Secret Base: Volume 2

Yikes.

To call Secret Base a stripped down version of the previous Live Door projects would be an understatement. El Dorado lost Aagan Iisou in late August 2008, and then sputtered along for the remainder of the year. KAGETORA moved on to Dragon Gate, leaving the rest of the Toryumon X and Mexico graduates with nobody of name value to keep El Dorado going. So they set up Secret Base, which at first ran shows only in the Warabi City Isami Wrestle Budokan. For those familiar with the American indy scene, the vibe is similar to early Full Impact Pro, in that the crowds are incredibly small and the building is dark. There is only the hard camera, nothing recorded from ringside. I’m assuming the Live Door financial backing is gone. There is no commentary in Secret Base, so the silence of the crowd is even more deafening. Since I’m OCD I’ll be noting what class each wrestler graduated from when relevant. They key can be found at the end of the review.

March 27, 2009 – Warabi, Japan

Amigo Suzuki {TM} & Satoshi Kajiwara {TM} vs. Spark Aoki {TX} & Go {DG}
Kajiwara and Aoki start. They avoid each other’s strikes. Aoki goes after the arm. Go tags in and gets a takedown. Kajiwara puts on a leglock. Suzuki tags in and puts on a headlock. Aoki tags in and gets abused. Kajiwara puts on a camel clutch. Suzuki hits a backbreaker. Kajiwara hits a Tree of Woe dropkick for 2. Go tags in and cleans house. He hits Suzuki with one of the ugliest spinebusters I’ve ever seen, and then repeats the spot for 2. Suzuki hits a dropkick and a plancha. Aoki hits Kajiwara with a missile dropkick for 2. Kajiwara hits a leg lariat. He and Suzuki hit a double back elbow and a double-team facebuster. They hit dropkicks. Kajiwara hits a moonsault for 2. He dropkicks Go’s knee and hits an enziguiri. Go comes back with a spear. Suzuki hits a dropkick. Aoki hits knees to the face. Suzuki dropkicks his back in a dumb looking spot. He hits a Dominator for 2. He puts on a crossface for the win at 11:04. This was total crap, and I don’t even know who to blame. Go was sloppy, but it looked like Suzuki was sandbagging him. Aoki was his usual awkward self. I’m not sure what to make out of Kajiwara yet.
Rating: ½*

Emi Sakura & Chii Tomiya vs. Makoto & Hamuko Hoshi
As I watch no joshi whatsoever it took me an incredible amount of time to figure out who each girl here is. Sakura runs Ice Ribbon, and the rest of these girls are her students. Hoshi and Tomiya start. Ice Ribbon’s website says Tomiya was 19 during the time of this match, but I don’t buy it as she looks much younger. She puts on the body scissors. Hoshi rolls back for 2. Tomiya smacks her back. They trade awkward elbows. Tomiya gets a roll up for 2. Sakura tags in and hits a dropkick. She throws Hoshi across the ring by her pigtails. After a small battle she hits a shoulder tackle. She hits a bodyslam and a splash for 2. Hoshi comes back with an avalanche. She hits a bodyslam and a splash for 2. Makoto tags in and works the leg. Sakura returns the favor but Makoto gets to the ropes. Sakura puts on a Mexican surfboard. Tomiya tags in and gets caught with a crossbody. Hoshi tags in and hits a bodyslam and three butt splashes for 2. Tomiya gets a sunset flip for 2. He hits dropkicks that I hope made her feel ashamed of herself. She hits a few double stomps for 2. Hoshi slams her off the top rope. She hits a weird body block for 2. Makoto puts on a half crab. Tomiya comes back with a rear naked choke. Makoto counters to a cross armbreaker. Sakura makes the save. Tomiya gets a victory roll for 2. Makoto puts Sakura in a sleeper hold. She hits a crossbody in the corner. That was pretty cool. Makoto hits a snap suplex for 2. She hits a handspring kneedrop for 2. Hoshi hits a splash. She hits another off the second rope. Makoto hits a missile dropkick and Hoshi hits a third splash for 2. Sakura puts Hoshi in a heel hook but Hoshi gets to the ropes. Sakura puts on a figure 4 leglock. Makoto makes the save with a splash. She hits Hoshi by mistake. Tomiya botches a highspot and makes things far more dangerous than they needed to be. Sakura hits a splash for 2. She hits a senton for 2. She misses a moonsault. Hoshi gets a roll up for 2. She gets another for 2. She gets a backslide for 2. Sakura hits a weak superkick and a dropkick for 2. She hits a backbreaker for 2. She puts on the Gory Special for the win at 13:44. Tomiya doesn’t belong in the ring, plain and simple. The rest of the girls weren’t putting on an amazing match either. By the end any trace of pacing was thrown out the window in favor of everyone just hitting movez without any reason or rhyme.
Rating: ¼*

CHANGO {TX} vs. Masahiro Takanashi {DDT} vs. Fujiso {ED}
They all fight over a wristlock to start. The crowd seems more quiet than they have been so far, but that might just be because these three aren’t screaming like the Ice Ribbon girls were. Fujiso takes down both opponents. He and CHANGO clobber Takanashi. CHANGO hits a legdrop. He fakes a dropkick on Fujiso and then hits a facebuster on Takanashi. He hits a legdrop and then throws in some cute comedy. Takanashi puts on the Mark Nulty Special as Fujiso applies a figure 4 leglock. CHANGO rolls over, putting the pressure on the two of them. Takanashi switches to a cross armbreaker while Fujiso sticks to his figure 4. This is like watching three of my buddies pretend to wrestle, as they’re just doing stuff and not building on anything. CHANGO comes back with a DDT on Takanashi. He ties Fujiso and Takanashi together. Fujiso hits an armdrag. He hits a running kick. He hits a swinging DDT for 2. He hits a buzzsaw kick on Takanashi for 2. Takanashi uses Three Stooges offense on Fujiso. He hits a superkick for 2. CHANGO forces Fujiso to hit a reverse piledriver on Takanashi, then hits Fujiso with a dropkick and a DDT for the win at 11:16. These guys have no clue what they’re doing. I think CHANGO can put on a fun match, but apparently he needs someone to hold his hand while he does it. It looked like they were going for some hardcore lucha-style mat-based stuff but they failed miserably. Points only for CHANGO going over.
Rating: ¼*

Kinya Oyanagei {T2P} & Masaki Okimoto {TX} vs. Mototsugu Shimizu {T2P} & Yamada Man Pound {ED}
Pound is a Mad Man Pondo gimmick, and I’m fairly certain he appeared in some capacity during the ladder rumble on the El Dorado Wonder Years show. He and Oyanagei (who is now on the Michinoku Pro roster) start. They knuckle up and Oyanagei gets control of the arm. He puts on a bow and arrow lock. Shimizu and Okimoto trade armdrags. You know I hated on Okimoto’s outfit in El Dorado, but here he’s just wearing black pants and it makes him look totally generic. Not sure it’s an improvement. He hits a suicide dive. He hits a dropkick to the back for 2. He puts on a chinlock. Oyanagei keeps that going. Okimoto hits a splash to the back. He puts on a camel clutch and pulls Pound’s hair. Pound comes back with a shoulder tackle. Shimizu tags in and hits an inverted DDT. Oyanagei puts on an octopus stretch in the ropes. Shimizu comes back with a Rocker Dropper from the apron to the floor. Okimoto hits Pound with a superkick. Pound hits a pumphandle suplex. He hits Okimoto with a 止まれ sign. He hits a Miracle Exstacy Bomb (of sorts) for 2. Shimizu hits the spike DDT and a dropkick. Oyanagei hits an enziguiri. He hits a dropkick and another enziguiri for 2. Shimizu hits a spinebuster. Pound slams Oyanagei into the corner and hits an avalanche. Shimizu hits an elevated legdrop. He hits a stack facebuster for 2. Okimoto hits Pound with the 止まれ sign. He and Oyanagei put on submission holds but their opponents get to the ropes. Okimoto hits a superkick and Oyanagei hits a back suplex for 2. They hit a kick sandwich and a double fisherman buster for 2. Okimoto hits the 450 splash for the win at 13:57. At least nothing embarrassing happened in this match, which makes it the match of the night. Shimizu was actually busting his ass to make this feel like a main event, so when he was in the ring things were pretty fun.
Rating: **¾

Shimizu closes out the show with a speech thanking the fans. Given he put forth the best effort in the main event it’s probably best that he be the mouthpiece of the company. That said they’re going to have to put on more than one watchable match per show if they want people to buy their DVDs.

Class Key
{TX} – Toryumon X
{T2P} – Toryumon 2000 Project
{TM} – Toryumon Mexico
{DDT} – Dramatic Dream Team
{ED} – El Dorado
{DG} – Dragon Gate