World Japan – MAGMA03 Special In Osaka 08/21/03
By Maffew Gregg on 23 June 2024
World Japan
Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium
Attendance: 2,800 (debatable)
Mammoth Sasaki vs. Kuniyoshi Wada
Sasaki making his WJ debut in between appearances for WMF & Fuyuki Army. Wada would stick around for ages but he looks lost here and Mammoth isn’t a great enough worker yet to carry him to anything. A brutal Boston Crab turns Wada into a crescent moon and a tap-out at 5:36
WMG Tag Title Tournament First Round Match
Jinsei Shinzaki & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Mike Shane & Todd Shane
The Shanes get attacked during their entrances via PEARL HARBOUR FROM THE FRONT. Shinzaki gets sent into a guardrail but he’s so hench he takes it out and lands on some fan’s laps. Thankfully there’s a spotlight ready so we can see what’s happening because the show is predictably unlit. Shinzaki allows Shane #1 to control with the limited mat skills he possesses because he’s saving himself for the real wrestlers. Praying rope walk connects enabling Shiro to tag in while Shane #1 stands there being dumb. After a few shots of THE ASS, Shane #1 tries to Shane Up but takes a eye gauge that the ref doesn’t bother enforcing. Shinzaki comes in for some boring holds of his own until the Shanes start their dull distract-the-ref sequence. You know when people were saying “Prime Dusty Rhodes wouldn’t have got a tryout in WWE?” I wonder what those people would say about The Shane Twins. “Smothered at birth” maybe. Shiro hot tags in but Shane #2 cuts him off for more tedious offence. Shiro lands a horrible swinging neckbreaker as this match can’t end soon enough. Shinzaki can’t powerbomb Shane #2 because he’s allergic to mid. Shane lands a spinning Powerbomb to scare the crowd into thinking they might actually win. Shane accidentally clotheslines Shane which sets up the lariat ASS sequence to end it at 12:28.
Glad we got that out the way. Spinning Powerbomb aside, The Shanes could put a glass eye to sleep.
Masahiko Kochi vs. Takashi Uwano
Nah you’re alright.
WMG Tag Title Tournament Semifinal Match
Genichiro Tenryu & Riki Choshu vs. Kenzo Suzuki & Takao Omori
After making it to the finals of the WMG Tournament and a complete lack of notable news stars to face Sasaki, you’d assume Suzuki’s push would continue here, right?
Suzuki tries to mug Choshu but that’s got bad idea written all over it. Sure enough, the pug dog lariats Suzuki, with Suzuki takes the full nineteen count on the outside to recover. Omori tags in to get instantly taken down with a wristlock. Thankfully Tenryu trades chops with Omori’s uppers as the crowd gets excited with neither man budging. When in doubt, trade chops. Suzuki keeps it going with Tenryu losing the battle due to Suzuki’s pec muscles being the size of Dusseldorf. Choshu tags in as Omori has been on offence for thirty seconds so he’s getting a Sharpshooter. Suzuki breaks it up so Tenryu locks in the WAR Special instead. WHEN YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE A BIG DEAL BUT EVERYONE EATS YOU UP LIKE A MEAL, THAT’S OMORI.
Riki takes a Dragon Screw and actually sells for a bit while Omori locks the Abominable Stretch in. Choshu’s egg-timer goes off and he hip-tosses out of it seconds later. Omori lariats Choshu but he barely blinks so Suzuki and Omori have to double lariat him. Suzuki accidentally knees Omori leaving him open to a Choshu lariat. We just saw that spot in the last tag match! Omori and Suzuki instead isolate Tenryu to set up a flying knee that nearly misses because Suzuki soars with the grace of Astrotrain.
It doesn’t matter as Tenryu ignores all of what has just happened to Brainbuster Suzuki twice while Choshu lariats Omori again and that’s the end of a lot of things at 12:26.
Well Omori & Suzuki looked like a pair of wet losers out there. Unless you’ve been in the business ninety years or are prepared to hit him with a fully-levelled up Baphomet summon, Choshu refuses to sell for longer than ten seconds. This is fine if Tenryu is happy to play Ricky Morton but he was absolutely not willing to do that here so this was all one-way traffic.
However, maybe the young lads were treated this way deliberately so because a deeply unfortunate incident happened not long before this show:
Pro wrestler and MMA gimmick fighter Giant Ochiai remains in critical condition at press time, after going into a coma following a training accident on 7/28. Ochiai, real name Takayuki Okada, 30, was training in the ring at the World Japan dojo in Tokyo with Kenzo Suzuki, and being supervised by Riki Choshu. Exactly what happened is unclear other than it is reported that Okada took a bad bump and was knocked out. They were unable to revive him and he was rushed to the hospital, where it was ruled he had gone into a coma. He remained in the coma for the past week and in critical condition.
He’d pass away on 08/08. This show ended Suzuki’s association with WJ as whatever happened has never been completely revealed (much like Kensuke Sasaki’s similar incident years earlier) but Suzuki would leave the company and country to somehow end up in WWE after this.
Choshu was almost dismissive of the accident, claiming he was not a WJ wrestler, was there on his own, and WJ wasn’t looking to sign him, after Ochiai went into a coma but before his death.
Yeah let’s move on.
WMG Tag Title Tournament Semifinal Match
Jinsei Shinzaki & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Ichiro Yaguchi & Yoji Anjo
How is Ichiro still getting booked on shows that don’t involve Onita? And why’s he getting a bye in the tournament? I swear if you’re old in Puro you can just walk around doing what you like, like Homer when he met the Amish.
We start off with a brawl in the crowd that we can’t see because Sasaki is using the spotlight from earlier to summon Batman to get his money back from Choshu. When the wrestlers hit the ring there’s even less action as Shiro is kept in a corner for minutes, held at bay with such stunning offence as “foot-choke” and “avalanche”. Ichiro at least tries to antagonise Shiro by busting out his own THE ASS with Anjo joining in too, which is enough to make Shiro mad. That’s his THE ASS, dammit. Anjo accidentally strikes Ichiro (third time seeing that spot tonight) so Shiro THE ASSES everyone. Shinzaki pump splashes Ichiro and that’s enough effort from him so Shiro tags in but he also can’t be bothered so he applies a hold I can generously call a face-grab. Ichiro is being treated like he’s a super heavyweight but he’s just a guy who’s not in shape. He’s fat but he’s not supposed to be. Shinzaki and Shiro struggle to suplex him which is a smart way of doing less, which this entire night seems to be a study in. A fucking nerve hold gets applied. Anjo tags in with some actual speed before Shinzaki bravely…tags in Shiro. Anjo holds the ropes on an attempted flying THE ASS so Ichiro lands something resembling an Angle Slam as the end feels like it was due five minutes ago. Anjo kicks Shiro in the balls to tease a near-fall but Shinzaki saves with an axe handle off the top before both lads awkwardly Ichiro while attempting a double powerbomb before doing it properly.
Top Rope THE ASS mercy kills this at 12:32.
The ASS envy segment was nice but the rest was either dull or ugly or dull-ugly. Ichiro was expected to carry the load against two veterans conserving their energy? Yeah nah.
Christ this show is a waste of time.
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Koichiro Kimura
Kimura has a review on cagematch that simply states:
[5.0 ] “Somewhere between good and bad therefore 5 points.
I think he read that review before coming out as he immediately lands some hard shots into Ishii’s face. Ishii comes back with hard slaps but Kimura is the vet so he ignores them despite the loud noises they make. Ishii powers out of an armbar with Kimura kicking him the whole time he’s getting erect. Kimura takes an overhead belly to belly but continues to strike Ishii as he kicks out and armbars him. Kimura is being such a dick that I’m falling in love with this match. He won’t stop kicking Ishii while he’s doing things. Ishii applies a chinlock out of self-preservation but it can’t contain Kimura who ankle locks Ishii before viciously field-goal kicking him in the head.
Good fucking God. Ishii lands a snap release German Suplex so he can land a lariat but Kimura still kicks out at one before no-selling Ishii’s dropkick so he can kick him in the head some more. Ishii misses a dropkick so Kimura can single crab him. And what a single crab it is, with Kimura using so much force he threatens to tip himself over with the effort. THIS MATCH RULES. Kimura holds a Powerbomb while teasing he’s going to dunk Ishii on his head THREE TIMES before Last Riding Ishii to the mat. Ishii recovers but a lariat does nothing so a second one sees Ishii try to decapitate Kimura to make him sell before ending it with a meaty Brainbuster at 9:05 with Ishii immediately leaving the ring afterwards.
This show absolutely didn’t deserve a match this brutal. I’m probably going to watch this later without the context of the rest of the night and not see what the fuss was about but for now I’m going to leave a complimentary review for Kimura on cagematch who was definitely more than 5.0 tonight. His constant striking made Ishii look impressive as he was able to overcome it all and defeat his worthy opponent. Fuck this crowd for not making any noise, this was like being stuck in the Sahara Desert and suddenly finding a bucket of Whitley Neill. Recommended ultra-stiff match.
WMG Heavyweight Title Match
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Dan Bobish
The one defence of the prestigious WMG Heavyweight Title.
Bobish sticks to the basics and bobs Sasaki in the corner and on the mat. Sasaki takes Bob down but kicks out dramatically on one. Sasaki looks like a normal human being next to Bob so he naturally loses a test of strength, complete with shoulder barges for extra meat. Sasaki eventually gets the Northern Lights suplex to escape but Bob lariats the poor guy right out the ring. If Bob wasn’t dressed like a bus seat this would be a career-defining moment. Sasaki takes out a few guard-rails on the outside before he’s able to work Bobish’s ankle on the mat, which Dan has no response to. We know this because it goes on for ages. Dan recovers but lands a deliberately messy German because he’s selling his ankle. How can meat-man Dan figure this out when proper wrestlers can’t? Dan is able to land the over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder slam Sasaki and takes him to the mat for some ground and pound before applying leg and ankle locks. Bob doing girthy mid-90s MMA stuff like German suplexing and punching is fine but I don’t buy him as a submission dude. Neither does the crowd given the lack of reaction. But what else is Dan supposed to do? Read to him? Sasaki recovers on the outside before landing multiple lariats at Bobish who tries to absorb them but even the wall of meat has to crack eventually so after a third one he falls so Sasaki…gets a one count. Oh here we go. Sasaki then kinda lands a giant Snow Plow but even that can’t put away Bobish. So Sasaki spams the lariats some more with a trio of lances finally piercing the thing that tips over Fred Flintstone’s car at 13:19.
Bobish was pretty decent here but I can see how some would hate seeing Sasaki having to come down to Bobish’s level to help the match rather than battering him like Tenryu. However, I think considering Bobish’s lack of experience he was great and may have been something more than just “surprisingly not bad.” Or maybe I’m ignoring the fact he’s only wrestled super workers since he got to World Japan and even Dino Bravo would look promising against Sasaki, Hase etc.
WMG Tag Title Tournament Final Match
Genichiro Tenryu & Riki Choshu vs. Jinsei Shinzaki & Shiro Koshinaka
Shiro and Riki start off fast and hot as Shiro makes it clear Riki’s not going to dog him. Choshu catches the ropes so THE ASS misses leading Shiro open to a cheeky Tenryu lariat. Shinzaki ducks a chop so he can carry on and dive through the ropes onto Riki. Tenryu also follows with Shiro leading the rear with a THE ASS off the apron. There was more action in the first minute than in any of their earlier tag matches combined.
Shinzaki stares off with Tenryu and surprisingly they’d never have a singles match. Praying Ropewalk is halted by Tenryu instantly yanking Shinzaki away to chop him some more. Shinzaki angrily drags him to the opposite corner to do it properly, except Choshu runs in to take the blow…so Shinzaki grabs Choshu for a THIRD prayer but Riki throws him off Flair-style. OK that was a lovely sequence. Tenryu tries to apply a grapevine but Shiro leg-drops him directly in the face, causing Tenryu to get into a chop fest while his opponent is on the apron. Ref doesn’t bother to enforce anything so Shiro simply enters for more THE ASS. Riki refuses to sell the THE ASS so the white trouser lads have to shove him in the corner until he stops moving. Riki gets his feet up on a Pump Splash but Shinzaki turns it into a stomp instead in a nice touch. Riki refuses to sell that and tags in Tenryu who has no issues taking the throat-thrust and THE ASS. Choshu’s refusal to sell against these lads is interesting. Has no-one told him this is supposed to be the main event?
Tenryu takes a clobbering for a while until Riki tags to take a hot THE ASS to the face but when Shinzaki tries to pin him Riki of course kicks out at one. Shiro lands more THE ASS so Tenryu saves with a Blind Elbow and the ref doesn’t stop anything. Choshu comes off the top with a chop but Shiro blocks Tenryu’s powerbomb so both of them get the hot tag after everyone’s been brawling inside the ring for two minutes A-E-DUB A-E-DUB. Shinzaki kicks Choshu but Riki gets up immediately to Superplex him. Jesus. Choshu lariats Shinzaki to set up the Sharpshooter to end a flat night on an even flatter note at 15:10.
All four men clearly kept their energy for this main event and there were some nice spots but absolutely zero flow once they got the cool stuff out of the way, again not helped by Riki’s insistence on not helping anybody. Good match compared to the rest of the night but there was nothing here that could have saved this show.
WJ has not even gotten title belts for its wrestlers, but instead presents the champion with a certificate of merit. These are considered so valuable that after the show, a janitor in Osaka found one of the certificates of merit lying on the floor, and sent it in for an auction. Hardcore fans were noting that this showed the WJ wrestlers don’t even care about their titles
I think there’s some miscommunication there as they do have title belts but they’re clearly not finished yet so Tenryu holds his early-access belt for half a second before immediately handing it to the guy behind him. The belts would never be seen again.
Overall: There’s less meat here than in a chicken McNugget. Maybe check out Ishii vs. Kimura but the rest is only for the fan who has seen every other wrestling in existence twice already.
