Commercial Tape 6/15/93 Tokyo Ota-ku Taiikukan
-1hr 35min. Q=Master
All items on this list are $6 for each single DVD, $9 for double DVD sets (anything from 2:05 through 4hr), or $12 for triple DVD sets (anything from 4:05 to 6hr)
#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. Billy Ken 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 Yu-Yu 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 Yu-Yu
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 Yu-Yu & 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 Yu-Yu, 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.
Sakie Hasegawa & Chaparrita ASARI vs. Leo Kitamura & Michiko Nagashima 5:19 of 9:28. Exciting fast-paced match. Though LLPW was hosting the show, the crowd was largely behind the AJW team, giving them good pops. Young ASARI was treated well since she was getting pinned. ASARI displayed some of her hot moves, but also looked green.
~Sky Flower Rock~: Manami Toyota vs. Carol Midori 2:50. Literally half the match was the rolling cradle. Toyota just kept it going and going until pinning Midori in it after 1:25. A shame since Midori is a capable wrestler who could have had a good match with Toyota had that been the goal.
~Technical Flash~: Kyoko Inoue vs. Mikiko Futagami 4:01. As with the previous match, this should have been a chance for the LLPW wrestler to step up and allow the great AJW wrestler to carry them to a good match. Unfortunately, the LLPW wrestler was never taken seriously. Kyoko did nothing to help Futagami look good; it was simply AJW flexing their muscles.
~Dream Kickoff~: Toshiyo Yamada vs. Yukari Osawa 1:41. Yamada was fired up, wrestling with the passion we were always hoping to see from her post 1995. Osawa isn't in the league with Futagami or even Midori work wise, but at least this was an exciting squash as Yamada chose to make it more than simply quick.
Aja Kong vs. Miki Handa 4:16 of 6:38. As with her predecessors, Handa had little offense and was just a jobber. Aja was playing cocky heel and showing Handa up.
~Elimination Battle Field~: Yumiko Hotta & Suzuka Minami & Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda & Numacchi vs. Eagle Sawai & Harley Saito & Noriyo Tateno & Kurenai Yasha & Mizuki Endo 17:34 of 26:49. Finally, another real match! Exciting fast-paced action with enough tags that even the weaker wrestlers, who wisely weren't leaned on, looked fine. If you know anything about how LLPW books you can guess this was going to be The Day of the Eagle as they typically allowed all their lesser stars be jobbed out in exchange for pushing their two major wrestlers, Sawai & Kandori. The bottom three LLPW women were quickly dismissed, so Big Bird Sawai could be the hero, propelling her league to an amazing comeback from 4 vs. 2 odds. Eagle actually did a diving body attack, taking out 4 AJW women on the floor before pinning the entire AJW team sans Suzuka in a 2 minute span. Again, this was all to make Eagle look that much more impressive, as it would have been far more dramatic to spread these last falls out, not to mention not saving Numacchi for last. Harley survived, working circles around Sawai as always, but getting none of the glory she deserved. ***1/2
Bull Nakano & Takako Inoue vs. Shinobu Kandori & Utako Hozumi 14:30 of 14:38. Very heated and intense match. Daring match that risked pissing fans off today to build to the pay off when Bull finally had her singles match with Kandori on 7/14/94. What was rather unique is despite the match going almost 15 minutes, they kept Bull & Kandori apart to built anticipation for their meeting to the point they never officially squared off. At 5, Bull lariated Kandori off the apron in between beating on Hozumi. A bit later, Kandori returned the favor, elbowing Bull off the apron, leading to them brawling on the floor. Takako & Hozumi stepped up, so the wrestling was good when they were in even if no one cared as they were minor names who weren't involved in the storyline. Kandori's matches against AJW were by far her best, which isn't surprising given the quality of their wrestlers compared to LLPW's, but that's not the reason. AJW understood Kandori's gimmick worked when she maintained the aura of the dangerous threat who could take someone out at any time, more a mythical tough woman than someone who worked for long stretches (except against the best of the best) or sold. Kandori, of course took Takako out for the win. She also reapplied the wakigatame after the match to garner extra heel heat. ***3/4
Waisha Kamikiri Death Match: Akira Hokuto vs. Rumi Kazama 13:47. Those who want to argue Hokuto as the greatest ever can point to a match like this where she was strapped with an average opponent, but not only made the match live up to its main event billing, she managed to make it at least somewhat memorable. Considering Kazama wasn't allowed to be seen as even a near equal, the match was about as dramatic as it could possibly have been. Hokuto injured Rumi's back right away with a backbreaker and slame on the table. Every subsequent offensive move focused on Rumi's back. Kazama came back attacking Hokuto's bad knee, wrestling a smart and effective match by sticking to her game plan throughout. Sure, Kazama can't work on Hokuto's level, but she can kick an injured knee about as well as anyone. As Hokuto could put injury storylines over with the best of them, by the 12-minute mark you started believing Rumi could take her out at any time. Unfortunately, the match really was nearly over, and to make things worse the knee and back injuries played a dramatically reduced role in the final few minutes. As per the stips, Kazama was sheared after the match. ***3/4
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.
Yone Genjin vs. The Magicman
Michipro vs ECW: Gran Hamada & Tiger Mask vs. Chris Candido & The Convict
Satoru Sayama vs. El Satanico. *1/2
Michipro vs WWF Heavyweight: Hakushi vs. The Undertaker. ½*
Sekigun vs. Kaientai DX 6 Man Tag Match: Super Delfin & Naohiro Hoshikawa & Masato Yakushiji vs. Dick Togo & Men's Teioh & Shoichi Funaki. ****1/4
The Great Sasuke vs. TAKA Michinoku ***1/2
Super Heel Tag: Great Muta & AKIRA vs. Kim Duk & Masanobu Kurisu. Dull methodic brawl. Muto is bad enough as Muta when he's in with an excellent wrestler, but with no talent brawlers like this he just wastes time and does equally unskilled brawling. AKIRA didn't curtail his own ability that much, but this gimmick wreaks of Muta wannabe. Kim Suk was way out of shape. He barely jumped over Muta after Muta did a drop down then on the way back couldn't Duk enough so Muta could leapfrog him despite Muta's crotch being like 6 inches higher than the top rope. Duk did some vicious chops and knife edges, but that was all he could do decently. He bled. They did do a good job of staying on Duk's cut, but they didn't do anything interesting or skilled to it and I can only take so much biting. Kurisu did his FMW routine with the stiff chair shots what little he was in. 1/2*
Hiroshi Hase vs. Tatsumi Fujinami. One of those technical matches that kind of sneaks up on you. It always has a certain quality to it becase the execution is so precise. What makes it so good though is how it builds believably (not in the shoot kinda way) and unpredictably. There were times I thought I had a read on it, like when Hase got frustrated with submissions and began roughing it up, but it didn't go down the obvious path. It was back and forth throughout without many near finishes; the good kind of inconsistent where the eventual ending came off an injury that was attacked but 15 minutes into the match you had no idea who would win or by exploiting what body part. Of course, it was highly technical, but done in an intense matter where even if you don't appreciate submissions you should at least appreciate their effort and drive. The selling was excellent. It was really helped by the precision of the moves; it's just so much easier to buy into their story when sweat is flying off they hit each other. The match was far more toward's Fujinami's style, but showed Hase as a flashier and more charismatic version of Fujinami. The fans were into this, and erupting for the occassional near finish. ****
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 Chiba Makucho (?) 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
Wonderland #568
3/13/93 taped 3/9 Akita Kenritsu Taiikukan
Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai vs. Pegasus Kid & Dean Malenko
4/7/93 taped 4/6 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
Shiro Koshinaka & Kengo Kimura & Akitoshi Saito vs. Koki Kitahara & Hiromuchi Fuyuki & Tatsutoshi Goto & Hiro Saito
Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Kido vs. Ashura Hara & Super Strong Machine
NJ Wonderland #576 taped 6/93 Mie Tsu Shi Taiikukan
Black Cat vs. Satoshi Kojima
Eddy Guerrero vs. Lightning Kid
Pegasus Kid vs. Flying Scorpio
Masahiro Chono & Takashi Iizuka vs. Tony Halme & Bobby Eaton
IWGP Junior Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Dean Malenko. Excellent match. So smooth and fluid. They knew what they wanted to do and they executed to perfection. Of course, in all their wisdom NJ "had to" cut 10 minutes out so they could keep the clips, interviews, and intros and still get the tape over in 1hr. 13:40 of 24:17
Power Struggle of 5 vs. 5: Kengo Kimura & Shiro Koshinaka & Kuniaki Kobayashi & Great Kabuki & Masashi Aoyagi vs. Tatsutoshi Goto & Super Strong Machine & Hiro Saito & Ashura Hara & Norio Honaga. Typical decent large NJ tag where they made quick tags, double teamed often, and kept it moving. Aoyagi was cut immediately, with Honaga getting a huge blood smear on his breast. 4:30 of 18:10.
BATTLE OF DOUBLE DEALER: Power Warrior vs. Keiji Muto. Thankfully, it was Muto and not Muta because then 1 guy could wrestle. The problem with this match, and really any match with Sasaki as Power, is his gimmick doesn't allow him to sell. At this stage, Muto could still be an good bump taker, but that's still disappointing since he's much better offensively than Power. Some nice spots like Power stopping Muto on the top rope, stepping up to the 2nd, and press slamming him to the floor. Muto "injured" his knee on the landing, so Sasaki attacked it. The first half was Power domination, while the 2nd half was more even. Power looked bad bumping when Muto finally went on offense. He was effective when the match was simple, but otherwise his flaws were apparent. Good near finishes though, and the crowd was into it. 20:32 of 23:30. **3/4
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
NJPW Wonderland #588 taped 7/93 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Norio Honaga vs. Shinjiro Otani 10:20. ***
Jushin Thunder Liger & Tokimitsu Ishizawa vs. El Samurai & Osamu Nishimura 15:46. ***
7/14/93 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Tatsumi Fujinami & Masahiro Chono vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara 16:52. ***1/2
NJPW Wonderland #593
taped 8/3/93 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
Brian Knobbs & Jerry Saggs vs. Hawk Warrior & Power Warrior 5:21. 1/2*
Tatsumi Fujinami & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara 10:26. ***1/4
taped 8/8/93 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
SS Machine & Hiro Saito vs. Brian Knobbs & Jerry Saggs 4:09. DUD
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Wild Pegasus 14:35. ****
Yuji Nagata vs. Satoshi Kojima. Basic work with tons of submissions. Nagata looked sharp with big league transition and crispness.
Osamu Kido & Akira Nogami & Takayuki Iizuka vs. Akitoshi Saito & Michiyoshi Ohara & Tatsu Goto. Bad and boring with way too much kicking and punching
Tadao Yasuda vs. El Gigante. No redeeming factors. The worst incarnation of crap. Yasuda was totally dwarfed.
Dream Open Exhibition Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Satoru Sayama. Dream match turned DUD as Sayama didn't want to do anything. So uneventful that they edited it down to 1:22 of 10:00 draw, showing just the "action." Probably Liger's worst match of the 1990's.
WCW International Heavyweight Title Match: Sting vs. Rick Rude. Good match with both men making a good showing. Runway was well utilized. Risky to throw two outsiders out there working American style for 22+ but it worked, and Sting was quite over, and Rude was on top of his game. It was truly an amazing performance by Rude given he broke his back along the way, an injury he's never able to recover from. Rude wins WCW International title.
Tokimitsu Ishizawa & El Samurai vs. Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa. Good match, but no heat. Youngsters were featured and they looked good because Samurai & Otani were carrying them.
Norio Honaga & Hiro Saito & Shinichi Nakano vs. Kengo Kimura & The Great Kabuki & Kuniaki Kobayashi. Punches, kicks, and boredom. Bad even by these guys standards.
Shiro Koshinaka vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu. Another great job by Shiro carrying the over the hill Yatsu to a good, exciting match with hot near falls. Yatsu was really sucking wind.
Masahiro Chono vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Typical bad Fujiwara match
Hiroshi Hase vs. Riki Choshu. Good sprint. Work was a lot better than you'd expect from a Choshu match, all due to Hase.
IWGP Title: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Tatsumi Fujinami. A 6-minute world title match as the semifinal of a Dome show? Garbage.
Note: some matches are digested
5/28/94
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Dean Malenko
Shinjiro Otani vs. TAKA Michinoku
5/30/94 Niigata Shi Taiikukan
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Super Delfin
Shinjiro Otani vs. El Samurai
6/4/94
Tokimitsu Ishizawa vs. Super Delfin
6/6/94 Chiba Koen Taiikukan
Black Tiger (Guerrero) vs. Wild Pegasus (Benoit)
Super Delfin vs.El Samurai
6/13 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. Yushoketteisen: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Super Delfin ****
A Block
8/3
Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Osamu Kido
Keiji Muto vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Masa Chono vs. Riki Choshu
8/4
Osamu Kido vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Riki Choshu vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu
Masa Chono vs. Keiji Muto
8/5
Masa Chono vs. Osamu Kido
Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Keiji Muto vs. Riki Choshu
8/6
Keiji Muto vs. Osamu Kido
Masa Chono vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu
Riki Choshu vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
8/7
Riki Choshu vs. Osamu Kido
Keiji Muto vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu
Masa Chono vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
B Block
8/3
Shiro Koshinaka vs. Takayuki Iizuka
Hiroshi Hase vs. Shinya Hashimoto
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Power Warrior
8/4
Shiro Koshinaka vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Takayuki Iizuka
Hiroshi Hase vs. Power Warrior
8/5
Takayuki Iizuka vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
Shiro Koshinaka vs. Hiroshi Hase
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Power Warrior
8/6
Hiroshi Hase vs. Takayuki Iizuka
Shiro Koshinaka vs. Power Warrior
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
8/7
Power Warrior vs. Takayuki Iizuka
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Shiro Koshinaka
Hiroshi Hase vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
WELCOME TO BATTLE FIELD: The Great Kabuki & Kuniaki Kobayashi & Akitoshi Saito vs. Osamu Kido & Akira Nogami & Takayuki Iizuka
THE GOLD RUSH: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Manabu Nakanishi
UWA World Junior Heavyweight Title: Shinjiro Otani vs. El Samurai
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Norio Honaga vs. The Great Sasuke (Michinoku Pro)
SUPERHARD SYNDROME: Masa Chono & Sabu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Junji Hirata
IWGP Heavyweight Title: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Kensuke Sasaki
THE GOLD RUSH: Koji Kanemoto vs. Yuji Nagata
THE SAMURAI SPIRIT: Shiro Koshinaka & Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Tiger Jeet Singh & Tiger Jeet Singh Jr.
THE STRONGEST: Hawk Warrior vs. Scott Norton
Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Kengo Kimura & Tatsutoshi Goto
IWGP Tag Titles: Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase vs. Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner
FINAL COUNTDOWN BVD Tournament 1st Round: Sting vs. Tony Palmore
FINAL COUNTDOWN BVD Tournament 1st Round: Antonio Inoki vs. Gerard Gordeau
FINAL COUNTDOWN BVD Tournament Final: Sting vs. Antonio Inoki
Keiji Muto & Yuji Nagata vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Everyone worked hard with Nagata being particularly fiery and impressive. Kind of short with a one move finish. **3/4
Kazuo Yamazaki & Takashi Iizuka vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Osamu Kido. Good, stiff, believable strong style match. Would have benefitted from another 5 minutes though. ***
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. III Koshikleaguesen: Tokimitsu Ishizawa vs. Dean Malenko. Malenko was really on top of his game here. Ishizawa was suddenly doing all these smooth sequences and counters that you never saw him do against anyone else. It didn't have a lot of big spots and had too much down time considering how short it was, but it was good, especially for a Kashin match at that time. **3/4
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. III Koshikleaguesen: Wild Pegasus vs. J.L. (Jerry Lynn). Benoit looked great, but J.L. was badly outclassed. The way Benoit was shredding J.L. with his stiff and intense offense there was just no way anyone could believe J.L. was winning. J.L. did some nice spots, but Benoit was beating him raw and tossing him around like a pillow. J.L. eventually made an attempt to take it to Benoit, but he didn't have the offense to compete with Benoit physically so he went back to his Lucha. The finish was really anticlimatic because there wasn't really a finishing sequence and it was too soon for J.L. to be losing simply because he was doing fairly well in the second half after getting his ass handed to him in the first half. A very good match in a lot of ways, but J.L. wasn't taken seriously and the finish left you with an empty feeling.
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. III Koshikleaguesen: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Black Tiger (Guerrero). Both men looked sharp, but neither went all out to have a great match. It was more like it was a small crowd so they did what it took to have a very good match, but no more. It was strong technically and perfectly executed, but it was kind of a "dull" match for these two. ***1/2
9/12/96 Sendai Miyagi-ken Sports Center: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Kazuo Yamazaki. Both men were at their ass kicking best. Stiff, intense,.realistic match. Yamazaki held on to Hashimoto's arm on a DDT and went into an udehishigigyakujujigatame, which really got the crowd into it. Yamazaki's kicks were much better than usual, and to the arm he just injured. A war, but it didn't live up to it's potential greatness because it never fully developed any story and was just too short. ***1/2
9/13/96 Nagano Shi Kosei Kaikan: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan. A good match, that could have been a lot better with more back and forth and superior execution. Tenzan was on offense most of the 1st 8 minutes. He was still, but his moves left something to be desired. Hashimoto made a great comeback and started pounding him. He looked so good once he went on offense that Tenzan probably wasn't hurt from being overwhelmed by it. **1/2
9/14/96: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Shiro Koshinaka. They worked the crowd well. Koshinaka was stiff as every here, although strikes were still only a small portion of his offense. You could hear the impact of Hashimoto's kicks, and pretty much everything was nicely executed. The thing with this match is that although the segments were good on their own, they didn't really add up. ***1/4
9/17/96: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Satoshi Kojima. Kojima was more limited here. He definitely did a better job than Tenzan did, but wasn't taken too seriously. It was pretty standard with Kojima making a good run before running into a Hashimoto chop then getting put away with a series of chops and a few big moves after missing his moonsault. You never felt like Kojima would win, but he did enough to keep it interesting. **3/4
Yuji Nagata Farewell Match: Junji Hirata & Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima & Osamu Nishimura vs. Kazuo Yamazaki & Osamu Kido & Takashi Iizuka & Yuji Nagata 11:21
NJPW vs. BJPW:
Shinjiro Otani vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri 8:30
Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Kendo Nagasaki 9:23
Masahiro Chono vs. Shoji Nakamaki 1:07
Masa Saito vs. Great Kojika 4:25
IWGP Tag Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan 16:10
Inoki FINAL COUNTDOWN 6th: Antonio Inoki vs. Willie Williams 4:13
GOLD RUSH RETURN: Super Liger (Chris Jericho) vs. Koji Kanemoto 11:11
Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Michiyoshi Ohara 9:17
J-Crown: Ultimo Dragon vs. Jushin Thunder Liger 18:21
BATTLE OF THE DOUBLE DEALER: Power Warrior vs. Great Muta 16:09
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Riki Choshu 18:04
Nagoya Dome Opening Match: Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Kendo Kashin. Kashin is certainly not the guy to carry a green wrestler. The chain wrestling was actually pretty good though. Surprisingly, the match wasn't very believable. It was more a Fujinami style technical match. There wasn't much to the match though except Kashin trying a few arm bars and setting Fujita up to slam him into the mat. What they did looked fine, but was just time passing stuff for most matches that go aways. This match didn't go a ways though, so it was more like a match with no middle that suddenly ended. *1/4
Super Jr. Special Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto. Slower, more disciplined match for these two. The early portion was all kicks, submissions, and body work. Liger was struggling like crazy, but Koji's effort here as well as his selling, well better because more focus was put on these aspects, was still somewhat questionable. Very stiff match. The most brutal move was Liger, who was on the apron, brainbustering Kanemoto over the top onto the apron. This was really dangerous because the apron is obviously very small, small enough that Koji had to take all the impact on his head and neck before crashing to the floor because there's no room for his back to land. Good drama toward the end although I expected more near falls. Not as exciting as their typical match, but the execution and impact were great and Koji's selling was better. ****
J Crown: El Samurai vs. Shinjiro Otani. Read Review. ***3/4
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Riki Choshu. This was Choshu's "final" match in Nagoya. They looked old and worn down, particularly Choshu. Even though they were doing some of the spots they've been doing against one another for two decades, and even a few we hadn't seen in a while, for the "last" time against one another there simply wasn't any spark. The lack of action would have been acceptable if the match was going 15 minutes like it appeared, but it wasn't acceptable for a big sendoff match that was going less than 7. Choshu hugged his old rival Fujinami after the match. *
Great Muta vs. Nagoya Ogawa. When I first viewed this match in 1997, I complained that Muto was destroying their investment, but in retrospect I think he had the right idea. Nonetheless, his actions which included choking Ogawa with his own gi, giving him a low blow, and spewing mist in his face shouldn't have been allowed by NJ because they made their supposed deadly shooter look like an inept fool. Ogawa did himself no favors by showing no fire or charisma. Even with Muto spewing Inoki before the match to babyface Ogawa, Ogawa was unable to get the fans behind him. They even cheered when Ogawa was choked with his gi. The "great" one did his usual routine of stalling and not putting his opponent over, and Ogawa showed that without Hashimoto he was nothing. 1/2*
Junji Hirata & Osamu Kido & Takashi Iizuka & Tadao Yasuda & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Kengo Kimura & Tatsutoshi Goto & Akira Nogami & Michiyoshi Ohara & Akitoshi Saito. With all these guys we should have seen more fire and a faster pace. Instead, the first 12 minutes were too subdued. At least there were so many tags that the slugs weren't exposed. There was even some good striking rather than the expected stomping. The main point was dissention in the ranks of HI. **
Special Single Match: Don Frye vs. Cal Worsham. Both of these guys were very green and badly needed to be carried. Frye took Worsham so seriously that he was chewing gum. Frye gave Worsham more offense then I expected to try to make him somewhat credible, but no one bought it and the crowd was dead. Worsham was not good at faking his strikes, while Frye was only good at punching on the ground. Each looked ridiculous flopping for a strike that didn't connect. Otherwise they didn't embarrass themselves, but it was kind of chopy because they weren't that good at getting to the position they wanted. 3/4*
IWGP Tag Senshukenjiai: Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Kazuo Yamazaki. Yamazaki was very good followed by Kojima. Sasaki had one of his better matches, but Nakanishi was in a different world. Basic high impact match. None of these guys are big on the mat, so Yamazaki was predominantly laying in the kicks. Yamazaki & Kojima worked very well together. Sasaki was at his best here because he stuck to the simply stuff. He's not what I'd call a good striker, but like Choshu his less than spectacular looking punches and stomps can be impressive when he's into it enough. Nakanishi was typically bad. He couldn't even follow Yamazaki, so Yamazaki would have to improvise midway through what he was trying. Nakanishi was actually better working with Sasaki because they did the most basic spots. **1/2
IWGP Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Tenzan was a last week replacement for injured Chono. He was not out of his depth as a performer, but he had not been booked in a manner that would lead anyone to believe he could beat Hashimoto in a dome main event. These two always have good matches because neither minds taking a beating. This was a very simple match, they just pulverized each other for 17+ minutes. The problem is it was mainly Tenzan on the recieving end. While Tenzan takes a punting as good as anyone, the match was severly lacking in drama because it only further established that he had no chance. As a non-title Ryogoku Kokugikan main event it would have been acceptable, if done a little better even a step forward for Tenzan, but working the match this way basically showed that everything we knew before it started was true; that Tenzan is a very good up and comer but not yet a big time player. ***
10/10/97 Koriyama Central Hall: Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai & Kendo Ka Shin vs. Shinjiro Otani & Koji Kanemoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa. ***1/2
10/13/97 Shizuoka: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa. ****
10/16/97 Yokkaichi Shi Taiikukan: Koji Kanemoto vs. Kendo Ka Shin. *3/4
10/16/97 Yokkaichi Shi Taiikukan: Shinjiro Otani vs. El Samurai. ***
10/23/97 Kumamoto Shi Taiikukan: Shinjiro Otani vs. Kendo Ka Shin. ***
10/25/97 Kagoshima Arena: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto. ***3/4
10/27/97 Nagasaki-ken Furitsu Taiikukan: El Samurai vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa
9/11/98 Utsunomiya Shi Taiikukan
Kendo Ka Shin & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai. **1/2
9/14/98 Sendai Miyagi-ken Sports Center
El Samurai vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa. ***1/2
Shinjiro Otani vs. Koji Kanemoto. ***3/4
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Kendo Ka Shin. **1/2
9/18/98 Gunma Arena
Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai vs. Koji Kanemoto & Shinjiro Otani. About 1/4 shown.
6/25/99 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kendo Kashin vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa
7/5/99 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. El Samurai
Koji Kanemoto vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa
7/10/99: Shinjiro Otani vs. Yuji Nagata
9/13/99 Niigata Shi Taiikukan: El Samurai vs. Koji Kanemoto
9/16/99 Sendai Miyagi-ken Sports Center: Shinjiro Otani vs. Kendo Kashin
8th Young Dragon Cup Final: Kenzo Suzuki vs. Shinya Makabe 15:08
New Wave J ~SPECIAL 8~: Koji Kanemoto & Kendo Kashin & Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Minoru Tanaka & CIMA & Sumo "Dandy" Fuji Nichi 14:36
EPILOGUE of DRAGON 1st: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Masahiro Chono 6:30
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Power Warrior vs. Great Muta 12:44
Shin Nihon vs. T2000: Shiro Koshinaka & Junji Hirata & Tadao Yasuda vs. Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto & Michiyoshi Ohara 10:19
CRUSH and BREAK: Satoshi Kojima vs. Yutaka Yoshie 15:08
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Takashi Iizuka 13:35
IWGP Tag Title Match: Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata vs. Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami 9:26
Kuishinbo Kamen vs. Ebessan. This was one of the better comedy matches I've seen because, while the comedy was constant, they did better and better wrestling moves and sequences as the match went on. **3/4
The Goddess Chikako Shiratori vs. Dynamite Kansai. 2:45 shown
Ultra Ace & Ultra Monkey vs. Gokuaku Kaiju Z Mandora & Gokuaku Kaiju King Mantra. Flying and comedy. These guys have a lot of kinks to work out, but the Ultra's have potential. *1/2
Tsubasa & Yoshihito Sugamoto & Super Demekin vs. Black Buffalo & Daio QUALLT & Police Me~n. Fast-paced fairly spectacular Lucha. Police Me~n is getting better, and he surprised me by pulling out a shooting star press. 6:51 shown
3 minutes 5 rounds: Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Takehiro Murayama. Good worked mixed match, except the finish fell flat because the knockdowns weren't stiff enough.
Osaka Puroresu Shodai Oza Ketteisen: Super Delfin vs. Dick Togo. I really liked this match because it was so diverse, yet they brought it all together so it made sense and meant something. This was just a really solid match that went in all directions. ****1/4
Masao Orihara vs. Akitoshi Saito 11:14. Amazingly good wrestler vs. martial artist match, with fiery up and comer Orihara giving an all-star performance in carrying limited bruiser Saito to probably the most successful match of his career. Orihara was on the rise but far from exceptional at this point, and there are definitely some creaky moments where the fakeness was readily apparently, but as a whole they succeeded on desire, passion, and emotion. Everyone being jacked up for an early encounter in the NJPW vs. WAR interpromotional feud was a huge plus they were able to build the match around. From a technical standpoint, the match was no better than good, but the heat, hatred, and intensity coming from both the performers and the fans made it riveting and memorable. One reason the atmosphere was so great is the WAR fans are completely rabid, taking offense to the idea of NJPW being the better league, and just going nuts for their boys. They structured the match to not only play into their strengths, but garner the loudest pops. Saito is the tougher more dominant fighter who thrives on kicking the stuffing out of his opposition, so he dominated the match, with Orihara displaying enough quickness and guile to always be in the match. Orihara did an excellent job of putting over Saito’s strikes, which when they connected were extra brutal because interpromotional matches are “real”, including a knee that busted Orihara’s mouth hard way. Orihara would transition into a submission at regular intervals, often enough to keep the fans, who were standing up and swinging their fists from bell to bell, believing in him. He played the fiesty underdog who wanted so badly to succeed, making every choke sleeper or Achilles’ tendon hold into an event by playing them for all they were worth. The controversial finish where Orihara claimed he kicked out was not my favorite, but the post match was well played with Orihara grabbing the ref and threatening him then Masashi Aoyagi coming in and cleaning house on the WAR guys. ***3/4
Shiro Koshinaka & Kengo Kimura vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara 19:45. Tenryu & Koshinaka know exactly what they are doing in these heated situations, putting on a clinic in simple but effective brawling. They don’t deal in garbage; they brawl by serving up fistfuls of hatred. They are not merely stiff, but malicious with Tenryu putting that little extra into everything to the point he ran so hard he went flying over the top rope after his own lariat! What separates these two from so many others and makes them superb at these rivalry matches is they know 100 ways to incite each other as well as the fans, and implement one at every turn. The primary story was Kitahara getting pummelled, with Koshinaka & Kimura making no real attempt to pin him because they preferred to goad Tenryu by mercilessly slaughtering his boy. There were only spurts of wrestling, almost all of which involved Tenryu vs. Koshinaka, and even then I’m mostly thinking of the finish, but this truly was a WAR. The bad blood from the earlier match carried over to this rival league must die match, as they started beating each other up from the moment the second team walked out. It didn’t take long for the blood to flow, with the seconds joining in from time to time, including Orihara gaining a measure of revenge by beating Saito & Aoyagi up with a chair. There was often too much going on to keep up with, but it was wild rather than chaotic. The fans were very unruly by Japanese standards, regularly littering the ring with objects including a fan scoring a bullseye on Kimura to punish him for having the gall to make a save. Though Kimura was at his most savage, he was by far the weak link. He played a Masa Fuchi style irksome pest, but in a very bland manner as he can stomp, but lacks Fuchi’s craftiness and meanspirited nature. Though a totally different style from the previous match, it was another spiteful, intense and passionate interpromotional battle with massive heat. No one cared that the match ended, the feud was just beginning! Kimura wanted revenge, but Tenryu dispatched of him and kept giving Koshinaka powerbombs until Masa Saito made the save. ****