Three event recaps and digging into the Mentai Kid archives in light of his retirement.

 

Kyushu Pro AEON Omura Shopping Center 30^th Anniversary 03/05/2025

Held at AEON Omura Shopping Center in Omura, Nagasaki Prefecture. Not aired. KPW do a number of these “community-side” events, presumably as a result of sponsorships or where there is a charitable upside. No announced attendance, and it’d be hard to know because the ring (per photos) is literally in the mall forecourt next to the escalators.

 

Batten Blabla vs Hitamaru Sasaki vs La Castella

La Castella is this yellow panda or bear gimmick they do list on their website but I’ve never seen. The photos make this look fun. Sasaki is obviously being given the “serious guy who works with the comedy guys” job today. La Castella pins Batten.

 

La Castella defeats Batten Blabla and Hitamaru Sasaki in 10:28.

 

Genkai & Georges Khoukaz & Jet Wei vs Kodai Nozaki & Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima

The photos show the heels beat up Sakurajima, and the faces finish off Khoukaz with some sort of three-man mountain splash. Mentai with the pin on Khoukaz. Everyone in this matchup can work so this was probably fun.

 

Kodai Nozaki & Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima defeat Genkai & Georges Khoukaz & Jet Wei in 11:22.

 

Kyushu Pro Kasuga Ba Genki Ni Suru Bai! 05/05/2025

Held at Kasuga City Sports Center. Kasuga is a big commuter belt city (110,000 people) in Fukuoka Prefecture not far outside of Fukuoka City itself. This is the typical gym setup for these shows, but with a lot of giant fish mobiles hanging from the ceiling. I am in favour. Announced attendance of 1,009, which I think is the fourth biggest show of the year so far.

 

Hitamaru Sasaki vs Minoru Fujita

Fujita is obviously a bigger name in wider puro than Sasaki, and he has had belt runs in KPW before. His outfit actually has the KPW branding on it which is nice. You immediately know why he’s here: put over Sasaki ahead of Sasaki putting in title challenges. Sasaki doesn’t work many singles matches, and really I’ve seen little of his offence over several months’ worth of material – he has great kicks, basically, and is very mobile for a 47-year-old.

 

Fujita’s prominence and Sasaki’s basic ability make it all the more surprising, for me, that the first half of this is just dreadful. It’s comedy work, and that’s kinda okay except that the point of this is obviously about putting Sasaki over. The problem is the comedy isn’t very strong – in a fed where comedy is done pretty well – and it’s insanely slow and low-impact. Strikes don’t seem to connect, despite them having whole “Hit me!” challenge exchanges. This feels like, at least, time catching up: Fujita is a deathmatch guy, Sasaki is a shoot-style guy, they should be able to hit each other hard, but this just doesn’t work.

 

We do slightly pace up in the back half, even though it’s still too long and slow – 20 minutes is one of the longest matches in KPW this year and you feel the length. Sasaki has some nice submissions, and once he gets going on a chain of kick offence, you’re reminded that actually he’s good at this stuff. Fujita gurns and stooges for the crowd, low-blows a couple times, tries to regain some control. Thankfully, eventually the match ends. What a disappointment.

 

Hitamaru Sasaki defeats Minoru Fujita in 20:43.

 

Asosan vs Batten Blabla vs Jesus Rodriguez

This is Rodriguez’ first ever match in Japan and after thanking the ring announcer he does his own intro in MEXICAN~! style. I see he spent several years in and around WWE under a few gimmicks, notably Ricardo Rodriguez (his billed middle name). He’s a bit tubby but he can move. We get long intros for Batten and Rodriguez, and the match itself is pretty short, which is sensitive booking.

 

Asosan doesn’t have to do much, and that’s good because his knees look worse than normal here. Virtually immobile except when pushing himself to hit one of his (very cool) athletic moves. But you get Batten allying first with one guy then the other, trying small packages to get the win, roping Rodriguez into holding Asosan down for his patented elbow/fist drop, etc. Batten hits a magnificent Enzuigiri at one point in a passage of high-speed and entertaining offence on Rodriguez. Rodriguez misses a Moonsault but it looks great anyway. And it’s all very short, which fits the matchup they want to layout.

 

Batten betrays Rodriguez, Asosan gets pushed out of the ring, and Rodriguez beats up Batten before knocking him down with one finger. Fun.

 

Jesus Rodriguez defeated Asosan and Batten Blabla in 6:40.

 

Genkai & Georges Khoukaz & Jet Wei & TAJIRI vs Kodai Nozaki & Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima & Shigeno Shima

This hasn’t been uploaded at time of writing and I’m assuming it won’t be. Alas, this looks like it could be good fun. If they worked this with any pace, the eight-man format likely comfortably covered the limitations of some of the competitors (I mean TAJIRI). Khoukaz, Jet, Mentai, and Sakurajima can all offer real workrate, and Nozaki, Shima, and Genkai aren’t bad for that either. The faces win, presumably with a Mentai pin.

 

Kodai Nozaki & Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima & Shigeno Shima defeat Genkai & Georges Khoukaz & Jet Wei & TAJIRI in 12:24.

 

Kyushu Pro 06/05/2025

This was held at the Chacha Town Kokura Special Ring in the city of Kitakyushu, a big conurbation in Fukuoka Prefecture. No announced attendance, no footage. This again looks like a mall or shopping district – the ring is set up outside in the “square” of the downtown/mall/whatever it is. It’s really lovely seeing at this subtype of event the crowd spilling into balconies or looking over an upper deck. Big community entertainment vibes, which is definitely one thing pro-wrestling should be sometimes.

 

Asosan & Hitamaru Sasaki vs Batten Blabla & Shigeno Shima

So this will be Asosan & Sasaki beating up Shima who wants Blabla to tag in but Batten refuses. Then Batten does tag in, gets some decent offence in, gets arrogant, gets smashed up and pinned.

 

Asosan & Hitamaru Sasaki defeat Batten Blabla & Shigeno Shima in 12:52.

 

Georges Khoukaz & Jesus Rodriguez & TAJIRI vs Kodai Nozaki & Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima

I can’t help but feel that in these smaller (in this case mid-sized) events, if you’re picking who goes on the card, you probably want Jet Wei over TAJIRI every time. Tadgers is the bigger name and I like seeing him, but his knees are totally gone, and Jet is a Mentai trainee and is, with Nozaki, the future of the company.

 

Rodriguez gets triple-splashed this time. Mentai naturally is the kid on top of the dads’ shoulders! Nozaki also splashes Khoukaz, who hopefully has enjoyed his tour but mostly seems to have been beaten up by KPW heavyweights.

 

This looks like Mentai takes the pin after a 450 on Rodriguez.

 

Kodai Nozaki & Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima defeat Georges Khoukaz & Jesus Rodriguez & TAJIRI in 13:50.

 

BONUS: Four Classic Mentai Matches

As we run up to Mentai’s retirement this coming weekend, KPW has been putting classic matches of his up on the YouTube channel. I’ve watched some of those, and I’ve watched a few of his older matches too. It’s striking that nowadays, he’s insanely over and very decent in the ring; “back then” (2009-2019, say), he was an elite lucharesudor. Time is unmerciful, except to Ricky Steamboat in 2009, and Mentai has obviously lost a step these days, despite his continued good speed, workrate, and execution. In his prime he is as good as any other Toryumon or Dragongate product you could name; he’s the best Junior Heavyweight you’ve never heard of.

 

Mentai Kid vs Shiori Asahi – Okunchi Cup 2009 Final, 12/10/2009

Wait, I’ve seen this Asahi guy before! He wrestled Mentai this year in a good little bout. Perhaps that was a bit of a farewell tour booking for Mentai. Nowadays he does these hand strikes like his hand is a flamingo. That doesn’t seem to be the case here.

 

The Okunchi Cup was a two-day affair over three rounds, this is the final. Weirdly we only have this clipped, where other matches from 2009 exist in full. The 4-minute clip we have is magnificent, though. Escalating lucharesu action, with some really unique little variations on moves, and nearly constant attempts to hit massive dives outside into the crowd. It also doesn’t come off as a spotfest – the men sell being worn down by the impact of the moves, they each look for an opportunity to finish stuff.

 

Boo, hiss! Asahi gets control at the end and wins. This was fun.

 

Shiori Asahi defeats Mentai Kid in 14:51.

 

Kaijin Habu Otoko vs Mentai Kid – 16/05/2010

Kaijin Habu Otoko seems to be a serpent dude who his hair queue to whip Mentai at one point. He is much better known as HUB. This is solid; it has an obvious and natural structure, with Mentai working from underneath and trying to break out. He at one point does his Coast-to-Coast Diving Dropkick but it’s, uh, not diving, it’s from the floor to the apron. That’s worth a star on its own I think. This isn’t, alas, incredible, when you can see it could be; it’s fun, but the heat segments are pretty heatless, which means the comebacks and hope spots rely wholly on Mentai’s aura (which is not inconsiderable), and the eventual Bad Guy Win is a matter of surprising indifference. But look: if you can turn up and get a three star match out of a not-very-successful match, you’ve had a good day at the office.

 

Kaijin Habu Otoko defeats Mentai Kid in 11:58.

 

Menso-re Oyaji vs Mentai Kid – 27/03/2011

The future Black Menso-re, here merely a friendly fellow from Okinawa who embodies all the tropes about Okinawans. He’s wrestling with Okinawa Pro under his trainer Super Delfin at this point. He runs a light comedy gimmick – drinking cheap Okinawan beer during the match and at one point using it as a weapon shot.

 

This really works for me. The comedy stuff is worked well, but it’s a light touch, because ultimately this is the grandkids of Gran Hamada working a match that wouldn’t feel out of place in Michinoku Pro in 1996, but with just a bit of a technical twist and advance fitting of the Dragongate/Toryumon era.

 

It’s not even madly innovative – the 2009 Shiori Asahi match has in its own way more “original” spots and twists, in the sense of new to me – but this is delightful. The face-vs-face dynamic is quite interesting, too, because you get them showing off to the audience, setting up for some lovely move-counter-move at a nice speed, without worrying about heat segments and instead relying on the move escalation. Good stuff.

 

Mentai Kid defeats Menso-re Oyaji in 14:52.

 

El Lindaman & T-Hawk vs Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima – 07/04/2019

Part of a Kitakyushu show in 2019, held on a theatre stage which looks weird. The invaders earn cheap heel heat, get chances working over both of the faces. Mentai is small so can be overpowered, Sakurajima gets isolated and the ref distracted and gets beaten up. The plucky faces work their way back and win! This was very, very by-the-numbers in a perfectly pleasant way.

 

Mentai Kid & Naoki Sakurajima defeat El Lindaman & T-Hawk in 10:11.

 

Full Matchguide and links at Undercard Wonders