BJW Exploding Thumbtack Balloons~! 5/22/96

What's better on Thanksgiving than exploding balloons containing hundreds of thousands of thumbtacks?! Not a damn thing. I am thankful for BJW. Well, thanks to pwchronicles for the match listings.

Under-Card (AKA Clipped Matches)
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1. Yuichi Taniguchi vs. Gennosuke Kobayashi - 2
2. Satoru Shiga vs. Masahiko Kochi (SPWF) - 1
3. Ichiro Yaguchi (Free) & NINJA Hayate (Mexico) vs. Crusher Takahashi & Aquarius (Mexico, but actually this is Tajiri under a hood) - 3
4. Hack Myers (ECW) vs. Sabu - 1
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Upper Card:
5. Great Kojika vs. Mr. Pogo - 4
6. Exploding Balloon Thumb Tacks Street Fight Death Match: Shoji Nakamaki (Free) & Axl Rotten (ECW) vs. Kendo Nagasaki & Seiji Yamakawa - 4


I had no idea what to make of this. Fat guy in business clothes taking on a guy who maybe got one move in. Kobayashi looked gassed early on. Come to think of it, they both did. Then again, this was clipped, so I have no idea how long this match was. Kobayashi looked to be a jobber of all jobbers in this match, getting slapped all over. The finish came out of nowhere, with Taniguchi hitting an Angel's Wings-like maneuver. It was what it was.

The second match was shit. This match pretty much saw Shiga hitting move after move with no transitions or psychology to mention. It pains me to speak in such a way about a man that would become Shadow WX. Also, it went 14.5 minutes and only like 2 minutes were shown. For shame. Clipping sucks.

The third match (tag) was decent (considering the clippage). The dude under the hood was so obviously Tajiri. He has a way of moving and fluidity in the ring that is very distinct. You're not fooling anyone! There was a sequence that I dug in this match featuring Takakashi in which he ducked the clothesline and hit a tope suicida onto Yaguchi. That. That was nice. There was this sick moment in which Hayate killed Tajiri's leg off of a dive, landing right on it. The sickening thud resonated to Hokkaido. Tajiri looked solid -- his moves were spot on and were placed effectively. Unfortunately nothing to mention in terms of selling.

The fourth match featured two American "stars." It was more like "Sabu's Super Sexy High Spot Fun Time :D!" Myers was there just to take Sabu's dives. The fans ate up Sabu's dives. This might surprise you, but Hack's selling I dug. He'd start saying things while selling like, "Goddammit Sabu" while clutching his face, or something like that. The match only featured Sabu's phenomenal and pristine offense...

UPPER CARD!
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Kojika may be old but if you so match as look at him the wrong way he will tear your scrawny ass in half. Pogo took Kojika on a tour of Korakuen, taking him head-first into walls and hallways. Kojika was stumbling around like a senile old man (selling?). When Pogo brought out his sadistic sickle, the crowd went nuts. Here's where this match got nice: the teasing. Pogo would drive down the sickle and just miss Kojika's face, stabbing the canvas. Pogo also brought out some sadistic knife-like object, raked it across Koj's face and mouth~!~! Holy shit! Kojika sold it like death, too, which made this even more fun. Kojika's innability to move really held the match back.

The exploding fun match was actually pretty good in-ring. It was tornado style, so all of the men were in the ring at the same time, yet it didn't seem cluster-fucky like some do. Axl was doing slop spots while Shoji kept it cool in the ring with submissions. There was some great chair-swinging fun on the floor. The anticipation for the explosion was maddening. Every time the announcer would tell how much time was left, the audience would cringe with anticipation. I dug that. Seiji's intensity was great. He ripped his shirt and screamed before delivering a pretty nice DDT to Axl into the tacks. Fan's loved it. Pretty fun match filled with anticipation for balloons popping.