Vamanos Amigos 78 or Swan Song

Vamanos Amigos says goodbye.

All matches occur between May 30th and June 6th, 2004

The episode starts with ten minutes of discussion over who will be entered into the tournament to crown a new UDG Champion now that SUWA has vacated the title due to injury.

CIMA {CM} & Don Fujii {CM} vs. Dragon Kid & Second Doi
Fujii chops Doi to the mat to start. Doi hits a dropkick. CIMA hits a dropkick. Kid hits a dropkick. He hits a head scissor takedown. CIMA hits a crossbody and puts on a headlock. He and Fujii double-team Doi for 2. They sit on Doi for 2. Doi hits a dropkick. Fujii swats away Kid’s leg lariat. Kid hits CIMA with a hurricanrana. He and Doi hit stereo suicide dives. They hit a double missile dropkick on CIMA. Fujii hits Kid with a powerslam for 2. Kid comes back with the Christo. CIMA saves with a kneedrop. Doi avoids the Venus and hits a missile dropkick. Kid hits a leg lariat and Doi puts on the pendulum. Fujii makes the save. CIMA hits the Tokarev. Kid knocks CIMA off the top rope and he lands on top of his head! Doi catches Fujii with the V9 Clutch for the win at 5:40 shown of 10:39. CIMA’s fall was pretty scary. The rest of the match was average Toryumon action.
Rating: **½

Dragon Kid ©, Kenichiro Arai © & Second Doi © vs. “brother” YASSHI {AI}, Masaaki Mochizuki {AI} & Takuya Sugawara {AI} [UWA Trios Championship Match]
The story going into this match is that Mochizuki and Shuji Kondo are having problems with each other. Kid and company seem to have Kondo’s number, so Mochizuki is taking his spot here. Everyone brawls to start. Sugawara gouges Doi’s eyes. YASSHI misses a headbutt on Kid. Kid hits a head scissor takedown. Mochizuki hits Arai with a back kick. He kicks Arai’s head, which is dumb. Doi and Arai hit a double back elbow. Kid comes in for a triple dropkick. Arai puts on a leglock but Mochizuki goes to the eyes to escape. Doi hits a dropkick for 2. Mochizuki hits Kid with a chest kick. YASSHI hits an elbowdrop. Mochizuki hits a back kick and a chest kick for 2. He decimates Doi with kicks. YASSHI puts on a headlock. Doi hits a backdrop to escape. He tries to dropkick Mochizuki and Sugawara but they stand through it. Kid tags in and hits Mochizuki with a dropkick. He hits Sugawara with the Déjà Vu. Doi and Arai hit stereo suicide dives. Kid hits a head scissor takedown on the floor. Arai headbutts Mochizuki’s foot. Mochizuki hits the Sankakugeri. Arai hits a diving headbutt. Doi puts YASSHI in the pendulum. Sugawara makes the save. He hits Kid with a DDT. He hits a sit-out powerbomb for 2. Kid hits Mochizuki with a super hurricanrana. His crew gangs up on Sugawara in the corner. Kid hits a hurricanrana for 2. YASSHI hits Doi with the Bad Boy. Arai hits a back suplex. Sugawara hits a side slam. He hits Kid with a fall away slam. YASSHI hits the Flying Big Head. Sugawara hits Doi with an Ace Crusher for 2. Mochizuki kicks the crap out of Doi. He hits the Sankakugeri for 2. He hits the Twister for 2. He hits the SicK Kick. Kondo hits an errant blue box attack on Mochizuki. Kid hits a Torbellino (I think he was going for the Messiah and flubbed it) and Doi hits the Bakatare Sliding Kick for the win at 13:26. The last few minutes were a lot of fun, even if the early part of the match was nothing more than fodder for my ADD.
Rating: ***

Mochizuki and Kondo argue backstage after the match.

Shuji Kondo {AI} vs. Masaaki Mochizuki {AI}
Winner of this match gets to be Aagan Iisou’s representative in the UDG Championship tournament. A pre-match video shows all the friendly fire that has gone off between the two recently. The rest of Aagan Iisou watches on from the stands. Mochizuki and Kondo lock up to start. Mochizuki slaps Kondo across the face. He foolishly goes for a shoulder tackle before smartening up and hitting kicks. He takes Kondo to the floor where the kicks continue. He rams Kondo’s arm against the post. Back in the ring Kondo puts on a choke hold. Mochizuki counters to a crossface chicken wing. Kondo gets to the ropes. Mochizuki puts on an armbar but Kondo gets to the ropes. Kondo gets fired up as he absorbs Mochizuki’s kicks. He hits a back elbow. He starts working the leg. Mochizuki gets to the ropes. Kondo hangs him in the Tree of Woe and works the leg with a chain. He chokes Mochizuki with the chain. Mochizuki stomps on his foot to regain control. He wraps the chain around his fist and slugs Kondo. He hits an ax kick to the arm. He puts on a cross armbreaker. Kondo powers out. He hits a lariat. This is some cerebral heel vs. heel stuff here. Mochizuki whips Kondo into the post. Kondo attacks Mochizuki’s leg with the blue box. He sets the blue box up in the corner and baits Mochizuki into ramming his leg into it. He hits a King Kong Lariat to the leg. He puts on the Gorilla Clutch. Mochizuki rolls forward, sending Kondo into the blue box. He hits the Sankakugeri and the SicK Kick for 2. Kondo hits the Lanzarse. He hits his own version of the Twister for 2. He rams Mochizuki into the turnbuckle. Mochizuki gets a victory roll for the win at 10:20 shown of 14:10. The finish really came out of nowhere, but the rest of the match was amazing given the heel vs. heel dynamic. Kondo really shined here. He and Mochizuki shake hands and make nice after the match.
Rating: ***¾

Masaaki Mochizuki {AI} vs. Naoki Tanisaki
Tanisaki hits a dropkick before the bell. Mochizuki regains control by stopping the surfer dude rope walk. He hits a back kick. He hits a bodyslam. He hits a vertical suplex for 2. He puts on a half crab. Tanisaki gets to the ropes. Mochizuki hits a back heel kick. Tanisaki dropkicks the knee. He hits the DH. Mochizuki hits the Sankakugeri. He hits the SicK Kick. He hits the Twister for the win at 3:09. Squash city.
Rating: *

After the match the rest of Aagan Iisou joins Mochizuki in the ring. Mochizuki gets on the microphone, but before he can really say anything Kondo hits him with the Lanzarse and the King Kong Lariat. YASSHI lays Mochizuki out with the red box and Owashi hits the Superfly Splash. They kick Mochizuki out of the stable and appoint his Aagan Iisou tournament spot to Kondo.

Dragon Kid ©, Kenichiro Arai © & Second Doi © vs. Milano Collection AT {IC}, YOSSINO {IC} & Anthony W. Mori {IC} [UWA Trios Championship Match]
Doi and AT start. AT hits a leg kick and zeroes in. He puts on the Paradise Lock but Arai makes the save. YOSSINO hits Arai with a supercharged dropkick. Kid hits Mori with an armdrag. AT catches him in the Judas. He hits an elbowdrop for 2. He and YOSSINO make a wish on Doi. YOSSINO dropkicks the knee. Mori puts on a leglock. AT dropkicks the knee. He puts on a leglock. Kid makes the save. AT ties Kid in the ropes and hits a dropkick. He tugs away at Kid’s arm. Kid gets to the ropes. YOSSINO hits a double stomp to the arm. He hits a legdrop and AT hits a senton for 2. AT dropkicks Doi’s knee again. Doi goes for a dropkick but there’s nothing behind it. AT rams his knee against the apron. He drags him to the floor by his leg and attacks. YOSSINO hits Kid with a snap suplex for 2. Kid hits a back heel kick on AT. AT puts on Italian Stretch #8. Arai makes the save with a diving headbutt. Kid hits a head scissor takedown. Doi dropkicks YOSSINO but then collapses. Kid hits YOSSINO with a head scissor takedown on the floor. Mori hits Arai with a DDT for 2. He goes for a dropkick but Arai redirects it to his hard head. He throws Mori across the ring. Mori comes back with a plancha. Kid hits YOSSINO with the Diamond Dust. YOSSINO hits the Sling Blade. Arai blocks the Torbellino and hits a sit-out powerbomb. He misses a diving headbutt. Mori hangs Arai’s arm over the top rope. YOSSINO hits the Torbellino. Kid saves Arai from the Sol Naciente and puts YOSSINO in the Christo. AT makes the save. Kid hits the Messiah. AT hits an enziguiri. YOSSINO hits the shotgun dropkick. AT hits the elevated Ace Crusher for 2. He hits the Emporio Armani Shoe for 2. He hits an armbreaker and puts on the AT Lock. Doi makes the save. AT hits Doi with a dragon screw and puts on a heel hook. Doi gets to the ropes. Mori goes for a Figure 4 but Doi counters to a small package for 2. Arai hits a diving headbutt for 2. Mori and Arai trade roll ups. Doi hits the Bakatare Sliding Kick. Arai hits the Hanshin Tiger Suplex for 2 when Aagan Iisou attacks both teams en masse. The whole match gets thrown out at 15:55 shown of 17:08. It took a few minutes to get going, but once it did it was one of the craziest spot-fests you’ll ever see. Milano Collection AT was at the top of his game here, really taking my breath away.
Rating: ****

The Aagan Iisou attack goes on for a while. Kondo rips off Dragon Kid’s mask. Magnum TOKYO comes out to take Kid to the back. Mochizuki runs out but the numbers overwhelm him. Susumu Yokosuka runs out and manages to chase Aagan Iisou to the floor. The crowd is going insane for all of this. Everyone takes a turn on the microphone until a handicap match between Mochizuki and Kondo & Owashi is made.

The show begins to wind down with clips of SUWA’s UDG Championship win over Magnum TOKYO. TOKYO took the loss as a chance to do some soul searching. He met with Genichiro Tenryu and was humbled. He also bummed around temples with Jinsei Shinzaki.

The show ends with a rundown of the upcoming PPV:
-Mochizuki vs. Kondo & Owashi
-CIMA & Don Fujii vs. Milano Collection AT & YOSSINO

They also promote the big Kobe PPV that will air only two weeks later. It would be the final Toryumon Japan show ever. And with that Vamanos Amigos was no more. Only the two PPVs stood between Ultimo Dragon’s boys and the Dragon Gate. If you ask me, the biggest loss has always been the Millencolin songs that graced Toryumon video packages.