(Written by jom)
Yoshihiro Kawaguchi vs. KUDO
This first match features probably the most well-known guy on the whole show, as DDT stalwart KUDO takes on Senshu trainee Yoshihiro Kawaguchi.
Honestly not a ton to say about this, KUDO was able to get a lot of his spots in which I like considering KUDO's spots fucking rule, and Kawaguchi ranged from inoffensive to genuinely pretty good, hitting a real nice STO at one point. KUDO finished the match with his gnarly double knee stomp while Kawaguchi was in a tree of woe, usually I'm not a fan of this spot but it made sense since it was done as a counter to Kawaguchi attempting a superplex.
Overall not a great match, hell I wouldn't even call it particularly good, but it served its purpose and both guys looked pretty good.
Rating: C+
Hideaki Sumi & Iori Sugawara vs. Masaru Kawakubo & Tomoki Chiba
DIFFERENT STYLE~! Love anytime a match is based around two distinct styles facing off, in this case Sumi and Sugawara are very much karate fighters (Sugawara specifically represents "Evil Karate" which is just amazing) and Kawakubo and Chiba are total spitfire indy guys willing to throw down with the karatekas they're facing off against. And my god, do they throw down. Real early on Chiba throws a few particularly hard forearms at Sumi, and Sumi responds with some disgusting punches to the face and a gross midkick, setting the pace for this match really well.
Sumi is so great here, he really comes off like if Murakami chose to pursue karate instead of judo, with some greatly cruel offense combined with some great shit talking. I of course can't understand what he's saying exactly, but the tone of everything he says is just so damn mean, as shown below:
Sugawara is pretty good in this too, definitely not as enjoyable as his partner but still very good. He also threw a gross shoot headbutt at one point which means I automatically have to be a fan to a certain level. Kawakubo was pretty okay here, nothing too special from him but he had some hard strikes when it was his time to be on offense. Chiba was absolutely awesome, throwing some bombs anytime he could get any semblance of control, and he even hit Sumi with an absolutely nasty spear to turn the match's momentum around. Sadly, the finish was actually missed by the camera who was concentrating on Kawakubo and Sumi brawling on the outside, but that didn't hurt the match overall too bad.
There were some pacing issues, with one particular section of walking and brawling having a ton more walking than brawling and really killing the momentum of the match up to this point. However, overall, this was still a lot of fun and I'm really excited to see more from all these guys, especially Sumi and Chiba.
Rating: B
Riki Senshu vs. Kenji Fukimoto
Going into this match, I had a weird combination of high hopes and low expectations. Tribute wrestlers can be hit or miss and I'm honestly not even the biggest Choshu fan to begin with, and Fukimoto can be a fun deathmatch guy but he's not someone I usually particularly like in singles action. At the same time, both of these guys are proteges of Masanobu Kurisu, one of the most evil wrestlers ever (as well as a personal GOAT of mine), so I still held out hope that maybe they would channel that hatred Kurisu had in all his matches. As god as my witness, they channeled that hate even more than I could've expected, and at the same time delivered one of the most compelling matches I've ever seen from the sleaze scene.
Early on, they enter into a pretty solid feeling-out process, where you get the vibe that in pretty much every way, Senshu is the better wrestler. He's stronger, he's smarter, he's even got the home-field advantage. While Fukimoto is on a lower level in pretty much every way, the one thing he has over Senshu is his insane pain tolerance, as well as his ability to frequently turn situations around in his favor. Therefore, this match is entirely going to be based around how long Fukimoto can last against the dominant Senshu, and if he'll ever be able to get a big enough break to snag the win.
I say all of this, but very soon after this feeling-out process concludes both guys go outside and just start obliterating each other with chairs. Genuinely some of the most sickening chair attacks I have ever seen, truly living up to their mentor's legacy as the Chairman. Even with Fukimoto being the more hardcore-oriented wrestler, Senshu absolutely dominates him with this chair, smashing the edges into Fukimoto's head and even causing Fukimoto to smash his own head into the post at one point. When Fukimoto is able to take control he delivers some equal levels of violence, along with doing some great chair-included moves like a front dropkick and a piledriver. At some point, both guys start bleeding pretty hard, really adding so much to how intense this all felt.
When they're both able to get back in the ring and start working spots, they really excel at that too, with Senshu showing just how great of a Choshu tribute wrestler he is by pulling off all the regular Choshu spots to perfection. Fukimoto also does great here, hitting a ton of great brawler stuff like piledrivers and powerbombs. Eventually, this build-up of violence culminates in one of the most insane apron spots I've ever seen, as Senshu hits a releasing Choshu-style back suplex on Fukimoto, with Fukimoto smashing the small of his back directly onto the apron before crashing hard to the floor below.
The actual finish of the match is fucking phenomenal. Earlier in the match, Senshu went for one of his great Riki lariats, only for Fukimoto to pull out a really awesome counter into a backslide, getting mere milliseconds away from stealing the win. Once both guys get back in after that apron spot, Senshu once again goes for the Riki lariat, only for Fukimoto to once again try and counter it the same way. At this point though, Fukimoto is absolutely fucked, and doesn't have the strength to go all the way with the move, so Senshu just swings him out in front of him and hits a gnarly short-range Riki lariat.
Senshu is finally able to lock in the Sasori-Gatame after this and Fukimoto passes out from all the pain he's endured in the match, resulting in Senshu's victory.
This match was insane. Both guys were merciless throughout with their strikes, and Fukimoto took such insane punishment that I straight-up felt bad for him by the end of this match. Honestly, the fact Fukimoto was working at such a high level here really explains why he's not the most mobile guy around today, because it seems he maxed out his bump card in the 2000s with stuff like that apron bump and has just been working in debt ever since. That's not to say his times on offense weren't great, because they absolutely were. Senshu was also wonderful here, really living up to the Choshu tribute stuff while dishing out some sleaze-level violence along with it. Overall, this was just fucking great and maybe one of my favorite sleaze scene matches ever. I'll definitely be looking out for more work from both guys from this time period.
Rating: A-
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