Guide to Japanese Wrestling 2010

PUNQ · November 11, 2011

DDT on Samurai TV - November 14, 2010, Osaka - (2 hrs)

November 14, 2010, Osaka Prefectural Gym #2 (1,213 fans)

1. Kazuki Hirata -vs- Yukihiro Abe - (Young Drama Cup)

--- Hirata looked super focused and got awarded for it taking Abe off-guard dropkicking him in the face for the pin.

1:37 of 6:06 - Hirata pinned Abe after a dropkick

2. Shigehiro Irie -vs- Takao Soma - (Young Drama Cup) [*]

--- The 3 minutes that aired was good with Irie landing the ultimate Samoan Drop which is quickly becoming one of my favorite moves these days! Soma got in a top rope legdrop, but was having to use most of his energy kicking out of stuff until he had no more to give as Irie dropped a diving Teddy Bear.

3:09 of 8:42 - Irie pinned Soma after a top rope hip drop press

3. Sanshiro Takagi & Yoshiaki Yago -vs- MIKAMI & Tanomusaku Toba; Michael Nakazawa & Tomomitsu Matsunaga; Toru Owashi & Hideki Shiota; Takaku Fuke & Kuishinbo Kamen - (3-Team Challenge + Bonus Stage) [3/4*]

--- Takagi & Yago having a series of rather bad and short matches with various teams in which Yago kept fucking up. Both deliberatly and undeliberatly. He lost all the main matches, but they got a bonus match as they were in Osaka and Osaka Pro based side of Fuke & Kuishinbo came out and Yago finally won one making the clown tap!

3:25 of 3:22 - MIKAMI pinned Yago with a sliding schoolboy

2:23 of 3:20 - Matsunaga pinned Yago after a lariat

4:23 of 4:21 - Shiota pinned Yago with a small package

4:31 of 4:52 - Yago made Kuishinbo submit to a Cobra Twist

4. Kota Ibushi & Kenny Omega © -vs- Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi - (IWGP Junior Tag Title) [** 3/4]

--- The Golden Lovers making their first defence of the IWGP Junior Tag Titles and it's against the guys they beat for the belts - the Apollo 55! And they had a motivated crowd pleaser not stopping a second to breathe. And they didn't over-do things either. They kept the match rather short for a big title match and that's no shame and I wish more did that in a time where so many do 30-min title matches without much to offer. These guys had just enough to offer for a well paced 10-min defence until Ibushi landed the Phoenix Splash on Taguchi to have their successful defence!

9:40 of 9:42 - Ibushi pinned Taguchi after a Phoenix Splash. Ibushi & Omega retain the IWGP Junior Tag Title in their 1st defence.

5. Dick Togo & GENTARO & Yasu Urano -vs- KUDO & Shoichi Uchida & Keisuke Ishii [*]

--- Ok tag with a lot of focus on Togo and Uchida fighting it out until the expected happend.....

4:13 of 18:21 - Togo pinned Ichida after a top rope senton

6. Shiro Koshinaka & Danshoku Dino © -vs- Antonio Honda & Daisuke Sasaki - (KO-D Tag Titles) [*]

--- The ass attack backfire! And Sasaki could land his modified reversed DDT setting Dino up for the fist drop and then we had new KO-D Tag Champs and great an era of ass-wrestling in DDT is over......

4:52 of 15:18 - Honda pinned Dino after a second rope fistdrop. Honda & Sasaki become the 32nd KO-D Tag Champions.

7. HARASHIMA © -vs- Hikaru Sato - (KO-D Title) [** 1/2]

--- Didn't see this coming! Sato was a nobody in pro-wrestling at the start of the year being mostly involved in perverted comedy matches and wrestling in a maids uniform. But since then he's promoted his own show, toured with All Japan and now gets the main prize in DDT! He's become a player in no-time! The match was solid and competitive. Fairly stiff too with a lot of blows going to the upperbody. Sato also surprised the champion with submissions to counter whenever he came with. And then came the big break. HARASHIMA attempted a leeping Somato and got trapped in a cross-armbreaker with the leg locked in too and neck twisted like he did defeating Ibushi the month before. And now it's HARASHIMA's turn to lose! Face saving referee stop, but still a win for Sato who gets the KO-D Title!

18:19 of 21:27 - Sato defeated HARASHIMA via Referee Stop with a modified cross-armbreaker to become the 33rd KO-D Champion.

COMMENTS: Two sweet title matches too keep you entertained. And some fun in between too.

--PUNQ--

PUNQ · November 11, 2011

DDT on Samurai TV - November 17 & 28, 2010, Tokyo - (2 hrs)

November 17, 2010, Tokyo - Shin-Kiba 1st RING (194 fans)

1. Takao Soma -vs- Keisuke Ishii - (Young Drama Cup)

--- Lightweight action with Soma being the one to fight hardest and bring out the big stuff including landing two leg drops from the top rope to manage to beat Ishii!

2:53 of 9:12 - Soma pinned Ishii after a top rope legdrop

2. Yujihiro Abe -vs- Shigehiro Irie - (Young Drama Cup)

--- Abe getting the upset with a counter cradle to Irie's lariat! This means that the Young Drama Cup final will be a re-match between Soma and Ishii at the next Korakuen Hall!

1:18 of 6:30 - Abe pinned Irie with the Jienotsu*Clutch

3. Great Kojika -vs- Michael Nakazawa [1/4*]

--- Michael wrestling with a 68 year oldman.....with sexy underwear as the main ingredient.

3:30 of 5:22 - Kojika made Nakazawa submit to a Iron Claw

4. HARASHIMA & Kota Ibushi & Danshoku Dino & GENTARO & KUDO & Tanomusaku Toba -vs- Sanshiro Takagi & Toru Owashi & DJ Nira - (Handicap Tag Rumble) [3/4*]

--- Rumble tag where Takagi & Owashi & Nira started the match with one-by-one of their opponents would enter. So it was sweet to be them for a little while doing all the weird Nira attacks before they were out-numbered and gayed down.

8:59 of 8:57 - HARASHIMA pinned Nira after the Somato double knee attack

5. Dick Togo & Yasu Urano -vs- Hikaru Sato & Tomimitsu Matsunaga [* 1/2]

--- Dick and Sato building a bizz for their KO-D Title bout for the November 28th Korakuen Hall show and Sato as the champion made some good damage with his Pancrase fighting doing a nice job of getting Togo in check. But Togo had to look like a credible challenger and still managed to roll the surprise champion with a lucky counter cradle.

8:31 of 18:08 - Togo pinned Sato with a croaa-kneelock cut-back cradle

November 28, 2010, Tokyo - Korakuen Hall (1,525 fans)

6. Antonio Honda & Daisuke Sasaki © -vs- GENTARO & Yasu Urano - (KO-D Tag Title) [*]

--- A few minutes of the first defence from Honda & Sasaki and the champs while fairly out-matched by two cunning guys, did have their oppertunities and was close after a Sasaki reversed DDT, but Honda missed his Lawler fistdrop. But it didn't matter, Honda still got his roll-up win after Urano had done a Frankensteiner off the turnbuckle reversing the cradle to retain.

4:25 of 15:52 - Honda pinned Urano with huracanrana counter-cradle. Honda & Sasaki retain the KO-D Tag Title in their 1st defence.

7. Genichiro Tenyru & Masao Orihara & HARASHIMA -vs- Sanshiro Takagi & Yoshiaki Yago & Shigehiro Irie [*]

--- Now Tenryu is slumming down in DDT, and he still looks bad. He really isn't in shape for this game no more. No wonder because he's passed 60. But it's still sad to see one of the greatest wrestlers of all time not being able to even stand or walk in the ring always having to sell his injured leg. He did get to chop Takagi a bit, but even that was weak from the chop-master. The end was Irie being jobber as usual when HARASHIMA landed his Somato.

6:40 of 12:58 - HARASHIMA pinned Irie after ther Somato double-knee attack

8. Hikaru Sato © -vs- Dick Togo - (KO-D Title) [***]

--- Sato's reign was unexpected, but also short as it ends here only 2 weeks after beating HARASHIMA for the belt. But he had his best match of his career defending the belt here, so it's all good! From taking all kinds of Togo diving attacks to hurting the veteran with his solid ground game locking in those cross-armbreakers to ankle holds to nearly have Togo beat. But Togo is a tough son of a bitch, we all know that. And he stuck to his gameplan so it was very typical that it ended with a Pedigree and a top rope senton in true Dick style! And that means Togo gets to be DDT champion while he he's doing his retirement road as he's quitting the business in 2011.

22:12 of 27:55 - Sato pinned Togo after a top rope senton to become the 34th KO-D Champion.

COMMENTS: Dick Togo vs Hikaru Sato - KO-TITLE!!! Nuff said!

--PUNQ--

PUNQ · November 12, 2011

ZERO-ONE MAX on Samurai TV - November 17, 2010, Tokyo - (3 hrs)

November 17, 2010, Tokyo - Korakuen Hall

1. Shito Ueda & Yoshikazu Yokoyama -vs- Braithe Priest & Don Gorman [3/4*]

--- The younger Zero-One guys getting to wrestle a couple of imports for a rather dull match helped by some injuries and mess-ups from the foreigners while the Japan side didn't put too much fire in their performance on their way to winning. Ueda makes Gorman tap to a high angle Crab hold.

10:14 of 10:18 - Ueda made Gorman submit to a Boston Crab

2. Ryuji Sai & Yusaku Obata & Shinsuke Jet Wakabata -vs- Kamikaze & Yuzuru Saito & Rikiya Fudo [*]

--- Former Z-1 wrestler Jet back getting work and a tiny push beating Fudo with a inside cradle even if there was some back-firing spots between him and Sai during the bout almost messing things up for them.

9:31 of 9:38 - Wakabata pinned Fudo with a small package

3. Takuya Sugawara -vs- Minoru Fujita -vs- Mineo Fujita -vs- Munenori Sawa - (4-Way) [* 1/4]

--- A International Junior Title #1 Contender Match to face the winner of Hidaka/Hayato, which happens later in the show, for a title shot happening on December 19th. But with Minoru Fujita and Sugawara there the pace and life was going to be kept low even if the other Fujita and Sawa did bring the energy. A lot of random action in turn. Almost one finisher at a time before the advantage went to the next guy including doing each others finishers. Minoru did the Shiisanputa on Sugawara so revenge had to happen and little later on Sugawara had Minoru beat with the Shiisanputa to get the title shot.

14:04 of 12:54 - Sugawara pinned Fujita after the Shiisanputa

4. Masato Tanaka -vs- Kohei Sato [**]

--- These two met on the last tour on Kohei Sato's produce show on October 15th and faced for a double-time limit draw there. A 20-min and a 5-min extention. Now the time limit is 30-min and they still couldn't get a winner out of it! Another time limit draw! Very similar to their October bout and absolutely nothing really different about it. Same moves. A bunch of finishers for near falls done at a pace that you could see it was going long having trouble to really draw the fans in except for induvidual moments. The finisher part was good, but they didn't give the fans a special gift with this bout. No massive game plan except some stuff to fill the time and no other reason.

31:10 of 30:00 - Tanaka wrestled Sato to a 30:00 Time Limit Draw

5. Ikuto Hidaka -vs- Fujita Jr Hayato - (International Junior Title) [** 1/4]

--- Michinoku Pro's Hayato getting a shot at the Z-1 based junior belt after Hidaka has had 3 successful defences against other outsiders in SMASH wrestler Hajimi Ohara, Kaientai Dojo's Masato Oishi and Osaka Pro's Masamune. And with Hayato we get the lightweight badness. Didn't work as well as in other of his big matches, but this was a solid bout with headbutts and kicks landing well from both of them. Hayato got in his K.I.D. and a short-range Helm without getting the win. Istead Hidaka kept landing knees and kicks of his own until he had the M.Pro wrestler beat! V4 for Hidaka.

15:43 of 15:47 - Hidaka pinned hayato after a high headkick to retain the International Junior Title in his 4th defence.

6. Daisuke Sekimoto © -vs- Shinjiro Otani - (Zero-One Title) [** 1/2]

--- A challenge doesn't get much bigger then this for Sekimoto in Zero-One. Defending against the companys boss Otani! And it was a damn even fight, thats for sure! Hard headbutts, lariats and suplexes. All a title match needs. Well, it should have had a hotter crowd because seemingly something was missing to make it take off to the great hights. But I did love the way Sekimoto no-sold Otani's dropkick with authority! And Otani kept kicking out of Sekimoto's Germans so Sekimoto had to kill him in a different way and he did so with a massive lariat!

18:34 of 18:52 - Sekimoto pinned Otani after a lariat to retain the Zero-One Title in his 2nd defence.

COMMENTS: Nice to get a full Zero-One show even if one could have hoped for the big matches to become bigger happenings then what they were, but with 3 main event style matches ending the show it was kind of positive regardless.

--PUNQ--

PUNQ · November 12, 2011

OSAKA PRO/MATSUYAMA PRODUCE on COMM - November 19, 2010, Osaka - (2 hrs)

November 19, 2010, Osaka Minami Move On Arena

1. Kuuga -vs- Takoyakida [3/4*]

--- Kuuga the champion trashing the comedy guy and using too much time doing it.

9:22 of 9:22 - Kuuga pinned Takoyakida after a wrist-clutch fishermans buster

2. Apple Miyuki -vs- Hanako Kobayashi [1/2*]

--- Fairly bad joshi action since Kobayashi isn't a very good worker. Miyuki tried to keep it together, but let Kobayashi get too much of the offence before rolling her up for the pin.

7:32 of 7:29 - Miyuki pinned Kobayashi with a La Magistral

3. Miracle Man & Ultimate Spider Jr. -vs- Orochi & Hayata [1/2*]

--- Very average wrestling with little looking too impressive. Just a match that flows by without giving an impression of anything. Miracle Man wins it.

11:45 of 10:47 - Miracle man pinned Hayata with the Falcon Crash

4. Billy Ken Kid -vs- Kuishinbo Kamen -vs- Bull Armour Takuya - (3-Way) [1/4*]

--- Silly Billy wrestling.....

9:38 of 9:41 - Billy pinned Takuya with a schoolboy

5. Tigers Mask & Black Buffalo & Tadasuke -vs- Otokosakari & Daisuke Harada & Kabuki Kid [1/2*]

--- Lame and gay......

11:55 of 11:54 - Buffalo pinned Kabuki

6. Akira & Kanjuro Matsuyama & Kana-hime -vs- Ebessan III & Atsunosuke Matsuyama & Ranmaru [1/4*]

--- ....and to end the show the typical Matsuyama style comedy match which was the usual shit.

14:15 of 14:15 - Matsuyama pinned Ebessan after the Jindaiko facebuster

COMMENTS: Osaka comedy based show produced by Matsuyama.

--PUNQ--

PUNQ · November 12, 2011

NOAH on Samurai TV - November 19, 2010, Tokorozawa - (2 hrs)

November 19, 2010, Tokorozawa Citizen Gym Sub Arena (1,000 fans)

- RIP Joe Higuchi. Akira Taue holding his picture with a one-minute silence.

1. Akitoshi Saito & Mohammed Yone -vs- Masao Inoue & Ryuji Hijikata [3/4*]

--- Ryuji Hijikata no longer work for All Japan and takes a booking with NOAH. And he gets an easy first day at work in a nothing special house show bout where the returned Saito, who's been out a couple of months, beat loser Inoue easy.

11:43 of 11:44 - Saito pinned Inoue after a enzuigiri

2. Akira Taue -vs- Takashi Okita [1/4*]

--- Taue don't care anymore.....

5:37 of 5:37 - Taue pinned Okita with a small package

3. Delirious -vs- Genba Hirayanagi [1/2*]

--- Slightly amusing, but no great wrestling as Delirious beat Genba.

8:49 of 8:50 - Delirious pinned Hirayanagi with the Bizarro Driver

4. Yoshinari Ogawa & Katsuhiko Nakajima -vs- Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori [3/4*]

--- Not even the junior heavyweights bother to do anything special today. Disappointing bout with a weak Ogawa roll-up win.

14:11 of 14:11 - Ogawa pinned Ishimori with a schoolboy

5. KENTA & Atsushi Aoki -vs- Kensuke Sasaki & Kento Miyahara [* 1/2]

--- Finally a match that at least had something to offer with Aoki having a few fans who he did not let down as he won the match with a cross-armbreaker. Decent action and all, but never anything more then a house show bout.

15:25 of 14:25 - Aoki made Miyahara submit to a cross-armbreaker

6. Go Shiozaki & Kotaro Suzuki -vs- Takashi Sugiura & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [* 1/2]

--- The GHC Heavyweight & Junior Heavyweight champions Sugiura & Kanemaru team to face two of their hungriest challengers at the moment in Shiozaki & Suzuki. Decent action, with a even better finish as Kanemaru and Suzuki trade a bunch of cradles at the end before Kanemaru was ran down with a lariat from Shiozaki making the job very easy for Suzuki using his fine Tiger Driver to beat the GHC Junior Heavyweight Champ.

16:58 of 16:59 - Suzuki pinned Kanemaru with a Tiger Driver

7. Bison Smith & Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli -vs- Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano & Shuhei Taniguchi [* 1/4]

--- This is leading up to a GHC Tag Title match between champions Takayama & Sano against the ROH Tag Champions Hero & Castagnoli. With them here they've got Taniguchi and Smith filling out the teams for this 6-man. And the ROH guys got to look good, but they were mostly focusing on beating up Taniguchi which got their desired result winning the match with the KRS-1 bomb.

12:05 of 12:05 - Hero pinned Taniguchi after the KRS-1

COMMENTS: More boring house show action from NOAH.

--PUNQ--

PUNQ · November 12, 2011

STYLE-E on COMM - November 20, 2010, Tokyo - (1 3/4 hrs)

November 20, 2010, Tokyo

1. Tatsuhiko Yoshino & Takumi Tsukamoto & Kotaru Nasu -vs- Kazuki Hashimoto & Taro Yamada & ? [* 1/4]

--- Youth action with the two Big Japan young ones to spice things up. And they helped the match a lot. Epecially Hashimoto who gave the match more enegery. In the end it was Style-E assicoate Yoshino winning the bout taking care of the generic indy guy who I'm not sure whats called. Keio or something.

9:05 - Yoshino pinned ? with a German Suplex

2. Minoru Fujita -vs- Toshihiro Sueyoshi - (E-1 Climax - Block A) [* 1/2]

--- Sueyoshi as one of Style-E's main guys getting a lot of trouble against one of the more name indy guys avalable. Fujita is washed-up but he got together a decent bout with Sueyoshi making it competitive enough before finishing the guy off with powder and Northern Light Bomb.

12:24 - Fujita pinned Sueyoshi after a wrist-clutch Northern Light Bomb

3. Chou-un Shiryu -vs- Masashi Takeda - (E-1 Climax - Block A) [* 1/4]

--- Upset!!! Takeda would muscle Shiryu down for a lot of the fight and then the tricky Shiryu would cheat his way to the advantage and ended up also getting the lucky flash pinfall victory!

7:13 - Shiryu pinned Takeda with a modified crucifix cradle

4. Chango & Hanimoto Oyaji -vs- Hide Kubota & Yasu Kubota [*]

--- The Kubota's came out all battered and brusied and it became a comedy beatdown. Kind of unny in it's way as the Secret Base team would both get cocky and suprised on their road to victory.

6:24 - Oyaji made Yasu submit to a Crippler Crossface

5. Takaku Fuke -vs- Daisuke - (E-1 Climax - Block B ) [*]

--- To the point. Daisuke opened fresh, but would end up having to use more energy to get out of submission holds as the veteran would trap him so bad that he had to submit in less the 5 minutes!

4:36 - Fuka made Daisuke submit to a crossface chickenwing

6. Masato Shibata -vs- Kazuhiro Tamura - (E-1 Climax - Block B ) [**]

--- Heavyweight vs lightweight E-Style! Shibata would power little Tamura down with authority several times during this match, but Tamura wasn't about to give up that easy and would do damage to Shibata's leg and try his qualities to try and take the big man down. He was close on a Buzzsaw kick, but once the match started nearing the time limit Shibata was close to crushing him with all Tamura could do was kick out until he was dead.....

16:59 - Shibata pinned Tamura after a powerbomb

COMMENTS: Fine show. The main event had the climax and the undercard matches where rather short and enjoyable wasting little time.

--PUNQ--

PUNQ · November 12, 2011

AJPW on GAORA TV - November 20, 2010, Tokyo - (2 hrs)

November 20, 2010, Tokyo - Korakuen Hall (1,700 fans)

1. Dark Ozz & Dark Cuervo & Mazada -vs- Kaz Hayashi & Shuji Kondo & BUSHI [* 1/2]

--- Lucha! With AAA's Ozz & Cuervo getting to look good as they're apart of the Real World Tag League this year. And Ozz really dropped BUSHI nasty down in that speciality piledriver of his! Good fun while it lasted.

6:55 of 9:22 - Ozz pinned BUSHI after the Ozz Special piledriver

2. Tamon Honda & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Masa Fuchi -vs- TARU & Minoru & Voodoo Mask [* 1/4]

--- Old school All Japan with Honda, Kikuchi & Fuchi on the same team! Honda & Kikuchi is in this years tag tournament, and with no match on day one they get to show off here their broken-down wrestling with Honda beating the masked nobody with a lazy German.

6:56 of 8:51 - Honda pinned Voodoo Mask after a German Suplex

3. Keiji Muto -vs- Hiroshi Yamato [*]

--- Couldn't say it was too exciting. Standard Muto beating a smaller younger.... Shame he didn't do more with it.

6:19 of 10:00 - Muto pinned Yamato after a Shining Wizard

4. KENSO & KONO -vs- Seiya Sanada & Manabu Soya - (RWTL '10) [**]

--- Heels KENSO & KONO show the All-Asian Tag Champions how to do it tearing them apart at a systematic and effective pace! Entertaining bout even if they weren't able to keep it up to speed the entire time. KONO's kneedrop from top puts and stop to Soya.

12:39 of 15:21 - KONO pinned Soya after a top rope kneedrop

5. Minoru Suzuki & Masakatsu Funaki -vs- Osamu Nishimura & Joe Malenko - (RWTL '10) [* 1/2]

--- Old Joe Malenko! Many years since he was in All Japan last! And he's here to team with old school lover Nishimura. And this promised to be a technical fight as they're up against two UWF/Karl Gotch guys in the super team of Suzuki & Funaki! And they do a freakin' 30-min draw! Wasn't going to be a super match with Malenko being so old and the others not really being climax wrestlers. But it was a fine display of old style locks and hold without going overboard or in a too exhibition style.

22:49 of 30:00 - Suzuki & Funaki wrestled Nishimura & Malenko to a 30:00 Time Limit Draw

6. Akebono & Taiyo Kea -vs- Kohei Suwama & Ryota Hama - (RWTL '10) [** 1/2]

--- This one had a great ending minutes! Apart from the lovely fatboyz wrestling, Kea and Suwama had a real heated thing going. Suwama looked like the boss at first, but then Kea took over and showed fire of old making people know he's ready to get back into the title picture beating Suwmaa with authority! Awesome!

15:05 of 16:42 - Kea pinned Suwama with a Ligerbomb

COMMENTS: Mixed day for wrestling. The main event had the most to offer, while the Malenko tag was interesting, but not nearly anything special.

--PUNQ--

PUNQ · November 13, 2011

NEO on COMM - November 21, 2010, Osaka - (2 hrs)

November 21, 2010, Osaka Prefectural Gym #2 (627 fans)

1. Yoshiko Tamura -vs- Miki Iida - (Iida's Debut) [*]

--- A new NEO rookie making her pro debut. Too bad for her that NEO only has 1 1/2 months left too live at this point. She seemed ok, but too small and weak to take seriously. Reminded a little of a young Chapparita Asari. Tamura could beat her up and bend her well giving her a few cradles before getting the guaranteed win with a armsalto.

8:02 of 8:02 - Tamura pinned Iida with a double-wrist armsalto

2. Ayumi Kurihara -vs- Hikaru Shida [* 1/4]

--- This was kind of good. Short, no wasting of time and the execution of the moves was sitting. Shida looked good too as she was trying to beat Kurihara with the best she had getting quite a bit of the offence before Kurihara woke up and took care of business in little less then 6 minutes with a German Suplex.

5:53 of 5:53 - Kurihara pinned Shida with a German Suplex

3. Toshie Uematsu & Yuu Yamagata -vs- Nagisa Nozaki & Shuri [*]

--- Some ok fighting, but they never really got much of a flow or story out it to get engaging. Still not bad with the veteran of the bout rolling NEO's Nozaki up for the pin.

10:24 of 10:24 - Uematsu pinned Nozaki with a flying leg roll-up

4. Danshoku Dino -vs- Tanny Mouse [1/4*]

--- ....yeah....this is a match I want to see. Not even with a 'gay caveman will rape a tied-up NEO president in 10 minutes' gimmick was this ever going to catch my attention.....

9:38 of 9:29 - Dino pinned Tanny after a Danshoku Driver

5. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Misaki Ohata -vs- Manami Toyota & Tsukasa Fujimoto [*]

--- Why waste so much time with this random tag match? It wasn't all that good either. Just action flying us by until Ohata beat the Ice Ribbon girl....

15:27 of 15:27 - Ohata pinned Fujimoto after a fishermans buster

6. Meiko Satomura -vs- Yuki Miyazaki [* 3/4]

--- Special singles match where Miyazaki was about to have a fairly good match with same-generation wrestler Satomura. Miyazaki gave it her all and even tried to land the moonsaulting footstomp without luck. But nobody was thinking Miyazaki was going to beat the generation ace and even if Miyazaki was able to survive the dreaded sleeper she soon enough found herself out cold to a kneel kick.

9:31 of 9:31 - Satomura pinned Miyazaki after a Kneel Kick

7. Aya Yuki & Ryo Mizunami -vs- Kaori Yoneyama & Kazumi Shimouma [* 1/4]

--- Loads of action, but too much Shimouma surviving stuff. Not really dragging me in, but there was some nice moves landing along with a bunch of near falls before they finally shut Shimouma's trap.

14:18 of 14:19 - Yuki pinned Shimouma after a Death Valley Bomb

8. Shinobu Kandori -vs- Kagetsu [* 1/2]

--- Short and sweet Kandori match giving the young Sendai girl enough offence to make this work while always knowing that the match could end at anytime with a Kandori submission. And they played that out well with Kagetsu getting cover after cover while desperatly trying not to get trapped in Kandori's grip. Kagetsu didn't even last 5 minutes, but did put up a good fight with the legend before the armbreaker was securedly locked in for the tap.

4:47 of 4:46 - Kandori made Kagetsu submit to a cross-armbreaker

9. Yoshiko Tamura © -vs- Emi Sakura - (NEO/NWA Pacific Titles) [** 1/2]

--- Tamura defending the NEO belts against the lady she beat them for back on May 5th 2009, after 7 successful defences since then. And while I struggled a little to get into the early part it became a very good match. The main thread was Sakura being one step ahead of Tamura managing to block and get out of Tamura's big moves like the top rope sentons and that slipping out of that apron leep Ace Crusher sending Tamura crashing to the floor. Loads of near falls the final minutes as Sakura went into overkill with her La Magistrals and other big moves. Tamura on the other hand relied on her elbows before getting in the killer move Mount Cook to retain!

21:57 of 21:57 - Tamura pinned Sakura with the Mount Cook to retain the NEO/NWA Pacific Titles in her 8th defence.

COMMENTS: The main event between Tamura vs Sakura delivered while the undercard was fairly average stuff, but by NEO standard it was ok.

--PUNQ--

PUNQ · November 13, 2011

NEO on Samurai TV - November 21, 2010, Osaka - (2 hrs)

November 21, 2010, Osaka Prefectural Gym #2 (627 fans)

1. Yoshiko Tamura -vs- Miki Iida - (Iida's Debut) [*]

--- A new NEO rookie making her pro debut. Too bad for her that NEO only has 1 1/2 months left too live at this point. She seemed ok, but too small and weak to take seriously. Reminded a little of a young Chapparita Asari. Tamura could beat her up and bend her well giving her a few cradles before getting the guaranteed win with a armsalto.

5:52 of 8:02 - Tamura pinned Iida with a double-wrist armsalto

2. Ayumi Kurihara -vs- Hikaru Shida [* 1/4]

--- This was kind of good. Short, no wasting of time and the execution of the moves was sitting. Shida looked good too as she was trying to beat Kurihara with the best she had getting quite a bit of the offence before Kurihara woke up and took care of business in little less then 6 minutes with a German Suplex.

5:53 of 5:53 - Kurihara pinned Shida with a German Suplex

3. Toshie Uematsu & Yuu Yamagata -vs- Nagisa Nozaki & Shuri [*]

--- Some ok fighting, but they never really got much of a flow or story out it to get engaging. Still not bad with the veteran of the bout rolling NEO's Nozaki up for the pin.

10:24 of 10:24 - Uematsu pinned Nozaki with a flying leg roll-up

4. Danshoku Dino -vs- Tanny Mouse [1/4*]

--- ....yeah....this is a match I want to see. Not even with a 'gay caveman will rape a tied-up NEO president in 10 minutes' gimmick was this ever going to catch my attention.....

5:41 of 9:29 - Dino pinned Tanny after a Danshoku Driver

5. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Misaki Ohata -vs- Manami Toyota & Tsukasa Fujimoto [*]

--- Why waste so much time with this random tag match? It wasn't all that good either. Just action flying us by until Ohata beat the Ice Ribbon girl....

7:00 of 15:27 - Ohata pinned Fujimoto after a fishermans buster

6. Meiko Satomura -vs- Yuki Miyazaki [* 3/4]

--- Special singles match where Miyazaki was about to have a fairly good match with same-generation wrestler Satomura. Miyazaki gave it her all and even tried to land the moonsaulting footstomp without luck. But nobody was thinking Miyazaki was going to beat the generation ace and even if Miyazaki was able to survive the dreaded sleeper she soon enough found herself out cold to a kneel kick.

9:31 of 9:31 - Satomura pinned Miyazaki after a Kneel Kick

7. Aya Yuki & Ryo Mizunami -vs- Kaori Yoneyama & Kazumi Shimouma [* 1/4]

--- Loads of action, but too much Shimouma surviving stuff. Not really dragging me in, but there was some nice moves landing along with a bunch of near falls before they finally shut Shimouma's trap.

4:26 of 14:19 - Yuki pinned Shimouma after a Death Valley Bomb

8. Shinobu Kandori -vs- Kagetsu [* 1/2]

--- Short and sweet Kandori match giving the young Sendai girl enough offence to make this work while always knowing that the match could end at anytime with a Kandori submission. And they played that out well with Kagetsu getting cover after cover while desperatly trying not to get trapped in Kandori's grip. Kagetsu didn't even last 5 minutes, but did put up a good fight with the legend before the armbreaker was securedly locked in for the tap.

4:47 of 4:46 - Kandori made Kagetsu submit to a cross-armbreaker

9. Yoshiko Tamura © -vs- Emi Sakura - (NEO/NWA Pacific Titles) [** 1/2]

--- Tamura defending the NEO belts against the lady she beat them for back on May 5th 2009, after 7 successful defences since then. And while I struggled a little to get into the early part it became a very good match. The main thread was Sakura being one step ahead of Tamura managing to block and get out of Tamura's big moves like the top rope sentons and that slipping out of that apron leep Ace Crusher sending Tamura crashing to the floor. Loads of near falls the final minutes as Sakura went into overkill with her La Magistrals and other big moves. Tamura on the other hand relied on her elbows before getting in the killer move Mount Cook to retain!

19:22 of 21:57 - Tamura pinned Sakura with the Mount Cook to retain the NEO/NWA Pacific Titles in her 8th defence.

COMMENTS: The main event between Tamura vs Sakura delivered while the undercard was fairly average stuff, but by NEO standard it was ok. This is the edited TV version.

--PUNQ--

PUNQ · November 13, 2011

BJPW on Samurai TV - November 22, 2010, Tokyo - (2 hrs)

November 22, 2010, Tokyo - Korakuen Hall (1,386 fans)

1. Takumi Tsukamoto -vs- Kazuki Hashimoto [* 1/2]

--- Generation battle and not only are they fighting for position and who'll break out first. They're now also competing for who'll get the best mullet! That prize goes to Hashimoto here, but the actual wrestling match went to Tsukamoto who's starting to become quite good for a rookie.

7:10 of 8:36 - Tsukamoto pinned Hashimoto with a Fisherman Driver

2. Shiori Asahi & Makoto Oishi & Tsutomu Oosugi -vs- Mens Teioh & Onryo & Atsushi Ohashi [* 3/4]

--- Eh....Ohashi got flowers from a girl and it seemed the other boys here in the Men's Club felt jelous since Ohashi seemed to be a straight guy. He was forgiven by going a little gay and giving the flowers to Teioh. And those flowers and Ohashi played a large part in this bout until the flowers were all broken and Ohashi too.....

7:34 of 9:37 - Oosugi pinned Ohashi after a DDT

3. Shadow WX & Brahman Kei & Brahman Shu -vs- Takashi Sasaki & Yuko Miyamoto & Shinobu - (Hardcore) [**]

--- The Sato Twins style hardcore with Shadow WX also becoming a Brahman! Puking slime, blowing black mist and using those robot arms! Shadow was having more fun then usual doing this stuff and it was cool to see him in that role and how he was just waiting to lariat down Shinobu at the end there before the twins covered the beaten man.

9:19 of 12:59 - Kei & Shu pinned Shinobu with a jack knife cradle

4. Ryuji Ito & Abdullah Kobayashi -vs- Masashi Takeda & Takeshi Minaminno - (Light Tube Death Match) [** 1/4]

--- I love you Abdullah! He sets the place on fire with his wild man personality and this match was his. All his! Just sit back and enjoy Abdullah making his case for getting a title shot at Ito's BJPW Death Match Title! And he so deserve it too!

12:48 of 15:11 - Abdullah pinned Takeda after a top rope elbow drop

5. Yuji Okabayashi & Ryuichi Kawakami -vs- HARASHIMA & Shinya Ishikawa [** 1/4]

--- That's Shinya Ishikawa?! I hardly recognze him with his nearly Men's Club new look! He's been out with injury for 10 months, but hasn't lost a step in the ring. Actually he looked more like a grown-up fighter now, so the change can be very positive if he builds from this! And the natural focus here was him and his generation rival Okabayashi who he'd been trading the BJPW Tag Title with before his injury. There was one slip-up at the end there which took away some of the hot finish, but otherwise Ishikawa's stuff landed real well and it's great to see him back and I hope he gets a role in the future. For now Okabayashi has the advantage lariating him down.

14:29 of 15:00 - Okabayashi pinned Ishikawa after a lariat

6. Daisuke Sekimoto & Yoshito Sasaki © -vs- Jun Kasai & Jaki Numazawa - (BJPW Tag Title; Barbed Wire Execution Match) [***]

--- Barbed wire extravaganza! Barbed wire boards, barbed wire baseball bat, barbed wire on the ropes and so on. And they had a climatic battle out of it dropping everything they had on the spikey things and chairs and even used perfume to sting in Sasaki's eyes! Let's just say the Big Japan fans were truly pleased by this experience and how hard they worked along with all the spots they did to create the drama. They were really working and putting in that extra effort. And Sasaki was the main guy on the champion team taking a serious beating while also not being able to put the challengers to rest. Instead he was dropped down in a cross-arm piledriver on the wire to lose the bout and the title.

18:41 of 18:48 - Numazawa pinned Sasaki after a cross-arm piledriver on a barbed wire baseball bat. Kasai & Numazawa become the 31st BJPW Tag Champions.

COMMENTS: Ishiakwa back! Cliamtic title match! And Abby making his sure people know he's their top hardcore worker. Yeah, it's all good!

--PUNQ--

PUNQ · November 13, 2011

SMASH on Samurai TV - November 22, 2010, Tokyo - (3 hrs)

November 22, 2010, Tokyo - JCB Hall (3,200 fans)

1. Takao Omori -vs- Bj

PUNQ · November 13, 2011

Dragon Gate on PPV - November 23, 2010, Osaka - (4 hrs)

November 23, 2010, Osaka Prefectural Gym (7,000 fans)

1. Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguchi & NOSAWA Rongai -vs- BxB Hulk & Anthony W. Mori & Super Shisa [* 1/2]

--- Mori is retiring in December and this is one of the last chances these guys have of working with him. The match wasn't anything more then a happy action opening card bout, but it did the trick and naturally since he's on his way out Mori gets to lose.

7:52 of 7:53 - Saito pinned Mori with a Dragon Suplex

2. Riki Choshu -vs- Stalker Ichikawa [1/4*]

--- .....Choshu LARIAT!!!!......

0:42 of 0:42 - Choshu pinned Ichikawa after a lariat

3. Kagetora -vs- Kzy [* 1/4]

--- Wasn't exactly a match-up that was going to light up my heart, but they made it a decent competitive bout. Loved Kzy's top rope splash. It was a close fall, but it didn't get him any win. Instead Kagetora landed his longtime finisher the modified Emerald Frosion to beat the prick. Kagetora tried to befriend Kzy after the match, but got his face covered in white powder instead.

8:09 of 8:08 - Kagetora pinned Kzy after the Ikkitousen

--- This promised to be one hell of a flyer and it was! Had it's down period the first half with only some mild fun moments before the excitement and bigger moves started landing. Dragon Kid was looking good landing quite a bit including two Ultra Huracanrana's without gaining a pinfall. Instead PAC shows he's the new flying king in Dragin Gate delivering the cool stuff and winning with the 360 SSP to keep his trophy.

17:44 of 17:45 - PAC pinned Dragon Kid after a 360 Shooting Star Press to retain the Open the Brave Gate Title in his 2nd defence.

--- Why they feel they have to drag out a match this long and not deliver more then what they'd do in a 10-min match I've got no idea. They just don't know how to fill out a match besides their main spots, so they do a walking pace match out of their regular sprint matches for big shows. Anyway, it was time to end Yokosuka & K-ness's half-year long reign as tag champions of Dragon Gate and to do so we have the rather fresh combo of Doi & Gamma, a team that hasn't been done to death. Not that it brings anything new to the table. But Gamma ended the match in a strong manner piledriving K-ness off the second turnbuckle before flying wonderfully through the air to land a Skytwister press to win the Open the Twin Gate Unified Tag Title with Doi!

23:15 of 23:14 - Gamma pinned K-ness after a Skytwister press. Doi & Gamma become the 13th Open the Twin Gate Unified Tag Champions.

6. Yasushi Kanda & Takuya Sugawara & Naoki Tanizaki © -vs- Masaaki Mochizuki & Don Fujii & Kenichiro Arai -vs- Shingo Takagi & YAMATO & Cyber Kong - (Open the Triangle Gate Title; 3-Way Elimination) [**]

--- Plenty of action. Plenty of action to like aswell. But with 9 guys plus a few extra getting involved it all gets too chaotic and not enough flow or moments that really count. Entertaining, but they were not able to keep it floating for the nearly half hour it lasted. What I liked about the match was also one of the reasons why it didn't get a hot end as it became a lot about Arai who used to be a member of the heel champion before getting dumped in favour of Naruki Doi a little while ago and this was Arai's first high-profile bout in a while. Looking like a heel, but supposed to be a babyface without getting much crowd support as the champs trashed him. Didn't help that the execution of the finishing moves was less then perfect. Regardless the heel champs retain their newly won belts in a match that should have been better.

22:29 - Mochizuki pinned YAMATO after a reversed Twister

27:05 of 27:06 - Kanda pinned Arai after a Pedigree on a blue box. Kanda & Sugawara & Tanizaki retain the Open the Triangle Gate Title in their 1st defence.

--- This was a match I was so looking forward to! It's the new ace Yoshino against the old one in a symbolic passing the touch to establish Yoshino as a true king of Dragon Gate now. And this match did estabslish that! But seriously folks. This was a 5 minute match done in slow motion streached out 30 minutes!!! The singled out impact moments was great, but what the hell did they do with everything in between. I'll tell you. Walk in turtle speed doing facial expressions as if they were having a slow-motion match. This was so damn dull most of the time while the actual execution of moves was fantastic! Loved how CIMA countered the Sol Naciente into a cradle. Loved Yoshino's tope dive. Loved CIMA's cross-arm Ligerbomb! Loved the top rope Lightning Spiral from Yoshino! And so on..... and Yoshino winning with the Sol Nociente to retain. But why not have a 15-min match or 10-min even when you don't have anything more to offer?!

30:38 of 30:38 - Yoshino made CIMA submit to the Sol Naciente Kai to retain the Open the Dream Gate Title in his 2nd defece.

COMMENTS: This show had some much potential, but failed because they keep draging matches out long without doing anything more then what they'd usually do in a normal lenght match. Only PAC vs Dragon Kid didn't out-stay it's welcome of the title matches with a more sensable lenght to do it.

--PUNQ--

PUNQ · November 14, 2011

NOAH on G+SN - November 23, 2010, Tokyo - (3 1/2 hrs)

November 23, 2010, Tokyo - Korakuen Hall (2,100 fans)

1. Akira Taue & Ricky Marvin -vs- Katsuhiko Nakajima & Takashi Okita [*]

--- At least this bout put a smile on the fans faces even if all Taue want to do these days is touchs guys dicks and niples. Nakajima did a little kicking with Marvin. And Marvin showed he can roll a schoolboy pinning Okita easy.

9:18 of 9:18 - Marvin pinned Okita with a schoolboy

2. Yutaka Yoshie & Kentaro Shiga -vs- Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue [*]

--- Inoue the chickenshit getting to survive way too long when fighting Yoshie. I was very happy when Yoshie planded himself full-weight on Inoue for the pin on that top rope splash.

12:10 of 12:11 - Yoshie pinned Inoue after a top rope bodypress

3. Bison Smith -vs- Kento Miyahara [*]

--- Smith squashing the young kid in less the 5 minutes. Good fun, but not really good for much more then making Smith look unstoppable.

4:46 of 4:47 - Smith pinned Miyahara after a Styles Clash

4. Go Shiozaki & Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki -vs- Mohammed Yone & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi [* 3/4]

--- The heat is on! Didn't get too much out of the match though. But at least there was some good moments in there before the heels got themself DQ'ed with some chair smashing.

15:20 of 15:20 - Shiozaki & Ogawa & Suzuki defeated Yone & Kanemaru & Hirayanagi by DQ

5. Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima -vs- Takashi Sugiura & Shuhei Taniguchi [1/2*]

--- Morishima has been out a couple of months getting a diet sliming down after his weight got out of hand. And with a new and healthier body he comes abck and squash the GHC Heavyweight Champion in less then 2 minutes! The buzz has started for the Sugiura vs Morishima title match on December 5th!

1:39 of 1:39 - Morishima pinned Sugiura after a backdrop suplex

6. Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli & Delirious -vs- Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano & Taiji Ishimori [**]

--- They are making the ROH Tag Champions look good, but so far most of the war has been psychological as the tag champions have only target their weaker irrelevant tag partner as Takayama & Sano bullied Delirious and Hero & Castagnoli took care of Ishimori. Ishimori got most of his offence against Delirious, but up against Castagnoli he was helpless. Fun match.

17:03 of 16:49 - Castagnoli pinned Ishimori after a cross-arm powerbomb

--- New Japan's Kanemoto & Tiger Mask coming in to defend their GHC Junior Tag belts against NTV Junior Heavyweight Tag League '10 winners KENTA & Aoki! And this featured one freakin' lovely moment as KENTA did Kanemoto's own bootscrub to the face spot with a little added arrogant stiffness to it! Of course Kanemoto got his revenge! And the match was fairly stiff and kept bubbling well without hitting too many highspots after that except the end where Tiger Mask did a top rope Tiger Driver variation on poor Aoki leaving the loved NOAH wrestler hurt and unable to move to the ropes as Kanemoto slapped on the ankle hold! Aoki didn't want to quit, but couldn't move either with KENTA being held off by Tiger Mask. That ment the decision was in the referees hands and he stopped the bout to save Aoki's honor and health. Kanemoto is an awesome heel! After the winning ceremony he kept bad mouthing NOAH and throwing the championship belt to the floor while kicking apart the throphies! Aoki tried to step up to Kanemoto, but Kanemoto cheapshot kicked Aoki's hurting ankle feeling very pleased with himself. Yes, this is what wrestling is all about! HATE!!!

25:54 of 25:54 - Kanemoto defeated Aoki via Referee Stop with a ankle hold. Kanemoto & Tiger Mask retain the GHC Junior Tag Title in their 2nd defence.

October 15, 2010, Hachioka - Keio Plaza Hotel Hachioji (1,300 fans)

8. Dick Togo & Yasu Urano -vs- Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki - (Junior Tag League - Block B ) [**]

--- DDT's Dick Togo & Yasu Urano having a fun match against the NOAH guys on the opening day of the Junior Tag League 2010. Urano especially was filling his role much better then expected here and a cunning and lucky chickenshit. Like with the end where Ogawa was going to backdrop suplex him and Dick managed to flip Urano over to get the upset cradle to win the bout!

12:23 of 12:24 - Urano pinned Ogawa with a backdrop suplex cut-back

October 26, 2010, Niigata City Gym (1,800 fans)

9. Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki -vs- Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada - (Junior Tag League - Block B ) [* 1/2]

--- Ogawa & Suzuki were having better luck against the Osaka Pro side of Kotoge & Harada. At least they managed to capitalize on being from a bigger company even if the younger side did show some signs of mild hope along the way, but in the end there was no doubt as Suzuki did his Blue Destiny leaving Harada dead.

14:09 of 14:10 - Suzuki pinned Harada after the Blue Destiny

10. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano -vs- Kensuke Sasaki & Go Shiozaki [* 3/4]

--- The GHC Tag Champions not taking their job as the promotions top team lightly facing a team consisting of two former GHC Heavyweight Champions! And it was a slugger! Not pretty heavyweigth fighting and not with the most fire either. But they kept landing hard blows and didn't rest too much considering it was a smaller show. But in the end Shiozaki took too much trashing at the hands of stiff-boys Takayama & Sano and Takayama Everest'ed him for the pin.

20:48 of 22:41 - Takayama pinned Shiozaki with a German Suplex

COMMENTS: The GHC Junior Tag Title bout was lovely! But not too much else that one really has to to see, but that match was cool in many ways!

--PUNQ--

PUNQ · November 14, 2011

AJPW on Samurai TV - November 23, 2010, Tokyo - (2 hrs)

November 23, 2010, Tokyo - Korakuen Hall (1,600 fans)

1. Joe Malenko & Osamu Namiguchi -vs- Kaz Hayashi & Masa Fuchi [*]

--- Old Malenko doing technical wrestling with the old school guys in the company and there was a lot of Fuchi in there doing his usual rutine of stramina bodyslams and trying to keep up with the other technical bastards in there. But no, he had to get backslided.

8:46 of 14:58 - Namiguchi pinned Fuchi with a backslide

2. Minoru -vs- Shuji Kondo -vs- KAI -vs- BUSHI -vs- Mazada -vs- Hiroshi Yamato - (6-Way Ladder Match) [* 1/2]

--- Fun little ladder match. A few cool moves and a lot of ladders and ladder shaking! A few guys got eliminated along the way the usual way while the ones left was fighting to climb the ladders to get a title shot. And the winner became Minoru! He gets another shot at Kaz Hayashi's AJPW Junior Title.

9:39 of 9:57 - Minoru grapped the #1 Contendership for the AJPW Junior Title

3. Keiji Muto -vs- Yasufumi Nakanoue [*]

--- Squash! Amusing how Muto used the first few minutes by just stitting on top of the rookie pressing his shoulders down hoping for the simplest of pins. And Muto slowly dominated the hopless guy who had absolutely nothing to offer. He's like a lesser version the New Japan's Hirasawa. And rightfully lost to the figure-four.

9:30 of 9:29 - Muto made Nakanoue submit to a figure-four leglock

4. TARU & Rene Dupree -vs- Tamon Honda & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi - (RWTL '10) [* 3/4]

--- Voodoo Murders against ex-NOAH/AJPW side of washed-up Honda & Kikuchi!!! And Kikuchi was so wonderful here with his crazy man persona! One laught at him AND with him! Just enjoy this one as Kikuchi naturally gets the trashing.

9:19 of 9:18 - TARU pinned Kikuchi after a top rope legdrop

5. Seiya Sanada & Manabu Soya -vs- Dark Ozz & Dark Cuervo - (RWTL '10) [* 1/2]

--- All Japan vs AAA! Japanese style against Mexican wrestling. Very lucha flavored, but not as awkward as it can be on Japanese soil as Ozz & Cuervo are very spot based wrestlers with a elegant style which worked well enough here with one real nice corkscrew dive out of the ring as one of the main highlights before Sanada rolled Cuervo up Japanese style!

11:24 of 11:24 - Sanada pinned Cuervo with a Japanese leg roll clutch hold

6. Akebono & Taiyo Kea -vs- Minoru Suzuki & Masakatsu Funaki - (RWTL '10) [* 1/2]

--- The AJPW Tag Champions and Hawaiian duo Akebono & Kea facing the former Pancrase shooters Suzuki & Funaki! And the match was solid in some parts, mainly when the shooters were locking in their submissions and trying to trick the tag champs. But the match lacked something to lift it up so it all felt kind of flat not getting the boost such a high quality match-up should. In the end the champs got their points when Kea kept landing TKO34th's until he had Suzuki beat.

18:00 of 20:35 - Kea pinned Suzuki after the TKO34th

7. Kohei Suwama & Ryota Hama -vs- KENSO & KONO - (RWTL '10) [* 3/4]

--- Like with the rest of the matches it lacked the crowd help and lacked that sense or urgency a match should have. But it had Hama. Nuff said. And KENSO guiding and teaching Kono how to be a heel, but the faces fought back hard as the Triple Crown Champion helped set Kono up for the Ryota Hammer for the end.

14:30 of 14:30 - Hama pinned Kono after a Jackhammer

COMMENTS: Plenty of interesting match-ups, but as too often happen with All Japan, they have a problem of making the actual matches as interesting to back it up.

--PUNQ--

PUNQ · November 14, 2011

FREEDOMS on COMM - November 23, 2010, Hiroshima - (1 1/2 hrs)

November 23, 2010, Hiroshima Industrial Hall (255 fans)

1. The Winger -vs- Souther [3/4*]

--- Winger wrestling Hiroshima based foreigner Souther for a match that was decent. Just not very interesting. Souther isn't exactly a charismatic wrestler even if he tries some of Steve Williams moves like the Oklahoma Stampede. He eventually was rolled up by a much smarter Winger.

7:47 of 7:47 - Winger pinned Souther with a schoolboy

2. Onryo & Susumu -vs- Ricky Fuji & Madoka [1/2*]

--- The match was fine easy fun until the incredible lame ending where they all got counted out starting holding the other guy off at count 5 already....and it was a slow count until 20......

13:04 of 13:07 - Onryo & Susumu wrestled Fuji & Madoka to a Double Count Out

3. Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Masashi Takeda -vs- Mammoth Sasaki & Keita Yano [* 1/2]

--- Entertaining enough match where Yano tried to bother the veteran Takaiwa. He shouldn't have done that.....

14:43 of 14:42 - Takaiwa pinned Yano after a Death Valley Bomb

--- HIROKI defends the old WAR based International Junior Title against mask man Kamui for a ok but not a boosted up bout even if there was something on the line. Was still like a usual singles match that happens in FREEDOMS. Kamui had a lot of the advantage early on, but then he got hit in the head with the leg he'd been working on a few times before he got dropped down in a weak looking double-arm modified Muscular Bomb for the pin.

11:55 of 11:55 - HIROKI pinned Kamui with the Quick Bomb to retain the Tenyru Project International Junior Title in his 1st defence.

5. Takashi Sasaki & Jun Kasai & Yuko Miyamoto & Sakigake -vs- Great Kojika & GENTARO & Brahman Kei & Brahman Shu - (Freedoms/Hiroshima Union v. Kojika Army; Hardcore Elimination Match) [** 1/2]

--- Dove Pro's Sakigake getting a rare chance of working outside the promotion he's the top guy of with the Sasaki connection joining forces with him and Miyamoto & Kasai to face old Kojika's guys for a motivated bout! They worked hard and at a real good pace giving the fans their moneys worth! Rare for this promotion who usually phones it in. But here in Hiroshima they deliver in the main event for a even elimination match. And getting to eliminate the old Kojika dude was homeboy Sakigake! He was soon after eliminated himself, but he assisted Sasaki after that blocking GENTARO from jumping off the top rope abling Sasaki to win the match landing a couple of finishers!

11:54 - Kasai pinned Kei after a top rope bodypress

12:58 - Shu eliminated Kasai via Over The Top Rope

16:47 - Kei & Miyamoto eliminated via Over The Top Rope

20:50 - Sakigake eliminated Kojika via Over The Top Rope

22:18 - GENTARO eliminated Sakigake via Over The Top Rope

26:19 of 26:09 - Sasaki pinned GENTARO after the D-Geist

COMMENTS: The main event was good. The undercard wasn't too exciting though, but wasn't all terrible.

--PUNQ--

Guide to Japanese Wrestling 2010

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