag with Benkei and Shinigami maybe - aaaahhh let's not talk about it! The opener was a cool little junior's match which they totally should not have clipped. Cosmo Soldier always adds a sense of unpredictability even to standard opening exchanges. He will hit a stiff dropkick and then start working mount and then hit an insane tope con hilo, all in the span of 90 seconds. Same for the 2nd match, which had some nice hate filled exchanges and sleaziness. The semi main event was like the perfect 90s match to put on a VHS comp - just one nifty move after another. Also, impeccable fashion sense that both girls displayed! Color combinations like this will never come back. Wrestling in 1998 was a blast.

 

Keisuke Yamada & Keizo Matsuda & Shigeo Okumura vs. The Great Kabuki & Ryuma Go & Tarzan Goto - EPIC

Leave it to a bunch of sleazy dudes and old geezers to have one of the funnest bomb throwing sprints of the year. You know any match with Tarzan Goto & Ryuma Go in it is pure money. If you don't, I hereby decree it. I was expecting a wild brawl, but they mostly stay in the ring and stick to the all star team of Tarzan/Go/Kabuki waffling the shit out of the sleaze greenhorns. Matsuda & Okumura aren't all that great, but that DOES NOT MATTER because they were here to get punched in the face and kicked in the throat a whole LOT. The exchanges between Goto & Yamada were insanely gory and easily the highlight of the match. I also unexpectedly loved Kabuki, who is supposed to be way over the hill and corpse-like at this pound but still BRINGS it - by doing what he always did: throwing punches and thrust kicking dudes really hard. I can't believe people widely don't like this dude - even his nerve hold was awesome! He was KILLING the poor guy with that nerve hold. I imagine if this had a grand stand exchange between Goto & Yamada at the end or something this would have been near all time level, but as it stands it was basically 3 badass vets waltzing in to kick the shit out of anyone and it kind of ruled. Also, do not watch this match if you dislike lariats, because this had about 30 of em.

THE LIBRARY

TARZAN GOTO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

IWA Japan WELCOME THE WORLD CHAMPION TOUR '97 10/27/1997

 Yuji Kito vs. Yoshiya Yamashita 

Emi Motokawa vs. Sachie Nishibori 

Tigre Oriental vs. Tortuga
Freddy Krueger vs. Katsumi Hirano

Keisuke Yamada & Keizo Matsuda & Takeshi Sato vs. Akinori Tsukioka & The Great Takeru & Perseus

Leatherface vs. The Great Kabuki

Another strong late 90s IWA Japan card. Opener was solid, girl match was pretty fun. I think I prefer IWA Japan girl undercard matches over AJW undercard matches at this point since they don‘t do things like hitting three dropkicks in a row for no reaosn. Nishibori looked good in that match hitting swank ranas and whatnot. Tigre Oriental is a guy who is listed as only working Japanese indies like KAGEKI and watching the match I couldn‘t tell if he‘s a backyarder, a Japanese guy who attended a training camp in Mexico, or just a really shitty luchador. He takes about 80 % of the offense in the match but Tortuga still gets the biggest pops with his rope walk comedy spot and a way too sick flip dive to the floor for a semi-comedy guy in a goofy costume.

The 6 man tag was really good. Mostly basic, but tight and fast paced action. Takeshi Sato and Tsukioka were the best guys in the match, Sato hitting stiff kicks and working fun semi-shootstyle exchanges, including dropping Perseus on his head with an out of nowhere Capture Suplex, and Tsukioka being really energetic kicking dudes in the eye. The match went 22 minutes with no letdown and they didn‘t clip once which I appreciated. Kabuki/Leatherface was also really fun, just two big long haired dudes flying into the furniture and pasting each other with punches.

Daikokubo Benkei vs. Dan Severn

What a weird main event. Benkai is big and can push Severn into the ropes, but looks completely out of his depth. Severn mauls him, bloodying Benkais eye, and about 5 minutes into this Benkai taps out. Severn is really good at these savage fights, but even knowing how shitty Benkai is I was hoping he would take it to Severn at least a little. 

 

THE LIBRARY