Royal Rumble '96

Legacy Review

Royal Rumble '96

January 21, 1996 from the Selland Arena in Fresno, CA

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Mr. Perfect

Ahmed Johnson def "Double J" Jeff Jarrett by DQ in 6:40- This was set up in their segment at the last In Your House where Johnson took like five unprotected foreign object shots to the head. Jarrett attacks and immediately bails. Johnson uses his power advantage to toss Jarrett around the first couple of minutes. Powerslam for 2. Jarrett dodges a (very tentative) charge and Johnson tumbles over the top rope, getting tangled up by the hand in the process. Highly doubt that was intentional, especially with how quick the ref gets him out. Jarrett hits a clothesline off the apron and gives Johnson a stair shot. Back in Jarrett gets cocky and struts. Johnson starts to hulk up and no sell everything. It's so similar to Ultimate Warrior he should sue for gimmick infringement. Johnson catches Jarrett coming off the second rope and hits an inverted atomic drop. Spinebuster. Jarrett goes to the floor again. Johnson with an over the top suicida! OK, I'll give him that one. He went down head first and Jarrett had to save him, but still. Johnson goes up top. Jarrett dodges a senton! Figure four! Johnson reverses it to get out. Jarrett goes for it again and Johnson pushes him to the floor. Jarrett grabs his guitar and whacks Johnson in the head with it off the top rope for the cheap DQ. Woof. Johnson was so raw and sloppy parts of this felt more like a walkthrough than an actual match. Jarrett was going through the motions before he could get the hell out of town with hopefully all his limbs still attached. I mean *really* out of town. He left WWF again soon after this before returning to WCW in the fall, when the Monday Night Wars had hit DEFCON 1. 1/2*

Diesel cuts a too cool for this school promo about how he's never had an issue with the Undertaker, he just wants his belt back and Taker got in the way.

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Smoking Gunns (c) def The Bodydonnas (w/Sunny) in 11:14- You see her train wreck life in the news all the time now, but those of you who weren't teenagers in the mid-'90s can never understand how insanely desirable Sunny was. Billy and Skip start. Billy no sells a flying headscissors and they keep going almost lucha style. Skip dodges and Billy flies to the floor. Bart gets taken out and the Bodydonnas double team Billy. Bart comes back up and flips both heels to the floor, then Billy takes them out with a plancha! Skip gets ricocheted around the face corner. Sunny distracts so the Donnas can recover. Bart no sells Zip chops. Press slam. The heels get a sneaky tag and Skip ambushes Bart. Then the Gunns do their own blind tag and hit a Hart Attack. Sunny gets knocked off the apron. Billy does the gentleman thing and checks on her, which of course gives the heels an opening to attack him. Brawl on the floor. Skip hits a plancha on Billy and he goes cowboy in peril. The Donnas hit a couple of suplex variation double teams for near falls. The match bogs down and even Vince loses his place for a moment. Double faceplant on Billy for 2. Everyone runs into each other and Billy gets the hot tag. Bart runs wild and hits a back elbow for 2. DONNYBROOK! Zip backdrops Skip. The Gunns hit their finisher but Sunny has the ref tied up again. Zip nails Bart from behind and Skip covers. Bart kicks out! The Donnas go for a double suplex. Billy spears Zip and Bart rolls up a horrendous small package on Skip for the pin. The layout was good, but the execution was severely lacking. These teams did not have good chemistry. *3/4

Next up is a BILLIONAIRE TED skit! Oh man was Vince punching so far down with these. Just embarrassing. Though I do have to admit the Huckster saying "At my age my feet don't leave the ground" was pretty true to life. And this was before Hogan turned heel. After that is a recap of the Ramon/Goldust feud, which featured one of the first modern style backstage brawls on Raw along with all the homoerotic head games.

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Goldust (w/the usher and Marlena) def Razor Ramon (c) in 14:17- Marlena is making her debut here. She's not named and commentary has no idea who she is. I believe this is the first time Goldust's film grain/letterbox intro was used too. Ramon's got the white strap belt tonight. Goldust lays right in thick with the mind games. Ramon gives him the toothpick flick. More mind games with Goldust refusing to lock up. Ramon grabs an arm wringer and jerks Goldust like crazy. By the arm. Standing switch and Goldust gives Ramon a full on fondle up his chest. That sets him off. More Goldust fondling in the corner. Hammerlock exchange and Goldust slaps Ramon. Ramon gets a leg takedown, slaps Goldust, then spanks him. Oh, Goldust liked that the little pervert. They go outside and Goldust hides behind Marlena. Back in a headlock/headscissors exchange ends with a Ramon punch, and thankfully no playing around with Goldust's head being so close to Ramon's crotch. Guess that would have been too on the nose even for this angle. Goldust blows Ramon a kiss as the crowd starts getting restless. Ramon charges with a clothesline to send Goldust 360 and out again. And he hides behind Marlena again. Ramon physically moves her aside and Goldust uses the opening to attack. Goldust whips Ramon around the buckles and hits a bulldog for 2. Slingshot back suplex for 2. Marlena blows gold dust in Ramon's face. Right in front of the ref! And then Ramon completely no sells it and cranks up a comeback. Goldust cuts it off with a swinging neckbreaker and slaps on a sleeper. As usual Ramon's selling is to sit down and do nothing else for a couple of minutes, then power out. He maneuvers everyone around and gives Goldust a low blow when the ref can't see. OK, that was well done. Both guys are down and Goldust covers for 2. Ramon choke slam for 2. Fallaway slam. Goldust goes up top. Ramon knocks him off and hits the back superplex. Marlena gets in the ring. The 1-2-3 Kid comes in from the crowd! He hits Ramon with a spinning kick off the top rope! Goldust covers for the pin and the title! It took forever to get going, but once it finally did it wasn't completely horrible, I think given the chance these guys had a good match in them. Like the Undertaker's early years, Dustin Rhodes was a great wrestler but his job was to get the gimmick over, not have great matches. The Kid interference was massive and unneeded overbooking though. Why revive his feud with Ramon when so much work was put into Ramon and Goldust? *1/2

We get the traditional pre-Rumble promo montage. Shawn Michaels' TV doctor clears him to wrestle again after being knocked loopy by that Owen Hart enzuguri on Raw a few months back. Vader goes all Goldberg and headbutts the locker.

Royal Rumble- For the first time ever the Rumble match is not the main event. After last year's 60 second experiment we're thankfully back to traditional 2 minute(ish) intervals this year. On the Free For All preshow Duke Drose defeated Triple H by DQ to claim the #30 entry, which per the match stips left Trips with being #1.

1&2. Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Henry O Godwinn- The recent rivals resume acquaintances. Trips does the corner flip but stops himself going all the way over, then eye rakes out of a press slam.

3. Mr. Bob Backlund- Another first this year: everyone's entrance music plays, not just the first two entrants. Backlund goes after Godwinn and Trips does a .5 Flair flop. Backlund gives Trips a hard forearm. Every man for himself.

4. Jerry "The King" Lawler- Trips hits Godwinn with a high knee. Lawler's in his gold lamê again. The heels work Godwinn over and Lawler gets the slop bucket. Godwinn fights them off, chases them out, and dumps the slop on all three heels on the floor and some poor unfortunates in the front row. After everyone gets back in they run through a sequence where seemingly no one can get on the same page.

5. Bob "Spark Plug" Holly- Trips jumps in with some random high octane pounding to try to liven up what's been a total slog so far. Godwinn blocks a Backlund chicken wing attempt.

6. King Mabel

7. Jake "The Snake" Roberts- This is Roberts' return after taking a few years off to clear his head and fight his personal demons, sadly unsuccessfully despite how it portrayed on screen at the time. He was also a shell of his former self physically at this point. He immediately gets the snake out and Lawler rolls around with it in the ring for a bit. Afterward Lawler vanishes. Maybe the snake ate him. Mabel gets tied in the ropes.

8. Dory Funk, Jr- Well at the last In Your House Vince promised people "we wouldn't expect" in the Rumble. I think this qualifies. The elder Funk brother was a few weeks away from turning 55 but he looks older. Vince even mentions he's a former NWA world champ. Trips blocks a Roberts DDT. Funk forearms on Backlund. We get a shot of Lawler hiding under the ring after commentary wonders where he is.

9. Yokozuna- Backlund gets Funk in the chicken wing until Yokozuna breaks it up and eliminates Backlund, finally the first elimination of the night. Mabel and Yoko unsurprisingly find each other. They squash each other in the corner, and when they get out we see that Godwinn was back there too and we couldn't even see him! OK, that's funny. Holly hits a frankensteiner on Godwinn just because.

10. The 1-2-3 Kid- Razor Ramon chases him out and has to be kicked out by the official gaggle. Funk gives Kid an airplane spin. Kid and Mabel go at it too. Somewhere in here Godwinn gets eliminated off camera.

11. Takao Omori- Another surprise entrant. Vince calls him "the wild man from Japan pro wrestling". New Japan? All Japan? Somewhere else? All Japan is the answer, where Omori was just starting to get traction as a rising star. He'd eventually win the Triple Crown title and Champion Carnival (All Japan's version of the G1 Climax) both in 2014. Meanwhile nothing of note is happening in the ring. Everyone's going half speed at best.

12. Savio Vega- He hits a spinning heel kick on Mabel. Yokozuna eliminates Mabel. This would be Mabel's last WWF appearance until coming back for his transformation into Viscera. Roberts eliminates Omori. Funk hits Vega with a suplex. The old man is trying.

13. Vader- IT'S VADER TIME! The former IWGP Heavyweight and WCW World champion's WWF debut here was rightly hyped for weeks on TV as a big effing deal. He's also joined Jim Cornette's stable. Holly is the first guy to taste some potatoes. Vader eliminates Funk. Vega gets pummeled in the corner by Vader.

14. Doug Gilbert- Brother of the late great Eddie Gilbert, who had passed away about a year before this. Vince mentions he's representing the USWA, probably as a favor to Lawler. Roberts plants Vega with a DDT while Cornette's mastodons Yoko and Vader stare down each other. Roberts hooks Gilbert up for a DDT. Vader comes up and they fumble around for a bit, then even from the hard camera shot you can practically see Roberts shout "CLOTHESLINE ME!". Vader does in the middle of the ring, and Roberts falls all the way back to the ropes and is eliminated. Vader buries Gilbert with a choke slam and gets the crowd behind him a little.

15. Squat Teamer #1- Also known as the Headhunters, a team of superheavyweight identical twins. Vader eliminates Gilbert and ST1.

16. Squat Teamer #2- Both twins go in to try to confuse everyone. Vader and Yoko dump them right back out. 

17. "The King of Harts" Owen Hart- Vader and Yoko double squash Vega.

18. "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels- Vader eliminates Vega. Shawn goes after Owen for injury revenge. Vader and Yoko slug it out on each other again. Shawn sneaks up and eliminates both of them! I mean, cool spot, but there's no believable way little Shawn lifted up BOTH of them at the same time. That's Cesaro level strength. Shawn eliminates Kid.

19. Hakushi- Vader and Yoko argue on the floor while Cornette tries to make peace. Vader hits Yoko from behind! This would be the start of Yoko's short lived face turn. Vader gets back in the ring, pummels Shawn, and dumps everyone still in over the top rope. In another rule that floats from year to year, none of them count as eliminations because Vader had already been eliminated. The gaggle of officials are joined by WWF President Gorilla Monsoon, who personally orders Vader to leave. There's more coming there.

20. Tatanka- Already an afterthought after his ill-conceived heel turn. Hakushi hits Owen with a handspring elbow. After the Vader excitement everything quickly gets bogged down again. Owen eliminates Hakushi. 

21. "The Portuguese Man O' War" Aldo Montoya- Perfect: "He's got his jock on the wrong part of his body!". Hah! Shawn gets thrown through the ropes, wanders around for a bit, pulls Lawler out from his hiding spot under the ring, and eliminates him. Nowadays Lawler would have stayed down there until after everyone else was eliminated and everyone thought the match was over. That finish has been so overdone in Rumbles and battle royales the last decade, not just in WWE but other companies too, it should be banned for the rest of time.

22. Diesel- He immediately eliminates Tatanka. Diesel hits Shawn! Shawn hits back! Every man for himself.

23. Kama- Diesel whacks Shawn again, albeit inadvertently this time.

24. "The Ringmaster" Steve Austin- Austin made his WWF debut with this infamous gimmick a couple of weeks prior and was made the new centerpiece of Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation, even being given the Million Dollar Belt. He's also still got a bit of hair left. Unlike most everyone else tonight Austin flies out of the gate and shows some spunk in the match. Holly slingshots Austin over the top rope but he lands on the apron, comes back in, and eliminates Holly. Not a bad run this year for old Sparky Plugg. Future company cornerstones Austin and Triple H hook up for the first time.

25. Barry Horowitz- Owen skins the cat. Diesel eliminates Trips, who got the ironman run this year at a little over 45 minutes.

26. Fatu- Owen lifts Shawn up in a suplex by the ropes but he falls on the apron. Shawn tries to suplex Owen to the floor but it's blocked.

27. Isaac Yankem DDS- Owen eliminates Horowitz. Owen enzuguri on Shawn! That one had to have killed him, right? No, Shawn's moving. Owen goes to throw him over, but Diesel sneaks up and eliminates Owen. Austin with a HUGE diving clothesline on Shawn. He's going 110%.

28. Marty Janetty- Rocker slugfest! Even with Shawn a face again there was no way this wasn't happening.

29. "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith- Bulldog eliminates Janetty. Somewhere off camera during this period Austin gets eliminated too. Reportedly it was accidental as he was supposed to be in the final four. Shawn gets run into the post. Yankem eliminates Fatu. 

30. Duke "The Dumpster" Drose- Shawn and Bulldog fight on the floor with Owen jumping in before the refs can get him to the back. Shawn eliminates Yankem. Diesel and Kama eliminate Drose. So much for all that #30 hype.

FINAL FOUR- Shawn, Diesel, Kama and Bulldog. Bulldog tosses Shawn but he lands on the apron, slides under Bulldog, and clotheslines him out. Kama comes from behind and Shawn teeters again. Diesel eliminates Kama. SUPERKICK! Diesel is gone! Shawn Michaels wins! Shortest final four run ever. Shawn joins Hulk Hogan as the only two time and only back to back Rumble winners. After the match while the camera is focused on Diesel's angry reaction Shawn starts stripping in the ring. Seriously. He gets his overtrunks off and pulls his tights down so far you can literally see the top of his pubes before Diesel thankfully stops him. They tease issues but high five it out. Everything's cool with the cool kids. For now.

Like the previous year this was another weak Rumble. I appreciate the attempt to get some outside names in to liven it up but none of them really hit. Vader's debut was fairly well done, as was the Diesel/Shawn story, and Austin looked great the short time he was in it, but the majority of it was just there. **1/2

Diesel is still hanging around as Taker makes his entrance for the main event. Taker loses his entrance gear and it's on! Brawl on the aisle! Officials run in and separate them. Diesel tells Taker "I ain't afraid of the dark" as he leaves.

WWF Championship: The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) def Bret "Hitman" Hart (c) by DQ in 28:31- Still Facemask Taker here. Taker stalks and Bret dodges. Taker no sells punches and pounds Bret down in the corner. Slow zombie Taker offense with the usual throat shots and chokes. Taker puts the claw/smother hold on Bret that he used in his last title matches against Hogan back in '91 and Bret's in it forever as the match grinds to a halt out of the gate. Bret tries to put his foot on the ropes but Bearer keeps pushing it off, clearly playing a heel role in this face vs face match. Finally Bret grapevines the rope. Taker hits the rope walk drop and puts the smother back on. Vince has said "methodical" five or six times already. Bret gets a boot up in the corner, hits a diving clothesline off the second rope, and clotheslines Taker 360 to the floor. Naturally Taker lands on his feet. Bret plancha! Taker catches Bret coming off the apron and runs his back into the post. Bret counters another charge and Taker gets posted. Bret runs into a big boot. Taker gets run into the stairs knee first and Bret has a target. They finally get back in the ring and Bret spends the next almost 10 minutes slowly picking away at the knee. After a figure four, reversal, and more knee work Bret decides to have a go at pulling Taker's mask off. That doesn't work and it's back to the knee. Finally Taker whacks Bret across the jaw with his good leg and tosses Bret to the floor. Stair shot for Bret and Taker chokes him with a TV cable while Bearer distracts Hebner. Bret gets run into the timekeeper's table. Back in Bret ducks a big boot and goes back to the knee. The crowd's starting to turn on the match, booing both guys. Taker powers back and hits a legdrop. He lifts Bret up for the tombstone but Bret squirts out onto the apron. He counters a Taker backdrop into a DDT for 2. Taker starts doing zombie situps after each Five Moves of Doom move. Bret goes for the Sharpshooter. Taker goozles him. Double clothesline. Now Bret dips into the heel playbook, taking off a turnbuckle pad. He goes for Taker's mask again and this time gets it off. Bret dodges around an enranged Taker and eventually runs him into the exposed turnbuckle. It goes nowhere. Literally nowhere. You could cut it out of the match and it would make no difference at all. Taker catches a Bret crossbody. Tombstone! Diesel comes out again and pulls Hebner out while he's counting! Hebner calls for the bell. Diesel smirks that arrogant Kevin Nash smirk as it's announced Taker wins by DQ so no title change. Diesel flips off Taker! This is a textbook example of two otherwise excellent wrestlers dogging it because there was going to be a screwy finish. Cut it in half and it might have been OK. Fortunately they'll show more of what they were capable of in their far superior Summerslam '97 WWF Title match. As much as you hate to do a finish like this on a PPV main event, it did do its job of setting up the Diesel/Taker feud. *3/4

 

The Network copy also includes a 10 minute "Royal Rumble Plus" fallout video, featuring some good and very unscripted promos from Shawn, Diesel and Cornette/Vader, as well as Monsoon setting the main event for the next In Your House.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- A bottom tier Rumble, a crap undercard and a hugely disappointing WWF title match in the main event. Vader and Austin's WWF PPV debuts are decent, as are the bits of WWF slowly adopting a new Attitude, but this one is definitely for completionists only.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D

Clash of the Champions XXII

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XXII

January 13, 1993 from the MECCA in Milwaukee

Commentary: Jim Ross (in his final major WCW appearance) and Jesse Ventura

Bill Watts shows up right at the top of the show confirming he's still here, but moves were already underway to oust him. He and Tony confirm his son Erik was (kayfabe) arrested after an altercation with Arn Anderson and is suspended pending investigation. That huge sigh of relief was the audience realizing they wouldn't have to watch him wrestle tonight. The phrase "card subject to change" gets a hell of a workout tonight.

Cactus Jack def Johnny B Badd in 2:50- Badd is subbing for the suspended Watts. Jack gets a pretty big pop. The start of his face turn happened the last week on TV when he was attacked by Vader, Harley Race and Paul Orndorff during a match to determine who was going to be in tonight's main event. These guys were Lethal Lottery partners at Starrcade that didn't get along so at least there's something to work off of here. Badd wrestles, Jack brawls, Badd tries to box. Jack grabs the ropes to stop from running into a Badd punch, gives us a "BANG BANG" and gets a nice reaction for it. Badd dodges in the corner and gets a rollup for 2. More Jack forearms. Badd gets a boot up in the corner and a small package for barely 1. Jack dodges the sunset flip off the top, drops an elbow, and gets the pin. Bare bones thrown together basic. They didn't even try to do any of Foley's big spots on the floor. The headline here is definitely Jack's instant embrace by the fans after the first hint of a face turn. 3/4*

Tony mentions The Great Muta defeated Masahiro Chono for the NWA world title at the Tokyo Dome on 1/4, footage to come later this weekend. That was one hell of a match. After that is a hype video for 2 Cold Scorpio that absolutely has to be seen to be believed. Pure Rifftrax short gold. The look on the face of the fat white kid (I was a fat white kid, I can say that) as the camera goes over him to simulate Scorpio "jumping" over him is the definite highlight.

 

2 Cold Scorpio def Scotty Flamingo in 4:13- Ref Bill Alphonso looks like he was cosplaying as Chono during the recent Japan trip. Scorpio rolls through some flippydo basics. After a .5 hip attack midring collision that I'm not sure was 100% planned Scorpio barely taps Flamingo with a big boot, and Flamingo FLIES all the way across the ring and halfway up the aisle! Holy shit that was absolutely hilarious. Serious Shawn Michaels overselling Hogan at Summerslam '05 levels. I had to pause the show to stop laughing before I could continue. Scorpio teases a plancha but hits an ax handle off the apron instead. Back in Flamingo dropkicks Scorpio in the back to send him to the floor. Flamingo hits a plancha! Scorpio with a flash small package for 2, rolls through some moves, and hits a splash off the top for 2. Flamingo dodges a Stinger splash and rolls Scorpio up for 2. Scorpio hits a reverse kick, nails the 450, and it's over. Flashy spotfest. **

 

Chris Benoit def Brad Armstrong in 9:13- After a soft intro in the NWA tag tournament during the summer of '92 this is Benoit's official singles WCW debut after cutting (and losing) his teeth as a top junior heavyweight in New Japan. His tights look like Zumbas. Nice counter/counter counter/counter counter counter run to start. Benoit kips up out of an armbar but runs right back into an armdrag. Commentary really pushes Benoit as a big effing deal, especially his time training in Stu Hart's Dungeon. Both guys bridge up out of a mat test of strength. Armstrong suplexes Benoit over. Hammerlock reversals. Armstrong momentums Benoit to the floor. Benoit tries the same trick but Armstrong blocks it. Benoit hooks Armstrong up for a suplex but just drops him over the top rope gut first. Springboard clothesline over the top rope by Benoit! That got the crowd interested. Snap suplex for 2. Armstrong comes back with a kneelift. Benoit gets a hard slam and goes up top. Armstrong dodges the top rope headbutt and hits a swinging neckbreaker. Dragon suplex from Benoit! That gets the pin. Fine match, but these guys were capable of so much more. It was forever before they got out of first gear, and Benoit looked like he was still getting comfortable and making adjustments to the WCW style. **3/4

Tony informs us of the reunion of the Rock N Roll Express in a new company called Smokey Mountain Wrestling, complete with footage of their SMW tag title win over Jim Cornette's SMW Midnight Express replacements, the Heavenly Bodies. That's underrated NWA/Crockett alum Bob Caudle on the play by play. The RNR have been signed to wrestle at Superbrawl III, marking their WCW return.

 

Arm Wrestling Match: Vinnie Vegas def Tony Atlas- Vegas is replacing an injured Van Hammer, who had won the Jesse Ventura invitational arm wrestling tournament thingy I can't be bothered to look up the real name no one cares. Vegas says he lost in the tournament because he's a lefty. Atlas agrees to a left handed match, saying he doesn't care if Vegas uses his "left arm, right arm or center arm". There's probably Korean or Japanese websites dedicated to "center arm" wrestling but that's an area of Al Gore's interwebs I'm sure as hell not going to. It's arm wrestling. Vegas shockingly wins clean and that's it. Nothing segment. For some reason Bill Watts had a center arm for arm wrestling.

 

The Wrecking Crew def Johnny Gunn and "The Z Man" Tom Zenk in 6:06- The Wrecking Crew are making their debut. They look like a couple of Steiner wannabes now the Steiners are in the WWF and there's nothing distinctive about them. They're called RAGE and FURY and one of them was in the Master Blasters so that should tell you how well this is going to go. Zenk schools Rage to start, refusing to break a headlock and punching out of a press slam. Rage dodges and Zenk goes over the top and lands on the apron. He springs to the top rope and hits a crossbody. Zenk is doing a hell of a job wrestling himself. He dropkicks both Crew to the floor. Gunn with a tope suicida on both Crew! Gunn dodges and Rage takes out Fury. Zenk stands and waits for Fury to figure out what the smeg he's trying to do before Fury rolls through some power moves. Rage catches a Zenk crossbody and slams him. Zenk superkicks Rage as he's coming off the second rope and tags. Gunn has bodyslams for everyone. Fury and Gunn do a sad slow motion whip sequence. Rage hits Gunn from behind, the Crew do a very Steiners' like double team, and that gets the win. A debut that was a failure on pretty much every level. 1/2*

Sting comes out to talk with Tony. This is also when his music changed, from awesome to awful. Sad day. Yeah those opening riffs in his original music are almost identical to the Ultimate Warrior's, but it's so damn cool. Perfect crowd pumping music. He accepts Vader's "White Castle of Fear" challenge for Starrcade, whatever that is. No one knows. Afterward the heel team for the main event is backstage. Harley Race fires the Barbarian because he's too close to Jack, negating their 4 on 3 advantage.

 

Unified WCW and NWA World Tag Team Championship: Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat and Shane Douglas (c) def "Stunning" Steve Austin and "Flyin'" Brian Pillman in 13:39- Austin and Pillman had megastardom written all over them. Of course it was in a language WCW couldn't read so they got thrown together in a random tag team instead (despite Austin being promised a run with the US belt after dropping the TV title). These guys being these guys, they took it and made it legendary. This is the genesis of it all. The other two guys are pretty good too. Steamboat and Austin start. Austin jumps out quick. Steamboat wraps up a small package and goes through some rapid fire covers. EARLY DONNYBROOKING! The faces fight the heels off. After the reset Austin suckers Steamboat in with an insincere handshake. Big Pillman chops. Steamboat gets a dropkick and DEEP armdrag. The faces quick tag Pillman's arm. Pillman tweaks his knee on a leapfrog landing and rolls to the apron. I think we've seen this trick from him recently......yup, it's a RUSE! But Douglas is onto it! He catches and powerslams Pillman for 2! Douglas outwrestles Austin and runs through some Steamboat-like quick covers. Steamboat press slams Douglas onto Austin! Then press slams Pillman onto Austin! Austin pulls Steamboat into his corner where a Pillman forearm is waiting. He suckers Douglas in and throws Steamboat over the top to the floor. Steamboat gets slammed on the floor. Back on the apron Steamboat tries to suplex Pillman out to the floor, but Austin cuts it off with a kick to the ribs. Excellent job of subverting smart fan expectations there, as Pillman had been doing that spot nearly every match lately. Pillman suplexes Steamboat back in instead. Chop exchange. Steamboat gets a sunset flip but the ref is distracted. A heel double team attempt backfires, but Austin cuts the tag off with a back suplex for 2. He hooks Steamboat in a Canadian backbreaker. Pillman goes for a springboard clothesline, but takes out Austin instead! As Steamboat is literally an inch away from tagging Pillman stops him. Steamboat flips out of a back suplex and hits his own! Both guys are down. Steamboat crawls over and tags! Hot tag Douglas run. Everyone in the pool! Douglas hits a belly to belly. Austin comes off the top rope to break up the pin and Pillman covers. But the ref takes an extra few seconds to get Austin out, and Douglas kicks out! Douglas rolls Pillman up. Austin comes in and whacks him with a title belt, drawing the DQ. Douglas is busted open and they work him over a bit more after the bell. Brilliant tag match that only needed a definitive finish to make it near legendary. Pillman and Austin showed instant, effortless chemistry as partners. ****1/4

Next up is footage of Vader winning the world title back from Ron Simmons just before the turn of the year. Simmons crashes Vader's interview to trigger another brawl. Vader and Race destroy Simmons, taking him out of the main event which is now down to 3 on 2 after originally being booked as 4 on 4. Card subject to change.

 

Thundercage Match: Sting and "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes (and Cactus Jack) def WCW World Heavyweight Champion Big Van Vader, "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff and Barry Windham in 11:22- The match where Dustin won the vacant US title had been taped but wouldn't air on TV until the following weekend. Vader watches while the other four guys open up brawling. They settle in with old tag partners turned bitter enemies Dustin and Windham. Mounted punches and lariat from Dustin. Blind tag to Sting, who hits a press slam. Vader comes in for the big showdown. He and Sting work a little looser than normal. Sting hits an inverted atomic drop and DDT. Stinger splash! Vader flip in the corner! Vader bounces back with a tackle off the top rope. Sting dodges a splash off the second rope. A clothesline sends Vader 360 and out. Orndorff suplexes Sting from behind to take over. Windham suplex for 2. Vader avalanche! Press slam. Windham sets up the superplex. Sting fights it off. Tag! Dustin runs wild. Cactus Jack is out! He cuts the lock off the cage (unlike new NXT Paint Splatter Champion Bronson Steiner, he knows how to use bolt cutters) and joins the fray on the face side! He whacks everyone on the heel team with his boot! The crowd loves it. It's total chaos. Orndorff tries to hit Dustin with a piledriver. Jack hits him with his boot off the top rope and covers for 3! **1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: Once again the unified tag title match completely steals the show. The rest is mostly watchable, though a bit disjointed as this is one of those Clashes heavy on promos and long video packages. Overall it's a decently solid show to open up what would become another year of transition for WCW in '93. Watts would formally be evicted soon after this and replaced by one Eric Bischoff. JR, unhappy at having to report to a former subordinate, made tracks for the WWF soon after.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C

AWA SuperClash I

Legacy Review

AWA SuperClash I

September 28, 1985 from (old) Comiskey Park in Chicago

Commentary: Larry Nelson

After the success of Wrestlemania, the other major territories in the US decided they needed to get together and try to do something just as big. This is that something. Promoted under the AWA banner, talent was brought in from the NWA, WCCW and even Japan to try to hold the supercards of supercards. Vince didn't sweat for a moment as he knew it'd be almost impossible for these guys to agree on what kind of pizza to order, much less form a long term booking alliance. Didn't stop them from trying though.

For some reason this is the only AWA supercard not on Peacock/WWE Network, so I'm left with a recording from the old WWE 24/7 service that's so far managed to not get taken down on Youtube. Don't report them. There's a lot of obvious edits in between the matches. The ring is set up just on the home plate site of the pitcher's mound and all the wrestlers come out of the 1st base dugout.

 

AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship: Steve Regal (c) def Brad Rheingans in 8:15- You know how light/cruiser or junior heavyweight usually means more athletic and high flying matches? Well this ain't it. Regal had been champion about a year and a half to this point. Even though Regal is a clear heel they have a Code of Honor handshake at the start. Regal sticks his gum on top of the ring post. Rheingans dodges a rope break cheap shot. Regal uses tights pulls to leverage Rheingans into a pin while in a headlock. They crank it up and Regal takes a monkey flip. Rheingans dodges in the corner and works Regal's arm. For some reason Nelson is obsessed with the fact that Regal shaved his beard before this show. Rheingans uses a cartwheel to dodge but misses a dropkick. Regal locks in a chinlock, bitches about a phantom hair pull and then pulls Rheingans hair to keep him in it. Regal cranks up the comeback after dodging an elbow drop. Backdrop for 2. Jimmy Garvin comes out and stands on the apron, allowing Regal to get Cheap Raw Finish 1A, the distraction rollup. He probably held the tights too, we don't see because the camera work is awful. 3/4*

 

AWA World Women's Championship: Sherri Martel def Candy Divine (c) in 11:45- Martel is the future Sensational Sherri. Wait, before we get to that, Regal and Rheingans aren't done! Regal gets slammed on the Comiskey turf! Anyway, back to our original programming. Martel makes a big show of not wanting the ref to check her. Would have been nice if that actually went somewhere at the end, she pulls an international object out or something. Divine hits an armdrag as soon as they lock up and Martel bitches to the ref about.....something. Martel goes full heel 101 with hair and tights pulls. She hits some shots to the back of Divine's head and tosses her to the grass. Divine sneaks around the ring and dropkicks Martel in the back to send her outside, kicking off the usual hand wringing about a possible DQ for an over the top rope throw. Best decision Vince ever made was to not bother with that rule. Divine flips Martel back in (who needed to work her way around the ropes instead of doing it in one shot). Boston crab by Divine. Martel reverses it and they reverse cradles a couple of times. Divine gets tossed out again onto the pitcher's mound and Martel knocks her off the apron every time she tries to get back in. Finally Divine grabs Martel's leg and wraps it around both the apron and the post. Back in Divine goes right to work......on the arm. Sigh. Martel gets some more shots in on Divine's head, so at least someone is trying some consistent strategery. They mess up a sunset flip spot so they do it again. Every time someone hits the ropes Nelson says "off the ropes anything can happen". It's as incessant as Vince's constant "ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IN THE WWF!" during the New Generation era. Martel hits a clothesline, suplex, and splash.....knee....something off the top rope for the win and the title. Since she won clean after the bell she attacks Divine with the belt to get the crowd to boo her again. Man, that's the cheapest looking belt I've ever seen. Backyard wrestling promotions have better belts. Pretty typical '80s women's match. *

 

"Asian Six Man Tag Team Championship": Jumbo Tsuruta, Giant Baba and Genichiro Tenryu def Harley Race and The Long Riders in 10:57- Man, Harley Race is slumming it on this card. I know it's a couple of years after Flair dethroned him as the face of the NWA but still. The Long Riders are brothers Bill and Scott Irwin. I'm pretty sure these "Asian 6 man titles" are something they made up for the night. There's no belts and I can find no evidence that there was any sanctioned title on the line in this match. AJPW legend Tsuruta was actually known to AWA audiences, in 1984 he was the transitional AWA world champion between Nick Bockwinkel and Rick Martel. Scott and Tenryu start. Tenyru gets a hiptoss and dropkicks Scott into his corner. Race tags in. Race against any three of his opponents would be a huge draw match in Japan. He walks right into a Tenyru armdrag. Tenryu ducks under a leapfrogging Race, slams on the brakes, turns and slams him. Race gets Tsuruta into the face corner and the Riders knock him around a bit. Tsuruta tries to power out of a Bill hammerlock. Bill blind tags Race and he ambushes Tsuruta. Tsuruta counters by hitting Race with his own high knee. Race is only hitting the ropes at about 50% speed this whole match. Baba gets an ugly Russian leg sweep on Race. Race headbutts Baba back into his corner. Bill with a big boot on Tenryu. Tenryu chops back and enzuguris Race for 2. Race hits a piledriver. The pin is broken up. Riders double elbow on Tenryu for 2. Bill hits a huge kneedrop and covers. Tenryu gets a foot on the rope. He counters a backdrop and tags Tsuruta. Bill does a Shawn Michaels/Triple H flip over the corner to the turf. Back in Tenryu whips him into the corner but Bill pops out with a clothesline. DONNYBROOK! Baba big boots Bill and gets the pin. This was much more an NWA style match. In other words, a hell of a lot better. **1/2

 

NWA World Midget's Championship: Little Tokyo (c) def Little T in 6:54- Yes, there really was such a thing. Little T looks just like Mr. T. T goes off after a Tokyo rope break cheap shot. Tokyo tries to run but T flips him back in the ring and wobblelegs him with a forearm. T no sells shots to the head. Both guys work through holds 15, 77, 278 and 714 on the List of 1004 Holds: ARMBAR. Tokyo hits a suplex and backdrop for 2. Tokyo hits the ropes. T yells to stop and look up. Tokyo does and T pops him. All well and good, but they keep going with the bit. T keeps looking up. Now the ref is looking up and pointing. The hell. T hits the ropes. Tokyo yells at him to stop and points up. Naturally it doesn't work, and then they reset like nothing happened at all. Lord have mercy. I mean, you expect comedy spots in midget matches but this isn't working at all. T stomps on Tokyo's bare feet and gets a couple of hip attacks. Tokyo whips T, hits him with a double chop in the throat, and gets the pin. 1/4*

 

IWA World Heavyweight Championship: Mil Mascaras (c) def Buddy Roberts in 6:57- Roberts is a member of the Fabulous Freebirds. The IWA title was technically defunct, but Mascaras defended it every once in a while to add some prestige to his matches, and SuperClash was certainly going for that. It's alternatively called just the Mexican title.The match is JIP'd with a test of strength. Mascaras flips Roberts around with a headscissors. Roberts slaps on a full nelson that Mascaras breaks easily. Mascaras slaps on a full nelson that Roberts breaks less easily. He slips out through the bottom but Mascaras puts it right back on. Roberts tries to climb the ropes to get out so Mascaras just lets go and he drops down. He puts Roberts in a chicken wing and twists it into an abdominal stretch. Roberts blocks a drop toe hold and gives Mascaras an eye rake. He uses the tag rope to choke Mascaras. Elbow off the second rope. Swinging neckbreaker for 2. Chop exchange in the corner. Mascaras dodges and Roberts ends up dangled in the corner in a .5 Tree of Woe. Snap suplex from Mascaras. Flying forearm. A crossbody off the top gets the pin. Decentish. **1/4

 

NWA/WCCW Texas Heavyweight Championship: Kerry Von Erich (c) def Jimmy Garvin (w/Precious) in 6:54- This is the same Texas title proudly worn today by the perennially underrated Chase Owens. Absolutely 100% true, look it up if you don't believe me. The ladies love Kerry. Prematch shoving and Precious gets in Von Erich's face. Garvin immediately goes heel 101 with phantom hair pull bitching out of the lockup. Von Erich mocks Garvin's strut. A speed run ends with Von Erich dropkicks and Garvin bailing. He runs back in to an atomic drop. Nice back and forth dodge and counter dodge sequence. Von Erich hooks in an abdominal stretch. Garvin hooks on a sleeper. Von Erich goes down but eventually armdrags out. Garvin gets a knee to the gut and Von Erich rolls out to the turf. Precious jaws at him again. Von Erich takes his time getting back in. As soon as he gets on the apron Garvin ambushes him. Precious distracts the ref and Garvin tosses Von Erich over the top back to the grass. After some more recovery time Von Erich sunset flips back in for 2 and hits discus punches. Garvin begs off and blocks the claw. He goes up top. Von Erich punches him, Garvin bounces crotch first off the top turnbuckle, falls to the mat, and Von Erich pins him. After the bell Precious and Garvin attack but Von Erich slaps the claw on him. Pretty fun stuff. Could have been better with more time. **3/4 

 

Curt Hennig, Scott Hall and Greg Gagne def Nick Bockwinkel, Ray "The Crippler" Stevens and Larry Zbyszko in 12:30- As this is primarily an AWA promoted show, this is them throwing most of their top or upcoming stars that aren't in title matches into a match to get them on the show. It's weird seeing Curt Hennig as the young, spunky babyface. Even weirder seeing very young Scott Hall with that Burt Reynolds mustache. Legendary Chicago sports broadcaster Jack Brickhouse handles the ring announcing duties and does a great job of putting himself over while taking way more time than he should be. Finally Bockwinkel and Hennig start. Bockwinkel shocks Nelson by wrestling clean. Something happens in the crowd that gets everyone's attention and the wrestling stops for a moment. Whatever happened it's something they don't want to acknowledge on TV. Knowing the era probably a streaker. Hennig gets a flurry of offense and Bockwinkel hides in his corner. Nice high speed sequence between Zbyszko and Hennig. I know, Zbyszko and high speed in the same sentence. Almost unheard of. Bockwinkel falls in the ring reaching for a tag. Gagne illegally works Zbyszko over in the corner while the ref's distracted. They tease the whole thing breaking down about every ten seconds but always stop just short of full blown chaos. Gagne with a monkey flip and flying headscissors on Zbyszko. Zbyszko back suplexes out of a Hennig headlock and tags. Hennig is choked in the heel corner as he goes face in peril. Hall runs in to save him. Hennig gets tossed out, slammed on the grass, and worked over for a couple of minutes on the outside. Back in they get the "ref didn't see the tag" spot in leading to more heel corner beatdowns. Zbyszko suplex for 2. Hennig gets a near Perfect like sell when Bockwinkel snaps his throat over the top rope. Desperation Hennig crossbody for 2. Midring collision with another .5 Perfect sell. Hot tag to Gagne. Everyone in the pool! Zbyszko and Bockwinkel are whipped into each other. Hall powerslams Stevens, the ref says screw figuring out who the legal guys are, and counts the pin. Paint by numbers 6 man tag layout, but it was very well executed. ***

 

AWA World Tag Team Championship: The Road Warriors (c) (w/Paul Ellering) def The Fabulous Freebirds (w/Buddy Roberts) by DQ in 14:12- This is the original Michael Hayes and Terry Gordy version of the Freebirds. They have on their Confederate flag facepaint to counter the Roadies' paint. They instantly jump the Warriors as they get into the ring. The Warriors fight them off and clear the ring out, then we get introductions and the opening bell. Hayes wanders all over the field to rile the crowd up. Hawk easily overpowers both Gordy and Hayes at the start. Gordy goes upside down in the corner. Hawk hits a fist off the second rope. The managers have a standoff outside. Hawk blocks a Hayes sunset flip. Hayes gets to his corner but Gordy doesn't want to tag in. He finally relents, dodges in the corner and Hawk posts his shoulder. Gordy suplex. Hayes side suplex. Hawk's kickout send Hayes out to the turf. Freebirds double elbow. Gordy hits a piledriver. Hawk fights out of the heel corner. Hayes goes up top but Hawk slams him off. The tag is cut off again. Gordy and Hawk run into each other. Tag to Animal! Powerslam for Gordy. Hayes breaks the pin up. DONNYBROOK! Roberts gets on the apron, Ellering pulls him off, and they go at it too! Roberts hits him with a chair. Hawk jumps outside to help. Animal press slams Gordy and powerslams Hayes. While the ref is messing with the brawl outside Hayes hits Animal in the back of the head and Gordy covers for the 3 and the titles! Or is it? After the Freebirds have already left with the belts Verne Gagne comes up and demands a replay of the end of the match. After that's shown he reverses the decision and gives the belts back to the Road Warriors. Well, there's an edit and the next thing is the Warriors are leaving with the belts so we can assume. Weak sauce. That match didn't end any differently than a hundred other tag matches. They were going pretty well before the crap finish. Given 10 more minutes and a non-screwy ending this might have turned out really good. **

NWA World Six Man Tag Team Championship: The Russian Team (c) def The Crusher, Dick the Bruiser and Baron von Rashke in 8:54- The NWA 6 man belts actually make an appearance on a major show. Crockett could never be bothered to include them in any. The faces flip the script with the Suzuki-Gun jump before the bell. Gotta take it to those commies early before it has time to spread. Domino theory in action. Crusher gets trapped in the Russian corner. Ivan Koloff is already bleeding. Nikita Koloff backs away from Rashke's claw. Ivan gets knocked around for a bit. Lots of, shall we say, aged man brawling going on. Bruiser and Ivan have a test of strength. Crusher and the other Crusher, Kruschev, can't figure out what they want to do. Probably arguing about who should be called Crusher. Kruschev gets a shoulderbreaker on Rashke and Ivan legdrops him for 2. Crusher drops an elbow in Ivan's gut. Rashke hooks the claw on. Kruschev goes up top and gets thrown off. Nikita is also cut off trying to break it up. While the camera is focused on a brawl on the floor something happens in the ring and Ivan covers Rashke for the pin. More bang up camera work. Huge bullshit chant from the crowd. The faces were all well past their sell by date. *

 

AWA America's Championship: Sgt. Slaughter (c) def Boris Zukhov by DQ in 9:34- This time Zukhov ambushes before the bell. Slugfest. Slaughter holds Zukhov's boot forever, finally spinning him around and eye poking him. Anticlimactic. The cameras shift to look at the stands. Nelson says there's a "commotion" going on up there but we don't see what. Another slugfest. Zukhov posts his shoulder. Slaughter grabs a US flag to taunt Zukhov with. Corner whip reversal and Slaughter does his crazy flying over the corner and bouncing to the floor bump. Zukhov slams him on the grass. Back in he works Slaughter over with generic slow heel offense. Slaughter gets pushed out right by the announce area and Zukhov slams his face into it, taking out one of Nelson's tables. Slaughter backdrops out of a piledriver attempt on the grass. Zukhov goes up top and Slaughter slams him off. Dropkick from Slaughter. He goes for a clothesline, but Zukhov pulls the ref in the way and he goes down. Zukhov loads up his elbow pad with an international object and whacks Slaughter with it. Slaughter's bleeding. As Slaughter gets rammed into the post the ref calls for the bell to DQ Zukhov. The match got cut off just as it was getting into a groove. *3/4

$10,000 Body Slam Match: Jerry Blackwell def Kamala (w/Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie) in 9:54- Adnan insists on singing the "Arab" national anthem before the match. Like, Saudi Arabian? The UAE? Some generic mishmash of current Arab countries? Sadly he gets through the whole thing with no interruption. Slugfest start. We get visual proof the $10K check does indeed exists. Can't tell if it's made of paper or rubber, but it's there. Kamala works his usual dull offense. Blackwell gets a clothesline and Kamala actually goes down without a ton of weebles wobble teasing. Big splash. Both fight for slam leverage and get nowhere. Kamala locks on the Nerve Pinch of Gratuitous Stalling +1. Blackwell hulks up and starts no selling. Avalanche. He slams Kamala and it's over. After the bell Adnan attacks with his sword. Not the pointy end, that'd make too much sense. He also steals the check. Some jobber faces run in and get tossed out. Rashke finally makes the save with a bat. This was at least three times as long as it needed to be. DUD

 

AWA World Heavyweight Championship: Rick Martel (c) and Stan Hansen double DQ in 2:30- Entrances are skipped on this recording and we cut right to Hansen throwing a chair in the ring and IT'S ON. Martel gets tossed out and they brawl in Suzuki territory. Martel fights back and posts Hansen. They get back in the ring and the bell rings to officially start the match. Martel sunset flip for 2. He dodges and Hansen crashes in the corner. Roll around brawl on the mat. Back outside they go. Both guys whack each other with chairs and the ref calls for the bell. They keep fighting around the field and all the way to the dugout. See, this right here is why the AWA could never get out of their own way when the nationalization wars started and they were always third fiddle at best to the WWF and NWA/WCW. This is what you put on to build to the major show, not on the major show itself. Getting that ESPN contract likely kept them in business years longer than they should have been. 1/2*

 

NWA World's Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) def Magnum TA in 25:48- You don't have a major non-WWF show in the '80s if Ric Flair and the Ten Pounds of Gold (or later the Big Gold Belt) don't roll into town. Magnum is taking time away from his blood feud with Tully Blanchard over the US title to have an early warm up match with Flair on a big show. The NWA saw huge things in him. Flair gets a takedown and Magnum escapes. Good extended chain wrestling. Magnum wins a test of strength. Speed run and Magnum gets a hiptoss and dropkick. Press slam and Flair begs off. Here come the chops. Magnum reverses a corner whip and hits a backdrop. He works a hammerlock for a bit. Flair gets some punches to the ribs to get out. He throws Magnum out, but he pops right back in and stalks Flair, who does some serious backtracking. Magnum pounds Flair down in the corner. Flair dodges a dropkick. Snap mare and kneedrop. Double underhook suplex for 2. Flair hooks in an abdominal stretch and uses either tights or hair for leverage depending on which one the ref's not looking at before getting caught. Flair forearms and chops in the corner. Magnum dodges a kneedrop and hooks in a figure four! Flair fights and slowly gets to the ropes. Magnum goes for it again. Flair fights it off. He goes for a suplex but his knee gives out. Magnum reverses it and covers for 2. Magnum backslide for 2 that the crowd really bit on. Flair eye poke and Magnum is tossed out. Magnum's shoulder is posted. He tries to sunset flip back in but Flair breaks it up. Flair goes to work on the hurt shoulder, alternatively trying for leverage pins both legal and illegal. He gets Magnum in a cruicifix for near falls that Magnum barely gets his shoulder up on. Finally Flair loses patience and pounds away on Magnum in the corner. Magnum reverses a whip and locks on a sleeper! Flair slowly goes down. He reaches for the ropes but can't get there and falls all the way to the mat. Magnum covers and Flair just gets a foot on the rope. Magnum grabs a headlock. Flair turns it into a kneebreaker! Figure four! Magnum slowly reverses it to break it. Flair tries to hook it on again and Magnum small packages him for 2. Slugfest. Flair Flip! He goes all the way down to the turf. Flair gets posted and busted open. Come on, you really thought Flair wasn't going to bleed? Magnum hits mounted punches back in and targets the cut. Flair wants a fight but Magnum keeps beating him to the punch, literally. Bridge up spot and another Magnum backslide for 2. Magnum belly to belly suplex! But Flair's foot knocked the ref down as he was coming over! He crawls over for a delayed count. Flair kicks out! Magnum pushes Flair into the corner and rolls him up. Flair grabs a handful of tights to reverse it, and hangs on to the tights for the 3 count! Perfectly typical mid-'80s Flair title defense. As I covered extensively in my Starrcade reviews from this period, Magnum was scheduled to win the title from Flair at Starrcade '86 and become, in the NWA's mind at least, their major babyface star that could go toe to toe with Hulk Hogan, before a light pole jumped in front of his car and Magnum suffered career ending injuries from the resulting crash. ****

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Outside the great main event there's not a whole lot going on here. The first Wrestlemania wasn't exactly a masterpiece of quality matches either, but it captured the attention of fans and the general public in a way this show didn't. The whole show feels disjointed thanks to the recording available as well, it'd be nice if the Network put their copy up. Even though the alliance between companies mostly ended with this show, the AWA would continue to use the Superclash name for three more supercards in the subsequent years as they slowly lurched toward their inevitable end.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-

Royal Rumble '92

Legacy Review

Royal Rumble '92

January 19, 1992 from the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, NY

 

Commentary: Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan

 

Hulk Hogan and the Undertaker traded the WWF Championship between each other at the last two PPVs in matches that both ended in controversial fashion (as in Ric Flair interference), so President Jack Tunney held the belt up and declared the winner of this year's Royal Rumble would become the new and undisputed WWF Champion, the first time there's ever been real stakes in a Rumble match.

 

In the opening rundown Monsoon and Heenan mention the Mountie's win over Bret Hart for the Intercontinental title at a house show just before the Rumble, which was also announced on the last editions of WWF weekly TV before the show, and that the IC title match would now be Mountie defending against Roddy Piper. 

The New Foundation def The Orient Express (w/Mr. Fuji) in 17:18- The New Foundation's ring gear is some of the worst ever. Heenan: "They just got out of bed, they're still wearing their pajamas!" The Express tore the house down with the Rockers in the opening match of the previous year's Rumble. Owen and Kato start. Arm wringer tradeoff. Owen flips out of a hammerlock and goes for a roll up but Kato blocks it. Owen is unfazed and hits a deep armdrag, then bridges out of a pin attempt. Owen leaps on the top rope and flips over lucha style, then hits a hurricanrana! Anvil hiptosses Kato across the ring. Tanaka tries to slam Anvil which doesn't go as planned. The Foundation hit a nice spinebuster/elbow off the second combo for 2. Commentary talks about the IC title change and mention Bret wrestling "against doctor's orders" with a "104 degree fever". Heenan: "I wrestled with a 113 degree fever once!". Owen flips over Tanaka in the corner and hits an enzuguri. The Express try to double team Anvil and get a double clothesline instead. Owen crossbody off the top on both guys for 2! Spinning heel kick from Owen. Tanaka hits Owen from behind to bait him and Fuji whacks him in the throat with his cane to send Owen pajamas in peril. Owen does a Bret bump! He reverses a corner whip but Tanaka catches him with a superkick for 2. Owen ducks a couple of Kato clotheslines and crucifixes him for 2. Tanaka kills another comeback attempt with a flying forearm. Owen gets a boot up in the corner and faceplants Tanaka, but Kato distracts the ref so he doesn't see the tag. While Anvil's arguing the Express whip Owen into the corner and his shoulder goes right through Fuji's cane, breaking it in half! Kato covers but Owen just gets a foot on the rope. The Express target Owen's shoulder. Owen catches Tanaka running with a flash belly to belly suplex! Kato breaks the pin up. More Express double teams after suckering Anvil in. It finally backfires on them when Owen hits them both with a dropkick. Hot tag! Owen slingshots Anvil into a tackle on both heels! Owen whips Anvil into Kato, sending him to the floor, then Anvil whips Owen into a TOPE SUICIDA! That's Kato done for. They hit the rocket launcher on Tanaka and it's over. Fantastic tag team wrestling, almost as good as last year's opener. This would be the Express' last major appearance as Tanaka left the company in February. Kato (Paul Diamond) would move on to the infamous Max Moon gimmick later in the year. ***1/2

 

In a Coliseum Video exclusive (not on the original live broadcast) we see video footage of the IC title change. Mountie attacks Bret with the belt after the match and Piper makes the save leading to the title opportunity.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: "Rowdy" Roddy Piper def The Mountie (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) in 5:22- Commentary puts over the fact that Piper is the first person ever to have a shot at two different titles in the same night. Mountie mocks Piper's kilt. Piper charges in, wraps the kilt over Mountie's head and goes to work. Mountie grabs the top rope and slides out for a breather. Piper has none of it, following and hitting him from behind on the floor. Mountie hides behind Hart and sucker punches Piper. Back in Mountie goes for a monkey flip. Piper hits the brakes and drops a five knuckle shuffle like fist on him. Bulldog. Piper plays around and gives the Mountie the two finger eye poke. Slugfest. Mountie dodges a dropkick. He puts Piper in a half nelson and gives him some buckle shots. Piper sunset flip for 2. An atomic drop sends Mountie over the top, but he skins the cat back in. Piper dodges and Mountie runs into Hart! Sleeper! Three arm drops and it's over! Hart charges in with the cattle prod after the bell. Piper takes it and gives the Mountie a shock (with a silly buzzer sound added from the truck). Fink really lays into the AND NEEEEEEWWWWWWW to kick off a huge, iconic celebration for Piper's first (and only) WWF title win. It's a wonderful moment. The match was OK for the time. They had pretty good chemistry and I'd be curious to see if they'd be able to do better with more time, or if it'd just be another Mountie stall fest. *1/4

 

The Beverly Brothers (w/The Genius) def The Bushwhackers (w/Jamison) in 14:56- The best way I can describe the strange entity that is Jamison is to think of him as a live version of Kyle's annoying cousin Kyle Schwartz on South Park. He had been a character on Prime Time Wrestling for a few months, annoying Heenan and eventually teaming with the Bushwackers. This is, thankfully, his only PPV appearance. As the Bushwackers go down the isle doing their head rubbing and face licking Heenan says "Don't touch them, children! You don't know where they've been!". I have to agree. I wonder how many of the kids the Bushwackers licked have come down with some kind of strange disease in the past 20+ years. There should be a study. Jamison chews on his tie and has a sock in his jacket pocket. By far the best part of this match is Heenan's Jamison one-liners. "His parents wanted to get divorced but couldn't because neither of them wanted custody!", etc. Endless stalling and posing to start. Butch tries to start a chant but no one understands him. Some double teaming, and Luke bites Blake's ass. Move and stall, move and stall, rinse and repeat. Butch is face in peril. About 10 minutes in the Genius finally goes over and pops Jamison. Hot tag to Luke, but the Beverlys double team to get the win. The Bushwackers hit the Battering Ram on both Beverlys to get their heat back, then hold down the Genius for Jamison to.....kick him in the shin. Heenan: "He can't hurt you, he can only infect you!". Whoever booked the Bushwackers for a 15 minute match should be cattle prodded and locked in a room with Jamison for 15 minutes. 1/2*

 

Hawk gives us another classic Hawk promo. "You want to know what makes us sick, besides everything?" "You want to throw your weight around? That's OK. We want to throw your weight around too!" "When it's over your tongues are gonna be sticking out like dead deers!"

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Natural Disasters (w/Jimmy Hart) def The Legion of Doom (c) by countout in 9:24- Hawk and Typhoon lockup stalemate and shoulderblock standoff. Hawk staggers him with a forearm, goes straight to the top rope and drops Typhoon with a diving clothesline! Quake breaks the pin up. Everybody stares and shoves with palpable intensity. Quake flat no sells a Hawk dropkick. Fantastic. Hawk baits Quake into trying a dropkick! He dodges and drops a fist on Quake. Now Quake and Animal stare down. Slugfest. Animal hits the ropes a bunch of times to get a huge head of steam and they double clothesline! Animal tries to slam Quake but Quake falls on him for 2. Typhoon avalanche. He goes for a second but Animal gets a boot up and kills him with a clothesline. Hawk and Typhoon double clothesline with a double no sell. Tyhpoon catches a Hawk crossbody and backbreakers him multiple times. Huge Quake elbow drop on Hawk's back for 2. Hawk goes in peril for a bit as the Disasters continue to work his back. He fights out of a bear hug but gets caught by Typhoon coming off the second rope. Hawk tries to fight back again in the corner so Quake flat squashes him. After another bear hug Hawk dodges a Quake avalanche, hits an ax handle off the second rope and gets the hot tag. Huge Animal tackle on Quake, but then he gets squashed between both Disasters. All four guys go to the floor as the full on donnybrook commences. Hawk hits Typhoon with a diving clothesline off the apron. Animal gets slammed on the floor. The ref gets to 10 just as Typhoon gets back in the ring and LOD are counted out. Jimmy Hart for some stupid reason thinks the Disasters win the titles and gives them the belt. LOD take them out with a chair and reclaim their property. Before the flat finish that was a tremendously fun power vs superheavyweights match. Give them 5 more minutes and a definitive finish and you'd likely be talking about a really good match. **1/2

 

Intermission time in the arena means promo time on TV. Jimmy Hart says he's calling his lawyer because the Disasters wuz robbed. Piper celebrates as only Piper can while keeping an eye on the second title he has a shot at tonight. Sean Mooney catches up with Shawn Michaels and we get a full recap of the famous Rockers breakup. Janetty should have seen it coming, Shawn is wearing all black. After that is the traditional pre-Rumble promo montage.

 

Royal Rumble- Standard two minute intervals here. Due to the title situation and their status as most recent champions both Hulk Hogan and the Undertaker were allowed to draw from numbers 20-30 only. Before the match President Tunney makes a small "may the best man win" speech and gets some boos but manages not to get Roger Goodell NFL draft heat. 

 

1 & 2. "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith and "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase- Commentary puts over Bulldog winning the Coliseum Video exclusive battle royal from the Royal Albert Hall a few months back. DiBiase is still paying karmic penance for buying #30 a few years ago. Fast start. DiBiase breaks out the suplexes. He throws Bulldog over but Bulldog lands on the apron and clotheslines DiBiase out. 

3. Ric Flair- Heenan has an absolute meltdown. Monsoon: "You can kiss it goodbye, Brain. Sit down before you have a heart attack!". There's some audible WOOOOOOOOOs from the crowd. Flair works some of his basic big man playbook with Bulldog and begs off.

4. Sags- In an impressive show of roster depth, Sags is the only tag team wrestler filler in this year. Sags and Flair double team Bulldog, but he fights them off and eliminates Sags. Flair begs off again. 

5. Haku- Flair and Haku start out double teaming Bulldog, but much to Heenan's chagrin Haku attacks Flair! Every man for himself. After Haku piledrives Bulldog Flair grabs him in an eye rake and gives him a kneedrop. Bulldog and Haku brawl by the ropes during the countdown and Bulldog dumps Haku out. 

6. Shawn Michaels- Fresh off his big heel turn and in his first PPV as a singles wrestler. Shawn and Flair have their first encounter 18 years before Wrestlemania 24. Bulldog clotheslines Shawn over the top so fast it seems like there's no way Shawn can keep himself from being eliminated, but he does it. Shawn manages to do his favorite move from his early days- crotching himself on the top rope. 

7. "El Matador" Tito Santana- Goes right after Flair. Shawn's had himself thrown over the top rope onto the apron about four times already. Flair hits a low blow on Bulldog. Monsoon reacts like Flair took out a gun and shot him. Santana hits the flying tortilla on Flair.

8. The Barbarian- Monsoon: "Barbarian doesn't like Flair." Heenan: "Barbarian doesn't like anybody! When I managed him he barely liked me." 

9. "The Texas Tornado" Kerry Von Erich- He goes right after Flair and they renew their old rivalry for a bit. Flair Flop! Shawn is still bumping around like a pinball.

10. Repo Man- Takes his time sneaking his way into the ring. Santana keeps saving Bulldog. Nice guys get nowhere in the Rumble.

11. Greg "The Hammer" Valentine- Valentine and Flair trade some good old NWA chops. Flair starts a flop then changes his mind. Repo takes a Naitch low blow.

12. Nikolai Volkoff- Heh, Volkoff is still getting boos despite his face turn. Valentine and Flair are still chopping the bejeezus out of each other. Valentine puts the figure four on Flair! Repo eliminates Volkoff.

13. The Big Boss Man- He goes after everyone. Everyone. Repo eliminates Valentine. Two eliminations for Repo, I'm sure no one had that in their pool. The mid-Rumble cleanout commences. Boss Man eliminates Repo. Flair eliminates Bulldog, then eliminates Tornado. Santana and Shawn eliminate each other. 

14. Hercules- Goes right after Flair. Flair high fives Barbarian then chops him. Bad move. I think Heenan actually crapped himself there. While Barbarian is trying to eliminate Flair Hercules eliminates Barbarian, then Boss Man eliminates Hercules. It's just Flair and Boss Man in there. Flair ducks a dive by the Boss Man and Boss Man flies over the top and is eliminated. Flair's all by himself. Flair Flop 2! Heenan tries to argue Flair's already won.

15. New WWF Intercontinental Champion "Rowdy" Roddy Piper- Renewing Flair's initial WWF feud. Piper goes nuts with a backdrop and kneelift. Flair takes a powder, but Piper follows and they fight outside. Back in Piper blocks an inverted atomic drop and gives Flair the old airplane spin, then locks in the sleeper. 

16. Jake "The Snake" Roberts- Trust me. After lulling Piper into a false sense of security he goes after him to break the sleeper. Flair says thank you and Roberts nails him with the short clothesline. Piper breaks up a DDT. Flair hooks the figure four on Roberts. Piper stomps both of them while they're down.

17. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan- Goes right after Flair. By this point it's getting obvious that Flair keeps jumping right into the middle of the fray and throwing out offense instead of trying to rest. Heenan hates it but also says that's what a champion is made of.

18. Irwin R. Schyster- Goes right after Flair. Duggan grabs IRS tie and pounds away on him. Flair Flop 3!

19. "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka- Goes right after Flair. Duggan stands in the corner and poses for the crowd. He's already rested more than Flair has the whole match. Now Flair and Piper are in a chop-fest. 

20. The Undertaker- Really bad luck for Taker here, as this was the earliest number he could have drawn. As soon as he gets in Taker eliminates Snuka, then goes right after Flair. Taker hits a reverse kick low blow on Duggan! Pure Flair style.

21. "Macho Man" Randy Savage- Savage tears for the ring to get to Roberts, but he bails and Roberts' partner in darkness Taker gets a hold of Savage. Roberts then gets back in and beats on Savage for a bit. Savage ducks a short clothesline and tries to murder him. A high knee from Savage eliminates Roberts! Savage then jumps over the top rope to beat on him some more! Savage should have been eliminated, commentary even says so, but Savage wasn't supposed to go yet so commentary covers by saying he's still in because no one threw him out. They'd get that rule cleaned up in future years. Flair low blows Taker, and Taker kinda sorta sells it.

22. The Berzerker- HUSS! HUSS! Taker chokes Flair, Piper chokes Flair, then Taker chokes Piper! Whole new definition of a triangle choke there. Or is that just a three way? 

23. Virgil- Immediately gets pounded down like a jobber now his DiBiase feud is done. Things are settling in before the stretch run now.

24. Col. Mustafa- The Iron Sheik still running with this gimmick even though Slaughter has turned back face. He's still very committed to his silly walk. Wonder if he got government funding to develop that?

25. "The Model" Rick Martel- The current record holder for longest time in a Rumble from the previous year. It won't last much longer. Piper eliminates Mustafa. 

26. Hulk Hogan- Business is picking up, folks. Hogan goes after both Flair and Taker without even taking his shirt or bandanna off. Hogan eliminates Taker, then eliminates Berzerker, and we get the shirt tear. Virgil and Duggan eliminate each other. Hogan and Flair pair off. 

27. Skinner- I feel safe saying #27, still the most common winning number to this day, will not be winning this year. By this point even Monsoon is putting Flair over for still getting offense in and refusing to take a breather. 

28. Sgt. Slaughter- Goes right after Flair. Martel eliminates Skinner. Hogan and Piper slug at each other, renewing their legendary feud. Flair officially sets the record for the longest time in a Royal Rumble, and he's barely taken a minute off all night. Time wise, this is just another NWA world title house show 60 minute draw to him. 

29. Sid Justice- Big pop for Sid. Hogan and Flair continue to find each other, with Flair clearly working his old Sting match formula with him. Sid knocks Flair around a bit too.

30. The Warlord- Hogan slams Flair off the top. Flair slides out and drags Hogan with him. Hogan suplexes Flair on the floor! Justice eliminates Slaughter, with Slaughter going 100 MPH into the buckles face first, bouncing off them and flying outside. DAMN! Piper eliminates IRS by pulling his tie. Hogan and Justice team up to eliminate Warlord. Justice eliminates Piper and Martel. 

FINAL FOUR- Flair, Savage, Hogan and Justice. Justice picks up Savage, then Flair runs up and knees Justice in the back to drop Savage over the top and eliminate him. Hogan no sells Flair's chops. He gets Flair over the top and on the apron, but Justice comes up from behind to eliminate Hogan! Justice gets a pretty big pop for it too. Hogan, that champion of fair play, throws a full on hissy fit and grabs Justice's arm to try to pull him out. That allows Flair to sneak behind and eliminate Justice! Ric Flair wins the Royal Rumble from #3 and is the undisputed WWF Champion! Bobby Heenan celebrates by inventing the YES chant 25 years early. Hogan chases Flair off, then Hogan and Justice have a massive staredown and shove fest with a gaggle of WWF officials trying to stop them. Justice is clearly getting cheered more than Hogan.

 

You could not ask for a bigger or better showcase for Ric Flair early in his WWF run. The whole match was booked around him and naturally, as the greatest of all time, he delivered. But it wasn't just him, it was also paced to perfection, with big moments and elimination runs coming at just the right times to always keep it interesting and not let it get bogged down. There's been great Rumbles since, but this is still the greatest of them all, as we all pay homage to THE MAN. *****

 

Backstage, President Tunney presents Flair, flanked by Perfect and Heenan ("We hate to say we told you so, but we....TOLD YOU SO!"), with the belt. "WITH A TEAR IN MY EYE, this is the greatest moment of my life." Okerlund yells at someone to "put that cigarette out!"

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: The greatest Rumble match ever, two good tag matches, and a great moment with Piper's title win. The only blemish is the the awful Jamison/Bushwhacker stuff and Heenan at least makes it worth watching. In fact, Monsoon and Heenan are so on fire the entire show I could literally make three quarters of the review nothing but reciting their quotes. The whole show is worth watching just to listen to them. This isn't just a contender for the best Royal Rumble ever, it's a contender for greatest WWF/E PPV ever period.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A

WCW/New Japan Supershow III

Legacy Review

WCW/New Japan Supershow III

January 4, 1993 from the Tokyo Dome

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+