Tokyo Pro Wrestling – Superstar Tag Battle 04/02/96

Tokyo Pro Wrestling
Komazawa Olympic Park Gymnasium
Attendance 3,900

Previously in TPW…

Liverpool vs. Newcastle 4-3 aka the match so great it has it’s own wikipeda entry happened this week so good luck following that Tokyo Pro.

Tenichibo Ikkei vs. Masanobu Kurisu

HELL YEAH IT’S KURISU. Kurisu’s rep precedes him as he locks up with Ikkei and then raises his hand to make his opponent flinch before gently stroking his own hair. Crowd likes this. Kurisu lets Ikkei take him to the ropes before yelling “ROPE! ROPE!!” and then shaking his opponent’s & ref’s hand. Kurisu pretends to be nice again before slapping Ikkei to send him to the mat, then using the ropes to choke him. The ref gives him a five count so Kurisu abuses the system by releasing the hold for a second before immediately going back to it. Ref has to get him to stop but he’s technically correct (the best kind of correct).

Kurisu sends Ikkei to the outside and teases a dive but Ikkei isn’t taking any chances and heads into the crowd just in case. Kurisu doesn’t appreciate Ikkei’s lack of humour and bashes him with a chair. Kurisu continues his chair rampage in the ring, only stopping when he gets bored. Ikkei manages a a subtle low blow so Kurisu blatantly mule kicks him in front of the ref. Kurisu reacts to an eye rake by spitting which again pops the crowd. Ikkei attempts to bonk his head on the turnbuckle but Kurisu responds by rubbing his own head. Kurisu manages a dainty crossbody for two before blocking a roll-up with his bald head as this is slowing down now. Kurisu takes another blatant low blow before a roll-up ends it at 7:41 for Ikkei.

Kurisu truly is the Japanese Les Kellet, he’s either going to have a comedy match or he’s going to cave your skull in. Or both. It depends on well he slept last night. This wasn’t even close to his best outing but there was enough comedy and hate to make it worth a watch as he had the audience in the palm of his hand the entire time and they cheered because they know how hard he can squeeze.

Gekko & Tsukikage vs. Astro Jr. & Shocker

Gekko is Orihara under a mask. I don’t know why he’s doing a masked gimmick but it’s best not to think too much about the things he does.

Tsukikage starts with Astro and they manage a wonderfully smooth exchange of holds and counter holds with both looking like they’ve wrestled each other hundreds of times. Tsukikage is able to really lean into the lucha style with armdrags and ability to take the hint it’s time to head outside and catch your opponent on a crossbody. He hasn’t done any tours of Lucha land yet according to cagematch but you’d think he had.

Gekko tags in to do the same with Shocker, though Gekko is far more inclined to showboat with what he knows, like backflipping and being mental. The luchadores hip toss and armdrag him around until Tsukikage tags in to be sent outside and get teased with the fake-out through the ropes. Shocker lands a wonderfully high Lionsault which causes Gekko to attack from behind which the crowd doesn’t approve of. Gekko’s outfit is way too similar to Tsukikage’s, the only way you can tell the difference on these crusty VHS rips is Gekko’s visible thong.

Shocker lands a top rope armdrag but Gekko is not taking these bumps lucha-style with a roll afterwards to set up the next spot, he’s taking them flat and it’s throwing off the Luchadores’ momentum. After a double jump dropkick knocks all the wind out of Gekko, Tsukikage takes plenty of wonderfully smooth lucha double teams that get no pop. Gekko tags in to bust out another backflip because the crowd are chanting his name. Gekko lands X-Pac style kicks and doesn’t do his opponent any favours as Shocker goes up top and lands a backflip with Gekko simply staring at him. So Shocker naturally sends him outside and lands a lovely no handed Quebrada.

Gekko misses a half dozen moonsaults, leading to Shocker missing a swanton before Gekko finishes by diving three quarters across the ring to manage a headbutt at 11:49.

The luchadores had such lovely chemistry with Tsukikage that even Orihara’s trademark selfishness couldn’t get in the way of things too much. His showboating actually helped the match for a change because his offence stood out in contrast with his opponents. And also because he wasn’t doing so great working the lucha style.

Two good matches in a row is a new TPW record.

TWA World Tag Team Title Tournament Semi Finals
Takashi Ishikawa & Yoji Anjo vs. Hiroshi Itakura & Masashi Aoyagi

Tokyo Pro’s first titles are being decided tonight which probably explains the big house. Itakura’s best days are behind him but you could say the same for everybody on this show.

Aoyagi and Anjo start off and go through a fairly decent exchange considering Aoyagi was hit-and-miss by this time. Ishikawa places Itakura onto the top rope like a child, motivating Itakura to armbar Ishikawa gently which is too much effort for the company owner who tags out. Yeah fair enough. Ishikawa waits for Aoyagi to tag back in so he can pretend he’s Riki Choshu and lariat Itakura and lock Aoyagi in a Sharpshooter. This goes nowhere as Anjo knows his place is to take a beating so brave, brave Ishikawa can make the save. Sharpshooter gets locked in on Itakura so Aoyagi has to kick Ishikawa repeatedly for him to release it. Anjo lets himself take some staggeringly basic offence from the other two before wrapping Itakura in a cocoon of pain for the tap-out at 7:31.

Ishikawa is much better at being a Hot Tag than he is at pretending to be a Main Eventer, so this was basic as hell but not bad by any means as this show is getting dangerously close to watchable.

TWA World Tag Team Title Tournament Semi Final Match
Daikokubo Benkei & The Great Kabuki vs. Mr. Pogo & Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Well surely Pogo and Kabuki wrestling one another will bring the quality down to the expected levels. Or maybe not as Fuj is here to make Kabuki sweat with armbar exchanges, including a wonderfully simple escape of a hammerlock that involved a simple swing of momentum from Fuj to get underneath Kabuki. I knew Fuj was good but I didn’t realise he was capable of getting a monkey flip out of Kabuki. The miracle worker continues to slap Kabuki across the ear until Benkei distracts so Fuj can walk into his throat-thrusts. Fuj gets annoyed and starts choking Kabuki until he’s able to tag in Benkei. Pogo tags in, takes one look at Benkei and drags him outside for a good old fashioned launch into a table. Understandable.

Pogo throws a boot at Benkei and makes sure it lands into the crowd. Pogo is still trying to make that a regular spot but it never gets the pop he’s expecting. What are the crowd supposed to do? “Oh wow he fucked up throwing his boot, he’s going to look so funny on the subway home!” Fuj uses the other boot on Benkei before casually throwing it into the crowd which does get a pop. Fuj attempts to headbutt Benkei who no-sells because HE’S JAPANESE he’s got no neck. Pogo and Fuj start applying Fuj’s Armbar while doing fake tags to pop the crowd. However there’s trouble in paradise when Pogo insists on using his razor saw and Fuj is not about that lifestyle so he attempts to prevent Pogo from making filet mignon out of Kabuki. Pogo does it anyway but when he attempts to spit fire, Fuj interrupts again causing Pogo to walk right into a Kabuki mist-spray and abandon the match at 13:32.

Hey even the I’m-Not-Jobbing-LOL finish couldn’t take away from the fun of seeing Kabuki being kicked and dragged into lovely exchanges with Fujiwara. Pogo wasn’t involved in a lot of good matches post-FMW but this is one of them thanks to his willingness to ham it up and stick to what he does best (stabbing and not jobbing). Match had no business being this passable.

The Golden Cups (Kenichi Yamamoto & Yoshihiro Takayama) vs. Hikaru Kawabata & Shigeo Okumura

Yeah this show definitely needed more tag matches. Yamamoto effortlessly plays with Okamura on the mat, stood up, on the outside and anywhere else he darn well pleases. He’s like Sid’s WCW introduction come to life. Eventually Kawabata has to interfere in order for the match to move along, and here comes Takayama who in 1996 is basically Von Wagner with nicer hair. He sticks to knee strikes and STFs. The Tokyo Pro guys attempt to double team with day one offence so Takayama can hang in there but Yamamoto doesn’t take that well and kicks both of them. This match has been tepid so far. The Cups start throwing German Suplexes around so Kawabata can attempt a comeback which is quickly thwarted with a Takayama Armbar submission at 9:16.

The Golden Cups had many exciting matches during his period. This was not one of them. Yamamoto is too dominant and Takayama is too green so it makes for a good average but a rotten dynamic if they’re in with less experienced grapplers then themselves.

TWA World Tag Team Title Tournament Finals
Takashi Ishikawa & Yoji Anjo vs. Daikokubo Benkei & The Great Kabuki

Kabuki sprays mist during the introductions so Anjo responds by spraying milk.

Benkei does not appreciate the disrespect and covers Anjo in milk to start this one off hot. Sadly this is followed by several minutes of nothing but punching, standing & looking dumb. Kabuki is bleeding everywhere but no-one cares because he’s always bloody bleeding. Benkei slams Ishikawa before blocking interference from Anjo with a stare. Crowd liked that. So far the crowd have only appreciated Anjo being a daft bugger. Ishikawa saves Anjo and the crowd doesn’t react at all for the owner/supposed biggest star. Benkei absorbs all the blows from the boss until Ishikawa drops him with three massive back suplexes to get the crowd finally reacting and…oh that’s the finish? At 7:59? Just as it was getting going? Huh.

Well we’ve got new champs and the match didn’t outstay it’s welcome so that’s all that matters. Anjo being camp with milk (Dairy Queen?) was the highlight.

Overall: A surprisingly solid show from the Tokyo Pro crew! The company has figured out that they need name wrestlers to draw crowds but Ishikawa hasn’t realised that by doing so it means he’s the 10th most important guy in his own company. Ah well I’m sure he’ll figure it out before the company dies a horrible, horrible death.

Next week: The company begins to die a horrible, horrible death.

I’ve been maffew