SMASH 4 6/25/2010

- Yusuke Kodama vs Akira

Typical vet vs rookie match. Kodama got to show off a little bit and looked the best he has in any outing so far, still a long long ways to go but he showed a tiny bit of potential atleast.

- Mentallo & Akira Shoji vs Kim Numpum & Yun Gang Chul

Good god, between pre match hype video, entrances, a LONG ass Numpum pre match promo, the match itself, and more talking from Numpum post match this got almost 30 mins of tv time. Was dreading this going in but the match itself was actually kind of decent, Yun Gang was working a 14th rate Kinya Oyanagei time travling saluting soldier gimmick. While not what I would call good, he was passable enough and could do a few simple basic things well and a few not so simple things sloppily. Crushed poor Mentallo's face trying to do a twisting senton. Numpum larely stayed out of the action and when he was in he didn't look like the absolute worst wrestler in existence this time. Mentallo was really the glue that held this together even though Shoji/Kim was the focus and he got the big win over Yun Gang with a moonsault.

- Isami vs Kushida

Modern hardcore match with Isami Claus brining Kushida some presents in the form of ladders and barbed wire boards. Gotta say I like Kushida a lot more in this environment. Not necesarily as a hardcore wrestler, but just as a guy with a bit of an edge. As I said in my SMASH 3 review, he's 10 kinds of generic when he's trying to work your usual spotty jr match but he's far more interesting as a dude in a fight for his life against a mad man or even as in the role of Robert Gibson waiting for hot tag like he was playing on Smash 2. A few minor anoyances in this, Kushida didn't put over the few hardcore bumps he took that well near the end and he tried to turn it a litte too much into your typical jr style match but still, Isami brought out the best in him here and overall I liked this match a lot.


Side tanget #1. Gotta say Isami doing the "i'm gonna injure myself to injure my opponent and show you how tough and crazy I am" stuff really doesn't work well for him. Jun Kasai for example can do that kind of stuff and pull it off because you buy that he's that nuts and gets off on the punishment, with Isami it just sorta seems stupid.

Side tanget #2, weird as hell seeing Esui working ring crew duty on these shows since she retired from wrestling before SMASH even started. I totally forgot they had an MMA division that she ended up hooking up with.

Side tanget #3, I never want to see a close up of Tajiri talking in random outdoor settings again in my life.

Side tanget #4, Starbuck is the spitting image of Balls Mahoney if he were a little skinier and had all his teeth, upon first glance before I knew who it was I totally thought he was Balls.

Side tanget #5. I really dig when promotions have ending theme songs for their tv shows, FMW using "Blind Faith" circa 97 was my fave. SMASH using "Auld Lang Syne" is a really weird choice but somehow is fitting.

- Lin Bairon, Tajiri & Hajime Ohara vs Jessica Love, Stark Adder & Haijy Heimo Ukonselka

By the standards of Tajiri, Lin & even Ohara this was an off night sorta. No one looked bad or even close to it but they didn't bring their A game either. Lin especially toned down her act and didn't try anything too fancy which was probably for the best given her oppoents. She even had a rare botch as she messed up a 619 atempt. Still, this match was more about showing off the new comers anyways and on that end it actually did deliver. I made it 10 seconds into Jessica Love, heard his stupid moaning and decided i'd FF through all of his parts, the other 2 I was pretty impressed with. Finnish Viking Warrior Haijy immediatly won me over by playing air guitar with his giant Axe during the entrance, Finnish cave man Stark Adder had me fantasy booking in my mind how awesome it would be if Tajiri dug up Yone & Tsubo Genjin to take these guys on or called in another WWE favor and brought over the Highlanders. Ah, good times to be had thear. Wrestling wise they were about as good as to be exspected, I mean, you don't really want intricate technical holds from your wrestling cave men & vikings, you want clubering brutish madness and that's what we got so I was happy. Fun match. FCF is 2 for 2 in the love/hate column with me now, Starbuck's coming next month to be the tie breaker. Toshie Uematsu's also coming next month, yay.

- Shuri vs Kana

It's funny, when it comes to the subject of Kana and her working stiff, it was never so much that she worked stiff that bothered me, it was always more that she worked stiff in an era whear it's not done that often against people who clearly aren't into/used to working that style so a lot of the time it just felt uncomfortable to watch. Here she's up against the former Karate girl, a chick with a legit MMA background and what does Kana do? She 100% pulls her punches and works lighter then i've seen her do in ages. Not complaining either, just something I got a kick out of. She was great here and I much prefer this to seeing her play nise Hotta. Match was awesome, they did a great job of making this seem like a big deal with all the pre match hype vids and they kept that vibe up for the entire match. There was a hint of hatred in the air but it was more about "i'm going to prove i'm better then you" then "i'm going to punch your face in". Bulk of the match was built around really agressive mat work mixed in with some very impressive kick exchanges. Loved the selling in this too as both did a good job of putting over the fatigue from how hard they were fighting as the match went on. In the end it comes down to a strike battle and KG Shuri gets the huge win with a kick to the head knocking Kana out long enough to score her the pin. I remember last year when I read the result of this match my reaction was "WTF, really?" but seeing it now, Shuri def deserved the win as she steped her game up big time for this match and looked every bit like someone on Kana's level. Post match is great with Shuri sheding tears of joy and celbrating while Kana slowly walks off with an "I can't believe that happened" look on her face, mid way through leaving she stops, glances back and flashes a brief tiny evil looking smile as if to say "i'm going to kill you for this". Awesome stuff, i'm surprised Kana had a moment like that in her. Easily one of my favorite matches from 2010.

A nice bit of redemption for SMASH after the horribleness of their last show. The good was really good and the suck didn't suck as much as I thought it would.