[2001-04-18-ZERO-ONE-Truth Century Creation II] Shinya Hashimoto & Tadao Yasuda vs Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue

[Phil Schneider]

Nothing I love more then a inter promotional Japanese brawl. Team NOAH is undermanned and are awesome fighting from below. Serious Inoue is great, he is such a shlub, and I love it when he steps it up and goes to war. The Yasuda experiment was a pretty huge turn of the century failure, but this was his crowning achievement, he is a great bully smacking around Inoue with sumo thrusts and chucking him to the ground. In one of the cooler moments Yasuda has Inoue mounted and Honda runs in and chucks him with his awesome german suplex. Finish was totally boss, Hashimoto is a serial killer in this, he comes in a demolishes Inoue with these brutal looking over hand chops, they have to stop the match because his shoulder is so damaged. Has everything you want in this kind of match, bad feelings, great character work and big time violence.

[Childs]

I went back and watched this and sad to say, I wasn't blown away by it. I dug the early stuff with Inoue going after Hash and Yasuda doing the sumo vs. amateur showdown against Honda. But I thought it lost steam as it went on, and the finish really fell flat. If you're going to have an angry Hash beat Inoue into a stoppage, great. Instead, the ref called the match with Yasuda lying on top of Inoue, and the crowd didn't seem to get it at all. Still thought it was a good match because Hash and Honda are awesome, but I wasn't feeling it as a MOTYC. Hash must have 100 better matches in his career, including every single tag from the WAR feud.

[superkix]

Yeah, I'm more in line with Childs here. I thought this was okay -- the stuff between Hashimoto and Inoue was easily the most interesting interactions. Honda headbutting Hashimoto was cool, and Inoue's selling was pretty great, whether it was getting punched in the throat by Yasuda or chopped down by Hashimoto. The finish sucked though.

[Makai Club #1]

Fun match but the weird finish and lack of truly quality moments keep this back for me. The Honda/Hashimoto exchanges are good and I wish we’d get more from them but there is some charm to the Inoue and Hashimoto stuff too. Inoue’s bumps are weird for Hashimoto’s strikes but I wouldn’t expect anything different from him. Yasuda’s involvement was harmless despite his poor reputation as a worker. The match was perfectly watchable, and could be described as a solid semi main event involving one big star and 3 moderately popular acts. ***

[Chess Knight]

Pretty subdued Hashimoto performance. When he wasn't chopping or kicking it almost looked like he was just waiting for his opponent to do something. He and Honda almost came to blows before the match begun, so their initial show down should have felt big. Alas, Honda comes in to interfere while Hashimoto and Inoue are squaring off, leading to it feeling like I'd lost a sneeze. If Honda was gonna rush in then, at least let the match totally go to bonkers city. They did do a great little tentative dance around each other when actually both legal, but didn't have too memorable an exchange. Honestly, I can say that about the whole match. It had highlights, was enjoyable enough, I was excited to see more 2001 Honda, especially opposite Hashimoto, but didn't deliver anything close to greatness. Didn't help the finish was total trash, I have no idea what even happened. Yasuda had this semi-limp leg lock on (he even let one of his arms go and looked away at one point), and the ref just called for the bell. Inoue submitted? I don't want to make it sound as if this is a bad overall match, but I'd be disappointed if this isn't the worst of inter-promotional Hashimoto. Surprised, too, actually.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Shinya Hashimoto & Tadao Yasuda vs Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue - Zero-One 4/18/01

HONDA VS YASUDA~! Exists! Yasuda is pretty bitchin’ on a normal day but this might have been his best individual performance of all time. He was out there trucking fools! This is when Zero-One was feuding with NOAH for two shows before slumming it with Tom Howard & UPW, 

Yasuda bull rushes Honda into the corner twice. Second time Honda hooks in a Guillotine Choke. This felt electric! Hashimoto and Inoue goes as you expect with Hashimoto chopping him down with the edge of his hand. Honda attacks and this allows Inoue to get his Torture Rack but he can’t hold it. Hashimoto vs Honda rocks. Hashimoto beats him down with kicks but Honda rallies with sick headbutts. I was like this is such a DVDVR/Segunda Caida match and I’m glad Phil loves this. YASUDA COMES IN AND BURNS THE HOUSE DOWN! HE TRUCKS HONDA! He hits him so hard he loses control of him and he tags out. Yasuda uses Sumo Slaps on Inoue to set up Butterfly Suplex. Ground & Pound! Honda rips him off with a GERMAN! OH FUCK YEAH! Hashimoto tags in and pummels Inoue and does that weird inverted Triangle. Finish was anti-climatic. Yasuda comes in to deliver more pain but kinda pauses and all of sudden the ref calls the match off.

Was that the planned finish? Didn’t look like Inoue hurt his shoulder? I think this was to showcase Hashimoto The Destroyer but they kinda hung Yasuda out to dry and leg to a confusing finish. Should have just had Inoue tap out. Finish sucked but the rest of the match rocked! Yasuda ruled! Honda’s German was what I was here for wish it went longer. ***