Puro Fury: Zero1 Fire Festival Finals 2016

Zero1 Fire Festival Finals 2016

 

July 31 2016. Aired August 13 2016 on Samurai TV.

 

We’re in Tokyo at Korakuen Hall. The Fire Festival used to be a major highlight of the wrestling calendar but it’s become so overshadowed by the G1 Climax that it’s not even funny. Like New Japan there is intent in this years tournament to create new stars. However this year they’ve switched the gimmick up and changed from a NJPW-esque two blocks to one block. There is a distinct lack of star power with Zero1 regulars Shinjiro Otani and Masato Tanaka being the focal points of the Festival. A few outsiders are in there like Ryota Hama, the blubbery Wrestle-1/BJW worker. The field is so thin that Hayato Fujita is in there and he’s definitely a cruiserweight*. Buffa is in this fucking tournament, or he would be if he wasn’t injured. Buffa basically missed the whole tournament and only worked his final match, which is just weird. Why even work the final match?

 

*Hayato competed last year but scored zero points getting blanked by Tanaka and then injured. The knee injury put him on the shelf for around nine months.

 

A note on the point scoring in this tournament. A clean win is five points. An unclean win is worth four points (count out, DQ or referee stoppage). A draw is worth three points. That’s probably a better, albeit more complex scoring system, than the traditional two points for a win, one for a draw. It allows more logical, meaningful point scoring. You would be less eager to score a count out if it was less points than a pin, for example. Will this revolutionise point scoring in tournaments? Probably not because fans generally like scoring to be kept simplistic. Here is a guide to how many points the grapplers who remain have at this point:

 

Hama 27

Obata 25

Otani 25

Hayato 23

Raideen 23

Tanaka 22

Okamoto 20

KAMIKAZE 20

 

Kohei Sato is also in the tournament but he’s wrestled all his matches and finished on 25 points so he’s out already due to a loss to Otani. I’m sure there’s some miraculous combination of results that can cause him to qualify but it’s not happening. Top two will face off in the final.

 

Masato Tanaka vs. Ryota Hama

If Hama wins he will feature in the final. A loss will eliminate him. Hama wrestling twice in one night is highly unlikely. Tanaka doesn’t really re-think his standard smashmouth strategy to combat Hama and he hammers away on Ryota’s humongous tits. I don’t think that’s doing anything. The barrage of elbows is more effective. Hama might actually be getting fatter. The blubber is leaking over the side of his gear and it’s disgusting. Tanaka puts him squarely in his big, fat place with a pair of Sliding D’s. Tanaka wins, Hama doesn’t make the finals. Even with all the permutations he’s out. From top to nothing in the blink of an eye.

Final Rating: **1/4

 

Shogun Okamoto vs. Fujita Hayato

Fujita can make the final if results go his way. He needs to win first. They’ve basically had to elevate Fujita because they don’t have enough heavies and he’s one of the best juniors out there, for realism and stiffness. Okamoto deliberately treats him like shit because he’s smaller. Shogun isn’t good for a heavyweight but he feels he can beat up juniors all night long. No matter how hard Fujita brings the kicks Okamoto just takes it and sumos his way through the smaller opponent. Hayato eventually switches gears and tries to get a submission but Shogun powers through that too, even when he’s in a choke with a bodyscissors. So Fujita goes back to trying for a knock out and he takes that to ridiculous levels by hitting headbutts and roundhouses and anything he can think of. Okamoto drops him on his head with one Backdrop Hold and that’s the match. It’s a brilliant storyline. If Okamoto was a better wrestler this could easily have cracked four stars.

Final Rating: ***1/2

 

James Raideen vs. Yusaku Obata

Whoever wins here is guaranteed a spot in the final. A draw would be sufficient for Obata also. Raideen is a huge muscular motherfucker so Obata has an immediate uphill battle. It gets worse when Raideen pummels him so Obata takes out the big man’s leg. Whenever Raideen attempts to bully Obata, he goes right back after the leg. Which is smart and totally unlike Japanese wrestlers who normally honourably strike duel each other. Obata figures out, pretty quickly, if he does that he’ll lose. Watching Obata assault Raideen it occurs to me that James has to shave his head. He’s going bald at an alarming rate. He has that massive muscular manly physique and he’s suffering male patent baldness. He needs to change his look as Father Time is no selling this look. Any time Raideen gets time and space he batters Obata in vicious fashion. It looks like we’re going to see a repeat of the previous match with Obata trying different things and getting nowhere. Obata is smarter than Hayato though because he figures out all he needs is a draw. So he puts the match in the cooler and just grinds away at holds. It’s a twofold approach; 1. He’s playing for a draw. 2. As Raideen gets worn down he’s more susceptible to abuse. As the time limit is about to expire Raideen fires up and hits a chokeslam but the 30 minutes runs out and it’s a draw. This was technically solid but you don’t need a host of 30 minute broadways from Raideen.

Final Rating: ***1/4

 

Shinjiro Otani vs. KAMIKAZE

Otani is bossing the tournament and a win puts him top of the Block and into the final. Mainly because Zero1 have virtually nobody else at this point. Which is part of the reasoning for Obata to get a big push. The only alternative is Otani losing and Tanaka taking the final spot, which makes sense because he only wrestled five minutes earlier. KAMIKAZE is old and terrible. Otani is just old. You can tell he’s old because he brings an invisible samurai sword with him**. He’s losing his mind. KAMIKAZE knows the match is going to be rough so he goes right into the crowd brawl before Shinjiro has even taken off his sparkly ring jacket. They end up trading in the middle of the ring because KAMIKAZE can’t do anything more complicated and Otani needs to conserve energy for the final. KAMIKAZE ends up cheating with a low blow and throat jabs because he’s really got nothing else. Otani is fairly entertaining just hitting his spots, which is helpful because the match would be mediocre otherwise. They have a great finish where both guys try roll ups and Otani ends up fluking a pin. Otani looks fucked, which is probably not the best of news seeing as he’s now main eventing against Obata who went 30 minutes with Raideen on his back.

Final Rating: **3/4

 

**The Fire Festival winner is presented with a samurai sword, which Otani is pretending he already has.

 

Kohei Sato & Toshiki Iwaki vs. Buffa & Yoshikazu Yokoyama

Yokoyama went and changed his haircut to the same haircut Minamino has. It makes him look weird, like he suddenly discovered how great the 1950s were. Buffa was in the Fire Festival. He has zero points. To matters even more confusing Iwaki has starting growing his hair out and I don’t recognise him either. Iwaki gets picked off for the pin. There was hardly any Kohei Sato in this match so it wasn’t very good.

Final Rating: *1/2

 

Ikuto Hidaka & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Kengo & Takuya Sugawara

Takaiwa is my favourite guy in this match but that’s not going on anything he’s done recently. It’s a strange semi-main event. Is Kengo the guy they’re looking at pushing here? He’s young and has a bit of talent. Sugawara is 32 and a 14 year pro so he should be entering his prime phase as a wrestler. Kengo looks ok, having established spots for himself but he’s borderline dangerous. Takaiwa eventually gets sick of all this shit and batters everyone. With a weakened opponent Hidaka just knocks Kengo out with a roundhouse. Sugawara tries to get into it with the winners but Takaiwa is all “we’re not doing that” and walks Hidaka away. I enjoyed this but it mostly filler to give Otani a breather.

Final Rating: ***

 

Fire Festival Final

Shinjiro Otani vs. Yusaku Obata

Otani is a four-time winner of the Fire Festival. As he’s booking this it’s entirely likely he could just win again. Especially as Obata is so tired after the thirty minute draw with Raideen. Otani looks surly and borderline pissed off that he has to wrestle again. Obata comes in tired and ends up hurt inside a minute. Obata doesn’t seem inclined to sell the knee so Otani smashes his face in instead. The crowd are really into that, the face washes especially. Obata takes a suitably enormous beating that allows him to fire up and make his comebacks rock. He does the Ishii ‘walking into chops’ business to show how tough he is. Toughness is Otani’s main character point. Obata actually drops Otani on his head and when he kicks out Otani looks somewhere between pissed off and freaked out that he nearly died. He fucks this poor kid up so badly after that. When you work dangerously with a legend you have to expect a beating. Hell, it’s the best part of the match because Otani is so angry it’s like someone lit a fire under his ass. It looks like a fucking shoot, I love it. After a beating for a few minutes, including a vicious lariat, he decides that’s enough punishment and let’s Obata back in. It makes Obata look tougher for surviving this abuse. So Obata, the cheeky little twat, drops Otani on his head again! My god! Does he have a death wish? Otani kills Obata’s legs, hitting a lariat to the back of the knee, going back to the start of the match. When Obata doesn’t quit Otani decides it’s time for them to just stand up and punch each other in the face. Goddamn it’s fantastic and Otani starts firing up and no selling and refusing to be pinned. Obata ends up dropping the double knees and winning the Fire Festival a shade under 30 minutes, meaning he wrestled a fucking HOUR on this show, and he was doing strike duels at the end of that and looks fresh as a fucking daisy. Good lord, how can you not love professional wrestling? The effort here. Fantastic match. A worthy conclusion to an occasionally great tournament.

Final Rating: ****1/2

 

 

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

It’s pretty typical Zero1 here. The main event is great and Fujita’s match is worth checking out and that’s it. From a booking perspective it’s an interesting show because they’ve decided to make Obata a genuine star and based on his performances it’s justified. Will it turn him into a legitimate top tier guy? Well, it has with everyone else.