Having not reviewed any puro for a while, I thought it best to look through some of the shows I'd not got round to watching yet. This one, with an odd mix of puro wrestlers and US indy talent, was the first one to catch my eye. The main event has a particularly random line-up...
Osamu Namiguchi vs Lil Nate
Oh man, to see Lil Nate is to hate Lil Nate. Coming to the ring with a ridiculous strawberry-blonde afro and "quirky" ring music, he looks like Lauren Harries crossed with a hyperactive schoolchild , and I really want him to die here. Therefore, Namiguchi schooling him on the mat is quite the treat, locking in headscissors and Boston crabs to wear him down. Your enjoyment of the match will probably be dependant on just how much you enjoy Lil Nate being tortured, so I did enjoy this very much. It's not totally one sided, as Nate gets a brief comeback and a few roll ups, but the end soon comes with Namiguchi grabbing him by his stupid hair to hit a top rope bulldog and a la majistral cradle to win.
Kevin Steen vs Takashi Sasaki
Fun to note how young and lean Steen looks here. This is perfectly fine wrestling, but it's fair to say this is "just a match". It gets to a point where Steen yells for the package piledriver, and I realise the only note I've made on the match is "Lovely moonsault by Steen" (and to be fair, it really was a beauty). Not that anything was bad per se, but just that some stuff happened, and then it was time for the finishing sequence, as both guys get nearfalls, before Steen actually gets the package piledriver (which I'm glad there was a bit of a fight for) to win.
Steve Corino & Amazing Kong vs Spanky & Saki Maemura
This is a mixed tag bout, but not one fought under mixed tag rules. The reason for this is likely the fact that Kong is both taller and bigger than Spanky. There is an underlying story that Kong has a "thing" for Spanky. I did enjoy Spanky being more scared of fighting Kong than fighting Corino, especially as he kept flying off her when trying shoulderblocks. Maemura fares better, as she uses speed and roll-ups to try and outfox Kong. Of course, this nearly backfires when the rules allow her to be in the ring, as the same time as Corino, who cockily bullies her until she hits a flying headscissors on him. We get a few sexual comedy spots, as Spanky avoids the advances of Kong, who ends up accidentally making out with Corino, before the smaller team repeatedly ram Corino's head into Kong's chest rather than the turnbuckle, and a few fun spots I'd not seen before. One involved Kong and Corino pressing Maemura off them during a pinfall attempt, only for Spanky to catch her and drop her back onto Kong. Spanky hits Sliced Bread #2 on Kong, but turns into a Corino lariat for the win. This was pretty entertaining.
Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs Ricky Reyes
Reyes was always my favourite Havana Pitbull, mainly due to his stocky build. This kicks off with some fun matwork, as I liked the fact they made it look like a real battle to lock in each hold. Takaiwa used a fantastic single-leg crab during this, holding Reyes at a painful looking angle. Outside, Reyes takes a few nasty bumps when he gets thrown into chairs and the bleachers. This was a match where Reyes always felt like he was in it, so not a squash, but at the same time it always felt like he was a shade behind Takaiwa, so it was no surprise when Takaiwa finished with his double powerbomb into a Death Valley Driver.
Minoru Fujita & Ikuto Hidaka vs CW Anderson & Jay Lethal
Pretty even tag match in the early going until Lethal tries to double-cross Fujita on a handshake, at which point things start to pick up. Anderson and Lethal play subtle heels here, and it's nice to note Anderson still has pretty sweet punches. Love them suplexing Fujita into a load of chairs at ringside. Hidaka gets a nice offensive flurry inside, before Lethal goes for a tope con hilo, which only hits his partner, with no opponent in site. Hidaka is a guy I've always liked, and he looks great here, reversing a CW spinebuster into a sunset flip in a really fluid motion. Anderson had a few staple spots that looked great, like his delayed superplex and the spinebuster (which he does eventually hit), and the match has a really nice ending sequence that only really goes overboard when Lethal is allowed to kick out of a spike tombstone piledriver. In the end, Hidaka pins Lethal following Sliced Bread #2. Fun match.
Takao Omori & Ryouji Sai vs Shinjiro Otani & Kohei Sato
No intros here, as the team of Otani and Sato attack before the bell. Omori ends up fighting Sato in the ring, but does a terrible job of trying to rip his shirt off in between strikes. Hulk Hogan, he is not. Otani is in prime dickish mode here, doing nasty little things like lifting his opponent up by the mouth, and I love his nasty dropkick to the face when he gets Sai in a tree of woe. Sai is the one chap in the match I don't know, and he gets to look really good here, really nailing Sato and Otani with his strikes and kicks, which all look crisp. In the second half of the match, Sato and Otani start to work over the arm of Omori, clearly to stop him throwing his big lariat. Otani in particular hits some nasty kicks to the limb. Omori does manage a two count on the Omori Driver, but his attempt at the lariat is thwarted by Otani kicking the arm, and avoiding a second attempt with a roll-up for the win.
Alex Shelley & Masato Tanaka vs Dick Togo & Sonjay Dutt
Here are two odd looking teams. This is a TLC match where pinfalls are valid. You've got to love the sight of Tanaka, five minutes into the match, shoulder all bandaged, diving from a ladder outside the ring to put Togo through a table to "ECW" chants. Tanaka proceeds to bloody Togo outside the ring, leaving Dutt at a two-on-one disadvantage. Predictably, he gets battered, with Tanaka crushing him with a ladder for two. Togo looks awesome coming in off a hot tag (though this is the only tag in the entire match, and Shelley and Tanaka had been treating the match like a tornado tag. Nonetheless, Togo shows great fire when he comes in). A suicide dive to a seated Shelley looks awesome. There is another lovely moment, where Togo pushes Shelley off the top rope to the outside, with the camera angle making it look like he's pushing Shelley into oblivion. There are a few nice spots in the closing moments of the match, including Dutt pushing Tanaka off a ladder into a Togo cutter through a table, which looks great. Dutt survives a superplex from the ladder through a table to hit an off-target Phoenix splash onto Shelley's face for the win. Really fun stunt match, though the Togo/Tanaka sequences were a lot smoother than the Shelley/Dutt moments.
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