BMD #164

BMD is an acronym for Brian's Mix Disc, which is running at about number 258 right now, basically Brian's own pet project of passing along discs of stuff that would normally mostly go otherwise unseen, but with his sweet Apple Laptop he's able to burn top quality products of puro, lucha, independent, mma, and interview wrestling related material for the NHO collective to share and enjoy. I like to show him the hard work does pay off once in a while and review some of these discs. This particular one also included a wild and crazy DDT Fantasia show smack dab in the middle of an amusement park, but I wasn't sure of all the participants so I merely sat back and enjoyed that show, where as these four matches will be reviewed rigorously.

1) Kushinobi Kamen v. Ebessan- 2
Kamen is a clown, not a scary one like in It, just a complete goofball, as he and Ebessan seem to be almost tag partners, doing the same kid friendly, balloon passing entrance to the ring. This is straight comedy which both performers were doing very well at, some of the material is just plain goofy, some rests on fans' knowledge of what hold/reversal comes next, but it was all fine. 2 major factors kind of killed my enjoyment of it though; 1 is the match drew on too long, nearing an 18 minute time, that's probably the length of an episode of Community minus commercials, which is hilarious throughout, this however not. My 2nd issue is they tacked on a 7 minute 3rd from the bottom ROH style match into their routine and it just felt so forced, if you're going to do comedy and dance with each other, that's fine, but don't expect me to take your pitiful Shinig Wizard seriously? You're like the 109th best guy to try that move and do the Muto pose with it.

2) Daisuke Sekimoto/ Yuji Okabayashi v. Shadow WX/ Abdullah Kobayashi- 5
First thing, this was a Big Japan show, and not a single strand of Barb Wire or shard of glass was used; as future endeavored tubby Helms used to say, "What's up with that?" Still as a tag match I was digging this. WX seems to have shed the few extra pounds he wore when scarring up his body 2-3 nights a week a decade ago and he had much better ring movement because of it, the sections where he fought Okabayashi were by far the best, with both guys getting the most out of each other. Oka was selling more than anyone and more realistically, Sekimoto was playing up a 80's Vince musclehead where nothing really fazed him and even when he did sell, it was nothing more than a nose crinkle as if to sneeze. But he brought the offense and his T-shirt was just plain money: it simply said "I"m Hard." Abby gave a great near fall every time he got put down and took some hard moves, even if his face showed he barely acknowledged it. Two other cool things was Shadow's snapping punches and the finish that Takayama would be jealous of.

3) Meiko Satomura v. Ran Yu-Yu- 4
Recently saw Meiko in a 2002 tag match and she was the Balls, here she comfortably leads glam bitch Ran Yu-Yu to a decent match. I wasn't a big fan of Ran, her work in going from any transition was just sloppy and ultimately really left this match feeling like an unfinished project, like the fuck seat you helped your neighbor work on over last summer, modeled after George Clooney's character from Burn After Reading. Ran did throw some deadly knees though, and often. If this match had one thing going for it, they weren't holding back on any strikes; I especially loved the sequence where it was almost a stand off and Meiko stopped Ran's dead sprint with a boot that could knock over what's left of the Colosseum.

4) Jado v. Kazuchika Okada- 3
Not a fan of either guy and they didn't do a lot to change my mind; Jado is this junior weight guy who's like a WWE Frankenstein's monster, he now has the small, but ripped bulk of Rey Mysterio, has the certain skin cancer tan of HHH and has the ripped off move set of Kurt Angle circa 2002. Okada is the rookie, but he showed a lot more fire in his selling and when on offense, particularly one spot where he was about to get clothesline in the corner and he screamed intensely. Jado was bumping like a programmed robot. Seemed to be a perfunctory New Japan opening card match.