Pro Wrestling World Festival 2003

Who is the real top dog in Toryumon Japan?

June 29, 2003 – Kobe Japan

Milano Collection AT {IC}, “brother” YASSINI {IC} & Pescatoré Yagi {IC} vs. SUWA {CM}, TARU {CM} & Don Fujii {CM}
Fujii and AT start. They trade cops in an exchange that predictably goes Fujii’s way. AT goes for the Paradise Lock but Fujii escapes and hits a shoulder tackle. Fujii goes for a plancha but Yagi shakes the ropes. Yagi hits TARU with a chinbreaker. TARU comes back with a stiff kick. YASSINI hits SUWA with a dropkick. SUWA hits a shoulder tackle. Fujii slugs Yagi to the mat. He and TARU hit a double shoulder tackle. SUWA hits a slingshot elbow. Fujii throws YASSINI across the ring. YASSINI comes back with a dropkick. AT hits a dropkick for 2. Yagi chokes Fujii with some wrist tape. He and YASSINI hit a double headbutt for 2. AT hits a senton and a standing moonsault for 2. Fujii clotheslines AT’s back to block a handspring elbow. He hits a dropkick on the other two opponents. SUWA hits a leaping lariat and a backbreaker. YASSINI hits a leg lariat. TARU hits an ax kick. He hits the Kakato Otoshi. Fujii hits a plancha. TARU follows suit. SUWA goes for a suicide dive but AT cuts him off. AT puts on an octopus stretch. YASSINI and Yagi join in the submission fun. Yagi hits TARU with a fisherman suplex for 2. TARU hits the T-Crush for 2. YASSINI hits the Bad Boy for 2. Fujii hits a lariat for 2. YASSINI hits a low blow. He hits the Whisper in the Wind. Yagi hits a diving headbutt. YASSINI misses the Flying Big Head. SUWA hits a flying lariat. He hits the John Woo. Fujii hits the Nice German for 2. AT hits an enziguiri and puts SUWA in the Suenyo. TARU makes the save with a legdrop. Fujii hits a chokeslam for 2. Yagi hits Fujii with a baguette. AT hits an enziguiri and the Emporio Armani Shoe for 2. He puts on the AT Lock for the win at 14:17. This took a while to get going but once it did it set the crowd on fire. I never understood why AT was used so sparingly in these older six-man tags when he was so obviously better than everyone else out of T2P. Maybe they didn’t want to burn him out. Ever the sore losers SUWA and TARU attack the Italian Connection after the match.
Rating: ***

Takamichi Iwasa & Anthony W. Mori {RB} vs. Raimu Mishima {SM} & Second Doi {SM}
Mishima and Mori trade holds to start. Mori goes after the leg. He puts on a bow and arrow but Mishima rolls over for 1. Doi hits Iwasa with a dropkick. Iwasa comes back with an elbowdrop. He hits a bodyslam for 2. Doi hits Mori with a missile dropkick. He and Mishima hit a double back elbow for 2. Mishima hits a bodyslam for 2. He hits a vertical suplex for 2. He puts on a crossface. Mori gets to the ropes. He hits a hurricanrana and puts on a triangle choke. Iwasa ties Doi in an abdominal stretch. He forces Doi to attack Mishima’s leg. Iwasa hits Mishima with an elbow. He hits a cutthroat DDT for 2. Mishima puts on an octopus stretch. Mori makes the save. He hits Doi with an enziguiri and a northern lights suplex for 2. Doi dodges a dropkick and hits the Bakatare Sliding Kick for 2. He hits the Doi 555 for 2. Mishima hits a back suplex. Doi puts on the Chicago crab. Iwasa makes the save. He hits Mishima with a DDT. Mori goes after the arm. Iwasa hits a dragon screw and puts on a wacky submission. Doi makes the save. He hits a dropkick and a baseball slide. Mishima hits a leg lariat. Mori gets a roll up for 2. Mishima gets a roll up for 2. He hits the high knee twice, but Mori counters a third attempt to a flapjack. Mori dropkicks the knee. He puts on the Escargot for the win at 12:04. Another very solid match. All four guys showed a lot here; on the mat, trading strikes and even flying a little. They look completely integrated into Toryumon Japan six months after the big absorption.
Rating: ***

Condotti Shuji {IC} vs. JUN {CM} vs. Touru Owashi
Shuji was fresh off winning the British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship, but the belt is not on the line here. YASSINI tries to give Shuji some advice but Owashi chases him away. JUN and Shuji try to take Owashi down with a shoulder tackle. Owashi hits a big boot on JUN for 2. JUN hits Shuji with a spinebuster and Owashi hits an elbowdrop and a legdrop. JUN asks Owashi for a handshake, but ends up attacking him. Owashi hits a big knife edge chop. JUN sweeps the leg and kicks the back. Shuji tries to get back in the ring but Owashi whips JUN into him on the apron. Owashi hits a vertical suplex on JUN for 2. Shuji runs in and hits JUN with the King Kong Lariat for 2. Shuji uses Owashi to block the referee’s line of sight while he uses Yagi and YASSINI as weapons against JUN. JUN fights back, hitting an elbow. He hits Owashi with a miracle back suplex. He hits Shuji with the uranage. Shuji clotheslines the leg and puts on the Stretch Muffler. Owashi hits a big boot to break that up. Shuji sneaks in the Lanzarse on JUN for 2. Owashi hits Shuji with the running chokeslam for 2. Owashi shoves the referee to the floor. He brings a table into the ring. Shuji hits him with the Lanzarse into the table in the corner. JUN hits Shuji with the Onifuusha for 2. Shuji clotheslines JUN to the floor. Owashi pulls Shuji to the floor and beats the crap out of him. Everyone takes too much time on the floor and it’s a triple count-out at 11:25. I liked the way Shuji tries to work around Owashi to get to JUN, rather than fight the big man. Aside from that this was a rather standard one-man-out-two-men-in triple threat match, and the finish was crappy.
Rating: **¾

After the match Shuji and Owashi continue to beat on JUN. Shuji seemingly lobbies for Owashi to get some Italian Connection membership attention.

The Great Sasuke {MP} vs. Stalker Ichikawa
They circle the ring for a while to start. A long while. Ichikawa puts on a headlock. Sasuke hits armdrags. He gets a lateral press for 2. Ichikawa tries to walk the ropes but Sasuke won’t have any of it. Ichikawa tries to bribe Sasuke into helping him walk the ropes but Sasuke says no. Ichikawa bribes the referee into helping him. He goes for a head scissors takedown but Sasuke easily blocks it. Sasuke hits a vertical suplex for 2 when the bribed referee counts slow. He gets a sunset flip for 2 under the same conditions. Ichikawa hits the Kancho. He goes after the mask. He screws up the Space Flying Tiger Drop and Sasuke runs in and gets the pin at 5:09. The bribery was cute, but the rest was typical Stalker time-wasting.
Rating: ½*

At intermission we get a look back at a few singles matches between CIMA and Magnum TOKYO.

Katsumasa Kuroki vs. Nobuhiko Oshima [May 11, 1997]
This would be their debut under their real names in Mexico, and was actually the first Toryumon match of any kind, ever. Don Fujii and SUWA also debuted on this night. We’re joined in progressing with Oshima hitting a dropkick. He kicks Kuroki in the corner. Kuroki comes back with a dropkick. He hits a swinging DDT for 2. He gets a victory roll for 2. Oshima gets a roll up for 2. CIMA hits a few chest kicks. He misses one and TOKYO gets la magistral for the win at 2:27 shown of 8:16. Not bad for their first match.

Shiima Nobunaga {CM} © vs. Magnum TOKYO [IWRG Intercontinental Welterweight Championship Match – February 5, 1999]
Name #2 for CIMA here. This was during Toryumon Japan’s first tour. We’re joined in progress with TARU crotching TOKYO up top. Nobunaga hits the Iconoclasm for 2. He hits a facebuster. He hits the X-Factor for 2. He hits two Venuses and an Iconoclasm off the first rope. He hits the Mad Splash for the win at 2:24 shown of 17:52. Nice to see the Mad Splash actually connected at one point in CIMA’s career.

CIMA {CM} vs. Magnum TOKYO [Premium Live match vol 5 – 12/18/1999]
Finally, their current names. We’re joined in progress with TOKYO hitting the Egoist Driver for 2. CIMA gets a backslide for 2. He hits a facebuster for 2. He hits the Venus and Goriconoclasm. He goes for the Mad Splash but TOKYO blocks it with his knees. TOKYO gets la magistral for 2. He hits a lariat for 2. CIMA puts on a cross face but the time limit expires at 2:33 shown of 15:00. Not much different than the previous match, but the two are tied at 1-1-1.

CIMA {CM} vs. Magnum TOKYO [July 9, 2001]
We’re joined in progress with both guys on their knees. CIMA hits the Perfect Driver. TOKYO hits a lariat. CIMA hits a superkick. TOKYO hits a back heel kick. They both go for a dropkick. CIMA hits five Venuses and the Goriconoclasm. He hits the Mad Splash for 2. He hits another Perfect Driver and another Mad Splash for the win at 2:08 shown of 25:06. So CIMA is up on TOKYO 2-1-1.

YOSSINO © {IC} vs. K-ness {DF} [NWA Welterweight Championship Match]
K-ness still has Venezia. They fight it out on the mat to start. K-ness hits an armdrag. Shuji trips K-ness, with which YOSSINO (and the crowd) has a problem. Shuji and YASSINI try again to give YOSSINO an advantage but he shoos them away, getting the crowd’s support. YASSINI interferes again, but this time Venezia takes him out with a hurricanrana and a suicide dive. K-ness works YOSSINO’s arm. He hits a flying kneedrop to the arm. He hits a vertical suplex for 2. He puts on an armbar. YOSSINO gets to the ropes. He puts on the Coumori. A botched armdrag is ignored and YOSSINO hits the Sling Blade for 2. He puts on the From Jungle. K-ness escapes and kicks the arm. He hits a brainbuster for 2. He hits the Darkness Driver for 2. The Italian Connection interferes en masse, attacking K-ness in the corner. Shuji and YASSINI go for the Big Boy but AT puts a stop to it and YOSSINO kicks them off the apron. AT drags the rest of the Italian Connection to the back. K-ness puts YOSSINO in the Judah. YOSSINO comes back with the Torbellino. He puts on the Sol Naciente but K-ness gets to the ropes. YOSSINO gets a sunset flip for 2. He gets a crucifix pin for 2. He gets another for 2. K-ness hits the Shouryuukyaku. He hits the Darkness Buster but can’t cover because his arm is all messed up. Eventually he gets 2. YOSSINO kicks the crap out of the arm. K-ness hits the Ashi Yokosuka and kicks YOSSINO’s arm. He hits a super armbreaker but is too exhausted to capitalize. YOSSINO hits a swinging DDT. He puts on the Byukuya for the win at 14:44. The finish was great and the majority of the match ruled it. The interference worked within the storyline and set up a very big move, but it simply took up too much of the match. They could have cut the interference in half. After the match K-ness shows YOSSINO respect and gives him back Venezia.
Rating: ***½

Genki Horiguchi © {DF}, Ryo Saito © {DF} & Susumu Yokosuka © {DF} vs. Masaaki Mochizuki {SM}, Kenichiro Arai {SM} & Dragon Kid {SM} [UWA Six Person Tag Team Championship Match]
Yokosuka is still wearing an M2K shirt, which confuses the hell out of me. Saito and Arai start. They trade holds on the mat. Horiguchi hits Arai with an elbow. Kid hits Yokosuka with a head scissors takedown. Mochizuki hits Saito with a back kick and a chest kick. He throws Horiguchi across the ring by his hair. Kid hits a dropkick for 2. He puts on an Indian deathlock, but pulls the hair rather than work the neck. Horiguchi gets the ropes after the crowd gets behind him. He hits a back elbow. Everyone brawls through the crowd. Back in the ring Do Fixer triple-teams Kid. Horiguchi attacks Arai’s injured hand. Saito bites the hand. Yokosuka stands on the hand. Saito hits a double stomp on the hand. Yokosuka hits a kneedrop onto a chair on the hand for 2. Arai starts to fight back but runs into Yokosuka’s lariat. That gets 2. Yokosuka puts on a cross armbreaker. Arai gets to the ropes. Horiguchi and Saito go for a moonsault on Arai and a splash on Kid, respectively, but both attacks hit knees. Mochizuki cleans house with kicks. Kid hits the Déjà Vu. Arai hits a suicide dive. Kid hits the Bermuda Triangle. Saito dropkicks Mochizuki’s leg. Yokosuka hits it with the blue box. Horiguchi hits the topé con hilo. Saito and Yokosuka hit Kid with a double vertical suplex for 2. Saito puts on the Dancing Yahoo. Kid gets to the ropes. He hits a springboard dropkick. He puts on the Christo. Yokosuka makes the save. Do Fixer gangs up on Kid in the corner. Yokosuka hits an exploder and Saito hits a splash for 2. Yokosuka hits the Last Ride for 2. He goes for a superbomb version but Kid counters to a hurricanrana. He hits Saito with a dropkick. Mochizuki beats Yokosuka in a lariat exchange for 2. He hits a roundhouse kick. Kid hits the Ultra Hurricanrana for 2 when Horiguchi makes the save with a missile dropkick. Horiguchi hits Arai with the Beach Break. Arai barely gets to his feet before the ten count. Mochizuki hits Horiguchi with the Sankakugeri for 2. Horiguchi gets the backslide for 2. Mochizuki hits the Sick Kick. Saito hits an overhead suplex. Kid hits a DDT. Yokosuka hits a backbreaker. He hits Arai with the Jumbo no Kachi. Saito hits a German suplex for 2. President Okamura kicks the blue box into Saito’s gut and powders Horiguchi. Horiguchi hits Arai with a missile dropkick. Arai headbutts the blue box into Yokosuka and Kid hits a hurricanrana on the floor. Mochizuki blue box attacks Horiguchi and Arai hits the tiger suplex for the win and the titles at 21:20. Just your everyday, normal, balls to the wall, can’t-believe-how-fast-they-move six man tag from Ultimo Dragon’s boys. Seriously, the match flew by in what felt like no time, and Do Fixer getting their comeuppance felt great, regardless of the fact that I watched this match outside of its proper context.
Rating: ****¼

CIMA © {CM} vs. Magnum TOKYO {DF} [Ultimo Dragon Gym Championship Match]
The crowd falls silent as the match begins. CIMA and TOKYO fight on the mat. They trade headlock takedowns. TOKYO hits a shoulder tackle. They trade armdrags and go for dropkicks. TOKYO hits a low blow. He bites CIMA’s face and crotches him on the middle rope. He hits a bodyslam and a standing corkscrew back flip legdrop. He hits a dropkick for 2. He puts on a seated abdominal stretch. CIMA dropkicks his knee. He slams the knee to the mat, dropping an elbow on it at the same time. He puts on his modified cloverleaf but TOKYO gets to the ropes. CIMA stays on the leg. He hits a double knee kick in the corner. He sets TOKYO up top and knocks him to the floor with the Venus. CIMA follows him out with a tope, taking out most of Do Fixer in the process. Back in the ring CIMA hits a facebuster for 2. TOKYO comes back with the Pelé kick. CIMA blocks the Gyrating Frankensteiner but not a dropkick to the face. TOKYO hits a clothesline and a bulldog. They fight over a suplex until TOKKO puts on a dragon sleeper. TOKYO hits a facebuster and the Zetsuen Kick. CIMA rolls to the floor so TOKYO follows him out with a springboard moonsault press. He drags CIMA up the ramp but gets hit with the Perfect Driver. Both men run back into the ring to beat the count at 19. CIMA gets a sunset flip for 2. TOKYO gets a victory roll for 2. He hits a lariat and the Erect Smasher for 2. He hits a bulldog and climbs the ropes. CIMA cuts him off with the Venus. He hits the Iconoclasm. He climbs the ropes but TOKYO hits the Venus and the Iconoclasm. He hits an enziguiri. He hits the Egoist Driver for 2. CIMA gets a roll up for 2. He hits an enziguiri and the Egoist Driver for 2. He hits the Perfect Driver for 2. He puts on the Turkey but TOKYO gets to the ropes. CIMA hits a back suplex. He climbs the ropes but TOKYO cuts him off and hits a superplex for 2. He hits the Egoist Driver for 2. CIMA returns the favor with the Egoist Driver. He hits the Schwein for 2. He sets TOKYO up top and hits the Venus three times. He hits the Iconoclasm but the Mad Splash hits knees. TOKYO hits a superkick and the Schwein for 2. He hits an implant DDT. He climbs the ropes and hits the AV Star Press for the win and the title at 27:25. This turned into an all finishers all the time match. Matches of that nature are fun to watch when they’re happening live but in hindsight they lack depth. They played up the finish to the CIMA/Horiguchi match, but I don’t think anyone thought that TOKYO wasn’t a superior challenge than Horiguchi was going into this.
Rating: ***½

After the match TOKYO shows CIMA respect and challenges Genichiro Tenryu to a match for the title in July.