[2002-07-28-FWA-No Surprises 4] Robbie Brookside vs Kendo Kashin

[TonyPulis'Cap]

It’s topical as I’m writing this, given just this week Kendo Kashin has been rather randomly named as a trainer at the WWE Performance Centre. Indeed, this is a battle of PC trainers, although not sure there’s much in this match that those down in NXT need to study too hard to learn from…

Brookside had been a heel and member of the Old School stable that had been feuding with the younger FWA guys in the company’s main storyline for most of 2001 and 2002, but after clashing with Drew McDonald had been kicked out of the group and had now turned face. Kashin at this time was the AJPW Junior Heavyweight Champion, although the title is not on the line. He was an All Japan regular at this time and indeed he and Brookside would go on to team up for that summer’s Real World Junior Tag league.

This is a solid technical match, as you would imagine from these guys, but as was the case for a lot of Brookside’s FWA matches, he just didn’t seem to fit in with the new indy style that the company’s fans were gravitating towards, particularly not as a face. I enjoyed the mat work and some of the classic World of Sport exchanges, but there’s not much to get your teeth into, and at just under 9 mins, at the stage when it looked like the match was just starting to build into something with potential, it ends rather abruptly.

Kashin works the arm, trying to set up his armbar finisher, while Brookside in turn works on the leg. I enjoyed Kashin going back to the arm whenever Brookside was mounting offence as a way of regaining control, and that’s how he is able to block the Iconclasm first time around, although Brookside is able to hit it on the second attempt for the win. Technically proficient, but little excitement to this one (**)