Tokyo Pro Wrestling – 200% Night 10/08/96

Tokyo Pro Wrestling
Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium
Attendance 3,669 (1,200)

Previously In TPW…

The same week that gave us the debut of PBS’ Arthur, BBC2’s Two Fat Ladies and uhh The First Wives Club gives us this show.

Sabu vs. Black Wozuma

Black Wozuma removes his mask during the introductions and is announced as 2 Cold Scorpio. Crowd react because something is happening.

Sabu catches Scorpio on that leg-dive he always starts with. Scorpio rolls out and like last time we get to hear every word between the wrestlers! Sabu tells the ref he’s got red paint on his hands, presumably because someone was bleeding from an earlier unrecorded match and asks Scorpio if he fucked up the spot. “No it was good.” C’mon Sabu it’s been less than a minute, you’re like Greg Valentine you need at least fifteen more spots before you start fucking up.

Sabu gets worked over on the mat before he accidentally runs face-first into a Scorpio kick and he needs to roll (or rather plummet) to the outside to get his bearings. Yeah that looked vicious. Scorpio assists by launching Sabu into the front row. Scorpio safely beats his friend with headbutts and a rolling leg drop to Sabu’s hair while he recovers. “Oh my head, you hit me” he moans.

Sabu lets us know he’s fine by diving outside on a tope and lobbing chairs into the ring. He follows through (not like that) with a Triple Jump to the outside while holding a chair to bonk Scorpio. Sabu realises he’s out of position of a Triple Jump so he turns it into a splash while yelling “whoops!” Scorpio doesn’t mind and takes him down with a top rope crossbody and a huge kick that inspires him to yell “AAAAHHHH”. Big Dick Powerbomb sets Sabu down, with Scorp telling him to “stay there” so he can deliver a giant leg drop off the top. Scorpio puts Sabu in a hold I don’t know the name of while Sabu yells “oh shit! I don’t bend like that!” It’s a shame Sabu was so quiet most of his career, he’s hilarious in Japan. Scorp gets cocky with his offence and tries pinning with one leg. Sabu comes back with a “DDT” and tells Scorp he’s “too close” to the ropes for it, so he moves. What a nice guy. Arabian Moonsault gets two and looks like it landed all the air out of Scorp in the process. Scorp gets his revenge with a flying lariat off the apron to the outside.

Sabu and Scorp seem to lose themselves for a bit but the joy of Sabu’s matches is that he can simply start hitting moonsaults and the crowd loves him again regardless of the flow. Scorp comes back with the turning-in-mid-air splash for two but misses a springboard follow up. Sabu gets dumped outside via a front suplex off the apron which is a hell of a way to leave the ring. Sabu has enough of being messed around and lobs a table at Scorp, allowing him to land a stunning double-jump Frankensteiner to Scorp off the apron. And he follows THAT with an Asai Moonsault through a Japanese Table.

Sabu attempts a Triple Jump Leg Drop but Scorp moves so poor Sabu lands on the frigging chair while it’s vertical. Yikes. He’s too cool for pain however and dodges a moonsault to land the Triple Jump anyway. Scorp pushes him off the top rope and follows immediately with a 450 Splash to…cleanly pin Sabu at 17:11. Oh wow. That wasn’t as common as you’d think back then.

This was an improvement over last time with Sabu landing all his trademark spots with an opponent willing to take them because he’s going to give it back just as hard. And like last time there’s the highlight of being able to hear the Director’s Commentary without needing to reach for your remote.

Tiger Mask vs. The Great Kabuki

Tiger’s very over but this is still a Kabuki singles match so let’s calm down. Tiger very quickly goes through his usual wrist-lock sequence to the crowd’s delight because they all want to see Tiger Mask from a decade ago. Tiger escapes a double wristlock with a backward roll so Kabuki kicks him low. Tiger recovers and shakes Kabuki’s hand. I don’t know if that was a weird reference to the infamous Maeda match but Tiger sends Kabuki outside so he can do his slutty tease through the ropes. Tiger is on a good run of re-doing his spots in the mid 90s, as evidenced by him nailing the spinning takedown I know from the N64 AKI games. But if I innovated all this stuff then I’d do it for a cheap pay day too.

After some resting on the mat, Tiger weathers Kabuki with kicks and lands his diving DDT. Kabuki realise he’s getting no offence in so after kicking out of a pin, immediately stands up to pump kick Tiger. Tiger kips up but Kabuki makes it clear he’d like a bit more than that if it’s OK so he locks him in a STF. Tiger retaliates with more kicks and takes Kabuki down to demonstrate his mat work. Well in theory, I mean being able to outwork Kabuki isn’t anything to brag about, he’s definitely tore a few coat buttons in frustration. Kabuki cheap shots Tiger as he’s being let out of a hold but no-one reacts. Tiger lands his flying Tiger shot and hits Kabuki low, but he declines a hand shake this time. So a fired up Kabuki…wrestles at the exact same speed and effort as he always does with Tiger throwing kicks at him until they can’t stop smacking one another on the mat so the ref has to DQ them both because of course he does. Despite both men rolling outside and insisting on continuing to brawl with Benkei getting involved, there’s absolutely zero heat for the finish at 11:03 because it sucked.

Exactly what you’d expect with Tiger doing his trademark spots around an immobile Kabuki. Sayama was the acrobat and Kabuki was the Pommel horse.
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Junior Flag Tournament Final

Masao Orihara vs. Kenichi Yamamoto

The semi finals happened earlier in the night with Orihara wrestling as Gekko earlier but he’s unmasked now as the theme for the evening is no masks and no crowd.

Orihara gets a few low kicks in on Yamamoto followed by a spit and pose. Yamamoto responds with Yamato-sized knees to shut up Orihara who takes a back suplex…and completely ignores it to flatten Yamamoto with a piledriver, with Yamamoto ignoring THAT to deliver an overhead belly-to-belly. Yamamoto sees Orihara trying to stand up after that so he wisely takes him down with an ankle crank. Good idea, Orihara would have probably stood up after every move if you gave him the chance. Orihara makes the ropes with Yamamoto not even letting him stand up to land a piledriver of his own, with Orihara reacting by punching Yamamoto hard in the face and standing up before him to land another piledriver. Yamamoto stands up immediately but Orihara attempts to halt his overhead but can’t so he takes it before absorbing more knees. Orihara WILL NOT DIE so he lands some knees and a German Suplex with Yamamoto again standing up. Christ, both men are willing to spend less time on the mat than Malakai Black’s shoulders.

Orihara tries to shut down Yamamoto with a guillotine but this is Yamamoto so whatever Orihara throws at him, he’s able to escape with ease and apply something else. I appreciate Orihara’s ego as he thinks he can out-work a future UFC/PRIDE competitor on the mat. They’re working this beautifully, with it not looking necessarily “real” but intense as hell. Yamamoto is seen smiling as Orihara howls in pain but he’s able to grab the ropes to release the hold and remaining in them to prevent any more until the ref tells him to get up. Orihara tries standing but he can’t because of those ankle locks. An understanding Yamamoto kicks him in the head before going back to stretching the ankle. This finally slows down as both men are sweating like pregnant nuns. They’re so wet that Orihara can’t execute a German Suplex due to the dampness, with Yamamoto holding on and turning it into another duelling hold on the mat with neither able to get the advantage. Orihara despite being damp still thinks he can outwork Yamamoto before finding out he can’t and deciding to catch a breather on the outside instead. Orihara makes Yamamoto move to the other side of the ring before he enters as he doesn’t want him having any advantage, which is a nice dick move. Which is then ruined as the announcer lets us know there’s five minutes remaining and the whole crowd realises it’s going to a fucking draw.

Yamamoto keeps applying holds onto Orihara who refuses to submit or take any of them. Yamamoto dropkicks Orihara right in the bastard face before applying yet another ankle lock to the poor prick. Orihara finally finds an opening when he kicks his opponent in the dick before landing his own dropkick and a dangerously Ganso Bomb-esque piledriver for two. Yamamoto then goes for Orihara’s arm in the closing seconds as the bell rings to signal the 15 minute time limit has expired.

After a breather, the match is restarted as it’s a tournament final after all. Yamamoto has to pretend he’s not ready for the re-start even as the bell rings and the ref yells at him so Orihara can get his shots in. Yamamoto unleashes a flurry of stiff strikes before Orihara nails genuine Ganso Bomb followed by a Canadian Backbreaker (!) for the pin and title at 0:55 of the restart.

I’m guessing the draw and “hey I wasn’t ready” Vinci on Smackdown spot was a requirement for Yamamoto to lose to Orihara here. Regardless, this was a batshit crazy match with Orihara’s giant ego actually aiding a match for once. Once Yamato realised what Orihara was trying t do he was happy to join in because he knew he was tougher than him and even when Orihara realised this he didn’t stop. Even if the tone was inconsistent the offence and pressure both men were putting one another made this an interesting blast and something worth seeking out.

Nobuhiko Takada vs. Abdullah The Butcher

Yes, really.

I need to share the drama caused by this match and rival company WAR (aka the other company booking Takada right now):

This appearance by Takada creates double heat in that WAR had a show at the same building in Osaka on 10/11 and had paid Takada the big fee as well to appear, and now basically by appearing for Tokyo Pro, which is a rival group, in some ways they’ve undercut his value.

That battle wound up easily being won by WAR, which drew a legitimate sellout and its biggest crowd ever in Osaka on 10/11, while TPW had what was described as a fiasco of a show before a crowd estimated at 1,200 (announced as a ridiculous 3,669) since the Takada-Butcher match was only announced one week before the event and since that is exactly the kind of match the fans who would buy tickets to see Takada wouldn’t want to see.

For the record, Takada beat Butcher in 8:15 in a match described as horrible. Takada looked like he didn’t want to be there from the start and was criticized for making a situation that was already bad that much worse. Because of Butcher’s limitations, there wasn’t one wrestling move in the match. Takada sold the first 6:00 for Butcher’s chops and head-butts and finally Butcher did the running elbow but Takada kicked out. Takada’s comeback consisted of a flurry of kicks, mainly to the chest, and a pin. After the match, when the reporters went backstage to interview Takada, they were told by Takada’s p.r. people that Takada wanted a few minutes to take a shower and would be available after the main event (a match with Takashi Ishikawa losing to Anjoh billed as for the Presidency of TPW–judging from the attendance, either nobody bought the angle or cared about it, I was told it was the former).

While the main event was going on, Takada and his contingent all snuck out of the building.

Crowd are really alive for the first time tonight as both men circle. Abby pushes Takada to the ropes and gets a pop for a clean break. C’mon Abby let’s see some rolls, not just the ones under your tits. Abby lands some strikes to Takada’s face and the crowd goes nuts. And Takada sells them! Abby follows with a standing armbar and a NERVE HOLD which Takada also sells. Oh man this is amazing while listening to the crowd’s shock. Dragon Sleeper is locked in until Abby realises that doesn’t work when you’ve got arms as flabby as his so it’s a DOUBLE NERVE HOLD instead. If there was ever a sign Takada was leaving the business it’s letting Abby do this to him. Takada lets Abby chinlock him for a bit as it means he can lie on the mat not doing anything. Hey that’s Abby’s spot. Takada continues selling Abby’s general smothering as Abby continues to work for the photographers rather than the crowd who are sounding increasingly agitated. Abby lands the walking elbow and nearly pins Takada with the crowd counting along. Abby misses a follow up elbow, allowing Takada to kick Abby but only get a two-count. Abby struggles to be felled a second time so Takada needs to wail on his massive legs until Abby falls like a comedy redwood. He kicks out again so Takada kicks him in the breasts and that’s enough at 8:15, with Takada immediately leaving the ring (and arena) afterwards.

Absolutely hilarious watching alleged bad-ass Takada selling Abby’s theatrical karate chops, especially with the crowd screaming in confusion the entire time. A lovely mess and another recommended watch just for the sight of it.

Yoji Anjo vs. Takashi Ishikawa

Ishikawa is wearing a heavy bandage over his eye so the arena must only look quarter full to him. Nothing happens for a few minutes so I’ll point out again that Ishikawa has his eye bandaged. Crowd are waiting for Anjo to start being a little bollocks as usual but he instead applies a serious STF. Ishikawa offers nothing in a singles main event. The only thing he has over the rest of the roster is money. Anjo escapes a chinlock to apply another boring STF to before he starts going for the eye. It took him five minutes to start going for that? No wonder Rickson creamed him.

Ishikawa starts to bleed from the eye but he’s able to land a Dragon Screw Leg Whip. Anjo cuts off his momentum by simply running under the bottom rope to get away and the crowd finally cheer his audacity. Ishikawa lands some stiff strikes but no-one cares as he’s so derivative of other more wrestlers. After a lariat and a Sharpshooter, it’s clear that wrestler is Nattie Neidhart Riki Choshu. Ishikawa argues with the ref as he’s telling him off for not releasing the hold so Anjo nails him with a kick and a Fisherman’s Suplex to…win just like that at 7:59.

This was the main event? Scratch that, this was *a* main event? No crowd love for Ishikawa who is delusion putting booking himself above Takada. Also Anjo barely did any of his dickhead antics so there was no reason to watch this outside of boredom.

After the main event, Yoji Anjo announced that he would like to enter the ring less often in the future.

Jesus. The match was so bad Anjo had an existential crisis.

Overall: Like watching a clown car slowly lose pieces of itself as it travels further and further down the road leading to an active volcano: Even if it doesn’t reach it’s destination it’s still fucked.

Having said that, Orihara vs. Yamamoto was a fascinating bout and Abby vs. Takada is pretty fucking funny. But it doesn’t matter as next time we join TPW it’ll be for their biggest and lastest show ever.

I’ve been Maffew