IWA Kakuto Shijuku 07/16/1995

             (Written by jom)

     Returning to the Yong Dong food stalls always fills me with a joy & comfort I don't really find anywhere else. There's just something so home-y about it. For all the bizarre monsters and strange gimmicks, it's wrestling that caters well to the mostly drunk and casual crowds. IWA Kakuto Shijuku has always served as a recalibration point for when I need to throw on an hour long tape and have a good time, and this is probably one of my favorite Kakuto Shijuku tapes yet, serving as both the usual Kakuto Shijuku madness combined with a bunch of IWE tribute wrestling. Let's get into the thing.

Akihiko Masuda vs. Hiroshi Watanabe

      Biblically accurate young boy wrestling. Masuda and Watanabe are destined for greater things, only a few years away from already becoming major fixtures of the indies, but here they are as black trunks rookies throwing big kicks and suplexes aplenty. It is entirely one-dimensional pro wrestling, but it's earnest in its simple approach. Masuda has a beautiful spinning heel kick that I've never seen him do as Great Takeru, and Watanabe's suplexes are all performed perfectly, especially his fantastic bridging German. The clipping is pretty hardcore here (it's an hour long tape with eight matches to cover), but I really couldn't care less about clipping nowadays, and everything they showed was awesome. It's not hard to see why both guys turned out as well as they did when they had the execution down so well this early into their career. 

Best 2/3 Falls: Masahiko Takasugi, Isamu Teranishi, & Apollo Sugawara vs. Shigeo Okumura, Mitsunobu Kikuzawa, & Crusher Takahashi

    This is mostly the uncs getting reps in before the big reunion battle royal in the main event, but it's a fun time. Due to the clipping on the tape, we see basically nothing offense-wise on the part of the rookie trio, albeit all three are spirited in their being demolished. I could've rectified this by watching the available handhelds of the show on YouTube, but I didn't feel like doing that to be quite honest, so Mitsunobu Kikuzawa will have to settle for solely being a victim of Takasugi's 18 wheeler-esque hip attacks. The vets all get their own moments to kick ass, and Sugawara especially showed out with an awesome Arn-style DDT and a nasty lariat. Once again, more of a clip package than an actual match, but a very fun clip package indeed.

Goro Tsurumi vs. Katsuzo Oiyama

     Tsurumi celebrates his 25th year as a wrestler by having a gauntlet-type affair with two of his old IWE compatriots. Here he's facing Oiyama, who I've never seen before this but seems to be a former sumo that basically vanished after IWE died, based on his performance here, his disappearance was kind of a tragedy, cause this rocked. Lots of big punches and chops and headbutts, meat and potatoes wrestling that never regresses into "I hit you, you hit me" slop you're more likely to see nowadays. Oiyama, for a guy dressed like a big baby, hits like a motherfucker, throwing some mean chops and even meaner headbutts. Still, this is a controlled contest, never going entirely off the rails even with how heated some of the striking gets. Just a fun ass match from two fun ass workers. 

Goro Tsurumi vs. Jiro Inazuma

     And this one is even better! Inazuma (otherwise known as Gerry Morrow) actually just passed away a few days ago, and I've always meant to give him the proper deep dive since he's a real great worker and trained basically every famous wrestler to come outta Canada in the 90s. This one is more technically-minded, with some nice grappling and smarter spots between Inazuma and Tsurumi, but it also cranks up the violence as Inazuma throws straight punches to the face and Tsurumi responds with nasty backfists. All of Inazuma's headbutts are so good too, especially his jumping ones where he comes down like an avalanche onto the skull. Another good times kind of match, but once again, there's something really bubbling beneath the surface here.

Jiro Inazuma vs. Katsuzo Oiyama

    This is where it boils over. Once again rough and violent in the IWE way, hitting all the right buttons for this to end up as a perfectly solid match, only for Inazuma to really start targeting the leg. Oiyama takes umbrage at this, probably offended that Inazuma would do limb targeting to a man who hasn't worked a match in over a decade, and responds by GRABBING HIM BY THE EYE and hitting the nastiest chop of the whole night. This very quickly morphs from another heated half-brawl like the previous two into one of the nastier confrontations of the 90s, with both guys grabbing each others throats and hitting low blows over and over again. Inazuma unleashes some super mean uppercuts and Oiyama tries to cave his head in with headbutts. It's definitely the closest anything on this show has gotten to IWE's more chaotic brawls, and it ends up being a great conclusion to the super sick Tsurumi 25th Gauntlet Thing.

Chain: Super Uchu Majin vs. Masanobu Kurisu

    I have no idea who Super Uchu Majin is. When I saw him appear in Go Gundan, I thought he might be Shoji Nakamaki, but here he is working in Yokohama the exact same day that Nakamaki is working in Tokyo. Regardless, he throws great punches and lariats so he's cool in my book. He's also not at all the main focus here, as Kurisu puts in a really wonderful performance. The way he hunts for headbutts is awe-inspiring, snaking around Majin to find the perfect spot on the jaw to try and break with his skull. He also goes outside and drinks beer in the middle of the match which is objectively a really awesome thing to do. The chain really doesn't matter and this ends in a complete fuck finish, but it's a fun match overall. That fuck finish does bring out an angry Tsurumi, and it can only lead to one thing...

Goro Tsurumi & Super Uchu Majin vs. Masanobu Kurisu & Uchu Majin X

    Impromptu tag match! This goes less than two minutes and still gets clipped at some point. Maybe I'll watch those handhelds later after all. What we get here is really awesome, guys just beating each other around the ring with super stiff chops and punches, wrestling that puts hair on your chest. Really not much else to say there. I wish it went longer I guess, but the nature of the beast means that it did exactly what it meant to do.

IWE Memorial Battle Royale

    Just a damn good time. "Damn good time" seems to be the theme of the show (and every Kakuto Shijuku show for that matter), so this is a perfect way to send the fans home happy. Every guy seems very excited to get in the ring and do some brawling, to the point that Ryuma Go and Jiro Inazuma both preemptively come out before their names are even called, hanging out by the apron until they can jump in and get to working. Peak of the match is easily Oiyama getting the Charlie Brown treatment, tricked into trying to slam Sugawara only for Inazuma to push him over. I guess that makes Sugawara the football? As always, my analogies make more sense in my head than on paper. Really though, this is fun stuff, chicken soup pro wrestling that would appeal to fans that appreciate IWE, old men, food stall villages, or anything even tangentially connected.

Spitball Reviews #5

        (Written by jom)

Kazuki Okubo vs. Kozo Urita (Kingdom Ehrgeiz 06/16/2018)

    Kingdom Ehrgeiz is the MMA promotion originally known as the shoot style fed Kingdom. Kozo Urita is an unmasked Tiger Shark. This match takes place under TWF rules, which is basically UWF rules but with three minute rounds. I think that's all the explaining I need to get out of the way? Anyways, this was cool. It's a shoot style match between a Kiyoshi Tamura trainee and a Satoru Sayama trainee, so that's probably not the most shocking news in the world. It's interesting how both guys really fall into those categories in the match. While both are capable strikers, Urita's strikes land with a lot more oomph, and all of his knockdowns come from his striking. At the same time, Okubo tends to outclass Urita on the ground, hunting for armbars and triangle chokes while also pulling out a great capture suplex for a down count early own. The match progresses pretty naturally and has an awesome ending stretch, including a random American (probably an MMA fighter on the show) being heard in the background, seemingly convinced this is a shoot and very confused by the pro wrestling decisions made by both guys. This would be a lesser match in UWF or UWFi, and isn't even the most impressive thing in 2024 when HARD HIT and even GLEAT have hosted better matches. Still, I enjoyed it. Newly-discovered footage of Tiger Shark is something I'll always happily watch.

Match Rating: B-

First Tiger Mask & Toshio Fujiwara vs. Satoshi Kobayashi & Hayato Sakurai (Fujiwara Festival 12/05/2004)

    These "let the martial artists do some pro wrestling" type matches have always fascinated me. They're a peek into the general philosophy towards wrestling as a combat sport in Japan, compared to how it is in America. When MMA fighters have made the jump to pro wrestling stateside, many of those fighters have been derided by MMA fans and looked down upon by certain wrestling fans. There's a real "stay in your lane" kind of mentality from both sides of this stupid war between two of the most annoying fanbases in the world. In Japan, a lot of people seem to have a lot more respect for both forms of entertainment, and workers from both sides getting to test the waters is generally appreciated and cheered on. There's an acceptance of both being individual sports, but also a clear understanding of the constant and objectively vital crossovers between the two over the last hundred or so years. Pro wrestling birthed MMA and all that noise. This isn't meant to be a history lesson, nor is it meant to be an "America sux, Japan number one" think piece; it's just an observation I've had many times being put into writing. Anyways, Sayama comes out and his nameplate says "former WWF Junior Heavyweight" on it which is very funny. A real light-hearted joke for a light-hearted match. There's a handful of serious kickboxing-type exchanges (and Satoshi Kobayashi strikes me as the type of guy who would've done great in some serious pro wrestling), but this is more about popping the crowd with old man Fujiwara antics. The pro wrestling Fujiwara is the guest referee and he's having a fun time too, throwing around kickboxer Fujiwara for his disrespect and sharing some alcohol with him. Is there much else to say about the match? Not really! It's a deeply unserious affair, but one I had fun watching nonetheless.

Match Rating: B-

Riki Hyakumangoku vs. Chindeka Kizoku (KIW 12/12/2015)

    I've tried to stop myself from context-dumping at the start of match write-ups, as I've done that so much in the past and it doesn't tend to read well. However, I feel like this requires context. Kansai International Wrestling is potentially the first uni-born pro feds, predating groups like Guts World and SHI-EN by multiple years. JWA Tokai went pro first, but Tokai was an amateur group and not a university one, so KIW takes that crown. Hyakumangoku and Kizoku are day one KIW guys, with both working the first KIW show in 1999 and continuing to work even to this day. Hell, they just faced each other again last year! Both are tribute acts too, with Kizoku being a Flair idolizer, and Hyakumangoku unsurprisingly working like Riki Choshu. I came into this expecting the match to just be a fun little thing, with both guys doing half-hearted tribute spots and the crowd happy to cheer anything at all. That's how a lot of these matches go! This was not that. There was nothing half-hearted about this. Both men were so committed to their act that it kind of blows me away. One of the most striking things about the match was how great the execution was. It wasn't just great execution either. It felt like the type of movements you'd see decades prior, with lots of focus on proper limb placement and working their way into maneuvers rather than just executing them. There was still some fun work throughout the match, like Kizoku repeatedly bribing the referee into breaking up Hyakumangoku's holds, and the eventual payoff of Kizoku running out of money was pretty spectacular. There were hard lariats, gritty elbow-grinding legwork, and even an incredibly hot finishing stretch. Honestly, I know these two have it in them to do something truly spectacular, just based on the match here. As it stands, this is still borderline great.

Match Rating: B+

Asian Cougar, Masked Halcon, & Tokai Bushido V3 vs. Tomoya Adachi, Spider Warrior, & Heaven (ZIPANG 03/06/1998)

    Before I even start talking about the match, what a venue. From my understanding, this was the only time a wrestling event ever took place in Ebisu East Gallery, which really sucks. This would've been a cool small venue for a lot of the indies of the time to hold shows in. At least ZIPANG got to make their debut on such sacred land. They also made a great choice for their main event; this rocked! This was six guys with a lot of love for and training in lucha libre getting to work a big lucharesu fireworks display. Like many of the other notable lucharesu tags of the era, everyone got their own moments to shine. Cougar and Adachi were unsurprisingly the biggest standouts. By 1998, Cougar is dangerously close to figuring out the perfect spotfest formula, and a lot of the spots he pulled out here would continue to appear for the rest of his career. Adachi was similarly far along in his own formula, albeit he would continue to rewrite said formula for the next 26 years. They only got the chance to face off once in the match, but their encounter was probably the cleanest and most explosive of the whole bunch. Bushido very nearly earned a namedrop alongside Cougar and Adachi, as he was pulling all of his spots off perfectly, including hitting one of the best rider kicks I've ever seen him do. Spider and Halcon served similar purposes as trusted hands with highly developed basics, and each got to pull off their own greatly executed running attack at least five times (Spider's dropkick and Halcon's flying cross chop). Heaven was probably the least of the six, but he still managed to do some great sequences with Cougar as the two Hamada trainees and hit one of the coolest outside dives of the match's customary dive train. Outside of going spot-for-spot, there isn't much else to say. There were moments of roughness and ending the match with the not-so-interesting pairing of Heaven and Halcon probably wasn't the best move, but this match was a lot of fun and I'll probably revisit it many times in the future.

Match Rating: B

Ryuma Go & Masahiko Takasugi vs. Masashi Aoyagi & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga (Pioneer Senshi 03/15/1990)

    JCTV channel, please go back to uploading. You posted Battlarts and W*ING in 1080p. You gave us previously lost matches like this. Please come back, we miss you... Anyways, here's Pioneer Senshi! A different style tag! Wahoo! This match, at its best, is a Masashi Aoyagi showcase. Aoyagi is a true monster for the first few years of his career. He's a monster for his entire career, but the early Aoyagi matches feel like extended executions. He's in full spiritual black hood here, as he lays into Go and Takasugi for nearly 20 minutes with full force kicks to the face and ribs. He also blades pretty early on and we get to see the always great visual of a white gi stained red. Ryuma Go is his primary dance partner, and while Go can't fill Onita's different style shoes, he can certain fit his own pair. He's solid enough early on, locking in counter holds and going for the occasional strike or throw, but it's only after he starts bleeding that he really excels. Go's a very rigid wrestler, with jerky and stiff movements, but his movements become a lot more sympathetic when his face is covered in blood and it looks like he's collapsing from both the pain and the blood loss. Matsunaga is a good sidekick for Aoyagi. His kicks don't land as well and he's a little too willing to play the submission game for my liking, but he's still an Aoyagi-trained karateka. And then there's Takasugi. Masahiko Takasugi is a bad different style fighter. As a wrestler in a different style fight, your job is to A. sell like a madman, and B. take advantage of every opportunity to the highest extent. You should be a victim. You should fight like hell. Masahiko Takasugi generally doesn't sell much and constantly tries to put on holds. For all of Go and Aoyagi's awesome blood-filled brawling, Takasugi is happy to lay on the ground with Matsunaga for minutes on end, applying worthless double wristlocks and heel hooks. He takes a few moments to show that he could be good if he wanted to, hitting an admittedly mindblowing backdrop and pulling off a great hot tag where he full force stomped Matsunaga's head at least 20 times. Those moments are a fraction of his whole performance though, and he's in the ring much more than Ryuma Go. As a whole, this just ends up being pretty damn good. If Go had a better tag partner, this could've been something really special.

Match Rating: B-

Spitball Reviews #1

     (Written by jom)

    I still don't feel like reviewing Onita Pro (I've been way too busy with RL stuff to commit to watching a full show on my own while taking notes) but I do feel like writing. I also don't want to write in my usual "half recap, half breakdown" style. Instead, I'm just gonna write down some thoughts on random matches I've watched recently and call it a day. The series is called "Spitball Reviews" because the reviews are small and I'm shooting 'em out malformed and at high speeds. Will they be good? Hopefully!!

KING vs. Cosmo Soldier (KAGEKI 12/23/2009)

    KING is a pretty awesome lumbering masked heavyweight doing a blend of sumo and power moves. He starts the match by doing a tsuppari rush, sending Cosmo into the corner and himself into my heart. Cosmo meanwhile is a 10,000 IQ worker who does some gritty leg targeting before KING really starts owning him, leading Cosmo to abandon the leg work and morph into a really compelling junior-in-peril. There's a lot happening in the match considering it only goes nine minutes. The finish does feel abrupt but in a really violent way, like a fist fight ending with one dude breaking the unwritten "no grappling" rule and putting on a rear naked choke. Am I sad about us not having the alternate version of this match where Cosmo just does really vicious leg work for the entire runtime? A little!!! I'm still happy with what we got though.

Match Rating: B

Ni Hao vs. Makoto Saito (WYF 09/13/1998)

    Wrestle Yume Factory in a random field! Ni Hao's awesome theme gets cut off because of technical issues and he just jogs to the ring as the fans clap for him. Around this point in Japanese wrestling, it was pretty commonplace to see traditional junior vs. hybrid junior matchups, so it's cool to see the pretty rare hybrid junior vs. shoot junior matchup instead. Ni Hao is half a year into wrestling and already one of the coolest wrestlers ever. He's damn good at picking apart Saito here, constantly going for limbs and working over different parts of the body hoping for one to give out. His throws also have an insane amount of snap to them, and they all look dangerously close to putting Saito in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Saito eventually taking control with big bombs like a springboard double foot stomp feels perfect for this type of pairing since Ni Hao, by virtue of being a CAPTURE guy, is much more susceptible to cutters and drivers than he is to grappling. Ni Hao and Saito keep the intensity going from bell to bell and end the match right when they need to. Nothing that would blow you away but still a lot of fun. God I love Ni Hao.

Match Rating: B

Macho Pump & Masao Orihara vs. Sabu & MIKAMI (Michinoku Pro 10/16/2003)

    MIKAMI and Sabu teaming up feels like the bump freak equivalent to when a famous red ranger would appear in a newer Power Rangers series and work with that team's red ranger. We need to get a bunch of other bump freaks together with these two to do the wrestling equivalent to "Forever Red". If we're to continue this comparison, Masao Orihara is Lord Zedd as he is the fucking devil, throwing lots of unprotected chairshots to MIKAMI's head and hitting gross double stomps to his ribs. At some point he seems to break MIKAMI's nose and MIKAMI bleeds all over his white mesh shirt. MIKAMI, for his part, is an amazing seller, doing a great job of stumbling and ragdolling for all of Orihara's offense like he's suffering from intense blood loss. Macho Pump is fun enough as a little goon mostly there to support Orihara and hit one or two moves of his own (which are just moves stolen from The Rock). Sabu and MIKAMI do get some points to run wild and hit all of their cool moves, with Sabu throwing a chairshot at Orihara as revenge for his new friend's gruesome beating. I came into this hoping to see Sabu and MIKAMI doing tons of crazy spots in a big car crash of a match. Instead, this is the Orihara and MIKAMI show, and both guys do a great job stiffing and selling respectively so I still thought this was great. Hopefully more Sabu in Michinoku crops up where Sabu and MIKAMI get to go full chaos mode like I originally hoped for.

Match Rating: B+

Hiroshi Itakura vs. Ryuma Go (Oriental Pro 09/12/1992)

    A real baptism in blood. Itakura takes on his mentor as part of a trial series of matches to prove Itakura has what it takes to be Oriental Pro's eventual top guy (Oriental Pro would die before that could ever happen). Ryuma Go decides Itakura needs intense brain damage to take on this role so he spends the entire match hitting no-hand shoot headbutts. No kidding, Go throws at least 50 skull-cracking headbutts, with Itakura getting busted open hardway after only the fourth one. Itakura, for his part, responds with equal stiffness in his handful of hope spots, but every moment of triumph leads directly into Go dragging him back to hell. If you've ever seen Masanobu Kurisu vs. Shoji Akiyoshi (specifically the handheld) this match feels thematically similar, albeit Kurisu was a lot more varied and intelligent in his beatdown. Ryuma Go is a dumb man. He's called the "pro wrestling idiot" for a reason. His head doesn't store information. His head is filled with rocks and he will use this rock-filled head to kill his son.

Match Rating: B+

Drake Morimatsu & Yuiga vs. Tarzan Goto & Shinigami (Yuiga Produce 10/30/2004)

    Shinigami and Morimatsu do not exist in this match. They each get one or two moments to show out, but are primarily just warm bodies in the ring rather than anything worth paying attention to. No, this is all about Goto and Yuiga. Goto might be my favorite plunderer of all time. He's so good at grabbing any object within range and turning it into a deadly weapon. He was in prime form here, stabbing and smashing things into Yuiga's head while doing evil laughs and little dances. While Yuiga was mostly selling throughout the match (which she did really well), she took her chances to fight back and ran with them, throwing really stiff strikes and hitting awesome judo throws. Her botched avalanche judo throw on Shinigami looked like it should've killed the man, and honestly turned out much better because of the botch. This is up there as one of Goto's better 2000s matches, and is a real feather in the cap for Yuiga so early into her career.

Match Rating: B+

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