Puroresu Central

Apache Pro "November Rain"

The Date: November 2nd, 2006
The Location: Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Announced Attendance: 1,050 Fans

Since I would like to have at least one review for each promotion I have listed on the site, I decided to review this short Apache Pro show so that they would get some love too. Apache Pro is an independent promotion run by Kintaro Kanemura (as far as I understand) with his main supporting cast being Jun Kasai, Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Mammoth Sasaki, and GENTARO. They use a lot of Freelancers (especially wrestlers from Big Japan) and also for bigger shows get a wrestler or two from one of the larger promotions. During the fall of 2006 the entire promotion was feuding with Toki Makabe from New Japan. Makabe's faction GBH joined him here to face off against Apache Pro's best in the main event, as Tenzan enters Apache Pro for the first time. The event is clipped to fit into an hour (major clippage for the first three and very minor clippage for the last two), here is the card:

- Shinjuku Shark, NOSAWA, and Yamagata vs. T. Hashimoto, Killer MIYAWAKI, and Naoshi Sano
- BADBOY Hido and The Winger vs. Tomoaki Honma and Saburo Inematsu
- GENTARO vs. Hi69
- Barbed Wire Board Glass + Alpha Death Match: Jun Kasai vs. Takashi Sasaki
- Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Makabe, and Shiro Koshinaka vs. Kanemura, Kuroda, and Mammoth Sasaki

The first three matches are clipped pretty good, so lets just breeze through those.

Shinjuku Shark, NOSAWA Rongai, and Yamagata vs. Hashimoto, MIYAWAKI, and Naoshi Sano
We start with Hashimoto and Shark. Kick to the leg by Hashimoto and Shark falls to the mat. He slowly gets up, clip, Irish whip by Hashimoto to the corner and he hits a lariat. Hashimoto goes off the ropes but Shark connects with a dropkick and makes the tag to Rongai. Michinoku Driver by Rongai, Yamagata goes to the top turnbuckle but Shark pushes her off and hits a moonsault onto Hashimoto for a one count. Hashimoto jumps up and stomps the hell out of Shark before hitting a release German suplex. Rongai and Yamagata come in the ring, double Irish whip to Hashimoto but Hashimoto knocks them both down with a lariat. Sano holds Rongai for Hashimoto to hit a lariat, but Rongai moves and Sano is hit by accident. Yamagata comes off the top turnbuckle with a missile dropkick onto Hashimoto while Rongai slaps the Cross Armbreaker onto Sano until he submits! Your winners: Shinjuku Shark, NOSAWA Rongai, and Yamagata

Match Thoughts: Who the hell are these people? Anyway, this was clipped from 16 minutes to a minute and a half, so not much to really say. Yamagata is pretty cute for a girl that could kick my ass. She took a good bump to the floor even though Shark gave her the weakest push ever. I shudder to think what this match would be like in its entirety. Score: N/A

BADBOY Hido and The Winger vs. Tomoaki Honma and Saburo Inematsu
Honma has returned! Brawl to start with Inematsu and Hido staying in the ring. They trade strikes as Honma and Winger battle in the aisle way. Clip, as Hido is headbutting Inematsu. Poke with the scissors by Hido and he drives them into Inematsu's forehead. Honma makes the save by hitting Hido in the back with a chair, but Hido kicks him low and smacks Honma twice in the head with the chair. Honma doesn't go down, but Hido hits him with a lariat. Clip, as now Winger is battling Inematsu. Enzigieri by Inematsu and he hits a 36 Hammer for a two count cover. Clip, as Honma sets up a table in the ring. With Winger against the table Honma comes off the second rope and dropkicks the table into Winger's face. Shining Wizard by Honma, Inematsu picks up Winger and delivers the Death Valley Bomb. Cover, but Winger kicks out at two. Inematsu goes for it again but Winger gets out of it and Hido hits him with the scissors. Winger then goes up to the top turnbuckle and hits a senton, cover, and he picks up the three count. Your winners: BADBOY Hido and The Winger

Match Thoughts: Nice to see Honma back, I actually wish that more of this match was shown as for some reason I have always liked Winger and Honma is a very solid wrestler. As it was it has hard to get a feel for it, although I am sure that Hido pulled it down with his slow predictable offense. Seemed fine though. Score: N/A

GENTARO vs. Hi69
This match was 23 minutes long. Thankfully it is not all being shown. JIP as they are having a chop battle. Eye rake by GENTARO, Irish whip by Hi69 but GENTARO shoulderblocks him down. Clip, as GENTARO hits a kneebreaker. Irish whip by GENTARO to the corner but Hi69 kicks him as he charges in and hits a Shining Wizard. Clip, Irish whip by Hi69 and he hits a back bodydrop into a Michinoku Driver for a two count. Clip, Irish whip by Hi69 and he delivers a dropkick. Back kick by Hi69, cover, but again it gets a two count. Hi69 goes off the ropes and kicks GENTARO hard in the face, cover, but GENTARO kicks out. Clip, GENTARO avoids a superkick and connects with one of his own. Another superkick by GENTARO, cover, but it gets a two count. Scoop slam by GENTARO in front of the corner, he climbs up top and delivers the Shooting Star Press. Cover, and he picks up the three count! Your winner: GENTARO

Match Thoughts: Two minutes was a perfectly acceptable amount of time to show of this match. Although I did like that back bodydrop into a Michinoku Driver. Score: N/A

Jun Kasai vs. Takashi Sasaki
This is a Barbed Wire Board Glass + Alpha Death Match. Barbed wire boards are in two corners with a glass panel in the other corners. They trade chops to start the match, eye rake by Kasai, Irish whip towards the board but Sasaki slams on the break. Sasaki tries to whip Kasai into the other boards but he also stops himself, they bounce off the ropes but neither can knock the other one down. Irish whip by Sasaki and he connects with a jumping heel kick. Sasaki stands on Kasai's head before picking him up and punching him against the ropes. Irish whip by Sasaki but Kasai ducks the lariat. Kasai charges Sasaki but Sasaki moves and Kasai goes into the barbed wire board. Snapmare by Sasaki and he kicks Kasai in the back. Cover, but it gets a two count. Sasaki picks up Kasai and hits a vertical suplex, cover, but it gets another two. Sasaki grabs the broken board and lays it on the mat, he then picks up Kasai and hits a sit-down powerbomb into the board for a two count cover. Sasaki goes off the ropes but Kasai avoids the lariat and hits a DDT. Reverse DDT by Kasai, he picks up Sasaki and Irish whips him into the remaining barbed wire board. Kasai then gets a ladder and sets it up near the ropes before exiting the ring to get a table. He finds one and sets it up at ringside, and he also removes the mats on that side. He pulls Sasaki out of the ring with him and puts Sasaki onto the table. Finally he goes back in the ring, climbs up the ladder and sails from inside the ring down onto Sasaki on the floor through the table. Kasai picks up Sasaki and slides him back into the ring, he puts Sasaki in the Tree of Woe in the corner and delivers a sliding dropkick. Cover, but it gets a two count. Irish whip by Kasai to the corner and he hits a shoulder tackle. Snap suplex by Kasai, he goes up to the top turnbuckle but Sasaki avoids the diving headbutt.

Sasaki hits Kasai in the head with a piece of board before connecting with a running kick to the head. Scoop slam by Sasaki and he lays the ladder in the corner. He then climbs up the corner but Kasai is up and dropkicks the ladder onto him. Kasai then lays the ladder on the mat, goes up top with Sasaki and hits a Frankensteiner, sending Sasaki into the ladder. Kasai gets the ladder again and rams Sasaki with it, double armed facebuster by Kasai into the ladder but it only gets a two count. Back up, scoop slam by Kasai, he goes up to the top turnbuckle but Sasaki gets his knees up when he goes for the Pearl Harbor Splash. Kicks by Sasaki and he gets a few chairs from ringside. Sasaki sets the chairs up and puts the glass panel between them, he then grabs Kasai and powerbombs him into the glass. D-Geist by Sasaki into the glass panel, cover, but it gets a two count. Sasaki props the other panel against Kasai but Kasai gets up and kicks Sasaki back. Kasai tries to hit Sasaki with the glass but Sasaki grabs it back and hits Kasai repeatedly with it. Kick by Sasaki, he waits for Kasai to get back up and delivers the lariat. Cover, but it gets a two count. Scoop slam by Sasaki in front of the corner and he sets up two chairs around Kasai. He then sets a glass panel over Kasai, bridging the chairs. Sasaki goes up to the top turnbuckle but Kasai is back up and joins him on the turnbuckle. Kasai then superplexes Sasaki through the glass panel, cover, but it gets a two count. Kasai grabs Sasaki and goes for dragon suplex, that gets blocked, but then he hits a German suplex hold for a two count cover. Kasai picks up Sasaki and goes for the D-Geist, but Sasaki blocks it and hits a dragon suplex. Kasai ducks Sasaki's lariat attempt and hits a enzigieri. Shiranui by Kasai, cover, but Sasaki kicks out. Kasai sets up the ladder and scoop slams Sasaki in front of it before piling glass panels and a barbed wire board on top of him. Kasai then goes to the top of the ladder and hits the Pearl Harbor Splash down onto Sasaki. Cover, and he picks up the three count! Your winner: Jun Kasai

Match Thoughts: This wasn't bad. I know its safer, but since we obviously aren't really concerned with their safety I don't particular like the new glass panels they use now. They don't explode prettily like real glass and really don't look near as painful. The carnage was high enough to make the match entertaining but not enough to out-shine the main event, which was probably the idea. Kasai is the king of taking a minute to set up one spot but he only did it a few times here and generally they kept things flowing. Besides that gripe they kept things interesting and I was surprised to see Kasai pick up the victory. It was different since it wasn't light tube oriented, I'll give them credit for that, and while it wasn't prefect it was pretty entertaining. Score: 6.5

Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Makabe, and Shiro Koshinaka vs. Kanemura, Kuroda, and Mammoth Sasaki
They brawl to start the match, with Tenzan and Kuroda staying in the ring. Kuroda goes off the ropes but he can't knock down Tenzan. He tries again but this time Tenzan shoulderblocks him to the mat. Kicks in the corner by Tenzan and he hits a series of chops. Irish whip by Tenzan but Kuroda fires out of the corner with a lariat. It doesn't knock down Tenzan but the second one does, Tenzan gets up quickly however and hits his Mongolian Chops. Tenzan goes off the ropes but Kanemura grabs him from the outside and pulls him out. Kanemura then gets in the ring and Makabe joins him, becoming the legal men. Kanemura goes off the ropes and hits a hurricanrana, but Makabe comes back with a spear and clotheslines Kanemura over the top rope to the floor. Makabe joins him and throws Kanemura into the chairs. Sasaki and Koshinaka get in the ring and they trade strikes, with Koshinaka getting the better of it with a hip attack. Koshinaka goes off the ropes and hits another hip attack but Sasaki is up quickly. A jumping hip attack sends him reeling but when Koshinaka goes for a second one Sasaki catches him and hits a release German suplex. Koshinaka is up quickly, Sasaki goes off the ropes and a big boot sends Koshinaka out of the ring. They leads to another brawl as all six men pour to the outside. Kanemura assaults Tenzan with a table and takes it up into the bleachers. He sets the table up in the aisle while Makabe brawls with Kuroda. Kanemura brings Tenzan up to the aisle and puts him down on the table. He then climbs up to the balcony and jumps off, hitting a splash onto Tenzan through the table! Meanwhile, Kuroda has the better of Makabe and is slamming his head into the wall. Makabe recovers and returns the favor however, as Tenzan has recovered (I assume there was a clip there as he is back at ringside) and hits Kanemura with a chair. Tenzan turns his attention to Sasaki and hits him with a chair as well, as Koshinaka gets back in the ring with Kuroda. Stomps by Koshinaka in the corner to the bleeding Kuroda, he picks him up and tags in Tenzan. Headbutts in the corner by Tenzan and all three members of GBH choke Kuroda. Irish whip by Tenzan onto Kuroda and he connects with the spinning heel kick. Cover, but Kanemura breaks it up. Standing chop by Tenzan and he headbutts Kuroda low. Tenzan tags in Makabe and he punches Kuroda to the mat. Powerbomb by Makabe, cover, but it is broken up.

This leads to another melee, GBH get their opponents in the corners and Irish whip them into each other before knocking all three to the mat. Tenzan headbutts Kuroda in the back and hits another standing chop. Tenzan tags in Koshinaka before beating down both Kanemura and Sasaki in the corner. Irish whip by Koshinaka onto Kuroda, but Kuroda avoids Tenzan's lariat attempt. Koshinaka holds Kuroda for Tenzan but Kuroda moves and Tenzan ends up hitting Koshinaka. Low blow by Kuroda onto Tenzan and he makes the tag to Kanemura. Scoop slams by Kanemura and he hits a roaring elbow onto Makabe. Kanemura slams Makabe in front of the corner and goes for a second turnbuckle moonsault, but Makabe moves out of the way. DDT into his knee by Kanemura and he hits a bridged half hatch suplex for a two count. Kuroda goes up to the top turnbuckle as Kanemura tags him, Kanemura hits a second turnbuckle moonsault and Kuroda hits a diving elbow for a two count. Kuroda calls for the lariat and goes off the ropes, but Koshinaka knees him from the apron. Irish whip by Koshinaka from the corner, reversed, and Kuroda hits a lariat. Kuroda goes up to the top turnbuckle and guillotines Koshinaka onto the top rope, he then hits a Shining Wizard onto Makabe for a two count. Kanemura comes in the ring and they go for a double suplex, but Koshinaka and Tenzan get involved and they end up suplexing Kanemura and Kuroda. Sasaki comes in the ring with a piece of table however and knocks out all three members of GBH. Chokeslam by Sasaki onto Koshinaka, Tenzan hits a few chops but Sasaki boots him back. Mammoth Home Run to Tenzan, Makabe runs up but Sasaki powerbombs him to the mat. Makabe gets his chain and hits Sasaki with it, he goes for a second punch but Sasaki blocks it. Sasaki puts Makabe onto the top turnbuckle and joins him, but Koshinaka comes up to try to help. Kuroda grabs him as all six men are now in the corner struggling for position, but Tenzan powerbombs Sasaki for a two count. Kanemura comes in the ring but Tenzan catches him with a Mountain Bomb. Makabe and Sasaki are back in the ring, Sasaki absorbs two Makabe lariats but a hip attacks sends him to the mat. Makabe waits for Sasaki to get up and hits a lariat, cover, but it gets a two count. Tenzan goes to Sasaki and hits the TTD, he then headbutts Kanemura and delivers a side-grip slam. Makabe wraps the chain around his arm, goes off the ropes, and hits a lariat onto Sasaki. Cover, and he picks up the three count! Your winners: Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Makabe, and Shiro Koshinaka

Match Thoughts: The crowd heat really made this match, as without it would have just been your normal above-average main event brawl. Mammoth came out of this looking really good, as even though he got pinned he no-sold a lot of GBH's main offense and at one point was single-handedly beating all three of them up. Actually, GBH did a good job making their opponents look they really could win, which says a lot as New Japan didn't have to give a small promotion like Apache Pro anything at all. Makabe really didn't do much here, but since he wasn't the special attraction it made sense that Tenzan would control the action. Tenzan really doesn't have good beatdown offense however so the middle portion plodded along a bit, as there are only so many variations of chops and headbutts one can do. Business picked back up after Kuroda's hot tag however and they didn't stop from there until the bell rang. As I mentioned, the crowd was molten for this and the atmosphere really helped the match. Overall it was quite enjoyable, as its fun seeing my favorite indy wrestlers kicking ass against New Japan's big boys, even if GBH did come out on top. Score: 7.5

Final Thoughts:

As far as small-time indys go, Apache Pro is one of the best when they put on their big shows. They got a huge boost from New Japan in 2006 to really put them on the map, but even without New Japan's help they have a solid roster. Course most of the main wrestlers are primarily Big Japan wrestlers since Big Japan runs more often, but that doesn't take away the fact that Apache Pro puts on fun events. The main event is definitely worth watching as even though there are better brawls out there, between the star power and the crowd's reaction the match is definitely worth a view. The semi-main was very solid, but the rest of the matches were too clipped to matter. Hour long shows are hard to recommend, but if you aren't real familiar with Apache Pro then this would be a good event to track down to get a glimpse at what the promotion is capable of.

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event reviewed on 10/06/07