Two big events this week. First off, as shown here, the ZERO1 14th anniversary show was pretty damn good. I recommend the entire show to anyone trying to catch up to what’s going on in Z1. Both of the Junior singles titles are on the line as Minoru Tanaka challenges double champion Jason Lee, both sets of tag titles (Junior & Heavyweight) are on the line as well, and U.N. champion Hideki Suzuki meets his most formidable opponent to date. Secondly, the New Japan Cup is going on this week, and it’s been great so far, exceeding my low expectations for it. For all New Japan shows (there’s been three or four live shows this week on the network), go to www.NJPWWorld.com and sign up for $8 per month.
ZERO1: “Dangan Yankees” Masato Tanaka & Takashi Sugiura (c) vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & Kohei Sato – [3/1/15]
For the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championships, ZERO1’s version of the world tag titles. Another high quality main event from the good folks at ZERO1. After taking home all the trophies in Japan for 2014 Tag Team of the Year, Dangan Yankees look set to make another run at all the awards again this year. Killer tag matches like this one certainly won’t hurt their case. I was pleased to see that this show was well received by online puro fans, as Z1 normally gets slept on. Perhaps all the hard work and quality matches are starting to add up.
“Dangan Yankees” Masato Tanaka & Takashi…by JAHMAL1111
ZERO1: Hideki Suzuki vs. Masakatsu Funaki – [3/1/15]
This was a nice little piece of business right here. The NWA U.N. Champion Hideki Suzuki has been in some heated confrontations over the last two months with former AJPW Triple Crown Champion & founder of Pancrase, WON Hall of Famer Masakatsu Funaki. While their violent exchanges in recent tag matches have provided some entertaining moments, it was all leading to this very match right here. This is a different kind of deal. Not so much pro wrestling, more of a fight for honor. Not intended to go 30 minutes or hit five snowflakes, just an old school blowoff between two world class mixed martial artists.
This show in general was an extremely fun and breezy 2 hours of pro wrestling, as is always the case with ZERO1. Well worth checking out the whole show, if interested.
Hideki Suzuki vs. Masakatsu Funaki (ZERO1)by JAHMAL1111
DDT: Kota Ibushi & Daisuke Sasaki vs. Konosuke Takeshita & Antonio Honda – []
Fans
of Kota Ibushi & the 19-year old Takeshita will enjoy this one, and
while I hate Honda’s gimmick/persona, truth is he can go in the ring.
Good match right here.