ZERO1-MAX “GENESIS 2008″, 01.01.2008
ZERO1-MAX “GENESIS 2008″, 01.01.2008
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1,500 Fans
1. 2008 Opening Match:
Tengu Caeser & Tengu Baron vs. Munenori Sawa & Naoki Ueda
Sawa gets super short-changed here as Ueda takes about 2 minutes of offense from Baron and eats a frogsplash for the pinfall. Ceasar/Kaiser and sawa do trade a Pele kick and a shining wizard which takes both men out to the floor so Baron can get the easy 1-2-3 on Ueda. SQUASH.
2. Omori Army vs. Tanaka Army BIGSMALL:
Kohei Sato vs. El Blazer
This match didn;t seem to make the tape for some reason.
3. ZERO1-MAX vs. New Japan:
Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Shota Takahashi vs. Koji Kanamoto & Ryusuke Taguchi
I like Tatsuhito Takaiwa, I remember seeing him on one of my first Zero-1 tapes. And he’s in there with Koji Kanemoto so I had high hopes going in for a good match. After the first few minutes of feeling each other out Koji gets in there with Z-1’s Shota Takahashi and he steamrolls him with an ass-kicking for a good long time. Puts the boots to him and gives him nothing, throws him to the outside, Funky Weapon Taguchi even gets some humiliation in on Takahashi. It’s not a good brawl at all though, or a really good ass-spanking even though Koji can kick like a mule. Tatsuhito comes in and hits some lame offense before trading ankle locks and submissions with Koji. They work OK together but it’s not top shelf. The New Japan guys play heels. Tatsuhito hits one nice Michinoku Driver II in the match. Other then a few simple reversal submissions this wasn’t much fun. The finishing sequence had some hutzpa to it but that was about it. *3/4
4. Sad Hero:
Minoru Fujita vs. Great Sasuke
So these two seemed to have a feud going. I wondered what sasuke would bring to the table and if Fujita would up his game from the tag match these two had on the 12.24 X-Max show. Well, I don’t get my wish as Takuya Sugawara runs in, and then Kesen Numajiro and I don’t know what’s going on at this point. So they start a new match and it’s comedy, throw in a couple of Sasuke nice moves, and that’s it until the end when Fujita and Sugawara kick Sasuke’s ass again. *
5. New Year Special! New Year Wild Child:
Takao Omori & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Ryouji Sai & Yoshihito Sasaki
Well, this looks good on paper and should translate just as well. Nakanishi was pretty good at beating up the other two guys. Takao Omori is a decent enough prick heel. The Manabu Nakanishi offense is sometimes comical but I take him serious because I think he can probably kill somebody, like a giant baby. The pull apart at the end with New japan vs. Zero-1 was good. Although not a great match it was entertaining. **3/4
6. NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Title:
Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin (c) vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Dick Togo
This match starts off with some clips of a match hidaka had with the MCMGs and then another Zero-1 Max show with Hidaka in a tag. The match is really good from the get-go and they’re doing a bunch if cool spots and chain wrestling (but the X-Division kind), high spots and flying. It does seem a bit contrived and “fake” in alot of ways. So much action it was hard to take in. But they hit pretty much everything on point and did some really different things. Hot finish. ***3/4
7. World Heavyweight Title, Over the BEST:
Masato Tanaka (c) vs. Daisuke Sekimoto
Sekimoto has the deer caught in the headlights look about him. Still, Masato Tanaka did a good job of giving the kid alot of offense. The kid has zero facial expression and shows very little emotion, like a machine. But he wrestles like one too and I thought he had did some awesome things, like the roll through german suplexes and big man moves. But Daisuke is also sorta too small to be big and too big too be small. Really good match but I didn;t like the finish specifically, mainly because I wanted Daisuke to win. ***3/4
