Secret Base: Volume 6

Yamada Man Pound returns.

July 30, 2009 – Warabi, Japan

CHANGO & Amigo Suzuki vs. Fujiso & Daisuke Sasaki
Sasaki and CHANGO start. The small crowd’s silence is literally deafening, as the white noise is driving my ears crazy. Things proceed in the dull and meaningless fashion they tend to in the beginning of these matches, as both men tag out and their partners do more of the same go-nowhere hold trading on the mat. Fujiso hits an armdrag. He hits another to gain control. Suzuki hits a dropkick after CHANGO hits a cheap shot. CHANGO hits a legdrop. Suzuki hits another dropkick and CHANGO follows suit for 2. CHANGO chokes Fujiso in the corner. He hits a back elbow for 2. Suzuki and Fujiso trade elbows until Fujiso falls to the mat and Suzuki gets 2. Fujiso hits a hurricanrana and a dropkick. Sasaki hits elbows and a dropkick. He hits CHANGO with a hurricanrana. Fujiso hits a plancha. Sasaki hits a very cool dropkick to Suzuki’s face. he hits an enziguiri and a twisting fisherman suplex for 2. Suzuki hits a backbreaker and a fall away slam for 2. CHANGO hits a missile dropkick. He kicks Fujiso’s face. He shrugs off a swinging DDT attempt and puts on the Iron Claw. Fujiso hits an insane DDT for 2. That really should have been the finish. CHANGO comes back with a monkey flip and Suzuki hits a dropkick. CHANGO hits a jumping palm strike. Suzuki powerbombs him onto Fujiso for 2. CHANGO hits a Samoan drop. He hits a legdrop as Suzuki hits a diving headbutt for 2. CHANGO packages Fujiso up and hits Welcome to the Jungle at 12:48. This was pretty disjointed and took much longer to get going than I’d have liked, but there was some exciting stuff sprinkled throughout.
Rating: **¾

Kamui vs. Spark Aoki
Aoki attacks Kamui during his entrance. In the ring Kamui takes over because Aoki is a joke. He hits a back kick on the floor. That gets 2 in the ring. He puts on a front facelock but Aoki gets to the ropes. He hits a knee kick for 2. He works the neck. He hits a Tree of Woe kick for 2. He works the arm but Aoki gets to the ropes. Aoki comes back with kicks. He hits a butterfly suplex for 2. Kamui hits a lariat for 2. He finally takes off his entrance shirt and hits a knee kick in the corner. He hits an Arabian press for 2. He hits the Blue Thunder Bomb for 2. He misses a moonsault and Aoki hits a leg lariat. Aoki hits a facebuster and puts on a triangle choke but Kamui gets to the ropes. Aoki goes for the move again but Kamui rolls forward for 2. He gets a roll up for 2. He puts on an armbar for the win at 8:21. I had to watch this at 2x speed so as to not fall asleep, and I knew it was going to be a short match going in. Just saying. Also saying that Aoki is the most awkward looking dude since the Giant Gonzales.
Rating: *½

Takeshi Minamino & Masa Takanashi vs. Masaki Okimoto & Yamada Man Pound
Pound and Takanashi start. Not unlike the opening tag match, this tag match also starts with useless hold trading. Okimoto thankfully puts an early end to that when he hits Minamino with a hurricanrana. He hits Takanashi with a dropkick. Pound forces Minamino to the ropes. He hits a shoulder tackle. He hits a bodyslam. Minamino dropkicks the knee. Takanashi tags in and goes after the leg. Pound gets to the ropes. Takanashi and Minamino slam Pound’s legs to the mat. Okimoto tries in vain to save his partner. Takanashi dropkicks Pound’s leg. He puts on a figure 4 leglock. Pound gets to the ropes. He and Minamino trade elbows until Minamino kicks out Pound’s knee. Takanashi dropkicks the knee. Okay, time to move onto something new. Minamino puts on a leglock. Pound gets to the ropes. Okimoto cleans house with dropkicks. Minamino hits Pound’s leg with Pound’s 止まれ sign. Takanashi puts on a leglock and Pound taps out at 13:06. This was painfully boring and one-dimensional. Pound was coming off of a leg injury, we didn’t need to see his leg getting picked apart with the same two moves for ten minutes to believe that he might tap out.
Rating: *

Mototsugu Shimizu & Manjimaru vs. Go & Satoshi Kajiwara
Kajiwara and Manjimaru start. Kajiwara’s new gear looks slightly less like a garbage bag. Guess how he and Manjimaru get through the first few minutes? I fast forward through it. Go and Shimizu trade elbows. Shimizu hits armdrags and a dropkick. Go hits a shoulder tackle for 2. Kajiwara hits a back elbow for 2. He puts on a chinlock. He looks a lot like Kurt Angle in his mannerisms and style. Shimizu gets to the ropes. Kajiwara hits a bodyslam. Shimizu dropkicks his head. Manjimaru tags in and goes to work on Kajiwara on the floor. Secret Base needs to invest in a ringside camera if they want to have action on the floor. In the ring Manjimaru hits a dropkick for 2. Shimizu hits a dropkick in the corner. Shimizu hits a backbreaker. He puts on a camel clutch. Kajiwara gets to the ropes. He hits a dropkick. He hits a leaping elbow. Go tags in and hits Shimizu with a basement dropkick. He hits both opponents with a spear. He hits Shimizu with a back kick for 2. Shimizu hits a facebuster and a sloppy dropkick for 2. Go hits a spinebuster and puts on a crossface. Shimizu gets to the ropes. Kajiwara hits an enziguiri. Go hits a powerslam for 2. He hits an elevated facebuster. Kajiwara hits a moonsault for 2. He hits a pumphandle suplex for 2. Shimizu hits an inverted DDT. Manjimaru hits a chinbreaker. He hits a stiff thrust kick for 2. Shimizu hits the Rocker Dropper and Manjimaru hits a piledriver for 2. The referee stopped the count way before he was supposed to there. Shimizu drives Kajiwara’s head to the mat for 2. Again the referee telegraphed the kick out. Kajiwara gets a roll up for 2. He gets another for 2. Shimizu hits a spinebuster. He hits an implant DDT and rolls Kajiwara up for the win at 16:05, despite the fact that Kajiwara’s shoulders weren’t even close to being pinned. Shimizu really dropped the ball on this one. He’s usually the anchor for his team with Manjimaru, but he was all over the place here. This was easily the worst main event in the company’s short history thanks to Shimizu’s sloppiness.
Rating: *¾

The thread holding these shows together up until this point is that the main event winners get to stay in the main event, but since Shimizu and Manjimaru are more frienemies than friends they don’t make it as a team to the next show. In fact, Pound rejoins Shimizu after the match, reforming their tag team from earlier shows.