Taso the Greek’s “Bumpin’ Heads 2008″

1. Osamu Kido vs. Ultimo Dragon (5 minute exhibition)
O….K. This was cool. I dunno, I’m dshaking my head. Exhibition match. Ended with Ultimo caught in a crowbar. *
2. Yuki Ishikawa vs. Hiroyuki Ito
Ito comes out aggressive with some nice kicks, then they hit the mat and Yuki slaps on a leg vine and I can see how unless you have it on right, it won’t always mean instant submission. Then they get into trading some crucifix armbars and I don’t understand how that isn’t an instant tap out. Again, like I have stated before, it watches like MMA training as opposed to a real fight. Ito gets behind Yuki for a rear naked choke, still no tap out, nor an exaggerated response by Yuki to a possible choke out. Back to a crucifix arm bar by Ito. See? If you stick someone with a possible choke out, you don’t let it go for an arm bar. More fluidity from one move to the other would help alot. More, “out of nowhere!” type moves, submission, etc. would improve the matches. I still liked this alot, except there are too many holes in it for me to love it. **
3. Don Arakawa vs. Munenori Sawa
Comedy match. Why? I dunno, cuz sawa doesn’t come off as a comedy guy. In fact, he flubbed tons of stuff in trying to work this abortion of a match. And why is Don winning against a young stud like Sawa? 1/2*
4. Alex Karaev vs. Katsumi Usuda
Holy crap, Karaev is HUGE! Holy crap, this match sucked. the guy has the mobility of road kill. Impressive size… nice try by Usuda… this just doesn’t ring out BML to me. It doesn’t say shoot-style. It says freak show, comedy hour. 1/2 *
5. Enson Inoue vs. Manabu Hara
Give this match 5-7 more minutes and you have a nice example of a great match of this style. **1/2
6. Kensuke Sasaki & Kazunari Murakami vs. Fujiwara & Minoru Suzuki .
This match made me laugh out loud. It was hilarious and everyone played their parts great. Yoshiaki Fujiwara, God knows how old he is, can go better then any WWE mid-carder. Suzuki is a great personality and a great wrestler and brawler. Murakami looks like he takes an actual beating in this match from the diabolical duo of Fujiwara and Suzuki. Kensuke comes in to clean some house and Murakami proves himself here with some of the best running headbutts I’ve ever seen. ****
7. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima
Solid, well exceuted, good reversals, lotsa striking… too much striking but then they deviated in the end to some more baic offense. They are at the top of the game but you watch them and it almost looks effortless. Shibata is just too versed in the submissions in the end for Nakajima, who still put up one hell of a fight. ***

Osamu Kido vs. Don Arakawa
WWE would do alright if they brought in occasional old school guys to wrestle one-on-one, just for kicks. *
Manabu Hara vs. Munenori Sawa
Shoot-style, huh? Bitch-slap style is more like it. Why didn’t they punch each other in the face like the Murakami/Inoue match? Good match, stiff, sometimes unbelieveable in that escapes seemed obvious, like two guys training as opposed to really going toe-to-toe. The mix of pro wrestling moves with shoot was good. ***
Katsumi Usuda vs. Masanobu Kurisu
Dig the psychology of the old warrior versus the younger fighter. **1/4
Kengo Mashimo/KAZMA vs. Yuki Ishikawa/Hiroyuki Ito
I was digging Kengo’s dickiness. They went over strong in a match that didn’t feature that much except the shoot-style. I liked it the first time, less so when I rewatched. **1/4
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Akitoshi Saito
I like my Saito blonde. I envisioned Fujiwara in WWE coming in to teach Gunner Scott and talking with Chris benoit and then someone disrespects Fujiwara and he beats their ass. Fujiwara > Bullet Bob. *3/4
AJ Styles vs. Petey Williams
I wasn’t into it. I reviewed this match early in the year. “Meh” was the feeling then and now. **
Kazunari Murakami vs. Enson Inoue
This started so well and ended so shitty. I like seeing people punch each other in the face. I mean that in the sense that it looks real and these were not shitty John Cena punches. So much left on the table here it seemed to me. Dissapointed comes to mind. *1/2
Satoshi Kojima vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Great match in many ways but it seemed caught in a culture shock, or stuck between two worlds. Heavyweight style certainly doesn’t do it for me like juniors can, and after watching three straight D-Gate shows the strong-style/shoot-style leaves something to be desired. Not that both men were not execellent in this match. **1/2

I got to watch this match from Big Mouth Loud and basically, these guys seemed to be going thru the motions. Spot for spot it was fine, but there was little fire and lots of stalling. Too bad.

Big Mouth Loud: AJ Styles vs Petey Williams 12/29/05

I also got to watch a bunch of other matches today:

Mitsuharu Misawa, Takashi Sugiura, & Mushiking Terry vs. Kensuke Sasaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima, & Mushiking Joker: NOAH 1/22/06

Mushiking Terry (Kotaru Suzuki) and young Nakajima really shined in this match. Everything was pretty good. Kensuke Sasaki is a good brawler.

KENTA & Katsuyori Shibata beat Mitsuharu Misawa & Go Shiosaki : NOAH 12/4/05

This was an awesome match. For starters, KENTA and Kat Shibata make for some serious bad asses. Katshibata is a bad ass X10. My first Go Shiosaki match, and I didn’t like him at first, but then his comeback was really good and believable. I also realized he took a beating in the ring as Shibata and Kenta just unloaded onhim and Misawa didn’t doo alot of work. But still, just being Misawa and throwing the elbows seems enoguh. This was like **** star tag match. *** 3/4!!!