[1994-06-04-PWFG] Hanzo Nakajima & Naohiro Hoshikawa vs Wellington Wilkins Jr. & Yuki Ishikawa

[Ma Stump Puller]

This is a awesome late PWFG/Michinoku Pro hybrid match, though that's kinda obvious given Wilkins and Ishikawa are both here so it was expected. We start off with Hoshikawa and Wilkins: both of these guys have already had a great trio series together, so naturally this part is a lot of scrappy mat-work with Wilkins just being a beast with slams and aggressive play. Ishikawa also comes in to roll about, namely snapping on a nasty Achilles Tendon before Hoshi can do the same, and baiting the guy with a toe-hold before snatching a tight Bulldog choke when he tries running away. Hoshi tries to fight back against a returning Wilkins with strikes but gets headbutted and slammed back to the mat.

Wilkins gets to show off with a rear naked choke and Sayama-style forward roll into kneebar. Nakajima comes in and you expect him to not be great at this kind of stuff given he's dressed as a fancy ninja (and his career didn't exactly light much on fire performance-wise) but he's actually solid at adding in a more showy element while knowing the gritty mat stuff, albeit a bit sloppy in places. Ishikawa gets over his more cocky nature as he smiles when he has Naka's knee trapped for a potential kneebar and refuses to take a Irish Whip because this is shoot style brother, that doesn't work. Naka also has some cool kicks on top of that when push comes to shove and Ninja spots like kip-ups and balancing head-first on the turnbuckle. Naturally Wilkins doesn't give two shits about this shindie Tiger Mask and beats the piss out of him with his own kicks, takedowns, even viciously headbutting the back of his head in back mount with the two M-Pro guys having to double-team him to get any leeway. Ishikawa and Noshi just start also beating the piss out of each other with super stiff slaps to the face to get the heat flowing.

Outside of that, we get a few minutes of real solid Ishikawa mat-work and him being a bit of a petty prick with his strikes to the pair. Wilkins gets in to wreck Naka with headbutts and a brutal knee to the head that seems to legitimately rattle him a bit. Hoshi also eats shit as Wilkins smiles off his strikes and answers with a stiff head-spike backdrop, following up with a equally rough Capture Suplex. Ishikawa tags in just to stare over him during the 10 count like a complete asshole, so the two go to blows again with Ishikawa winning out with a head crank. The M-Pro duo eventually turn this into a pro-wrestling match with spots and whatnot to turn the tide; this part of the match is good in places but not nearly as good as the first half, even though Wilkins and Hoshi exchanging big scary Tombstones and German suplexes was rad even if rough and scrappy. 

We get some goofy double team spots that are a bit sloppy in places (like the double suplex was mistimed and the double Fujiwara armbar felt a bit too quaint for my liking) albeit the top rope dropkick into German combo was amazing, as was Wilkins just bumping huge for it. Lots of spots, even Ishikawa gets to dive to the outside after the M-Pro duo have their turn. Finish has Wilkins land his superplex into a terrifying looking side shoulder crank for the win. Ok, so the spotfest at the end comes out of nowhere and doesn't really add to much else but to allow the M-Pro guys to show their stuff in their element but it's a fun showing as is the rest of this: if you want to see Wilkins and Ishikawa just destroy Jr heavyweights for 15+ you'll love this, but this also had good selling in places when it was required, and it really meant something given the Wilkins/Ishikawa duo make sure to sandbag, act like pseudo-heels and then subsequently sell hard to really get over the momentum shift. Nakajima was fine enough for his role as the odd one out, Hoshikawa played a good fiery underdog that had a good balance of mat technique and big spots when the time came for it. Really solid if a bit disappointing they didn't stick with the (far superior) gritty theme of the first half.