From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze) Subject: Wrestling TidBits - 02/13 Date: 1997/02/14 Message-ID: X-Deja-AN: 218786291 Sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner) Organization: University of Waterloo Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling [Wrestling TidBits] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- My doctoral thesis is is almost ready to be submitted; at this stage I am just tweaking the wording here and there. I may submit it tomorrow (but may wait until Monday). Either way, it means that in the coming week I will update the various items I've neglected for some time. A final thanks for your patience. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pictures of The Week This week's pictures focus on two of the best young wrestlers in Japan. First, we have Jun Akiyama in flight towards a hapless Dan Kroffat (now Phil LaFon in the WWF). Second, we have Shinjiro Otani in flight towards a hapless Negro Casas. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ Shinjiro Otani vs. Ultimo Dragon ] Shinjiro Otani battles with El Ultimo Dragon; these are two of the best wrestlers in the world. Both have worked in WCW. Dragon should be known for his classic matches with Rey Misterio Jr. and Dean Malenko. Otani worked the best match at Starrcade 1995, but otherwise wasn't really allowed to shine in the promotion. If anything, he's even better than Dragon. [ - RAW ] this past week (in Canada!) aired the second half of the matches from the Toronto Triple Threat show at Skydome. Toronto is an hour's drive from here, but after seeing the show, I'm glad I didn't bother to make the trip. The wrestling was nothing special at all. The Toronto Sun mentions that the ring entrances in the triangle match between Sid & Shawn Michaels & Bret Hart took eight minutes, almost as much as the entire match, which only lasted twelve. [ - ] Marcus "Buff" Bagwell & Scott Norton & Masa Chono are working the current New Japan tour as team NWO. As I'd hoped, Bagwell is getting a bit of a push on the tour. [ - ] The WWF airs a live two-hour special in the US tonight. It airs tomorrow in Canada on TSN. [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 02/16/97. Line-up features: * Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin vs. Undertaker vs. Vader in a no DQ elimination match for the WrestleMania WWF Title shot. * Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith vs. Phil LaFond & Doug Furnas for the WWF Tag Titles [ - ] WCW has SuperBrawl on 02/23/97. Tentative line-up has: * Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper for the WCW Title * Kevin Nash & Scott Hall vs. Giant & Lex Luger for the Tag Titles * Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Jericho for the US Title * Dean Malenko vs. Syxx for the Cruiserweight Title * Steve Regal vs. Rey Misterio Jr. for the TV Title * Steve McMichael vs. Jeff Jarrett, with the winner being a Horseman * Kevin Sullivan vs. Chris Benoit * Diamond Dallas Page vs. Big Bubba * Harlem Heat vs. Steiners vs. Publis Enemy vs. Faces of Fear * trios match, this time with all Mexican wrestlers [ Hayabusa vs. Koji Nakagawa ] [ - ]Over the past many week's I've been working quite intensely on my PhD thesis. A stack of over 100 video tapes has accumulated (yikes!), so I've got a lot of wrestling to get through. I have managed to watch a few things in recent weeks, most notably this past Saturday when I was particularly burned out. Here's a brief run-down. Over time, I've snuck in a New Japan or All Japan TV show here and there, so I'm now almost caught up on their TV, having watched from 09/22 to 12/29 TV. The highlights from New Japan were not many, although there were some excellent junior tag matches. The highlights from All Japan were anything involving Jun Akiyama! He was involved in more ****+ matches in this three month period than many wrestlers have in their career. Sure, it helps to have Misawa, Kawada, etc., around (;-)), but Akiyama has easily become one of my favourites. I also watched some of the All Japan Women stuff that has accumulated. Flashbacks to 03/17/91 and 04/21/91, watching commercial tapes of each show. This was the time frame when Monster Ripper (Rhonda Singh, most recently Bertha Faye in the WWF) showed up to challenge Aja Kong and Bull Nakano, and Debbie Malenko & the Moreno sisters were outsiders wrestling for the group. Esther Moreno was just incredible back then; she has worked for the group recently as Chiquita Azteca (under a hood), but she had much more fire in this time frame. On the 03/17/91 show, there was an excellent six-woman tag with the Morenos & Yumiko Hotta facing Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Toshiyo Yamada. An easy ***3/4 match, it was extra fun to see Mita & Shimoda before they started their sex-symbol phase. Manami Toyota challenged Suzuka Manami for the All Pacific title, coming up short in an excellent **** match. Suzuka is retired now, but she was one of my favourites in this time frame. Akira Hokuto would go on to win the title on 04/29. On 03/17, Hokuto faced Aja Kong in a darn good ***3/4 match as well. The show was capped by a tag, with Bull & Kyoko Inoue facing Bison Kimura & Mika Takahashi. Mika's another wrestler who was missed after she retired. This match was another solid ****. The 04/21/91 show had an excellent **** match between the Morenos & Japan Tag champs Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita, with the Morenos winning the title. Esther was just incredible. This was the best match on a somewhat disappointing show. The remaining matches hovered around ***1/2, excellent for any other promotion, but not up to standards for this promotion at this time. Debbie Malenko & Manami Toyota faced Kyoko Inoue & Bat Yoshinaga. Right near the start, Debbie took a wicked kick to face from Bat, which busted her nose. In the post match interview, the commentator, who speaks broken English to Debbie so she can give some polite interview responses, said, "Your nose busted, huh?" On to more recent All Japan Women stuff: 01/22/96, 03/17/96 TV, 03/31/96. 01/22/96 had a remarkable WWWA Tag match between Akira Hokuto & Mima Shimoda and Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue, an easy ****1/2 bout. The 03/17 TV show was an attempt to build up the young stars, by having them against senior wrestlers in every match; this hurt match quality, to be sure, but some of the not-quite-so-young girls showed some promise. 03/31 was the major Wrestling Queendom show, headlined by an incredible Kyoko Inoue vs. Manami Toyota WWWA title match. The last AJW tape I've watched feature the commercial tapes for shows from 06/09/96, 06/15/96, 05/03/96, and 02/12/96. There was more young stars vs. older stars stuff, but there were still a few excellent **** matches, even involving the younger girls in tag situations. In this setting, there is a good likelihood of developing those young girls into much better wrestlers. [ Terry Funk vs. Mr. Pogo ] Garbage Wrestling: the supremely unskilled Mr. Pogo shortly before his paralyzing bump. The Champ Forum TV show from 09/11/96 aired three FMW matches from 08/01/96. Sanjay Mohanta traded this tape to me; it's of interest primarily because the video quality is excellent and the FMW show is backed with the Rikidozan memorial show. I've watched the Champ Forum show. Hayabusa faced Koji Nakagawa in a 1/4* flat match in Hayabusa's first match since the Kawasaki Stadium show. Hayabusa has been dubbed the Japanese Sabu and this match made it clear that that is because he does some nice spots and is very sloppy. Not a good match (Dave Meltzer, in Japan at the time, seeing this match live, gave it a DUD). Wing Kanemura won the Independent World heavyweight championship in a tournament final win over Masato Tanaka. This was a fair-to-good match, which I rated **1/2, easily the best (almost-)legitimate match that FMW has done that I have seen. They did more moves than I would have given them credit for, so it was a pleasant surprise, but there was no crispness in execution and the final minutes were filled with power bombs. One gets the impression of watching two indy wrestlers push themselves to their limits, with the usual cracks in the math appearing as a result. Meltzer gave this ***1/4. Terry Funk faced Mr. Pogo is a garbage match on top. This is the match where Pogo took the paralyzing bump into the barbed wire land-mine area and Funk tried to light him on fire. Funk did his most honest interview ever at the end, saying, "Pogo is dead! Onita is dead! FMW is dead! FMW has no wrestlers! Pogo is a piece of shit!" and stuff along those lines; if only he'd realize that by wrestling those horrible wrestlers, he's tarnishing his own legend, IMO. Funk is 52, so, in a sense it is not surprising to see him do this garbage. Sanjay tells me that somebody in r.s.p-w rated the Tanaka vs. Kanemura match was in his top 10 of 1996 world-wide, a ludicrous statement even if you bump Meltzer's rating up a 1/2*. All Japan is apparently going to work a show with the FMW guys; this match convinced me that these two FMW guys likely won't embarrass themselves against mid-level All Japan guys, but I don't see any matches between FMW & All Japan, in Baba's incredibly legitimate style, being as good as the typical mid-card All Japan match. Michinoku Pro rounds out the Japanese video watching. A commerical tape highlight the British tour on 02/05/96 & 02/06/96, featuring matches in the smallest ring you'll ever see. Tiger Mask was billed as "Sammy Lee Jr.," the son of the original Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama, who wrestled in England as Sammy Lee. After the very good main even trois match on 02/06, a British kid was caught on camera for an interview saying, "Best match I've ever seen! Japanese people can wrestler; the British can't!" He wished he could move to Japan to watch wrestling all of the time. I've got a stack of other Michinoku Pro stuff to get through, featuring mostly older commercial tapes from a friend in Japan. The first of those tapes had two commercial tapes on it, one focusing on early 1996, the other on late 1995. The highlight in the 1996 portion was an incredible ****1/4 trios match, featuring Taka Michinoku & El Gran Naniwa & Super Delfin vs. Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask IV & Shiryu. There are some other good matches, like Sasuke & Delfin vs. Dick Togo & Shiryu and Gran Naniwa vs. Sasuke, the latter with Naniwa's first ever singles win over Sasuke after an incredible Frankensteiner from the top turnbuckle to the hardwood floor at ringside. I've also watched a second Michinoku Pro tape, this one composed of three commercial tapes. The first portion looks at the Jinsei Shinzaki (Hakushi) vs. Great Sasuke feud from 08/93 to 04/94. It all builds to the two big matches between these guys, the first a **** double knock-out on 03/31/94 and the second the famous ****1/2 04/29/94 re-match. The second portion of the tape looks at the Super Delfin vs. Sato feud from the same period. They had a wonderful mask vs. mask match at the end of 1993. There was a tremendous ****1/2 trios match on 02/04/94, with Delfin & Shinzaki & El Gran Naniwa vs. Sato & Sasuke & Shiryu. It built to a hair vs. mask match on 03/04/94. Of course, Sato first lost his mask and then lost some of his hair. The third portion of the tape looks at various other matches. Sasuke vs. Dos Caras from 06/04/93 was surprisingly okay, and Delfin vs. Sasuke from 08/24/93 was a fun match taped in a small studio. The final match on the tape was FMW's Atsushi Onita vs. Great Sasuke from 10/30/94 in a double hell death match. After loads of *** and better Michinoku matches, it was really disappointing to end this tape with a *1/2 match at best. The third Michinoku Pro tape began with a lot of matches featuring Onita & Mr. Pogo working poor matches with the Michinoku Pro wrestlers, and I didn't have the desire to watch any more of it, so that's where I'll pick up after I've submitted my thesis. Once I've gone through a few more tapes, I'll add an update to the tape list on the web. [ - ] WCW has Uncensored on 03/16/97. [ - ] WCW comes to Montreal, Quebec, making a rare visit to Canada, on 04/11/96. When the Amazing French Canadians joined WCW, it was with the idea of running hybrid shows in Montreal. This show will feature several matches involving wrestlers who are well-known in the city along with some matches involving WCW wrestlers. Planned matches include: * Giant vs. French Canadian Pierre in a "patch match," where each wrestler wears an eye path * Harlem Heat vs. Faces of Fear * Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko Ric Flair and Lex Luger are also supposed to be on the show. [ - ] ECW has their first PPV on 04/13/97, airing from the ECW Arena from 9pm to 11:55pm. Tentative line-up includes: * Sabu vs. Taz * Terry Funk vs. Sandman vs. Stevie Richards in a triangle match for a title shot against Raven later in the show * Shane Douglas vs. Pit Bull #2 for the TV Title * Great Sasuke & Gran Naniwa & Gran Hamada vs. Dick Togo & Taka Michinoku & Terry Boy Talk is that the PPV will end with Terry Funk winning the ECW title from Raven and then inviting all of the fans into the ring to celebrate. The affiliated (?) ECV is also rumoured to be trying to get on PPV. [ - ] The WWF has WrestleMania on 03/23/97. Reports are that the WWF has offered Dennis Rodman half-a-million bucks to be Goldust's corner, possibly to set up the two as a tag team for SummerSlam. Apparently, Rodman's NBA probation may bar him from being able to accept the offer. [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 04/20/97. [ - ] [Nitro ] beat [RAW ] on 02/03 with a 3.04 rating (4.6 share) against a 2.64 rating (3.9 share). This was the first battle of two hour long shows; the ratings are averaged for the two hours. The detailed ratings are a click away. [ - ] I will get the PPV figures updated by next week! Apologies. The details as they stand are available. [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 05/11/97. [ - ] The WWF has King of The Ring on 06/08/97. [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 07/06/97. [ - ] The WWF has SummerSlam on 08/03/97. [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 09/07/97. [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 10/05/97. [ - ] The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/09/97. [ - ] The WWF has [In Your House ] on 12/07/97. [ - ] WWW: My home page is at http://barrow.uwaterloo.ca/~hekunze. The wrestling portion includes this post, tape lists, awards history, Japanese wrestling stuff, and other things. [ - ] Videos: I have posted something about the availability of videos. If you missed it, I'll send it to you in e-mail upon request. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to: Masaki Aso. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Click here to return. E-mail: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca