[2000-02-10-Toryumon] Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda vs MAKOTO & TARU

[soup23]

There is something delightful watching this match where 3 out of the 4 competitors are in the same faction at this very moment in 2017. I struggled with this one more than the other Toryumon stuff because I think the personalities of these guys weren’t there as compared to the likes of CIMA, Fuji and Masaaki Mochizuki. The other issue I have here is this seems like a heel vs. heel matchup. I ge that Susumu and Kanda are playing a loner type gimmick but it failed to really convey that too effectively and this by the end just felt like decent to good juniors wrestling instead of the great action and storyline development I have become used to. They can’t all be hits. **3/4

[Loss]

I think I liked this a bit more than you did. I loved how the match just built and built and built. They brawled in their ring jackets to start before settling into a heel-dominated and more calm tag back in the ring. It wasn't the match I expected to see at all, as they stuck almost entirely to fundamentals, with MAKOTO and TARU taking on the heel role and hiding the piece of cloth, whatever it was, that they were using to choke out whoever was FIP -- not entirely sure who was Mochizuki and who was Kanda. The crowd was pretty dead for most of it, but they mostly worked a conventional Southern tag, which it takes pretty bad workers to completely screw up, I thought the work was solid and I also thought it was pretty cool that unless I missed it, no one even attempted to go to the top rope until halfway through the match. And Mochizuki and Kanda winning felt really earned because they took such a beating and MAKOTO and TARU were put over so strong, so they had to fight back pretty hard to get the victory. ***1/2

[cramerjason87]

Basic junior tag match. Very similar to what NJPW was doing in opening matches in their junior division. Looking forward to seeing how Toryumon differentiates themselves over time.

[Moonsault Marvin]

This one needed more selling and more places to breathe. None of these guys really imparted any sense of character, so this one ended up being on the boring side.

[TravJ1979]

Guy in blue with the bad ass top rope elbow is Kanda. Blonde guy is Mochizuki.

[grendel]

Pretty decent match. For some reason I always struggle with Toryumon style wrestling. Some matches are awesome, and others just don't make sense. But you can't deny these guys can wrestle. Better luck next time.

[Edwin]

MAKOTO is a guy I prefer when he's the masked heel Darkness Dragon, TARU is someone I'm not too high on and prefer as a second who interferes in favor of Crazy MAX, attacks cameraman's and refs. or working multi man matches. However, Kanda and Susumu are guys I really like, but at this point Kanda was still working on discovering his personality as this was before M2K was formed.

 

This was really weird. They're both heel tag teams working against each other and it doesn't provide an ideal setting. This felt more like a straight up Jr.'s tag from Osaka Pro than the awesome Toryumon's trios we got in the previous month. This also went on 5 or so too many minutes.

 

Despite being a bit underwhelming, I would rank this Toryumon tag beneath the previous CIMA & Fuji vs. Mochi & Chocoball tag match from the same month.