WRESTLE-1 - W-1 Pro-Wrestling Love In Yokohama 2019 9/1/2019

WRESTLE-1 - W-1 Pro-Wrestling Love In Yokohama 2019 9/1/2019

Alejandro and Masayuki Kono vs MAZADA and SUSHI vs Manabu Soya and Shuji Kondo
Sushi has a cute little theme song and dance. Kondo looks super cool here with a pink, yellow and black color combo, with his usual matching yellow stripe hair. Kondo puts an armlock on MAZADA and then Kono does it to him. Sushi and Ale both try to get soya to work with them. Soya headlocks Ale, and then Sushi headlocks Soya. Ale then gets out and puts a headlock on Sushi. Soya hits a nice neckbreaker on Ale. Then he throws Ale into the ropes and he comes back with a nice springboard dropkick. Sushi tries to splash Soya who is too far away and he purposely undershoots it. Kondo bounces Ale with his big spear, then him and Soya spike piledrive Ale. Ale gets the doomsday device and gets flipped with it. They try to sandwich Ale with lariats but end up hitting each other. Sushi accidentally superkicks Mazada and Ale picks up with the win with a roll-up. This was all comedy and I'm not a fan of comedic wrestling(unless it's Sumire Natsu).

Wrestle-1 Cruiserweight Title - Andy Wu vs El Hijo Del Pantera

Pantera runs at him with dropkicks to start. Wu does a nice back armdrag but Pantera gets out. He then does a semi-springboard off the bottom rope and dropkicks him in the back. Pantera tries to handspring into bottom rope but Wu dropkicks it and he goes down. Wu then jumps off the inner rope and plancha's onto him. Pantera gets DDT'd on the outside. Pantera seems like he got hurt off of the handspring spot. Pantera does a nice tope con giro through the 2nd and 3rd turnbuckles on the post. Then he walks the top rope and dropkicks Wu. Pantera sold his neck throughout this, so Wu smartly decided to put him in headscissors and cranked his neck. Wu then tornado ddt'd him.

Wu got on the apron and Pantera sunset bombed him to the floor. Then he did a swanton bomb to him while he was laying on the floor and sold the neck after. Pantera then brought him in and swanton'd him again. He went for a 3rd but Wu put his knees up. They traded pinfall attempts and Wu rolled him around from the sunset flip position but neither could win it at 15 minutes. Wu hit Pantera will a top rope spanish fly but only got 2. Wu no sold triple superkicks, then he got hit with a standing cradle ddt for 2. Pantera double stomped him, then did a double underhook drop on him. Pantera then hit the styles clash for the win at 18:40. Long match that was longer than it needed to be. It also was a lot slower than you would want. I didn't like the last few minutes where they didn't sell and I do think Pantera got legit hurt. I give credit to Pantera and Wu working this smart for a lot of the match even if the last few minutes were dumb.

Kaz Hayashi, Keiji Muto & Pegaso Iluminar vs. Shuji Kondo, TARU & Zodiac

The Voodoo Murderers are BACK bay-bay! Taru has some flowers for Muto and busts them right over his head. Kaz does a cool punch combo on Kondo. Pegasso hits a great running dropkick onto Kondo, getting up real high. Pegaso tries some forearms but Kondo gets him hard with one. Not to worry as he does a rolling thunder after. Mutoh hits his flashing elbow and tries to put on the STF, but Taru stops it. Kaz gets tossed into the first couple of rows and Taru hits Muto with a whole row of chairs. Taru puts Kaz's leg on the post and slams a chair on it. One of the younger wrestlers comes in and slaps Kondo, then is throw out. Zodiac ties up Kaz and does his old Zodiac pose.

Muto comes in with a ring bell and is told to get out, then Zodiac hits a nice lariat on Kaz that Kaz flips for. Mutoh dragon screws VM and puts the figure four on Zodiac. Then they do moves on Muto in the corner. Zodiac gets thrown into the corner but jumps to the ropes and comes back with a crossbody. VM gets in the corner and EVERYONE, even people on the outside run into them. Mutoh then does the shining wizard on Zodiac, but Kondo stops the pin. Taru throws powder and nails Zodiac on accident, then Pegaso and Kaz dive on everyone. Mutoh then does the shining wizard and beats Zodiac. This went 10:56 and felt longer. It had its moments and some rough spots, but overall it was a fun nostalgia trip with the finish being fun.

No DQ - Koji Doi vs Kuma Arashi

Doi comes out in the world's largest bathrobe and his left arm is all wrapped up. His tights really suck too. He throws it right on Kuma and goes at him. Doi grabs a chair and gives Kuma one as well. They swing them at each other and Koji ends up wearing one, busting him open hardway. He got hit with the backrest, not the chair and that's what caused it. Kuma ends up sitting on a guy in the front row and the ladies love it. They get back in and Doi throws a table at Kuma. Kuma tries to rush him through it, but Doi throws him into it and it doesn't break. Kuma then samoan drops him through the table and the announcer says "back-oh-droppu through the table" and I love it. Kuma then hits him with remnants of the table and chairs his arm in the cast. He traps Doi's cast in the chair then hits it with a chair. Kuma then stands on the arm.

Doi puts Kuma in the rings of saturn, then pulls on his neck with a chair during it. Doi bites on Kuma's headwound and Kuma surprise crossbodies him for 2. Doi gets a couple of suplexes on Kuma and lariats him with the good arm. Kuma's not too affected though and gets back up and senton's him twice. Kuma slams him on a bunch of chairs and then senton's him on it from the top twice. Kuma chairs him in the head and Doi won't go down. He gets another and still pops up and they are no selling chair shots. They trade some forearms and Kuma goes down with a lariat, then gets brainbustered. Doi tries a powerbomb from the electric chair position on Kuma, but he can't get Kuma around. He finally does and powerbombs him through a table to win. This went 17:35 and really felt like it went on forever. The crowd wasn't that into it. I liked Kuma working the arm, but I didn't think he worked it enough and the no selling brought the match down for me.

Wrestle-1 Title - T-Hawk vs Daiki Inaba

Basic stuff to start. Hawk does a real nice leapfrog as they criss cross. Inaba goes for a shoulder tackle and gets pushed aside, then he tries to leapfrog but gets pulled down. They head to the stage to fight and Hawk piledrivers him on it. Inaba tries some forearms on T, but gets nowhere and then gets nailed with a nice right punch. Hawk slaps him with his foot and lands some big forearms and punches on him. Hawk does something like a reverse crippler crossface on Inaba. Inaba does a nice shoulder tackle that makes Hawk roll back and then cannonballs him in the corner. Inaba goes for a flying headbutt but gets the mat only. T tries to counter a leapfrog again but Inaba wises up to it. Inaba gets put up top and hangs by his knee. Then T chops him and goes down to the floor. Hawk brings him back in while standing on the 2nd rope with a suplex and they trade strikes, which Inaba wins. They run through a bunch of stuff in a 30 second stretch that ends with Hawk getting tiger suplexed. Inaba misses a cannonball in a corner, then gets reverse slammed. Hawk then does a seated razor's edge for 2 at the 20 minute mark.

T does some strikes and Inaba headbutts him in the chest. Hawk comes back though with the Night Ride, which is a reverse sitout razor's edge. Hawk gets release tiger suplexed, then Inaba puts him in another, but lifts him up first before the drop. Inaba headbutts him and puts him into the octopus stretch armbar combo which taps Hawk at 24:15. This was generally good, but it did have selling issues and they did rush through a lot. For the kind of wrestler Inaba is, selling is really key and he didn't get to do a ton of it here. I thought they could have worked the ending more and have Hawk try to fight out of the octopus stretch/armbar more, but it wasn't to be. I liked this more than I expected.

Overall thoughts: I skipped 3 matches, but it was a long show with a lot of matches going longer than needed. Wrestle-1's strength though is giving you a lot of different stuff on the card and they did that, and probably would have done more if Reika Saiki wasn't injured. I would say I liked it and I'm sure most people would too, but be warned, you're gonna be here a while watching it.