June 30th, 2019:
David Starr and The O.J.M.O. vs. WALTER and Shigehiro Irie
-OR-
Still Feud with Pooh Man
WHEN: Progress Chapter 90: The Lonesome Death of the One-Man Cabaret Act. 6/30/2019
WHERE: Electric Ballroom. London, England
SHOULD I WATCH IT TOO?: 4.22 on Grappl. Couldn’t hurt, especially if you’re invested at all in this Starr/WALTER thing going on. It’s a show loaded with matches that run the gamut from “fine” to “I’ve done worse things with my time” and this is the clear standout.
LINK?: Can’t help you today, this is on Progress’ VOD service.
David Starr and WALTER’s feud can be a bit much sometimes. Spanning multiple promotions across Europe, Starr’s had his ass handed to him in increasingly creative ways more times than I care to Google. This match is another footnote in a saga that I've enjoyed as much as everybody else seems to, but Shigehiro Irie might have been the sneaky selling point for me here. Ideally I'd tell you more about Irie but the problem is, I honestly know next to nothing about him.
The only match of his I’d seen prior was his first round match against Chris Brookes in the wXw 16 Carat Gold tournament. As you can likely imagine, that match was just fine, almost overwhelmingly so. The remainder of what I know comes from the April 11th, 2019 edition of Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast. Cabana interviews Irie from backstage at sold-out DDT show in New York during Wrestlemania weekend, and Irie explains his method for learning the English language:
CABANA: How do you study?
IRIE: By watching Disney movie.
CABANA: Your favorite?
IRIE: Beauty and the Beast.
CABANA: Do you watch with subtitles?
IRIE: Yes, English voice and English subtitle.
CABANA: Oh!
IRIE: Yes, now I watching Winnie the Pooh.
CABANA: You like?
IRIE: Yeah, my favorite.
CABANA: Tigger?
IRIE: No, Pooh.
CABANA: You look like Winnie the Pooh.
IRIE: Oh, thank you.
And now you understand it wasn’t a matter of choice, this man has strong-armed me into lifelong fandom. I have no choice but to stan, if you will. I too feel very strongly about Winnie the Pooh and like my new dear friend Shigehiro, it doesn’t stem from my childhood at all. Somewhere in my early twenties, something shook loose in the cockles of my heart that makes me an emotional wreck about the idea of a well-meaning-but-clueless speaking bear in peril, culminating in me furiously sobbing over a cutscene in the video game Kingdom Hearts where Pooh doesn’t know where all of his friends have gone. More recently, my girlfriend watched in awe as I wiped an endless stream of tears from my face during Paddington 2. Speaking of my girlfriend, the only piece of my wrestling fandom I’ve ever been able to share with her without being immediately rebuked is this very interview. Even now, when she walks in on me watching professional wrestling in her apartment (to the great shame of both of us), if there’s a Japanese guy in a singlet on camera (usually Takagi) she might ask, “Is that Pooh man?”
Anyway, the match is fun. The O.J.M.O. is Starr’s endorsed entrant into the coming Natural Progression tournament (also known as Michael Oku), who apparently had a recent must-see banger with PAC at a RevPro Cockpit show, and he seems pretty cool. Starr is a treat to watch whenever he’s in the ring. Coming off the Super Strong Style 16 tourney (go watch the last day of that if you haven’t, both semis and the final are outstanding) and his main event against WALTER at OTT’s Wrestlerama 3 I’m not sure he could do wrong by me if he tried. It almost feels like the Starr v. WALTER feud is taking one last tour around Europe before it wraps up, quite possibly right here in Progress for the title.
The final sequence finds Starr and Irie in the ring together for a stiff lariat duel that’s a total blast and my favorite part of the match. In the podcast interview with Colt, Irie talks about going freelance so he can get out there and wrestle around the world, specifically citing Europe, despite the potential financial gamble of it all. Knowing that, it’s kind of heartwarming to watch him get elbowed into mincemeat during a hot closing stretch for an even hotter crowd in the biggest match on the card. Still, I’m worked into that tingle I feel when a kind bear is wronged the moment Starr hits the Blackheart Buster for the pin. Starr is practically making eye contact with WALTER throughout; Irie is just stuck in crossfire.
“I love Winnie Pooh,” Irie says, and I nod along vigorously with him in my headphones while Colt prods him along just enough to continue: “Yes, wrestling is very nice.”
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The episode of the The Art of Wrestling (Ep. 53 - Wrestlecon: The Shows) featuring the interview can be found anywhere you get podcasts, and on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/coltcabana/53-wrestlecon-the-shows
If you’ve somehow found this, please feel free to comment and let me know what you think of the match, the blog and any suggestions/requests for matches in future entries.
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