Genki Horiguchi vs. Susumu Mochizuki
Truth be told: I’m now looking forward to these Genki Horiguchi opening matches as much as anything else higher up the card. The level of work is frankly insane considering these kids were barely one year into their careers at this point. This was Susumu’s first TV appearance since the debut show and he’s already come a long way. The signature offense that he’d eventually become known for is starting to come into place – the leg-focused attacks being a particularly good fit against such a natural babyface as Horiguchi. The Yokosuka Cutter was also pretty wild for the time and Korakuen reacted accordingly. Having debuted the surfer gimmick on the previous episode, Horiguchi followed up here with some actual SURFER SPOTS and it got over instantly. Just a puzzingly good match with two prematurely talented guys: a metric ton of clever counters, Susumu going deep with DUAL LIMB WORK psychology and Genki busting out the first ever GH-Lock Kai to get the win. So very good. ***1/4
Big time RAW IS TORYUMON segment with a Crazy MAX promo seguing into a confrontation with President Okamura. Magnum comes out to a huge pop and accepts Shiima’s challenge to face TARU in the main event. (Or simply confirms the match will go on as planned, my Japanese isn’t that great, you guys)
Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Chocoball KOBE
Back in high school, I used all my time on a presentation on Japan to talk about Japanese wrestling and I actually used VHS footage from THIS match to back up my points about the physicality of it all. The most courageous thing I’ve done in my entire life and it’s not even close. Having not seen any UWF/BattlARTS type stuff up to this point, the stiffness on display here was absolutely mind blowing for the teenage Captain Lou. And you know what, it still holds up today as a quality ass kicking. Can’t go wrong with a pissed off Mochi making Chocoball pay for his Buko Dojo betrayal and pummelling his ass with gnarly kicks and slaps. Choco’s repentant bow after the match was a nice bit of foreshadowing for his eventual turn. **3/4
Kenichiro Arai vs. Yasushi Kanda
Seriously, what the fuck. I need to reiterate that these guys were only one year pros in 1999 and the fact that they were having matches like this truly boggles the mind. Really strong layout – Kanda knocking out Araken right at the bell and going for an early victory only for a grumpy Arai to retaliate by destroying his ass on the floor and taking control of the action. Araken had such powerful cranky veteran energy despite only being 27 at this point. Very much dug him trying to neutralize Kanda’s Gekokujo elbow arm with a lot of weirdo headbutt offense, which Kanda sold great.
Thing is, Kanda was pretty awesome on offense too: the crowd lost their shit for his high-bridge German suplex and I lost mine for him breaking out the DEVIL WINDMILL SUPLEX~! shades of the GOAT Junji Hirata. The ending stretch they put together was nothing less than main event worthy, what with Araken bringing back the arm work subplot, kicking out of the Gekokujo elbow, Kanda’s ridiculous tilt-a-whirl slam outta’ nowhere and that absurdly clever Avalanche Jawbreaker sequence. The best non-Magnum/Sasuke singles match in Toryumon up to this point. ***3/4
SAITO, MAKOTO & Stalker Ichikawa vs. SHIIMA, Sumo Dandy Fuji & SUWA
Lot of things to note here. This was MAKOTO’s TV debut and while he would go on to become the fearsome Darkness Dragon, here he had a cute vampire boy gimmick complete with neck biting spots – lovely stuff. This was also SUWA’s return from injury and his ALL CAPS name debut with SHIIMA (who would soon switch to CIMA). The crowd reaction for Crazy MAX throughout the match was on another level and you could already tell they were transitioning into tweener roles by how much they were feeding into it. All the SHIIMA/Stalker interactions were the big highlight of the match, mixing comedy gold with actual legit impressive athleticism from Ichikawa (holy shit at that 1st-rope tiger feint spot). Fun times. ***
Magnum TOKYO vs. TARU
Pretty satisfying main event that included some big mid-match and post-match angles focused on Chocoball KOBE turning on Crazy MAX and rekindling his Buko Dojo friendship with Masaaki Mochizuki, the two of them now seemingly fully integrating Sekigun. The match itself had more of a G1 Climax vibe than the usual Toryumon singles match, with a deliberate pace and more of a focus on striking and emoting. Dug the clear-cut heel/face dynamic with TARU working over Magnum with kicks and Magu supplying the sparkly comebacks and heroic facials. The accidental blood on TARU definitely added to the drama and brought some serious heat to the ending stretch. Lotta’ big near-falls, almost bordering on kickout spamming at times but not quite – the crowd hanging in there for all of them. TARU’s 2nd-rope T-Crush looked deadly as fuck and it was cool seeing the T-Man go all out in a main event spot. ***1/2
