Dick Togo's Got No Retirement Plans, No Derek Jeters

Dick Togo/Kaz Hayashi/Great Sasuke vs. Shuji Kondo/Toru Owashi/YASSHI Wrestle 1 8/11/16 - FUN

PAS: This is a battle of MPRO vets vs. Toruyman outcasts and it probably should have been better. Seems like a lot of Japanese juniors have acquired goofy Chikara gimmicks. Sasuke keeps sitting in meditation poses, YASSHI will bite you in the dick ect. First part of the match felt like everyone needing to shoehorn in their bit, like bad improv comedians, Bob has an effeminate southerner voice and no matter what the audience suggests an effeminate southerner will do it, look an effeminate southerner works at the DMV, an effeminate southerner is serving soup at this soup kitchen so on and so forth. Match picks up a little bit when they get the nonsense out of the way, Togo and Owashi have a cool exchange with Togo lacing into that big dude and looking just as tough as Owashi even though he is five inches shorter. We also had Hayashi and Sasuke remind you of the old days when they ruled as they broke out their signature dives. Still much of this was bad junk, and me being so happy to see Togo back might have been the only thing keeping me from rating this skippable.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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All Japan Real World Tag League 11/20/10

These Puro tourney Project always tend to flame out (SLL's G1, my attempt to get through the BOSJ), but this is a tourney with Joe Malenko and Tamon Honda so we might make it.

Dark Ozz/Dark Cuervo/MAZADA vs. Kaz Hayashi/Shuji Kondo/BUSHI

This had its moments, but it was underwhelming at the end. There was some pretty lucha exchanges with Hayashi and one of the fake Charlie Mansons. I have been watching a bunch of MPRO six mans and back in his Shiryu days he was one of the best at quick armdrag and rope running. Ozz (or maybe Cuervo) has a really nasty finishing piledriver. Still much of this was pretty sloppy and awkward looking. It kind of sucks that AJ sends their rookies to IWRG but brings over AAA guys, this match would have been much better with the Terrible Cerebros or Oficiales as the rudo team.

TARU/Minoru/Voodoo Mask vs. Masanobu Fuchi/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi/Tamon Honda

Not a long match, mostly comedy stuff with Kikuchi making faces at TARU. I am always happy to see Honda as he got to break out some Olympic Hell and his great deadlift German. This was undercard trios match, and really worked that way. No one was going to stretch out, they were going to do some shtick and hit some spots and go home.

Hiroshi Yamato vs. Keiji Muto

This was Muto diffidently squashing a young guy. He looked kind of bored and it resembled the laziest of Inoki New Japan matches. I remember Yamato kind of stinking up Black Terry matches in IWRG, but he seems to be someone they are pushing and I don't see any point in something like this.

KENSO/KONO vs. Seiya Sanada/Manabu Soya

I hadn't seen any of these guys before (outside of Kenzo Suzuki), and was pleasantly surprised at this ending up decent. First part of the match wasn't much, mostly Soya throwing clotheslines and KENSO choking folks with his scarf. The match built to a nice exciting finish. KENSO has a really cool looking dive and he hit it twice, and Soya and KONO did a cool near fall exchange with KONO hitting a nasty knee drop, not sure if I recommend the match, but I dug the end.

Masakatsu Funaki/Minoru Suzuki vs. Osamu Nishimura/Joe Malenko

This was as fun as I was hoping it would be. Malenko didn't look like he missed a step. We got a long awesome Malenko v. Funaki mat stand off in the beginning of the match which really had the feel of watching Navarro or Panther work holds. Suzuki and Nishimura had a really cool mat opening too, I loved the twists they put on the MUGA headscissors stuff. The match was pretty good when it sped up too, Malenko and Suzuki throwing headbutts on the floor was sweet. The draws you end up getting in these kind of tournaments can be kind of a buzzkill, but the finish run was awesome with Suzuki trying to lock on his sleeper and Malenko countering it with an ankle lock and both guys fighting over it. Really good stuff and I am hoping all of the Malenko shows up.

Taiyo Kea/Akebono vs. Suwama/Ryota Hama

Wow, I was pretty shocked at how much I dug this. Really had the feel of a solid WAR tag with a bunch of big heavyweight dudes pounding on each other. I always love battle of monsters and while I don't really get the sense Akebono or Hama are very good, their exchanges really felt like a pair of Bison smashing into each other. I was also really into Suwama v. Kea, their opening mat work was pretty great, with Kea doing some awesome amateur rides. The middle portion of the match was just guys pounding on each other, there is a great spot where Suwama just slams Akebono with short lariats until he finally chopped him down. Finish was really cool, Suwama had a very cool wobbly sell of a suplex, and you buy Kea getting the pin as a big moment.

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The Wrestling What I Watched in 2007 Pt. 1, by S.L.L.

So it's late September, and there is much hyped wrestling from this year that I have not watched. In support of Phil updating his 2007 MOTYC list, I too shall watch a lot of potentially great/disappointing wrestling in the hopes that it favors the former over the latter. And because I can devote a lazy Saturday afternoon to the wrestling, I think I can devote it to reviewing the wrestling IN REAL TIME! Starting with....

Shuji Kondo vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima
AJPW - 2/17/2007 - Tokyo, Japan
AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title Match

I have paid very, very little attention to puro this year. Last time I checked, the Voodoo Murders were the only reason left to watch All Japan. We shall see if that still holds true. We shall also see if Nakajima still displays the potential for greatness that he had when I last saw him. Nakajima fought his mentor Kensuke Sasaki in the build-up to this match, and he is psyched and ready to go for Kondo. His enthusiasm is infectous, as I too am ready for the Jap wrestling to the point that I have to struggle not to sound like I'm directly jacking Dean Rasmussen's writing style. C'MON GUYS! DELIVER THE GOODS! Slow start, as they feel each other out. Kondo does 70's style headlock control spots, which are fine, but I know why I like Shuji Kondo, and it isn't for his scintillating matwork. Nakajima gets fired up and dropkicks Kondo out of the ring. Kondo takes a breather, but Nakajima will have none of it, diving out after him. Kondo playing it safe against fiery babyface Nakajima is an interesting choice for him. It doesn't last, though, as he palms the back of Nakajima's head while fighting on the apron and dives off to drive his face into the guardrail. Kondo controls, while Nakajima gets off some shots on his arm to weaken the King Kong Lariat. Nakajima dropkicks to offense, and dives off the top rope to the outside with a crossbody. Back in the ring, he starts teeing off on Kondo's arm with kicks and knees, including a neat triangle jump kick off the turnbuckles. Kondo catches a kick and slams him for two, then hits the Lanzarse for two more. Kondo does a piledriver out of a Canadian backbreaker that may have been the most heinous head drop in All Japan since the NOAH split. And right on cue, this turns into a bad NOAH main event, as Nakajima Hulks up, and they both take turns dropping each other on their heads and popping up and kicking out of finishers and what have you, and the enthusiasm is sucked out of me. Nakajima wins. I lose.

John Cena vs. Bobby Lashley
WWE - 7/22/2007 - San Jose, CA
WWE Heavyweight Title Match

Lashley's remixed theme is a lot better. The original version always felt too small time for a main eventer, especially next to Cena. Crowd is overwhelmingly pro-Cena. This and the Orton match really screwed with the theory that Cena gets booed against faces and cool heels and cheered against genuine heels. He's getting cheered heavily against strict babyface Lashley here, and a month later, he'd be booed against straight-up heel Orton. I think it might just be a question of empathy with the characters. I normally wouldn't accuse Phil and Tom of overestimating Cena's detractors, but I think when you put Lashley, Umaga, Khali, and Cena himself on one side, and Orton, HHH, Angle, and Michaels on the other, there's something else that would likely attract the aging frat boys to the latter group, and it isn't face/heel alignment. Then again, the crowd is pretty into Lashley, too, so maybe it's just a really hot crowd. Very back-and-forth match. Cena dodges a corner charge and hits a pair of Protoplexes and the Five Knuckle Shuffle. Lashley escapes the F-U, however, and drops Cena with a powerslam off the ropes. Hot finishing sequence ensues, leading to a Lashley superplex being turned into Cena dumping him off of the top rope with an F-U for the win. Great, great match. Cena continues to solidify his claim to being the best in the world, and Lashley proved he can go when he really puts his mind to it. Apropos use of the respectful post-match handshake closes out the show. I know Phil has something written up on this match that he'll put up later. I can understand him not putting this in his top 25. Of all the big Cena matches this year, I've got it behind the LMS match with Umaga, the RAW match with Michaels, the first Khali match, and the Orton match from SummerSlam. It's not a high-end MOTYC. I'd believe there are 25 better matches this year. But it is a great match.

TO BE CONTINUED....

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