SGP “LAUNCH BATTLE” OCTOBER 8TH 1994

God Bless Ultraman Robin

HIDEKI OGISO (DIABLO) VS SHINICHI HAYASHIDA

This was very much a rookies match with it’s many faults but I hand it to these young guys because they did look really good in certain parts. I never would have imagined Diablo would look as innocent as he does but wow he has a little baby face haha certainly not the big scary masked man he makes out to be.

Like I mentioned, there was quite the number of miscommunications and mistimed moves which the audience were very respective of knowing that these two have little to no experience. I’m pretty sure this would have been Diablo’s debut match? Hayashida looks like Yuta Yoshikawa, didn’t quite have the force of Yoshikawa but he still managed to make Ogiso tap following an ankle hold.

RATING – OK

YOSHIHIRO ITO VS YUICHI FUKAYA

Holy shit what an absolute barn burner of a contest this turned out to be, 90’s sleaze done great.
I mean it’s not a perfect match as If I was rating this /10 I would give it a 6/10 but you have to remember this is the sleazy indies in the early 90’s like don’t come into this expecting nips ups and stand offs but instead gritty lifelike fighting with tenacious efforts throughout. Yoshihiro/Rikio Ito is always so much fun when he throws around small guys (in and out of the bedroom), his release German suplex a couple minutes into this was fantastic. So many close calls with Fukaya constantly having to find the rope to escape Ito’s plethora of submission attempts. Do any of you guys know about Fukaya? Because he really impressed me. The two showed respect and hugged it out after Ito got the W with a powerbomb.

RATING – VERY ENTERTAINING

HIKARU KAWABATA VS APOLLO SUGAWARA

We’ve found another match for the list! What a fantastic bout this turned out being! Definitely better than it had any right to be.
Apollo Sugawara is always good value and I’ve only seen bits and pieces of Kawabata but I do know that he has spent a lot of time on the indies so it’s no surprise to see him pop up on the SGP launch event.

The match itself started tamely with a little bit of brawling on the outside before the two would make it back in the ring with Apollo taking control by working over Kawabata’s limbs. A few very cool hope spots like a big lariat in the corner were thrown in prior to Kawabata’s big comeback. Kawabata fought as the underdog but when it was his time to shine he delivered big, another thing that impressed me about his efforts were how solid his strikes were. Everything was just really sound and botch free which had the crowd on the edge of their seats. Kawabata got some very close near falls from big moves like a missile dropkick but shortly after Apollo the veteran backslides Kawabata for the victory. Great stuff

RATING – GENUINLEY VERY GOOD

TWO OUT OF THREE FALLS: AZTECA & ZETTON VS ULTRAMAN ROBIN & FRAY TORMENTA

No sugar coating this one because good lord this was an absolute struggle to get through with the upmost respect to Robin and friends. Fray Tormenta being here is easily the most interesting part to this main event. If you know lucha then I’m guessing you already know about Tormenta but if you don’t know about Tormenta’s story then I urge you to read this article about his life story because it’s incredible. “The Real Life Nacho Libre”

I could just copy and paste facts about Tormenta’s life and I feel that would be more interesting then talking about the actual match at hand because it was truly shocking. Tormenta’s got nothing really left in the tank at this point in his late 40’s and the three other guys are as green as freshly mowed grass so there’s a bucket load of communication breakdown. The match went like 25 minutes or something ridiculous as well so by the end I was awfully frustrated considering I just witnessed my football team forfeit a 22 point lead so all I wanted to do was chill out and watch some sleaze but this was just the shits. Two or three moves looked decent but honestly the rest was all whack but yeah the crowd LOVED Robin so much that the atmosphere made up for the lack of work rate. Zetton hit an RKO which was wild. Robin landed on his head multiple times following botches powerbombs and DDT’s… Robin and Fray did get the win to send the crowd home happy.

A very fun show with a sad main event but I’m super glad I was able to watch it.

RATING – NOT GOOD