I've been trying to expand my knowledge of Japanese wrestling beyond NJPW and much like how I will use AAA as my basis for Mexican wrestling there is so much more out there not being explored (by me anyway) So the answer to some of my questions often times of where certain Mexican wrestlers are is CMLL or other promotions. As such, when looking for Japanese wrestlers you cannot find in NJPW perhaps you should start with AJPW.
Does anyone else find it strange that the main promotions in Japan are all called the same thing except for the first word? They're either New, All or Big Japan Professional Wrestling. Does that just have to do with the English translation? I can't think of any promotions within the United States that have USA in their name, though that'd be kind of neat, right? Big USA Professional Wrestling or BUPW? Mmmm... Perhaps not.
Match One: Naoya Nomura vs. Shigehiro Irie
I'm not familiar with either of these wrestlers I just know from looking at them that Shigehiro Irie is a somewhat large guy with green hair. He has a singlet and reminds me of anyone from Finlay to Michael Elgin. I'd expect to see him in a promotion in the United States when they bring over Japanese stars, like how ROH mixes it up with NJPW. Though I'm pretty sure that Dragon Gate USA is on hiatus I'd imagine he'd show up there. There isn't too much to say about Naoya Nomura, though he might very well be an accomplished wrestler in his own right, but he felt like a jobber to me in this match and Shigehiro Irie gets the win, which is good because he was the guy right away that I was kind of drawn to and not just because of his green hair but because his style was more hard-hitting in that smash mouth sense.
Match Two: Masanobu Fuchi vs. Yuma Aoyagi
In this match, Yuma Aoyagi had the same problem with me as I did with Naoya Nomura and that is he just looks like a jobber to me without any real sort of reason to be thought of as someone who is going to win. Masanobu Fuchi on the other hand stands out in this match because he appears to be much older but that just makes me think of the matches from NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 9 and how Jim Ross made such excellent points about how the older the wrestlers in Japan get the tougher they seem to get as well. It seems to be one of those things in Japan where the longer you've been wrestling- even if you're 60- you are more respected and feared. So for me this became a story of the veteran taking down the younger competitor. I remember the match on Wrestle Kingdom 9 being contested under MMA style rules and both of those guys were pretty old so you couldn't pick a winner by looking at them, but I kind of knew going into this that the age would be factor and, yes, Masanobu Fuchi did pick up the win.
Match Three: Ultimo Dragon / Soma Takao / Yohei Nakajima / Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Hikaru Sato / Keisuke Ishii / SUSHI / Takesi Minamino
If you're not here to see Ultimo Dragon then get out now. I'm not sure who any of the guys that Ultimo Dragon was teaming with were but everyone in this match had a decent showing and it's something worth looking into, making this entire event worth it in ways, even if you're watching it just to see Ultimo Dragon you might make some new friends out of it.
SUSHI is a masked wrestler and so when he came on the screen my three year old pointed and yelled "LUCHA!". I have trained him well. Is there a special name for masked wrestlers in Japan? Aside from SUSHI, who I will now watch matches of just based on his name and that he wears a mask and, um, can wrestle well, there is also Hikaru Sato. It's not just a Japanese thing but within all of professional wrestling there are wrestlers who you look at and think "I wouldn't want to mess with them". This doesn't happen as much now as it should and as it did back in the day (WWE totally ruined me on being scared of Bubba Dudley, though I still wouldn't want to confront him face to face about anything) but Sato just has that look about him. He doesn't look as much like a bodyguard in terms of intimidation but rather as the boss, you know, the guy that when you see him you know it's all over.
Of course when I searched google for him I found pictures of him smiling, looking like a generally nice guy, but when I saw him in this match all I could think was that he's not the type of guy you want to tell "I'm sorry, we ran out of time. We're going to have to cut your match" or even just "Could you please move your car? You're blocking me in".
But yeah, Ultimo Dragon's team won and why not because I still love Ultimo Dragon. I don't think he gets nearly enough credit and that might just be due to the fact that he went to WWE and Jushin Liger never did.
Match Four: KENSO / Akebono / Yutaka Yoshie vs. Go Shiozaki / Kento Miyahara / Zeus
I know enough about Japanese wrestling to recognize the name Akebono and I'm trying not to remember that time he fought Big Show at Wrestlemania in a sumo match because, well, blocking the image of Big Show in a diaper out of my head is something I've been proud of for all these years. And the KENSO on the same team is also the same Kenzo Suzuki who was once in WWE (in the Rene Dupree days) and then after that went to Mexico. There was a big celebration before the match for KENSO with huge photo ops and everything so I'm pretty sure going into this that his team will win.
I recognize the name Go Shiozaki for some reason, but otherwise as I'm watching this match I'm learning about each of these guys. KENSO is still the star. He's celebrating some kind of milestone here. A quick google search of "KENSO 2/20/15 AJPW" brings up a Tumblr account saying this is his 15th year anniversary since his debut. Wow. Kenzo Suzuki has been wrestling for fifteen years? Now I really feel old. (Though he's not as old as CZW he is older than ROH!)
As I was searching for the significance of this match for KENSO, I stumbled upon his Wikipedia page and saw some of the things he's done in professional wrestling post-WWE. It makes me really want to go out there and track down some of those matches and watch them. Is there a US release of a sort of "Best of" DVD for KENSO anywhere? Because I'd need that for sure.
If only to see this monumental moment in the career and life of KENSO you should check this out. So far, this show has had both Ultimo Dragon and KENSO on it, both of whom I feel make it worth your while to watch even if you've never seen or heard of any of these other names before.
Match Five: Burning Wild (Champions) vs. Evolution *AJPW World Tag Team Title Match*
Burning Wild, the tag champs, is the team of Jun Akiyama and Takao Omori. Jun Akiyama spent most of his career in AJPW, with a stop off in NOAH, and and his name sounds familiar. I'm not sure who Takao Omori is exactly. Evolution is Joe Doering and Suwama and I was kind of hoping that they were either the champs going into this or that they'd win the titles but neither came true, sadly. I really like the team of Evolution. I've seen the name Suwama around a lot and feel like he's been in matches I've wanted to watch. Joe Doering on the other hand is someone I don't quite recognize but he has that size factor that makes him look like a real brawler and it reminds me of Arn Anderson, though he is sporting hair and a mustache like "Stunning" Steve Austin in his WCW days.
According to Wikipedia, Joe Doering was in WWE developmental (when it was FCW) from about February 2010 to September 2010 and he only had two matches. Prior to that he was in AJPW and afterwards he returned to AJPW so he's kind of an All Japan veteran now too. I don't know what it is, but this team just seems so cool. I know it's good for the champs to retain and all, but the idea of Doering and Suwama makes me think of the Killer Elite Squad and the pairing of Doc Gallows with Karl Anderson only not quite the same.
After this match I obviously want to learn more about the tag team champions but I also want to know more about Evolution and watch all of their matches that I can because this just seems like such a great pairing.
Match Six: Kotaro Suzuki vs. Atsushi Aoki *Junior Battle Of Glory 2015 Final Match*
So as this is the ninth outing in this series (yeah, I skipped to the end) there was a tournament going on during the previous nights and this is the finals of it. I don't really know a lot or anything about either of these two wrestlers but I do know that after seeing this I am now a fan of both of them. It's kind of strange because during other matches I'd be invested because I knew Ultimo Dragon, KENSO or just liked the look of Evolution. Here, with this as the main event, I became invested in the match because of the wrestling quality of it.
The match itself had a lot of great moves I've not really seen before and as it came near the end there were a number of near falls that were just sold perfectly. I wasn't really cheering for either competitor here because as I said I didn't know anything about either of them going in, but I knew enough to see a sequence of moves followed by a kick out to think it should have been three and react as such.
It isn't all that often these days that a match can win me over based on storytelling alone, but the fact that this match could not only do that but do it in another language just speaks for miles about how great a match it was. I recommend going out of your way to not only see this match but this entire show. It's well worth your time.
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