Pro Wrestling Zero-1 7/8/2022 - 22nd Midsummer Festival ~ Fire Festival 2022 - Day 4

Pro Wrestling Zero-1 7/8/2022 - 22nd Midsummer Festival ~ Fire Festival 2022 - Day 4

Zero-1 may be the only promotion where it's harder to watch in 2022 than it was in 2002. We used to be able to see almost all Fire Festival shows, now we maybe will see 2 of them. 

I saw 5 of the 6 matches here.

Yoshikazu Yokoyama vs Ryo Hoshino

Ryo is a young lion. Yoshi rides him early and they shoulder battle. Yoshi then takes him down wit ha back elbow and stomps him. Ryo comes back with bad shots to the chest and is slapped down and stretched. Yoshi hits more stomps on him and Yoshi gives him free forearm shots. He then downs him with one.

Yoshi slams him and chops him in the corner. Ryo comes back with a dropkick and evades a corner charge to hit another dropkick. Ryo running forearms him for 2. Ryo then top rope dropkicks him for another 2. Yoshi powerslams him then crabs him. Ryo rolls him up for 2 then takes a lariat for 2. Yoshi then wins it with a camel clutch.

Pretty much your standard rookie vs vet match with Ryo getting some offense in but mostly getting beaten up.

Fire Festival 2022 Block A Match - Shu Asakawa vs Junya Matsunaga

Jun wristlocks him and is taken down by Shu. Shu grabs a leg and they do a stand off. Shu shoulders him over then Jun hiptosses and dropkicks him. Shu then bridging neckbreakers him as he hangs off the top. Shu then slingshot elbow drops him for 2.

Shu hits some forearms then back kicks him. Shu then puts him in the stretch plum. Jun comes back with forearms then Shu hits a knee and some forearms. Jun powerslams him then hits corner lariats. Jun then single butterfly suplexes him and boston crabs him. Shu hits a nice shoulder throw on him.

Shu suplexes him for 2 and Jun hits some strikes. Jun then uranage's him and backdrops him for 2. Shu then germans him and Jun hits a nice lariat for 2. Shu death valley drivers him for 2 and hits a 2nd chance lariat. Shu then hits a stiff lariat and wins it.

This was decent. They were stiff, didn't overdo it too much and they showed some fire here before the finish. It was a lot better than I expected and put over both guys some.

Fire Festival 2022 Block B Match - Yoshiki Inamura vs Hide Kubota

Hide toeholds him early and Ina shoulders him over. Hide works the side headlock and Ina tries to roll him to escape but can't. Ina backdrops him out of it. Hide then hops on his back for a sleeper then Ina pushes him back into the corner. Ina corner splashes him then back elbows and splashes him for 2.

Ina squats and suplexes him. Hide hits chest kicks and knocks him down for 2. They trade forearms for chest clubs then Hide neckbreakers him. Ina then hits a nice spinning slam for 2 then Hide rolls him up out of the corner for 2. Hide superkicks him for another 2 and Ina back body drops him. Ina then hits a running slam for 2.

Ina runs the ropes and is tripped into a pin for 2. Hide then charges into him and is shouldered over. Ina then hits a lifting uranage and wins it.

It was a very simple match. Hide's old and not doing anything crazy and definitely played the vet role here against Ina. Ina took most of the offense then got some in at the end before winning it. Not awful or anything, just very basic stuff.

Fire Festival 2022 Block B Match - Fuminori Abe vs Masato Tanaka

They battle over an armdrag early and Abe headscissors him. They trade some slaps on the mat and Abe back kicks him. They trade snapmares and Abe hits a flurry of back kicks. they slap each other and trade forearms. Tanaka hammerfists him on the head and Abe battering rams him in the knee. Tanaka then headscissors him.

They trade more slaps and forearms, then trade more forearms while they have each other by the arm. Abe high kicks him in the corner. Tanaka running forearms him then Abe shoves him in the back of the head. They trade more forearms and slaps and Abe goes down. Abe hits a nice dropkick then spin kicks him and tries pins for 2. Abe then dragon screws him.

They trade shots and Tanaka lariats him down and hits corner lariats. Tanaka then death valley drivers him on the apron. Tanaka throws him back in and Abe gets his knees up on a frogsplash. Tanaka runs at Abe and gets slammed.

They fight up top and Abe octopus stretches him up there. Tanaka then superplexes him but Abe no sells it, then they do more no selling. Abe ends the sequence with a baseball punch. They trade shots on their knees and forearm each other. They forearm each other at the same time then trade headbutts. Abe goes out but hangs onto the bottom rope and comes back in. He's bleeding then baseball punches and octopus stretches him. Tanaka frogsplashes him but Abe kicks out at 1. Tanaka then hits forearms and a short-arm forearm. Abe then hurricanrana's him and wins it.

There was a lot of good stuff in this match, but the no selling and the length brought it down some. Had they not done this, it's possible this could have been one of the best matches of the year. They matched up real well together. The headbutts, strike trades and blood were all good and they totally went all out here. The crowd was also into it and allowed to cheer.

Fire Festival 2022 Block A Match - Chris Vice vs Takuya Sugawara

Chris takes him down by the leg early then sunset flips him, but Suga rolls him up. Suga buzzsaw kicks him then Vice tries for a powerbomb but is hurricanrana'd. Chris then package piledrivers him for the win.

This went 53 seconds for some reason. It was a good 53 seconds, but I don't really understand why this happened this way unless they were short on time. 

Overall thoughts: Tanaka/Abe had some issues but probably is worth going out of your way to see. Shu/Junya was also a decent match.