Osaka Pro Wrestling’s Summer Festival is here! A recent addition to the Osaka Pro calendar, the show reflects President Zeus’s love of festivals and his often repeated phrase ‘life is a festival!’, with gifts for fans in yukata and other traditional Japanese dress. Despite its short history, it is an important date in Osaka Pro’s annual schedule, as it helps set the stage ahead of the promotion’s big singles tournament, Tennozan.
If you want to know more about Osaka Pro and its characters before diving in, you can do that with our beginner’s guide here.
This year the event is expanded to two days, covering the 24th and 25th August. It is being held at Azalea Taisho Hall, which Osaka Pro regularly sells out at a capacity of 300. No official broadcast information has been announced yet, but shows are usually available through Osaka Pro’s YouTube channel a few days after the event, or slightly longer if aired through Wrestle Universe. More information about how to make sure you can watch Osaka Pro shows can be found in our beginner’s guide.
The previous two years of Summer Festival have featured a mix of key announcements, special guests and debuts, and big storyline developments. Most notably (and potentially relevant for this year) was the formation of the new Osaka Pro’s first faction – the rudo unit, Rogue Nation – in August last year.
Each day of 2024′ Summer Festival is a five match card, with two title matches on day 1 and a Special Royal Rumble match planned for day 2. The main story in focus is the future of Rogue Nation, with leader Quiet Storm taking on company President Zeus, and founding member Shu Asakawa returning to the ring. Other matches are here to showcase the tag wrestling and comedy Osaka Pro excels at, as well as potentially provide a few hints of what may come in the upcoming Tennozan tournament.
Enjoy the festival, and don’t forget to join in for the ‘wasshoi!’ chants that bring Osaka Pro together!
Day One: 24th August 2024
Match 1: Shigehiro Irie & Aran Sano vs. Yasutaka Oosera & Yuuto Kikuchi
This could be chaos. On one side we have the darlings of Osaka Pro in Sano, their first trainee since relaunch, and Irie, who trained in Osaka Pro’s kids’ classes. On the other, we have two rival heel characters in the form of Rogue Nation’s Oosera and Dotonbori Pro’s Kikuchi, who don’t even like each other.
Will the surly and opinionated bad boys find common cause against the (far larger) heroes of this match? Or will shenanigans follow?
Match 2: Tsubasa & Billy Ken Kid & Ebessan & Tetsuya Goto vs. HUB & The Bodyguard & Takoyakida & Kuishinbo Kamen
Classic Osaka Pro fun – both comedy and technical violence are likely to get their time in this match. Shi-En’s Goto has been on a few larger Osaka Pro cards and impressed, so he’ll get some good experience with Osaka Pro’s veterans here.
Match 3: Tigers Mask & Ryuya Matsufusa vs. Goliath & Shu Asakawa
This is Shu Asakawa’s return match. A founding member of Rogue Nation, Asakawa was injured in a road accident a few months after the group launched, so hasn’t had the opportunity to enjoy its successes. This is a chance for him to get to know teammate Goliath, who joined during Asakawa’s absence. Hopefully they’ll have had some time to practice shaking hands since Asakawa’s return announcement.
Tigers Mask and Light Heavyweight Champion Matsufusa will no doubt want to welcome Asakawa as the enemy he is. In last year’s Festival, Matsufusa was his tag team partner, just before he, TORU, and Quiet Storm revealed their new alliance. Now on opposite sides, both might be keen to make a statement.
Match 4: Osaka Meibutsu Sekaiichi Championship, Joichiro Osaka (c) vs. Kanjyuro Matsuyama
This match is notable for being one of the few occassions that Osaka Pro’s comedy title is being defended in a singles match. Joichiro Osaka (a cross between Osaka castle and a boxer) faces comedy wrestler legend Kanjyuro Matsuyama (a flamboyant kabuki actor character, born in Toryumon Mexico). Joichiro has been the champion for the majority of the relaunched Osaka Pro but Matsuyama has held previous versions of this belt five times over 16 years. The only easy thing to predict here is that someone is ending up with their legs either side of the second rope.
Match 5: Osaka Pro Wrestling Championship, Quiet Storm (c) vs. Zeus
Last year when Storm won the Osaka Pro Championship at the Summer Festival, he declared it was fate. It was nearly ten years to the day since he had won the belt as Osaka Pro’s first foreign champion. He had challenged champion Zeus in June because Zeus had been the man to take that Championship away from him back in 2014. Despite the two having become friends in the interim period, this was personal. Unfortunately, Zeus never made it to the match in August 2023, having to vacate due to injury in July, so Quiet Storm didn’t quite get his revenge moment at the perfect time, instead facing Tigers Mask for the vacant belt. He did still get revenge of a sort though, as he invited Zeus into the ring after the title match, seemingly just to reissue a challenge. That was when Shu Asakawa appeared to hit Zeus with a chair and Rogue Nation was born, with Storm as its leader. Understandably, things between Zeus and Storm have not been friendly since.
Zeus is very much back to full health and, as President and leader of Osaka Pro, strongly opposing Rogue Nation and Quiet Storm’s ‘revolution’. Zeus already had one opportunity to win back the belt in December last year, though the forces of Rogue Nation intervened. Things look to be different this year though as Storm seems like he might be mellowing, having refused intervention in his last title match against Irie. The champion and challenger are also one and one in official pre-matches and Zeus is more prepared for Rogue Nation’s particular brand of competition. Whatever happens, this will be a hard hitting fight.
Day Two: 25th August 2024
Match 1: Joichiro Osaka vs Yuuto Kikuchi
The self-proclaimed Lord of Osaka Castle, vs the self-proclaimed ‘super cool’ ruler of Dotonbori Pro. Both are perhaps slightly too fond of an ‘accidental’ low blow, though Joichiro’s tend to get more laughs. This will probably be short but it’s worth noting that Osaka Pro’s comedy characters can occasionally shock by adding some actual wrestling to their repertoire. This might be the perfect time.
Match 2: Tsubasa & Ryuya Matsufusa vs HUB & Takoyakida
Winners vs Losers – the winning team of Tsubasa facing his previous tag title challenger in HUB and champion Matsufusa facing two of his previous light heavyweight challengers. Will they be the winning team in this scenario?
Match 3: Ebessan & Billy Ken Kid vs The Bodyguard & Kuishinbo Kamen
Will the bodyguard sing his own entrance? More importantly, will he do the Kuishinbo Kamen hop? There’s no special story here, just good fun from Osaka Pro stalwarts. This is the light comedy part of the card, so expect silliness.
Match 4: 4th match: Zeus & Tigers Mask & Aran Sano vs TORU & Shu Asakawa & Yasutaka Oosera
It’s heroes vs villains, with the President, leading veteran Tigers Mask, and young rookie Sano facing a tricky Rogue Nation trio. We don’t yet know whether Rogue Nation will be buoyed by their leader’s victory or whether Zeus will be the one with momentum. Either way, both sides will be fighting for pride, so we can expect some heated moments and opportunities for them to show off.
Match 5: Summer Festival! Osaka Pro Wrestling Special Royal Rumble
Despite not being a feature of modern Osaka Pro, there has historically been a ‘battle royal’ championship, which is well suited to a promotion with a small roster where everyone is very used to getting in the ring with everyone else. Zeus likes to end a festival well, so this should bring a bit of everything Osaka Pro can offer and also will likely pit competitors against their now announced Tennozan opponents. Will whoever can win here also come out on top in that tournament? Or will chaos reign as everyone has to do the Kuishinbo Kamen hop? It may well be both.
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