Super Demekin & Kengo Takai vs. Syu & Tigers Mask
JWP Nintei Musabetsukyu Senshukenjiai: Azumi Hyuga vs. Policewo~men
Tsubasa & Black Buffalo & FRANCOISE vs. Takehiro Murahama & Takashi Tachibana
Osaka Meibutsu Sekai Sekaiichi Kessen: Kuishinbo Kamen vs. Ebessan
Osaka Puroresu Tag Senshukenjiai: Miracle Man & Azteca vs. Daio QUALLT & Big Boss MA-G-MA. MA-G-MA is Toyonari Fujita, who wrestled in FMW as Dragon Winger & Toryu.
Osaka Puroresu Title Match: Gamma vs. Super Delfin 21:25. Delfin thankfully ended Gamma's 6 month title reign. Gamma wasn't bad, but certainly didn't look like he deserved to be wrestling at this level. He's fine when he's brawling and cheating to get cheap heat, but he's not very graceful and doesn't perform his few highspots all that impressively. Delfin had to supply the offense, but again mostly sold in between a hot start and finish, as he was ganged up on by the rudos. For instance, they gave him a rope to hang Delfin with then as he was choking away, Buffalo & Tsubasa gave him a sandwich dropkick. Gamma jumpstarted a lengthy knee attack with the help of a chair. The match picked up after this, but was more consistent than something that ever reached a particularly high level. ***
Syu & Tigers Mask vs. Kengo Takai & Takashi Tachibana. Syu looks ridiculous with his Kool Aid hair, but he's very agile. He's particularly good at propelling himself with the ropes, doing a nice slingshot corbata, swandive missile kick, and pescado. 3:54 of 9:38
3 Way Match: Kuishinbo Kamen vs. Ebessan vs. Daigoro Kashiwa. Best comedy spot was Ebessan dropkicking both to the floor and letting them reenter after he faked a dive so he could pull the middle rope up and crotch them when they were halfway through. Kashiwa kept stealing the other's pin attempts. 5:42 of 10:47.
JUSTICE vs FLUXxx 5 to 5 Single Full Conclusion
Billyken Kid vs. Big Boss MA-G-MA. Surprisingly this was the best match in the series. These two worked well together and, although a bit short, the booking gave them a chance to succeed by just leaving them alone. Both did nice moves and executed fine, with the exception of Kid's firebird splash because he puts his opponent too close. Kid did a neat dive where he used the top rope to help rotate himself 270 degrees. MA-G-MA does his version of the last ride in steps like a weight lifter, which makes it a lot less gay because he's able to keep some distance between his face and his opponent's crotch. 10:21. ***
Miracle Man vs. Tsubasa. Offensive match because Tsubasa is a flying technico that's new to the rudo role. Miracle is one of those guys that poses as a great flier; he's not nearly the athlete Tsubasa is. Overall the flying was impressive though because you had two guys that could do it, but on the other hand it was lacking a guy that could take it. Tsubasa did a good job, but Miracle did little to warrant supporting him. That hurt the match because the storyline was he was overmatched but kept kicking out. Best spot was Miracle stopping Tsubasa's Silver King dive by dropkicking him in midair. 15:43. **
Super Delfin vs. Daio QUALLT. Delfin needs to be one of the guys carrying this series, but with this opponent it wasn't going to happen. In fact, not much happened other than a flash pin. Even though it was a waste of Delfin, it's hard to complain because QUALLT is the guy that needs to be in the short match of the series. 2:34
Takehiro Murahama vs. Black Buffalo. This should have been the highlight. It got off to a good start with all kinds of fast strikes where the shooter Murahama would avoid overmatched Buffalo and catch him with a shot of his own. Buffalo kept it interesting with Murahama having his big moments. The thing is they just ran out of gas so quickly and Murahama wrapped it up with a vertical suplex. 9:35. **1/4
Super Demekin vs. Gamma. Even though it was the predictable crowd pleasing story, the booking made this match because otherwise it would have been an anticlimactic squash. The hopes of the faces were riding on totally overmatched Demekin. Gamma could have beaten him in a straight match, but he preferred cheating. Gamma just toyed with Demekin, beating him so badly that the faces were getting mad because he would pull poor Demekin up rather than just ending the series. With Gamma distracted by these arguements, Demekin was able to mount a comeback until the heels interfered. Gamma then tried to finish it, but Demekin would kick out. Gamma got so frustrated he called for more interference, but it backfired and Demekin squeaked by. 13:06. ***
Syu vs. Tigers Mask. Some stiffness early then some nice spots. They need to mask the way they cooperate better. It looked a lot better when they were working fast because they didn't have time to think and wonder if the other was ready and on the same page. Tigers did more than usual, but Syu didn't do his stuff. 4:49. *1/4
Takashi Tachibana vs. Oriental. Oriental returned as the mystery opponent. He looked good when he was more on his own, but when he needed more help or when Tachibana was on offense it wasn't too cleanly performed. Tachibana is still trying to figure out what he wants to do and who he wants to be. He should lose the Goldberg offense since those lame moves only work if you are a big roided stiff that gets pushed to the moon. 8:35. *1/2
3 Way Match: Kuishinbo Kamen vs. Ebessan vs. Turtuger. They did a bit that seemed to last half the match where they weren't going to wrestle, so the ref had to get them to fight. At first they made a joke of it, but then they got started when Ebessan doublecrossed Kamen. Turtuger did the Super Boy put him farther then double jump to reach, but what was funny is Ebessan said the hell with him and tried to pin Kamen while Turtuger was on the top. Second half was decent, but they wasted too much time for it to be one of the better Ebessan vs. Kamen matches. 10:21. *
Osaka Tag Festival 2002 Koshiki Leaguesen: Daio QUALLT & Big Boss Ma-G-Ma vs. Billyken Kid & Kengo Takai. They stuck to what would be interesting that they could do fairly well. Still not the best wrestling, but had a good pace and a lot of double teaming. 10:11. **1/2
Osaka Tag Festival 2002 Koshiki Leaguesen: Miracle Man & Azteca vs. Gamma & Bug Killer. Bug Killer was Gamma's mystery partner. The announcers called him FLUXxx Machine, as he plodded around using basic boring offense like those lame WWF Machines. Match was real one-sided with a bunch of crummy no selling, especially by Bug Killer. Match was actually good once Miracle Man made the hot tag and cleaned house because that prompted Gamma to actually start doing something. Unfortunately, it was soon a double ring out to keep Gamma's teams points down without having anything happen that might make them look the least bit weak. 11:55. *3/4
Osaka Tag Festival 2002 Koshiki Leaguesen: Super Delfin & Super Demekin vs. Black Buffalo & Tsubasa. Demekin was dominated by the rudos, but these rudos are good athletic workers with much better offense than Demekin, so this actually made for a better match. Delfin took Buffalo out when he tagged, but Tsubasa jumped in and tried to maintain the advantage for his team. Delfin would avoid his moves and catch him with something. There was a nice spot when Delfin tried to back body drop his way out of a verticle suplex only to have Tsubasa turn it into a DDT just before Delfin could get Tsubasa over. Smooth, fluid work. Demekin, who Buffalo in particular did a nice job with, eventually had some good chances to score the upset. Rudos made the match with Buffalo working good sequences and Oriental doing nice moves. 15:43. ***1/4
Highlights of tag festival matches from 4/6, 4/7, 4/13, & 4/14
Takashi Tachibana vs. Yutaka Fukuda
Billyken Kid & Syu vs. Kengo Takai & Tigers Mask
Kuishinbo Kamen & Turtuger vs. Azteca & Ebessan
Miracleman & Takehiro Murahama & Oriental vs. Gamma & Tsubasa & Black Buffalo
OSAKA TAG FESTIVAL 2002 the Final: Super Delfin & Super Demekin vs. Daio QUALLT & Magma
Takehiro Murahama vs. Ebetosan
Takashi Tachibana vs. Daigoro Kashiwa
Shu & Tigers Mask vs. Kengo Takai & Yutaka Fukuda
OSAKA REAL LIVE: Black Buffalo & Tsubasa & Gamma vs. Takehiro Murahama & Billyken Kid & Oriental 13:25
Kuishinbo Kamen & Miracleman & Azumi Huiga vs. Ebessan & Daikokusan (Kintaro Kanemura) & Police Wo~men 17:26
Osaka Tag Senshukenjiai: Daio QUALLT & Big Boss MA-G-MA vs. Super Delfin & Super Demekin 15:04
Billyken Kid & Kengo Takai vs. Tigers Mask & Yutaka Fukuda 12:55
Gamma vs. Shu 6:35
Takehiro Murahama & Kuishinbo Kamen vs. Miracle Man & Ebessan 11:05
Osaka Puroresu Title Match: Super Delfin vs. Super Demenkin 14:23. Solid match mixing good moves and technical wrestling. I wouldn't say the match was really exciting because it wasn't the least bit dynamic, but they weren't being lazy, Delfin simply kept it simple because Demenkin is still learning. The low level of difficulty meant they executed well. I wouldn't say this is what a title match should look like, but it was very competent. **1/2
Osaka Puroresu Tag Title Match: Daio QUALLT & Big Boss MA-G-MA vs. Black Buffalo & Tsubasa 13:31. Dramatic match with Kishiwada Gurentai dominating an injured Buffalo, who valiantly kept his team in the match by doing all he could, which generally was just hanging on. The match began with a nice mix of brawling and flying on the outside. The rest was very focused, with Buffalo's taped and braced left knee being the target of Kishiwada's violence. Tsubasa sporadically managed a hot move or a save, but generally was tossed to the floor as soon as he tried to help out, leading to a few more minutes of Gurentai double teaming. They eventually removed both Buffalo's tape and his brace, continuing to work the knee until he could barely walk. The match would have been better if Tsubasa finally managed more of the hot run he's certainly capable of, but crafty Buffalo managing the flash pin was the fitting finish. ***1/4