Big Japan: 23rd May 2008

Now here's a great show (shown on two seperate episodes of Deathmatch Wars). The main event on the first show is a six person lighttube match with Ito, WX and Abby Kobayashi on one side and Miyamoto, Takeshi Sasaki and Numazawa on the other side. I think this stood out amongst this year's deathmatches so far - as much as these matches can. I felt particularly energetic, and also slightly more structured - the long heat section on WX, a better sense of escalation in the spots than in some deathmatches this year. There's blood and crowd heat and guys headbutting glass. Jun Kasai returns after the match after a long absence, which should freshen up the hardcore main event scene for a while.

The second show has two K-Dojo vs. BJW tag matches. The first one - Team HANDSOME vs. Sekimoto and Inoue - was fine. Sekimoto and Inoue have been having a bunch of random tag matches this year, in lieu of having an actual storyline, and this one was neither better nor worse. Actually, it was clipped quite a bit, so its hard to say how it would have been overall - I suspect the full twenty minutes may have been pretty tidy. The best sections were between JOE and Sekimoto, who could probably put together a good singles match judged on this performance.

The main reason for watching this show is the Mashimo and Madoka vs. MEN's Teioh and Shinobu BJW tag title match. This is a match that has received more plaudits and positive reviews than almost anything else this year (except perhaps some of the Battlarts matches). They are entirely meritted. This match has absolutely everything going for it, and few (if any) downsides. Firstly, there's the fact that this isn't a top match in one of the big three promotions, nor is it a match blowing off a huge feud. It's just a title match, where the challengers are guys that spend most of the year working light-hearted indy spotfests. There is something essentially indie about a match in these settings turning out to be one of the best things in Japan this year.

Secondly, the work is great. Shinobu puts in the professional wrestling performance of his life, selling his injured shoulder throughout the entire match, like he wasn't a junior heavyweight at the Korakuen in 2008. This is the core of the match as Mashimo relentlessly targets the bandaged arm. Mashimo is currently one of my favourite guys in the role he adopts here - the dominant aggressor - although he only really gets to do outside of K-Dojo, because it requires a certain amount of heelishness. The crowd eat it up, and Shinobu is great as the sympathetic underdog.

The other great feature of this match is MEN's - he plays the role of experienced veteran, watching his younger partner take the bulk of the offense, before coming in and using smartness to get the edge on his faster, younger, stronger opponents. The spot built around the repeated use of the octopus hold was excellent - turning an ordinary move into an excellent moment - clearly the move was effective, but kept being broken up. Normally in these situations, wrestlers move onto the next move. MEN's sticks with it, locking it in on four seperate occassions, each time finding a way to counter his opponents advance into it.

The finishing straight is amazingly dramatic. They never go for overkill, but instead build around a number of spots where a finish is very possible, but the save (and hence the match's continuation) makes sense. Pinfalls are broken up by partners, submissions end with rope breaks or counters at the last possible minute. It's an impressive feat for an end stretch that went way over ten minutes that I really didn't want it to end - I was completely hooked and caught up in it. The finish comes back to the earlier armwork on Shinobu (who, by this point, is walking around with a limp arm), and Mashimo almost rips it off to get the submission.

I like all four guys a lot already, but this is just one of those rare occassion where absolutely everything hits the mark. Match of the year? It will be close.