Newish W-1

Wrestle-1 2015/4/1

Wrestle-1 Championship: Hideki Suzuki vs. KAI ©

Not a great match like with Funaki, but still, this was another fun Hideki Suzuki gem. It’s so fascinating to see the slow and careful build in his matches even though you know they won’t last longer than cca 10 minutes. He’s a total badass and carries himself that way in the ring. KAI worked his ass off to climb the W-1 mountain, only to stumble upon the dangerous shooter in the first defense. The match was pretty rich and filled with happening for a seven minute affair, you got the sense it could end at any time, and that’s exactly what happened. Loved Hideki’s stoic approach, he was just bursting with confidence, it was like “KAI, you’re a fucking geek, I shit on you and all your Ace talk”, and even with KAI managing to hit some big moves you could feel they were just relatively minor obstacles on Hideki’s path of destruction. The moment of the match is KAI selling Hideki’s sleeper hold like a Godzilla apparition.

***1/2

Wrestle-1 2015/4/1

TAJIRI & Koji Doi vs. Ikemen Samurai (Masakatsu Funaki & Jiro Kuroshio)

Here I am, thinking we’re finally getting some Funaki/TAJIRI magic, only for Jiro to spend the 90% of the match as the FIP. Ouch. They did get in touch on a couple occasions, but they were not in major roles here, however now there’s at least SOME chance we might see them in a singles match, and oh boy, I think I’m going to love every second of it. You could already feel the HATE here, and it’s only the beginning. What else can I say about this match? Hmm, let’s see… Jiro is improving and Doi sucks a big one.

**1/2

Wrestle-1 2015/4/1

Wrestle-1 Tag Championship: New Wild Order (AKIRA & Manabu Soya) vs. Team 246 (Kaz Hayashi & Shuji Kondo) ©

I can be such a fool sometimes, I almost skipped this match because I so cannot stand Kaz Hayashi, but then I see it’s not very long, and it does have Kondo, Soya and AKIRA, all three good wrestlers, with Kondo being great most of time. And I’m so fucking glad I saw the match, because it was excellent. When you think about it, it’s so easy for tag matches to be great, all you need is a solid FIP segment or two, few dramatic saves and that’s it. And that’s exactly what this match was all about, the most simple and primal tag team wrestling. The story here was the old man AKIRA trying to survive the rollercoaster of a finishing stretch against the younger, faster and more athletic guys, and it was all great. Again, such a simple and cliché subplot, but it works every damn time when done properly and with right people. Watch this match!

****1/4

Random W-1 Stuff

Wrestle-1 2015/2/13

Ikemen Samurai (Masakatsu Funaki & Jiro Kuroshio) vs. New Wild Order (AKIRA & Manabu Soya)

Good tag team match with Kuroshio as a centerpiece of storytelling. I didn’t like him before, but all this teaming with Masa Funaki is doing wonders for him, they’re such an unusual duo and it works for both. Soya was excellent in this one, by the way.

***1/4

Wrestle-1 2015/2/13

Masato Tanaka vs. KAI

Typical Masato Tanaka tussles have both good and not so good parts. However, the good parts can be really fucking great sometimes and save the match, and that was the case here. He didn’t do his table spot, which is nice. KAI is on the winning streak and ready for a shot at Muto.

***1/4

Wrestle-1 2015/2/13

Wrestle-1 Tag Championship: Too Sharp (Minoru Tanaka & Seiki Yoshioka) vs. Team 246 (Kaz Hayashi & Shuji Kondo) ©

Mostly lifeless match. Minoru is still awesome, though, and you’d think the fallman should be obvious here, but take a better look. Basically, those two things saved the match from being bad. I could live without seeing another Kaz Hayashi match ever again. I wish Kondo would break away already.

**3/4

Wrestle-1 2015/2/22

Yusuke Kodama vs. Seiki Yoshioka

Solid match between the young guys, but could’ve/should’ve been better. I did like the BattleARTS inspired strikes, though. :)

**3/4

Wrestle-1 2015/2/22

Masato Tanaka vs. Shuji Kondo

A Masato Tanaka match. Too bad Kondo’s carryjob button wasn’t on the whole time.

***

Wrestle-1 2015/2/22

KAI, Ryota Hama, Yasufumi Nakanoue vs. Keiji Muto, Masakatsu Funaki, Shotaro Ashino

Very good, hard working 6-man tag with constant movement and well executed spots.

***1/2

Newish W-1

Wrestle-1 2015/1/30

Masayuki Kono vs. KAI

Good enough for me. I actually don’t mind Kono because he’s a very capable worker who can really shine when in the ring with a better opponent, it’s just that his current DESPERADO angle is holding him back and turns his matches into shit quite regularly. It can be fun, but it’s usually a miss. There wasn’t much of that here, the match was rather normal, with some grappling at the beginning, then some ringside brawling before the good closing stretch where they had to improvise due to KAI knocking out Kono during a double lariat spot. I liked this, good match.

***

Wrestle-1 2015/1/30

Hideki Suzuki & Yusaku Obata vs. Masakatsu Funaki & Jiro Kuroshio

Credit for all the stars goes to HIDEKI SUZUKI for being such a marvelous dickbag heel, he hijacked the match and fucking owned it. First he ripped Kuroshio’s jacket apart, then no sold him all the way ‘till the end where he destroyed him ringside while Funaki was busy in the ring. The Suzuki/Funaki heat is amazing and thankfully they’re finally booked for a singles slugfest in March, shit man, that match’s going to rule the world. They really hate each other, so much animosity in the air when they’re in the ring, everything is so natural and organic, that’s what a true wrestling rivalry should look like. On top of that, we also had Kuroshio and Obata smacking each other silly and punching each other after the match. God, I loved this match, such a nifty piece of storytelling.

****1/4

Wrestle-1 2015/1/30

Wrestle-1 Championship: Manabu Soya vs. Keiji Muto ©

Not as great as Sanada defense, but still very good. Muto is slow but he can still bump very well, and it certainly helps to see his opponents adjusting to his style and working his levels of pacing. Plus, of course, Muto’s always been a brilliant tactician and strategist with big ass wrestling IQ, it serves him good no matter the age. Soya is one rough fucker but Muto did his best to tame him and bring down to the ground, there were some neat hold-for-hold spots and reversals on the mat, Soya took a page or two from Sanada’s book. Huge points go to Muto for finishing off his opponents with Figure Four Leglock… in 2015. Like I said earlied, Muto is an amazing tactician whose “less is more” institute is glorious, and it fucking showed in the finishing run. Very good title match.

***3/4

Random January Puroresu

Wrestle-1 2015/1/11

KAI vs. Masakatsu Funaki

I always love when these two meet, they have a great chemistry where nifty simplicity runs wild and this match was no different. Funaki is such a class wrestler who always makes his opponents look good and KAI is in the position where he really needs that nowadays. Their “shoot” and “pro” styles mesh well and the finish was excellent. Hopefully one of them win the championship so we can see them in a big title match, preferably in Sumo Hall, that’d be swell.

***3/4

Wrestle-1 2015/1/11

Wrestle-1 Tag Championship: Yasufumi Nakanoue & Yusuke Kodama vs. Team 246 (Kaz Hayashi & Shuji Kondo) ©

This was an excellent wrestling story, the young underdog challengers wasted no time and decided to go full throttle right off the bat, they estimated their chances would be bigger if they cut an opening phase or two from the beginning and go straight to rapid fire moves. Well, they didn’t win but they came pretty damn close, probably closer than where they’d come under Hayashi & Kondo pacing watch. The crowd was very into the match and some of the nearfalls were glorious. I totally didn’t expect the match to be this great, these four guys killed it, Nakanoue looked amazing.

****1/4

Wrestle-1 2015/1/24

TAJIRI vs. Daiki Inaba

TAJIRI, an absolute master of the game, takes the talented youngster to school. He gives him a lot and makes him look amazing, TAJIRI is the best of the best. You don’t want to miss this mini-classic. Might be the best Wrestle-1 match ever.

****1/4

Dragon Gate 2015/1/18

Open the Triangle Gate: Monster Express (Akira Tozawa, Shingo Takagi, Shachihoko BOY) vs. Dia.HEARTS (Masaaki Mochizuki, Dragon Kid, Big R Shimizu) ©

Mostly dull as shit, with only Mochi and Shimizu being the saving graces, but not enough to elevate the match properly. I hated Tozawa here, he was awful. There was so much dead parts, and of course they didn’t want to call it a day until all the Dragon Gate trio ingredients were squeezed in. Yack…

**

Dragon Gate 2015/1/12

Akira Tozawa & Shingo Takagi vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Big R Shimizu

Good match, Shimizu was the best here, dude’s the best thing in Dragon Gate now. On the other hand, when did Tozawa get so lame and annoying? Smh…

***