A Fun W-1 Event

First Anniversary Tour

(2014/9/6)

2.      Hiroshi Yamato vs. TAJIRI

Good match with TAJIRI being an effective and relentless heel, you could clearly feel the years of North American experience under his belt. Fun stuff, TAJIRI made a right call by quitting WNC, he’s a useful addition to W-1.

***1/4

3.      Desperado (Masayuki Kono, Ryouji Sai, KAZMA SAKAMOTO) vs. Minoru Tanaka, AKIRA, Kaz Hayashi

Desperado’s made of either bad or mediocre wrestlers, but together they make for a decent heel unit that thrives in ringside brawling, which is always appreciated with me. Good match. AKIRA definitely doesn’t look like he’s 48.

***1/4

4.      Ikuto Hidaka & Takuya Sugawara vs. Shuji Kondo & Seiki Yoshioka

Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I watched Ikuto Hidaka wrestle, I forgot how fun he is, the spirits of BattlARTS flew right through me. This was a damn good tag, borderline great even, Yoshioka was in the main role as a relentless youngster fighting off them old dogs. Hidaka hasn’t lost a beat, he’s still one quick fuck who strikes hard. The finishing run was fabulous.

***3/4

5.      Kohei Sato vs. Ryota Hama

Good little match worked around Hama’s physical limitations and I’m a sucker for that, to be frank. I love when wrestlers make the most out of simple things, and that’s what happened here, that’s also a running theme of almost every Hama match, which is why I never skip his stuff, he’s fun to watch.

***

6.      Masato Tanaka & Yusaku Obata vs. KAI & Manabu Soya

First time seeing Obata wrestle, seems like a reasonably good guy. Great match here, the former rivals KAI and Soya make for a good duo who takes no shit from anyone, they even smack each other every once in a while. Tanaka and Obata looked swell here, they worked hard, and if the rumors about ZERO1 going out of business are true, I hope they end up in here in W-1, and the same goes for Kohei, Hidaka and Otani. Once again, this was a terrific tag match.

****

7.      ZERO1 World Heavyweight Championship: Shinjiro Otani vs. Masakatsu Funaki ©

Damn good main event to round up a super fun show. Unfortunately, it could’ve/should’ve been even better, shame Funaki’s selling was not good here, at least the physical part. The match was totally fine, ground-based and worked in a cautious, sometimes even semi-shoot manner, full of hard hitting struggle, but I just know these two can work a legit MOTYC, hence the slight disappointment.

***3/4