Takashi Sasaki & GENTARO vs. Ken Ohka & Shota (Ganbare Pro 2/7/2021)
I have a few questions. 1) What did Shota do to his gorgeous hair? He looks like 2004 Gedo now. 2) What happened to GENTARO since the early Akarangers days? It seems he got rid of the Bret Hart tribute gimmick and became an indie sleaze approximation of an 80’s New Japan wrestler. I’m into it. As for the match, it was a lot of meat and potatoes, but the meat and potatoes were laid onto the plate in very orderly fashion.
Southern-ish tag vibe with the Rangers relying on their years of experience as a team to stay in control of the action. GENTARO used his newfound Osamu Nishimura mat shtick to dismantle Shota’s arm, while carved-up grouch Sasaki just beat the shit out of Ohka. Nothing fancy, but everyone played their role well and the story made sense. ***1/4
Ikuto Hidaka vs. Shinichiro Tominaga (Ganbare Pro 2/7/2021)
You know I’m here for the old man Hidaka Ganbare run, but this wasn’t on the level of the Keisuke Ishii match from last month. Probably because Tominaga isn’t exactly on the level of Ishii. Lots of arm work that went nowhere and uninspiring Tominaga offense. Still, they did wake up around the halfway mark (when Tominaga obliterated his own ass on that overshot tope con hilo) and supplied a decent amount of fun content. Even with a lesser opponent, Hidaka always find a way to work in clever counters. Look no further than his dope reversal of the pele kick attempt or him rolling through the crossface right into his trusty leglock. ***
Tetsuya Endo vs. Hagane Shinno (DDT 2/19/2021)
Here’s a pretty good wrestling match from the latest Damnation-produced party at Shinjuku FACE. I think Shinno went fairly easy on Endo and spared him some of his trademark viciousness, but I liked the story of him cutting down the high-flyer with constant leg attacks. Solid attention to detail from Endo who kept hobbling around for the whole match and found a good balance between selling and flashy comebacks. Kind of a redux version of his awesome match with Minoru Tanaka in last year’s King of DDT tournament. Unlike Tanaka though, Shinno didn’t get the chance to make much of a lasting impression as the finish came straight out of nowhere. Oh well. I’d love to see this guy in DDT more often. Imagine him and Sakaguchi going at it. ***1/4
Daisuke Sasaki & Hiroshi Yamato vs. HUB & Yasutaka Oosega (DDT 2/19/2021)
More Damnation-produced DREAM MATCH BOOKING. That’s right, all of my dream matches involve Hiroshi Yamato and the Reptilian Warlord HUB aka. Super Demekin my long-lost son. This was also my first-time seeing Michinoku Pro’s Oosega in action and he seems promising. Low on personality, but the kid is obviously well trained and has polished basics. Yamato’s always great with young wrestlers and led Oosega through some fun sequences. The rest of the match was… less fun. Too long for a somewhat thrown-together main event with no stakes, too many near-falls to artificially blow up the Epic-Meter and too many blown La Misticas between HUB and Charisma. **3/4
Keisuke Ishii, Koki Iwasaki & HARUKAZE © vs. Asuka, Hagane Shinno & Shinichiro Tominaga – GWC 6-Man Tag Team Titles (Ganbare Pro 2/20/2021)
We live in a society where Ganbare delivered a 6-man tag better than anything we’ve seen from Dragon Gate in 2021. I don’t know what to tell you, but this probably confirms Simulation Theory. Aliens are just fucking with us at this point. Masked girl HARUKAZE anchored the match as a quintessential babyface in peril, just holding on for dear life and eating the mother of all ass whoopings. The crowd latched onto all of her comebacks and kickouts – palpable tension even in COVID clapping mode.
It sure didn’t hurt that all of the wrestling around the HARUKAZE underdog sections felt 100% world class. Everyone put their best foot forward and gave Tokyo Dome-worthy performances. Iwasaki and Shinno went together like your two favorite condiments and Asuka/Ishii lit each other the fuck up. It was glorious. They laid out the match perfectly for the story to reach full circle via a HARUKAZE-centric ending stretch. Ishii/Iwasaki boosting her lifeless corpse into wacky triple teams was as hilarious as it was satisfying.
Lovely mix of classic wrestling storytelling and blistering action. Thank you Ganbare Pro-Wrestling. I’ll be there for the next GWC 6-man tag title defense. ****
Kenoh vs. Hajime Ohara (NOAH 2/21/2021)
Real solid match between two guys who could probably have a complete scorcher if given more time. Still, they made the most of these 8 minutes and had themselves an efficient back and forth. Kenoh’s quite adept at working this type of compact match and Ohara was game enough to lower his TRUE POWER LEVEL to make the Kongo leader feel properly dangerous. The usual razor-sharp striking from Kenoh matched well with Ohara’s crafty rollups and high-speed counters. Not life-changing, but if you caught this on TV you’d probably stick around. ***
Takashi Sugiura vs. Kinya Okada (NOAH 2/22/2021)
Last month, NOAH gave us a tremendous Veteran Slaughters a Child-type match in the form of Nakajima vs. Miyawaki. I was hoping this would be in the same vein, but it wasn’t quite meant to be. Okada tried really hard to make it work – I liked his intensity and relentless HAMMERLOCK OBSESSION in the opening. They were actually on their way to something pretty good for a while, with Big Daddy Sugi slamming the Thunderbutt Prince on the floor and what not. But the flat Boston crab finish turned me off and made Okada look like a punk after a spirited performance. Sugiura really couldn’t spare an Olympic slam for this kid? Bruh. **3/4
Go Shiozaki, Daisuke Harada & Atsushi Kotoge vs. Naomichi Marufuji, Seiki Yoshioka & Hajime Ohara (NOAH 2/22/2021)
My plan to become a famous influencer by discovering unmined gold in the single camera NOAH wasteland has completely backfired. While it might’ve been foolish of me to expect more than a Very Good House Show Main Event from this crew, it still got the job done as a Very Good House Show Main Event. The main focus was building up the upcoming Yoshioka/Kotoge junior title match and it was a success on that front. These guys have stellar chemistry – Kotoge’s thirst for pain complementing Yoshioka’s blazing kicks perfectly. Don’t wanna jinx it, but I think they have a chance to outdo the very cool Yoshioka/Harada Budokan match. Speaking of Harada, him and Ohara is always a treat. Maru and Go mostly took a backseat but some chops were thrown. ***
