OZ Academy Puroresu King #182 4/11/08 CARLOS WORLD |
With Carlos Amano winning control of the promotion from Mayumi Ozaki, and all the wrestlers not directly aligned with Ozaki other than Aja Kong siding with Carlos, some changes were at hand. The new Principal named the show after herself and banned D-FIX members Ozaki, Police, & Mika Nishio from the building, while allowing KAORU to wrestle without the benefit of her cronies interference.
Toshie Uematsu vs. Devil Masami 5:04 of 11:26. Masami carried the match, instilling her methodical pace but allowing Uematsu to play off of it. Though Masami had most of the offense, Uematsu had the element of surprise, as you never knew when she'd come up with a clever counter to one of Masami's power moves. Often these counters were flash pin attempts, and though Uematsu essentially did no damage the entire match, she managed to score the upset with her Solarina.
Ran Yu-Yu & AKINO vs. Manami Toyota & Tomoka Nakagawa 10:20 of 20:17. The fact that Nakagawa was the designated punching bag meant Toyota got to provide most of the offense for her team. The others helped keep the pace high, but only Toyota was delivering many hot moves. Nakagawa was scrappy and spunky though, and Toyota stepped it in an effort to make up for her green partner. Ran & AKINO were good, but below their usual level as neither Toyota nor Nakagawa are ideal opponents to develop their sequences with. Good match.
Aja Kong vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto 9:51 of 12:25. Standard Kong domination. I never thought I'd say this, but I was really impressed with Aja's dropkick. She doesn't get much altitude, but she goes up with her knees bent then kicks them out on contact with her opponent to really send them flying. Matsumoto had good fundamentals and was fairly confident in her abilities. Kong was usually in control, but put Matsumoto over enough to justify Matsumoto talking her way into Kong's new group. Kong formed this army with Leader Ran Yu-Yu, Captain AKINO, and Queen Manami Toyota after the match. They gave Matsumoto a bit of trouble before accepting her, then Aja jokingly named her the group's Ace. *1/2
KAORU vs. Sonoko Kato 13:10 of 16:49. With the rest of D-FIX banned, Kato was able to brawl with KAORU without having to worry about the short arm of the law. Though she jumped KAORU at the bell and took it to the outside, she soon decided this wasn't the best tactic, and although Kato bled and KAORU loves her table halves, it wound up mostly being a straight match. Kato was always a step ahead with KAORU making comebacks to more or less even the match. What I liked about it was Kato did a good job of keeping things under control. The pace was slower, so the selling was better, and the action was generally more restrained. I thought this would have been a good opportunity to justify Kato upsetting KAORU. **1/4
Chikayo Nagashima & Hiren vs. Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai 15:45 of 16:52. Nagashima recruited Hiren from SENDAI GIRLS. Hiren has only been wrestling two years, but she fit in with the style Nagashima & Amano are trying to wrestle well enough. She has the athleticism, but needs to improve the quickness and fluidity of her sequences. Of course, simply getting enough opportunity to become familiar with the opposition will make a great deal of difference in her future ability to work with them. Nagashima vs. Amano was the main entertainment, but Hiren & Kansai at least contributed. Hiren was holding Kansai off for quite a while as Nagashima tried to finish Amano, but when Nagashima hit her rolling footstomp, Hiren began stomping her own partner to break up the pin! Suddenly, the lights went out and when they came back on, Nagashima was handcuffed and the banned D-FIX wrestlers were doing a number on Amano. Ozaki & Police beat on Amano until Hiren was able to pin her then Ozaki announced Hiren was the newest member of D-FIX. The match would have been a nice opener, but would have been hard to get excited about as a main event if they went all out for 25 minutes, much less when they were simply doing enough to get it near the finish so the angle could prevent just that. Ozaki needs to stop watching WWE! **1/4
