Wrestle Aid Project 05/02/2005

       (Written by Jom)

       After multiple final exams and cumulative projects, I've finally gotten home from college for the next few months. Awaiting me on my bed were five wrestling DVDs from Japan, all of which I've been waiting over a month for. Now, to celebrate me finally having time to write here again, I'll be doing reviews of all 5 shows over the next couple weeks.

    Wrestle Aid Project is a really interesting fed to have existed. It only lived for about 3 years, starting in 2002 and ending in 2005, and is seemingly the last promotion of one Ryuma Go. Go had hit some very hard times with run-ins with the law and lack of funds after his wrestling career slowed down, so this was seemingly he way of trying to get some more money. A fun fact is that WAP had a relationship with Stampede Wrestling, meaning that there's some cool names from the Canadian scene, such as Jack Evans, Petey Williams, and Nattie Niedhart (aka Natalya). However, I mainly got this DVD for the main event, which, on paper, sounds like an absolute barn burner of a match. Will the card live up to the name value involved?

    Just feel like I gotta note the opening video uses "Signs" by Snoop Dogg and every "___ vs ___" screen uses "99 Problems" by Jay-Z. Ryuma Go is the most based man ever.

Nattie Neidhart vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki

    Strong Style Natalya is not something I thought I'd see, but here we are. Neidhart was pretty good here, really stretched out Kuragaki at a couple points and also threw some stiff elbows. She even did a really great Hideki Suzuki-esque bridging double underhook suplex. Kuragaki was also solid, she was able to hit some cool agile moves like a springboard dropkick but honestly Neidhart was definitely the better wrestler here. At one point, the two women started lariat trading, treating this match like it was for the BJW Strong Heavyweight Championship. Kuragaki finally got the win with a corkscrew senton, retaining her NWA Women's Pacific title, a belt that I didn't even realize was on the line. This was fine, some obvious language barrier issues definitely hurt the pacing though, but again it did its job and seeing Neidhart in Japan was cool.

Rating: C+

Joe Kimball vs. Jack Evans

    I have no clue who Kimball is, and doing a quick check on wrestlingdata shows he's wrestled in a ton of different places under different names, albeit very sporadically. Real early on Kimball absolutely botches a hip toss, before the ref completely misses two different pin attempts. This should've guaranteed this match's fate, but eventually they came back into a good rhythm. Kimball did some good roidy offense like a gross corner spear, but eventually gets sent outside so Evans can hit a really good 450 plancha. Kimball, upon catching Evans, smashes his head into the ground, and he's bleeding real bad from the back of his head the rest of the match. He very nearly lets himself get counted out, but at the last second gets in the ring, seemingly telling the ref and Evans that he can still go. Evans hits some more of his offense and Kimball hits a nice neckbreaker and powerbomb before finally Kimball gets the victory with a pretty cool top rope chokeslam. This had some cool moments in it, but the miscommunications early on plus the concussed Kimball the rest of the match made this a contest only good for those moments.

Rating: C-

Joe E. Legend vs. Bambikiller

    This is for Legend's "Master of Kingcalibur" Championship, which is literally just a medieval sword. I said it before, I'll say it again. Ryuma Go is the most based man ever. These two do a pretty good brawl for most of the match. Both guys do some really great clubbing shots, and Legend does an irish whip to Bambikiller on the apron, sending him into the post. Bambikiller responds a little bit later with a FUCKING PLANCHA, which I popped huge for. Both guys get some good air with diving moves, such as when Legend nearly went coast-to-coast for a diving leg drop. Eventually however, the match kinda goes into overkill mode, with both dudes hitting an excessive amount of movez that really could've ended the match. I'm all for a good ole movez match, but there needs to be a level of escalation for it to work, and by the time they really started hitting cool stuff the match had been stuck in a plateau for a little bit. Legend eventually gets control and retains his "championship" after hitting an okay looking flatliner. This felt like it was an IWA PR brawl in Korakuen, which, while being cool, definitely fell pretty far into the excess category and kept going about 3 minutes longer than it should have.

Rating: B-

Chris Sabin vs. Petey Williams

    This is for Williams' "Master of Excalibur" Championship, which is literally a... wait I think I wrote this before. Ryuma Go was based enough to do the same thing twice and only slightly tweak the name. Williams raising a sword in one hand and a title in the other as "Shoots and Ladders" by Korn fills Korakuen Hall is a very cool sight to see. The match starts with a great big move countering segment, and it's very easy to figure out that this is gonna be an X-Division main event in Korakuen. Both guys do some awesome stuff, such as Williams hitting a tope into a rana and countering a frankensteiner into a powerbomb, as well as Sabin doing a double arm trapped piledriver and a razor's edge into the corner. This is pretty much the movez match I was talking about liking in the previous match's review. There may have actually been some pacing issues, but the way this match was clipped really made it balls to the wall the entire time. The finish has both guys hitting their finisher but the move being kicked out of (Sabin's cradle shock segment was great with him countering a sunset flip in the corner into a jumbo suplex before then hitting the cradle shock), but eventually Williams is able to counter out into a spinout version of the destroyer from the corner, finally hitting one more running one to get the pinfall win and retain his big fuckin blade. Both guys obviously wanted to show their stuff in Japan, and they really came out and did it well.

Rating: B+

2 out of 3 Falls: Shiro Koshinaka, Ryo Miyake, Koji Ishinriki, Arashi and Ryuma Go vs. Kazuhiko Matsuzaki, Masashi Aoyagi, Masanobu Kurisu, Gran Hamada and Tarzan Goto

    JESUS WHAT A MURDERER'S ROW and also Ryo Miyake and Koji Ishinriki. I'm mostly kidding, I actually don't dislike the work of either of them, I just haven't seen enough to judge. This match went nearly 30 minutes and I can't really list all the stuff that happened, so instead I'm gonna go person to person, talking about each one's performance. Koshinaka was really good in this, he threw some great hip attacks and added some heat and energy anytime he was involved. Miyake was pretty good too, being the whipping boy along with Ishinriki for the heel team and bleeding a ton, while also being a serviceable heavyweight wrestler. Ishinriki, as said previously, was also the whipping boy for this match, and ended up taking the only fall for his team (spoilers but the good guys won of course), but he did pretty good as a skinny sumo dude, throwing some nice Tsupparis and hitting really good sumo shoulder blocks. Arashi was a tank, hitting mean strikes and really making every move he did have some heavy impact. Ryuma Go, that crazy bastard, was really solid here, of course getting the audience really involved and just being a great fiery babyface with his headbutts, chest chops, and SHAAAAs. Matsuzaki was pretty much the whipping boy for the face team, but he took much less of a beating than Miyake or Ishinriki, instead doing some fine wrestling and good karateka stuff. Speaking of good karateka stuff, Aoyagi was Aoyagi to a T in this match, lighting up whoever was in with him with awesome kicks. Kurisu was tied for my favorite person in this match, and it isn't just because he's one of my favorite wrestlers (although that's definitely part of it). He was so much fun throughout being such a grumpy old monster, throwing nasty shoot punches, shoot headbutts, and shoot stomps, along with living up to his nickname of "The Chairman" by absolutely destroying Ishinriki and Miyake with chair shots. Also, Kurisu got the only pinfall for his team, which really shows how based Go is. Hamada pretty much did Hamada stuff the entire time he was active in the match, and honestly, you can't ask for a lot more. And finally, Tarzan Goto. If not for Kurisu, he'd be my favorite part of this match, but instead he'll have to settle for being tied. He came in a little eviler than usual, throwing gross headbutts and lariats, but only really gained my favor in this match when he pulled out a broken beer bottle. He sliced Miyake the fuck up with it, giggling to himself the entire time, before then using Miyake's limp hand to wave at Miyake's partners for help. This was genuinely evil stuff Goto was doing, and I fucking loved it. The finish came when Arashi was able to train together some maneuvers, getting the pinfall over Matsuzaki with a sit-out powerbomb. Overall, this was totally a yesteryear tribute match, but the section of puro they were paying tribute to is one of my favorites, so I had a ton of fun watching this.

Rating: A-

    After the match, Go gets on the mic and delivers an impassioned speech to the Korakuen crowd, before leading them in a SHAAA chant. The footage freeze frames on Go in black and white with Japanese rap starting behind the image, and that's it for Wrestle Aid Project! Honestly, I was a little worried about the main event after such an iffy lower card, but it ended up delivering. From what I can tell, WAP wouldn't run another show after this, and sadly Ryuma Go would pass away in 2009. I bet, even after death, Go is up in heaven being a puroresu baka all the way.

Overall Rating: B