[2000-01-02-BJW-New Year's Great Series] Ryuji Yamakawa vs Tomoaki Honma (Nail & Barbed Wire Double Board Death)

[Stiva]

I ended up being disappointed by this which was unfortunate. Largely for two reasons; it went too long, I'd say and, despite the big spots landing great, the hurricanrana to the outside kind of felt like the move that should finish a guy off, or at least lead into the finish from there. And the crowd brawling was pretty terrible; it was the old "guys walk through crowd holding the others head" with very little in the way of intensity or, you know brawling. Looking at Honma as a WOTD candidate, I did think both guys were good here, despite my criticisms, and Honma had some great moments. His selling of the suplex in the crowd was fantastic and the plancha over the boards was beautiful but the match, as a whole, just didn't really click for me.

[drew wardlaw]

Ive heard people say this is the best BJW match ever up to this point. Im not sure I would agree just because of the sheer madness and spectacle of some of the earlier stuff with Mr. Danger and company kind of goes beyond match quality imo, but Yamakawa and Honma definitely represented the new generation of death match fighters and would help transition the company into the new millennium. Faster paced, more based in wrestling, more thoughtful if I could use that term. As well see this is all confounded by the CZW relationship but thats a whole separate deal.

[Edwin]

I haven't watched this match in 10 or so years, but re-watching this now and it really wasn't the all-time classic greatest death match of all-time that it's always been made out to be. I haven't watched the Yuko Miyamoto vs. Takashi Sasaki nutty death match from 4-5 years after this, but I really loved that match back then. Not sure how it holds up to though as I haven't seen that in about 10 or years either.

 

With that said, this was still pretty good. I agree with the sentiment that the crowd brawling was way to extensive and didn't really lead to anything memorable, nor did it provide anything noteworthy. I also felt this was 5 minutes too long. Had they cut out the extensive walk around Korakuen Hall, this would have been far better.

 

Despite the flaws in this, this was still better than the CZW junk we saw this month with Ian Rotten and Mad Man Pondo carving themselves with scissors for the sake of it and this is also far better than the majority of death matches you will see in the U.S.

 

The refs. putting over Honma planting Yamakawa through the barb wire board on the outside was a nice touch. The finish was also quite neat as they relied less on the use of weapons and more on the sole fatigue and damage they had already endured.

 

Overall I felt this was a decent-to-good match.

 

***

[ohheylook]

Idk yall, I fuckin loved this. It lacks the intensity and sheer in your face gore that death matches have nowadays, and it lacks the bombast of something laid out by Onita, but this is like ideal wrestling to me.

 

I agree to all who say Honma is amazing in 2000 and here in particular. He feels like such a star and has this charisma that I think a lot of people today actually lack. He is an amazing athlete at this stage too, which helps his case.

 

The match doesnt have anything that changed the game, but for what it is and having seen very little of this style at this time period, I just really really liked this.

 

4/5

[tbrett]

First time watching this match, I remember hearing about it a long time ago as the best Death Match ever. I really liked the opening interchange with the barbed wire boards, Homna's flip off the board was awesome. I felt like Honma was clearly the better wrestler.

 

Overall I would say this is a good Death Match but not the best ever, I think I like their 1999 matchup better if my memory serves me right.

 

***1/4

[jiraffejustin]

I'll start with what I like about this match since it isn't a whole lot: Yamakawa's entrance is pretty great, Honma's sitout tombstone was nice, and this one is more a general observation about Japanese wrestling, I like their chairs more than the WWE chairs. I don't know why I had that thought in this match, but it popped into my head. Anyway, this matched was totally ruined for me when they walked all the way out of the arena into the hallway, through the hallway, back into the arena, and Honma had his head kinda pushed into a sign a few times. I don't like that level of cooperation. I don't need my matches to all look like real fights, but I have a problem with suspension of disbelief when things reach that level of disregard for a struggle. Honma had a moment where he reached out to catch Yamakawa for the rana setup off the top rope a little early once too, and it's little things like that that can put me off too. After those moments, I just have a hard time caring about what I am seeing anymore. Nothing was done after that that brought me back into the fold.

[klhare]

Older Big Japan is an area I've never explored very much and is something that I am really excited to watch more of. I can say the same about deathmatch-era Honma as well.

 

Right away, Honma counters an Irish Whip into the corner by flipping off of the board, and I am PUMPED. I watch a decent amount of current deathmatch stuff and am not sure I've ever seen anyone do that. It is brilliant. It is really interesting to compare Honma here to him in 2010. His charisma shines threw in both eras, but it feels a lot different here. It's not as cartoony. The crowd brawling through the hallways was cool, but once they return it plods a little. But Honma comes back and hits a huge dive to the outside. I've never seen any Yamakawa before, but he hasn't really engaged me at all up to this point. I don't think he is bad or anything but he doesn't have the charisma to really get over the struggle and brutality that the best deathmatch guys have. Still, he's is able to make Honma look good, which is a plus. Honma getting Yamakawa up for a powerbomb but then spiking him backwards through the barbed wire board was great. The Yamakawa bump from the hurricanrana off of the top through the board on the outside looked brutal.

 

This basically resorts to the basic deathmatch formula of back and forth bomb throwing while building up to big spots. It's a good match that never got to the next level for me. I'm excited to see a lot more Honma/BJW from this era going forward. I'm really interested to see how the deathmatch style evolved after moving on from FMW.

 

***1/2

[ohtani's jacket]

This was cool. Death matches aren't my thing. You know I'd rather watch Lou Thesz work a headlock for an hour than watch a death match, but I thought this was a cool title match. Sure, the crowd brawling was shitty, but it was 2000... everybody was doing shitty crowd brawling in 2000. You need to write that shit off and not let it bug you so much. I liked these guys and liked the effort they put in. Maybe I'm in a good mood because I think it's great that Yamakawa uses Journey as his entrance music but nothing about the bout felt convoluted. It flowed pretty well and the setup to the board spots was okay. There was a bit of wrestling here and there and some decent selling. Other people may have been expecting a classic but for a guy like me who is predisposed toward disliking this type of match, it wasn't bad. Not bad at all. 

[Pterois]

Cool match. I also like these guys and the effort they put in. Honma was a good seller here. The fact that they went a lot outside of the ring didn't bother me. I guess I'm lucky, my suspension of disbelief has been kept.