New Japan, and Zero-One, thoughts

[Guest CRUSH Jin]

Well I lifted a nice compilation chunk of some various New Japan, Zero One and Noah. I found some pleasantly suprising bits.

 

First off Wataru Inoue is starting to grow on me. The kid has some great energy almost Otani-like in quality and I really dug his work.

I saw a few shows with Osama Nishimura and I regained faith in a wrestlers ability to be Old School and still be TREMENDOUSLY entertaining. I wish alot of young guys would sit down and watch this guy work and see that simple things like sleeper holds, Abdominable strecths, etc. can still get over as long as you have the great pyschology to get them over.

 

Next was a fat chunlk of the more noteable stuff from Z1 [not a Gordeau match in sight. WHoo Hooo!]

 

First up was Masato Tanaka vs. Shinjiro Otani, and MAN did this one kick ass. Even though Otani is a heavyweight now he still paces like a cruiser and Tanaka matches him step for step. Otani pulls the old spiral bomb finisher out for the win and it leads to Kazunari Murakami going apeshit at ringside starting runs ins by Otsuka and every other Zero One wrestler.  Im not sure on the date but it was Held in Zepp Tokyo, worth seeing.

 

Next was Tom Howard vs. Shinya Hashimoto, A decent and watchable match. Howard is doing some military gimmick and has such moves as the Army crawl submission escape, and the Full Nelson Pat police pat down leg sweep, yeah you have to see it for me to understand it it. Hashi brings the stiffness in droves and maaaan oh man is it peachy. Finish comes with Howard missing a spining Air Sabu in the corner that sends him over the rope and he kills about 8 reporters at ringside this weakens the leg which ends in a rather anti climactic standing heel hold finish, still good match

 

Shinjiro Otani vs. Daisuke Sekimoto, Sekimoto is a young stud from Big Japan and Otani is the deflowerer of Dojo boys the world over. Otani kicks Sekimoto's face off early and the blood pours in droves. Sekimoto is well recieved by he fans and he fights back nailing a SUPURB German suplex with a amazing looking bridge and torture racks Otani for a near win. Otani shortly buts a stop to all that noise hitting a spin wheel kick and locking on a Cobra Clutch for the submission win. Good high energy "Otani stiffing a young buck" match.

 

Samoa Joe vs. Kohei Sato, Now my buddy said this match is a ass whipping expedition that rivals the earlier Otani vs. Sekimoto encounter, I told him he was full of shit, and low and behold I was wrong. Joe at first glance looks like your grade A indy scmuck but from the first moment they hit the mat that perception is gone. They do some shooty mat work ending with Joe slapping on a heel hook and cranking down, Sato nails a beautiful hip Throw and tries a 2nd, only to have his neck broken with a nasty Backdrop driver counter by Joe, At this point Joe beats the fear of Allah into poor Kohei including a Pedigree tombstone I would not wish on Osama Bin Laden. a awesome triple rolling suplex series and a laraits cannot put the kid down but you wish he would stay down. Sato ducks a 3rd lariat and hits a nifty uranage and armbars Joe quickly for the upset win. Not much in the way of epic but lord jesus was it fun to watch.

 

Samoa Joe vs. Masato Tanaka, Joe does the pre bell attack routine, they trade shoulder blocks finally ending with Masato eating a yakuza kick and rebounding off the ropes and giving Joe the super charged hulk a mania tackle of doom. Masato tries to make joes head cave in with a beutiful dropkick and lays on the pain. Joe turns it around with a guillotine armbreaker and starts slapping on armbars and hits some goofy dancing elbow. Joe returns the facial favor and wipes Tanaka with a nasty running Yakuza kick in the corner followed by a corkscrew dive on Tanaka who cant reel in the big man and sends him crashing into a guard rail. A Impormtu chair fight ending with Masato taking out Joe's knee followed with a Tornado ddt on the ramp that hurls Joe into the crowd. A great series of false finishes insues with Joe hitting the 3 suplex combo again (a German, and Dragon) and ends with a cross Arm German suplex and sticks the bridge.  Masato tries to return the suplex favor but Joe elbows out only to be caught with a roaring elbow. a 2nd roaring elbow attemept prompts Joe countering it into a Pedigree tombstone to no avail. Masato hits Diamond dust and Joe makes it to the rope to break the count. A second diamond dust attempt is countered into a Emerald Frosion and Joe picks up the big upset win. Once again not a psychological epic but man ohh man was this match alot of fun.

 

Shinjiro Otani vs. Kohei Sato, This was the Fire Festival final. Otani is selling his arm due to being injured earlier in the tournament which lends some credibility to Sato who under Normal circumstances would have been destroyed. Sato goes to work on the arm with the side kicks. He tries for several armbar attempts but Otani fights to the ropes. Otani gets the upper hand and lays in a Half Crab SUUUUPER DEEEP!! Sato nails a sweet hanging northern lights suplex and a Uranage into a Armbar transition. Otani fights and works the crowd behind him making it to the ropes for the break. After more offense by Sato, Otani counters a suplex attempt into a Cobra Clutch which is broken but a 2nd attempt yields victory for Otani.  Good match that Otani caries but carries it well.

 

Naoya Ogawa vs. Yoshiake Fujiwara........... Sorry I refuse to watch it.

 

Anyways I just got the last dome show today I hope to watch it tommorrow.

 

If anyone has any more info on Joe I would really appreciate it, i.e. who he works for in the US or Samoa or wherever he is from. I read something about him and Ayako Hamada on the old board is there any truth to that?

 

Also I am looking for a good Kojima comp if anyones has any reccommendations please fwd them.

 

Peace.