OPW OSAKA PRO-WRESTLING DVD VHS
OSAKA PURORESU Tapes Videos
5/5/99 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Masaru Seno vs. Yoshihito Sugamoto. Solid but unspectacular match. **1/4
Super Demekin & Kuishinbo Kamen vs. Police Me~n & Virus. Good work. Pretty much straight Lucha except it was fairly stiff. Kamen does a really nice sky twister press. Virus is the best of the 4. **3/4
Ultra Ace vs. Zacharius. Short nothing match. *
5/4/99 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Super Delfin & Masato Yakushiji & Masaru Seno vs. Dick Togo & Black Buffalo & Violencia. A very good match that was held back by some blown spots. The match started off spectacular, broke into a long sequence where the heals destroyed Seno causing him to bleed, but lacked the hot finish you'd expect from these guys. ***
5/5/99
Dick Togo vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa. Hoshikawa fought hard, but Togo was just too tough for him. The highlight was Togo putting Hoshikawa on two tables outside the ring then doing his patented diving senton off the top rope to the floor. ***1/2
This tape is highlights of matches from 4/29, 5/1, 5/2, 5/3, 5/4 & 5/5/99 to music. They don't really waste any time and aren't afraid to show 5 minutes of a match if it's a main event type of match.
This first hour of this tape is highlights of matches from 6/24, 6/26, 6/27, 7/2, 7/3 & 7/4/99 to music. The final half hour is a good Super Delfin vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa match.
Highlights of previous Osaka Puroresu shows including Delfin putting Hoshikawa through a table with a diving senton to the floor.
Super Demekin vs. Kaiju (monster) Tortoise. Tortoise kind of reminds me of Super Boy. He has that kind of build, yet he has no problem doing moonsaults. Also, he does more than his share of clowning around. He's not nearly as good of a worker, but he seems to have good potential. Demekin just did some dropkicks, so there isn't much to say about him.
Ebessan vs. Monkey Magic. Ebessan carried the match, and was a good base for Monkey's flying. The action was good, but the match just ended. Now, too many matches have finishes that come out of nowhere, but this was different. It was like they were happy they did a good Lucha style beginning, so they decided to just leave it at that. This could turn into something when they get more experience and build up the later stages of the match. *1/2
Alcanheru vs. Kuishinbo Kamen (mask). The action was alright, but the match didn't build. Alcanheru got annoying because he was like Fabi in the early days, playing to the crowd between seemingly every move. *1/2
Naohiro Hoshikawa & Yoshihito Sugamoto vs. Tsubasa & Oriental. I was disappointed in this match. Hoshikawa has gotten so good. The problem is that most of the match was Sugamoto getting worked over, and none of the other wrestlers are close to Hoshikawa's level. Tsubasa still has potential, but he should have stuck with Dragon because it seems like most of his students have passed Tsubasa by even though Tsubasa is a better athlete than almost all of them. **1/4
Super Delfin & Masato Yakushiji & Masaru Seno vs. Dick Togo & Black Buffalo & Policeme~n. Pretty much a low rent version of the classic Sekigun vs. KDX matches. Clearly a very good match, though those spoiled by mid 90's Michinoku will certainly notice each side is one man short. Policeman is pretty good, but vanilla Seno was way out of his depth. Togo vs. Yakushiji made up for them with great work from the get go, wrestling about three gears above the others. Togo is a great wrestler who is driven to carry the match, and Buffalo is a very solid teammate who more than holds his own, working well with any opponent as his deliberately simplistic offense doesn't require much from them. What makes Buffalo good is his moves are well timed, and he does such a good job of utilizing mannerisms and gestures to build anticipation we forget how ordinary the actual holds are. The rudos dominated the match, and unlike too many Lucha matches in Mexico, their heel tactics improved the match. The storyline of LOV destroying Yakushiji & Seno allowed Delfin to pull a Misawa; he was barely involved until making the hot tag at 12:00. The finishing sequence was typically excellent, including Policeme~n doing an impressive super quebrada, although not nearly as hot as in the vintage Michinoku Pro stuff. The post match rates a 10 on the bizarro scale with an executioner coming out to Omen wannabe music and holding a knife to Seno's head, putting a satanic hex on him or something. ***1/2
Highlights of matches from 7/24/99-8/20/99. The best angle is an 8 man tag match where the mysterious masked executioner who has been chokeslamming all of Justice (Delfin's army) then performing satanic looking rituals to them finally wrestles. They think they are all big and bad because the kick the crap out of him, but when they pull his mask off, it turns out it's their buddy Sugamoto, who had been put under some sort of spell that made him into L.O.V's slave, with his arms tied up and his mouth taped. Then the real executioner comes out, unmasks as Daio QUALLT, and chokeslam's all the faces.
Highlights of matches from 9/4/99-9/25/99. Features Demekin Theater and New Young Powers Tsubasa & Sugamoto Stop The L.O.V (Legend Of Violence), which highlights all those matches in order and has some of the pre and post match angles.
Highlights of matches from10/2-10/17/99.
10/17 Osaka Komyo AM Hall : 16 Man Secret Game. This is what WWF calls the Royal Rumble. It was hardly a great match, but no where near as bad as the WWF versions.
10/24 Osaka Komyo AM Hall
Kuishinbo Kamen & Monkey Magic & Super Demekin vs. Dick Togo & Black Buffalo & Police Me~n. Kind of like early Michinoku with a more lighthearted start, but picking up with lots of big moves and flying. Heels did a good job of carrying this match, in particular Togo was making Monkey Magic look like a star. ***
Super Delfin vs. Daio QUALLT. QUALLT had pinned everyone in Delfin's army in singles and Delfin in tag against no losses, so this was a big match. They had a bunch of wrestlers at ringside to make it seem more important and dramatic. QUALLT has good potential because he's athletic for a "big" guy and already does some nice moves like the frog splash, but right now he's very inexperienced and pretty limited. Structuring was pretty decent considering QUALLT's limitations, and Delfin did a pretty good job, but it was dull in points because when QUALLT isn't jumping off the top rope his offense is pretty reminiscent of the plodding tall Americans. **
This tape follows Shiratori on her quest to win the newly created title. It highlights the five match series with La Diabolica that set her up to challenge for the title, showing the complete deciding match. It also highlights the five match series against Lady Apache for the new title, showing the complete final match. In between it shows her during private time, training, with her family (she has a sister, but she's not nearly as divine), etc.
Highlights of matches from 11/6-11/28/99, including the QUALLT "face turn" and Black Buffalo winning the welterweight title from Delfin.
11/28/99 Osaka Umeda AM Hall WWA Super Welterweight Title: Black Buffalo vs. Super Delfin. The execution was much better than I expected. Not that these guys have problems or anything like that, but they aren't usually this stiff and crisp. Buffalo is a really good worker that lacks offense, but Delfin did some hot moves and pretty everything they did looked good simply because they did it the way it "should be" done. The main negative was there wasn't much to the finishing sequence. Once Delfin warded off QUALLT's run in, he did a few moves and pinned Buffalo to win his title back the first time he tried. ***1/2
Kuishinbo Kamen vs. Ebissan. This was one of the better comedy matches I've seen because, while the comedy was constant, they did better and better wrestling moves and sequences as the match went on. **3/4
The Goddess Chikako Shiratori vs. Dynamite Kansai. 2:45 shown
Ultra Ace & Ultra Monkey vs. Gokuaku Kaiju Z Mandora & Gokuaku Kaiju King Mantra. Flying and comedy. These guys have a lot of kinks to work out, but the Ultra's have potential. *1/2
Tsubasa & Yoshihito Sugamoto & Super Demekin vs. Black Buffalo & Daio QUALLT & Police Me~n. Fast-paced fairly spectacular Lucha. Police Me~n is getting better, and he surprised me by pulling out a shooting star press. 6:51 shown
3 minutes 5 rounds: Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Takehiro Murayama. Good worked mixed match, except the finish fell flat because the knockdowns weren't stiff enough.
Osaka Puroresu Shodai Oza Ketteisen: Super Delfin vs. Dick Togo. I really liked this match because it was so diverse, yet they brought it all together so it made sense and meant something. This was just a really solid match that went in all directions. ****
Kuishinbo Kamen vs. Policeme~n. Kamen fought seriously. It wa a little indyish, but a good little junior match with nice moves by both men. One interesting spot saw Police stop Kamen from reentering the ring by kicking his briefcase into him. 6:12 shown.
The Monkey Magic & Super Demekin vs. Ebessan & Kaiju Z Mandora. Comedy match. Monkey, who was holding his sore butt, jumped onto the ref after Mandora gave him an atomic drop, so the ref slapped Monkey and kicked him in the butt. There was a quadruple headlock spot where Demekin dropkicked Ebessan, who was at one end, causing everyone to fall. Demekin then walked all over everyone and they acted like they were going to throw up. In additon to the clowning there was a lot of decent wrestling. **
Takehiro Murahama vs. Shusaku Wada. Quick worked shoot style match to put over Murahama as legit.
Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Yoshihito Sugamoto. Hoshikawa looked good, but Sugamoto was screwing up early on. No one gave Sugamoto a chance to win, and the match was consistent with that philosophy. Sugamoto did a cool move where it looked like he was going to do a spinning headscissors, but he turned it into a DDT. **
Super Delfin & Masato Yakushiji & Tsubasa vs. Dick Togo & Black Buffalo & Daio QUALLT. Heels controlled the match, mainly destroying Delfin. Delfin countered into some good brief comebacks. This led to a surprise finish where he actually pinned QUALLT off a huracanrana counter. Delfin, Togo, & Buffalo were good, but this finish came much too soon. The finish had it's point which I can respect, but in grading the match I also have to say that it clearly hurt the overall quality because they hadn't even reached the point where the near falls could be the finish. **1/2
HELLO TOKYO! OPENING ACT: Shusaku Wada vs. Takashi Tachibana 4:08. This didn't have the look of a rookie match even though it was just strikes and dropkicks. The difference is they had confidence in what they were doing and showed some fire and charisma. It was very short, but not bad to watch if you don't mind matches without even medium level offense (which these guys are too inexperienced for). *
good-by Nise Onita: Nise Great Nita vs. Nise Atsushi Onita 5:04 of 7:21. The regular fake Onita was fake Great Nita this time. The fake Onita wore this ridiculous mask that was like a bandaged up rabbit. He even had a tail! His wrestling was better than the real Onita. The problem was comedy match was not funny. They pretty much just did the Onita spots like Onita. As they aren't funny when Onita does them, they aren't funny simply because imposters are doing them. They needed to change them in some way to make them humorous. *
Chikako Shiratori vs. Takako Inoue 10:34. This was embarassing. Takako was doing her "striker" gimmick even though her strikes were usually worse than Shiratori's, who is at least smart enough to know she's not a striker and barely use any. These two didn't work well together. Their execution wasn't good, but also spots didn't look right because the person taking the move wasn't going with it quick enough. There were a lot of near falls at the end and the fans got into it even though it stunk. *
Yoshihito Sugamoto & The Monkey Magic & Dream Casko vs. Kaiju Z Mandora & Kaiju King Mandora & Policeme~n 6:21 of 15:20. Good moves here. The highlights were Dream did a moonsault attack off the top to the floor and Policeme~n superplexed Monkey off King's shoulders. Unfortunately, it was not real smooth and kind of deliberate. One comedy spot was Policeme~n hitting Dream Casko (does a Dreamcast gimmick) with a Playstation. Seemed like an average match. 6:21 shown
Kuishinbo Kamen vs. Ebessan 5:14 of 10:53. These two aren't the most talented wrestlers, but they have a really good act together that combines laughs with the best wrestling you'll find in a comedy match. This wasn't as funny as some of their others, or maybe the comedy was clipped since that occurs more during the early stages, but it's hard to complain about a joker like Kamen when he finds a way to give you a quebrada, Frankensteiner off the top, and twister/tornado. Pretty good stuff. 5:14 shown
Masato Yakushiji & Naohiro Hoshikawa & Super Demekin vs. Dick Togo & Black Buffalo & Daio QUALLT 15:18. The best tag in the brief history of Osaka Puroresu. Not surprisingly, it was in the vein of the classic Michinoku 6 mans with Yakushiji, Hoshikawa, & Togo still doing a tremendous job and Buffalo being a very underrated tag performer. Inexperienced Demekin & QUALLT not being able to live up to the standard set in Michinoku is a given. However, Demekin shows a lot of potential in holding his own, and is already a big improvement over having Seno on the face side, and QUALLT, who is actually Seno under a hood, seems much bigger in his new gimmick, adding the element of power without compromising the Lucha style. The main difference between this match and the Michinoku ones is the length. This was a little over 15 minutes, so it a pauseless full speed ahead sprint. Aside from one section where QUALLT slowed things down, it was almost too fast to keep up with. Togo is clearly the ring general of the promotion. Unlike most stars who dog it in the 6 mans, Togo is front and center, taking charge early and appearing often. Though Togo & Hoshikawa were great, Yakushiji, who is one of the quickest wrestlers ever, made this into a vehicle to show his tremendous atheticism. Yakushiji isn't the singles wrestler Hoshikawa is because he's not as willing to take charge, but Togo & Buffalo provide both with tremendous setups for their impressive spurts of hyper action. The highlight for me was Togo catching Demekin's head in midair (he was trying a diving shoulderblock) and using his momentum against him with an Ace crusher. ****
Osaka Puroresu Senshukenjiai Ishu Kakutogisen 3 Minutes 5 Rounds: Super Delfin vs. Takehiro Murahama 3R 2:00. It would have been better if it wasn't supposed to be a shoot, but Murahama (who still fought with gloves) had been built up huge as a "shooter" and this title win was designed to solidify him as a star (of course, you aren't much of a star when almost all your performances are before a few hundred people but at least they had over 2000 for their Tokyo debut). It was weird seeing a masked guy "shooting," but the match was still intense and had good heat. Although this doesn't compare favorably to some of the mixed matches that the U.W.F. guys have had like Yamazaki vs. Clarke or Maeda vs. Nielsen, Delfin deserves credit for totally altering his style so the match could have some credibility and integrity. he showed a lot more shooting prowess than I expected. It had it's share of holes, but it was both exciting and successful. **1/2
Shusaku Wada vs. Takashi Tachibana
Super Demekin vs. Kaijo Z Mandora
CMLL JAPAN Joshi Senshukenjiai: Chikako Shiratori vs. Pesadejya Roca 10:57. Roca was much better than I anticipated, certainly the better wrestler of the two. She controlled the early portion with basic heel tactics and submissions, combining the two when she had the opportunity. She soon busted out some good moves though including a nice huracanrana, Frankensteiner off the top, and moonsault. the sequences weren't the greatest because they weren't used to each other, and Shiratori at least is a slow reactor. **1/4
3 Way Dance: Kuishinbo Kamen vs. Ebessan vs. The Monkey Magic
Chikako Shiratori sings
Debut 1st Anniversary 100,000-en Ladder Elimination Match: Super Delfin & Masato Yakushiji & Naohiro Hoshikawa & Yoshihito Sugimoto vs. Dick Togo & Black Buffalo & Daio QUALLT & Policeme~n 16:35. A very odd match. On one hand it's a tag match, but on the other only the wrestler who climbs the ladder and grabs the paper gets to cash in for 100,000. They used two big ladders, so clumsy that Togo quickly gave up climbing them on his own. The first few minutes were great with Delfin establishing himself early, and the expansion to 8 wrestlers adding a bit more diversity and keeping the pace that much higher. Unfortunately, the ladders were always set up after the first few minutes, so there was less and less of what they do best as the match progressed. Some of the new spots were nice additions to Osaka rings, though the requisite ladder moves overall such as the moonsault off and the crotch spot. Fans of ladder matches will no doubt enjoy it for the genre staples, but I found it disappointing because there was too much Shawn Michaels and too little of what makes these guys so good. They had a hard time making the ladders fit their style rather than compromising it by creating an obstacle course, and there was simply too much climbing. While it's good they did something different, the fact that their regular tag match is far superior was all too obvious when they couldn't follow the early great wrestling once the gimmicks came into play. ***
Masato Yakushiji vs. Super Demekin
Dick Togo & Black Buffalo & Daio QUALLT vs. Super Delfin & Tsubasa & Yoshihito Sugamoto
Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Takehiro Murahama
Full match list coming soon
Man & Woman Mixed Tag Match: Ebessan & Kaiju Zeta Mandora & Yuki Miyazaki vs. Kuishinbo Kamen & Monkey Magic & The Goddess Chikako Shiratori
Super Delfin vs. Takehiro Murahama
Masato Yakushiji & Naohiro Hoshikawa & Tsubasa vs. Dick Togo & Black Buffalo & Daio QUALLT
Full match list coming soon
Kyoto KBS Hall, CMLL JAPAN Joshi Senshukenjiai: The Goddess Chikako Shiratori vs. La Diabolica
CMLL JAPAN Joshi Senshukenjiai: The Goddess Chikako Shiratori vs. Yuki Miyazaki
Okayama Budokan, Osaka Puroresu Special Mixed Match: Super Delfin & Super CHIKAKO & Super Demekin vs. Kuishinbo Kamen & Ebessan & Yuki Miyazaki
3/17/00 Osaka Umeda AM Hall: Takehiro Murahama vs. Daio QUALLT. Daio actually fought shoot style. Murahama is so quick that especially with gloves on he ought to be able to throw some fast punches that have enough impact to be credible. He almost had a KO from some lame strikes when the lights went out. QUALLT spewed him when they came back on, disposed of the ref, and chokeslamed him with a bull rope. L.O.V came in and beat Murahama until Justice saved, but Murahama still decked Delfin rather than join him. The angle was much better than the match. 6:56. *
3/25/00 Osaka NGK Studio: Takehiro Murahama vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa. Fairly credible mixed match since Hoshikawa has all the Battlarts experience. Hoshikawa must have told Murahama to hit him because his strikes were definitely better here, though he still missed or grazed too many times. They kept it even for the first three rounds then did several big moves and near finishes in round 4. That style can work in a regular pro style match, but you never see near finish after near finish in a shoot. An enjoyable match with some definite problems. R5 1:30. ***
5/7/00 Tokyo Ota-ku Taiikukan Osaka Puroresu Senshukenjiai Ishu Kakutogisen 3 Minutes 5 Rounds: Super Delfin vs. Takehiro Murahama. It would have been better if it wasn't supposed to be a shoot, but Murahama (who still fought with gloves) had been built up huge as a "shooter" and this title win was designed to solidify him as a star (of course, you aren't much of a star when almost all your performances are before a few hundred people but at least they had over 2000 for their Tokyo debut). It was weird seeing a masked guy "shooting," but the match was still intense and had good heat. Although this doesn't compare favorably to some of the mixed matches that the U.W.F. guys have had like Yamazaki vs. Clarke or Maeda vs. Nielsen, Delfin deserves credit for totally altering his style so the match could have some credibility and integrity. he showed a lot more shooting prowess than I expected. It had it's share of holes, but it was both exciting and successful. **1/2
6/18/00 Osaka NGK Studio Osaka Puroresu Senshukenjiai Ishu Kakutogisen 3 Minutes 5 Rounds: Takehiro Murahama vs. Super Delfin. Delfin's positioning and transitions were surprisingly good. Since he's not well versed in this style they just burned through what he could do and got out. The match was entertaining while it lasted and didn't expose Delfin even though his offense isn't right for shoot style. 2R 1:27.
6/24/00 Osaka Umeda AM Hall: Super Delfin & Takehiro Murahama vs. Masato Yakushiji & Naohiro Hoshikawa. Fast-paced all action match that everyone contributed to and kept getting better and better. Murahama permanently switched from shoot style to PuroLucha style. This was kind of inevitable since he couldn't keep fighting Hoshikawa forever, but isn't it pointless to give a rookie the title for a month then have him change his style as soon as he loses it? Now it was like he was starting from scratch again. Murahama & Hoshikawa had developed better chemistry & timing, so they were now able to choreograph some kicking sequences. More importantly, Hoshikawa could carry him a lot better since Murahama was now doing his style. Murahama immediately looked better in his new style simply because he wasn't doing all those fake looking punches. 16:12. ***1/2
7/1/00 Osaka Umeda AM Hall: Super Delfin & Naohiro Hoshikawa & Takehiro Murahama vs. Black Buffalo & Daio QUALLT & Dick Togo. This was in the vein of the classic Michinoku tag matches as far as how it was structured and worked, though it was faster-paced and not as long. The extra two guys on one hand improved the quality over the previous match because the pace was increased and there were more dives, but QUALLT isn't made for this style and was the only guy that wasn't good. 16:43. ***1/2
7/22/00 Osaka Umeda AM Hall MURAHAMA TRIAL 5 1st Match: Takehiro Murahama vs. Black Buffalo. Buffalo is capable of doing the opponent's match, and is out there to make them look good. In one of Buffalo's best performances, he expanded his game to include UWF style stiffness and matwork to keep Murahama in his comfort zone. Murahama's transitions on the mat were really slick, and he was starting to get good at lucha segments. Buffalo controlled the match, setting Murahama up for brief hot segments before cutting him off. Just as a legitimate Murahama comeback seemed imminent, Murahama injured his leg, blasting the post when Buffalo avoided a kick. This allowed Buffalo to incorporate some of his brawling, but staying with the focus of the match, he quickly transitioned to leg submissions. The story of the match is Buffalo throwing everything he can at the phenom to defeat him, but still being unable to put him away. The finish was wholly unconvincing, as Murahama never had the big run we expected, instead taking Buffalo out with a few strikes that shouldn't beat anyone, and in fact it was ridiculously obvious Buffalo kicked out at 2 1/2. Murahama was exciting but flawed, but Buffalo was on top of his game, doing an excellent job of carrying the green but gifted opponent. If they had seen it through, going another 3 minutes to a legitimate finish this would likely have been an excellent match. Beyond the obvious, the problem with the finish is you didn't feel bad for the face when, after LOV protested the bad count, QUALLT spewed mist in Murahama's face and chokeslammed him to set up the next challenge. 15:28. ***1/2
7/23/00 Osaka Umeda AM Hall MURAHAMA TRIAL 5 2nd Match: Takehiro Murahama vs. Daio QUALLT. You know you've put together a bad match if QUALLT has to carry it. Daio, who has the dullest offense in PuroLucha, dominated the match. He actually did a pretty good job of putting Murahama over when he tried, but Murahama hadn't figured out how to use all his athleticism to make his opponent look better and that task was his main one for the match. They had one nice idea where QUALLT lifted Murahama up for his chokeslam, but Murahama high kicked him in the head. 12:21. **
7/30/00 Osaka NGK Studio: Takehiro Murahama & Tsubasa vs. Dick Togo & Black Buffalo. Togo was acting tougher, more dickish and arrogant than normal. He was really blasting Murahama. Tsubasa wasn't much of a factor except in double teaming. Good match, but Murahama's team was overmatched. 13:20. ***
8/6/00 Osaka NGK Studio MURAHAMA TRIAL 5 3rd Match: Takehiro Murahama vs. Dick Togo. Murahama was taking it to Togo with the shoot stuff, so Togo turned it into a brawl, piledriving Murahama through a table. Togo also put a chair over Murahama's face and jumped off the 2nd with a stomp. Murahama facebustered Togo onto a chair, but he was overmatched in this world and quickly succumbed to DICKMANIA. Good while it lasted, but now you have a guy that's less than 2 months removed from being the champ not even able to hang with your top guys. 7:01. **1/2
8/12/00 Osaka Umeda AM Hall MURAHAMA TRIAL 5 4th Match: Takehiro Murahama vs. Masato Yakushiji. Like the previous, this match started more towards Murahama's style then shifted to his opponent's. The difference is Murahama was able to get it back to his style. Good work, but not a lot of direction. Minute for minute the Togo match was better, but this lasted twice as long. 13:53. **3/4
8/13/00 Osaka Umeda AM Hall MURAHAMA TRIAL 5 THE LAST TRIAL: Takehiro Murahama vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa. Pretty much a worked shoot. Transitions and counters were nice, but the execution was a bit suspect, particularly some incredibly lame mount strikes by Murahama. 12:57. ***
11/6/00 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Takehiro Murahama vs. Super Delfin. Better than their previous matches. Murahama had improved a lot and it wasn't hampered by the mixed match style, plus Murahama was clearly better in Delfin's style at this point than Delfin had been in Murahama's. Murahama's kicks were solid and his transitions from submission to submission were really nice, especially since he didn't get as much help as he would from a ground guy. There was one extremely bad part where Murahama stumbled trying to do his tope con hilo, bouncing off the top rope to the floor. He then slammed Delfin on the floor and reentered to do it again. Considering this was a bigger arena and the deciding match between the two, I expected a lot more build and drama. 16:24. ***
Shusaku Wada vs. Takashi Tachibana
CMLL JAPAN Joshi Senshukenjiai: The Goddess Chikako Shiratori vs. Policewo~men
Osaka Meibutsu Sekai Isseguro Senshukenjiai: Kuishinbo Kamen vs. Ebessan
Tsubasa & Takehiro Murahama & Oriental vs. Black Buffalo & Daio QUALLT & Yoshihito Sugamoto
Super Delfin & Kaiju Zeta Mandora vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai
Takehiro Murahama vs. Kengo Takai
Chikako Shiratori Osaka Puroresu Last Match (Man & Woman Mixed Tag Match): Super Delfin & Kuishinbo Kamen & Chikako Shiratori vs. Miracle Man & Ebessan & Policewo~men
Osaka Tag Festival Osaka Puroresu Shidao Tag Oza Kettei Leaguesen: Kaiju King Mandora & Kaiju Z Mandora vs. Azteca & Diablo
Osaka Tag Festival Osaka Puroresu Shidao Tag Oza Kettei Leaguesen: Tsubasa & Black Buffalo vs. Daio QUALLT & Gamma
Full match list coming soon
Tigers Mask vs. Azteca. Mask wears a baseball uniform. Azteca is an adequate luchador that lacks spectacular offense. Tigers didn't show me much. *
Kaiju King Mandora vs. Nise Great Nita. The wrestling was poor, but at least there were a few funny spots. 5:53 shown
Super Demekin & Kengo Takai vs. Shusaku Wada & Takashi Tachibana. Competently wrestled, but these guys don't have much offense yet. The best move would have been some kind of swandive by Wada, but he slipped off the ropes. In spite of this flubbed spot, the paced picked up tremendously when Wada made this hot tag and the last 5+ minutes were good. Wada is pretty explosive when he wants to be. He was the best along with Demekin. **1/4
Man & Woman Mixed Tag Match: Kuishinbo Kamen & Miracle Man & The Goddess Chikako Shiratori vs. Ebessan & Kaiju Z Mandora & Police Wo~men. Police impressed me. She hung with the men and did some nice moves like the huracanrana. Surprisingly, Kamen & Ebessan hurt the match. They kept gringing the match to a halt with their clowning that wasn't even all that entertaining today. That said, the fans did react to everything they did. Ebessan was moleting Shiratori, so she kicked him in the balls. As the match progressed the others brought it closer to perpetual motion. Some of it didn't work, but there were a lot of quality sequences toward the end. **1/2
REAL OSAKA LIVE: Tsubasa & Black Buffalo vs. Daio QUALLT & Gamma. Nice display of teamwork, including INFINITY giving Gamma, who was sitting on the apron, a sandwhich dropkick. Tsubasa was really impressive with his spectacular moves, but it dragged somewhat when he wasn't in. Buffalo is extremely solid, clearly the best worker in the match. However, while he had perfect rudo offense, as a technico he can't carry the match in the same way, using solid offense he makes meaningful with his mannerisms to set up the flashy offense from his opponent. Gamma is a rudo with good offense, so they were able to look to him to pick up the slack, and QUALLT's offense has developed to the point the match was more or less as good when he's in. ***1/4
Super Delfin & Takehiro Murahama vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai. Fast-paced match with great action. Liger & Samurai were able to work as rudos because they were the outsiders. This helped the match because they are the more solid team, while Delfin & Murahama are more exciting. Samurai and Delfin didn't work perfectly together, but they were way better than in their 4/20 singles match. Liger vs. Murahama was power vs. quickness. It was very smartly done with Liger trying to stay away from Murahama's strikes then rush in and grab him. Murahama does a nice job of going into his submissions off a counter or right out of a setup move. One highlight was him turning Liger's shotei into a dobitski udehishigigyakujujigatame. Probably would have been excellent if it went another 3-4 minutes. ***3/4
ReMIX 3min 5rd: Ikuma Hoshino vs. Mako Ogawa
Takako Inoue & Miori Kamiya vs. Kaoru Ito & Tomoko Watanabe
Osaka Puroresu Battle Royal Senshuken: Osaka Royal Rumble
Chikako Shiratori Intai: Chikako Shiratori vs. Rie Tamada
5 Min Bonus 3 Way Dance: Chikako Shiratori vs. Rie Tamada vs. Kumiko Maekawa
Takashi Tachibana vs. Tigers Mask
Super Demekin vs. Kengo Takai
Kaiji Z Mandora vs. Jeremy Lopez
Kuishinbo Kamen & Azteca vs. Ebessan & Shusaku Wada
Super Delfin & Takehiro Murahama & Miracleman vs. Gamma & Tsubasa & Black Buffalo
Man & Woman Mixed Tag Match: Kuishinbo Kamen & Bolshoi Kid vs. Ebessan & Policewo~men
Miracle Man & Azteca & Super Demekin vs. Gamma & Tsubasa & Black Buffalo
Tenozan 2001 Yushoketteisen: Super Delfin vs. Takehiro Murahama
Full match list coming soon
Super Demekin & Kengo Takai vs. Syu & Tigers Mask
JWP Nintei Musabetsukyu Senshukenjiai: Azumi Hyuga vs. Policewo~men
Tsubasa & Black Buffalo & FRANCOISE vs. Takehiro Murahama & Takashi Tachibana
Osaka Meibutsu Sekai Sekaiichi Kessen: Kuishinbo Kamen vs. Ebessan
Osaka Puroresu Tag Senshukenjiai: Miracle Man & Azteca vs. Daio QUALLT & Big Boss MA-G-MA. MA-G-MA is Toyonari Fujita, who wrestled in FMW as Dragon Winger & Toryu.
Osaka Puroresu Senshukenjiai: Gamma vs. Super Delfin
Syu & Tigers Mask vs. Kengo Takai & Takashi Tachibana. Syu looks ridiculous with his Kool Aid hair, but he's very agile. He's particularly good at propelling himself with the ropes, doing a nice slingshot corbata, swandive missile kick, and pescado. 3:54 of 9:38
3 Way Match: Kuishinbo Kamen vs. Ebessan vs. Daigoro Kashiwa. Best comedy spot was Ebessan dropkicking both to the floor and letting them reenter after he faked a dive so he could pull the middle rope up and crotch them when they were halfway through. Kashiwa kept stealing the other's pin attempts. 5:42 of 10:47.
JUSTICE vs FLUXxx 5 to 5 Single Full Conclusion
Billyken Kid vs. Big Boss MA-G-MA. Surprisingly this was the best match in the series. These two worked well together and, although a bit short, the booking gave them a chance to succeed by just leaving them alone. Both did nice moves and executed fine, with the exception of Kid's firebird splash because he puts his opponent too close. Kid did a neat dive where he used the top rope to help rotate himself 270 degrees. MA-G-MA does his version of the last ride in steps like a weight lifter, which makes it a lot less gay because he's able to keep some distance between his face and his opponent's crotch. 10:21. ***
Miracle Man vs. Tsubasa. Offensive match because Tsubasa is a flying technico that's new to the rudo role. Miracle is one of those guys that poses as a great flier; he's not nearly the athlete Tsubasa is. Overall the flying was impressive though because you had two guys that could do it, but on the other hand it was lacking a guy that could take it. Tsubasa did a good job, but Miracle did little to warrant supporting him. That hurt the match because the storyline was he was overmatched but kept kicking out. Best spot was Miracle stopping Tsubasa's Silver King dive by dropkicking him in midair. 15:43. **
Super Delfin vs. Daio QUALLT. Delfin needs to be one of the guys carrying this series, but with this opponent it wasn't going to happen. In fact, not much happened other than a flash pin. Even though it was a waste of Delfin, it's hard to complain because QUALLT is the guy that needs to be in the short match of the series. 2:34
Takehiro Murahama vs. Black Buffalo. This should have been the highlight. It got off to a good start with all kinds of fast strikes where the shooter Murahama would avoid overmatched Buffalo and catch him with a shot of his own. Buffalo kept it interesting with Murahama having his big moments. The thing is they just ran out of gas so quickly and Murahama wrapped it up with a vertical suplex. 9:35. **1/4
Super Demekin vs. Gamma. Even though it was the predictable crowd pleasing story, the booking made this match because otherwise it would have been an anticlimactic squash. The hopes of the faces were riding on totally overmatched Demekin. Gamma could have beaten him in a straight match, but he preferred cheating. Gamma just toyed with Demekin, beating him so badly that the faces were getting mad because he would pull poor Demekin up rather than just ending the series. With Gamma distracted by these arguements, Demekin was able to mount a comeback until the heels interfered. Gamma then tried to finish it, but Demekin would kick out. Gamma got so frustrated he called for more interference, but it backfired and Demekin squeaked by. 13:06. ***
Syu vs. Tigers Mask. Some stiffness early then some nice spots. They need to mask the way they cooperate better. It looked a lot better when they were working fast because they didn't have time to think and wonder if the other was ready and on the same page. Tigers did more than usual, but Syu didn't do his stuff. 4:49. *1/4
Takashi Tachibana vs. Oriental. Oriental returned as the mystery opponent. He looked good when he was more on his own, but when he needed more help or when Tachibana was on offense it wasn't too cleanly performed. Tachibana is still trying to figure out what he wants to do and who he wants to be. He should lose the Goldberg offense since those lame moves only work if you are a big roided stiff that gets pushed to the moon. 8:35. *1/2
3 Way Match: Kuishinbo Kamen vs. Ebessan vs. Turtuger. They did a bit that seemed to last half the match where they weren't going to wrestle, so the ref had to get them to fight. At first they made a joke of it, but then they got started when Ebessan doublecrossed Kamen. Turtuger did the Super Boy put him farther then double jump to reach, but what was funny is Ebessan said the hell with him and tried to pin Kamen while Turtuger was on the top. Second half was decent, but they wasted too much time for it to be one of the better Ebessan vs. Kamen matches. 10:21. *
Osaka Tag Festival 2002 Koshiki Leaguesen: Daio QUALLT & Big Boss Ma-G-Ma vs. Billyken Kid & Kengo Takai. They stuck to what would be interesting that they could do fairly well. Still not the best wrestling, but had a good pace and a lot of double teaming. 10:11. **1/2
Osaka Tag Festival 2002 Koshiki Leaguesen: Miracle Man & Azteca vs. Gamma & Bug Killer. Bug Killer was Gamma's mystery partner. The announcers called him FLUXxx Machine, as he plodded around using basic boring offense like those lame WWF Machines. Match was real one-sided with a bunch of crummy no selling, especially by Bug Killer. Match was actually good once Miracle Man made the hot tag and cleaned house because that prompted Gamma to actually start doing something. Unfortunately, it was soon a double ring out to keep Gamma's teams points down without having anything happen that might make them look the least bit weak. 11:55. *3/4
Osaka Tag Festival 2002 Koshiki Leaguesen: Super Delfin & Super Demekin vs. Black Buffalo & Tsubasa. Demekin was dominated by the rudos, but these rudos are good athletic workers with much better offense than Demekin, so this actually made for a better match. Delfin took Buffalo out when he tagged, but Tsubasa jumped in and tried to maintain the advantage for his team. Delfin would avoid his moves and catch him with something. There was a nice spot when Delfin tried to back body drop his way out of a verticle suplex only to have Tsubasa turn it into a DDT just before Delfin could get Tsubasa over. Smooth, fluid work. Demekin, who Buffalo in particular did a nice job with, eventually had some good chances to score the upset. Rudos made the match with Buffalo working good sequences and Oriental doing nice moves. 15:43. ***1/4
Highlights of tag festival matches from 4/6, 4/7, 4/13, & 4/14
Takashi Tachibana vs. Yutaka Fukuda
Billyken Kid & Syu vs. Kengo Takai & Tigers Mask
Kuishinbo Kamen & Turtuger vs. Azteca & Ebessan
Miracleman & Takehiro Murahama & Oriental vs. Gamma & Tsubasa & Black Buffalo
OSAKA TAG FESTIVAL 2002 the Final: Super Delfin & Super Demekin vs. Daio QUALLT & Magma
Takehiro Murahama vs. Ebetosan
Kuishinbo Kamen & Miracleman & Azumi Huiga vs. Ebessan & Daikokusan (Kintaro Kanemura) & Police Wo~men
Osaka Tag Senshukenjiai: Daio QUALLT & Big Boss MAG-MA vs. Super Delfin & Super Demekin
Full match list coming soon
Azteca vs. Black Tigers. 0:44 of 7:42
Kaiji King Mandora & Policewo~men vs. Tortuga & Night Master 2:31 of 11:05
Kintaro Kanemura vs. Daio QUALLT. 6:00 of 11:51
Miracle Man & Billy Ken Kid, & Tigers Mask vs. Super Demekin & Kengo Takai, & Yutaka Fukuda. 4:23 of 12:49
2/3 Falls: Ebessan vs. Kuishinbo Kamen. 11:05
TAKA Michinoku vs. Gamma. 7:12 of 14:26
Osaka Puroresu Tag Senshukenjiai: Tsubasa & Black Buffalo vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Takehiro Murahama. 17:01
Osaka Puroresu Senshukenjiai: Super Delfin vs. Big Boss Ma-G-Ma. 14:13
Super Delfin, ?, Kuishinbo Kamen & Perro vs. Ebisu Yellow, Kama Blue, Goa Black &Yaka Benover? 15:51
GOA vs. Tigers Mask 7:00
Billy Ken Kid, Miracle Man & Takehiro Murahama vs. MA-G-MA, Black Buffalo & Daio QUALLT 14:10