PeteF3
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[1994-01-04-NJPW-Battlefield] Riki Choshu vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara
PeteF3 posted a topic in January 1994
Somebody got a haircut! In addition to that big news, this is Choshu's return from a nasty injury. I don't think he was 100% yet but I guess he didn't want to miss the big Dome show (or lose any power with a prolonged absence...) This isn't a high-end match in the rivalry, nor was it consequential enough to go on a Yearbook when so much other, bigger stuff from this show made it. But it's a fun stiff-fest between two guys who know how to get the most out of the least. At the very least you have the compelling contrast of Choshu's lariat vs. Fujiwara's finisher which is basically an ideal counter to the Lariat. Finish is something I feel like I've seen between these two before, with Choshu just repeatedly Lariating Fujiwara until he drops. -
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Previously on PWO:
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Previously on PWO:
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Outside of the Dome show and the Hash/Tenryu match it's been a quiet first quarter for New Japan. Choshu & Tenryu as partners is just weird. And we must be in the Sportatorium, as Tenryu WORKS THE STICK in the middle of the match, inciting Muto with something before dumping water on him just because he can. Muto bails and Chono decides to take on both opponents with a chair as equalizer. That doesn't last long, as Tenryu & Choshu are working better together as former enemies in the early going than Hokuto & Kandori did. Things take another left turn as MUTA emerges from the locker room. He destroys Tenryu on the apron but can't seem to tag in legally, as the opponents more or less keep Chono isolated in the ring. Muta eventually has enough and nails both guys with the mists and somehow Choshu pins an apparently comatose Chono anyway. Muta lays waste to everything that moves afterward, misting the opponents about 37 times each and beating the shit out of Tenryu with a stretcher from under the ring. This match pretty much defies a traditional star rating but it was entertaining bullshit.
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Previously on PWO:
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Beulah is supposed to guest ref, but when she yells at Alfonso for jumping Gordon on the floor, Bill levels her with a clothesline and takes her out of the match. This is clipped, but the action we see is so much better than it has any right to be that it's absurd. In some ways this is more impressive than Stevie vs. Luna, though maybe not as good as Cornette working against Mark Curtis. Fonzie is such a little shit that the heat is through the roof--the "WE WANT BLOOD" chant for once fits perfectly into the story of the match. Tod rams Alfonso into a chair outside and Fonzie fulfills our wish--"ALFONSO'S BUSTED OPEN! ALFONSO'S BUSTED OPEN! THE COMMISH DID IT!" There's even a well-built-to payback spot with Gordon uppercuting Alfonso in the nuts, just as Bill did to him earlier. He knocks Bill out with a frying pan, but with no referee, Taz (who guest refed earlier in the night) has to come out to make the count. One, two...and Taz clobbers Gordon and gives the victory to Bill. Taz gets on the mic and I have to deal with ECW's usual sound quality combined with the usual DailyMotion sound quality. That and every other word is getting bleeped. Taz calls out the ECW fans for their concern over Tommy Dreamer, Terry Funk, and Sabu for their various injuries in the past year. "WHAT ABOUT ME?" I think this refers to the neck problems Taz had been having at this time. Taz points out that his father isn't a "fat kike lawyer" (!!!--got bleeped, but I'm pretty sure that's what he said) so he doesn't have the luxury of being able to live comfortably if he can't work. The only guy who worked to put food on Taz's table and money in his pocket was Alfonso. Not one of the absolute best Alfonso segments of the year, but another very good one. Taz has done very little since Sabu departed and is about to begin the run of his career, so that's pretty exciting.
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Previously on PWO:
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Previously on PWO:
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Dave gave this ****1/4 and it looks like a good opportunity to see what the mid-card AJW types were doing, in a semifinal of a major show. Shimoda is wearing the skimpiest attire in the history of women's wrestling--Attitude Era divas would look at and say, "cover yourself up some." Not a complaint, just an observation. This is all-action and pretty spotfesty, but it's a very good showcase for LCO, who pretty much dominate this from bell to bell. Every time the opponents start to gain an advantage, even after burying Hokuto under a pile of chairs outside the ring and busting her open, they're almost immediately cut off. A little overrated by Dave considering this was basically a 15-minute squash, but LCO sure look impressive, doing some Michinoku Pro-style triple team spots and running a pretty intricate dive train sequence. Hokuto hits one of the great Northern Lights bombs of her career, spiking Yoshida into the mat for the pin. Other than a few isolated nice moves--Kaoru does an Asai-style dive to the floor and Reggie has a good big fat flying splash--LCO's opponents didn't get the chance to show much.
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I'm...not all that sure what to make of this, honestly. But I think I really liked it. This has the feel of a very extended squash, as for 90% of this Bull seems to either shrug off or have an answer for every single thing Kyoko tries. And for awhile this was feeling like a step back for Kyoko. Even though her WWF stint was over with, Bull had taken a sort of elder-stateswoman role, and having already vanquished Kyoko in a WWF title match earlier I wasn't seeing the purpose in having Inoue put her over so strongly again when it was pretty clear who needed the win more. Kyoko gets not one but two DRAMATIC ONE-COUNTS off Bull's guillotine legdrop, and controversy over that spot aside I think it worked here. That forces Bull to go for the somersault guillotine legdrop, and *that* gets two. So Bull goes for the moonsault, which misses. I do love that recurring progression in Bull's big matches. Now, Kyoko chooses to follow this up by unsuccessfully attempting to apply a surfboard, which was not a direction I would have gone in. It's her first opportunity to truly impact Bull and that's a hold designed for the opening feeling-out process, not after a major transition. It gets a little wonky from there, but Kyoko and Bull pull this back together when Inoue starts going for the Niagara Drivers. Two of them followed up by a power bomb nets...a 3 count?! Yeah, that totally caught me off-guard, which is to this match's ultimate credit. Like I said, this feels like a hard match to rate--I had some issues with the psychology and I was so prepared to hate the result it seemed to be building toward ("Kyoko is gutsy and tenacious but completely overmatched," like Kobashi in 1990-91 against Hansen, which was not the right story to tell at this point) that the end result is leaving me puzzled for a proper star rating. But, bottom line, it's a milestone win for Kyoko that seems to come at the right time, and good on them for pulling the trigger and for so completely fooling me.
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Styles made mention of the events here in the 6-man later on, so I figured I'd better watch what we have of it. Match is clipped, but we get lots of Richards and Dudley Dudley stooging and getting destroyed, and Big Dick working as a no-selling monster. Cactus gets his licks in on everyone else, but keeps tagging out when he has a chance to hit Raven. This is pretty much just the highspots, but the spots are pretty good and Dreamer, from what we see, works an effective enough FIP. As all 8 are brawling, Dreamer drops Raven with a piledriver on a chair and strikes a crucifix pose to celebrate, only for Cactus to drop him with a double arm DDT on the chair, throw Raven on top, and give the heels another win. Even the ECW smark crowd is shocked and aghast at this development--Paul E. would later compare the crowd reaction to Koloff beating Bruno. I wouldn't go that far, and Paul would of course be involved in an even bigger Koloff/Bruno moment decades later, but this was nonetheless a very effective twist in the feud leading to some stuff that I can't wait to revisit.
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This had something of a rep and it's probably the best non-gimmick singles bout of Brian Armstrong's career. It's not great or anything much more than a solid TV-level bout, but he's able to keep up with the Kid on the faster sequences and he tones down the dancing between moves from where he had been in the summer. Kid is working at around 50% due to his neck injury but still knows how to put together a strong match. Roadie wins with a second-rope piledriver, which is effective considering Kid came in with a neck injury but probably should have been sold with a stretcher job rather than just a three-count.
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Because I couldn't go through '95 without getting a glimpse of EVIL KIKUCHI. He's even switched to evil black tights, though he eschewed the evil goatee. Sadly he seems pretty banged up and out of it by this point, so he doesn't do a ton and leaves the heavy lifting to his partners. The first half of this is all about setting up Kawada as a killer, as he chokes out Misawa and is basically treated almost as a no-selling monster heel from the way he carries himself and the urgency with which Kobashi and Akiyama take him on. After that it bogs down into a pretty through-the-motions tag, with a through-the-motions FIP segment on Akiyama and a through-the-motions finish with Misawa putting Ogawa away without a ton of trouble. One for AJPW completists, though I could get into Kikuchi & Ogawa as a ratfuck tag team.
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These aren't exactly two guys I gush over the opportunity to see, and aside from a few interference spots and Fuyuki taking a bell to Shiro's head on the floor, this isn't a bloody interpromotional brawl either. But it is a very well laid-out match between two guys who know how to work a crowd. Fuyuki has finished his transformation into possibly the biggest slob in the history of wrestling, but can still move about--he's pretty much a Japanese indy Dusty Rhodes. Fuyuki has taped ribs which plays into some cool counters as well as the finishing stretch. Nothing that will change the world but a match that reflects well on both guys.
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This is from the first round of the U.S. title tournament. I didn't think much of most of the action here, but they won me over by the end. Sting did a lot of punch-kickery but he also targeted Arn's leg, which paid off in a big way later. Arn had some great counters here--a spinebuster out of nowhere, the "wind up a punch and DDT the guy when he ducks" spot that I love so dearly, and catching Sting with a back elbow when he attempted one too many Stinger splashes. Hot closing stretch in general, leading to a clean submission victory thanks to Sting's earlier work on the leg.
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Omori is wearing the single ghastliest set of trunks I have ever, ever seen. That includes Jay Strongbow's '70s-couch-cushion pattern. They can barely be described as anything besides "psychedelic leopardskin." Or psychedelic sponge. This is a solid 6-man tag that's hurt by a meandering opening half. It picks up when Kobashi gets caught in the ropes and Kawada starts taking his knee apart, but the Kobashi-in-peril segment doesn't last too long and we quickly go to the hot tag and big 6-man bomb-throwing after that. Fun closing stretch but this isn't at the levels of the classic 6-mans of '91-'93. Omori seems to be in a state of arrested development since showing up in '94, as he still doesn't offer much besides the ability to take a beating. And the teams are more haphazard than the clearer alliances of the Jumbo's Army/Super Generation Army days. That said, it's still fun seeing fresh blood and fresh teams in this setting.
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[1995-04-02-Weekly Pro Wrestling] Shinya Hashimoto vs Masa Chono
PeteF3 posted a topic in April 1995
Few guys have undergone a more beneficial transformation during this time period than Chono. Only Doc's transition from tag wrestler to singles star compares, but Chono's career was in worse shape than Doc's. This starts off great, with Hash psychotically kicking Chono to death in the corner and abusing Tiger Hattori in the process, with Chono having to fight back just as hard. But then this just dies, with a lot of meandering and punch-kickery. Chono is charismatic in this role but this really feels like a WWF or AAA-style New Japan match. Lots of playing to the crowd between moves clubbering, and Hash does an unconvincing Hulk-Up routine. The crowd seems really restless, too. Hiro Saito's interference isn't appreciated, either. This has the attempt of an intense no-frills war, but it comes off about 1/3 as convincing as a Hash/Tenryu match would be in this setting. This isn't a BAD match, but it seems these guys expected to just walk in and have a really good match, instead of doing anything particularly special as befitting either this setting or this feud. It's just another routine Hash title defense with a routine layout and routine finish. Reaction to this match was negative enough--to say nothing of the the realization that AJPW had outclassed them in their own backyard--that NJPW basically pulled their support for this show as soon as it was over. So no home video release, no sequels (even though Mutoh was supposedly willing to put Misawa over in a singles dream match had they run this again in '96), or anything else. Too bad, because this show ultimately did live up to its hype, providing a little something for every wrestling fan without overstaying its welcome the way Big Egg did. -
So the story is that AJPW really wasn't enthused with this whole project. They were isolationist to begin with, and they were smack in the middle of their Champions Carnival with guys having a bunch of hard-hitting (and long) singles matches. They were planning to just send some undercarders, but with fan backlash and New Japan trotting out a main event with its two hottest singles stars, they changed course, provided an all-star 6-man tag, and from what I understand stole the show, or at least stole the thunder from NJPW. Ace is a substitute for Dr. Death, who was going through his drug/arrest troubles and was out of wrestling entirely, putting an end to a great 18-month run. This is something past "fall out of bed" good. This is one of the better AJPW matches of the year and probably the best 6-man we'll see. It's the best performance I remember seeing out of Johnny Ace. It's one of the best Kobashi-in-peril performances you'll see. It even advances the Taue/Misawa CC rivalry as Taue has Misawa on the ropes down the stretch. It has a fresh dynamic with Hansen in a white-knight role, working the hot tag and doing double-teams with Misawa. It absolutely flies by--I wasn't even considering that this might be a draw until the "5 minutes left" time call came. I could have watched these 6 guys go for another 30, easily, and my patience with hour draws was wearing thin. Ultimately this probably wasn't truly consequential enough to be a major MOTYC, but it's certainly in the top 10 right now and could easily finish in the top 15-20.
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UWFI can't have run many 6-mans in its history. This has the most heat of anything on the show that I've watched, and it starts from the beginning with Yamazaki desperately trying to get at Takada before the bell has even sounded. It's a good, heated match that follows but doesn't quite fulfill the promise that it had at the beginning. When Yamazaki and Takada finally hook up, it doesn't quite live up to the hype. The Takada/Albright match-up goes much better, as does Albright murdering Scott. In the end, six guys is just too many for a UWFI match--with no saving or double-teams or anything, guys were getting lost in the shuffle.
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I hate to keep using "fall out of bed good," but that's what this is. You get the familiar arm-pumping comedy spots, and the double surfboard to triple surfboard to triple pin attempt spot, and the dive trains. What jumps out in this match in particular is the star-making performance from TAKA. He fits into this seamlessly, throwing some vicious strikes and of course wowing everybody with his spaceman planchas and springboard dropkicks.
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This of course starts with all 6 guys on the entrance stage, with the ring announcer not having been clued in that he was supposed to do a countdown for the guys to race for the barbed wire baseball bats. A visibly annoyed Cactus eventually takes off on his own and then the countdown starts. Most of the highlights of this come from the Headhunters flying all over the place with their big fat lucha offense, mostly directed towards abusing poor Nakamaki. At one point Shoji is sandwiched between two barbed wire beds and moonsaulted by a Headhunter. This gets better as it goes, as Leatherface, having walked out early in the match, makes a pivotal save with his trusty chainsaw and Funk and Cactus throw some awesome punches at each other on the floor. Cactus and the Headhunters pull off a Steiner Bulldog to the floor, followed by a big fat Leatherface plancha and Funk moonsault. This goes off the rails slightly when Cactus tries and fails to light one of the barbed wire beds on fire, but they recover nicely. Nakamaki eventually steals a win by rolling up a Headhunter, which isn't a finish you'd expect but plays nicely into the story of Nakamaki being their personal whipping boy. There are better, tighter death matches but this was fun.
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Hilariously, Lou Thesz is brought out to make a speech right before this. As showmen and card planners go, the editors at Weekly Pro sound like fine magazine writers. I don't know what these guys did to earn a spot on this show, but I feel like I have to watch this one time before I die. The four aliens (very slowly) come out to "Mars--The Bringer of War," which is certainly a kickass entrance theme, and two of them are dressed in red longjohns and overalls--like the alien rednecks visiting Fyffe, Alabama that Bill Hicks spoke of. The other two are dressed like imitators of Jason the Terrible, or Lord Humongous, or the Gaspars. They do lots of spooky alien stuff like drop-downs and clean breaks and clubbering and trying to keep their hockey masks on. The sarcastic "whoooooa, OH!" crowd reactions are in full force here. This feels like it should be something out of DDT or Survival Tobita's promotion, years earlier, but aside from the liberal alien interference this is wrestled perfectly "straight," and badly at that. I don't have the slightest clue what to make of this, but considering its rep and its writeup in Foley's first book I'm not totally sorry I watched it.