Obscure Japanese 90s Indies (Yume Factory, W*ING, KAGEKI, IWA Japan, Capture etc.)

[Troy]

Still gonna post thoughts when I get a chance but one quick comment I'd like to make about W*ING. Their fans were really into it

[G. Badger]

Still gonna post thoughts when I get a chance but one quick comment I'd like to make about W*ING. Their fans were really into it

I agree wholeheartedly! Its really clear that they were having a blast. I can't believe people brought their kids! Looking forward to your W*ING box set thoughts

[G. Badger]

Scramble Bunkhouse Captain Fall Elimination 10 Man Tag Match: Freddy Krueger & Jado & Gedo & Invader II & & Invader IV vs. Crash The Terminator & Shoji Nakamaki & Masayoshi Motegi & Nobutaka Araya & Fukumen Taro - W*ING 8/25/93

 

Fantastic match, is listed in the Supplemental Viewing folder for '93.

 

For IWA Japan, found Silver King vs Texano from '94. 5/23/94, Cagematch is showing it as a very early show...perhaps the 3rd and looks to be the first tape they released. It is a highly recommended match. Lucharesu style, Los Cowboys stiffing the heck out of each other, nice sequences, a match like this I would think to see in Michinoku Pro. Interestingly, also on this show is Dick Murdoch vs Motegi might have to track that puppy down.

[Peppercorn Bing Bong]

Decided to watch a W*ING show that was up on Youtube after browsing this thread.

 

W*ING Odawara Blazing Night 10/31/93

 

Zuleyma vs Jannet

Unfortunately this appears to be just clips. I liked what was shown from Jannet though. She seemed like she wasn't afraid to take some nasty bumps, including doing a dropkick off the apron. She also took some nasty tosses through the first couple rows of chairs. Zuleyma takes the win after a nice powerbomb and a running tombstone piledriver. Would have definitely liked to have seen that match in full.

 

Ryo Miyake vs. Dale "The Kangaroo" Storen

I take it Storen must be a shoot guy, based on his offense of trying to get Miyake with takedowns. Doesn't really work though. Miyake taps Storen quickly with a cross armbar. Storen wasn't very impressive and I guess I just don't really see the point in this.

 

Masahiko Takasugi vs. Hideo Takayama

Takayama is a young Bad Boy Hido. More clipping. Ugh. Hate that shit. You can tell Hido is a rookie as his offense isn't too convincing. Takasugi on the other hand definitely lays in his strikes nicely. Hido takes some particularly brutal kicks and knees in this, and a nasty lariat. Takasugi seems kind of random when he's in control though. Like he wastes Hido with a lariat and a big back suplex...then goes outside to grab a chair to choke Hido with it. Then he piledrives him on the chair and locks in a half crab. Takasugi eventually takes it with an octopus stretch. Entertaining squash, Hido definitely needed work on some of his fundamentals at this point.

 

Nobutaka Araya vs. Tarou Fukumen

More clips. Doesn't look like it has affected this match much. Looked pretty blah. Araya wins it after a powerbomb and moonsault.

 

Team W*ING (Masayoshi Motegi and The Winger) vs. Team SPWF (Shinichi Nakano and Shouichi Nabuyama)

Another clipped match, goddamn it. This starts out really hot with Team SPWF and Motegi just smacking the shit out of each other. Nakano and Motegi play the team leader roles in this match. Whenever those two are in the ring they just beat each other up. Nakano in particular brings a real intensity to this, he actually looks like he's really mad. Nabuyama is pretty good as the face in peril, Winger wrecks him with numerous suplexes and Team W*ING stretch him out with a cool double team STF. A strange finish, as Nabuyama never gets the hot tag and Winger pins him with a German Suplex. Looked to be pretty good, but again I wish the clipping in every match thing would stop.

 

Barbed Wire Baseball Bat Match: Leather Face vs. Freddy Krueger

I always love how the Japanese fans run away and scatter whenever these horror movie characters come out to have a match. Leather Face is Rick Patterson. Freddy is Doug Gilbert. Crowd is super hot for this match. The beginning moments are the two brawling throughout the crowd, fans scattering everywhere and rows of chairs being knocked down. Leather hits a huge moonsault to the outside onto Freddy, looked awesome seeing such a big dude nail it so clean. It's crazy to see how over with the crowd Leather Face is. The crowd pop huge for him whenever he gets on offense. Not too much use of the bat in this one. In a neat table spot, Freddy piledrives Leather onto it without it being set up. Leather returns the favor with a two powerbombs onto the unset-up table to get the win. Surprisingly entertaining due to the hot crowd. Probably the best night of Rick Patterson's career, he had the whole crowd chanting for him after the match...that is, until Freddy and his manager attack him with a bat with nails through it.

 

Scramble Fire Bunkhouse Death Match: Yukihiro Kanemura and Shoji Nakamaki vs. Gedo and Jado

A rather infamous match. There are torches surrounding the ring and the ropes have been replaced with barbed wire. Shit is crazy from the go as Jado and Kanemura have a duel with a torch and a chair outside the ring. Kanemura sets his arm on fire and clotheslines Jado! Jesus. Kanemura then dives over the fire to land on Jado outside the ring. What a nut. Not much action on the inside of the ring in this one. I don't think there was really much that they could do without getting burnt. The ring looks really slippery too. Very noticeable when Gedo or Nakamaki are trying to go for powerbombs and they lose their balance. Kanemura gets powerbombed onto a torch and is IMMEDIATELY engulfed in flames. The ref rings the bell as the ring crew frantically puts Kanemura out. What a fucking insane spectacle. Kanemura definitely established himself as one of the craziest hardcore wrestlers, that's for sure. Kanemura gets up after having buckets of water poured on him and you can see his charred up back. Wow.

 

Verdict: Mixed. I really like the presentation of this. W*ING was definitely doing ECW before ECW. The matches all had a bit of wild brawling thrown in them, but the matches are all different. Just on this show there was a women's lucha match, a faux shoot style match, a squash where an older wrestler beats up a young one, a heated inter-promotional tag match, and two crazy deathmatches to end the show. However, I would have to say the biggest gripe for me would be the clipping in the first five matches. Would have loved to see the full matches for Zuleyma vs. Jannet and Team W*ING vs. Team SPWF. But I could see myself watching more of these shows, at a breezy hour run time who wouldn't want to?

[G. Badger]

The shorter match times have been a real boon when going through what's available online. If you've got 15 minutes somewhere, fill it with a W*ING or IWA-J match

 

I do honestly think the clipping is a plus for most of their shows. I'd like think that most of what is clipped is Muta like stalling or an arbitrary Boston Crab or two.

 

With that being said, gonna have to check the last 3 matches of the Blazing Night show. Gotta see the Leather Face moonsault!

 

So, I watched 2 Murdoch in the sleazies matches. In IWA Japan vs Motegi: This was pretty darn good stuff. Technical bout with nice kicks and arm work by Motegi. Dude stayed focused like a laser on Dick's arm. Everyone was buying that pain. Murdoch was no slouch either finding escapes out of holds and pounding the life out of Motegi when he could. High recommendation.

 

Then, there's Dick vs Matsunaga in W*ING '92. This is more karate vs wrestler than, brawling which is what I was expecting. This was clipped but, again I didn't see any fault in that. Both guys really laid it in...moreseo Murdoch. For every 5 Mr. Danger kicks to the arm & body Capt. Redneck elbowed straight down to the face. Yup, this was good stuff.

[Bierschwale]

Perez is one of the most entertaining workers of the '90s. Obscenely versatile.

[G. Badger]

On the topic of Perez Jr. & clipping, The Iceman vs Miguel Perez Jr. from 2-92. Man oh man! We only get clips of this match the worst fact is that all of a sudden both guys are covered in blood. Come on W*ING! If anyone knows of a full or even less clipped version that'd be awesome. Perhaps a W*ING holy grail, if there is such a thing

 

Also Perez vs Kanemura from 9-92 is out there at 2+ minutes :/ looks awesome too

[G. Badger]

Elimination Match Puerto Rico vs. W*ING: Mr. Pogo & Super Invader & The Headhunters vs. Jason the Terrible, Masaru Toi, Hiroshi Shimada & Mitsuteru Tokuda from 6/92...this was a really great Korakuen multi-man match and pretty straight for a W*ING match. Super Invader did 3 dives in a row, Toi, Shimada & Tokuda brought the wrestling to the wing-ring, Kanemura was at ringside but couldn't help but get involved as well as a surprise W*ING hero. Oh eliminations can come from getting thrown over the top rope. Surprisingly, shown in full so watch this puppy. Its hard to go wrong with these type of matches in the sleazies...

 

Plan to see if W*ING vs. PUERTO RICO All-out War 2/5/93 is available too.

[G. Badger]

Branching out to include Onita Pro into the mix. Its got the right mix of old timers, guys that have been thru the ringer, friends of the promoter, and young guys who get beat up by the aforementioned groups. Not sure if there's any random westerners though hmm...Dr. Luther & Dr. Hannibal probably are.

 

Tested the waters with two that should be good:

 

Masanobu Kurisu vs Kengo Takai 6/22/99 - ha! Watch Curly Sue beat the ever loving crap out of Kengo. Watch Kengo piss off Curly Sue by trying his move against him (the headbutt) and get his head stomped like a empty beer can.

 

Onita & Masato Tanaka vs Wing Kanemura & Shoji Nakamaki 1999 - Video says '99 but cannot find a show from Cagematch or Quebrada (edit: found an Onita '99 comp that says this is 03/07/99) Nonetheless, its a pretty good clipped barbwire romp. Not enough Tanaka for me though and Kanemura certainly has seen better days. Speaking of better days, with sarcasm aside, Nakamaki has never gotten this much offense...let alone have it look this good! Best Nak offense day ever.

 

Definitely gonna check some more of this stuff out, I know there's a hidden gem in there somewhere!

[G. Badger]

From what I can tell the big Onita Pro matches are clipped or at least the ones online are...so what the heck let's jump in and get possiblythe most clipped one...Onita & Masaji Aoyagi & Katsuji Ueda v Sambo Asako & Shooter #1 & Fake Onita from 9/29/99. This is 2 and a half minutes of "what the hell am I watching!?" Starts out good with some nice Onita punches to his imposter, jumps in time then, we get Shooter #1 (?) seemingly shooting on Ueda (in boxing gloves) on the floor, and then Aoyagi trying to spinning heel kick Fake Onita in the face. Wisely, oh so wisely, the young man doomed to be a fake Atsushi Onita turns and sells it too soon to save getting blasted. Again, I say wisely because he probably got $50 for the show. They do this 3 or so more times because Aoyagi isn't happy with it. And in his defense, the first looks like shit but man, they keep going for it yet it cannot be saved. Its the Hindenburg of finishes.

 

Its a couple minutes, go watch this

[G. Badger]

Grisly, insane, clipped. That's the best summary in a nutshell for Onita & Sambo Asako & Shigeo Okamura vs Tenyru & Nakamaki & Ichiro Yaguchi (No Rope Barbed Wire) 5/13/99.

 

Its 8 minutes of a 16 minute match from what I can tell was Onita Pro's first show. Why was this clipped!? Its a shame because the pace is frenetic, guys are getting tossed into the wire, the blood is flowing, Tenryu & Onita are toe to toe...sounds like a match you wanna feature...

 

No matter, watch for Sambo's tope of sorts and stick around for Onita getting wrapped in the wire and nearly blinding Yaguchi in the closing minutes. This is the crazy stuff I was looking for!

 

Going to see if the other Onita-Tenryu multi-man encounters can beat this one...

 

Edit: OK so I watched the 2nd match in the series since I was psyched on the first. Onita, Okamura, Asako & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa vs Tenryu, Nakamaki, Yaguchi & Hiroshi Ono in a barbwire rope and board match. 6/27/99 in Mr. Onita's Punch and Blood wrestling group, internationale.

 

Man...this might be a good as the first. Only 5 minutes chopped out and Tenryu wrestles in a dress shirt and pants. I kid you not! He starts out with a tie as well but, I guess he figured it was more of a business-casual event. Nonetheless, he was still the boss. The man monkey flipped an Onita dude from the ring to the floor onto a barb wire board! Also, think that he later threw another board (wire side down) onto a group of ringside Onita fans! Like here you punks go! Yay Onita this! *faces covered in barb wire*...brutal Tenryu...brutal.

[G. Badger]

Just finished the blow off to the Tenryu & co. vs Onita Pro feud from '99. Quebrada has the title of the match as No Rope Yuushitessen (barbed wire) Skapegoat Hell Barricade Mat Street Fight Tornado 8 Man Tag Death Match. Man, that screams Onita melodrama!

 

So its: Onita, Takagi, Asako & Kikuzawa vs. Tenryu, Nakamaki, Yaguchi & Hiroshi Ono from 8/22/99 and in simpler terms a C4 barb wire match. Half was clipped out so, I don't know if that was good or bad. The action wasn't as explosive as the previous matches which I feel was the result of the gimmick limiting movement. Still, it was a blast to watch!

 

All puns intended

 

Tenryu does make 1 last appearance with Onita in '99 so might as well check that out too...

[G. Badger]

Back to the basics, IWA Japan - The Headhunters vs Shoji Nakamaki & Hiroshi Ono 10/16/94. You can't go wrong with the 'hunters! They're bloodthirsty twin Vaders...stiff, going off the top rope, and willing to take their shots.

 

For instance, in the first minute a Headhunter takes a tandem clothesline to the mouth, a sandwich clothesline, and a big ol' Nakamaki headbutt. Really, watch this for the bros. destroy Nak & Ono and man, do they ever! The finish and post match is vicious. A nice barbwire and glass romp.

[G. Badger]

Finished IWA Japan's contribution to the 4/2/95 super show in the Dome. Despite the setting limiting their brawling and the hype level of the fans, this was pretty good.

 

Again, the Headhunters were tons of fun on offense even doing some turnbuckle to ramp stuff. I've never been more excited to see Leatherface with his chainsaw...it actually looked good here...um what else??? Foley and Funk were very good esp. once the Funkster got his 2nd wind. Yeah...it was pretty good, not awesome as it went longer than it needed to but, I'd recommend it. Oh Yeah! Nakamaki did nothing but bleed, get demolished, scream, and win the match. Nakamaki fans rejoice

[Peppercorn Bing Bong]

Finished IWA Japan's contribution to the 4/2/95 super show in the Dome. Despite the setting limiting their brawling and the hype level of the fans, this was pretty good.

 

Again, the Headhunters were tons of fun on offense even doing some turnbuckle to ramp stuff. I've never been more excited to see Leatherface with his chainsaw...it actually looked good here...um what else??? Foley and Funk were very good esp. once the Funkster got his 2nd wind. Yeah...it was pretty good, not awesome as it went longer than it needed to but, I'd recommend it. Oh Yeah! Nakamaki did nothing but bleed, get demolished, scream, and win the match. Nakamaki fans rejoice

 

The thing I remember most about this match is that insane Steiner Bulldog that Nakamaki takes outside the ring. What a nutjob.

[G. Badger]

So, I started watching Kabuki & Matsuda vs Ishikawa & Okumura in an IWA vs Tokyo Pro chain match. Ugh...I just couldn't do it. I skipped around hoping it'd get better but, whew! This stunk!

 

Ishikawa vs Kabuki though...so I found IWA Japan - (Glass Crush) Matsuda, Yamada & Kabuki vs Ishikawa, Okamura & Kawabata - 2/2/97. Shit...that's what I'm talking about.

 

...but this was just OK. 'Buki & Ishi were too past their prime and the other guys too young for this to be good. Ishikawa came out in Mr. Pogo paint and tee & jeans. It was fun watching Leatherface pop up in the background during the backstage brawling...like some kind of macabre Where's Waldo? But really, it meandered until Yamada went through the 2nd glass box. He got cut bad as he went hands first and was freaking from the look on his face. Couple more minutes of decent action and it wraps up.

 

Man...bummed :\

[G. Badger]

I have high hopes for Tokyo Pro. Not really based off the IWA Japan matches but, from some of the random talent they've got on their cards. So, to start I picked Abdullah the Butcher & Daikokubo Benkei (who?) v Original Tiger Mask & Yoji Anjoh from 8/25 & 9/15/96, both jip.

 

First off Benkei looks like he'd be a cool guy to play as on the old blocky WCW video games. Big, bald and he's got a gi on. However, he does not make with the martial arts...unless a power slam is judo of some sort :\

 

He's a bigger dude and older so, pairing him with Abby makes sense from a similarity standpoint. But uh...kinda sucks from an fast heated action one. Nevertheless, Anjoh kicks the crap out of them (seriously Abdullah takes knees to the head and hard kicks to the Sudanese man-boobs), Tiger monkey flips the Butcher and they do their best to put on a fun match or two.

 

Its hard to get too excited as these are two really jip'd matches so it seemed like a 2/3 falls match while writing this. And its not bad...I wish there was a 3rd one as they were starting to click.

 

Good lead in to Tokyo Pro. Nothing deceptively awesome and nothing mortifyingly awful...

[G. Badger]

Tokyo Pro - Russian Roulette Handkerchief Death Match: Mr. Pogo vs. Takashi Ishikawa from 2/96.

 

OK I'm disappointed. This had fair reason to be pretty good even without the Deer Hunter possibility. Kidding!

 

No, really I had no idea what to expect. Ishikawa was dressed like anti-Pogo but nothing interesting happened until the carpentry tools were brought out. No clue what the stipulation was about. Not looking good for my brief exploration into TPW.

 

There looks to be some Sabu matches however, so there's something to look forward to yet!

[Tabe]

You haven't lived until you've watched the crapfest that is Abdullah vs Nobuhiko Takada for Tokyo Pro...

[G. Badger]

You haven't lived until you've watched the crapfest that is Abdullah vs Nobuhiko Takada for Tokyo Pro...

Thanks for the recommendation! I'm a fan of both guys but certainly know they have some faults. Surprisingly, neither set of problems came out too bad. Both were very professional...to a fault. They did 6 minutes of Abby choking Takada in some form, teased the fork then, 2 minutes of Takada laying in nice kicks. Kickout, more kicks, Pin, Bob's your uncle, we're done! Hahaha!

 

It was neat but, yeah craptastic. They could have tried for some kind of story but, ego was involved I'm sure. Still, really cool that it happened A good novelty match for sure.

 

I think that there's an Abby vs Sabu match from TPW...that might be my next match...there's bound to be blood

[Tabe]

My favorite part of Abby/Takada is that Takada clearly has no desire to actually make contact with Abdullah. So he barely touches him during the pin, for instance.

[Jetlag]

I watched the W*ING 1/2/94 show (Handheld). Or, the last 3 matches, because only those were filmed. If you come across a pro-shot version of this show, grab it, because even the nearly unwatchable handhelf stuff was really fun.

 

Crypt Keeper & Nightmare Freddy vs. Jason the Terrible & Shoji Nakamaki

- this was a tornado tag and some of the best stuff I've seen from the horror creatures. That doesn't say much, but the layout was right, as Keeper & Freddy were the heels beating down on the faces, while Jason & Nakamaki were your charismatic babyfaces bleeding, being charismatic and making fun comebacks. Keeper was really spry here, doing a flip entrance to the ring and then landing huge boots to people's faces like he was Kawada or something. I feel like a hypocrite for it, but Jason is really fun to doing his Undertaker stuff and hitting absurd spin kicks.

 

Shinichi Nakano vs. The Winger

- post-SWS Nakano matches are rare as hen's teeth, which is awful because he is such an interesting worker, as his basic technical stuff looks tough as nails, and then he will stand up and kick you in the kidney. This was an extremely basic juniors match (that was half missed by the camera guy) where Winger added nothing, but was still a decent Nakano carryjob. Nakano made Winger struggle for everything, and at one point popped Winger straight in the mouth with a huge punch and then proceeded to stomp and kneedrop the back of his head as if trying to give him brain damage. Japanese sleazy unprofessionality at it's best.

 

Head Hunters vs. Jado & Gedo

- this was pretty much a sprint and made me think the Headhunters might be one of the most underrated tag teams ever. This was not just funny sleazy pro wrestling, it was basically like a Twin Towers vs. Rockers match, except far seedier, blood-drenched and violent. Headhunters were absolutely pasting the Twins with chairshots, powerbombs and their combined FATNESS, and I loved every second of it. Meanwhile Jado/Gedo were hitting superkicks and flying around, and the Headhunters did a really good job setting themselves up for their offense and bumping around like huge bowling pins. Also, the guy operating the camera finally gets his shit together and we get a full picture of this match. The only bummer was that the camera missed a huge Headhunter dive outside the ring. Watching this grainy footage zooming in on a Headhunter rampaging about in the stands of Korakuen Hall felt kinda like a found footage monster movie. The finish - a giant Headhunter moonsault - was one of the most ridiculous spots I've ever seen as the poor little japanese guy lying in the middle of the ring basically disappeared underneath as this giant fat dude splashed into the ring like free willy. Fantastic match

[Jetlag]

Let's make this a gauntlet of random 90s indies, shall we?

 

I watched : Kitao Pro 6/14/94 - Koji Kitao's fed. They have a drum instead of a bell!

 

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Yuji Yasuraoka

 

AND – this was one of the best rookie vs. Rookie opening matches I've ever seen – and really the perfect opening match for this kind of fed: fast, short, brutal, to the point, and with purpose – as the audience was dying to see young Mochi make a dent and topple the slightly more experienced Yasuraoka. This match also shows how good Yasuraoka could be when he wasn't stuck in a spotfest with Lance fucking Storm, simply by not backing down from reckless kicker Mochizuki. Yasuraoka absorbing Mochi's opening barrage, creating an opening with a big headbutt and then downing Mochi with a huge slap was such a simple, but badass sequence. Both guys came across as aggressive, fast moving, and willing to bite a face off when necessary. Neither of them were afraid to get nuked with huge suplexes either, and did I mention Mochi recklessly kicks the shit out of Yasuraoka anyways? This was a bonafide sub 5 minute war.

Masanobu Kurisu vs. Takashi Okamura

 

YEAH~~! I cannot express how perfect Kurisu is on this card. Okamura is the next ultra-green reckless kicker from Kitao's Dojo and nowhere near as on-point as Mochizuki. This goes exactly how you imagine it to go from how it looks on paper: Okamura recklessly kicking Kurisu in the face a bunch of times, and Kurisu Kurisu'ing the fuck out Okamura. Because this fed is quasi-shootstyle, there's no brawling or chairs, so instead Kurisu mainly focusses on stomping and headbutting Okamura into a coma. Kurisu has about the most god awful stomps on film, as he puts the boots to Okamura's head, ears, and neck. To make things worse, Okamura even increases the trainwreck potential by blowing stuff and even trying a spin kick from the second rope. It eventually resolves into Kurisu almost popping Okamura's knee with a twisted Single Leg Crab. This match was ugly, grotesque, primitive, and fun as hell.

 

Akio Kobayashi vs. Nobukazu Hirai

 

Eh, this was alright too. Kobayashi is the least of the green kickers so far, but Hirai has nice suplexes.

 

Koki Kitahara vs. JR Carson

 

Okay, SOMEONE has to be able to tell me what the deal with the US guys on this card is. JR Carson is one of the most strip club bouncer looking wrestlers I've ever seen, and he seems to have no shoot ability whatsoever. Altough his pro style offense is admittedly pretty nice looking, but what do ya know, Kitahara kills him off very fast with a nasty neck crank because Koki Kitahara has no chill. And this leads us to...

 

Koki Kitahara vs. Akio Kobayashi

 

I liked that Kobayashi seemed to target Kitahara's weak spot that Carson softened up in the previous match. Kitahara actually sells a good deal for Kobayashi and this was about as good as a 4 minute match you can have with a dude as limited as Kobayashi.

 

James Magnum vs. Koji Kitao

 

WHO IS JAMES MAGNUM?? Magnum looks like Randy the Ram and I love him and the bullseye he has on his butt. They totally missed out not showing Randy the Ram getting KO'd in a 90s primitive MMA fight in that movie. Magnum pussies into the corner, to start but blindsides Kitao with a huge forearm to the eye and looks in a quasi stretch plum. Kitao NUKES him with a Uranage, but Magnum says fuck YOU and headbutts him in the jaw! Magnum follows with some more awesome headbutts holding Kitao's pants, but eats a knee to the face before Kitao cripples him with a series of low kicks. Awesome squash match.

 

Al Snow vs. Koji Kitao

 

Yeah, Al Snow. Snow says before the match that he's been watching Godzilla movies to prepare for this match. Snow looks jobber as hell, but makes the most of this match, acting like a shootstylist and hitting a huge palm rush and gigantic suplex on Kitao before he gets kicked in the eye and dropped with one of the most brutal piledrivers I've ever seen. Snow actually beats the count after almost getting Chono'd but squash monster Kitao immediately finishes him off with a choke. Al Snow, you gave your best.

[Jetlag]

Next up is: NSPW 9/24/1994. NSPW was a shootstyle indy that went for serious fighting ala UWFi. Now that's something you don't see everyday. That is just me guessing, because I can't find any mention of this fed anywhere, not even on the japanese wiki.

 

Card:

Hiroshi Osuma vs. Katsumi Hirano

Yukimasa Yokota vs. Shingo Shigeta

Takashi Hara vs. Masamitsu Kochi

Yoshiro Ito vs. Keisuke Yamada

Koichiro Kimura vs. Fumio Akiyama

Ricky Fuyuki/Jado/Gedo vs. Hiroshi Itakura/Hideo Takayama/Ichiro Yaguchi

 

Most of the fights were too clipped up to be assessed, but the fighters looked polished and worked plenty stiff, with Shigeta taking a pretty brutal beating in the second match but refusing to give up. Osuma vs. Hirano was a boxer vs. Wrestler match that was actually pretty good, which is a rare accomplishment. I assume most of these guys are from SAW given that Koichiro Kimura is also on this card, but that's pure speculation as I can't find any info at all on this fed.

 

Ito vs. Yamada was shown in full and was a pretty cool little clash, like a poor man's Vader/Tamura. Lots of potatoe shots, and Ito, who could still move well at this point, was slamming the fuck out of Yamada with pro style powerbombs and suplexes. Yamada is the future Black Buffalo (of all people) and had some cool judo throws on Ito's roided ass. Yamada looked the most talented of anyone on the card and it feels like a waste that he went on to do garbage wrestling for the rest of the 90s.

 

The main event was a typical Fuyuki/Jado/Gedo affair where they beat the shit out of the NSPW guys, bloodying and triple teaming them and waffling them with chairs. The NSPW all had kickpads (future face painted garbage brawler Yaguchi was doing a sambo gimmick at this point) and liked to kick hard, Itakura had a really nice dive aswell, but it seems most of their offense was clipped out which is a weird decision. They just got destroyed and the Fuyuki trio hit all their huge triple team moves including a powerbomb off the top and a huge assisted butt drop from Fuyuki. Fun stuff and Fuyuki is such a bastard in the match.

[Jetlag]

Oriental Pro 12/3/1992 – this was a very watchable handheld, the guy caught everything in ring and most of the brawling outside too.

 

Wellington Wilkins Jr. vs. Katsumi Hirano

Akihiro Mikada vs. Nobutaka Araya

Brian Lee vs. Masahiko Takasugi

Yukihiro Kanemura & Masayoshi Motegi vs.Kazuhiko Matsuzaki & Hiroshi Itakura

Ryuma Go & Jesse Barr vs. Ron & Don Harris (Texas Deathmatch in a cage~!)

 

Well, this show was super interesting to watch. Way more polished than you expect a handheld random indy show with a bunch of nobodies + Harris Bros (of all people) to be.

 

The opener was pretty great because PWFG Wilkins showed up to school his opponent with awesome takedowns, suplexes and stiff headbutts and shotais. It was a postively Negro Navarro performance from old Wellington. His opponent didn't look like much, but he didn't look lost in a match with a lot of grappling and he had a nifty leg trip. At one point, Wilkins went for a kick and fell over, to which Hirano rushed for an Achilles Hold. It was a minor detail, but about the only way Hirano could see any land in this match. Badass stuff from Wilkins.

 

The next match was an extremely young Nobutaka Araya (here's a guy who's been everywhere) and Mikada, a guy I've found no information on. Mikada had really sharp, stiff kicks and didn't let up. The match was pretty basic and two guys this green probably shouldn't have gone 15+ minutes, but they delivered a good finish with Mikada landing a huge crossbody off the top. Charming in parts. The next bout was veteran Takasugi vs. An ultra generic blonde Brian Lee. Takasugi was still pretty spry and they worked an IWE type match with Lee roughing up his opponent and then Takasugi fighting fire with fire. Basic stuff again, and they ended the match just as it seemed to get hot.

 

The co-main event was another match where you have no idea what to expect going and then you end up being positively surprised. I'd never seen pre-deathmatch Kanemura or Matsuzaki before, only snippets of Itakura and Motegi is a guy who is a notorious fuckup. All 4 guys won me over, though. Matsuzaki was a black trunks rookie, but he had really nice sharp kicks and headbutts, and Itakura was a fairly athletic tubby guy. Motegi looked pretty sharp, and everyone worked stiff and got the crowd into the match. They did flaring tempers nicely, leading to 3 guys hitting awesome dives and then a double countout which they turned into a restart and then did a really nice finish with Motegi hittig his awesome triple german into Kanemura getting the win.

 

The main event was a serious match and worked US style. Harris Bros came in with long flowing manes – and bah gawd they both look like Chris Hero!! Go and Barr were your babyfaces, and the Bros worked them over good. Harris Brothers had really nice punches and stomps, eventually hitting some huge double teams including a big powerslam off the top rope. Everyone bled, and eventually Go got the hot tag and ran wild on the nazi vikings as if they were space jews, hitting a bunch of flying clotheslines and eventually getting the win with an octopus hold. Barr didn't look like much, only hitting some stomps and kneedrops, but the crowd got into him when he refused to quit, and Ron & Don did a pro job here, knowing to fly headfirst into the cage when it counted. Won't make you forget Final Conflict and probably went a little long, but I thought it was a good little formula match.