Guide to Japanese Wrestling 2010

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AYUMI KURIHARA PRODUCE on COMM: 5TH ANNIVERSARY - December 12, 2010, Tokyo - (2 hrs)

 

 

 

 

December 12, 2010, Tokyo - Shinjuku FACE (600 fans)

 

 

1. A*YU*MI & Ultimo Dragon -vs- Tojuki Leon & Space Lone Wolf(NOSAWA) [*]

--- Cool opening the show with Ultimo Dragon doing some technical wrestling with Leon and the masked anniversary girl beating a man, even if it was just NOSAWA under a mask. Easy action.

11:12 of 11:48 - A*YU*MI pinned Wolf after a throat slam suplex

 

 

 

2. Ran Yu Yu -vs- Sawako Shimono [*]

--- Glorified squash. Ran having control and pretending not to have it giving Sawako some near falls before finishing her off easy with a kneedrop.

11:02 of 12:21 - Yu Yu pinned Sawako after a top rope kneedrop

 

 

 

3. Toshie Uematsu -vs- Mika Iida [*]

--- ....even more glamorized as Uematsu makes a girl who's only wrestled a few weeks look like she could be competitive with her regardless of Iida's small size. Actually I'm not sure where I have Iida as far as potential. She seems half-athletic. Clearly not all there yet, but that might come over time, but she's so small it's going to be difficult for her to accomplish anything on the scene. But at least Uematsu see enough potential to let her last over 12 minutes with her.

11:57 of 12:23 - Uematsu pinned Iida after a top rope bodypress

 

 

 

4. Aja Kong & Yuki Miyazaki & Gami & Hiroyo Matsumoto -vs- Cherry & Ayako Sato & Moeka Haruhi & Misaki Ohata [* 1/4]

--- A big 8-woman tag just for fun with my favourite funny moment being all four girls jumping off the top rope for a dropkick and missing when Aja standing in the middle of the ring ducked (deliberat spot, and not a mistake, even if one can't know for sure anymore). There was a lot of lame stuff too. It did feature Gami after all. But I guess they did enough to entertain in a simple way before Aja crushed little Ohata diving from the top rope.

18:32 of 18:47 - Kong pinned Ohata after a top rope elbow drop

 

 

 

5. Ayako Hamada & Akino -vs- Ayumi Kurihara & Tomoka Nakagawa [**]

--- Damn this 5th anniversary match for Kurihara was long! She teamed with the fellow generation girl that beat her on the Joshi 4 Hope show less then two weeks earlier to face the once most promising teams in pro-wrestling in Ayako & Akino. The old ARSION pair has really fallen since ARSION shut down. Akino is still acceptable, but Hamada has just given up and just seems like this lazy, grumpy old bitch who don't give a shit. So with a lot of the match being lazy Ayako stiffing it didn't help that Kurihara hurt her foot in the process slowing a lot of this down even more. They still got some good moment out of this in it's struggling pace. Loads of near falls and a few cool moves to keep the fans entertained with a unhappy ending of Kurihara losing when Akino landed her flying heelkick at the half-hour mark.

28:21 of 30:07 - Akino pinned Kurihara after the Tornado A

 

 

 

COMMENTS: Modern joshi at it's most standard and it's strange to think that of wrestlers who came about in the 2000's, being a 5 year veteran is almost an achivement. Not many last that long anymore.

 

 

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TENYRU PROJECT on SAMURAI TV - December 14, 2010, Tokyo - (2 hrs)

 

 

 

 

December 14, 2010, Tokyo - Shinjuku FACE (425 fans)

 

 

1. NOSAWA Rongai & Mineo Fujita -vs- Mitsuo Momota & Hisamaru Tajima [3/4*]

--- Too common. And hardly any effort put into it. Always cool to see old Momota, but he needs people around him to pick up the work and Tajima and NOSAWA are not that kind of people and Fujita wasn't much up for it today. Simple NOSAWA La Magistral ends it.

13:12 of 18:10 - NOSAWA pinned Tajima with a La Magistral

 

 

 

2. Tomohiro Ishii -vs- HARASHIMA [*]

--- Never an exciting bout as one of DDT's top wrestler battle tough plug Ishii. The most interesting thing happened at the end when HARASHIMA was trying to stiff the hard motherfucker and Ishii answered back without blinking. Felt New Japan regular midcarder Ishii came out looking stronger then the former KO-D Champion. And they kept on stiffing each other out on the floorside and pushing referee Wada away for the no-contest.

13:56 of 17:11 - Ishii wrestled HARASHIMA to a No-Contest

 

 

 

3. Yumiko Hotta & Keito -vs- Manami Toyota & Ayako Sato [*]

--- Women. Mostly old women and Sato the never-been having a easy day at work letting the small girl do the work and the veterans taking it easy. Not much focus and kind of just there. Hotta kills Sato Pyramid style.

13:27 of 19:46 - Hotta pinned Sato with the Pyramid Driver

 

 

 

4. Arashi -vs- Kintaro Kanemura - (Lumberjack Match) [1/2*]

--- Kanemura in a Lumberjack match with powerful sumo veteran Arashi. And Kanemura wanted to roll out of the ring, but the fans that were the lumberjacks pushed him back in. They were not strong enough to lift Arashi back in when he fell out. The match was quite shitty and pretty much a waste of time. And if anyone care Arashi won with some wood over the head, lariat and powerbomb.

9:48 of 9:50 - Arashi pinned Kanemura with a powerbomb

 

 

 

5. HIROKI © -vs- Ryuji Hijikata - (Tenyru Project International Junior Title) [* 1/4]

--- Hi69 was never a credible champion to begin with so seeing him get served to Hijikata was a good decision. The match was never great and was very slow impact based with Hijikata's headbutt being the highlights besides Hijikata's modified fishermans busters which got him the belt.

13:34 of 13:35 - Hijikata pinned HIROKI after a super fishermans buster to become the 18th Tenyru Project International Junior Champion.

 

 

 

6. Tiger Mask I & Tiger Shark -vs- Genichiro Tenyru & Black Tiger V [3/4*]

--- Sad and bad. Legends like Tenryu and the original Tiger Mask should not embarrass themselfs like this. Especailly Tenryu is dead in the ring now. I though it would never happen, but he no longer has the health to set the place on fire. And none of the other Tigers could help the match with Black Tiger tapping to absolutely NO fanfare to Tiger Mask Sayama's chickenwing facelock.

15:02 of 15:02 - Tiger Mask I made Black Tiger submit to a chickenwing facelock

 

 

 

COMMENTS: Tenryu's failed project.....

 

 

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NEO on COMM - December 15, 2010, Tokyo - (2 hrs)

 

 

 

 

December 15, 2010, Tokyo - Kitazawa Town Hall (187 fans)

 

 

1. Ayumi Kurihara & Nagisa Nozaki -vs- Toshie Uematsu & Mika Iida [* 1/4]

--- Rookie Iida getting to try herself a lot against Kurihara which was where the interest layed as they're both fairly athletic even if Kurihara is far surperior in every way and showed it by effectively shutting her down. Good energy even if the wrestling was of the basic kind.

13:21 of 13:21 - Kurihara pinned Iida after a top rope dropkick

 

 

 

2. Mima Shimoda -vs- Misaki Ohata [* 1/2]

--- Not bad at all. At least not for a modern Shimoda singles bout. And most importantly she made Ohata look good. Well, Ohata managed to stand for her own goodness here looking fit and on point managing to keep this at a certain level. Sadly for her she didn't get her reward and lost to the veteran with 24 years experience when Shimoda started using her Tiger Suplexes.

12:54 of 12:54 - Shimoda pinned Ohata after a second rope Tiger Suplex

 

 

 

3. Yuki Miyazaki & Tanny Mouse -vs- Makoto & Chou-un Shiryu [*]

--- The usual Machine Guns stuff, but with more wrestling that I had expected considering they were facing Shiryu & Makoto. So better then predicted by filling the time ok, but still the same old shit. Tanny beats Makoto with the diving headbutt after Miyazaki had landed the moonsault.

17:16 of 17:16 - Tanny pinned Makoto after a top rope diving headbutt

 

 

 

4. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Kagetsu -vs- Nanae Takahashi & Shimono Sawako [* 1/4]

--- Had it's minor monents, but with Sawako there it was going to be kept down. She wasn't totally terrible, but there was some moments where you have to slap your head. The other girls with Nanae directing trafic made it at least float, but this was a little on the long side compared to what they had to offer. Matsumoto and her backdrop suplex ends it.

17:33 of 17:33 - Matsumoto pinned Sawako after a backdrop suplex

 

 

 

5. Yoshiko Tamura © -vs- Aya Yuki - (NEO/NWA Pacific Titles) [* 1/2]

--- Yuki getting her second title shot this year and is starting to look more and more credible as a worker these days after also holding the NEO Tag belts for a couple of weeks with Mizunami last month. And while it was never a technical masterpiece the match did have some moments where it looked like Yuki could win the big one. Like when she landed that elbow drop from the top rope and most of all the Death Valley Bomb where Tamura was very late on kicking out! But still Yuki is still not a top of the line worker in the ranks so soon after Tamura killed her off using a modified double-arm DDT to keep the belts in her 10th straight successful defence!

15:51 of 15:51 - Tamura pinned Yuki after a double-arm DDT to retain the NEO/NWA Pacific Titles in her 10th defence.

 

 

 

COMMENTS: Better then most NEO shows. No real shitty match which is progress.

 

 

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OSAKA PRO on COMM: KUISHINBO KAMEN PRODUCE - December 15, 2010, Osaka - (2 hrs)

 

 

 

 

December 15, 2010, Osaka Minami Move On Arena (272 fans)

 

 

1. Billy Ken Kid & Tsubasa -vs- Magnitude Kishiwada & Yutaka [* 3/4]

--- Kishiwada Gurentai against Osaka Pro's own Billy & Tsubasa for a fine bout filled with near falls and some nice moves. Kishiwada was close several times on killing Billy, but Billy survived which set the table ready for Tsubasa to take care of the weak link in the match, Yutaka.

13:57 of 13:56 - Tsubasa made Yutaka submit to a Dragon Sleeper

 

 

 

2. Kuuga -vs- Ebessan III -vs- Tadasuke -vs- Black Shadow - (4-Way) [3/4*]

--- Not too silly even if a lot of it was Ebessan making a fool of it all. But they had 3 others to do some work and they made it a happy match amongst the heels and with Kuuga taking Ebessan down.....

8:51 of 8:50 - Kuuga pinned Ebessan after a facebuster

 

 

 

3. Super Robo K -vs- Miracle Man [1/2*]

--- Kuishinbo Kamen doing his robot gimmick having a fun match for himself. It was the usual Kuishinbo Kamen style match with some extra robot type movement only. The end was cool as two regular Kuishinbo Kamens came in and they triple teamed Miracle Man making it a easy win for the producer of this show!

9:41 of 9:42 - Robo made Miracle Man submit to a heel hold

 

 

 

4. Tigers Mask & Black Buffalo -vs- Danshoku Dino & Kanjyouro Matsuyama [1/4*]

--- Wow, what can I say?! Danshoku Dino in Osaka.... and what a romantic moment with Dino and Matsuyama in there with music and everything.... Tigers Mask & Buffalo was fighting harder to keep their manlyhood then trying to finish off the match. That's why this shit lasted 20 minutes!

20:13 of 20:13 - Tigers Mask pinned Matsuyama after a headkick

 

 

 

5. Kota Ibushi & Shadow Phoenix & Ultimate Spider Jr -vs- Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada & Takoyakida [* 1/2]

--- With the DDT bunch of Danshoku Dino and MIKAMI comes also Kota Ibushi showing off some of his flying. Not his most inspired performance as guys like Shadow Phoenix and Kotoge was as flashy as him here. The match was ok, but lacked something to push it higher. But at least it entertained the fans enough and Ibushi got the guest victory over a Osaka loser.

15:46 of 15:46 - Ibushi pinned Takoyakida after a Phoenix Splash

 

 

 

6. MIKAMI -vs- Kuishinbo Kamen [* 1/2]

--- Kuishinbo Kamen books himself in the main event again on his produced show and finds DDT's Jeff Hardy as his special opponent! And it became a much more fun and exciting match then first expected. MIKAMI brought the stunt leeping off the ladder onto a pile of chairs on top Kuishinbo on the floor! And the climax portion was good too with Kuishinbo kicking out of a bunch of sure deaths along with nearly getting it with his Skytwister press! But no, MIKAMI was always going to win and did so with his sliding schoolboy!

18:09 of 18:09 - MIKAMI pinned Kuishinbo with a sliding schoolboy

 

 

 

COMMENTS: Cool little show. Never amazing wrestling, but the DDT boys brought something different to the usual Osaka Pro formula.

 

 

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FREEDOMS on COMM - December 15, 2010, Tokyo - (2 hrs)

 

 

 

 

December 15, 2010, Tokyo - Shinjuku FACE (285 fans)

 

 

1. Masashi Takeda & Madoka & Shinobu -vs- Brahman Kei & Brahman Shu & Kazuhiko Ogasawara [3/4*]

--- Fairly silly with Shinobu coming out as 'super gay' Shinobu and Mecha Mummy coming in for some awkward stuff trying to team with Ogasawara resulting in a tame finish where Shinobu got to beat the martial artist when a attack from Mummy knocked Ogasawara down and confused.

8:50 of 8:51 - Shinobu pinned Ogasawara after a attack from Mecha Mummy backfired

 

 

 

2. Keita Yano -vs- HIROKI - (Wallaby TV Title) [1/2*]

--- Catch rules of 3-min rounds which also ment that HIROKI couldn't do his kicking. Only grapling. And the first two rounds wasn't terrible. Not that it was very interesting either. But the 3rd rounds was amazingly terrible and lame with Mecha Mummy and Shinobu fighting their way to the ring and Ogasawara doing one of the slowest and laziest run-ins after that. And all that resutled in HIROKI joining that in fighting until Yano was left alone in the ring and declared the winner.

8:45 of 8:36 - Yano defeated HIROKI when HIROKI started fighting Ogasawara & Mecha Mummy backstage to retain the Wallaby TV Title in his 4th defence.

 

 

 

3. Yuko Miyamoto -vs- Kamui - (Hardcore) [* 1/2]

--- Not a high-priority hardcore match, but it had a few cool spots including Kamui leeping off boards from the corner along with a couple of other dives through boards. There was some complications with one of the spots as Miyamoto was placing Kamui on one of the boards, but it felt like a light-hearted match anyway so it didn't really matter that Miyamoto needed one more try with extra chairs holding the board in place. Kamui is kind of fun to see in hardcore matches, this was however not one of his better ones as Miyamoto didn't bring too much heart into it and it was never dramatic in any way. Kamui was always going to lose and did so by getting Fire Thunder'ed on a big pile of chairs.

15:36 of 15:38 - Miyamoto pinned Kamui after a Fire Thunder piledriver on chairs

 

 

 

4. Takao Omori & Dick Togo & Tatsuhito Takaiwa -vs- Jun Kasai & Mammoth Sasaki & The Winger [**]

--- Traditionally based wrestling match with hardcore breeds Mammoth, Winger and Kasai getting to try themselfs against the likes of Omori, Takaiwa and Togo. Mammoth was the only one managing to stand up to Omori & Takaiwa. Otherwise Kasai looked hopelessly out of his element against Omori particularly. But at least Mammoth slashing down Omori gave the match some home fans pleasure. But up against such an strong freelance team the Freedoms side was going to lose and did so Takaiwa-style!

16:58 of 16:57 - Takaiwa pinned Winger after a Death Valley Bomb

 

 

 

5. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Ricky Fuji & Ken45 -vs- Great Kojika & Antonio Honda & Abdullah Kobayashi [* 1/4]

--- This was a freakshow. Just imagine it. Madman Kikuchi against oldman Kojika. Hell, just imagine Kikuchi in there! That's more then enough! Crazy son of a bitch doing headbutts with Abby Jr. Oh, and Antonio Honda was there too! Nuff said, right?

15:45 of 15:55 - Ken pinned Kojika with a La Magistral

 

 

 

6. Takashi Sasaki -vs- GENTARO - (2/3 Falls) [** 1/4]

--- Two longtime allies/foes having a 3-falls match to get who is the strongest at the moment. GENTARO beat Sasaki in a one-falls match in the first ever Freedoms match in 2009. No doubt Sasaki wants to get his mojo back from that. But GENTARO opened effectively effective keeping Sasaki down working over the leg trying to keep the man down while adding backdrop suplexes to do even more damage. Enough that after a few old school suplexes GENTARO had the first fall won Nagata backdrop-style! GENTARO continued in the same way for the second fall working him down with Sasaki only getting a few short impact style comebacks. Which in itself was enough as Sasaki made it 1-1 with a Fire Thunder. GENTARO again continued with what had been effective in the 3rd fall going for the leg and backdroping Sasaki. And even tried the Shooting Star Press which Sasaki rolled away from. And with that Sasaki started making the big comeback and got the return win in a fairly solid put together bout. It didn't get the fans in much of a frenzy, but they were respective enough rooting for their guy when needed.

12:31 of 12:31 - GENTARO pinned Sasaki with a backdrop suplex hold

7:01 of 7:01 - Sasaki pinned GENTARO after a Fire Thunder piledriver

8:41 of 8:41 - Sasaki pinned GENTARO after a lariat

 

 

 

COMMENTS: A fairly fun show with a main event that was solid and appearences from higher-name freelancers like Omori and Kikuchi.

 

 

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MICHINOKU PRO on Samurai TV - December 16, 2010, Tokyo - (2 hrs)

 

 

 

 

December 16, 2010, Tokyo - Korakuen Hall (1,851 fans)

 

 

1. Kinya Oyanagi & Ryuichi Sekine -vs- Kesen Numa-jiro & Daichi Sasaki

--- This rookie Sasaki is easy to get behind and he really got the treatment from Sekine & Oyanagi! Getting bended real well for the finish too! Poor kid.

2:16 of 14:03 - Oyanagi made Sasaki submit to a Octopus Hold

 

 

 

2. Jinsei Shinzaki & Taka Michinoku -vs- Ultimo Dragon & Shoichi Funaki [* 1/2]

--- Old pals having a 15-min draw with Taka & Shinzaki being the closest the last minutes as Funaki was in trouble a lot. But he survived the time limit!

5:13 of 15:00 - Shinzaki & Michinoku wrestled Dragon & Funaki to a 15:00 Time Limit Draw

 

 

 

3. Fujita Jr Hayato & Takeshi Minaminno & Rasse & Maguro Ooma -vs- Kenou & Kenbai & Yapper Man #1 & Yapper Man #2 [** 1/2]

--- Massive action match with some hot striking exchanges between Hayato and Kenou! I want to see a re-match between those to soon. They bring out the best of each other. Otherwise there was a lot of the smaller flyers having a good time in the ring and coming with the highlights. Kenbai tried to look good, but was in the end Helm'ed!

15:12 of 14:32 - Hayato pinned Kenbai after the Helm kneekick

 

 

 

 

4. Dick Togo -vs- Rui Hiugaji [** 1/4]

--- Hiugaji out of Togo's group and is now a heel and here he face the veteran in a one-on-one encounter at the Korakuen Hall! And they made it a long struggling fight. Not always super exciting, but in the end it did a nice job of establishing Hiugaji as a heel to be recond with. He also had help from the other Kowloon guys when needed to keep the aggressive Dick down. But in the end Dick became too much for the Kowloon wrestler and Hiugaji had to tap to the Crippler Crossface.

22:24 of 22:23 - Togo made Hiugaji submit to a Crippler Crossface

 

 

 

 

5. Great Sasuke & Ricky Fuji & Ken45 -vs- Kei Sato & Shu Sato & Taro Nohashi - (Great Space Battle) [** 3/4]

--- One of those weirdass brawls. What they did here was take the ring apart bit by bit as time went by. First the apron carpets, then the ropes, then the mats, then at the 20-min mark the planks. All while they were fighting in a very comical manner with Sasuke trying all kinds of stupid things fucking up. He even did a diving senton off a ladder onto a barrel standing up right. That looked nasty painful! So did it when he was powerbombed on the ring metal after the planks was traken away! All in crazyman Sasuke spirit! And Nohashi struggling to get involved in the match first getting lowered down from the balcony into a barrel and then rolled up inside the ring cover. He was released 26 minutes out into the match and 2 minutes later he was beat after getting a guitar smashed over his head, rolling in fish, getting a ton of flour over him and getting Segway'ed by Sasuke who leeped off a ladder! And they they had a little rock'n'roll concert!

28:00 of 28:00 - Sasuke pinned Nohashi after Sasuke Special Ver. 10.2 Segway off a ladder

 

 

 

 

COMMENTS: Crazy shit!

 

 

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NJPW on ESPN - December 16, 2010, Tokyo - (2 1/4 hrs)

 

 

 

 

December 16, 2010, Tokyo - Differ Ariake (350 fans)

 

 

1. Koji Kanemoto & Tiger Mask -vs- Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii [3/4*]

--- Some easy fun with a very lame DQ ending.

10:44 of 10:43 - Kanemoto & Tiger defeated Yano & Ishii by DQ

 

 

 

2. Shinsuke Nakamura -vs- King Fale [1/2*]

--- ......boring.

5:55 of 5:54 - Nakamura made Fale submit to a front choke

 

 

 

3. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma -vs- Gedo & Jado [*]

--- Not too exciting. Quite ordinary low-ki brawling from the New Japan brawlers until the King Kong Kneedrop landed and the junior heavyweights lost.

13:05 of 13:05 - Makabe pinned Gedo after a top rope kneedrop

 

 

 

4. Satoshi Kojima & Taichi Ishikari -vs- Hirooki Goto & Tama Tonga [*]

--- Random tag streached out without having anything extra to offer. It's that kind of show. Small and soulless. Kojima lariating down the Tongan was hardly a big surprise, was it?

14:50 of 14:49 - Kojima pinned Tonga after a lariat

 

 

 

5. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Manabu Nakanishi -vs- Yuji Nagata & Wataru Inoue [* 1/4]

--- More of the same really. They brought a tiny bit more to the table, but not really enough to make it more then just a match for easy money. Tanahashi splash kills off Inoue.

14:16 of 14:15 - Tanahashi pinned Inoue after a top rope bodypress

 

 

 

6. Yujiro Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito -vs- Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi [* 1/2]

--- No Limit vs Apollo 55! And they did their most standard stuff like the top rope footstomp, 3-D, the jack knife spot and so on to at least give us something to cheer for, but also this was just a match really. But I'd love to see a big match-up between these two sides. For now Naito tswisted his moonsault down on Taguchi to win this one.

12:30 of 12:29 - Naito pinned Taguchi after the Stardust Press

 

 

 

COMMENTS: These Sport J shows are really worthless.

 

 

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NJPW on ESPN - December 17, 2010, Tokyo - (2 1/4 hrs)

 

 

 

 

December 17, 2010, Tokyo - Differ Ariake (400 fans)

 

 

1. Hirooki Goto & Ryusuke Taguchi & Tama Tonga -vs- Yuji Nagata & Wataru Inoue & King Fale [* 1/4]

--- Had it's light moments with the Tongans spicing it a little bit before the big one of them was hit with lariats from Goto.

12:16 of 12:15 - Goto pinned Fale after a lariat

 

 

 

2. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Manabu Nakanishi & Koji Kanemoto -vs- Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka & Tomohiro Ishii [3/4*]

--- The match lasted this long with very limited to offer and it ends with a really lame DQ.....

15:04 of 15:02 - Tenzan & Nakanishi & Kanemoto defeated Yano & Iizuka & Ishii by DQ

 

 

 

3. Satoshi Kojima & Taichi Ishikari -vs- Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma [*]

--- You should get the drill by now. Standard action and nothing to get excited bout except Kojima nailing Taichi with the lariat.

11:59 of 11:58 - Kojima pinned Honma after a lariat

 

 

 

4. Yujiro Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito -vs- Gedo & Jado [* 1/4]

--- They worked ok hard, but the atmosphere in the Differ Ariake is dead. The evil twins did quite well against No Limit, but Yujiro has the new Tokyo Pimps move and thats the bomb!

15:10 of 15:09 - Takahashi pinned Gedo after the Tokyo Pimps

 

 

 

5. Shinsuke Nakamura -vs- Tiger Mask [*]

--- Gained some interest with the submission work as Tiger locked in Nakamura's arms, but this was over in no time as the heavyweight ramed the Tiger down with the Boma Ye!

7:34 of 7:34 - Nakamura pinned Tiger after the Boma Ye kneekick

 

 

 

6. Hiroshi Tanahashi -vs- Prince Devitt [* 1/4]

--- A match-up that should have been much sweeter. And it had a few near wins for Devitt with cunning cradles counters, but the heavyweight is always the heavyweight and has to win and did so in little over 8 minutes without too much of a climax.

8:21 of 8:21 - Tanahashi pinned Devitt after a top rope bodypress

 

 

 

COMMENTS: J Sports show that didn't deliver the dream matches.

 

 

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APACHE ARMY on COMM - December 17, 2010, Tokyo - (1 hr)

 

 

 

 

December 17, 2010, Tokyo - Shin-Kiba 1st RING (200 fans)

 

 

1. Kintaro Kanemura & Yasu Urano -vs- Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Tomohiro Waki [3/4*]

--- Does this Waki guy have Downs syndrome? Looked a little like it to me. So this match saw Kanemura & Urano stiff the shit out of a 'special' guy.... which was kind of freaky. Even if he's not handicapped in that way, he was special in his own way. He was no sissy though. He took the beating like a man-child and for a helpless strong guy he didn't lose his dignity.

9:15 of 9:14 - Kanemura pinned Waki after a top rope senton

 

 

 

2. Yuki Miyazaki -vs- Shinjuku Shark [1/4*]

--- .....I wasn't going to like this.....

6:43 of 6:05 - Miyazaki pinned Shark after a moonsault

 

 

 

3. Kenichi Yamamoto -vs- Hiroshi Kosakai [1/2*]

--- Wannabe MMA fighting with the bigger and stronger of the two dominating and winning comfortably.

5:53 of 5:38 - Yamamoto defeated Kosakai by KO after a jumping knee to the head

 

 

 

4. Takao Omori -vs- Tomohiko Hashimoto [* 1/4]

--- Hard knocks without keeping the flow going. Impact based brawling and attacking with the stiffness being this bouts main quality as Omori gets the better of the fat criminal Axe Bomber style!

12:53 of 12:50 - Omori pinned Hashimoto after a Axe Bomber lariat

 

 

 

5. Dick Togo & Arashi -vs- Kintaro Kanemura & Tetsuhiro Kuroda - (Spectators Throw In The Chairs Match) [* 1/2]

--- Special stip that at the 10-min mark the fans could fill the ring with chairs al

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PRO WRESTLING DREAMERS on COMM: BEST OF 2010 - March-December 2010 - (1 1/2 hrs)

 

 

 

 

March 27, 2010, Tokyo - Shin-kiba 1st RING

 

 

1. Tetsuya Nakazato & Takashi Hirose -vs- Naoki Matsumoto & Kunio Sumiyoshi - (Dreamers Tag Grand Prix - Final) [* 1/4]

--- Nakazato & Hirose was looking way stronger then the other side, but what made this one good was the heart of Matsumoto & Sumiyoshi as they kept staying in there and getting an occational lock to even it out a little. But the difference was too much in the end and strongman Hirose made Sumiyoshi submit to a basic Boston.

7:46 - Hirose made Sumiyoshi submit to a Boston Crab

 

 

 

 

 

July 17, 2010, Tokyo - Shin-kiba 1st RING

 

 

2. Hayate & Komachi & Macho Pump -vs- Nobutaka Moribe & Tetsuya Nakazato & Takashi Hirose [* 3/4]

--- Good fun and energetic tag with the masked men showing their skills as lucharesu guys and doing it real well. These are the guys that wrestle on those fairly bad Fukumen Mania shows, but here they were better then how they are there. Better opponents even if these are no big names on the scene either, but they do enough to make it entertaining keeping the pace up and the moves coming until the masked heroes got their trademark win.

11:50 - Hayate & Komachi pinned Hirose with a La Magistral and jack knife cradle combi

 

 

 

3. 14-Man Battle Royal [*]

--- A enjoyable battle royal with a lot of quick eliminations at first before it was just power workers Tetsuya Nakazato and Takashi Hirose lets to fight it out the last minutes until Hirose managed to surprise Nakazato with a small package to win it!

(0:56) - Kunio Sumiyoshi eliminated

(1:15) - Daisuke Sakurai eliminated

(1:30) - Koichi Kogai eliminated

(2:09) - Hayate eliminated

(2:22) - Kazuyuki Hirahara eliminated

(2:29) - Macho Pump eliminated

(4:36) - Tomoya Sato & Naoki Matsumoto eliminated

(6:02) - Nobutaka Moribe eliminated

(6:11) - Yosuke Shimizu eliminated

(6:43) - Zangao eliminated

(6:48) - Naohiro Katsumi eliminated

(9:49) - Tetsuya Nakazato eliminated

9:49 - Takashi Hirose win the 14-Man Battle Royal

 

 

 

 

 

September 4, 2010, Tokyo - Shin-kiba 1st RING

 

 

4. Tetsuya Nakazato & Koichi Kagoi -vs- Takashi Hirose & Naoki Matsumoto [* 1/4]

--- Had it's moments with some fancy submission lock-ins and the power struggle. The end ended up being all about Nakazato and Hirose with Nakazawa showing he's the strongest in Pro Wrestling Dreamers!

10:10 - Nakazato made Hirose submit to a Boston Crab

 

 

 

5. Munenori Sawa -vs- Tomoya Sato [*]

--- Should have gotten more into this then I did. But it was a little too random and Sawa of all people was trying to play a hardball veteran which with his small frame and silly ways doesn't look right. Sato is even smaller but they tried to make Sato the spirit of the bout without that working for him much as he was in the end easily taken care of by Sawa.

10:35 - Sawa made Sato submit to a modified STF

 

 

 

6. Tiger Mask I & Hayate & Komachi -vs- Ikuto Hidaka & Macho Pump & Nobutaka Moribe [* 1/4]

--- Dreamers hiring in stars in the original Tiger Mask and indy veteran Hidaka! Quite fun, but not a terribly different match then what we get from Dreamers or the indy world in general. Action to entertain and little else with Hayate booking himself to be the winner tagging with Tiger Sayama.

12:46 - Hayate pinned Moribe with a huracanrana

 

 

 

 

 

November 13, 2010, Tokyo - Shin-kiba 1st RING

 

7. Tetsuya Nakazato -vs- Tomoya Sato [* 1/2]

--- Young Sato was a lot more aggressive then Nakazato had figured beforehand. While Nakazato is the heavyweight ace within this group, Sato wasn't going to let this be easy for him and clearly wanted to show himself off kicking and locking in holds to take the power fighter off his game. And it made for a ok exciting bout, but the result was never really in doubt and Nakazato slamed Sato down for the pin.

9:35 - Nakazato pinned Sato with a Jackhammer

 

 

 

 

 

December 18, 2010, Tokyo - Shin-kiba 1st RING

 

 

8. Great Sasuke & Hayate & Macho Pump -vs- Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yosuke Shimizu & Kazuyuki Hirahara [* 3/4]

--- Crazy Sasuke and Crazy Kikuchi in the same match! Awesome! Awkward laughable fighting while the others took care of the speed wrestling and dives to help create some excitement around the main attraction of broken-down stars! Good fun with plenty to enjoy with Sasuke showing he's king in Dreamers too.

12:23 - Sasuke pinned Shimizu after a Thunder Fire powerbomb

 

 

 

COMMENTS: The matches have a good base and full of energy even if it does suffer from the usual small indys feel to it all. But better then most small indy shit.

 

 

--PUNQ--

[PUNQ]

KAIENTAI-DOJO on COMM: MONTHLY VOL 1 - December 4, 11 & 18 2010, Chiba - (2 hrs)

 

 

 

 

December 4, 2010, Chiba Blue Field (57 fans)

 

 

1. HIROKI -vs- Daigoro Kashiwa [* 1/4]

--- HIROKI celebrating his 10 years in the business with a long and slow bout with Kashiwa. In reality this might have been a ok 7-8 minute match, but it was streached out and wasn't exactly explosive in it's execution. But decent enough at times with HIROKI totally running over Daigoro at the end to beat him as the 20-min mark had just passed.

20:10 of 20:11 - HIROKI pinned Kashiwa after a running kneekick

 

 

 

2. Makoto Oishi & Yuu Yamagata -vs- Taka Michinoku & Bambi [1/2*]

--- Nah, just a very lightly worked filler mixed-gender tag which was in no way interesting or very good. Oishi beats the whippin' chick.

11:24 of 13:44 - Oishi pinned Bambi after the Miracle Ecstasy chokeslam

 

 

 

 

December 11, 2010, Chiba Blue Field (49 fans)

 

 

3. Saburo Inematsu & Ryuichi Sekine -vs- Masato Shibata & Kotaru Nasu [* 1/2]

--- K-Dojo vs Style-E where Saburo and Shibata brought the power and experience and Sekine and Nasu the more youthful striking. Became a ok fight. Difficult to get an super atmosphere will less then 50 fans in the small arena, but the wrestlers didn't hold much back and had a good indy level battle which ended when Saburo was alone with the smaller and less experienced Nasu who was getting winded as Inematsu got the advantage and Death Valley'ed him.

12:40 of 12:44 - Inematsu pinned Nasu after a Death Valley Bomb

 

 

 

4. Marines Mask II & Taishi Takizawa & Kaji Tomato -vs- HIROKI & Handsome JOE & Kengo Mashimo [* 1/2]

--- Long action match with plenty of moves and fun action to keep one entertained as they worked hard for the few fans there. And one would expect the star side of JOE, HIROKI & Mashimo to dominate, but they didn't. The fresher team was more motivated and used their energy to trouble the side of champions and former champions. Lots of fancy stuff, some of which actually looked good! Sadly the finish was hurt a little by Tomato losing balance and having to climb the turnbuckle and onto Takizawa's shoulders a second time to land the towering double-team rolling senton. But when it did land Takizawa had JOE beat!

20:58 of 20:58 - Takizawa pinned JOE after the Waterfall Toma Sky High

 

 

 

 

December 18, 2010, Chiba Blue Field (69 fans)

 

 

5. Yuji Hino & Saburo Inematsu & Yuu Yamagata -vs- Taishi Takizawa & Kaji Tomato & Bambi [* 1/4]

--- Simple fun'ish tag with what you'd exect from a filler K-Dojo tag. Nothing of importance and just there to use up some time and give the people a little entertainment until Inematsu felt it was time to end it making ketchup of Tomato.

16:24 of 16:23 - Inematsu pinned Tomato after a Death Valley Bomb

 

 

 

6. Yasu Urano -vs- Boso Boy Raito - (UWA Middleweight Title) [1/4*]

--- ....this title match seemed super dull and it featured a teddy bear....so I wasn't very sad when the last 10 minutes of the match was missing from the DVD.....

15:25 of 24:55 - Urano pinned Boso after a Tombstone piledriver/*NO FINISH SHOWN - DVD END. Urano retain the UWA Middleweight Title in his 2nd defence.

 

 

 

COMMENTS: Main matches from the small Chiba Blue Field shows from parts of December. Decent enough action for such small shows, but little that'll be remembered for years to come.

 

 

--PUNQ--

[PUNQ]

STYLE-E on COMM - December 18, 2010, Tokyo - (2 hrs)

 

 

 

 

December 18, 2010, Tokyo - Nishi-Choufu Sport-Combat Arena

 

 

1. Kazuki Hashimoto -vs- Kotaru Nasu [*]

--- Big Japan vs Style-E. Almost equal except one comes from a bigger company and gets the advantage around the size difference between BJPW and Style-E and therefore dominated 75% of the game. Some good parts with Nasu's moment being the cross-armbreaker while Hashimoto had a lot more to come with including a Impact DDT before kicking Nasu down.

9:00 - Hashimoto pinned Nasu after a running bodykick

 

 

 

2. Takao Hiroshi & Takumi Tsukamoto & ? -vs- Taro Yamada & Tatsuhiko Yoshino & Hiroo Tsumaki [* 1/4]

--- Decent energy and a few near falls to create some excitement, but the execution wasn't all that hard. So weak styled indy fighting, but done well enough for the Style-E fans. The pretty boy the promotion is trying to push gets the lucky roll-up win.

11:39 - ? pinned Yamada with a schoolboy

 

 

 

3. Hide Kubota & Yasu Kubota -vs- Chango & Amigo Suzuki [3/4*]

--- They did the 10-min Onita alarm thing again, but the match didn't reach that far....again.....as the Kubota brothers won 2 minutes before time to save their Spark. Not too serious.....

8:05 - Hide & Yasu pinned Suzuki after a reversed Tiger Driver

 

 

 

4. Masashi Takeda & Toshihiro Sueyoshi & Chou-un Shiryu -vs- Daisuke & Masato Shibata & Takaku Fuke [* 3/4]

--- Good indy action overall. Some that would put a smile on your face and some nice display of strenght as Takeda and Shibata showed the muscle, Fuke the technical and Shiryu the smarts managing to roll the big guy up for the pin just 18 seconds from the time limit.

19:42 - Shiryu pinned Shibata with a horizontal cradle

 

 

 

5. Kazuhiro Tamura -vs- Minoru Fujita - (E-1 Climax - Final) [**]

--- Final time for the E-1 Climax tournament and it's the Style-E little ace Tamura facing washed-up indy veteran Fujita. And it was one of Fujita's better efforts even if he can't reach all the way up there anymore. But Tamura worked hard around him and they had Fujita's stable there to fill out some of the time. One of Fujita's key moments was getting a fist full of white powder and throwing it in Tamura's face, and while he saved himself from a dangerous situation Fujita was still unable to win as Tamura fought back and wasn't going to let this piece of crap get his glory on homepitch! So Tamura kicked his skull in to with the E-1 Climax '10!

19:30 - Tamura pinned Fujita after a Buzzsaw headkick

 

 

 

COMMENTS: Fun small indy show from Style-E again.

 

 

--PUNQ--

[PUNQ]

FUTEN on COMM - December 19, 2010, Kawasaki - (1 3/4 hrs)

 

 

 

 

December 19, 2010, Kawasaki - Lazona Kawasaki Plaza Sol

 

 

1. Taro Nohashi -vs- Narita [* 1/4]

--- Narita is more a kickboxer then a wrestler which was why his pro offence looked a bit to forced for my taste, especially in this Bati Bati environment. But he worked stiff enough for Nohashi to get a bleeding mouth and got in a series of Germans to do some more damage giving him some credibility before Nohashi beat him down with headbutts and the rookie crab to make Narita tap. Short and to the point.

6:01 of 6:01 - Nohashi made Narita submit to a single leg crab

 

 

 

2. Mitsuya Nagai -vs- Kazuki Okubo [* 1/2]

--- Nagai testing Okubo's abillities. Squash'ish with the veteran Nagai controling things to his liking, but giving the other guy enough openings for attacks to get some competition into the bout. It wasn't like Nagai was going to lose this, but Okubo when given the oppertunity took the spotlight with the spirit and some skills when he had the chance to show he wasn't a total lost case. However Nagai when not booting or slapping the guy down kept locking in the arm several times until he got the chickenwing armlock submission win.

10:00 of 10:00 - Nagai made Okubo submit to a chickenwing armlock

 

 

 

3. Kengo Mashimo -vs- Rui Hyugaji [* 3/4]

--- Kaientai Dojo vs Michinoku Pro in the Futen ring. Serious striking and hold-locking. Didn't fill the ring with itensity all the way and Hyugaji needs more personality for his work to shine through. But Mashimo didn't hold much back when on attack. Hyugaji got his chances, but Mashimo was clearly the man and would eventually kick Hyugaji silly.

12:36 of 12:37 - Mashimo defeated Hyugaji by KO after headkicks

 

 

 

4. Makoto Hashi -vs- Manabu Suruga [** 1/4]

--- No doubt they were out to impress with their striking and stubborn mentality. There wasn't much time wasting and the blows kept coming at a high speed. However this didn't feature too many memorable blows. Still they beat the crap out of each other with Hashi also dropping Suruga nicely on his neck with that driver of his. What became the decider was a backfist from Hashi as both were having trouble standing after all the punishment, but only Hashi got back on his feet before the 10 count.

16:15 of 16:16 - Hashi defeated Suruga by KO after a backfist

 

 

 

5. Daisuke Ikeda & Katsumi Usuda -vs- Yuki Ishikawa & Takeshi Ono [** 1/2]

--- The main event mixes Futen and Battlarts which is kind of special as the leaders of those promotions in Ikeda and Ishikawa had a falling out a while back and now they start working and feuding against each other again! But they switch up the teams with Futen's Ikeda teaming with Battlarts Usuda and Battlarts boss Ishikawa teaming with the eager Futen fighter Ono.....which I felt was a bit weird. Anyway, the old guys stiffed and were at each others throats all the time showing their hatred. The fighting was in no way pretty or great, but it told a story and they were motivated. However it was a long fight and it was Usuda and Ono who fought for the finish while Ishikawa and Ikeda looked pathetic all out of wind trying to help their guy. Didn't like that part. It looked so comical that it took away from the good fighting they'd done most of the bout. So instead it becoming a real good bout it was a fairly good bout with a somewhat weak finishing streach as Usuda eventually got in a secure lock to have Ono submitting. Not that the end was Ono or Usuda's fault. It was the leaders who killed it showing their age.....

25:56 of 25:56 - Usuda made Ono submit to a cross-kneelock

 

 

 

COMMENTS: Futen show that they are one of the better indy companies with their focus on the serious fighting. It's not a perfect show, but I'd rather watch this then all the light hearted comedy shit that pops up all over the indy scene.

 

 

--PUNQ--

[PUNQ]

BJPW on Samurai TV - December 19, 2010, Yokohama - (3 hrs)

 

 

 

 

December 19, 2010, Yokohama Bunka Gym (2,952 fans)

 

 

1. Ryuichi Kawakami & Atsushi Ohashi -vs- Takumi Tsukamoto & Kazuki Hashimoto [*]

--- Fairly ordinary young guy wrestling without too much to note except Kawakami winning with a Death Valley over someone less ranked then him.

10:17 of 10:16 - Kawakami pinned Hashimoto after a Death Valley Bomb

 

 

 

2. Daikokubo Benkei & Onryo -vs- Yuichi Taniguchi & Masato Inaba [1/4*]

--- The waste of time Taniguchi/Benkei tag.....

8:11 of 8:09 - Onryo pinned Inaba with the Onryo Clutch

 

 

 

3. Takashi Sasaki & Shadow WX & Kankuro Hoshino -vs- Yuko Miyamoto & Isami Kodaka & Shinobu - (Barbed Wire Board Death Match) [* 1/2]

--- Shinobu experimenting with barbed wire so that Shadow WX can have a laugh. The action was fairly ordinary with Sasaki and Miyamoto probable doing the most to make this watchable as Shinobu wasn't able to make it too memorable even if he was thrown nicely onto some wire by Shadow before being taken care of....

14:02 of 14:01 - Shadow pinned Shinobu after a lariat

 

 

 

4. Daisuke Sekimoto & Shuji Ishikawa -vs- Shinya Ishikawa & Yuji Okabayashi [* 3/4]

--- With Shinya Ishikawa back they get him straight into the Strong BJ group and match him up with Sekimoto and Union Pro's Ishikawa. Sadly this wasn't near the standard of the November Korakuen Hall match with Shinya. Way too standard and not enough hard blows for the Strong BJ match to have too much to offer. Some mild highlights of course as Shinya tries to re-establish himself, but not surprise in guessing who got the Sekimoto German in this bout.

15:43 of 15:41 - Sekimoto pinned Ishikawa with a German Suplex

 

 

 

 

5. Jun Kasai -vs- Masashi Takeda - (Ladder Death Match) [**]

--- Ladders Death match meaning they'll bump all night long on ladders including a Razor Cross ladder which they did reversed Tiger Drivers and Pearl Harbor Splashes with along with a ton of other bumps. Cool for the stunts, but not too exciting as a match. But bloody and spectacular it was until Kasai won with nearly the only non-ladder move of the match when he did a high-angle reversed Tiger Driver to win it.

14:03 of 14:01 - Kasai pinned Takeda after a double-arm piledriver

 

 

 

 

6. Yoshito Sasaki -vs- Jaki Numazawa - (Extreme Table Chair Death Match) [* 1/2]

--- Again bloody, but not too much boost or crowd support to make it a worthwild experience. Theyr kept using tables and chairs as the main ingredient, but didn't really do all that much with it. Sasaki drove Numazawa through some tables, but the rest was fairly ordinary for a hardcore bout. And then Numazawa ran himself into one too many lariats.

12:24 of 12:22 - Sasaki pinned Numazawa after a lariat

 

 

 

 

7. Ryuji Ito © -vs- Abdullah Kobayashi - (BJPW Death Match Title; 450 Light Tube Death Match) [** 1/2]

--- Abdullah - the master of light tubes crazes! And they crushed so many light tubes.....like so many times before. And we've seen all these spots before so it wasn't as fresh of crazy as one could have hoped for, but they still went at it like going into war. Especially Abby who was the ruthless light tubes killer! Some of the bigger spots saw Abby Samoan Drop Ito in a pile of tubes and Ito suplex Abby through tubes on chairs! And after hundred of hundres crushed light tubes Ito brough out of bundle of lit light tubes which he dropkicked Kobayashi down with before Dragon Splashing him to retain the Death Match belt!

20:35 of 20:23 - Ito pinned Kobayashi after a top rope lit light tubes bodypress

 

 

 

COMMENTS: Kind of tame and a very quiet crowd not really helping the situation. They're usually more wild at the Korakuen Hall then in Yokohama.

 

 

--PUNQ--

[PUNQ]

NEO on COMM - December 19, 2010, Yokohama Dojo - (2 hrs)

 

 

 

 

December 19, 2010, Yokohama Dojo

 

 

1. Yuki Miyazaki -vs- Mika Iida [1/2*]

--- Simple squash match. Iida just didn't stand a chance, but that wasn't the point anyway I guess. Just a match so that Iida could get some more training at the basics.

8:49 of 8:51 - Miyazaki pinned Iida after a modified Michinoku Driver II

 

 

 

2. Tanny Mouse -vs- Nagisa Nozaki [1/2*]

--- Half-competitive with Tanny grabbing the ego win at the end instead of giving a meaningless win to someone who will be wrestling once this month is up.

7:34 of 7:34 - Tanny pinned Nozaki after a second rope headbutt

 

 

 

3. Yoshiko Tamura & Makoto & Aya Yuki -vs- Tsukasa Fujimoto & Miyako Matsumoto & Hikaru Shida [3/4*]

--- Too much stupid Ice Ribbon stuff to really get fun. Plus it's always difficult to get anything going in that small dojo of NEO, so it was always going to feel like just a filler tag with the NEO ace finishing it with a double-arm DDT.

18:36 of 18:36 - Tamura pinned Matsumoto after a double-arm DDT

 

 

 

4. 10-Woman Battle Royal [1/4*]

--- Just a silly battle royal with face painting and stuff.....

(6:44) - Hikaru Shida eliminated

(6:50) - Mika Iida eliminated

(7:49) - Aya Yuki eliminated

(8:01) - Miyako Matsumoto eliminated

(8:50) - Nagisa Nozaki eliminated

(10:57) - Tanny Mouse eliminated

(11:50) - Yoshiko Tamura eliminated

(12:52) - Makoto & Tsukasa Fujimoto eliminated

12:52 of 12:54 - Yuki Miyazaki win the 10-Woman Battle Royal

 

 

 

- 45-min Talk/Symposium

 

 

COMMENTS: The last NEO Dojo show and I can't say I'll miss these.....

 

 

--PUNQ--