April 15-17, 2011 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Akira Tozawa, Super Shisa & KAGETORA vs. Hallowicked, Frightmare & UltraMantis Black [Round One Match]
Tozawa and Frightmare start. They run through the usual until Frightmare screams at Tozawa. He hits a head scissor takedown. Black hits KAGETORA with a shoulder tackle. KAGETORA hits a dropkick. Mike Quackenbush calling Tozawa a rookie on commentary drives me nuts. Tozawa has been wrestling over five years. Shisa hits Hallowicked with a dropkick. He ties Black and Frightmare in a single abdominal stretch. Tozawa dropkicks Frighmare’s face. KAGETORA hits a dragon screw. He hits the KneeDT. Holy crap Quackenbush’s nerdy and pretentious commentary is just AWFUL. Tozawa hits a senton on Frightmare. He blocks a crossbody with his knees. That gets 2. Shisa puts on the Romero Special. KAGETORA hits a dropkick. Tozawa lays into Frightmare with elbows. Frightmare hits a DDT. Hallowicked hits KAGETORA with a head scissor takedown. Frightmare hits a neckbreaker. He hits a very pretty tope. Hallowicked hits Shisa with Go2Sleepy Hallow. He hits a knee kick. Shisa hits a splash for 2. Hallowicked hits the Rydeen Bomb for 2. KAGETORA hits Black with the Hangetsu. He hits an enziguiri for 2. Black hits the Cosmic Doom for 2. Tozawa hits the bicycle kick. He hits a backdrop driver for 2. He misses the Apron Kara Tozawa and a senton attempt hits Black’s knees. The Spectral Envoy hit a Doomsday Device for 2. Shisa hits Frightmare with a head scissor takedown. Tozawa hits the Apron Kara Tozawa. KAGETORA hits the Genkonitekki for 2. He and Tozawa kick the crap out of Frightmare. Tozawa hits the German suplex. He hits Hallowicked and Black with a suicide dive. Shisa hits Frightmare with the Yoshi Tonic for the win at 13:34. That was about as good as the stuff you’d see on a good episode of Infinity. Props to the Chikara guys for keeping up with the pace.
Rating: ***½
Akira Tozawa, Super Shisa & KAGETORA vs. Ophidian, Amasis & Hieracon [Quarterfinal Match]
Shisa and Hieracon start. They do the usual until they reach a stalemate. KAGETORA hits Amasis with a shoulder tackle. Amasis hits a clothesline and a dropkick. He hits a leg lariat. Tozawa hits Ophidian with a bicycle kick. He hits a dropkick. He teases Ophidian so Amasis jumps on his back. The Osirian Portal work over Shisa’s arm. Hieracon puts on a chinlock. Ophidian rolls him up for 2. KAGETORA hits the KneeDT. Tozawa blocks Amasis’ crossbody with his knees. Shisa hits a dropkick for 2. Tozawa hits a senton for 2. Shisa puts on the Romero Special. KAGETORA hits a dropkick for 2. He hits an enziguiri. He puts on a cloverleaf. Amasis hits the leaping shoulder tackle. Hieracon hits Tozawa with a back heel kick. Tozawa nails Shisa by mistake. Hieracon forces Shisa to hit Tozawa with a dragon screw. He hits Shisa with a German suplex while rolling Tozawa up for 2. KAGETORA hits him with an enziguiri. Hieracon hits a stunner and a standing SSP. He puts on the cross armbreaker but Shisa makes the save. Shisa hits Amasis with a splash for 2. Amasis hits an enziguiri. They trade roll ups. Shisa hits a piledriver for 2. He puts on the STF but Ophidian makes the save. Tozawa misses the Apron Kara Tozawa but hits a bicycle kick. Ophidian hits a thrust kick. He hits a roundhouse kick on KAGETORA and Shisa. He hits them with a plancha. Hieracon hits Tozawa with an enziguiri. Amasis hits a spinebuster. Ophidian hits a senton for 2. Shisa hits Amasis with a head scissor takedown. KAGETORA hits the Genkonitekki for 2. Tozawa hits the bicycle kick. He hits a backdrop driver for 2. Hieracon hits a DDT. KAGETORA hits a leg lariat. Ophidian takes him down with kicks. Shisa hits a missile dropkick. Amasis hits an enziguiri. Shisa hits a dropkick. Ophidian hits the Superdrol to save Amasis from the Yoshi Tonic. The Portal triple-teams Shisa. Ophidian hits the Duat Driver and Amasis hits a 450 splash fo the win at 21:08. The first half of the match wasn’t much of anything. The second half was better, but didn’t make up for the ten minutes I wasted watching the first. Hieracon was impressive, even if he does look small enough to be a little person.
Rating: **¾
Super Shisa & KAGETORA vs. Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada [Tag Team Gauntlet FInals]
So the deal here is that this is the last segment of a tag team gauntlet match. The full match went something like forty minutes. Kotoge & Harada came in late in the match and defeated the teams of Brodie Lee & Grizzly Redwood and Scott Parker & Shane Matthews. Shisa and KAGETORA were the last entrants and were fresh, though Harada & Kotoge had only wrestled about four minutes before this. Since both teams are pretty fresh and I don’t have much interest in the rest of the segments, this is all I’m reviewing. Kotoge is down when Shisa and KAGETORA attack. Kotoge is exhausted. KAGETORA hits an enziguiri. Kotoge hits a hurricanrana. Harada tags in and hits a clothesline. He suplexes KAGETORA into Shisa. He hits Shisa with a vertical suplex. He hits a double stomp for 2. Shisa puts on the STF. KAGETORA stretches Kotoge. Kotoge fights out and saves Harada. He kicks KAGETORA. He hits a headbutt. He hits a springboard frog splash for 2. KAGETORA hits a spin kick. He hits an enziguiri for 2. He hits a dropkick. Shisa hits a missile dropkick for 2. Harada hits Shisa with a bodyslam after a double stomp assist from Kotoge. Harada hits a roaring elbow and a DVD between kicks from Kotoge. That gets the win at 7:03, but the finish has no fire because Shisa kicked out. I’m thinking that was not supposed to be the finish. Awkwardness ruined the finish to what was otherwise a decent final segment to the match.
Rating: **
Akira Tozawa vs. Eddie Kingston
Kingston goes after the arm to start. They trade chops. Kingston knocks Tozawa to the floor with an elbow. Tozawa kicks him to block a dive. He stomps Kingston down in the corner. Kingston hits a belly-to-belly suplex. Given the size of Kingston’s belly Tozawa must be in a lot of pain. He puts on a chinlock. He hits a double stomp for 2. He puts on the Stretch Plum. Tozawa gets to the ropes. He hits a northern lights suplex for 2. He avoids the bicycle kick. Tozawa hits a baseball slide. He hits the double suicide dive. He hits a somersault off the apron. He misses the Apron Kara Tozawa but hits a senton for 2. He hits a backdrop driver for 2. He misses a bicycle kick and Kingston hits a straightjacket suplex for 2. He hits a Northern Lights Bomb for 2. Tozawa finally hits the bicycle kick. He hits another to the back of the head and a German suplex. Kingston hits a lariat. He hits the Sliding D for 2. Tozawa hits another bicycle kick. He hits a ton of elbows. Kingston hits the backfist and a backdrop driver for the win at 12:47. This wasn’t the special outing in the mold of Tozawa vs. Kevin Steen that everyone was hoping for, but it was a solid back-and-forth match nonetheless. Kingston wisely shows Tozawa respect after the match; wise because Tozawa is over as hell and getting the mutual respect back is good for him.
Rating: ***