Tokyo Pro Wrestling In Ryushomon 02/23/95
By Maffew Gregg on 21 July 2024
Tokyo Pro Wrestling
Shizuoka, Japan
Attendance 2,200
Well if I’m looking at SWS, PWC, NOW, Kitao Dojo & WAR, it’s only fair to give the other other other other other other doomed 90s puro indie a look.
Tokyo Pro was the company set up by Takashi Ishikawa who was mid-carding for WAR at that point. Him and a few other WAR lads surveyed the pro wrestling landscape, decided “YEAH THIS LOOKS FINE” and found a backer along with a few ex-NOW wrestlers to set up another new company. This show is their first VHS release.
The show starts and we’re greeted to the sight of empty chairs. There’s no way 2,200 are even capable of fitting into this tiny village hall. If they drew 2,200 here then I had 10,000 people over to my house parties when I was at Heaton. Actually if we’re counting the neighbours that would come over to complain then that’s fairly accurate by Puro standards.
Mitsunobu Kikuzawa vs. Shigeo Okumura
Mitsunobu Kikuzawa is baby unmasked Kitaro. Okumura isn’t put off by this car boot sale crowd turnout and delivers a lovely German Suplex before Kikuzawa gets an armbar out of nowhere to win a heavily-edited 9:40. I would have talked more about the match if there was more match to talk about.
Apollo Sugawara & Zuleyma vs. Elektra & Kishin Kawabata
Oh great, Apollo Snooze returns. Zuleyma is a year away from retirement but is still able to throw a decent dropkick. Sadly Elektra sells it so badly that Apollo stomps her head in response. How bad do you have to be for Apollo to criticize you? Kishin’s offence is so mid they have to edit it out for fear you may be watching this show while driving, fall asleep and cause something more exciting than this match. Zuleyma makes Elektra submit to a Mexican Surfboard at 11:30, next.
Isamu Teranishi & Takeshi Miyamoto vs. Kei Tsukada & Masahiko Takasugi
These lads all look rough as fuck and not in the cool Puro Legend kinda way. If Japan had a Yorkshire, these lads would hail from there. Jesus, Isamu Teranishi started in 1966. Masahiko Takasugi only started in 1977 so he uses the youth advantage to connect with an exciting hammerlock takedown before we immediately clip ahead.
Kei is wrestling with boxing gloves on so Takeshi Miyamoto takes delight in applying a headlock he can’t defend and pushes him out of the ring because he can’t grab the ropes. Miyamoto sends Kei into the sea of empty chairs knowing he can’t do anything about it before kicking his shins. At least somebody is enjoying this show. Isamu puts his Tetley Tea down to apply a scissor leglock but Takasugi kicks him away, allowing the boxer to land lots of tiny punches as Isamu dramatically yells “AHHHHHH” to mock him. Kei jumps off the top rope to deliver a tiny punch to the dome and the crowd applauds him for making it to the top rope in boxing gloves without breaking his neck. Kei continues to deliver these OTT punches that may or may not be supposed to be serious until Miyamoto takes over and torments him further with an easy roll-up ending it at 12:30.
Weird mix of humour and stiffness with some old folks and a guy who thinks he’s a boxer. Just an average episode of Last Of The Summer Wine.
Yoshiro Ito vs. Seiji Yamakawa
That’s future BJPW icon Ryuji Yamakawa without dyed hair or cowboy hat. Or chance of winning, as he has to deliver multiple dropkicks to even stun his larger foe. Ito is a year away from leaving the business but wrestles like he’s already left. Having said that, his Package Piledriver is an absolute bastard and ends the contest at 5:35.
Match was nothing before the finish, but what a finish it was.
Mummy & Black Mummy vs. Dank Tani & Shunme Matsuzaki
I guess if W*ING had Freddy Kruger and IWA Japan had Leatherface and you have even less pride than those two companies, the natural option is to go for the cheapest looking horror gimmick available. You’d think they’d use a few rolls of toilet paper for a proper Mummy outfit but even Tokyo Pro is above copying The Yetayyy.
Instead, these two Mummies are wearing boiler suits and uhhh wigs. Well I guess hair does still grow when you’re dead, something this company will be finding out sooner rather than later.
We get a quick brawl outside before clipping ahead as the crowd are not exactly in awe of these two muppets and I think the production wanted to hide the lack of reaction. Back inside the ring an attempt at a double clothesline using the chains (y’know, those mummy chains you read about) is forgotten about so Ito can chokeslam Mummy for the win after a barely-seen 11:21. Surreally awful in how uneventful and instantly regretful this gimmick was.
Post-match there’s an attempt by the Mummies to get some heat back but the other two wrestlers “NOPE” out of that quickly and leave before the Mummies can get their hands on them. The crowd politely clap.
Hiroshi Hatanaka vs. Poison Sawada
Two lads that have been riding economy class to any NOW/SPWF/IWA Shonan show that’ll book them.
JIP to Hatanaka landing basic but solid moves on Poison who has a lovely pile of red hair resting on his head that wouldn’t last long. Hatanaka gets a bit too self confident and we can’t be doing with that so he lands a rubbish clothesline before redeeming himself with a delayed piledriver. Hatanaka busts out a cool Sambo Suplex into a backbreaker but for reasons, Isao Takagi arrives and chair-shots the wrestlers and the referee to end this in a No Contest at 16:12. Match was OK until then.
Yoshiaki Yatsu watches in silence (like the rest of the crowd) until Takashi Ishikawa arrives to scare them off. I think this was to set-up a TPW vs. SPWF feud that I’d be up for watching if it wasn’t for the fact that SPWF shows are some of the dullest wrestling I’ve ever seen in my life. You’ve got to draw the line somewhere. Anyway as we’ll see this wouldn’t lead to anything so this was an even bigger waste of time than usual.
Takashi Ishikawa & Ryo Miyake vs. Shigekazu Tajiri & Yuichi Fukaya
Tajiri (not that one) and Fukaya bum rush their opponents as they’re being checked over by the ref to start this one with heat. Well, in theory. Crowd are still quiet. Both lads are wearing Gis and Ishikawa is happy to absorb a ton of kicks and knees to build tensi- oh never mind he instantly comes back with a stiff punch to the face and tags in Ryo to take the heat instead. Tajiri’s kicks are decent but Ryo starts throwing headbutts and Tajiri sells by not reacting at all.
Ishikawa takes some nice sounding kicks but he cuts them off quickly with an armbar. Ishikawa lands some Tenryu-style kicks to a downed opponent’s face but it’s a shame he couldn’t borrow Tenryu’s ability to sell. Ryo can’t get the tag so Ishikawa stops the tension and brawls with the Karate guys on the outside before tagging in.
Ishikawa is a legend right? Or is he just old? I know they’re the same thing in Japan most of the time. Ryo missile dropkicks Tajiri and completely discombobulates him to the point where he can’t stand up. Ryo send him into the corner but he’s so out on his feet that even his belt falls off. Ryo’s still green and doesn’t take the hint so Tajiri has to double-leg him out of instinct so he can tag out and roll outside to recover. A-E-DUB A-E-DUB.
Fukaya misses a spinning kick on a stationary Ryo as this potentially decent match has suddenly shit itself & died. Ryo takes a breather on the outside and that’s enough to finally get the crowd into it, right as the wheels are falling off. Hot tag to Ishikawa who lands a chokeslam and Sharpshooter on Tajiri. Fukaya kicks him out of the hold and out of the ring so then Ryo lands a DDT to end a flat match even flatter at 17:10.
This was at least solid thanks to the karate guys’ efforts until it fell apart quicker than a cheap slinky. Ishikawa thinking he is on the level of Tenryu & Choshu is sad considering the tiny crowd he’s performing in front of but the crowd at least popped loudest for him. This was Tajiri’s last wrestling event and after seeing him all uncoordinated out there I can see why he’d give up on it.
Overall: Well the company wouldn’t record another show until a year later which sums it up. Thankfully by the time Ishikawa got the cameras out again, the roster was much more interesting and noteworthy, which we’ll be seeing next week when we head back to the present day of 1996.
Apart from that, the old man tag match was amusing but maybe not in the way they intended. That’s the best thing I can say about this show so let’s move on and do something else today.