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…

***