Michinoku Pro: 31st March 1994

This show went across two episodes of Champ Forum. I'll be reviewing it out of order, so I finish with the main event (which actually aired in the first episode).

Quickly through the undercard. The Monkey Magic and Super Delfin vs. Shiryu and Leon Guererro tag match has a few fun moments - Leon is a bigger guy, but he's impressively quick and athletic - but for the most part this was disposable. The TAKA Michinoku vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa was short, but I really liked the opening few minutes of matwork, which looked nicely competitive and flowed well. Then they dropped it for some nearfalls, which wasn't as interesting. Terry Boy vs. Masato Yakushiji was worked around Yakushiji going for Terry's legs whilst Terry yanked apart Yakushiji's arm in a thousand different ways. I liked how they stuck with this throughout and how the weak arm filtered into the finish.

For something I had no high expectations for going in, Wellington Wilkins Jr. vs. Yone Genjin was a really interesting, and often highly enjoyable match. Often in matches between technical wrestlers and guys with untrained gimmicks, it is the wrestler that struggles to match up with the untrained guy, the story being that he's too unconventional to wrestle in the normal way. Here, however, it is Genjin who can't get anything in on Wilkins, who is completely not afraid to kick and clobber his opponent in the head on a regular basis. This is an inversion of a cliche that I kind of liked, and one that actually makes sense.

After a while, a baffled looking Genjin starts throwing chairs, which seemingly gives the match an excuse for the match to really spiral out of control. There's lots of nonsense in this, but it's entertaining nonsense. Wilkins sort of looks like he's really enjoying himself, throwing Genjin into walls and tables and sending him hurtling across the arena on a trolley. The whole thing ends with a double count-out or disqualification or something unimportant, and then loads of post match high jinks (Genjin brings a bicycle into the ring, fails to get into to start, so Wilkins just charges him and kicks him in the head a few more times for being a damn fool).

The main event was Great Sasuke vs. Jinsei Sinzaki, which may be there first time singles meeting, at least the first one recorded. This is the second Sasuke match I've watched in a row which felt a little disconnected between the first and second half. It starts out tentative, ocassionally builds up pace, before they reset and start again. I think this can work in some settings - like with a dominant crowd favourite and a outmatched heel - but when both guys are taking breaks to regroup after every exchange, it takes away some of the momentum. There's a bit where Shinzaki visibly loses his composure, takes Sasuke to the outside and throws him around, flips him into the chairs and posts him and suddenly the match is rocking. Then, after regrouping, the go to some matwork. The work isn't bad at all, far from it, but the layout is a little confusing.

That said, the finishing stretch is really nice. Sasuke looks to be in control, hitting a bunch of his big trademark spots, only to be caught mid Asai moonsault and tombstoned. They spill to the outside, and Shinzaki sitout powerbombs him through a table. Remember, in Japan, tables are made of tables. The fatigue selling during all of this is spot-on, and I liked the real sense that Sasuke's fightback was like a survival instinct - upon chancing to knock Shinzaki from the ring, he gets up and starts running for the ropes without even a look at where he would be diving. A double KO finish leads to the rematch in the following month, and my only real technical criticism is that they needed a more hard-hitting or intensive first half to justify it. I'm going to be the last person to criticise guys for overselling, but the cause and effect from first to second half was probably a little out.