SAITO vs. Genki Horiguchi
SAITO switched from the satin pyjama outfit to 80’s Hamada UWF Yoshihiro Asai tribute gear. Depending on whose choice this was: either SAITO is the world’s biggest suckup or Ultimo is a complete egomaniac. Existential questions aside: what a fun opener this was. Lots of great-looking lucha armdrags, dropkicks and high-flying shenanigans. Crowd was biting big time on all the rollup reversals, in large parts thanks to Horiguchi showing glimpses of his soon-to-be classic babyface fire and wild facial expressions. He also randomly busted out the BEACH BREAK for a near-fall at some point and Korakuen reacted like they had witnessed a murder. Tons of impressive offense from SAITO too: sign me up for all of those classy bridging suplexes. Also: THE SAITO SPECIAL #5! (Diving sunset-flip into headstand pin) ***
Magnum TOKYO, Dragon Kid & Kenichiro Arai vs. Shiima Nobunaga, Sumo Fuji & Judo Suwa
Although most of the execution was a lot better here, this had the same vibe as the King of Dragon 6-man: a collection of great moments spread across a slightly problematic/overly long layout. They still haven’t quite figured out the optimal pacing for these matches, as the drama and sense of crescendo keeps getting broken up by lesser sequences and filler spots that should be left on the drawing board. The C-MAX beatdown segment could also be shortened by half.
Still, lots of cool moments: Magnum and Kitto busting out a Golden Lovers-style ‘’CROSS SLASH’’ criss-cross inside out dive about 10 years before Ibushi and Kenny, Headbutt Master Araken randomly popping the crowd with a standing Moonsault and Firebird splash and the commentary team reminding me that TOKYO’s STF variant is called ‘’Stepover Toe-hold with Pheromone’’. Greatest move name of all time. It also needs to be said that a 2020 tag team should rip off the Shiima/Suwa assisted Tornado DDT ASAP. ***
Sumo Fuji vs. Kenichiro Arai
This had more of a heavyweight brawl feel than the usual Toryumon match. Crowd was 100% behind Araken and it made for a fun dynamic, with Arai having to overcome Fuji’s cheating big boy antics. The early parts weren’t the most engaging: lots of eye gouging and ball shots, but the ending stretch was really well done. A couple of riproaring murder lariats from Fuji got huge reactions, as did all of Arai’s comebacks. Avalanche Nodowa countered into an Avalanche Jawbreaker = awesome spot. Major pop for the Araken win. **3/4
Stalker Ichikawa vs. Tsubo Genjin
A fight to the death between two of the most vicious creatures of the squared circle. I actually spent most of the match searching for the name of Tsubo Genjin’s manager: a true vision of Lynchian horror. This guy doesn’t seem to exist anywhere on the World Wide Web, but I believe Ultimo referred to him as ‘’Dr. Arai’’ on commentary. I assume he’d the mad scientist who brought Tsubo back from the Paleolithic era and sent him on the warpath against Earth’s savior Stalker Ichikawa. Ted Tanabe was a great third man in this, total prototype for Referee Matsui of Kuishinbo/Ebessan/DDT fame. Stalker exhausting himself while rope-running for the finish was my kind of dumb fun. **
SAITO, Genki Horiguchi & Susumu Mochizuki vs. Shiima Nobunaga, Sumo Fuji & TARU
While this didn’t have the crazy Korakuen excitement of the previous C-MAX tags, I dug how grounded and character-based the action was. With Ace of Sexuality Magnum TOKYO and Dragon Kid busy elsewhere, the Sekigun B-Team very much got their asses handed to them and it made for a refreshing dynamic. Less triple team overkill from Crazy MAX and more dickish bullying. Shiima in particular was a colossal prick out there, even stopping a near-fall from his own teammate to make sure SAITO would suffer for a while longer. Long story short: the heels came off as monster threats and the babyfaces looked good in defeat. **1/2
Dragon Kid © vs. Judo Suwa – NWA World Welterweight
Even with the opening minutes missing, this was another step forward in the endlessly fun rivalry between these two. Probably Suwa’s best performance to date, as he tightened up his heel work and started adding new layers to his beatdown segment, notably by targeting Kitto’s arm and thus neutralizing some of his future near-falls. The babyface heat for DK here was completely insane: the crowd latching on to all of his comebacks and going mental for the flippiness. And my god, the flippiness was on another level. Suwa took some ALL TIME BUMPS for all of DK’s rana variants and debuted the World Liner reversal for the finish, which is still to this day one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen in a professional wrestling ring. An action-packed 12 minute ride of a wrasslin’ match with a pitch perfect heel/face dynamic and a bunch of wild high spots from the future. ***1/4
