gordi

Cobra Corps looks like a great face stable for that time and place. I agree with kevin that you have a lot of interesting options between them and that collection of freaks and monsters that is the Sinister Six.

I'm pleased to hear that. I'll keep throwing in little bits of extra info and encourage you all to check out some 80s and 90s AJPW, NJPW, and UWFi on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8Q_fS1OCTg

Needless to say he got his stuff in, looked great, and the bad guys had to cheat to put him down.

JWA Revival Debut House Show – April 9, Hekinan, Aichi, Seaside Gym Hekinan is a small port city with a huge thermo-electric generating plant. A lot of our fans there work making auto parts for Toyota, or in the ceramic roofing tiles industry. The crowd was pretty good for a smaller show, almost 3000 people. We ate barbequed eel rice bowls and rich brown hatcho miso soup while we were there. I usually provide write-ups for the big shows, but I thought some of you might be interested in seeing what a typical house show looks like under Shohei Baba’s direction (and my booking). Lots of multi-man tags, basically: Kazuo Yamazaki vs Tatsutoshi Goto A short stiff brawl to start things off. Yamazaki gets the win with a German. Shinya Hashimoto, Keiji Mutoh, and Masa Chono vs Shinichi Nakano, Shunji Takano, and Hirokazu Hata Continuing to showcase our Young Lions. Hash pins Hata after a Vertical Drop DDT. Anoaro Atisanoe, Black Tiger, and Isamu “Carpenter” Teranishi vs The Cobra, Kuniaki Kobayashi, and Naoki Sano Atisanoe gets to act as a base for the smaller guys to fly around then gets the win with a Samoan Drop on Sano. Keiichi Yamada and Shunji Kosugi vs Los Guerreros del Universo (Black Terry and Babe Face) Yamada gets to shine but his team takes the loss to put our Mexican visitors over. Yoshiaki Yatsu, Ashura Hara, and Takashi “Onomi” Ishikawa vs Bam Bam Bigelow, Siva Afi, and Phil Hickerson Clubbering time! Bigelow’s push continues as he puts Onomi out with the Nuclear Splash. ***BREAK*** Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Seiji Sakaguchi, and Masakatsu Funaki vs Tiger Mask Sayama, Tiger Mask Misawa, and Nobuhiko Takada Probably the best match on the show. Semi Shoot Style with lots of stiff strikes and technical mat work. Sayama gets the win with a Cross Face Chicken Wing on Funaki. They'll have a re-match on the next show and Fujiwara will tap Misawa out with a heel hook. Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura, Dos Caras, and Sting vs Adrian Adonis, Dick Murdoch, Greg Valentine, and Brutus Beefcake Adrian Adonis puts Sting to sleep with Goodnight Irene after a long back and forth battle. Giant Baba, Jumbo Tsuruta, and Genichiro Tenryu vs Riki Choshu, Akira Maeda,and Yoji Anjo Our house show booking philosophy basically involves putting at least one mid-carder in a team with big stars in the Main Event. It is a bit predictable, but it lets us have our big names face off without needing to take an L. Obviously, Anjo eats the fall in this one.

You are not kidding. Some amazing match-ups there. Particularly looking forward to Kawada vs Rose!

I'm enjoying how you are building up the Machines and I'm really looking forward to the Cup.

Good job keeping the heat up between Piper and Hogan.

1) I am really happy to hear that. If you want to check out some 80s action, you really can't go wrong with the top guys on my roster; Jumbo and Tenryu in All Japan, Fujinami in New Japan, Choshu in both NJPW and AJPW, Fujiwara in the UWF... all of those guys worked a ton of great matches in the 80s. Matches from the 90s in Japan feature faster paced action, more big moves, and more clean finishes (one big difference between "my" promotion and real-world 80s AJPW and NJPW is that clean finishes in big matches were still unusual there in '85). In the 90s, a lot of the young boys on my roster start to shine. Misawa and Kawada in AJPW and Hashimoto in NJPW in particular: You can practically pick a match blindfolded and come away with something great. 2) Thanks. I'm not completely familiar with all of the guys on my new roster and even the guys I know well I have to do a little digging to figure out what they were like in '85 specifically. If I find something interesting while reading bout guys or watching footage, I try to throw it in to my match re-caps to flesh out the names on the roster. I don't wanna overdo it, but I figure some background info might help make things more interesting. Nice to know it's appreciated 3) Definitely agree. I feel like the guys participating in this project have captured the spirit of 1980s wrestling really well, and where we differ from reality (like more clean finishes, more big matches on TV, more modern booking ideas like 4-way matches) it's generally an improvement. Also nice to know my little jokes are appreciated. Thanks, Grimmas and SirE! Thanks! I really feel like I have at least ten guys who would make totally legitimate champs on that roster: Baba, Inoki, Maeda, Choshu, Tenryu, Tsuruta, Sayama, Fujinami, Fujiwara, and Adonis... plus another half-dozen guys where putting the strap on them would not be ridiculous. But, when I had to decide who I would book as champ if I were really in that position, Tenryu was my first choice. I'm glad you agree.

I like how, in both the semi-main and the main events, you had clean finishes but because of substitutions the feud can keep going. That's some nice booking.

That was a nice way to set up your TV Main Event, as well. Looking forward to reading Rage in the Cage. You've built those matches up and now we get the pay off.

JWA: Japan Pro Wrestling Association JWA Heavyweight Champion: Genichiro Tenryu - defeated Giant Baba (PWF World Heavyweight Champion), Jumbo Tsuruta (NWA International Heavyweight Champion) ,and Riki Choshu (Japan Pro Wrestling Champion) at the JWA Revival Debut Show, April 6, Tokyo, Nippon Budokan JWA Tag Team Champions: The Fighting Sprits (Antonio Inoki and Akira Maeda) - defeated The American Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake) at the JWA Revival Debut Show, April 6, Tokyo, Nippon Budokan The Giants (Andre the Giant and Giant Baba) - defeated The Fighting Spirits at the JWA Revival Second Chapter Tour Opening Show in Osaka, May 16th, 1985 Toukon (Antonio Inoki and Seiji Sakaguchi) - defeated The Giants during the JWA Tournament on July 11, at the Osaka Prefectural Gym JWA Middleweight Champion: Black Tiger - defeated The Cobra (WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion), Nobuhiko Takada, and Shiro Koshinaka at the JWA Revival Debut Show, April 6, Tokyo, Nippon Budokan Dos Caras - Defeated Black Tiger on June 21, 1985 in Tokyo, at the Festival of Champions End of Tour show. JWA Middleweight Tag Team Champions: Animal Hamaguchi and Mighty Inoue - defeated Keiichi Yamada and Gran Hamada at the JWA Revival Debut Show, April 6, Tokyo, Nippon Budokan Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez - defeated Mighty Animals at the JWA Revival Second Chapter Tour Opening Show in Osaka, May 16th, 1985

Oh man... Terry Funk vs Tenryu, vs Jumbo, vs Fujinami, vs Fujiwara... JWA Revival Debut Show – April 6, Tokyo, Nippon Budokan Masakatsu Funaki vs Naoki Sano Both of these guys are good at kicking, and that is mostly what they did here. Savate Kicks, Rolling Kicks, Roundhouse Kicks… after about seven minutes Sano caught Funaki with a spinning kick to the gut and took him down with a Double Underhook Suplex. As soon as he hit the ground, however, Funaki trapped Sano’s neck and applied a Triangle Choke. He used that to reverse position and then transitioned smoothly into a Top Shoulder Lock to get the submission victory. It was beautiful grappling, and I felt like it was a great start to our first show, even if it didn’t exactly drive the crowd into frenzy. Get Everyone a Paycheque Memorial 17-Man Battle Royal Participants: Yoji Anjo, Osamu Kido, Kazuo Yamazaki, Yoshiaki Yatsu, Ashura Hara, Isamu Teranishi, Masa Fuchi, Takashi "Onomi" Ishikawa, Kantaro Hoshino, Kuniaki Kobayashi Bam Bam Bigelow, Shinichi Nakano, Shunji Takano, Tatsutoshi Goto, Shunji Kosugi, Akira Nogami, and Hirokazu Hata Kido, Anjo, and Yamazaki threw some stiff strikes. Yatsu and Ishikawa used their size and strength well and were the final two men eliminated. Nogami, Hoshino, and Hamada used speed and guile to avoid elimination for a while. Kobayashi, Fuchi, and Goto resorted to trickery to stay alive. Hara and Teranishi used teamwork and made a few eliminations. Nakano, Kosugi, and Hata were basically cannon fodder. This battle royal gave us an opportunity to get Bam Bam Bigelow over as a monster. 6’7” Shunji Takano was his first victim, and altogether he eliminated seven men on his way to an impressive win. Injury news: Unfortunately, Kantaro Hoshino landed badly on his elimination, fracturing his fibula. Doctors estimate he will be out of action for four to six months. Winning team earns the right to go to Mexico and work for CMLL: The Young Lions (Hashimoto, Mutoh, and Chono) vs Footloose (Kawada, Fuyuki, and Ogawa) These guys really laid into each other. Hash and Kawada, in particular, didn’t hold anything back. I was marking out, watching them go at it. Most of the match was based around Rat Boy taking horrific punishment in the Young Lions’ corner. He sold and sold, and eventually he baited Chono into taking a big risk by going for a top rope move in a neutral corner. Ogawa popped up and countered it, driving Chono into the mat with a sick DDT from the second turnbuckle. Kawada and Fuyuki then finished Chono off with a Double Spinning Heel Kick. So: Footloose are going to Mexico! JWA Middleweight Tag Team Championship match: Keiichi Yamada and Gran Hamada vs Animal Hamaguchi and Mighty Inoue This was kind of beautiful: Classic 70s-style junior wrestling vs futuristic 90s-style. All four men worked together near-flawlessly. Everyone got their stuff in, everyone bumped and sold. I probably could have watched an hour of this without being bored for a second, but we only got about 14 minutes in before Hamaguchi caught Yamada with an Airplane Spin into Samoan Drop and tagged in Inoue who finished it with a Somersault Drop. Inaugural JWA Middleweight Tag Team Champions: Animal Hamaguchi and Mighty Inoue Kengo Kimura, Sting, and Dos Caras vs Umanosuke Ueda, Anoaro Atisanoe, and Siva Afi Kimura was still favouring his dislocated shoulder, so he didn’t tag in much. Referee Kyohei Wada had his hands full keeping the heel team in line, and he almost disqualified Ueda for trying to use a low blow. Sting did a lot of the work for his team in this one, matching power and speed with Atisanoe and Afi. In the end, though, it was Dos Caras who made the pin, hitting Afi with a Sit-out Powerbomb after Ueda accidentally clocked his own partner with a kendo stick while Wada’s back was turned. Future Challenger Determination Match: Seiji Sakaguchi vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara This match was short but intense. Sakaguchi used his size and his judo technique to take Fujiwara down… but once they hit the ground Fujiwara surprised the bigger man by dominating on the mat. Sakaguchi is a good grappler, but Fujiwara proved that he is on another level altogether. About seven minutes in, Fujiwara got hold of Sakaguchi’s leg. He worked the limb tenaciously for a full three minutes before sinking in a heel hook and forcing the big judoka to submit. ***BREAK*** JWA Middleweight Championship Match: The Cobra (WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion) vs Nobuhiko Takada vs Shiro Koshinaka vs Black Tiger We’ve got an absolutely stacked Middleweight/Juniors division, so we are going to book a lot of four-way matches and multi-man tags to get as many good workers on our big cards as possible. Right now, I’d say that four-way heavyweight matches will be relatively rare (though we have one on the card tonight), but they’ll be pretty common in the lighter weight classes. If nothing else, it’s a chance to mix up a lot of different styles in one match. Here, we have: The Cobra, who is explosively athletic; Nobuhiko Takada, who fights in a stiff and quite realistic style; Koshinaka, who is innovative and crowd-pleasing; and Black Tiger, who combines multiple styles with subtle cheating and stooging. Some match-ups worked better than others, but tags were frequent and action was fast so nobody ever outstayed their welcome. In the end, The Cobra nailed Koshinaka with a Kneeling Tombstone, but he was too close to Black Tiger’s corner. Rocco tagged himself in by punching The Cobra right in the face, and then put Koshinaka away with a Diving Knee Drop to become the first JWA Middleweight Champion. Inaugural JWA Middleweight Champion: Black Tiger JWA Tag Team Titles First Challenger Determination Match: The North-South Connection (Adrian Adonis and Dick Murdoch) vs The Tiger Masks (Satoru Sayama and Mitsuharu Misawa) Adonis and Murdoch pinballed around for Sayama for several minutes then beat Misawa mercilessly until he escaped and made the hot tag. Then we got more wild bumping and selling from the big Americans, and after another tag Misawa finally got a bit of offense in, trading elbows with Murdoch before taking a Brainbuster and then being put to sleep by Adonis courtesy of Goodnight Irene. JWA Heavyweight Title First Challenger Determination Match: Bad News Allen vs Tatsumi Fujinami The 1976 Judo bronze medalist dominated the first ten minutes of this match with his tough and dirty style. Bad News got a 2.9 count off of a Double Leg Enzuigiri. Fujinami ducked under the second Enzuigiri attempt, though, and went straight to work on Allen’s legs. After several minutes of wearing down the tough man’s limbs, Fujinami locked in a Figure Four in the middle of the ring to earn a shot at the JWA title. JWA Tag Team Championship Match: The Fighting Sprits (IWGP Tag Team Champions Antonio Inoki and Akira Maeda) vs The American Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake) Inoki and Maeda stated things out stiff and nasty, and Valentine just ate it up. In his element, the second-generation star returned fire with some stiff shots of his own. Beefcake, however, seemed a little confused and rattled by the way The Fighting Spirits were working. This led Inoki and Maeda to turn up the intensity, to the point where I’d have to say they were taking liberties. They kept legitimately cutting off Beefcake’s attempts to escape and tag Valentine in, until The Hammer finally just charged into their corner and started throwing hard elbows and chops. Beefcake crawled off to safety and eventually Valentine ate a hard roundhouse kick from Maeda and then a Bridging Fallaway Slam from Inoki to end things. Inaugural JWA Tag Team Champions: The Fighting Sprits (Inoki and Maeda) JWA Heavyweight Championship Match: Giant Baba (PWF World Heavyweight Champion) vs Jumbo Tsuruta (NWA International Heavyweight Champion) vs Riki Choshu (Japan Pro Wrestling Champion) vs Genichiro Tenryu (NWA United National Champion) In all honesty, this match-up was more than a little unfair to Choshu, considering that Jumbo and Tenryu are both under Baba’s wing. Both men seemed reluctant to get rough with their mentor at first, wrestling in a clean and technical mode when they were in there with Baba. Things heated up a little once Tsuruta and Tenryu were in there together… and once Choshu finally got tagged in things really got hot. Choshu has never been the least bit reluctant to get rough with anyone in the ring. He threw huge bombs at Tsuruta and Tenryu, and in particular he went after Giant Baba with a vengeance. This enraged Jumbo, who begged his mentor for a tag and tried to murder Choshu with stiff strikes as soon as he got tagged in. Tsuruta was overly aggressive, though, and got taken down with a Riki Lariat and found himself trapped in a Sharpshooter Hold. Tenryu made the save with a kick to the back of Choshu’s head. While the ref ordered Tenryu back to his corner, Jumbo took advantage of his opportunity with a Lariat of his own followed by a powerful Belly to Back Suplex. Tsuruta had a clear opportunity to go for the pin, but instead he looked to Baba. The Giant shook his head and pointed to Tenryu. Acknowledging the debt he had to Tenryu for saving him from the Sharpshooter, Jumbo made the tag. Tenryu picked Choshu up off the mat, and finished him with a Folding Powerbomb to become the first JWA Heavyweight Champion. Inaugural JWA Heavyweight Champion: Genichiro Tenryu After the action was finished, there was another half-hour or more of ceremonies where belts were presented and challengers announced. I’m pretty sure that almost the entire crowd stuck around until the very end.

Dusty, JYD, and Duggan are such a great face trio. Looking forward to Reed vs Dusty

Great trade! Nogami gains valuable experience and Hickerson brings his knack for drawing heat to Japan. Thanks.

No probs dude, not that it matters greatly, but Ill bring in Tarzan Goto.. Need a foreign team that can go, so Saito and Goto will be more than capable of doing that... Oh, yeah. They'd make a great 80s-style foreign heel team. They both have that stocky build/shaggy beard look that suits that role so well.

Sorry, man: George Takano is on the JWA roster. The "The Cobra" that's on the Free Agents list is (I assume) some other dude using that name.. Maybe Jimmy Kimble out of Memphis? Hiro Saito is a great pick-up. He was the very last guy I cut from the JWA roster to make it to the limit.

You're doing a really good job booking your show with what is at this time kind of a limited roster. Building around Ron Starr, Gama Singh, Don Kernodle, and The Flame with Adias coming in and Lawler making regular appearances: That's a pretty strong group of singles wrestlers. And by associating different tag teams with your singles stars (or Albano) you can get the tag division over that way. Seems like you are making the most of what you have to work with.

Purse full of feathers is a great twist

From who? Kane? Samoa Joe? Rollins and Ambrose? Nakamura? Balor? Rocky? Curtis Axel? Austin, Rock, Flair, Hogan, and Bruno. In that order.

Excellent short power match! Looks like I woke up just in time.

Thank you, as always, for your kind words of encouragement. JWA Schedule, April 1985 through January, 1986 April 8th through 26th: JWA Revival - Debut: Tour Opening Show April 8th to feature matches crowning the inaugural JWA Heavyweight, Tag Team, Middleweight, and Middleweight Tag Team champions. Mid-Tour and End of Tour shows to feature multiple title defenses. Winner of the Young Lions Cup (Hashimoto) gets to choose a tag team partner (Mutoh) and compete for the belts on the 26th in Tokyo Confirmed to participate: Bad News Allen, Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine for the tour. Ricky Steamboat and Don Muraco for the 26th in Tokyo. May 8th: Special TV Event: Two Gauntlet Matches. May 16th through 29th: JWA Revival – Second Chapter. Tour Opening Show on the 16th, Mid-Tour Big Event Show on the 24th and Tour Ending Show on the 29th to feature multiple title defenses. Confirmed for May 8th, 16th, and 24th: Stan Hansen, Bruiser Brody, and Mil Mascaras Confirmed for May 29th: Jerry Lawler, Stan Hansen, Bruiser Brody, Mil Mascaras, and Abdullah the Butcher June 1st: TV Special: JWA Factions Draft: Captains will most likely be: Baba, Inoki, Fujinami, and Choshu June 7th through 21st: Festival of Champions. We invite any champion from any federation to come and defend their belts in Japan. (Their guys will either go over our undercard guys cleanly, or lose by DQ or CO to upper-card guys, or if anyone is willing: Lose the belt(s) early in the tour, but get the belt back at the big show in Yokohama on the 21st). We want as many foreign/outside champs as possible for the big show on the 21st. Special Guest Participant: Andre the Giant Confirmed for June 21st: Abdullah the Butcher and Mil Mascaras July 1st through 28th: JWA Carnival Tournament - Month-long singles tournament climaxing in Tokyo on the 26th and 28th of July. Gaijin wrestlers and outsiders are invited to compete, but we will need almost a full month commitment. Our Juniors and Middleweights will be available for bookings this month, as the tournament will focus mainly on Heavyweight wrestlers. Featured Guest Participants: Andre the Giant and Bruiser Brody. August 8th through 15th: Super Juniors Tournament, climaxing in Tokyo on the 15th. We will definitely be looking for gaijin juniors to participate. A good time to book NJPW Heavyweights if you want to. Featured Guest Participants: Owen Hart, Wild Pegasus, El Hijo del Santo, and El Dandy. August 20th through 25th: The WWF in Japan Tour co-promoted with LowBlowPodcast and the World Wrestling Federation. August 26th through September 1st: JWA in America Tour co-promoted with LowBlowPodcast and the World Wrestling Federation. September 7th through 27th: JWA Revival – Third Chapter. Tour with three big cards: In Fukuoka on the 9th, in Saitama on the 16th, and in Osaka on the 27th. We’d like to bring in gaijin challengers for all of our belts on this tour. Confirmed Participants: Butch Reed, Terry Gordy, Steve Williams, Sept. 9th Butch Reed, The Road Warriors, Sept 16th Butch Reed, Stan Hansen, The British Bulldogs, Sept. 27th. October 14th through 28th: Overseas Tour - With big shows in The Philippines on the 14th, Taiwan on the 17th, Korea on the 21st, and India on the 28th. Gaijin guests welcome. November 15th, 17th, and 19th: Gauntlet Challenge Series November 20th through 25th: JWA - Three Big Events in Kyushu, Kansai, and Kanto Special Guests: Mil Mascaras and Stan Hansen November 20th through 25th December 3rd through 23rd: The Road to January 4th - Need to solidify big-time contenders for all three titles to build up to the big Tokyo January 4th Show of 1986! Final card of the tour will be in Osaka on the 23rd. Lots of gaijin participation will be needed for the first three weeks of December, peaking in Osaka. Confirmed to participate: Andre the Giant, Bruiser Brody, Abdullah the Butcher. January 4th, 1986: Tokyo Dome Show- Every Title Will Be Defended. Big name guests are expected. January 16th, 18th, and 20th, 1986: Gauntlet Challenge Series Returns January 22 through 30th, 1986: FantasticaMania co-promoted with Grimmas and CMLL

Given your avatar and user name, it's flat out f'n hilarious that we seem to have Kawada making the argument that it's about the flash and entertainment and bells and whistles and not about the wrestling

If I had the opportunity to go tomorrow, I absolutely would. Even though nothing on the card excites me when I think about sitting in front of my computer for seven hours watching it... I'd be totally worked up if I was going to see it live. Closest I've come was going live to the Backlash after WMXX, and that was a great experience. HOF last year was really enjoyable. Yeah, "not really hostile" kind of describes my feelings toward current WWE as well Definitely have other stuff that I'd rather watch. I just wish WrestleMania could be an exception: Something I fell like I have to see. Last year and this year: not so much. Absolutely. And that's without even taking PWO2K and all the other available footage that I could be watching instead. I am sincerely glad that someone does. I was really excited for XX because of Benoit, and I was really excited for XXX because of Bryan... I guess maybe I can look forward to being excited again for XL? Once every ten years is better than nothing. That's an awesome post. I totally respect how you can see that there are very real reasons to doubt that this will be a great show (i.e the stuff I've bolded up there) but you are still stoked for the show. I genuinely envy you that. You seem to be a true fan. I hope you and Childs enjoy the show. I hope we all do.

Enjoyed the title matches and the character work around each of them.