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