WAR - Wrestle and Romance/Wrestle Association R

[Mattsdmf]

I've looked all over for any threads on this but haven't found anything. I've heard a ton about this promotion and how fun it was to watch the various matchups and feuds. I've been a bit confused on where to start watching as there really isn't much of a guide on the net that I've seen of the best matches/angles/wrestlers.

 

If anyone can guide me in the right direction would be very appreciated!

[sek69]

I can't help you with footage, but the SNES game Hammerlock Wrestling was originally released in Japan on the Super Famicom as a WAR game:

 

 

[stro]

I'd suggest looking at the events available on The RealHero Archive, then cross-referencing them with results/guides on cagematch.de for what sounds the most interesting or has the most hype. The WAR Box files seems to be best of comps, so maybe just watch those.

[Phil Schneider]

We reviewed a fair number of the shows over at Segunda Caida

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2010/08/segunda-caida-declares-war.html

[Childs]

There's a ton of WAR stuff in the year-by-year match threads here. Especially from late '92 into '94.

[G. Badger]

Digging this one up from the groove-yard but, anyone looking to get into Wrestle and Romance (or Revolution) may want to pry into the SWS vaults as well.

 

At first glance, its puro meets WWF but, selectively and especially closer to '92 it resembles WAR's lumpy grumps spud fests.

 

Either way both promotions have a lot of untapped potential for great matches. I'm trying to go through some stuff readily available online from both for those interested (including myself).

[joeg]

Does anybody have matchlistings for the WAR Box Set on the Real Hero drive?

[G. Badger]

I've been enjoying the FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF REVOLUTION show from 6/17/93. Haven't watched the Hash vs Tenryu match yet and opted for the less herald matches.

 

Hase vs Fuyuki is a great one which has some buzz but, I took a chance on Masashi Aoyagi vs Takashi Ishikawa and wow! Grumpy dudes beating each other up for 5 minutes, I'm game! So also checked out Koki Kitahara vs Masahiro Chono which was more like a mid 80s strong style match. More evenly fought despite Chono being in there, I dug it. Plus the Jr match of the card, Ultimo Dragon vs Norio Honaga. First Honaga match for me but, was impressed. He kept the craziness in check so when Dragon busted out the fancy shit it was meaningful and impressive... Still I thought Honaga's running neck breaker drops were the best move in the match. Looked like he decapitated Mr. Asai.

 

Highly recommended show and I haven't even seen the big Tenryu match yet. Its been a pleasant surprise. On paper, every one of the above matches had the potential to be a massive time vacuum but, were great in their own way.

[Phil Schneider]

Takeshi Ishikawa was the hidden MVP of WAR that guy was totally awesome in everything he did

[G. Badger]

Takeshi Ishikawa was the hidden MVP of WAR that guy was totally awesome in everything he did

Yeah, I've been getting that vibe too. Even in SWS, he's got the attitude that he's the promotion's top star. So, he has no qualms about getting the snot beat out of himself and conversely serving it out with a smile (well, perpetual scowl). The match vs Haku in SWS was what sold me on Ishikawa.

[G. Badger]

Checked out:

 

Ashura Hara, Tenryu & Takashi Ishikawa vs. King Haku, Shinichi Nakano & Yoshiaki Yatsu from 8/5/91 SWS: fast paced and stiff as a starched shirt. Very reminiscent of the 6 mans in AJPW late 80s & '90 just with most punches to the face. Highly recommended

 

On to WAR proper: 2nd ANNIVERSARY OF REVOLUTION~ All Star Tag Wars from 7/17/94

 

Selectively watched the following but, I was pleased with them all especially since I've seen the matches get panned as * to ** 1/2. No way man...I'd recommend checking these out if 6 man tags are your thing.

 

Hara, Earthquake & Jinsei Shinzaki vs Fuyuki, Jado & Gedo - Jado & Gedo were nuts in this.

 

Warlord, Vampiro & Lion Heart Jericho vs Tenryu, Onita, Bam Bam Bigelow - Probably the weakest but Jericho and Tenryu were excellent.

 

Tenryu, Onita & Bigelow vs. Kendo Nagasaki, Aoyagi & Arashi - This had good reason to blow but, Nagasaki went insane and Onita got to play hero. Check this one out for sure!

 

Tenryu, Onita & Bigelow vs Hara, Tenta & Shinzaki - Pretty much the obvious default finals of the night but, it delivered.

[KB8]

Random WAR six-man tags. They are the beautifulest.

 

There's a Tenryu/Hara/Ultimo Dragon v Jim Duggan/Kamala/Jerry Estrada match on the 6/16/92 SWS show that might be the most random of all, at least on the non-Tenryu side. I mean, look at that. Unfortunately the match itself wasn't very good, but it had Tenryu v Jerry Estrada which is definitely a neat collector's item.

 

I've watched a bunch of SWS/WAR and written about it here, blatantly ripping off Segunda Caida's Complete & Accurate: http://whiskeyandwrestling.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/complete-accurate-genichiro-tenryu.html, if that's any good to you (it's only Tenryu-related, though). The WAR/New Japan feud is probably my #1 in-ring feud ever. The Tenryu/Ishikawa v Hashimoto/Ohara match that took place on an untaped house show is one of the best sub-15 minute matches ever and it never would've seen the light of day if not for whoever recorded it from the cheap seats.

 

How many shows did SWS actually run? It looks like most of them might be on the RealHero drive, which is pretty awesome.

[KB8]

Watch the Kurisu six-man from the 6/30/94 WAR show. What a wild wee maniac bastard he is. He has no reason to be the way he is on a house show (god bless whoever sat with a camera for nearly four hours and filmed the whole thing). The headbutts, the chairshots, the flipping off of everyone who disapproves of his behaviour. He's everything great about WAR in one middle-aged, bellicose nutshell.

[G. Badger]

Just watched the M-Pro vs WAR 6 Man as well. Kurisu & Orihara really shined here. They could have done headlocks and shoulder blocks to kill time until the finish but, they put on a show. Everyone else phoned it in until the end but, those two had something fun going on!

 

I'm not a big handheld fan but, this had a good vantage point and the filmer kept a pretty good focus.

[G. Badger]

Just finished Naoki Sano & Samson Fuyuki vs Tatsumi Kitahara & Tito Santana in Super World Sports from 8/5/91. Joined 5 minutes in, I believe...this is an all-action bout. Everyone was working fast and with a purpose. Kitahara brought the stiffness with his blue and pink tights, Fuyuki was still fast, there were some sick piledrivers and, Sano & Tito were going non stop. The finishing segment was great with guys all over the place including a Sano tope that apparently erased Tito from this plane of existence. Highly recommended for fans of quick action tags.

[G. Badger]

I wanted to do a couple follow up Sano matches from SWS but got distracted by the randomness of Bob Backlund, The Warlord & Scott Putski vs Ricky Fuyuki, Jado & Gedo.

 

First off Jado & Gedo look to be decked out in Devo yellow jumpsuits. I'm wrong on that but they is in some Ronald McDonald looking shit nonetheless

 

I found 2 matches online. The first is from 8/26/94 and is shown in full. Pretty fun stuff here with Backlund clearly being the interesting (oddity?) of the WAR six man tag title match. Did I mention this was for the belts? No matter...again fun stuff. Jado & Gedo were very good as usual. Gaijin team wins then a few days later they do a reverse Baba winning the title do-si-do and the natives win it back in a clipped bout...equally as fun because it seems like a cleaner version of the first match. More Backlund & Fuyuki interactions is a plus! Oh! Warlord & Putski were in this by the way...yup.

[G. Badger]

Naoki Sano is one of those guys I'll always make an effort to check out if a match comes my way. His feud with Liger was one of the first puro arcs that I watched so, in a way he helped shaped my early opinions and preferences.

 

OK whatever but, here I am with a new batch of unseen (to me) Sano whilst exploring proto-Wrestle and Romance...SWS.

 

Two I'd recommend straight up are Sano vs fellow Indy journeyman Masao Orihara and vs Rick Martel. The Orihara match is bananas with the dives and fast paced offense...for the most part...there is a submission section in the middle. Sano goes for broke and destroys Masao at the end though. Snaps his rear suplexes so hard Ori's toes touch the mat.

 

The Martel match is the shorter of the 2 that I found online. I believe its 8/9/91 and is roughly 5 minutes of pedal to the metal 80s technical junior offense. I loved it, it was short and to the point and put over the power of a technical pinning predicament.

 

WAR (OK SWS) is about the hate, and guys taking punches to the mush, etc. so I wanted to get one of those type of matches with our man of the hour in there. And here we have the beaut that is Fuyuki, Ishikawa & Kitahara vs Sano, Shinichi Nakano & The Great MFing Kabuki. Sano brings the junior offense, Kabuki keeps drilling jaws with his punches, Ishikawa hits lariats and a hell of a plancha but, its all about Fuyuki and Nakano trying to beat the shit out of each other. Watch out for Nakano's pinning piledriver. Rabid pace, blood... wanna watch this again right now

[KB8]

Watched the Sano six-man, and yeah, really fun stuff. Second half of the match was badass with the blood and forehead biting and Fuyuki shrieking. Ishikawa's fat boy plancha! Right from the start I was thinking something was up with Kitahara and Fuyuki, like how Kitahara would never tag him and now and then he'd look at him like he'd want to smack him. And then comes the post-match. Man I love Kitahara.

 

Sano v Martel is a dream match I never even thought about until now so I might need to check that out soon.

[G. Badger]

Oh shoot, I missed that post match stuff with Kitahara!

 

Another Sano gem I found was vs Kendo Nagasaki from 6/10/91. Nagasaki was a guy I remember from the BJW death matches of the late 90s but, not thinking too much of him. However, his performance in the WAR 6 man tournament match vs Tenryu's team (7/17/94) had me reconsider my earlier view.

 

This Sano match only strengthened my new opinion. Kendo is a fine addition to the nondescript face punching, chair swinging Indy puro pantheon. It starts off kinda Inoki strong style especially with Sano throwing kicks. Color me surprised when the K man is in there countering and escaping holds...we've got a wrestling match on our hands! Sano ups the pace and tries to go Tiger Mask with running, flips, and kicks but, gets stopped with good old fashion holds and face/throat stomps. Sano replies more kicks and one that gets the K man bleeding from the mouth. Sano can't get Nagasaki up in a surfboard (legit or work?) but it just gets better from here...parasol attack anyone?

[KB8]

I watched the whole 10/30/91 SWS card it was a real easy hour and a half.

 

Pat Tanaka v Kabuki opened and it was a fairly standard affair, but Tanaka looked solid as always and Kabuki threw a couple of his big thrust kicks. Barbarian v Nagasaki was JIP, but at some point Nagasaki went nuts again and started winging chair shots. They brawled into the crowd and I figured they were going for the double count out, but they got back in and worked to a proper finish.

 

Kitahara/Asai v Salvaje/Orihara was half pretty good and half pretty awesome. The Asai/Bestia parts feel like they're designed to get Asai over as WAR's young juniors ace and they manage to do that just fine. But this is really about Kitahara v Orihara. Orihara couldn't have been wrestling long at this point and he has some fun, stiff exchanges with Kitahara, where Kitahara shuts him down like you'd expect while Orihara gets to fight back and try to step to the plate. Then an Orihara kick catches Kitahara flush in the nose and Kitahara spends the rest of the match abusing him as payback. It might have been the most vicious I've ever seen Kitahara. It truly was an ass stomping befitting a Tenryu fed.

 

Sano/Takano v Warlord/Paul Diamond wasn't all that good, but it had a few neat Sano/Warlord moments. Diamond was all over the place in it, messing up spots, getting awkwardly and belatedly into position for things. At one point he hit an ugly piledriver that I half expected to paralyze Sano. Hara/Fuyuki v Yatsu/Nakano had more Nakano v Fuyuki fun and I hope there's a singles match out there somewhere. It was a tag match fulla beef and nobody was scared to throw it around.

 

Haku v Ishikawa was indeed a fun slobberknocker. I liked all the leg work on Haku and how he sold it, then they moved past that into the part where they slabbered each other and I dug that, too. Some of Ishikawa's lariats looked killer and there was one slap/headbutt exchange that was right out of Ishii's playbook (only not ridiculous).

 

Main event of Tenryu v Takano was a pretty subdued Tenryu performance. He gave Takano a ton, which he seemed to do a lot with opponents in SWS. Maybe it's because he's so clearly the ace and biggest star in the promotion that he feels he needs to go above and beyond to try and establish viable challengers. I understand the need to do that, but I selfishly wish he'd do more of the ass beating and face punching and so forth. He did fling a chair at Nakano's head at one point, though. That was pretty great.

 

I've watched a solid chunk of SWS from '91 now and I think a decent argument could be made that Kitahara was their MVP that year. Sano probably has a shot as well, actually, but Kitahara in that tag pushes him ahead. It feels like Tenryu needed a fire lit under his ass and it wasn't until the following year that he got it (with SWS's closure and the opening of WAR/beginning of the New Japan feud), whereas Kitahara was being the best Kitahara he could be just about every time out. That is to say he was a nasty little bastard.

[G. Badger]

It might have been the most vicious I've ever seen Kitahara. It truly was an ass stomping befitting a Tenryu fed.

 

...Kitahara was being the best Kitahara he could be just about every time out. That is to say he was a nasty little bastard.

 

I really ought to check that tag out! I just finished Kitahara vs Akira Katayama from 10/29/91 and my goodness that was Kawada, Aja Kong level stiff. Lariats, kicks to the face, head spikes :S Katayama was wearing tiger print trunks and maybe Kitahara is a vegan and took offense...I have no clue. It was a very good match as Akira was fired up too and focused on taking out Kita's legs with some nice submission holds. At around 11 minutes this was compact, physical, and engaging stuff for something never on my radar.

 

SWS didn't have an all star roster so I feel it gave guys like Kitahara, Sano, Ishikawa, and others a place to rise to the occasion & put on great matches. So, it feels more like a joint effort to have a good company with WWF thrown in there now and again. WAR seems like it was really more like Tenryu's Army vs other promotions through the 90s. I guess that was more sustainable.

 

For instance, watching Onita Pro vs Tenryu and co. in '99 which I thought would be OK at best. They had a barb wire match on Onita's show which was clipped but was exciting and sloppy then, on 6/20/99 we get Tenryu, Nobutaka Araya & Shoji Nakamaki vs Onita, Shigeo Okumura & Sambo Asako. Fun crazy stuff highlighted by Mr. Puro attempting to cave Asako's old skull in. Fantastic team match. Totally surprised I would be digging these matches so much. They're full of punches, blood, chair shots, usually a blown move or two and I can't help but have a smile on my face by the end of them

[Tabe]

You need to see Kitahara vs 150% Machine on the UWFI 6/26/96 show. Kitahara shoots on him and 150% gets stretchered out.

[KB8]

Kitahara v Katayama (10/29/91) was indeed very fun. I liked how Katayama seemed to know he'd be outmatched if he let Kitahara build up steam, or indeed if it got into a literal kicking contest, so he went after him early and tried to smother him. Going after the leg felt like a sound strategy as well and the leg work itself was fine. Kitahara did of course turn it into a kicking contest, though. Good grief was he laying it in. That one kick that about took Katayama's teeth out was savage and he was punting him in the spleen for good measure. He also hit what was practically a Ganso Bomb (for a mild 2 count) and his snap suplex is easily up there with the best of them. So quick and it always looks like he's really planting them. I very deeply regret not having Kitahara on my GWE ballot now.

[G. Badger]

Watched Tenryu vs Mr. Pogo from 4/19/96. Started pretty good with Tenryu brushing off Pogo's strikes. Pogo responded, 'it's saw time brutha!' He got a couple good scrapes in along with a bulldog on a chair. Then our hero makes his comeback! Stiff chops and punches, yes! This is fun stuff!... And then Pogo quits. No, seriously he gets his shit, gets in a car, and splits. This totally seemed like a shoot...still..there was a car waiting there WCW style.

 

Its all good because Tenryu beats the ever loving crap out of Pogo's second. The fans cheer this. Saves the match? Or maybe this was all planned?

[El-P]

Its all good because Tenryu beats the ever loving crap out of Pogo's second. The fans cheer this. Saves the match? Or maybe this was all planned?

 

That's probably Pogo not wanting to do a job, so that was the shit finish planned I'd think.

 

Fun to have a WAR thread in 2017. Brings back memories of buying some random WAR tapes so to see the random matches Dean was raving about on early DVDVR, and loving most of it. Randomness is sorely missed in today's wrestling, because everybody kinda works the same everywhere (or consciously works "different" as a gimmick or tribute). From today's perspective, WAR seems even more random that it did 20 years ago.