Greetings from the internet! This time we're looking at Zero One Wrestling from 2004 & 2005. It's a grab bag though. There's a few stand alone matches from 2004. I was able to find a full show but only three matches interest me. Also please check out my new blog Wrestling Dream Battles. Just posted New Japan 1995 part #3 up there. 

OK let's look at Zero One Wrestling!

2004

Leonardo Spanky vs. Josh Daniels (01/30) - Good back & forth juniors match. Simple stuff and although it didn't build to the big finish, it felt like the right time & move to end it. I LIKED IT

Frankie Kazarian & Low Ki vs. Emblem (Masato Tanaka & Shinjiro Otani) (01/30) - Really, really good action match! Kaz & Low Ki were an excellent team to take on Emblem. Kaz kept things pretty simple (a reviewer on Cage match mentioned he botched stuff... I saw zero botches). Low Ki was more in heel junior mode than strong style warrior or whatever he does when he kicks people really hard. Tanaka and Otani were their normal good selves. Nothing mind blowing but they allowed the American team to shine. The final few minutes was an excellent bomb exchange and was very exciting! I LIKED IT ALOT

Jun Kasai & Shinya Hashimoto vs. Riki Choshu & Tomohiro Ishii (01/30) - Oh yeah! 12 minutes of what you wanted. Ishii is forced to lay everything in on Hashimoto. Hash ignores him to call out Riki. Jun reminds you he wrestles. When we finally get Hash vs Riki, it's great. Years worth of history and they give you what you want. I LIKED IT ALOT

Frankie Kazarian vs Leonardo Spanky vs Low Ki (01/31) - A good time, smile on your face fireworks junior 3 way dance. Way too many moves to remember them all but everything they did was in their wheelhouse. They never got too complicated or too cute with what they were attempting. They used the ramp to good effect which makes me wish the US Indies could have afforded a ring ramp 😋 Hard to rate this honestly so I'll just say I LOVED IT. Definitely one to watch if you're interested!

Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Yoshihito Sasaki (08/31/04) - Starting out mildly, this kept building to something more exciting. Oh thought, "oh this is just a small show. they'll do some signature stuff and wrestle by numbers and do a couple moves to finish." Whoa, they went beyond that and delivered a really good tag match! Like FMW tags, they shifted into a higher gear and the last third was truly exciting stuff. In truth, the first third was forgettable but those other 2/3rds made up for it. Hidaka's execution was great, Fujita was on point and Kuroda & Sasaki were excellent counterparts with their elbows, spears & lariats. ...you know this is a re-watch...went through my old notes but yup I had the same rating "very good" so glad to see that it holds up.

2005

I have had trouble finding an Zero One Wrestling or Zero One Max from 2005. I think I'd just find what I had uncovered awhile back when doing a Ikuto Hidaka spotlight. So I had to get creative and look at other promotions that featured Zero One talent. 

Pro Wrestling NOAH

Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Kotaro Suzuki (03/05/05) - Great match! Thought it was just going to be a fun one but ultimately nothing too wild. I was fooled! They were treating Misawa like he was invincible. This was a great ploy. Once team Zero One was able to weaken him then things got very interesting.  Otani was in full dick head mode and Takaiwa was his enforcer. Kotaro's Rey Misterio Jr inspired moves were great as he used them in desperation rather than to show off. Jaw cracking elbow strikes, thrilling rope rope moves and some genuinely exciting near falls - LOVED IT!

Differ cup 2005
05/07
Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita vs. PSYCHO & TAKA Michinoku - This was a total blast! It got really good when it was TAKA vs Hidaka and didn't quit after that. Excellent high spots, a little bit of comedy and an interesting finish. This put a smile on my face!

05/08
Takaiwa Tatsuhito & Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshihito Sasaki vs. TAKA Michinoku & PSYCHO & Sonjay Dutt - Hahaha! Yes!! This is fucking sweet! They actually told a story with TAKA's team being out matched in strength. PSYCHO (new to me this show) just couldn't get a break. Eventually he made the hot tag to TAKA who went straight violent with his kicks! Gawd that one combo was great. It never calmed down after that. Fireworks display with great surprises. The randomness of this put me on the edge of my seat. This could be a cluster fuck at any second. But these dudes pulled it off in my book. Let's here it for the Differ Cup shows 

Riki Pro 

Ikuto Hidaka vs. Takashi Sasaki (06/05) - It was a pretty enjoyable junior bout. I think of Takashi Sasaki as a death match wrestler. He is a remarkable junior singles and tag worker though. He's got a solid move set and has great execution. I really dig his super kicks. I always like Ikuto Hidaka. His leg work here added a little variety. This was a fun 10 minute curtain jerker.

Yoshito Sasaki & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Dick Togo & GENTARO (06/05) - This was wrestled at a quick pace. I would have wanted them to slow down at the beginning to get me acclimated. I don't mind a quick start but I wasn't sure of the direction. Small complaint as they found their groove. It was one move after another and was quite the fireworks tag match. I think they wrestled this way because it was an indie show and just needed to add some razzle dazzle in the middle of the card. This was a very fun tag match and although isn't a hidden gem, it's cool to see these kind of match ups on the indie shows at this time.

Shiro Koshinaka & TAKA Michinoku vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa (08/14/05) - Fun match but only 10 minutes. This could have gone a few more as they never hit their stride. Still we get beefy lariats, flying hip attacks, a couple dives and just enjoyable wrestling. 

Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita vs Jody Fleisch & Jonny Storm (10/09/05) - This is actually the only Zero One Wrestling match but I couldn't get into it. There's some crazy ass spots though!! It just reminds me of an early 2000's ROH/indie style. I think by 2005 in ROH at least, had become antiquated. Anyway, I just think this would have worked for a crazy 12 minute match but this was nearly 20 minutes. Not my thing but you might dig it. Jonny Storm has it up on his YouTube page so I'll share it below:

Zero One Wrestling has been a lot of fun. I'm definitely interested in going forward with it. I've got a few DVDs that I'm going to use to center a project or two.

Thanks for reading!