New Japan BOSJ 2010 Pt. 5

AKIRA v. Nobu Yoshihashi 5/30

I liked this a bunch, really basic story with each guy working over his opponents leg. AKIRA was great here, really basic nasty stuff, some of the better stomps to the kneecap I can remember seeing. His selling was also solid, while Yoshihashi would kind of fade in and out. AKIRA just feels like a pro, a guy who has been wrestling for 20+ years and knows all the subtile nuances that kind of experience can give you. It is the same kind of thing you see in this tournament with guys like Gedo, Liger and Kanemoto and the kind of thing visable missing from the younger guys. Finish run paid off pretty well, I loved Yoshihashi sliding forearm smash to the knee, and his final swanton looked rib crushing. Best Yoshihashi has looked in the stuff I have seen.

Jushin Liger v. KUSHIDA 5/30

I would say about 50% of the matches in this tourney are based around guys selling the leg, it is kind of a dumb way to work a juniors match actually, either people can't do their spots or they have to shit on the storyline and no sell. KUSHIDA does the worst job of selling I have seen so far, he goes immediately from agonizing pain to running full speed and doing a dive. Nothing connected the two parts of the match at all, they might as well been a month apart. I liked KUSHIDA's KO kick, and when he caught Liger's shotay only to get shotayed by the other hand, but outside of that this wasn't much

La Sombra v. Tiger Mask IV 5/30

Tiger Mask is a guy who is pretty hated by most US puro fans, I really don't watch current Japanese wrestling, and he was a part of mid 90's MPRO so he has some built up good will from me. I thought this was perfectly fine wrestling, Sombra hit all of his stuff cleanly, and Tiger Mask had some moments where he showed off his speed. I liked both dives. I watched a shit ton of Tiger Mask Sayama in preparation for the NJ 80's set, and he had way worse matches with way better luchadores.

Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Taiji Ishimori 5/30

This match was worked with both guys countering virtually every move. It isn't my favorite style of wrestling at all, but I thought it was done ok. I liked how both guys landing really awkwardly with their big dives on the knees of their opponents. Taji's springboard backflip spinny elbowdrop is really dumb looking, but it is better when he lands his ribs into a dudes knees. I also kind of liked Taguchi's superplex into rolling vertical suplexes, I have been watching a bunch of WCWSN from 2000 lately (for the upcoming WCW B-Sides comp which is going to be fucking epic) and I this was a fine poor man's Kid Romeo v. Jeremy Lopez.

Fergil Devitt v. Davey Richards 5/30

This was a really terrible poor man's Kid Romeo v. Jeremy Lopez. Richards is the fucking worst, nothing he does looks natural at all, he is so hammy in this, growling, flipping off the crowd, looking surprised, selling pain. It is like watching Eric Roberts at the nadir of his drug abuse chew his way through an erotic thriller. He has some nice athletic spots, but there are parts of this where he is clearly and obviously setting himself up for spots, at one point he gets crotched on the top rope, and he just obviously moves his leg into position for the next move. At no point does he ever allow you suspend disbelief, you are always painfully aware that this is a fake fight. Devitt really made no impression on me at all in this, he had a nice dropkick, but this was Davey at his Daveyest.

Hayato Jr. Fujita v. Koji Kanemoto 5/30

Oddly put together match. Their match last year was one of my favorites and based around Koji Kanemoto, one of the greatest dickish asskickers ever, kicking the ass of Hayato Jr. Fujita who is totally awesome at being a spunky underdog babyface. Classic wrestling story told well. This match had all the cool execution, nifty moves, stiffness and violence of the first match, but the casting was all screwy. Fujita really kicks the shit out of Kanemoto in this match, dominating probably 70%, Fujita is perfectly fine at kicking someones ass, and Kanemoto is pretty good as a Fujiwarish veteran being overwhelmed role, but it still seems upside down. This wasn't the match I expected it to be, but it was still pretty great, nasty toe to toe exchanges, really great kneebar counters. I loved the finish, Fujita cuts off a rare Kanemoto offensive run, and starts hitting him with big shots getting ready to finish him off, Koji however counter the running knee with a nasty kick to the kneecap and sinks in a ankle lock figure four for the tap. It was abrupt, but I kind of liked the out of nowhereness of it.

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IWRG 2/21/10

Comando Negro v. Imperial

TKG: It’s another Imperial loses a singles opener in two straight falls. I don’t know a ton about the heel “militant negro” v face who “represents the yearning nostalgia for feudal Middle Ages” formula. I don’t remember a ton about Bad News v Inoki, and think I’ve only seen mic work from Mr. Kareem Muhammad v Lawler. So don’t really have a baseline to compare with, still really dug this. I’m a sucker for spots worked out of a knuckle lock and really liked the knuckle lock into roll up section here. Imperial is a guy who can be stretched out and his own mat stuff was neat. I think what I liked about his mat work was just the way he would move in and out of matwork. It wasn’t that the mat stuff here was particularly elaborate so much as liked the escapes, liked the application of stuff, liked the slow way they went from leg lock to forcing a surfboard, liked Comando punching his way out of stuff. One of the problems with these opening mat sections in rookie matches is when there is a big difference in size/strength of guys is that they choose to ignore it. Here you couldn’t forget it and I can only think of one time where felt that Imperial was doing strength based move that didn’t make sense. All of these 2010 rookies matches have these chop exchanges and this was one of the better ones. Imperial’s chops (and forearm) looked actually stiff and the exchange built to stiffer and stiffer chops; instead of building to bigger and bigger flourishes before the chop). I also really liked the first fall finish with the superplex attempt reversed into the giant desnucadora.

PAS: This was a really good opening match. I have seen legitimately days and days of IWRG undercard matwork, and this is some of the most solid of the bunch. It didn't feel like two guys showing off their holds and then releasing them. They were doing a great job of chaining moves together. They were really struggling and shifting positions. If this kind of thing happened in the opening part of a CMLL match people would be freaking out, this was better then any matwork Kurt Angle has ever done, this is weekly stuff in IWRG though, which is why it so awesome. Rest of the match was fine although it wasn't at the level of the early stuff. Imperial was really dominated for lots of this, and I felt like he needed a comeback or two. Two straight falls is unusual enough that it really felt like a squash, even though it wasn't. He sure got crushed on both finishers.

Alan Extreme/ Hijo del Signo v. Eragon/Heros

TKG: This was disappointing next to the opener. The first fall alan Extreme v Heros matwork came off really mediocre (not as interesting, directed or polished) next to the matwork in Comando Negro v Imperial. There was one neat sequence where Alan Extreme attempted an inverted Nudo Lagunero which Heros reversed into an inside cradle but outside of that it was all executed really disinterestedly. I kind of dug the Signo v Eragon Mid-Atlantic matwork that started built around short arm scissors with Eragon dominating and then Signo taking over with a deep spinning toe hold. Eragon does a bunch of Mid Atlantic leg selling as Signo goes into one half crab after another. Unfortunately all the leg selling is forgotten when Eragon wins the fall with a back-cracker into a front-cracker. Rest of the match is mostly rudos beat down on faces and again this wasn’t as interesting as the rudo beat down in the second fall of the opener. Really nothing as cool as Comando Negro’s back elbow, kicks in tree of woe, high back drop, or stomps on Imperial’s taint. There were a couple of nice moments in the third fall as the faces looked good brawling back into offense. I liked the second rope dropkick to taint as receipt for earlier seated dropkick to taint, and this was the best Signo’s signature throw has looked. Still this was a super underwhelming match.

PAS: I liked this a lot more then Tom did. I agree that the matwork section wasn't as good as the opener, but I thought the opener is kind of the gold standard for opening match IWRG rookie matwork. I really thought Heros and Alan Extreme worked very well together all through out the match. I enjoyed their opening matwork, as it felt like both guys working interesting holds built around an Indian deathlock. I thought the symmetry of them both using the same base, but doing different from it was ascetically interesting. Alan Extreme did a really nice job eating all of Heros impressive fast ranas and armdrags too. They even had a nice bit of outside the ring brawling. The rudo beatdown was nothing special, but I thought it was fine, and Heros comeback dive was pretty spectacular. Didn't think this was underwhelming at all, thought this was an above average undercard match, which most IWRG fans would enjoy.

IWRG on Segunda Caida

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