Kaientai Dojo: 12th July 2008

A new K-Dojo show has arrived. PUNQs on hiatus (from earnings) so I got this new batch of DVDs from the guy at WrestlingDVD.net, who has a huge catalogue. The DVD picture quality is not as high as some suppliers, which bothers me not one bit, but might bother others. It's perfectly watchable.

The show is quite clipped, to fit in the long final, the highlights from the Strongest-K tournament, as well as four other matches. Skipping over the couple of minutes that were shown of the first two matches, we have the OMEGA vs. TAKA, JOE and Tonai tag match. This was fine for continuing the feud. MIYAWAKI does little for me, but KAZMA is fun. Match ends up with Asahi and JOE in the ring while the other pairs fight outside, with JOE going for a million billion pump kicks, and finally getting the win. Energetic and fun.

Semi-final is a UWA Middleweight title match between Oishi and Yamato. I found this to be a entertaining - especially the couple of nice sequences on the mat. Yamato is a keeper, and you get the impression he could become quite a crowd favourite. They play a nice subtle story here, as Oishi starts out a little arrogantly assuming Yamato won't be much of a challenge, but becomes increasingly desperate throughout. I could watch a longer version of these two.

The final is the long, good Mashimo match that I've been waiting for this year (though sadly missing five minutes or so). This is very kicky, and both guys can kick. Mashimo targets Madoka's leg with his kicks, and Madoka does a pretty decent job selling it throughout. I mean, he occassionaly kicks with it, rather than the healthy leg, and finds it in himself to run around, but it less frequent than normal, and he reminds the watcher that its hurting.

Predominatly, this is the Kengo Mashimo show. The thing I like most about Mashimo is his focus. When he goes for the arm, like in the BJW tag, or against YOSHIYA in June, it is unrelenting. Here, he kicks at Madoka's leg at every opportunity, and counters Madoka's offense with an ankle lock/leg bar submission on a bunch of occassions. Also, there's no overuse or reliance on fifty different finishers - they both kick out of each others finisher once, then Mashimo wins with the second brainbuster. In fact, Mashimo delays pinning after the first brainbuster, thus justifying the kickout, which in itself is setup by a series of nasty head kicks by Madoka, leaving Mashimo dazed even after he hits the brainbuster.

It would have been nice if the legwork featured in the finish, but that's probably just me being picky, seeing as Mashimo also has plenty of head-related offense as well (for example, kicks to the head. For another example, kicks to the other side of the head). The leg based offence can also be seen as a defensive strategy, to ground Madoka and weaken his kicks. They remember the fact that they are partners and friends - the match is quite scientific, and neither looks to injure or kill the other. The kicking exchanges come across as one-upmanship, and also play into this. Best K-Dojo match of the year, and has moved to the top of 2008 matches from the indie juniors-based promotions. This is a good show.