WCW/New Japan Supershow III

Legacy Review

WCW/New Japan Supershow III

January 4, 1993 from the Tokyo Dome

This is the last of the joint WCW/New Japan shows that were edited down to short 2 hour PPVs to be shown in the US. We're also in the period where Bill Watts was being transitioned out as the head of WCW. The New Japan name for this show is Fantastic Story in Tokyo Dome, the second in the line of annual January 4th Dome shows that would eventually become Wrestle Kingdom.

As this is on New Japan World once again it's only Japanese commentary.

Akira Nogami, Takayuji Iizuka and El Samurai def Koki Kitahara, Nobukazu Hiari and Masao Orihara in 15:11- New Japan was starting to invite other companies besides WCW to the Dome for January 4th, a tradition that would continue for years to come. This match is NJPW vs WAR. WAR was formed shortly after the collapse of SWS, the promotion in Japan that Vince worked with for a couple of years and even held a couple of joint shows in the Tokyo Dome with. I have absolutely no idea who the three WAR guys are and commentary is obviously little help. In fact, I've never watched the US version of this show either but apparently Eric Bishoff handles commentary solo for this match (moved later in the show for the American broadcast) and makes less effort figuring out who's who than JR did when he was calling New Japan on AXS TV, so pretty much anyone reviewing this is going to have a hard time without doing hardcore research that frankly I don't have time for. This is a hobby, not a job. The chap I've deduced is Ohihara gets his knee worked on a while then suddenly decides to stop selling it. Lots of rapid fire trios match moves and coutnermoves follow, everyone in this match is pretty early in their careers and I'm sure taking advantage of getting booked in the Dome to try to make an impression, until Ohihara seemingly gets legit knocked cold by a powerbomb. I mean legit, other guys are trying to make him move and he ain't moving, so they just pin him. **1/2

 

The Great Kabuki, Shiro Koshinaka, Akitoshi Saito and Masashi Aoyagi def Hiro Saito, Tatsutoshi Goto, Norio Honaga and Super Strong Machine in 14:20- All the heels are in Strong Machine's Raging Staff faction and they're all in matching gear. Another match with a lot of guys that have varying degrees of familiarity to me and it's your standard New Japan undercard 8 man tag with nothing special so we'll hit the proverbial fast forward button. Kabuki and Machine hook it up a couple of times, with Machine trying to tear Kabuki's arm off the second time. After several donnybrook teases and mini-donnybrooks Kabuki hits a lariato and Saito suplex (not on Saito, pretty sure of that) to end it. **1/4

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Jushin Thunder Liger def Ultimo Dragon (c) in 20:09- Now these guys, I know. Dragon is also representing WAR. White and blue are Liger's colors tonight. Code of Honor handshake and we're off. After some arm tradeoffs both guys start hitting rapid fire takedowns. Like a dozen in one breathless sequence, boom boom boom. Great stuff. Things settle in as both guys spend the next 5 or so minutes working each other's legs. Dragon locks in a bow and arrow and switches to a headscissors. Liger escapes and goes surfing. Tiltawhirl backbreaker from Liger. Rolling kick in the corner. He goes for another tiltawhirl but Dragon rolls through it into a flying headscissors. Front suplex from Dragon and he hooks in his own surfboard, then switches to the Gory Special. He goes up top. Liger meets him. Dragon pushes him off, comes off a bit wrong and hits a kinda sorta missile dropkick. A handspring elbow sends Liger to the floor. The Great Muta influence on wrestling in Japan couldn't be more clear. A baseball slide sends Liger over the guardrail into the timekeeper's area. Dragon crossbody off the top OVER THE RAIL AND ONTO THE TIMEKEEPER'S TABLE! SHIT! I'm pretty sure Dragon's face hit the edge of the table as he came down. Ouch. Dragon brain busters Liger back in for 2. He goes for a tombstone, reverse, reverse, Dragon hits it. He goes up top again, but slips badly on his launch and has to settle for landing on his feet, then dropping a weak headbutt. Not pretty. A really nice fallaway slam with a cover floatover from Dragon gets 2. Liger counters in the corner with a Gedo clutch for 2. Dragon hits a German suplex with a bridge. Liger gets a foot on the rope. A Liger spinning kick sends Dragon to the floor. Liger bomb on the floor! Liger with a senton off the top rope to the floor! Might need to get the spatulas out for Dragon to get him off the mat out there. He barely manages to beat the count back in. Liger gives him a release German and covers him with one hand for 2. STIFF Liger punch. Another Liger bomb. Liger goes up top again, but as he comes down both guys lariato each other! Liger rolls out. Dragon hits a springboard twist and both guys crash into the guardrail! A countout is teased but both guys make it back in. Back in Dragon tries for a flying headscissors. Liger blocks it and just drops him. Think this kid is starting to annoy him. He goes for another Liger bomb but Dragon rolls him up for 2! Dragon with a springboard moonsault! Power bomb! Liger kicks out! They both go up top again....Liger with the avalanche DDT! He's slow to cover and Dragon kicks out! Another Liger bomb! He places Dragon up top and gives him a hurricanrana! That gets the pin and the title! This is Liger's 6th junior title win and it would turn out to be the longest reign of them all, a record 628 days. That record still stands today. It's a little more spotty than usual from Liger or the New Japan juniors, but that's a quibble, not a complaint, it's still a great match and Ultimo Dragon's big coming out party despite his inexperience showing a time or two. He'd of course be a big part of WCW's cruiserweight division a few years later. You really have to wonder how many Tokyo Dome main events Liger would have had if he wasn't "only" a junior. ****

 

"The All American" Ron Simmons def Tony Halme in 6:10- Simmons had just dropped the WCW world title back to Vader, who's sadly not booked on this show despite his megastar status in Japan. Both guys take cautious swings before locking up. Shoulderblock standoff. Simmons fakes Halme out with a drop toe hold and hits lariatos. He counters a Halme backdrop into a piledriver for 2. Simmons dives for a tackle but Halme pushes him away. Halme with a splash in the corner and side suplex for 2. He plants Simmons with a spinebuster for 2. A punch sends Simmons to the floor and Halme suplexes him back in. Both guys trade powerslams for 2. After an ugly small package Simmons hits the spinebuster for 3. They ran full contact into each other at the start of the match and had the potential for a good power match but never gelled after. Halme was getting into backstage trouble in New Japan around this time, and by midyear moved to the US for his short but impactful WWF run as Ludvig Borga. 1/2*

 

Sting def Hiroshi Hase in 15:31- Both these guys are hugely popular stars in their respective home companies so of course we handshake at the start. Sting whips out the power early, pressing Hase multiple times over his head before slamming him. After a few dropkicks Hase powders. Big Hase chops. After a speed run both guys try for dropkicks. Hase ties Sting's legs up to work the knee and mocks him by doing Rick Rude's hip swivel! What a jerk. Lots of Hase work on the knee and it looks like we're in for a Wounded Sting Knee match. Sting no sells some chops and hits a suplex. And from here on the knee's all better, thank you. They fumble around a whip spot and Hase hits a Russian leg sweep. Hase rolls through some Sting-like power moves, hits a knee off the second rope and locks in a sleeper. He gets Sting down and grapevines him, but the ref calls it a choke and forces a break. Uranage! A second one! Sting kicks out! Sting blocks a dragon suplex and they tumble to the floor. Sting slams Hase on the floor and drops him on the guardrail. Back in Sting comes off the top, but Hase was a long way away and there's an awkward knee to the gut counter that I'm not 100% sure was supposed to happen. Chops in the corner piss Sting off. He hits multiple faceplants and puts Hase in a Canadian backbreaker. Hase flips out and they do the bridge up spot. Sting walks up the corner to get out of the backslide, then comes off the second rope in another awkward looking move where he just fell back like Darby Allin's coffin drop and fell on a standing Hase. Hase gets a roll up WITH A HANDFUL OF TIGHTS for 2. Well he'd been heeling it up a little all match. Hase ducks a lariato and tries another uranage. Sting blocks it and hits a DDT! He goes up top, hits a big splash and that's it. No signature moves at all from Sting, what's up with that? Hase wasn't comfortable working the nominal heel role either. Makes you respect even more how someone like Tanahashi can pull that out like once every other year at most and still do it perfectly. Give these guys a couple of weeks on the house show loop to smooth out the rough edges and there's clearly a good match in here. **1/2

 

Masa Saito and Shinya Hashimoto def "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes and Scott Norton in 13:57- Norton and Hashimoto start. Norton asks for kicks to the chest to prove he's a man's man and gets them. He ducks a Hashimoto spinning kick and kills him with a lariato, then murders the corpse with a shoulderblock. Hashimoto ducks and Norton runs into him. That didn't look planned. They turn 90 degrees and do a backdrop so I assume that was attempt #2. Chop exchange. Dustin has bionic elbows for everyone. Amusingly, he's officially named "Dusty Rhodes, Jr" in New Japan. I thought it might have just been NJPW World, but the ring announcer clearly calls him that. Anyway, Saito ducks a Dustin crossbody and he flies over the top onto the ramp. Saito goes to backdrop Dustin and Dustin just kind of rolls over him, another ugly looking miscommunication. Norton and Saito chop each other down with lariatos. Saito ducks a punch and Saito suplexes both gaijins. Norton superplexes Hashimoto as a completely transitional move that doesn't go anywhere. Hashimoto goes in peril for a bit. Dustin hits a DDT. Saito breaks up a couple of pin attempts. Hashimoto dodges Norton in the corner, hits a DDT and tags. Saito hits two of his namesake suplexes on Norton. Dustin takes his turn to break the pin up. Norton hits a powerslam and Hashimoto breaks up the pin. Hashimoto picks Dustin apart with kicks and Dustin 360 sells a lariato. Jupming DDT. Norton just dives in to break the pin up. Hashimoto hits Dustin with a standing enzuguri, covers, and Norton pretty much goes "oh fine whatever", waits forever to come in, and Hashimoto gets the pin. It had some moments. **

 

Title vs Title Match: IWGP Heavyweight Champion The Great Muta def NWA World Heavyweight Champion Masahiro Chono in 19:48- This damn well should be the main event. The only reason I can think that's it's not is both these guys are still fairly young even if they're champions, while the top slots on the night went to older faces and feuds. Chono won the NWA title that had been vacant since Ric Flair left for the WWF in the '92 version of the G1 Climax. Muta unified the IWGP Heavyweight and Greatest 18 titles when he won them in August, and is in the middle of a reign that would last exactly 400 days, the longest IWGP Heavyweight title reign to that point. These guys had a very mediocre match a couple of weeks prior at Starrcade for just the Big Gold Belt, a match that supposedly Bill Watts told them to tone it down and not outshine any "home" WCW talent. No worries about that tonight. Muta lets some green mist fly and we're off. After some rope break gamesmanship and headlock/headscissors combo Muta rolls out for a think. They do a crazy speed run and Muta hits a reverse kick. Chono gets a Samoan drop, kick, and Muta powders again. He grabs an international object from under the ring. Commentary says "icepick" which makes me wonder why there would be an icepick under the ring to start with. Ref Tiger Hattori quickly takes it away. Chono rolls through some leg holds. Muta tosses Chono out and whips him into the guardrail. Ax handle off the top rope back in. He tosses Chono again over the top onto the ramp. Running faceplant on the ramp! Muta walks three quarters of the way up the ramp, charges and nails Chono with a lariato. Chono takes most of the 20 count to recover, then charges back at Muta with a shoulderblock. He goes up top. Muta meets him and superplexes him! German with a bridge for 2. Handspring elbow! Chono dodges the moonsault! STF! Muta gets to the rope. There's an extended sequence where Chono kicks Muta and Muta responds with a dropkick. Muta ends up on the ramp. Chono tries to suplex him back in, but Muta reverses it and suplexes Chono onto the ramp! He walks up the ramp for another big head of steam. Handspring elb...no, Chono dodges it! Chono with a Saito suplex on the ramp! After he gets back in, Muta dives over the top rope with a flying forearm! Chono hits a tackle off the top rope for 2. Powerbomb for 2. The STF is hooked in again. Muta fights and just gets to the rope to a huge crowd reaction. Muta Frankensteiner for 2! He goes for the moonsault again. Chono gets his knees up! He goes for the top rope tackle again. Muta dodges! Backbreaker. The moonsault hits! Chono kicks out! The crowd's going ape shit. Muta goes up top again and hits another moonsault! That gets the pin! Muta wins the Big Gold Belt! Very well deserved for a guy that rose to international stardom in 1989 WCW before hitting it big in his home country. Absolutely fantastic match that with another 10 minutes could well have been even better. And to avoid any possible confusion, this was not a title unification, both titles would continue to be defended separately. In fact Muta would just be a transitional NWA champ to get the belt back to the US and WCW. ****1/4

IWGP Tag Team Championship: The Hell Raisers (c) and The Steiner Brothers double countout in 14:38- This match was advertised for the US broadcast all the way up to when it actually aired, where it was suddenly cut out due to the Steiners jumping to the WWF. The Hell Raisers are Road Warrior Hawk as Hawk Warrior teaming with Kensuke Sasaki as Power Warrior. Road Warrior Animal was nursing a back injury that kept him out of action for a while. Hawk and Scott start. Scott gets some amateur takedowns. Double lariato and neither guy budges. Another one and both guys go down. That was full f'n speed. Scott tosses Hawk like a doll. Hawk presses Scott and drops him to the floor! Back in Scott hits a double underhook powerbomb. Hawk no sells a piledriver to a huge crowd reaction and lariatos Scott 360 to the floor. Both sides swap. Rick with a huge belly to belly on Sasaki. He comes off the top rope but Sasaki meets him with a kick followed by a German suplex. Sasaki comes off the second rope. Rick catches him and hits another belly to belly! Scott puts Hawk in a Boston crab. Hawk does push ups while he's in it! Rick comes in and elbows Hawk while he's doing them. These guys are trying to one up each other in every possible way and I am here for all of it. Hawk gets an enzuguri on Scott. Sasaki powerslam on Rick for 2. Scott pumphandle slam on Sasaki. He lifts Sasaki up in a Canadian backbreaker and Rick drops him with an elbow off the top rope. Rick mocks Hawk while he's holding a chinlock. That can't be smart, but to be fair that's one thing no one ever accused the Steiners of being. At least before Scott got his degree in Theoretical Mathematics. Scott gives Sasaki a belly to belly superplex, then he gets in Hawk's face and yells "What are you gonna do about it?". Yeah, not smart. Scott lifts Sasaki up in the electric chair and Rick hits the doomsday bulldog! Hawk breaks the pin up. The Steiners didn't like that. Rick lifts Sasaki up and Scott does a mini Doomsday Device from the second rope. Hawk breaks the pin up again. The Steiners really didn't like that. Rick leapfrogs, and Sasaki catches and powerslams him! Tag. Hawk takes all his frustrations out. Scott responds with powerslams. More pins are broken up and we're going full bonzo gonzo. Scott Frankensteiner on Sasaki! Hawk breaks the pin up with a clothesline from the top rope! Rick hits a German on Sasaki. Hawk and Scott are still fighting on the floor. Sasaki fights Rick off and joins them. Sasaki lifts Scott on the floor and Hawk files out WITH A DOOMSDAY DEVICE ON THE FLOOR! HOLY SHIT. Hawk flew all the way over the guardrail! Hattori gets to 20 and it's officially a double countout even though I really don't think Hawk and Scott were both the legal men. New Japan is a little more lax on that than US companies anyway. Huge boos from the crowd on that result. A Japanese crowd to boot, you know they're not happy. Everyone shakes and hugs it out in the ring after. Damn fun match, and essentially the final act in the Steiners' 4-5 year run of absolute dominance. They toned down their style for their WWF run and, while still good, were never really the same after. ***1/2

 

Tatsumi Fujinami def Takashi Ishikawa in 11:41- These last two matches are NJPW vs WAR again. Ishikawa was also a longtime All Japan star. Fujinami shoves Hattori aside as he's doing prematch checks and lays into Ishikawa! Screw your checks, we're going! A dropkick sends Ishikawa to the floor. FUJINAMI TOPE SUICIDA! MAMA MIA! The crowd explodes for that move. Ishikawa shoulderblocks Fujinami and he falls to the floor. Ishikawa with a plancha! Eh, nice but Fujinami definitely wins the high spot points. Ishikawa slows things down with a chinlock and headlock. Fujinami slips out of a suplex and tries a sleeper. Ishikawa quickly elbows out and hits a running forearm. After some more chinlock Ishikawa tries to put Fujinami in his own dragon sleeper but can't settles for moar chinlock. He catches a Fujinami crossbody and hits a backbreaker. Double knees to the gut and Fujinami rolls out to recover. Back in Fujinami reverses a facelock into an attempt at a Fujiwara armbar. Ishikawa fights it off. After some hammy kicks Fujinami puts on a sleeper and transitions into the dragon sleeper. Ishikawa eye rakes out and hits a lariato for 2. Ishikawa hits two powerbombs for 2. Fujinami hits a superplex! Been a lot of those on this show. Ishikawa tries to hook in a scorpion. Fujinami quickly gets to the ropes. A trio of enzuguris lead to the dragon sleeper and Ishikawa gives it up. The opening high spot flurry was great but not a lot happening after that. **1/4

 

Genichiro Tenryu def Riki Choshu in 18:14- Antonio Inoki joins commentary for this match. These two had a bitter feud in the mid '80s when a heel Choshu led a stable invading All Japan, where Tenryu was working at the time, but hadn't crossed paths in a long while. Tenryu was the founder of both SWS and WAR. Feeling out start. Tenryu hits chops and Choshu forearms as things get heated. Choshu blocks an enzuguri and tries to hook on a scorpion. There's an ugly bit as Tenryu ducks a lartiato by the ropes but still gets hit in the top of the head and has to roll out to recover. Intense midring standoff. Choshu goes nuts with slaps and headbutts. Stiff kick to Tenryu's face in the corner. Tenryu has a small cut opened up above his eye. Choshu targets it. Lots of kicks and trash talking from Choshu. Corner lariato. Tenryu gets a knee to Choshu's gut and runs him into the buckle pad. Tenryu DDT for 2. Reverse elbow off the top for 2. Choshu hits a flash back suplex. HUGE pumping bomber style lariato for 2. More lariatos and Tenryu just squeaks out of a cover at 2. The crowd bit that one hard. Tenryu finally hits the enzuguri. He tries for a powerbomb but Choshu lifts him up and drops him. Tenryu fights out of another scorpion but runs into a lariato. They both go up top and Tenryu hits a superplex. Choshu grabs a running Tenryu and rolls him up but they're in the ropes. German suplex from Choshu. He wallops Tenryu with a headbutt under the chin and stacks him up for 2. Tenyru enzuguri. He tries for the powerbomb again. Choshu fights it and fights it and by the time Tenyru finally lifts him up to hit it he's exhausted and collapses too. He goes again, hits the powerbomb clean, and that gets the pin! This was the Tokyo Sports match of the year for '93, but honestly I didn't love it. It's good for sure, but not even the best match on this card for me. ***1/4

After the match Inoki comes in and shakes hands with Tenryu. He presumably puts Tenryu over, but might also be laying down a challenge for next year's Dome show as these two are the main event for that one to I believe kick off Inoki's four year long "Final Countdown" retirement tour.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The title matches certainly delivered. The main event gets a lot of praise but it was more good than great for me, and the rest of the undercard is mostly watchable. All in all a damn solid Dome show.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+