Superstar Sleeze

WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage - Wrestling Challenge 8/9/89 More bells & whistles than the previous matches because Zeus is here to build to Summerslam as is Elizabeth! I popped for that. I'm pretty sure this is a dark match. Savage & Sherri double team Hogan but Hogan gets the best of both of them. Then they move into 89 match template. I can't seem to find the next match in this series. Here we do get Liz slapping Savage and Hogan pinning Macho Man. Hogan Atomic drop to Sherri and a gratuitous ass shot. Zeus bear hug but Beefcake saves. Due to a great finish and the rest being the same this is the one to watch.

WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage - Boston 6/3/89 Carbon copy of the MLG match. This was the first Boston match. Watch this one because of better camera angles and plus Boston is obviously better than Toronto 😋

WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage - MLG 4/23/89 Their usual fun match with each other. Lots of heel chicanery. This like a less over the top version of the Flair Bash At The Beach match. A lot of heat on Sherri who is the lynchpin to any Savage offense: the robe, two distractions, tripping and foreign object. Savage is great in this but much like Flair in 94 takes a backseat to Sherri. His charisma is off the charts wildman throwing chairs to stalling to way he throws himself into every bump and move. Hogan is still a lot of fun and energetic loved the shine once he took of Macho Man robe. 89 WWF is not as gritty as 86 WWF and while this is fun not as good as that original series. Savage gets to outside after big boot. Hogan gets caught up with Sherri and Savage shoves him into railing and beats the count. Sherri of course puts the belt on him. Hogan does the double noggin knocker to get some commuppance on Sherri to send crowd home HAPPY but setting up rematches. Perfectly fine fun Hogan WWF main event. ***1/4

NXT Women's Champion Asuka vs Nia Jax - NXT Takeover 6/8/16 Asuka makes submission wrestling great again. Her chaining into submissions were breath-taking as they were compelling. She makes submissions engrossing because they ought to be done in a flash. Her transition into the Octopus or the triangle were insane. I liked the callback to the Bayley match where she tried to use to guillotine choke to defeat the monstrous Nia. I feel like it has been recently that Nia has found her presence in the ring as a monster. There were great moments early like the headbutt and the awesome biel that sent Asuka flying. But other times, she lacked that killer instinct. That Vader-esque feel even if she has the Vader look. That was the biggest detriment to the match. She kept up with Asuka that suplex out of the choke was great as was the back breaker out of the octopus as cutoffs. Mia acquitted herself well on the mat following her into the triangle. She just was not as menacing as I would hope. After three strong submission attempts, Asuka gets a tight kneebar which always spells doom for these larger wrestlers. Nia missed a legdrop and now Asuka hits a Shining Wizard. This is what Asuka needed was a head shot. By rocking her in the head it opened her to new opportunities. Like missile dropkick and nasty backfists. In the buildup, Asuka went for an armbar and Nia just destroyed her with a powerbomb. Again here Nia hits her with a huge power bomb as a counter. The layout of this is spectacular. So many great Hope spots and cutoffs. OMG! ASUKA CROSS ARMBREAKER OUT OF THE COVER! Asuka flash counterwrestling submissions as Hope spots have been stellar. Nia is too big for the AsukaLock so Asuka just kicks her head off in a great finish stretch. Nia Jax executed the layout well with great cutoffs and actually good selling at the end. She just has no character in between moves. Asuka was stellar in the David role using submissions well as Hope spots but it was head shots, Shining Wizard & kicks to head that won her the day. She was great at selling and firing up. This was a great example of Asuka the ring General and her unique take on David vs Goliath. ****1/4

NXT Womens Champion Bayley vs Asuka - NXT 4/1/16 Asuka is what Shinsuke Nakamura is supposed to be. Asuka has that crazy unique charisma from the Kabuki Theatre inspired entrance, that devilish smile, to playing around the ring. Whereas Nakamura just comes off as a spaz, Asuka comes off as cool. But there is more to it. What made Nakamura work in New Japan was that he was portrayed as the BEST WRESTLER. He was the BEST STRIKER. He was the BEST SUBMISSION wrestler. He was the one with legit MMA Cred. Not Tanahashi, Not Okada. He was the legit King of the Strong Style, the last of the Inoki's vision of pro wrestling. In such a way, Tanahashi & Okada had to react to Nakamura. Tanahashi it was through body part psychology. He would take out a leg in order to destabilize the balance and ability of Nakamura to set up for his own finish run. For Okada, it was all about using the dropkick to keep Nakamura off balance to set up his finish run. But make mistake about it, Nakamura was portrayed as the best and you can see that through his counterwrestling and how he could takedown his opponents at will. However in the WWE traditional counterwrestling does not exist. WWE is all about spots. Nakamura really does not have a lot of spots to be successful in WWE. What makes Asuka work is twofold. One is that she presented as the absolute best, which is what made Nakamura work in NJPW. From the outset, WWE positions her not just the best of the women, but anywhere based on how Regal presents her and the announcers her. In this match, she is presented as a bigger challenge than Nia Jax. I think when you first watch Asuka because she is diminutive in stature this does not come across, but watching a lot of Asuka this makes sense. So kudos to WWE! Secondly, Asuka is like the female AJ. She has a lot of really smart, organic, CROWD-PLEASING spots. She is NOT wrestling a million miles per minute with a ton of modified suplexes and flips. She builds her matches to a crescendo. She has a lot of spots she can go back to and fans will like them. She feels like she has the charisma that everyone tells me Nakamura has and the wrestling ability of AJ Styles. Pretty high praise and she deserves it. I actually watched this match live and was my first Asuka experience. I remember liking this more than the overhyped, overrated Nakamura vs Zayn spotfest. But now that I have sat down a bunch of Asuka, I thought this match is a classic. The thing this match requires you to do is buy into Asuka as an absolute killer. I think if you come in cold and you don't have that belief this match is just good. So I think that one thing the match could have improved is establishing Asuka as a killer in the first two minutes (go for Crossface Chickenwing but have Bayley scramble for the ropes, have her throw a couple more missed roundhouse kicks). We do see Asuka build momentum first against the larger Bayley (this is why I think establishment of Asuka in the match is necessary). But before the match gets out of hand, Bayley avoids an ass shot and attacks while she is in the ropes. You will notice two things: Bayley is suffocating her always on top of her and always coming off the top rope for extra oomph and Asuka is already countering with submissions (armbar, kneebar, remind you of anybody from NJPW?). Bayley's guillotine choke was a nice touch. The announcers put over that this finished Nia Jax (which I was aware of) and was super important to that move. You can get the feeling that even early on Bayley is throwing everything she has at Asuka and now I believe in Asuka it makes the stakes feel higher and makes every Asuka counter could lead to a tap out. There are some awkward moment like what they after Bayley's cool rana from the ring to the floor, the general middle is a little all over the place (the symmetrical strikes were nice, but kind of seemed out of place. Asuka's slap was good). But overall the story is established, Bayley is in over he head, but the best defense is a killer offense and Bayley is throwing everything at Asuka. Asuka is just so good that she can still counter. Bayley goes from the bomb throwing strategy to the Tanahashi strategy of taking out Asuka's leg which came out of a catching Asuka's foot on a roundhouse. Bayley playing Asuka's game, nice! Bayley the Counterwrestler. Whats Asuka's answer, but a FLYING CROSS ARMBREAKER, which is exactly in line with her previous counters. I am loving this. Bayley is just trying to survive and counters an Asuka kick with a small package. Great! Bayley is desperate trying a submission that tapped Sasha nothing doing. Finally goes for Bayley 2 Belly, but Asuka counters and we know it is over now. Bayley, bless your heart. Spin kick, suplex, Asuka Lock and ASUKA RIPS BAYLEY TO THE GROUND! Asuka is God. Bayley passed out. Amazing match. ****1/2

Well in fairness you are being a dick to me just as I am being a dick to the 411mania guys. I am a pretty easygoing guy so you don't have to sugarcoat things. I do think you have a point that this mentality can be just as annoying as the people I was frustrated with, but I was just that... I was frustrated with them. I wrote that post in haste and in anger, but the core point of the post is still valid. There was a big backlash in the late 90s/early 00s to overbooking which at the time made sense, but internet criticism just like WWE seems stuck in 2002-2003. People are parroting the same Scott Keith-isms from the early 00s without really thinking. Your point about a simple run-in or ref bump NOT being overbooking is exactly my point. There have been legions of internet fans trained by the wrestling criticism of the late 90s/early 00s to believe anything but an uber-clean finish Is overbooking and decry its existence. I agree with you I think overbooking can be fantastic and really add to pro wrestling. I can tell we agree, but the tone of my original post was hostile and prickly. That was dumb on my part. Lets all rejoice in the wonders of overbooking because it is one of the many reasons that makes wrestling fun!

So I watched a bunch of Asuka matches on a flight this morning, but I wanted to write some reviews. But I didn't take notes so I used 411mania reviews to jog my memory. I got to the reviews of Asuka vs Emma Takeover match which I loved especially the finish stretch. I thought the ref bump, belt being thrown in and Dana distraction added a ton of drama down the stretch. Really elevated Asuka and was wicked enjoyable. But yet two reviews on the site cited that "the match didn't need the gaga" and that overbooked finish hurt the match. Um if Asuka just submitted her instead of Emma backing her into the ref, how the hell would that have been better. It would have been a ho-hum finish to a solid match. This was way more entertaining and added a lot of fun. Why is still there a stigma to overbooking? It is what makes wrestling fun! Ref bumps, interference and general wackiness. Why do people want wrestling to be like real sports??? Just reasons #1269 why internet wrestling fans sucks in my estimation. Long live overbooking because it can just be good booking!

Asuka vs Emma - NXT Takeover December 2015 Asuka's best match to at least Bayley match. Great setup here as Emma & Dana try to cost Asuka a match to jabroni but doing the entrance interruption instead Asuka kicks the jobber's head off and KNOCKS HER THE FUCK OUT! So of course right at the outset, Asuka swings a wild roundhouse kick and Emma is all scared. Very well played. Again as I stated previously, Asuka is great at using chain wrestling to build to strikes and the excitement of the match. I love how the flying hammerlock into the armbar puts her opponent in the ropes and then she blitzes her with kicks. It is a great way to use wrestling to set up strikes. It is the beauty of Asuka well that and that incredible smile! Emma is pretty highly touted from this NXT run, but I didn't see it. I thought she delivered a very pedestrian heat segment and overall did not do anything seemed special. Give me Dana Brooke any day of the week that girl has charisma. The real charm of this match is the finish stretch. They do a big run up of Asuka's big spots, but adding the missile dropkick as the counter. A nice new addition to Asuka's deep arsenal. I thought they did a great job moving the match back and forth between the two without being my turn, your turn. Asuka built momentum with the spinning backfists, but when she gets into the corner Emma is able to put on the Tarantula. This sets up Emma for a butterfly suplex into the corner and then Emmaite Sandwich to set up Emmalock. I like finish stretches that build to false climaxes of each person's finish. Emmalock is attempted but not completed and Asuka grabs the anklelock and any Asuka fans knows what is next...GERMAN SUPLEX! Now Asuka goes for her Crossface Chickenwing, but is backed into the ref. REF BUMP! YES! I have missed those. They kick the drama into overdrive. Dana Brooke tosses her belt into the ring. The ref thinks Asuka used it. The crowd erupts screaming no. Emma goes for roll up, but AsukaLock, Dana on the apron, ref misses tap out. Asuka KICKS EMMA'S HEAD OFF for the win! Loved all the false finishes down the stretch. Emma is fine, but don't get the praise. Asuka is amazing and this match where she was able to get visual tap out from the Crossface Chickenwing and the KO shot made her look badass. ***3/4

Asuka vs Emma - NXT 3/23/16 This is the TV blowoff of the Asuka vs Emma & Dana Brooke feud after Asuka beat them around the horn. Asuka will be challenging Bayley in the coming week at NXT: Mania 32 for the NXT Women's title so this puts on a bow on Asuka's first feud. This is the more basic version of their great December 2015 takeover match. Asuka is so great at the beginning of matches. Working headlocks and hammerlocks in compelling fashion. I am sorry, but still don't get Emma. She is capable and fine, but she lacks personality. Give me Dana Brooke any day without the bells and whistles of the previous match she is pretty much exposed as a basic pro wrestler. Second time in a row her heat segment is meandering. The best part is hair pulling. Either have a focus or be entertaining. Asuka is pretty good at selling (she is definitively better at offense). I really her guttural screams as she revvs herself up. Her ass shot to Emma comes off really good her. She really plows Emma over which probably the spot of the match. Best of Asuka polishes Emma off with a great anklelock German and then a bevy of flying submission takedowns puts her down. Solid match, but nothing spectacular, Asuka's offense and charisma makes it worthwhile. ***

Asuka vs Dana Brooke - NXT Respect 10/7/15 In a great use of the Network, the WWE has put together a collection of Asuka's greatest hits in order to prime fans for her debut on the main roster in a couple weeks. I have seen Asuka a couple times live and just absolutely loved her. For someone who spends his wrestling time prioritizing older footage, I have always overlooked getting into Asuka. This seems like the perfect opportunity to binge watch her best matches. I wont be covering her ~3-5 minute TV matches in detail, but they are awesome and definitely should be checked out. Pitch perfect debut match. Great exhibition of what Asuka brings to the ring. Charisma in spades, lots of energy, organic builds, great chain wrestling, awesome strikes and badass repertoire of submission wrestling. Asuka is such a classic pro wrestling. She does not do rote gymnastics routines or just throw out modified suplexes and flips for the hell out of it. There is a real build. Also kudos to Dana Brooke for being a pro here. She is a criminally underrated pro wrestler. A great heel that should never been turned face. Loved the rolling hammerlocks. The flying hammerlock was awesome. Asuka makes submission wrestling great again. Dana Brooke's big slap was a great response to being schooled on the mat and Asuka's response of smacking the shit out of her was great. Good cheating from Emma to set up the short but effective Dana Brooke heat segment. Asuka then runs through her best of, mocking Brooke's routine (love that charisma), the flying juji-gatame. the anklelock into that sick German, all great. Crossface Chickenwing takes it home. Short, sweet to the point. Asuka is a beast and she wrestles with the intention to win NOT to entertain. Guess what that is a lot more entertaining. Shoutout again to Dana for being a great heel and making Asuka look damn good. Exactly what a debut match should be. ***1/2

WWWF Heavyweight Champion Bob Backlund vs Spiros Arion - Philly 3/25/78 Never seen Spiros Arion, I kinda have a natural inclination to like him because he has very similar hair to me. Bob Backlund's first title defense and it makes sense as this is an old Bruno rival from the mid-70s (famous heel turn that was covered on Titans). What didn't make sense was that Backlund was not put over clean and Arion was still protected. I know this is 1978, but still new champ that could use a win over the old guard and I don't think Arion was used much after. Pretty standard Bob match, which I always enjoy. Arion does not add much. Standard heel cheating (choking, eye rakes), not much of a bumper or stooge. Very pedestrian. Backlund was usual fun & energetic self. Loved the tenacious waistlocks into bridging pins. Loved how he overcame all the cheating with pure wrestling technique. Arion finally gets one up on him by exposing the turnbuckle. Arion gets his big false finish with an Argentine (maybe Greek in this case) Backbreaker. Backlund slips out and sends him into the exposed turnbuckle as a receipt. Now Backlund pours it on, PILEDRIVER!, bulldogs him into the exposed buckle, ATOMIC DROP~! Knocks out Dick Whirly and they brawl for a bit until the wrestlers come from the back and I guess it is a no contest. Exposed turnbuckle bit was fun and Backlund is a joy to watch. Standard stuff. ***

Rest in Peace to the GOAT announcer and host. I can hear him saying Jerry now.

No I agree with you brutha, Brock is the best wrestler not named AJ in WWE. His command of psychology is second to none. He is by far the best big man seller and bumper. He goes out of his way to make people look great in that department. If people are sick of Suplex City that's fine, but to call out Brock's performance in regards to shining Braun up smacks as silly and overly critical. I loved how Brock went for his usual bull-rush, double leg and Braun just STUFFED him and the way Brock sold it was great. Brock kept going to things that usually work and they didn't. The Kimura is something in his back pocket that he busted out of desperation. I was not keen on the pop-up F-5. I would have liked to seen Braun make a mistake then Brock capitalize. Rather than Brock taking a big move from Braun and then hitting F-5. A very good match (~***1/2), but not a great match. I agree Cena/Reigns was disappointingly boring. But it was a boring in a much different way than how Cena matches have been boring recently (spot-spot-spot-no consequence). Cena started selling way too early into the match; the whole build and even the beginning pointed him to being the heel and then he just sold and sold anyways, way too much downtime in between spots. It was boring more in a late 2000s NOAH match way of being boring. More recent Cena stuff is really exposing him and say this as a pretty huge Cena fan. I was shocked at how boring the match was and pretty disappointed. Thought Reigns was great on top for the most part, just to end positively.

Another amazing match on what is on pace to be PPV of the year (on paper this show looks WrestleMania worthy as they have appropriately been hyping it as). This match definitely gets elevated because of Cesaro's bloody, brutal injury of losing at least two if not four of his front teeth literally eating the post. Cesaro/Sheamus were on fire as offensive juggernauts. I have been saying since 2012 that Sheamus has the deepest and best offensive arsenal in North America and it was on full display here. Cesaro was equally brilliant. Ambrose is good at exactly one thing: selling and he did great. Hell, Rollins finally looked like the Rollins of the Shield wrestling with some great fire. The finish run was double hot. The White Noise, Super Powerbomb of Rollins into Ambrose was insane. The fact it was not the finish was insane (it is ok because Cesaro/Sheamus would not win). I liked the Japanese feel of this tag match with constant isolation, chaos and need to keep a partner at bay. I liked the Knee/Double Arm DDT finish, but the transition was a little weak. Lots of bomb throwing, reminded me a lot of those great All Japan classics. Great offense all around! ****

I am in shock. A truly great Finn Balor vs Bray Wyatt match. I literally had Hashimoto vs Fujiwara running once I saw this was coming on. The last two (remember they had one in Boston RAW) were so bland. I'm a mark for a heel beatdown before a match. Then something Happened that I have never seen true, red hot fire from Balor! His selling was great, a great shine and the hope spots were well-timed and rousing. I have no problem with Bray the worker (the character is the drizzling shits). Bray looked awesome kicking ass in this match. The clothesline and suplex slams were awesome! Balors dropkicks to the finish were hot. Shockingly great match between two usually very sterile workers. ****

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Shinya Hashimoto vs Hiroshi Hase In a diner in London just hitting highlights -Same layout as 93 match organic matwork Hase is the better technical wrestler but Hash has size. Bomb throwing at the end is much better. -Bundle of legs locks way too much, way too boring and who is being hurt when they are both hugging each other's legs. -Hashimoto great selling the first ankle cross and figure-4 love how he pancakes Hase -Hase undersized but had great takedowns, picks and trips. A marvel -Hase tries to get all Macho with Hashimoto and HASHIMOTO OBLITERATES HIM! It was glorious how he crushed his midsection. The double foot stomp from the top and Denton were gnarly. -Hashimoto walking into an urnage...LAME! -Hase tornado DDT was a much better transition to his offense. He gets the big man up for some BIG bombs and the choke was OVER! -Hashimoto HUGE Kneelifts to injured midsection. ANNIHILATES him with a spin wheel kick. Huge Fisherman Brainbuster kills him dead. Thought the back half of this was awesome and way more focused. Hashimoto The Destroyer In All His Reigning Glory. ****1/4

Lust Hogan that was an amazing post. I have never seen a Typhoon match, but now I may have to after reading those hilarious Heenan quotes. Bobby The Brain reminds me so much of my Uncle Mike. Their sense of humor is so incredibly similar. I just love that style of humor. Heenan was a part of my childhood as the announcer for Nitro and now going back to watch AWA & WWF 80s he is a great part of my adult life. There are very few pro wrestling personalities that could have been stars in other fields, but I agree with the sentiment that The Brain could have been a break-out standup comedian. I will say I am much happier that he was in the greatest entertainment field of them all Bobby the Brain. Thanks for all the memories. RIP The Brain.

As a WCW diehard, this brought a smile to my face. I really wish they would bring back the Big Gold Belt.

The Drifter is amazing. Future top face or heel. Mark my words. Great prospect.

These are all really good points! The Smackdowns women division booking is baffling. Becky is most over female on either roster. Sasha & Bayley have been getting mixed to no reactions. Lack of use of Becky is silly. Jinder mahal is dreadful. Boring on the mic & in the ring. New Day vs USOS has been incredible. AJ IS God. Owens/McMahon has been great past two weeks. Thin roster but they should be doing better. I think the format of the show is good just need to plug in the right people.

Wrestling tv shows should be mostly talking. Smackdown is doing a good job. Short sprints and quick promos, one major angle and an overarching story are nice. Too much wrestling waters down the PPV and good long tv matches. RAW trots out Finn/Bray on go home show and they have a carbon copy of the match six days later. IF wrestlers actually had matches that built on each other and/or were different it would be ok. But with wrestling being so same-y, the old school SD! Approach of Angle development and lots of talking and building to the long matches is refreshing and more entertaining.

This match was fine. It felt like Hashimoto working a WWF match in Japan. I just thought both were kinda there. What was up with the 8 million top rope attempts that was weird. Rick Rude vs Shinya Hashimoto - NJPW 8/10/92 Rick Rude's 1992 is one of the most highly acclaimed calendar years in wrestling history and rightfully so. Thus I was intrigued by this match up of an all-time great in Hashimoto and the '92 Rude who was an all-time great in this year. This is the G-1 Climax, which was a single elimination tournament for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. It is actually a very routine Rick Rude match. There is not a lot of struggle. It is just Hashimoto overcomes Rude's thrust to throat early and kicks ass. But I did not think it was that great of an asskicking. Then he spinwheel kicked into corner. Then Hashimoto basically worked a routine WWF match with hope spots. The weirdest part of the match by far is Rude going up to the top 8 times. It was jarring and kept taking you out of the match. Madusa's interference was fine. Rude's Super DDT was wicked! Top Rope Kneedrop in combination was great. Actually pretty well set up. Decent Hashimoto works American style, Rude sleep walks through the match. Cool to see Dusty & Watts in the crowd. ***

Shinya Hashimoto vs Hiroshi Hase - NJPW G-1 Climax '93 I was really impressed by the first 3/4s of this match. The last quarter felt totally tacked on and disjointed from the first 15 minutes. It was an obvious Hashimoto kills Hase with a ton of spots (kicks, powerbomb, chokeslam, DDT), but was going to lose. Hase hits the Exploder out of nowhere for the win. Hase's smile and the announcer's YAHOOOOO almost make up for the disappointing finish. The first 15 minutes is an amazing exhibition of how you can have compelling wrestling just using holds with no highspots. The first highspot of this match was around the 16 minute mark. It was two guys going out there and wrestling seeing where the holds took them. I thought it was an excellent lesson in gradualism. How Hase had to work hard to make in roads on Hashimoto's legs. He is the more accomplished amateur wrestler, but Hashimoto is a big dude. So to take him down and keep him down are two different things. At first Hashimoto was using brute force to break the figure-4s Hase was using. Hashimoto was brutalizing Hase's leg with kicks. Then Hase got the dropkick to the leg and really worked it over. Rather than power out now Hashimoto had to go to the ropes. I loved that ride they took us on 15 minutes. It was not an abrupt Hashimoto's leg is fucked two minutes in, but it took 15 minutes and it was interesting. Of course, Hashimoto blew off the leg selling and the match became a Hashimoto beats the shit out of Hase, but cant get the job done match. Tale of two matches, the first one is more interesting, but the second one is still fun. ***3/4

How does PWO like Jason Jordan? I fucking love this kid in the ring. Distinct style in a world were everyone has become very homogenized. I'm a sucker for amateur grappler style and his throws are way more impressive than all those lame men's floor exercise tumbles people do now. In ring he is the best prospect they have had in forever. As Bookwr T said Strap the rocket to this kid!

IWGP Tag Team Champions Hellraisers vs Jurassic Powers - NJPW 7/22/93 The real question of this match is do you prefer the Ozzy or Motorhead version of Hellraiser? (Correct answer is Motorhead) When Scott Norton first challenged the Steiners for the titles he teamed with Bam Bam Bigelow. He won the tag titles with Tony Halme (Ludvig Borga), but lost them to the Hellraisers (Hawk & Power Warrior (Kensuke Sasaki)) at 1/4/93. Then Borga ended up with WWF so he now has a washed up Hercules. The pre-match promo with Masa Saito makes Norton look badass. I actually liked the shine. It was old school Road Warriors with Hawk & Sasaki hitting the ring and kicking ass. Hawk misses a flying clothesline. Norton is effective in kicking ass throwing Hawk around clotheslining. Hercules sucks. Hawk gets a shouldertackle. Sasaki is so much better than everybody else in this match. I would say what a waste, but he is getting the rub from Hawk. Herc grabs the chain, but Sasaki bludgeons him with lariats. How the hell do you lose with a chain in your hand? Sasaki pulverizes him with the chain. Damn! This was not the title change. Title change was a couple weeks later. Norton & Herc would successfully defend against the Hellraisers, Mutoh/Hase and then the Nasty Boys (lol!) before dropping the belts back to the Hellraisers at 1/4/94 Dome. So in essence for one year, Scott Norton vs Hawk & Kensuke Sasaki was the centerpiece of the New Japan tag team scene. How fucking weird is that?