Big Japan: 23rd June 2008

I watched, but have no interest in commenting on, the June 8th show (this does not count). Sekimoto and Inoue vs. Ishikawa and Takeda was fine - I like the two lower-ranked guys and think they could be useful for the non-deathmatch portion of the shows. The rest was fairly dull (obviously, this is also not a comment)

So I moved on to the two Deathmatch Wars episodes from the June Korakuen show. The six-man hardcore match was reasonably unremarkable - Abby Kobayashi and Mammoth were fun enough, though by no means trying to force this towards greatness. Seemed mainly a vehicle for more Hoshino and Masada interactions, as Masada turns on his partner. Also, Masada sticks sticks into Ito's head, which was a little unpleasant (other possible choices of weapons: plants, rams, hammers)

The main event was Takashi Sasaki and Miyamoto vs. Numazawa and the returning Jun Kasai. This was a Korakuen Bangai Chi Death Match Carnival, distinguishing it from all other light tube matches by the choice of words. Also, there's a cage in one corner, filled with lightubes. I think this is the best deathmatch of the year so far (admittedly in a bad year), and may remain so. I didn't like the indie stand-offs at the beginning - I got that they were building up to the first light tube spot more gradually than in most of these matches, but some of that stuff looks so contrived - especially the duel spots where they each catch the others light tubes. Once they got past all that, though, this was loads of fun.

Kasai was a blast in an unhinged, Terry Funk sort of a way, at one point breaking a lighttube in half and cutting his own chest with it. My favourite bit was when he worked out that punching a light tube was more effective than shoulder blocking it, and did it a load more times. Sasaki and Miyamoto dominate most of this in the ring before they brawl outside and up into the balcony, setting up the big dive. I liked the use of this much more than in the title match in May, where Ito goes straight for the big dive. Here, they battle in the ring for fifteen minutes, and then escalate the match by going for a leap. Kasai opts for a groin-first dive, which was probably ill-advised.

The finishing run got a little silly - the only way they could keep the momentum going was moving on top of the cage and doing moves off it, so it felt a bit spotty. I liked the finish though - Numazawa drove Sasaki head first into the cage, they held him inside it, so Kasai could pick up the win with a Pearl Habour Splash off the cage.

The main event of the second show is the Mashimo vs. Sekimoto NWA UN title match. My overriding thought was that there was a good match in there somewhere, but it was well hidden by a lot of big flaws. The body of the match was Sekimoto's leg attacks vs. Mashimo's arm attacks. I get Mashimo working the arm, to set up his big submission finisher (which was established in the previous month's tag match), but I don't understand the purpose or story behind Sekimoto's leg work. Both guys make little attempt to sell their injured limbs (Mashimo seems to literally shake the leg work off). Worse still, Mashimo kicks at Sekimoto's arm, while Sekimoto happily chop-blocks and lariats Mashimo's leg.

In the end, they both resort to their big knock-out finishers, rather than anything based on the limb-work. Mashimo kicks out of a few german's and Sekimoto even kicks out of Mashimo's brainbuster - in K-Dojo, that never happens. Mashimo sets this up with some nasty roundhouse kicks (thankfully, using his good leg), but they were always playing for the thirty minute draw. The result forced them to slow everything down, and I felt positive about the match at the beginning. Problem was that they never incorporated any of this at the end, and that doesn't make for a good match.

Miles better than the April Tanaka match though, and the Tanaka thirty minute draw last year, so that was something.