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Furious Flashbacks: Kaientai Dojo Sea King Tournament

November 16, 2014 | Posted by Arnold Furious
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Furious Flashbacks: Kaientai Dojo Sea King Tournament  

Kaientai Dojo Sea King Tournament

 

14th September 2014.

 

We’re in Chiba, Japan at Chiba Blue Field. It’s a bit of a dump. 153 in attendance. This is not the majors. This is a fairly unique show for me. Firstly I’m not sure it actually appeared on TV anywhere and secondly it’s the first K-Dojo show I’ve ever seen in full. I felt like I was missing out somehow. The show is split into two parts. As I don’t have a spare 6 hours on hand I’ll just be checking out ‘Part II’.

 

Sea King Tournament Semi-Final:

Kengo Mashimo vs. Saburo Inematsu

 

This bout is also for Mashimo’s Strongest K title. Mashimo is one of K-Dojo’s highest rated workers. He’s wrestled for New Japan a lot and Yuji Hino aside he’s probably the companies biggest star. Inematsu is a bit of a midcarder. My first observation is how incredibly irritating the camerawork is. The guy operating the hard-cam thinks it’ll be more dramatic if he zooms in on every punch and then zooms out again. Trying to create the kind of visual thrill that someone watching The Raid might expect. It’s distracting, frankly. Inematsu must sense he’s outmatched in the ring and opts for cheating, and lots of it, instead. Kengo casually takes over and they pay lip service to the concept of a match before breaking out the customary strike duel. Kengo wins that despite being kicked in the head and Inematsu isn’t providing much of a challenge. Saburo did bring two drummers with him though and they provide a hearty percussion accompaniment for his comebacks. That doesn’t work too well for him either and Mashimo finishes with a brainbuster. Vertical drop. Good stuff. The match was hurt by the camerawork but wasn’t aided by the efforts of the wrestlers who seemed to tootle along in 2nd gear because Kengo has to work again later. It had a solid enough structure but rarely seemed energised.

 

Final Rating: **1/4

 

Tangent: I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out both men had already competed twice. The perils of running a one day tournament. Mashimo’s first win came over Shiori Asahi (which was probably a good match) before downing Kaji Tomato. Inematsu beat Doguchi and Ryuichi Sekine.

 

Sea King Tournament Semi-Final:

Hiro Tonai vs. Tank Nagai

 

These two have also worked twice already today. Tonai bested Daigoro Kashiwa and TAKA Michinoku. If that wasn’t unacceptable enough Nagai overcame Yuma and YUJI HINO! This is frankly wrong. Hino is one of the main reasons I’m even giving Kaientai Dojo a shot here! Nagai is a burly brawler and Tonai I’ve not been impressed with. They do work some half decent mat stuff with Nagai looking to destroy Tonai’s knee and Tonai trying flippity/shooty counters to survive. He can’t really flip much so Tank just goes back to the knee. Nagai’s methodical style feels completely out of whack with modern Japanese sensibilities and the match feels like something from 1992. That’s not a criticism either. It’s certainly a smarter way to work than the guys in the opener as they half-assed a big match while this story is fully self-contained. I’ll give Tonai credit where it’s due, he’s consistent in his selling. That is until he stamps his bad leg hard on the mat, as if to say he’s willed it back into place, and then it’s forgotten. I swear body part psychology is a dead art. I’m begging someone to work a match around a leg injury and actually stick to it. It’s as if Japanese wrestlers are incapable of working a match that doesn’t culminate in a big strike duel! I love big strike duels but some people are better at them than others. Tonai wins with a fluke roll up and then magically remembers his knee hurts and hobbles into the ropes. Ok, then. Let’s see if you can keep that up, sport.

 

Final Rating: **1/2

 

Bambi vs. Kaori Yoneyama

 

Bambi you may remember from FMW. I remember her tagging with Leilani Kai. Her gimmick is all leather and whips. It makes me feel kinda funny, like when we used to climb the rope in gym class. Kaori is a lot smaller with parachute pants that don’t quite hang as loose as they’re supposed to. She’s no Brady Boone. I actually remember her working in FMW too, getting smashed by Crusher Maedomari. I think I watched too much FMW. Bambi is a bully and her refusal to play by the rules includes choking Kaori out with a whip. Kinky. Other momentous occurrences: Bambi using the flat of her foot to kick Kaori across the ring and Kaori responding by screaming like a wounded animal. Also a pointless tug-o-war with the whip, which Bambi wins by simply letting go. Kaori doesn’t seem to have anything effective to use against Bambi’s size and viciousness. So she wins with a fluke roll up…which feels eerily familiar as the exact same thing happened in the last match. Bambi was fun to watch as she enjoyed torturing her smaller opponent but the outcome was bollocks and the finish was a disappointment.

 

Final Rating: *1/4

 

Ricky Fuji vs. Yoshihiro Doguchi vs. Shiori Asahi vs. Kunio Toshima vs. Tiran Shisa vs. Daigoro Kashiwa vs. Ayuma Honda vs. Yuma vs. Kotaro Yoshino

 

This is one of those ‘loser matches’ that tournaments tend to produce. It’s a battle royal with the stipulation that you need to get a pinfall or submission to escape. Whoever is left faces the judgement of TAKA. Ricky Fuji, I’m pleased to say, looks like a cross between David Coverdale and Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. He’s getting on a bit. The first pinfall elimination is a pile-on and it’s revealed that Kashiwa scored it. I blame TNA for ruining the basic simplicity of a battle royal. This continues in much the same vein with every pinfall attempt seeing the entire rest of the ring jump on top. Each man scoring victories in succession and heading to back until the ring clears out. There’s a clever elimination where Fuji has his butt exposed and gets a pin only for the unfortunate Yoshino (I think) to one-up Fuji by having his hand under Fuji’s bottom. Yeah, you won…but did you really? It comes down to Doguchi and Honda and Honda submits Doguchi with an armbar. Doguchi then cuts an impassioned promo away from the hard-cam and TAKA Michinoku strolls out to give him the thumbs up. So he’s not fired, or some such. This was a nice idea but it wasn’t well executed.

 

Final Rating: ½*

 

Ryuichi Sekine & Kaji Tomato vs. TAKA Michinoku & Yuji Hino

 

Sekine & Tomato are somewhat camp. Hino is a beast and TAKA is the owner of K-Dojo. Much like Jerry Lawler ran Memphis from behind an announce desk in the WWF, he’s running the show while working as a manager for New Japan (and sometime surly cruiserweight). To give you an idea of the general sizes on display here; TAKA actually looks quite big opposite Tomato. Kaji is 5’ 7”. He and TAKA run some fine counter sequences, which come straight out of ECW’s respectful mat counter era circa 1998. Hino comes in and Tomato scarpers as the size difference is enormous. Hino is a bull who can go toe-to-toe with Daisuke Sekimoto. Sekine & Tomato are just scared of him. This shows when they go into a strike duel with Sekine kicking Hino in the legs and Hino responding by slapping Sekine in the thigh. Hino wins. He reminds me of Big Show in the WWE. He’s a goofy fun-loving guy who can be provoked into violence but not by these guys. He just toys with them. TAKA does too. He’s a bit of a dick about it. Hino comes across like a gentle giant with freakish strength who doesn’t want to do too much damage. Hence his use of slaps. I honestly don’t get why he’s still in Kaientai Dojo. Especially after seeing him work the main event of Kenta Kobashi’s Fortune Dream show. In K-Dojo there’s only so much you can do with him. He has no natural predators! He even stops off here to let Sekine kick him for a bit, just to see if he can get the job done. Then he completely no sells Sekine’s attempt to slam him. He just glances around looking confused. Hino seems to just amuse himself by seeing how many times he freak his opponents out with his size and how red their leg/chest/whatever is in the way gets when he chops it. TAKA ends up playing owner in peril but makes his own save and pins Sekine with the Michinoku Driver. As much as I enjoyed watching Yuji Hino toy with these poor bastards this was not a competitive match by any stretch of the imagination.

 

Final Rating: **1/2

 

Sea King Tournament Final:

Kengo Mashimo vs. Hiro Tonai

 

Once again Kengo’s Strongest K belt is also on the line. Kengo has the good common sense to go after Tonai’s leg but Tonai uses his takedown defence to stop him. They actually hit a rollicking good pace with the mat counters, especially considering it’s their 4th match of the day and they’re going 20 minutes. The opening few minutes contain the best wrestling action on the show…by far. Sadly they change tack, probably because they can’t work at that pace for 20 minutes, and Kengo blocks a dive by taking out Tonai’s knee. This does lead to some more tidy mat sequences as Tonai gives up his arm to protect his leg and almost loses to an armbar, then a kimura. Kengo can also hit Tonai in the knee to stop any potential comebacks. Unfortunately Tonai’s ability to sell an injury, let alone two, is highly suspect and he fails to tell a story with the knee at all despite Kengo going after it like a hungry dingo going after Meryl Streep’s baby. Tonai tries to get a receipt by taking Kengo’s arm but his own injuries make it hard for him to follow up. Kengo smells blood and try as he might Tonai can’t escape an Anklelock as Kengo lifts every Kurt Angle counter, ever until Tonai slips out and switches right into the Rings of Saturn. Poor Tonai has taken a stretching in this one. Tonai has two potential ways out of trouble; 1. flash pins and 2. an armbar. He’s probably better off going after the former as every time he tries an armbar he doesn’t have sufficient strength left to finish. Fatigue also begins to set in after a blistering contest and the hot stretch contains a Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Undertaker circa 1996 (and 2012) level of lying around in between spots. Tonai finally gets in a few cradles and that’s how the upset can potentially happen. Kengo counters into the Rings of Saturn again and hooks the leg to prevent Tonai making the ropes. This leads to inevitable submission at 19.55. Very solid considering prior wrestling commitments. I’m impressed they were able to structure a coherent match and that Kengo’s persistence paid off and worked into the finish. Tonai played the role of plucky underdog to perfection even if his selling was somewhat inconsistent. An enjoyable main event to an otherwise poor show.

 

Final Rating: ***1/2

 

BOOK PLUGS:

 

Here follows a list of all the available books written by the History of Wrestling team. The first five are complete WWF video guides, covering every video tape the WWF ever released. That’s followed by the Raw Files, coverage of every episode of Raw, ever. One year at a time. There are two Superstar Series, featuring the Hart Foundation and the Ultimate Warrior and all their matches (or near as). Titan Sinking covers the potential demise of the WWF in 1995 and the various controversies of the year including Syracuse (the truth finally revealed) and Randy Savage’s potential ‘relationship’ with Stephanie McMahon. Finally there’s the 1PW book, a glance inside the running of a promotion including details of how much it costs to run an Indy show with big name imports and interviews with the likes of Abyss, Kid Kash and Chris Daniels.

 

COMPLETE WWF VIDEO GUIDE

http://getBook.at/WWFGuide1

 

http://getBook.at/WWFGuide2

 

http://getBook.at/WWFGuide3

 

http://getBook.at/WWFGuide4

 

http://getBook.at/WWFGuide5

 

THE RAW FILES

 

http://getBook.at/RAWFiles93

 

http://getBook.at/RAWFiles94

 

http://getBook.at/RAWFiles95

 

http://getBook.at/RAWFiles96

 

http://getBook.at/RAWFiles97

 

http://getBook.at/RAWFiles98

 

SUPERSTAR SERIES

 

http://getBook.at/Harts

 

http://getBook.at/Warrior

 

TITAN SINKING

 

http://getBook.at/TitanSinking

 

ALL OR NOTHING

 

http://getBook.at/1PW

 

You can also follow me on Twitter @ArnoldFurious

4.0
The final score: review Poor
The 411
Considering how small-time Kaientai Dojo is I don’t think this will be a regular dip into their waters. It’s a pity that Yuji Hino and Kengo Mashimo don’t get booked elsewhere more frequently as they’re both highly entertaining wrestlers. I’d hate to miss out on their work just because they’re stuck in K-Dojo. Do they owe TAKA money or something? Kengo works semi-regularly in All Japan so I won’t miss out on him but Hino…his only major run outside of K-Dojo this year was with Wrestle-1. And they jobbed him out to Ryota Hama and stopped booking him. Life just isn’t fair. Maybe Kenta Kobashi will book more shows with more Hino. There’s a concept I can get behind. As for Kaientai Dojo, based on this show it’s really not worth your time. The production values are lacking and they don’t have a roster to speak of.
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