[2008-10-12-Wasshigumi Charity Atami Genki Desuyo Pro Wrestling] Gran Hamada & First Tiger Mask vs Shinobu & Masashi Takeda

[Ma Stump Puller]

I was doing my usual wandering around on YT and I amazingly found a uber lost First Tiger Mask match out of literally nowhere: turns out Kazushi Miyamoto's super based and sticks up the occasional rare match here and there, including this. Cagematch and other resources to my recollection has no record of such a event happening, but it did! It's a fascinating matchup knowing the young opponents here go on to become crazy deathmatch guys, but here they are just mostly featureless guys jobbing to the vets right next to a lovely seaside view. 

This match is pretty basic. Hamada still moves well and Sayama still kicks hard, go figure. Takeda bumps like a god for Tiger Mask, just flinging himself around like he didn't weigh a thing. They ran though a typical late-stage Mask performance: running cross chop, roundhouse kicks, signature elbow drop, easy done. They keep things simple for the 1-year rookie as Takeda mostly just bumps and sells, mostly getting things right despite some awkward pauses and misplaced positions for spots: he puts himself way too far for a Hamada second rope spinning kick and it just completely wiffs. Shinobu comes in to do a hot tag but Hamada dodges his super light Shooting Star Press, getting him up instead for a super sick top rope Frankensteiner. Need I remind you that Hamada was 58 here? I sure needed it, even with his rep I still can't believe he was this good. 

Takeda comes in to bump for more stiff Sayama kicks, Tombstone, diving headbutt, and amazingly we DON'T get the shitty alt-version of the Tiger Suplex, though that's probably because Takeda was so light and great at bumping so he made the move look like it was absolutely lethal. Yep, this was barely 5 minutes long and essentially a name-value match, but surprisingly solid? Hamada's great in these sort of sprints and First Tiger wasn't shabby either. Miya has another First Tiger match with him against Nagai in a tag that I'll definitely also like to see....