Buko Dojo vs. WDF 6 Man Tag (WDF - 6/10/1997)

Masaaki Mochizuki & Yoshikazu Taru & Takashi Okamura vs. Masakazu Fukuda & Kamikaze & Hiroyoshi Kotsubo (Wrestle Dream Factory 6/10/1997)

tl;dr wild wild karate vs. wrestlers spectacle match, ugly dudes in black gis fly around, reckless spinkicks, rough suplexes are thrown, guys who normally suck do not suck

When you find out about Masashi Aoyagi having his own promotion, you picture a bunch of reckless crazy wrestler vs. karate fighter spectacles. Instead it's mostly reckless seedy indy wrestling involving some half baked wrestlers mostly coached by Masashi Motegi.

This, however, is the match that you picture when you hear "Masashi Aoyagi booking a sleazy indy fed".

Mochi, Taru and Okamura are guys from Koji Kitao's dojo who all dress in black. You won't be surprised to learn they all have terryifing haircuts. Fukuda, Kamikaze and Kotsubo (famous caveman comedian) are the hybrid wrestlers to combat them and this is pretty much a dojo gang war where the karate guys spin kick recklessly and the wrestlers are looking to grab them and go for takedowns and head-dumping suplex moves.

While it was more of a professional wrestling match and not like your typical Aoyagi different style, there was still lots of chaos and disdain to enjoy. Super fast paced general anarchy with a bunch of guys throwing kicks and flying around. For some reason the WDF homeboys work as the heels, it seemed the Buko dojo guys had their whole entourage with them so the whole match was ultra heated. Kamikaze despite being on the "wrestler" team took his time to soccer kick the Buko guys in the face.

Taru took a good beating, incuding a bunch of dropkicks to his face and getting squished with sentons and double stomps, and the finishing stretch that had all the guys throwing down was pretty great and had a few neatly timed moments despite the mayhem. Especially loved Fukuda who decided he had enough and just hurled one of the karate guys around like a ragdoll with suplexes, then did this really awesome faceplanting bump for Mochizuki leg trip. Kotsubo, for a guy who has been nothing but shit in every match I've ever seen him in, had the night of his life when he went at it with fellow nobody Okamura (not the guy who went to CMLL) and had one submission counter into a chokehold that was probably the greatest thing he ever did. He was enjoying himself too and you know you are watching something special when fucking Tsubo Genjin is bringing it.

So yeah, you had different style fighers trying to prove who's best, guys getting hurled around with uncooperative suplexes and decked sideways in the temple by surprise flying Mochizuki kicks, guys in black karate gis doing dives etc. Can't say I didn't love this match.

Also note that all the Bukoh guys in this match would go on to be in Toryumon/Dragon Gate. How the fuck did that happen?