wrestling / Columns

Into the Indies 01.19.10: Shin-FMW

January 19, 2010 | Posted by Ryan Byers


Banner Courtesy of John Meehan

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the only column on 411mania the contents of which are decided on a complete whim that the writer had on a Saturday afternoon.

In addition to that whim, this week’s column was also inspired by a comment that I received on my column two weeks ago from a gentleman calling himself The Celt. He wrote:

Hey, Ryan, could you do an article that explains what a Japanese Sleaze promotion is? I keep hearing about them but I am not sure what they actually are.

Combining the Celt’s question with a random trip that I was making through my old tape collection earlier this week lead to a special kind of serendipity. I reached my hand into the old, beat up dresser that houses the outdated, shiny, black VHS boxes and pulled out a fine example of what I would consider “indy sleeze.”

First of all, I should probably make clear that there’s no set definition of indy sleeze, nor is it, to my knowledge, a term that is actually used in the Japanese professional wrestling industry. I believe that it was actually conceived by American fans watching bootlegged Japanese independents. From what I have been able to observe, it is generally reserved for the lowest-level independent groups in the country, those organizations which run very sporadically, last only a handful of months, and draw a few hundred fans to each card. Oftentimes, they are vanity promotions for a particular wrestler, an individual who for some reason has split off from a major league group or a larger indy and needs to create his own platform on which to obtain bookings and make money. Though they are not necessary components of a “sleezey” promotion, oftentimes the shows will often feature deathmatches in the main events and/or very bizarre gimmicks pulled off in the cheapest way possible in their undercards. The production values are usually among the worst in professional wrestling, and the cards primarily consist of wrestlers who are either inexperienced or quite experienced by just flat-out no good. However, it is also not uncommon to see the odd entertaining bout between younger wrestlers who have not yet been snapped up by larger promotions or talented competitors who have been exiled from the bigger leagues for political reasons.

With that being said, I think it would be hard to say that the promotion that I have chosen to take a look at today is anything other than indy sleeze. In fact, it’s so obscure and lasted for such a short period of time that there’s not even a commonly accepted name for it. Some fans refer to it as “Shin-FMW,” some of them refer to it as “Goto FMW,” and some of them refer to it as “Goto-Ippa,” which was actually the name of a promotion that existed during the early part of the twenty-first century.

To understand where this company came from, we have to take a step back in time to 1980, when a young sumo wrestler by the name of Seiji Goto decided that he was going to leave his original sport for that of professional wrestling. He joined the dojo of All Japan Pro Wrestling, at the time one of the two largest professional wrestling promotions in the country. Once there , he became a contemporary of future legends like Toshiaki Kawada, Mitsuharu Misawa, and Kodo Fuyuki. However, Goto never really advanced beyond lower card matches in AJPW, instead opting to make a break with his home country and perform chiefly in the United States. Over the course of the next decade, he would compete fairly often in both Championship Wrestling from Florida and the Continental Wrestling Alliance, which was the primary wrestling territory in the Memphis area at the time, being promoted by Jerry Jarrett and featuring the talents of Jerry “The King” Lawler. While in the CWA, Goto was a regular tag team partner of the legendary Akio Sato, who played a crucial role in founding All Japan and would later go on to become one half of the Orient Express in the WWF.

However, Tarzan Goto would not remain in the United States for the remainder of his career. In 1989, his home country came calling once more. In that year, wrestler Atsushi Onita founded Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling (FMW), a company that we have already discussed the history of a bit here. Onita, like Goto, had spent competing in the Memphis territory, where he saw a style of hardcore wrestling that he ultimately decided to import to Japan after initially founding FMW on wrestler versus karate fighter matches. Throughout the early 1990’s, Onita and Goto would be the company’s top act as a tag team, having wild, southern style brawls in venues throughout Japan. Ultimately, the team would break apart and begin feuding, which saw them have extreme gimmick matches against one another, most of which had previously been used in US territories. On June 24, 1990, the two men had an empty arena match against one another, directly copied from a famous Jerry Lawler-Terry Funk match from Memphis, and, on August 4 of the same year, they faced one another in a barbed wire match, which both men would have seen when touring in Puerto Rico. However, they added an additional element of danger, as Goto and Onito would have what is largely considered to be the first exploding barbed wire match. Over the next several years, electrified barbed wire cage matches and even flaming barbed wire matches would follow.

Though there were a few setbacks along the way, as there will always been when running a wrestling promotion, FMW was largely successful over the course of the next five years. A surprising blow to the company came in 1995, though, when Tarzan Goto would depart the promotion. At the time, Onita was considering a retirement from the ring, and a question arose as to who would replace him as the top face of the promotion. In the past, when Onita had taken time away from the company due to injury or other concerns, they had no choice but to run with Goto as their star attraction, and, for whatever reason, Tarzan always drew poorly without Onita as his opponent. This, combined with other concerns about the positioning of Goto’s character, lead to the decision being made that he would job to Onita on the latter man’s way out of professional wrestling. Ironically, this would lead to Goto departing the company, frustrated at the promotion’s unwillingness to place him on top.

Goto, taking young wrestlers Mr. Gannosuke and Flying Kid Ichihara with him, bolted and headed to a relatively new hardcore wrestling group by the name of IWA Japan. Unfortunately for Goto, even though he was pushed heavily by IWA, the promotion was financially doomed almost from the start, and, though it has continued to run very small shows until present day, its time as a major force on the independent scene was essentially over and done with less than a year after it began running shows. Though Ichihara and Gannosuke were still connected to some wrestlers in FMW and managed to get back into the company, Goto never did. Instead, he jumped from independent group to independent group for the rest of his career.

In the IWA and later in the equally short-lived Tokyo Pro Wrestling once IWA had gone downhill, the Ichihara/Gannosuke/Goto unit was referred to as “Shin-FMW” or “New FMW.” For a very brief period of time, Tarzan Goto even got away with running his own wrestling cards under the Shin-FMW name, and the show that we will be taking a look at this week is a compilation of matches from that company which aired on Japan’s Samurai TV network on June 17, 1997.

The show opens with a video package of Tarzan Goto highlights, setting the theme for the rest of the tape very well. Numerous Japanese folks are interviewed about Goto as well, all saying things which I can only assume are highly complimentary. Goto and one of his young proteges at the time, Ryo Miyake are also interviewed.

Match Numero Uno: Tarzan Goto vs. Katsutoshi Niiyama

Niiyama, Goto’s opponent here, is a trainee of the FMW dojo who was learning the ropes in that promotion around the same time that Hayabusa was being put through his paces at he school. Though Hayabusa would go on to become one of the biggest stars in the history of independent wrestling, Niiyama never really made it out of the promotion’s lower cards unless he was acting as the tag team partner of a much bigger star. If anything, he’s more of a curious footnote in the history of the promotion, as he was good friends with wrestler Koji Nakagawa (later GOEMON) and would be fired by the real FMW after an April 29, 1997 show in which he had what he thought was such a good match with Nakagawa that he broke kayfabe after the final bell and celebrated with his real-life friend, who at the time was supposed to be a hated rival. Think of it as the Japanese version of the Clique’s WWF curtain call at Madison Square Garden, if you will.

The wrestlers trade standing switches to start the match, after which Niiyama takes his opponent down to a mat with a drop toe hold. The wrestlers fight over armbars on the canvas and do the same after returning to a vertical base, and then Goto scores his own takedown with a leg trip and works a headlock for a bit. Niiyama turns it into a top wristlock (there’s a move you don’t see much anymore), but Tarzan reverses it into a headscissors. Niiyama slips out and shoots for a headlock, but Goto avoids it and the two men pop back up to their feet from polite applause from the crowd. Ah, how I long for the days before that was a huge cliche. We clip forward a bit to Goto throwing his opponent out of the ring, then joining him on the floor and grabbing a chair. Niiyama takes a shot but blocks most of it with his forearms. In perhaps my favorite stock hardcore wrestling spot, Goto whips his opponent through a few years of unoccupied chairs and then begins throwing pieces of guardrail down onto his prone form. We clip ahead again, this time to Tarzan hitting a lariat in the ring and getting a two count. A brainbuster from Goto connects seconds thereafter, but ‘Toshi still manages to kick out of the ensuing pin attempt. Another lariat is attempted, but Goto winds up running into a big kick. Yet another lariat is attempted to the same results, and at this point Niiyama goes to work with many more boots and even takes Goto off of his feet with a pair of lariats. Two great looking uranagi throws are Niiyama’s next bits of offense, but he can’t quite put Goto away with them. Another edit takes us to another Goto brainbuster on Niiyama, which is followed by a face-first pancake for the decisive fall.

Match Thoughts: With a lot of edits in a relatively short period of time, this wasn’t exactly the world’s greatest professional wrestling match. However, if you look at it from a television standpoint as a segment meant to build up the Tarzan Goto character for later matches, it came off very well. The majority of his trademark maneuvers were highlighted, and you got a good idea of his general wrestling style without seeing so much of it that you knew the entire story. Also, though he was not doing a heck of a lot, Niiyama came off fairly well for a guy who was doing a quick job, as all his offense was crisp and is throws were particularly well executed.

Match Numero Dos: Tarzan Goto vs. Takashi Okano

Okano is still active on the independent wrestling scene today, working under a mask as the Winger, primarily for Big Japan. Without the hood and under his real name, was an early rival of Yoshihiro Tajiri, who began his career with the IWA. Perhaps the most high profile match of Okada’s career prior to donning his hood was his non-tournament match against Flying Kid Ichihara on the 1995 IWA Kawasaki Dream show, which circulated through English-speaking tape traders often labeled as “King of the Deathmatch” and featured the memorable bout between Terry Funk and Cactus Jack that has appeared several times on WWF television and in Beyond the Mat.

The match is joined in progress, with Okana landing some forearms across Goto’s chest and leaping to the second rope for a cross body block on the much larger, much more popular wrestler seconds later. Okada follows with a spinning heel kick that knocks Tarzan through the ropes and down to the floor, after which he hits a huge somersault pescado on Goto. We flash forward to Okada giving Goto a top rope missile dropkick inside the ring, which earns him a two count. Okada’s next trick is a moonsault press attempt, though the move winds up a bit sloppy, as his left arm connects with Goto’s chest but the rest of him completely misses Tarzan’s body. Okada next takes Tarzan into the corner and pummels him with some chops, but that’s easy for Goto to cut off, as he whips the smaller man away before taking him off of his feet with a clothesline. More clipping leads to Goto wacking Okada repeatedly over the head with a chair, and, when we jump forward again, Okada is busted open. Tarzan now has an umbrella of all things, and he jabs the metal tip of the umbrella into his opponent’s head two times before using it to dig at the laceration on his forehead. The rainy day tool is slammed over Okada’s shoulder two times, though it is not in the ring when we edit forward again. At this point in the match, Okada hits a spinning heel kick and a German suplex on Goto, earning himself another nearfall. His comeback is quickly put to an end, however, with Tarzan landing two more lariats, both of which Okada bumped like a champ for. Now it is Tarzan’s turn to head to the top rope in response to Okada’s high-flying offense, and he hits a superfly splash. Not surprisingly, that ends the match.

Match Thoughts: One of the things that I’ve always found interesting about Japanese wrestling as compared to American wrestling is the sharp divide between heavyweights and junior heavyweights, particularly when it comes to singles matches. In the United States, weight classes are virtually ignored. Even when there have been weight-specific championships, competitors have still crossed divisional lines and fought one another in non-title matches. However, in Japan, the still is enforced much more closely. Though juniors and heavies will mix it up in tag action, singles matches between the two groups are much more rare. This was one of those rare matches, and I felt that it came off well. Though it was still largely a squash for Goto in the same vein as the Niiyama match, it was fun to see how Okada was portrayed as a completely different competitor fom Niiyama and had his own strategies and his own, unique style of wrestling that hew as going to use to knock off the promotion’s top guy. Goto did a surprisingly good job of selling for that offense as well, even if he did ultimately come back and win in a manner that made it look like Okada never had any legitimate shot.

Match Numero Tres: Tarzan Goto & Ryo Miyake vs. Ichiro Yaguchi & Nobukazu Hirai

Teaming with Goto here is Ryo Miyake, who at the time this match was taking place, was a very young wrestler getting what I would consider to be his first real break in the industry. He never went too far in wrestling, though, mainly competing for smaller deathmatch groups like IWA Japan and W*ING. In an interesting bit of trivia that plays into a fairly recent news story, he was perhaps the final tag team partner of the recently-deceased “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, as the duo won the IWA Japan Tag Team Titles in 2003. Yaguchi had a career similar to Miyake’s, essentially bouncing around FMW, FMW spin-offs, and other tiny independent groups for well over a decade but never amounting to too much. Hirai is the member of the group who really broke out, though, as runs with failed promotions SWS and WAR ultimately lead him into the waiting arms of major league All Japan Pro Wrestling. He began competing there as an undercard wrestler in 2001 and never did much of note until 2008, when he went through a bizarre gimmick change and heel turn, transforming into a wrestler known only as Hate, who is currently one of the key members of the Voodoo Murderers stable. Perhaps the Hate character wouldn’t have been so surprising if AJPW fans remembered this stage of Hirai’s career, where his painted face and demonic character not unlike the one that he would adopt for the Voodoo Murderers provide some unintentional foreshadowing.

Yaguchi and Hirai charge before the bell even rings, with Hirai tossing Miyake out of the squared circle and Yaguchi bludgeoning Goto with a large wooden cross wrapped in barbed wire. The referee eventually stops the madness with the barbed wire, but Hirai ensures that Tarzan will not be left alone, as he hits him over the head with a chair and then uses the seat for an early version of the Hardy Boys’ Poetry in Motion. A second attempt at the same move fails, though, as Tarzan dodges and picks up the chair to hit Hirai with it. Yaguchi suffers the same fate and falls from the ring, leaving Hirai to deal with Miyake, who Goto has just tagged into the ring. The two wrestlers trade forearms with Hirai somehow getting the advantage even though he was just hit with a steel chair. Yaguchi tags in at this point, joining with his partner to take Ryo off of his feet with a double team clothesline. When we clip ahead, Miyake is actually in the middle of making his comeback, as he starts to fire up but gets caught with a Harai lariat for two. He reverses the follow-up suplex, though, and that leads to the hot tag to Goto. Tarzan murders Hirai with a chain of headbutts in the corner and a lariat, followed by a brainbuster for a two count. Yaguchi saved to prevent that one from going through. When we edit forward again, Miyake is back in the ring and trying to take Yaguchi down with lariats, though he fails as Yaguchi blocks the third in the series and takes him down with a hard shot. Hirai tags in at this point and is oddly dominated by Ryo, who hits a divorce court. Hirai wastes no time in making a comeback with a big powerbomb on Miyake, who is out at two. Yaguchi tries to run in for the assist, but Goto flies in to cut him off. However, that may have been a strategic error, as it allows Yaguchi to hit Ryo with a version of the Randy Savage elbow from the top rope before locking him into a version of the stretch plum for the submission victory.

Match Thoughts: This was all solid but unspectacular in-ring action. If anything stood out to me, it was the unusual way in which the bout was edited. Every time that it appeared as though Miyake was getting ready to dish out any kind of offense against the heels, he was immediately either cut off by them or the tape cut away to some later point in the match. Every time that Miyake was being worked over by the heels, it seemed like that version of the match was shown in full. Every time that Goto was in the ring, with the exception of the first few seconds of the bout, he was on the offensive and having little to no trouble with his opponents. Though I can understand wanting to portray Goto as the bigger star, you would think that they’d allow Miyake to show SOMETHING if he was going to be associated with the man who the promotion is being booked around.



Match Numero Cuatro: Tarzan Goto & Ryo Miyake vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Rikio Ito

This time the Goto-Miyake team finds itself up against Rikio Ito and Masaaki Mochizuki. Ito, like Nobukazu Hirai from the previous match, also worked for SWS and WAR before those two promotions went under, though he did not have the luck to sign with a major company at any later point in his career. The name of his tag team partner is probably a familiar one to readers of this site. Mochizuki, a junior heavyweight wrestler with a bit of a martial arts background, also wrestled for WAR but would go on to more fame when, in 2000, he became one of the few wrestlers who did not come out of Ultimo Dragon’s dojo to compete regularly in promotions related to the Dragon System, most notably Dragon Gate. Currently he holds DG’s Open the Triangle Gate six man tag team titles with Don Fuji and Akebono and has also recently unseated US indy darling Davey Richards for the Full Impact Pro Championship.

It’s Miyake and Mochizuki to start, with Mochi landing some quick kicks and a suplex as soon as the opening bell rings. Mochizuki then fires off some knees in the clinch and shoves Ryo away, almost begging him to tag in Goto. Miyake does that eventually, though it’s not before hitting a palm strike and some punches of his own. With Tarzan in, Mochizuki is headbutted down to the mat and nailed with a couple of short-arm clotheslines. There’s the brainbuster from Goto, which gets a two count. Mochizuki gets some kicks in against Goto when he ducks his head for a back body drop, including an impressive flying enzuguiri. The offensive spurt is short-lived, however, as Goto soon retaliates with a lariat and tags in Miyake. In what has become a bit of a theme in these tag matches, the opposing team takes the advantage almost immediately when Ryo tags back into the ring, as Masaaki gives him a kick to the gut and then slaps hands with Rikio Ito. Ito slams and then suplexes Miyake for a nearfall. More editing sees Ito holding Ryo in place for some Mochizuki kicks in their corner, after which Miyake responds with a dropkick and gets Goto back in between the ropes. Tarzan lariats Masaaki out of his boots and drops a series of elbows for two. Miyake hands his partner a chair, and Mochizuki is popped with it so hard that the seat goes flying off. After more clipping, Miyake gives Mochi an axe bomber but runs into his foot on the second and gets hit with a slingshot spinning heel kick before running into an Ito front slam. Rikio’s next trick is another powerslam, but Goto saves Miyake from being pinned. Mochizuki attacks Tarzan at this point, and, even though Goto gets the upper hand, he is distracted long enough for Ito to pin Miyake with a powerbomb. After the bell, Goto slaps Miyake across the face for having dropped the fall.

Match Thoughts: Again, the main story here was the editing. With the slap after the bell, the way that the match was cut up makes a little bit more sense, as apparently the idea is that Goto is growing ever more frustrated with his young ward’s lack of success. However, the natural places for that angle to go would be either a) Miyake turning things around as a result of Goto’s abuse and actually becoming a competent wrestler or b) Miyake turning on Goto because he’s tired of being kicked around and having a match against him. In either of those scenarios, one would think that it would be helpful to allow Ryo to show SOMETHING in his matches before his improvement, so that it doesn’t come off as completely unnatural when he starts to take the advantage over some other wrestlers. However, in this instance, he was one again shown being beaten and beaten and beaten and beaten to the point where I began to wonder why a guy like Goto would even begin to think about teaming with him.



Match Numero Cinco: Tarzan Goto, Ryo Miyake, & Mitsunobu Kikuzawa vs. Kishin Kawabata, Shunme Matsuzaki, & Shigeo Okumura

Boy, did the guys in this match ever have their careers branch out into ridiculously different directions. Matsuzaki would continue in deathmatch-style promotions for a bit after this, becoming somewhat of a big deal in Big Japan in 1999 and 2000. To the best of my knowledge, he is not active today. Kawabata, like many of the wrestlers on this show, had to find new work after both SWS and WAR closed, though he landed on his feet and became a member of the Pro Wrestling NOAH roster in 2000, where he continues to compete to this day. Okumura, who would have a cup of tea in All Japan after being an indy guy for a few more years, ultimately wound up taking his act overseas to Mexico, where he has competed in CMLL for many years now. He became a much bigger part of the promotion in 2008 as a result of a CMLL vs. New Japan feud that the company booked and even got a few shots in NJPW as part of the interpromotional agreement that established the angle.

Perhaps the most familiar wrestler in this match to 411 readers, though, is Mitsunobu Kikuzawa, albeit not under that name. After several years as a job guy in W*ING, IWA, and related promotions, Kikuzawa would make his way to Osaka Pro Wrestling, where he would be the first man given the gimmick and mask of Ebessan. Under his new hood, Kikuzawa became one of the most beloved comedy wrestlers in Japanese history and even got a few shots on the United States indy circuit. In 2005, he left Osaka Pro and the Ebessan name behind, modifying his mask and gear somewhat but otherwise keeping his gimmick the same and rechristening himself as Kikutaro.

Aaaand this one is a six-man brawl before the ring introductions can even take place. Eventually we bypass that and clip-head to in-ring action, which sees Kikuzawa throwing Okumura out of the ring and giving him a big tope suicida. There was certainly no comedy in his style at this point of his career. Goto, always one to lend a helping hand, throws Kikuzawa back into the ring and picks up Okumura, holding him in place for a second tope from the future Ebessan. We clip ahead agian, this time to Kikuzawa almost being caught in an abdominal stretch by Matsuzaki but reversing it at the last second into a cradle for a nearfall. That sets up the tag to Miyake, who engages in a battle of slaps with Shunme. That exchange literally goes nowhere before we clip ahead to Kawabata having his way with Miyake. The two duel with palm strikes, forearms, and headbutts for a bit, and, due to clipping, we actually don’t get to see who wins. My money is on Kawabata. After more editing, Goto breaks a chair over the top of Shunme’s head and then takes a few shots at him with the frame. Kikuzawa reenters the match at this point, slamming Matsuzaki and giving him a moonsault press before setting him up for another chairshot from Goto. At this point, we see that Shunme is wearing a bit of a crimson mask. Another flash forward leads us to Miyake being taken down by a lariat from Kawabata before Kishin and Shunme team up for a variation of the Doomsday Device on Miyake. It only gets two as another six man brawl breaks out. Well, if you’ve watched the last two matches, you know where this one is going. Kawabata and Matsuzaki take turns hitting top rope maneuvers on Miyake, after which he is pinned.

Not content to slap him this time, Goto breaks a chair over Ryo’s head after the bell. Kikuzawa is spared any discipline. Then, in a scene filmed backstage after the match, an enraged Goto berates the young man.

Match Thoughts: Well, I don’t know that there’s much to say about this match that I didn’t have to say about the prior two tag team matches. It was essentially the exact same thing, just with one more body on each side of the ring. I will say that it was interesting to see Kikuzawa at this point in his career, as he did seem to be a fairly athletically gifted wrestler, whereas he highlights virtually none of those talents in his role as Ebessan/Kikutaro. It was a shame that Okumura didn’t get an equal amount of ring time on offense, because I would like to have had an opportunity to see what he was capable of before the heavy lucha libre influence on his style that he picked up after his jump to CMLL.


Match Numero Seis: Tarzan Goto vs. Ryo Miyake in a barbed wire match

And here we are at the main event of the show, which, based on the previous matches and the tone of a few interviews that have been shown in between bouts, is based on Goto wanting to get Miyake out of his losing streak and to instill some manliness into him. It does not appear, however, that Miyake has in any way turned heel on his mentor. And, just because the setup for every barbed wire match seems to differ, I’ll go ahead and lay it out at the beginning: We’ve got two barbed wire boards positioned in opposite corners of the ring, a few additional barbed wire boards on the floor, and barbed wire wrapped around the ring ropes.

Miyake, who is sporting a new, darker hair color, goes after Goto with some palm strikes but is whipped into the barbed wire literally seconds into the match and then whipped in a second time, after which he eats a lariat. We clip ahead, and Goto throws a barbed wire board in to Ryo as he lays there on all fours. Miyake is then whipped through a barbed wire board in the corner, which virtually shatters on impact. Goto punches away on the younger wrestler’s bloodied forehead, with Miyake literally yelling “Ow!” after each strike. Tarzan backs his man into the barbed wire ropes one more time and goes to throw a lariat, but Miyake moves out of the way, leaving the more experienced combatant to go chest-first into the wire. Rather than seeing Miytake get any sort of offense as a result of that counter, we instead clip ahead to a later point in the match, where Goto is once again in charge. The remnants of the barbed wire board which was smashed earlier are strewn about at mid-ring now, and Goto slams Miyake on those before rolling him out of the ring under the bottom rope and popping a chair seat off over his head. From there, Goto picks up another barbed wire board and military presses it down on to Miyake’s prone body before just putting a foot over the back of the board and digging the barbs into his opponent’s body. Upon more editing, we see Goto break a glass bottle against the ring post, jabbing the jagged edges into Miyake’s forehead and arm. The guy is a bloody mess at this point. More clipping sees the match return to the ring, where Tarzan wraps Miyake’s arm around some of the barbed wire that is strung up in the ropes and then repeatedly wiggles the middle rope around with his foot, really digging the barbs in there.

Then, in a surprising turn of events, we see some life from Ryo, as he reverses a Goto powerbomb attempt into a back body drop on the smashed barbed wire board. He follows with a vertical suplex into the wires, but Goto kicks out of the ensuing pin attempt at two. After more editing, Miyake whips Tarzan into a board propped up in the corner, which he follows by jabbing a splintered piece of the board into his opponent’s head repeatedly. After a bit, Goto just no sells a shot from the wood, grabs the plank out of Miyake’s hands, and starts using it for his own purposes. Another edit takes us to Miyake taking Goto down with a lariat before running into a powerslam on the barbed wire boards. Goto allows Miyake to take his time getting back up to his feet, after which he puts him right back down with a lariat and then another. At this point, Goto brings another, in tact barbed wire board into the ring and powerbombs the youngster into it. He fell right on the back of his head there, but he still manages to kick out of Goto’s pin attempt at two. Miyake falls into the barbs one more time off of a straight right hand to his face, and there’s a second powerbomb on the board. Miyake just barely gets a shoulder up. Goto follows with a chokeslam on to the board, and, instead of going for another cover, he hits powerbomb number three. This is enough to put Miyake away for good.

Even though he lost, Miyake apparently earned Goto’s respect with his effort, as the two shake hands after the bout.

Match Thoughts: This was quite the weird match. On one hand, it seemed like the logical story for them to tell was one in which Miyake went toe-to-toe with Goto but lost out in the end, even if he did win the veteran’s respect in the process. However, that is not actually what happened, though it is hard to tell whether it was because of the actual manner in which the match was laid out or whether it was because of how the match was edited. It did appear that Miyake was headed into a major offensive flurry at one point, but that was the exact time at which whoever was producing this show felt the need to jump cut back to Tarzan’s offense. It is true that Ryo put up more of a fight than he was allowed to in the other contents, and there is something impressive about the level of offense that he was able to take from his opponent without giving up, but it is still difficult if not impossible for fans to get behind a guy who takes a tremendous beating if he’s not going to back that up with some offense that convinces the audience he could win and not just hang in there for an extended period of time before dropping a fall. Though I don’t necessarily know how talented he was at this point in his career, later Miyake matches have shown me that he developed into a fairly decent heavyweight independent wrestler, so it would have been nice for him to get more than he did here.

Overall

On one hand, I have a hard time calling this a “bad show” because what the wrestlers were doing in the ring was largely executed well from an athletic standpoint, and it was the in-ring competent of pro wrestling which was highlighted more than any other here. On the other hand, there’s a difference between putting on a show that is technically just good enough to not be called a stinker and putting on a good show that is actually enjoyable. Though nothing on this program stood out as being horrible, nothing it featured stuck out as being more than average, either. As a result, there is literally zero reason that I could think of to watch this show unless you are either a) interested in seeing some early footage of current stars like Kikutaro and Mochizuki or b) the biggest Tarzan Goto mark on the planet. (And, if the latter applies to you, let me just say: Thank you, Mr. Goto, for reading my column.) This is probably the first time that I will recommend outright avoiding a show that I have reviewed in this column . . . there’s just not that much worthwhile here. Period.


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Ryan Byers

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