[2002-12-15-ZERO1] Shinya Hashimoto & Naoya Ogawa vs Matt Ghaffari & Tom Howard

[Jetlag]

Welcome to Shinya Hashimoto's ZERO1, where 2 olympic medalists, a japanese megastar and a US nobody with a supersoldier gimmick get together to work Memphis meets Shootstyle with a sports entertainment twist. Ghaffari was pretty grotesque but was a really good monster/immovable object here, no lying. The fact his nasty gut squish attack lead to a credible nearfall aswell as him acting invincible like an olympic level greco roman wrestler should added a ton to the match. Hashimoto struggling to do anything and Ogawa finally taking him off his feet all felt like like big moments. Howard looked really good too at this point as he hit all his stuff perfectly, including braining Hashimoto with a world class superkick. Unfortunately the 2nd half kind of breaks down with lots of ref bullshit happening, altough there is still fun to be had with guys getting bowled around and Ghaffari almost killing Ogawa with one of the most devastating splashes ever caught on film. Should add Ogawa looked great here too heating up the fans and selling very well. Borderline listworthy, must watch if you want to check out something unique.

[Superstar Sleeze]

NWA intercontinental Tag Team Champions Shinya Hashimoto & Naoya Ogawa vs Tom Howard & Matt Ghaffari - Zero-One 12/15/02

Someone should make a documentary on Tom Howard he had a really interesting early 2000s between his students and being the main gaijin talent and booker for Zero-One in its first two years. He seems like he is a great carny. He has gone from Mark Kerr to The Predator to Nathan Jones to now Greco-Roman Silver Medalist, Matt Ghaffari. There is some key background to this match. Ogawa defeated Ghaffari in UFO in August of 2002 which Wiki lists as shoot fight, which surprises me. Can anyone confirm or deny? Ghaffari has um gained um some weight it looks like. He has a massive jiggly Buddha belly, but because he is former Olympic Medalist he is still an amazing athlete. 

This match is quite the spectacle and it is really driven by Howard & Ghaffari. I love Ogawa more than most, but I am not surprised when he takes a backseat but for Hashimoto The Destroyer, the Ultimate Ass-Kicking Ace to be shown up by Howard & Ghaffari was shocking and in a weird way a little unsettling. The Howard stuff I had seen before and he is a really excellent Major Guile come to life doing his weird US Military Kung Fu. He kept his hands behind his back and showed Hashimoto up dodging and sticking and moving. He nailed a perfect superkick that looked amazing. Ultimately Howard did get his comeuppance with Hashimoto showing him the Hand of Doom and Howard did his classic military crawl scurry away from him. The part that was for lack of a better term disturbing was the way Ghaffari manhandled Hashimoto and rubbed his jiggly belly all over his face in a pinning combination. The Japanese fans laughed! They laughed at Hashimoto The Destroyer! It was an emotionally moving moment. It made me feel uncomfortable, but it made me feel so kudos to them. At the very beginning of the match, Ogawa slapped Ghaffari but after Ghaffari did the classic wrestler spin around their opponent but he licked his hand and spanked Ogawa. Again a humiliating moment for a legit badass. Ogawa chose the worse of three options in my opinion, he no-sold it. Since he was not a heel he should have not scurried and sold humiliation. However, as a badass babyface, he should have gotten pissed, bowed up and decked Ghaffari. It was very interesing to watch Hashimoto and Ogawa humbled. 

The finish protected Hashimoto & Ogawa well and utilized the same crooked ref that they used to get the NWA title off Hashimoto onto Dan Severn. Hashimoto & Ogawa started to the get the upper hand on Howard & Ghaffari. Ogawa flattened Ghaffari with an STO and then DOUBLE CLOTHESLINE~! (we will see how that ages as a reference  ). We find out the ref is crooked as Ghaffari does not kick out, the ref counts three but the ref claims he did kick out and announces it is two. So clearly the American ref is on the take.  They hit their cool double team finish the German/STO combo BUT Ghaffari is so fucking huge he just crushes Hashimoto and the ref. Howard missile dropkick to Ogawa. Ghaffari steamrolls Ogawa and Howard. Belly to belly and then a MASSIVE SPLASH TO OGAWA'S HEAD wins the match for Howard & Ghaffari! 

Crazy spectacle match where American gimmick wrestling meets Japan and it is wild! Howard & Ghaffari could have been an all-time act in either Japan or the States. I wish they got a longer run. I dont think Howard is an all-time great wrestler per se but he is very entertaining, he has gimmick and his unique highspots down pat. I wish we could have seen Howard in many different environments. Hashimoto & Ogawa are two of the biggest personalities in the history of wrestling and it is hard to believe they took backseat to anyone let alone these two, but they did. They did their part well dont get me wrong but Howard & Ghaffari were the stars. Very cool & unique match. ***3/4