wrestling / Video Reviews

Puro Fury: Fortune Dream 3

July 14, 2016 | Posted by Arnold Furious
8
The 411 Rating
Community Grade
12345678910
Your Grade
Loading...
Puro Fury: Fortune Dream 3  

Fortune Dream 3

 

June 14 2016

 

Fortune Dream is the brainchild of former All Japan and NOAH heavyweight megastar Kenta Kobashi. Unlike most promotions the intent of Fortune Dream is not to make money but rather for Kenta to put on a bunch of matches he really wants to see. And God bless the man, he has a terrific capacity for match-making and great taste. He sees wrestlers and immediately knows who to pitch them in against to create a good match. The main event for this show is Sekimoto & Hino vs. Shiozaki & Okabayashi. It’s going to be amazing. The shows are infrequent, this is the first Fortune Dream since late 2014, but they’re worth waiting for.

 

We’re in Korakuen Hall, Tokyo. 1300 people in attendance and a slew of heavy hitters are on hand to make this an entertaining evening of grappling.

 

Jun Akiyama vs. LEONA

This may be the exception to this evenings line-up. The inclusion of Tatsumi Fujinami’s useless son LEONA is purely a political move to keep Fujinami onside with this promotion. Allegedly LEONA is taking wrestling more seriously now, having completed his education, but every time I’ve seen him work he’s been the drizzling shits and is one of the worst workers in Japan. I’m hoping for Akiyama to beat the shit out of him. Seeing as Akiyama is a surly old fuck who takes no shit from anyone this is exactly what happens. LEONA is even passable getting fluke roll ups and he doesn’t murder anything apart from not having a fucking clue how to put on a Figure Four. This makes Akiyama either angry or confused. I’m not really sure. He just stares a hole in his worthless opponent in the hopes that he’ll die of shame for not watching enough Ric Flair tapes. Akiyama busts LEONA’s mouth open by kneeing him in the face and beats the punk with a Boston Crab because that’s how you teach young boys the business. This was easily the best match of LEONA’s career, by some distance, and Akiyama made him look far better than he actually is.

Final Rating: **3/4

 

Tangent: Akiyama is the pencil for All Japan. It would be perfectly reasonable of him to just wrestle kids all the time, beat the shit out of them, and book entire cards of just this and nothing else. I would happily watch a Shinjuku card that was Akiyama vs. seven rookies and all of them getting royally fucked up, one after another.

 

Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Kairi Hojo

Hojo is a pirate, who carries a ships wheel to the ring. I’m not sure where she’s planning on steering to without an actual boat. Matsumoto is a Stardom girl but she works Oz Academy and Sendai Girls too. Basically she’s everywhere. Hojo is a big crossover star and she featured for Kobashi before so it’s clear he’s keen and rightly so. Hojo has massive sympathy and works the underdog gimmick better than any current female wrestler. Apart from maybe Bayley. Hojo unfortunately gets fucked up twice. Firstly by Matsumoto under-pitching a press to the floor where the Young Girls miss her and secondly by botching a springboard and falling on her face. They make amends for these ugly spots by slapping the shit out of each other. They end up putting together a decent match, recovering from the fuck ups, even though Matsumoto worries me several times by dropping Hojo into the wrong place. Matsumoto pretty much has it won with a backdrop driver but the 15 minute time limit expires. It’s a draw. That’s fine. The match was too sloppy for my liking and they’ll need to work on the chemistry before attempting some of these crazy spots again. However the energy levels were strong and the crowd bought into Hojo fighting from underneath.

Final Rating: ***1/4

 

Fujita Hayato, Isami Kodaka & Shiori Asahi vs. Minoru Tanaka, Shinjiro Otani & Ultimo Dragon

Praise Kobashi! What a fantastic line-up of talent this is. Hayato is a disrespectful ass-kicker and his partners are both capable. Tanaka, Otani and Dragon are all respected veterans and with the exception of Ultimo, they can still go at the top level. It is a fine combination of guys. Hayato is someone I find it impossible to look away from. I want to see him fuck someone up. Kobashi knows. He sees this guy and wants to see him no sell and kick veterans around because it’s money. Hayato starts out by going right after Otani, which is amazing, because Otani refuses to sell for him and starts marching into Hayato’s stiffest kicks. The veterans are more willing to sell for Kodaka, who’s the BASARA Ace and DDT put him on top earlier in the year. With Hayato the veterans are more interested in showing him up and Tanaka does this legitimately because he’s outstanding at countering and out-doing guys on the mat. Oddly enough it’s Tanaka who wants to sell for Hayato too so the match is way better when those two are going at it. Asahi does too much comedy and drags the match down when he’s in there. With the exception of Otani’s boot scrapes when he uses the boots to kill Kodaka on the floor too, even though it makes no sense for Isami to keep jumping back in there. The match ends with Otani beating the shit out of Asahi and celebrating by botching a turnbuckle pose. This was fun but perhaps ran a little long.

Final Rating: ***1/4

 

Katsuhiko Nakajima & Shuji Ishikawa vs. Kohei Sato & Shuhei Taniguchi

Nakajima and Taniguchi come from NOAH. The former is great, the latter is better unmasked so at least we’re not seeing Maybach. Ishikawa and Sato are big heavy hitters and should be an interesting mix. This is a heavy lumber match with an assortment of strikes. Nakajima vs. Sato with the heavy kicks is the stuff of dreams. As hard as Nakajima kicks, Sato’s lumber is so much heavier. Sato is just a beast. Kensuke Sasaki is in the building for a Talk Battle with Kobashi (the poor guy needs money because his wife is sick) and you see him watching Nakajima get an utter pasting from Sato. Nakajima is his protégé and the guy who beat Sasaki in Kensuke’s last match. You can see him willing Nakajima to succeed*. Shuji has no such troubles with Sato and beats the fuck out of him. It’s a good story about big men being beaten to shit by bigger men. Sato keeps trying to interject into the important moments but Shuji just headbutts him into oblivion. The end is a contrast to the rest of the match as Nakajima picks up the win by sunset flipping an aggressive Taniguchi for the pin, knowing the change in pace will get the job done. Nakajima the only guy capable of altering the style of the match. Sasaki immediately disappears behind the curtain, satisfied his boy has done good. Sato is sporting a massive blood filled lump on his head courtesy of Shuji. It is harsh. A sign this match was balls out brutal.

Final Rating: ***3/4

 

*In a way Nakajima has already succeeded beyond expectations and has been included in the 2016 G1 Climax.

 

Go Shiozaki & Yuji Okabayashi vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Hino

Expect massively hard chops in this match. Every single one of these guys chops super-hard. Sekimoto vs. Okabayashi is a staple of Big Japan and they’re an awesome tag team too. The latter is the Big Japan champ. Hino was Wrestle-1 champion earlier in the year and Shiozaki is the current NOAH GHC Champion. There are heavyweight players involved in this main event. Logically Hino will take the fall because he’s currently unaffiliated with any company, unless there are plans for him to become a star in All Japan, which I’d be fine with. It’s great seeing all these guys involved in the same match, even though AJPW could feasibly have booked this until Go walked out. My chop heavy theory kicks in early as Hino and Okabayashi attempt to remove each others chests with the knife edges. Not content with that Sekimoto and Shiozaki go and do the same thing. At FD1 there was a chop duel in front of Kobashi (Mr Chops) and they do it again here with Hino vs. Okabayashi. It’s fucking glorious. The chests are beet red. The slapping noises are gruesome. My word it’s beautiful. Hino is the best at this, chopping Okabayashi in the spine when he turns away from chops and then slapping in the back of the head too. Hino is a prize asshole. He makes Okabayashi look like a lost schoolboy, which is ridiculous considering Okabayashi’s normal approach to matches. There’s just something about Hino. Kobashi senses it too. I’m sure Hino would be in contention for a Fortune Dream title spot if one existed. Sekimoto is another guy that everyone rates at this style, with good reason. Go, ridiculous as it may seem, is the guy with the most to prove. He’s smaller and has a worse reputation due to twice jumping ship when times were tough. First from NOAH to AJPW and then back again. The crowd care far less about him than the other three. Not that he stands down on the big chop-fests and does one with Sekimoto that’s borderline ridiculous. In a good way. All four guys will be sore in the morning, for a week. Remember Sugiura’s fucked up chest for NOAH this year? They’ll all look like that. The action is intense throughout to the point where the bell rang and I was confused. The 30 minute time limit had expired. It felt far quicker than 30 minutes.

 

Two years ago when Fortune Dream debuted the main event went to a 30 minute draw and it was given an extra five minutes. On that occasion they went to another draw. Hino remembers this, as he worked opposite Sekimoto in that match, and asks for it again and gets it. The extra time is more of the same with chopping until chests are even sorer. How these four can continue this abuse after normal time is anyone’s guess. It’s a brutal display of manliness and stamina. Go absolutely twats Sekimoto with a lariat and Okabayashi adds another one for the pinfall. Hino’s extra five minutes plan backfiring on him. This was almost as great as the seminal first main event Fortune Dream put on. An utter war of attrition with more chops that you shake a stick at.

Final Rating: ****1/2

8.0
The final score: review Very Good
The 411
Fortune Dream shows never disappoint me. Kenta Kobashi knows what he likes and it’s the same stuff I like. There is a noted lack of acrobatics on Kobashi’s shows and they tend to focus more on the brutality of professional wrestling and the extremes that striking can be taken to. Even when running comedy matches the inclination is to throw in as many heavy hits as possible. This might get a bit repetitive if you’re not a fan of the style but even so you should watch the main event simply for the mass of chops.
legend