Onita Pro 5/4/2002

 Gentaro vs. Ichiro Yaguchi vs. Fake Onita

This is one of those matches where you look at it and know it probably won’t be good but you still want to watch, at least if you are deranged like I am. This was kind of fun, there was some amusing bullshit with Fake Onita in Great Nitta getup threatening to use a sickle and misting people a bunch. Yaguchi also got to show off his offense, hitting a cool spinning wheel kick and crucifix bomb, and eating the mist like a champ. Gentaro had a really pretty springboard splash. So that was pretty enjoyable for a bullshit 5 minute opening match.

GAMI & noki-A vs. Kaori Nakayama & Shark Tsuchiya

JIP match where I actually would’ve liked to see more because they stayed in the ring and didn’t do any walk and brawl stuff. Or maybe they clipped that out. Tsuchiya can throw bombs and it was cool to see brawler Nakayama trying to hold her own in straight wrestling exchanges against a pair of top flight wrestlers. Yeah GAMI is a top flight wrestler to me, I love her and she’s awesome. She had a really great trust kick in this. Nakayama isn’t as smooth but he had some good stuff so I enjoyed this fine.

Chocoball Mukai vs. Katsuji Ueda

Now we are getting the compelling matchups with this card. Different style fight where Mukai kind of does well for himself taking the boxer down but then gets punched in the face. Ueda soon gets Dqd for low blowing Mukai repeatedly. Actually would have liked to see a real finish for this. Face punches looked good, why not give tough old man Ueda a win over the pornstar?

ONRYO & Sun Paul vs. The Shooter #1 & The Shooter #2

I am pretty sure one of the Shooters is Masaru Toi. He hits a nice spinkick, and then his crazy double stomp to the floor. Why put a mask on him, he’s motherfucking Toi?! Sun Paul is some white guy who for some reason worked a few 20 minute draws in his few matches in Japan, those must have been something to see. He executed basic stuff fine but there was nothing spectacular or impressive about him. The match was fun when Toi was doing stuff such as throwing a cool punch combo or hitting a slick Fujiwara Armbar. Other than that the biggest curiosity here was seeing a mystery name like Sun Paul do stuff.

Masanobu Kurisu vs. Shoji Nakamaki

Hell yeah. Kurisu mauls Nakamaki with some sick headbutts. Kurisu then grabs a chair and beats the fuck out of some ring boys. He then headbutts Nakamaki some more. Nakamaki tries to mount of offense but Kurisu headbutts him in the face and keeps brutalizing him with the chair. There is a bump into a barbedwire board which looks nowhere near as violent as those chairshots and headbutts. Nakamaki tries throwing powder at Kurisu but Kurisu completely no sells it and instead throws the powder in Nakamakis face. Kurisu is a force that can’t be contained and he wins with a sloppy pin combo after a 7 minute extremely one sided but perversely brutal match. After the match Nakamaki throws himself into the barbedwire to show he’s tough, or an idiot. I don’t know. Who doesn’t love a violent Kurisu asskicking though.

Mr. Pogo vs. Ricky Fuji

Genuinely a pretty fun Pogo match. Fuji is faster so he wins the race into the ring to get the barbedwire bat, but one of Pogos seconds hits him so he drops the bat. We get Fuji swinging chairs into Pogos barbedwire bat, before Fuji takes a good beating taking some nasty bat swings, kicks to the face and Pogos knifes and sickles while things keep moving. Pogo hits his “I’m crippled” bulldog where he kinds of lands on his side which I always get a kick out of, and a pretty nasty rope hanging DDT onto the chain and sickle. There is a crazy moment where Fuji kicks the knife out of Pogos hand and it just flies into the crowd. Fuji needs better punches but he is so excitable and bleeds well so I like him. Fun match where both guys played their role well.

Mitsuhiro Matsunaga vs. HIDO

Demented spectacle deathmatch that had thumbtacks, barbedwire and live scorpions. They pour the tacks all over the mat right at the beginning and we get a bunch of side headlock takeovers and suplexes into the tacks. Craziest spot comes soon when HIDO puts a bunch of scorpions into a baseball cap, puts the cap on Matsunagas head and crushes them with a chairshot. Poor scorps :( I was rooting the most for the one scorpion that was scurrying away to safety. The match was plenty sick and violent but definitely felt like an exhibition. At several points Matsunaga was just sitting there watching Hido build up the next spot. The psychology of the match is that both guys keep hurting themselves. At the end they take off their boots to wrestle barefoot in the thumbtacks, I guess to show that they are tough. Matsunaga puts a torture rack on Hido and walks barefoot into the barbedwire, but surprisingly enough he can’t handle the pain and submits, making Hido the winner. All-time level finish for sure.

Atsushi Onita & Masato Tanaka vs. Kintaro Kanemura & Tetsuhiro Kuroda

A surprising amount of fire makes this a pretty fun main event. Onita was brutalizing people with weapons and hitting sharp DDTs. He didn’t overexercise himself but it was a good performance. Kanemura and Tanaka had their working puts on and brought a lot to the table without being too doozy-doo. It helps that Tanakas normal offense – elbows, spears etc. - looks really violent and they have no problem moving through the tables and chairs stuff fast. Even Tetsu didn’t annoy me too much. Fun main event with a sick punch out finish that didn’t overstay its welcome.

The Library

RIP BADBOY Hido

 BADBOY Hido vs. Jushin Liger, Apache Pro 4/14/2006

Awesome 5 minute explosion of hate filled brawling in front of a rabid hot crowd. This was the conclusion of a series of CTU vs. Apache Pro tags in 2006 and Liger is giving Hido hell here. Liger is great as an invader beating on someone, and Hido bleeds and sells good. Hido makes a quick comeback going for his trademark bat shots which look great. Liger pins him pretty fast though and we get the whole Apache Pro roster jumping on him and Hido trying to cut his hair, which leads us to...

BADBOY Hido & Kintaro Kanemura & Tetsuhiro Kuroda vs. Gedo & Jado & Jushin Liger, Apache Pro 4/14/2006

Also pretty great match, one of those 2000s interpromotional wars with a ton of heat that make wrestling fun and exciting. More hatefilled brawling, Liger getting pissed off at his cut hair was a nice touch, and CTU are a really good heel unit isolating their opponents, working the cuts and brawling. Everyone on Team Apache bleeds big and gives a fired up babyface performance. Normally I dislike Kuroda, but he just did a fired up hot tag here, foregoing his usual comedy spots, and then he also bled and we got more pissed off brawling. Kanemura/Gedo ending stretch was damn good. Hido was mostly selling and bleeding here, although he is a really good FIP and his superplex was a nice well timed moment.

BADBOY Hido vs. Shadow WX, BJW 4/28/2002

One of the crazier things I've seen in wrestling. BADBOY Hido is a complete psycho here. He beats the shit out of Shadow WX and everyone nearby, even some woman (who is maybe related to WX?). It really feels more like a worked shoot angle than a match, as it comes across like Hido is stepping over the line and being a menace, doing things he is not supposed to be doing, and what an achievement that is to create that effect in a deathmatch promotion. The pull part at the end was probably the most pissed off WX has ever looked, and damn do I want to see the bloody payoff that this set up.

BADBOY Hido vs. Hayabusa, W*ING 9/11/1996

We start this with a great rudo Hido section where he carves up Hayabusa, rips his mask, and hits some great looking bat shots. Hayabusa takes he over and is kind of a heel to the W*ING fans, but he's really not a very convincing bad guy. Finishing stretch was fun with Hidos simplistic violence vs. Hayabusa flying moves and the fans getting big into Hido. Hido hits his bat shots with real pop and he makes simple things like a dropkick to the face look very violent.

BADBOY Hido vs. Shinjiro Ohtani, WEW 9/22/2003

This was probably the best match to come out of the now forgotten WEW vs. ZERO1 feud. Ohtani bullies deathmatch boy Hido a bunch, and Hido comes back swinging baseball bats and tossing ladders at Ohtanis head. Ohtani doing garbage spots and bleeding is fun, and so is Hido taking Ohtanis boots to the face and getting suplexed on his head. Bat shots were pretty brutal in this and probably better than the usual lariatfest. Perfect meeting in the middle.

WMF 8/28/2002

WMF was Hayabusas promotion after FMW folded. I wonder why it's not talked about more, since a promotion with lots of cool juniors, sleazy ex-FMW guys and centered around Mammoth Sasaki as heavyweight star sounds  badass, so it's time to find out by watching some shows.

Ricky Fuji vs. Curry Man vs. Seiji Ikeda

I am normally opposed to 3 way matches, however this ended up short and fun enough to be inoffensive. Seiji Ikeda was doing a super fanboy gimmick and was mostly bystanding trying to snatch fotos and autographs from the wrestlers which was pretty amusing and protected the match from the typical nonsense of 3 way matches.

Kaori Nakayama vs. Miss Mongol

We only get about 80 seconds of this as they JIP straight to the bomb throwing section of the match. Suplexes were nice, but they ended the match on a kind of crummy looking unprettier.

Flying Kid Ichihara vs. Soldier

We once again JIP to both these guy hitting their spots. This is a 2 hour show, what's with all the matches being clipped? Nothing here stood out, but I kind of dug Soldier who felt like a junior very influenced by WWF style wrestling. And Flying Kid Ichihara is a legend.

Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask IV & Dragon Kid vs Onryo & Goemon & Darkness Dragon

Really fun match which had juniors from Michinoku Pro, FMW and Dragon Gate mixing it up. These guys aren't used to eachother so they were working a more solid, less intricate match, but it was good and everyone brought something worthwhile to the table. There were also several huge dives and Dragon Kid looked good hitting all his freaky stuff. I also liked the spot Dragon unmasked himself in an Eddie Guerrero style attempt to get Kid DQ'd. The next moment they both unmasked eachother and were forced to wear their opponents hood. This kind of stuff won't win you workrate awards but it's what keeps the love for pro wrestling flowing. Sasuke looked sharp, TMIV hit some stiff blows and GOEMON & Onryo looked like good bases as well with Onryo hitting particularily huge bumps and dives. FEAR THE ONRYO CLUTCH! 

Mr. Gannosuke & Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Hisakatsu Oya & Tetsuhiro Kuroda

Most of this was these guys doing their stuff, but everyone had their working boots on so it ended up fun. Well, everyone except Kuroda, who should've been quarantined to undercard comedy tags the second he first decided to make a scene around smashing his opponents leg into the buckle. I dug Oya in this, who has such a cool sleazy grappling pseudomaster vibe. This ended up being merely an excuse for a Matsunaga run in, who came in with a barbedwire bat, then gave GOEMON a high five and stared down Hayabusa in his wheelchair. I wanted a bit more out of this but ended up being reminded of how badass Mr. Danger is.

Mammoth Sasaki vs. Garuda

Unexpectedly great indy main event. It's pretty cool to see two underexposed guys who can work step up and deliver their idea of a big match. Both guys were bumping big to get this match over, not just taking big dangerous bumps, but also bumping big for basic moves like a shoulder block. Garuda looked like he just got hit by a truck during the opening exchange and the crowd response underlines that. Meanwhile Sasaki was flying around to put Garudas dropkicks over. Between the big slams and flying they were working a pretty solid groundbased match. Mammoth has really good looking basics, really awesome body slam, huge leg drop, kicking Garuda in the spine between moves etc, while Garuda actually looked like the legit succesor to Hayabusa, hitting thudding kicks, cool submissions and flying around. The finishing stretch was probably better than the stuff many bigger name workers would do that decade. While they did a lot of big moves, there were some really cool cut offs, everything was built to, and they had people believing in a powerslam or schoolboy. Loved Mammoth powering out of a backslide too. The only sour thing about this match is the clipping which was really unnecessary on a TV show that had a 2 hour timeslot. 

 

THE LIBRARY

2002 MOTY MASTER LIST