Zero1 Presents: Dream Series, Sozo no Jin

Alright, its been a month and a half since I reviewed anything. So it's time to get back into the swing of things. I have 50 days worth of All, New, and NOAH to catch up on ( still trying to figure out how I'm presenting all of that), but I figured before I publish my thoughts on all of that, I could take a few days to review one of my new favorite follows, Zero1. If you go back to my first Zero1 review, I really enjoyed what I found, walking in practically blind. So was the follow up show just as good?
 Better?
Horrendous?
Let's find out.

Highlights of Yoshikazu Yokoyama vs. Shoki Kitamura
 Yokoyama has the worst hair ever. It's like some strange lovechild of a Pompadour and a Mullet. I mentioned in the review for the New Year's show that there was obviously some joke I was missing with Yokoyama, and I was so right. He's basically the parts of Ryuske Taguchi and Tichi that no one likes and cranks it to 12. He's cocky and loudmouthed but is beyond satirical in how much he can't back it up. You may think this sounds terrible, but it works so well here/ Kitamura took it to him, including the goddamndest spear you've ever seen in your life from a Young Boy, before Yokoyama hurriedly cut him off and tapped him a Camel Clutch. Shoki joins Kohei Sato and Tomoyuki Oka  as my favorite Young Boys right now.

Highlights of TARU, KAMIKAZE, Hartley Jackson & Chris Vice vs. Super Tiger, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Shoji Fukushima & Towa Iwasaki
The entire segment was just to show off VooDoo Murder's shiny new toy, Vice. Opening slaughtering of a Young Boy lead to the ending minute of the match with a Package Piledriver from hell on Iwasaki. Iwasaki is currently not one of my favorite Young Boys right now.

NWA Light Heavyweight Tag Championship Match [1st Defense]
SUGI and Masamune (c) vs. Takuya Sugawa and ASUKA (Voodoo Murders)
This match was an ASUKA showcase. At only 19 she seems very comfortable in the ring, able to keep pace with SUGI very well. She has years to go to get better in the ring and I believe she can. SUGI, by the way, was in the match what seemed like the entire time. Unless Masamune's time in the ring was cut somewhere in the middle, he started, took the heat and made the comeback with Masamune's help from the outside all on his own. Fitting with the theme of the whole match, SUGI pinned ASUKA after a rope run dropkick, with an implosion 450. Tough luck to ASUKA and...whoever her partner was.
**1/4, it got across what it needed to as a match, but wasn't much beyond that. I'm still smitten with ASUKA.

Shinjiro Otani and Naomichi Marufuji vs. Ikuto Hidaka and Yuko Miyamoto
An anniversary match for the founding of the company, we had three longtime mainstays in the company, and one of the best workers in Japan. Marufuji is, you may be surprised, very good at what he does, and it especially showed here. Not to take anything away from his opponents or partner, who were all putting in the effort they could Otani is great for his age, still surprising me with how quick he can move, with Hidaka and Miyamoto holding up their own well enough. The crowd was fucking wild for this match, and were really into the whole show, given how relatively unpacked the Hall was. There was one of my favorite spots in wrestling early, with Marufuji and Otani taking turns seeing who could hit Miyamoto the hardest, besides other good teamwork. Their opponents, however, had a harder time working together. They'd get in each others way to pose, or using their partner as a makeshift turnbuckle for kickoff oriented moves. The NOAH Ace ended the match with a Shiranui on Hidaka, capping a fun outing. This left room for a Marufuji/Miyamoto match being teased pretty heavy, which would be really fun.
**3/4

NWA World Junior & International Junior Double Championship Match [Second Defense]
Sean Guinness (c) vs. Isami Kodaka
As Andre The Giant once exclaimed, this contest was sportsmanlike. I've mentioned Guinness before, but haven't gotten the chance to talk about Kodaka. He is a man I once described as "looking like a warrior descending from the goddamn mountains, with a ladder over one shoulder and the Strongest-K Championship in the opposite hand". Both men are very good mechanically, but there was very little emotion present between the two. I've seen Guinness do better, and Kodaka's reputation tells me he can as well. After weathering a storm of offense from the champion, Isami brought his opponent to his knees to finish him with a Buzzsaw Kick followed by a superkick. He seemed surprised he won, and looks very tired of carrying belts around.
**1/4, I wonder if Billy Corgan even knows that these belts exist?

NWA Intercontinental Tag Championship Match [2nd Defense]
Shogun Okamoto and Yutaka Yoshie (c) vs. Masato Tanaka and Yuji Hino (Voodoo Murders)
I love Yutaka Yoshie, Yuji Hino is growing on me, and Masato Tanaka is one of the big reasons I even started watching Puro in the first place. So I really don't know why I wasn't expecting as much as I got out of this match. It fucking ruled. In the opening, the entirety of the Voodoo Murders enacted a gang beating on Shogun. If you think Marty, Tiger, and Red Shoes are incompetent, then you haven't seen the wild fucking west that is Zero1. A table, several boots, and what I only hope is a Kendo Stick and not an actual sheathed katana took Okamoto to town. Yuji and Masato beat on the poor man forever, before Yutaka got the Flying Pink Tag and ran wild on Yuji. Well, as wild as you can at his size. After a glorious, rolling hot tag, Masato and Yutaka went at it for a minute of beauty. The breakdown began, including a Falcon Arrow from Okamoto, however he did not sit down on it. Marks off for improper technique. At one point, the champions each took an opposite corner, with Yuji in the middle. When the challenger got up, and realized where he was, he had no choice but to shout in fear and inevitability as he was crushed by his foes. I loved this the way I love Space Mutiny. Masato helped his partner kick out of the death move, and interrupted Yutaka on the top rope, before Yuji nailed Okamoto with, and I wish I could make this up, The Fucking Bomb for the win and the titles. Long live Voodoo Murders, and may their reign last until 2020.
***3/4

Zero1 World Heavyweight Championship Match [3rd Defense]
Yusaku Obata (c) vs Kohei Sato
Fucking hell, I should have liked this match more. Kohei was a killer of men, or man in this case. I think his true badassery was concealed in January by the sheer aura of Hideki Suzuki as his partner. He murdered Yusaku for the first few minutes of this match. This was fun, plus Kohei hit, in fact,  Two Falcon Arrows, one from the Top Rope. The champion himself hit some variant of the move, with a Fisherman's leg hook.
So why didn't I like this match?
Well, Obata didn't come off as a strong champion. the video package before showed how he had gone to two draws with both members of Yankee Two Kenju (Miyamoto and Kodaka). Onewas  a Double knock via explosion and the other a time limit Draw. So he wasn't presented as being strong, and his performance did not help change that perception. He had bursts of action, enough to match the hard hitting style of Sato, but in the end we hit on one of my pet peeves in all of Pro Wrestling. The two exchanged headbutts, which looked pretty safe, until Obata simply strode across the ring and cracked his skull into Kohei's. There was a goddamn divet in the challenger's forehead, which was itself swollen and red. We don't fucking need this. You're not convincing anyone you're tough or that wrestling is real. It's just shortening you and your opponent's career. After that, thank God a pair of Diving knees ended the match. A downer to an otherwise fun show.
***1/4, but I reserve the right to go back and rerate the match. 

So, did this show hold up the momentum of the New Year's Show?

Ehh?
It was definitely fun, I enjoyed most everything I saw. But many of the matches were simply harmless, a few of them not really worth watching and would have been better being strictly hilights. But the Tag Title match was really fun, and as a Strong style match, the Main Event was good, despite the headbutts. If you're looking for something different, and have a few hours to kill, I wouldn't say no to this show.

Thanks for reading! I'm glad that I can turn my passion for wrestling into something that so many people enjoy. If you want to get regular updates on when I release more reviews, you can follow me at Twitter at @LSWayne21. And if you're still looking for your fix on wrestling, check out Enuffa.com, where I got my start in reviewing and still contribute from time to time. You can find this, and more Japanese wrestling, at Puroresu Dream, found here.
See you down the Road.