NJPW Wrestling World 1996

Legacy Review

NJPW Wrestling World 1996

January 4, 1996 from the Tokyo Dome

 

This is the fifth annual January 4th Tokyo Dome show, and they've finally hit on a name that will last a while as most, but not all, of the 1/4 shows after this will be called Wrestling World until the start of Wrestle Kingdom in 2007. Once again the show features an interpromotional battle, this time New Japan going up against UWF International (UWFi), a short lived shoot style company that really went all out to make their booked matches look like real fights. You know, like the UFC. It's also not to be confused with the American promotion UWF that ran about the same time, generally called "Herb Abrams' UWF", that won a trophy case full of WON yearly "worst of" awards during its short existence. There was no relation between the two companies. It's also not a one night only thing, it's the middle part of a feud that went on almost a year.

As usual this is from the New Japan World archives so only Japanese commentary.

 

NJPW vs UWFi: Yuji Nagata, Shinjiro Otani and Tokimitsu Ishizawa def Kenichi Yamamoto, Hiromitsu Kenhara and Kazushi Sakuraba in 10:15- Nagata is still in his Young Lion phase, and this NJPW vs UWF feud would be an important part of his career, both in his development as a wrestler and his gaining popularity with fans. Ishizawa is also a Young Lion (though in a singlet instead of the traditional black trunks), and would later be known as Kendo Kashin. Nagata and Sakuraba start. The UWF guys have UWF on their kickpads. A battle for arm control ends in a stalemate. Some open hand slaps gets the crowd into it. Otani gets Sakuraba down with some kicks and stomps. Yamamoto lays in some knees in the corner. Otani fights out. More swinging ends in a stalemate. Ishizawa gets ground control on Yamamoto for a bit. Both sides tag around with more mat grappling and the New Japan guys seeming to have an edge on that end of things. Kenhara gets held down in the New Japan corner and both Nagata and Otani give him double stomps off the top rope. Kenhara gets a stiff palm strike on Otani. Sakuraba and Otani try to armbreaker each other. Rapid fire Nagata strikes and takedown. He does some ground and poud strikes with some jawing in between. He's all kinds of fired up. Yamamoto reponds with some stiff shots on Nagata. Nataga belly to belly! Cross armbreaker! Yamamoto quickly taps out. Solid opener that definitely leaned heavy into the UWF shoot style. New Japan goes up 1-0. **1/2

 

Hiroyoshi Tenzan def Satoshi Kojima in 9:24- Like Tenzan the year before, Kojima is coming back from excursion. His was fairly short, only about a year and a half in Europe after winning the '94 Young Lion Cup. These two will be intertwined virtually their whole careers as rivals, longtime tag partners (6 time IWGP Heavyweight tag champs, a record only recently broken by Guerillas of Destiny) and currently New Japan Dads. Both guys are super fired up during intros wanting to tear into each other. Kojima runs over the ref during prematch checks and nails Tenzan with Mongolian chops! Lariato! Tenzan goes to the floor. TOPE SUICIDA! Things settle in with some big boi shoulderblock standoffs. Simultaneous lariatos with Tenzan getting staggered. Kojima hits a suplex. Tenzan gets a boot up in the corner and hits a huge Mongolian chop off the second rope. Kojima rolls under a spinning heel kick and hits his own. Tenzan jawbreakers out of a chinlock. Kojima open hand strikes lead to a chop exchange. There's some serious stiff shots in there. Tenzan hits a corner lariato. Kojima dodges in the opposite corner and grabs a release German suplex off the rebound. He goes for another German. Tenzan does a standing switch and Kojima hits him with a blatant low blow. Sit out spinebuster. Kojima elbow off the top for 2. He goes up top again with a moonsault for 2. And again up top. This time Tenzan meets him and he hits an avalanche Samoan drop! Kojima kicks out! Tenzan moonsault! Kojima kicks out again! Quality near falls here, and they're getting the crowd into it, something that can be difficult for younger guys in Japan. More Mongolian chops. Tenzan with another Samoan drop. He goes up top, hits a diving headbutt, and that's good for the pin. After the bell Kojima attacks him again and has to be held back by the ring attendants. There was some really good power stuff in there, but both guys' inexperience showed which kept it from getting to the next level. **3/4

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Jushin Thunder Liger def Koji Kanemoto (c) in 18:59- Kanemoto won his first junior title in February while Liger was still on the shelf with an ankle injury (and also lost and won the title back from Sabu). Liger returned in August and slowly worked his way back up the ranks to get here, including winning the '95 Super-J Cup in December, which at that time was hosted by WAR and included many future legends. We're also two years removed from Liger beating Kanemoto in the Dome to take the Tiger Mask mantle away from him. White with half red and half blue gear for Liger tonight. Interesting look. Code of Honor handshake to start and we're off. Nice cat and mouse game at the start with Kanemoto hitting a spinning heel kick. Belly to belly suplex and Liger slides out. Kanemoto plancha! He hops right back up to the top rope and tackles Liger on the floor, then throws Liger back in and hits a missile dropkick. Liger gets put in the tree of woe and Kanemoto nails him with a running dropkick. Snappiest of snap mares by Kanemoto, followed by kicks and ground open hand slaps. It's been all Kanemoto at the start so far. Liger tries to get some momentum with a dropkick to the knee followed by a tiltawhirl backbreaker. Kanemoto is right back on top with a single leg crab. Liger grabs Kanemoto's leg, turns him over and hooks on the surfboard. Kanemoto gets out with a spinning kick and leg takedown. Figure four! Liger sells the hell out of it. After a long fight he finally gets to the ropes. More Kanemoto kicks and chops. Liger returns fire with a huge chop that floors Kanemoto. He reverses a corner whip and hits Kanemoto with a rolling kick in the corner. Hurricanrana for 2. Fisherman buster from Liger. A second one. A THIRD one. A FOURTH ONE. Cover. Kanemoto kicks out! Liger regular brain buster for 2. Release German, and I mean release, like halfway through and Kanemoto goes flying, sliding all the way to the floor. A baseball slide from Liger sends Kanemoto into the guardrail. Liger off the top with a tackle to the floor! Kanemoto barely beats the count back in at 19. Liger tries another hurricanrana but Kanemoto blocks it. Spinning kick from Kanemoto. Corkscrew senton off the second rope. He goes up top. Liger dodges a moonsault! Liger superplex for a long 2! Backbreaker setup and Liger goes up top. Kanemoto pops up! He hooks up for a suplerplex but Liger blocks it. He headbutts Kanemoto back down and comes off the top but Kanemoto gets his boots up. Kanemoto hurricanrana! Basement dropkick and he covers Liger arrogantly with one foot! Yeah, that's not going to do it. Ligerbomb from Kanemoto! Moonsault! Liger kicks out! Huge gasp from the crowd on that one. Kanemoto straitjacket release suplex. Another moonsault! Liger kicks out again! Huger gasp from the crowd. He goes for another corkscrew but Liger dodges it! Liger magistral cradle for 2. Kanemoto gets up top again, but Liger dodges and he faceplants himself. Ligerbomb! A second one! Kanemoto kicks out! Third Ligerbomb! Another kickout! Liger goes up top, hits a corkscrew moonsault, and that's finally enough to get Kanemoto down for the pin and the title! It's the seventh junior title win for Liger, which would still be a record today even if he hadn't run the number up to 11. Tiger Mask IV and KUSHIDA are second with 6 each, though now KUSHIDA is thankfully back home again he should add some more onto that. You can never, ever go wrong with peak Liger in the Tokyo Dome. ****1/4

 

Shiro Koshinaka def Masahiro Chono in 9:49- Koshinaka is the leader of Heisei Ishingun and he and Chono had been battling for months. It was slightly odd, as Chono was also transitioning into his heel Yakuza-inspired character that would lead to him being the face of NWO Japan. Screw your intros, we're fighting! Koshinaka jumps right in and hits a hip attack. Chono goes outside to slow things down. Reset lockup with a rough corner break. Chono cranks some arm wringers. Koshinaka gets a leg takedown and works the leg. Very dully. No transitions, just sitting there. Eventually Chono eye rakes out. Koshinaka no sells some big boots, Chono no sells hip attacks. Koshinaka grabs a waistlock and Chono gives him a low blow. Tackle off the top rope for 2. Chono grabs a sleeper and turns it into an inverted DDT. STF! Koshinaka slowly crawls to the rope. Chono tosses Koshinaka to the floor, pulls the mat up and sets up a piledriver. Koshinaka backdrops out. He goes for a powerbomb on the floor. Chono eye rakes in the air to cut it off. Back in Koshinaka hits a superplex. Corner hip attack. Chono with an inverted atomic drop that Koshinaka sells the hell out of. Koshinaka German suplex for 2. Hip attack off the top rope. He hip attacks Chono's second, Masa Saito, off the apron. Powerbomb for a long 2. Paul Smackage from Koshinaka and that gets the pin. Chono's struggles in January Dome singles matches continue, falling to 0-3 (and 0-4 if you count the first WCW/NJPW Supershow, which was in the spring). That was awful plodding for the little time they got and for a supposed feud blowoff. *1/2

 

Hiromichi Fuyuki def Yoji Anjo in 6:42- This is two outside guys getting a spot on New Japan's big show. Fuyuki is representing WAR, while Anjo (the future "Mr. 200%") is here for UWFi. Both guys have two seconds, and Fuyuki's are none other than young Gedo and Jado, and their interference skills were as good then as they are now. Anjo was famous (or infamous) for traveling to California and picking a fight with jujitsu master Rickson Gracie to try to promote UWFi as a real fighting league. It went badly for Anjo. Another match with a pre-intro jump. Must be Wrestlemania. Fuyuki, Gedo and Jado triple team Anjo before order is restored. I think that just pissed Anjo off. They go outside and Anjo gets a bottle of some kind of aerosol spray from one of his guys and sprays Fuyuki in the face with it. Fuyuki offers a maybe sarcastic handshake from the apron. Anjo hits him over the head with it. After some more beating Anjo offers a very sarcastic handshake, which is ignored. More beatdown from Anjo. Fuyuki hulks up with a Mongolian chop. Anjo gives him a low blow and kick to the head. Gedo and Jado provide a distraction and Fuyuki gets a low blow of his own in. Brawl on the floor with more interference. Gedo and Jado wrap duct tape around Anjo's face! When he gets back in Fuyuki lariatos him for 2. He goes for another one but Anjo grabs the arm and hooks in a Fujiwara armbar. More interference. Gedo, Jado and Fuyuki blatantly triple team and the ref lets it all go. I know we joke around about New Japan refs being lenient but this stretching that past ridiculousness. Fuyuki hits another huge lariato and gets the pin. 1/2*

 

Kensuke Sasaki def Hiroshi Hase in 16:36- This is billed as Hase's retirement match as he was starting out his political career, having won his first election to the House of Counselors in '95. One of his old tag partners Sasaki is sending him off. Back and forth stalemate start. Hase does his famous test of strength bridge and hits a kick at such a crazy angle no one saw it coming, least of all Sasaki. Hase gives him time to recover. Sasaki fires up with shoulderblocks. Hase counters with chops. Sasaki grounds and rides Hase for a bit. Hase escapes and transitions into an Indian Death Lock. Sasaki grabs a hammerlock and both guys get to the ropes. Chop/open hand strike exchange. Hase gets floored with a strike and is almost knocked unconscious. After some Sasaki arm work Hase reverses a whip and turns it into a uranage! Missile dropkick and kip up. It's time to go swinging! He gives the much larger Sasaki over a dozen rotations before he gives out. Sasaki counters a uranage. Running dropkick. Sasaki fakes a corner lariato, bounces back off the ropes and hits a faceplant. Scorpion Death Lock. He cranks it hard while Hase tries to fight it, eventually just getting a hand into the out of bounds white. Sasaki goes for a powerbomb but falls down. Hase falls on top of him for 2. Hase German for 2. Northern Lights suplex for 2. Sasaki fights out of a dragon suplex and hits a uranage! Hase squeaks out of Sasaki's dragon hold. More mat work follows as the match gets a bit ploddy with both guys seeming to be not sure how to proceed. Sasaki hits a powerslam. Lariatos. He hits a nothern lights brain buster and that finishes it. As soon as the bell rings Sasaki visibly gets emotional. There's a little ceremony after the match with Hase being presented a robe, both guys addressing the crowd and a big hug to end it. Far from either guy's best match but it's a nice moment. **1/2

But as usual for wrestlers, retirement didn't stick for Hase. Even though his political career was his focus, he moved over to All Japan starting in January '97 and continued to wrestle part time. And that political career has been pretty damn successful too, and still going today- over 20 years in the House of Representatives including serving as a government minister at one point, and just earlier this year he won the governorship of his home Ishikawa prefecture in a very crowded and competitive race.

 

Antonio Inoki def Big Van Vader in 14:16- Inoki's Final Countdown retirement tour continues. This time he's revisiting his loss to Vader from Vader's New Japan debut match in 1987. Vader had already signed with WWF, but his debut wouldn't be until the Royal Rumble so he was given permission to work this show. The crowd is all kinds of fired up for this. Vader jumps Inoki with a tackle before the bell! Inoki quickly rolls out to kill the momentum. Lockup and quick Vader slam. Corner beatdown. The mask is already off! Shit's gonna get serious. Inoki punches to no effect. One Vader punch puts him on his knees again. Vader lifts him again but Inoki twists and locks in a headscissors. Both guys tumble over the top to the floor. Vader slams Inoki on the timekeeper's table! Then slams the table on Inoki! Apron lariato. He goes for it again. Inoki ducks and locks in the Inoki choki! Vader eye pokes to get out. A Vader release German suplex drops Inoki right on his head! Holy shit. Commentary loses it. There's a long closeup of Inoki not moving at all. He's dead, Jim. Vader tosses Inoki out to the ramp. He charges, but Inoki backdrops him back into the ring. Inoki kneedrop off the top rope. He lays in some hammy kicks. Enzuguri! Vader goes to the floor. Inoki kicks him from the apron and Vader goes 360 over the guardrail onto more official's tables! Inoki gives him a chairshot! Vader picks up another chair and tosses it in Inoki's general direction. That had some Randy Johnson or John Elway heat on it. Vader tosses some of the tables around too. He's been busted open. Inoki is clearly happy when he sees it. When Vader gets back in Inoki attacks the cut. Another enzuguri. Fujiwara armbar! Vader powers out. Vader with a sleeper! He lays in the potato shots. Hard slam for 2. He picked Inoki up and dropped him like Minoru Suzuki does his chairshots. Vader with a choke slam! Inoki folded up like an accordion. But he kicks out. Inoki looks like he's bleeding too, not sure when that happened. Inoki slides out of a powerbomb but Vader kills him with elbows. Dragon sleeper! Inoki escapes. Vader set up slam......Vader bomb! Inoki kicks out! The crowd's going freaking ballistic. Vader goes to the second rope again......up top......VADERSAULT! AND IT HITS! INOKI KICKS OUT AGAIN! Man, the ref was slow to get in to start the count. Vader was robbed. Vader with an avalanche. He goes for a second one. Inoki dodges and slams Vader. Cross armbreaker! It's locked in! Vader taps out! What a damn match. After it's over both guys show respect and hug it out. Was there a bit much of "Superman Inoki" here? Maybe, but the crowd was really into it and Vader was only over for the one match so I don't see any harm in it. ****1/2

 

NJPW vs UWFi: Riki Choshu def Masahito Kakihara in 5:46- We're going UWF shoot style again. Kakihara catches Choshu with fast kicks right after the bell and some knees. More kicks are shrugged off by Choshu and he lays in some corner headbutts and knees. Hard kick to Kakihara's gut. Corner standoff. A Choshu punch floors Kakihara. Extended mat grappling with the much larger Choshu dominating. Suplex slam by Choshu. Kaihara ducks a lariato that might have legitimately decapitated him. Chochu Saito suplex. Lariato! He hooks the Scorpion in and Kahihara taps. Total squashiness. I get in a shoot style fight this might have been how it would have gone since Choshu is so much bigger, but still not too much happening here. New Japan goes up 2-0 with a WCW Invasion level squash. Kakihara would end up signing full time with New Japan later in his career and even won Best of the Super Juniors in 2003 before his career was derailed by injury. He got a feel good New Japan Rambo win in the preshow before Wrestle Kingdom 12 (the one with the hugely historically important Kenny Omega vs Chris Jericho match) as an in-ring sendoff. 3/4*

 

Shinya Hashimoto def Kazuo Yamazaki in 9:18- Hashimoto is in a rare spot during his dominant run where he's not the Heavyweight champion, but he is currently one half of the IWGP Tag Team champs along with Junji "Super Strong Machine" Hirata. Yamazaki was working for UWFi, but later in the year as the interpromotional feud progressed he would switch sides back to New Japan, the company he worked for during most of the '80s. He'd also train young guys like Nagata the shoot style. Feeling out kicks to start with a couple of Hashimoto's connecting. Yamazaki gets a kick to Hashimoto's head and goes into some arm work. Hashimoto lifts him up, drops him, and rolls out for a breather. When he gets back in it's back to the arm. Hashimoto punches to the throat give him some space and momentum. Elbow drop. Kick exchange. Yamazaki continues the laser focus on the arm. Hashimoto responds with an arm slam. Yamazaki slips out of a suplex and hooks on a sleeper. Hashimoto gets to the ropes. Yamazaki puts it back on, then tries to transition to an armbreaker. Hashimoto rolls over, deadlifts him and drops him down. Kicks to Hashimoto only fire him up. Huge open hand slap from Hashimoto. He hits the brain buster and that's it. Eh. **1/4

 

NJPW vs UWFi Match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Nobuhiko Takada def Keiji Mutoh (c) in 17:51- The former Great Muta had a huge year in '95. First, he defeated the nearly unstoppable Hashimoto for the Heavyweight title in May. Then in August, Mutoh won his first G1 Climax, becoming the first wrestler to win the tournament while champion, a feat only done one other time since (Kensuke Sasaki in 2000). Takada was UWFi's top star. He wrestled for New Japan in the '80s, had held the IWGP Tag titles before and was the second ever IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion. This is actually the second big Dome match between these two, they headlined a Dome show the previous October when the NJPW/UWFi feud was getting started. Code of Honor handshake at the start despite how heated the rivalry has become, not just between these two but between the companies. Feeling out start as we'll be going mostly UWFi style for a while. Takada gets some strikes in. Mutoh grabs a leg and gets a corner break. Some rolling around mat grappling follows. Mutoh grabs a body scissors while both guys jockey for position. Mutoh tries to put on a figure four but Takada gets to the ropes. Both guys get back to their feet and loose some exploratory kicks. The next few minutes back on the mat are Takada trying to put a kimura on with Mutoh fighting it off. Mutoh headbutts at right around the match's halfway mark spice things up. Elbow drop. Kneelifts and a rolling kick. Saito suplex by Mutoh. Moonsault! He doesn't cover, but instead tries for an armbreaker. He almost stretches it out but Takada gets to the ropes. Kicks from Takada and he hits a Saito suplex! He goes for his kneebar submission hold. The crowd's really getting into it. Mutoh gets to the ropes. More Takada kicks. Mutoh gets a dragon screw! Figure four! Takada fights and gets to the ropes. After a bit of a standoff Mutoh hits another dragon screw! He tries to put the figure four on again but Takada barely blocks his leg with his shoulder to keep it from being fully applied. He gets the kneebar on again. Both guys roll to the ropes. Takada with a takedown and armbreaker. Both guys are in the ropes again. Mutoh gets floored with a kick. Another Takada armbreaker. And he gets it cinched in the middle of the ring! Mutoh tries to fight, but in the end he has to tap out! Takada wins the title in what has to be considered a massive upset. New Japan wins the night's official interpromotional matches 2-1, but the one for UWFi was the big one. The match was very pedestrian in the first half with the shoot style, but picked up nicely in the second half. ***1/2

After the match wrestlers from both companies fill the ring up while Takada is presented with the belt. Takada calls out Hashimoto for a title match with Hashimoto accepting. A brawl almost breaks out among the wrestlers but they keep things under control. Sasaki and Koshinaka also stake a claim to a title match. In the end it would be Hashimoto getting the belt back for New Japan in April for his third title reign, one where he would break Muta's 400 day reign record with 489, a record that would stand all the way until Kazuchika Okada's legendary two year reign in 2016-18.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGTS- Two great matches (Liger delivering like usual and Inoki/Vader being as great as it looked on paper), a pretty good main event, but the rest of the show is pretty meh, a good portion of it bogged down by the ultra-realistic shoot style that I don't hugely care for. Strong style is generally "realistic" enough for me. The NJPW/UWFi feud was a big draw and financial success for New Japan however, and it would have massive historical implications: Eric Bischoff credits it with giving him the initial idea behind the creation of the NWO.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+

AWA SuperClash III

Legacy Review

AWA SuperClash III

December 13, 1988 from the UIC Pavilion in Chicago

Commentary: Lee Marshal and a rotating cast at color

In many ways this show represents the last gasp of most of the remaining territories to try to stay relevant as the national wrestling landscape continued to be dominated by the WWF and NWA flagship Jim Crockett Promotions (soon to be WCW). AWA entered a cross promotion deal with the Jerry Jarrett/Jerry Lawler Memphis territory CWA, as well as WCCW, the famous major Texas territory, home of the Von Erichs and birthplace of the Fabulous Freebirds, based in the Dallas Sportatorium. This would also be the only AWA show to be shown on traditional PPV. This is also taking place in the same building Crockett ran Starrcade in the previous year. That show drew 8,000 despite being well out of their traditional home territory. Even though this is not too far from the AWA's Minnesota base, they've got less than 2,000 here tonight. At least they turned the house lights down this time to try to hide it.

We actually have an intro for this show. It's nothing special but at least it's something. And a couple of quick things to note before diving in: the AWA had finally allowed their wrestling style to get out of the '70s and modernize a bit so there won't be matches that are 75% guys working arm holds and a body slam is a high impact move tonight thank goodness. They've also cleaned up the presentation by dispensing with the elaborate referee instructions before every match. Just watching these shows for reviews I'd gotten to the point I could mime the hair pull and no closed fists gestures along with the ref in real time.

Chavo, Hector & Mando Guerrero def The Rock N Roll RPMs & Cactus Jack in 6:35- Mick Foley is in his early career tour of the territories before signing with WCW full time in '91 and had yet to fully develop his bump padding. The RNR RPMs are basically heel Rock N Roll Express wannabes. Since the actual RNR Express were booked on this show, they're just introduced as the RPMs. Hector starts out with Davis and rolls around like the Gobbeldy Gooker. Weird that. He gets the RPMs to run into each other as the lucha stuff comes out. Mando outwrestles Jack. Jack outbrawls Mando. They go outside and Foley takes a bump on the floor just because. No pads out there either. The Guerreros take turns on Jack's knee, but give him an opening and he tags out. Chavo Classic gives Lane the flying headscissors. Crossbody on both RPMs by Chavo. More lucha triple teams and there's a giant dogpile in the middle of the ring. The heels go out to regroup. Reset with Jack and Chavo. Chavo gets worked over in the heel corner before rolling away to tag. Hector dropkicks everyone. Everyone in the pool! The RPMs blow a double team, the camera work completely misses a couple of Guerrero dives to the floor, and Chavo moonsaults Lane for the pin. Serviceable trios stuff, but a huge clash of styles. **

 

WCCW World Light Heavyweight Championship: Eric Embry def Jeff Jarrett (c) in 4:13- This is indeed *the* Jeff Jarrett, a couple of years into his hall of fame career. He and Embry had been trading this title back and forth every couple of weeks since October. Embry's graphic calls him "Flamboyant", but flamboyant is spelt wrong. He's not British and this isn't a word they put a u in anyway. He also looks like he's stretching the definition of light heavyweight. Start with quick hammerlock tradeoffs and a standoff. Then the same with arm wringers. Then they do the hiptoss blocks and counters. Embry gets an armdrag and clothesline. Jarrett ducks another clothesline and hits his own. Embry dodges a dive and Jarrett crashes and burns all the way to the floor. He hit his arm on the way down and Embry immediately goes to work on it. Jarrett gets a boot up in the corner with a nice flop sell from Embry. My favorite. Missile dropkick from Jarrett off the second rope, but he landed on his bad arm. Jarrett rolls through some quick pin attempts. Embry counters a sunset flip, stacks Jarrett up and gets the pin. Good for the time they got. With more time I could see them coming out with a pretty good match. I wonder if Jarrett hurt his shoulder for real and they cut the match short for that. *3/4

 

Jimmy Valiant def Wayne Bloom in :24- Oh joy, they got Jimmy Valiant out for this show. Yes, the same Jimmy Valiant that stunk up the joint in the early Starrcades. I know, he's a hall of famer, he had a good career, but he was way past it at this point. Bloom is fresh out of training, and would later team with Mike Enos (who's reffing on this show) as The Destruction Crew. After AWA's closure they moved to the WWF as The Beverly Brothers. Bloom jumps Valiant from behind. Valiant shrugs it off, hits some stiff looking forearms, a back elbow and elbow drop for the pin. I'm pretty sure Bloom kicked out before 3 too, wonder if he thought they were going longer. NR

Want to know the scary thing? Valiant would actually win the "unified" USWA World title from Jerry Lawler a couple of times in 1990. More on that title later.

 

WCCW Texas Heavyweight Championship: Iceman King Parsons (c) def Brickhouse Brown in 5:41- These guys' entrance gear is so similar they might as well be a tag team. Parsons' hair has to be seen to be believed. It's Road Warrior Hawk with pigtails. Parsons does some strutting. Shoving, with Parsons taking a dive. A Brown dropkick sends Parsons to the floor. Shoulderblocks. Brown counters a backdrop by twisting Parsons into a very convoluted backslide for 2. Parsons powders again. Is Brown wearing duct tape as wrist tape? That's what it looks like while he's holding a headlock in a close up shot. Brown wildly comes off the ropes and Parsons hits an ugly jumping knee. Parsons suplex for 2. Brown rolls under and hits a crossbody for 2. Parson punches for 2. Brown backdrops out of a piledriver and punches away. Parsons begs off. Flying forearm! Parsons gets a foot on the rope. Brown thinks he won. Parsons gets some international knucks out of his tights, nails Brown, and pins him. Not a lot happening here. 3/4*

 

Mixed Tag Team Match for Both the AWA World Tag Team and AWA World Women's Championships: Wendi Richter (Women's c) & The Top Guns def Badd Company (Tag Team c) & Madusa Miceli (w/Diamond Dallas Page) in 5:43- So the assumption going in is whichever team wins walks away with all the belts, right? Yeah, welcome to AWA. During intros DDP cuts a promo, showing he was always a natural on the mic. The wrestling skills (specifically a PhD in match layouts) would come much later. Badd Company are Pat Tanaka and Paul Diamond, best known as the superior v2.0 of the Orient Express in WWF (with very not Asian Diamond under a mask as Kato). As soon as intros are done we're off and running with all six brawling. They take forever to get set up, then all the heels get whipped into each other. Dukes hits a flying tackle over the top rope. Double backdrop on Tanaka, followed by a Tanaka 360 sell of a clothesline. The women argue on the apron. Diamond gives Dukes a knee to the back from the apron to send him in peril. Double underhook suplex on Dukes. Madusa slaps Dukes. I think. From the camera angle I couldn't tell if she even made contact or not. Dukes dodges and Diamond goes crashing nads first in the corner. Tags and the women are in. Madusa snaps Richter over the top rope and hits a suplex. Richter knocks Tanaka off the apron and misses a dropkick. She powerbombs Madusa, which is the cue for everyone to run in again. Chaos erupts. Tanaka superkicks Richter, then they do the spot again and superkicks Madusa. Did Richter forget to move the first time? Richter pins Madusa. Capetta announces the Top Guns as the tag champs, they're given the belts and leave with them. *

Madusa cuts a promo and she's pissed at everyone. She takes swings at Badd Company and DDP kicks her out of the stable. DDP wonders where the tag belts are. It turns out, the rules of the match were actually whoever gets the pin gets the title they're eligible for. Since only the women were involved in the decision, Badd Company are still the tag champs. None of that is explained on this show, it all comes out on TV later. These are the kinds of things that it's a good idea to explain before the match begins.

Kerry Von Erich cuts his famous "there's only one Eiffel Tower, there's only one Mona Lisa, how can there be two world champions?" promo. Clearly he's not a fan of the brand split.

And actually, per the classic Doctor Who story City of Death, there's actually seven Mona Lisas. So there.

 

Vacant AWA International Television Championship: Greg Gagne def Ron Garvin by countout in 5:52- Both guys have held this short lived title, and it's vacant now because Stanley Blackburn did what he loved most- held the title up after a controversial finish. Find someone that loves you the way Stanley Blackburn loved holding up titles. Chicago does not like Gagne at all. Hard to get over in Chicago when you're only there due to nepotism. Personally I always thought Gagne looked more like a flooring inspector than a wrestler (and yes that is a reference, if anyone knows what it is drop it in the comments). And look, Gagne wasn't completely awful. He was a fine babyface tag wrestler, but even a secondary singles title was scraping his ceiling. Long lockup and buckle shot exchange. Gagne chops and hits a backdrop for 2. Garvin headbutts and blocks a sunset flip. Slugfest. Garvin resorts to choking and biting to try to get the crowd to turn on him. He's a pro. Small package for 2. Garvin catches a Gagne crossbody, and both guys sloooooooooooooooooooooowly teeter on the ropes and finally tumble over. Brawl on the floor. Garvin gets posted and counted out. Since the title was vacant that's enough for Gagne to win it. Word is Garvin didn't want to lose clean because he was on the way to the WWF, and doing the title vacation was due to AWA not being sure if he'd show up or not. Not only did Garvin show up, he gave it his all and spent Gagne's whole postmatch promo arguing the decision. I'd call that above and beyond. 1/2*

Street Fight Lingerie Battle Royale- They've been hyping this match like crazy all night, having promos from the women involved after almost every match so far. This is brought to you by POWW, the Powerful Women of Wrestling (which should actually be PWOW but whatever). POWW was founded by David McLane, who was also behind the creation of GLOW, the famous '80s women's promotion that was recently the subject of a successful Netflix series. And a damn good one that had a lot of love letters to this art of pro wrestling we all love, even if it got way too Vegas for me in season 3. I'm still mad COVID killed season 4. Listening to McLane on commentary there's no way he wasn't a direct inspiration for the character of Bash Howard. This all started because the Terrorist tore up Brandi Mae's "prized" blue jeans and she wants revenge. What, was that her only pair or something? Among the participants is POWW champion Nina, who will be known later to WWF audiences as Ivory. Like the women's battle royale at the last Superclash there's really not a lot to say about this one. The rules are over the top rope, or strip your opponent down to her underwear, which is where the "lingerie" part comes in. Some clothes are torn off but not enough to make it PG-13 at worst, and no one is eliminated that way. We do get to see some *ahem* pretty good angles of Terrorist though. There's definitely some corpsing going on out there as the match progresses. As the storyline dictates, Terrorist and Mae are the last two in. As they try to fight at one point they completely break down into laughter while tearing at each other's clothes. There's a "take it off" chant from the crowd which is interpreted by commentary as support for Mae. Terrorist chokes Mae with her hose, flips her over the top and kicks her off the apron to win. No revenge today. DUD

Marshall is at ringside with a copy of the year end edition of PWI and Bill Apter, here to present the Inspirational Wrestler of the Year award to Jerry Lawler. Lawler doesn't show up. How inspirational. Marshall vamps and Apter says he'll take the award to the back to him. Word is Lawler, Von Erich and officials from both promotions were even at this late hour huddled together negotiating how their match was going to end. And this is why Vince wasn't worried. "These guys couldn't agree on how to order a cup of coffee".

Sgt. Slaughter sort of explains the rules of a Boot Camp match (there are no rules and bring whatever you want to the ring), then says "If you don't like the sight of pain then go to the refrigerator right now and do what you gotta do". Er, OK?

Boot Camp Match: Sgt. Slaughter def Col. DeBeers (w/Diamond Dallas Page) in 5:42- As soon as Slaughter hits the ring it's on. He beats DeBeers with his riding crop. DeBeers takes a (I'm pretty sure unintentional) bump on Slaughter's helmet. He takes his belt off and chokes Slaughter with it. We hear a lot of boos that I'm not entirely sure are on the up and up. USA chants fuel a Slaughter comeback. He tosses DeBeers over the top *gasp horror* oh wait it's no DQ. I've never seen a promotion take that moronic rule more seriously than the AWA. While DeBeers gets posted DDP takes the helmet. DeBeers hits Slaughter with one of the poles holding up the rope barrier that's this show's idea of a barricade. DDP hands DeBeers the helmet. He puts it on and headbutts Slaughter. They try a double team and DDP gets taken out. Slaughter clothesline (or the "Slaughter canon" according to Marshall). Now Slaughter puts the helmet on and headbutts DeBeers with it. Amazing sell by DeBeers on the last one. Cobra clutch! DeBeers holds on for a while to kill time, but the bell rings for him submitting or passing out just as Sheik Kassie runs in. Good thing they didn't call it a DQ or I would have lost my shit like Jim Cornette. He's followed by THE IRON SHEIK! I'm pretty sure this is his first appearance back in the AWA. The heels beat Slaughter down until the Guerreros come in and run them off. Horrible match. 1/4*

Everyone, it's OK. Bill Apter found Lawler and gave him his Most Inspirational Wrestler award. You can relax now.

WCCW World Tag Team Championship: The Samoan SWAT Team (c) (w/Buddy Roberts) def Michael PS Hayes & Steve Cox in 7:53- This is from a little talked about period in WCCW when Hayes was a face and feuding against the rest of his Freebird partners. Little remembered journeyman Cox is along for the ride. Hayes and Fatu open up with a slugfest. Cox does some arm work. Samu runs in and Cox just ignores him. Hayes takes Samu out. Cox dodges a Fatu dive and hits an armdrag. Fatu gets Cox in the heel corner, but Cox dodges and Fatu whacks Samu. Twice. Roberts has to calm Samu down. Samu pulls the top rope down and Cox tumbles to the floor. Announce table shot! Cox gets faceplanted in the ring. SST double team. Samu hot shots Cox. Double clothesline and hot tag to Hayes. Donnybrook! Cox tosses Fatu to the floor and hits him with a plancha! Hayes DDT on Samu! The ref is distracted. Roberts runs in, whacks Hayes, and Samu covers for the pin. That was a good first 5 minutes of a 15-20 minute match. Too bad they had to condense the rest of it into the last 3 minutes. The SST left WCCW literally weeks after this show while still champions to go to Jim Crockett. Hayes would soon follow, teaming up with longtime associate Jimmy Garvin as a newly minted official Freebird. **3/4

After the bell Hayes lays in the ring forever selling the foreign object shot and we get a ton of replays. Judging by what the crowd's reacting to there's something Chicago happening up there somewhere.

Indian Strap Match: Wahoo McDaniel def Manny Fernandez in 7:48- These guys are very familiar to NWA fans, though Fernandez was mostly a face there. Fernandez desecrated Wahoo's headdress to set this off. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami is here! He's introduced as "Dragon" Fujinami. This is quite the sea change for AWA as they had worked with All Japan for a long time, until the Stan Hansen incident. Fernandez grabs the mic and runs Fujinami down. Fujinami grabs Fernandez and Wahoo whips him with the strap. After that we get the usual "I don't want to put the strap on" heel stalling. Once they do it's pretty much every Wahoo strap match ever. Wahoo gets strap shots in. Fernandez comes back once he figures out how to use the strap. Both guys bleed. Marshall says "the referee would be well in his rights to stop the match and he probably should". Oh please. This is a typical night in mid-'80s NWA. Fernandez gets up to 3 turnbuckles then for some dumbass reason gets up on the top rope. Wahoo pulls him down, ties him up, gets to 3, then Fernandez pushes him back into the fourth to lose. After the bell the fight continues with Fujinami diving in to help Wahoo again. *1/4

Wahoo walks away and has to be told by the ring attendants to come back for his postmatch interview. He says they'll never settle their issue, not with a strap, "maybe with a gun in my hand". Then he says he doesn't want to beat Fernandez in a match, "I want him dead". Well, you can't get any clearer than that.

Verne Gagne and Stanley Blackburn fret over the last match and say that it should have been stopped due to the blood. Foreshadowing!

Unification Match: AWA World Heavyweight Champion Jerry "The King" Lawler def WCCW World Heavyweight Champion Kerry Von Erich in 18:53- Once again on an AWA show, the main event is not the main event. Lawler dethroned Curt Hennig in May, just in time for Hennig to go to the WWF, and became a touring champion like the NWA World champion was, defending the title in the other territories allied with AWA. He and Von Erich already had quite a few matches against each other in the six months or so leading up to this. The crowd is all Von Erich even though Lawler had mainly been a face since winning the title. Von Erich fiddles with his arm under his robe during introductions. Lockup and corner shoving. Lawler quickly grabs Von Erich's arm and hits it over the turnbuckle, busting it open. Apparently Von Erich had accidentally cut his arm messing with his blade either in the back or in the ring during intros, and this was their way to cover for it. More lockup stalemates. Von Erich beats Lawler to the punch, literally, on a corner break. Lawler rolls out. Marshall goes into a speech about how both guys have beaten Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Randy Savage. I'm sorry, I can't let that pass. Yes, Lawler wrestled Savage a bunch when Savage was in Memphis pre-WWF. Lawler wrestled Flair a few times in Memphis and won once. By countout. Lawler wrestled Hogan twice in 1981, before Hogan was HOGAN, one double countout and one Lawler win by DQ. So for Lawler, the claim is factually accurate, barely, but morally indefensible. Now, we all know Von Erich beat Flair for the NWA World title in '84 to give WCCW some shine. As of this match Von Erich had never been in the ring with either Savage or Hogan. OK, rant over, back to the match. Wild clothesline from Von Erich that looks like it hit Lawler in the head. He keeps checking on his arm. A couple more Von Erich clotheslines and Lawler's frustrated. Von Erich roll up for 2. He wants a test of strength. Lawler accepts and, no shock, loses. But he uses it to get a leg takedown. He misses a fist drop and turns into a Von Erich discus punch. Cover for 2. Von Erich is still having issues with that cut on his arm. Lawler ambushes him while he's checking it. Von Erich gets punched over the top to the floor. Now commentary says it's "no DQ". Another discus punch from the apron coming back in. Von Erich does a slingshot splash but Lawler gets his knees up. Piledriver! Von Erich pops right back up! Another discus punch for 2. Lawler blocks the Iron Claw. He dodges a Von Erich kneedrop. Snap mare and cover. Von Erich's kickout pushes Lawler into the air and he lands on top of the ref! Von Erich piledriver! He covers but the ref is out. Finally he crawls over to count and Lawler kicks out. They go to the floor. Lawler dodges and Von Erich punches the post. As they get back in Lawler goes into hits tights for the world famous hidden knucks and nails Von Erich with them. Von Erich is now officially busted open, gushing from his forehead as well as his arm. Lawler fist drop off the second rope. He goes for another. Von Erich grabs him in midair with the Claw on his gut! Lawler fights it. Von Erich switches the Claw to his head. The ref splits between asking Lawler and checking Von Erich's cut. Lawler gets a foot on the rope. Von Erich drags him to the middle of the ring and puts the claw back on. Lawler fights back up. He dodges in the corner and Von Erich goes crashing into the buckles. Slugfest. Von Erich has blood everywhere. There's so much on Lawler it looks like he's bleeding too but it's all Von Erich's. Lawler continues to retrieve and hide his foreign object for more damage on the cut. He does a little cocky floating around before laying in more punches. Von Erich punches back. Simultaneous punch and both guys are down. The Claw is back on! Lawler barely gets his shoulder up at 2. The ref keeps checking on both guys and calls for the bell. He stopped the match due to Von Erich's blood loss, determining he can't continue even though he had Lawler down and almost out. That is not a popular decision in Chicago. Von Erich is irate and leaves with both belts. Up until the dumb finish the match was pretty good even if the action was simple. It was a masterclass in Jerry Lawler psychology. ***1/2

 

After the match Von Erich protests to Gagne and Blackburn. They tell him it was for your own good son and shut up. Surprised Von Erich didn't try to argue the fix was in like Russian figure skating judges considering it was all AWA people running the show.

OK, so we all know by now that the title matches in AWA are only part of the story right? Right. Here's the rest. This show was such a bomb that Gagne claimed he didn't have the money to pay some wrestlers what had been agreed on, including Lawler. In response, Lawler took the AWA belt and went home to Memphis, breaking off the partnership. After that he and Jerry Jarrett bought WCCW, merging it with CWA and creating the new promotion USWA, a partnership that would have its own troubles in the near future. Lawler continued to call himself the unified champion even though they had no relationship with AWA anymore. On the AWA side, they stripped Lawler of the title, buried him on TV, accepted the fait accompli that they wouldn't get the belt back and commissioned a new one (with money they very likely couldn't afford), and put it on Larry Zbyszko. As for Von Erich, he stayed with the new USWA for a bit before moving to the WWF in mid-'90.

The Rock N Roll Express and Stud Stable (w/Miss Sylvia) double DQ in 7:03- Talk about the spot of death following that match. The Express were huge draws in the deep south, but I don't know why the promoters thought that would hold true for Chicago as well. The Stud Stable was a major heel stable in Memphis, represented here by Robert Fuller and Jimmy Golden. Fuller is most known for his run as the manager Col. Robert Parker in mid-'90s WCW, where he reformed the Stud Stable for a time. Golden came in during that period as Buckhouse Buck. Morton and Golden start. Morton speeds around and the Express clear the ring. Back in with a Morton facelock as "boring" chants bounce around the arena. He and Golden do the bridge up spot. Everyone gets in again and the heels are run into each other. Gibson and Fuller criss cross. Fuller's running is something else. Gibson goes to the floor and Sylvia hits him with the kendo stick she's been carrying. Short Gibson in peril run with a bear hug, more kendo shots, and an abdominal stretch. Gibson counters a backdrop and tags. Morton cleans house with the Express hitting a double dropkick. All four guys keep fighting and the ref throws the match out. Put this in the midcard where it belongs, with a finish, and it might have been OK. *1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: It's not the worst show AWA put on. It's probably the best one for casual viewing as, like I said at the top, they'd finally modernized some in the ring. It was also a financial bomb, having the lowest PPV buyrate in history for a wrestling show to that point. If nothing else this show is essential viewing for anyone interested in the history and death of the territories.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-

NJPW Battle 7

Legacy Review

NJPW Battle 7

January 4, 1995 from the Tokyo Dome

 

This is the fourth annual January 4th Tokyo Dome show, the line that would eventually become Wrestle Kingdom, and one of the last ones with a random name like this (the Wrestling World series starts the next year). Part of tonight's festivities is a one night, four man tournament called alternately the Final Countdown BVD tournament or BVD Cup Martial Arts tournament, part of the celebrations of Antonio Inoki's continuing Final Countdown retirement tour. What is BVD you ask? Well, it's the underwear company that's sponsoring it. Yup. They've even got ads on the ring mat, a regular thing for New Japan now but very rare back then.

As usual this is from New Japan World so Japanese only commentary.

 

UWA World Welterweight Championship: Shinjiro Otani (c) def El Samurai in 15:17- The UWA was a promotion in Mexico that would actually shut down later in '95, but this title continued to float around for a few years after. The promotion only lasted about 20 years, but they're credited with bringing the popular modern format of trios wrestling to lucha libre. This belt was brought to Japan through Michinoku Pro and is the first non-IWGP or WCW/NWA title to be defended on a Jan. 4 show. All intensity right from the bell. Otani does some early leg work. Samurai turns it into a crossface. Kicks to Otani's head only piss him off. Otani works into a half crab. He refuses to break on the ref's orders in the ropes and has to be told multiple times. Samurai takes a minute to walk it off on the floor, but as soon as he gets back in Otani's all over him again. Samurai jawbreakers out of a chinlock. Piledriver. Saito suplex. Neckbreaker. Another suplex for 2. Samurai going high impact after all the early submission work by Otani. Otani dodges a dropkick, hits one of his own, and a senton for 2. Samurai puts him up top and hits a superplex for 2. Pretty crazy how that's already become a transitional move in New Japan. He rolls under an Otani spinning heel kick and hits a dropkick that sends Otani outside. TOPE SUICIDA! Otani crashed hard into the barricade taking that. Samurai headbutt off the top rope back in. Otani kicks out! Samurai German suplex for a long 2. Tombstone! Otani just kicks out again! He pops up with a spinning heel kick. Samurai goes to the floor. Otani jumps up, LANDS ON THE TOP ROPE AND LAUNCHES HIMSELF OFF IT FOR A CROSSBODY TO THE FLOOR! DAMN! He just used the top rope as a smegging trampoline. And after Samurai gets back in he does it again off the apron, this time hitting a dropkick that gets a long 2 count. He sets Samurai up top. Hurricanrana! Samurai immediately rolls over and cradles Otani for 2! Slide under by Samurai, and he hits a reverse DDT! And then his own hurricanrana off the top rope! Otani just gets a hand on the rope at 2 to save himself. Samurai powerbomb! A second one! Otani barely kicks out again! This man will not die. They go into a crazy counter exchange and Samurai fights off both a dragon and German suplex, but Otani finally gets him over for a dragon suplex and that gets the pin! Hell of an opener. ***3/4

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Norio Honaga (c) def The Great Sasuke in 14:39- Jushin Thunder Liger's record 628 day junior title reign ended in the worst way possible: injury. He broke his ankle in a tag match in September and was still on the DL for this show. In fact he's on commentary, something he does full time now. Some feeling out leg work at the start. Honaga then gets serious on Sasuke's arm with Sasuke doing some grade A selling. After a bit Sasuke rolls out for some breathing room. Honaga has none of it, follows and posts Sasuke's arm. Shoulderbreaker back in. Honaga lifts Sasuke in a suplex, but then drops him hard on the top rope. More arm picking apart with Sasuke selling it like his arm's being ripped off. Honaga lifts him and Sasuke rolls it over into a snap mare to finally get some offense in. He does a nifty flip off Honaga in the corner. Honaga congratulates him by murdering him with a lariato. Then he gives the crowd a Spaceballs salute. Spinning heel kick by Sasake. He hooks on a chinlock with the "bad" arm. Guess it's OK then. I wouldn't really criticize if it wasn't for the fact he sold it so hard earlier. He stretches Honaga's arm out in an armbar, then works into a bow and arrow. Honaga flips over out of that into a cover for 2. He lifts Sasuke up in an atomic drop position and drops him crotch first on the top rope. Cover for 2. Sasake tries for a German suplex. Honaga low blows him out of the ref's line of sight. Sasuke handspring elbow! Honaga goes to the floor. Tope con hilo! A dropkick sends Honaga to the ramp. Sasuke springboard moonsault on the ramp! Back in Sasuke hits a German for 2. Honaga dodges a spinning heel kick and hits a huge lariato for 2. Samurai superplex for 2. Tombstone. He goes for a moonsault but Honaga gets his knees up. Honaga hooks in a crucifix, and that gets the pin! ***1/4

 

Heisei Ishingun def J-J-Jacks and Osamu Kido in 13:12- Representing the heel HI stable are The Great Kabuki, Akitoshi Saito and Kuniaki Kobayashi. No matching purple pants for them this year. Akira and Kobayashi start. An Akira dropkick quickly moves the action out to the ramp. Kobayashi gets slammed on the ramp. Saito joins them and gives Akira some ground and pound, then legally tags in. This Saito is one big boy. But Akira runs him over before the faces trade off on him. Saito and Akira have a big chop exchange. Kabuki and Kido have a veteran mat wrestling tradeoff and stalemate to the delight of the crowd. Iizuka gets caught in the heel corner. Kobayashi gives him a fisherman's suplex on the ramp. Saito and Iizuka have a huge open hand strike exchange, with Iizuka winning. Double tackle by the Jacks. Aikra hooks on a Boston crab and Kido hits a kneedrop off the top rope. Neckbreaker for 2. Iizuka kicks Saito's head off and suplexes him. More Jacks double teams. Akira catches a Saito kick and gives him a fisherman's suplex. Kabuki tags in and hits a lariato for 2. Jacks double lariato. Iizuka runs straight into a Kobayashi kick. The HI guys take turns saving each other from Kido's Fujiwara armbar that the crowd gasps for every time he almost gets it on. Akira Saito on Saito for 2. He gives Kabuki an enzuguri, then hits a splash off the top rope. Everyone in the pool! While everyone else fights outside Kobayashi gives Akira a suplex, and Kabuki nails him with a lariato for the pin. Fun undercard trios stuff. ***

 

Koji Kanemoto def Yuji Nagata in 14:43- Kanemoto had lost his mask as Tiger Mask to Liger on the previous year's show and was slowly working his way up the junior ranks. In fact, he would beat Honaga for his first junior title in February. Nagata is still a Young Lion. Lots of kick swings from Nagata. Kanemoto grabs his leg and tries a takedown. Nagata slips out. Now the hands are flying but not much landing. They're feeling each other out. Kanemoto hits some forearms and a wicked spinning kick to Nagata's head. Moonsault for 2. Nagata grabs an exploder suplex and lays in some kicks. Soon to be classic Nagata arm breakdown work follows. Kanemoto comes back with kicks. Nataga hits a flurry of kneelifts and a standing enzuguri. He wraps up a cloverleaf type hold. As the match goes on Nagata is clearly the superior mat wrestler. He pulls an armbar but Kanemoto gets to the ropes. Both guys grab the other's ankle while on the mat and jaw at each other. Nagata gets back the advantage. Kanemoto slowly works to get on top. Nagata blocks an armbar. After a rope break Nagata lays in more kicks. He goes for a German, but Kanemoto grabs an arm and takes him down! He stretches out an armbar. Nagata gets to the ropes again. Both guys take turns at blocking dragon suplex attempts and trying more arm submissions. Nagata gets some softening kicks in and hits a release German suplex for 2. Snap Nagata belly to belly. He hooks on a coquina clutch! Kanemoto gets to the ropes. Nagata charges and Kanemoto hits him with a dropkick followed by seriously stiff back kicks. Spinning kick off the top. After a suplex Kanemoto goes up top and hits an awful shooting star press that he almost Wrestlemania 19 Brock Lesnars, but that gets the pin. That was a really compelling mat battle with some seriously stiff strikes. Kanemoto was on the path to becoming a legend in the junior division, but this Nagata kid, he's going to be really freaking good man. This show's off to a damn good start. ***1/2

 

Hiroyoshi Tenzan def Manabu Nakanishi in 7:40- Tenzan is starting what would become another 1/4 show tradition, a young wrestler making his return from excursion. In Tenzan's case he's coming back from two years in Germany, and he's got his horns. Like Nagata, Nakanishi is still a Young Lion. Shoulderblock standoffs for these two very large wrestlers, especially by Japanese standards. Tenzan grabs Nakanishi running and press slams him, then lariatos him 360 to the floor. Back in Tenzan lays in the corner beatdown then an opposite corner lariato. Nakanishi grabs a running Tenzan and suplexes him, but then runs into a Tenzan kick. Headbutt exchange. Tenzan spinning heel kick. Clubbing blows and forearms from Nakanishi. Tenzan chops back. Nakanishi jawbreakers out of a chinlock and cranks Tenzan's neck. He hooks in a cobra clutch and swings Tenzan around in it! Nice. Running elbow for 2. He hooks a Scorpion Death Lock on. Tenzan does some push ups and easily powers out. A Tenzan power bomb almost drops Nakanishi on his head. Senton. A long range headbutt off the top gets a 2 count. After a sit out tombstone Tenzan hits a moonsault! That won't stay in his moveset for long I don't think. He has Nakanishi beat but stands out of the cover, he's not done with him yet. Mongolian chops! That would become Tenzan's signature for almost his whole career. He whips Nakanishi, hits a reverse DVD and takes the win. Our streak of good matches ends here, but it's still a perfectly serviceable Young Lion beatdown/excursion return match. **1/4

 

Tiger Jeet Singh and Tiger Jeet Singh Jr def Shiro Koshinaka and Michiyoshi Ohara in 11:23- Singh Junior is best known for his run as Tiger Ali Singh in WWF in the late '90s. The video starts up with all four guys brawling in the small gap between the entrance ramp and the barricade. Junior has the Singh family's signature rapier and he's going to town with it. His dad has an umbrella, which he also uses. After a few minutes of this Koshinaka snatches the umbrella away on the ramp and gets in the ring with Singh. Junior and Ohara keep fighting on the floor until Junior rolls Ohara in for his dad. Ohara still has his robe on and they quickly go back to the floor. He gets run into the barricade. Finally we have a bit of a reset, everyone gets their entrance gear off and gets in the ring. Ohara continues to get beat down. Chop exchange with Junior. Ohara gets put in the tree of woe and soon all four guys are fighting again. Singh gets too cocky and gets caught in the face corner. In a nice subtle touch, the faces pulled the top part of the buckle pad back to expose the steel. Singh does a straight cock punch to try to get out of trouble. Ohara with a weak diving clothesline for 2. Junior shouts "FUCK YOU" to someone, probably in the crowd. Ohara with a sleeper. Singh fights out and tags. Junior power bomb. Koshinaka breaks up the pin. Singh gets in the wrong corner again and does another blatant low blow. After another swap Singh gets his spike out on the apron. The whip gets reversed and he hits Junior with it. Donnybrooking. Ohara gets the spike and hits Singh with it. Singh counters a backdrop, grabs a Greco Roman throat hold (Taichi approved), pushes Ohara down and pins him while holding the throat the whole time. Well that's certainly an end to our decent match streak. The closing stretch was particularly brutal. That was a pretty standard Singh match from what I've seen of him. The nicest thing I can say is he's an acquired taste that I have not acquired. 1/2*

 

Final Countdown BVD Tournament Semifinal: Sting def Tony Palmore in 4:29- Cool of WCW to let Sting work this show. Of course, he wasn't doing much anyway as Hulk Hogan was sucking up all the babyface oxygen and Eric Bischoff seemed to have no idea how to use him. So who is Tony Palmore? Well he was a professional kickboxer, a very accomplished one apparently but was also about 20 years past his prime. This is his only professional wrestling match and Sting has no experience working with guys like this so gird your loins, this is likely to be ugly. Palmore is wearing boxing gloves and Sting isn't, I can see that causing problems right from the off. Sting goes into dodge mode, taking some soft kicks and getting rope breaks. Eventually he gets a hip toss and hooks on a sleeper. Palmore gets a foot on the rope. More Palmore kicks, some catch Sting in the head. He drops Sting with a Rocker Dropper type move then punches him in the back of the head while he's down. Tiger Hattori didn't like that one bit. Sting waistlocks Palmore and hits the ugliest German suplex in the history of mankind. Palmore's fault, not Sting, he had no idea how to take it. Palmore's kicks and punches are getting weaker and lamer as the match goes on, not that they were much to start with. Finally Sting has enough, takes Palmore down, and wraps up the Scorpion Death Lock to end the misery. This is one of the most notorious wrestling disasters in the history of the Tokyo Dome. DUD

 

Final Countdown BVD Tournament Semifinal: Antonio Inoki def Gerard Gordeau in 6:37- Gordeau was a martial artist that moved into MMA and was one of the UFC's original fighters when the promotion started. Fortunately he had some wrestling experience as well. I think he and Inoki had a shoot MMA fight before this but I'm not 100% certain. This is most certainly not a shoot, but it is part of Inoki revisiting his MMA past as part of his retirement tour. There's not a whole lot to say about this one. Bugger all happens for 90% of it, both guys position and take swings. In the end Inoki grabs a kick, works around and puts on the rear naked choke to get a submission. He also took some shots in his leg to set up a wounded leg in the final with Sting later. 1/4*

 

Riki Choshu and Yoshiaki Yatsu def Tatsutoshi Goto and Kengo Kimura in 12:32- Goto and Kimura are Heisei Ishingun. Choshu and Goto start with a gut kick fest. Goto hits a blatant low blow. Choshu responds with a leg takedown and straight nut stomp. After a couple of swaps Choshu ends up in the wrong part of town. He grabs a quick suplex on Goto. Goto no sells Yatsu headbutts. The heels do a bit of war drums on Yatsu. After a bit more beatdown Yatsu Saitos Kimura. The faces hit a spike piledriver! Yatsu elbow off the top rope. Powerslam for 2. Kimura hits a running knee. Goto Saito on Yatsu for 2. Goto charges down the entrance ramp....and lariatos his own partner! Choshu in with a lariato and Scorpion on Kimura. Goto breaks it up. HI double teams. Yatsu hits a powerslam on Kimura. Bulldog. A second one. Goto breaks the pin up. HI does a supposed double team on Yatsu but only Kimura made any actual contact. HI sets up a spike piledriver. Choshu breaks it up and superplexes Goto. Choshu lariatos on Kimura finish it. Eh. *1/2

 

Masahiro Chono and Sabu def Junji Hirata and Tatsumi Fujinami in 11:18- Chono continued his dominance of the early G1 Climax tournaments in '94, winning for the third time in four years, but this was well before that got you a 1/4 title shot. Plus, Chono had lost Heavyweight title matches the last two 1/4 shows so it was time for someone fresh there. Hirata is a babyface unmasked Super Strong Machine, now wrestling under his real name. ECW legend Sabu is making his New Japan debut here, which will kick off a kind of bidding war between NJPW and ECW over who will get him full time for most of '95. During entrances Sabu points at the sky, gets in the ring and dives in! Well not literally dives. Yet. Full on Suzuki-Gun ambush by the heels. Sabu grabs a couple of chairs, sets them up on the ramp, and does a chair launch crossbody on Hirata! He takes a chair and sets it up in the ring. He launches again, but Fujinami dodges and he hits Chono! Two chair spots and no screw ups from Sabu. Might be a record. Hirata has enough of the screwing around and tosses the chairs out. Fujinami hits a kneedrop off the top rope on Sabu and hooks on a sleeper. Sabu gets to his corner and tags out. Hirata no sells a Chono lariat, kicking off a sequence where they no sell each other to show their fighting spirit. Sabu tags in, takes a long time explaining a spot to Hirata, then flips over him and kicks him back into the face corner. Fujinami tries to mat wrestle Sabu. Sabu somersault legdrop on Hirata for 2. Hirata responds with a corner lariato. DDT. Sabu sandbags a Fujinami suplex and gets him in the heel corner. Chono tackle off the top rope. He goes up again. Hirata meets him and superplexes him. Chono dodges a Hirata charge, and as he moves pulls the buckle pad down so Hirata goes into the steel! Hirata goes in peril for a bit. Eventually Fujinami has enough and charges in. Donnybrook! Sabu and Fujinami fight to the floor. Sabu goes to the first row and tries to take chairs from fans but no one will let him. He finally gets a couple from somewhere else. While he did that, Hirata got the "backup" table and put it in the ring! Sabu sets Hirata up on the table, then takes his chairs and set them up on the top rope. He gets up on the chair and comes down with a legdrop that barely hits anything, and the table naturally didn't break. We are in Japan. That was ugly. The faces get the advantage back. Hirata powerbombs Chono. Headbutt off the top. Chono kicks out! Sabu hits Hirata with a chair. Chono gives him a big boot kick, and covers for the pin. That was all kinds of chaotic and sloppy, but came out OK. Sabu felt like an actor that wandered into a movie from the set of a completely different movie and didn't belong (like, say, Laura Dern in The Last Jedi, I still don't know what movie she thought she was doing). **1/2

 

Road Warrior Hawk (w/Road Warrior Animal) def Scott Norton in 7:41- These two had some wars over the tag titles the previous couple of years. They take a moment to let the crowd react and get a middling response. Hawk breaks clean in the corner. Norton doesn't. Huge Norton corner lariato. Both guys hit the ropes for a big head of steam. Norton wins the collision. Norton powerslam and big boot. He charges, but Hawk backdrops him down to the floor. He whips Norton into the barricade. Norton ducks Hawk's lariato from the top rope and Hawk slides back down to the floor. Norton gets posted. Back in Hawk hits a suplex. He walks up the ramp, charges, dives but almost falls down on his head and barely touches Norton. Norton sells it anyway. Think his feet caught the top rope. Hawk tackle for 2. He goes off the top again. Norton catches him in midair and hits a backbreaker. Samoan drop while staring down Animal. Power bomb, again while focused on Animal. He taunts Hawk and tosses him to the ramp. Norton sets Hawk up on the rope and hits a hangman's DDT on the ramp, but with a bad camera angle showing Hawk's head went nowhere near hitting anything. Animal gets up on the ramp and Norton chops him. The ref backs Animal down. Back in Norton puts Hawk in the torture rack, again with all his focus on Animal. Lariatos with arrogant posing between. Animal has enough and trips Norton. While they argue Hawk sneaks up top, hits a lariato to the back of Norton's head, and gets the pin. After the bell everyone argues and the ring attendants have to run in to break it all up. They were having a decent power match until it became all about Norton and Animal with Hawk as an afterthought. *1/4

 

Final Countdown BVD Tournament Final: Antonio Inoki def Sting in 10:26- There's an English commentary option on this match, but it's only Kevin Kelley doing an intro to it from it sounds like 2019 that frankly contains no information that you can't get in this review, and a quick closing, the match itself is still all Japanese commentary. Inoki has a cut on his leg from the last match. Once again let's sum up the match: Sting tries, in succession, an STF, a single leg crab, another STF, his Scorpion and a figure four, all of which Inoki slowly fights off. That's most of the match. After that Sting hits a powerslam for 2. He lifts for another one, but Inoki uses the position to grab the Inoki choki, and Sting submits. These guys could have had an awesome wrestling match, but to keep in the theme of the tournament they worked the shoot style Sting had no experience with and frankly didn't look comfortable doing, and it didn't come together at all. Plus, Inoki had literally one offensive move the whole match and won so LOL Inoki wins again. *

 

IWGP Tag Team Championship: Hiroshi Hase and Keiji Mutoh (c) def The Steiner Brothers in 25:12- These same teams tore it up at last year's show, why not do it again? The Steiners were working essentially full time in New Japan after their mid-'94 WWF departure until popping up in ECW for a bit in the summer of '95. Hase and Scott start with the usual solid mat wrestling. Rick has some fun bouncing on the bottom rope. Scott laughs, tags him in and lets him loose. Rick runs his laps around the ring. He catches a leapfrogging Hase and powerslams him! Everyone runs in. The Steiners stereo press slam, clear the ring and strike their pose. Hase goes over and gets a kiss from a woman at ringside. I assume that's his wife. Scott jumps down and tries to get her to give him a kiss! A few years later lord knows what he'd say to her. Probably ask her to be one of his freaks. After that Rick leaps out, grabs a different woman at ringside and kisses her! I hope she was in the know on that. Funny stuff though. Rick commences mat wrestling with Mutoh. Same with Mutoh and Scott. Hard chops from Hase crank things up a notch. Senton on Scott for 2. Mutoh cranks Scott's knee, and takes a second in the Steiner corner to mock Rick's run! Hilarious. Hase and Mutoh focus on Scott's knee for a bit with some nifty knee based double teams. Mutoh hooks on a figure four. Rick breaks it up. Scott hits a deadlift suplex and tags. Steinerline! Rick runs Hase upside down in the corner. So does Scott! Hase gets caught in the tree of woe, with Scott cranking his neck from the floor. Scott hooks on an STF. No feeling out now, he's cranking it hard. Hase gets out of bounds (the under the ropes white area on the mat), which is as good as a rope break. Now Rick hooks on an STF with Hase just getting a hand in the white again. Rick puts Hase up top and gives him a release belly to belly superplex! He just plain tossed him. He places Hase up top again. Hase counters and hits a tornado DDT! Mutoh in with a handspring elbo....no, Rick catches him! He turns for a German but Mutoh elbows out of it! Great callback to a previous Dome match (Steiners vs Muta & Sting in '92). Mutoh springs to the top rope and comes off with a crossbody. He dropkicks Rick to the ramp and faceplants him. Here comes the Mutoh ramp run......Rick ducks the lariato and Mutoh runs into a Scott Steinerline! Another good callback. Back in Scott hits a delayed belly to belly and puts Mutoh in a dragon sleeper. Rick belly to belly (lost his balance a little there). Another Scott belly to belly for 2. He tosses Mutoh on the ramp again and suplexes him. Scott tells Hattori to count. Mutoh gets up, and runs into a Rick Steinerline! Now it's Scott's turn for a belly to belly superplex. Suplex city, bitch. Brock built it but the Steiners made the blueprints. Rick lifts Mutoh up and Scott powerslams him from the second rope for 2. Hase runs in and gets beat down. Double whip. Scott Frankensteiners Hase, but at the same time MUTOH FRANKENSTINERS RICK! Scott covers Hase but he's not legal. Scott small package on Mutoh for 2. Release dragon suplex from Scott. He yells "It's over!". He lifts Mutoh up, pulls him down for a tombstone, but Mutoh reverses and hits the tombstone! Another callback to the last match, and judging by the crowd reaction they picked up on it. Tag to Hase. Uranage on Rick! Hase grabs Rick's legs and gives him a Cesaro style giant swing! The crowd counts. He got about a dozen rotations in, on a guy much larger than him too. Hase kicks, but Rick bounces off the ropes with a Steinerline! He blocks another uranage. Rick DDT! Everyone's in again. The Steiners set up their finisher. Hase victory rolls Rick for 2! Mutoh jumps up and hurrianranas Scott off the top rope! Rick hits a release German on Hase. He goes for one on Mutoh but Mutoh flips out of it! Hase northern lights suplex! As Mutoh holds Scott off that gets the pin! Another classic from these teams, though just a small smidge skosh behind the last match. ****1/4

 

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Shinya Hashimoto (c) def Kensuke Sasaki in 19:36- I think there's going to be some big strong boi slapping in this match. After working primarily in the tag division Sasaki is getting his first taste of the main event. Hashimoto is on title reign #2 after Fujinami took it for about a month in the spring of '94, and this one would last just over a full year. Hashimoto cuts a promo during intros. Commentary mentions Inoki. He's had a quick change into a suit and is at ringside so it might have been directed at him. Code of Honor hand slap before the bell and we're off. Random Ring Gearhead thought, I really like Hashimoto's gear. Something about the cut of the pants and pattern down on the leg really works. Rough corner break at the start. And yup, here's the big boi slaps. Hashimoto gets staggered and Sasaki is all over him. Hashimoto comes out of the corner with a dropkick and hits stiff kicks in the opposite corner. Hattori tries to corner break and Hashimoto tosses him aside! Sasuki uses the opening for a lariato! Shoulderblock/lariato combination for 2. Sasaki works a chinlock. Hashimoto scissors his ankle. Sasaki tries for an armbar. He stretches it out but Hashimoto gets to the ropes. Small reset. Sasuki gets back on top on the mat and lays in some ground and pound. All that does is set Hashimoto off. Arm slam! He cranks Sasuki's arm. Hashimoto with a superkick and dropkick off the top rope (guy that size you can't call it a missile dropkick, it was more a heavy bombing run). DDT. He goes up again. Sasaki meets him. They fight a bit for leverage, and Sasaki flips him over with a powerslam off the top! Lariato for 2. Sasaki DDT. Hashimoto fights off, juding by the reaction, a finisher submission hold from Sasaki. Commentary keeps saying dragon hold so we'll go with that. Sasuki power bomb for 2. After a powerslam he finally hooks the dragon hold on. Hashimoto gets out, grabs a waistlock and hits a belly to belly suplex. Sasaki blocks a DDT and suplexes Hashimoto. He hooks the dragon hold on again! The crowd's going nuts. Hashimoto powers out. Sasaki does his arm grab powerslam. Hashimoto kicks out! Now the crowd's really going bonkers. Hashimoto sweep kick! He hooks for a DDT, pummels Sasaki with kneelifts, adds a kick to the head for good measure, and hits the DDT. Sasaki kicks out! Hashimoto spinning heel kick. Another kick out! Hashimoto with a fisherman buster! He's not kicking out of that. Just what you'd expect from a Tokyo Dome main event. ****

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Quite the proverbial roller coaster, this one. It started really good with a streak of good matches, fell off a cliff about a third of the way through, then finally recovered with two great matches to close out.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-

AWA SuperClash II

Legacy Review

AWA SuperClash II

May 2, 1987 from the Cow Palace in San Francisco

Commentary: Ron Trongard

The AWA brought back the Superclash name for their big event of '87, but unlike the first Superclash in '85 this one was not cross-promoted, it's AWA talent only. How far had AWA fallen in the past two years with the WWF and NWA picking off much of their talent? The first Superclash drew over 20,000 in Comiskey Park. This one has less than 3,000 in the historic Cow Palace, which to be fair is way outside AWA's main territory. By contrast, this is just over a month after WWF put 93,000 butts in seats in the Silverdome for Wrestlemania 3 (yes, I know, disputed number etc etc etc, I'm not interested in firing up that debate right now, point is it's a big difference). I'll say it again, managing to get on ESPN kept AWA alive years longer than they otherwise would have been.

Like most other shows of this era we jump right into intros for the first match. There's a whole lot of empty seats opposite hard camera. Those fill up a bit as the show goes on, but the all-arena shots show whole empty sections.

Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissy def Buck Zumhofe in 11:58- Mandatory Zumhofe is a convicted child molester disclaimer. He doesn't have his boombox because the Sheik destroyed it during the build. He should have taken lesson from Spock on how to deal with annoying people playing loud music. Sheik takes his sweet time disrobing after the bell. And then immediately steps outside. Finally we get a glacial lockup. Zumhofe, as per AWA rules, starts working the arm. And more stalling. Sheik heel 101 eye rake and back rake. They have an arm wringer tradeoff and Sheik does the heel 101 hair pull. Sheik turns his back and Zumhofe gets a couple of shots in. Sheik begs off. Zumhofe switches to some leg work and flips out of a monkey flip attempt. He cranks Sheik with a neck wringer. Sheik goes to more eye gouging and bites. Clearly this match has been moving much too fast because Zumhofe spends the next few minutes wandering around on the floor. He gets back in with a hiptoss and dropkicks. Sheik blocks a monkey flip in the corner, stacks Zumhofe up, and puts his feet on the ropes to get the pin. 1/4*

 

Super Ninja (w/Ninja Go) and DJ Peterson go to a 15:00 time limit draw- Super Ninja is Shunji Takano, who had some moderate success in tag competition in All Japan and SWS. Peterson had the look, some potential and was being built by AWA as a future star and had some success there, but didn't get a chance in another major promotion after AWA's closure and died in a motorcycle accident in '93. The ring announcer Lillian Botches Ninja Go, calling him "Mr. Go". That's Go-san to you. Armdrag tradeoff, with Peterson selling it by rolling over his head. After some arm wringers Ninja grabs a Greco Roman throat hold. Taichi would approve. In fact, Ninja's gear looks quite a bit like Taichi's Suzuki-Gun partner Douki. I also just noticed Peterson has dollar signs on his boots. Does he think he's money for the company or something? This is a couple of months before Ted DiBiase debuted the Million Dollar Man in WWF so he could lay claim to the gear. All this is way more interesting than what's happening in the match as they're just doing more AWA arm work. They kill a couple of minutes with Ninja offering a handshake and Peterson being reluctant to accept. Ninja bows and Peterson hits him with a kneelift! Well that's a dick move. Now Peterson offers a handshake. Ninja takes it and Peterson pulls him into a sleeper. Who's the heel here? Ninja throws Peterson to the floor. Considering all the disrespect he's shown Ninja he's getting off easy. Ninja goes into beatdown mode. Peterson gets a desperation rollup for 2. He gets tossed to the floor again and Go gets a shot in. Ninja with a double ax handle off the apron to the floor! Well that's a high spot by AWA's standards. He runs Peterson into the post, which Peterson didn't much want to do as he barely grazed it. Ninja tries to suplex him back in but Peterson slips out and does a backslide for 2. Ninja slaps on the mandatory Oriental Nerve Hold of Pinchiness +1. Peterson comes back but runs into a .5 superkick. Ninja kneedrop off the second rope. Peterson fights off another shot from Go. Ninja wins a slugfest and hooks on a double chinlock, then a Boston crab. I like how he used his knee to work Peterson over. Little things done right. He tries coming off the second rope again but Peterson dodges. Backdrop. Snap suplex for 2. Back elbow for 2. Ninja dodges a dropkick and hits a spinning heel kick (that flummoxes Trongard so much he doesn't know what to call it). Peterson gets a foot on the rope. He hits a sunset flip for 2, and right after that the bell rings for the time limit. Well, that didn't turn out nearly as bad as it could have been. *3/4

 

AWA Women's World Championship: Sherri Martel (c) (w/Doug Somers) def Madusa Miceli in 11:31- Future legend Madusa is just out of training and her initial indie run, and getting her first crack at the big time. They've upgraded the belt, it doesn't look like something thrown together for a backyard wrestling league anymore. Sherri's in Hogan red and yellow. Wonder if that was deliberate. She plays with the ref during instructions (something that AWA made a big show of the refs doing before every single match). Ray "The Crippler" Stevens joins Trongard on commentary as Sherri messes with the crowd before getting tossed out of lockups by Madusa. Sherri grabs an armbar and bites Madusa's fingers. She tries to pull the arm right out of the socket. Madusa gets desperate and eye rakes out, followed by some gut punches and a hair-assisted snap mare. Sherri slides out and into Somers' arms. Madusa wins a test of strength and Sherri headbutts her in the ribs, hurting them. After a dropkick she puts on a double chinlock. Madusa gets a leg takedown and works spinning toe holds, hurt ribs forgotten. That's something you learn with experience. Usually. Suplex by Madusa for 2. Sherri puts on a headscissors. Madusa fights out and pummels Sherri with forearms. Slam for 2. Clothesline for 2. Madusa with the old airplane spin. Somers gets on the apron and distracts the ref. While Madusa is messing with him Sherri rolls her up, grabs a handful of tights, and gets the pin. In an era where women's wrestling was taken seriously I could see these two having a really good match. In these days, this was as good as it was going to get. Madusa was still pretty green too. Sherri would follow so many others and bolt for the WWF a couple of months after while still champion. Madusa would win the vacant title for her first of many championships. *1/2

 

AWA World Heavyweight Championship: Curt Hennig def Nick Bockwinkel (c) in 23:44- And in true AWA fashion, we're getting the main event in the middle of the show. AWA President Stanley Blackburn is present, telegraphing a screwy finish is upcoming. In an AWA World title match on a major show? I know, shocking. Larry Zbyszko interrupts introductions to challenge the winner of the match because he's the "real" #1 contender, and he also stays at ringside. Lots of basic feeling out, pause and circle at the start of the match. A Bockwinkel slap on a rope break cranks intensity up a notch. They roll through rapid fire headlock/headscissors counters with Hennig ending up on top with a headlock. Body slam exchange. Hennig is definitely showing a quick extra step while Bockwinkel looks old. Bockwinkel hits a hiptoss and armdrags. Hennig forearm shots in the corner. Bockwinkel dodges a charge and Hennig FLIES through the ropes and all the way to the floor! There's no mat out there either. He hit his shoulder on the guardrail on the way down and Bockwinkel goes to work on it. Hennig whips out the super selling for a bit. The match gets bogged down with slow Bockwinkel arm work and the crowd starts focusing on Zbyszko. Hennig takes a shoulderblock but hits a knee to the gut. Bockwinkel counters a backdrop with a hard kick and covers for 2, then goes back on the arm with a short arm scissors. Hennig breaks free, drops a knee on Bockwinkel's knee and goes to work on it. Spinning toe hold. Figure four! Trongard and Stevens criticize Hennig from commentary that he's not applying the hold right. So he's not doing it perfectly is what you're saying? Interesting. Bockwinkel slowly crawls and gets to the ropes. Hennig stays on the knee. Bockwinkel grabs a handful of hair and hits a forearm. A knee to Hennig's gut hurts Bockwinkel too. Simultaneous punches and both guys are down. Hennig chops. Bockwinkel reverses a whip and Hennig goes hard into the corner. Bockwinkel cover for a long 2. Hennig sunset flip for 2. He hits face plants with great Bockwinkel sells. Atomic drop and roll up for 2. Crossbody for 2. Bockwinkel pops out of the corner with a clothesline! Midring collision. While both guys are down Zbyszko goes up to Hennig. It looks like he hands Hennig something. Hennig punches Bockwinkel and he goes down and out! Cover for 3! Hennig wins the title. For now. Hennig definitely carried the match, looking like the future star that he was. ***1/4

After the bell Hennig hands back whatever Zbyszko gave to him. Blackburn unshockingly gets in the ring. Stevens is also all fired up from commentary, convinced Hennig won by cheating, and also gets in the ring. While both guys protest to the ref Stevens grabs Zbyszko and a whole shitload of dimes go flying! Well Zbyszko just needed to go through LePetomane Thruway on the way home, what's the big deal? After some more arguing Blackburn announces that the title is being held up while the championship committee reviews the tape and determines what to do next. That sets off a whole new round of arguing and a huge "bullshit" chant from the crowd, who are still firmly behind Hennig no matter how he won the match. Hennig refuses to give the belt back. Bockwinkel takes it from him and hands it to the ref. This whole bit is going on almost as long as the match itself did. Everyone involved also cuts promos with Trongard on their way out, with Zbyszko taking a lot of shots at AWA for doing everything they can to keep their "golden boy" Bockwinkel champion, which could be considered a bit on the shooty side.

The funny coda to this whole mess: the AWA powers that be had every intention of this being yet another title screwjob/Dusty Finish. But, Hennig let slip to Verne Gagne that WWF was making overtures to him. Gagne made the executive decision that on reflection maybe Hennig should keep the title after all, which was announced on TV a few weeks later. Hennig would be champion almost exactly a year before dropping it to Jerry Lawler to begin the setup for Superclash III (another complete mess I'll be getting to soon), then heading to WWF. Bockwinkel also retired later in the year.

Man, the people booking AWA were deeply, deeply stupid.

 

AWA World Tag Team Champions The Midnight Rockers and Ray "The Crippler" Stevens def  Buddy Wolfe, Doug Somers and Kevin Kelly in 17:59- At least they got something right, putting the tag belts on the Rockers before they went off to WWF. Wolfe, announced here as "The Hackensack Hammer", was a journeyman who would retire almost right after this show. Kelly (not to be confused with New Japan's Kevin Kelley, the best play by play man in wrestling today) had The Look but didn't have an ounce of wrestling talent, and the look would be buried in his most visible appearances later in his career as he'd be wearing a big orange jumpsuit as Nailz. Stevens was a legend in the San Francisco area winding his career down with AWA. Wolfe and Shawn start. Shawn gets the early advantage. Stevens comes in and pops Wolfe. Janetty bounces off Kelly, slides under him and hits a dropkick. He tries a springboard crossbody but Kelly catches him and puts him in the heel corner. Let me sum up the next almost 10 minutes of the match: Janetty is trapped in the heel corner, his partners keep running in and the heels choke him down. After way too much of that Janetty is corner whipped, flips over and goes all the way to the floor. Shawn goes to check on him and sets off utter chaos, and not the good kind. The match is a complete mess. Shawn and Kelly do some stuff in the ring while Janetty recovers. Slowly order is restored and Janetty crawls back in with a bum knee, setting off what feels like the next two hours of the match: the heels pick apart Janetty's knee. After way, way too much of that Janetty blocks a Somers suplex, hits his own, and crawls over to tag Shawn. DONNYBROOK! The heels all collide, and Stevens (not the legal man) Paul Smackages Wolfe for the pin. The crowd was into it at least. 3/4*

Jerry Blackwell (w/Buck Zumhofe) def Boris Zhukov (w/Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissy) in 12:31- From that to this. The bell rings aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we're stalling. Zhukov wanders around the outside before getting nose to nose with Blackwell in the corner. Blackwell tosses him across the ring a couple of times and Zhukov powders again. After getting back in Blackwell pounds away in the corner. Avalanche with a fun flop sell from Zhukov. Might be the best thing in the whole match. Another roll out and Blackwell again on offense when Zhukov gets back in. Buckle shots. Elbow drop for 2. Zhukov goes to the eye rake and bite strategy to get some token heel offense in. Back rake of extreme scratchiness. There's an unintentionally funny moment when Zhukov is stomping Blackwell's arm and Blackwell is shouting "AH no no no no no no AH no no no no no no AH". Zhukov shows he's super cereal about winning this match by hooking in an ARMBAR. Blackwell counters Zhukov coming off the second rope. "Running" clothesline, according to Trongard. I'm no basketball expert but I don't think he would have even been called for traveling on that one. Unnecessary ref bump because why not. The heels double team. Blackwell double clotheslines them, covers Zhukov, and the ref gets back in to count 3. DUD

"Superfly" Jimmy Snuka and Russ Francis def The Mercenary and The Terrorist in 12:00- Francis was the Pro Bowl tight end for the local 49ers (announced as the "world champion" 49ers even though they were two seasons removed from their last Super Bowl win). He was also in the WWF vs NFL battle royale at Wrestlemania 2, and as it turns out a was trained wrestler. He worked multiple matches for the AWA in the '70s, and even held the NWA Hawaii tag titles with his brother Bill for a time. The heels are your usual one night only generic masked heels. The Terrorist is Nasty Boy Brian Knobbs, while the Mercenary is Ron Fuller. Supposedly Colonel DeBeers was supposed to be in this match but was either injured or didn't make the town depending on who you asked. Francis and Mercenary start. No, Snuka and Terrorist. No, they swap again. AND AGAIN FOR FRAK'S SAKE. Now can we start? NO, SNUKA TAGS OUT AGAIN. NOW TERRORIST TAGS OUT. DO SOMETHING! The faces have enough, jump the heels and clear the ring. Francis chases Terrorist all the way to the back while Mercenary completely vanishes. Maybe he's the Black Scorpion. Francis is back. No sign of the heels. After another minute or so they finally come back. It would have been *hilarious* if they'd swapped in the back and these were two completely different guys in the masks. Alas, not to be. Finally Snuka and Mercenary lock up. Criss cross. Snuka chops and Mercenary slides to the floor. Snuka gets stuck in the heel corner and goes FIP. Terrorist back elbow for 2. Trongard forgets were he is and says the wrong arena name. Snuka still being worked over. He back suplexes out of a headlock but the tag is cut off. Francis runs in and the heels double team for a solid two minutes. Terrorist hits the ugliest splash ever for 2. Snuka barely makes a leapfrog and then he and Terrorist muff the follow up chop. Tag to Francis. Ugly slugfest. Francis does get a nice European uppercut in. Tackle. He sets Terrorist up. Snuka drops a knee off the top rope, while Francis hits the second ugliest splash ever off the opposite top rope (lands on his feet, then falls) for the pin. Well there you have it folks. A major show closes with back to back utter trash matches. It has to be some kind of record. DUD

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHS- I'm starting to think the AWA deserved to go out of business.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D-

NJPW Battlefield

Legacy Review

NJPW Battlefield

January 4, 1994 from the Tokyo Dome

This is the third annual Jan. 4 Tokyo Dome show, the line that will eventually become Wrestle Kingdom, and the first to not be co-promoted with WCW. As would be tradition for years with New Japan's big show, wrestlers from outside were still invited to appear.

As usual this is from the New Japan World archives so it's Japanese commentary only.

Heisei Ishingun def El Samurai, Osamu Kido, Manabu Nakanishi, Satoshi Kojima and Yuji Nagata in 12:09- Nakanishi and Nagata are both in Young Lion all black. I believe at this point Kojima is still considered a Young Lion as well, but he's in green long trunks. Heisei Ishingun was a top heel stable branching both New Japan and WAR. They're all in matching purple pants. I'm not hugely familiar with most of the HI guys outside the Great Kabuki and since this is your usual New Japan multi-man tag opener we can skim a bit. Kojima seems the focal point as the heels want to get their hands on him. Nakanishi takes a baseball slide and crashes back into the guardrail. Kojima tags in to a decent crowd reaction and lets fly with forearms. Nagata works some kicks, takes a Saito suplex and tags out. Samurai wraps up a Boston crab. Nagata hooks in a sleeper with a grapevine. Kojima hits an elbow off the second rope but gets caught in the heel corner. Samurai gets thrown out onto the raised entrance ramp and gets faceplanted. He takes a hip attack double team. Kojima gets a tag and hits some huge running forearms but walks right into a Kabuki superkick. At this point I had issues with the video playback on World, after several tries the best I can do is skipping ahead a couple of minutes to Nagata taking a couple of choke slams and getting pinned. Usual solid large tag opener from what I could see. **3/4

 

J-J-Jacks def Akitoshi Saito and Masashi Aoyagi in 14:07- The J-J-Jacks (short for Japanese Jolly Jacks) are Akira Nogami and Takashi Iizuka. Saito and Aoyagi are also Heisi Ishingun as evidenced by their purple gis. Their standard offense is kick, kick and kick some more. Aoyagi and Akira start and it quickly devolves into a brawl. Iizuka and Saito feel each other out. Iizuka gets a slap on a rope break to heat things up. An armbar attempt is blocked and Iizuka gets kicked into the heel corner. Iizuka is going borderline heel here, ignoring all the ref's instructions to break until the last possible second. The IG team responds by double teaming. Aoyagi has a kick flurry. Akira hits him with a sloppy faceplant. Saito suplex by, er, Saito for 2. Aoyagi and Akira have a kick/chop exchange. The Jacks go to a lot of leg focused submission holds, not a bad strategery when you're going against guys who are primarily kicking. At one point they both hook up legbars! After a double team escape Saito hits Iizuka with a spinning heel kick for 2. The IG guys are starting to have issues with their baggy gear, especially Saito. Eventually his belt comes off and he discards his top completely. IG hits a Hart Attack like spinning kick for another 2. Iizuka blocks a third one with a high knee and rolls into a single leg crab. Aoyagi kicks him to hell. Akira sees enough and illegally comes off the top rope out of nowhere. He tags in and hits a splash off the top, then hits a German suplex with a bridge for the pin. Decent. **1/4

 

Brutus Beefcake (w/Jimmy Hart) def Black Cat in 8:06- Beefcake hadn't yet signed with WCW and was appearing here as a freelancer. He's still got his red and yellow Mega Maniacs gear on. On the initial speed run Cat drops an elbow on Beefcake's back when he drops down for a trip attempt. Lariato by Cat. Hart's megaphone is echoing all over the Dome. Good things he's not using it very much. Great acoustics though. Cat gets annoyed at Hart and Beefcake hits him from behind. He chokes Cat with his leg and poses. Cat comes back with some stiff shots. A straight left floors Beefcake with a pretty amazing sell. He hooks a Boston crab in but Beefcake is right by the ropes. Beefcake wins a slugfest and goes into some eye gouging and biting, so it's clear who's playing the heel here. Big....er, medium boot for 2. Cat gets in some kicks to the hammy and tries for a Scorpion Death Lock. Beefcake fights out. Beefcake has clearly done all he's going to do as he hits simple punches on Cat for near falls. Cat gets a boot up in the corner and a sunset flip for 2. Saito suplex for 2. Beefcake dodges an elbow and hits a falling headbutt for 2. They both hit the ropes. Beefcake hits a high knee, and that gets the pin. That was about as much as you were going to get out of Beefcake at this point of his career. *

Super Strong Machine def Tatsuoshi Goto in 8:51- SSM has turned face and turned on his old Raging Staff heel partners, who I believe merged into Heisi Ishingun. Goto is also wearing IG purple. A very young Red Shoes Unno is reffing this match! This is the first time I've seen him in reviewing these shows. Yes, he is wearing red boots. After a rough lockup SSM no sells a corner lariato, and Goto no sells the rebound lariato to the back. A test of strength ends in a stalemate. Goto no sells open handed strikes. Shoulderblocks also end in neither man budging. SSM unloads some heavy artillery that finally staggers Goto. For a moment. SSM gets on a sleeper. Goto powers out of a butterfly arm hold. SSM hits a lariato and huge suplex. Bulldog off the top rope. Goto counters with a snap German. SSM blocks a Saito suplex and turns it into a bulldog. He hits a German for 2. Goto goes for the Saito again, but SSM twists in midair and lands on top of him! He goes up, hits a diving headbutt off the top, and that gets the 3. The no selling was fun and the counters at the end were decent, but overall there wasn't a whole lot of "there" there. *3/4

 

Mask vs Mask Match: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Jushin Thunder Liger def Tiger Mask in 14:26- Liger's celebrating one full year on this current junior title reign and would go on to hold it a record 628 days, but it's not on the line tonight. This is Tiger Mask III, AKA....well, we'll get into that. Classic Liger red and white tonight. He offers a handshake. TM slaps him instead. There's a lot of smoke in the arena, likely from some intro pyro. Man, I wish entrances were on here for these old shows. The Tokyo Dome stage is always amazing no matter the era. Liger transitions some leg work into an early modified surfboard. TM is up with a spinning kick. Liger works a headscissors. TM chops Liger down with some kicks. Saito suplex. Now it's TM's turn for a headscissors. Liger transitions into a camel clutch. He hits a tiltawhirl backbreaker and does the full surfboard. He bends TM over and adds on a facelock! That's nasty looking. TM eye rakes to get out. Liger hits some signature rolling kicks. He tries coming off the top with a dropkick but TM was also thinking dropkick and they both crash. TM tries an armbar and hits some ground and pound punches. He ties Liger up in the corner and dropkicks him. Backbreaker. TM goes for a moonsault. Liger dodges but TM adjusts and lands on his feet. As soon as he does Liger hits him with another rolling kick! A dropkick sends TM to the floor. Liger with a baseball slide. He loads up for a dive. TM moves to dodge and Liger handsprings off the ropes. TM sends him to the floor, and hits a dive of his own! Corkscrew moonsault from TM back in! He covers, but pulls Liger up at two! Bold strategy, Cotton. That never ends well. He tries a straitjacket suplex. Liger switches, runs, and hits a diving lariato. Powerbomb! He places TM on the top rope and hits a hurricanrana! TM kicks out! Ligerbomb! TM kicks out again! He goes for another Ligerbomb, but TM counters into a sit down cover for 2. TM places Liger on the top rope and dropkicks him onto the ramp. He goes up the ramp, gets a head of steam, and hits Liger with a handspring crossbody! TM tries coming off the top again but Liger dodges and he splats on the ramp. He recovers and hits a missile dropkick back in. German suplex! Liger kicks out! TM corkscrew senton off the second rope. He goes up top but this one Liger dodges. Liger goes up top. Shooting star press! That gets the win. After the bell TM unmasks voluntarily, revealing Koji Kanemoto. He angrily throws the mask at Liger. Liger walks over and consoles him, and they end up with a polite bow and handshake. This unmasking did nothing to hurt Kanemoto's career. In fact, his list of accolades is almost as long as Liger's: 5 time junior champ, 3 time BOTSJ winner, was the first junior to have major success in World Tag League and the G1. He did OK. After the turn of the century the Tiger Mask mantle would be taken on by Yoshihiro Yamazaki as Tiger Mask IV, the man still wearing the mask today and who has had arguably the best career as Tiger Mask ever. As for the match itself, it's good but not as good as Liger's previous Dome matches. ***1/2

IWGP Tag Team Championship: The Hell Raisers def The Jurassic Powers (c) in 12:47- The Hell Raisers are the Road Warriors stand in team of Hawk and Kensuke Sasaki as Power Warrior. The Jurassic Powers are youngish Scott Norton and oldish Hercules Hernandez. The Powers beat the Raisers for the tag titles the previous summer during the G1 Climax tour. Norton and Hawk start. The crowd is here for this one. Lockup standoffs. A double lariato is doubly no sold. Doubly. Triply. Hawk hits his flying tackle and fist drop. He hits a lariato off the top and covers, but Norton pops right back up at 1. Both sides swap and Sasaki and Herc have a shoulderblock standoff. Herc tries a corner whip but Sasaki blocks it and hits him with a lariato, then a misdirection faceplant. Hawk and Herc renew acquaintances (before this extended feud in New Japan the LOD and Power and Glory had a quick Wrestlemania feud in '91). Hiptoss blocks across the ring. Herc hits a piledriver. Hawk pops right back up. Powerslam from Hawk. Norton kills Sasaki with lariatos but Sasaki refuses to die. He responds with a huge lariato of his own. Norton with a back suplex and powerslam. Hawk and Herc slug it out. Hawk gets pulled to the floor. Norton goes out and posts his back. The Powers go to work on the wounded back....for a bit. Norton hits a neckbreaker for 2. Herc drops Hawk across the top rope then hooks on the backbreaking chinlock. Hawk comebacks are cut off. Herc forearms Hawk's back and slaps on a bear hug. The Powers hit a double football tackle. Now Norton hooks on a bear hug. Herc tries coming off the second rope but Hawk dodges (with Herc landing on his feet before splatting on the mat). Hawk doesn't tag. Instead he hits a tackle, then goes outside to the ramp. He walks up, gets a huge head of steam, and leaps over the top rope to tackle Herc again! Donnybrook! Hawk hits both Powers with a lariato off the top. Sasaki tagged in somewhere in there, hits Herc with a powerslam, and gets the pin to get the titles back! Everyone shakes hands afterwards. Fun power match. ***1/4

The Steiner Brothers def Keiji Mutoh and Hiroshi Hase in 20:51- The Steiners were near the end of their short WWF run and got rare special permission to work this show. After dropping the IWGP Heavyweight title the previous fall Mutoh was starting to work more under his real name rather than as The Great Muta. The Steiners have their stars and stripes gear on. Code of Honor handshakes at the start and the bell rings with the crowd all jacked up for this one. All four of these guys were hugely popular in Japan. Hase and Scott start with some extended mat wrestling, mostly controlled by Scott. After a few minutes both sides tag. Mutoh and Rick both get on all fours and stare each other down. Rick lifts his leg up like a dog taking a piss. Mutoh charges. Rick grabs him and bites his ass! Scott belly to belly suplex and Mutoh rolls out to think. Hase tries a belly to belly on Scott but Scott fights it and turns it into a takedown. Some more solid mat wrestling follows. Scott hits a butterfly powerbomb and everyone runs in. The Steiners hit stereo press slams! They clear the ring and strike their pose while Hase and Mutoh recover on the outside. Scott shrugs off Hase chops. Mutoh throws Scott out onto the ramp, then suplexes him on the ramp. He runs up the ramp and we get the vintage Mutoh ramp run and lariato! Rick and Hase join. Hase suplexes Rick on the ramp, then does the Mutoh run and lariato himself! Back in Mutoh puts Scott in a figure four. Hase slaps on an Indian Death Lock. After Scott gets out Hase chops. Scott chops back and hits a snap dragon suplex! Rick scoops Hase up and runs him upside down into the turnbuckle pad! Hase gets back up with chops. Mutoh with a snap mare/elbow combo and he slaps on an arm scissors. Rick deadlifts him up, ALL the way up and drops him! Hase comes in and hits Rick with a uranage! He goes up top but Scott grabs him from the apron. Rick pops up and gives him a belly to belly superplex! Scott in with Steinerlines. Tiltawhirl slam for 2. Scott shouts "He ain't getting up from this one!". He lifts Hase up in a suplex......THEN DROPS HIM STRAIGHT DOWN ON HIS HEAD WITH A TOMBSTONE PILEDRIVER! The crowd goes insane for that. Mutoh tries to interfere to give Hase recovery time. He goes up top, but Rick meets him and gives him a belly to belly superplex! Scott drags Hase's corpse back in. Hase ducks a Steinerline. He doesn't duck the second. Or the third. But the contact is waking him up. Uranage! A second one! Scott kicks out! Mutoh tags in and hits a backdrop. Hase holds Scott up and Mutoh gives him a bulldog off the top rope! Mutoh with a plancha on Rick! Hase German suplex! Scott kicks out! Rick belly to bellys Mutoh on the floor. Hase gives Scott a Northern Lights suplex! Rick just gets in to break the pin up! Mutoh hits the handspring elbow. He goes for the dragon suplex but Rick breaks it up. Hase holds Rick down as Mutoh moonsaults Scott! Scott kicks out again! The crowd is absolutely freaking ballistic at this point. Scott Frankensteiner outta nowhere! Both sides crawl over and tag. Rick Steinerlines Hase and press slams him. Tiltawhirl backbreaker. He takes out Mutoh and lifts Hase on his shoulders. Scott goes up and gives Hase an AVALANCHE DDT OFF RICK'S SHOULDERS! The Steiners take Mutoh out again to make sure he can't interfere and hit the classic Steiners top rope bulldog. Rick covers and gets the pin with Mutoh just a fraction too late coming off the top rope to break it up. What a freaking match. It wasn't all tossing guys around either, there was a lot of solid tag psychology going on, particularly in the stretch run. Mutoh and Hase would remain a regular team and end up dethroning the Hell Raisers as tag champs in November. ****1/2

Hulk Hogan (w/Jimmy Hart) def Tatsumi Fujinami in 13:33- Like Beefcake, Hogan is appearing as a freelancer as he hadn't signed his megadeal with WCW yet. This is the third time these two legends have wrestled each other in a New Japan ring, but the first time in almost 9 years. Fujinami was getting into the latter part of his career, but was coming off his first (and only) G1 Climax win in '93 and would win the IWGP Heavyweight title for a then record 5th time the following April. For anyone not familiar with Hogan's work in Japan, he would work a completely different style over there. None of the classic Hogan shtick, he would actually wrestle wrestle. Code of Honor handshake before the bell and we're off. Fujinami works a headlock for a while. Hogan tries to back suplex out but Fujinami hangs on. He ducks a Hogan back elbow and gives him some armdrags. More Fujinami headlock. Hogan counters with a headscissors. After they get up he sells the hell out of a Fujinami arm wringer. Hogan grabs a handful of hair to run Fujinami into the corner pad. Fujinami ducks a blow, hits another armdrag and dropkicks that send Hogan outside. Fujinami teases a dive but pulls out. Reset lockup and Hogan works a headlock. Fujinami cobra twist! He tries to roll it into a cradle but Hogan's foot lands on the rope. Now Hogan wraps up a cobra twist and does the same cradle roll. Fujinami escapes. They do a test of strength. Hogan uses the opening for a knee to the gut. Huge Hogan chops in the corner as things start to escalate. Hogan suplex and elbow drop for 2. He goes for the legdrop but Fujinami dodges it and starts in with hammy kicks. Hogan goes to the desperation eye rake. Running high knee! He lariatos Fujinami 360 over onto the ramp. Hogan whips Fujinami on the ramp, they reverse positions, and Fujinami lariatos Hogan 360 back in! Fujinami knee drop off the top for 2. He locks in a Scorpion. Hogan grabs the rope. Fujinami dodges a corner lariato. Sleeper! Dragon sleeper! Hogan's in trouble. He just manages to squirt out. Corner lariato! HUGE Hogan lariato in the middle of the ring, and that gets the pin! Now, this won't be everyone's cup of tea but I enjoyed it. A lot of it was grappling on the mat, but given these guys' stature that works just fine to me, they kept the intensity up, and once they cranked it up a gear it got going pretty damn good. Some more time and it might have been better, depending on what Hogan's conditioning was like due him being in the middle of his layoff. ***

Riki Choshu def Yoshiaki Fujiwara in 9:04- Yes, this is Fujiwara as in Fujiwara Armbar. He was a famous pro wrestling/shoot fighting/MMA crossover guy and is here representing his own Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi promotion (who among the other founders was a young Minoru Suzuki). He and Choshu also have a history going back a decade of battles both in the ring and backstage. Lockup stalemates and Choshu slaps. Fujiwara cranks a headlock for a bit. Test of strength. Choshu puts Fujiwara on the ground. Fujiwara escapes and gets a leg takedown. Commentary got very excited for that. Choshu wraps up a body scissors and grabs an arm to crank. Fujiwara works into a mounted position and lays in some stiff ground and pound. Fujiwara tries for a classic armbar submission but Choshu won't let him extend. He stomps Fujiwara down on the ground and provides commentary while doing so. Stiff Choshu kicks to the gut. Fujiwara counters with a leg tackle and twists a variation of an ankle lock. Choshu fights out. Fujiwara ducks a lariato and grabs an arm. Kicks to the arm. Choshu constantly fights out of attempted holds and starts murdering Fujiwara with lariatos. At first they barely move him, but eventually he goes down and Choshu gets the pin. They did an excellent job of selling that like a real shoot fight. It was as intense as anything, the crowd gasped every time Fujiwara grabbed a limb, but for me it didn't get enough time to get it to that next level. ***1/4

 

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Shinya Hashimoto (c) def Masahiro Chono in 28:00- Hashimoto is in the first of three title reigns that would see him be the dominant champion in New Japan over the next 3-4 years. Some feeling out kicks at the start. Some hit, some don't. Hashimoto drops Chono with an open hand slap. Chono gets some headbutts and we have a kick exchange. There's several contested rope breaks that ref Tiger Hattori has to physically separate them. Hashimoto drops Chono with a shoulderblock, does a leg takedown and goes to work on said leg. Chono gets up, takes Hashimoto down with a drop toe hold and also cranks a leg. Headbutt exchange. Chono enzuguri! Hashimoto hits a thrust kick to Chono's throat and hooks in a single leg crab. Another kick exchange ends with a Hashimoto spinning heel kick. I just now noticed Hashimoto was bleeding a bit from the mouth or nose, it's all dried up now. Chono not surprisingly caught him stiff with one of those kicks. Chono lays in some knee lifts. Hashimoto responds with an "F you" lariato for 2. Saito suplex for 2. Snap belly to belly for 2. He hooks in for his DDT but Chono fights out. Hashimoto German suplex for 2. It's suplex city tonight, bitch. We cross the 15 minute mark and Hashimoto has dominated almost the whole way so far. Chono fights another armbar. He grabs Hashimoto's ankle and cranks it. Hashimoto is up with more stiff kicks. Chono slips out of a suplex and hits a Saito suplex! He goes up top. Hashimoto meets him and hooks him up. They have a stalemate for a bit before Chono pushes Hashimoto back down. Tackle off the top! Chono can't immediately follow up. He hits a Samoan drop for 2. Single leg crab, and he transitions into the STF! Hashimoto tried to fight it but it's hooked in. After a minute Hashimoto starts crawling so Chono switches it over into a grounded sleeper. Hashimoto literally pushes Chono's arm off his chin to get out. It's definitely his nose that was bleeding, it's gushing out now. Chono kicks but Hashimoto won't go down. Flash arm takedown! He hooks in the DDT again. Knee right to the testes from Chono to get out! Pure, absolute desperation. He rolls Hashimoto into a leg hold, kind of a calf crusher variation. And back to the STF! Hashimoto hangs on without quitting and Chono releases it in frustration. Hashimoto dropkick! Sweep kick! He hooks in a leg bar and stretches the hell out of it. Chono won't quit. Hashimoto rolling slam for a long 2 count. He tries for the DDT again. Chono wraps up a small package for 2! Hashimoto puts Chono on the top rope and hits a superplex! Chono kicks out! A flurry from Chono is cut off by a Hashimoto enzuguri. Chono brushes away a spinning heel kick. Hashimoto hooks in the facelock again, lays in a whole bunch of knee lifts to try to keep Chono from escaping yet again, and hits a vertical drop brain buster! He can't cover right away, and when he does Chono kicks out! Hashimoto sets up Chono in the middle of the ring. Running DDT! That's all she wrote. For the second straight year Chono comes up short in the Heavyweight title match in the Dome. File that one under "simple but very effective". You can quibble about it being a bit one sided for a title match, but I think they did enough to scrape the upper echelon. ****

 

Genichiro Tenryu def Antonio Inoki in 15:56- This was set up at the end of the previous year's Dome show when Inoki congratulated and challenged Tenryu following Tenryu's main event victory over Choshu. I believe this is also the kickoff of Inoki's four year long retirement celebration, the "Final Countdown". This is also a huge match in the ongoing NJPW vs WAR battle with the two leaders facing off and wrestlers from both promotions at ringside. Usual feeling out start with Inoki headbutts. Lots of positioning going on but it's all intense and never boring. Straight right hands from Inoki! Huge pop for that. Tenryu responds with an open hand slap and enzuguri. Inoki backs off from a slam attempt and pops Tenryu with another straight right. Inoki enzuguri. Sleeper! Actually it's a rear naked choke. Tenryu goes out like a light. Hattori backs Inoki up and has a lot of angry words for him. Tenryu's out cold. The WAR guys at ringside try to wake him up but nothing's working. Hattori keeps arguing with Inoki then grabs a mic for an announcement. I assume it's something along the lines of "this match MUST continue". Tenryu's still napping like John Cena at Elimination Chamber '17. Inoki hits Hattori! Hattori lets it go and tries to slap Tenryu awake. Choshu comes over from the New Japan side and slaps him! Finally he starts to come to and slowly rolls to the floor. Someone on the WAR side dumps water on him. He's on his feet but has no idea if he's in Tokyo, Saskatoon or Timbuktu. He chops one of his WAR guys! The others help him back in the ring. Inoki is quickly all over him. Tenryu fires back with chops! More Inoki enzuguris! He hooks on the Octopus! Tenryu manages to get out and hits a rolling kick. Inoki tries an armbar but Tenryu blocks it. Eventually Inoki stretches it out but Tenryu's feet are on the rope. Knees to the face from Tenryu and Inoki goes down to the floor. Tenryu chops. Corner whip, but Inoki comes back out with a rolling kick! He hooks on the choke again! Hattori tries to physically pull his arm off. Inoki breaks with Tenryu wobblelegged but not out. Slugfest. Another Tenryu enzuguri. Kick to Inoki's head for 2. Powerslam for 2. Tenryu powerbomb! He pins Inoki with it! I think that was a shock result for everyone. With that Tenryu became the only man in history to pin both Inoki and Giant Baba. After the bell WAR celebrates and while there's some tension with the New Japan guys Inoki and Tenryu show some respect for each other, and at the end everyone in the ring joins in with Inoki's traditional show closing shout. Well, that was an interesting and unique match. In a lot of ways that was the New Japan equivalent of a bells and whistles, smoke and mirrors kitchen sink match. It's another one that's going to have sharply divided opinions. I'm falling somewhere in the middle- I really enjoyed it and it told a great story but don't think it had enough to be considered in the upper echelon. ***3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- New Japan kicks off the "proper" lineage of 1/4 Dome shows, minus the WCW co-promotion, in considerable style. Once you get past the usual OK undercard stuff, everything from the Liger match on delivers in one way or another.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+