Tokyo Pro Wrestling – Maze Master?! 08/25/96
By Maffew Gregg on 29 September 2024
Pacifico Yokohama
Attendance 4,250
The same week as Gabe Newell & Mike Harrington founding the Valve Corporation, the release of The Island of Dr. Moreau, and Zoe Ball leaving The Big Breakfast.
Oh and also this show.
TWA World Tag Challenger Team Decision Match
Shodai Tiger Mask & Yoji Anjo vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takashi Ishikawa
Last time we checked in TPW, Anjo & Ishikawa were teaming up so I assume Anjo realised how useless Ishikawa was and dropped him like Man U releasing Massimo Taibi. Ishikawa is protesting the accusations by growing a mullet.
Ishikawa starts with a big lariat but Anjo kicks him in the corner and gets a bigger reaction than the company owner. Tiger Mask tags in to a lovely “hell yeah it’s Tiger Mask” pop to deliver his spinning leg sweep attack wonderfully. It’s a good move for him to start off with as you know if you’re going to get a good or bad Tiger Mask match depending on the speed of it. Ishikawa places Tiger on the top rope and follows with a brutal… tag-out to Takayama. Aye well done.
Takayama wastes no time elbowing and pounding his friend-from-another-company in the corner and Anjo is happy to make him look good, thus making Anjo better than Choshu. Takayama holds Anjo’s head so Ishikawa can kick him directly in the bastard face but battering Anjo makes the crowd quieter for the company owner. Tiger Mask delivers more spinning offence to Takayama on the mat, with the larger one able to grapple on the mat convincingly with the legend. Anjo hears the deafening silence and comes in to kick Takayama for a bit before realising he’s not legal and awkwardly leaving, which is much appreciated by the crowd. Takayama deadlifts Tiger into a wee slam to set up Ishikawa loudly daring Anjo to attack him while he’s applying a Sharpshooter. Anjo sighs and obliges nonchalantly. Anjo is single-handily keeping this company alive. Anjo wraps Takayama in The Cocoon Of Pain which forces him to tap out at 9:06 despite Ishikawa trying his best to help by yelling “C’MONN” from the apron.
OK opener helped by Anjo’s antics and the crowd’s fondness for Tiger Mask.
Black Wazuma (2 Cold Scorpio) vs. Sabu
Sabu has The Sheik with him! Oh that’s nice I didn’t know if he made many appearances in Japan after his 1993 retirement. This match is slightly infamous but for once it’s not because of a horrible mistake or injury.
Both men circle one another as Sheik yells “ALLAH SABU” and everyone at ringside looks confused. Like last time, the crowd patiently wait until Sabu starts doing Sabu things (jumping off the ropes, springboarding, no-showing indie Hall of Fame appearances). After patiently waiting for Sheik to stop yelling, Sabu sends Wazuma outside with multiple kicks to set up an Asai Moonsault that mostly connects (mostly). Sabu sets up a Double Jump Crossbody to the outside but Wazuma launches a chair into his face, causing Air Sabu to crash land.
Sabu tries the Triple Jump Moonsault but yells “move out the way” so Wazuma does. Well, he shouldn’t have told him. Scorpio’s lovely Big Arse Powerbomb sets up a Rolling Legdrop, a two count and more discussion. Sabu lands a Frankensteiner on a crotched Wazuma. Not to be outdone, Scorpio attempts a Victory Roll but slips before finishing so Sabu ad-libs by pretending it was an armdrag. The crowd are understanding because it’s only weirdos that focus on wrestling mistakes. Sabu gets rolled into a pinfall type thing that he has no idea how to take as he yells “woah woah woah!” before landing a springboard legdrop to silence as the crowd haven’t recovered yet. With the silence and loud panting this is beginning to sound like one of those dodgy customs matches.
Scorpio kicks Sabu after he asked him to, followed by Scorpio asking if he’s OK. Wazuma turns a leg lariat into a back suplex (“oh shit!”) and a Buckshot Splash for two. Ah good the crowd is into this again. Wazuma rewards their noise with a top rope splash while turning direction in mid-air.
Sabu comes back by nailing Air Sabu on Wazuma while he’s resting on the top rope, sending him outside and following with the cameras missing Sabu’s Quebrada. Everything is against these two guys tonight. Sabu finally finds a table and puts himself through it via a massive plancha as the crowd are enthusiastically yelling SABU SABU SABUUUU because that’s his name on Twitter.
Sabu must be feeling a bit fed up as he starts to commentate the match for his own amusement. Scorpio heads up top (“oh shit you’re going to kill me, you’re going to kill meeee”) and delivers a splash (“you killed meee”) before heading up for another (“you’re breaking my heart baby”) and landing a twisting splash for two (“you’re breaking my riiiibs”). Triple Jump Tornado DDT lands (“you had enough baby? you had enough?”) and Sabu indeed pins him (“hook the leg baby”) but the ref stops counting for some reason (“count! COUNT! YOU MOTHERFUCKER! YOU SON OF A BITCH! FUCK YOU!”) so Sabu lands the Triple Jump Moonsault to properly end it (“fuck, you fucked my finish man!”) at 16:58.
Not a patch on their previous match but – oh wait Sabu’s not done yet.
Not a patch on their previous match as the lack of crowd reaction really hurt it and there were moments of sloppiness (no, really) but still worth a watch out of curiosity to hear Sabu start talking more during one match than all his promos combined.
NWA Light Heavyweight Title
Gekko vs. El Dandy
And just like that, Gekko unmasks to reveal himself as MASAO ORIHARA as he charges Dandy before the bell even rings. Not a lot of pop there, this wasn’t exactly Misawa unmasking as everyone knew who it was anyway.
Orihara armdrags Dandy outside for chops before heading back in to battle his opponent with plenty of armdrags. Dandy is quick enough to counter them and hard enough to take Orihara’s chops he insists on throwing as frequently as possible. Ref gets pushed down by Orihara but nothing is done about it so Dandy lariats him and wonders why the crowd is so quiet. Dandy’s lovely twisting Sunset Flip gets Dos. Dandy gets sent outside so Orihara land a smooth Asai Moonsault to finally warm up these cold fans. Orihara sets up the Spider German off the top but Dandy’s like “no way am I taking that” so he pushes him off to deliver a crossbody for two. Orihara hilariously tries to dropkick Dandy but accidentally hits the ref, by which I mean “Orihara throws a dropkick directly at the ref”. That looked ridiculous. Orihara has Dandy pinned with a Powerbomb but the ref throws it out at 5:08.
Orihara was not in a giving mood here so Dandy did what he could but barely had any time to showcase himself so this was an awkward way to spend five minutes and eight seconds.
Oh, Orihara protests afterwards despite being fully deserving of a DQ and eventually the refs restart it because Orihara wasn’t going to shut up. This sequence takes place via montage and it looks like it took forever to restart but the crowd couldn’t care less.
NWA Light Heavyweight Title
Five Minute Time Limit
El Dandy vs. Orihara
Five minute time limit? The Henry Hoover in the office can guess how this one is ending. Orihara instantly spikes Dandy with a delayed piledriver with not even Dandy’s perm able to soften the blow. Orihara sticks on him like shit on a blanket, not allowing Dandy to rest a second before planting him with a top rope Frankensteiner and a top rope splash. Dandy finally manages to stop him with a German Suplex and a Figure Four. He tries another but Orihara rolls him up and no wonder the crowd isn’t reacting to any of this, why would they? Orihara’s a dick who hits refs and greenhorns, fuck him complaining his way into a rematch. Orihara lands a moonsault for two as this match carries on as fast as possible with the heel trying to beat the guy the fans don’t know. Gory Special gets zero reaction. La Magistral gets a minor pop because it used to be a MDK roll-up. Orihara hears the countdown being read over the PA so he attempts some more quick attempt pin-falls but fails to as the match ends.
Rubbish. Whatever they were aiming for here missed to such a degree that if it had enough force on it, there’s a good chance it would have circled the globe to come back around and miss a second time.
TWA Tag Title Match
Shodai Tiger Mask & Yoji Anjo vs. Benkei Daikokobu & Abdullah The Butcher
Abby gets to speak beforehand which is always a pleasure.
“Look! Look at my partner! Strong! Big! My Partner! LOOK!”
Tiger Mask attacks Benkei to start but he’s too fat to feel shoot kicks. Tiger punches him in his soft tits instead. Must be like attacking your mattress. Anjo joins in and makes excited noises while the crowd enjoys his antics almost as much as I do. Anjo makes the mistake of applying holds on Benkei too close to Abby who clotheslines him out of them. Anjo takes a Benkei-sized lariat so Abby tags in. Anjo’s facial expressions really sell his fear of Abby and his droopy breasts. Anjo takes a forking on the outside which is what the crowd (and ringside photographers) are wanting from Abby so that kills five minutes.
Anjo bleeds as he takes a bearhug like Hogan in 2002. This gets the crowd buzzing, even more so when he escapes by biting Benkei’s delicious looking neck. Abby takes a kicking from Anjo but he amazingly halts it with a cheeky back heel kick of all things. Anjo takes another five minutes of being stabbed and squished before making his own comeback with a chair because Tiger Mask is not doing a damn thing to help. Tiger takes the hint and contributes a single kick so Anjo can fork Abby and finally tag out. Sayama kicks away on a floored Abby and delivers a monkey flip (!)
Benkei cuts off Tiger Mask so he tags in a worn-out Anjo who armbars Abby while squealing demonically. Benkei makes the save and splashes Anjo repeatedly as Abby holds on by simply not allowing Anjo to release the hold. That’s pretty cool, even if it was happening because Abby didn’t have the strength to stand up yet. Working smarter not harder. Benkei does all the moves he knows how to execute properly (bearhug and lariat) until Anjo counters into a Fujiwara Armbar for the win and the titles at 17:23 with Tiger Mask attempting a Flying Cross Check without leaving his feet to prevent Abby from making the save.
Solid but unspectacular headliner, again helped by Anjo who was the only one in the tournament who showed up to work. Tiger’s lack of care for the match was amusing.
Like the last show, the crowd all surround the ring and pound the mat to make this event feel like a big deal even if it wasn’t.
Overall: Only worth a watch if you really, really like Anjo or want to see a lesser Sabu vs. Scorpio match rather than any of the dozen good ones they had. Tokyo Pro’s strategy seems to be “book the top stars then worry about the rest later” but that’s the bit they should be worrying about the most. Well, that and insolvency as we’ll see next week.