ZIP JAPAN put on a small house show last night at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium. I'm just going to give a quick write up of the results this time around, as there's lots going on right now with the big DOJO show coming up. Of course BobStar will share his thoughts on last night's event also.
-Donnie Doogan vs Johnny Jobber-Result - Donnie Doogan (pin) - Doogan Hammer II at 7:45
A dominant return match for Doogan, just back from a long injury layoff. The fans still think he's a moron, though.
Junior Battle Royal
-Minoru Hoshino vs Super Scorpio vs Tora Katsu vs ECKO-Result - Hoshino (pin) - Burn Out at 27:31
Awesome match. Tora Katsu eliminated Super Scorpio (Death Valley Driver) and ECKO (Styles' Crush), and looked very good in the process. However, he was eliminated himself by Hoshino a few minutes later.
Jimmy Nails came the ring, with his arm in a sling and cut the following promo:
It's been a few weeks, and my shoulder is nearly back to 100%. Mickey's head is healing nicely, too. Thank you to the fans who have sent us card and letters, we appreciate it, and we should both be ready for action in another couple of weeks. Sawada, Kobayashi, you guys are officially on notice. We're going to kick your heads in. We don't care about the ZIP JAPAN Titles right now, so don't think dropping them to Kodo and Nakajima will save your asses. You bastards put our livelihoods on the line, and that's not cool. We owe you two some retribution, and we're going to punish you. Severely. See you soon.
-Darkness HAGE/Satoshi Iguchi vs Justin Starr/TheDenizen-Result - No Contest
This match never even officially got underway, all four men started brawling at ringside before the bell. After a few minutes of unsuccessfully trying to separate the wrestlers, the match was thrown out by Tomi ZIP.
-Mr. Suplex vs Shoji Tatami-Result - Mr. Suplex (pin) - Release German -> Pin at 14:56
Genki Raiga was at ringside for this match, his face still partially bandaged after suffering burns at the last show. Raiga looked on sternly as Mr. Suplex was bloodied early by a vicious scythe attack, and merely folded his arms when Mr. Suplex mounted a strong comeback for the victory.
-Sawada/Kobayashi/Mad Bomber/Yamamoto vs Kodo/Nakajima/Tanabe/Shimura-Result - Sawada/Kobayashi/Mad Bomber/Yamamoto (KO) - Mad Rush Powerbomb at 31:10
Brutal, hard hitting action in this stiff match. Mad Bomber eventually secured victory for his team when he nailed his finisher on Daisuke Shimura, resulting in a KO.
-White Trash vs Jiro Kaneko-Result - Jiro Kaneko (pin) - Minoru Cutter -> pin at 9:28
White Trash had this match seemingly won after hitting a Canadian Destroyer, but Suki ZIP gave a slow count which allowed Jiro to kick out. When Jiro followed up a Minoru Cutter with a pin attempt, Suki gave a very quick count for the pinfall on White Trash. Reiko ZIP came running out to confront Suki in the ring, and before long, Suki and Reiko were fighting and White Trash attacked Jiro as well. It turned into a big brawl that required the intervention of security to break up.
-Gorobei/Akira Shinjo vs Jumbo Jinzei/Kintaro-Result - Gorobei/Akira Shinjo (pin) - The Spin Cycle -> pin at 13:39
This was a rematch from the last show, but the results were quite different this time. Having been named #1 contender, Jumbo didn't seem very willing to risk being hurt, and simply walked out on his partner during the match and returned to the locker room. Left on his own, Kintaro couldn't cope with Gorobei and Shinjo.
BobStar's Thoughts: It was a nice event tonight, but it seemed like something was missing. The crowd never really got into the first match since Donnie Doogan acts like such an arrogant fool. This resulted in a very awkward match that set the tone for the rest of the night. Sure, we were treated with some great matches afterwards: especially the junior battle royal. That was an epic battle right from the start, I'm sure that ZIP JAPAN gained some new fans with this match! The fans were also very exicted with the 6-man tag team match, I could feel the energy. There was a strange energy running therough the crowd before the tag team match with Darkness HAGE: We were expecting to see a brillant, technical match, but all we got was a vicious brawl. It never really became a proper match and you could feel the disapointment in the arena. Then there was the last match. This one was a bit of a mixed feeling: I sensed that the crowd was pleased with the result, but that they were also a bit of angry that Jinzei wasn't giving his best. King ZIP achieved something tonight though: the world is anxious to see what will happen next!
TheDenizen's Thoughts: I agree with BobStar's assessment, there was a weird feeling running through the locker room as well, all night long, everyone seemed just a bit off their game. It was a surreal way to end the night, seeing Jinzei walk out on his match, and seeing Suki and Reiko ZIP scrapping with each other! It was good to see Jimmy Nails back, though, and it was nice to get to spill a bit of Satoshi Iguchi's blood in our pull apart brawl. I can't wait to see how King ZIP books the next card, it's going to ba an important show at Wonderland's DOJO.
The DOJO event will be this Thursday, April 10. See you there!
