K-DOJO, Finally!

K-DOJO Kaio Tournament 2014

(2014/9/14)

1.      Kaio Tournament 2014 – Round 1: Ryuichi Sekine vs. Ricky Fuji

***1/4

2.      Kaio Tournament 2014 – Round 1: Yoshihiro Horaguchi vs. Saburo Inematsu

bad

3.      Kaio Tournament 2014 – Round 1 & Strongest-K Championship: Shiori Asahi vs. Kengo Mashimo ©

***3/4

4.      Kaio Tournament 2014 – Round 1: Kaji Tomato vs. Kunio Toshima

**3/4

5.      Kaio Tournament 2014 – Round 1: TAKA Michinoku vs. Tearun Shisa

***1/2

6.      Kaio Tournament 2014 – Round 1: Hiro Tonai vs. Daigoro Kashiwa

***3/4

7.      Kaio Tournament 2014 – Round 1: Ayumu Honda vs. Yuji Hino

***

8.      Kaio Tournament 2014 – Round 1: Tank Nagai vs. Yuma

bad

Round 1 was a mixed bag with two dull matches and few really exciting ones. The matches were short with 10 min time limit, but it didn’t prevent guys like Mashimo, Asahi, Fuji, Tomato, TAKA and Tonai to shine and thrive through the careful, ground-based style that seems to dominate the promotion, it’s a nice mix of American, traditional Japanese and semi-shoot style of pro-wrestling.

9.      Kaio Tournament 2014 – Round 2: Ryuichi Sekine vs. Saburo Inematsu

***3/4

10.  Kaio Tournament 2014 – Round 2 & Strongest-K Championship: Kaji Tomato vs. Kengo Mashimo ©

****

11.  Kaio Tournament 2014 – Round 2: TAKA Michinoku vs. Hiro Tonai

****1/2

12.  Kaio Tournament 2014 – Round 2: Yuji Hino vs. Tank Nagai

***3/4

Excellent Round 2, Sekine/Inematsu was shockingly good, Tomato and Mashimo managed to reach the four star territory in less than four minutes, TAKA/Tonai was an incredible human chess game, and Hino/Tank was quite swell, with the huge upset at the end. Tomato really caught me off guard here, I always thought he was shit, and TAKA is a completely different wrestler here, nothing like what you see in New Japan.

13.  Kaio Tournament 2014 – Semi-Final & Strongest-K Championship: Saburo Inematsu vs. Kengo Mashimo ©

**1/2

14.  Kaio Tournament 2014 – Semi-Final: Hiro Tonai vs. Tank Nagai

***3/4

15.  9-MAN BATTLE ROYAL: Ricky Fuji vs. Yoshihiro Doguchi vs. Shiori Asahi vs. Kunio Toshima vs. Tearun Shisa vs. Daigoro Kashiwa vs. Ayumu Honda vs. Yuma vs. Kotaro Yoshino

DUD

16.  Kaori Yoneyama vs. Bambi

**

17.  Ryuichi Sekine & Kaji Tomato vs. TAKA Michinoku & Yuji Hino

**3/4

18.  Kaio Tournament 2014 – FINAL & Strongest-K Championship: Hiro Tonai vs. Kengo Mashimo ©

Great match and a proper way to end this awesome tournament, a battle of careful strategies full of nice selling and nifty mind games.

****

My first proper K-DOJO show, and it’s an easy watch - good wrestlers, nice and thoughtful presentation, cool mixture of various styles, etc. Like I said earlier, there are various styles in K-DOJO, something for everyone. Kengo Mashimo is one of my favorite indie wrestlers in the world, and to see him work four times in one day was a blast.