Cero Reviews Hana Kimura Memorial Show ~ Matane ~

[cero2k]

Hana Kimura Memorial Show ~ Matane ~
May 23, 2021
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Introductions - On English commentary, we have Riccaboni and Cheeseburger from ROH, for the Japanese broadcast, we have people from Ken Suzuki from Michinoku Pro, Takashi Sasaki from FREEDOMS, Marada from NJPW/Stardom. I unfortunately had to watch it with English commentary, I just couldn't find the Japanese stream.

They had all of Hana's old gear around Korakuen Hall.

They had DJ Yamamura playing music, who was Hana's favorite DJ. The broadcast actually started about thirty minutes prior to the opening bell, so we did get to listen to music while Riccanobi and CB talked over it.

Jungle Kyona came out and had some words for the crowd, but since the English commentary didn't have the live mic piped in at a high volume and neither announcer knows Japanese, I have no idea what she said. She looked great though, she was one of Hana's closest friends. I miss Kyona.

As a side note, Sumie Sakai of ROH is in Riccaboni's ear apparently, but she's not doing translations, just explaining things to them that they don't seem to be familiar with.

Opening Ceremony - We got an opening dance performance by ILK✰PARK, music by AWANIKO, which was Hana's idol group.

After the performance, we got a Hana Kimura video, with some photos and videos of Hana.

FUMA, Mil Mongoose & Shota vs. Eisa8, HUB & Shisaou - 7/10
All of these wrestlers are from different indie promotions in Japan. Mil Mongoose mostly works for RDPW, FUMA is from BASARA, and Shota is from DDT; furthermore, on the other team, Shisaou, better known as GAINA, is the veteran of the match, he has worked for tons of promotions, mostly Michinoku Pro and Colega, but he has some NJPW, NOAH, and DDT experience. HUB, who was Hana's favorite wrestler, is also as experienced as Shisaou, also working all over the place, he has a lot of history with Dragon Gate and Osaka Pro, and finally Eisa8, who doesn't really have a home promotion, he's worked with AJPW, OWE, and VKF.

Ever since that match where Shota looked like Chavo Guerrero and everyone, myself included, pointed it out, he seems to have embraced the look and now has an actual Guerrero style bandana and pants.

Match had some interesting pair ups, Eisa8 and FUMA with some chain wrestling, HUB and Mongoose with some lucha stuff, Shota did comedy, while Shisaou was the powerhouse of the match. Shota was the babyface in peril early on, FUMA got the hot tag, but also got cut off by Eisa8 and Shisaou. Mongoose came in at the end for the tornado tag stuff of the match, but it all came down to Mongoose and HUB, with the latter getting the win after a couple of near falls with a Lariat and a Jackhammer, ending with Armageddon.

Good opener, a little bit of everything, but mostly action.

Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Super Delfin vs. Jun Kasai vs. Masato Tanaka vs. CIMA vs. Tsutomu Oosugi vs. Gabai Ji-chan vs. Hagane Shinnou vs. Lingerie Muto vs. Banana Senga vs. Yuko Miyamoto vs. DASH Chisako vs. Hanako Nakamori vs. Yuki Miyazaki vs. Cherry vs. Onryo vs. Aiger vs. Moeka Haruhi vs. Menso-re Oyaji vs. Yusuke Kodama vs. Shotaro Ashino vs. Andras Miyagi vs. Chihiro Hashimoto vs. Mika Iwata vs. Fuminori Abe vs. Miyuki Takase vs. Ram Kaicho vs. Hana-chan (Sakura Hirota) - 6/10
A lot of wrestlers came out together, but we did get some big timely surprises later on. It did made it kinda hard to see who everyone was, but it was a pleasant surprise to see people like Shotaro Ashino, DASH Chisako, Ram Kaicho, or Shinnou out there. Super Delfin was the first to get a surprise entrance.

Later on Onryo, ownder of 666, came out with Yosuke Kodama, Andras Miyagi, and Aiger. They did scary spots and eliminated Moeka. Ram Kaicho, also from 666, joined them. They ganged up on old man Ji-chan, but he helped eliminate the Aiger, Onryo, and Miyagi, with some help of everyone else in the ring. Cherry them helped eliminate Gabai Ji-chan.

Then we got Sakura Hirota, cosplaying Tokyo Cyber Squad Hana Kimura. Hirota has a gimmick of cosplaying wrestlers. Everyone in the ring, referee included, attacked Hirota, but it led to Menso-re Oyaji hip tossing literally everyone in the ring, so about 18 hip tosses. Delfin and Takase joined up to take out Menso-re with a Delfin Clutch, only for Takase to turn on Delfin and eliminate him.

Lingerie Muto locked in a Figure 4 on Hirota, but they were both pinned by the everyone for the double elimination.

Takase and Shinnou got a good exchange, ending with Takase being eliminated by everyone in the ring. Suddenly, Jun Kasai came down to the ring. Kasai had skewers and everyone ran away from the ring, except Iwata, who tried to ask for an autograph instead. Ashino took advantage of the distraction to take out Kasai. Ashino started facing off with Iwata and later Hashimoto. The whole ring went after Hashimoto and Ashino, so they slammed them all before going back to the striking exchange. They suplexed each other and the ring took advantage to pin them both.

Out came Masato Tanaka. Riccaboni and CB could only reference ECW, like if that was the highlight of their career. This is why I don't watch Japanese wrestling with English commentary. He eliminated Shinnou and Kodama. Miyazaki then eliminated Cherry.

Jinsei Shinzaki came out next. He looks younger than 20 years ago. Shinzaki went to do the top rope walk with everyone held on, but Banana Senga pushed him off and eliminated him without doing anything in the match.

CIMA came out. He eliminated Abe, Miyazaki, and Nakamori. They did some spots with a chair that ended with Iwata defending Kasai and teaming with him for the Pearl Harbor Splash and Chisako elimination. They also eliminated Miyamoto with a sick chair shot. Iwata then turned on Kasai and eliminated him, only to get eliminated by CIMA and Tanaka.

Final three were Tanaka, CIMA, and small Ram Kaicho! CIMA and Tanaka just wanted to fight each other and pushed Ram away. As both men fought in the apron, Kaicho got them with a double dropkick and won the match.

This whole thing was great for what the purpose of these matches are supposed to be. The surprises were great, the comedy and action as well. It was really long, but it allowed for everyone to get something in and that was best.

Riccaboni and CB were incredibly annoying in this match, their selling for surprise entrants was the worst.

Post-match - We got a promo by Ram Kaicho, but again, unfortunately, the live mic audio was not fed into the English commentary, nor do these two know Japanese, who I wasn't able to get much out of it.

ASUKA, Mio Momono, Natsupoi & Syuri vs. Oedo Tai (HZK & Kagetsu) & Tokyo Cyber Squad (Death Yama-san & Konami) (w/Kyoko Kimura & Jungle Kyona) - 8.5/10
Momono with MARVELOUS, Natsupoi and Syuri from Donna del Mondo and Stardom, and ASUKA, from all over the place. ASUKA came out with YAYOI DAIMON, a hip-hop artist. Konami and Death Yama-san came out to their TCS gimmicks, and teamed up with Oedo Tai, their current stable, BUT with the former members of Oedo Tai, HZK and Kagetsu. We didn't get the old Oedo Tai theme, but I still popped HARD for Kagetsu and HZK's entrance, tears of happiness hard. They even did the dance.

Match started with a couple of pair ups, not my fantasy pair ups, but probably the smarter ones. I wanted to see Natsupoi vs HZK in a battle of High Speed Champs, but we got Natsupoi vs Death, so another battle of High Speed Champs. We also got Konami vs Syuri in a battle of kickers. We obviously got ASUKA vs Kagetsu, and they left Momono vs HZK until the end, since Momono was to be the one cut off. She actually got cut off by Kyoko Kimura, who tripped her. Kyoko was an Oedo Tai OG, the one that kinda passed the team on to Kagetsu.

Later on, Natsupoi was the one that got cut off by Konami, but it wasn't long, Natsupoi and Momono joined up for a High Speed tag combo, to set up Kagetsu for a great Syuri vs Kagetsu pair up. At the end, we got a couple of spots with all wrestlers going tornado tag, ending with ASUKA pinning HZK with a roll up.

Match was all action. Really put the weight of the match on HZK/Konami vs Natsupoi/Momono. Death and Syuri had some stuff here and there, and Kagetsu and ASUKA took it somewhat easier given the post-match.

Post-match - ASUKA challenged Kagetsu to a singles match. Kagetsu asked the fans if they wanted to see the match, so they asked Kyoko Kimura, who was technically the booker, and she made it official. Yes, once again, English stream had really low mic audio and a terrible echo from the microphones.

Kagetsu vs. ASUKA - 7/10
Match started with a strong pace, some collar and elbow that quickly transitioned into a couple of dives from Kagetsu, but after that, the match slowed down a bit with both wrestlers going back and forward, trading near falls. Kagetsu got a strong one with a shot with the wooden sign and a 450. Then she got a near submission with Hana's Hydrangea.

ASUKA recovered and they got a couple of near falls, ending with a Fisherman Buster. The match was short, about 10 minutes, but it was exactly what it had to be, an epilogue to the 8-person match, so it would make zero sense to have them go longer. Those 10 or so minutes were mostly action packed.

Post-match - Both ASUKA and Kagetsu had some words, that again I could barely make out. Kyoko Kimura came in to the ring with a portrait of Hana before all three closed the show together.

We got one final video of Hana, a beautiful life retrospective that showed more of her than just what wrestling fans knew of her. A LOT of touching moments of her with her family and friends and a couple of her career highlights. You couldn't ask for a better feature.

After the video, we got a compilation of videos sent from wrestlers all over the world saying "Matane". This was the one point that really hit me.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This was a nice heartfelt celebration of Hana's life, it was all positivity, fun, and good wrestling. We've unfortunately seen way more memorial/tribute shows than anyone should, and while there is a huge range of emotions that are felt during these shows, I end this one with a happy smile on my face, having seen everyone out there have a good time, paying tribute to Hana.

Hana, またね！