TAKA & Taichi Produce - 3rd Anniversary Convention (12/30/2016)

1. NEX4 (Ayato Yoshida, Dinosaur Takuma, GO Asakawa & Kyu Mogami) vs. SFU (Kaji Tomato & Shiori Asahi) & Sekitoba (Kotaro Yoshino & Taishi Takizawa)

Decent opener. You can always count on Shiori to do interesting stuff.

**1/2

2. Bambi vs. ERINA vs. Koharu Hinata

This is my first time ever seeing ERINA in action. She didn't do a whole lot here. K-DOJO is the company that also trained Apple Miyuki and Tomoka Nakagawa and molded Yuu Yamagata, so ideally she grows into something good.

*

3. Hardcore Match: Jun Kasai vs. Takashi Iizuka

Boring.

no

4. Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Yuki Sato

Classic Big Yen Yoshinobu, dull and heatless. Where is Despy on this card?

*

5. TAKA Michinoku vs. Yoshitatsu

TAKA tries to make Yoshitatsu look good, but it didn't work that way for me. Tatsu was boring, but whenever TAKA was on the offensive this match was awesome. The wrong former WWE guy went over.

**1/2

6. Minoru Suzuki vs. Taichi

This was structured like a fiery young lion vs. established veteran match, but with the interesting dynamic of both of them being heels. Two bad guys doing bad things to each other, and that's just what the people paid to see.

***3/4

GANBARE☆PRO-WRESTLING - BAD COMMUNICATION 2016 (10/04/2016)

1. Ai Shimizu & Aoi Ishibashi vs. Emi Sakura &「Kotori」

Four of the smartest workers in modern joshi putting together a solid match.

***

2. Keisuke Ishii vs. Yukihiro Abe

***

3. Shuichiro Katsumura vs. Takafumi Ito

Two shooters going at it. Sleek, smooth and hard-hitting. I have no idea who these guys are.

**3/4

4. Shiori Asahi vs. Shinichiro Tominaga

No earthly idea who Shinichiro Tominaga is, which goes for a couple of guys on this card. This match told me everything I need to know about him via a wonderfully-crafted story. Asahi tortured Tominaga in the neat ways that only a student of K-DOJO could, goading him to give it his all and prove himself worthy. Tominaga was once a K-DOJO guy as well and Asahi is obviously the more accomplished of the two so there's a backstory based in reality that they played into. It all culminates into a great finish.

****

5. Madoka & Saki Fujita vs. Bambi & Minoru Fujita

Saki and Minoru were once a married couple, but now they're not. Story of the match. Minoru does a wonderful job as Saki's asshole ex husband, garnering boos from the crowd. This was mostly a comedy match, feel good ending, etc. I need to get more familiar with Bambi.

**3/4

6. No Rope Barbed Wire Street Fight: Atsushi Onita, GENTARO, Hideki Hosaka & Osamu Namiguchi vs. Ken Ohka, Masayuki Mitomi, Shota & Yumehito Imanari

The crowd reaction made this match for me, it's a train-wreck, but a very fun one. Korakuen booed everything Onita did and were super supportive of Ohka and his band of indie trash.

***