Pro Wrestling Chaos 6: To Crown A King

Pro Wrestling Chaos are a company who run shows down in the Bristol area, and have a roster that features quite a few of my favourite British wrestlers. Seeing as how I live a good 2 hours+ from Bristol, I decided the easiest way to check them out would be by DVD instead. This show is based around a four-man tournament to crown the King of Chaos champion, and is a really fun show from start to finish.

 

JD Knight vs Dave Mercy

This is the first semi-final tournament match. Given that I've only seen him before as an amusingly perverted heel, the one thing I wasn’t expecting is to see Dave Mercy as a fired-up, white-meat babyface. It really suits him too, he looked really good at working over Knight in the early going. Knight takes over after snapping Mercy’s neck over the top rope and starts grounding Mercy. His covers looks pretty nonchalant, which allows Mercy to make a comeback with a flurry of blows and a swank looking Northern Lights suplex. Knight hits a chokebomb, which only gets two, and he seems frustrated at this, going outside to grab the ringbell. The ref stops him, but it turns out to be a distraction, as Knight instead nailed Mercy with a wrench from his tights to get the win. Or so it seemed, as the ref raises his hand before he has a chance to hide the wrench, which leads to it’s discovery. The ref restarts the match, and Mercy hits a quick RKO to win. Fun opener.

 

Mike Bird vs Wild Boar

I really like both guys, so I had high expectations for this one. Boar is working face here, and it’s nice to see that he’s still plenty vicious on the mat in this role, working the fingers of Bird. I liked Boar’s punches in the corner, pummelling Bird to the ground, then picking him up to deliver more punches. There was a lovely little sequence to change the momentum, as Bird avoids a charge, and rolls Boar up with a schoolboy, then hits a double-stomp right away. Bird starts slapping Boar around the head, which seems a foolish thing to do to rile up his opponent, but then he brilliantly follows it up by running the ropes at the same time as Boar to hit a big clothesline from the side, which looked great. Boar’s corner senton looks great as ever, but Bird picks up the win with another big clothesline and a cradle piledriver. Really great match.

Dick Morgan, Alex Steele & Eddie Dennis vs The Doomsday Killers (Gideon, KillBane & Ian Williams)

This starts off as a singles match between Gideon and Morgan, before Williams attacks Morgan from behind. This leads to Steele and Dennis making the save and proposing this six-man tag. I quite like the initial structure of this match where, despite an initial flurry of offence by the faces, the Doomsday Killers are able to take over following a big Gideon kick to Morgan, capitalising on his still being groggy from the pre-match assault. I thought Gideon looked terrific in this match, with just nasty, vicious looking blows that looked convincingly painful. I also dug his offence on Steele following a hot tag, with him holding Steele in a standing chokehold which he then turned into an overhead butterfly suplex, which looked ace. Things break down after another hot tag to Dennis, and things get a little sloppy until they head to a hot end sequence. A big series of dives by Steele, Williams and Gideon culminates in a big flip dive by Dennis. The action returns to the ring with a series of moves, before Morgan finishes Williams off with a Northern Lights suplex, which he rolls through with into a brainbuster. Decent match, really made me want to see more of Gideon.

Big Grizzly vs Rampage Brown

The box has this match down as “Steve Griffiths vs Rampage Brown”, but it wasn’t until I got to the menu screen that I realised “Steve Griffith” is blog favourite Big Grizzly, and this became a match I was super excited to see. This was a really good big man bout, with a fun story. Rampage Brown is a big bruiser of a man, but for once he’s out-sized by his opponent. Rampage tries a couple of shoulderblocks without shifting Grizzly, and Grizzly meets him with a running knee as he hits the ropes for the third try. They trade some big blows on the outside of the ring, and back inside Rampage tries to pick up Grizzly onto his shoulders with no joy. This is teased a few times in the match, and I like that, strong as Rampage is, he isn’t able to just lift Grizzly on the first try. Grizzly can move for a guy his size, and I really like the way that he uses this size as a weapon, smashing into Rampage like a demolition ball with a running shoulderblock. Grizzly gets a two count off a big sideslam, before Rampage hits a big lariat and finally hoists Griz onto his shoulders for a running Samoan drop, which gives him the victory. Loved this.

Chris Masters vs Jeckel

Masters is quite a regular on these shores nowadays, and it’s fun to see how he matches up with different opponents, and if he works a heel or face. Here, he was working as a face, which involved him overpowering Jeckel, until receiving a poke to the eye. He managed to catch Jeckel on a pescado attempt, but ended up getting rammed into the ring post. Jeckel looks to be a decent size, just not as big as Masters, so it made sense for him to use these little shortcuts. Jeckel heeled it up a storm when in control, with chokes and boot scrapes to wear down Masters. Jeckel gets a bit too over confident and spends ages going for a top rope legdrop, which he somewhat inevitably misses, and Masters gets him with a lovely Sky High powerbomb. Masters locks in the Masterlock, but Jeckel pulls the ref to him to hide him giving Masters a low blow, which allows Jeckel to pick up the cheap roll up victory. This was fun.

Mike Bird vs Dave Mercy

This is the final of the King of Chaos title tournament, and the other wrestlers comes out onto the stage to watch the match, which is a nice touch. I liked Bird pre-bell trying to wind up Mercy and get under his skin, which leads to Mercy attacking him with a flourish at the bell. They brawl outside  the ring and through the crowd to the stage, before getting back to the ring, where Mercy misses a top rope splash. Bird takes over, and hits a really cool looking running legdrop in the corner. Mercy tries firing back with some really great looking punches, but telegraphs one which gives Bird time to block it. Bird misses a top rope moonsault, giving Mercy enough time to get his second wind, hitting a Northern Lights suplex and a Michinoku Driver for two. Bird is able to hit a fucking Dragon suplex on Mercy, which sends him from the ring, and Bird follows him out with two suicide dives onto the dazed Mercy. Bird is fully in the ascendancy here, but is caught diving into the ring by a RKO from Mercy, and only getting his foot on the ropes prevents Bird getting pinned. They battle on the top rope, and Bird tries for a top rope cradle piledriver (which it really looked like he was going to hit) before Mercy breaks free. This does lead to a really great end sequence. They fight on the ring apron, and Bird DOES get to hit the cradle piledriver on the ring apron. Mercy is pretty much out, but does just about get back into the ring before the 10 count…only for Bird to immediately hit another cradle piledriver for the clean victory. Really loved this,  both guys managed to look stronger coming out than going in, which is surely the aim of matches like this.

Osaka Pro 2004 Super J Cup

Naomichi Marufuji vs Jun Kasai
This is the first of four first-round matches in the Super J cup tournament. I quite like what little I've seen of Kasai before, so this should be interesting. He looks pretty good here, and is quite dominant at first, nailing some DDT's and getting two from a top rope splash. I also loved him hitting a low blow then quickly spinning Marufuju around to disorient him before getting two off a backslide. They work at quite a fast pace, both trying for rollups to get the swift win - sensible in a tournament setting, before Marufuji gets Sliced Bread for the win.

Goa vs Garuda
I have seen one Gaurda match before and zero Goa matches, so going into this blind. Garuda has a great look and hits a nice suicide dive early, so I've taken to him already. Goa is stockier and goes to the chinlock pretty swiftly into his offensive run. Not too sure about the flow of this match: Garuda breaks out of a sharpshooter and within 30 seconds is hitting a plancha on Goa, which seems too quick a transition. Falcon Arrow gets two for Garuda. Goa hit some power offense, including a Jackhammer for two, but Garuda ducks a Shining Wizard and gets the win following a rana. Their work was decent enough, but the match needed a bit better structure.

Wataru Inoue vs Kazuya Yuasa
These two face off before the introductions, so hopefully we'll see a bit of fire here. Yuasa wins the ensuing strike exchange with a nice big clothesline. Another strike exchange, which is one of my least favourite things in wrestling, follows. Inoue takes over with a largely pointless bit of matwork, before Yuasa suckers him in outside the ring and nails him with a dropkick as he dives from the apron. I like that a lot of Yuasa's offence involves some beefy blows, with uppercuts and clotheslines hurting Inoue. Yuasa does annoy me by twice going to an anklelock, despite having used no offence on Inoue's leg before. After a deathlock doesn't work, he doesn't go back to it either. After avoiding another Yuasa clothesline, Inoue locks in an Octopus Stretch for the win. This wasn't great.

Takehiro Murahama vs Taichi Ishikari
Ishikari goes on offence quickly here, levelling Murahama with dropkicks and a big German suplex for two. Again, makes sense to go for the quick win in a tournament. Murahama seems to be a bit of a striker, so he nails some stiff blows to take over. I get the impression he's the more favoured of the two, as Ishikari seems to go to quick offensice flurries when he gets an opening, as if he doesn't want to risk Murahama recovering. When he does hesitate, Murahama kicks him in the head to take over. Murahama seems confident on offence, blitzing Ishikari with kicks and, despite a few desperation roll ups by his opponent, quickly wins with a brainbuster. Really enjoyed this, told a good story of the overmatched guy trying to sneak a win against the odds.

Ofune vs Apple Miyuki
Joshi match here to break up the tournament matches. This really isn't very good and there is something quite annoying about Ofune. They run through a bunch of basic offence, though Miyuki at least shows fire with some stomps in the corner, and I did enjoy one submission hold she did from the corner. A guilotene choke gets the win for Ofune.

Tomohiro Ishii, MEN'S Teioh & MIKAMI vs Kintaro Kanemura, Azteca & Big Boss MA-G-MA
Kanemura has some bandaging on his neck, which is pretty distracting. I remember liking the one MIKAMI match I saw previously, and he's pretty slick here too. Both teams having a big powerhouse (Ishii and Kanemura) adds a fun element as their face-off leads to everything breaking down outside the ring. Back in, MIKAMI gets picked out, including taking a stepladder to the nuts from Kanemura. MA-G-MA gets great air hurling him across the ring with a butterfly suplex. The heat section on MIKAMI sees him getting pummelled by his three bigger opponents before the leads to Ishii clearing house like a beast. Huge superplex on Kanamura is impressive. We head into a hot finishing sequence, with MIKAMI taking top rope splashes from Azteca and MA-G-MA, which his partners break up on the pin, and Ishii kills Azteca with a snap powerbomb, also for two. The end sees Azteca hit in quick succession by a Miracle Ecstasy Bomb by Teioh, a swanton from a ladder by MIKAMI and finally a brainbuster by Ishii to finish him off. Great fun match here. Of note, the ref kept curiously jumping in the ring, like he was stomping ants. Very odd.

Ebessan vs Kuishinbo Kamen
Man, it takes these two forever to get to the ring. This is, as you'll know if you've heard of these two, a comedy match. This appears to be some kind of title defence by Ebessan. They run few a few of the usual comedy routines, wrestling in slo-mo, wrestling that turns into a dance routine etc. However, some wrestling does sneak through and it does end up being something resembling a match. I thought Ebessan hit a lovely Sky Twister Press, as did Kamen, who picked up the win with his.

Garuda vs Naomichi Marufuji
I liked Garuda, after a little bit of token matwork, just going "fuck it" and hitting a huge tope about a minute into the match. Garuda goes back to the matwork to ground Marufuji, but Marufuji is slightly quicker on the mat and takes over there. They end up outside, where Garuda seems more comfortable, hitting a decent Asai moonsault. Things really heat up from there, and the final few minutes, though maybe a bit too back-and-forth, were a lot of fun. Garuda hit a swank Dragon suplex for a very close two. He misses a 450 splash, but in turn avoids Sliced Bread from Marufuji, who instead quickly locks in a Majistral cradle for the win. Fun semi-final.

Takehiro Murahama vs Wataru Inoue
This was a fun match. Murahama spent a good proportion of this bout kicking Inoue to fuck, with some lightning fast kicks too much for the New Japan man. I especially liked Murahama teasing one type of kick, then nailing a different one when Inoue tried to block. Inoue's offence didn't seem convincing, despite him being given an even share of the bout, though a cross legged brainbuster looked pretty good. There was a great spot, where Inoue tried to block a top rope superplex by repeatedly hitting Murahama, who would just about hold on to the top rope, before eventually hitting the suplerplex. Murahama gets two from a brutal looking kick flurry, and shortly after wins with a brainbuster.

TAKA Michinoku & Shiryu vs Billy Ken Kid & Tigers Mask
This is a pretty fun tag match, largely due to the heeling of TAKA and Shiryu. They work over Billy Ken Kid to start, and do little annoying things like gouging at his face and trying to undo his mask. Just little dick moves. Shiryu in particular levels some stiff blows on Kid. We see a little friction in the heel team after some "face ducks and move hits partner instead" , but they manage to stay on the same page to work Kid over. TAKA keeps going to a crossface on BKK, which he'll repeat throughout the match. The hot tag to Tigers Mask sees some nice stereo dives by the faces. Tigers Mask gets a two count from a Tiger suplex, but Kid misses a 450 splash, before more stereo dives, this time from the heel team. The heel friction shows up again as Shiryu hits TAKA by accident with a leg lariat. TAKA tries to lock in another crossface on BKK, but it's not locked on properly and Kid rolls him up in a crucifix for the victory.

HEAT, KENTA & CIMA vs Jushin Liger, Jinsei Shinzeki & Super Delfin
Interesting battle of the three younger stars against the more established veterans. The youth clear the ring to start, and start working over Delfin, clearly seeing him as the weak link of the team. I loved HEAT just nailing Delfin with repeated dropkicks in the corner. Liger gets tagged in, and gets a surfboard on CIMA, and I just love Shinzeki coming in to stand guard, preventing CIMA's partners saving him with a magnificent grumpy look on his face. Liger is also magnificently surly in the match, seeing an attempt to break a pin coming, and immediately standing up and giving a non-too-subtle "up yours" gesture. Things start to break down, and the young guns hit a series of dives each. Shinzeki hitting the ropewalk on CIMA and KENTA at the same time is pretty swank. The end sequence is an exciting series of moves, but Delfin gets isolated trying the Delfin Clutch on CIMA and, after getting kicked to fuck, he gets hit with Schwein by CIMA for the win. This was a lot of fun.

Naomichi Marufuji vs Takehiro Murahama
The tournament final, and it's not the two most exciting guys in there (but then my personal choice of Garuda vs Kasai wouldn't have gone down too well). Unfortunately, whilst this is ok, these two seem to have a few communication issues, which makes this look a little sloppy. Curiously, given that I've found Marufuji the weaker half of his two earlier matches and have generally enjoyed Murahama in this tournament, it was Marufuji who impressed more here. I liked his gameplan of focusing on the legs of Murahama to remove his striking game, even if Murahama seemed unwilling to sell the damage as soon as it was his turn on offence. Marufuji even busted out the old Bret Hart ringpost figure four. They tease a superplex to the floor, but instead Murahama takes a nice bump to the floor before kicking the leaping Marufuji in mid air, which looked good. In the ring, Murahama gets two off a brainbuster, before Marufuji also gets two from Sliced Bread #2. The end sees Marufuji hit Sliced Bread again, this time from the top rope, to pick up the victory. This had a few good moments, but didn't really come together well.