World Japan – MAGMA01 PPV 03/01/03

World Japan

Yokohama Arena

Attendance: 9,000 (announced as 13,200)

Also known as “Fighting Of World Japan Pro-Wrestling” or “Riki Choshu’s hubris.”

Rather than summarise the build to this ill-fated company I’ll just copy paste a bunch of Observer notes like a good podcaster, just to give you an idea of how good-on-paper this looked before the bad ideas kicked in.

May 6th 2002

The end of the nearly three decade relationship between Riki Choshu and New Japan Pro Wrestling ended amazing quietly this past week.

Choshu actually formally resigned from the company in a letter sent to management on 4/8. Both sides had agreed to keep it quiet so as not to interfere with the hype of the Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Masahiro Chono match, which was finalized at the same time. While word leaked publicly this past week, it wasn’t until the 4/25 show in Choshu’s home town of Tokuyama, in his first match back in months, that President Tatsumi Fujinami acknowledged the resignation letter. On the same day, when asked by reporters about it, even though Fujinami had admitted it, Choshu pretended to not know what anyone was talking about.

Even though there were published rumors that this would be Choshu’s last match ever for New Japan, although never officially hyped as such, they only drew 2,800 fans in his home town as he & Kensuke Sasaki & Yutaka Yoshie won a non-descript match over Tatsutoshi Goto & Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan, when Sasaki, in the closest thing to honoring Choshu, beat Goto with the scorpion deathlock. There was no big fanfare among the fans, or teary-eyed farewells when it was over, as they just went on to the next match on the show.

But the next day, New Japan announced that Choshu would be leaving the company effective 5/31, and that he would be part of a ceremony honoring the 30th anniversary of the promotion on the 5/2 Tokyo Dome show, which would likely be his last appearance.

June 10th 2002

Riki Choshu, after his final day under New Japan contract, held a press conference where he talked about leaving the company in which he had worked for most of the past 28 years, and his future.

Choshu sent in his letter of resignation in April. While he was at the show, he didn’t even appear at the ceremony for the 30th anniversary of the company on 5/2 at the Tokyo Dome and did his final match to shockingly little fanfare on 4/25 in Tokushima. It was far more like an American style booting someone out of the door even though they were one of the five or six biggest native stars in history and the second most successful booker in history, than the usual fond farewell that Japan is noted for.

Choshu pointed the finger at Antonio Inoki, who largely forced him out because of his high contract after he lost power as booker as the company continued to struggle. He and Inoki butted heads over the amount of money Inoki was spending to open up a New Japan dojo in Los Angeles. He noted that there have been no new prospects created in Los Angeles (it would be unfair to blame the dojo, since it just opened, but New Japan has been attempting to train talent there and nobody has emerged and the gym is losing $10,000 per month, which wouldn’t be an exorbitant amount if it was creating new talent). He said he went to Tatsumi Fujinami with the problem, but Fujinami, even as company President, was powerless since Inoki ultimately controls the majority interest. He went so far as to say that for all those years, Giant Baba never trusted Inoki, and that finally, he understands why Baba always felt that way.

He noted the company has gone downhill this year, with the losses of Keiji Muto, Satoshi Kojima, Kendo Kashin and several front office employees to All Japan, which he called a huge blow. He said Inoki tried to play it off like it wasn’t even a major problem, saying the company had much larger problems to deal with. Inoki never even addressed the reasons it happened and never tried to find out why they made the decision, Choshu said. He ultimately said he couldn’t understand Inoki’s way of thinking because he spoke at length with Inoki at that time.

Inoki responded saying he doesn’t want to talk much about Choshu, but that Choshu was spending too much money and earned too much money. He refused to talk about the expenses of running the Los Angeles dojo, and said that Choshu hadn’t trained any new superstars in years. Choshu was one of the highest paid guys in the company, but rarely wrestled due to injuries, and was relieved of all front office duties.

On 6/4, Fujinami talked about the situation for the first time and came down hard on Choshu. He said Choshu had to understand the position of company management. He said Choshu’s position was intolerable and his opinions on Inoki were irresponsible. He said Choshu wasn’t coming to the office, had no front office duties, and wasn’t wrestling, so his salary had to be cut. His response to Choshu’s statements he also was against Inoki starting the dojo in Los Angeles was that he did object to at first, but now regards it as a plus, and an investment in the company’s future. He said management agreed on the dojo when Choshu was no longer part of those meetings.

Exactly what Choshu does next is undecided. His public story is that he is going on vacation for a month in Saipan, and will return in July to start his own new wrestling promotion with two other major wrestlers and open a dojo. It is more likely he’ll get a couple of wrestlers from New Japan and pretend to start a promotion, and do an invasion angle either in All Japan or Zero-One. He claims to have spoken at this point to nobody in either group although everyone just figures that to be his public story. The most likely candidates for his partner or partners seem to be Kenzo Suzuki, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shinya Makabe. Suzuki doesn’t really have a role with New Japan, but the company is high on him because he’s got good size and is a strong legit athlete as a top college rugby star. Tanahashi is the company’s best young prospect. Makabe is currently out of action with a leg injury, but is staying in Puerto Rico and is part of the IWA promotion. Zero-One, in a strange irony, is pushing hard because of the business still on the table for Choshu against both Hashimoto and Naoya Ogawa for two angles New Japan left on the table, the former ironic since the heat they are building from is something legit that everyone knows about. The All Japan option will allow him to create his own group, so they’ll have the Muto group, the original All Japan group, the WAR group and possibly the Choshu group to revolve their business around.

Then after months of Riki speculation from AJPW and Zero-One (and Inoki’s UFO floating the rumour of Choshu appearing at their Dome show in a sad attempt to sell tickets) with Choshu only saying that he watched NJPW TV and didn’t like seeing Chyna working with Tanahashi.

October 14th 2002

In a move which some have targeted was timed the next morning to quell the momentum New Japan gained a big boost from the Sapp-Nakanishi angle, Kensuke Sasaki, one of the company’s longest lasting headliners, announced on 10/6 at a Tokyo Dome Hotel press conference that he was leaving the company.

Sasaki, 36, has spent his entire 16 1/2 year career under contract with New Japan and has been a major player since 1990 when he and Hiroshi Hase were feuding with Keiji Muto & Masahiro Chono over the IWGP tag team titles. After later forming a popular tag team with Hawk as the Hell Raisers, a Japanese version of the Road Warriors, he started getting a major singles push as one of the top four stars in the company during its mid-90s heyday with Muto, Chono and Shinya Hashimoto. He held the IWGP title on three occasions, and was always kept strong under booker Riki Choshu since he was being groomed as the protege, right down to the long hair, the lariat and scorpion deathlock.

He’s always been something of a disappointment, in that he never developed into the excellent level of worker he was being groomed for, nor was he as over as the position he was given, but he wasn’t a flop either. His career peak was probably on October 9, 2000, when as IWGP champion, he, for the first time, was the real face of the promotion when he headlined the sold out Tokyo Dome as the company’s representative in the first major All Japan vs. New Japan singles match against Toshiaki Kawada in what became one of the historical matches in Japanese history. Kawada won the first match, and Sasaki, feeling his loss betrayed the company’s belt, vacated it, only to win the tournament on January 4, 2001, over Kawada in the finals, and once again selling out the Tokyo Dome.

When Choshu lost power, the idea was to remake him as a shooter. He shaved his head and went for several months to train with Don Frye. He did one strange shoot match in Colorado, which at first there were no such records of ever taking place. Later it was acknowledged as a true story, with a terrible looking video of a 30 second win appearing all over Japanese TV. They did the gimmick of winning his matches in a minute. But that didn’t have legs either.

Publicly Sasaki said that he was mad at the company and its handling of his proposed match with Pancrase’s Minoru Suzuki. His public claim is that he wanted the Suzuki match but New Japan decided to replace him with Jushin Liger without informing him. From several sources, they claim Sasaki was never told he was pulled from the match until it was publicly announced.

Sasaki had a four-hour meeting the next day with Seiji Sakaguchi, Tetsuo Baisho and Tatsumi Fujinami of the office. All asked him to reconsider, but he refused. Publicly, both booker Masahiro Chono and top star Yuji Nagata adopted of good-bye and good riddance attitude. After the meeting, he was officially pulled from all advertising for the next tour.

When Choshu left the promotion and word got out he was going to start his own group, a lot of eyes were on Sasaki possibly following, since he hadn’t been focused on much. There is considerable question regarding the legitimacy of the current ankle injury, with many inside believing it to be a work.

They had started building up a match with Suzuki, which at first was going to be a worked shoot at the April New Japan Tokyo Dome. Both wrestlers had agreed to the match. But Pancrase President Masami Ozaki didn’t like the idea of Suzuki doing a worked match because of company credibility, so the match didn’t take place. Both companies then agreed to a shoot match, which at first was going to take place on the 10/14 Dome show, and with Sasaki’s supposed injury, was then moved to 11/30 on a Pancrase show. Insiders claim that despite the public posturing, Sasaki didn’t want to risk his career by losing a shooting match to someone past his prime and much smaller, so wound up with the ankle injury.

Some in wrestling have claimed that the sudden announcement at 11 a.m. the morning after New Japan got some needed national exposure with the Sapp-Nakanishi angle on Fuji Network, that either Choshu or Katsuji Nagashima were pulling the strings to get this story out and hurt the Dome show. This may be wrestling paranoia. Publicly, both Choshu and Nagashima claimed to have no knowledge Sasaki was quitting, but that also is hard to believe. Choshu, on 10/8, held a press conference of his own to deny even speaking with Sasaki, saying the two haven’t talked since attending Masa Saito’s 60th birthday party together in August. He said the only New Japan wrestler he had talked with about joining his group was Takashi Iizuka, who turned him down. In an attempt to sell tickets to the Tokyo Dome, Chono said he wanted a public in-ring discussion with Choshu and Nagashima, which would have gotten a lot of interest. Choshu said he’d be glad to talk with everyone from New Japan, but didn’t want it public and didn’t want to do something as a ticket selling angle.

Sasaki is under contract to New Japan through January 31, 2003. But he was immediately pulled from the 10/14 Dome show as well as all future bookings. Masayuki Naruse was announced as his replacement against Kazunari Murakami for the Dome show.

It may have also been that just hours before on World Pro Wrestling, the returning Shinya Makabe did an interview talking about how Sasaki would badly bully the young wrestlers, including himself, in training. This also may have been simply an angle to create a program for Makabe’s return but some said the language used suggested legitimacy and that it was a burial of Sasaki.

November 4th 2002

The situation with New Japan and Kensuke Sasaki is back up in the air after an announcement by CEO Seiji Sakaguchi this past week that Sasaki would return to the company starting 11/22 and work the final tour of the year. It is said this comment is more Sakaguchi’s personal comment and not an official announcement by the company that Sasaki is coming back.

Sasaki had announced on 10/6, the morning after Bob Sapp had beaten Ernesto Hoost which put so much attention on New Japan’s 10/14 Tokyo Dome event, that he was leaving the company after being unhappy that they were booking him in a shoot situation. When they switched it, as a face saving measure for quitting, he had said they switched it without informing him, which was also true.

Most felt that Sasaki was leaving to join with the new Riki Nagashima promotion being formed by former mentor Riki Choshu and long-time New Japan front office employee Katsuji Nagashima. Both had denied even talking to Sasaki about such a thing. That may be the case, and even if it wasn’t, the reality of the situation is that the new company has not been able to get the kind of financial backing to where Sasaki would be able to earn anywhere close to what he was making on his New Japan contract, which runs through late January.

At this point there are mixed feelings within the company on Sasaki. Some want him in because they’ve lost so many big names the feeling is they don’t need to lose another. Other feel that once he publicly said what he said, that he shouldn’t be brought back, particularly in his timing of making his announcement eight days before the Tokyo Dome show. CEO Seiji Sakaguchi was in favor of him staying and tried to talk him out of leaving a few weeks ago. It has been noted from a booking standpoint that Sasaki is the only headliner left, besides Chono, who was there during the glory days. And Sasaki has never worked in the company as a heel, so the feeling is there is a new way to use him that would get mileage out of him. Sasaki has also made it clear that he doesn’t want to put Yuji Nagata over again.

November 18th 2002

Riki Choshu held a press conference on 11/12 to officially announce the formation of a new company called “Fighting of World Japan.” They are opening a wrestling school in Tokyo and have three students. Their goal is now to actually try and do their own promotion, which would debut around March, and run five to ten house shows per month

November 25th 2002

Hiroshi Hase is going to be scouting at the upcoming Japanese national amateur championships next month for Riki Choshu’s new promotion. It will be announced right after press time that Yoshiaki Yatsu, 46, who was Choshu’s tag team partner in All Japan during the mid-80s, would be the first name to sign with the group

December 9th 2002

After nearly two months of negotiations, the nearly 17-year relationship with Kensuke Sasaki officially ended in divorce. Tetsuo Baisho announced at a press conference on 11/28 that the company was going to release Sasaki from his contract effective 11/30, which would be two months before the contract expired. Sasaki had publicly announced on 10/6 that he was quitting the promotion to some major publicity. He had become a major topic of discussion internally because he started having second thoughts, realizing that there was no way he could make anywhere near the money he’d been earning with New Japan by going with Riki Choshu’s start-up group Fighting of World Japan Pro Wrestling. Sasaki was never into returning, and when Seiji Sakaguchi tried to get him to come back for the current trios tournament tour, he refused, although there were may talks on the subject.

December 30th 2002

Genichiro Tenryu’s contract with AJPW expires in June, and he’s already making noises of leaving because he doesn’t like the direction Keiji Muto is taking things. Lots of talk of him joining WJ, which is Riki Choshu’s group, although Choshu and Muto met on 12/23 to talk about working on each others’ shows.

Masa Saito, 60, quit New Japan on 12/23 to work with this office, as did referee Masao “Tiger” Hattori. Neither was a surprise as Choshu, Saito and Hattori have been part of the former national champion amateur wrestler clique that have been tight forever. Saito was expected to be forced into a retirement by New Japan this year anyway.

January 6th 2003

Shiro Koshinaka’s wife has taken an office job with the new W-J promotion, which has started rumors that he will follow. Koshinaka always had booking power when Riki Choshu was head booker in New Japan and the two were long-time political allies. Another name making the rounds as a possible departure is Kenzo Suzuki as well as referee Norio Honaga. When Katsuji Nagashima came back from the U.S., he was met by reporters who asked him about Masa Saito and Massao Hattori leaving New Japan, and he acted as if it was the first he’d even heard about it and acted shocked they left New Japan. Just a few hours later when reporters talked with Saito, he told a different story, that he was going to W-J to book foreign talent

January 27th 2003

As expected, Shiro Koshinaka, 44, has left New Japan as he told the company he wasn’t interested in negotiating a new deal after the current one expires on 1/31, headed for WJ. His wife was already employed there, and he’s been an ally of Riki Choshu dating back years. A bigger loss long-term, which also came as no real surprise was Kenzo Suzuki, 28, who they’ve been grooming to be a top star. Suzuki, because of his age, size and charisma, was led to believe he’d be promoted as the big young gun in WJ. Also not signing, as expected, to jump to WJ was referee Norio Honaga.

Hey this is pretty much how AEW got started. Choshu, Tenryu, Sasaki, Onita some refs and some decent mid-card names YEAH LET’S GO WORLD JAPAN, TIME TO SHOW THOSE INOKI INFIDELS HOW STRONG YOUR STYLE CAN-

They picked the worst day possible with the NOAH Budokan Hall show and K-1 as a prime time TV special going head-to-head. Budokan has been sold out for weeks and the K-1 show is close to sold out, if not clean already.

Oh.

The show starts off with a video package consisting of non-copyrighted Choshu photos before we get a good look at the completely dark crowd. Presumably making it easier to develop the photos.

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Takashi Uwano

Both men had been stuck in the grimey world of 2000 puro indies and neither has any desire to go back there as they start off throwing bombs. Both men are hyped up and ready to slap one another hard but when they’re not doing that, it’s basic wrestling so crowd are treating this like a Young Lions match. Uwano gets his leg and ankle worked over and the crowd appreciate him grunting in pain. Uwano makes a comeback but he seems tired and his strikes are more like wafting away a bad smell. Ishii barely connects with a dropkick in the corner before a lengthy Boston Crab gives us more grunting and applause. Uwano escapes with more hard slaps to the face as Ishii is now bleeding from the nose. Uwano gets a smooth STO counter on a charge and tries his own Boston Crab but Ishii grabs the ropes. So we go back to the slaps to the face as this turns into True Faith.

Ishii has enough of being hit so ground and pounds Uwano until the referee ends it at 12:37. That finish didn’t fit the tone of the rest of the match so didn’t get any crowd reaction, but it did bust open Uwano tremendously.

Got better as it went on but the pair of them were still clearly learning, the strikes making up for the inexperience. Remember kids: the more normal Ishii looks, the worse the match.

Tomoaki Honma vs. Masahiko Kochi

Honma was in the middle of his AJPW run after declining to lose to Zandig every night for BJPW. Kochi knows the feeling, he used to work for PWC. You know if Japan did shoot interviews these two would be cult heroes.

Kochi has three years more experience but it’s clear Honma is superior in every way. Solid wrestling starts until the face-slapping kicks in and oh never mind, back to solid mat wrestling we go. Honma also goes to the ground/pound strategy but Kochi’s been hurt worse than Shunji Takano so ref doesn’t stop it. Kochi kicks Honma in the face and then sandbags Kochi, worrying everyone into thinking he’s KO’d. He’s not. Or maybe he is and he got better, it’s hard to tell with Honma. Nothing a tan bed can’t fix as Honma comes back to backdrop suplex Kochi and win via Boston Crab at 9:12

Another well put together match in front of a crowd that didn’t care. Highlight was Honma making his entrance to Alien Ant Farm’s cover of Smooth Criminal.

Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Yoji Anjo

I love Anjo’s heel antics but unsure how he adapted to the 2000s. He’s still using LA Style’s James Brown Is Dead, which is a great workout song. Yatsu favours Ozzy Osbourne’s Perry Mason cover. I’ve not thought about Ozzmosis for years, what a weirdly operatic album for a guy like Ozzy in a time like the late 90s. Anyway Anjo is bald.

Yatsu hadn’t wrestled in a year before this but he’s still a bloody Olympian. Anjo does his best to make it look as UWF-I style as possible which doesn’t allow him to work to his strengths (being a dick) until he gets a sneaky punch during a referee break. Yatsu assumes a striking position but gets struck more as Anjo unrealistically holds him with one arm and hits with the other. Yatsu sticks to pro wrestling style and lands a dropkick before going to the armbar. Anjo then gets a great bit as he lands a single punch before going for the pin and repeats it while looking at the ref like “wow he might be out after this one!” There, more of that. As Yatsu kicks out, Anjo uses the moment of vulnerability to lock in an armbar. Anjo is fun for cool moments like that but he’s struggling to gel with Yatsu who is more content to wrestle like a wrestler and stick to slams and drugs. Yatsu applies a Figure Four and as Anjo leans in to punch, Yatsu locks in the Prison Lock for the immediate tap out at 11:24.

Like two different songs playing at once and only worked when both happened to synch up by accident rather than design.

Katsuhiko Nakajima karate sparring

14 year old Nakajima makes his debut by kicking some pads.

Riki Choshu announced in a press conference on 12/20 that he had spotted someone that he knew was going to be the next major superstar in 14-year-old Katsuhiro Nakajima, a junior high school wrestling and karate national champion, and would be training him for his new promotion and that he would introduce him with an exhibition match on 3/1, which would be ten days before his 15th birthday. There is something really sad about a 14-year-old dropping out of school to get into pro wrestling. They are doing the old NBA hardship rule (although they at least in those days waited for guys to graduate high school) talking about his poor upbringing. Choshu said that in his entire 30-year-career, he’s never seen anyone with so much potential.

Good call Riki! The only one you’d make.

IPW Hardcore Tag Title Match

The Shane Twins vs. The Road Warriors

Alright why are these forgettable Florida indie’s tag titles on the line here?

The match was originally supposed to be for the NWA Florida tag team titles, which would mean a little more because it’s the NWA name, which was big in the 80s, and most of the headliners on this show are from the 80s. However, the NWA in the U.S. made that impossible because WJ is not a dues paying member and Zero-One is, so the NWA won’t approve of any NWA name usage on a WJ show (the funniest thing about this is that Jerry Jarrett was approached and may make a deal with WJ about talent exchanges, not that he has any interest in guys from this company, but in him getting a booking fee for sending talent, and one would think they’d want Jeff as NWA champion more than anyone as to why they opened that communication).

Ah thanks for clarifying. Also the company is Hardcore but the titles are not.

Crowd still loves the Road Warriors even in their last ever run as a team. The Shane Twins are terrible but Japan loves massive Americans so they get bigger reactions than the undercard.

Hawk is on the good monkey hormones as he lands a dropkick and delayed neckbreaker before Shane #1 no sells with a roar. Before immediately tagging out. Oh. Animal tags in for much the same until Shane #2 falls off the top rope like a bum. Animal can’t figure out if Shane #2’s sit-out dropkick is supposed to be an attempt at a headscissors because his legs are so far apart so Animal politely rolls before deciding he shouldn’t be doing that and lariats Shane #2. Hawk no-sells an Irish Whip into the guard rails and gives us all the old-school moments we want to see before Shane #1 gets on offence which is what no-one wants to see. This is the bit of the show when the crowd would be chanting LOD LOD LOD if we were in USA-land, but here we get silence and farting. After five minutes of tedium the chants come in and then stop as last orders are being called on a legendary career. Animal cleans house while the crowd squeak out a polite “thanks” before finally the LOD make a comeback which uh is promptly cut off as the Shanes dare to attempt their version of Doomsday Device. The Warriors cut that off and give us their own version at 11:04 with Animal instantly mouthing off at the absolute state of that team.

The Shane Twins couldn’t make it onto WWE PPV during the dual brand days when they were letting Heidenreich have single matches. Think about that. Crowd liked the idea of the Warriors rather than the 2003 versions of them.

Post-match a ten bell salute is given for the just-deceased Mr. Perfect because the mood isn’t low enough.

We then kill a lot of time with a backstage interview with Choshu because next up is:

No Rope Barbed Wire Explosive Death Match

Shiro Koshinaka vs. Atsushi Onita

Alright so Onita is booked because he’s a draw but Choshu doesn’t want him headlining. However no-one wants to see Onita in a normal match so we’re doing exploding barbed wire MID-WAY THROUGH A SHOW which is a hell of a palette cleanser as well as taking forever to set up. A real Worst of Both Worlds solution to that problem and the first sign of Choshu’s reality slipping.

Onita is smoking the tabs but isn’t being booed or heckled like in NJPW because he’s so cool. Onita starts by throwing a chair and setting off some explosions that don’t hit anybody. Onita dodges the wire for the biggest pop of the night so far. Shiro decides to headlock Onita to the mat and deliver a nuggie, only legal in death matches. This lets Shiro tease the fans some more by letting Onita power out and reach the ropes…but then he drags him to the mat again. Ha. Hey at least the crowd is reacting. Shiro spams THE BACKSIDE as he always does with the crowd booing every cheek as this turns into a pantomime. Shiro misses a flying THE BACKSIDE and goes right into the barbed wire…which doesn’t explode. Urgh. Onita solves the issue by throwing Shiro again which does cause an explosion. Attaboy Onita! Mr. Truth, they call him. Onita lands the Fire Thunder for two because it’s one of those finishers you have to land a dozen times to win. Shiro headlocks Onita but this time runs himself and his opponent into the wire to cause another explosion. Crowd are cheering for Onita and sure enough, he recovers before Shiro so he can take a chairshot directly into the barbed wire and MORE EXPLOSION. Shiro lands THE BACKSIDE and his own Fire Thunder for two before trying a Boston Crab which Onita counters by grabbing the ropes and CAUSING ANOTHER EXPLOSION. OK that’s amazing. Onita sprays green mist at Shiro and if that wasn’t enough, lands the Lawler-style fire to the face for…OH MY GOD IT’S A DQ WIN FOR SHIRO BECAUSE ONITA USED FIRE IN A DEATH MATCH.

Onita pushes the ref into the barbed wire for another EXPLOSION but it does nothing to stop the crowd’s boos and exasperated reaction. An amazingly bad idea and execution to what was the best thing on the show so far.

If you’re interested in exploding butts, here’s the match.

Takao Omori vs. Kenzo Suzuki

So after a horrible finish and lengthy delay putting the ropes back on, I’m definitely in the mood for a Suzuki match. Commentators mention WWE, which is weird as Kenzo wouldn’t show up there for months and that was after appearances for MLW and TNA. Oh what do I care.

Kenzo sneak attacks Takao and follows by barely colliding with his flying knee. That’s his trademark move too. Suzuki gurns his way through some nothing holds as the crowd barely murmurs. Suzuki’s used to killing crowds. Sorry, trainees. Omori starts throwing chops and uppers, finally giving the crowd something to chew on. Omori is basic on offence but he delivers his moves with plenty of snap so it works. Sadly Kenzo is getting ready for USA so that means lots of dull holds that don’t go anywhere. One of the (many) issues with this company is the lack of a definitive style, like so many other 2000s puro companies that are struggling to figure out what’s going to draw so they aim for everything and hit nothing. Suzuki doesn’t even get the sympathy respect pop for taking a beating because his style is so WWF Metal. Suzuki nails a decent spear before Omori lariats him for the clean win at 12:53.

More awkward than the Habsburgs’ family tree. Meltzer called Suzuki an “under-achiever” which wasn’t a sentiment that would last long.

Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Dan Bobish & Don Frye

Oh hey speaking of dead trainees it’s Sasaki. Hase is appearing here as Muto is lending Choshu a helping hand, presumably so he can get him in AJPW when this thing dies horribly. This is Bobish’s wrestling debut, and he’s known for his appearances in UFC and for being Mike Tyson’s bodyguard.

Frye starts off convincingly punching Sasaki to the mat, with Sasaki powering up and both men re-enact the Takayama fight as you would wouldn’t you. Frye is apparently dealing with a shoulder injury but you wouldn’t know it, he’s got more presence stood still than most wrestlers moving.

Both men tag out with Bobish smothering Hase in the corner. Bobish resembles Kevin Sullivan cosplaying Butterbean but the crowd are impressed by his real fight credentials and girth. Bobish takes Hase down with an armbar, necessitating a save from Sasaki as the match threatens to break down and crowd loves this. Hase chops Fyre hard, so he comes back with a brutal headbutt as this match continues to have tons of electricity. Frye takes a suplex so Bobish tags in and absorbs all of Sasaki’s blows. And I mean ABSORBS, like zero movement at all. Just lariating a meat wall as Bobish yells for more before tackling Kensuke down with ease. That’s it, star is made. Sasaki even does the “shaking the cobwebs out of his head” sell on the mat before landing a desperate lariat on Frye to allow Hase to tag in and clean the House (parliament joke). Frye bounces around for his suplexes but is able to regain the advantage with devastating-looking punches. Bobish has his way with Hase until Frye starts locking in leg locks on Hase and Kensuke is forced to lariat him from behind to save. Crowd really into Hase coming back as Frye punches a hole in his face, with Hase able to finally make a comeback thanks to the crowd’s thoughts and prayers. This is then followed by a long, long, LONG Giant Swing on Frye who is roughly the size of Gdańsk. This company doesn’t deserve a match this good. Sasaki makes the hot tag and his slam and lariat have ALL the smack as Frye is selling like a plastic bag caught in a hurricane. Bobish sneak attacks and continues his big man offence and is amazingly competent considering it’s his first time. It’s all belly-to-bellys and clotheslines and it’s effective. Sasaki and Hase double suplex the burger eater but then Bobish smacks them both down with his Walmart sized shoulders. Sadly the match has to end sometime and Bobish is new so he takes a Sasaki lariat to end it at 12:59.

Best thing on the show by a Scorpio length. Sasaki was motivated because he’s abruptly left his former employer for much less money. Also his wife gave birth hours before this show. Genuinely exciting and fun match that is nearly worth tracking this show down to watch.

Actually no it isn’t, watch it here.

Riki Choshu vs. Genichiro Tenryu

Riki does that thing where he’s already panting but with his wrinkles he’s beginning to resemble a pug dog. Big old grapple to start as crowd gets a chance to yell who their favourite is. Tenryu attempts an enziguri but Choshu blocks it and tries a Sharpshooter straight away. Tenryu goes for chops and fires them a lot harder than usual, probably because he saw the last match. Anyway one of them apparently breaks Choshu’s jaw.

Choshu responds by dropping Tenryu on his head. After a recovery hold, Tenryu again goes hard with the strikes to poor Riki’s compounded mouth and doesn’t realise something’s wrong and responds to Riki’s reluctance to come up on a suplex for sandbagging and drops him splat on his head.

So Tenryu the mega veteran DOES IT AGAIN.

Tenryu tries to end the match with a Dirty Powerbomb but Riki and his grotesquely swollen jaw lariats Tenryu. After a suplex with everything looking like it’s settled, Tenryu drops his good friend Choshu on his head FOR A THIRD TIME before punching him in the jaw repeatedly. Choshu gets mad and lariats Tenryu but can’t pin him because Tenryu refuses to be in a pin position when Riki clearly wants this to end, so Choshu lands another and all but yells “PLEASE GET PINNED NOW” to end it at 7:53.

The puro equivalent to Goldberg vs. Undertaker at Crown Jewel. Or if you didn’t see that match: two clown cars repeatedly ramming into each other while La Cucaracha blared out.

Overall: One of those shows where the decent/good matches don’t leave half the imprint that the bad/confusing ones do. No amount of production and karate kids could help this company starting off on a low, especially when Misawa vs. Kobashi 2003 was happening the same night.

And it’d only get worse.

I’ve been Maffew.