Hoshikawa vs. Takaiwa – Zero 1 9/1/2001

Man was this ever a WAR. I adored how they went from competitive technical wrestling feeling out process to hate-filled killfest – you see they were rolling around for a bit and it kind of went to a neutral stalemate and they both ended up back on their feet. Then Hoshi kicked the leg out of Takaiwa’s leg as hard as possible and Takaiwa stopped and gave him a GLARE! Hoshi’s response to the glare was a second kick. Takaiwa gave him another glare which clearly said “are you SURE you wanna do this mate?”. Hoshi’s answer was a definitive “you bet your ass I’m sure” in the form of another evil kick. Then it was ON.

Takaiwa brought it back harder with chops and forearms and soon he had the advantage. He detroyed Hoshi with such things as a powerbomb on the outside, a big superplex and many lariats. But Naohiro Hoshikawa, even when slightly outmatched, is not a man to take an ass-kicking lying down. He came back with his trusty enzigiuris, the missile topé and his seated dropkick of facebreaking murder. Takaiwa almost seals the deal with a German that STICKS Hoshi into the mat. After that miraculous kickout Hoshi is in survival mode, feeding off adrenaline. A couple of big lariats later though and he is out for the count.

Real good match. ****

Kikuchi vs Hoshikawa, Zero-One 1/6/02

This was either the greatest or worst match I’ve ever seen. Let me explain what happened. These two men started fighting hard from the get-go, it spilled to the outside, Hoshi did the sickest topé ever and put Kikuchi back in the ring. Then things got …… interesting…

Kikuchi took a unique fighting stance – he sat in the middle of the ring like a big lump and would not move or sell for what felt like 2 days. He sat there expressionless daring Hoshikawa to hit him harder. And Hoshikawa was KILLING HIM with low dropkicks, kicks and forearms. But nothing. Kikuchi just sat there. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

Eventually things went back to “normal” but honestly I’d hardly call anything about this match normal. It was mainly Hoshi in control for the rest of the match, but then he hit a sweet German and Kikuchi just grabbed a sick Kimura and got the win out of nowhere. They kept fighting post-match.

I couldn’t possibly rate this. But you have to watch it.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS