Tape Thoughts
Osaka Pro Wars 9: Tenno-zan 2002
Well, this is the summary of Osaka Pro's annual Tenno-zan tournament that decides the top man for the year. It's comparable to the G-1 Climax or Champion Carnival, but the Tenno-zan is a single elimination tournament rather than a round robin.
The first 8 matches are the Round One bouts, most of them are jipped 'n clipped but still have some good action. Most notable among these was Kushinbo Kamen vs. Tigers Mask and Billy Ken Kid vs. El Samurai. Super Delfin vs. Tsubasa was also very well done, and I'm glad Delfin decided to go the unselfish route and put over Tsubasa.
Going on to Round Two, I thoroughly enjoyed Murahama vs. QUALLT and Black Buffalo vs. Samurai. Murahama vs. QUALLT was actually the biggest surprise of this tape, it gets the nod to me for best match. Buffalo is my favorite wrestler in Osaka, and he put on a great show with Samurai, who gained major heel heat from the loyal Osaka crowd.
We move to the Semi-Finals, with Big Boss MA-G-MA going over Gamma. I really can't get into Gamma, he's fairly charismatic but his wrestling leave something to be desired for me. Murahama vs. El Samurai was fairly good, but it was painfully obvious who was going to advance after Osaka's number one heel, MA-G-MA, advanced. Murahama went over, nice little bout.
The Finals were probably the most disappointing. The match was only around 11 minutes long and MA-G-MA powerbombed the soul out of Takehiro Murahama and got the clean win in what was a very anti-climactic finish.
Best Match: Takehiro Murahama vs. Daio QUALLT
Runner Up: Black Buffalo vs. El Samurai
Worst Match: Gamma vs. Big Boss MA-G-MA
Runner Up: Takehiro Murahama vs. Big Boss MA-G-MA (only because of the bad finish)
Overall Tape Rating: 3/5
--------------------------------------------
UWFi "Pro Wrestling Tournament"
This was UWFi's 1994 tournament that would determine the "UWFi Pro Wrestling" champion. This was my first taste of UWFi, and I was skeptical going into it, but I was totally surprised.
First of all, we get to see Bad News Allen(!) doing shoot-style wrestling. He's not that great, but I can't help mark out for Mr. Ghetto Blaster himself no selling for tiny Japanese shooters.
I really dig the UWFi style. I think it's really superior to BattlArts, which tried to mimmick UWFi. The UWFi crowds are great - they eat up everything and without them the matches would not seem as 'realistic' as they do. That's the real key to this promotion - realism. Submissions are traded and reversed, and when something like a cross armbreaker is locked in there's no 30 second fight for the ropes. It's treated like a legitimate kill-all as it would be in a real Mixed Martial Arts fight and there's an immediate tapout.
Best Match: Gary Albright vs. Kiyoshi Tamura
This match was the best UWFi match I've yet seen. Tamura plays the skillful underdog, Albright the big bad gaijin. The match was extremely realistic and it was the longest I've seen in UWFi yet. The crowd was absolutely fanatical, with "Tamura" chants practically lasting from the beginning to the end.
Runner Up: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Super Vader
Really nice match, with Vader surprisingly going cleanly over Takada. I didn't really think Vader had much of a chance, seeing as UWFi is Takada's deal and he calls all of the shots. The formula was similar to that of Albright/Tamura, but Takada wasn't really a believeable underdog. I still found this match very enjoyable and it served very well as a main event.
Worst Match: Bad News Allen vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara
Not much to say about this. After all, it's Bad News Allen.
Runner Up: Salman Hashimikov vs. Yuko Miyato
Hashimikov, for those of you who don't know, is a big stinky Russian who held the IWGP Heavyweight Title during one of Inoki's crazed cocaine binges, I think. He just squashed Miyato and the match was not that exciting.
Overall Tape Rating: 4/5
|
|
|
