(Written by jom)
TONY GUCCI & BAM-Z vs. MEN's Teioh & Ricky Fuji
A very American match to start off this PWC show. Teioh is awesome, a really great juniors guy and tied with Togo for my favorite KDX member. Fuji is also pretty solid, he's not someone I'm a huge fan of but he's had some good performances before. GUCCI and BAM-Z are the BAGGYZ, two dudes in Gold's Gym shirts, Zubaz pants, and fanny packs. They're managed by "Miss America" and make their entrance to "Born in the USA". Truly, whoever was booking the new PWC (I believe it was Toshiyuki Moriya aka Violence Revenger/Nise Onita) was on another level. I swear to god I can recognize at least one of the BAGGYZ but I can't put a name to the face, so for now they'll just be GUCCI and BAM-Z.
This was uh... a weird match. Nobody really did anything notable for the entirety of the match. Genuinely, outside of Fuji hitting the Kamikaze at one point, this was extremely nothing, with Fuji and Teioh doing alright work mostly based around hitting weird American wrestling moves and poses. Miss America used her boobs to distract Teioh and Fuji, and also used them to trap Teioh's hand at one point so the BAGGYZ could go for their ultimate kill move, the "BIG BAGGY BURGER". Teioh escaped and then Fuji and Teioh hit a BIG BAGGY BURGER of their own. When it comes to the BIG BAGGY BURGER though, you don't actually get to see what it is. Instead of actually showing the viewer the move... this happens:
This is something I have never even seen in wrestling before. I cannot even begin to explain the strange emotions I feel upon seeing a slide show of a burger instead of seeing an actual move. I need to go for a walk.
Rating:
Asian Cougar & Tomoya Adachi vs. Akihiko Masuda & Katsunari Toi
Following... that, we have a pretty cool sounding juniors match. I'm a fan of all four guys here, especially Masuda (aka Great Takeru).
This ended up being good enough, but it had some definite faults. Masuda was weird here, as he did some of the stuff I love about him like the crazy t-pose looking dive and a couple hard kicks, but for the most part just worked like any other juniors guy rather than the sabuish masked flyer I prefer him ask. His partner Toi though was going nuts, wrestling like he should've been the junior ace of IWE by doing a bunch of mostly basic stuff really well and putting his own slight spin on it. For example, check out the Oklahoma Stampede below where he basically rolled through it and ended up hitting a Mighty Inoue senton. Also, his slingshot foot stomp to the outside is downright terrifying, it looked like it crushed Cougar's intestines.
Cougar was also pretty damn good as usual. He mostly just hit the signature spots but all his signature spots rule, such as the springboard bulldog and the slingshot legdrop to the outside. Adachi was actually great here in my opinion, doing some really cool stuff like this awesome diving front dropkick where he got a ton of hesitation on it. He also did some great tag stuff with Cougar, like this awesome combo:
I think that this definitely had some issues with pacing and length, as it went 14 minutes and there were some real down times in there making this feel pretty slow overall. However, there were still enough cool moments from the 4 involved that I would say it was a solid match.
Rating: B-
For the first time ever I have to pause between matches on this write-up, because what I just saw was insane. Every match has had some form of pre-match video up to this point, but instead of a hype video or promo for the next match, the screen instead started displaying video of GENTARO hanging out by himself in the backstage area, until...
... his thoughts are interrupted by the arrival of Gentaro Takahashi, looking for fellow gi wearers Survival Tobita and Iori Sugawara. They have a conversation where GENTARO is chill and Gentaro Takahashi yells a lot, and then when Takahashi leaves GENTARO talks right at the camera about how crazy Gentaro Takahashi is. This is one of the most surreal experiences I have ever had watching a Japanese wrestling show.
Sosai Nagase & Karate Machine Special vs. Hajime Moriyama & Kazuhiro Tamura
I have no idea who Machine is, but I do know Sosai (aka Kancho/Masakazu) Nagase, who I've talked about before when reviewing FU*CK! He's actually PWC alumni, originally becoming a PWC guy in late 1995 after starting his career in Mexico by training with Fray Tormenta (yes, the priest that inspired Nacho Libre). Moriyama is a U-FILE CAMP trainee and really good shoot style wrestler probably best known for his work in Fu-ten. Tamura is a guy that I talked about in the main event of the last show I reviewed, but what you may not know is that this match here? This is Tamura's debut as a professional wrestler. That's right, Tamura started his career in the wrestling business at a shitty PWC show in 2003, and I'm very excited to be able to talk about it.
This match was actually pretty awesome! The whole basis of this match was pretty simple, with the heel karatekas using karate and pro wrestling to beat down Moriyama and Tamura, while the U-FILE boys constantly went for takedowns and throws to get Nagase and Machine on the mat and make them tap out. Machine was actually pretty cool here, doing some big kicks including a great kneel kick, and also just acting as a somewhat imposing force for Tamura especially to fight back from. Nagase was awesome and definitely the highlight of his team, throwing some real hard kicks and even hitting some bigger wrestling style moves, like this absolutely beautiful dropkick:
Moriyama was really great here too, doing some pretty awesome stuff like a beautiful waterwheel drop into a tight armbar, as well as some really good knees and kicks. He even hit a dragon suplex near the end with absolutely ruled. Tamura was probably the most interesting guy the whole match though, not just because of what he would become in the future, but because he was absolutely living up to the "Small Tamura" nickname, grappling with some of the same ferocity and complexity that Kiyoshi Tamura did. He hit a really awesome flying armbar at one point, and probably the coolest thing he did all match was the awesome quick transitioning into an armbar seen below, which is a spot very clearly adopted from his teacher Kiyoshi.
Overall, I think this was genuinely pretty fun and an awesome historical importance match. Seeing Tamura work at a pretty high level from the first match of his career is amazing, and everyone else was great too. Plus, I just love Different Style wrestling and this absolutely had some hints of that so I was gonna enjoy this regardless.
Rating: B
Koji Ishinriki, Crusher Takahashi, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Kazunori Yoshida, Kosei Maeda, & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa vs. TAKA Michinoku, Iori Sugawara, Daigoro Kashiwa, Teppei Ishizaka, GENTARO, & Survival Tobita
I'd need someone to pay me for me to try and write a normal intro for this match. Everyone in this rules and I'm very excited to watch this. Also, Tobita came out with Sugawara before anyone else because they are members of Shin Piranha Gundan (named after the original Piranha Gundan of Masanobu Kurisu, Kim Duk, and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga). Gentaro Takahashi is also a member of the stable, but for some reason he wasn't able to make it to the match. Wonder where he could be.
This was such a blast to watch. I'm not going to give a proper rundown on everyone, and instead I'll just primarily be highlighting a few of the best performances from the match. Probably the best one overall was Kazunori Yoshida. Every single time I see this guy wrestle I'm so blown away, he genuinely comes off as one of the best juniors guys on the planet at times with some insane height to all his dives. He hit a beauty of a springboard dropkick, a beauty of a double springboard avalanche hurricanrana, and the absolutely phenomenal combo shown below. Truly, I cannot understand why no promotion was able to see this dude's talent because he has it in spades.
Yoshida's teammate and fellow insane juniors guy Kosei Maeda also definitely deserves a shout-out. He did some really awesome stuff in this, such as an acid drop and a springboard kneel kick that looked like it took TAKA's head clean off. Kuroda, Ishinriki, and Kikuzawa were all solid too but they just mostly hit the classics without much effort. The best guy on the face team besides Yoshida was definitely Crusher Takahashi though, who, as always, came off as one of the coolest wrestlers on the planet. His punches were perfect, his chops were thudding, and he had some awesome big spots like the calf branding below. I truly think Takahashi, in his prime, was one of the best wrestlers on the planet, with a mind for wrestling that would've taken him to superstardom in an earlier decade.
From the heel side, the only group I believe is worth mentioning is Shin Piranha Gundan. Kashiwa, Ishikaza, and TAKA all had solid moments but for the most part this was all about the gi boys. Sugawara was awesome in the few moments he got to shine, letting loose some nice kicks including a real nice enzuigiri to Ishinriki. Tobita was an absolute destroyer in the match, just wrecking guys with hard hits like one particularly cracking lariat on Ishinriki near the end. He also hit a truly disgusting pedigree on Maeda, straight up spiking him on the landing. GENTARO was probably the best part of the match outside of Yoshida. He only got to do one solid piece of offense towards the beginning though, as he ended up getting hurt and stretchered out... ONLY FOR GENTARO TAKAHASHI TO FINALLY ARRIVE AND BEAT UP THE OTHER TEAM WITH KARATE!!! Truly put a smile on my face when I saw him running in. He did some actually really cool karate stuff too, including a great kneel kick and this combination:
This wasn't perfect for sure. There was some clear miscommunication at different points, with guys not entirely sure who should go in and who should break up a pin. However, this was still really damn fun and it was such a cool way to cap off the show.
Rating: B+
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