Dove Pro Wrestling Promotional Video
review by Kevin Wilson

Date: Various
Location: Hiroshima, Japan

Right about now you are thinking "what the hell is Dove Pro Wrestling"? Well, Dove Pro Wrestling (which does have a section on this site thanks to Zedi) is described as a hardcore promotion owned by 504, based in Hiroshima and very popular in that area. Their shows are usually coupled with hard rock concerts. This promotional video is the first footage I have seen that has made the trip to America, I don't know if they sell DVDs in Japan or not but I haven't seen them if they have. Since this is a promotional video, on the release are four matches from four different shows. Looks like their small shows aren't necessarily even in a wrestling ring, but their major events they do use a real wrestling ring. This has to be good, if you got to pick any four matches from your promotion's history to show the world the quality of your shows, you damn sure better pick entertaining ones. So we will see. The highlight is Yuko Miyamoto defending the Dove World Championship against Sakigake. Here is the full line-up (click on the wrestler's name to go to their profile):

- 504 vs. Souther on 5/3/08
- Dove World Championship: Yuko Miyamoto vs. Sakigake on 9/28/08
- Kabuki Kid and 504 vs. Takashi Sasaki and Atsushi Kotoge on 12/23/08
- Kabuki Kid vs. Rey Paloma on 5/3/09

Video starts with a music video, showing clips from lots of matches including the ones on this DVD. All these matches are clipped as apparently for whatever they were making it for they only had 30 minutes to show 4 matches and the music video. Since the event is so clipped I won't be scoring the matches, as less then half of the matches aired. Let's get started.

504 vs. Souther
This match took place on May 3rd, 2008. No ring for this one, just a mat. Clipped around with Souther throwing 504 to the mat. Arm wringer by 504 but Souther picks him up and body slams him to the mat. Another body slam by Souther, we get a clip as now they are trading elbows. Souther gets the better of it, he picks up 504 but 504 rakes his eyes. 504 goes for a body slam but he can't pick up Souther and Souther reverses it with a delayed vertical suplex. Souther starts fighting 504's friends, giving 504 time to recover and he Irish whips him into the crowd. They fight into the crowd as 504 DDTs Souther onto an oil drum. Back up they trade elbows, kick by Souther and he powerbombs 504 through a table. Both men are back up as 504 hits Souther in the head with a piece of table, but Souther is unphased. Souther returns fire, busting the table over 504's head. Cover by Souther but 504 gets a shoulder up. Another cover, but again it gets a two. A third cover with the same result, Souther revs up the arm and waits for 504 to get up, but 504 catches him with a dropkick and an exploder. Another exploder by 504, cover, but Souther barely kicks out. Superkick and buzzsaw kick by 504 followed by a running dropkick, cover, but it gets a two count. 504 somehow gets up on a balcony and dives off, but Souther catches him. With 504 in his arms, and Souther rams 504 back first into the poles holding up the roof before delivering a powerslam. Cover, but with his fighting spirit 504 kicks out at one. 504 gets back to his feet quickly but Souther isn't amused and knocks his head off with a lariat. Cover, and Souther picks up the three count. Your winner: Souther

Match Thoughts: Souther reminds me of Scott Norton... granted, Souther is probably a foot shorter but he has the same build and uses similar moves. 504 was a good person to throw around, I actually liked that Souther won as it appeared they were going for the little native wrestler that overcomes the big gaijin but in the end it didn't work out that way. Crowd was certainly into it, clipped up it was a fun match.

(c) Yuko Miyamoto vs. Sakigake
This match is for the Dove World Championship and took place on September 28th, 2008. This match took place in a real ring and is in front of at least 100 fans. Lariat by Sakigake to start the match and he sails out onto Miyamoto with a tope suicida. Sakigake throws Miyamoto into the stands, back in the ring they go off the ropes but Miyamoto delivers a dropkick. Sakigake falls out of the ring and Miyamoto goes out after him with a somersault senton. Back in the ring, elbow by Miyamoto, Irish whip to the corner but Sakigake kicks him back. Dropkick by Sakigake, Irish whip from the corner and he delivers an elbow followed by a lariat. Complete Shot by Sakigake, cover, but it gets a two count. Sakigake goes up to the top turnbuckle but Miyamoto hits him and then throws him from the top turnbuckle to the floor onto a stack of chairs. Back in the ring, overhead suplex by Miyamoto and he hits his double knee strike in the corner followed by a dropkick. Superplex by Miyamoto, cover, but it gets a two count. Backbreaker by Miyamoto and he goes for a moonsault, but Sakigake gets his knees up. Spear by Sakigake and he hits a second one, he picks up Miyamoto and delivers a fisherman buster. Cover, but Miyamoto gets his shoulder up. Back up they trade elbows, Sakigake goes for a German suplex by Miyamoto lands on his feet and hits a German suplex of his own. Then Sakigake hits a German suplex, Irish whip by Sakigake but Miyamoto hits his handstand springboard back elbow. Yankee Driver by Miyamoto, he goes up to the top turnbuckle and nails the moonsault. Cover, but Sakigake gets a shoulder up. Miyamoto charges Sakigake but both men lariat each other. Miyamoto goes off the ropes but Sakigake ducks the lariat attempt and hits one of his own. Cover, but it gets a two count. Miyamoto sits up as Sakigake goes off the ropes again and he nails another lariat with Miyamoto sitting on the mat, cover, and he picks up the three count! Your winner and new champion: Sakigake

Match Thoughts: It seemed odd to me that Miyamoto, a major wrestler in one of the five biggest promotions in Japan, would lose clean to a little indy wrestler that no one had heard of. Good for him I guess, but you'd expect some type of screw job or multi-man match if they needed to get the title off of him. Miyamoto gave Sakigake a lot to make it even better for Dove, as Sakigake kicked out of both the Yankee Driver and the Moonsault. So Miyamoto wasn't coasting through because he was wrestling for such a small promotion, which is admirable.

Kabuki Kid and 504 vs. Takashi Sasaki and Atsushi Kotoge
This match took place on December 23rd, 2008. A ladder is brought to the ring with the wrestlers (this match is in a real ring as well). They brawl to the start the match until Kotoge gets isolated and he gets attacked a lot by Kabuki Kid and 504. They battle around the ring but Kotoge dropkicks 504 on the apron. In the ring Sasaki and Kabuki Kid trade shots, headbutt by Kabuki Kid and he delivers a DDT. Kabuki Kid tags in 504 and he throws a ladder at Sasaki. Sasaki and Kotoge get thrown into the ladder, 504 goes to suplex Sasaki onto the ladder but Sasaki reverses it. Sasaki puts 504's head on a chair, gets another chair and hits 504 in the back of the head with it. Sasaki then dropkicks the chair into 504, Sasaki grabs the ladder and goes to slam 504 on the ladder, 504 reverses it and tries to suplex Sasaki onto ladder but Sasaki elbows out of it. Sasaki goes off the ropes but 504 catches him with an exploder onto the ladder. 504 tags in Kabuki Kid, who comes in the ring off the top turnbuckle with a knee strike. Shining Kick by Kabuki Kid and he delivers a Michinoku Driver. 504 comes in the ring with a slingshot lariat as Kabuki Kid hits a backdrop suplex, they then both go off the ropes and hit a double team move onto Sasaki. Sasaki recovers and hits a double lariat, and DDTs 504 onto a chair. Superkick by Sasaki, double cover, but Sasaki and Kabuki Kid kick out. A crazy brawl starts with half the roster, and in the process of throwing a chair Sasaki accidentally hits the referee, and the referee throws the match out.

From here they re-start the match as an eight man tag, but I don't know who the wrestlers are and it is really clipped so I won't try to play-by-play it. It was pretty entertaining, but only the big moves were shown.

Match Thoughts: Possible I mixed up Kabuki Kid and 504 at times. Not really much to it, the crazy eight man brawl was more fun then the original match. 504 doesn't appear to be very good, I didn't notice in the match against Souther but it was a bit more clear here. Kotoge did nothing in this clipped up version of the match so I can't comment on him, but Sasaki took a hellacious bump on a ladder off the exploder. Just a wild heavily clipped affair probably condensing all the good parts of 25 minutes of action into a few minutes.

Kabuki Kid vs. Rey Paloma
This match took place on May 3rd, 2009. Not in a ring anymore, back on a mat in the middle of a crowd like the first match on the tape. Tie-up to start and they trade holds, headscissors by Paloma and he delivers a dropkick. They trade elbows, but Kabuki Kid gets the better of it and rams Paloma into the walls around the arena. Kabuki Kid throws Paloma into a trash can and bites him, he finds a beer can as Paloma grabs one as well and both wrestlers hit each other with them. They trade strikes, high kick by Paloma and he delivers a DDT. Diving crossbody by Paloma, we get a clip as Kabuki Kid is in control and he suplexes Paloma on the floor. Kabuki Kid hits Paloma in the head with a piece of table and delivers a Michinoku Driver. Cover, but it gets a two count. Another clip as Paloma is standing on a stool near the mat so it will act as a turnbuckle and hits a diving neckbreaker for a two count cover. Paloma goes back up and nails a moonsault, cover, but again it gets a two count. Kabuki Kid ducks a Paloma attack, hurricanrana by Paloma but Kabuki Kid gets a shoulder up. Paloma charges Kabuki Kid but Kabuki Kid catches him and hits a Michinoku Driver onto a chair. Cover, but it only gets two. Kabuki Kid sets up a ladder at ringside and jumps off of it while holding a chair, hitting a leg drop with the chair onto Paloma. Cover, but Paloma kicks out. On a rampway nearby Kabuki Kid tries to suplex Paloma onto the ladder, but Paloma reverses it and it is Kabuki Kid that is dropped on the ladder. Paloma sets up the ladder at ringside, Kabuki Kid climbs up the other side but Paloma dumps him off onto the mat. Paloma then goes to the far side of the building, gets a running start and nails Kabuki Kid with a lariat, picking up the three count cover. Your winner: Rey Paloma

Match Thoughts: Ah, what fun indy sleeze. Of course it was clipped to just the enjoyable parts but the crowd seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. Probably in a long "normal" match these guys might struggle but they are fine for this style of wrestling, and while it doesn't compare to the bigger promotions it is entertaining in its own right. Probably a blast to go to live, but since they double up with rock shows I imagine it is only fun if you also like rock music. Seemed like a good time though.

Final Thoughts:

Obviously when dealing with a 30 minute release that is designed to show off a promotion, you aren't going to get full matches but rather just a feel of what the promotion has to offer. I was impressed with their improvisational abilities when dealing with not having a ring, such as having things nearby to jump off of to use as a top turnbuckle and using various props from around the ring to make up for not having the normal structure. They made it seem natural, which is easier said then done. It was also fun to see Miyamoto lose clean to a unknown small indy wrestler, you don't see that a lot these days. If you get a chance to download this, I say go for it, just understand that what you will get is a gist of what the promotion has to offer without any real substance.

Mildly Recommended