gordi

Great suggestion! Toy Story was really good. Yuka absolutely loved the Slinky Dog. In fact, "Slinkykins" is her new pet name for my penis. So we've got yet another episode of Asahi World Pro Wrestling presented by Asahi Beer and Asahi Soft Drinks and Asahi Shinbun Newspaper on Asahi TV ready to go, without any footage from WCW. Just as well, though, as there is a ton of ground to cover. We open with a shot of The Space Mutineers doing a late-night cross-country run while The Carpenters' version of Calling Occupant of Interplanetary Craft plays in the background. Smash Fistrock stops and points up as a disc-shaped light scoots across the night sky. We smash cut to the interior of what seems to be a flying saucer piloted by Mie and Kei of the late-70s/early-80s pop duo Pink Lady. Smash, Kingsnake, Trojan, and Base are bathed in a glowing light. We smash cut again and they are back on the ground, wearing aluminum and chrome lamé jumpsuits, comically enormous space boots, and fishbowl space helmets. Pink Lady's 1978 smash hit UFO has replaced the Carpenters on the soundtrack. The Mutineers run off into the distance. Gravity no longer seems to have its normal hold on them. This is followed up with a series of clips of The Space Mutineers cheating to win their matches during the trios tournament. Mainly, they just bonk people with their space boots or bubble helmets while Base Slabpecs distracts the ref. As the commercials play, I confess to Yuka that I still can't see the connection between Choshu's ad and the drink she says it is trying to promote. "Look for the arrows," she tells me. When we return, Bret and Davey vs. Lance and Scorp is in progress. The Bulldog Foundation are dominating, until the match spills outside. Suddenly, a large man wearing sunglasses and a hooded sweatshirt jumps out of the crowd and just levels Bret with a Clothesline. With the ref distracted, trying to restore order, Lance and Scorp lay in the double teams on Davey Boy. The ref comes back in the ring and chases Lance out, but it's already too late. 2 Cold Scorpio hits a Somersault Legdrop from the top corner for the one, two....THREEEEE! As Cannon Fodder celebrate in the ring, the large man removes his hood and glasses. It's Choshu! He kicks Bret twice, hard, and disappears into the crowd. We then see clips of Los Still-Pretty-Good-icos (Kosh and Caras with Kato Kung Lee) beating The Machines. At the end of the clip, T2000 Machine attacks his partner Super Strong Machine, and leaves him lying in the ring. More commercials, then we run down the Tag Tournament results: Dragon Hearts and Chono and Sasaki are the top two teams, and so they will meet at the Tokyo Dome to determine the first-ever Asahi Pro Tag Team Champions. Los Still-Pretty-Good-icos and Cannon fodder have surprised by finishing as runners-up, and will face off in Tokyo in a number one contenders match. After another short break, we run down the Trios Tournament results. Space Mutineers and Skyin' High (Sasuke, Delfin, and Naniwa) have earned the right to compete for the new belts at the Tokyo Dome. There is a log jam underneath them, though, and so we have two tiebreaker matches to continue our show: Ohtani, Kanemoto, and Mochizuki vs.Togo, Jado, and Gedo was a showcase for Togo's amazing athleticism and toughness, as he kept saving his teammates from the superior striking of Cry 'n' Die. In the end, he hit a huge Diving Senton on Mochi to seal the win. LiTiSmi vs. Try and Fly was another athletic showcase. Liger almost had the win several times, but in the end TAKA stole it away with a Michinoku Driver on Tajiri. After one last break (I saw the arrows, I still don't get it) we get a full run down of the Tokyo Dome Card:

Tiger Driver '91 through the timekeeper's table.

Mochizuki is working for me, has been since the draft.

You ever get the feeling that the world we are living in is not "the real world"? I guests it sounds goofy, but sometimes I am utterly overwhelmed by a feeling that "our" world is just a figment of the imagination of some being - or group of beings - living in a world that is unimagnably more complex than ours. Lately, as much as I try to shut it out, I feel with something approaching certainty that the being that was primarily responsible for bringing our world into existence is seriously contemplating abandoning us. That probably sounds pretty messed up... but have you felt it, too? It might just be the overwhelming strangeness of changing jobs and locations twice in such a short time... but if I am being honest I believe that my changing circumstances are the *result* of my strange feelings rather than the *cause* I hope that makes sense. Anyway, those are the things I think about while I'm waiting for that footage from WCW to arrive. On a more positive note, the new cinema will be opening soon. There are two Hollywood movies playing: Toy Story and Braveheart. Which one do you think we should go and see?

Hahahahahaha! If Lance isn't available he might get them to bring in Henry Rollins in Lance tights to do a series of jobs for ole Hulkster.

He is not even a real Doctor! *storms off* ...and 20 years in the future of this timeline, on the alternate PWO boards, this show becomes the center of a discussion titled, "Are Matches Even Neccessary?"

And 20 years in the future on the alternate-timeline PWO boards, the main event of this show becomes the center of an epic discussion over whether a match timed at 00:00 could ever be called "great."

The Hulk Hogan Story One of the Tag Tournament shows was booked into Kobe World Hall. On the night before, a bunch of the guys stayed over in Osaka to tape TV segments, use the company gym, and so on. We had dinner at the hotel's steak and salmon buffet with Lance and his wife Tina, Smiley Norman and his girlfriend and Wally and his wife. The buffet was amazing. even more amazing: Wally's wife is crazy hot... I also think she might be TAKA's sister, but I could be wrong She has a Chinese-sounding name (Shian-Li Tsang, I think) and I'm pretty sure TAKA is 100 percent Japanese... anyway she is drop-dead gorgeous, tall, leggy, and very very nice. Almost as amazing: I think it's supposed to be a secret, so keep it under your hat, but: Smiley showed up with Kyoko Inoue on his arm and they were really affectionate all evening. I was talking about how much I already missed the camaraderie of going to different towns and hanging out after the shows. Wally laughed at me and called me an idiot and said that I'm the booker, so I can easily make an excuse that I need to be *wherever* and just go. "You can delegate, yes? The people you work with are good at their jobs. yes?. So go! Hit the road. Nincompoop." Even Yuka laughed at me. I can't believe it hadn't occurred to me before. Lance was talking about how he'd been going to hospitals and children's homes with the Hulkster on behalf of Make A Wish... and as he was talking about it who walked into the buffet but the man himself. On his arm was... well, not to be unkind, but one of the most ridiculous-looking women I have ever seen. She was a tiny, deeply tanned Japanese bottle blonde with the largest breasts I have ever seen on a woman. It was almost exactly as if my old special friend Yoko had been given saline implants the exact size of regulation NBA basketballs. Yuka punched me for staring, and I shot her a look that I hope conferred, "Yuka, believe me,I am not staring because I like those" Hogan had the staff bring over another table and two chairs so that they could join us, ordered three bottles of the most amazing vintage wine, had them bring over three chateaubriand and a standing rib roast, dominated the conversation, paid for everything... and then we found ourselves agreeing to go to Nakano Children's Hospital early the next day. "Now you'll see for yourself," Lance told us. And, yeah, it probably is just something you have to experience for yourself. What can I say... It's a group of really sick kids, some of them with almost zero chance of survival, laughing and playing and in certain cases even running around a little. It's huge, strong men (In addition to Hulk and Lance, Nakanishi was there), showing their kind and gentle and playful side. Yuka got on the phone to her uncle, but stared weeping uncontrollably as she tried to describe the scene to him. Tina immediately made her way over to lend Yuka moral support. A couple of completely bald little kids were climbing all over Wally and Nakanishi as they howled with laughter. Hogan and his hilariously-proportioned friend were making balloon animals. Lance was reading picture books to a couple of kids in wheelchairs, carefully sounding out the Japanese words and asking them questions about the pictures. Our allotted time passed way too quickly, but I have to admit I was kind of relieved when we had to leave. It was all a bit too much for me. I was emotionally overwhelmed, but I knew we'd be back again. Yuka, TIna, Wally's wife, and Hogan's friend had each agreed to take one kid to the show in Osaka in December. Shian-Li's kid had said, completely clear eyed, that he would see her again in December if he lived that long. We rode back to the hotel in a long black limousine. Shian-Li cried openly the whole way. She was not the only one. While we were riding, Hogan told Lance, "Brother, Stars Hips Eagle came back from WCW with a bit of a bad wheel. Dinged his knee. I don't know if he's going to be able to take that rolling crab of yours." He waited for Lance's response, which was total acceptance and understanding of the situation. "Brother, I want you to slap that bad boy on me." Lance wondered if Hogan's hip was okay for taking a single-leg. "Slap it on, Brother, right in the middle of that ring. Crank it right up. Hulkster's hip is all healed up and ready to be hung and bung!" It wasn't the planned finish. I don't even know if you can technically say it was meant to be part of the heat segment, considering that the heels were total underdogs in the match. About 12 minutes in, Hogan whipped Lance into the ropes and set up for the big boot... but Lance ducked and slid and grabbed onto Hogan's leg, rolling up and taking him down... and Hogan sold for a few long seconds that he was gonna power out of it, but then he collapsed to the mat and tapped out clean, right in the middle of the ring. I can only assume that it was Hogan's present to Lance, an acknowledgment that Hulkster appreciated having company on those visits, having a quiet guy to read stories to the kids who can't run around and play. Whatever Hulkster's reasoning, the 8000 fans packed into Kobe World Hall went absolutely nuts. In the control room, Yuka's eyes actually welled up with tears. "What a nice thing he did," she whispered. Later I asked Hogan if he wanted us to keep the finish off of TV. He didn't even hesitate. "Throw it up there, brother, for the whole world to see. That Canadian kid beat me fair and square."

Oh, man... how I wish that card had actually happened, and I'd been able to buy the tape from Tabe or Verne back in the day! Volk,Han vs. Vader is intriguing as all f*** too.

We'd been hoping to get some footage from WCW of the Halloween Havoc show to use on the early November episode of Asahi World Pro Wrestling presented by Asahi Beer and Asahi Soft Drinks and Asahi Shinbun Newspaper on Asahi TV, but so far we'v heard nothing from them. Not just no footage, we don't even have official results yet. In a way, that works out well, though, since we can run four full matches on this episode. There are some skits featuring The Space Mutineers, some clips of El Samurai, Mutoh, and Choshu making TV appearances, a repeat of the Bret Hart Five Moves video, and of course tons of match highlights to fill out the time slot. The main thing, though, is the four full matches: Masahiro Chono and Kensuke Sasaki vs. Saikyo Yaijin: I felt like this was the first match where Chono and Kensuke started to show some real chemistry, working together to put a beating on the young boys. The match told a decent story, with Nakanishi's power and Nagata's technique allowing them to gain an early advantage, forcing the Ishingun members to resort to underhanded tactics to gain and maintain an advantage. The young guys managed to fight back, and Nakanishi trapped Chono in an Argentine Backbreaker, only for Sasaki to take out the big man's knees. Chono landed on top of Nakanashi, and rolled him up for the pin. Li-Ta-Smi vs. Skyin' High: A face vs. face barn-burner showcasing Liger, but putting Sasuke over in the end. American Stars Hips vs. Cannon Fodder: The surprise finish of the tournament, seeing Hogan, of all people, submit cleanly to a Lance Storm roll-over Single Leg Crab Hold in the middle of the ring. I'll write more abut this later. Lyin' Guys vs. Try and Fly: Probably the best-worked match of the trios tournament so far. Heel Togo vs. face TAKA is an incredible match-up, and one we can build on for the future. This match showcased it beautifully, along with typically strong heel work from Jado and Gedo, some nice high spots from Hamada, and sublime selling from Yakushiji.

Somewhat ironically: I am Canadian... and just before reading this I had been reading the New York Times and New Yorker articles on ‘Blood in the Water’ by Heather Ann Thompson, a book looking back at the Attica prison riots and their aftermath. That reference, and the crazy timing of it, utterly blew my mind. Admittedly, in 1995 I probably would have thought it was a 'Dog Day Afternoon' quote.

Really looking forward to this.

For Halloween I dressed up like The Destroyer. Yuka was worried that I might get in trouble if anyone saw me wearing an AJPW jersey. I figured that I could make a reasonable argument that since Baba helped set Asahi Pro up in the first place it wasn't really corporate treason... I went to some of the cafes and bars and other places that I usually go to. Without exception, everyone knew it was me right away. A few of the older people I ran into made the specific connection to Beyer. Everyone else at least seemed to get that it was a pro wrestling cosplay. Some people took pictures with me, some people bought me drinks. Little kids everywhere stopped and waved, Whenever anyone said "Happy Halloween!" I was all *innocent confusion* "It's Halloween?" Only a couple of people seemed to get that I was messing with them. Everyone else seemed very confused. I ended up at the Karaage place, waiting for Yuka. The bartender, the cook and a couple of the regulars were there. We killed time by making simple drawings of famous pro wrestlers: That's my simple Hash and the bartender's simple Muta. Life in Japan often exceeds my wildest expectations. Today was just another one of those days.

I'm kind of repeating myself but: Harada is really one of the most awesome people. Such a good guy, he had my back from the first time we met. I'm so proud of hiｍ and Kotoge. I got to watch them grow from Osaka Pro young boys to NOAH mainstays. We once finished off a whole bottle of sake between the two of us: That was after we had a pitcher-chugging contest. Him and Kotoge vs. Me and Ebessan: So nice to see someone like him living his dream.

I'm happy with my roster as it stands now, so I guess I'll sit this out.

Is M-Pro still a C/D promotion?

Another corporate cross-over commercial: Mutoh and El Samurai training. Hill running, calisthenics, heavy bag work, weights, running the ropes and other in-ring drills... then a quick break. Mutoh chugs a bottle of Jūrokucha. Sammy chugs an Ichigeki Sports Drink. Then... back to training as hilariously over-inspirational trumpet fanfares blare in the background. This is followed up by clips of Mutoh and El Samurai making appearances on game shows, talk shows, variety shows, and the news. There are more clips of Choshu playing a heavy in a popular police drama. Then, a replay of the Choshu commercial, and even though I am looking for any kind of reference to Mitsuya Cider, really searching for a connection to the product, however remote... I draw a complete blank. The penultimate segment is a long series of clips from the tag team tournament. We sweated blood trying to pull clips of every single participant getting their best stuff in. Next week should be easier, as we'll have a few more matches to work with. Anyway, we did an OK job. We had Spivey hitting a big boot, a spinebuster and a savage sidewalk slam; Hogan posing, doing a big back rake, and hitting a double big boot with Spivey on Super Strong Machine. We had Hirata coming back with a big lariat on Spivey, and T2000 machine hitting a backdrop. we had the big axe bomber finish. We pulled some great footage from Fujinami and Hase vs. Lance and Scorp. Lots of reversals and counters, and a fantastic northern lights suplex finisher. Nakanishi looked pretty good in his clips, matching Norton and Hawk with power of his own. Nagata's stiff strikes looked great on camera. The modified doomsday device finisher got a huge reaction from the crowd and Nagata sold it like death. Dos Caras' flying cross chop, Kosh's top rope underhook suplex, Tenzan's Mongolian chops, Kojima's diving elbow drop... then the final series of commercials. And we come back to Kiyoshi Kodama, looking dapper, explaining that there will be four title matches on the November Tokyo Dome card: Mutoh defending the IWGP title, Kanemoto getting one more shot at El Samurai's Asahi Pro Welterweight Title, The Tag Tournament Finals, and the Trios Tournament Finals. We close out with footage of The Bulldog Foundation vs Masahiro Chono and Kensuke Sasaki. The match goes back and forth, with Chono and Kensuke relying on underhanded tactics to overcome Bret's technical ability and Davey Boy's power. The Bulldog Foundation are in control as TV time runs out. Yuka and I kill the rest of the evening sipping dry sake and building Asahi Pro CAWS on Fire Pro. The Create a Wrestler feature is incredibly deep, detailed, and fun. They have so many moves built in to their edit mode, and you can even adjust each character's CPU logic so that they behave like the real wrestler even when controlled by the computer. There are aspects of our relationship that are still coming along a little more slowly than I might ideally desire... but, really, having a girlfriend who actually wants to stay up all night watching wresting and making CAWS almost makes up for that.

My good friend and senpai Vicious Verne with your top challengers, c. 2001. A blast from the future!

C'est vraiment gentil de ta part! We watched the late-October episode of Asahi World Pro Wrestling presented by Asahi Beer and Asahi Soft Drinks and Asahi Shinbun Newspaper on Asahi TV at my place, with four big styrofoam pots of 7-11 oden and a bottle of Harushika Cho Karakuchi, a dry sake from Nara city. Oden is pretty hard to describe to anyone who has never tried it. It's recognizable stuff like eggs and tofu slow simmered in a soy-flavoured fish or chicken broth with less recognizable stuff like daikon radish, devil's tongue/konyaku, and various type of things made out of fish paste. It's perfect autumn food. It was really important for Yuka that I understand that Kansai-area oden is much better than Tokyo-area oden, due to its stronger-tasting broth. Asahi World Pro Wrestling presented by Asahi Beer and Asahi Soft Drinks and Asahi Shinbun Newspaper on Asahi TV opened with a pre-taped bit where Bret Hart and Jushin Liger spoke about the upcoming Halloween Havoc card in America. Basically, Liger is getting a title shot in WCW, and so he and Bret were politely suggesting that it might be nice if Bret were given a shot at the IWGP belt. Then there was a tightly edited clip of Bret performing his famous five-move sequence on various Asahi Pro wrestlers. So: he hits the inverted atomic drop on Norton, T2000 machine, Lance... while Soichi Shibata slowly and excitedly announces the name of the move and a giant "1" is superimposed on the screen, and so on through the Russian legsweep, backbreaker, elbowdrop from the second rope, and finally number five, the Sharpshooter. We cut to an insane commercial where Choshu is lariat-ing various things, destroying each of them. Yuka says the ad is for Mitsuya Cider (which isn't cider. It's more like Sprite, as I discovered to my disappointment my first week in Japan). Then there is a long sequence of match clips highlighting the trios tournament. Skyin' High come across as the team to beat. From this we segue into the last ten minutes of The Space Mutineers vs. Lyin' Guys. Togo, Gado, and Jedo are dominating while Black Buffalo goes apoplectic on the outside. Eventually Kingsnake, Trojan, and Smash start to bend the rules, culminating with Smash clocking Jado with a prop space helmet, allowing Trojan to get the pin with his feet on the ropes. Lyin' Guys are angry at first, but Buffalo talks them down, and then they seem to understand and acknowledge how far their Ishingun stablemates have progressed... it all ends in handshakes and hugs of congratulations. Gotta go to work! Write more later.

In terms of the trios tournament, the main thing is to try and get The Space Mutineers over as so-called cool heels. The idea is that having charismatic nice guys reluctantly cheating to win while dressed up in deliberately cheesy sci-fi outfits will be a merchandising bonanza. I feel compelled to repeat that my job is not so much to come up with the big picture ideas as it is to do the best I can with what I've been given. At any rate: Kaz Hayashi is now Kingsnake Hardcastle. Terry Boy Teioh is now Trojan Beef Thruster. Sho Funaki is now Smash Fistrock. Black Buffalo remains Base Slabpecs. To their infinite credit, the boys are 100 per cent committed to this. We are also trying to keep the heat up between Kanemoto and El Samurai, for their title rematch at the Dome. And we wanna start a slow build between Liger and Ohtani. And we'd like Skyin' High to come out of the trios tourney looking strong... Finally, in soap opera news: Yuka and I have made a big commitment. We've bought a game system together. More on that in the next update.

I'm so tired, guys. So, so tired. Putting TV together is incredibly fun and challenging, and the people I work with are so kind and so good at their jobs... but at this stage it's very time consuming and energy-draining... There are four stories we need to tell, and maybe half a dozen other stories we'd really like to tell, and we've got six hours of TV time, minus commercials, between now and the November Tokyo Dome show to do all that telling. And, to be accurate, what we really want to do is show the stories, not so much tell them outright. There are some spoilers coming up, so if you wanna be surprised by what happens at the Tokyo Dome show, maybe skip the next few paragraphs. And, for heaven's sake, don't spread any of this around online: Maybe the number one thing we wanna do is get Bret Hart across as a real threat to take the heavyweight title. We also wanna develop the rivalry between him and Choshu. We wanna keep Bret a babyface even though he is obviously an outsider, and we want to paint Choshu as the villain even though a lot of the NJPW fans think he's the coolest person in the whole world. And, we wanna do this while Bret is mainly working tags with Davey and Choshu is mainly making TV appearances in Tokyo. Ha ha! No problem, right? Then, we need to build to a tag title match that will get everyone excited. Pretty much every team has some kind of issue we need to work around: Hogan and Spivey: American Stars Hips: The issue is that Hogan just automatically assumes that every match should involve a hot tag to him and a clean axe-bomber finish. He seems genuinely confused and even a little hurt if we wanna go in any other direction. Also, Spivey is wearing lifts in his boots to play up the "Twin Towers" aspect of their gimmick, which makes him a little less mobile in the ring. Fujinami and Hase: Dragon Hearts: They are perfectly willing to put anyone over, and will always make anyone they are matched with look like a million bucks. The issue is that it might be the best long-term decision to put the straps on them... so the one team that's ready and able to put other teams over is also the one team we don't want doing that. Bret and Davey: The Bulldog Foundation: Right now, the booking is all about making Bret look strong and Davey can tell and he is being a good soldier about it for now... but it clearly bugs him a little that he's stuck playing second banana. Nagata and Nakanishi: Saikyo Yaijin: Still kinda green. Dos Caras and Sho Koshinaka (with Kato Kung Lee): Los Still-Pretty-Good-icos: The nostalgia factor works for these guys no matter how we book them, but you have to assume there will eventually be a breaking point where the fans start thinking of them as over-the-hill jobbers if they are constantly putting the younger guys over. Chono and Kensuke: Masahiro Chono and Kensuke Sasaki: They don't have the greatest chemistry as a team just yet. Road Warrior Hawk and Scott Norton: Big the Great Bulls: Hawk needs to be protected, and so far Norton understands that. Can Norton be more than a powerhouse role player? It's hard to see ow he'll get the chance to show that he can, in this stacked roster. Also, he's so huge that it sometimes looks goofy when he sells for much smaller guys. Super Strong Machine and T2000 Machine: The Machines: It's pretty likely that we are gonna let them go after the January Dome show, and they know it. So far, they have been good soldiers, but can we keep them motivated while pretty much jobbing them out for three months? They are pros. We have to count on that. Tenzan and Kojima: TenKoji: They are obviously not ready for the upper card just yet, but they have charisma and they have potential. How much can we push them at this stage? Lance and 2 Cold Scorpio: Cannon Fodder: Can we get them over while jobbing them out? Maybe... Scorp's offense in particular can really pop the crowd. Lance is perfectly happy to play whatever role he's offered. It's kind of a shame that slightly more selfish guys like Hogan and Hawk are almost always gonna get pushed at the expense of take-one-for-the-team guys like Lance and Norton and Koshinaka. The key to most of those issues is having the losing team look strong in defeat. Other than Hogan, Hawk, and sometimes Kensuke, everybody in the tournament is at least pretty good at letting the other guy shine. Hogan used to be great at that in his get-beat-down-then-Hulk-up prime.., hopefully we can find the switch to bring that out of him again.

While i can see how it would be fun, I also would prefer not, considering I just put 22 wrestlers into free agency last week. Exposing 4 of my remaining gaijin wrestlers on top of that would also mean potentially ruining some future plans. That's not the end of the world, but... I don't really have much fat left to trim on my roster,. I will also accept the group decision.

Maybe Calgary Stampede could use some Oklahoma Stampede

The Trios: Sasuke, Delfin, and Naniwa: Skyin' High TAKA, Gran Hamada, and Yakushiji: Try and Fly Liger, Tajiri, and Smiley: Li-Ta-Smi Ohtani, Kanemoto and Mochizuki: Cry 'n' Die Togo, Gado, and Jedo: Lyin' Guys Kaz, Funaki, and Terry Boy (with "Heel Consultant" Black Buffalo): The Space Mutineers

So, we've sent most of the welterweights to the North East, to run a trios tournament, and we've sent most of the heavyweights touring the main island and the South West, running a tag tournament. Mutoh, Choshu, and El Samurai are all in Tokyo, making appearances on various popular Asahi TV programs. Corporate synergy! I have become what I hate. And, I'm loving it so far. Maybe I should start popping the collar on my Asahi corporate polo shirt. My main job in the run up to the November Tokyo Dome show is to co-ordinate the video footage that comes in every day, and help organize clips for the TV show and choose which matches we run in full or in partially-clipped fashion. We've got four title matches on the card and we feel we really need to hype those up as much as possible. It's time consuming and a little stressful, but basically I am being payed to watch wrestling and make mix tapes of matches. It's literally a dream come true. The TV people are so nice and so easy to work with, for the most part. A couple of the handsome young suits really seem to despise me. Gedo figures it's because they had designs on improving their career prospects by hooking up with Yuka and marrying into her family. I got Chono and his wife to work with Jado and Gedo on some new ring gear and hair cuts before everyone went on tour. I think they look much better now. A little more generic, maybe, but much less indie. The Heavyweight Tag Teams: Hogan and Spivey: American Stars Hips Fujinami and Hase: Dragon Hearts Bret and Davey: The Bulldog Foundation Nagata and Nakanishi: Saikyo Yaijin Dos Caras and Sho Koshinaka (with Kato Kung Lee): Los Still-Pretty-Good-icos Chono and Kensuke: Masahiro Chono and Kensuke Sasaki Road Warrior Hawk and Scott Norton: Big the Great Bulls Super Strong Machine and T2000 Machine: The Machines Tenzan and Kojima: TenKoji Lance and 2 Cold Scorpio: Cannon Fodder