NJPW Wrestling World 1999

Legacy Review

NJPW Wrestling World 1999

January 4, 1999 from the Tokyo Dome

After a successful run through the '90s, this show marks a turning point in the history of New Japan. MMA promotions were starting to take off in Japan and Antonio Inoki, credited by some as the father of MMA through his famous match with Muhammad Ali, was always looking for ways to combine worked pro wrestling matches and shoot MMA fights no matter how mixed (no pun intended) at best the results had been in that endeavor. A promotion called the Universal Fighting Arts Organization (UFO) was started in Japan, and Inoki got them on board for a series of interpromotional matches on this show.

Funnily enough, 1/4/99 is also a huge date in the history of wrestling here in the US. It was on the same day as this show that the Raw aired where Mick Foley, as Mankind, won the WWF Championship for the first time. That result on the pretaped show was spoiled by Tony Schiavone (under Eric Bischoff orders) live on WCW Nitro, causing many viewers to switch over and watch it, the opposite of what WCW intended. Those that did stay with Nitro saw possibly the single most infamous moment in WCW's history, one that many point to as the beginning of the end of the company: the Finger Poke of Doom.

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

Manabu Nakanishi def Kazuyuki Fujita in 11:10- Fujita was a former MMA fighter that was seriously trying to make the transition into wrestling through the New Japan Dojo and Young Lion system. Nakanishi was about 3 years back from excursion and still working to prove himself, though he did have a IWGP tag title win under his belt already. Fujita's got bleached blonde hair, a sure sign of a heel wrestler in Japan. There are also two of the larger wrestlers on the roster, and when I say large I don't mean with excess fat. Just the opposite. Both guys charge straight into the middle of the ring and lock up the instant the bell rings. Standing switches and arm wringer tradeoffs. Fujita gets a fireman's carry takedown. Nakanishi wins the mat leverage game. Waist takedown from Fujita. Nakanishi drops him and reset. Nakanishi blocks an armbreaker. Big shoulderblock. Fujita with a spear! He follows up with a slam for 2. Nakanishi lifts and slams out of a chinlock. Big chops from Nakanishi. Fujita hits back with open hand slaps. Both guys are throwing haymakers. Kneelifts from Fujita. Nakanishi floors him with a forearm. Suplex and legdrop for 2. Nakanishi trash talk while he hits chops sets Fujita off. Some more chops get him back down. Nakanishi release northern lights suplex. He goes to put Fujita in his torture rack finisher. Fujita blocks it and kneelifts out. Nakanishi forearms for 2. He lifts Fujita up again and drops him in what might have been a backbreaker but that was ugly looking. More trash talk. Fujita goes nuts with a slap and knee flurry. A Nakanishi lariato hits Fujita right in the head. Fujita hits a hurricanrana that slowly barely gets Nakanishi over. Nakanishi is back up in beatdown mode. High knee and lariato. He gets Fujita up in the torture rack and it's over. Later in the year Nakanishi would shock the world (well, Japan) by winning the G1 Climax, one of the biggest upsets not just in the tournament's history, but all of New Japan. *3/4

 

Tatsumi Fujinami, Osamu Kido and Tadao Yasuda def Tatsuoshi Goto, Kengo Kimura and Michiyoshi Ohara in 9:17- Fujinami won the IWGP Heavyweight title during Inoki's retirement show in April of '98 for his then-record 6th title reign, but he's now clearly and rapidly moving to New Japan Dad status. The team opposing him is the remnants of the rapidly dying heel stable Heisei Ishingun. Goto and Ohara were a tag team called Mad Dogs (though their tights in this match say Stray Dogs) and would win the tag titles later in the year. As usual with these undercard tags we're going to skim through it a bit. Fujinami hits his spots early, getting in a dragon screw leg whip. Yasuda is one large guy. Fujinami tosses Goto to the floor and teases a dive but doesn't go through with it. Yasuda plays face in peril for a while, including taking a running lariato on the entrance ramp. The Dogs hit a double hot shot. Yasuda comes back with an avalanche and double underhook suplex. A Dogs double team sets off a donnybrook. Yasuda hits a powerbomb for 2. His partners set him up to hit a splash off the top rope, and that gets the pin. **

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Kendo Kashin and Dr. Wagner Jr def Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa (c) in 16:53- The junior tag titles are here! The tag titles were split in August of '98. Up until then the tag titles were unofficially considered openweight even though it was very rare for a junior wrestler to be on a champion team, but now there are distinct heavyweight and junior heavyweight titles, with the heavyweight titles keeping the lineage of the original tag titles. Otani and Takaiwa were the first junior champions, and this is a rematch of the tournament finals to determine the inaugural champs. Wagner and Takaiwa start. Wagner gives Takaiwa a clean rope break. On the next exchange Takaiwa returns the favor. Wagner monkey flips out of an arm wringer. Takaiwa chops only wake Wagner up. He shouts "COME ON!" and Takaiwa floors him with a punch. Otani comes in with a boot choke. Wagner lifts him by that leg and drags him over to his corner. Otani and Kashin go at it. Otani does his trademark boot scrapes, even getting extra momentum from his partner for one. Kashin camel clutches Takaiwa, then Wager comes in, hits the ropes over and over, rolls over, hits the ropes again, and finally basement dropkicks Takaiwa. Takaiwa blocks and hits a brain buster. He holds Wagner in a camel clutch like position, and Otani comes in hitting the ropes forever and rolling to mock Wagner's earlier sequence before hitting his own basement dropkick. Fantastic. Otani gets caught in the heel corner. gets propped in the corner and low blowed. New Japan ref lets it go. Kashin suplex and floatover, and he goes for his signature armbreaker. Otani blocks it. Wagner hits a dropkick and puts Otani in a surfboard. Otani bites a finger to get out of it! Takaiwa tags in and lights up Wagner. Wagner blocks a powerbomb, backdrops, Takaiwa rolls through and goes for it again. Wagner backs him into the corner and lifts him up. Wagner superplex! Takaiwa pops right back up! Both guys exchange lariatos with neither going down. Finally Takaiwa lariatos Wagner 360 to the floor. Wagner gets whipped into the guardrail. They fight up the ramp. Wagner lariato. He Michinoku Drivers Takaiwa on the ramp! Back in Kashin hits a neckbreaker. Delayed brain buster for 2. Takaiwa shrugs off the hurt neck and hits a scoop powerslam. Think all the neck damage was ignored a little too easily. He hot shots Kashin and tags out. Otani comes in with a springboard forearm. Spinning kick and German suplex. Kashin sunset flips and gives Otani another low blow! New Japan ref still lets it go. Wagner hits a missile dropkick and splash off the opposite top rope for 2. Otani dodges a senton off the second rope. Takaiwa hits a lariato and another powerslam. Rolling DVD for 2. Wagner senton off the top rope for 2. He cradles Takaiwa into a submission hold but Takaiwa quickly gets a foot on the rope. Big Wagner powerbobmb for a long 2. I don't know if it's because these new junior tag titles haven't been established yet or what but the crowd hasn't been into this match at all, that was a quality near fall with zero reaction. Wagner goes for another powerbomb. Takaiwa is supposed to counter it but he slips down and falls on his head. He quickly recovers for a cradle for 2. Both sides tag. Kashin and Otani do some cool dodges. Kashin gets the armbreaker! Otani immediately gets a foot on a rope. Takaiwa saves him from another armbreaker. Wagner and Takaiwa fight up the ramp as things start to break down. Kashin goes up top. Takaiwa runs in after laying out Wagner and lifts him up in a Doomsday Device position. Otani missile dropkick! Powerbomb followup! No cover. Otani hits his trademark dragon suplex! Kashin kicks out! Now the crowd's starting to come alive. Another Otani missile dropkick. Spinning powerbomb! Wagner JUST gets back from his apron beatdown and makes the save! Wagner hits a lariato as we go full DONNYBROOK. Kashin locks in the armbreaker again! No one is there to save Otani and he taps out! I was expecting more flippydo considering who was in there and it being for the junior tag titles, but it was still a good match with some nice tag psychology down the stretch. ***1/4

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Jushin Thunder Liger (c) def Koji Kanemoto in 23:11- These two have become regular Tokyo Dome opponents over the years and are probably the biggest rivalry in the junior division. Maybe ever, to this point. Liger is in his 9th run with the belt and approaching one full year for this reign, his second longest, and has started making the shotei (a running open hand slap) a bigger part of his arsenal. They go nose to nose during intros. Lockup and Kanemoto goes right into a slap, snap mares Liger over and lays in kicks. Liger grabs a leg and slaps back. Both guys are all kinds of fired up. A Kanemoto forearm and chop floors Liger. He hooks in a leg bar and they're both still jawing at each other. That continues off an on the whole match. Kanemoto works the leg for a bit. These guys definitely came ready for the Dome, everything in this match is super crisp. More kicks. Liger grabs one and gives Kanemoto a dragon screw! The hurt leg keeps Liger from following up and Kanemoto is right back on him. Liger works on top on the mat and hits some more stiff open hand strikes. Kanemoto blocks an armbreaker. Back to the kicks and he's on Liger's leg again. He pushes Liger to the floor. Liger takes his time shaking his knee off before getting back in. As soon as he does Kanemoto is back on it as he continues to dominate the match to this point. Kanemoto switches to chops and that fires Liger up as he chops back. Liger goes for a tiltawhirl. Kanemoto whirls through it and hits a backbreaker. More mat positioning. Liger hooks in a surfboard, moves around body parts, and ends up with Kanemoto in a reverse surfboard. He lifts Kanemoto for a Liger bomb. Kanemoto rolls through it and hits a high knee. Liger dodges a corckscrew senton off the second rope. Rolling kick! He runs into a Kanemoto back kick. This time Kanemoto hits the corkscrew off the second rope. A Liger German suplex flips Kanemoto over face first! Liger hurricanrana! Kanemoto rolls to the apron. Liger rolling kicks him off to the floor! Dive off the top rope to the floor! Liger brain buster on the floor! As Kanemoto gets up on the apron Liger hits the ropes, charges, but Kanemoto cuts him off with a hook kick and immediately collapses. Both guys are down. Liger goes for another German but Kanemoto flips through it and lands on his feet. Kanemoto belly to belly suplex! Ankle lock! Kanemoto swings Liger around to try to keep him in it but Liger eventually fights his way to the ropes. Kanemoto gives Liger a knee to the face and sets him on the top rope backwards. He does a throat slash gesture on the prone Liger. Kanemoto sets up a poisonrana! Liger blocks it! Fist drop off the top rope from Liger. He tries for the Liger bomb again. Kanemoto floats around and gives him a buckle bomb! Kanemoto superplex for 2. Moonsault! Liger kicks out! Tiger suplex! Liger gets free AND HULKS UP! Backbreaker and he slaps Kanemoto while he's across his knee. Corner shotei! The Liger bomb hits! Kanemoto kicks out! Top rope setup and Liger hits a super fisherman's buster! He hits the ropes and nails Kanemoto with a shotei in the back of his head! Cover and another kickout! Another Liger charge. Kanemoto cuts him off with his own shotei! Kanemoto pulls Liger up, slaps him disrespectfully and spits on him. Slam setup. Kanemoto corkscrew off the top rope! He covers then immediately pulls out of it. Oh he might regret that one. He sets Liger up top again. Liger fights him off and both guys are down again. Liger is up first and sets Kanemoto up in the opposite corner. Liger super brain buster! That gets the pin! Just a phenomenal match. One of Liger's best Dome matches, and that's saying a lot. Kanemoto got another shot at Liger in March and finally took him down, winning his third junior title. ****3/4

 

Kensuke Sasaki def Atsushi Onita by DQ in 5:55- Onita is generally credited as the originator of deathmatches in Japan. This is the first of several appearances he'd make in New Japan this year as a heel outsider from FMW (Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling). Onita's got a chair with him on his entrance and hits Sasaki in the head with it over the ref before the bell. He gets in the ring and hits Sasaki again, breaking the seat off the chair. No effect! Sasaki is in full Zeus mode. Sasaki lariato! Cover for 2. He drags Onita around by his jacket out to the ramp and chokes him with his own shirt. Onita throws his jacket at Sasaki and that doesn't work either. Onita takes a powder on the floor ringside. When he gets back in he gets pounded again. Back to the ramp. Sasaki says hit me and shrugs everything off. He pulls Onita up by his pants and tosses him. They go to ringside again and Onita dumps Sasaki over the guardrail into the officials' area. Another chairshot. Onita piledrives Sasaki through a table! They were very lucky that narrow table held its balance long enough for that, it was wobbling all over the place. And Sasaki pops right back up. We're getting into John Cena Summerslam '10 levels of egregious no selling here. Sasaki gives Onita his own chairshot. Back in Sasaki kills Onita with lariatos. In the corner Onita gets something out of his pockets and throws a fireball in Sasaki's face! That's a bridge too far and the ref calls for the DQ. After the match promos are cut and brawls are restarted and stopped again. There's fun garbage matches and garbage garbage matches. This was garbage garbage, though I suppose it did set Onita up as a mega heel for the rest of his appearances that year. 1/2*

 

NJPW vs UFO: Yuji Nagata def David Beneteau in 5:30- Benetau worked for the UFC in its early days. Apparently New Japan tried to book Dan Severn but Severn already had commitments elsewhere and he suggested Beneteau in his place. Beneteau ended up only having a handful of pro wrestling matches, this being one. The UFO guys have formed a stable called Club 245, which is why they all have 245 on the back of their tights. Nagata is now officially back from his WCW excursion and already had shots at the IWGP Heavyweight title. Both guys swing kicks and look for openings. Nagata tries a waistlock takedown. Beneteau gets Nagata against the ropes and pounds away, ignoring the ref. The ref gives him a warning. Belly to belly from Nagata and he tries an armbar. Beneteau ties them up in the ropes. Arm takedown by Nagata and he puts on a reverse ankle lock. Again Beneteau gets to the ropes. Beneteau lifts and slams Nagata. Again he refuses to break in the ropes and the ref gets on him again. Nagata kick to the head that staggers Beneteau. A couple more kicks and Nagata hooks on a triangle choke. Beneteau taps. Not the worst hybrid match I've seen. Thanks Nagata. *

 

NJPW vs UFO: Don Frye def Brian Johnston in 7:55- This is more UFO vs UFO as Frye and Johnston are both in Club 245 and have shoot fighting backgrounds. Frye was Inoki's opponent in his retirement match. Johnston charges down the ramp on his entrance, jumps over the top rope and onto Frye's back! Frye tosses him over for a takedown. The ref has to get in and physically force a rope break, and Johnston pushes him aside. Johnston pulls Frye up by the hair and punches him while he's hanging in the ropes. Frye goes to the apron to recover. Back in Frye catches a kick and gets a leg takedown. More ignoring of rope breaks by both guys. They're swinging haymakers in there and the crowd is into it. During a mat grapple I think I heard Johnston shout "fuck you" to the ref when asked if he wants to submit. So that's a no then? Headbutts from Johnston. Frye gets some shots in but Johnston responds and hits him to the floor. Frye gets Johnston in a sort of sleeper and Johnston pulls his hair again to get out. There's definitely a story in here at least, and that story is Johnston being a total dick using every cheap move in the book. Johnston lifts and slams Frye, ties his legs up and starts pounding on the back of his head. Frye just reaches out to grab a rope. They grapple on the ropes again and both guys go over the top to the floor! Some of Frye's seconds hold Johnston down and Frye punches him. Frye flips Johnston in the ring and pounds away on him. Johnston stops defending himself and the ref calls it. Huge boos for that result. Wait, Johnston was the face here? Really? The way he was acting? OK then. Match didn't suck though, shockingly. Unlike most shoot style fights both guys showed a lot of personality. **1/4

A quick note on the next match: on the last 1/4 show review I skipped over a match that wasn't in the NJPW World archives that also involved Ogawa. This next match is also missing, so I can conclude pretty definitively that Ogawa is one of the guys that's been wiped from the World archives. I was as OK as I could be (as a completionist) with skipping his match on the last show, but I mentioned in the open this was a historically important show, and this next match is the crux of it and it needs to be in here. Fortunately, the Internet Archive as a copy of the original VHS release of this show, so that's where we're getting this from.

 

NJPW vs UFO: Shinya Hashimoto and Naoya Ogawa no contest in 6:58- Ogawa was an Olympic silver medalist in judo, an MMA fighter and a favorite of Inoki, sometimes seen as Inoki's protege. Hashimoto spent most of the second half of the '90s as IWGP Heavyweight Champion and had been the company's most dominant champion of the era, all the while carefully cultivating an image for himself as one of wrestling's ultimate badasses. While it'd been over a year since he held the title, he did win the '98 G1 Climax as a sort of compensation. He's been moving more and more to these pesudo-shoot style matches and the rivalry between he and Ogawa had been going for a bit already. Trying to do a blow by blow recap of this match is pointless. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time but knownst to us now, Ogawa had orders from on high, possibly directly from Inoki himself, to go full shoot in this match and, this is the key, no one told Hashimoto. Or anyone else. What follows is 7 minutes of Ogawa pummeling Hashimoto with legitimate strikes as well as grabbing him in headlocks in corner breaks to keep him from escaping and generally making him look like a doofus. As the match goes on Hashimoto looks more and more shocked at what's going on, until the point he's been beaten to a pulp and can't do anything but lay on the entrance ramp. All the ringside New Japan wrestlers and either an official or maybe even a doctor come in to check on him. Ref Tiger Hattori, who took a couple of shots in all this as well, calls for the bell and throws the match out. Up until this point Hashimoto had been considered one of the toughest guys to ever get in a wrestling ring. That's been destroyed forever. Ogawa, who'd spent much of the match dancing around like a cocky son of a bitch, takes the mic and says something stupid that really sets everyone off. There's a near brawl between the New Japan and UFO guys at ringside. After another few minutes Riki Choshu himself comes out to the ring. He'd retired from wrestling on the last show but was New Japan's head booker at this time, and he's PISSED. He wants to get in a fight right then and there with Ogawa but is held back by Hashimoto and a few others. Every single bit of this is a shoot, out in the open and in front of everyone. This match is the birth of Inokism, the Inoki driven style of mixing more and more shoot fighting into wrestling matches and it's no exaggeration to say that it was so bad it almost put New Japan completely out of business. More on that as we get into it. As far as this match goes, I have a hard time putting a rating on it considering everything, but it's an absolute train wreck and leads to the darkest period in New Japan history so really there's only one way to go. MINUS FIVE STARS

 

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Tencozy def Genichiro Tenryu and Shiro Koshinaka (c) in 16:35- Tenryu's promotion WAR (who were part of interpromotional battles with New Japan on the early 1/4 shows) was starting to go under so he's doing another swing through New Japan, and to make things interesting he's joined Heisei Ishingun. Tencozy are our first NWO Japan members to wrestle tonight, but the group will be well represented these last two matches. Interestingly, both Tenzan and Kojima have already had multiple tag title reigns, but none of them paired up together as Tencozy. Tencozy try to jump before the bell but get jumped instead. Kojima is double teamed. Kojima and Koshinaka smack their heads against each other like a couple of drunk Klingons. Tenzan and Tenyru have a shoulderblock standoff. Tenzan wins the next exchange. Dropkick by Tenzan, followed by a slam and throat chop. Kojima hits a senton. Chops from Kojima are shrugged off by Tenryu at first but more chops wear him down. Kojima gets whipped into a Koshinaka hip attack. Koshinaka suplex on Tenzan for 2. Tenzan hits Mongolian chops and his low diving headbutt. He and Koshinaka do some more Klingons after too much blood wine head knocking. Kojima does a great delayed flop on a Tenyru chop. Always love that. Corner lariato from Tenyru, and an enzuguri pushes Kojima into a Koshinaka hip attack. Tenyru back suplex for 2. Koshinaka Russian leg sweep. Double enzuguri from the HI team. They go to the ramp and Tenyru does a ramp charge lariato. Kojima comes back with a Saito suplex on Koshinaka and tags out. Tenzan spinning heel kick for 2. The HI team run Tenzan into an exposed turnbuckle in their corner. Another Tenyru enzuguri for 2. Double shoulderblock. Koshinaka DDT for 2. Big chops from Tenryu and he hits his diving back elbow off the top rope. Kojima breaks the pin up. Tenzan hulks up on more Tenyru chops and responds with Mongolian chops. HI runs in for a double team. Tenyru gives Kojima a Kojicutter off the second rope! Kojima pops right back up! Kojicutter proper on Tenyru! Lariatos and cover for 2. Powerbomb from Kojima. He hits the elbow off the top rope and covers. Koshinaka breaks the pin up. Tag and Koshinaka runs into lariatos. Another Kojima elbow off the top for 2. The NWO team hits a double chop and a Tenzan lariato for 2. Samoan drop. Tenyru runs in, lariatos Tenzan but ends up draped over the top rope. Kojima Kojicutters him from the apron over the top rope! Koshinaka hip attack off the apron! Tenzan goes to the top rope and MOONSAULTS ONTO EVERYONE ON THE FLOOR! Corner lariato on Koshinaka back in. Kneedrop off the top rope. More lariatos and a cover. Koshinaka kicks out! Tenyru enzuguris Tenzan from the apron and again everyone's in the pool. Kojicutter. Hip attack. Tenzan hits a spinning heel kick off the top rope. Headbutt off the top rope! Tenzan gets the pin and NWO Japan gets the tag titles back! Not too shabby, and definitely a breath of fresh air after the disaster of the last match. ***1/2

 

A little setup for the main event: NWO Japan leader Masahiro Chono ended Fujinami's sixth and final title reign in August '98, winning the Heavyweight title for the first time after years of trying. Unfortunately it was to be short lived as he suffered a neck injury less than two months later and had to vacate the title (and even worse he never won the title again despite all his G1 wins). After his injury he also left NWO Japan. When he came back from injury he formed a rival faction, Team 2000. Scott Norton, who had wrestled for both New Japan and WCW for many years and was also a member of the original NWO in the US, won the tournament for the vacant title, defeating young Yuji Nagata in the final and becoming just the second gaijin Heavyweight champion ever, after Vader.

 

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Keiji Mutoh def Scott Norton (c) in 19:01- Mutoh took over leadership of NWO Japan after Chono's injury and group departure, making this an inter-NWO battle. The big story here, besides that, is Mutoh's inability to win big matches ever since he lost the Heavyweight title to outsider Nobuhiko Takada at the '96 Jan. 4 show, a streak he's desperately trying to break. Feeling out start. Norton holds a facelock and armbar for a while, but then lets Mutoh up. The original NWO was a den of theives, but the Japan branch still has some honor. Norton hits chops. Mutoh dodges in the corner and hits a hiptoss, then hooks on an arm scissors. For a while. Really slow start to this match. Norton is up with a lariato. Mutoh dodges another one, hits a dropkick and drop toe hold into some more arm work. Norton fights off an armbreaker and deadlift slams Mutoh. More chops put Mutoh down. Lariato. Mutoh dodges an elbow drop. Handspring elbow! Faceplant. Norton scoop powerslam for 2. Tackle and shoulderbreaker from Norton. He lifts Mutoh for a powerbomb. Mutoh turns it into a hurricanrana! Dropkick off the top rope to Norton's knee. Norton goes to the apron. Mutoh slides out and dragon screws Norton off the apron! Another dragon screw in the ring. Figure four! Norton fights and gets to the ropes. Mutoh dropkick to the knee. Norton lariato. And again, both of them. On the third exchange Mutoh ducks the lariato and hits another dropkick. Another dragon screw and back to the figure four. Norton has a long fight and eventually makes it to the ropes. Norton fights off another dragon screw. Powerbomb! But he can't follow up with the hurt knee. Mutoh slips out of a suplex and goes right back on the knee. Another figure four and another just barely to the ropes reach for Norton. Mutoh missile dropkick. Norton gets another scoop powerslam for 2. He shakes the knee off and goes up top. Tackle off the top rope. He's slow to cover and Mutoh kicks out. Norton headbutts. He goes for another powerbomb. The knee gives out! Another dragon screw. Mutoh moonsault! Norton kicks out! Another missile dropkick to the knee and the figure four is back on. All the knee work has worn Norton down too much and he has to tap out! Mutoh finally gets the big match monkey off his back and wins the Heavyweight title for the third time! They hug it out after the match and all of NWO Japan celebrates in the ring with all the hardware they've won tonight. The match was disappointing for a Dome main event (it's got Scott Norton in it, only so much you can do), but Mutoh gave it his all and the psychology was tight with Mutoh staying laser focused on the knee and getting the win with it. **1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The junior title match steals the show and both tag title matches are worth a look. The main event isn't great but it is a really good moment. But you can't ignore the fact that most of the matches on this show are not up to par, topped off by the Ogawa/Hashimoto train wreck that leads to an even bigger long term train wreck that almost destroys the whole company. I'll give the final grade a small bump for historical significance, good or bad.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-

UWF Beach Brawl

Legacy Review

UWF Beach Brawl

The UWF (Universal Wrestling Federation) name was not a new one. In 1986 Bill Watts renamed his successful New Orleans Superdome based Mid-South Wrestling territory the UWF with the goal of going national. It went badly, and barely a year later the former Mid-South was absorbed by southern powerhouse Jim Crockett Promotions, the North Carolina based NWA flagship territory that had been buying out all their adjoining territories also with the goal of going national. The UWF name and titles floated around JCP for a few months before being retired, much like the WCW titles after they were bought by WWF. Soon after that JCP ran into their own too much, too soon problems and had to be bailed out by Turner, creating WCW. There was also a promotion in Japan called UWF International that started in 1991 but we won't get into that here. A couple of years after the original UWF died, enter Herb Abrams.

 

Now, full disclosure I have not watched the Dark Side of the Ring episode on this subject. At a glance and with the benefit of hindsight, Abrams comes across as your typical snake oil salesman that's managed to cover himself in some Hollywood glitz. He also had a severe cocaine addiction, which is where much of the UWF's money went and was the ultimate cause of his early death in 1996. Despite having never been involved in the wrestling industry before, Abrams decided he was the guy to create a new promotion to compete nationally with WWF and WCW. Amazingly, he convinced SportsChannel America to fund this, er, exploratory effort. SportsChannel was a conglomeration of some of the early regional cable sports networks and at the time was most well known for stealing the NHL coverage contract away from ESPN. They agreed to help fund the project and gave Abrams a one hour weekly timeslot on their channel. Even more amazingly, Abrams managed to convince some fairly big name wrestlers to come on board. Look down the card for this show, there's some pretty heavy hitters for the time on here. It's not a bunch of nobodies. UWF Power Hour debuted on SportsChannel in October 1990. The promotion was immediately plagued by financial problems, with both venues and wrestlers saying they weren't receiving what they were owed. But the show went on, and they knew if they really wanted to play with the big boys (look at the adjective) they needed a PPV. That's where Beach Brawl comes in, the one and only PPV produced by the UWF.

June 9, 1991 from the Manatee Civic Center in Palmetto, FL

Commentary: Craig DeGeorge and Bruno Sammartino

 

The show opens up with some black and white stock footage of wrestling days past and promises to bring back the "glory days" of wrestling thanks to legendary visionary Herb Abrams. The types of visions he has depends on how much he's snorted that day. Main event opponents Bigelow and Williams give promos in the opening video with hilarious piped in crowd noise under them. The arena is barely lit, a good call considering how bad attendance was. How bad was it, you ask? Well, in a 4000 seat arena the official attendance is 550. I'd make a joke about not all of them being paid, but you have to figure if you're going to paper the show you'd make some effort to fill it up a bit more. We have 900 numbers! Of course we do. On one you can "Hear the Beach Brawl". Does that mean you hear the audio feed of the PPV that you already paid money for and are watching right now? Seems slightly redundant. On the other number you can "talk to" Capt. Lou Albano and evil manager Mr. Red. We get more pretaped promos from both Bigelow and Williams, this time in street clothes. It's funny how Bigelow is talking more how he would in real life while Williams is full on in character.

 

The Blackhearts (w/Luna Vachon) def Fire Cat and Jim Cooper in 7:45- The Blackhearts are billed as "from your worst nightmare". They set off some flash paper during their entrance because they're demonic or something. Luna also has a snake wrapped around her on their entrance. The Blackhearts' names are Apocalypse and Destruction, but they both wear masks and identical gear so it's impossible to tell who's who. In fact, one of them is the future Gangrel. Fire Cat is the same guy that was the short lived gimmick disaster Battle Kat in WWF. Jim Cooper is....well, put it this way, he doesn't even have a Cagematch page. The Hearts jump Cooper before the bell and give him a double flippy tackle. Cooper recovers with a neckbreaker on one Heart. Heart diving back elbow off the second rope. Cooper hits a backdrop. The faces do a Hart Attack like setup with Cat delivering a back elbow instead of clothesline. Cat hurricanrana! The heels go out to regroup. Cooper is placed on the top rope and a Hart gives him a gut wrench superplex. Cooper dodges an elbow off the top and tags. Cat breaks out some more flippydo, hits a superkick, and the heels powder again. Cat cradle for 1. A simple shove from a Hart puts Cat on the ground. Hart spinning heel kick. Cat crucifix for 2. Hart double tackle and a bit more Cat in peril work follows. Cat reverses a whip and gets a diving back elbow. The tag is cut off. Cat counters a backdrop with a DDT. Bruno doesn't know what a DDT is, he keeps calling it a piledriver. Cooper tags in but the Harts hot shot him. One Hart holds Cooper up, the other hits a legdrop off the top rope, and that gets the pin. Well, it didn't suck. They kept it moving even if it was a bit disjointed. **

Commentary explains to all you rubes where Palmetto is in Florida. I know it's the pre-internet days, and my situation is different because my family traveled a lot (I'm an Army kid), but I always had a good old Rand McNally atlas available to reference. Luna cuts a promo and is unimpressed with the available competition.

 

Street Fight: Terry Gordy and Johnny Ace double countout in 6:08- The ring announcer specifically says this match is "no DQ, no rules". This was supposed to be Gordy against Don Muraco but Muraco was out with an injury. Both these guys wrestled full time in All Japan so they were probably already familiar to each other to some degree. Gordy tries to back suplex out of a headlock but Ace flips him over. Hard Ace shoulderblock for 2. More headlock work. Street fight! Ace hits a back elbow and springboard reverse crossbody for 2. A straight right punch from Gordy floors Ace. Corner clothesline for 2. Beatdown mode from Gordy. He fights off an Ace comeback and hits a Saito suplex for 2. Ace blocks a powerbomb. Gordy resets and hits it for 2. Another corner clothesline for 2. Gotta give it to them, there some good intensity going on in there. They're laying into each other. Gordy goes for another corner shot but Ace gets a boot up and hits a clothesline. The small crowd is getting into it. An Ace dropkick sends Gordy to the floor. Ace plancha! But Gordy misses the catch, Ace comes down at an angle and he splats almost head first on the no pads concrete floor! Gordy clearly stops to check that he's OK before continuing. Once he's sure Ace is OK they brawl into the crowd, up the stadium steps and into the empty seats. After a minute the bell rings. Commentary is confused. The ring announcer says it's a double countout. In a street fight. A double countout. OK then. Well, before the crap finish the match wasn't too shabby, even if they were only having a regular match and not a STREET FIGHT. **3/4

After the bell the brawl continues as long or maybe even longer than the match went. Why not just keep the match going? We also get a replay of Ace almost killing himself with that plancha.

A DOUBLE COUNTOUT. In a STREET FIGHT. Well, it's certainly innovative.

 

Mask Confusion def The Power Twins in 12:23- There's some mass confusion, pun intended, as to what the face team name is. The opening rundown said Mass Confusion, the match entrance graphic says Mask Confusion, and everything currently online says Masked Confusion. Whatever you do though, don't call them the Killer Bees. Yes, it's "Jumpin'" Jim Brunzell and B Brian Blair and yes they're still in yellow and black gear but don't you dare say that name. Vince's lawyers hear everything. The Power Twins really are twins named David and Larry and have nothing impressive to mention on their career resume. It's the second straight tag match where you can't tell which heel is which. For some reason they're also carrying fly swatters. One of the twins takes the mic before the match and bitches that their manager John Tolos has been banned from ringside. Brunzell starts with one of the twins. The heels go into the cheating playbook early as Brunzell takes a knee in the back while hitting the ropes. After a short heel beatdown Brunzell escapes the heel corner and tags. Blair slingshots the heels into each other and they go out to recover. Back in Blair chain wrestles a twin down and the not Bees start working on his knee. The next few minutes are the not Bees working each of the twins legs, a good strategy in theory but completely forgotten once the FIP segment starts. Blair gets caught in the heel corner and double teamed. The Twins go to work on his back for a bit. Blair tries a slam and fails. The heels work the ref to double team and they get the phantom tag spot in. Blair gets dropped over the top rope. He ducks a Twins double clothesline and hits them both with his own double clothesline. No tag, instead the faces both get knocked to the floor. I think everyone knows what's coming here. They put their masks on while on the floor and use the power of mass/mask/masked confusion to get the pin on a sunset flip switch. Bleh. *

 

Inaugural UWF Women's World Championship: Rockin' Robin def Candi Devine in 6:05- Robin was a veteran of the WWF's Rock N Wrestling era women's division, while Devine was one of the stars of the women's division in late '80s AWA. Code of Honor handshake to start....but Devine attacks Robin when she turns her back! She tosses Robin around until Robin gets a boot up in the corner. Clothesline and elbow drop for 2. Robin gets a sunset flip off the second rope but Devine uses her legs to ring Robin's bell to get out. She slingshots Robin into the mat and hooks on a Boston crab. After fighting it for a minute Robin flips it over and they trade quick cradles for near falls. Devine hits a dropkick. Robin with some weak chops. Diving clothesline for 2. Robin dropkicks and Devine plain no sells it. That wasn't a miss, she was right there, she just didn't do anything. After that Robin dodges....something. No idea what that was supposed to be. Devine charges in the corner. Robin dodges, Devine bounces off the buckles, and Robin rolls her up for the pin and title. Botches aside it's a typical women's match for the era. In what would be typical UWF booking fashion, Robin won the title and never wrestled another match for UWF. 3/4*

Video recap package! I didn't think UWF had it in them. Of course, all it shows is DeBeers (a former longtime AWA wrestler whose gimmick is an apartheid supporting South African) beating up black refs and abusing black wrestlers and shows nothing as to why Orndorff is mixed up in any of this at all.

 

Strap Match: "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff def Col. DeBeers in 4:15- Debeers tries to jump before the bell but the ref stops him. The ref throws the strap in the air like a jump ball! DeBeers catches it and whips Orndorff. Oh wait, this isn't a STRAP match. It's not a long strap that both wrestlers have tied to their wrists, it's a small strap used for whipping asses. OK then. Orndorff sells a DeBeers shot in the corner before DeBeers even comes close to hitting him. They go to the opposite corner and Orndorff presses DeBeers with his legs. Now Orndorff goes to town with the strap. Not just whips, but chokes and hits a strap assisted fist drop. DeBeers slams Orndorff and Orndorff hides the strap underneath him. DeBeers looks around for it for a bit, then goes to the top rope. Orndorff catches him with the strap coming down. Running kneelift. Orndorff counters a backdrop into a piledriver and it's over. After the match DeBeers lays Orndorff out with a taser. I guess someone was watching video of Mountie matches. 1/4*

 

Next up is a special PPV edition of Captain's Corner with Capt. Lou Albano. Albano brings the Blackhearts and Luna out again. Luna's got her snake again which sets Albano off. He goes on a rant about how much he hates it, drops the mic and leaves. Well that was completely pointless.

 

Bob Backlund def Ivan Koloff (w/Mr. Red) in 2:23- I feel like I should know who this Mr. Red guy is but can't find anything online. He's very blonde and doesn't look the least bit Russian. Koloff has a whip. Backlund is introduced as the "undefeated champion of the world", continuing his insistence that he never lost the WWF title to the Iron Sheik. This is actually only Backlund's third match since his mid-'85 AWA run and his first in two years. He was right at the start of his comeback that would lead back to the WWF in '93. Lots of solid chain wrestling to start. Backlund escapes a full nelson. Koloff does some arm work and runs Backlund's shoulder into the turnbuckle. While Koloff's holding a short arm scissors Backlund deadlifts him! Backdrop. Backlund rolls Koloff up and bridges over, much the same way we see today from ZSJ and SANADA, and gets the pin. Well they got screwed by the booking. They were working well together in the little time they got, and probably could have had a good match with more time so I'll go easy on it. 1/2*

After the match Albano comes back out and punches out Red. OK then. Guess there's a weekly TV story behind that but commentary never explains it. After that is another video package, this time showing actual feud buildup.

 

Wet'N'Wild def "Cowboy" Bob Orton and Cactus Jack (w/John Tolos) in 4:02- Wet'N'Wild are two guys named Steve Ray (not to be confused with Harlem Heat's Stevie Ray) and Sunny Beach (who went by Sandy Beach as a longtime jobber in WWF). Their gimmick is surfer dudes and they actually bring a surfboard to the ring and try to ride it. Basically they're a bad ripoff of the Dynamic Dudes. Which leads to the obvious question of why anyone would want to rip off the Dynamic Dudes in the first place but here we are. They're the top face team in UWF and with no tag titles in the company yet this is our de facto top tag team match. Tolos is in full coach gear, showing the gimmick he'll have a cup of coffee with WWF as soon after this. He's supposed to be suspended in a shark cage for this grudge match. The bell rings with Tolos in the ring. The faces whip the heels into each other, then grab Tolos and toss him in the cage. The cage is sloooooooooooooly raised up. Given it being UWF I'm pleasantly surprised it doesn't fall down. Reset with Jack and Beach. Beach gets tossed to the floor. Jack double ax handle off the apron. He slams Beach on the floor. Cactus Elbow off the TOP rope to the floor! There's your Foley bump. Bang bang. Orton tags in and hits a short clothesline. He rams Beach's head into Jack's hard cranium. Orton suplex. Jack Russian leg sweep for 2. Beach hits a fallaway slam and tags. Ray gives the heels a double noggin knocker. Corner whip reversals and we get a ref bump. Tolos tosses knucks into the ring. Orton pops Jack with them and Ray covers for the pin. After the match Orton and Jack argue, then fight in a brawl that, again, goes on as long or longer than the match did. 1/2* solely for Jack

Another video package shows highlights of the title tournament from weekly TV, including Williams dropping Steve Ray right on his head.

 

Tournament Final for the Inaugural UWF SportsChannel Television Championship: "Dr. Death" Steve Williams def Bam Bam Bigelow in 7:11- This is to crown the promotion's first ever top champion. No world or US titles here, it's all about the network branded TV title. They're making a big deal to make sure everyone knows it's a "$100,000" belt. After both wrestlers have made their entrances everything stops for Herb Abrams to have his own special entrance with the belt. Not an ego trip, not at all. He shakes Williams' hand, then offers one to Bigelow. Bigelow pushes him aside! Williams charges in with clotheslines off the distraction and we're off. He goes for a 3 point stance tackle but Bigelow cuts it off with a clothesline. Falling headbutt. Bigelow avalanche. Williams is bleeding and Bigelow punches the cut. Williams tries to stop the momentum by running right into Bigelow full speed but Bigelow shrugs it off. Another avalanche. He goes for it again but Williams gets a boot up. Williams clothesline with a Bigelow 360 sell! Commentary goes nuts for that. Knees to the face, chops and a forearm from Williams. Now Bigelow is bleeding. Another clothesline and dropkick. Bigelow fights back with headbutts. He goes for a suplex but Williams small packages him for 2. Williams back elbow and kneelift. Bigelow catches a running Williams and gives him a Samoan drop! Slingshot splash! Williams kicks out! DDT from Bigelow. He goes up top. Splash off the top rope! Williams kicks out again! Williams ducks a clothesline. Belly to belly suplex! Clothesline. 3 point stance tackle. Powerslam for 2. Slugfest in the corner. Williams lifts Bigelow again but Bigelow grabs the top rope. Williams resets, lifts Bigelow, carries him to the middle of the ring, buries him with another powerslam, and gets the pin and the title! Well, that was unexpected and a very pleasant surprise. The textbook definition of big meaty men slapping meat. Honestly that was one of the stiffest matches I've ever seen, they were pounding the shit out of each other. My only complaint is they only got about half the time they should have. ***1/2

 

Clearly there's no one working this show that knows how to time a PPV, because instead of giving that damn good match more time, Williams gives two promos, one in ring and one backstage, commentary vamps forever to wrap up, and lists off all the match results one by one.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- With UWF's reputation you'd expect this to be a train wreck of epic, end of life AWA level proportions. Instead, it's a not so good but moderately watchable show with a couple of decent to good matches and nothing that makes you want to gouge your eyes out and never watch wrestling again. The main event is worth checking out for sure.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+

NJPW Final Power Hall in Tokyo Dome

Legacy Review

NJPW Final Power Hall in Tokyo Dome

January 4, 1998 from the Tokyo Dome

New Japan eschewed the "Wrestling World" name they'd used for the past couple of Jan. 4 shows (and would use again for a few years after this) for a very special reason- this is Riki Choshu's retirement show. He's going out in style, in a 5 match gauntlet called through translation the "Riki Road Final Message Five". This is also the first 1/4 show where New Japan isn't engaged in a cross-promotional battle. What is happening tonight however is the presence of NWO Japan, who had become a major force in NJPW after forming just after the '97 1/4 show following the success of the original NWO in New Japan's US partner WCW.

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

Kendo Kashin def Koji Kanemoto in 12:01- We open things up with what would now be called a special singles match with two risers in the junior division. Kanemoto had already had a taste of IWGP Junior gold during Liger's long injury a couple of years prior, while Kashin was about 6 months back from excursion and was flying up the ranks thanks to a devastating cross armbreaker submission hold. Kanemoto offers a handshake. Kashin attacks him! They do a cool little sequence of a bunch of snap mare reversals, ending with Kashin hitting a reverse DDT. Kashin starts some leg work. He puts on a surfboard and transitions into an armbar. He goes for the armbreaker early. Kanemoto grabs his leg to escape. Stalemate and reset. More mat exchanges. Kanemoto blocks the armbreaker again and hooks on a leg scissors. He chops Kashin down with kicks. More leg hold tradeoffs and more Kanemoto kicks. He hits a spinning back kick to Kashin's jaw. Boston crab from Kanemoto. Kashin gets to the ropes. Kanemoto hits a corkscrew senton from the second rope. He goes up top and goes for a moonsault. Kashin gets his knees up. He gets the armbreaker on. Kanemoto just gets a foot on the rope. Kashin lifts Kanemoto in a suplex and drops him on the top rope. Big European uppercuts from Kashin on the floor. More uppercuts knock Kanemoto off the apron. He goes to suplex Kanemoto back in. Kanamoto lands on his feet, but Kashin saw the counter coming and counters the counter with a quick reverse kick to the gut. Diving lariato. Kashin pulls Kanemoto's kneepad off and rips off some of the tape he had on his knee. Kanemoto gets put in the tree of woe with more knee shots. Kashin diving lariato off the top rope for 2. He hits the ropes but Kanemoto gives him a snap belly to belly suplex. He sets Kashin up top and powerslams him off, then hops up the opposite corner and hits a moonsault. Kanemoto goes for a tiger suplex. Kashin quickly reverses and hooks the armbreaker in again! Kanemoto JUST stretches his leg long enough to get a foot on the rope as the crowd really starts to get into it. Kashin sets Kanemoto on top and flips him off back into the armbreaker! Again Kanemoto just gets a foot on the rope. Kashin tries to pick the arm apart some more. German suplex. Kanemoto rolls through it! He hooks and hits the tiger suplex! Kashin kicks out! More kicks. Kashin grabs one and hits a dragon screw! The armbreaker is on again! Kanemoto's luck has run out and he has no choice but to tap out. Nice little opener. ***

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Shinjiro Otani (c) def Ultimo Dragon in 17:06- Since the last 1/4 show the J-Crown has come and gone. Part of the reason was WWF wanted their Light Heavyweight belt back to try their own junior style division (and the first champion was young Japanese star Taka Michinoku). Otani was the last J-Crown champion and kept the IWGP Junior title when all the other belts were returned. This is the first junior title match on a 1/4 show to not involve a healthy Jushin Liger. He has other plans tonight. Otani offers a handshake. Dragon says nah. Nice mat wrestling stalemate to start. Dragon does a headstand in the corner and hits a flurry of kicks. A Dragon Japanese armdrag leads to a mat roll around trying to get leverage. Dragon manages to hang onto the arm. He puts Otani in a stump puller! There's a hold that doesn't get enough love. Otani works into a headscissors. Both guys try for leg holds, mostly at the same time. Rope break reset. Otani gets the edge with some kicks. He does some boot chokes and boot scrapes in the corner. After a running boot scrape he slides to the floor and brags. Dragon gives him a double kick in the back! He skins the cat back in, charges, does a 619 spin and tries for a dive but Otani grabs his boot and pulls him down into the apron. Chop exchange on the floor. Apron suplex stalemate. Dragon blocks a powerbomb. Otani finally lifts him up but drops Dragon onto the ropes and he falls to the floor. I'm fairly certain that was planned but it looked slightly ugly. More Otani kicks. Dragon gets a gut punch, jab to the jaw and kick to get out of the corner. Slam and Dragon goes up top. Otani pops up and joins him. He goes for a hurricanrana but Dragon pushes him onto the top rope, crotching Otani and he falls to the floor. Dragon moonsault to the floor! Back in Dragon does a corner whip and handsprings across. Otani casually strolls out of the target area. Dragon lands on the second rope, turns and hits a hurricanrana for 2! Otani ducks a lariato and hits a German suplex. Springboard missile dropkick! Springboard spinning heel kick! Cover for 2. Otani dragon suplex! Dragon kicks out! Of the dragon suplex. I'm sure Vince would have put the kibosh on having dragon suplexes in a match with a wrestler named Dragon. "The fans would get confused". Dragon's hurt and collapses on a whip attempt. Otani telegraphs a backdrop. Dragon counters and hits a scissors kick. He goes for a magistral cradle, one of his specialties, but Otani blocks it and gets up wagging his finger "no no no". Dragon blocks a dragon suplex. Magistral cradle! Otani kicks out! The crowd bit hard on that near fall. Dragon hits a tombstone. He goes up top but Ohtani cuts him off. Otani tries for a dragon superplex but it's blocked. Dragon hits a sunset bomb for 2! Running powerbomb! Another 2 count! Dragon sets Otani up top. Otani fights him off and hits an avalanche DDT! Dragon dodges a springboard dropkick! Another magistral! Another kick out! The crowd REALLY bit on that one. Another top rope setup. Dragon hurricanrana! Otani kicks out again! Dragon running headscissors! Another magistral. Otani rolls through it! Dragon suplex! A second dragon suplex! 3 count! Fantastic match. The juniors nearly always deliver. Otani would lose the title to Liger in February, kicking off Liger's ninth run with the belt and another reign that would last over a year. ****1/4

 

Yuji Nagata def Hiroyoshi Tenzan in 11:33- Two future New Japan legends are getting an early singles bout here. Nagata was still on his excursion to WCW but came home for one night for the big show. Tenzan is our first NWO Japan member to wrestle tonight. Tenzan kills Nagata with a lariato before the bell. Open hand slap exchange. Tenzan hits headbutts. Nagata tries an armbreaker and Tenzan gets to the ropes. Kicks from Nagata and Tenzan rolls out to regroup. Back in Tenzan hits throat chops. Arm wringer exchange. Nagata gets the edge on the mat. Russian leg sweep from Nagata. Tenzan reverses a corner whip, Nagata dodges the charge and rolls Tenzan up for 2. More kicks piss Tenzan off. Nagata switches to head kicks to get him down again. Slugfest. Tenzan hits his signature Mongolian chop. Nagata crossbody for 2. Tenzan lays in the eye rakes and hits more headbutts. Nagata fights off a Boston crab and Tenzan gives him a shot a bit south of, er.....*double checks map* Kagoshima. Southernmost city on mainland Japan. Nagata tries headbutts and against Tenzan that doesn't go very well. Tenzan goes up top. Nagata pops up and joins him. Nagata belly to belly superplex! More kicks and Nagata German suplex for 2. Tenzan pops out of the corner with a lariato. Spinning heel kick for 2. Nagata small package for 2. He tries for a modified figure four. Tenzan gets to the ropes. Tenzan blocks a northern lights suplex and turns it into a DDT. Powerbomb. Nagata dodges a headbutt off the top rope. Kicks and Nagata enzuguri! Release northern lights suplex for 2. Snap belly to belly. He hooks on the modified figure four! Tenzan submits! Solid stuff from two guys that were still learning but clearly on the upswing. There was also a lot of western style in there as befit both these guys' excursions. The fact that Nagata is already getting major show singles wins despite still officially being on excursion shows New Japan knew they had something special in him, and rightly so. **1/2

 

Osamu Nishimura and Tatsumi Fujinami def Bull Powers in 12:39- Bull Powers was a short lived team of Third Generation stars (well, still young kids at this point) Satoshi Kojima and Manabu Nakanishi. Nishimura was a protege of Fujinami's that's just come back to Japan after spending most of the decade wrestling in various promotions in the US, this is his return match. He's a former GWF Light Heavyweight champion, in fact he was the last one before GWF closed, which I mention only because I can never resist the chance to get a GWF reference in. Nishimura takes his robe off and he's wearing an NWO shirt! The crowd gasps and commentary goes nuts. I honestly don't know what that's about, he's not listed on any official list of NWO Japan members, and Fujinami doesn't seem bothered by it despite the fact he's as anti-NWO as you could get. Wish I could understand commentary. Oh well. Nishimura and Nakanishi start with some basic feeling out mat wrestling. Test of strength. Nishimura does a nice neck bridge. Nakanishi gets on top of him but Nishimura doesn't budge. Nishimura hits a suplex and both sides tag. Fujinami wins a more headlock/shoulderblock style basic exchange. Kojima hits a suplex. Both Bull Powers guys run in and are all fired up. Someone ate their bread today. Bread Club 4 Life. Nakanishi teases another test of strength with Nishimura but uses it to pound him into the corner. Nishimura responds by flooring him with a forearm. Nakanishi backbreakers out of a chinlock. Bull Powers double shoulderblock. Kojima senton and Saito suplex. Nakanishi hits a fallaway backdrop and legdrop. Back suplex double team. Kojima spinebuster for 2. After some corner lariatos Nishimura rolls out for a breather. When he gets back in he's trapped in the Bull Powers corner again. A flurry of Nishimura rights floors Nakanishi. Nishimura double underhook suplex. He gets caught in the wrong part of town again. Nakanishi slam and big elbow drop for 2. Nishimura hits a rolling kick and gets the tag. Nakanishi gets Fujinami up in the torture rack. Nishimura breaks it up though it took a ton of kicks to do it. Kojima pummels Fujinami with lariatos and forearms. Elbow off the top for 2. He goes knock Nishimura off the apron, and Fujinami uses the distraction to give him a dragon screw leg whip! Dragon sleeper! Nakanishi breaks it up. Dragon screw for him! Nishimura tags in and hits Kojima with a corner dropkick. Kojima dodges another dropkick and hits a lariato for 2. Front/back double lariato from Bull Powers. Kojicutter off the top rope! Fujinami breaks up the pin. Nishimura ducks a lariato and hits a German suplex. Fujinami kneedrop off the top rope. Nishimura hits a missile dropkick and covers but Kojima gets a foot on the bottom rope. After a couple more reversals and some donnybrooking Nishimura hits a northern lights suplex to get the pin. Meh. The last 5 minutes or so were pretty good but everything before that was fairly dull. Like Tenzan and Nagata, Nakanishi and Kojima were still learning. **

 

Riki Road Final Message Five- All five guys that Choshu will be wrestling are gathered in the ring and are introduced together. They all hang out at ringside waiting their turn to come in. Huge pop for Choshu when he's introduced. Most of the guys he's wrestling are younger guys just getting started.

MATCH ONE: vs. Kazuyuki Fujita- Rough lockup. Fujita pounds Choshu down in the corner. Choshu leverages out of a headlock. Long fight for leverage on the mat. Fujita hooks on a sleeper. More Fujita corner beatdown. He hits a deadlift suplex. Choshu responds with a Saito suplex! Choshu lariato! Fujita is done.

MATCH TWO: vs. Yutaka Yoshie- Yoshie slaps Choshu after the lockup. Not sure how smart that is. Choshu hits a flurry of palm strikes. Yoshie downs Choshu with forearms and kicks and tries for a Boston crab. Not happening. Running forearm from Yoshie. He runs into a Choshu lariato! Good night Yoshie.

MATCH THREE: vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa- Clearly the group strategery is to hit Choshu hard early and often to try to wear him down. Takaiwa comes out of the gate with chops and a lariato. Slam and kneedrop. Choshu backdrops out of a pilledriver or power bomb attempt. Lariato! For some variety Choshu decides to hook on the Scorpion Death Lock. Takaiwa submits.

MATCH FOUR: vs. Takashi Iizuka- Again Iizuka takes it straight to Choshu. Uranage! Choshu blocks second one. Shoulderblock. Lariato! He hooks on the Scorpion again. Iizuka reverses it into a leg scissors! Choshu fights, but after a minute he submits! Iizuka gets a win over Choshu!

MATCH FIVE: vs. Jushin Thunder Liger- Easily the most experienced guy Choshu is facing tonight, but he's also a junior taking on a heavyweight. Liger charges at the bell with a rolling kick! He stomps away on Choshu in the corner. Brain buster from Liger. Choshu hits another Saito. Chops from Liger. He sets Choshu up top. Superplex! Cover for 2. Choshu tosses Liger out to the floor. CHOSHU WITH A PLANCHA! He missed by a mile (Liger still sold it) but damn, I'm not criticizing a guy like Choshu doing that at his age. He barely got off his feet in his prime. Liger slips out of a suplex. Dragon screw! Liger figure four! Choshu reverses it. He bridges deep and Liger either won't or can't break it. Finally they both roll to the ropes. Choshu lariato. Liger kicks out! Another lariato! That finishes Liger off and Choshu goes out with a win. After the match Antonio Inoki, who will have his own retirement match exactly three months after this, hosts a small celebration for Choshu. The gauntlet match was a good idea in theory but not as much in execution. Most of the matches came off feeling the same and most of them didn't have enough time to really get any meat on the bone. *1/2

 

But of course wrestling being wrestling retirement didn't stick for Choshu. He'd come back to New Japan part time in 2000. He left as part of the small exodus from New Japan in 2002, starting his own promotion, but came back to New Japan in 2007 and continued to wrestle matches for them while promoting his own shows at the same time, kind of like what Taka Michinoku or CIMA are doing today.

For some reason the next match on the card isn't available on New Japan World. It's an MMA style match between Don Frye and Naoya Ogawa. Given those types of matches' track record it's not a huge loss, but it hurts me in my completionist heart. Frye would be Inoki's opponent in his retirement match in April.

 

Different Style Fight: Shinya Hashimoto def Dennis Lane in 1:34- This is another MMA style match. Lane is wearing boxing gloves but Hashimoto is in his regular wrestling gear. Hashimoto is coming off the longest IWGP Heavyweight title run to date, as well as being the dominant champion in New Japan over the past 4-5 years. Lots of jockeying around looking for an opening. Hashimoto goes for a takedown but they end up in the ropes. After that Hashimoto does get a takedown. Lane gets his gloves in the white out of bounds. He can't stand due to a leg injury and the ref stops the match. Watching the replay it looks like he could have legit hurt his knee, but I'm not sure if it was a real injury or not and can't find anything online that says one way or the other. NR

 

Masahiro Chono def Shiro Koshinaka in 15:05- Chono is the co-founder (along with Tenzan) and leader of NWO Japan. Before starting his own branch he was the first Japanese wrestler to join the original NWO when he was in the US for a WCW tour in late '96. He's also one half of the current IWGP Tag Team champs. Meanwhile Koshinaka was the leader of Heisei Ishingun, the big heel stable in New Japan before the NWO invasion, making this a natural feud, especially after NWO Japan picked off some HI members. Chono attacks at the bell and hits the first Yakuza kick. Koshinaka dodges another and hits his signature hip attacks. Chono drop toe holds out of a headlock and puts on a headscissors. Hammerlock exchange. Chono takes a rope break and we get some more arm work. Corner beatdown from Chono with a lot of jawing at Koshinaka. Chono goes up top. Koshinaka meets him and hits a superplex. Chono pops right back up! Another Yakuza kick. He tries to suplex Koshinaka onto the ramp but it's blocked. Koshinaka blocks another Yakuza kick. Standing switches. Chono tries a low blow but Koshinaka dodges. Cobra twist cradle for 2. Powerbomb for 2. More Koshinaka powerbombs. Chono kicks out again. There's weird spot where another Koshinaka powerbomb drops Chono softly on his head, but Koshinaka rolls over like Chono countered it. Not sure what that was. Koshinaka tries for a dragon suplex and Chono gets the low blow this time. Yakuza kick for 2. Koshinaka rolls through a Samoan drop attempt into a roll up for 2. One of the NWO guys ringside trips Koshinaka. STF! Koshinaka gets to the ropes. Saito suplex from Koshinaka. Chono gets the STF on again and Koshinaka fights to the ropes again. Chono powerbomb for 2. Huge Koshinaka powerbomb for 2. Chono neckbreaker counter. Piledriver. Yakuza kick for 2. Koshinaka small package for 2. He runs into another Yakuza kick and that gets the pin. Pretty underwhelming. *1/4

 

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kensuke Sasaki (c) def Keiji Mutoh in 25:18- These same two wrestled each other at the last 1/4 show as their alter egos (Power Warrior and The Great Muta) in what was a very American style match kitchen sink match with lots of crazy spots and broken tables. I expect a much different style match for this one. Sasaki had a year for the ages in '97. In fact, he had an August '97 for the ages. Within the space of the same month he won the IWGP Tag Team titles (with Kazuo Yamazaki), his first G1 Climax, and on the last day of the month took down Hashimoto to end his then-record 489 day reign and win his first IWGP Heavyweight title. Mutoh is NWO Japan, having turned to them after a sting of losses in high profile matches, and is half of the current tag champs with Chono. Mutoh's got a full beard going. He's also bulked up a ton and is as big as Sasaki now. Long lockup followed by extended headlock exchanges. Mutoh rolls under a lariato and hits a dropkick. More mat hold counters. Sasaki hits a powerslam. Stalemate and reset. Test of strength. Mutoh armdrags out of it and hooks on an arm scissors. Sasaki hits a German suplex. He slams Mutoh by the arm and tries to stretch out an armbreaker. Mutoh works out of it and goes for a Scorpion Death Lock. Sasaki fights it off. Another long mat exchange with both guys trying for leg holds. A Mutoh punch ends the extended mat wrestling just as the match hits the halfway point. Handspring elbow! Mutoh gives Chono at ringside a too sweet, springs up to the top rope and hits a missile dropkick. He sets Sasaki up top. Hurricanrana! Dragon screw and Mutoh hooks on a figure four. Sasaki gets to the ropes, then hits a pair of DVD-like slams for 2. Lariato. Mutoh absorbs the impact and doesn't go down. Another lariato puts him down. Mutoh hits a basement dropkick to Sasaki's knee. Sasaki blocks another dragon screw. Mutoh blocks another lariato. Dragon screw! Mutoh goes through a long sequence of alternating basement dropkicks and dragon screws to really pick apart Sasaki's knee. He hooks on another figure four! Sasaki fights, crawls and gets to the ropes. Another figure four and another crawl to the ropes. Mutoh changes gears and goes back to his old faithful. Backbreaker. The moonsault hits! Sasaki kicks out! Another missile dropkick. Mutoh goes for another hurricanrana off the top. Sasaki turns it into a powerbomb! Mutoh fights off a brain buster. Sasaki goes for it again and it hits! A second one! That gets the pin! Acceptable but not blowaway Tokyo Dome main event. ***1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Not great, not awful. On the whole it's a Dome show that exists, but worth checking out for Choshu's temporary retirement or if you're watching the history of NWO Japan.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C

Starrcade '94

Legacy Review

Starrcade '94: Triple Threat

December 27, 1994 from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, TN

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

The "triple threat" in the title doesn't refer to a triple threat match but instead, according to WCW at least, the three "main events" on this show involving Hogan, Sting and Vader. The Honky Tonk Man is shown in the opeing video as challenging for the TV title but that's the only time you'll see him on this show. After commentary's intro we get video of Randy Savage's full promo from weekly TV. Savage made his WCW debut earlier in the month, referenced his history with Hogan and said he'll be at Starrcade to either shake Hogan's hand or slap him in the mouth. We get a glimpse of "Santa Claus" in the audience, who's clearly Dave Sullivan but commentary plays dumb. After that commentary cues up video of PWI's '94 year end awards presentation, where Hulk Hogan was named wrestler of the year in an absolute travesty considering the incredible year Bret Hart had over in WWF that year, the best year of overall and consistent match quality in my opinion since Ric Flair's insanely awesome 1989. Turner probably blew half a year's worth of WCW's budget to have PWI's awards go the way they wanted.

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Vader (w/Harley Race) def "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan (c) in 12:06- Commentary talks about Vader winning the #1 contender's match back at Fall Brawl and speculated he's going after the US title to make the powers stop putting him on the back burner. At least they finally remembered that. It's actually not a bad storyline recovery. Vader charges at Duggan on the ramp during Duggan's entrance and it's on. The mask is already off. Vader gets the worst of it on the floor and Duggan uses the time to give Race some shots. Nice to see Race can still do the flip over the top rope. More brawling on the floor. The bell never rang but ref Nick Patrick is acting like the match is official so we roll with it. Vader gets whipped sternum first into the guardrail. Back in Duggan hits mounted punches and clotheslines Vader back 360 to the floor. They go "speed", both duck clotheslines, and Duggan hits a CROSSBODY for 2. What? Duggan slams Vader and gets some more near falls. Continued brawling from Duggan as Vader can't get it going. Finally Vader gets an eye poke to try to get some breathing room. Slugfest. Vader rings Duggan's bell. Duggan gets back in control with more punchy clothesliney offense. He really goes out of his comfort zone to try a falling back elbow off the second rope and Vader easily dodges it. A clothesline to the back of Duggan's head sends him to the floor and into the guardrail. Back in Vader hits an elbow to the gut and short punches to Duggan's ribs. Vader bomb! Cover, Duggan gets a foot on the rope. Vader goes up again. Duggan kicks him in the leg to drop him. Tackle from Vader and Race chokes Duggan. Another slugfest. Vader goes up top. VADERSAULT! Duggan dodges it! Vader gets back up with an avalanche. He goes for another one and Duggan clotheslines him. More Duggan punches and a double ax handle. He gets in the 3 point stance. Clothesline! Race breaks the pin up. Duggan powerslams Vader off the second rope. Cover and Race distracts again. Duggan grabs the ref and cuts off Vader's attempted ambush. Another 3 point stance. Vader dodges and Duggan runs into his own 2x4 that Race is holding up. Wheelbarrow slam, which I guess is Vader's new finisher now, and Vader gets the pin and the title! Decent. Vader did his thing, but Duggan looked more motivated than usual, almost Mid-South Duggan except being a lot more physically limited. **1/2

The Three Faces of Fear cut a promo. They have a tombstone for Hulkamania. Undertaker is on the phone with his lawyers for a gimmick infringement lawsuit.

 

"Das Wunderkind" Alex Wright def Jean-Paul Levesque in 14:03- The future Triple H makes his PPV debut, his only PPV appearance before leaving WCW. On the other side Wright was a highly touted prospect from Germany, only 18 years old and poised for a sizeable push. No reaction for either guy from the crowd, especially Wright. As was his gimmick Wright dances in the ring during his entrance and I immediately think of Shepard's famously awful dancing in Mass Effect. That gets a very small high pitched pop. Levesque plays some lockup games and bows. The next lockup he does an armdrag and bows again. Wright cartwheels out of an arm wringer, hits a dropkick and flying headscissors. Levesque recovers in the corner and Wright leapfrogs over the ref! That gets absolutely no reaction from anyone, especially commentary, which is hilarious. Wright outwrestles Levesque again, they have an obvious miscommunication, and Wright hits another dropkick and armdrag. Commentary talks about Levesque teaming with Steven Regal, which was the plan before Trips left. They do a long sequence of mat wrestling, which is technically sound but also gets the crowd restless for something to happen as they're not invested in either of these guys. Levesque headstands out of a headscissors and punches Wright in the mouth, escalating things and getting the crowd marginally back into it. Levesque stomps away. Spinning heel kick. Snap suplex for 2. Wright tries a crossbody but Levesque dodges and Wright splats on the mat. Wright gets a sunset flip. After a very long fight Levesque punches out. Powerslam for 2. Long setup by Levesque that only leads to the dreaded CHINLOCK. Heenan: "Levesque will be a superstar from '95 on". Yup. Just not for WCW. A Wright comeback attempt is cut off with a dropkick. Tiltawhirl backbreaker. Wright dodges an elbow off the top rope. European uppercuts and a diving back elbow from Wright. Back and forth with good intensity. Midring collision. Wright moonsaults over Levesque in the corner and rolls him up for 3. Solid training match. I don't think either of these guys were PPV ready but I suppose you've got to learn sometime. *3/4

Ad for the next Clash of the Champions, which will be at Caesar's Palace Las Vegas on January 25.

 

WCW World Television Championship: Johnny B Badd (c) def Arn Anderson (w/Col. Robert Parker & Meng) in 12:11- Honky Tonk Man's music starts then stops, then Arn comes out. Commentary is confused. Honky and Bischoff didn't get along from day one and Honky was already gone from the company after barely two months. Good thing you've got a plug and play old pro like Arn to throw in at the last second. Arn complains about Badd's closed fists before the bell even rings. Lockup. Arn hits a shoulderblock and brags. Hair pull takedowns from Arn. Hammerlock exchange. Arn gets a fireman's carry takedown. Badd counters with a headscissors. Arn lifts Badd up, carries him across the ring, places him on the top rope and walks away. Mind games. Badd hits a Japanese armdrag. A dropkick sends Arn to the floor. Badd starts laying in the gold gloves punches. Arn World's Greatest Spinebuster outta nowhere! No cover. What, is that just a transition move now? Arn goes into some typical heel offense and hooks on an abdominal stretch with rope leverage. Badd gets a sunset flip. Arn counters out. They have a leverage fight on the mat. Arn lets go and drops an elbow for 2. Arn sleeper. Badd slips out. Badd sleeper. Arn jawbreakers out. Badd flying headscissors and back elbow for 2. He hits the sunset flip off the top for 2. Arn blocks a monkey flip, stacks Badd up and tries to get a leverage pin but the ref catches him. Badd rolls him up and gets a 3 count. Serviceable thrown together match. **

More PWI awards footage with the Nasty Boys winning tag team of the year. Turner paid for that one too and I'd complain about it, but tag team wrestling in general was in such a sorry state in '94 it's hard to think of anyone more deserving, and the Nastys were part of a couple of genre defining hardcore brawls in the spring.

 

The Nasty Boys def Harlem Heat (w/Sister Sherri) by DQ in 17:49- Sherri was paired with Harlem Heat at the last Clash, a partnership that would move the perennial undercard team to the top of the tag division. In fact, thanks to the magic of pretaping the match where they beat the not booked tonight Stars & Stripes for the tag titles, the first of their record 10 title wins, had already been taped back at the start of the month but wouldn't air on TV until halfway through January. And that's not even close to the craziest pretaping title change those belts will see over the coming months. This is also a rematch from the last Clash. All four guys go nose to nose in the ring and the brawl is on. After a long stall we reset with Booker and Sags. Booker hits a flying forearm and elbow drop for 2. Sags scoops Booker up running and powerslams him. All four guys are in again. Both heels get avalanched. This time the Nastys follow Heat to the floor and the brawl continues. Booker is whipped into a clothesline on the entrance aisle. Sherri gets knocked off the apron as everyone slowly gets back in the ring. Knobbs is hit from behind and goes 360 to the floor. Back in Ray and Knobbs completely lose their place and fumble around awkwardly like a couple of middle schoolers at a school dance. Ray gets pummeled in the face corner. Both heels take Knobbs' arm slam and Booker gets his arm worked over. Commentary is shocked that the Nastys both have a game plan and are using wrestling holds. Ray distracts Sags and Booker dropkicks him in the back, sending him to the floor. Ray and Sags go all the way up the aisle with Ray hitting a bicycle kick. Ray cinches Sags up for a suplex and drops him on the rail legs first. That looked ugly. Booker heel kick on Sags in the ring. Ray hooks on the Nerve Hold of Time Killing +1. Booker gives Sags the scissors kick, which wasn't a finisher yet. He's slow to cover and Sags kicks out. Sags stays in peril with more scintillating rest holds. Both Ray and Booker hook on bear hugs as the match starts to feel like it's slowing down time itself. Sags gets a boot up in the corner and clotheslines Booker with a 360 sell. I think that literally woke the crowd up, and I mean literally. The arena employees were almost passing out pillows. Ray runs in to prevent the tag. Sags double DDT and tag to Knobbs. Knobbs cleans house. One last DONNYBROOK. Sherri gets a can of Farrah Fawcett out of her bag, has a lot of trouble figuring out which end is up, and accidentally gives her own man a couple of squirts. Sags hits an elbow off the top. As he's covering Sherri gives him a splash off the top for a cheap DQ. That was a hell of a long way to go to get to that finish. Long and uneventful. 1/2*

More PWI award footage, with Sting winning most popular wrestler. That one I could believe being legit. Surprised Hogan didn't demand to win that one too.

 

Mr. T def Kevin Sullivan in 3:50- I pity the fool that books Mr. T to wrestle in 1994. How many matches had T had since his WWF appearances in '85-'86? That'd be zero. T was the guest ref in the main event of the last Clash and got into it with Sullivan so here we are. T's in his ref stripes pajamas and nightcap again. Fortunately he loses the cap before the bell. T dodges and gets a hiptoss. "Santa" comes back out and with the camera focused on him we miss a good minute of the match, not like that's a great loss. T hits a headbutt and a bunch of gut punches along with corner whips. Sullivan uses T's tights to pull him down to the floor. They do an extended brawl on the floor, complete with a cameraman getting taken out and even T laying on him for a good while. Jimmy Hart runs out and puts his megaphone into "Santa's" bag. Commentary just figured out it's Evad. When the wrestlers get back in the ring Hart distracts the ref, Evad whacks Kevin with the megaphone stuffed bag, and T covers for the pin. After the bell Kevin attacks his brother, piledrives him in the ring and whips him with his giant Santa belt. DUD

Ad for Superbrawl V on February 19. Heenan's already started drinking in preparation. If you don't get that joke now you will when I do that review. We cut to Hogan and Hart in the back with Mean Gene. Mostly standard fare for the era Hogan stuff. He snaps at Hart and Okerlund for cutting him off before he was done. Wonder if that was legit or not. Then Hogan says he's "shooting with the world" and says everyone knows the personal issues between he and Savage were never resolved. Oh yes, the era of the work shoot shooty work is coming. Hogan also says he's willing to throw the rulebook out the window to deal with the Faces of Fear.

 

Sting def Avalanche (w/Kevin Sullivan) by DQ in 15:26- Like other recent acquisitions, Avalanche's music is straddling the "sounds like his WWF music but not enough to get sued" line. Very slow crowd playing start. Avalanche does the Quake jumps in the middle of the ring. Wonder if that could get WCW sued? Jawing and a lot of shoving. Finally they lock up with Avalanche backing Sting into the corner and hitting some clubbing blows, one of which completely misses. I'm sure the top turnbuckle is bruised after that one. Sting dodges and does some kicks to Avalanche's hamstring. Knucklelock test of strength with Avalanche winning. Sloooooooow Avalanche offense follows. Sting hits some more hammy kicks but there's no follow up. Sting tries a slam and of course it doesn't go well. Avalanche slam and elbow drop for 2. Legdrop. He squashes Sting in the corner Andre the Giant style. Multiple chokes. Sting with a desperation eye rake and yet more hammy kicks. He's staying consistent to his strategy at least. Avalanche falls out to the floor. Reset with an Avalanche headlock. Yes, I know, thrilling. Sting punches Avalanche's hammy to get out. Again, consistent psychology in this match if nothing else. Avalanche kills a running Sting with a clothesline. Powerslam. He tosses Sting around a bit. Big chop and bear hug. Avalanche backs Sting into the corner. Sting jumps on his back with a sleeper! Avalanche backs him into the corner but Sting keeps hooking it back on. Finally Avalanche falls into the ropes. Another slam try and Avalanche falls on Sting for 2. Another powerslam and Avalanche does the stomps to set up the big finish. Then he inexplicably turns around to pose. Sting hits a clothesline. Chop off the top rope. Dropkick. Avalanche and the ref do an obvious setup in the corner and a Stinger splash squashes the ref. Sting gets the body slam and hooks on the Scorpion Death Lock. Sullivan comes in and Sting cuts him off. Avalanche uses Sullivan to squash Sting. Quake splash! Hogan runs out with a chair and chases the heels off. Backup ref Randy Anderson comes out, calls for the bell and gives the match to Sting by DQ. Why not. 1/2*

One last PWI awards clip with Jimmy Hart winning manager of the year. Another one I'm sure Turner stuffed the ballot boxes for. With money. We need a recount.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Hulk Hogan (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) def The Butcher in 12:07- It's difficult to see this as anything other than Hogan politicking his best friend into the main event at a major PPV over the heads of the rest of the roster. Hogan still has the chair as he comes out. Commissioner Nick Bockwinkel is in the ring calming Hogan down as Buffer goes through his endless intros. When he announces Hogan, Hogan's music starts up again? The hell? And there's moar pyro. Ref Nick Patrick kicks Sullivan and Avalanche out from ringside before the match starts. Hogan easily wins the first lockups. Butcher gets a thrust to the throat. The fight goes to the floor. Butcher gives Hogan a rail shot and does a lot of back rakes. Lots and lots of back rakes. He chokes Hogan with a mic cord. Hart takes a chair away from Butcher. Hogan comes from behind and gives him an atomic drop. Hogan grabs a chair and whacks Butcher's back. No DQ. He runs the chair into Butcher's head. Still no DQ. Guess we're going with the "it's on the floor so anything goes" theory. Back in Butcher catches Hogan with a high knee, the most athletic thing he does the whole match. More choking. Butcher powerslam. Hogan dodges an elbow off the second rope and does a mini hulk up. Clothesline city and mounted punches. Hogan telegraphs a backdrop and Butcher counters. Time for the Nerve Pinch of Match Killing +2. Eventually Hogan powers out. Butcher hits a double chop to the throat and puts on his sleeper. After a bit Hogan drops. They do the arm drops. On the third Hogan's arm goes about three quarters down. Butcher lets go thinking he's won. Hogan pops right back up, looks, and lays down again, obviously playing possum. Butcher covers him, because the rules say in order to start a full Hulk Up Hogan has to kick out of a pin. And here it is. Point, punches, Sullivan and Avalanche interrupt. Hogan fights both of them off, killing whatever credibility they had in this feud, hits the legdrop and it's over. An absolute utter trash main event for what was nominally still the biggest show of the year. 1/4* and I feel like I'm being generous

After the bell everyone stands off and Randy Savage finally makes his way in. He teases joining the FOF, then attacks them. Hogan and Savage fight everyone off. have a long celebration and shake hands. After that we go back to the locker room. Hogan's promo is interrupted by Vader! He's the long standing #1 contender and the US champ now, and he demands his world title shot. Bockwinkel hedges and Mean Gene acts like his whole life flashed in front of him as we close the show.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- An almost serviceable first half, but the second half was one of the worst runs of matches there's ever been on a major PPV. 1994 as a whole was very much a tale of two halves for WCW. The first half, with Ric Flair on top on screen and booking behind the scenes, was pretty successful despite the loss to career ending injury of two hall of famers in the span of a couple of months (Rick Rude and Ricky Steamboat). Then Hogan came in midyear and everything changed. Kevin Sullivan took over the book with Hogan wielding a lot of influence, lots of Hogan's ex-WWF friends were brought in at the expense of some WCW stalwarts, and the overall product took a turn for the worse. Sad to say, 1995 is not going to be much better.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D-

Clash of the Champions XXIX

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XXIX

November 16, 1994 from the Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum in Jacksonville, FL

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

At the time of this show Jacksonville was being hit by a late season tropical storm named Gordon. The show must go on but it's referenced a bunch of times. Mean Gene brings out Col. Robert Parker (and Meng) for a show open promo. Parker says he's got a contract signed for his team of Bunkhouse Buck and Arn Anderson to challenge the winner of the tag title match on TV this week.

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Stars & Stripes def Pretty Wonderful (c) in 9:20- Two teams that just can't quit each other. It's not like any of their previous matches have set the world on fire either. They've been there, that's about it. As if Parker's challenge wasn't enough of a dead giveaway on what was happening here, the Patriot's mask is also on the line if S&S lose. Heenan says the Patriot wears the mask because he suffered "radiation burns to the face" while serving in the Gulf War. Hold up, hold up. *Radiation* burns? Did someone set off a nuke during the fighting and no one noticed? Or was he on a naval vessel that had a reactor leak that somehow affected only him? Also, if he got dosed by radiation I think a lot more than his face would be affected. Anyway. Orndorff has some words with the crowd before we start. There's a guy in the front row that riles up almost all the heels tonight. A real fan, not Blacktop Bully or some other plant. Eventually Bagwell and Orndorff start. Orndorff gets a quick edge and Bagwell gets pummeled early. After some tit for tat corner dodges Roma hits a crossbody off the second rope for 2. Bagwell responds with a hip toss, clothesline and dropkick. Patriot cuts Orndorff off running in and the faces clear the ring. Reset with Orndorff and Patriot. Lots of caution. Patriot armdrags out of a lockup and hits a hip toss. Both guys dodge elbow drops. On a speed run Orndorff gets a knee to the gut. Roma does his triple backbreaker. Fist drop off the top rope. Bagwell breaks the pin up. Another speed run. Patriot catches Roma leapfrogging and gives him an inverted atomic drop. Thesz press from Patriot for 2. That was new. Roma hot shots Bagwell, with Orndorff double teaming and pushing Bagwell all the way down to the floor. Bagwell goes in peril. He takes the dreaded Orndorff boogie woogie elbow. Roma dropkick and powerslam. Bagwell blocks an Orndorff snap mare and turns it into a backslide. Roma breaks the pin up. Bagwell gets a sunset flip and Roma makes another save. Donnybrook! Stop me if you've heard this before in a WCW tag match but the finish is a mess. The heels go for their finisher. Patriot knocks Roma off the top rope. Meanwhile, after hitting a regular suplex Orndorff and Bagwell are just lying there. The ref goes over to count with all four shoulders down, Bagwell gets a shoulder up and S&S are declared the winners and new champions. The camera work did that no favors. We're officially into title hotshotting territory as this is the third time in about a month and a half these two teams have swapped the titles. The match was borderline decent, but these teams desperately needed a break from each other. *3/4

 

WCW World Television Championship: Johnny B Badd (c) def The Honky Tonk Man by DQ in 6:10- Another rematch from Halloween Havoc. Honky Tonk immediately hides in the ropes after the bell. They trade some arm work and Honky bitches about a phantom hair pull. After a Badd hammerlock Honky cranks up his '80s heel offense. Badd hits an atomic drop and musses up Honky's hair. Punch and Honky rolls to the floor. Back in Honky gets a cheap shot in the corner over the ref. Slam and fist drop off the second rope for 2. Chinlock! Man, even with a chinlock he's barely bothering to hook it on right. Badd backdrops out of a shake, rattle and roll attempt. Buckle shots, inverted atomic drop and mounted punches from Badd. Honky pushes Badd into the ref and we have a ref bump. Guitar shot! The ref still saw it and calls for the DQ. Different finish aside, if you saw their Halloween Havoc match you saw this one too. Honky was fired soon after this. In his book Bischoff called his firing of Honky his favorite of all his WCW firings so you know they got on just great. 1/2*

The Three Faces of Fear cut a promo for the main event with sinister darker lighting. Brutus Beefcake/Brother Bruti and Earthquake have their new WCW legal department approved names: the Butcher and Avalanche. Avalanche calls Tropical Storm Gordon his brother which is chuckle worthy. Kevin Sullivan's portion of the promo sounds like second rate Undertaker material.

 

Harlem Heat def The Nasty Boys in 10:36- It's been a while since we've seen Harlem Heat on a major show (February at Superbrawl), but they've slowly but surely been improving on weekly TV and were now poised for their first big push. Their names have finally been changed from Kane and Kole to what would stick: Stevie Ray and Booker T. They've got a new gimmick going where they call a mysterious person on their mid-'90s cell phone for advice and nearly always win their matches with it. Ray is on the phone during their entrance. And then the WCW graphics department goes and blows the whole surprise by having "with Sensuous Sherri" on their intro graphic. Then we get a botch on top of a botch, as the Nasty Boys also get Harlem Heat's graphic still with the spoiler on. Booker and Knobbs start with some jawing and shoving. The "is this guy serious" look on Booker's face before laying in some punches is great. Knobbs hits a back elbow out of the corner and a clothesline. He slams both heels and Sags runs in with a double clothesline. Avalanches on both heels from the Nastys and they roll out to regroup. Booker doesn't want to tag out but Ray talks him into it. He goes back and forth with Sags before getting trapped in the face corner and beat down by the Nastys. Make a wish double team from the Nastys. Commercial. Back from break with Booker superkicking Knobbs to the floor. Apparently Heenan went for a potty break during commercial and is back late. Booker holds Knobbs for a Ray bicycle kick. Flying clothesline from Ray and spinning kick from Booker. Kobbs dodges Booker coming off the second rope and tags. Sags cleans house. Powerslam on Booker. Both Ray and Booker try to make the call on their phone but Knobbs cuts them both off. We then cut to Sherri at the entrance curtain, holding a phone. Gasp shock Sherri is the one that's been helping them out! As anyone who caught the graphic spoiler would have guessed. The camera is so focused on Sherri we miss what happens in the ring but Harlem Heat get the pin. This was just the start what would be a long feud. After her not so great partnership with Ric Flair (no one's fault, they just weren't a good mix), Sherri would be an excellent addition to Harlem Heat, helping them get to the next level. *

 

Vader (w/Harley Race) def "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes in 11:43- A fresh matchup! Both these guys were moving on from long feuds that had consumed most of the year. Vader backs Dustin into the corner in the lockup and gives him a STIFF slap. Another lockup and another stiff slap! Vader trash talk. He spits on Dustin! Dustin charges out of the corner with a takedown and goes crazy, slapping Vader all over the place and ripping his mask off! Dustin hits the ropes, ducks a couple of clotheslines and hits a crossbody for 2. He clotheslines Vader 360 to the floor. Dustin follows and continues the beatdown, then turns around and gives Race a shot. Vader takes his time getting back in, less from stalling and more from he was just plain hurting. Dustin gets right back on him, pounding Vader down in the corner. Vader looks like he doesn't know what hit him. Dustin suplexes Vader! Vader rolls out again to have a think. When he gets back in Dustin charges but bounces right off a Vader tackle. Corner potato time. Vader shouts "Get up!". Dustin dodges an avalanche and rolls Vader up for 2. Vader punches and Dustin 360 sells it. More stiff Vader shots. He tries another avalanche. Dustin catches and powerslams him! Sunset flip, Dustin dodges a butt splash counter, and hits a diving lariat. He goes for the bulldog. Vader lifts him up and swings him over the top rope down to the floor! Stiff Vader clothesline back in. Vader bomb! Dustin refuses to let him even try a pin so Vader scrapes a couple of hard shots across Dustin's jaw. Vader bomb 2! Dustin kicks out! Vader comes off the second rope and Dustin powerslams him. Slugfest. Dustin gets the edge but Vader won't go down. Dustin lariat off the top for 2. He sets Vader up top, maybe thinking superplex, but goes for an avalanche DDT instead. Cover for 2. Bulldog! Race gets on the apron to distract everyone. Dustin goes for him. Vader charges and squashes Dustin between himself and Race! Wheelbarrow slam! That's a new one. Vader covers for 3. See, sometimes it really is as simple as throwing two of your best workers together, giving them decent time and letting them have at it. ***3/4

After the bell Vader wants to do more damage but Jim Duggan comes out to make the save. He and Vader stand off but Race holds Vader back and they leave.

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan (c) def "Stunning" Steve Austin by DQ in :54- Before they can do much of anything Vader runs back in and attacks Duggan, drawing the DQ. I guess the show was running long. Duggan chases him off with the 2x4. Austin was nothing but a hanger on for this as he continues to slowly be pushed into obscurity despite the fantastic work he'd consistently been doing for several years. But Hogan said he'd never draw and Bischoff agreed, so we can't have him here. NR

 

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan, Sting and Dave Sullivan (w/Jimmy Hart) def The Three Faces of Fear in 10:55- Mr. T is guest reffing this once again, this time in his pajama ref stripes and nightcap. That look for some reason makes me think of a character on an NES game cover but I'll be damned if I can remember what it was. Hogan's team are all in yellow and red and both he and Dave have Sting facepaint on. Well, Dave has his Eugene-like version. The brawl starts almost immediately but Buffer still has to get his line in. Hogan and Kevin are in the ring while everyone else fights on the floor. Hogan with a corner clothesline and he runs Kevin into Sting's boot. Sting tags in and hits a backdrop, dropkick and elbow drop. Dave's wandering around talking to the crowd and not even paying attention to the match. Butcher and Avalanche have had enough, run in and triple team Hogan. All 6 guys get in to fight while T tries to get some control. Avalanche splashes Dave's arm and he's hurt. A trainer helps him to the back and now it's a handicap match. With Dave in there it pretty much was to start with anyway. Avalanche beats Hogan down in the ring. Hogan tries a slam and fails. The heels keep Hogan in peril. Hogan dodges an Avalanche, er, avalanche but doesn't tag. Instead he tries again for a slam and Avalanche falls on him for 2. Sullivan hits chops off the second rope. Hogan ends up in the heel corner again. Avalanche locks in a bear hug to kill a couple of minutes. Hogan punches out, hits a shoulderblock and clothesline but Avalanche doesn't go down. Butcher trips Hogan. Avalanche hits his powerslam. Hogan dodges a splash and tags Sting. Stinger Splashes on Avalanche. He presses Kevin into Avalanche. Avalanche catches Kevin and uses him to back Sting into the opposite corner. Kevin gives Sting a kneedrop off the second rope and a double stomp. Avalanche powerslam and legdrop. Cover, Hogan breaks the pin up. Sting slams Kevin off the top rope. Tag to Hogan. With Butcher the legal man in the ring. Theoretically this is what everyone wants to see. Theoretically. It quickly turns into a DONNYBROOK. Kevin gets Hart's megaphone. He goes to hit Hogan with it but T cuts him off. Kevin goes down and Hogan covers him for 3. Did he hit himself with the megaphone or something? That made no sense. We're 3 for 3 in ugly finishes in tag matches tonight, even by WCW standards. That was not what I would call hot build for a major PPV. 3/4*

After the bell the heels resume the attack. Kevin hits Hogan with the megaphone and Butcher slaps his sleeper on Hogan. Some doofuses from the face locker room try to make the save but get taken out. Finally security gets Butcher off Hogan after the sleeper had been on long enough for commentary to worry about long term damage. Hogan is coming to as the show ends.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The Vader/Dustin match is a surprising little gem in a sea of shit, but you gotta row through a lot of shit to get to it. It's not enough to make the rest of the listlessness of this show worth watching.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+

NXT Takeover: London

Legacy Review

NXT Takeover: London

December 15, 2015 from The SSE Arena Wembley in London

Commentary: Rich Brennan, Corey Graves & Byron Saxton

NXT is on their first international tour in the UK, and they figured why not have a Takeover while they're at it? The atmosphere is electric as you'd expect with a crowd full of UK football hooligans.

We get another dark arena in-ring Triple H promo start. Trips references getting his ass kicked last Sunday, he was murdered by Roman Reigns the last PPV as part of their ongoing feud leading to their main event match at the next Wrestlemania. Fortunately he got better, just like getting over being turned into a newt.

Asuka def Emma (w/Dana Brooke) in 14:49- Asuka took out one half of the Emma/Brooke duo in her debut at the last Takeover, but they couldn't let the issue die so now Asuka gets to take out the other one. The crowd is all kinds of into Asuka. Emma ducks a lockup. Asuka swings a kick and Emma hides in the ropes. Basic exchange and Emma dodges a dropkick. Hammerlock exchange. Emma rolls around but can't get Asuka to break. They do another long run of standing switches before Emma has enough and hits a back elbow. Both women hit the ropes and Asuka takes Emma down by the arm and tries to cinch in a Fujiwara armbar. Emma gets to the ropes and rolls out. Asuka hip attack off the apron! Brooke distracts and Emma hits a shotgun dropkick that knocks Asuka off the apron. Another shotgun dropkick in the ring for 2. Emma stretches out Asuka's arms in a submission hold. Asuka tries to roll over but Emma cradles her for 2. The crowd continues to come up with new ways to chant "Asuka". You have to love UK crowds. Emma hooks on a full nelson. Asuka back elbows out and does a backslide for 2. Emma turns her around into a clothesline for 2. Hard corner whips for Asuka. Brooke is shouting her head off from ringside. You can hear everything like she's got Jimmy Hart's megaphone. Asuka tries to reverse a corner whip. Emma blocks and slaps her! Uh oh. Asuka hops up to the second rope and hits a missile dropkick. On the knees slugfest. Asuka dropkick and kick combo. She lights Emma up with rapid fire strikes. Hip attack and yes kicks. Emma grabs her leg. Another slap. Emma ducks the spinning back fist response, gets a leg takedown and jackknife cover for 2. Asuka hits the spinning back fist! Another hip attack for 2. Emma dodges in the corner, goes over the top rope and wraps Asuka in the tarantula. She double underhook suplexes Asuka into the corner! Emma sandwich! Cover for 2. She sets up for the Emmalock. Asuka grabs her ankle and turns it over into an ankle lock! Emma stands up and tries to get free, so Asuka grabs her waist and hits a German suplex! Running kick for 2. She goes for the Asuka Lock. Emma fights it being fully applied and the ref gets squashed in the corner. Brooke takes off her belt and slides it to Emma. Asuka sees it and they fight for it. Asuka wins that, but Emma sees the ref get back up, drops down and tries the old Eddie Guerrero trick. While Asuka is arguing with the ref Emma rolls her up for 2. Asuka transitions it straight into the Asuka Lock! Brooke tries to get in and the ref goes over to stop her. Emma taps out and Asuka lets go, but the ref didn't see it. Emma gets the belt. Asuka sees her coming and hits a spinning kick to the head! That gets the pin. Another great outing for Asuka, and Emma continues to show new life with her heel character. After a couple more losses to Asuka Emma would move back up to the main roster early the following year and again do nothing of note other than the legendary Emmalina disaster before her release in late 2017. ***3/4

British wrestling legend Johnny Saint is in the crowd. He would be heavily involved in NXT UK after it started, both behind the scenes and as the on-screen GM.

 

NXT Tag Team Championship: Dash and Dawson (c) def Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady (w/Carmella) in 14:58- The UK crowd REALLY loves Enzo and Cass. Dash and Dawson targeted and hurt Cass' knee old school style during the build. There's no issue with it at the start but it's something to bank away for later. Enzo and Dawson start with a crazy rough lockup. Dawson hits a punch and locks on a headlock. Dash tags in with some big European uppercuts. Enzo slides between Dash's legs and in the same motion does a single leg takedown. Nice. Then he faceplants Dash. Cass pounds Dash down in the corner. After a whip Dash grabs the top rope and bails to the floor. Enzo follows, dodges and Dash clotheslines the post. E&C targets the hurt arm. Cass hooks on an armbar and taunts Dawson. The crowd serenades Cass with a full song. Dash dodges an avalanche and the heels pummel Cass in the corner. Long sequence of flying fists to try to get the big man down. Cass hits a double clothesline and presses Dash into Dawson. E&C set the rocket launcher up but Dawson rolls to the floor. Enzo charges and Cass launches him over the top rope onto both heels! Enzo sunset flip back in. Dawson gets a blind tag. Crossbody from Enzo, but Dash grabs him from behind and tosses him to the floor. Enzo hit the apron as he was sliding out and hurt his shoulder. D&D, the perfect old school team, know exactly what to do and start picking it apart. Dawson hits a hammerlock northern lights suplex for 2. They continue to keep the ring cut in half. Dawson basement dropkick and legdrop for 2. After more double teaming Dawson does a slingshot suplex for 2. After some more arm work Enzo counters a backdrop attempt by Dawson. He leaps over to tag....but Dash knocks Cass of the apron just before he can! Front suplex from the heels. The ref makes D&D swap as he didn't see the last tag, and the delay lets Enzo just kick out in time. Dash sets Enzo up top. Enzo fights Dash off. Leaping DDT from the top rope! Tag to Cass! Cass unloads on Dawson. Avalanche. Dawson ducks a big boot. Cass tiltawhirl side slam. Dash breaks the pin up. Cass goozles Dash and pushes him 360 over the top to the floor. While he's distracted with that Dawson chop blocks him from behind! There's the knee they worked on the weeks leading up to this becoming important again. Dash hooks on a reverse figure four. Enzo comes in but Dawson cuts him off with a clothesline. Cass fights in the hold a long time and finally manages to get to the ropes. Dawson goes up top but Enzo pushes him off. Cass rolls Dawson up for 2. Big boot on Dash! The rocket launcher hits! Dawson pulls Enzo off the pin just in time before 3! Cass gets in his face and he hides behind Carmella. Carmella slaps Dawson! Cass charges, but Dawson pushes him hard into the post! Enzo gets up top in the ring. Dawson goes up top with him. SUPER SHATTER MACHINE! Pin and it's over. The crowd is not happy. Once again Enzo and Cass come up short in a Takeover tag title match. The soon to be Revival carried them to their best match ever, one of the first of their many masterclasses in tag team wrestling. Clink me. Top guys, out. ****

 

Baron Corbin def Apollo Crews in 11:41- Crews tossed Corbin out in a #1 contender's battle royale, then Corbin interfered in Crews' title match, and the whole feud snowballed from there. This continues Corbin's unofficial position as the resident "anti-indie" heel, a role he was perfectly placed in. Crews also showed some fire during the feud, something he had been lacking to this point. Crews is aggressive in the lockup but Corbin shows better power. Corbin does some jawing and Crews charges. After a shoulderblock Corbin powders and stalls on the floor. Back in Corbin weathers another storm, hits a knee to the gut and gives Crews buckle shots all around the ring. Crews slips out of a slam. Corbin blocks a roll up. Crews ducks a clothesline and hits a dropkick. Corner charge, and Corbin backdrops Crews over the top down to the floor. Crews crashes on the stairs on the way down. Corbin: "How you feeling now? You should have stayed in Ring of Honor! You should have stayed in little gyms!". And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Baron Corbin's peak moment in NXT. I remember I laughed so hard watching this live when he said that, even as a very pro-indie guy who'd rather watch an incredible wrestling show in a gym with 50 people than a crappy one in a full football stadium. Corbin rolls Crews back in just to throw him out again. Crews tries a sunset flip but Corbin punches him in midair. Corner tackles and big boot from Corbin. The crowd gets on Corbin as the methodical beatdown continues. Crews tries a springboard crossbody off the second rope. Corbin catches him. Crews works it into a small package for 2. Another hard corner whip and Corbin soaks in the crowd's hate. Backbreaker. Corbin lifts Crews up for either a powerbomb or Canadian backbreaker but legit falls down. He recovers and charges. Crews dodges and Corbin flies to the floor. Back in Crews does a takedown and lays in some ground and pound while the crowd chants "botchamania" for Corbin's fall earlier. Corbin rolls out again and Crews tackles him on the floor. Apron moonsault! Crews clotheslines in the ring. But he runs into a Corbin deep six! Cover for 2. Corbin sets up End of Days. Crews flips through it and hits an enzuguri! Standing moonsault! Cover for 2. Crews goes for the toss powerbomb he'd been using lately but Corbin grabs the top rope to block it. End of Days! Corbin gets the pin! Despite the fact they clearly wanted to push Crews hard when he signed it's hard to argue the right guy didn't win. Corbin is slowly but steadily improving in all aspects of his game. It's another disappointing Takeover performance from Crews in what was becoming a pattern. Crews moved down to a midcard guy after this to hone his craft a bit more and wasn't booked for the next Takeover, but then was a surprise main roster callup on the Raw after Wrestlemania. **1/4

Video package for Sami Zayn, who's returning from injury next week. Earlier tonight, Nia Jax was promoing and was interrupted by Asuka staring at her. Fuck her up Asuka, fuck her up.

 

NXT Women's Championship: Bayley (c) def Nia Jax in 13:16- For the first time since the very first Takeover there's a non-4 Horsewoman in the women's title match. Jax debuted the week after the last Takeover and had been getting the huge monster push, muderizing everyone in her path. Fortunately I don't think she had injured anyone for real. Yet. Needless to say, London loves Bayley. The chants in this match are legendary. Bayley is in dodge mode early. She tries a crucifix into a roll up but Jax scoops her up and tosses her into the corner. More dodges with some hammy kicks and back elbows. Jax grabs a waistlock and tosses Bayley across the ring. Bayley lays in some forearms. Jax shrugs them off and hits a shoulderbreaker. Cobra clutch from Jax. Bayley fades then fights out. Jax spins her around and hooks it on again. After Bayley hangs on for a bit Jax lets go and tries a short clothesline. Bayley ducks. Dragon sleeper while on Jax's back! Jax backs into a corner. Bayley hits leaping back elbows in the corner. Jax lifts her onto her back. Bayley fights free and hits a dropkick to the knee. Jax goes down to one knee. Bayley hits a series of back elbows off the second rope but Jax won't go down. On the last one Jax pushes her down in midair. She goozles, but Bayley uses it to hook in a triangle choke! Jax lifts her up and sets her on the top rope. Bayley fights her off. Senton off the top! She covers, but Jax's kickout sends her all the way to the floor. Back in Jax hits the pop up Samoan drop, which has been her finisher. She takes her time on the cover. Bayley kicks out! Another Samoan. A third one. A legdrop. Cover with one foot. Bayley kicks out again! Jax hits avalanches in the corner and tosses Bayley across the ring. Legdrop on Bayley's arm, then THREE legdrops to the back of Bayley's head. Two hand cover. Bayley kicks out again! Bayley uses the ropes to slowly get back up. Another avalanche. The ref checks on her. Jax sets Bayley up top and sets up for a super Samoan drop. Bayley hooks on a guillotine! She gets Jax in the center of the ring! Jax hits a spinebuster. Another guillotine! Another spinebuster! Another guillotine! Jax goes down to a sitting position! Bayley cranks back hard. Jax fights and fights but eventually she has no choice but to tap out! Simple and pretty effective big man vs little man formula. It's got a bit of a Sting vs Vader vibe to it. Of course Bayley is Sting no problem, but we'd learn over the following months and years that Jax is no Vader. ***1/4

 

NXT Championship: Finn Balor (c) def Samoa Joe in 18:22- Like the Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn feud earlier in the year this is feeding off these guys' real life, non-WWE history, saying a 10 year friendship has been fractured. After they managed to coexist long enough to win the Dusty Classic, Joe asked Balor for a title shot. He was quickly cockblocked by GM William Regal, who said they need to go through a process to determine a #1 contender. Later on weekly TV Joe said screw your process and laid Balor out. In addition to being mad at Regal Joe also thought Balor was dodging him. It was a very organic, logical and realistic turn. Balor demanded the match and here we are. This is the show we get the awesome Jack the Ripper themed Demon entrance, being in London and all. Feeling out start with Joe getting a couple of takedowns. Dueling chants with a 50/50 crowd. A Balor dropkick sends Joe to the floor. Baseball slide. Apron PK. Balor rolls Joe in and Joe rolls right back out the other side. Balor follows and stays aggressive. Shotgun dropkick into the steps. He sets Joe up on the steps and goes for a double stomp but Joe dodges. Uranage on the floor! Joe pounds away back in the ring. Balor counters with forearms. Joe floors Balor with a forearm. Avalanche/enzuguri combo in the corner. Forearm slugfest. Joe tackles Balor and does a chop/kick/kneedrop combo sequence for 2. More corner jabs and a running boot scrape in the corner. Joe breaks out a Mongolian chop and European uppercuts. Balor tries to come back and charges but Joe gives him an inverted atomic drop and big boot. Balor dodges a senton. Corner enzuguri from Balor. He tries to leap off the apron but Joe pushes him to the floor. Joe TOPE SUICIDA! MAMMA MIA! That was like a scrawny QB getting killed by a 280 pound linebacker. Joe rolls Balor back in and covers for 2. Powerbomb from Joe for 2. He holds onto the legs and transitions into a Boston crab, then a crossface. Balor reaches for the ropes so Joe grabs the other arm and pulls it back. Balor twists and gets a foot on the ropes. Balor ducks a short clothesline. DDT! Flying burrito forearm. Signature running corner chops from Balor. Joe hits a back elbow counter. He goes up to the second rope but Balor knocks him to the floor with an enzuguri. Tope con hilo! Double stomp to Joe's back for 2. Rapid fire strikes from Balor. Slingblade! John WOOOO....no, Joe dodges! Senton! He sets up for the muscle buster. Balor just manages to squirt free and rolls Joe up for 2. Pele kick. Both guys are down. Kudos to the refs tonight for staying on count when the crowd is counting one number ahead. Crazy UK crowd. Back and forth slugfest. Joe blocks a Pele kick. Coquina clutch! Balor escapes to the corner. Joe blocks an apron kick, drags Balor back in and hooks the clutch on fully. Balor rolls out and hits Joe with a double stomp! Both guys are down again. Balor is up with a slingblade! John WOOOOO dropkick! A second one! Joe won't go down! John WOOOO to Joe's back! Now he's down. Balor goes up top. Joe gets up and tries for the muscle buster again. Balor blocks that and both guys are up top. Balor chops Joe down. Coupe de Gracie! That gets the pin! Hell of a match. This had a very indie/New Japan/non-WWE feel to the way it was laid out, especially the finish sequence, in a very positive way. As Balor celebrates Joe stares daggers at him while being helped out. This isn't over. ****1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Another good Takeover to close the year out, but one that doesn't get remembered as well as other ones, possibly because of the lack of title changes or big debuts. The crazy London crowd bumps it up a notch. As 2015 comes to an end NXT is unquestionably the hottest thing in professional wrestling (the Bullet Club/Elite/Omega vs Okada fueled rise of New Japan as a legitimate international force was still a little bit down the road). 2016 will see them take that growth and continue to build on it to even more heights, and bring in a lot more big names we never thought we'd see in a WWE ring.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A-