Into the Indies 06.14.11: It’s Vader Time in Apache Army

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that blows steam out of its helmet.

This week, I2I is a family affair, as I decided we should take a look at Big Van Vader’s recent return to Japan, where, over the last couple of months, he has worked for a variety of different promotions after largely sitting on the sidelines for several years now. As you can imagine, given his recent inactivity, it took something pretty big to lure the man from the Rocky Mountains back into competition.

That big thing is none other than his son, twenty-five year old Jesse White, a former member of the Oklahoma University football team who had what at one point could have been a promising NFL career sidelined by back and hip injuries. However, professional football’s loss is often professional wrestling’s gain, and this case is no exception. Vader began training the fruit of his loins to be a professional wrestler, and, when Jesse was ready, he called upon his former business partners and friends in Japan in order to get the two booked on a tour of many different shows for many different promotions, supplementing matches White has been taking on the United States indy scene like this one:

Apparently Vader’s strategy to get his son exposure and experience worked out perfectly, because it was announced in late April 2011 that the younger White was signed to a WWE developmental contract.

As such, I figured that it would be a good idea to take a look at Jesse White in action before he had an opportunity to debut with the big leagues.

The specific show that we’ll be looking at comes to us from the Apache Army promotion on March 25, 2011. We’ve looked at Apache Army before, though, at the time, I thought that our first look at Apache Army would be the last. At the time, it had been announced that the promotion was going out of business, in large part because of a sexual harassment scandal which rocked one of its top stars, Kintaro Kanemura. Kanemura, a former deathmatch star with the forehead to prove it . . .

. . . was accused of making unwanted advances towards the female president of a professional wrestling fan club. In order to distance themselves from the controversy, essentially the entire Apache Army roster broke away from him and headed towards a newly formed company called FREEDOMS. However, those who declared Apache Army dead (myself included) underestimated Kanemura’s resiliency. With the original AA’s death occurring in December 2010, he bounced back and started running shows under the Apache Army name in January 2011, and he’s continued to run at least one show per month ever since. Thusfar, Kanemura’s new Apache Army has been much less deathmatch oriented than the original, and the roster has become even more eclectic, featuring fewer hardcore stars of the past and more wrestlers from lower level indies.

So, this was not only an opportunity to take a look at a potential future star in American wrestling, but it was also an opportunity to take a look at how Kanemura and some of his closest allies have rebounded from last year’s controversy.

Oh, and did I mention that Luke Gallows is going to be there too?

That sounds like an opportunity I just can’t pass up.

This was billed as a dark match, so I’m surprised to see it making air. Apparently Kanemura wasn’t expecting that either, as he’s dressed in his street clothes and has his hair up in an unflattering ‘do that makes him look like the Japanese Rosanne Barr. In a rarity for this column, Kanemura’s opponent, Rikimaru, is a guy that I know nothing about and can find no information about. However, he’s been relegated to the dark match on a tiny Apache Army show, which probably says all you need to know about his level of celebrity.

There’s a lockup early, at which point the wrestlers start trading shoulderblocks with Riki getting the better of things and following up with a pair of vertical suplexes for two. Kanemura rolls to the outside for a breather. When he gets back in, Rikimaru immediately beats on him and sits a Stinger splash for two. He looks for the same move again, but this time Kanemura reverses the Irish whip and gives his man a back elbow. From there, Kintaro heads to the top rope, but Riki give shim the Flair beal off and begins kicking him in the chest. Kanemura blocks the last kick and turns it into a dragon screw before hitting the same move again and applying the figure four. Riki earns himself a rope break, but Kanemura just drags him back to center ring and reapplies the hold after it’s broken. This time, Rikimaru taps out, though it’s after spending a significant amount of time in the hold.

Match Thoughts: There wasn’t much to write home about here, though you wouldn’t expect there to be in a five minute long dark match. The action was fairly slow and plodding, with Kanemura most likely saving himself for later in the show and Rikimaru not showing much despite the fact that he would presumably be in a position here to try to move up the cards. Unless the rest of the show just ran short, I don’t understand why this dark match didn’t stay dark. *

Match Numero Uno: Yusaku Obata vs. Kazushi Miyamoto

This is a battle of two fairly young wrestlers looking to establish a direction. Obata made his debut in 2005 after being trained by TAKA Michinoku’s Kaientai Dojo. He spent only a year with that group, though, as not long thereafter he became a protégé of Kintaro Kanemura and has followed him around to whatever promotion he happens to be associated with at the time. The second is Kazushi Miyamoto. Many fans of US wrestling reading this column may remember Miyamoto, as he did a yearlong “learning excursion” in the States between 2004 and 2005, wrestling in many different independent organizations. Most notably, he appeared on several episodes of TNA Impact as a tag team partner for NOSAWA Rongai and appeared on Victory Road 2004, the company’s first three hour long monthly pay per view event. He also wrestled two undercard matches with Ring of Honor. Miyamoto was sent to the United States by All Japan Pro Wrestling, the promotion that trained him and allowed him to make his debut in 2001. However, shortly after returning from his excursion, he was plucked away to be a focal point of a new startup company called “Kings Road.” Kings Road fell apart in late 2007, leaving Miyamoto without a home promotion. He has been unable to make it back to the big leagues, so now he wrestles on small shows such as this one as well as promoting his on independent, called Kazushi Group.

The wrestlers circle each other early and Miyamoto grabs a headlock, which Obata ultimately has to go to the ropes to break. Miyamoto also takes his man down with a shoulderblock, but Obata fires back with a dropkick to give us an early stalemate in the match. The crowd begins doing a unique chant of Obata’s name as Miyamoto slams him and drops an elbow for a one count. Obata tries a few forearms, but Miyamoto no sells them all and gives his man a bodyslam. A second slam sets up an elbow drop, but it only gets two. Up next, Miyamoto shoots his man into the ropes and trips him up with a drop toe hold, then applying the STF. Obata does a military crawl to make the ropes, at which point Kazushi starts chopping away at him before hitting a vertical splash in the corner. Miyamoto looks for a vertical suplex, but Obata slips out of it and dropkicks his man down. Obata follows it up with a leaping enzuguiri as Miyamoto is in the corner and then a basement dropkick in the same position. A snap suplex earns Obata a nearfall, and now he decides to head to the top rope. It was a poor choice, though, as Miyamoto cuts him off and lands a superplex for two. Almost the very second poor Obata kicks out, Miyamoto German suplexes him and hits a lariat. He looks to finish things off with a powerbomb, but Obata manages to roll down his back and cradle him for two, followed by another enzuguiri. Obata’s next trip to the top rope is more successful, as he hits a missile dropkick. Running the ropes doesn’t work, though, as it only results in Obata being hit with two more lariats and then a powerbomb. This time he is barely able to slip out of Miyamoto’s pinning combination. He can’t slip out at all, though, when Miyamoto drops him with a brainbuster seconds later. That brings the match to a close.

Match Thoughts: This was a solid undercard singles match. I hadn’t seen much of Miyamoto prior to or since his TNA run, and it’s funny how that company booked him into a wannabe Great Muta gimmick and had him wrestle a more junior heavyweight style when, in reality, he’s a fair deal bigger than most juniors and, based on this match, works a lot better as a straight wrestler than he does doing Muta-esque schtick. He looked quite good here, like man who could be mixing it up at a higher level if he hadn’t burned too many bridges. Hopefully he has an opportunity to break through at a higher level. He’d be one of my high draft picks if I were doing a startup company and wanted to bring in an unaffiliated, unknown Japanese performer. **

Match Numero Tres: Yoshikazu Yokoyama & Nick Primo vs. Kenichi Yamamoto & Apache Kosaki

Remember Prince Iaukea from WCW? Well, he didn’t completely drop off the face of the earth after the company folded. He continued wrestling on the Florida independent scene, and, in doing so, he trained his son to be a professional wrestler, not unlike Vader did with young Jesse. The son, Nick Primo, has also been a mainstay on the Florida indy scene for some time now and has more recently gotten to come over to wrestle regularly for Japanese promotion ZERO1, presumably winding up on this show between his Z1 bookings. His partner here, Yokoyama, is a ZERO1 trainee who debuted in early 2010.

At least one man on the other side of the ring, Kenichi Yamamoto, has significantly more experience than either Yamamoto or Primo, as he goes all the way back to the UWFi promotion that was big on the Japanese scene in the early 1990’s. He is probably more popular for his shootfighting work, though, having fought in both RINGS and Pride, in addition to winning a Japanese tournament on UFC 23 and following it up with an appearance on UFC 29. His partner, Kosaki, is somebody whose name I’ve ever seen outside of Apache Army results, so I’m assuming that he’s a fairly young wrestler and another Kanemura protégé.

Primo is in the ring with Apache to start the match, and Nick picks his leg early to take him down and start some mat wrestling. Apache uses the ropes to break a full nelson before tagging out to Yamamoto. The veteran grabs a front facelock, but Primo escapes quickly. He doesn’t escape a kneebar applied by Yamamoto quite as quickly, instead having to roll to the ropes. That gets us a tag to Yokoyama, and Apache also checks back in for good measure. The two young wrestlers trade waistlocks before Apache backs the ZERO1 rookie into the corner for some double team kicking with Yamamoto. From there, the former UFC star places Yokoyama into a sleeper hold variation, which the referee decides to break up, I guess because it’s become some form of illegal choke. Yamamoto changes positions and looks for a cross arm breaker, but he can’t quite get it and starts looking for a triangle choke. Yokoyama escapes that but in the process puts himself into position or a cross arm breaker. Fortunately, he also put himself near the ropes.

Oddly, Yokoyama does not tag out even though he was very close to Primo. Instead, Apache tags in, and he takes the Z1 rep don with leg kicks before putting on an ankle lock. There’s another rope break, but he grabbed the ropes near Yamamoto, so the veteran tags back in. He unloads some knees to Yokoyama’s chest and eventually just starts punching him from a mount position. Yamamoto dominates the poor kid and eventually tags back out to Apache, apparently just because he can. Apache gives Yokoyama a big knee for a two count and slams him to set up a double stomp to the gut, which also gets two. Yokoyama finally gets some offense when he hits a forearm smash off of an Irish whip reversal and then slams Apache. He looks for the tag at this point, but Apache double legs him and slaps on a half crab before tagging Yamamoto. He applies a camel clutch, which is a move that I doubt he had a chance to use during his MMA career.

Yamamoto transitions the camel clutch into a double chicken wing of sorts. Eventually Primo has had enough and blatantly runs in to stomp Yamamoto in the face. It doesn’t lead to the tag, as Yamamoto simply shakes it off and puts Yokoyama back into a sleeper hold. Yokoyama still makes the ropes despite having been soundly beaten for some time. As soon as the rookie returns to his feet, Yamamoto kicks him down and begins taunting him to get back up, each time kicking or kneeing him down again. When Yamamoto tires of that, he goes right back to the sleeper before turning it into a standing armbar. A rather effortless tag to Apache is made, but he louses things up when he misses a charge in the corner, setting up the hot tag to Primo. Pirnce Iaukea II ducks a lariat from Apache and hits one of his own before landing some rolling snap suplxes, finishing with a fisherman’s suplex for a nearfall.

Apache ultimately cuts off his comeback with a series of big kicks and gets a two count before tagging out to Yamamoto. He single legs Primo and puts him into what looks like an STF, though instead of grasping the facelock, he just starts tearing at Nick’s face. Primo takes a little while, but he does eventually crawl all the way to the ropes for a break. Yamamoto takes a second to recover and show the audience a clump of Primo’s hair which fell to the mat, and that proves to be a mistake. Nick bulls Yamamoto back into the corner with a Hundred Hand Slap of all things and then gives him a couple of corner lariats before applying a crossface. Apache breaks that up almost immediately, after which he and Yokoyama tag back in. They trade strikes, after which Yokoyama hits a big spear for a two count.

Primo is back in, and he and his partner look for some double team action. They take turns hitting corner attacks on Apache, after which Primo whips his opponent into a water wheel slam and half crab by Yokoyama. The fans are actually chanting for Apache to escape, even though his team has really been playing heel the whole match. Yokoyama eventually lets go of the hold voluntarily, and some attempts at strikes culminate in Apache German suplexing him. He follows it with a big running knee to the face, though it only gets two. From there, the ZERO1 wrestler is lifted into a jackhammer style suplex, which lets Apache pick up the pinfall victory.

Match Thoughts: This match was not without its highlights. Most of them involved Yamamoto deciding to be a veteran prick heel, either using tactics of questionable legality on his younger, prettier opponents or cutting their offense off with some brutal knees or kicks. However, outside of Yamamoto’s highlights, this bout went on for wayyyyy too long with the younger wrestlers going in and out and in and out and never really establishing any sort of cohesive structure for the match. Yokoyama and Primo both looked pretty good athletically and in terms of pulling off their moves, but they probably could have used slightly better veteran opponents to give the match more of a story. **

Match Numero Cuatro: Arashi & Shinjuku Shark vs. Kengo Nishimura & Madoka

This is a real match of misfits. On one side of the ring, you’ve got Arashi, a former sumo wrestler who goes all the way back to the mid-1980’s in pro wrestling. He primarily competed for All Japan and even had a trip over to the United States where he wrestled in a Crockett Cup tournament (under his birth name of Isao Takagi) for the NWA with Giant Baba as his partner. He doesn’t have Baba with him now. Instead he’s paired with Shinjuku Shark, a wrestler who started out with FMW just months before the company collapsed and has wrestled for indy offshoots of FMW ever since. They’re up against Nishimura, a youngster with only about two years of indy wrestling experience and Madoka, an indy stalwart who was brought into wrestling through Kaientai Dojo in on one of its original classes.

Shark, who does a gimmick in which he wears boxing gloves to the ring, starts with Madoka. The K-Dojo graduate avoids several attempts at offense from the Shark early and hits a clothesline, after which the wrestlers really screw up an armdrag spot. Shinjuku takes Madoka down after that, getting some glancing blows in with the boxing gloves and then applying an abdominal stretch. Madoka hiptosses him to escape that, at which point the men tag their respective partners. Arashi has a decided size advantage, so he just shoves Nishimua down to the mat and lays on him. Seriously. The sumo also no sells some forearms from the little guy, then taking him off his feet with one open hand slap. Arashi runs through Nishimura with a shoulderblock and blasts him with an overhead chop. A couple of big slams from the AJPW veteran connect, and here’s a tag to the Shark. Sharkie throws some jabs at the downed Nishimura and clotheslines him before placing him in the Tree of Joey Lawrence. He punches the youngster in the abdomen many times while he’s in that position and then gives him a dropkick a la Chris Sabin. Hail Saban.

Another slam sets up a tag to Arashi, who connects with a back elbow and an elbowdrop for two. Now the big guy sets up for a powerbomb, but Nishimura turns it into a rana and tags Madoka. The smaller wrestlers both fail to take the sumo off of his feet with missile dropkicks, but a stereo dropkick from the two does get him down long enough for a two count. Unfortunately for them, Arashi responds quickly with a double clothesline and tags the Shinjuku Shark. Poor choice there, as Madoka and Nishimura take the Shark down with a shoulderblock before Madoka hits numerous corner attacks and a tornado DDT on him for a two count. Shinjuku responds with a big strike, but it’s strong enough that it sends Madoka flailing back into his corner for a tag to Nishimura. Nish dropkicks Shark in the shins and uses that to set up a DDT before heading to the top rope and connecting with a frog splash. Arashi very casually saunters into the ring and breaks up the pin attempt.

From there, Shark lands some fists and a bodyslam before heading up top for a moonsault press. It gets two as Madoka saves. Arashi tags in as Shark and Madoka go to fight on the floor, and the sumo hits the world’s slowest axe bomber to set up a variation on the uranagi. It gets two, after which Arashi decides a rear chinlock is in order. Madoka comes in out of nowhere and breaks the hold up with a dropkick before the Shinjuku Shark shows up and throws him back out of the ring. Immediately after that, Arashi tags Nishimura down with a lariat but can only get a two count. Arashi’s next powerbomb attempt is successful, and that brings the match to a close.

Match Thoughts: This was just a tag team match. A middle of the card, nondescript tag team match. In some ways, I preferred it over the prior match because they put it together better in terms of using the time allotted and didn’t try to go longer than what they needed to. However, at the same time, there weren’t any of the interesting personality moments that Yamamoto provided, and just about everybody here was fairly bland as far as professional wrestlers go. What was particularly surprising and somewhat disappointing was that Madoka got very little ring time and didn’t do any of the wrestling style which makes him stand out from the rest of the guys on the independent scene, which is some very polished, impressive high flying. Hopefully we’ll be seeing him elsewhere with an opportunity to showcase what makes Madoka Madoka. **

Match Numero Cinco: Makoto Hashi vs. Luke Gallows

This is an interesting heavyweight battle. Most 411 readers will be familiar with Gallows, who played a variety of roles in WWE recently, including a fake version of Kane, Festus Dalton, and, most recently, a flunky of CM Punk. Since his WWE release, he has made several wrestling appearances in Japan, most frequently for Antonio Inoki’s IGF promotion. His opponent, Hashi, was broken into the wrestling industry through All Japan in 1998 before becoming a member of the Pro Wrestling NOAH roster when NOAH split off of AJPW. Currently, he freelances after having decided to part ways with NOAH in early 2010.

Gallows, who looked like a slightly larger than average sized guy in WWE, looks MASSIVE compared to Hashi, who is not small in the slightest. He also looks significantly flabbier than he ever was in the US. Gallows asks for a test of strength early, but Hashi starts punching him in the midsection instead. It’s ineffective, as are numerous shoulderblocks. Eventually Hashi does take Gallows down by hitting him the gut with his shoulder and using that to set up a facebuster. Luke responds with a shoulderblock that knocks the NOAH alum off of his feet and down to the floor for a breather. A chop battle breaks out when Hashi returns to the ring, and Gallows wins it until he attempts a headbutt. That doesn’t work at all, as the headbutt is one of Hashi’s trademark moves. Hashi unleashes a series of several of them and tries for a supelx, but Gallows blocks and turns it into a fat spinebuster before putting the boots to his opponent and dropping a leg across his back. Hashi looks for the suplex again when he returns to his feet, but he’s slammed and splashed. From there, Gallows mauls him in the corner and hits a vertical splash for a two count. The Straight Edge Society member slaps on a chinlock after the fact, and Hashi is able to fight his way out of it but quickly falls to a pump kick after that.

The Japanese wrestler’s big opening comes when Gallows misses his second attempt at a splash, after which Hashi gets him off his feet again with numerous clotheslines. Hashi heads up to the top rope now, coming down with a diving headbutt for a two count. He climbs the ropes again, but this time Gallows pulls him off into a single leg flapjack for a nearfall. Gallows’ next trick is a Kevin Nash-esque powerbomb, which also can only get two. A big lariat lays out Hashi again, after which Gallows gives him the Gas Mask for the three count.

Match Thoughts: This felt like an extended squash match. If that’s the sort of match that they were attempting to put on here, it certainly accomplished its goal and was technically sounds for what it was. However, I don’t understand why they felt that they needed an extended squash on this show in this position. First of all, I don’t know that Gallows is a regular with this company or has any plans to be, whereas Hashi would be more likely to come back, so on that level it doesn’t make since to put Gallows over so strongly even if he does have to get the win. Besides, this is the semi-main event of the show, and you would think they could give us something a little bit more competitive due to its positioning. *

Match Numero Seis: Vader, Jesse White, & Tomohiko Hashimoto vs. Kintaro Kanemura, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, & Tomohiro Waki

Now it’s time for the main event. The backgrounds of Vader, White, and Kanemura have all been noted above. (And if you weren’t familiar with Vader’s background before reading this, perhaps you should be spending your time at a different website.) Vader and son are being joined by Tomohiko Hashimoto, a ten year veteran best known in wrestling for having befriended Vader before entering into a business partnership with him to form MAKEHEN, a Japanese indy wrestling promotion and booking office. Kanemura in selecting his team picked one name out of his past and one name out of his present. Kuroda has known Kanemura for quite some time, coming out of the FMW dojo in the early 1990’s and competing for it and related groups for his entire career. Waki is less experienced, being trained for wrestling by FMW founder Atsushi Onito in 2008 to try to grab some headlines based on Waki’s prior career as a television actor.

Before the match starts, Vader clotheslines both of his partners to toughen them up. Hashimoto takes a bump off it, but Jesse does not. Kintaro Kanemura is in with Vader as the first pair of legal men, and Vader strikes him repeatedly while playing to the crowd. Babyface Vader is just weird. The man from the Rocky Mountains hoists Kanemura up for the chokeslam and then gives him a standing Vader attack. He misses a clothesline, though, which allows Kentaro to hit a series of leg kicks. Kanemura’s partners rush the ring at this point, knocking the rest of Team Vader off the apron and triple teaming the boss. Believe it or not, that fails, as Kanemura is ultimately taken down by Vader when attempting a corner attack. After that, Jesse White comes into the ring. He briefly exchanges armbars with Kanemura before a tag to Kuroda is made. White immediately gives him a couple of arm drags before heading into a hammerlock/armbar exchange. Vader’s kid eventually knocks Kuroda down with a shoulderblock, following it up with another armdrag and an armbar.

White takes Kuroda to the corner, where he hits a series of body blows that look a lot like those usually thrown by his old man, though Kuroda is able to get out of it and hit a series of big dropkicks, focusing on White’s leg. He then posts the young wrestler’s knee a couple of times, but Vader waddles over to prevent a third. Back on the inside, the FMW alum applies the figure four leg lock, but Hashimoto makes the save and gets a tag. Waki tags in as well, and the two new entrants chop away at each other. It is Hashimoto who eventually goes down, but, upon standing back up, he rocks Waki with a couple of forearms and tags Vader back in. Big Van brutalizes him in the corner with fists and knees, then throwing a clothesline for a close two count. Jesse White tags back in at this point, giving Waki a clothesline of his own and a chinlock. Eventually he turns the chinlock into a slam and hits a pump splash for two.

White decides to tag out to Hashimoto at this point, who hits a slam of his own and a SWANTON BOMB. That’s not a move you see a lot out of a guy Hashimoto’s size, and he wound up missing by a fair margin. Too be fair, though, it’s probably best that he missed so Waki wasn’t smooshed to death. He whips Waki into the buckle after that, and things start to get sloppy as Waki actually takes the corner wrong and is out of position when Hashimoto tries to give him an axe bomber. They go ahead with the planned spot of Waki cutting off Hashimoto with a clothesline out of the corner, giving us a tag to Kuroda. Kuroda snaps Hashimoto’s neck over the top rope and clotheslines him down for two before tagging Kanemura. The deathmatch star kicks away at Hashimoto but gets taken off his feet with a HUGE overhead belly-to-belly, which is the cue for Jesse White’s next tag. White lets loose a series of clotheslines but misses the third and gets kicked in the gut, setting up another tag to Kuroda. He and Kanemura try a two man suplex on White, but Jesse reverses it and suplexes both of his opponents.

After that feat of strength, he punches Kuroda a few times and give shim a solo suplex before tagging out to his old man. Vader hits his second chokeslam of the match, this time on Kuroda, and it gets two as Kanemura and Waki run in to save. That leads to all six men brawling as Vader hits Kuroda with a clothesline for two. Vader slams his opposition and sets up for a Vader Bomb, ultimately connecting and pinning Kuroda.

After the bell, Vader gets on the mic and cuts a heartfelt promo about how the entire world learned from the Japanese people in how unselfish they were in dealing with one another in the aftermath of this year’s earthquake. Then, everybody poses as one big, happy indy family.

Match Thoughts: This wasn’t a particularly good match. It wasn’t a particularly bad match, but it also wasn’t a particularly good match. Really, though, it wasn’t about going in and putting on the best balls to the walls battle imaginable. It was about giving a small crowd an opportunity to see a few spots from their former hero Vader so that they could relive years past, a few spots from Jesse so that they could get a preview of a new potential star, and a few spots from Hashimoto so that there was a buffer in between Vader’s stuff and Jesse’s stuff. Kanemura and company were really just there to give the other team something to play off of, and they did perfectly fine in that role.

Really, I was watching the match most intently when Jesse White was in the ring, as I got this show mainly to check on his progress. Overall, he was about where I expected him to be given the number of months that he’s spent in professional wrestling. He was more than a bit green, couldn’t do a lot of complex spots, and was hesitant on some of his more basic spots. However, that’s to be expected given how long he’s been doing this. To his credit, he was doing some things significantly better than other wrestlers with similar levels of experience. Specifically, he had the beginnings of a personality worked into some of his spots. He was clearly learning from his father, as he knew how to hulk up and no sell things, essentially playing the type of badass, monster character that his old man did. That’s good in some ways, though, in others, it might be a handicap for him since that’s not the kind of character that he’s going to be allowed to play in WWE, especially in light of the fact that he is not built like Vader and as such will not be that much bigger than the majority of guys on the E’s roster. However, at least he’s peppering some character into his matches, because doing it now will only get him used to the process and will in theory allow him to pepper in whatever other character he winds up adopting in the future.

In short, though he’s far from perfect at this point, White has a very solid base upon which to build as his professional wrestling career progresses. He may wind up a big star in WWE one day, but he can always say that he started off here in Apache Army.

Overall

This was not a good professional wrestling show by any stretch of the imagination. None of the matches broke the ** mark, and several of them were actually below it. Thus, if you’re looking for quality in-ring product, skip this one.

However, this isn’t a show that I was watching for quality in-ring product. This is a show that I was watching because it was an interesting junction where several different wrestlers from several different backgrounds, all of whom are at different stages of their careers, came together for a show that had some implications as to where they’re headed. Vader was slowly fading the background while passing the torch onto his son. Yamamoto was trying to get a payday in professional wrestling after his career in MMA wound down. Arashi was at the highest of heights in pro wrestling fifteen years ago and is now on a significant downswing. Gallows was looking to establish himself as a monster heel in a new country after his luck in the US ran out. Kanemura was attempting to redeem himself after a scandal rocked the latter stages of his time in the industry. It was interesting to see what these men were doing with their lives at these varying stages of their careers.

If you’re somebody who, like me, can watch a show and have it hold your interest for those factors, this is a card you could probably have fun checking out. However, if you’re looking for a ***** match, you need to look elsewhere.

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