WRESTLE-1 4/3/2019

WRESTLE-1 4/3/2019

Reika Saiki vs Yumiko Hotta

The finish

Reika asks for a test of strength early which Hotta wins. Reika tries to shoulderblock her down, but Hotta goes nowhere. Hotta sits all the way back on a boston crab. Reika tries to forearm Hotta, but she no sells it and then kicks down Reika. Reika finally dropkicks Hotta down and slaps her, before suplexing her when she climbs to the top. Reika hits a running clothesline to Hotta and then a shining wizard. Reika hits another shining wizard then a backslide for 2. She runs to the ropes and Hotta just face palms her then gets a 2 off a tiger driver. Hotta hits her pyramind driver and wins it in a quick one.

Seigo Tachibana vs El Lindaman

The finish

They do some weird taunting to start. Linda grabs Seigo coming off the ropes by his hair. Linda catches Seigo going for a leapfrog with a waterwheel drop. Seigo throws Linda by his hair and taunts him. Linda then does a big german on him while he does it. Linda knocks him off the East sign at Korakuen. He then does the same to a ring attendant and throws him into chairs. Linda hits a nice judo throw. The ring attendant Linda hit nails him in revenge when he gets to the ropes. Seigo then hits some bad corner punches. They trade forearms and Linda hits an exploder. Seigo pops right up, because who cares about selling and hits a Doi 555. Linda lowblows Seigo twice and the ring attendant again nails Linda. Seigo then hits an MK Ultra for a 2. I was sure it would be a 3. Seigo wins with a version of the angle slam. Could have been worse.

Jiro's Sendoff - Manabu Soya & Jiro Ikemen Kuroshio vs. Kaz Hayashi & Pegaso Illuminar

John Woo

Ikemen Special

Ikemen Clutch

This is Jiro's send-off here. He said he wants to become a star in the US. He looks like a star, but WWE has a bad track record with Japanese guys, ROH/TNA are not the places to become a star and who knows what will happen with AEW, but they also got a lot of pushes to give out. Jiro is crying before he even gets out and he's got a big fanbase there. Jiro goes out more to the crowd since they love him. They chant "IKEMEN". Jiro then goes back out again and drives the ref nuts by not getting this started. Jiro starts doing yoga on the top turnbuckle(see pic). He then makes the ref and Soya do it. They try to make Kaz do it, but he can't but Pegaso does. Kazu does it finally from the middle rope. The crowd is nuts for Jiro here.

Jiro asks Pegaso for a shake and he does it, then Jiro turns it into an armlock. Jiro and Peg do some lucha. Kaz ducks a lariat and takes a cheapshot at Jiro. Jiro misses a top rope dropkick on Kaz and Kaz stomps him. Jiro gets up, gets some offense on Pegaso and gets Soya back in. Soya hits a neckbreaker/ddt on both opponents. Peg then hits a John Woo on Soya. Soya hits a big brainbuster on Peg. Jiro gets in and hits some slaps with his coat in his hands. Jiro hits the Ikemen Special(see gif) and Peg hits an inside to out rotating dive. Soya also jokingly does one. Jiro hits an asai to the outside then the ikemen clutch. Kaz hits a dangerous backdrop where he flips Jiro. Jiro counters a Kaz spring into the ropes elbow with a dropkick. Jiro hits the MK Ultra for 2. Peg goes for a combo against Soya and gets lariated and lands on his head. Jiro then wins it with a moonsault on Kaz but I think Kaz had his arm up. This wasn't a traditional match and was just kind of a tribute to Jiro with some fun thrown in, and it was what it needed to be.



Masayuki Kondo and Alejandro vs T-Hawk and Takehiro Yamamura

Yama tries to shoulderblock Kono and loses badly. He then tries to leapfrog and Kono catches him in a bear hug. Ale tries some chops on Hawk and gets nowhere. Ale ducks(!) a chop, which was cool. Ale gets double teamed and they try it on Kono as well, knocking him down after a shot to the knee. Hawk hits a cool submission on Ale(see gif). Ale tries for the tag but is stopped. Ale does a cool counter out of a corner charge, but is then knocked back down. Ale gets stretched with a bow and arrow. Ale ducks a lariat and does a springboard dropkick on Hawk and finally gets in Kono. Kono backdrops Yama and then dragon screws him. Yama tries to set up a pinfall attempt but goes limp and is hurt. The match is stopped. I had read online that he got injured real bad and this happened here. He got carted out on a stretcher and I really think the backdrop he took did he in. He hit hard and reacted hard. Very sad.


Shuji Kondo vs Kuma Arashi

They both square off to charge at each other and Kuma wins. He then does a butt drop on Kondo for a 2. Kondo quickly throws him into a barrier on the outside. Kondo has injured ribs and Kuma runs the steps into them. Kuma taunts Kondo and they trade chops. Kuma puts Kondo down with a knee to his injured ribs. Kondo puts him over the top corner and then jumps on him near his ribs(see gif). Kuma stands on the injured ribs. Kondo then gets back up and pounds on Kuma. They go outside and Kuma clears the fans out. Kuma then senton's Kondo while he lays on the floor, further hitting Kondo's ribs. He then sentons and slams a ring attendant. Kuma brings him back in and senton's his ribs again. He then torture racks him. Kondo overhead throws him and then hits a big spear, followed by a superplex. They get up and Kondo backdrops him, and Kuma returns it with neither really selling it. Kondo goes for the king kong lariat, but Kuma beats him to it. They go even on a lariat battle until Kuma gets the edge. Kuma powerbombs Kondo for 2 and splashes him twice, followed by a senton. They fight over a powerbomb and Kondo puts him down with a lariat. They trade forearms and Kondo hits a powerbomb for 2. Kondo hits a sliding lariat for 2. Kuma hits a big lariat for 2 and then takes 2 lariat for Kondo to win it at 20:13. I thought this was a good match, but Kondo could have sold more. Kuma was really good here and arguably the smarter worker. A really good big man battle with some solid storytelling by Kuma.

Overall thoughts: This show had a variety of things going on and was pretty good overall.