[2000-02-03-Onita Pro] Atsushi Onita & Shigeo Okumura & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa vs Kendo Nagasaki & Shoji Nakamaki & Ichiro Yaguchi (No Rope Barbed Wire Street Fight)

[soup23]

The flying pendants in the entrances in a nice touch. This has the chaotic elements that make it feel like GAEA at points but something about the visceral nature of Onita and his overall demeanor make this stuff more tolerable to me. Around Korakeun we go. A wild brawl ensues with a ton of blood, chairs, the whole drill. I must confess that within this structure it is a situation of me caring about Onita and then everyone else. The finish does end in a brutal powerbomb onto a chair and barbed wire leaving Onita and his buddies coming up empty handed. ***

[Loss]

Onita's mobbed entrance with the leather jacket and cigarette is sort of what you imagine an alternate universe would be like if Kerry Von Erich was still alive wrestling at the Sportatorium every Friday night -- older, jaded as hell and a beloved folk hero brawler. He immediately brawls outside the ring, which I can tolerate in a barbed wire match because who wouldn't try that? Onita Pro has lost some of its shine from the wildness of 1999 for me. Still a fun promotion that I love, but now it just comes across as Dreamer-Sandman-style ECW with better action and far more charisma from Onita. That makes it worth watching, but not really great. A 6-man works better than the 8-mans and 10-mans I've seen from this group in the past because the action is a bit easier to follow. This is definitely a promotion where everyone involved knows their role, as the camera pretty much stays on Onita no matter what else is happening, and when he's not there, his absence is the story. I don't have much problem with that, since his stardom sort of swallows the match whole as it is. I love the headbutt battle, probably my favorite part of the match! Even at 14 minutes, this felt a little long, but it was a good match. ***1/4

[cramerjason87]

I thought the pacing was too slow. There wasn't enough wildness for this to be entertaining. Not a good deathmatch.

[Moonsault Marvin]

These Onita Pro matches suffer from a sameness about them. The powerbomb on the chairs was cool, but that was the only thing that stood out about this one. Slightly below average.

[Tim Evans]

If this involved anyone else, I probably would not have liked it as much. However, Onita just has that charisma than I can watch him and his friends like Yaguchi even to this day. Lots of chair shots to the head especially from Nakamaki. He was the guy I was most impressed with in this match. Got a chuckle out of him doing the Stroke. Not as good as the match from January but still fun. Even Mr. Pogo gets involved.

[Edwin]

This is a worse version of the January match. The focus is obviously Onita, so no matter what happens in the ring during Onita's obnoxious walk around Korakuen Hall pulling Nakamaki by the hair, the focus will always be on Onita. Despite the chaos, this was wilder (not good way) than the January match.

 

The biggest problem with these Onita Pro main events is that they're all very similar so if you didn't like the January match, then you will most likely not like any of the other ones.