Furious Flashbacks: Big Japan 2nd February 2015 Show

BJW

 

2^nd February 2015 (Aired 19^th February 2015 on Samurai TV)

 

Big Japan isn’t one of my favourite promotions. By and large because of the hardcore matches they put on. I realise there’s a market for that sort of thing and I generally try to watch Big Japan around that, checking out their heavyweights instead. Every now and again I need to check in on BJW though, just in case they have a new talent coming through or someone has improved suddenly. So here’s my bi-yearly dip into the BJW waters.

 

We’re in Tokyo, Japan at the Korakuen Hall. Just over 1,000 in attendance, which is down on what I’m used to seeing in the venue.

 

Kazuki Hashimoto & Toshiyuki Sakuta vs. Atsushi Maruyama & Isamu Oshita

 

Kazuki is rapidly becoming one of my favourite Big Japan guys. Maruyama, who works also as “Tigers Mask” isn’t. Oshita is a 25 year old who only debuted last year. Sakuta I’ve never heard of but it looks like he’s transitioned over from MMA. Sakuta certainly works like he’s a former amateur wrestler. He’s promising and wrestles like a much smaller Big R Shimizu. Only he throws in a quebrada to show his versatility. Oshita, despite bland ring gear, has promise too. Especially when he catches Sakuta with a flying armbar. The great thing about Japan is the constant stream of new, hungry young talent that keeps coming through. Maruyama doesn’t drag his team down but it is Oshita who’s at the heart of all the best moments. Including the finish where he thrashes about trying to avoid Hashimoto’s anklelock before falling to it. Replays focus mostly on Sakuta & Oshita as their contest was at the heart of the match. My purpose for watching Big Japan is rewarded one match in then as I’ve seen two exciting young talents.

 

Final Rating: **1/2

 

Speed of Sounds & Shinobu vs. The Brahmen Brothers & Takayuki Ueki

 

Ueki is still running his hairy chested, military Eugene gimmick. The Brahmen are still soaking the ringside fans. Shinobu has had a change of gimmick though. He’s now barely able to walk without falling over and seems to have suffered a head injury. I wonder if he’s been Lost in Cleveland? Ueki gets a bit carried away saluting and armdrags everyone…including the ref. The Brahmen work in their usual silly spots. Suitcase to the groin. Bowling ball to the suitcase. Everyone has to stand around while this is being set up. At least they have excuses for botching things, as the match is never meant to be taken seriously. This is especially evident when Ueki pulls out a gun. He does manage to get the entire of the Korakuen to put their hands up, which is either pretty cool or scary, depending on your experiences with guns. He demands everyone stay in place while he hits a high crossbody but then everyone moves when he’s airborne. His next piece of business is going to chop Shinobu’s exposed ass only for Shinobu to clinch and trap his hand. Yeah, that actually happened. Shinobu finishes with the Sex Bomber, which is like the Axe Bomber but sexier. This was ridiculous but entertaining.

 

Final Rating: **1/4

 

Daisuke Sekimoto & Hideyoshi Kamitani vs. Ryuichi Kawakami & Kota Sekifuda

 

Sekifuda is very young, not even 20 years old. Kamitani is also a youngster but himself in his early 20s. Therefore Sekimoto and Kawakami are the veterans. Kamitani has bad Morishima hair and is a few hundred buffets away from his waistline too. Keep working on the gimmick, kid. Kawakami is like a young version of Tenzan. Sekifuda on the other hand is a bland junior who Sekimoto flat-out refuses to sell for. Sekifuda has to beat some respect into him and even then Seki just destroys him. It’s an interesting storyline as the young punk is eager to impress and has to improvise ways around Sekimoto’s sheer power. The match is manly and contains a lot of chopping and general aggressiveness. I’m a big Sekimoto fan anyway but here everyone tries that hard. Sekifuda looks promising, considering his age, and it takes both Sekimoto and Kamitani knocking the fuck out of him to get the youngster into trouble. I’m particularly pleased with Sekimoto trying to drag the bottom rope away from him as Kamitani applies a crab. The sheer anger on Sekimoto’s face makes his intentions palpable. He can’t stand the idea of this punk kid getting anything out of him. The crab might not finish but Sekifuda gets no offence after surviving it and Kamitani eventually puts him down with a back suplex. This was a solid contest with Sekifuda getting himself over superbly well. Sekimoto played his role to perfection here, as opposed to his match with LEONA last year.

 

Final Rating: ***

 

Bunkhouse Match:

Heisei Gokudo Combi (Kankuro Hoshino & Masato Inaba) vs. Bozz Rengo (Saburo Inematsu & Ryuichi Sekine)

 

This is the show’s first dip into violence. Bozz Rengo are from K-Dojo and come across as less ruthless with the hardcore crap. This is especially evident when Heisei Gokudo Combi are using the barbwire bat that starts the match. Poor Sekine gets carved up and bleeds like a stuck pig. BJW tend to introduce a match like this early in the show to establish the violence and get the crowd thirsty for more. Because they use the bat from the opening bell there’s never any tension attached to the match though and the crowd seem a bit distant. The bloodied Sekine kicks Hoshino in the head for the win, which Hoshino doesn’t bother to bump. Is he so stunned at getting kicked in the head that he didn’t fall over? I don’t know. Bozz Rengo way over-celebrate the victory. The first hardcore match is the first real stinker on the card? What a surprise.

 

Final Rating: *

 

Fluorescent Light Tubes Prison Death Match:

Yankee Two Kenju (Isami Kodaka & Yuko Miyamoto) vs. Abdullah Kobayashi & Jaki Numazawa

 

Yankee Two Kenju are pretty good and have been working in normal non-garbage matches of late. Japanese Abby and Numazawa…are not good. Not that talent has anything to do with this kind of match. The ring ropes have light tubes hanging off them hence the ‘prison’ in the title. These assholes basically stand around hitting each other with tubes until Abby gets one caught in his forehead and Kodaka stops hitting him to laugh at the visual. Numazawa does the same selling here that Takayama did in the exploding ring match with Onita. Stopping and gently falling to his knees with his hands in the air. PLATOOOOOOON SELL! The match continues along these lines; bleeding and stupidity. The longer it goes, the more I’m reminded of why I tend to avoid this aspect of BJW. It’s garbage.

 

The minimal wrestling they do attempt doesn’t work because both Abby and Jaki suck. As per usual Kodaka tries to be creative with his light tube spots, instead of just bashing someone in the head with one. The various angles of impact leaves Kobayashi a bloody mess. Kodaka’s bumps are equally sickening as he feels the need to face-plant into broken glass, leaving him with a crimson mask. It’s a contest between those two guys to see who can leave this match in the worst physical condition. They’re both seriously fucked up. The match goes an astonishing 16 minutes but improves significantly when they run out of light tubes to break and Jaki even wins with a roll up. A fucking roll up! They couldn’t have finished with the moonsault onto the light tubes or a powerbomb or something? The match was, by and large, crap but Yankee Two Kenju brought moments of brilliance to an otherwise uncomfortable scenario.

 

Final Rating: *3/4

 

Barbwire Board Deathmatch:

Ryuji Ito & Masaya Takahashi vs. B Faultless Junkies (Masashi Takeda & Takumi Tsukamoto)

 

This is the final deathmatch of the evening. I’ve been a bit worn down by the previous two. Three of these assholes are wearing jorts. The only one who isn’t, Tsukamoto, is coincidentally my favourite wrestler of the four. Why would you wear jorts? What’s wrong with you? The two barbwire boards are quickly used with Tsukamoto being whipped into one in the opening sequence. Again, this is a demonstration of the lack of tension in some of these hardcore matches. They don’t build to spots, just chuck them straight in there from the opening bell. At least this allows them to spend the rest of the match wrestling, even if the hardcore elements continue throughout. Mainly because Ito can’t get through a single sequence without using his Kendo stick or a substitute for it when it breaks. Much like the creatively void previous match the bout devolves into one plunder shot after another. It’s particularly disturbing to see Tsukamoto get a piece of barbwire stuck in his back flesh. Urgh. The whole environment is so sleazy I’m pretty sure I got hepatitis just watching this match. At least some wrestling comes into play although it’s largely the guys hitting wrestling moves onto the plunder they were using to hit each other with. Ito takes it with a frogsplash with a pile of chairs and a bit of barbwire. This was slightly more creative than the last match and, barbwire stuck in Tsukamoto’s back aside, easier to watch.

 

Final Rating: **

 

BJW Strong World Heavyweight Championship:

Shuji Ishikawa (c) vs. Yuji Okabayashi

 

Okabayashi has been making up for lost time since coming back from injury and has been sensational over the few months that led into this title shot. He has his work cut out with Shuji, who sometimes struggles with longer matches on account of his conditioning. He is a big dude. Okabayashi is a weird guy because he’s fat, unashamedly so, and yet he works like a motherfucker. The only comparison I can even make is with Samoa Joe. I suspect Joe vs. Okabayashi would fucking rule. They would beat the shit out of each other. Okabayashi certainly aims to chop the title clean off Shuji’s body. It’s a manly display and yet he’s not content to just strike and throws in a senton off the apron. Shuji is no slouch either and takes a massive bump through the first four rows of chairs before hitting a double stomp off a barrier.

 

The crux of the middle of the match is Okabayashi hurting his arm on the ring post. Shuji proceeds to destroy the limb and Yuji sells the hell out of it. Limb work is very hit and miss in Japan and more often than not it just exists to fill time. Here Okabayashi full on blades his arm to sell the assault. It doesn’t stop him using the damn arm on a lariat. He’s not even left-handed! Such is modern wrestling. Selling is, by and

large, a lost art. Okabayashi does generally do a solid job of it though. Not only selling the arm but selling the beating Shuji dishes out. Ishikawa is such a dominating champion given both his size and the variety of his offence. The two big bulls really step it up down the stretch by barrelling into each other full tilt. It’s like watching two sides of beef get into a fight. Okabayashi continues to win me over by using the CLAW to block a headbutt before levelling Ishikawa with a massive lariat. It’s all just so wonderful.

 

Just when you think they’ve exhausted their bag of tricks Ishikawa manages to rana out of a powerbomb. That’s just ridiculous. In a good way. Okabayashi is stunned and doesn’t recover with Shuji enforcing his will upon the tired challenger. First with a Dragon Suplex, then a running knee and the Fire Thunder Driver (aka Greetings from Asbury Park). Still Okabayashi survives. Then he kicks out of a powerbomb so Shuji headbutts him three times. Still Okabayashi won’t stay down. Now shit starts getting epic as Okabayashi MOUNTS A COMEBACK. He was finished, dead, done. He batters Shuji with another lariat and the GOLEM SPLASH…gets 2. Okabayashi looks drained by that kick-out. As if he put everything into those last few moves. Shuji busts him open hardway with a headbutt and slaps the every-loving shit out of the poor bald bastard. Okabayashi drops to his knees and gets kneed in the back of the head before another knee to the face puts him down for the three. Cracking match. It showed how great Big Japan’s ‘Strong’ division is and how brutal matches can be when you get two heavy hitters hitting each other hard.

 

Final Rating: ****1/4

 

Post Match: Daisuke Sekimoto charges out here to angrily challenge Shuji to a title match. Sold!

 

 

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6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

The show was pretty good until the hardcore crap in the middle but after the garbage wrestling was done the main event rocked the house. Big Japan’s “Strong Division” is one of the most fun, heavy hitting divisions in all of wrestling. I will actively try to watch more of it this year. Ishikawa vs. Okabayashi is seriously great. You need to get that.