World Japan – MAGMA01 Series 03/15/03
By Maffew Gregg on 19 May 2024
World Japan
Korakuen Hall
Attendance: 1,850
New company running Korakuen Hall and not announcing a sell out? Yeah it’s already over.
Nobutaka Araya vs. Takashi Uwano
Araya is attached to Tenryu’s hip so where he goes, he must follow. He has his Buff Bagwell Losing face on. Mate you’re lucky to be here. Uwano immediately slaps him hard so Araya responds with a single crab. Mad at realising he’ll have to work tonight, Araya comes back with his own slaps and stuns poor Uwano, turning him into uWu-ano.
Once Uwano remembers where he parked his car, he German Suplexes Araya directly onto his mullet. Uwano sees him coming on an attempted lariat and converts it into a STO which is the one spot he does really well. Araya seems intend on KO’ing one of WJ’s prospects as he drops Uwano on his head with a Brainbuster before stretching his entire body on a Boston Crab so vicious that the ref doesn’t even wait for the tap out before ending the match at 9:47.
Jesus that was vicious, with Araya even telling the ref to check on his opponent afterwards. Well this was a lot better than last time as Uwano gets the puro push of losing but getting elevated at the same time.
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Yoji Anjo
Ishii has a big coat now. He must have found a new personality in one of the pockets as he dogs Anjo with strikes and growls at him. Anjo’s used to bigger lads messing with him and has no issues throwing elbows to the side of Ishii’s still-normal sized neck. Anjo gets choked for a bit, living out Akira Maeda’s dreams. Ishii retaliates with giant elbows as we’re letting it all hang out tonight eh? I guess everyone’s motivated now the lights are on and you can see the crowd. This is strike/hold/strike/hold but the shots are beautifully stiff, with Anjo showing his experience by simply kicking Ishii’s feet out from underneath him to prevent more strikes. Anjo wraps Ishii’s arm around his neck and tries for a pin by kneeling and staring at the crowd because he’s a dick. Ishii blocks a Pump Kick and decks Anjo right in his miserable face before getting the fluke pin via German Suplex at 8:08.
Anjo protests as it was a very loose pin, but the important thing about this match was how much better it was than last time, proving Anjo’s style works if his opponent is willing to work as hard as him.
Masahiko Kochi & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Kazushi Miyamoto & Tomoaki Honma
These two teams had words at the last show. Which were “did your cheque clear?”
Kochi attacks both lads before the ref separates everyone because he’s so angry at being lapped by wrestlers with half his experience. Yatsu is the biggest star but after his performance last time, it’s best he’s not in singles matches for a while. Yatsu plays around with Miyamoto without doing much before Honma tags in to also not do much. At least Kochi can take bumps. Yatsu tries to disrupt some double teaming by launching a dropkick but neither guy sells it and they chase him away. Oh Yatsu’s working this like a comedy match? Makes sense now. Wait no it doesn’t. Kochi kicks out of the Murderplex (that elevated Superplex Edge & Christian used to do) so Yatsu makes the hot, unmotivated tag. He gets cut off almost immediately so his opponents work him over for a bit before he locks in the Prison Lock on Honma for the instant tap.
On the last show, Yatsu suckered Anjo in so he could apply his hold in a way that looked interesting and showed his smarts. Well on this show here he just applied it with no build or excitement which was the story of the match. I can’t tell if Yoshi was doing a bit or if he’s given up, comfortable in the knowledge no-one is going to tell him off due to his experience. Match was awful.
Shane Twins vs. The Road Warriors
No tag titles on the line here because the Shanes suck. Shane #1 takes all of Animal’s trademark offence which looks really pre-rehearsed because he’s so stiff and fat. The enjoyment of the Warriors was their stuff looking like they were forcing dudes to move in ways the universe didn’t intend, not going spot-for-spot like they’re Blood Generation. Hawk does the same and powers up after every move regardless of who is supposed to be selling. The Shanes get a tiny bit of offence on Animal before hot tag Hawk. Hawk takes a double flapjack and sells it before the Shanes land their one decent move, a swinging double Uranage to get the clean win over the legendary Doomers at 9:04. Their first loss in Japan since losing to Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Masahiro Chono in 1996.
I’m not saying this was good but it was better than last time by not being horrible. Like seeing an old band you used to love, in a venue far smaller than you remember them playing in, wearing shirts that don’t fit like they used to.
Kenzo Suzuki vs. Steve Madison
Steve’s hair is both spiked up and balding. Was the qualification to work for WJ just “lives in Florida”?
Steve slams the larger Suzuki and gets a generous reaction for landing a missile dropkick. This goes on for a while and is solid but also dull as hell to watch and type about. I can’t stop staring at Steve’s awful hair. He busts out a tope and follows with a rolling senton off the apron and I’m still focused on it. Cactus clothesline over the guardrail and BANG there it is staring back at me like those paintings with the eyes that follow you around the room. Kenzo delivers a spear and it looks like the end, however Steve and his spikes side-step a flying knee and the crowd’s suddenly into it as there’s no way this guy’s making a comeback is there? No, there isn’t as he slips on a bulldog off the top rope to crowd laughter. Steve locks in a Crossface which Suzuki is able to escape out of so Steve counters a clothesline into another as this has gone from SUPRISINGLY NOT BAD to MAYBE ALRIGHT. Suzuki delivers a German Suplex with little segue from the previous segment and wins with the flying knee at 11:49.
Alright this wasn’t bad because Steve was willing to do anything to make this work so fair play to him, but if I gave this a star for every hair follicle it would still only be **/12.
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Big Vito
Pardon me? Vito’s in my Boy’s Club and continues to earn his stay there by bouncing off Sasaki’s shoulder barges and going chop for chop with the trainee killer. Vito’s offence isn’t great looking on the massive Sasaki but he makes up for it by SWEARING IN ENGLISH. Fans love that. Commentators talk about WCW while Vito lands his superkick and his hand-waving taunt thing. I don’t know what it’s called but if you’ve been following Scott’s Nitro 2000 rants you’ll know what I mean. Vito doesn’t look very graceful as he lands an elbow drop off the top, which generates laughter. Puro fans will laugh directly into your face at the smallest mis-step. I guess you need a sense of humour if you’re attending a WJ show. This loses all momentum as neither seem to know what the other wants to do, so Sasaki lariats Vito a few times and wins clean at 6:36 with a Northern Lights Bomb.
You’d think this would be a match worthy of Jabroniville but it ended up being nothing.
Takao Omori vs. Shiro Koshinaka
Omori goes right for Shiro as this sucker has heat with both boys going hard to bust open the noses. Shiro blasts Omori with THE ASS before smashing him outside with a piledriver on the concrete before more of THE ASS. Shiro’s offence should be comical but the viciousness in which he throws THE ASS makes him demand seriousness. Omori tries to valiantly come back but he mis-times a dropkick so while Shiro is gloating, Omori kicks him over the top rope. Omori uses a chair before the ref restores the order and the match calms down a bit. Not for long though as Shiro no-sells a piledriver to come after Omori, whose facial expressions make it seem like he’s fighting Jaws. Just pure panic and desperation. Shiro lands a top rope THE ASS but a follow-up powerbomb can’t end Omori. Omori lands multiple Dragon Suplexes but that can’t end Shiro but with a dripping nose, Omori dunks Shiro with a Axe Guillotine Driver to surprisingly win/survive at 13:29
A much heated and passionate affair. If Omori had shown this fire against Hashimoto he’d still be in Zero One. (note from the future: this has been disproven but I’m still using it as I don’t know anything else about Omori stillrealtomedammit.wav). Shiro can have really tense battles using only THE ASS and mean stares.
Genichiro Tenryu vs. Riki Choshu
Let’s see if these two can manage to not derail an entire company’s momentum this time around.
Tenryu immediately punches Choshu in his dodgy jaw but Choshu is so fired up he gets a cheer from applying a chinlock. Both old curly haired lads go slap-for-slap as the crowd sound much more real than the last show despite being 10th the size. Tenryu seems intent on breaking Choshu’s jaw again but I hope they’re merely playing it up. I’d love to have a friend who breaks my jaw for funsies. Tenryu chop/punches Choshu while the crowd begs for Riki to hurry up and lariat him. So he does. Tenryu does not like that and throws a strop by launching chairs into the ring. Even when taking a rest, Tenryu is cool. Choshu encourages him to get in the ring so Tenryu dumps a table on him. This all looks very rough and erratic and I mean that in the best possible way. Tenryu chair shots Choshu repeatedly, making sure to pop him in the jaw for good measure. Choshu decides to use chairs also as the crowd agrees it’s only fair. Tenryu thinks about whether or not he wants to continue before resuming his slap-slap-slap-punch-in-jaw combo that’s worked well for him so far. Choshu takes the 53 Years Old/Jackhammer before walking directly into a brutal lariat with Choshu’s body attempting to split into eight different directions at once, like when you beat Shao Khan in Mortal Kombat II. 53 Years Old onto a chair only increases the crowd’s support for Riki, so Tenryu gives him another to shut them up at 11:27.
Much, much more focused than the last calamity with both men able to convey their hatred in a short, explosive encounter without (major) injuries this time. Tenryu is best when he’s being miserable and you can tell Riki was feeling the effects from last time as he actually gave his opponent some offence.
Overall: The old adage about only getting one attempt at a first impression is true as this show was so much better than the PPV it made you wonder how much different W1’s reputation would be decades later if they’d started with this instead of the disaster at Yokohama.
Actually the quality of this show doesn’t matter as things are about to get bad behind the scenes so disregard everything I just typed.
