RANDOM IWRG SHOW #1

So a buddy of mine sent me some DVD's of IWRG which aires on a local San Francisco UWF station, this aired a month ago, but I think is from mid 2007, we love IWRG so we are going to review it.


Akumma v. Tortuga Ninja Primero

TKG: It’s IWRG opener and tribute to late 80s Japanophile nerdery. For a guy working a tribute to a streetfighter charcter v a guy working tribute to a tribute to anime thankfully this isn’t worked as a tribute to Japanese wrestling. Instead we get dull opening IWRG mat work, a couple awkward brawling spots to the floor and a neat finisher. Akuma sets the Turtle up as though he’s going to put him in La Campana and instead just squats on his legs. Too many clubbing blows to the back of the shell for my taste. Mabe if Akuma set them up by breaking boards or something.

PAS; I really liked evil Ninja turtles v. face Ninja turtles which was worked as more of a brawl (it is also possible that those were six completely different turtles), however Tortuga Ninja primero doesn’t really have a singles match in him. It is possible with a better rudo this could passed into mediocrity, instead it fell short.

Star Boy/Ave Fenix/Kid Tiger v. Black Terry/Assesino Negro/Dr. Mortus

PAS: Total blast, really classic wrestling story, young highflying juniors v. bruiser heels. This could have Perez and Rocco v. Jerry + Eddie Graham, Rock and Rolls v. Russians or Youth Gone Wild v. Hit Squad. Assessino Negro is a Guadalajara guy I had enjoyed in the past, and he was awesome here, brutal looking splashes and legdrops, really graceful eating of armdrags, I have no idea why he isn’t a huge star. Terry is always a pleasure as well, and Fenix and Kid Tiger were fine bumping flying juniors.

TKG: Yeah this was fun. The Assesino/Mortus tam have a bunch of neat big guy double teams and you spend the match waiting for the moment when the face will move out of the way forcing them to crash into each other. Hijo del Assesino also has a bunch of fun was to sell big guy getting disoriented/knocked about. First fall is bruisers abusing faces, second fall is faces getting their comeback, Last fall is more even with two younger highflyers doing dives to take out the Guadalajara team leaving Star Boy and Black Terry alone to end it.

Fantasma Del Opera/Kai/Yamato v. Ultraman Jr./Cerebro Negro/Tony Rivera


TKG: It’s one IWRG veteran rudo and two All Japan rookies v two veteran IWRG guys and one rookieish guy. Pretty fun match and I would like to see the technico team from this match v the rudo team from the last one. Cerebro Negro and Yamamato have a really neat little mat section and the first fall. In the third fall Cerebro negro kicks both Japanese guys to bend them over and throws one into the other, Kai accidentally DDTs his own partner when Cerebro Negro gives him an neckbreaker. It is the kind of absolutely preposterous thing you’d expect out of Tommy Dreamer but it is done so fast and executed so well that it turns out to be really fun comedy spot. Rivera has a really great frog splash too. Black Terry comes in at the end to attack Fantasma del Opera. Leading to faces scoring the win.

PAS: I was hoping this was going to be the old Ultraman with the awesome punch combos, but this was a young guy who was pretty fun. Cerbero Negro absolutely kills Kai with a butterly suplex DDT thing which looks like something he saw on tape and just decided to try. Fun undercard lucha which gets plenty of time to turn into something worth watching.

Negro Navarro/Negro Casas/Mascara Sagrado/Anibal Jr. v. El Hijo De Cien Caras/Enfermero Jr./Cien Caras Jr./Mascara Ano 2000 Jr.

TKG: So whatever station airs IWRG in San Francisco is just throwing on the tape with no care as to what airs. The first match they showed the first fall twice in a row. In the second match they interrupted a fall with a commercial and then came back from the commercial, rewound about four minutes and showed fall in full. Frustratingly, they showed the first fall of the main event twice and then the show ends. Given some of the folks in the main event you’d think this wouldn’t be that disappointing. But this was an actively good first fall where Anibal did nothing but get beat on and bleed, and Mascara Sagrado was kept on the floor constantly being prevented from entering the ring. Fun brawling first fall.

PAS: Yeah I would have liked to see more of this, as we never really got any focus on the Negroes and those are a pair of guys who are pretty great usually. I am going to need to see more IWRG to rank the junior Dinamitas.