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Apache Pro "November Rain"
review by Kevin Wilson Date: November 2nd, 2006 Since I would like to have at least one review for each promotion I have listed on the site, I decided to review this short Apache Pro show so that they would get some love too. Apache Pro is an independent promotion run by Kintaro Kanemura (as far as I understand) with his main supporting cast being Jun Kasai, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Mammoth Sasaki, and GENTARO. They use a lot of Freelancers (especially wrestlers from Big Japan) and also for bigger shows get a wrestler or two from one of the larger promotions. During the fall of 2006 the entire promotion was feuding with Togi Makabe from New Japan. Makabe's faction GBH joined him here to face off against Apache Pro's best in the main event, as Tenzan enters Apache Pro for the first time. The event is clipped to fit into an hour (major clippage for the first three and very minor clippage for the last two), here is the card: - Shinjuku Shark, NOSAWA, and Yamagata vs. T. Hashimoto, Killer MIYAWAKI, and Naoshi Sano The first three matches are clipped pretty good, so lets just breeze through those. Shinjuku Shark, NOSAWA Rongai, and Yamagata vs. Hashimoto, MIYAWAKI, and Naoshi Sano
Match Thoughts: Who the hell are these people? Anyway, this was clipped from 16 minutes to a minute and a half, so not much to really say. Yamagata is pretty cute for a girl that could kick my ass. She took a good bump to the floor even though Shark gave her the weakest push ever. I shudder to think what this match would be like in its entirety. Score: N/A BADBOY Hido and The Winger vs. Tomoaki Honma and Saburo Inematsu
Match Thoughts: Nice to see Honma back, I actually wish that more of this match was shown as for some reason I have always liked Winger and Honma is a very solid wrestler. As it was it has hard to get a feel for it, although I am sure that Hido pulled it down with his slow predictable offense. Seemed fine though. Score: N/A GENTARO vs. Hi69
Match Thoughts: Two minutes was a perfectly acceptable amount of time to show of this match. Although I did like that back bodydrop into a Michinoku Driver. Score: N/A Jun Kasai vs. Takashi Sasaki
Sasaki hits Kasai in the head with a piece of board before connecting with a running kick to the head. Scoop slam by Sasaki and he lays the ladder in the corner. He then climbs up the corner but Kasai is up and dropkicks the ladder onto him. Kasai then lays the ladder on the mat, goes up top with Sasaki and hits a Frankensteiner, sending Sasaki into the ladder. Kasai gets the ladder again and rams Sasaki with it, double armed facebuster by Kasai into the ladder but it only gets a two count. Back up, scoop slam by Kasai, he goes up to the top turnbuckle but Sasaki gets his knees up when he goes for the Pearl Harbor Splash. Kicks by Sasaki and he gets a few chairs from ringside. Sasaki sets the chairs up and puts the glass panel between them, he then grabs Kasai and powerbombs him into the glass. D-Geist by Sasaki into the glass panel, cover, but it gets a two count. Sasaki props the other panel against Kasai but Kasai gets up and kicks Sasaki back. Kasai tries to hit Sasaki with the glass but Sasaki grabs it back and hits Kasai repeatedly with it. Kick by Sasaki, he waits for Kasai to get back up and delivers the lariat. Cover, but it gets a two count. Scoop slam by Sasaki in front of the corner and he sets up two chairs around Kasai. He then sets a glass panel over Kasai, bridging the chairs. Sasaki goes up to the top turnbuckle but Kasai is back up and joins him on the turnbuckle. Kasai then superplexes Sasaki through the glass panel, cover, but it gets a two count. Kasai grabs Sasaki and goes for dragon suplex, that gets blocked, but then he hits a German suplex hold for a two count cover. Kasai picks up Sasaki and goes for the D-Geist, but Sasaki blocks it and hits a dragon suplex. Kasai ducks Sasaki's lariat attempt and hits a enzigieri. Shiranui by Kasai, cover, but Sasaki kicks out. Kasai sets up the ladder and scoop slams Sasaki in front of it before piling glass panels and a barbed wire board on top of him. Kasai then goes to the top of the ladder and hits the Pearl Harbor Splash down onto Sasaki. Cover, and he picks up the three count! Your winner: Jun Kasai Match Thoughts: This wasn't bad. I know its safer, but since we obviously aren't really concerned with their safety I don't particular like the new glass panels they use now. They don't explode prettily like real glass and really don't look near as painful. The carnage was high enough to make the match entertaining but not enough to out-shine the main event, which was probably the idea. Kasai is the king of taking a minute to set up one spot but he only did it a few times here and generally they kept things flowing. Besides that gripe they kept things interesting and I was surprised to see Kasai pick up the victory. It was different since it wasn't light tube oriented, I'll give them credit for that, and while it wasn't prefect it was pretty entertaining. Score: 6.5 Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Makabe, and Shiro Koshinaka vs. Kanemura, Kuroda, and Mammoth Sasaki
This leads to another melee, GBH get their opponents in the corners and Irish whip them into each other before knocking all three to the mat. Tenzan headbutts Kuroda in the back and hits another standing chop. Tenzan tags in Koshinaka before beating down both Kanemura and Sasaki in the corner. Irish whip by Koshinaka onto Kuroda, but Kuroda avoids Tenzan's lariat attempt. Koshinaka holds Kuroda for Tenzan but Kuroda moves and Tenzan ends up hitting Koshinaka. Low blow by Kuroda onto Tenzan and he makes the tag to Kanemura. Scoop slams by Kanemura and he hits a roaring elbow onto Makabe. Kanemura slams Makabe in front of the corner and goes for a second turnbuckle moonsault, but Makabe moves out of the way. DDT into his knee by Kanemura and he hits a bridged half hatch suplex for a two count. Kuroda goes up to the top turnbuckle as Kanemura tags him, Kanemura hits a second turnbuckle moonsault and Kuroda hits a diving elbow for a two count. Kuroda calls for the lariat and goes off the ropes, but Koshinaka knees him from the apron. Irish whip by Koshinaka from the corner, reversed, and Kuroda hits a lariat. Kuroda goes up to the top turnbuckle and guillotines Koshinaka onto the top rope, he then hits a Shining Wizard onto Makabe for a two count. Kanemura comes in the ring and they go for a double suplex, but Koshinaka and Tenzan get involved and they end up suplexing Kanemura and Kuroda. Sasaki comes in the ring with a piece of table however and knocks out all three members of GBH. Chokeslam by Sasaki onto Koshinaka, Tenzan hits a few chops but Sasaki boots him back. Mammoth Home Run to Tenzan, Makabe runs up but Sasaki powerbombs him to the mat. Makabe gets his chain and hits Sasaki with it, he goes for a second punch but Sasaki blocks it. Sasaki puts Makabe onto the top turnbuckle and joins him, but Koshinaka comes up to try to help. Kuroda grabs him as all six men are now in the corner struggling for position, but Tenzan powerbombs Sasaki for a two count. Kanemura comes in the ring but Tenzan catches him with a Mountain Bomb. Makabe and Sasaki are back in the ring, Sasaki absorbs two Makabe lariats but a hip attacks sends him to the mat. Makabe waits for Sasaki to get up and hits a lariat, cover, but it gets a two count. Tenzan goes to Sasaki and hits the TTD, he then headbutts Kanemura and delivers a side-grip slam. Makabe wraps the chain around his arm, goes off the ropes, and hits a lariat onto Sasaki. Cover, and he picks up the three count! Your winners: Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Makabe, and Shiro Koshinaka Match Thoughts: The crowd heat really made this match, as without it would have just been your normal above-average main event brawl. Mammoth came out of this looking really good, as even though he got pinned he no-sold a lot of GBH's main offense and at one point was single-handedly beating all three of them up. Actually, GBH did a good job making their opponents look they really could win, which says a lot as New Japan didn't have to give a small promotion like Apache Pro anything at all. Makabe really didn't do much here, but since he wasn't the special attraction it made sense that Tenzan would control the action. Tenzan really doesn't have good beatdown offense however so the middle portion plodded along a bit, as there are only so many variations of chops and headbutts one can do. Business picked back up after Kuroda's hot tag however and they didn't stop from there until the bell rang. As I mentioned, the crowd was molten for this and the atmosphere really helped the match. Overall it was quite enjoyable, as its fun seeing my favorite indy wrestlers kicking ass against New Japan's big boys, even if GBH did come out on top. Score: 7.5 Final Thoughts: As far as small-time indys go, Apache Pro is one of the best when they put on their big shows. They got a huge boost from New Japan in 2006 to really put them on the map, but even without New Japan's help they have a solid roster. Course most of the main wrestlers are primarily Big Japan wrestlers since Big Japan runs more often, but that doesn't take away the fact that Apache Pro puts on fun events. The main event is definitely worth watching as even though there are better brawls out there, between the star power and the crowd's reaction the match is definitely worth a view. The semi-main was very solid, but the rest of the matches were too clipped to matter. Hour long shows are hard to recommend, but if you aren't real familiar with Apache Pro then this would be a good event to track down to get a glimpse at what the promotion is capable of. Recommended
event reviewed on 10/06/07 |
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