Commercial Tape 6/15/93 Tokyo Ota-ku Taiikukan
-1hr 35min. Q=Master
All items on this list are $4 for each single DVD, $7 for double DVD sets (anything from 2:05 through 4hr), or $10 for triple DVD sets (anything from 4:05 to 6hr) as long as you either order at least two disks from this list or order one with with at least 1 regular price DVD.
Strong Style 11/22/97
Dr. Wagner Jr vs. Norio Honaga
The Great Muta vs. Tadao Yasuda
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Hiro Saito vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Akira Nogami
Shinya Hashimoto & Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima vs. Osamu Kido & Tatsutoshi Goto & Michiyoshi Ohara
Strong Style 11/29/97
Chris Jericho vs. Yutaka Yoshie
Takayuki Iizuka & Osamu Kido vs. Kengo Kimura & Akitoshi Saito
Hiro Saito vs. Michiyoshi Ohara
Wild Pegasus vs. Dr. Wagner, Jr.
12/26/90 Hamamatsu Arena
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Negro Casas. Joined in progress
Keiji Muto vs. Tiger Jeet Singh
Lou Thesz vs. Masahiro Chono
Masa Saito vs. Nick Bockwinkel
IWGP Tag Title Match: Kensuke Sasaki & Hiroshi Hase vs. Super Strong Machine & Hiro Saito
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Satoshi Kojima 9:24. Kojima returned from his tour of CWA, where they taught him to wrestle just like Tenzan, who had worked there the year before. Thus, you had two guys using the same spots on each other. Pretty good match, but Kojima didn't get over. **1/4
Masahiro Chono vs. Shiro Koshinaka 9:49. Good sprint. Chono did a lot of spots here, not just relying on timing to get him by. Koshinaka looked good, but the match didn't have the drama or excitement of the typical Shiro match. Koshinaka went over, setting him up to challenge Takada, who he had a great feud with over the IWGP Jr. title in the mid 1980's. **3/4
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 9:18. Yamazaki's arms were stung blocking Hashimoto's initial onslaught of kicks, so Yamazaki decided this was a successful tactic, firing back with his legs then working the arm to set up the armbar or wakigatame. A nice, solid and stiff match with good believability. The main problem was it was way too short. The result is logical as Hashimoto going over Takada's old top UWF/UWF-I rival sets him up for the title shot on 4/29/96. However, there's no real transition from the body to the finish. Hashimoto just gets pissed off, and once he Hulks up, Yamazaki doesn't have a prayer. ***
Hiroshi Hase vs. Kensuke Sasaki 16:36. This was supposed to be Hase's retirement match, taking on his old partner. Luckily it didn't turn out to be because I'd hate to see him go out with a match this sub par. Sasaki sucked and Hase was in the worst condition of his life after a long layoff, so he couldn't carry him. *1/2
Inoki Final Countdown 5: Antonio Inoki vs. Vader 14:16. Perhaps the most shocking top notch match ever. Vader was wrestling with a shoulder so damaged it required surgery, and the fans would have marked out for Inoki if he simply showed up and exchanged a few headlocks, so you can imagine the kind of pops he got for somehow delivering one of the greatest New Japan heavyweight matches of the decade. The nearly 53-year-old legend hadn't had a memorable match in so long I can't remember (8/8/88 vs. Tatsumi Fujinami?). Though Vader was certainly capable of carrying Inoki to a watchable match, no one expected the old man to allow Vader to do whatever it took to have a classic. Vader just brutalized the codger the entire fight, giving him one of the great beatings in history. The highlight of this carnage was a truly devastating released German suplex the old man sold as if it had killed him. Not simply a tremendous performance by Vader, but the one to remember wrestling greatest big man by. Of course, Inoki deserves a ton of credit for agreeing to sustain this kind of punishment when there's no need or reason to. I mean, we might expect Cactus Jack to take this sort of punishment from Vader, but Vader probably put a bigger beating on Inoki than he ever did on Cactus, or perhaps anyone else. ****1/4
#178
Champion Carnival A Block: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Taiyo Kea
Champion Carnival A Block: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Keiji Muto
#179
Champion Carnival B Block: Osamu Nishimura vs. Suwama
Champion Carnival A Block: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada
Kazuaki Mihara vs. Naoki Setoguchi
Ultimo Dragon & Tsubasa vs. Masamune & Orochi
Mixed Gender Tag Match: Dump Matsumoto & Kuishinbo Kamen & Ebessan III & Kyuseininja Ranmaru vs. Takaku Fuke & Miracle Man & Stalker Ichikawa & Kanjuro Matsuyama
Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada & Tadasuke vs. KAZMA & Makoto Oishi & Shiori Asahi
West Gate Pro-Wrestling Offer Match: Small Antonio Inoki & Honey Shinya vs. Lovesexy Rose & Lovesexy Otowaya
Special Match: Riki Kanshu (Kuishinbo Kamen) & Tatsumi Ebenami (Ebessan) vs. Small Antonio Inoki & Honey Shinya
The Bodyguard Debut Match: Zeus vs. The Bodyguard
Osaka Puroresu Title Match: Hideyoshi vs. Billyken Kid
Hiroshi Nagao vs. Yujiro
G1 Climax B Block: Kazuyuki Fujita [8] vs. Togi Makabe [0]
G1 Climax B Block: Shinsuke Nakamura [8] vs. Tatsutoshi Goto [2]
G1 Climax B Block: Manabu Nakanishi [6] vs. Toru Yano [1]
G1 Climax A Block: Hiroyoshi Tenzan [6] vs. Kendo Kashin [4]
G1 Climax A Block: Osamu Nishimura [3] vs. Masahiro Chono [4] 20:55
Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Hirooki Goto
G1 Climax B Block: Hiroshi Tanahashi [3] vs. Yutaka Yoshie [4] 15:01
G1 Climax A Block: Tatsumi Fujinami [4] vs. Minoru Suzuki [3] 10:17
G1 Climax A Block: Toshiaki Kawada [6] vs. Yuji Nagata [2] 26:55
Naofumi Yamamoto & Hiroshi Nagao vs. Hirooki Goto & Akiya Anzawa
G-1 CLIMAX League Matches:
B Block: Yutaka Yoshie vs. Tatsutoshi Goto
A Block: Minoru Suzuki vs. Kendo Kashin 12:17
B Block: Manabu Nakanishi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi 13:50
A Block: Osamu Nishimura vs. Toshiaki Kawada 17:00
A Block: Masahiro Chono vs. Tatsumi Fujinami 11:08
A Block: Yuji Nagata vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan 16:55
B Block: Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Shinsuke Nakamura 6:25
Haruka Eigen Budokan Last Match: Tamon Honda & Kentaro Shiga & Mitsuo Momota vs. Yuhi Sano & Jun Izumida & Haruka Eigen
Low ki & Mushiking Joker & SUWA vs. Dakota & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Mohammad Yone
Nigel McGuinness & Bison Smith & Doug Williams vs. Dark Agents (Masao Inoue & Kishin Kawabata & Akitoshi Saito)
Takeshi Rikio vs. Yoshinari Ogawa
Naomichi Marufuji vs. Akira Taue
Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Takeshi Morishima
Kenta Kobashi vs. KENTA
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takashi Sugiura vs. Minoru Fujita & Ikuto Hidaka
GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Jun Akiyama v Minoru Suzuki
1st Jaja Uma Tournament 1st Round:
Ryo Mizunami vs. Minori Makiba
Arisa Nakajima vs. Hiren
Ayako Sato vs. Misaki Ohata
Sachiko Sendai vs. Mio Shirai
Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Mika Mizunuma
Io Shirai vs. Mayuka Niizeki
Kana vs. DASH Chisako
Tyrannosaurus Okuda vs. Hanako Kobayashi
Devil Masami vs. Ran YuYu 11:35 of 13:42. Devil rekindled her Super Heel gimmick, but this was a compromised version in order to have an actual match with Ran, who was working hard. Devil still stalked around, but wasn't overtly no selling as much. It was more that she'd take but not get knocked off her feet and then fire back when she'd had enough. Ran was very active and aggressive, doing all the moving so Devil didn't have to. When Ran would spend too much time in close proximity, she'd find herself on the wrong end of a bomb or driver. Good start to the match, but then it just ended. Still, it was better than expected. **
AKINO vs. GAMI 5:00 of 14:31. GAMI wrestled seriously, but it was an odd match. They didn't really attempt to damage each other after a certain point. Instead, the entire finishing sequence consisted of them countering into pinning predicaments.
Manami Toyoda & Dynamite Kansai vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto & Misaki Ohata 15:48 of 17:37. Total squash. The IBUKI youngsters occasionally avoided something and got a flying move in, but basically were just there to allow Toyota to run through her moveset. The situation did improve somewhat as the match progressed, but there was never any sense of this being a competition, and why they showed so much of the match was beyond me. The work was fine, as Matsumoto & Ohata were competent takers, but there was no drama whatsoever, and it was just one of those matches where you got the idea really quickly. *1/2
Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU vs. Sonoko Kato & Chikayo Nagashima 21:10. D-FIX is the dark, mindless period of Mayumi Ozaki's career, but this reunion surprisingly produced a classic heel vs. face tag match. It wasn't original, but there would be a lot more good matches if they simply rehashed a logical and dramatic form and kept things under control. Ozaki & KAORU weren't so much in brawling mode as they were simply playing heel, with Police & Mika Nishio making it 4 against 2, and Nagashima & Kato getting brief opportunities to wrestle in between Ozakigun attacking Kato's knee both legally and illegally. They kept things under control, focusing on telling the simple story of Kato being trapped in the ring, bleeding heavily and having her knee debilitated until Nagashima finally made the hot tag. There were a few lame moments, particularly KAORU holding a broken table against Kato's head so Ozaki could repeatedly hit the table with her red staff, only to trip over the ref's back when backing out of the corner, but generally their offense and structuring was pretty effective. ***
~THE WIZARD OF OZ~ OZ Academy Openweight Title Match: Aja Kong vs. Carlos Amano 12:58 of 13:23. I had high hopes, but the match not only lacked the intensity and drama that should have provided the big match feel, it was simply contrived and totally unbelievable. Amano was getting submission lessons from Yoshiaki Fujiwara in preparation for the match. She was effective on the mat, countering into submissions, but lacked other offense that would actually damage Aja, particularly in standup. Amano overdid the whole concept of struggling for the move, to the point she just seemed to be gyrating incessantly. Story wise, they had Kansai handcuff Nishio and Police to the architecture before the match so they couldn't interfere, and Amano had Ozaki sit at ringside so she could witness her defeating Aja firsthand. However, wrestling wise they did nothing to make me believe Carlos could beat Aja, so in the end it was simply a result. If Amano at least won via submission, which was her strategy and the basis of the bout, it would have made some sense and at least been believable that she wasn't that convincing as a whole but found her moment. However, her Carlos goon (jumping headbutt) was a totally unbelievable way to conclude the contest. I'm glad Amano won, but not in a fashion where no one is going to take the result seriously and accept her as the champion. Instead of crafting a match that would help Amano succeed in that role, they instead did a stupid gimmick where Ozaki refused to acknowledge her as champion, ripping the contract up. Amano said Ozaki had gone to far in spoiling her moment of glory, but Ozaki grew increasingly infuriated with her speech and started slapping Amano around until Kansai restrained her. This set up a gauntlet match where Ozaki had to beat 3 wrestlers in a row on 2/10/08 in order to retain her role as principal player in OZ Academy, and, if not, whoever defeats her takes charge. *1/2
AKINO vs. Devil Masami
KAORU vs. Ran YuYu
Tsubasa Kuragaki & Kayoko Haruyama vs. Chikayo Nagashima & Sonoko Kato
Carlos Amano vs. Mayumi Ozaki
Carlos Amano & Aja Kong & Dynamite Kansai vs. Mayumi Ozaki & KAORU & Police
Toshie Uematsu vs. Devil Masami 5:04 of 11:26. Masami carried the match, instilling her methodical pace but allowing Uematsu to play off of it. Though Masami had most of the offense, Uematsu had the element of surprise, as you never knew when she'd come up with a clever counter to one of Masami's power moves. Often these counters were flash pin attempts, and though Uematsu essentially did no damage the entire match, she managed to score the upset with her Solarina.
Ran YuYu & AKINO vs. Manami Toyota & Tomoka Nakagawa 10:20 of 20:17. The fact that Nakagawa was the designated punching bag meant Toyota got to provide most of the offense for her team. The others helped keep the pace high, but only Toyota was delivering many hot moves. Nakagawa was scrappy and spunky though, and Toyota stepped it in an effort to make up for her green partner. Ran & AKINO were good, but below their usual level as neither Toyota nor Nakagawa are ideal opponents to develop their sequences with. Good match.
Aja Kong vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto 9:51 of 12:25. Standard Kong domination. I never thought I'd say this, but I was really impressed with Aja's dropkick. She doesn't get much altitude, but she goes up with her knees bent then kicks them out on contact with her opponent to really send them flying. Matsumoto had good fundamentals and was fairly confident in her abilities. Kong was usually in control, but put Matsumoto over enough to justify Matsumoto talking her way into Kong's new group. Kong formed this army with Leader Ran YuYu, Captain AKINO, and Queen Manami Toyota after the match. They gave Matsumoto a bit of trouble before accepting her, then Aja jokingly named her the group's Ace. *1/2
KAORU vs. Sonoko Kato 13:10 of 16:49. With the rest of D-FIX banned, Kato was able to brawl with KAORU without having to worry about the short arm of the law. Though she jumped KAORU at the bell and took it to the outside, she soon decided this wasn't the best tactic, and although Kato bled and KAORU loves her table halves, it wound up mostly being a straight match. Kato was always a step ahead with KAORU making comebacks to more or less even the match. What I liked about it was Kato did a good job of keeping things under control. The pace was slower, so the selling was better, and the action was generally more restrained. I thought this would have been a good opportunity to justify Kato upsetting KAORU. **1/4
Chikayo Nagashima & Hiren vs. Carlos Amano & Dynamite Kansai 15:45 of 16:52. Nagashima recruited Hiren from SENDAI GIRLS. Hiren has only been wrestling two years, but she fit in with the style Nagashima & Amano are trying to wrestle well enough. She has the athleticism, but needs to improve the quickness and fluidity of her sequences. Of course, simply getting enough opportunity to become familiar with the opposition will make a great deal of difference in her future ability to work with them. Nagashima vs. Amano was the main entertainment, but Hiren & Kansai at least contributed. Hiren was holding Kansai off for quite a while as Nagashima tried to finish Amano, but when Nagashima hit her rolling footstomp, Hiren began stomping her own partner to break up the pin! Suddenly, the lights went out and when they came back on, Nagashima was handcuffed and the banned D-FIX wrestlers were doing a number on Amano. Ozaki & Police beat on Amano until Hiren was able to pin her then Ozaki announced Hiren was the newest member of D-FIX. The match would have been a nice opener, but would have been hard to get excited about as a main event if they went all out for 25 minutes, much less when they were simply doing enough to get it near the finish so the angle could prevent just that. Ozaki needs to stop watching WWE! **1/4
Michiku Omukai LLPW Mat Debut Match: Michiku Omukai vs. Mizuki Endo 1:11 of 8:07. You’d think LLPW would want to promote their new wrestler in some way, but they simply showed the finish. Thus, Omukai had no real offense, just two counters into pin attempts.
LLPW Nintei Single Oja Kettei (Recognized Single Crown Decision) Tournament B Block 1st Round: Yukari Osawa vs. Michiko Nagashima 1:10 of 19:02
Harley Saito & Utako Hozumi vs. Kurenai Yasha & Midori Saito 9:01 of 13:48. In 1993 there were very few experienced women who weren’t solid very competent workers. This was a very ordinary match for the period, with consistent quality action but lacking anything to make it notable or memorable. No one outshined the others, which in a sense is a bad thing given Harley was at least an excellent worker at this point. They didn’t bother with a finishing segment, and the end came off that much worse as Midori kicked out of what was called the finisher.
LLPW Nintei Single Oja Kettei Tournament A Block 1st Round: Mikiko Futagami vs. Noriyo Tateno 5:33 of 13:39. Good story match. Tateno had a giant brace on her right knee to go along with an ankle injury. She was either in really bad shape or doing the worlds best selling job as she wasn’t even moving at all. Futagami took the action to her, immediately attacking the bad knee, which prompted Tateno to ditch her right boot. This didn’t prove helpful, as Gami quickly put the boots to her foot and worked an ankle lock. Tateno’s only offense was countering Futagami’s la magistral for the win. I wish they showed more, as it appeared quite well thought out and executed.
Dantai Taikosen LLPW vs. Zenjo: Eagle Sawai & Leo Kitamura vs. Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue 18:09 of 22:54. In these days leagues used to understand how to get mileage out of a matchup people cared about seeing. There was major heat for Aja vs. Eagle, so they had them do enough together to keep the audience from feeling cheated while saving everything of note for their future singles match on the 11/28/93 AJW show. Aja attacked her fiercely and mercilessly early on, putting quite a beating on Eagle for such a brief period. Eagle quicky came back when Kyoko tagged in. To even things out, Eagle controlled the second segment against Aja, and that was pretty much the extent of their involvement. This rendered Kyoko the crucial performer, as the lack of Aja vs. Eagle could have been a big disappointment. As Aja & Eagle weren’t going to sell much, and LLPW would be given most of the offense since they were losing, that meant Kyoko had to bear the brunt of it. Doing everything with urgency, Kyoko even dashed into the ropes to get crushed on the rebound. She delivered a peak performance to make the match, elevating both Eagle & Leo’s games a few notches. Leo was the obvious bump girl and jobber, but she made a good showing, using her quickness and athleticism to sneak a pretty good flying move in before succumbing to the latest pounding. Even when you knew she was about to be pinned, she made it difficult, countering Aja’s nadare shiki no suisha otoshi and Kyoko’s Niagara driver with sunset flips. ***3/4
Dantai Taikosen LLPW vs. Zenjo: Shinobu Kandori & Rumi Kazama & Miki Handa vs. Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda 11:24 of 18:05. A series of quick exchanges, rotating everyone in and out to keep the pace high. Though they weren’t overly familiar with each other, they worked a complex match built around repeated counters. Kandori was turning the opposition’s offense into a variety of submissions, including a few wakigatames that she put over as though she was trying to rip the enemy’s arm off. Kandori is a better seller than she’s given credit for, as she has an awkwardness to her reactions and falls that lend a less choreographed feel. Rumi got the push her, pinning the top AJW wrestler she was facing, and more importantly Akira Hokuto’s longtime partner, Suzuka Minami as part of her push to their hair vs. hair match on the 11/9/93 LLPW show. It’s hard to figure why they’d cut so much from a high quality interpromotional main event. ***1/2
6/29/93 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Michiko Omukai vs. Midori Saito 0:44 of 7:52
Harley Saito & Yukari Osawa vs. Mizuki Endo & Michiko Nagashima 2:18 of 15:30
LLPW Nintei Single Oja Kettei Tournament B Block 1st Round: Utako Hozumi vs. Miki Handa 6:44 of 24:55. Hozumi is one of the marketable talents LLPW managed to completely squander. One would think a league where none of the stars had any sex appeal might do someone with one of the best looking women ever to compete, especially since she was also a good wrestler. Hozumi was a better worker than Cuty Suzuki, who was so crucial to JWP becoming the more watched promotion once the original league splintered into two. She kept herself in great shape to the point her strength and endurance were apparent, which not only bode well for this long match, but also would have against the larger headliners, as Hozumi could do her suplexes to them without them having to do the big exaggerated jump. Though Handa had yet to find her calling as an infuriating heel, she was already quite a capable wrestler in her own right. They did a good athletic match mixing flying with nice bridging suplexes.
LLPW Nintei Single Oja Kettei Tournament A Block 2nd Round: Shinobu Kandori vs. Kurenai Yasha 3:44 of 4:27. Yasha stood on the turnbuckle posing as Kandori came out, so Kandori threw her shirt at her and darted into the ring only to have Kurenai pounce on top, blinding her by covering her head with her red robe. Yasha had an early run to get over, but as they typically did with her early in her push since she wasn’t much good, she lost as soon as the star opponent went on offense.
Eagle Sawai & Mikiko Futagami vs. Noriyo Tateno & Yoshika Maedomari 2:35 of 14:53. Shark Tsuchiya did a run in when Futagami had Tateno in trouble, breaking up a pin and delivering her powerbomb. Later, Shark took Eagle out so Tateno and her buddy Crusher could double team Futagami for the finish.
3/17/93 Iwate
Blackman & El Sagrado vs. Super Delfin & Rocky Santana. Digest
The Great Sasuke & Kendo vs. El Signo & El Rudo. Digest
12/10/93 Iwate Kenmin Taiikukan
Jinsei Shinzaki & Damian (666) vs. Predator & Yone Genjin
12/11/93
Terry Boy vs. Sabu. Digest
Gran Naniwa vs. Damien. Digest
2/4/94 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
TAKA vs. Yone Genjin. Genjin used a bunch of illegal moves, so TAKA returned the favor. TAKA tried to wrestle, but there's only so much you can do with Genjin. TAKA was good. Match was ok, but poor for a TAKA match.
3/4/94 Osaka Rinkai Sports Center
TAKA Michinoku vs. Monkey Magic. Digest
The Great Sasuke & Terry Boy & Shiryu vs. Jinsei Shinzaki & Gran Naniwa & Yone Genjin. Some good comedy and playing to the crowd. Cool spots including a lot of dives. Good match.
4/29/94 Tokyo Ota-ku Taiikukan
Wellington Wilkins Jr. vs. Yone. They brawled into the parking lot with Genjin getting knocked off a bridge into the water. Poor match.
SATO & Shiryu & Kendo vs. Delfin & Naniwa & Rams. Digest
7/30/94 Iwate
TAKA Michinoku vs. Jado
The Great Sasuke & Ultimo Dragon vs. Jinsei Shinzaki & Gedo. Digest
9/15/94 Fukushima Shi Taiikukan: Terry Boy vs. Jinsei Shinzaki. Terry piledrives Shinzaki on a ping pong table
9/29/94 Aomori Kenmin Taiikukan: The Great Sasuke vs. Shinjiro Otani. Otani attacks Sasuke's arm and Sasuke sells it well. Very good match, but actually could have used more spots.
10/30/94 Iwate: Sato & Terry Boy & Shiryu vs. Jinsei Shinzaki & TAKA Michinoku & Gran Naniwa. Digest
11/15/94 Iwate: Yoshiaki Fujiwara & The Great Sasuke vs. Jinsei Shinzaki & Gran Naniwa. Digest
12/15/94 Aichi Nagoya Shi Taiikukan:
R. Shachihoku vs. Yone Genjin
Sato & Terry Boy & Shiryu vs. Jinsei Shinzaki & Super Delfin & Gran Naniwa
The Great Sasuke vs. TAKA Michinoku
12/17/94 Fukushima Shimin Taiikukan
Hanzo Nakajima vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa. Digest
Gran Hamada & The Great Sasuke vs. Sato & Shiryu
Jinsei Shinzaki & TAKA Michinoku vs. Super Delfin & Gran Naniwa
Note: Part of every (or at least close) match is shown, but I'm only listing the complete matches here
7/27 Iwate
The Great Sasuke vs. Gran Naniwa
Super Delfin vs. Gorgota Cross (Jerry Lynn)
8/12 Yamagata Shi: The Great Sasuke vs. Super Delfin
8/13
The Great Sasuke vs. The Convict (Sergio "Super Boy" Torres)
Super Delfin vs. Gran Naniwa
8/18 Yamagata: Dos Caras vs. Super Delfin
8/23 Aomori-ken Mutsu Shi: The Great Sasuke vs. Dos Caras
8/24 Aomori-ken: Super Delfin vs. Mongolian
8/25 Aomori-ken Aomori Shi
Mascara Contra Mascara: Gran Naniwa vs. Gorgota Cross. Excellent match. Naniwa's mask ripped
Fukumen World League Yushosen: The Great Sasuke vs. Dos Caras. Sasuke cracks his skull the 1st time.
10/13/91 Chiba
Super Strong Machine vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
10/18/91 Hiroshima Sun Plaza
Hiroyoshi Yamamoto (Tenzan) vs. Takeshi Misawa
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Pegasus Kid. From a work standpoint, this was everything you could ask for from a junior match. Every move was precisely executed. The offense was stiff and "believable," and they didn't waste any motion. Toward the finish they were constantly countering each other in such a natural manner. The finish was lame though, not the move itself, that was great. The problem was it basically came out of nowhere, and the guy who was pinned had taken so little after dishing out so much. ****1/4
6/20/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
El Samurai & Black Cat vs. Pimpinella Escarlatas & May Flowers. The WWF is usually less disgraceful than the transvestites in this match were.
8/3/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Kensuke Sasaki & Takayuki Iizuka & El Samurai vs. Keiji Muto & & Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Chono
9/10/92 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Riki Choshu & Takayuki Iizuka & Koji Kanemoto & Hiroyoshi Yamamoto vs. Kengo Kimura & Shiro Koshinaka & Masashi Aoyagi & Akitoshi Saito
10/18/92 Makuhari Messe
Riki Choshu vs. Tony Halme
9/10/92 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Masa Chono
Black Cat vs. Hiroyoshi Yamamoto. Tenzan, who had almost completed one full year of wrestling, looked to weigh about 180 pounds here. Even though he had no move set, Cat gave him loads of offense. They didn't diddle around, and the fans got into the match mainly for this no wasting time attitude and the young lion putting up a good fight. *3/4
Jushin Thunder Liger & Masashi Aoyagi & AKIRA vs. Super Strong Machine & Hiro Saito & Norio Honaga. High impact match with some flying from Liger & Nogami and lots of roughhousing from the Blond Outlaws. Hardly a classic Liger match, but this one is special to me because it was the 2nd time I saw him and the first time I saw the others. I marked out for moves like Machine's guerrila press into stomachbreaker, Hiro's vicious sidewalk slam and senton off the 2nd, Liger's nadare shiki no doublearm suplex and single leg dropkick to counter Honaga & Saito's double press, & AKIRA's Dragon suplex hold. ***1/4
Shin Nihon vs. WCW Tag Match: Masa Saito & Kim Duk vs. Dusty Rhodes & Dusty Rhodes, Jr. Bad and boring match. Copperdust gave his typical bland performance, while Duk used his riveting nerve holds. Dusty aged like rotten eggs, stunk more every day. His charisma came off more as comedy, but laughing at this match with it's flubs, mistiming, and consistently poor wrestling was the only way it could be tollerated. DUD
Super Power Special Match: Tony Halme vs. Scott Norton. Plodding deliberate match. These guys desperately need someone to carry them. They can do there moves okay, but that's about it. The fans were totally pro Norton even to the point of booing Halme when he posed and bragged. The fans popped huge when Norton bulled Halme off his feet. Halme was cut on the forehead. It looked like a razor job that didn't achieve the desired effect, but if that's the case it's hard to imagine what the purpose of having blood in this match was. *
Shin Nihon vs. WCW Special Match: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Bill Kazmaier. Kazmaeir was one of those robotic musclemen that were so plentiful in the 80's and early 90's. The fans were into Hashimoto's offense, but Kazmaier didn't do a very good job taking it much less putting it over. *1/4
Special Match: Antonio Inoki vs. Hiroshi Hase. Hase did an excellent job carrying Inoki, but it was short and Inoki didn't put him over enough for the match to be all that great. Technically it was good with some nice transitions. There were a few lame strikes, but the suplexes were good. Obviously it had major heat. There was a totally ridiculous spot where Inoki put Hase out with his illegal masho sleeper in less than 2 seconds. **1/2
Osamu Kido & Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. Kantaro Hoshino & Kengo Kimura. Dated. The final minutes were strong with good near finishes, but for the most part it was solid, well executed, but not particularly interesting wrestling. **
Shin Nihon vs. WCW Tag Match: Shiro Koshinaka & Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Arn Anderson & Larry Zybyzko. Koshinaka & Anderson were impressive as usual. Zybyzko didn't even waste 2 glorious minutes since it was in Japan, but nonetheless his antics were largely out of place and he did little in the ring. Ohara was even more hopeless in these days where he was more "technical." Had it's moments, but not nearly enough of them. **
Super Heavy Special Match: Big Van Vader vs. El Gigante. Vader, who was only up to Gigante's chest, tried, but you can't do much with Gigante. Thankfully it was short. The screw job finish was easier to stomach because the only true highlight of the match, Vader letting the steam out of his headpiece onto Gigante, came right after it. *
WCW (NWA) World Heavyweight Title Match: Lex Luger vs. Masahiro Chono. Luger came to fight, but his fire didn't totally make up for all his uninteresting and lame offense like the annoying test of strength. All things considered these two worked well together with Chono doing an impressive job of making Luger look "good." The match built pretty well. Fans were into the match, which had good drama. Simple schoolboys and small packages were dramatic because the stakes were high given WCW's big titles still meant something at this point. Even with Chono's excellent performance, it was still better as a spectacle than a wrestling match. **1/2
Dream Tag Match: Sting & Great Muta vs. Scott Steiner & Rick Steiner. Lots of flashy moves without much selling. Steiners threw the opposition all over the place with crazy high impact suplexes, while Muto made up for his lack of size with his explosive quickness. You know this is what you were going to get, so you had to be happy with the match because they executed well and excited the audience. I liked Rick's overhead belly to belly off the 2nd the best of the suplexes. You don't usually see a guy go for a ride on a suplex off the middle rope because holding on protects them some, but Rick just tossed Muto like a sack of potatoes. I also liked the spot where Rick was leaning against the ropes, so Sting press slammed Muta into Rick and both went over the top to the floor. ***1/2
IWGP Heavyweight & Greatest 18 Club Nintei Belt Double Title Match: Riki Choshu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami. These two have much more interesting matches when they are more toward Choshu's brawling style. Choshu doing a technical match, especially at this point, is just boredom with him sitting in the scorpion. The moves were well executed, but they were very basic badly dated moves. *3/4
Kengo Kimura & Osamu Kido & Akira Nogami vs. Tony St. Claire & Brad Armstrong & Black Cat 11:06
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. El Samurai 26:06
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Oz 9:23
Vader vs. Tony Halme 9:18
Antonio Inoki & Hiroshi Hase vs. Rambo & Brad Rheinghans 13:54
Osamu Nishimura vs. Hiroyoshi Yamamoto 10:16
Shiro Koshinaka & Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto 10:34
Pegasus Kid vs. Tiger Mask 12:56
SS Machine vs. Masahiro Chono 14:34. Digest
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Riki Choshu vs. Keiji Muto 15:55
2/3 Falls NJ vs. WAR 10 Man Tag Match: Tatsumi Fujinami & Riki Choshu & Osamu Kido & Hiroshi Hase & Takayuki Iizuka vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara & Takashi Ishikawa & Hiromichi Fuyuki & Koki Kitahara. This is the heavyweight match to get you excited about the NJ vs. WAR program, in many ways a superb early in the series interpromotional match that served the purpose of making you want to see the various NJ vs. WAR possibilities in addition to being an excellent match. However, it also shows the fault in Choshu's booking valuing destroying the other leagues credibility by having them lose two straight falls (and both to him!) over long term business. Given who was involved you probably couldn't have asked for a better match. Heated intense stiff fast paced match with quick tags to get the most out of everyone. Hase & Iizuka were in top form, troopers who made it good no matter whom the opponent. Choshu wasn't in much, but it was a great example of how effective he can be at instigating, building rivalries, and generating heat. When he first came in he elbowed the legal man Fuyuki, but followed through with an elbow to Ishikawa on the apron. Later Tenryu saved Kitahara from Iizuka's submission with a soccer kick, so Choshu was right in there with a scowl kicking Kitahara in the back. Fujinami was the peer Tenryu targetting, selling more than you'd expect early on and turning in a good performance. They pounded on Hara's head in the 2nd fall, busting him open hardway then doing their best to open the cut up further. WAR was pretty much carried though Tenryu and Kitahara had their moments and Hara gave everything he had. Tenryu was injured by Kido's wakigatame, and his team held up their end for a while but eventually crumbled without him. ****
Osamu Nishimura vs. Shinjiro Otani. Digest
Yuji Nagata & Hiroyoshi Yamamoto vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima. Digest
Akira Nogami vs. Brad Armstrong. Digest
El Samurai vs. Masao Orihara
Jushin Thunder Liger & Ultimo Dragon vs. Hiro Saito & Norio Honaga
Tatsutoshi Goto & Super Strong Machine vs. Masashi Aoyagi & Kuniaki Kobayashi
IWGP Tag Senshukenjiai: Hellraisers vs. Tony Halme & Matthew Rambo
Masahiro Chono & Keiji Muto & Shinya Hashimoto vs. Great Kabuki & Kengo Kimura & Shiro Koshinaka
El Samurai & Takayuki Iizuka & Akira Nogami vs. Satoshi Kojima & Osamu Nishimura & Hiroyoshi Yamamoto 15:01
Power Struggle All Out War: The Great Kabuki & Masashi Aoyagi & Kuniaki Kobayashi & Shiro Koshinaka & Kengo Kimura vs. Ashura Hara & Takashi Ishikawa & Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto & Super Strong Machine 11:25
Super Explosion Bout: Hawk Warrior & Power Warrior vs. Masahiro Chono & Shinya Hashimoto 12:22
Real Masters of Wrestling: Hiroshi Hase vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 12:11
Super Dream Match Real American: Great Muta vs. Hulk Hogan 15:55
Battle of Young Master: Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Akitoshi Saito 9:26
Rise the Professional: Masa Saito vs. Brutus Beefcake 8:35
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Tiger Mask 14:35
Gold Rush in New Japan: Sting vs. Scott Norton 9:16
Special Climax: Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Riki Choshu & Genichiro Tenryu 26:25