Puroresu Love: Zero-One – Truth Century Creation 2003

ZERO-ONE: TRUTH CENTURY CREATION 2003
March 2nd 2003

This is a reader’s choice review, meaning that it was obviously, chosen by the readers. I put a poll up on the forums of 411, with two tapes from NOAH, two from All Japan, two from New Japan, and this show, which is a two tape set. It was pretty close, but this one just managed to beat out the 3/1/03 NOAH show, and save me from having to sit through Misawa vs Kobashi. Now since I’ve never reviewed any other Zero-One shows, logic would dictate that I start with the first one. But, I don’t have it. I’ve got the first two shows, as well as the Zero-One 1st Anniversary PPV on the way though. So they may be coming in the near future. I don’t have a whole lot of Zero-One, only this and one other PPV, so this is going to be from a pretty fresh perspective. This PPV is the 2nd Anniversary show for the promotion. Zero-One and All Japan had started a working relationship around this time, and the result was that one week before this show, Shinya Hashimoto won the Triple Crown.

IKUTO HIDAKA vs PENTAGON
This is almost criminally short, but its only designation is to be a fast paced spotfest to keep the fans hot. There is nothing wrong with that, but there isn’t any reason why Zero-One couldn’t put a match like this on before the PPV broadcast stared, and not waste the talent of these two. Its fun for what it is though, with both of them doing some nice looking spots. Hidaka gets in some legwork to foreshadow the ending, even though Pentagon couldn’t be bothered with selling it very well. Hidaka’s springboard dropkick to the knee is used for the set up, which Pentagon gives respect to, and then the rolling legbar seals the deal. It was a fun seven minutes, but didn’t get to go anyplace. *

FUTUKI TAKASHI/SHINSUKE Z. TAMAKAZA vs JUN KASAI/DON ARAKAWA
So we have the vanilla young boys team vs the vanilla looking old guy, and the monkey. To no surprise, this goes the comedy route. I don’t really think that a wrestler called “Crazy Monkey” complete with a tail, leash, and furry gloves, will be in any serious matches. Kasai chases his tail, and tries to be all funny with the rookies, who are scared of him. Arakawa tries to be all grumpy, like a low rent Masa Fuchi, only he trips over himself. The highlight is Kasai charging at Takashi in the corner, and slipping on the banana peel he left there. I guess that’ll teach him about eating bananas in the ring. Arakawa tries to charge at Tamakaza on the ropes and crotches himself, and he can’t even sell that correctly. Kasai scores the win with a roundhouse kick, and I think it says a lot about Takashi and Tamakaza, that they couldn’t defeat a monkey. 1/4 *

LOW KI/PAUL LONDON vs TATSUHITO TAKAIWA/VANSACK ACID
I wonder whatever happened to that Paul London guy, he looked like a pretty damn good wrestler. This is to build up to Ki’s International Jr Title defense, against Takaiwa. The title’s full name is a lot longer, so we’ll just call it the International Jr. Title and move on. This is London’s match though, he may not be the big star, and he’s only here to save Ki from laying down, but he winds up outdoing everyone. Ki may be the champion, but Paul London gets the high holy crap beat out of him by Takaiwa, to show Ki what’s in his future, and London sells it like a king. The whole match isn’t just London getting destroyed though. They work in the train wreck on the floor spot, really early, and its London who does the most impressive dive, with the shooting star off the apron aimed at a standing Acid, but unlike his future Smackdown partner, he doesn’t kill himself in the process.

London and Acid, work in some really nice exchanges, without needing to go balls to the wall with the insane spots, or over contrived stiffness. London works in his basic stuff like the face plant neck breaker, and the back flipping drop kick, although the sweeping DDT is absent. Ki, on the other hand is all about being the stiff kick machine, and wrapping himself around Acid for the Dragon clutch. The real gem in this match is the portion where London bumps for Takaiwa. London gets mauled by the former IWGP and GHC Jr. Champion. London sells a Takaiwa lariat, like a Stan Hansen one. London even bumps for Low Ki, off a mistimed jumping kick. London only gets one nearfall, when Ki sets up Takaiwa for the SSP. There was no way in hell Takaiwa was going to job, going into his title match, but it had the crowd going. Ki was able to save London from the first attempt at the multiple powerbombs from Takaiwa, but Acid gets him on the floor, and Paul London can’t be saved. Takaiwa’s lariat would probably have sufficed, but he goes for the powerbombs and the Death Valley Bomb, to make a statement. ***1/4. This was really a one man show, as London really went all out to show off his skills.

HAYASHI/HIJIKATA/KA SHIN vs SASAKI/OGASAWARA/HOSHIKAWA
If I never enjoy anything else Kendo Ka Shin does in his career, and I haven’t enjoyed a whole lot that didn’t involve Ohtani, Kanemoto, or Takaiwa, slapping him around like their personal bitch. I’ll at least enjoy him being enough of an Ohtani-esque dick, to interrupt Ogasawara’s little pre match ritual of karate kicking boards in half. This match is worked like a BattlArts match, with heavy emphasis on the stiff strikes, and some fancy submissions. The selling isn’t perfect or anything, as moments after taking a roundhouse to the head, someone is on their feet and dishing it back. Hijikata makes Ogasawara pay for wearing his Karate Gi in the match, by using it to almost choke him out. Ogasawara and Ka Shin are the only ones who really don’t go balls to the wall with the striking though. Not surprising from ka Shin, but Ogasawara sticks to regular karate punches. I’m sure they’re effective, but they don’t add the extra zing that you get when you see Hijikata or Hoshikawa lay in a roundhouse. Kendo Ka Shin plays his usual role of trouble maker, refusing to tag in, and breaking up pins by his teammates. After his antics during Ogasawara’s ritual, their exchange is pretty anticipated, but nothing happens other than Ka Shin getting beaten down. The booking is pretty much what’s to be expected, with Hashimoto just taking the Triple Crown from Muta, All Japan needs to pick up a win somewhere. So after breaking up Hayashi’s pin attempt, which worked because Hayashi’s Final Cut looked really off. He gives Sasaki a quick hope at scoring the pin over the All Japan Junior Champion, before finishing him off with the usual. Fun for the whole family. **3/4.

TENGU KAISER vs AKIO KOBAYASHI
Kobayashi is another shoot style worker, while Kaiser looks like a Hayabusa clone, complete with the mannerisms and flipping spots. Kaiser blows a springboard something early on, slipping off the middle rope. Kobayashi lays in with the kicks, but much like Ogasawara in the previous six man, it looks like he’s either unable or unwilling to go all the way with the full stiffness, either to protect Kaiser, or because he thinks whatever his fighting discipline is will be disgraced, not that he’s doing much with it, by working in a pro wrestling company to begin with. When Kaiser isn’t doing various flips, he’s not doing much, other than getting kicked, and leg sweeped. Which makes the end look really awkward. Kaiser can survive strikes from someone with an obvious martial arts background, but then can do next to nothing and finish him off with a moonsault? *1/2

TAKASHI SUGIURA/DAISUKE IKEDA vs MASATO TANAKA/KOHEI SATO
The first 3/4 of this isn’t so much a wrestling match, as it is a contest of who can do the best job at punking out the opponent. Tanaka and Sato take turns kicking Ikeda in the corner, Ikeda and Sugiura double pound Sato, and when he gets up, they do it again, and so fourth. It’s the ultimate in disrespect, screw this whole wear them down and outsmart them. Just treat them like nothing and make the crowd laugh. It starts picking up when it goes from punking out, to high impact spotfest, with both of the teams throwing out bombs. Ikeda gets a good near falls with his muscle buster on Tanaka, only for Sato to make the save. Sugiura almost kills Tanaka, screwing up and dropping him almost completely on his head with the Olympic Slam. They hurry up and finish it, with Tanaka scoring the rolling elbow and getting a flash three count. No way in hell that was the planned finish though. **

That does it for the first tape. Not looking too bad, the junior six man, and junior tag matches are the highlights so far. The opener was pretty fun as well. So far we’re 50/50. If the second tape delivers, we’ve got ourselves a nice thumb up for our first outing on a Zero-One show.

ADAMO/CORINO/GHAFFARI vs FUJI/SAKATA/FUJIWARA
On one side you have the shoot style workers, and the other has Corino, who’s funny because he’s a stooge. Adamo, who’s funny because he’s a goof, and Ghaffari, who’s funny because he weighs about seven thousand pounds. I guess the crooked referee is Jake, to Ghaffari’s fat man. The gaijin run around and do funny stuff, while the natives are just like “yeah, lets wrestle here”. The highlight being Corino trying to stiff Fuji in the thigh and having no effect, and he just yells out “SHIT!”, and also when Corino screams “LARIATOOOO!” and throws a lariat that would make Rusher Kimura give him a weird look. The only advantage the gaijin get, is a result of Shamoo Ghaffari throwing around his girth. Sakata does what he can, but when the dump truck falls on him, its over. The fast count wasn’t needed, because Sakata wasn’t going anywhere. 1/2*
JIMMY SNUKA Jr./THE PREDATOR vs YOSHIHIRO TAKAYAMA/HIROTAKA YOKI
Now from what I gathered from the interview, Predator and Snuka don’t like Yoki, on account of him hurting them both, so Yoki brought in Takayama to counter The Predator. That being said, it would have made infinite more sense if Takayama was portrayed as such, but he’s not. The first exchange between Takayama and Predator, has Takayama taking a good pounding, and the Predator even hitting him with a TTD. The second exchange is more of the same. After that, they’re only regulated to taking various cheap shots at one another from behind, and on the apron. Takayama handles Snuka somewhat well, being able to hit the snap mare and running knee, but mostly it’s Yoki in the ring, using his punches and various chokes. The Predator, angry at scar or bump or something on his head from Yoki, and beats him down, trying to set up Snuka for the superfly leap, only the knees go up.

This is when Takayama gets to play the bad ass, and he beats Snuka around and scores a two off the knee before dropping the Everest German Suplex for the pin, where was Predator during all this? Being held back by Yoki. So in a nutshell, Yoki brought in Takayama to help him with the Predator, who proceeded to control him during both of their exchanges. Then when Takayama won the match for the team, Yoki was the one holding back Predator. Looks like Yoki picked a good guy to team with. After the match, its more of the same, with Predator ambushing Takayama with the chain. It was pretty fun, but the logic and roleplaying left me scratching my head. **3/4.

TOM HOWARD vs NAOYA OGAWA
There are two types of slow matches, slow as in very methodical, and slow as in slow and boring. This match falls into the latter category. To keep it short, Howard stooges and cheats, while his seconds like Corino and The Predator interfere and cause trouble, and the crooked ref from six man tag is there as well. Howard uses some pretty meh looking offense on Ogawa, and then Ogawa hits a hip throw, and starts dishing out the STO. He hits about five of them and the towel comes in. Total waste of time. I’d say it’s a waste of talent, but there really wasn’t any in there.

SHINYA HASHIMOTO/SHINJIRO OHTANI vs KEIJI MUTOH/ARASHI
Shinya Hashimoto: Triple Crown Champion. To utter those five words, seem like wishful thinking, or fantasy booking. The top draw of New Japan in 1990’s, holding the top title in All Japan. All because of Antonio Inoki and his brainless booking which killed Hashimoto’s drawing power. Arashi may seem like an odd choice for a partner for Mutoh to bring with him, but it makes sense. Mutoh was essentially the strongest booked wrestler in All Japan in 2002. He did very few jobs, and he got most of them back. The only exceptions being to Kawada, who went down with a bad knee injury, and to Kronik, who were out of All Japan almost as fast as they were in All Japan. It took a large plump wrestler, who mostly strikes to take him down. So Mutoh got his own lumpy wrestler, who mostly strikes. It was really his only option. Kojima couldn’t even overcome Tenryu, and Kawada is out with the knee injury, Mutoh’s usual partner, Taiyo Kea, was also out with a bad knee injury. What choice did Mutoh have?

Hashimoto doesn’t seem to be very motivated tonight, even though it’s the main event of his big PPV show. He got what he wanted, which was the Triple Crown, so he’s satisfied. He throws his kicks, and chops, and does his DDT, but something is missing. Hashimoto’s laziness is too bad for Arashi too. Mutoh obviously sees something in the big guy, and in his first chance at a high profile slot, Hashimoto does squat to make him look good. Arashi, takes Hashimoto’s chops, and does a selling, no sell of them. He’s trying not to show it, but he’s clearly in a lot of pain from them. This leaves Ohtani to work for two, and when Mutoh and Arashi go after his knee, he sells it like only he can. Mutoh and Arashi also target the knee of Hashimoto and he sells it, but not with the same gusto that Ohtani sold the knee. Mutoh keeps the Shining Wizard from getting too out of control, clocking in at three. One really amusing spot, saw Hashimoto totally blow it off, causing Mutoh to grab the knee, for a second dragon screw. Even in the ending, it doesn’t look like Hashimoto is giving it his all. He locks Arashi in the choke, but doesn’t use any facials or body language to really get across that he’s using a lot of torque with it. Only five feet away from him, with Mutoh in the Cobra hold, he’s trashing around trying to free Arashi, and Ohtani keeps having to grape vine his leg, and roll over, to stop Mutoh from breaking Hashimoto’s grip. Ohtani and Mutoh really made this enjoyable, and Arashi held his end pretty well, too bad Hashimoto had to dog it. ***1/4.

Conclusion: A bit of a mix here, the only things that are really offensive are the semi final, and that horrible six man. Everything else ranges from fun, like the opener, to pretty damn good, like the main event and the junior tag. I’ll recommend Zero-One: Truth Century Creation 2003.