World Japan 7/20/2003 - MAGMA 03

World Japan 7/20/2003 - MAGMA 03

This is from World Japan. New Japan stared pushing MMA fighters and was going dowhill and pretty much everyone abandoned ship. This one particularly came about after Choshu (the booker of NJ) was fired and was fighting with Fujinami backstage. The promotion didn't last long and it pretty much forgotten, but I like to cover various promotions and things I haven't seen.

 

WJ Strongest Tournament Quarter Final Match - Steve Williams vs. Shiro Koshinaka

WJ Strongest Tournament Quarter Final Match - Kensuke Sasaki vs. Riki Choshu

The do a power struggle early with both trying to muscle the other one around. They get back up and Sasaki punishes Riki with chops. Riki gets knee'd in the corner and just dumps Sasaki over the top. Sasaki comes back in and hits some nice clubs to the back. Riki is getting dominated here and gets thrown into the corner. He NAILS Sasaki with one of the best punches ever then starts kicking him. They trade more nice shots and Sasaki lariats Riki's arm as he tries for a lariat, knocking him down. Riki hits a lariat and goes for the sharpshooter, but can't submit him. He hits a superplex and we get out second superplex in two matches that goes nowhere. Sasaki hits a big lariat on Riki. Riki gives two back and Sasaki drops him with one of his own. Riki kicks out at 1 and kicks out of a brainbuster, frustrating Sasaki. Sasaki then wins it with a nasty brainbuster.

I liked this one. Lots of hard hitting shots and no cutesy stuff.

WJ Strongest Tournament Quarter Final Match - Kenzo Suzuki vs. Dan Bobish

Kenzo gets an entrance with two girls and I use the word girls loosely, because that one girl looks like a dude. Kenzo has a pretty good look here while Bobish's gear looks awful. Kenzo takes a big lariat early. This promotion really should just be called Lariat Japan Pro Wrestling, and that's not a knock because I like lariats. Kenzo football charges Bobish and gets tossed hard. Then he gets back up and takes a big lariat and takes a clothesline over the top and over the railing. Kenzo beats the count and charges in, knocking over Bobish. He then hits another great tackle.

Kenzo charges up and hits a great jumping knee. Then Dan gets back up and does some euro uppercuts. Kenzo then makes a comeback and hits a spear to win it. Bobish kind of kicks out of it and gets mad, letting everyone have it. This was probably the best Kenzo match I've ever seen and was a lot of fun.

WJ Strongest Tournament Quarter Final Match - Takao Omori vs. Genichiro Tenryu

The finish

Takao wins a shoulderblock contest easily and they do some chops. They trade chops for euro uppercuts here and Takao drops him with a euro uppercut. Omori drops Tenryu with 2 euro's. Tenryu pops out a nasty SHOTEI and then does a guh punch combo with chops. Tenryu boots him in the face and we get a Tenryu tope! Omori reverses a piledriver and hits a guillotine driver on the floor. They get in and Tenryu takes a piledriver. Tenryu gets put in the sleeper but pops back up. Omori takes back over.

Tenryu then fires up and hits his guh punch and chop combo. Tenryu blocks a lariat and turns it into an armbar. Tenryu does some kicks to him and hits two brainbusters on him. Tenryu does a nasty face kick on him and they exchange shots again. Omori puts him a in a seated guillotine choke which Tenryu escapes and Omori signals for the axe bomber. Tenryu takes it and survives but falls on the second for the Omori win.

Good match here. Omori showed some fire and Tenryu was nice and grumpy. A good hard hitting match.

Takashi Uwano vs. Masahiko Kochi

Kochi won this with a boston crab. This was a good young lions match, but they put it in the middle of card and had it go on too long. I know why they did it - because they wanted to give the tournament guys a rest, but the problem was that everyone had already seen the stars do their big stuff and seeing a few nobodies do basic holds wasn't going to cut it. A shame too. Kochi threw some really nice kicks here.

Singles Match - Tomohiro Ishii vs. Ichiro Yaguchi

Tomohiro Ishii

Ichiro Yaguchi

They did a shoulderblock challenge early and Yaguchi kicked Ishii low beofre doing his, winning it. They had a slap exchange and then a great headbutt vs headbutt battle then another one. You don't see many of those. Yaguchi low-blow kicked Ishii during a german attempt right in the front of the ref and claimed it was an inside thigh kick. Ishii made a nice comeback with a flurry and hit a slam for 2.

Yaguchi hit a spinwheel kick and powerbombed him for 2. Ishii hit 2 lariats and then took one on the 3rd attempt. Yaguchi then hit a high angle slam for 2. They had another strike exchange with Ishii hitting a great right hook. Ishi lifted him for a brainbuster but collapsed and Yaguchi got it right on his head which ended the match.

Really good match here. Yaguchi played up the dirty heel well and looked like something out of 1980's Memphis and Ishii did a great job as the fiery face. I liked this way more than I thought I would.

WJ Strongest Tournament Semi Final Match - Steve Williams vs. Kensuke Sasaki

We get a staredown and they start throwing strikes and lariats. They lariat battle and Sasaki ends it with a powerslam. They exchange more and Steve hits a nice punch to the face. They hit each other hard again and Steve hits some great punches to the face. We get another strike exchange and Williams gets dropped with a chest slap. Williams gets picked up and just rushes/pushes through Sasaki to push him down.

Williams' hits Tenryu's guh punch combo and drives to do a diving shoulder off the top but gets dropkicked. Sasaki hits the ipponzei shoulder throw, a bulldog and a lariat for 2. Then he does his Strangle Hold Gamma to him. Sasaki takes some short arm lariats and a german which he doesn't really sell, then lariats Steve. He puts him in a seated spinning toe hold and then wraps his arms up too for the submission win.

The match started off good but Williams got tired and it slowed down with them going to various holds. It was still enjoyable but it wasn't as good as it should have been.

WJ Strongest Tournament Semi Final Match - Takao Omori vs. Kenzo Suzuki

They exchange shots early and do a yakuza kick exchange. Kenzo wins it and hits a jumping knee, then botches a powerbomb or does a bad alley oop. Kenzo hit a nice shining wizard like knee though after. Kenzo hits another that Omori sells well. They get back up and Omori drops him with a lariat. Then they have a totally bogus and lame ending where Omori goes for a lariat and Kenzo rolls him up for the win. This is why I don't like tournaments - people get tired or wrestlers need to conserve for the next match and you get quick and bad finishes. Lucha tournaments are the worst though.

Big Van Vader vs Don Frye

Frye takes down and GnP's Vader early with punches. They argue with each other and the ref over clean breaks. Vader belly to belly's Frye and hits him before getting to the ropes. Vader hits Frye with some nasty open palm strikes. Frye takes a nasty clothesline then Vader does something like a backdrop on him which rolls Frye out of the ring.

Frye gets back in and hits Vader with a big german. Frye hits a great punch combo on Vader that drops him. Frye hits a heel hook on Vader but Vader doesn't submit, then Frye puts a leglock on after a slam. Frye then hits some more nice punches and the ref breaks it up. Frye works Vader's leg and the ref wants him to stop it. Vader hits a great open handed slap on Frye and avalanches him in the corner. Frye takes a Vader Bomb in the corner but he hits the ropes. Frye gets back up and german's Vader and works his leg again and the ref stops it in another bogus finish. Frye kicks Vader in the crotch and beats up young lions.

The match was okay at first but went on too long and Vader was just too old and out of shape, which ruined it. And this ending really sucked.

WMG Heavyweight Title WJ Strongest Tournament Final Match - Kensuke Sasaki vs. Kenzo Suzuki

Well, after the last two bad finishes, you can't do much worse. They lock up hard to start. Kenzo gets shoulderblocked down hard. They battle over a suplex with Sasaki hits. Kenzo hits a nice jumping elbow and stretches Sasaki. they slow things down for a bit and then trade chops for about 5 minutes. Then Sasaki blocks Kenzo's chops with his own chops. Kenzo wins the chop war and drops Sasaki. Kenzo rushes at Sasaki and ends up in a choke and Sasaki ends up powerslamming him.

Kenzo comes back with a flying knee and tries to hulk up but it is not very convincing. Kenzo hits a big shining wizard type of knee. He tries it again and gets lariated then backdrops Kensuke for 2. Kenzo rushes in twice and gets knee'd both times then lariat'd. Kenzo goes for double knees and is powerbomb'd and lariat'd four times for the Sasaki win.

Everyone was tired here. It wasn't super interesting but there wasn't anything too wrong with it. Kenzo just could have sold better or had better moves. That's the trouble with tournaments - everyone is worn out and then the final isn't as good as it should be.

And it should be noted that Sasaki won the WMG title here...but the title wasn't made yet so he won a trophy instead.

Overall thoughts: A long but mostly good show minus the two bad finishes. For the most part there was a lot of good stuff here. I really liked Kenzo/Bobish, Sasaki/Choshu and Omori/Tenryu.