Adding to accolades such as 2000 Thompson Elementary School Geography Bee Champion, 2012 & 2014 Best Dressed in Cambridge, and 2006 Time Person of the Year, I am the first, undisputed Champion of BRAINBUSTER!. the first ever pro wrestling podcast trivia game show. What did I win? The honor and distinction of being the first, undisputed Champion of BRAINBUSTER!. the first ever pro wrestling podcast trivia game show.
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| Honey, my list of accolades goes on and on and on and on and on... |
A couple men or should I say Ants that do not seem afraid of hard work are Fire & Silver Ant. Wait, Martin ain't this blog about the state of Japanese junior heavyweight scene in 2007. It is and it is, but first I want to discuss my first Beyond Wrestling show in Providence, RI. It was definitely a unique ambiance with a pro wrestling ring set up in the middle of a bar with fans surrounding the ring as if they were lumberjacks. Even me who is a pretty aware person was almost wiped out twice just from wrestlers falling out the ring. It was cool and different, but just speaking for me, I felt like some of the magic was removed by being that close. Walked in on a garbage tag team match that was all filler and no killer. The next two singles matches featured The Ants, who became two of my favorite wrestlers at the end of the night.
Fire & Silver Ant both excelled at the critical details of pro wrestling. Fire Ant literally guided his opponent (struck me as a Ricochet ripoff, adding a back handspring to every move) his chain wrestling sequence and made it look convincing. Silver Ant provided the best strikes in any match before the main event. By using strikes and wrestling, both Ants let their opponents spots breathe and made the spots more meaningful. Also, I witnessed for the first time the current hot indy trend of intergender matches which on paper I am 1000% against, but in practice they may have swayed me just for this one time.
The intergender match was the only match until the main event, I watched that felt like I was watching pro wrestling. Everything before just had too much of a smattering of being too self-aware or a spotfest. Here I was watching a clear pro wrestling showcase. The male heel (Thank God, if the man was not the heel, I don't know what I would do), came out and let me know that his ex-girlfriend (Kimber Lee) sucks a ton of dicks and so does Tom Brady. We all booed. The babyface Kimber Lee came out and kicked his ass. To this dude's credit, he bumped, sold and stooged for this chick. To this chick's credit, she was a great fired up babyface. They were not great at executing the offense, but the layout was pitch perfect. Guess which match stuck with me better a match that told a great story or someone doing a bunch of back handsprings. There were some great spots like the dude (I am sorry, I really don't know his name) going to punch Kimber Lee and whacking his hand hard into the steel post. Also, him flopping around in the streamers was amusing. The heat segment on Kimber Lee with the chops made me wince, but a heel being a heel was refreshing. It was also the only match where the crowd solidly behind the babyface wrestler and did not worry about the quality of the wrestling. I think that is my biggest hang up with current wrestling is forget about the quality so to speak and invest the characters like you do real sports and more often than not the quality will take care of itself. It is also sad that only way it seems to have a conventional wrestling match is to have a man fight a woman because man on man action had become so passe. The guy tapped out clean to Kimber Lee and you have to give everyone credit, she was presented every bit his equal and everyone bought into it. Kimber Lee sticking out her hand to extend an olive branch was stupid. He did not earn her respect and he was a douche to her. So that was bullshit. I know it was to set up the kick to the back of her hand, but he should have extended the hand because she earned his respect and then he is an asshole about it. Anyways, JT Dunn, remember the Savior of Pro Wrestling, comes to her aid. A fan actually did a pretty good commentary job by stating things out loud like "That is his current girlfriend" and "Is this the end of the Juicy Product?". It sounds like we have a love triangle on our hands too bad it involves JT Dunn.
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| BIFF! BIFF! BIFF! BIFF! BIFF! |
Chris Hero ran right by me to break up the fight because he couldn't afford to have his tag partner injured going up against Biff Busick and Drew Gulak. Unfortunately, due to standing, it getting late and becoming first, undisputed Champion of BRAINBUSTER!. the first ever pro wrestling podcast trivia game show, I was a little tired and had a hard time focusing on all the details. Much like AJ, Hero's presence commanded such a respect that the self-awareness was effaced and I felt like I was watching pro wrestling. Overall, I thought the match had a real classic Japanese tag feel to it. Hero set himself much like a Misawa or a Kobashi would as a force of nature that could change the complexion of the match once he entered the ring with his skull-crushing blows to the head. He was also a great cheerleader from the apron and his investment in the match made it all worthwhile. JT Dunn was serviceable first taking heat and then nothing memorable in the finish. I have heard a lot of people talk up Gulak, but I didn't get a good feel for him. I liked the beginning of the match with Hero's cravat versus Gulak's toehold and they worked some great spots around it. Other than that, nothing sticks out. Biff Busick, on the other hand, is just plain awesome. His connection with the crowd for any indy wrestler is incredible, "Biff! Biff! Biff". His timing is impeccable. Everything he does looks like it is motivated by his desire to win. Drew Gulak played face in peril, which sets us up for what we all wanted the Biff Busick hot tag and then in a total shocker he forced Chris Hero to submit to a rear naked choke.
Unlike me, Chris Hero did not come out on top on January 31st, the day I became first, undisputed Champion of BRAINBUSTER!. the first ever pro wrestling podcast trivia game show.
I really don't have much to add to the hodgepodge of junior heavyweight match from 2007 in Japan as there is no real overarching theme. I would like to key in on two points. First, Nakajima vs Kondo was tremendous and a really interesting looking at evolving strategies within the context of a single match. Second, is a comparative analysis of Briscoes vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin against KENTA & Taiji Ishimori vs Naomichi Marufuji & Kota Ibushi. Both are prototypical of the 2007 landscape in being athletic junior heavyweight spotfests, but are divergent in quality from my viewpoint. Watching them juxtaposed will show the difference between a fun spotfest and a bad one.
GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champions Briscoes vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin - NOAH 1/21/07
Worst Japanese match of the decade and one of the worst matches I have ever seen.
All Japan Jr. Hvywt Champion Shuji Kondo vs Katsuhiko Nakajima - AJPW 2/17/07 ****1/2
#48 out of 100 - Must Watch
Incredible strategical wrestling. Nakajima attacks arm, but injures his neck. Switches gears to use headshots to stay in the match. Kondo is the best junior powerhouse of the decade.
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Minoru Tanaka vs Ryusuke Taguchi - NJPW 07/06/07 ***1/4
Minoru Tanaka is a great arrogant heel. The Funky Weapon is pretty bland. They drop arm psychology.
KENTA & Taiji Ishimori vs Naomichi Marufuji & Kota Ibushi - Budokan 7/15/07 ****
#91 out of 100
Great juniors spotfest. Better than most Dragon Gate/Toryumon matches. Great eye-candy
Bryan Danielson vs Go Shiozaki - ROH In Tokyo 7/16/07 ***1/2
Exhibition of what makes Danielson great offensively. Shiozaki is bland in this contest.
Great Sasuke vs Ultimo Dragon - M-Pro 8/30/07 ***3/4
Sasuke wrestling at a high level, but Dragon is too spotty in this great junior bout.
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GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champions Briscoes vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin - NOAH 1/21/07
Nothing screamed 2007 more than a double 619 until they busted out the Springboard Shining Wizard Doomsday Device. If I see another dropsault it will be too damn soon. The excessive jumping into moves is incredibly annoying. Was the Briscoe basically doing a moonsault before the back drop driver even finished supposed to be a bad social commentary joke on the state of 2007 wrestling? I could have sworn the ring said NOAH, but why I am watching TNA. These four give clubbering a bad name. They treat every forearm, stomp, kick, slap as a perfunctory device to get them to their next inconsequential highspot. Watch Yoshihiro Takayama or Dragon Gate! Either make every move count or just commit to a spotfest don't try to pretend to be having a wrestling match when you want to have a gymnastics competition. The best spot of this match was when a Briscoe shoved Marvin out of the ring for breaking up a pinfall. It is the only time I thought I was watching an actual contest where someone wanted to win. It actually had heat to it. Instead they needed to get in every shitty move ever invented after 2000 instead of building heat. The match sucked as a spotfest and as a pro wrestling match.
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All Japan Jr. Heavyweight Champion Shuji Kondo vs Katsuhiko Nakajima - AJPW 2/17/07
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| Boy Wonder! |
Strategy in pro wrestling is often reduced to being very one dimensional. You work a body part to set up your finishing move. You attack an opponents' strength to neutralize their finisher. I am not saying all good pro wrestling needs more advanced strategy or this specific strategy. What this match offered was a rare instance of a multi-faceted strategy. Nakajima established early that his intention was to neutralize Kondo's strength advantage and his lariats by knotting up his arm. However, Nakajima did not have a finishing hold to directly translate this strategy into a victory. In addition, Nakajima took a nasty spill onto the guardrail that severely fucked up his neck. In a nice touch, Hokuto checked on Nakajima. It can not be underestimated how much Sasaki and Hokuto added to the match by being on the outside cheering on Nakajima. It felt like parents cheering on their kid.
Nakajima pressed on by kicking the arm to keep Kondo at bay, but Kondo overwhelmed with brute power zeroing in on the injured neck. Nakajima realized that Kondo's arm was too strong and that point of attack would not turn the tide. So he began taking head shots. Finally, Nakajima stymied Kondo's onslaught and with a dive to the outside. He levelled the playing field to finally return to his attack on the arm. He utilized mentor Sasaki's arm drag, but could not get the cross armbreaker as Kondo slammed out on it dropping Nakajima right on the back of his head. As much as this match was about Nakajima, Kondo was amazing at selling the arm the right amount. He was not blowing off Nakajima's work, but at the same time Nakajima really had not done enough to damage the arm so that it was totally useless. Kondo was fighting through the pain in a believable way. Kondo's slams really target Nakajima's neck, who cant seem to get anything started. In a great sequence, Nakajima is deadweighting Kondo on a powerbomb so Kondo blasts him with a elbow. Nakajima's sell would make Kawada proud. Kondo then spikes Nakajima on his head with a piledriver, but Nakajima kicks out. I will say the placement of that move was too early. The big flaw of the match begins here as Nakajima starts selling like Kaz Hayashi meaning he sells after he does a move not as he is doing it, but it is not as egregious.
Nakajima at this point has no hope winning this match via arm work (no real submission game) so he goes for head shots to set up Emerald Flowsion and a flying bodypress. Kondo signals for a lariat and Nakajima kicks the arm reversing into a Human Capture Suplex only for 2. I liked how after all the kicks to the arm that Kondo could use his arm properly on his slam so that the full impact was not delivered. It was good selling. I loved the axe kick on lariat arm. Kondo finally gets lariat, but it is not enough. I totally bit on the Northern Lights Bomb finish with Sasaki right there. Nakajima wins the match with a German Suplex.
This match had the potential to be a Match of the Decade Contender. The dueling body part psychology, the appropriate arm selling by Kondo, the amazing neck selling of Nakajima, the two-leveled Nakajima strategy all wove together to create a unique, dynamic match. The finish run did depart from this where Nakajima's comeback became a bit incredulous and his selling uneven and the moves excessive. I am not going to penalize the match too much because the base of the match was still there Nakajima defending against the lariat, working through his early match mishap (neck) and using headshots to create big offense. ****1/2
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IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Minoru Tanaka vs Ryusuke Taguchi - NJPW 07/06/07
Five years later and at least the cross armbreaker is still over. I still contend that Minoru Tanaka should have been the biggest junior heavyweight star of the 2000s. I don't think this match is comparable in quality to his incredible 2000-2002 run, but we get to see an entirely different side to him. He was excellent at the cocky heel gimmick. He really gave off that aura that he thinks he is better than you in every shape and way. He was showboating, stalling and cheating better than pretty much every heel in the WWE in the last decade. The best part of this entire match was how red hot the crowd was for bell-bottom-wearing "Funky Weapon" Rysuke Taguchi. Japanese wrestling crowds in native vs. native matches tend to be very similar to tennis crowd insomuch they root for ever is losing to pull them through and continue the match. I don't want to take away anything from Taguchi because my sample size is limited, but to me it was all about Minoru Tanaka. You wanted to see that smug bastard get his ass kicked. People wonder why nobody gets booed nowadays. To me it is because nobody actually tries to get booed when they are wrestling. Sure on the mic they do, but in a match pretty much everybody wrestles it straight down the middle. Minoru Tanaka, once again, proves why he had huge star potential in the way he carried himself in this match and maintaining that heat throughout the match.
Unfortunately, I was not in the Korakuen Hall on July 6, 2007, but instead was in my living room in United States of America, BABY! on August 26, 2014 so crowd heat alone was not make this match an elite level match it was going to take work. The match started off great like I said with Minoru Tanaka showboating like a champion and getting shown up early. He is able to take control with an eye-rake and then out on the floor targets the arm and a pretty girl to impress. This is a clinic on heel wrestling. Of course, everyone knows that Minoru has the cross armbreaker in his back pocket so targeting the arm increases the crowd tension. There is a really nice exchange where Minoru avoids a dropkick and makes a point to let everyone know how smart he is only to eat a dropkick. This is just classic shit. Taguchi goes the "arm for an arm" route, but unlike the Minoru/AKIRA matches I didn't think they really focused enough time on each other's arm to really build the same drama. Unfortunately, the match goes off the rails at this point as they both pretty much drop the arm selling to suplex each other a lot. It was exciting, but not a lot of glue. Minoru, occasionally reminds you of the beginning of the match, by applying a flash cross armbreaker out of a human capture suplex. The crowd heat and Taguchi's selling were really on point making this a very dramatic spot, but before you knew it they were back suplexing each other. The best spot of the whole match was Minoru goes for the flash cross armbreaker and Taguchi converts into La Magistral cradle. The crowd goes wild! That should have been the finish, no doubt! NOOOOOOOOOO! An elbow exchange??? Et tu, Minoru? Taguchi hits what I believe to be The Funky Weapon twice to finally pick up the victory for his first and only IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.
The hook of the match was twofold: Minoru is an arrogant asshole and the credibility of his flash cross-armbreaker. They did not build the double arm psychology and they just sort of dropped it, with each touching on it here and there. Taguchi, for all his "funkiness", was a pretty bland Japanese, 00-style babyface. I hate to base that off one match, but given he only has one title reign to his name, it looks like New Japan feels similarly. At the day, the crowd was hot for Taguchi so he was doing something right even if he didn't set my world afire. The match started off promising and ended pretty well, but the body was a mess. I recommend this match based solely on seeing Minoru Tanaka work as a heel and how he was badass at doing that too. ***1/4
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KENTA & Taiji Ishimori vs Naomichi Marufuji & Kota Ibushi - Budokan 7/15/07
Briscoes, Marvin and Suzuki, take notes, bruthas, this is how you do a fucking spotfest, baby! Ishimori and Ibushi are the next generation of Japanese junior heavyweight that care even less about strikes and building a strong match. They only care how they can add an extra rotation to any simple move. Standing elbow drop that is so passe. I can do a back handspring, full back flip elbow drop, BABY! If you going to execute those matches, then commit to them and they were committed to having this elaborate gymnastics competition, which made for a great spectacle. It is good eyecandy like a Michael Bay action movie. I don't want to watch a card full of these, but these exhibitions do serve a purpose because they are fun to watch. To me at least, however, they are not very satisfying in the same way a match where opponents are struggling to win a contest. The nice thing about this match is that they laid everything in. They did not treat strikes as givens like in the Briscoe/Marvin&Suzuki. Their transitions still suck like KENTA blowing off leg work to hit a flying knee drop or Ibushi's lame spinwheel kick to exit his heat segment. There was literally no move to move selling. People would take moves, sell, then fly like nothing happened. Even within these segments, they were flying with great highspots. After Ibushi tagged out, it was spots galore with flips and spins on everything. It was like R-Truth, but on steroids. Ibushi's double moonsault gets me everytime because I go years without seeing him, I always forget he has that. I actually enjoyed Ibushi ducking the KENTA strike, kip up and kick KENTA only for KENTA to be wary of it the second time. KENTA went into crazy Ceasro like beast mode to awkwardly catch Ibushi and hit Go 2 Sleep. The past two NOAH juniors tags were what expected all NOAH's juniors match to be like, but really that has not been case. I am curious if this newfound spotfest style is influenced by the rise of Dragon Gate. I will be curious to see Dragon Gate from 2005-2006 and see how similar it is to this. Usually, when something is mimicked the copiers steal the most glaring obvious traits without the subtle details that make the original so good. Ergo, NOAH guys were like people like flips lets give them flips. Dragon Gate may have done a better job building to the spots. I do not know, but we will see. Overall, I did enjoy this spotfest, but I will be sad if this is the way the NOAH's juniors division goes because it was quite good from 2003-2006. Spotfests have a ceiling in my book because of how much emphasis I put on transitions, selling and struggling. I would say this is one of the better ones I have ever seen though. ****
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Bryan Danielson vs Go Shiozaki - ROH In Tokyo 7/16/07
The poll is Best In Japan in the 00s, thus any match that took place in Japan qualifies not necessarily taking place on a puroresu card. That being said, Ring Of Honor had a very similar style to Pro Wrestling NOAH. Occasionally this happens to me, I acknowledge I am watching an interesting, well-worked match and it just does not hold my attention. Unfortunately for this bout, I felt that way. I loved Danielson's pacing in this match. He was not flying around and blowing off selling. The beginning of the match showcases Danielson at his best making submission holds look innovative and like they hurt. It is something that is bereft in both WWE and Japan in the 00s. They establish they are equal babyfaces even ending a dropkick simultaneously. Shiozaki takes over with chops and general power, but Danielson catches a break when Shiozaki goes flying into the railing. Again, I loved Danielson's arm work, which effectively used strikes and holds to destroy the arm. When Shiozaki starts to mount his comeback and is still selling might be when I realize what is wrong. Shiozaki is just really bland. He is just a generic, cookie-cutter NOAH wrestler. He is not bringing anything to the table. He is doing the right things, but is nothing special or unique.
Danielson goes flying into the crowd on top of Shiozaki and this triggers Danielson's big spots ending with a crossface chickenwing that ends up in the ropes. Shiozaki was able to crotch Danielson on the top rope and hits a weird slam. Here comes the BOOM! Bombs galore. Shiozaki goes for the kill with a moonsault misses and Danielson immediately applies Cattle Mutilation. Shiozaki is able to fight out, but then end is nigh and Shiozaki succumbs to a second Cattle Mutilation.
Danielson was really demonstrating why he was one of the best in the world at the time. He paced himself well. He is an amazing offensive wrestler (ground, working body part, bombs) and this really showcased his talents. Shiozaki just feels so mediocre in this match and I just could not bring myself to care. Thus I felt like I was watching a Danielson exhibition. ***1/2
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Great Sasuke vs Ultimo Dragon - M-Pro 8/30/07
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| Is it 1994 or 2007? |
Sasuke was wrestling like it was 1994 and giving a MOTYC-level performance. Unfortunately, Dragon was wrestling like it was 1996 WCW and indulging everyone of his bad tendencies. Ultimo Dragon is one of the most infuriating wrestlers. He is such a great offensive dynamo, but I can't think of any wrestler pre-2000 that so egregiously blows off selling. It is too point that when he is in that mood that you should almost just let him be on offense because he drags the match so far down when he randomly decides to stop selling. The negative of that was Sasuke was so amazing on offense. He was violent and breath-taking, which is such a rare combination to see in a match. I loved how he attacked Dragon while he held the ropes open for him with headbutts and nasty body shots. Then when he goes for Asai Moonsault, Dragon violently yanks him down only for that to happen to Dragon when he tries. Based on the first two minutes, I really thought I was going to see something special, before Dragon went back in and did a high-speed tumbling pass. i remembered why Dragon annoys me so much. On the other hand, for as badass as Sasuke is on offense, he was selling for all its worth and bumping like a maniac. Sasuke tried a convoluted reversal out of a Dragon hold, but ended spiking himself on his own head and the way he sold it and the way Dragon sold surprise was really cool. It seemed like a real organic moment. So rarely do you seem someone "fuck up" a reversal and sell it. It was cool feature. Sasuke picked his moments and when Dragon missed a plancha out came the dives. Sasuke starts to go work on the arm, but Dragon blows it off to hit an Asai Moonsault and a gnarly suplex on chairs. That is a crazy bump. Sasuke reverses Dragon into the post and hits two beautiful dives from the top rope to the floor. Dragon ended up whiffing on a dropkick when Sasuke went for a quebrada. Sasuke was able to reverse the Dragon DDT twice, but ended up taking it three times to lose.
I missed a juniors match with spectacular dives and Sasuke is so good at incorporating that into his match. I loved his body punches and general roughhouse style. He took crazy bumps and built his offense convincingly. Dragon looked great on offense and took some hellacious bumps himself, but he killed the flow of the match repeatedly. If Dragon was on point and not just focused on his offense, this is a 2007 MOTYC. As is it is a highly entertaining bout and proof that Sasuke could still go. ***3/4
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