World Japan – MAGMA01 Power Hall In Osaka 05/03/03
By Maffew Gregg on 2 June 2024
World Japan
Gran Cube Osaka
Attendance: 1,650
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Masahiko Kochi
Arena is somehow even darker than last time. Any bleaker and I’m going to need Buffalo Bill’s glasses to keep up. Chop chop dig dig Boston Crab at 10:30.
Ichiro Yaguchi vs. Takashi Uwano
Onita is booked so of course Ichiro is making an appearance. Hogan/Beefcake has nothing on Onita/Ichiro. All punch punch headbutt headbutt. Ichiro goes low and does the “who me?” pose with no-one in the crowd reacting because they know he’s him. Chops chops chops single crab. How come Ichiro uses Young Lion’s offence when he’s forty? Razor’s Edge finally ends it at 13:33. Ichiro is brutal when there’s nothing spiky for him to fall on.
Shiro Koshinaka vs. Lex Meyer
Oh we’re still flying in Florida lads then. Lex is no-one of note. He attempts to keep Shiro grounded with a Single Crab but THE ASS soon makes an appearance to excited “weeeyyy” noises from the crowd. Lex lands a very pleasant standing dropkick and is able to hang with Shiro on first gear by busting out top rope dropkicks and landing on his feet.
However Shiro’s not in the mood for working too hard so a few THE ASS and a powerbomb ends an inoffensive encounter at 11:11.
Hiroshi Hase vs. The Great Nita
Maybe the first wrestling match between two senators who are still in office. Which should be interesting but sadly Onita is doing his Nita gimmick for some reason. Onita would bust out his Muta cosplay from time to time and it sucked because he uses it as an excuse to wrestle at half-speed while trying to be spooky. Well Onita was a Fiend in more ways than one.
Things start off in the crowd where it’s too dark to see what’s happening until Nita chokes Hase with his scythe. Hase takes the red mist but he’s used to wrestling covered in the red stuff. Ichiro appears and attempts to drag the commentator’s table into the ring but it’s massive so someone is required to help the help. Hase gets blasted as I wonder who booked Nita to be on offence against Hase, one of the best carriers of lesser-workers. The governor finally punches Nita in the balls twice and delivers the contractually-bound Giant Swing. Nita mists Hase again but after a few more chair shots he tries a third mist which hits the ref. A fourth mist hits the replacement ref so Hase naturally slams both refs to turn this into a No Contest at 12:38
Ooof. I’m an Onita apologist but this was brutally bad with Hase unable to get anything out of someone who wasn’t intending to give anything in the first place. Hase could have had a better match with a door.
Kenzo Suzuki vs. Big Vito
Hell yeah it’s 2005 Smackdown. Vito keeps it simple with wristlocks and armbars but this is at least different to the other basic wrestling we’ve had all night so I’m thankful to see something as exciting as a sidewalk slam. Kenzo gets worked over while the commentators do the “still to come!” hype for the rest of the show. Kenzo retaliates with his high knee, spear and running Shining Wizard to end a quick affair at 6:00. You know what, this was acceptably forgettable/forgettably acceptable.
Dan Bobish & Takao Omori vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Yoji Anjo
The more matches Yoji loses, the higher up the card he goes. Omori & Tenryu trade chops & uppers before Omori lands a dropkick with such force Tenryu is barely able to prepare for it. Omori is worried about Yoji and puts over his kicks by not wanting to engage with him head-on. Bobish tags in and does all the basic big man cool stuff like “squish in the corner” and “lose quickly in PRIDE.” Yoji attempts to run from Dan but he manages to catch him easily as the crowd laugh. You can’t book Anjo as a face, it’s too fun watching him get mugged. Tenryu helps his kinda-friend with lariats, before kick-starting the chop/elbow rush in the corner. Omori manages to tag in Bobish who bearhugs Tenryu so hard that Yoji is forced to tag in and is absolutely peppered around the ring as the crowd gasps in laughter. Yoji connects with a top rope something that barely-trained Dan is able to realise sucks, so he neglects to sell it and lariats the rat. Hey don’t hurt him too bad Dan, he’s the reason PRIDE exists. Omori takes out Tenryu so Dan racks Yoji for the submission at 10:10.
Really decent work here, helped by the crowd dying at Yoji in pain. Dan was really solid, I don’t know why he didn’t stick to wrestling, especially how his fight with Goodridge went a week after this:
Gary Goodridge knocked out Dan Bobish in 0:18. Bobish greatly hurt his role as the monster foreign star for the dying WJ group. This match was something of a farce, as Goodridge appeared to accidentally put his pinky in Bobish’s eye. The ref didn’t see it. Bobish backed off, looking for a time out and calling attention that his eye had watered up and he couldn’t see. The ref didn’t stop it and Goodridge started wailing on Bobish, who wasn’t fighting back, and the match was stopped. Bobish came off looking bad, but this was bad officiating. Bobish and WJ owner Masaji Fukuda were furious at how this went down. Fukuda then also said he wanted to gain revenge for the company by sending Riki Choshu and Kensuke Sasaki to Pride, which sounds like a horrible idea.
Kensuke Sasaki & Riki Choshu vs. Mike Shane & Todd Shane
World Japan must have been in a The Producers-style scenario if they’re booking The Shanes in the main event.
Shane #1 dares Sasaki to hit him so he does. Riki tags in to do the same but he’s reluctant to take either of The Shanes’ strikes. Book giant shits, get giant shits mate. Choshu takes a chinlock for twenty seconds to end the Shane’s advantage for the match. Shane #2 interrupts a Sharpshooter attempt which means Choshu takes a double suplex and sells FOR AN EXTRA MINUTE while taking The Shane’s WWF Metal move-set. Double shoulder tackle means EVEN MORE SELLING from Choshu and I can’t believe this. Usually the ’85 Chicago Bears wouldn’t have been able to make Choshu sell but now he’s suddenly Scotty Too Hotty. Sasaki makes the hot tag to slam Shane #2 and Snow Plow Shane #1 to end this alleged main event at 10:02
As a match it was basic stuff done competently. But as a main event? Lord no, this couldn’t have headlined Sunday Night Heat.
Overall: Bloody awful.
There’s another recording from the same tour two days after this one but it’s filled with 90% rematches so I’m going to make like most puro fans during this period and skip it.
This first tour turned out to be a major disaster, because Riki Choshu ended up injured, with what was first believed to be a broken jaw from one of the Tenryu matches. He worked 3/18 in the barbed wire match in Gunma, but went to the hospital after the match and was forced to cancel the rest of the tour. The preliminary reports were his jaw was swollen badly, but neither fractured nor broken, and he’s expected to be back when they open their next tour on 4/19 at Korakuen Hall, and Tenryu said he’d wrestle him in a make-up singles match on that show. This left both the big drawing cards that everyone bought tickets to see (Tenryu being the other, out with a concussion ) off the shows. On the 3/19 show in Soka and 3/20 show in Nagareyama, the third biggest draw, Atsushi Onita, also was off the show because as a member of the Diet, he had political business to take care of with the war breaking out. Fans were really upset both nights about the no-shows and there were extensive ticket refunds each night.
