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Makai Club #1

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  1. Makai Club #1
    AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Naomichi Marufuji (c) vs. Kaz Hayashi - AJPW Excite Series 2009 - Day 1 06/02/2009 I thought this was pretty good. Most of the match was Marufuji doing his thing, well I might add, with Hayashi coming up with occasional counters and strikes, trying to keep Marufuji at bay. Marufuji was pretty entertaining while on top. He switched his offence from flashy aerial moves to strikes to submissions well. I thought he did a good job of building his offence up with Hayashi just avoiding his signature moves such as the corner kicks making them feel big when he executes them. Hayashi worked well from beneath in terms of selling and he was a good person that the fans could rally behind even against the popular Marufuji. A good finishing stretch closes out a pretty good Junior Heavyweight title match. ***3/4
  2. Makai Club #1
    Big 30 minute chaotic match in Ryogoku. Choshu looked super strong in this, getting both falls and always staying one step ahead when he was in the ring. He directed traffic for his side as well. The Maestro of Team New Japan. I like how both falls took their time and told different stories. The first fall was about New Japan wrecking havoc with WAR playing catch up. The second fall was WAR on top, taking advantage of Iizuka and Fujinami, isolating them. Tenryu beating up Iizuka with cheap shots and had chops was killer. Iizuka has a history of taking incredible beatdowns so he knows how to make the best out of it and use it to his advantage. Hase was a boss as well. He threw some sick uranage’s to Ishikawa. Great, great match. ****1/4
  3. Makai Club #1
    This was an electric 13 minutes. I assume that this was the start of the Hashimoto v Tenryu feud. It looked like Muto was going to be the big headliner of his team, given he is champion (as Muta which technically is a different person) but Hashimoto calls out Tenryu to kick off the match and the rest is history. Tenryu is very hesitant in this match. After he gets pummeled by Hashimoto’s kicks to kick off the match, he starts to be cautious, tags out more often than he would. He is very keen to go when Nogami is in there, and he dishes out some heavy offence against him, while looking at Hash (which was awesome) but then it’s Muto or Hashimoto in the ring, in comes Hara or Ishikawa. This was played off brialintly when he got trapped ina barrage of triple team moves that sent the crowd into a frenzy. The other two WAR guys were good and played their parts as the side pieces to Tenryu. Ishikawa got booed any time he was in the ring whereas the other two were cheered, mostly. Good to see his heat out of the Fujinami match is being carried over. Great match. ****1/4
  4. Makai Club #1
    Verne Gagne, a rigid old promoter, did something wild and used his overseas connections to bring Jumbo Tsuruta to the states, making him his champion. Jumbo, being the foreigner, got booed for the ring announcements but he was pretty much classic Jumbo. Stoic faced and menacing. Even throughout the match, barring a few subtle heel spots here and there, he wrestled fairly straight. One thing I love about AWA is there is a ton of emphasis on good wrestling. The first half of the match is Jumbo and Martel struggling for holds with Martel just being outmatched by the combination of strength and speed Jumbo possesses. Martel is adept enough to keep up and is able to get control via his mobility, using Jumbo’s momentum to get the better of him. For example leapfrogging him and then drop-kicking Jumbo, and then later using a reverse crossbody. We get some cool spots like Jumbo hitting a knee crusher, trying to escape a headlock hold, only for Martel to just hang on but still selling it brilliantly. Jumbo’s high knee looked so brutal as well. There is a good reverse abdominal stretch spot as well that leads into the finish nicely. Jumbo gets a visual three count but the ref got KO’d briefly after a dropkick sent Martel into the ref. This protects Jumbo to the Japanese audience (who would see this on their TV) while still giving Martel a big victory after a hot shot on the ropes. A good match. A novelty seeing Jumbo work in the States. Martel is awesome as well. Not a blow away match but I liked it a ton. ***1/2
  5. Makai Club #1
    First match of the Fujiwara vs Super Tiger series is a good ‘un. Both wrestlers’ strengths came out to the front in the match. Fujiwara was super focused on ripping Tiger’s arm apart in the early parts, being laser focused on submissions and grappling while Super Tiger worked from beneath, selling and coming back with flurries of strikes and other submissions. The counters in this are really good. Especially the deadlift into a piledriver counter by Fujiwara against Tiger’s triangle choke attempt. The last exchange for the finish was awesome - Tiger struggling away from Fujiwara’s dreaded holds before hitting a stiff head kick and getting the win via chickenwing. ****1/4
  6. Makai Club #1
    This was a cool big UWF tag team match. There is still fairly early for the promotion so this was still half way into shoot style but there was still a “New Japan” vibe I got from this. Tiger comes off the rope once or twice to success (he doesn’t as the style progresses). They set up some great match ups down the line - Tiger vs Fujiwara plus Fujiwara v Takada. I thought everyone except Maeda was pretty great in this. Maeda seemed to disappear in favour of highlighting Tiger which was the right choice. I dug Takada a lot. He was the clear bottom rung of the match and worked like such. He held on for the face locks with tons of desperation in fear of Fujiwara getting control. Tiger was a star though. Everything he did the crowd responded to. He threw some great kicks and worked in his usual Tiger Mask style well into the match. Fujiwara was always good as always at selling or dishing out offence. ****
  7. Makai Club #1
    This was pretty cool. I know people will ignorantly try to compare this to MMA or whatever but this is very much pro-wrestling. The mat wrestling was very good with it being fast and heavy without dwindling on without much aim. They used the cage around them very well too, making it much more than just an added accessory. Riddle had some cool strikes like the Antohy Pettis kick of the cage and when Thatcher was wailing on him, he had some cool up kicks as a defensive measure. Definitely different from what you’ll usually see but kept some of the classic elements that keep it grounded. ****
  8. Makai Club #1
    This was unrelenting in pace, action and drama. It’s hard to point out who was the best out of Kawada or Kobashi in this match. Kawada brought some sublime selling to his knee which came after Kobashi did the unthinkable and attacked his knee, which he was slightly favouring upto that point. Kawada’s deadweight selling for the finish after being laid out with the rolling elbow (and two subsequent suplexes from Misawa and Kobashi) was incredible stuff. Kobashi was so great on offence whether it was on top or working from beneath. He was so compelling. Kawada and Kobashi’s exchanges were spectacular. Kawada being a dismissive prick to Kobashi, kicking him in the face in a petty way and then stepping on his face during the high angled single leg boston crab only for Kobashi to turn it around and doing the same was awesome. Taue and Kawada had some great double team work as well, working over Kobashi with their underhand tactics. Taue was quite great in this himself, as an individual. He sold the opening barrage from Kobashi and Misawa perfectly with his selling and defensive work. Later when he was snake eye-ing people, he brought some great malice in his facial expressions. Misawa worked as cover boy for Kobashi and did a great job at it. Him and Taue had their own little game in who can attack each other on the apron the most. Everyone played their roles perfectly. Easy watch that left me borderline breathless. *****
  9. Makai Club #1
    This was awesome. Osamu Nishimura’s time to shine and he takes it. Nishimura has a lot of old-timey moves - things that seem very basic on the surface - but the crowd pops for all of his signature offences, like his European Uppercuts, his Abdominal stretch into the Octopus Hold and his knee drops. Nishimura controls Takayama from the start. Takayama uses his MMA and shoot style background to good use but Nishimura counters him hold for holds which pisses off Takayama big time. Nishimura stays one step ahead of him the entire time, focusing his attacks on the leg of Takayama. I thought Takayama sold for him excellently. He was hot shit at the time with his PRIDE appearances and he made Nishimura look incredible working from beneath for him. I love how everything mattered too. Takayama had to make his moments on top last. If he spent too long on offence without putting Nishimura away, Nishimura dragged him back to the mat and worked his magic. Takayama essentially had to knock him out with 4 shots and it did just that. ****1/2
  10. Makai Club #1
    Given Kenny's history in DDT, I would imagine that there are some minor influences involved in the makings of this match. With AEW's twist on it and less comedy albeit still fairly tongue in cheek. There were some great call backs to previous matches in the build. Guevara being chased, once again, by the golf cart driven by Hardy and Kenny was awesome. Guevara parkoring his way into the stands was great, too. I dug the Hangman Page stuff. I generally prefer him when he can do stuff like this and not actually wrestle "traditional" matches. Him riding on a horse was a great visual as well as the gag with the drinking in a bar. That stuff got a laugh out of me. Somethings didn't hit though like the Northern lights suplexes, etc. The brawling was fine. Typical plunder spots spread out in a building. The magic in this match was what it all build up to. Good match ***3/4
  11. Makai Club #1
    Mascaras gets a bad reputation for being restrictive, and that's totally true, but in this case, Destoryer is equally restrictive. Neither are willing to give much up so the match is a total struggle and it's so compelling to watch. Two masters of their trade scratching and clawing their way through snug holds and stiff strikes. And when they do get more easy with each other, the high spots come off so much more grander. Mascaras' selling of the figure four hold stands out and puts over the hold perfectly. Destroyer takes advantage of that to win the final fall and the match overall. Excellent match. ****1/2
  12. Makai Club #1
    A complicated match for new viewers of Lucha. However this is a pretty good gate way for getting into lucha libre still because it captures the magic of the lucha style but does it in a slightly different style. Typical for lucha matches, this is done in a two out of three falls match. In this case, you need to pin both partners to end the fall. For example, Santo and Octagon get pinned in the first round so Los Gringos Locos win the first fall. So naturally this can be confusing if you’re not away from the rules. Apparently, this was supposed to be a singles apuestas match between Hijo del Santo and Eddie Guerrero which would’ve been the first (and presumably only) singles match between the two. That sounds pretty amazing because both are world-class wrestlers on their day but Art Barr changed Pena’s mind and got himself and Octagon put in the match. And it benefits from it because Art Barr is so hated by the crowd and his history with Blue Panther (Santo & Octagon’s second) is played off in a big way in this. The match had everything you can want in a match. Excellent tag wrestling with Los Gringos Locos working over the tecnico team, maximising their heat before Santo and Octagon worked together to overcome the double team work, at one point sending Eddie and Barr into each other which lead into a pair of expertly executed synchronized topes on the outside. The story was excellent with the tecnico team having to work their way back in falls with Gringos Locos going ahead almost always, both in the second fall and last with Octagon and Santo each getting their shining spots in those falls. Art Barr taking out Octagon with the piledriver (a banned move in Mexico) while the ref wasn’t looking was amazing. The crowd went nuts at it. And it made it so much more sweeter when Blue Panther came in and did a piledriver to him, allowing Santo to eliminate Barr from the match. It was an excellent call back to the Panther/Barr apuestas match where Barr lost his mask via dq after a piledriver, as well as it being a revenge spot for Octagon, who was being carried out on a stretcher. Santo and Eddie were the main focus of all the hot stretches of the match so naturally there was a lot of tension in the final stretch. Santo is battered and bruised and takes some nasty suplexes, including a dragon suplex on the hard canvas before Santo catches Eddie off guard and pins him with a roll up to a tremendous ovation. Viva la Mexico. ****3/4
  13. Makai Club #1
    There was some little creativity for a change done by WWE on the last PPV. After Jericho was battered in the HBK match. He entered the Championship Scramble match later in the night, was taken out most of it and snuck the win and the title at the last moments. Giving this feud more escalation that WWE likes to do with their feuds. Now the World Heavyweight title is on the line in a Ladder match. And this is easily their best match that I’ve seen between the two. In this feud or in general. One benefit this match had is that it took a step back from what the feud had been based upon upto this point. I think the last match showed that there are some severe limitations on these two when they tried to have a hate filled match, so reverting back to basics and having a traditional ladder match while keeping some elements of the feud was a totally right choice. They made great use of the ladder whether it was for Shawn’s high flying or to attack each other with it. Loved Jericho kicking the ladder that was perched in the ropes, causing it to fall and land right on Shawn’s face. Him slamming Shawn’s head in between the ladder legs was, again, a great spot. However, there were some uses of the ladder that made me roll my eyes. Any move that involves the person jumping on the ladder to hurt the person inside or beneath gets automatic hate. The Elbow off the top by Michaels did nothing to hurt Jericho while hurting himself more, same with Jericho’s lionsault to Michaels. I really hated those spots. The match got really back on track with a scary landing for Jericho when Michaels pushed Jericho off the ladder to the outside floor. Jericho really could’ve broken his leg there. The match keeps with the hits, finally having a Lance Cade interference that’s good and/or useful before a great tug of war finish. Great match. A great match between these two while doing a stipulation that suits both more than an unsanctioned match. ****
  14. Makai Club #1
    So this is the infamous match (Is it famous? I’ve never heard of it before) where Dave gave it *1/2. Naturally, I was intrigued to see if two all timers, even with their well known iffy chemistry in other matches, can have a match that bad against each other. Kenji Wakabayashi calling this match like he was watching the Masters kind of says it all. For one of the most excitable commentators of all time that lives through his passion, he was in cruise volume. Anyway, enough about Wakabayashi. This was pretty awful and I think the rating is generous. The match started off nicely with a brief flurry of elbows by Misawa and Hansen scrambling to recover quickly. Misawa then began attacking the arm - a consistent story in all Hansen/Misawa matches - and grinds the match to a halt. The energy between the two instantly goes whenever they leave their feet. When Misawa is throwing elbows with Hansen selling them or doing Hansen things, the match picks up a bit. That’s all very limited to little moments that aren’t sustained well. To make things worse, the finish is so bad and looks botched. Misawa sunset keeps Hansen down for the three, Hansen kicks out at 3.1 and attacks Misawa and looks pissed at Joe Higuchi for calling it (it’s the right choice though. Hansen messed up). I imagine that this could’ve been saved with a hot closing stretch but a pin is a pin and that’s just the end of it. The crowd booed the ending but they were understanding and still cheered Misawa’s win announcement. *
  15. Makai Club #1
    An awesome match that felt like an exhibition in that they did their signature spots in front of a new crowd to get it over but had so many great spots that it became much more than initially intended. These two always have great chemistry and this was no different. Psicosis took some wicked bumps while Rey flew around him, hitting sime crowd popping spots. ****
  16. Makai Club #1
    Liger showing up in the crowd and playing about was mega boss shit. Liger rules so much. Naniwa was the clear underdog and did what any smart man that was outmatched would do - attack Liger before the bell. There were some awesome nearfalls at the start, setting doubt in the result. We got some funny comedy first by Naniwa doing a crab walk on the ropes, only to miss the elbow and then Liger mocking a crab after. I love the blend of serious hope spots for Naniwa and comedy. It was damn entertaining and didn’t get messy at all. ***3/4
  17. Makai Club #1
    Frantic pacing whether it was Otani hitting his suplexes or the aggressive work on the leg. Ultimo Dragon was okay from working from beneath. Him not selling the tombstone was bad but he was generally good at using the crowd to get momentum for his comebacks. He hits his spots well but this was mostly Otani being a god. He was so crisp and sparky in this. Great performance from Otani. ***3/4
  18. Makai Club #1
    This was awesome. The blend of styles was done really well and they played into it well. Anjo outsmarting Tenryu when he tried to whip him in the ropes, by baseball sliding under them and pulling a smirky face was a great example of that. You don’t run the ropes in Shoot wrestling (to much success anyway). It’s another example of Anjo being a total shithead and being a total prick, in a likeable way that I loved. There was great drama in the submission holds towards the end, with the crowd totally buying them due to the great transitions into them. Anjo did a great job of getting the most drama out of the submissions as possible. Tenryu being on defence for the whole matc was a bit of a shock but I think he did a great job with it. Selling the vulnerability of being with an unconventional opponent superbly. ****
  19. Makai Club #1
    This was really good. A bit dry but the quality was there mostly. The play by play booking of the match was well executed. Akiyama got put over big, causing Misawa to pass out within the second minute and then beating Taue later. Two straight falls with Akiyama being the victor. Akiayama put in a great shift on top as well. Kobashi sold well and dished out some of his signature offence. Good match. Akiyama turning on Kobashi in the post match was great booking as well. ***1/2
  20. Makai Club #1
    First show back for the newborn UWF and it aims to end it with a great match. Yamazaki was a great underdog that goes against the ace Akira Maeda and the match was protayed that away. Yamazaki had a great counter stratagy to allowed him to look impressive at pivtaol moments. The single leg boston crab was a great dramatic moment where I thought the match could've ended. And when he sparked Maeda with two loud and stiff kicks, I thought he was done. Maeda had some great selling towards the end stretch. He looked fatigued and tired and showed it through his offence. ****1/4
  21. Makai Club #1
    The Juniors get in on the New Japan vs WAR action. Young Punk Kanemoto and nearing prime Liger against Ultimo Dragon and Orihara sounds very exciting. Liger and Ultimo keep it clean with some fun mat wrestling with the shoulder tackle, kip-up into arm wringer spots while Orihara and Kanemoto are more feisty with their offence. Kanemoto and Orihara kick out at each other and show general disrespect to each other. There were times where they went a little long to get to the next gear but the action was never boring. Orihara takes a tremendous asswhipping and sells excellently. The dives to the outside looked outstanding as did most of the fast paced closing stretch. The match ended on a real dramatic note as well with the crowd biting on all the nearfalls before Ultimo finally pinned Kanemoto with the powerbomb. Awesome match that had two great parts. The assbeating and the bombs-away finishing stretch. ****
  22. Makai Club #1
    This was a little too boring and bland for a 23 minute match. Although it did have its highlights with Kakihara having a few sparky moments of offence. Ikeda had a few moments of joy as well - I dug it when he put his foot on Asako (???) and pointed at NO FEAR's corner. **1/2
  23. Makai Club #1
    This was so goddamn entertaining from start to finish. I like the carefulness in the grappling early on. Tons of feel out and careful thought put into each step both took. Both were careful of the other’s grappling skills and it showed. Takada began throwing more kicks as he switched gears once Fujiwara got multiple advantages on the mat. He threw some wild kicks with Fujiwara barely covering up for them until he got caught with a nasty heel hook. I loved the off the cuff bouncing around and the grunts Fujiwara did, and the crowd responding to it was pretty damn cool I must say. Fujiwara’s charisma was on total show in those small things. The match got pretty great after that with more all or nothing strikes being thrown. Fujiwara caught Takada flush on the nose with a brutal shoot headbutt which got an exciting near KO. Then this turned into a battle of Takada’s strikes against Fujiwara’s matwork with Takada on the offence with some germans and head kicks before Fujiwara, the master of counter wrestling, catches Takada with a nasty toehold that’s all crooked. Awesome match. Fujiwara celebrating over a shock victory against Takada was elating. ****1/4
  24. Makai Club #1
    This was so well built. Ibushi can go extra crazy with the reckless abandonment spots but most of that was saved in favour of a focused assault on the arm of Generico. Although in classic Ibushi fashion, he almost necked himself on a deep armdrag. Generico’s selling and comebacks were really great in turn. The teasing of the brainbusters were pretty biting and some of the eventual payoffs were awesome. Great match. ****
  25. Makai Club #1
    I would think that this was a dream match at the time. The recently returned Shinzaki (from the WWF run he had at the time), co-founder of Michinoku Pro against FMW Ace, Hayabusa. There is big potential for this match so I was hoping these two would get the best out of each other. Both are big personalities and them clashing should be pretty epic. However, this was not that. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt because Hayabusa looked really hurt near the end. The knee was the clear cause of pain for him with Hayabusa favouring it and punching it in fustration multiple times. I don’t blame them for ending the match, if that was the case. But the match was pretty rough before any signs of injury showed up. Hayabusa was in control for the first half of the match with Shinzaki working from beneath and looking to make a comeback. And the work was surprisingly tepid and quite dry to watch. Hayabusa had some impressive spots but there wasn’t much glue holding them together in a compelling way. It was shockingly bad until Hayabusa injured his knee and then it got worse when Shinzaki went on offence and put him away. Unfortunate ending to what was a very good event. DUD
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