Post by robertd on Nov 25, 2012 19:48:20 GMT -5
Over my 30+ years of being a fan I've amassed a huge collection of wrestling tapes and dvds. With my upcoming nuptials (December 20th, fiance's Grandmother's b-day so a special day for her), I will be moving into a new house and most my collection will be dissolved among friends or possibly ebay. Before seeing most go away, I figured I'd watch some of my older tapes, and do recaps of shows most people may not have seen. So, instead of WrestleMania 10, you'll get things like Gathering of The Juggalos, or varios Japanese shows I have. I don't do long-winded match recaps, just important things that should be pointed out, backstory if I know it, and I rate everything as a "Watch' or "Pass", as most these shows are hard to find complete now, so YouTube is where you might look for the "watch" matches. So here's my first one, in no chosen order, just whatever I grab.
Wrestle World 1996
For those who don't follow New Japan Pro Wrestling, January 4 is the date of their biggest show. It's always held at the Tokyo Dome, and usually settles the big feuds from the year before, sets up some for the new year, or has a catch to it. This year had two big draws, as it has a best of three matches inter-promotional series with UWF International NJPW's main guy at the time, Keiji Mutoh(Great Muta to us American fans) was defending New Japan's top title, the IWPG Heavyweight Champion against UWFi's top guy. Imagine during the WCW years Booker T being WCW Champion and now was defending against Triple H from the WWF. The other big story going in was Hiroshi Hase was retiring, due to a scandal I'll goover in a bit, and decided his last oponent would be his former tag team partner, Kensuke Sasaki.
Tokimitsu Ishizawa, Yuji Nagata, and Shinjiro Otani(NJPW) vs Hiromitsu Kanehara, Kazushi Sakuraba, and Kenichi Yamamota(UWFi)
This was a good opening match, if not short, last 1o minutes. Otani for those who don't know, was the guy who won the tournament to be the first WCW Cruiserweight Champion, beating Wild Pegasus(Benoit) in the finals. His reign was very short, with Malenko winning it not long afterwards. I enjoy his work, but his stiffness was very Heavyweight in nature, and would not have meshed in the long run with the division we got in WCW. Nagata was another guy who's work was not as respected in his days in WCW, and after bulking up, became quite famous in Japanese wrestling. This is the first of the three inter-promotional matches, which Nagata wins by making Yamamota submitting to his Nagata Lock.
Watch: This match had my one favorite element of Japanese wrestling, stiffness, in abundance. Plus, if you've never seen Otani in action, this is a quick, yet good starting match. NJPW 1. UWFi 0
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Satoshi Kojima
On the other end of the spectrum for me, Tenzan is one of my least favorite Japanese guys. He has the look, but I can't get into his matches. Kojima is the equivalent of Chris Jericho, as he was the first man to hold both NJPW and All-Japan's top belts at the same time. This is his first match back in NJPW, as he left a few years earlier to do a tour of Europe. It's promoted as a big deal, which makes it strange that Tenzan would pick up the victory here. Of course, better days were ahead for Kojima, while Tenzan would be a member of nWo Japan for awhile.
Pass: Kojima is usually a fair to great watch, but Tenzan wasn't the guy he should have returned against, and the match suffered.
Jushin Liger vs Koji Kanemoto for IWPG Junior Heavyweight Championship
Ah, yes, the reason I have this tape to begin with. I'm a huge Liger mark, and spent several years bartering with tape traders for tapes that had his matches. He, to me is the epitome of cruiserweight-style wrestling. Every wrestling game I owned that had a CAW option, I always cycled through the moves till I found the Liger Bomb, and used it. Kanemoto is good and never seemed out of his element in the match, the longest of the night, coming in at 19 minutes. Little known fact: when Kanemoto wrestled Alex Wright at Starrcade 95 in the WCW-NJPW show, his IWGP Junior Heavyweight title was on the line. It was part of the deal that he would be able to have it be a title match, as to make him the first man to defend that title in America, but WCW did an end-around and did not promote it as a title match. He won that match, and even though it's not "officially" recognized on paper as a defense, it was in Japan. Unfortunately for him though, this was a recognized title match, and he lost. Liger won with the Liger Bomb, and damn, he looks right with the belt.
Watch: Liger matches are always watches with me.
Shiro Koshinaka vs Mashiro Chono
Koshinaka was the first IWPG Junior Heavyweight champion, but now was coming to near the end of his talented years,and I hate Chono, as he falls under "Tenzan" for me, so I can never get into this match. Koshinaka wins, which I did like.
Pass: Find Koshinaka's early work to see how talented he once was. This match will not reflect that.
Hiromichi Fuyuki versus Yoji Anjo
This match would be the bathroom break match for me, as Fuyuki means nothing to me, and Anjo is a guy I can never take serious after, to prove his toughness, he came to the US to fight Rickson Gracie in an MMA match, and was brutalized to the point it became almost funny in front of the Japanese press sent to cover him. Fuyuki wins, I don't care.
Pass: Track down Gracie's beatdown of Anjo instead
Kensuke Sasaki versus Hiroshi Hase
So, Hase was a huge star in Japan, having one several tag titles, even beating The Steiners in a match. He even held the WCW International Heavyweight Championship(the joke belt) FOR a cup of coffee. He also was one of the men in charge of the NJPW dojo. By this point he was also a politician in Japan's House of Counsilors, in a position similar to putting Angle in charge of Fitness in the USA. A few months before this show, he recruited a young Japanese amateur to the dojo, going as far as to visit the parents to convince them of the safety of allowing their son to leave home and train. The facts are murky, what is known is this youngster got into an altercation with Sasaki during a training session, and shorty afterwards died. Hase had to got to the parents in person to tell them, and began making insinuations that there was a cover-up going on. He then "decided" to retire. This was to be his big retirement match, and he was pitted against his former partner. Most fans expected him to beat Sasak and ride off a great career. What they got was a 16 minute match that while appearing hard-fought, consisted of Sasaki doing little things in the match trying to make Hase seems out of place and aloof. He then pinned Hase to a very shocked audience. I doubt the full story of what happened in that dojo will ever see the light of day, but it was obvious Hase was the fall guy who knew too much.
Pass: Hase at that point deserved a better last match, though he would eventually surface in All-Japan, but was never a contender.
Antonio Inoki versus Big Van Vader
Before he became famous for making semi-regualr pancakes out of Sting, Vader was a big deal overseas. He had been on a pretty big tear at his point, having taken up his Japanese commitments again before heading off to the WWF, and Inoki was seen as a dream opponent for him. Not my dreams, though, as Inoki is too slow and plodding even if he wasn't 128 years old or so at the time of this match. He beats Vader to give the crowd something to cheer about, after just being deflated by the Hase loss.
Pass: Love Vader, but can't in good conscience recommend this match
Riki Choshu(NJPW) versus Masahito Kakihara(UWFi)
I like Choshu, even if he's kind of bland. He has consistent matches, and is well-beloved. This is match two of the promotion battle, and if this was the US, Chosu goes down to even it up and make the final match up in the air. This, however, is NJPW, who is sometimes not the cleanest company, so Chosu wins, putting over NJPW as the dominant company before the last match, making the rivalry of the companies a non-factor going in. For a rivalry match, giving it just over 5 minutes is a joke.
Pass: Solid, but very typical Japanese heavyweight match. There are so many better ones, I just can't recommend this one. NJPW 2 UWFi 0
Shinya Hashimoto vs Kazuo Yamazaki
Quick match to give fans a break before the final match. Not offensive, as Hashimoto can produce with the right guy. It's a 9 minute match that isn't great, but doesn't draw any complaints. Hashimoto wins.
Pass: nothing offensive, but nothing to grab you either.
Nobuhiko Takada(UWFi) versus Keiji Mutoh(UWFi) IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Takada is the man behind forming UWFi, as he had two previous incarnations, neither very successful obviously. This was kind of seen in Japan as his last gasp effort. Mutoh at this point was on the cusp of sainthood. To many fans, this was a no-brainer. Mutoh was hot, and Takada had done damage to his credibility with his constant departures to start failed companies. The best match easily, as Mutoh is one of those guys who can sleepwalk through a match, or bring the awesome. Tonight he brought his A+ game. unfortunately Takada was out to prove himself, and put on the better show, and at 17:51 pins Mutoh to shock the fans, and capture NJPW's top belt for his company. This actually led to an interesting angle behind the scenes, as Takada decide to pick only the guys from New Japan he thought would make him look good to defend against. He lost the belt in April to Hashimoto in front of 65,000 people, and managed to turn a rivalry that seemed dead in the water during this show, into the biggest money-maker in Japanese history. Sadly, NJPW got the lion's share of that money, and UWFi closed by the end of the year. Takada would go on to the world of MMA, competing on several of the first PRIDE shows. He didn't amass a seller record, but he did tap a young Mark Coleman.
Watch: This match was great, it led to a huge deal in Japanese wrestling history, and may be the very peak of Takada's in-ring career.
Seems like at just three watches, the show overall is a pass, but for historical purposes in Japanese wrestling, it was a huge deal.
Wrestle World 1996
For those who don't follow New Japan Pro Wrestling, January 4 is the date of their biggest show. It's always held at the Tokyo Dome, and usually settles the big feuds from the year before, sets up some for the new year, or has a catch to it. This year had two big draws, as it has a best of three matches inter-promotional series with UWF International NJPW's main guy at the time, Keiji Mutoh(Great Muta to us American fans) was defending New Japan's top title, the IWPG Heavyweight Champion against UWFi's top guy. Imagine during the WCW years Booker T being WCW Champion and now was defending against Triple H from the WWF. The other big story going in was Hiroshi Hase was retiring, due to a scandal I'll goover in a bit, and decided his last oponent would be his former tag team partner, Kensuke Sasaki.
Tokimitsu Ishizawa, Yuji Nagata, and Shinjiro Otani(NJPW) vs Hiromitsu Kanehara, Kazushi Sakuraba, and Kenichi Yamamota(UWFi)
This was a good opening match, if not short, last 1o minutes. Otani for those who don't know, was the guy who won the tournament to be the first WCW Cruiserweight Champion, beating Wild Pegasus(Benoit) in the finals. His reign was very short, with Malenko winning it not long afterwards. I enjoy his work, but his stiffness was very Heavyweight in nature, and would not have meshed in the long run with the division we got in WCW. Nagata was another guy who's work was not as respected in his days in WCW, and after bulking up, became quite famous in Japanese wrestling. This is the first of the three inter-promotional matches, which Nagata wins by making Yamamota submitting to his Nagata Lock.
Watch: This match had my one favorite element of Japanese wrestling, stiffness, in abundance. Plus, if you've never seen Otani in action, this is a quick, yet good starting match. NJPW 1. UWFi 0
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Satoshi Kojima
On the other end of the spectrum for me, Tenzan is one of my least favorite Japanese guys. He has the look, but I can't get into his matches. Kojima is the equivalent of Chris Jericho, as he was the first man to hold both NJPW and All-Japan's top belts at the same time. This is his first match back in NJPW, as he left a few years earlier to do a tour of Europe. It's promoted as a big deal, which makes it strange that Tenzan would pick up the victory here. Of course, better days were ahead for Kojima, while Tenzan would be a member of nWo Japan for awhile.
Pass: Kojima is usually a fair to great watch, but Tenzan wasn't the guy he should have returned against, and the match suffered.
Jushin Liger vs Koji Kanemoto for IWPG Junior Heavyweight Championship
Ah, yes, the reason I have this tape to begin with. I'm a huge Liger mark, and spent several years bartering with tape traders for tapes that had his matches. He, to me is the epitome of cruiserweight-style wrestling. Every wrestling game I owned that had a CAW option, I always cycled through the moves till I found the Liger Bomb, and used it. Kanemoto is good and never seemed out of his element in the match, the longest of the night, coming in at 19 minutes. Little known fact: when Kanemoto wrestled Alex Wright at Starrcade 95 in the WCW-NJPW show, his IWGP Junior Heavyweight title was on the line. It was part of the deal that he would be able to have it be a title match, as to make him the first man to defend that title in America, but WCW did an end-around and did not promote it as a title match. He won that match, and even though it's not "officially" recognized on paper as a defense, it was in Japan. Unfortunately for him though, this was a recognized title match, and he lost. Liger won with the Liger Bomb, and damn, he looks right with the belt.
Watch: Liger matches are always watches with me.
Shiro Koshinaka vs Mashiro Chono
Koshinaka was the first IWPG Junior Heavyweight champion, but now was coming to near the end of his talented years,and I hate Chono, as he falls under "Tenzan" for me, so I can never get into this match. Koshinaka wins, which I did like.
Pass: Find Koshinaka's early work to see how talented he once was. This match will not reflect that.
Hiromichi Fuyuki versus Yoji Anjo
This match would be the bathroom break match for me, as Fuyuki means nothing to me, and Anjo is a guy I can never take serious after, to prove his toughness, he came to the US to fight Rickson Gracie in an MMA match, and was brutalized to the point it became almost funny in front of the Japanese press sent to cover him. Fuyuki wins, I don't care.
Pass: Track down Gracie's beatdown of Anjo instead
Kensuke Sasaki versus Hiroshi Hase
So, Hase was a huge star in Japan, having one several tag titles, even beating The Steiners in a match. He even held the WCW International Heavyweight Championship(the joke belt) FOR a cup of coffee. He also was one of the men in charge of the NJPW dojo. By this point he was also a politician in Japan's House of Counsilors, in a position similar to putting Angle in charge of Fitness in the USA. A few months before this show, he recruited a young Japanese amateur to the dojo, going as far as to visit the parents to convince them of the safety of allowing their son to leave home and train. The facts are murky, what is known is this youngster got into an altercation with Sasaki during a training session, and shorty afterwards died. Hase had to got to the parents in person to tell them, and began making insinuations that there was a cover-up going on. He then "decided" to retire. This was to be his big retirement match, and he was pitted against his former partner. Most fans expected him to beat Sasak and ride off a great career. What they got was a 16 minute match that while appearing hard-fought, consisted of Sasaki doing little things in the match trying to make Hase seems out of place and aloof. He then pinned Hase to a very shocked audience. I doubt the full story of what happened in that dojo will ever see the light of day, but it was obvious Hase was the fall guy who knew too much.
Pass: Hase at that point deserved a better last match, though he would eventually surface in All-Japan, but was never a contender.
Antonio Inoki versus Big Van Vader
Before he became famous for making semi-regualr pancakes out of Sting, Vader was a big deal overseas. He had been on a pretty big tear at his point, having taken up his Japanese commitments again before heading off to the WWF, and Inoki was seen as a dream opponent for him. Not my dreams, though, as Inoki is too slow and plodding even if he wasn't 128 years old or so at the time of this match. He beats Vader to give the crowd something to cheer about, after just being deflated by the Hase loss.
Pass: Love Vader, but can't in good conscience recommend this match
Riki Choshu(NJPW) versus Masahito Kakihara(UWFi)
I like Choshu, even if he's kind of bland. He has consistent matches, and is well-beloved. This is match two of the promotion battle, and if this was the US, Chosu goes down to even it up and make the final match up in the air. This, however, is NJPW, who is sometimes not the cleanest company, so Chosu wins, putting over NJPW as the dominant company before the last match, making the rivalry of the companies a non-factor going in. For a rivalry match, giving it just over 5 minutes is a joke.
Pass: Solid, but very typical Japanese heavyweight match. There are so many better ones, I just can't recommend this one. NJPW 2 UWFi 0
Shinya Hashimoto vs Kazuo Yamazaki
Quick match to give fans a break before the final match. Not offensive, as Hashimoto can produce with the right guy. It's a 9 minute match that isn't great, but doesn't draw any complaints. Hashimoto wins.
Pass: nothing offensive, but nothing to grab you either.
Nobuhiko Takada(UWFi) versus Keiji Mutoh(UWFi) IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Takada is the man behind forming UWFi, as he had two previous incarnations, neither very successful obviously. This was kind of seen in Japan as his last gasp effort. Mutoh at this point was on the cusp of sainthood. To many fans, this was a no-brainer. Mutoh was hot, and Takada had done damage to his credibility with his constant departures to start failed companies. The best match easily, as Mutoh is one of those guys who can sleepwalk through a match, or bring the awesome. Tonight he brought his A+ game. unfortunately Takada was out to prove himself, and put on the better show, and at 17:51 pins Mutoh to shock the fans, and capture NJPW's top belt for his company. This actually led to an interesting angle behind the scenes, as Takada decide to pick only the guys from New Japan he thought would make him look good to defend against. He lost the belt in April to Hashimoto in front of 65,000 people, and managed to turn a rivalry that seemed dead in the water during this show, into the biggest money-maker in Japanese history. Sadly, NJPW got the lion's share of that money, and UWFi closed by the end of the year. Takada would go on to the world of MMA, competing on several of the first PRIDE shows. He didn't amass a seller record, but he did tap a young Mark Coleman.
Watch: This match was great, it led to a huge deal in Japanese wrestling history, and may be the very peak of Takada's in-ring career.
Seems like at just three watches, the show overall is a pass, but for historical purposes in Japanese wrestling, it was a huge deal.
