Into the Indies 06.29.10: Great Sasuke’s 20th Anniversary (Again)

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that will be lucky to see twenty.

When I first started writing this column several months ago, the very first promotion that we took a look at was Michinoku Pro, specifically a card that was billed as the beginning of a Great Sasuke twentieth anniversary tour. Well, for reasons that I’m not entirely clear on, apparently having one twentieth anniversary tour last year wasn’t quite good enough for Sasuke, as this year we’re back with ANOTHER twentieth anniversary show, this one emanating from Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall on June 11, 2010.

Of course, before we get to the show, there are probably a handful of readers asking just who the Great Sasuke is. Sasuke, for lack of a better term, is a virtual “independent legend” in Japan. He is a wrestler who, though he has never been contracted to one of the big leagues of the country, has wrestled repeatedly in high quality matches in independent promotions for several years and gained enough notoriety that the major promotions, most notably New Japan and even the WWF, have periodically brought him in to add some flavor to major shows.

The man began his career at the start of the 1990’s, training under wrestler Gran Hamada in a style that merged Japanese professional wrestling and Mexican professional wrestling in a genre that would informally become known as lucharesu, a hybrid of the words “lucha libre” and “puroresu.” Sasuke worked with Hamada’s UWF promotion and toured Mexico on several occasions, though he wouldn’t truly find his footing in the professional wrestling world until he founded Michinoku Pro Wrestling in 1993. It was this company, based out of the northeastern region of the country, where Sasuke would have his most memorable rivalries and matches, including being part of a stable war between M-Pro loyalists and the breakaway heel faction of Kaientai Deluxe which was so good that it would get the attention of the World Wrestling Federation, resulting in WWF contracts for many of the major players (but not for Sasuke himself).

For his twentieth anniversary match, Sasuke decided that he wanted to involve those old Kaientai wrestlers, namely Dick Togo, TAKA Michinoku, and Shoichi Funaki. Togo returned to Japan very quickly after landing his first WWF contract and, as a result, has locked horns with Sasuke many times over the years. However, as most of the people reading this column will be aware, TAKA and Funaki hung on for significantly longer, with Michinoku remaining with the Fed until 2002 and Funaki not finishing his North American stint until April of this year. As a result, this card celebrates not only Sasuke’s twentieth anniversary as a wrestler but also the first time in many years that four men who were crucial to establishing independent professional wrestling in Japan were able to reunite in the ring with none of them being subject to the constraints of a WWF/WWE contract.

With all of that said, let’s take a look at the card itself and see if it is worth of Sasuke’s legacy.

Match Numero Uno: Rasse vs. Daisuke Sasaki

There’s not much of note in this match, as it’s just a standard undercard babyface versus undercard heel bout to get the show a-movin’. Rasse is a regular competitor in M-Pro and a Toryumon trainee who occasionally works in other promotions under the name Jumping Kid Okimoto. Daisuke Sasaki, meanwhile, is on loan from DDT. He recently had a run in a Mafia-themed heel faction in that company during which he used the ring name of “Sasaki & Gabana,” though that faction has since wound down and now he’s back to his real name and looking for some meaningful work once again.

Daisuke Sasaki has the worst acne I’ve seen on a wrestler since the glory days of Judo SUWA. Headlock takedowns and whatnot begin the match, followed by a Rasse heeling it up by grabbing a handful of hair when Sasaki tries to whip him off the ropes. Daisuke responds with an armdrag and a dropkick to pop the crowd, and then he goes after Rasse’s mask. Sort of an odd spot there, given that I figured Rasse for the rudo. The masked man does not appreciate his secret identity potentially being revealed, so he drops Sasaki down into his knee with an inverted atomic drop and runs his face across the top rope. Now we hit the chinlock, which Daisuke makes it out of by getting the ropes. Of all the holds that you could just escape without having to resort to the ropes, that one should top the list. Anyway, Daisuke starts a comeback afterwards with a dropkick that sends Rasse to the floor and then an INSANE tope suicidda in which Sasaki folded in half in midair and then landed on his head doubled over. Sasaki tosses his man back into the ring for a top rope cross body for two, followed by a rana for another nearfall. Rasse responds with Tajiri’s handspring elbow drop and a springboard dropkick from the top, after which the two men fight over a German suplex. Neither wins, so Sasaki settles for draping his opponent gut-first over the ropes and dropkicking him in the face as he’s in that position. Daisuke follows it up with a DDT (there’s a move you don’t see used as a transition much in Japan), but he misses his diving elbow follow up. That gives Rasse an opening to hit a German suplex, a superkick, and another German suplex all without any pause, building to a 450 splash that gets him the win. Unfortunately for Sasaki, it looks like Rasse’s knees found their way right into his gut on that move.

Match Thoughts: Nothing really stood out about this match. It was just a perfectly acceptable, well-timed, well-paced opening singles match on an independent wrestling show. A couple of the spots (the tope suicida, the 450 splash) looked a little bit more sloppy than they would have with more seasoned wrestlers in the ring, but nothing was so off that it detracted from my overall enjoyment of the bout. **1/2

Match Numero Dos: Shu & Kei Sato vs. Kesen Numajiro & Kinya Oyanagi

We’ve seen the rudo identical twin team of Shu and Kei Sato several times throughout the life of I2I, as they terrorize numerous independent promotions with a style that involves significantly more cheating and use of weapons than that of a standard Japanese tag team. This time around they’re up against the former M-Pro Tag Team Champions Oyanagi and Numajiro, with the former being a ten year veteran and graduate of Toryumon and the second being a comedy wrestler from M-Pro’s glory days who now competes much more seriously but also much more sporadically.

Oyangi starts the match for his team against one of the Satos. I have yet to develop a reliable method for telling them apart. The wrestlers engage each other into a Greco-Roman knuckle lock and take turns with strangehold submission variations. Oyangi comes out the winner of the exchange, as he manages to jockey the hold into a couple of pin attempts that frustrate the Sato to the point that he tags out to his brother. Numajiro is also in at this point, and the wrestlers charge at each other with shoulderblocks until the veteran takes his man down with one and hits a couple of hip attacks to bring Oyangi back in. The two of them engage in some good, old fashioned, CLUBBERIN’ on the Sato (that’s four fistes on one man, Tony) and Oyangi gets an octopus hold on. Unfortunately he gets it on too close to the twins’ corner, allowing the heel who is not in the hold to spray water in Oyangi’s face. That turns the advantage in the favor of the bad guys, as they work their own combo octopus/claw hold on Oyangi after knocking Numajiro off of the ring apron.

Generic double teaming by the Satos continues in their corner, including stomps and chokeholds galore. Eventually one Sato stays in the ring and drops a knee for a two count, only to have Oyangi reverse a suplex attempt into a Fujiwara armbar. The other Sato saves with a basement dropkick and also nails Numajiro for his trouble, at which point the twins try to double team the Toryumon product further. It fails, however, and Oyangi lays them both out with enzuguiri en route to tagging Numajiro. He takes a Sato down with a dragon screw and applies the sharpshooter. The other Sato tries to save with kicks to the chest, but Numajiro no sells them and refuses to break the hold until he’s damn good and ready, coming out of it with a lariat on the intervening Sato. The good guys work together for a European uppercut/spinebuster combo and hit a pair of corner attacks on a Sato. Oyangi immediately goes to another enzuguiri and Numajiro hits a shining wizard variant. That sets up a piledriver by Oyangi and a Savage elbow by Numajiro, but the fresh Sato breaks up the ensuing pin attempt. Numajiro throws him from the ring and looks for a pescado but misses as Oyangi continues to work on the weakened Sato. It looks like Oyangi is going to come off the top rope, but the fresh Sato hits him with a chair prevent that. The weakened Sato tries for a superplex but can’t hit it, eventually getting an assist from his brother, who powerbombs him, resulting in Oyangi being superplexed after all.

Oyangi continues to hold his own against both men, but he’s ultimately caught in a sleeper by one Sato and hit with a bulldog to take him back down. Kicks to the chest rock Oyangi and a running boot to the face takes him down for a nearfall, but he still manages to reverse a fireman’s carry into a victory roll for two. Unfortunately for him, he’s right back up in the fireman’s carry seconds later and brought down out of it with a version of the Michinoku Driver. That earns the Satos a three count over Oyangi.

Match Thoughts: This match was an interesting one to watch just to see how everybody worked around Numajiro. That’s not to say that he’s a bad wrestler, but he’s about ten years older than everybody else involved and didn’t have the benefit of coming out of the same training camp as the other three men, so it’s only natural that there are some significant differences between his style and theirs. Things actually worked out fairly well, as it seemed that everybody decided that they wanted to conclude the match with a rapid fire, high impact string of moves the likes of which you would normally see in a lucharesu match. That’s not the sort of thing that Numajiro is known for, but they did a good job of integrating him into it anyhow, as he first found a way to insert relatively basic, old school moves into the fast paced sequence and then later on, as the pace picked up more, just got knocked to the outside. That was probably the best way to handle things and resulted in a fairly entertaining undercard bout. ***

Match Numero Tres: Takeshi Minamino, Magura Ooma, & Ken45̊ vs. Yapper Man #1 & #2 & Kenbai

This match features three of Michinoku’s regular babyfaces going up against three of their regular heels, all of whom are members of a stable known as Kowloon, which at this point basically consists of every bad guy in the company. It’s also interesting to note that five of the six men involved are all graduates of the Ultimo Dragon-founded Toryumon training system, which also produced the majority of the big names who have come through Dragon Gate. The only outsider to the Dragon system is Kenbai, who wrestles in various promotions without his mask under the name Yuki Sato. The two other masked men in the match, the Yappers, are a regular tag team elsewhere under the names Tsutomu Oosugi and Hercules Senga, collectively known in some places as the Speed of Sounds.

The Kowloon group attacks the Yapper Men at the bell, and there’s all sorts of brawling at ringside in order to start the match. One Yapper in particular has a rough time, as he’s slammed on the bleachers of Korakuen Hall by Minamino before getting dragged back into the ring without either of his partners there to help him. He’s able to recover fairly quickly, though, running the ropes at an AMAZING speed and taking Minamino out of the ring with a rana. The other Yapper then does a very similar sequence with Ken45̊, though his culminates with a springboard armdrag. Now it’s Ooma and Kebai’s turn, and they also exhibit some great speed before Kenbai dispatches Ooma . . . only to miss a 619 on the intervening Minamino, who hits a backbreaker. We’re back to Ken45̊ and a Yapper after a bit, and Ken gets the best of things with a drop toe hold and a punch to the nether-regions of the Yapper. The other Yapper comes in with Ooma, and they exchange armdrag reversals until the Yapper hits a big kick. Both Yappers go after Ken at this point, but he manages to trick one in to hitting a rana on the other and then hits a lariat/foul combination on the remaining member of the team. Ken and Minamino look to double team Kenbai at this point, but he out-maneuvers them and hits a tornado DDT on one and a rana on the other. It looks like Kenbai is going to hit a dive, but Ooma blocks it with a basement dropkick to the knee. Ooma, in response, eats an INSANE Dream Sequence-esque series of moves from the Yappers, who are then joined by Kenbai. All three men simultaneously dropkick Ooma, but his partners run in to break up the pin attempt. Ooma and Ken45̊ get armdragged out of the ring by the Yappers, who miss stereo Silver King dives. Now it’s Minamino’s turn to go airborne, as he hits BOTH Yappers with a tope suicida. Kenbai joins the fun with a standard plancha on Minamino, which leads into Ken45̊ landing a tope con hilo. Ooma is the only man left . . . CORKSCREW PESCADO! Well, everybody’s dead.

Eventually Ooma recovers and throws a Yapper back into the ring, hitting a HIGH jumping lariat in the corner and a jumping knee attack for two. The Yapper responds with a DDT, an enzuguiri, and a version of the superkick, but they can’t put things away. A trade is made to Kenbai and Ken45̊, with 45̊ hitting a blue thunder driver for two and Kenbai giving him a rana and the 619. An INSANE diving double stomp from Kenbai gets a little too close to Ken45̊’s face for my comfort as Minamino runs in for the save. Minamino and a Yapper go at it, with Minamino’s powerbomb eventually hitting after several failed attempts. It only gets two. Now we’ve got all three bad guys in with the Yapper who just took the powerbomb, and Ooma connects with an INSANE lariat. Ooma and Minamino team up for a chokeslam/German suplex combination, but it only gets two as the other babyfaces save. Minamino’s death valley driver hits after the bad guys get rid of the interfering good guys, and that puts a capper on the match.

Match Thoughts: This was pretty flippin’ awesome, though part of it may have been because I was not expecting the match to be anywhere near as good as it was. I have seen the Yappers in their various alter egos and was aware that they were capable of working at an absolutely breakneck pace for short spurts, but I had never seen them in longer matches and I was not expecting their Yapper gimmick to allow them to do anything other than comedy. However, this match proved that they absolutely CAN keep that pace up for a longer clip and that they absolutely will do a serious match as the Yaps. Of course, they weren’t the only great things about the bout, as the other four men in the ring kept up with the pace and all made their own contributions, as Ken45̊ had some great charisma and rudo spots, while Ooma, despite having an odd build for a wrestler, busted out some sick looking strikes to stop whatever babyface was running at him at the time. After a match like this one, these guys are absolutely begging for another trip to the United States to work with CHIKARA or a trip out of northeastern Japan to work a little bit for Dragon Gate. ****

Match Numero Cuatro: El Samurai, Takashi Sasaki, & Boso Boy Raito vs. Ryuji Ito, HIROKI, & Daichi Sasaki

This is being billed as a match put together by the Great Sasuke himself in order to help celebrate his twentieth anniversary. It consists of six wrestlers from six different promotions, though all of them share a common bond in that they’re from Iwate, the Japanese prefecture (similar to an American state or Canadian province) that Sasuke calls home. Captaining the first team is El Samurai, a veteran of almost twenty-five years who is best known for being the number two junior heavyweight babyface in New Japan throughout the majority of the 1990’s. He’s technically no longer under contract to NJPW but still works there on a semi-regular basis and would be considered a New Japan guy by most. His partners are Takashi Sasaki, a frequent participant in deathmatches promoted by the indy group FREEDOMS, and Boso Boy Raito, a comedic wrestler from TAKA Michinoku’s promotion Kaientai Dojo. On the other side of the ring is Big Japan Wrestler and deathmatch god Ryuji Ito, joined by the freelancer HIROKI, another TAKA trainee who was formerly known as Hi69, and Daichi Sasaki, a young man making his professional wrestling debut in this bout.

Daichi volunteers to begin the match for his team, and it’s against the veteran El Samurai. Daichi actually takes the more experienced grappler down but is quickly bested on the mat. Samurai gabs and works an armbar, eventually taking his man down into a crossface variation and later the camel clutch. Daichi slips out of it and slaps on a headlock, though it’s easy for Samurai to escape before applying a version of the Rings of Saturn. A rope break puts an end to that one, so Samurai simply repositions the rookie and applies the hold one more time. He eventually voluntarily relinquishes his grip and tags out to Boso Boy Raito, who tosses Daichi into his corner and asks that Ryuji Ito tag in. Boso brings the match to a grinding halt and basically does a comedic monologue for the audience, ultimately asking for a handshake but making very clear at the same time that he’s getting ready to kick Ito as soon as he delivers. That’s exactly what happens, but it doesn’t allow Raito to get much of an advantage, as Ito decks him with a big boot and slams him. That gives us tags to Takashi and HIROKI, who do a sequence off of the ropes which HIROKI wins with a dropkick and a senton. The men begin trading chops at this point, which seems like it would be a losing proposition for the much smaller HIROKI . . . and it is.

He gets chopped a fair deal and taken off his feet with a leg lariat, and here comes El Samurai to really put a hurting on him. Samurai drops an elbow right across the bridge of the nose of the K-Dojo trainee, but HIROKI still manages to force the NJPW star back into his corner, giving us a tag to Daichi. Daichi seems surprised when he is able to put the boots to Samurai in the corner, but the elder wrestler makes an unorthodox comeback when he grabs Daichi’s nose and then punches it in a spot right out of The Three Stooges. Daichi is stomped in the corner afterwards and slammed by Takashi, who checks into the match. Takashi chops Daichi and practically begs him to bring the fight, but the smaller, younger wrestler can’t quite do it and gets violently slammed again. Here comes Raito, who kicks the youngster across his shoulder blades and shrugs off several palm strikes from Daichi before wacking him with another kick and tagging in Takashi. The two more seasoned wrestlers give Daichi a double shoulderblock, after which Takashi stays in the ring and unloads with more boots. Daichi tries to respond with chops, but they’re not effective. Raito and Samurai join Takashi at this point, and the three wrestlers all land axe bombers on Daichi while their partners hold the rookies’ partners at bay. Raito connects with a big splash on Daichi for a two count and then many, many kicks and forearms.

Daichi makes a bit of a comeback after Raito hits the ropes, though, catching him with a forearm and a dropkick which sets up a tag to Ito. Ito dispatches all of his opponents and keeps Raito in the ring for some kicks and a corkscrew elbow. A scissors kick and a legdrop to the back of the head get the deathmatch wrestler a two count on the comedian, and Ito hits his very impressive moonsault press. It also gets two, though Raito is able to respond with an enzuguiri that brings El Samurai back into the match. Sammy gives Ito a missile dropkick and a DDT, followed by a side Russian legsweep that is immediately turned into an armbar submission. HIROKI makes the save before Ito can tap, and Ryuji is able to get in a knee strike and a northern lights suplex on the vet before tagging the former Hi69 into the match proper. HIROKI gives Samurai a weak looking jawbreaker and a weaker looking facebuster to set up a lionsault for two. Samurai comes back with a lariat and tags Takashi, who gives HIROKI and enzuguiri and a DDT that puts HIROKI into a headstand position. Takashi’s superkick gets two on HIROKI, but the little guy escapes a piledriver attempt before Daichi asks for the tag. Daichi hits a series of dropkicks on Takashi and some forearms, though he eventually runs into a kick and a snap suplex before Takashi locks on the Boston crab. Daichi surprisingly makes the ropes and gets two on Samurai with a backslide and then a cradle. Samurai answers with a lariat as soon as he regains a vertical base, and it’s a matter of seconds before Sammy’s diving headbutt from the top connects. It only gets two as every other wrestler in the match suddenly appears in the ring during the pin attempt, and Daichi uses the distraction to attempt a German suplex on the vet. That doesn’t happen, and Daichi is maneuvered into a keylock submission and taps out.

Match Thoughts: This was a step down from the prior matches on the card in terms of pure quality, but, based on the lineup, you had to know that it would be. Virtually any time that you make somebody as inexperienced as Daichi the focus of a match, it’s going to take a bit of a hit. I will say that he looked significantly better than many folks with the same level of ring time, but his relatively basic offense kept us from having a top notch match. It didn’t bother me too much, though, as matches like this are a necessity if you’re ever going to have people at Daichi’s level improve and advance. If any of the wrestlers’ performances annoyed me during the bout, it was actually that of HIROKI, who seemed very sloppy and out of place during many different spots. I understand that he only recently came back from a major injury, but, when you are in a match like this and look worse than the guy who is making his debut, you should probably go back to rehabing for a bit. **

Match Numero Cinco: Ultimo Dragon, Fujita “Junior” Hayato, & Taro Nohashi vs. Jinsei Shinzaki, Kenou, & Rui Hiugaji

This is the latest twist in a long-standing story involving the Michinoku Pro home team’s ongoing battle against the previously mentioned Kowloon stable. The Kowloon/M-Pro rivalry had been going on for quite some time until midway through last year, when the Kowloon frontman Fujita “Junior” Hayato was defeated for the promotion’s top title (the Tokohu Junior Heavyweight Title) by Ou Kobushi, a returning star who had spent a year away from the promotion hanging out in Okinawa Pro and competing as Kanmuriwashi Yoko, the masked kickboxing bird with an afro. The tide had clearly turned against Kowloon in the war, and then they made the announcement that they had obtained a new, mysterious leader who was ultimately revealed to be ULTIMO DRAGON~!, who was taking on a heel role that I can’t ever remember him having in Japan. Since joining up with Dragon, Kowloon has been dominant once more, and this match is his first in Tokyo since becoming a rudo and heading up this faction. His partners are former Jinsei Shinzaki clone Shinjitsu “Taro” Nohashi and the previously mentioned Fujita Hayato, who is nursing an injury that he picked up while competing in the Best of the Super Juniors tournament for New Japan Pro Wrestling. Their opponents are long-time M-Pro star (and current booker) Jensei “Hakushi” Shinzaki, Ou Koubashi (who has since changed his name to Kenou), and Rui Hiugaji, a wrestler trained by M-Pro with three years experience.

Also, despite being fifteen years older than when I first saw him wrestle, I’m pretty sure that Shinzaki now has significantly more muscle mass and definition than I’ve seen him with at any other point in his career. Go figure. Kenou and Nohashi are in the ring first for their teams, though the champion makes it clear that he wants the injured Hayato in between the ropes. It looks like Junior is going to oblige at first, but he takes one kick to the leg from his adversary and goes down in a heap immediately. A second leg kick gives us the same result, and Junior is doing an awesome job of selling the debilitating pain. Unsurprisingly, leg kick number three does the same thing, and now Kenou is grabbing Hayato by the hair and taunting him. Kowloon intervenes but is more interested in checking on Hayato than attacking the babyfaces, at least until Takeshi Minamino starts getting into Kenou’s face. Eventually Minamino pulls off his warmup suit as Kowloon drags the downed Fujita to the back. The bell rings again, and the announcer tells us that the match has been changed on the fly to . . .

Match Numero Cinco: Ultimo Dragon, Takeshi Minamino, & Taro Nohashi vs. Jinsei Shinzaki, Kenou, & Rui Hiugaji

Minamino and Kenou go NUTS on each other in the ring with kicks and body blows as the other four men on the match brawl on the outside. Eventually that pair also goes to the floor, where Minamino throws a folded chair directly into Kenou’s face. Kenou responds by posting his opponent and hitting a running basement dropkick right in front of the first row of fans. When action returns to the ring, it’s Shinzaki and Nohashi, with Jinsei eating a flying cross chop and a forearm shiver in the corner before rolling out of the way of a senton. A Shinzaki dropkick sends Nohashi back to the outside while a different camera shows us Ultimo Dragon throwing Hiugaji into the squared circle. The Kowloon boss lands a few chops, but Hiugaji reverses an Irish whip and takes the seasoned competitor down with a series of shoulderblocks. UD immediately takes a breather once he leaves his feet, leading to Hiugaji following him to a metal piece of staging where the television announcers are located. Dragon gives his opponent a snap suplex down on to the metal followed by a kick to the gut that sends Hiugaji rolling off the stage. The youngster is slammed down on the metal and rolls off once more. Hopefully this time he has the good sense to stay off.

Elsewhere in the arena, we are shown Kenou whipping Minamino through a row of chairs before we go back to Dragon, who is wearing out Hiugaji with chair shots to the back and neck. Eventually Kenou and Minamino go back to the ring, where the rudo lands some snug looking kneelifts and tags in Nohashi. Dragon is there as well now, and all three bad guys gang up on Kenou in the corner for a spell. A series of running corner attacks from each of the three Kowloon members keeps Kenou down for two, at which point Nohashi goes after Shinzaki and Hiugaji, who were attempting to regain their positions on the ring apron. Nohashi and Minamino hold Kenou in place for some big kicks by their boss, though Kenou manages to escape when Ultimo hits the ropes. He kicks in the heads of all three Kowloon members in succession and is going to unleash a KO punch on Dragon, who begs off a la Ric Flair. Of course, Minamino saves before Kenou can connect, but the champ still rallies and hits Takeshi with a double kneelift in the corner. Minamino fires back with a flying kick of his own, but that’s not enough to get rid of Kenou, who flattens his man with a double stomp for a two count. Rather than tag out, Kenou starts reeling off kicks to his opponent’s chest, though ultimately Minamino catches his leg and hits a DVD for two. Hiugaji had to stay there, and he remains in the ring to hit Nohashi with a running spear in the corner and a brainbuster for a nearfall before heading to the top for a diving elbow. It can also only get two, so Hiugaji tries for a German. Nohashi low blows him and dropkicks him flush on the top of the head, however, and that gives Kowloon the advantage once more. Something happens that the camera misses, but, whatever it was, it allows Shinzaki to tag in. Dragon also enters the ring, and we’ve got a bit of a pop from the crowd as they get ready to see the two veterans do battle.

Early on, Dragon rolls through a back body drop attempt and lands on his feet, catching Shinzaki in la magistrahl for two. Shinzaki responds by immediately applying his Heavenly Lock, but Nohashi runs in from behind and FLIES through the air en route to clubbing Jinsei in the back of the head with a trash can shot. Suddenly the match has devolved into a pier six brawl once more, and, amid the chaos, Dragon looks for the Asai DDT on Hiugaji. The babyface escapes, but, as he runs the ropes, he gets caught in the kisser with Nohashi’s rubbish bin. Of course, that sets up the actual Asai DDT, and that gives Dragon an easy three count. The assault continues after the match, as Ultimo goes after the medical staff that wanted to tend to Hiugaji before kicking the wrestler himself out of the ring.

Match Thoughts: It’s rare for me to say this in regards to a Japanese show, but this one felt more like an angle than it did a match. Yes, there was about ten minutes worth of in-ring action in there somewhere, but the fact that so much of it featured six men brawling at the same time made it feel disjointed and resulted in none of it being particularly memorable. That’s not necessarily to say that it was bad, but the bits involving storyline progression where definitely much more memorable than the bits involving athletic “competition.” It definitely worked as an angle, though, as it clearly established to the Tokyo crowd for the first time that Kowloon is revitalized with Ultimo Dragon at the helm and capable of taking it took team M-Pro, at least when the Great Sasuke is distracted by other ventures. I also enjoyed how they handled the Fujita injury, especially since it seems like one that will keep him out for several months. He showed a good degree of fighting spirit which helped his character, and it almost seemed as though they were building towards a babyface turn when he makes his comeback. Again, it was a decent bit of storytelling, though it wasn’t the most-compelling in-ring match that I’ve ever seen. **

Match Numero Seis: TAKA Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki vs. The Great Sasuke & Dick Togo

It’s TAKA and Sasuke in the ring to kick us off, and I’d be interested to know the number of times that I’ve seen these two wrestle each other over the years. A quick exchange of reversals up front sees Sasuke score the first real offensive maneuver of the match with an armdrag, and then he bests TAKA in a Greco-Roman knuckle lock for a bit until the Kaientai Dojo boss reverses the pressure. Sasuke manages to reverse and applies an armbar until TAKA grabs one of his legs and maneuvers him into a waistlock. Sasuke slips out and goes back to the arm, and he decides to tag out when TAKA escapes that one. Funaki enters the ring as well, making his first Michinoku Pro appearance in god knows how long. He and Togo go into a basic collar and elbow tie-up, and Funaki gives is former stablemate a clean break when they back into the ropes. Back in the center of the ring, the two men fight over armbar and headlock reversals, with Funaki eventually shoulderblocking his man down and catching him with an armdrag and bar. Dick escapes that with a forearm shiver to the chest but is quickly trapped right back in the same move. He escapes again, this time kicking Funaki in the chest on his way out, and we’ve got another pair of tags.

This time Sasuke runs right at TAKA as he is stepping through the ropes and kicks him in the chest, heading into a chinlock afterwards. The politician even rakes his opponent’s eyes as he breaks the hold and slams him before bringing Togo back into the ring. The two former Italian Horsemen trade punches, with Dick winning out and setting up a HIGH version of his slingshot senton from the apron. A Jerry Lawler fistdrop leads to Togo’s chinlock on TAKA, and Michinoku makes the stereotypical western babyface comeback out of it. Togo cuts him off with a boot to the chest and brings Sasuke back to the ring, with the M-Pro founder immediately cinching in a leg lock. TAKA tries to escape by applying a claw hold while still in the leg lock, but it doesn’t work as the pain on his knee forces him to rock back and lose the hold. TAKA’s next attempt is chopping his way out, but Sasuke just isn’t letting go. Eventually TAKA has more success with a closed fist, and here comes Funaki.

The big Sho’ immediately puts Sasuke into yet another chinlock, and Sasuke makes the exact same comeback that TAKA made a few minutes earlier. This comeback is also cut off, as Funaki hangs on to the ropes to avoid a Sasuke dropkick. Funaki follows that up with a belly-to-back suplex and passes Sasuke into the capable hands of TAKA Michinoku. TAKA boots his man in the head several times and concludes the sequence by dropkicking him in the face. Forearms and chops are traded at mid-ring by the familiar opponents, capped off with TAKA going to the eyes and tagging Funaki back in. Smackdown’s Number One Announcer hits a snap suplex and gets a couple of two counts off of it and hits the – you guessed it – chinlock. TAKA is back once more, but this time Sasuke makes a comeback for real and knocks both of his opponents down with clotheslines. That gives us the tag to Togo, who runs wild for a bit and punches both TAKA and Funaki in different corners. TAKA eventually rolls to the floor, where he is hit with Sasuke’s OLD MAN OUTTA CONTROL diving baseball kick through the ropes while Togo and Funaki trade rights in the squared circle. Funaki succeeds in knocking his opponent off of his feet first but eats a PELE KICK out of nowhere by Dick. Funaki is put on the outside as a result, and Togo follows him down with the tope suicida.

As if on cue, TAKA and Sasuke are back in the ring, where the Great one hits a Buff Blockbuster for two and a piledriver to the same result. Sasuke heads to the top now, looking for the senton atomico but missing it as TAKA rolls out of the way. Michinoku kicks his opposition in the head and knocks him out of the ring, but Sasuke prevents the follow-up Asai moonsault that TAKA had planned and starts piling up chairs at ringside with the help of a female fan. TAKA is placed atop the furniture, and Sasuke LEAPS OVER THE TOP ROPE AND OUT OF THE RING with a no hands tope con hilo. Of course, TAKA moves, so Sasuke takes the brunt of the chairs across is back. In between the ropes, TAKA kicks Sasuke in the head again and applies a crossface, but Togo saves. The two of them start exchanging crossface attempts at a rapid pace, but it’s TAKA who eventually wins out. Funaki and Sasuke run in with Funaki grabbing an ankle lock on Sasuke, and it looks like we might have a stereo submission for a bit until Dick grabs the bottom rope. After a bit it’s Funaki and Sasuke back in the ring, with the former WWE star getting a bulldog for two before slipping out of Sasuke’s attempt at a thunder fire bomb. Sasuke stays on his man with a bionic freaking elbow of all things and then connects with the thunder fire. It gets two as TAKA saves, but Togo wipes him out with a lariat. TAKA responds with a big kick and his Michinoku Driver #2, but Sasuke blindesides him. Sasuke signals for the Ram Jam and goes to the top rope, but it misses. This is not your night for the flying moves, dude.

TAKA and Funaki have both gone to the outside now, and Sasuke is not going to let them off easily. He climbs to the top turnbuckle and hits a swank somersault dive that wipes out TAKA, Funaki, and several members of the M-Pro roster who were hanging around ringside. It’s TAKA and Sasuke who get back into the ring after that spot, where TAKA lands a series of kicks until he’s cut off and dragon screwed. Now the Ram Jam connects, but Funaki keeps it from getting a three count. Togo pops up out of nowhere and hits TAKA with his top rope senton before he and Funaki clock each other with simultaneous lariats. That gives Sasuke the opening he needs to thunder fire powerbomb TAKA, giving him the three count and the victory in his twentieth anniversary match.

Match Thoughts: This is not what I was expecting at all. I understand that everybody in this match is now significantly older than they were when I was watching them in the glory days of this promotion. Yet, at the same time, I’ve also seen most of them have matches over the course of the last year or two which came close to rivaling their matches from the glory days in terms of quality if not in terms of outright athletic insanity. (For an example, see my review of TAKA and Sasuke’s June 2009 singles match.) However, this was not one of those matches. For whatever reason, instead of going all out, the four wrestlers decided to take things easy, work very basic holds, and take one or two big risks toward the end. Normally that wouldn’t bother me too much, but I expected the exact opposite given that they had Sasuke’s big anniversary to celebrate as well as the reunion of Funaki with these three men after several years. I am still glad that I watched the match because there’s a certain warm, fuzzy feeling associated with watching a man who you’ve been a fan of over the years celebrating a major milestone in his career, but the wrestling match as a wrestling match didn’t deliver at anywhere near the level that I thought it would. **1/2

Overall

At the end of the day, this probably isn’t a card to go out of your way to see unless you’re already a fan of Michinoku Pro generally or the Great Sasuke specifically. Throughout the first three matches, it seemed as though the card was building and building with each match being better than the last and the first six man tag being pretty damn awesome . . . but then things just sort of petered out. The second six man tag featuring Daichi Sasaki was a step down in quality, though it was one that I could forgive due to the reasons that I mentioned earlier in my write-up. I figured that the final matches of the card would pick things back up, but, unfortunately, they did not when it came to actual in-ring action. Existing M-Pro fans will no doubt enjoy the storyline progression in the Ultimo Dragon tag match and existing Sasuke fans will no doubt enjoy the man’s anniversary match, but this card as a whole isn’t going to mean much to, for example, somebody who has seen a bunch of Dragon Gate and decides that they want to branch out into watching a new Japanese promotion. Hopefully their next major show, which features some of the younger wrestlers in more prominent roles, will be able to breathe a bit more life into the promotion.

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