The Dragon Gate Network’s removal of all GAORA ads makes these shows an absolute breeze to go through, yet I am deeply missing the skate punk intros. These things were pretty integral to introducing the product as the coolest shit around and something doesn’t feel right without them.
Genki Horiguchi vs. Yasushi Kanda
These two opened the inaugural show back in January and it’s absurd how far they’ve come already. Genki’s surfer gimmick was makings its TV debut here and it’s a considerable step up from the bland Young Dragon attire of the last few shows. He hasn’t mastered the complete happy go lucky shtick yet, but he was still a great babyface foil for Kanda’s stoic ring dominance. Kanda doesn’t have the biggest personality, but he was extremely competent at cutting off Horiguchi and making him work from underneath to build up that delicious HAKATA STAR LANES HEAT~! You know you’re on the right track when you’re getting main event pops for your opening match kickouts. The basics have been mastered and these guys are now moving on to trickier shit, like the wild Beach Break countered into Powerbomb attempt countered into a rana COUNTERED INTO A BOSTON CRAB sequence of pure wrestling bliss. Thank you my good dragon children for opening this show properly. ***
Stalker Ichikawa vs. TARU
Misawa/Kawada. New Japan/UWF. Tenryu/Jumbo. Stalker Ichikawa/TARU. Yes, these are the legendary rivalries that changed Japanese pro-wrestling forever and this match was certainly part of that journey. They went a lot further than in their previous encounter, doing a bit less comedy and more straight wrestling – the crowd actually biting on a ton of Stalker near-falls. Special shoutout to the brilliant GAORA editing for cutting to special guest commentator Magnum TOKYO’s look of pure shock after Ichikawa’s buckwild somersault tope. Testicular gourmet Chocoball has joined Crazy MAX off screen at this point (one of the group’s many Random Fifth Members) and he was kind enough to provide TARU with the toilet paper for his infamous Toilet Pinfall. **1/2
Magnum TOKYO, Kenichiro Arai & SAITO vs. Shiima Nobunaga, Sumo Fuji & TARU
I was ready to give up on this match after the ill-advised opening injury angle with Suwa that ended up babyfacing Crazy MAX and the 10 minutes of aimless back and forth that followed, but the action got undeniably fun the more the match kept going. Still, I’m puzzled as to why all of these 6-man tags kept getting 30 minutes at this point in time, when clearly nothing of interest ever happened for that first third of action. The heels finally built up some heat once they settled on SAITO as their whipping boy (instead of letting the babyfaces constantly tag out) and everyone was able to reach their second gear in the post-hot-tag uber-extended closing stretch. TARU seemed particularly motivated to make an impression here, busting out a lot of nifty offense for the first time including an Otani-worthy Spiral Bomb. Random closing observation: Shiima’s cocky non-chalance and Araken’s uber-earnest headbutt energy were such a weird fit back then. ***
TAKA Michinoku vs. Chocoball KOBE
We are live from KOBE WORLD HALL and WWF SUPERSTAR TAKA Michinoku is here. Fitting of the promotion’s first annual extravaganza in Kobe. The amount of ring-side offense Suwa got in on TAKA made me think a singles match between the two was probably the original plan here. Helas, we have fully entered the Injured Suwa era of crutch-based interference. Anyway, this only lasted 3 minutes but TAKA still got in a mind-melting Spaceman Plancha for the ages because why not. Him chewing gum while half-heartedly selling Chocoball’s punches was also an incredible visual. **
Magnum TOKYO, Great Sasuke, Tiger Mask & Kenichiro Arai vs. Shiima Nobunaga, Sumo Fuji, TARU & Sasuke The Great
PREVIOUSLY ON RETRO RAMBLING: Due to getting caught up in the extremely high match quality excitement of Magnum vs. Sasuke, I forgot to mention the entire post-match angle where Crazy MAX abandoned SASUKE Gumi, causing Sasuke to revert back to his babyface roots. The Kobe World Hall main event was the blowoff to that whole Toryumon/Michinoku Pro crossover and it was a hell of a good time. I assume Sasuke sat down with the boys before the match and told them to cut the shit, because this was a lot more to the point than any of the recent C-MAX/Sekigun 6-man tags. Super fast pace from the get go with no 10 minute opening filler period, a bunch of quality dives including the unbeatable Sasuke Con Hilo and a sweet AV Starpress from Magnum to cap off the match. I was always looking forward to the Toryumon/M-Pro cross promotion as a kid and it’s still getting the job done today. ***1/4
