Year In Wrestling: 2006 - Santo/Mascara vs Blue Panther/Tarzan Boy, Angle vs Cena, NJPW Jan 4th Dome Show.

CMLL Guadalajara Domingos - 01/01/2006

El Hijo del Santo & La Máscara vs. Blue Panther & Tarzan Boy

Tag Team matches in Lucha I’ve found usually lie between great and average and while this had superb maestro work in the first fall between Blue Panther and Hijo del Santo, this was fairly mediocre when La Máscara was involved which was often. Even when paired against Blue Panther, he was sloppy and one step out of place for every little spot. Tarzan Boy was better, having some neat exchanges with Santo, who looked really slick himself. The highlight of the match was Santo hitting a rolling senton on Tarzan Boy and hitting a tope in the corner onto Blue Panther in one fluid motion. Beautiful. Santo and La Máscara win via a roll up/sub combo. **3/4

WWE Raw 02/01/2006

Non Title First Blood Match: Kurt Angle (w/Daivari) vs. John Cena

John Cena raps about his Elimination Chamber opponents. Further proving that the idea that he totally changed once he became champion is very much revised history. His best quip was “Chris Masters couldn't even spell WWE”. Kurt Angle interrupts when Cena was focusing on him and he was pissed. This was a first blood match so Angle quickly worked the face with punches, trying to cut Cena open, with Daivari helping whenever the opportunity came. Cena was cut off whenever he mounted some offence with suplexes. Angle uses the ring to his advantage, taking the turnbuckle pad off, and taming Cena's head into it, before attempting to use the chair before Cena turned it around on him. The transition into the finish was pretty terrible with Angle locking on the Ankle Lock in a first blood match!!!! This led to a ref bump, because of course it did, leading to Daivari distracted Cena long enough for Angle to use the chair, busting Cena open for a Ruthless Aggression style blade job. Cena locks on an STF, which for the sake of consistency, annoyed me but the blade job made it look cool as hell. Angle wins the match because of the blood but there is no time to celebrate as all the Chamber participants hit finishes on each other to close out the show. A good short main event with great selling and good psychology, for the most part. ***

BJW - 02/01/2006

Masato Tanaka vs. Daisuke Sekimoto

I guess it's apt that the only place I can find this match, without looking deeper, is a porn site. It's rare I have to watch wrestling while going incognito yet here we are. All for a young Daisuke Sekimoto, who looks the exact same in 2006 as he does now in 2021. Ditto with Tanaka, really, although he's a bit thicker. This is a proto-strong division style match with a lot of heavy strikes and bomb throwing. It's not long before some of the more dangerous bumps come into play. Sekimoto reverses a suplex on the apron to hit one of his own, then Sekimoto later gets planted with a friend tornado ddt in the crowd onto a pile of chairs. The match seemed to reset itself with Tanaka working the leg before getting into the meat of the match. The closing stretch was typical Masato Tanaka Kings Road inspired wrestling done poorly. Nearfalls and not much selling but the crowd was into the action and Sekimoto got a rub going 50/50 with an indie legend. **1/2

NJPW Toukon Shidou Chapter I - 04/01/2006

Yuji Nagata vs. Kazunari Murakami

The Heisei Terrorist can work his magic anywhere, including the Dome. Murakami puts in a masterful performance in both dishing out offence and taking it bleeding all over the wrestling mat. Nagata initially wrestled in the hard hitting but safe method, kicking Murkami in the chest but Murakmi turned around and showed none of the same courtesy, socking Nagata hard in the check bones and wildey throwing soccer kicks. It wasn’t until the middle of the match where Nagata put some venom in his strikes. Nagata survived Murkami’s onslaught and began his comeback on the outside, where he clashed with the Big Mouth Loud wrestlers, Yoshiaki Fujiwara in particular. Murakami got bloody in the process, and bad headbutts aside, Nagata went to town on the cut, eventually blasting Murakami in the face with a kick. We get a couple of nail biting nearfalls before Nagata wins via a backdrop. More chaos after the match with more brawling and bad blood. Great match once between these two. And a great post match brawl to top it all of. This should’ve been higher. Murakami certainly had the prestige even without Nagata being involved. ****

Koji Kanemoto vs. Shinjiro Otani

Keeping up with the New Japan vs the world theme, it’s Kanemoto against an old rival, Zero1’s Shinjiro Otani. The match was mostly them playing the hits rather than aim for a classic bout. And that was fun enough. They exchange Face Wash spots and slaps with the overall story being Otani being the more dominant of the two and leading all the exchanges. Otani, despite being bigger than he was in 1997, can still hit an immaculate springboard dropkick and a Dragon Suplex, which he used to win. ***

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata

Hiroshi Tanahashi hit as hard as he got in this, no doubt steaming from the real life dislike between the two but Shibata looked to be in firm control. He had the advantage of being the ace of his respective promotion (Big Mouth Loud) so he got the result and took most of the match. Shibata was a prick for the whole match, booting Tanahashi in the head and ribs in painful ways. Tanahashi being a great underdog compliments Shibata’s style really well. Shibata gets the win, which made sense for the time although it only takes a few months for it to be an odd decision in hindsight. ***3/4

IWGP Tag Team Title Match: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Masahiro Chono (c) vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Takao Omori

Damn Koshinaka still has it. He might just be one of the best closing stretch wrestlers. Even in a mediocre match, which this was not, he can get the house rocking with his nearfalls. But Omori takes the MVP performance. The other three either are over the hill or rely on the opponent to carry them up a level so Omori had to be the aggressive one, leading all the big spots and threading it together, with the other three interjecting with their signature moves. And that was a terrific formula for these four. Cho-Ten retain the tag team titles after a Shining Wizard from Chono to close out a fun semi main event. ***1/2

IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

The infamous Brock Lesnar IWGP Heavyweight Title reign. This is his first title defence and it’s considered the worst of the lot. I didn’t think it was terrible but it’s lacking in imagination, effort and heat. Brock’s heart wasn’t in this evidently but his work was stiff and adequate for Nakamura to work off. Nakamura does get frustrated throughout the match but he puts in a shift to make it work. Some of his hope spots got a reaction but they are quickly snuffed out and Brock hits the Verdict (wink, wink) to win and retain the title. **1/2