Hello everyone, it’s your resident Michinoku Pro expert Ozzi Michi Fan with a preview of the upcoming end-of-year Korakuen Hall show for Michinoku Pro. Cataclysm, takes place on December 10, but won’t air on Japan’s Samurai TV until December 17.
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If you’ve never checked out Michinoku Pro and are looking to jump head first into the company, this guide and show could be a great starting point for you. Here’s a good primer from Puroresu Spirit to get us started:
“Michinonoku Pro-Wrestling, or Michinoku Pro or MichiPro for short, was founed in 1992 by The Great Sasuke as a community-based promotion for the greater Tohoku, North Eastern, region of Japan. The promotion is primarily focused on the lucha libre style of wrestling with many of their wrestlers dawning masks and special motifs as they compete in the ring.”
Now to the preview of tonight’s show!
Kesen Numajiro vs Ken45°
The opening match of the show features two men in the need of some consistent momentum going into 2016, one more dire than the other. Kesen Numajiro spent seven months (from May to November) as a headline act, becoming to Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Champion after ending Syu Brahman’s exactly one-year championship reign, Numajiro then went on to successfully defend the title against The Great Sasuke. But, as the old saying goes “pride comes before a fall” and in Kesen Numajiro’s case, it was no different. Numajiro was enraged by Manjimaru, who attacked him post-match in October, leading to the near-unprecedented decision in which Numajiro announced Manjimaru to be his next challenger, and lost that subsequent match. Ever since then Kesen has slipped down the cards picking up losses along the way.
Ken45° hasn’t felt such lows, but he hasn’t experienced such highs either, trading wins and loses all year, never gaining much traction, just being stuck in the middle, with Yappe-man #2 he won the 2015 Incredible Tag Tournament, builds momentum and then suffers a bunch of losses keeping him in place. Creating a solid foundation to go into 2016 and make a strong push for position before the imminent return of their ace; Fujita “Jr.” Hayato could really set Ken45° on a great path in the new year.
Jinsei Shinzaki, Ultimo Dragon, Eagles Mask & Yappe-man #3 vs Masked Buddy 2015 (Shinobu), Ryuichi Sekine, Takayuki Ueki & DASH Chisako
Here is the first Michinoku Seikigun vs Mu no Taiyo tag match. Korakuen Hall has become the stronghold of the Mu no Taiyo cult since their massive recruitment drive in back in April, where Mu no Taiyo (The Great Sasuke, Syu Brahman & Kei Brahman) held a 11-person “audition” battle royal, with the winner being chosen to represent Mu no Taiyo. After the match Sasuke & the Brahman’s were so impressed by the devotion of those involved that they drafted ALL of them into the faction, growing it from a small 3-5 person sect to a full-blown 16-person religion, during the mid-year Korakuen Hall show, Mu no Taiyo went 2-for-2 in their matches decisively defeating the Michinoku Seikigun.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Michinoku Seikigun has their own spiritual leader; Jinsei Shinzaki. Back in June at their previous Korakuen Hall show, he gathered some other wandering heroes (Osamu Namiguchi & Survival Tobita) to do battle with the primary Mu no Taiyo force (Sasuke/Brahmans) and were defeated by the numbers game of the believers at ringside.
On December 10, the Seikigun will face Mu no Taiyo on two battlefronts once again, this time, the b-team step up against the demoted Shinzaki squad, featuring an Eagles Mask, who ate the fall for his team in June after an astonishing ego-trip, star recruit Ultimo Dragon who has been involved in a few Mu no Taiyo skirmishes during the year and wildcard; Yappe-man #3 brought in to offset the inter-gender nature of Mu no Taiyo.
Manjimaru & Takeshi Minamino vs Rui Hyugaji & Kenbai
Current Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Champion Manjimaru slums it in a tag match with long-time tag partner Takeshi Minamino, both men representing the BAD BOY faction and more specifically the Toneri Family tag team. Manjimaru’s first championship defense will take place in 2016, with his challenger being selected out of 12 men who will participate in the “M-12 Time Difference Battle Royal” which will be held on January 9, 2016. All men completing in this match, excluding Manjimaru, but including his partner, will participate, so Manjimaru is potentially facing off against or teaming with his upcoming and first challenger for the first singles championship he has ever held.
Tohoku Tag Team Championship Match
Ikuto Hidaka (C) & Minoru Fujita (C) vs Daichi Sasaki & Ayumu Gunji
Here is a big one, the Tohoku Tag Team Championship rematch, in September NEW PHASE (Sasaki & Gunji) were the tag team champs and faced their greatest challenge yet, the veteran team of Hidaka & Fujita, formerly members of the destructive SKULL & BONES faction that terrorized MichiPro’s past. It’s a clash of generations, Hidaka & Fujita both have 18 years experience, while Sasaki & Gunji both have five or less years under their belts. This match asks the question, now that both teams are familiar with each other after their first encounter, do Hidaka/Fujita still have it vs do Sasaki/Gunji have it yet and which is the more powerful dynamic?
Great Space War
The Great Sasuke, Syu Brahman, Kei Brahman, Ultraman Robin & Master E.T. (Mini-Master) vs Darth Vader GAINA, Donglin Yoda (Taro Nohashi), Superman Kinya, C-3PO #1 (Yappe-man #1) & R2-D2 #2 (Yappe-man #2)
It’s the 10th anniversary of Michinoku Pro’s annual end-of-year spectacle hardcore brawl, The Great Space War/Battle in Outer Space, in recent years it has been tied to a movie theme. This year it has a Star Wars, Batman vs Superman & E.T. theme attached to it with many wrestlers representing characters from the films. But first a bit of history.
The Great Space war is a long-running series of matches that originally pitted The Great Sasuke (and guests) vs the Sato Brothers (Brahmans-past, pretty boys who were in an pop-idol group with Taiji Ishimori, if you can believe it).
They were brought into Sasuke’s path as GAMMA’s lackey’s and once GAMMA was forced to leave the promotion (after losing a high-stakes Cuban Deathmatch to The Great Sasuke) the attention shifted to them and the brothers weren’t going to back down either, sacrificing one of their hair in an attempt to unmask Sasuke and end the career of Dick Togo, they failed and Kei Sato was shaved. But they still had one more chance, one more hair to put on the line, so Shu Sato battled Sasuke 1-on-1 in a chain match, to avenge his brother’s hair and ensure he did not lose it in vain. The match escalated to outrageous levels, fighting in the streets, in traffic, off of an overpass, among trees and once back in the ring, fireworks and fire got involved, as Sasuke and the Sato Brothers stubbornly kept raising the stakes, in the end Sasuke was victorious and The Sato Brothers were left battered, bald and beaten. Most importantly, they were beyond the point of turning back.
This lead to the first Space War, a Korakuen Hall cage match in 2006 and many to follow (one every year to be precise), involving Ricky Fuji, Atsushi Onita, Jushin Liger & Survival Tobita among others. In 2010 The Sato Brothers were defeated in a loser leaves MichiPro Space War, but returned the next year as The Brahman Brothers. I mentioned in the recent years these battles have had cinematic themes such as Ultraman, Batman, The Avengers, Magic Mike & Ninja Turtles. But the most significant development in this saga came in 2013, where after eight years of war, the Brahman Brothers finally bested Sasuke, who upon this defeat realized what he had created; two men, cut from the same cloth as himself going down the same path committed to the same fight, all three men came to the conclusion that together their goals could be achieved without opposition and an unholy union was formed.
But as always, from Kai En Tai, to SKULL & BONES, Kowloon to ASURA & BAD BOY, The Michinoku Seikigun is always at hand to defend the promotion from various factions looking to seize power for themselves and this year, in this final moment it falls to GAINA to defend Michinoku Pro, GAINA the deserter. In 1999, GAINA, then known as Kazuya Yuasa partook in Super Delfin’s exodus to create Osaka Pro, GAINA has since returned sporadically as various characters from the masked Shisaou to the largest of the Kameshi-Ninja Turtle clan; Kamegoro. But in August GAINA made his return to full-time MichiPro competition after wrestling at Taro Nohashi’s 8th anniversary of OOGAMANIA (MichiPro Dojo shows).
Most recently leading up to this big event, GAINA has built up a rivalry with Mini-Master, as the largest and smallest members of the MichiPro roster, Mini-Master’s constant interference in matches has irritated GAINA to the point of physical violence, leading to the men facing off in a singles match, where the Mini-Master, who was at a severe disadvantage, even with help from the Brahman Brothers, was defeated and unmasked by GAINA, revealing an E.T. mask underneath and with that, it was time, that time of year, Space War season. The Great Space War loomed near, post-match the Yappe-men (another constant in Space Wars) presented GAINA with a Lightsabre, GAINA replied by breathing heavily into the microphone before leaving the ring to Darth Vader’s theme. The following night Darth GAINA debuted in a wild 6-man “ring deconstruction” match in which GAINA teamed with Yappe-man #1 & #2 against The Great Sasuke, Syu & Kei Brahman, a prequel to the Battle in Outer Space. Yappe-man #2 picked up the win, post-match, Taro Nohashi was revealed to also be a Jedi and enlisted in the Korakuen Hall main-event against Mu no Taiyo, this caused The Great Sasuke to launch a second wave attack against the Seikigun, siccing the Brahman’s on them, all fell to the rabid attack including new-found Jedi; Nohashi, Kinya Oyanagi (who was at ringside) tried to protect Nohashi by covering his body with his own, only to also be caught up in the assault, beaten and stripped, only to be revealed as….. Superman, in full attire, mild-mannered Kinya Kent, thrust into greatness repelled the Brahman attack and laid out Sasuke. The Michinoku Seikigun team complete. With the announcement of the return of Dark Knight Sasuke and Ultraman Robin to the Mu no Taiyo side, both teams were set and a galactic war would soon be unleashed.
For more information, be sure to head over and “like” the English Michinoku Pro hub on Facebook to keep up-to-date and fully stocked on MichiPro news, photos, results, upcoming events and more at: https://www.facebook.com/MichinokuPro.
