The Furious Flashbacks – Hustle-2

The Furious Flashbacks – Hustle-2

One babyface main event guy against six heels? What is this, WCW in early 1996?

The popularity of Hustle-1 was unmistakable as the venue in Saitama sold 23,000 tickets. However Hustle didn’t book any really big stars for the second show and paid the price. The show only drew 10,000 fans in a different venue in Yokohama. It seemed the sportz entertainment approach was not entirely popular with the Japanese fanbase. Although 10,000 fans was nothing to be upset about. That’s still a decent crowd. They just felt the lack of a drawing name, like Goldberg at Hustle-1, cost them the big crowd. They went for it big time at Hustle-3 and brought in Nash, Hall and Mick Foley. They got 12,000 fans in for that show. So the names were gone again for Hustle-4 and they started relying on Dan Bobish to be a main eventer. HUSTLE, HUSTLE, HUSTLE!

We kick off with clips of the end of Hustle-1, which is rather pointless because Goldberg isn’t back and Takada isn’t wrestling anymore. Instead we get Naoya Ogawa booked in a 6 on 1 handicap match and Hashimoto teams up with Kawada against a couple of shooters. I like the fact they play the Imperial March over Takada’s match making.

BACKSTAGE Takada is in full gimmick now with an evil referee, military garb and green smoke. I think this may have been shot by Takashi Miike. He gives a motivational speech to his Monster Army. “Are you monster?” “We are monster, we are monster, we are monster, do the hustle” – assorted shoot fighters and gaijins.

Kaz Hayashi/Leonardo Spanky v Low-Ki/Homicide

Sweet choice for an opener. Homicide and Spanky exchange armdrags at pace to start. Spanky with a snap rana and the Titanic pose. Kaz in and he wants Ki. Kaz takes it into the corner where Ki gets defensive and grabs an arm over the ropes. He looks like a wild animal in there, dangerous when cornered. Headstand kick. They have a shoulderblock contest. Kaz changes up to a dropkick. Spanky in and they try for a double team but Ki is too alert for that. Spanky with a backslide instead for 2. CLIP to Homicide suplexing Spanky for 2. Spanky gets caught in a stalling double suplex, which impresses the announcers. Especially the chick. Spanky dives to make a tag but Ki just carries him into his corner. Homicide with the rolling grounded Octopus. Kaz has seen enough and jumps in there to break the fall. CLIP to more heat on Spanky. The crowd is clapping away so this has gone on for some time. Kaz elbows Ki and gets the hot tag. Kaz spin kicks Homicide and spinebuster slams Ki. Quebrada gets 2. Homicide saves. Ki miscues on Homicide and then launches Kaz into him. Handspring back elbow from Kaz and both Ki and Homicide are outside. Spanky goes to dive but gets caught and laid out. They try to catch Kaz as well but his pescado is too powerful. Homicide with a belly to belly on Kaz when they get back inside. Mongolian chops from Ki. He goes for the Tidal Krush but gets caught. Ki switches to a submission attempt instead. Kaz gets out so Ki hits him with the handspring Enzuigiri. He goes for the Ki Krusher but Spanky shoves him over into a roll up for 2. He tries for a slingshot DDT but Ki blocks him into the Krush Rush. Kaz comes back with the Kryptonite Krunch but Homicide saves. Spanky in but Ki dodges a moonsault. Spanky hits a rana roll up instead…for 2. Sliced Bread #2 is blocked and Ki hits the springboard kick. Homicide comes in with a swinging neckbreaker. No pin and instead it’s a piledriver for 2. Homicide calls for the finish and sets for the Cop Killer but that’s countered standing A LOT. Good stuff. Homicide comes out on top and goes to the STF. Spanky gets the ropes and Ki helpfully kicks him off there. Kaz runs across to dropkick Ki off the apron. That leaves Homicide 2 on 1. Kaz catches him with a DDT and Spanky hits the top rope splash for the pin at 16.45. **1/2. That was solid enough. No heat at all though.

CW Anderson v Steve Corino

Corino is being the usual heel jerk and getting some reactions from the quiet crowd for it. CW and he work well together because they’re such good friends. Corino hits one clothesline and stops off to celebrate and the crowd appreciate that he can speak Japanese. Outside and Corino has a chair. He’s going back to his ECW roots. He gets a few laughs by trying to stand it up on the apron. It keeps falling over. CW grabs it and throws it at Corino’s head. CW picks off the arm, in typical Anderson fashion, and throws the chair at that too. CLIP to CW continuing his domination. Corino hits a DDT. He wants a tornado DDT but CW counters into the ANDERSON LEFT HAND! Oh, he’s DEAD. Corino nearly gets counted out. CW calls for the STO but then Corino hits it as he turns around. This match is up at six on the goofy scale. “Hustle, hustle, hustle” – Corino. CW superkicks him…for 2. Corino goes for the Raven drop toehold onto a chair but CW picks the chair up and Corino superkicks it into his face and the Northern Lights bomb gets 2. “Corino, ICHIBAN”. Corino starts his own “Corino” chant. CW gets him in a sleeper. Corino goes suspiciously low. CW gets put on the chair and Corino winds up a lariat but CW sees him coming and counters into the spinebuster. Corino comes back with a lariat and the Northern Lights bomb finishes the second time at 8.35. **1/4. That was fun. Nothing more.

Shinjiro Ohtani/Satoshi Kojima v Dusty Rhodes/Dusty Rhodes Jr

Not sure why it’s Dusty Jr but that’s Dustin in there. Not sure why Dusty isn’t just working Corino after the man left him a bloody mess at Hustle-1. Was that worth saving to Hustle-3? I forgot how much Dustin slimmed up in 2004. He’s looking practically anorexic in there. Dustin gets picked off by the natives and Ohtani works a Boston crab with Kojima sitting right behind him. Poor Dustin. He gets the tag to his Dad though. Ohtani gets right in his face and grinds his forearm across Dusty’s eyes. Dusty grabs a hammerlock and Ohtani freaks so he tags Kojima. I can’t believe how much respect they’re giving Dusty here. After all he has virtually no mobility and elbows aside no viable offensive weapons. Dustin back in and Ohtani catches him with a Saito suplex. Kojima is happy to be aggressive against Dustin and wails away with chops. Savage elbow gets 2. Dustin goads Kojima in and drop toeholds him into the ropes before dumping him across his own knees. He catapults him into Dusty’s elbow. That gets 2. Dusty in with the flip, flop and fly. Figure Four! Ohtani tries to make a save but Dustin hooks him up in the Figure Four too. Dustin in with the bulldog for 2. KOJI CUTTER! Ohtani now wants in rather urgently. Crowd chuckles at that. Ohtani goes up for the missile dropkick. BOOOOT SCRAAAAPES! He takes some of Dustin’s facepaint off with those. Dustin looks concussed. I figure that’s just good selling. Maybe not, as he misses the corner completely on an Irish whip. Kojima in for the lariat/German suplex combo. Cobra Clutch and Kojima does the same to Dusty as payback for the stereo Figure Fours. They spill outside for a brawl but Dusty is in no fit state to do that. Kojima runs him into the ringpost. Yeah, have a lie down out there Dust. Dustin finds himself in trouble and Kojima lariats him into an Ohtani roll up for the pin at 12.06. *1/2. Neither of the gaijin brought anything to the plate here. Kojima and Ohtani looked like they were having fun though.

Riki Choshu/Tomohiro Ishii v Zebraman/Naohiro Hoshikawa

Choshu is making his Hustle debut not realizing every match he’s in is a rib on his career. They basically put nobodies in there with him, he kicks the fuck out of them and the crowd sit there laughing at it. He doesn’t even need a tag partner here because Zebraman and Hoshikawa are nowhere near his league. In fact the only offence they get is when Ishii is in there. Hoshikawa has an interesting little tidbit of trivia attached to his career though. He was Johnny Saint’s opponent in his last match in 1996. Choshu picks his moment to walk in there and slap on the Sharpshooter. He doesn’t rush it or anything. Just leisurely at his own pace. Zebraman tries to save but Ishii throws him out. Ishii tries to take advantage of his positioning in this one by getting the lion’s share of the ring time. Hoshikawa kicks him in the head and in comes Zebraman. He kicks Ishii right in the neck with a back kick. That was savage. He gives him the Crocop kick too. Ishii fires back and hits a suplex. CROCOP KICK #2! Double teaming ensues and Hoshikawa hits a tope. Zebraman misses his patented spinning punch. That was so bad. Zebraman goes to finish with the Zebrabomb but Ishii just suplexes out and tags Choshu. Back suplex/diving lariat from team Choshu. LARIATOOO! Zebraman is such a jobber. He lies there counting lights at 5.46. ¼*.

Gladiator/Sabu/Justin Credible v Masato Tanaka/Kintaro Kanemura/Tetsuhiro Kuroda

If you followed FMW you’ll know that Gladiator is Mike Awesome. Everyone bar Kuroda appeared in ECW so naturally this is a somewhat relaxed rules match. I can hear the commentator name dropping ECW in amongst his ramblings. Awesome looks like a monster here picking off the biggest guy from the native team and just destroying him. Tanaka does the same thing to Credible, which is less impressive. Awesome gets bored watching that and sets up a table at ringside. If I was anyone on the other team, I’d be worried right about now. Sabu in with a springboard back elbow and the slingshot legdrop gets 2. Awesome continues to beat up Kanemura on the floor. Kuroda crotches Sabu and shows his personality by doing the Hustle right afterward. Kuroda should have gotten some US shots. Personality wise there’s really only Satoshi Kojima that’s better at relating to the crowd in “American” way. Awesome kills Kanemura with a powerbomb through the table off the apron. Sabu pulls out another table. Tanaka gets dumped on it and the chair is set up. TRIPLE JUMP LEGDROP THROUGH THE TABLE. That pops the crowd bigger than anything else all night. Kuroda jumps right into a Credible superkick. Not quite Shelton Benjamin-Shawn Michaels but the same basic principle. Sabu in for the triple jump legdrop. That gets 2. Sabu is upset and hurls the chair at the referee. Oop! Credible in with some bad punches and some worse crotch chopping in a lame attempt to get heat. Kuroda catches Awesome with an Enzuigiri and the natives only strong enough guy Tanaka gets in there with a piece of table, He uses that to bash everyone. Sabu is then late showing up for a DDT/Stunner combo spot. Never mind. They decide Awesome is too dangerous and Kanemura splashes him through a third table. That was another big reaction from the crowd. Kanemura with a senton to follow up but that only gets 2. Awesome is back up and in the mood to kill someone. AWESOMEBOMB for Tanaka. Kuroda has to save. Credible tries to superplex Kuroda but gets countered and dumped on the ropes. Tanaka follows up with a frogsplash for 2. This has been tornado style all match but it’s particularly broken down now. Sabu hits the triple jump moonsault for 2. He has the chair – Arabian Facebuster! Tanaka saves so Sabu chair shots him. The chair gets caught on his head in an amusing spot. Up top with Awesome v Tanaka and you know something sick is going to happen. SUPER AWESOMEBOMB! Kuroda times his save perfectly. I thought it was over. Sabu thinks he’ll pick him off and hits a HUGE triple jump plancha. That’s Incredible to ZERO reaction gets 2. HAHAHA. Justin Credible sucks. He goes for another one and fucks up the counter. They run some more bad countering and Tanaka improvises a rolling elbow for the pin at 11.12. **3/4. Trust Justin Credible to fuck the match up. Apart from the finish it was really enjoyable albeit spotty stuff. Hell, I’ll take anything after all those WCW shows!

POST MATCH the ref gets the AWESOMEBOMB too. I don’t care how cool Tanaka’s music is; Mike Awesome was the MAN out there. Kanemura gives Tanaka shit so Tanaka shoves him on his fat ass. That’s what you get for stealing Raven’s entrance music tubby! We get the Hustle divas out here after the wrestlers clear out. It’s that damn Geri Halliwell music again. They could really do with getting some better looking girls to do this, although one of the four is hot, or just knock it off. One of the divas falls down the steps. Walking and chewing gum a problem, eh?

BACKSTAGE we follow the wacky hijinks of Shinya Hashimoto and Naoya Ogawa. This week Ogawa is upset that his food wasn’t up to standard. Hashimoto explains he’s really angry because of Takada and should re-focus his energies by listening to more Elvis Presley and becoming a superhero at Hustle-4. Or something along those lines.

Dan Bobish v The Predator

As mentioned at Hustle-1 the Predator is WWE reject Sylvester Terkay. Bobish is a shoot fighter who had only won once in the past two years at this point. So he’s obviously become very interested in wrestling as its clear his shoot career doesn’t have much time left. He’s gone 7-1 in shoots since although his standard of opponents has dropped off somewhat. He’s lost all his big name fights; Randleman, Kerr and Goodridge. He’s a pretty big guy so for once Terkay doesn’t dominate. That’s probably not a good idea as Terkay looks strongest when he’s the dominant guy. Bobish lumbers around a bit and Terkay eventually hits a back suplex to wake the crowd up. Big legdrop gets 2. Terkay should have been working better opponents really. He throws a bunch of big kicks and laughs like a madman. Bobish counters into a belly to belly for 2. He remembers what he’s doing as he goes for the right leg then remembers it’s a work and gets the left instead. Half crab but Terkay gets the ropes. God, this is boring. Two big guys lumbering around each other. Bobish just isn’t good at all. He is strong though and shows that off with a slam on the big man. Then another one. Hardly Hogan-Andre now is it? Belly to belly again gets 2. Terkay comes back with his worst looking move; the spinning heel kick. Sure, it’s impressive because he’s a big guy but it still looks weak. Up he goes and the Bombs Away finishes this at a tedious 9.16. ½*. So dull.

Shinya Hashimoto/Toshiaki Kawada v Mark Coleman/Kevin Randleman

I like Randleman smashing up a Hashimoto’s wrestling figure backstage. I don’t get why Hash is teaming with Kawada though. Surely it’d make more sense for Hash & Ogawa to team up against six guys and give them a fighting chance and then have Kawada wrestle Randleman or Coleman in a singles match. Randleman throws Hash off his game by going amateur style then going after the injured shoulder with a dropkick. Hash sees a second one coming though and side steps it. Hash figures Kawada is 100% so tags him in to deal with the more dangerous Coleman. Kawada goes shoot style and shoots for a few takedowns but Coleman’s defence is too good. Coleman demonstrates his total superiority in that respect by taking Coleman over and pounding away. Hash is forced to save Kawada who is completely out of his depth stuck in the guard. He has better joy with Randleman because of the latter’s insistence on trading strikes. With Kawada? Is he mad? Does he think he’s Misawa maybe? Hash comes in and Randleman tries going toe to toe with him too and fares badly once again. Randleman has had enough and brings Coleman in. He goes for striking too and meets the same fate as Randleman in that respect. Why isn’t he going after the shoulder injury? It’s clearly bothering Hash because every time he gets going he stops to touch it and then tags out. Kawada comes in but Coleman catches him with a huge overhand punch. Looked fake, sadly. Coleman spends an age taunting Hash and not following up. Hmm, frustrating. Randleman is back in there with Kawada struggling. This time he fares better trading strikes and feels confident enough to go for a headlock. Kawada suplexes him on his neck. That’ll learn ‘im! Hash back in but Randleman has the smarts to go after his bad shoulder that Coleman doesn’t seem to be thinking about. Even with Hash painting a bulls eye on the shoulder it still takes Randleman shouting “break his arm” to get Coleman to actually go after the injured body part. Sheesh, what was he waiting for a fucking invitation? A map? Hash won’t let him get the cross armbreaker though and counters into the DDT. Now Kawada is back in and Coleman’s lack of planning and smarts cost him his advantage. He goes striking with Kawada but now Kawada is all kinds of worked up. BIG BOOOOOT! I fucking LOVE it when he hits that. Right in the corner, right in the jaw. Randleman runs in and gets one too. Coleman grabs hold of Kawada though and hits the belly to belly. Another one and now Kawada is there for the taking. Randleman feels a double team coming. Weird hearing him call all the spots. I guess he figures the crowd don’t speak English so fuck it. Coleman looks pretty blown up. Surprising that. Kawada trades strikes with him again, possibly just fucking with him because he knows Coleman is tired. Kawada breaks out that SWEET jumping Enzuigiri that AJ Styles stole and called the Pele Kick. It’s more impressive when a bigger guy does it. He also pulls no punches, which makes for a nicer looking impact. Hash back in and Coleman is so tired he can’t get anything. Looks like the pressure is on Randleman. Hash decides to take out his shoulder in an ‘eye for an eye’ spot. DDT! Smooth. He opts for tearing the arm out rather than pinning though. Kawada runs in to kick the fuck out of Coleman and stop him saving. Coleman eventually gets free and sticks a boot in to stop the cross armbreaker. Hash goes for another DDT but Coleman double teams. Randleman goes after the shoulder and Hash is selling that like death. Missile dropkick to the shoulder and Randleman mounts with striking. Coleman keeps Kawada out of it and Hash is suffering. The referee has seen enough and stops the match at 14.16. **1/2. Not really Hash or Kawada of old. It probably didn’t help that their opponents weren’t terribly well versed in wrestling. Mostly decent though.

Naoya Ogawa v Matt Ghaffari/Mark Coleman/Kevin Randleman/Dusty Rhodes Jr/Giant Silva/Dan Bobish

Ghaffari is the real story here. He was a silver medalist in wrestling at the 1996 games that Kurt Angle became a national hero at. Ghaffari didn’t have the same success as a pro due to a reluctance to work so many days on the road or bodybuild. He’s also a motivational speaker by day. Check out MattGhaffari.com for booking him to do all kinds of PR stuff. Giant Silva is the other guy not booked in anything else on this card. The intent seems to be to push those two guys as the ones who’ll go up against Ogawa in singles. Ogawa symbolically removes his gloves on his way to the ring. This isn’t wrestling or even MMA, this is a fight. Ghaffari looks a lot heavier than I expected. Originally Takada had Ogawa booked against just Ghaffari but he then appears to turn it into a 6 on 1 match. Ogawa is more interested in fighting Takada himself. Oh and if 6 on 1 wasn’t bad enough the referee is in Takada’s pocket too. Ogawa starts out by owning Randleman. STO for Coleman. STO for Dustin. Bobish is in there and he fares slightly better and hits a belly to belly. Ogawa comes back with a monkey flip and a spinal tap. He goes to punch Bobish in his bald head but the referee won’t have any punching. So he hits the STO instead. Everyone piles in to kick the shit out of him and the referee stops off to admonish someone at ringside while that’s going on. Then he has an unfortunate neck injury that prevents him from stopping the beating. Bobish with a slam for 2. Ghaffari hasn’t even got in the ring yet. The other guys complain about a slow count after Bobish splashes Ogawa for 2. The referee asks Ogawa if he quits as Silva clubs away. This is shambolic. I know it’s meant to be a WWE gag but they’d have the babyface do quite well. Ghaffari gets beckoned in by the referee and he’s such a simpleton he can’t even figure out who he’s supposed to attack. He splashes Ogawa for the pin at 4.46 and that’s the match. DUD.

The 411: The undercard is ok but they really took the Sportz Entertainment gimmick too far with that shitty main event that wouldn’t have gone over well with any crowd in the world. And surprise, surprise it goes over badly here too. They should have finished with Hash & Kawada running out to help and Ogawa hitting the STO on Ghaffari for the pin. The main event is a disaster but the rest of the card is actually quite passable. So it’s thumbs in the middle. Much like the other Hustle shows it’s not up to much. This doesn’t even have a lot of name power to it. I’d skip it.

Final Score:  5.0   [ Not So Good ]