[2002-10-26 Zero-One] Nathan Jones & Jon Heidenreich vs Shinya Hashimoto & Naoya Ogawa

[Superstar Sleeze]

NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Champions Nathan Jones & Jon Heidenreich vs Shinya Hashimoto & Naoya Ogawa - Zero-One 10/26/03

I am no expert in Zero-One but it seems that NWA I-C Tag Belts were actually the main prize. Again I don’t know how much of that is their allegiance to the NWA but TNA holding the World Title hostage. It makes sense though as Hashimoto & Ogawa feel like co-Aces. As we saw last year, their mutual hatred for the foreign invaders under Tom Howard has united them as a tag team. Before this match we see the Behemoths, Jones & Heidenreich pummel & pulverize Ohtani & Tanaka en route to winning the titles. Forget Heidenreich & Animal, they should have done Heidenreich & Jones as 21st Century Road Warriors complete with face paint and started them as babyfaces. I think that could’ve been big money.

This match was way better than I expected and it is pretty much due to Nathan Jones who is the worst wrestler in a conventional sense of the match. Heidenreich moves better than Jones, executes better than Jones and is a pretty good verbal seller. Heidenreich fed really well for Hashimoto and that running overhand chop by Hashimoto at the beginning was great. Jones is just a freak of fucking nature and it is on full display here. The Double Iron Claw was one of those 80s moments that rules so hard! Then Hashimoto & Ogawa were trying to chop him down with kicks and he just starts slinging chops was ultra-hot! At one point Jones hurls Ogawa at Hashimoto! THIS SHIT WAS KING KONG CRAZY~! You know logically Ogawa would crush this dude and you see that at the outset his punch/kick Combos are killer but Jones just sledges him to the ground. That’s the thing Jones dwarfs Ogawa who is fucking huge himself. I love Hashimoto & Ogawa wrestling small and trying work Jones’ leg. Then Jones & Heidenreich do all these monster double teams on Ogawa that are killer! The Predator (Slyvester Terkay) comes out doing his Bruiser Brody gimmick and apparently has turned on Howard’s boys and distracts Jones. Hashimoto pulverizes Heidenreich. The best spot of the match Hashimoto and Ogawa take turns round kicking Jones up against the ropes then DOUBLE KICK JONES TAKES THIS INSANE BACKWARDS FLIP BUMP TO THE FLOOR! Hashimoto/Ogawa hit their STO/German double team to win the match and the titles!

Nathan Jones looked King-Size here literally and figuratively. Just saw on the next big Zero-One show we get Jones vs Predator in a Steel Cage good, bad or ugly that gonna rule! We get Hashimoto & Ogawa vs Howard & the Iranian wrestler Angle went up against. Fuck yeah! Some great 80s shit in this match. ***1/4