Big Japan Pro Wrestling 1/2/2024 New Year Battle Beginning

Big Japan Pro Wrestling 1/2/2024 New Year Battle Beginning

Daichi Hashimoto, Kazuki Hashimoto & Masaya Takahashi vs. Kazumasa Yoshida, Ryota Hama & Yasufumi Nakanoue

Masaya side headlocks Hama and they shoulder battle. Hama shoulders him over then Yoshida and Kazuki go at it. They trade forearms and Yoshida goes down. Kazuki flying kicks him in the corner then neckbreakers him. Yoshida suplexes him then Nakanoue hiptosses him. Yoshida hits a running knee and Hama rolls on Kazuki.

Daichi hits a knee and kick on Nakanoue then Hama misses a splash. Masaya hip throws Hama. Daichi face kicks Yoshida then falcon arrows him. Kazuki PK's Yoshida for 2. Yoshida dropkicks Kazuki then backdrops him. Yoshida flying pumping knees Kazuki and gets the win in an upset.

This went 6:52 and I don't think we saw the whole match. What we saw wasn't anything special.

Kaji Tomato, Kota Sekifuda & Zeke Andino (w/Tatsuhiko Yoshino) vs. PROJECT HAVOC (Daimonji So, Ender Kara & Tempesta)

Music plays before this is about to start and we see eventually see Yoshino, Kikuta and people in costumes dancing. So and Kara get annoyed with this and Yoshino gets beaten up. Kota and Kaji make the save.

Kara back elbows Yoshino. Yoshino headscissors him and the faces do stereo planchas outside. Zeke then topes his opponents outside. Zeke boots Kara in the corner, flips over his back and headscissors him. Zeke does a neat flatliner. Kara hits a kick > legsweep > double stomp combo on Zeke.

Temp and Zeke go at it. Temp lariats him for 2. Zeke goes up and over in the corner then springboard lariats Temp. Kaji top rope flips on Temp then low enzugiri's him. Temp double lariats Kota and Kaji. Temp and So hit corner lariats then bang their opponents backs together and hit stereo fallaway slams. So flying forearms Zeke.

Kota springboard double crossbodies his opponents. Kara takes corner knee > codebreaker > top rope senton combo. Kota hits a backdrop > codebreaker combo on Kara then Yoshino top rope dropkicks Kota on accident. Kara corkscrew kicks Yoshino. Kota takes a double chokeslam into a death rider ddt and is pinned.

This went 6:07. I don't know what the costumes were all about. I don't know why Yoshino who was not in the match was allowed to attack people in the match. The action was good though. They hit some interesting moves here and kept it moving. Zeke did fine in the little we saw of him here.

Kara goes up to Yoshino after and said his title is the most prestigious because he holds it. They argue along with So and Tempesta. It seemed like they set up a match but it was all in Japanese.

Daisuke Sekimoto & Kosuke Sato vs. Astronauts (Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura)

This is Kosuke Sato's big return after being out for a very long time. I'm real happy to see him back and the shows weren't the same without him.

Sato and Abe start us off. Abe headlock takeovers him and is headscissored. Then they go face to face. Sato side headlocks him, is pushed off and dropkicks Nomura off the apron. Sato dropkicks Abe then Sato PK's him. Abe gets on Sek's back and they both splash Abe.

Sato takes kicks to the back and the chest. Nomura and Sato trade forearms. Nomura slams and single leg crabs him. Abe and Sato trade forearms then Abe suplexes him. Sato hits dropkicks on both opponents. Sato slaps both opponents then takes a sandwich kick to the front and back. Sek double lariats his opponents. Sato michinoku drivers Nomura for 2.

Sato guillotine chokes Nomura and Abe breaks it up. Nomura PK's Sato then crabs him. Sato then taps out to it.

We got to see some Sato dropkicks which was nice but that's really about it here. It only went 9:57 and ended way too soon. I didn't like Sato tapping out on his return, especially to a crab of all things. These guys could have easily went 30 here and had a classic, but this was a nothing match.

Six Man Tag Team Death Match - Abdullah Kobayashi, Drake Younger & Ryuji Ito vs. Jack Bennett & Yankee Two Kenju (Isami Kodaka & Yuko Miyamoto)

4 of the 6 fight outside to start. Jack hits forearms on Abby then does a flying knee. Abby lariats him and is pulled out. Ito hits Yuko in the back with a kendo stick then hits him in the leg with it. Yuko handspring butt bumps Ito. Drake and Isami duel chairs. Drake is armdragged on a chair.

The two trade forearms and Isami punches him in the gut. Drake overhead belly to belly suplexes him then Isami takes a triple dropkick. Isami takes corner attacks and Abby misses an elbow drop on him. Yuko does Shinsuke Nakamura mannerisms and runs into a lariat.

Yuko dropkicks Abby then Abby throws Yuko off the top. Abby goes up top and is afraid of jumping off. He jumps off and Yuko just kicks him. Abby then begs off in the crowd. Jack kamigoye's Ito then half-nelson suplexes Drake. Yuko top rope double stomps Abby then takes a death valley driver from Drake.

Jack trips Drake and curb stomps him. He then hits a michinoku driver. Drake lariats him and chairs him. Drake kudo drivers Jack through a chair and wins it.

It went 7:17 and I don't think we saw all of it. It wasn't enough time for all of the people in this and I have no idea how Jack and Drake even got bloody here.

They do interviews after. Drake said he has two of the best ever with him. He said this is a way of life for them and said to be included with them means a lot for them. Drake said he's not here for one appearance, he's here to make an impact. He said it's an honor to team with Ito and Abby. Abby ask how old Drake is and he says 39. Drake says they will go for the titles tomorrow.

Jack Bennett talks in English and Japanese with his team. Isami says gambarimasu and fight fight. 

Deadly Weapons Death Match - Mad Man Pondo & Violent J vs. Kankuro Hoshino & Kazumi Kikuta

That's really Violent J from Insane Clown Posse. That's insane. Pondo side headlocks Kikuta then rolls him up. Kikuta hits him with a stick. Hoshino puts cement blocks on Pondo and sentons them. Pondo eye rakes him and uses a saw blade on his crotch.

Pondo hits Ito in the gut with a sledgehammer then sledgehammer shots cement blocks into Ito's crotch. J and Hoshino trade shots. Hoshino eye rakes him and J no sells his lariat. J slams Hoshino then chokes him with something. Hoshino takes a back body drop on the floor from J. Pondo throws a stop sign at Hoshino and J nearly kills himself on a top rope moonsault onto Hoshino. He is so lucky he landed on Hoshino correctly. J then wins it.

It went 7:07. You have to give it to J for coming out here and doing this. He is a trained wrestler so it's not a normal celeb deal here, but he did not have to do this and did anyway. I couldn't believe he busted out the top rope moonsault. It was pretty much all weapons shots otherwise.

Barbed Wire Board Death Match - Green Phantom & Satu Jinn vs. Crazy Lovers (Masashi Takeda & Takumi Tsukamoto)

We join this in progress. Phantom and Takumi are going at it. Kikuta suplexes him onto a barbed wire board. Takeda hits a hsotgun dropkick on Phantom then stabs Jinn in the head with scissors. He rakes his had with them then shoulderblocks a bw board into Phantaom. He then exploders Phantom and a chairs a chair onto his head. Phantom lifting ddt's Takeda.

Jinn belly to belly suplexes Takeda. Jinn short arm lariats him and death valley drivers him. Takeda is whipped into a Jinn spear. Phantom cradle drivers Takeda. Takeda kicks Jinn in the gut then Jinn takes a knee and superkick combo. Jinn takes a double backdrop and Takeda top rope swantons bw boards into him.

Takeda rolling armbars Takeda who has a knife then Takeda does a crossface with the knife in Jinn's mouth. Takeda taps him out.

It went 9:06. Maybe we saw half or more. What we did see wasn't that good. 

Fluorescent Lighttubes Death Match - Hideyoshi Kamitani & Yuki Ishikawa vs. AKIRA & Necro Butcher

Yuki has a chair thrown at him as he enters and all 4 fight outside. Butcher and Kami fight in the first row then Akira slams Yuki on the floor. Akira sliding forearms Yuki in the stands. Akira corkscrew dives off the seat entrance and they cut ahead.

Akira hits forearm combos on Yuki. Akira backdrops him for 2. Yuki superkicks Akira then takes a sliding knee. Kami suplexes Necro off the apron to the floor. We cut ahead again and Akira is taking a 2v1. Necro takes an enzugiri then lariats to the back and front for 2. Kami hits punches on Necro. Yuki is enzugiri'd off the apron. Necro is put up top and Akira germans Kami down.

Akira topes Yuki and Necro 2nd rope crossbodies Kami. NEcro puts a grounded choke on Kami and wins it.

This went 9:06. We saw a lot of it but not all. Akira tried and Necro's suplex bump to the floor was wild. Yuki didn't bring much to this as usual and Kami didn't get to do a lot from what we saw.

BJW World Strong Heavyweight Title Match - Yuya Aoki (c) vs. Leyton Buzzard

Aoki wristlocks him and LB wristlocks him back. LB fireman's carry takeovers him then ties up both of his arms. Aoki side headlocks him then running face kicks him. Aoki running forearms him then headscissors him. LB is put in tree of woe and dropkicked. LB pull him out and throws him into the apron and post.

LB his forearms and throws him in. LB stomps him, slams him and standing moonsaults him. LB hits corner spears and hits a hard running corner spear. LB hits mounted forearms and they trade forearms. LB slams him for 2 then crabs him. Aoki handspring back elbows him then tope con hilos him outside.

Yuya springboard dropkicks him then LB hits machine gun chops. Aoki then chop flurries him. Aoki hammerlock backbreakers him  and puts him in an abdominal stretch. Yuya back elbows him then takes a dropkick. LB knees him on the 2nd rope then top rope dropkicks him.

LB sits him up top and step up enzugiri's him there. LB then superplexes him. Aoki goes for another handspring and is german suplexed off of it. Aoki no sells it and germans him. LB spinning lariats him and both go down. Aoki step up enzugiri's him while he is up top then spanish flies him for 2.

Aoki springboards and is caught with a dropkick. LB gordbusters him then hits a boom knee to the back of the neck for 2. LB pop-up sitout bombs him then fireman's carry gutbusters him. LB 450's him off the top for 2. They trade shots while on their knees then trade slaps standing up. Aoki takes forearms then slap flurries him. LB hits a headbutt then piledrivers him for 2. Aoki headbutts him and lariats him for 2. Aoki springboard dropkicks him in the back of the neck then tiger suplexes him for the win.

It went longer than it needed to and they didn't sell that much in this moves based match. I didn't like the top rope spanish fly and the handspring into the german counter was cool but they no sold it. There was also no real story here for this one.

Overall thoughts: If you are going to see this, wait for the BJW Core version. There was a lot of clipping here and that whole concept feels so out of date in 2023. BJW really loaded this card up with all kinds of fly-in's including Violent J of the ICP and had Kosuke Sato's return here. Unfortunately, they booked too much on this show, so everything except the main got cut short and nothing was as good as it could have been. I thought it was still a good effort by BJW but the execution left much to be desired. I think if you like BJW, you would appreciate the card finally being freshened up for a change here with new and returning faces.