[2007-12-29-IGF-Genome2] Naoya Ogawa vs Tadao Yasuda

[Ma Stump Puller]

It's a double turn.....but with Inoki-ism! Imagine Bret/Austin, now replace the two with a really tall guy and a tubby ex-sumo.

This comes abruptly after Yasuda had fought a Dutch kickboxer by the name of Rene Rooze: the two had already fought for real at one of Inoki's earlier events, with Yasuda of course losing. This was obviously worked so the match was fairly tame, thankfully only three minutes long. Yasuda and him fall out of the ring after a clinch and Yasuda smacks him on the ground with a chair two times (yet doesn't get DQ'd because uhhhh don't think about it) and beats Rooze by TKO, potentially ruining the main event with his usual antics. Ogawa comes out to Hashimoto's music and decides to avenge the guy, so we have this match. As you might expect from the mad lad this immediately starts off with a corner beatdown and the ref falling over for no reason. As you might also expect this was a lot of nonsense: Yasuda doing his usual fun heel work like throwing low blows in clinches, Ogawa pulling out a chair when Yasuda tries to get one himself, the usual Coward Shooter stalling and beatdowns, etc. Ogawa blasts Yasuda with strikes (namely some pretty stiff shots to the chest) before cutting to a depressed Inoki trying to stay awake.

Ogawa throws the ref out when he tries to end the match so he can keep kicking the guy. Yasuda tries some fighting spirit but he's a complete goof so he gets nowhere with that despite his best attempts. It's funny to say but Yasuda is great at being pathetic; how he keeps falling over with each attempt, how he keeps pushing on with the same stubbornness, it's like he knows he can't win anyway, it's either that or just do nothing and still get kicked. Over time Yasuda becomes more of a babyface to the crowd as Ogawa keeps relentlessly beating him down. He does catch Ogawa's leg at one point but he's so weak that he can't make it mean anything. This keeps going as Ogawa shoves out a second replacement ref to keep the beating going until Inoki runs in and starts throwing hands! He knocks out Ogawa with his vintage sleeper. Post-match have the two square up, nothing comes of it. This was typical for a Ogawa match; messy like anything, stiff shit, etc. Having a match be mostly composed of him kicking Yasuda in the chest is certainly a choice but they make the best out of the situation, especially given Yasuda has some endearing selling that ever so slightly makes this bizarre and very chaotic match work as he becomes the wrestling equivalent of Sisyphus, just replace the boulder with a guy who associated himself with chickens. If you like what these two bring to the table then this is definitely going to be at least fun to watch.