Magnum Opus KAI

What's this? A brand new project on the old blog? Yes it is. Today we are trying something new. Chismo and I are both going to watch a match and rate it separately. That way we can see how our tastes and views differ. Chismo approached me with this idea a while back and I immediately thought it sounded like a fun idea. When he then suggested that we do it with one of my boys, Wrestle-1 star Kai, I got the added idea of making this a series, a chronicle of Kai's descent into madness as he goes from AJPW's golden boy and Mutoh's anointed one, to the self proclaimed ace all the way to his current Onita/Dean Ambrose cosplaying gimmick. Strap in, this is going to be a wacky ride.

Who is Kai? Kai is a Japanese wrestler trained in the Animal Hamaguchi/Keiji Mutoh/All Japan Pro-Wrestling school. Up until 2012 he worked as a junior heavyweight and things were going smoothly, winning the Junior League in August of 2008. Only a few short months after his re-debut post excursion to Mexico. Kai was set up as the future top junior heavyweight of All Japan alongside his training mate Hiroshi Yamato and things were trucking on well for him (for more info on his junior days, please visit his Wikipedia page). But in 2012 he made the announcement that he was going to move up to Heavyweight, and that was seemingly the gunshot that set off all the events that has led to this day in his career. Kai's initial heavyweight run in All Japan started just as strong as his junior run. He slotted into the Champion's Carnival and had a good run in it, which takes us to this match….

This first match in this descent into Kai madness is from his Champion Carnival run. And it is the semi final match of the tournament where he faces off against at the time recent import Go Shiozaki. The winner would face Jun Akiyama in the finals of the tournament. Without further stalling, let's get to it!

All Japan 08/29

Summer Explosion 2015

(2015/08/29)

All Japan 08/16

Summer Explosion 2015

(2015/08/16)

Chismo Pick: Best of 2014

I just realized I never posted the list of my favorite matches of 2014, so here's my Top 15. Now, why 15? Why not 10? Or 20? Fuck me if I know. 16 is my fave number but I can't go with that. So I'm going with the closest thing. Then why not 17? Oh well... It needed to be more than 10, though, because 10 matches is way too few considering the fact there are thousands of televised pro-graps matches every year. Ergo:

All Japan 4/5 (Carnival Time!)

Champion Carnival 2015

(2015/4/5)

All Japan 3/27

Dream Power Series 2015

(2015/3/27)

All Japan 3/14

Dream Power Series 2015

(2015/3/14)

All Japan 2/20: Aoki vs. Kotaro

Excite Series 2015

(2015/2/20)

1.       Naoya Nomura vs. Shigehiro Irie

***1/4

2.       Yuma Aoyagi vs. Masanobu Fuchi

bad

3.       Takeshi Minamino, Hikaru Sato, Keisuke Ishii, SUSHI vs. Ultimo Dragon, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Soma Takao, Yohei Nakajima

**

4.       KENSO, Akebono, Yutaka Yoshie vs. Go Shiozaki, Kento Miyahara, Zeus

**1/2

5.       AJPW World Tag Team Championship: Suwama & Joe Doering vs. Wild Burning (Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori) ©

Manly match for sure, but needed more color for greatness, there were middle parts that were just… there. Too by-the-numbers, I guess, something like that. That FIP session on Omori should’ve been longer. Not to mention very weak execution at times. Good match, though, all the pairings were fine enough, especially Suwama/Akiyama and the awesome climax with Omori and Doering. I loved Doering here with all the headsweeping Hansen lariats. Pure force of nature he is, he’ll also piledrive you into oblivion. But there is one problem – sure, he and Suwama are a good, compelling duo, but they’re struggling to find a formula that leads to excellent matches, unlike Akiyama & Omori and Go & Miyahara who make good shit out of thin air.

***3/4

6.       Jr. Battle of Glory 2015 – FINAL: Atsushi Aoki vs. Kotaro Suzuki

AA is probably my favorite Junior in the world in the past two years of so. He works a sluggish heavyweight style and is a relentless dick. Here, after a couple of stand-offish minutes, he targets Kotaro’s arm and works over it viciously, using some very innovative and dangerous looking moves. Great work by Aoki and Kotaro sold it perfectly, there was struggle for every move and Kotaro had to dig down very deep in order to survive, and this is where all the Misawa trainings came into play as Kotaro’s elbows proved to be the key, seriously, that finish was fucking fabulous. This was a rough and punishing Junior match, and with Aoki in charge (plus Hikaru Sato lurking somewhere) All Japan Jr. Division has profiled itself as unique in Japan, nurturing slow paced, human chessgame and highly punishing style.

****1/2

All Japan 2/7: Zeus vs. Go

Excite Series 2015

(2015/2/7)

2.       The Bodyguard & Shigehiro Irie vs. Kento Miyahara & Yohei Nakajima

Average tag, should’ve been much better. The fallman was way too obvious, but the problem is they didn’t manage to disguise that. Miyahara/Irie needs to happen, btw.

**3/4

4.       Jun Akiyama, Takao Omori, Ultimo Dragon vs. Suwama, Hikaru Sato, Naoya Nomura

Good 6-man tag with everyone playing their roles well. This was another match with the obvious fallman, but with Suwama and Sato on his side you get the feeling that maybe Omori or UD might get clipped, and they worked with that very nicely. Apparently Nomura wants to join Evolution and I’d really like that, because Suwama works great with rookies (remember Takumi Soya?) and Nomura is clearly talented. However, Hikaru Sato was not pleased with his effort and he beat the shit out of him backstage, man oh man, that was some tough love (?) right there. Felt kind of uncomfortable too, hehe. Not only poor Nomura got his ass kicked, head smacked and bones stretched during the match (Akiyama is evil), but he also had to suffer a beating from a guy two heads shorter than him, lol.

***1/2

5.       Jr. Battle of Glory 2015 – Block B: Kotaro Suzuki vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru

You know what you get with these two together - some great moments and exciting chain sequences that make for a great match, but also a stupid moment or two that bring the match down from the “great” territory. Overall though, very nice and enjoyable match with an exciting closing stretch and some impressive struggle for moves, especially for brainbusters.

***1/2

6.       Jr. Battle of Glory 2015 – Block A: Keisuke Ishii vs. Atsushi Aoki

Excellent slugfest, Aoki was a major shitcunt here, he ambushed and sucker-punched Ishii before the bell and mauled him during the opening stages. He did a number on his arm and dropped him on the head few times. It was a classic story that wrote itself after that, Ishii’s comebacks and hope spots were great, Aoki continued being a DICK and the climax was excellent, especially with Aoki applying the sickest modified cross armbreaker ever, where he managed to lock both of Ishii’s arms. Sick match, loved every second of it.

****1/4

7.       AJPW Triple Crown Championship: Zeus vs. Go Shiozaki ©

The Goldberg and Scott Steiner fan Zeus was one of my favorite discoveries of 2014 and here he is, in the biggest match of his career and I’m pretty fucking pumped for it. Both dudes are careful at the start and they are feeling each other out with some hard chops and shoulderblocks. Zeus wins the first battle and outpowers Go. Go is bumping hard and making his best efforts to make the challenger look like a total beast. Zeus is awesome in controlling this opening phase. Go makes a brief comeback but loses the mini-chop battle. Zeus applies a nasty chinlock and it looks awesome. Go is totally working from behind right now, he loses every chop battle and Zeus is quickly destroying his health points. Go is desperately trying to reverse the course of the match but Zeus is just too damn tough. Eventually Go manages to buy some time by finally bringing down the beast via superkicks, chops, stiff spinning karate chop and nasty headdrop. However, Go’s control sessions doesn’t last for long as Zeus is able to regain the momentum once again. He even does a plancha. Great chokeslam too. Pure display of power by the challenger. But Go keeps insisting on chop exchanges and lariats, which pays off eventually and he brings some balance to the game, Zeus falls for his shtick and it’s the beginning of his fall. We get another chop battle, the long one, that Go wins and caps off with a vicious lariat and great plancha. We’re in the finishing stretch now, they’re out of bullets and it’s time for throwing bombs. We get ANOTHER rough chop tussle, Zeus is about to lose it again so he throws a gnarly punch out of despair. That was an awesome little character moment right there. However, Go fires back with a spinning chop and from that point onwards we get one of those typical All Japan climaxes where it’s obvious that a Player 1 is done, it’s just a matter of which Player 2 move is going to be fatal. Here it was a moonsault.

Fantastic Triple Crown match with great structure and layout, Go was great in working from beneath all the time and making Zeus look monstrous. Zeus totally delivered in his career showcase match and I hope this solidified him as the future main eventer.

****1/2

Dead Baba Draws Better Than Current All Japan

Giant Baba 17^th Death Anniversary

(2015/1/31)

1.       Yuma Aoyagi vs. Yohei Nakajima

Neat little opener, the crowd totally bought into Aoyagi winning during that one roll-up since Nakajima is a total jobber. Perfect opening match.

***1/4

2.       Naoya Nomura vs. SUSHI

Oh look, a SUSHI match where SUSHI didn’t suck a bag of dicks! Good effort from both.

***

3.       KENSO vs. Masao Inoue

A KENSO match mixed with an Inoue match.

**

4.       Jinsei Shinzaki & TARU vs. Taiyo Kea & Yuto Aijima

It was nice to see Kea back. Aaaand, that’s pretty much it. Painfully average and pointless match.

**

5.       Genichiro Tenryu, Akebono, Ultimo Dragon vs. Evolution (Suwama, Atsushi Aoki, Hikaru Sato)

The greatest wrestler of all time is fucking 65 years old (or young) and can barely walk properly, but his right hand still serves him well and Suwama’s mouth, nose and throat can testify to that.

***1/4

6.       Jun Akiyama, Takao Omori, Masanobu Fuchi vs. Xceed (Go Shiozaki, Kento Miyahara, Kotaro Suzuki)

Good main event with some really nifty moments, such as Akiyama/Kotaro closing, it would’ve been great with less Fuchi and his old man selling shtick. I did like him getting his ass kicked by Go, though, you mess with the bull, you get the horns. Go didn’t care about Fuchi’s age, he treated him like any other punchbag out there.

***1/2