Taso the Greek’s “Bumpin’ Heads 2008″

ZERO1-MAX “ZERO1-MAX 3RD ANNIVERSARY”, 23.01.2008
Tokyo Korakuen Hall

6. International Jr. Heavyweight Title:
Ikuto Hidaka (c) vs. Masaaki Mochizuki ***

Looking back I don’t think this was as good of a card as I have seen from Z-1 so far this year. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the tag team match and subsequent punking out of Sasuke by Minoru Fujita & Takuya Sugawara. The New Japan vs. Z1 stuff is pretty good and Omori, Nakanishi, and Kanamoto all look good in getting this over. I’m totally diging the Kengo Mashimo vs. Yoshihito Sasaki, big fan of Mashimo and his bad-assness. There were some great spots and reversals and counters in the main event, and Mochizuki is a guy who I always pay attention too when he’s in there after seeing him as Kamikaze vs. Colt Cabana. No doubt Ikuto Hidaka is big dookie in Japan but I think he’s a pretty boy and I like to see him get his ass kicked.

ZERO1-MAX, 17.02.2008
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1,400 Fans

1. Super Dragon Wall 3rd:
Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Ueda Shito

Squash match for Takaiwa. I am starting to see what I have read, the guy’s dearth of talent and charisma. Deecent showing for Shito. SQUASH.

2. Mecha Mummy Try-Out Match - Mechanic vs. Robot:
Mecha Mummy vs. Shock Wave the Robot

My first look at Shock Wave the Robot. Hopefully he can have a match with someone not as highly specialized. Made for a boring match that seemed more performance art then puro. Anywho, nothing can beat Mecha-Mummy vs. Minoru Suzuki. Even TWO Mecha-Mummys 1/2*

3. Shota Takanishi, Munenori Sawa & Saki Maemura vs. KAMIKAZE, Osamu Namiguchi & Hikaru

This match must have been left off, too bad I was looking forward to it.

4. Ikuto Hidaka vs. Sandy Beach

The plodding jr. heavyweight style of Sandy Beach doesn’t leave much to the imagination. Ikuto Hidaka throws some shitty punches. Sandy has some flashes of talent and the surfer gimmick is worth a chuckle. Hidaka doesn’t impress me and I know his tag team with Fujita was highly lauded. This match has a decent finish although it does tend to drag a bit. **1/2

5. First-On Stage Nomination Match - Sword Army vs. Axe Army:
Masato Tanaka & Shinjiro Otani vs. Takuya Sugawara & Minoru Fujita

I expected more from Sugawara and especially Fujita. They seem lazy and their offense looks very indy spot-tastic. Ohtani and Tanaka show tons more ability, timing, better execution, and much more charisma then their younger counterparts. Ohtani especially was working well and had the crowd in the palm of his hand the whole time. Simple paint-by-numbers tag match. **1/4

6. ZERO1-MAX vs. New Japan:
Takao Omori & Hugohugoyumeji vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Mitsuhide Hirasawa

I dunno who Huo is but he got his ass kicke in about 3 minutes and NJPW won the match. That in turn brought out Kamikaze, one of my favorite Z-1 wrestlers. They started the match over and had a hell of a stiff match. I am not a Nakanishi fan but he played the big bruiser very well and hit some nasty head-dropping moves on Omori and Kamikaze. Hirasawa was pretty non-existent. **1/2

7. Sword Army vs. Axe Army:
Ryouji Sai & Kengo Mashimo vs. Yoshihito Sasaki & Kohei Sato

Kengo and Sasaki have some good chemistry going in their little feud here. This was a step aove the last tag match, as the participants were a little more mobile. Some stiff clotheslines vicious suplexes, but typical puro fare overall for a decent hard-hitting tag match.**1/2

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

ZERO1-MAX/First-On Stage X’max Special “YEARS*CROSS OVER”, 24.12.2007
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1,500 Fans

The show starts with clips of Masato Tanaka, Ohtani, Osamu Nishimura, Yoshihiro Takayama, and more. They played one of those Farm Aid Christmas songs in the background. Let me make a mental note that this event is in the running for Christmas Show of the Year Award.

1. Super Dragon Wall 2nd:
Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Osamu Namiguchi

Takaiwa makes Namiguchi tap in less then 5 minutes. Squash.

2. Mr. Danger Joining Check:
Syota Takanishi vs. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga

Matsunaga hit about 5 kicks and got the pinfall. Squash.

X’mas Special Tag Match:
Ikuto Hidaka & El Blazer vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Munenori Sawa

This match had comedy, high spots, and some real good intensity from Hidaka. Masaaki Mochizuki and Hidaka had some sort of beef anf they played on that a little bit. El Blazer has those great lightweight daredevil moves and dives. Nice trade of kicks by Hidada and Mochizuki, then Blazer does some of his high spot moves off the top rope, nice kicks with a 619, high energy double kick to the face. Some good double teaming as well from both teams. Sawa hits a nice shining wizard knee on Blazer. Lots of pinfall break-ups. High impact kicks and punches and dives. Nice rush by Sawa with a helicopter jumping kick, into a pin attempt, then after the kick out at two snatches Blazer’s arm for a tap out victory. **3/4

4. Wind & Cloud Emergency to 2008 ~
Yoshihiro Takayama X’mas Present Match: Ryouji Sai vs. Minoru Suzuki

Minoru is one of my favorite wrestlers, he’s hilarious and tough and a dick. Suzuki ducks the first assualt by Sai. He plays a little cat and mouse to start things off on the outside. Love the crazy haircut on Suzuki. Decent back and forth. They are telling the story of the young rookie vs. the grizzled veteran. Good technical wrestling, traditional wrestling. Suzuki does some good moves and shows how great of a character he is, laughing when he is inflicting pain, knows when to play to the fans. They give this alot of time, too much time. Suzuki works the sleep hold alot. Lots of rope breaks by Sai on submission moves by Suzuki. A good finish to the match that was put over well with the submission style Suzuki had Sai in the whole match. **3/4

5. Yoroshiku Aishu:
Minoru Fujita & Takuya Sugawara vs. Great Sasuke & Tengu Caeser

They show some vignettes of this feud between I believe Sasuke and Fujita. The match itself was pretty craptastic. Fujita shows a little charisma here on the mic. Fujita and Sugawara rush the faces and the match begins. Ceaser does some good abdominal stretch variations, even a double abdominal stretch at one point. Some OK double teaming here as well. Ref bump and Sugawara and Fujita take advantage. Also about 10 nut shots, Sugawara and Ceaser take about 3-5 each. That didn’t make sense, but keep score if you like on sack smashers. It’s not a bad match but it’s not good either. Springboard elbow off the ropes by Sasuke. He’s pretty non-existent in this match. Does maybe 5 moves that are anything interesting. The kicks aren’t crisp in the match either. Ceaser hits a corkscrew moonsault but it was crap because he missed by a mile. Suddenly Tengu Kaiser, as opposed to Tengu Ceaser, hits the ring to stop the heels from cheating with the ref down. Tengu Ceaser with green mist and super kick for the pinfall. In the end Sasuke tries to help Fujita, who shakes his hand but then hits a DDT so this feud appears still alive. *3/4

6. The Best of 2007:
Masato Tanaka vs. Yoshihito Sasaki

This was a good match and with it Tanaka threw his hat in the ring for best brawler. I know it is early but the man puts on some of the best fights and I can’t believe he is still up to this level. I watch two or three of his matches a year and it’s amazing he can go at this pace with this style. I know sasaki but not that well. A little research shopws he’s at least a 7 year vet and wrestled in FMW. He’s a free-agent player and also a good babyface brawler. These guys clothesline the shit out of each other in the vignesttes. Shake hands before the bell. There’s some good wrestling in here as well as the brawling, especially at the beginning. Lots of trading of blows, shoulder blocks, the nasty elbows and forearms and clotheslines. Tanaka really goes to work on Sasaki’s arm inside and out of the ring. The brawl out of the ring is awesome. Tanaka hits Sasaki with a table, one of those unbreakable Japanese table. Then he frogsplashes him through the table off the top rope to the floor. tanaka works over the arm on the outside and really kicks it out a notch. Sasaki sells the beating well, bleeds like a stuck pig. Tanaka tugs on it, stretches the arm, posts it a few times, smashes a chair into the elbow and arm. He dings it on the apron, taking it out, maybe taking out the big sasaki clothesline perhaps. Inside the ring Tanaka works the arm again with a wrist lock, scissors the arm, drops a leg on it. sasaki comes back a bunch of times with the hard-hitting shots, and the match becomes a nasty punchfest. Clotheslines galore towards the end of the match. Tanaka can’t hit the diamond dust DDT. Michinoku Driver by sasaki on Tanaka off the top rope but Tanaka kicks out. Sasaki looking for his Argentine Coaster and gets it. Tanaka hits his Roaring Elbow a few times and its a great run to see whose not going to kick out. I’m not HUGE on that sitting forarm smash that Tanaka finishes people with but its decent enough and an evolution of the wrestler. Gets a little sloppy towards the end with the reversals. Tanaka hits a nice falcon arrow and there are lots nasty head dropping moves here. Lots of reversals, blocks, and a flurry of shots to go to the finish of a great match. ***1/2

Taped 3/21/06 Sapporo Part 1)
——————————–
1) Colt Cabana vs. Kamikaze
Kamikaze is the former Tengu Kaiser is the former Aniki. Worked some armwork together real nice. Then they worked an abdominal stretch dealio, then Cabana kicked his ass. Good quality match. **1/4
2) Minoru Fujita & Ikuto Hidaka vs. Takuya Sugawara & Crazy Boy (NWA Int’l Lightweight Tag Titles)
I watched this twice. I was sadly underwhelmed. I expect Sugawara to be able to work well with Fujita & Hidaka but the whole thing was a spotfest-mess and really boring. I blame Crazy Boy. He sucked. But this match never got into a good rythm at all. *1/2
3) Shinjiro Ohtani vs. Mitsuya Nagai (AWA Title)
Ohtani controls for a bit then goes for a face wash and gets cut off. Mitsuya Nagai then attacks the taped up knee, rips off the bandages, Texas Cloverleaf, makes a mockery of Ohtani, throws him into some chairs at ringside. Meanwhile, I see Corino running around with pink hair and tights. I think he is seconding Ohtani. Anyway, Ohtani and Nagai begin to trade suplexes and sleepers and submissions. Ohtani takes it with a sleeper/submission variation and then a guy on a horse shows up. And Ohtani then rides off on this horse in the gymnasium. He also cuts a promo from what appears to be Coney Island Astro Park. **