klunderbunker
Welcome to My (And Not Sly's) House
WCW/New Japan Supershow III
Date: January 4, 1993
Location: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan
Attendance: 63,500
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross
Its the last in this series and I cant say Im complaining. This is again clipped in various parts but Ill do as best I can as usual. The main event is Hiroshi Hase vs. Sting which should be solid stuff. Theres also Muta vs. Chono in a title for title match which should be solid. Also on here is Tony Halme, the future Ludvig Borga. All that being said, lets get to it.
Eric welcomes us to the show and looks as slimy as possible.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Ultimo Dragon
This is billed as a dream match which might be true I think. Dragon has the title here. This should be good. Fans are far more behind Liger here. Dragon doesnt work for New Japan here so hes kind of the foreigner in a way. The lighting is kind of weird here. Both announcers keep saying Ultimate Dragon. Wheres Mike Tenay when you need him? Both go for arm drags and dropkicks as its a standoff to start.
Liger works on the knee to try to take over which doesnt get him that far. We get some decent mat work here from both guys which is always fun to see. Liger gets a guillotine choke on Dragon as this has been far more submission based than I expected it to be. Dragon works on Ligers knee which makes sense. We get that move that needs a name where Dragon has a leg grapevine on and bridges back to hook Ligers face. It looks awesome and Ive only seen a handful of guys use it.
Liger fights up and hooks the Surfboard which is always sick as hell looking. How in the world does he do that? Im not sure if Im liking this or not. For a match between two legendary high fliers theyre not really flying all that much. They kick each other quite a bit as Dragon sets for a surfboard of his own but instead of rocking back with it he hooks a Dragon Sleeper to no reaction from anyone including the announcers.
Off to a camel clutch instead to offer us some variety. Were about ten minutes in here and while its not bad, its just not at all what we expected which makes it hard to judge. Dragon goes up but gets stopped short. Handspring elbow by the Dragon. Dragon gets a BIG dive off the top to the floor to send Liger into the VIP area which knocks away some tables.
Remember there are 20 counts in Japan. Modified brainbuster gets two for Dragon. Both guys counter Tombstones until Dragon finally gets a decent one but doesnt cover. He slips off the top completely, making a headbutt he was going for more or less miss entirely. Theyve sped up a good bit here and its helping a lot. German suplex gets two for Dragon.
Rolling Liger Kick sends Dragon to the floor as they crank it up again. A Liger Bomb on the floor would seemingly kill Dragon so Liger hits a moonsalt onto his corpse. Liger throws him back in but puts one hand on Dragon for the cover as hes being kind of heelish here. And just as I say that he hits Dragon with the heel of his palm to put him down. Half crab goes on as Dragon is in more trouble every second.
Dragon wakes up a bit and catches Liger coming off the top with a clothesline. Corkscrew flip from the apron to the floor has both guys down. We get a quick wide shot of the stadium and it looks pretty awesome. Liger Bomb is countered into a rana for two. Asai Moonsault gets no cover. Powerbomb and a cradle both get two for the champion.
Dragon cranks it up again and goes up which even Ross thinks is stupid. Liger counters and hits a top rope DDT to more or less kill Dragon again but somehow it only gets two. BIG Liger Bomb puts him down but Liger doesnt want the pin yet. A top rope Frankensteiner finally ends this one.
Rating: B. Solid stuff here but the botches and odd choices on not covering kind of hurt this. They hit a bunch of different styles for the most part and the whole thing mostly worked. The submission stuff was a nice little surprise in there, but the lack of high flying really did comes off as a disappointment here which isnt a good thing at all. Still though, rather good match.
Ron Simmons vs. Tony Halme
Simmons lost the world title less than a week before this so who do you think is going to win this? Halme remember is Lugvig Borga and looks like a total badass here. This is more or less wrestler vs. striker so this is more like an MMA match than wrestling. It was supposed to be a world title match which makes the ending all the more obvious.
They exchange power shots which gets no one anywhere. Simmons grabs a drop toehold out of nowhere and gets the advantage from it. Nice little bit of psychology there as he knew he couldnt use power. Piledriver gets two. They kind of mess up a knee lift and Halme takes over. We get some basic power stuff that is a bit faster pace than what you would expect it to be.
In a weird moment Halme hits a spinebuster, Simmons finisher, which is acknowledged by Tony and Jim, but they call it a sidewalk slam. Halme gets a straight punch that sends Simmons to the floor and suplexes him back in. Powerslam, another Simmons trademark gets two. Simmons gets one of his own for two. A horrible looking small package gets two. In one of the most anti-climactic endings Ive ever see, Simmons cant beat Halme with anything he tries until he hits the spinebuster (sidewalk slam again) to end it.
Rating: D. This was rather awkward. Nothing really clicked at all and the whole thing came off as clunky and sloppy. Halme was a guy that was an incredibly odd case and would be in the WWF in a few months. This was an awkward match though and never really felt right which is an odd description but its the best I can do.
Shinya Hashimoto/Masa Saito vs. Dustin Rhodes/Scott Norton
Thats an odd pairing to say the least. Norton actually means something in Japan so hes the bigger star on his team somehow. Saito is a replacement for Antonio Inoki apparently. Hashimoto wont shake Nortons hand to start. Norton takes a bunch of his kicks and just runs over Hashimoto in a nice shot. They chop it out and in short, Norton wins. Off to Dustin now and Hashimoto is like bitch please and drills him.
Nice suplex gets no count for Dustin. Not that he didnt cover but Saito kicked out before one. Saito throws Dustin over the top and Tony thinks Dustin is lucky that he landed on the ramp and not the floor. Sweet damn is that the most intelligent thing Tony has ever said? Saito hits Norton a few times and it doesnt get him anywhere at all. Norton hits him once and down goes Masa. AMERICA WINS AGAIN BITCH!
Norton makes a mistake and gets caught in a Saito Suplex which is more or less a slightly modified belly to back. Dustin gets one as well which more or less does nothing. Back to Hashimoto who beats the tar out of Dustin again. Norton back in with a superplex and he doesnt cover like a big stupid man. Dustin gets a big boot on Hashimoto for two.
Norton comes in with a powerslam and powerbomb both for two. This is needing to end as its getting somewhat boring. And of course as I say that Saito breaks up a pin. Hashimoto gets a DDT to bring in Saito who hits that suplex on Norton and then a second one for no count as Dustin saves. END THIS.
To show how awesome the Saito Suplex is, Saito hits Dustin with it and tags out. Dustin hits Hashimoto with a dropkick as he comes in, being down for maybe 4 seconds off the suplex. Hashimoto beats on Dustin with a bunch of kicks, Norton makes some saves, the enziguri from Hashimoto FINALLY ends this.
Rating: D. Did ANYONE think this needed almost fifteen minutes? This went on FAR too long with all the breakups and the boringness of the whole thing. Totally boring match that would have definitely been ok if they had cut it down by about five minutes. The last seven or eight minutes were all repetitive and it was so dull it was painful.
NWA Title/IWGP Heavyweight Title: Masahiro Chono vs. Great Muta
This is title for title in reality but they only mention the NWA Title, Chonos title, being on the line here. Chono isnt doing his mafia thing yet and looks REALLY young. Muta hits the floor quickly and grabs a hammer from under the ring for no apparent reason. He drops it soon but what was the point there? I love that elbow Muta hits. It looks awesome. Muta grabs the arm and we hit the mat for a bit.
Its kind of an extended feeling out period here. Nice looking leglock by Chono but a rope is grabbed. This was the final of the NWA World Title Tournament where Chono got the title so this is a rematch. Muta jumps from the apron to the top rope to get a chop between the eyes but then stops to walk around for a bit. They go to the ramp and Muta does his big running clothesline from about 150 feet to take down Chono.
Superplex by Muta but he still wont cover. Saito Suplex gets two. The referee is counting in English for some reason. Its a Japanese referee. Theres the handspring elbow as this is ALL Muta. Moonsault misses though and Chono hooks the STF out of NOWHERE and Muta is in trouble. The fans applaud when the hold is broken which Im not sure what that means. Chono hits a shoulder block off the top for two.
Powerbomb gets two and some applause. Muta goes up for the moonsault which gets knees. The paint is completely off his face which looks odd. Another shoulder block misses and here comes Muta. The third moonsault misses but since its Japan the finisher doesnt work. A second gets one which is kind of anti-climactic but were done.
Rating: C+. Not a classic or anything but it was pretty good. Chono was so different in just a few years that its unreal. The ending was pretty abrupt which isnt a good thing here but at least the finisher ended it completely clean. Not a great match but it worked rather well and Muta looked very strong which is the point here.
Takayuki Iizuka,/Akira Nogami/El Samurai vs. Nobukazu Hirai/Masao Orihara/Koki Kitahara
The only one of these Ive heard of is El Samurai. I think these guys are from WAR. The latter team comes out to a music only version of what would become the Steiner Brothers theme song. Eric Bischoff is doing solo commentary here and I have no idea why. Instantly the attendance jumps up by 3,500 as hes talking. He gets the next match wrong, saying its Sting vs. Fujinami when its actually Hase. Who cares about facts though right?
Ill do my best to know who is who here but I make no promises. Samurai is in the mask. Were a minute in and Bischoff has not yet said who the guy that Samurai is fighting. Yeah he has no clue, calling him the opponent or his man. None of the latter team has Wiki entries so Id assume theyre jobbers or no names. Ah ok that one is Hirai. Im also not sure at all which team they belong to.
Hirai backflips from the apron to the floor. It doesnt add anything but he did it anyway. Samurai brings in the guy in pink trunks to a big reaction. He wants to fight the other guy in pink. This is the best I can do and Bischoff isnt telling us anything at all. Still waiting on a name for either guy in the ring at the moment. Its so odd to hear things so quiet. Back to Hirai. Well we still know two people in this.
Bischoff knows the names of everyone on the team but no idea of who is who. And this man was on the verge of being made the head of the company for all intents and purposes. Hirai gets his leg worked on as we go back to the only member of that team that Bischoff knows. Another tag as the poor president of the company stays confused a bit longer. Leg lock by the face in pink.
Off to a half crab now. This is rather funny but also amazing in a way that Bischoff has absolutely NO IDEA who these people are. The face in blue tights hooks a half crab of his own on Hirai. We list off the production people to avoid having to talk about who is in the ring. Its Hiari, who looks like Kaval, and El Samurai again. Samurai has a partner in pink and a partner in blue. Hirai has a partner in pink/black and a partner in yellow.
Yellow comes in and also has no name at all apparently. Is it really that hard to slip a piece of paper in saying yellow = Orihara? I have about as much evidence for that as anything else so why not go for it? Pink vs. yellow now as I feel like Im watching Power Rangers based on what Im writing here. The sad thing is Im not overlooking them. The names simply arent being said.
Pink gets a Scorpion Deathlock on Yellow but its broken up by Hirai. Back off to blue now as its Billy vs. Kimberly. Hirai vs. Blue now. Back off to Samurai as you can feel Bischoffs sigh of relief. Tombstone sets up a diving headbutt for two for Samurai. For the second time Bischoff says that this is a marathon. Pink/black vs. Blue now. Blue gets an enziguri to bring in Pink who cleans house.
Another issue with the Japanese crowds being silent so often is its really hard to tell who is face and who is heel. BIG powerbomb by Pink onto Hirai. Yellow saves a pin attempt. Hirai is more or less dead from it as in not moving an inch with people fighting around him. Pink walks up and pins him. Im pretty sure thats Nogami but Wikipedias result to the show is wrong so its hard to tell whats going on.
Rating: C. This was pretty good but at the same time the whole not knowing the names was just WEIRD. Whens the last time you remember commentators not saying peoples names every five seconds? Now imagine that not happening for almost 15 minutes. Its just weird to hear and it kind of took me out of the match. The match was ok though with the Samurai team dominating for like 90% of it. Decent enough stuff though.
Sting vs. Hiroshi Hase
Back to Tony and Ross who are professionals and actually know complex things like names. Hase has a straight up porn mustache going on here. Hes definitely a face or at least is acting like one. Sting gets the gorilla presses and a SWEET dropkick to put Hase on the floor. Hase gets a half crab (popular move in Japan) and then off to a leg lock.
Hase gyrates his hips for some reason ala Rick Rude. Back to the knee by Hase as hes mostly controlling here. Sting fires back as this feels more like an exhibition than a competitive match. The Japanese guy gets a Russian legsweep on the American for no cover. Hase gets a delayed Piledriver and goes up for a top rope knee for two. No leg hooking either. Sloppy dude.
Hase gets a rear naked choke and shifts it into a sleeper but its broken up for no apparent reason. The announcers arent sure either. I guess the whole ITS A CHOKE thing. After some stuff on the floor Hase busts out some suplexes in the ring for two. A high German gets two and Ill avoid repeating the nationality joke. We go WAY old school with a full nelson. We get a Chris Benoit reference in 1993 to blow the hell out of my mind. I know he was around in the early 90s but not 1993.
Back to the floor again as Sting is confused by the whole 20 count thing. Sting kind of messes up a cross body off the top as I think he misjudged the distance and you could see him kind of try to pull back halfway through and it messed things up. Sting cranks it up again and given that this is anytime in the 90s before 98, Sting is more or less unstoppable now. He busts out an Argentine Back Breaker of all things which Ive never seen him use. He was scary good at times.
In another cool move Sting got a running start and jumps onto the middle rope and just jumps backwards, driving his back and ass into Hase for two. They mess something up on a German suplex by Sting as the referee has to stop counting because they miss their kickout cue. Sting gets a jumping DDT to continue mixing up his offense. A slam and a top rope splash ends this clean.
Rating: C+. Again this was a good match but it felt odd for some reason. It felt like two guys performing rather than a competitive match which has to be expected as theres no heat or backstory on this. That doesnt make it bad per se, but it feels really awkward. The match itself is fine for what it is and got pretty good down the stretch. Its no classic, but its a good enough match to close a PPV, especially with Sting being very popular in his own right in Japan.
Overall Rating: C+. This wasnt bad. Its nothing great but keep in mind this is the home video version which is heavily clipped. Its more or less the only version I was willing to look up though as I had no intention of sitting through a show longer than the two hours that this ran. The vast majority is here and thats really all you need. Nothing too bad here but nothing really worth going out of your way to see.
Date: January 4, 1993
Location: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan
Attendance: 63,500
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross
Its the last in this series and I cant say Im complaining. This is again clipped in various parts but Ill do as best I can as usual. The main event is Hiroshi Hase vs. Sting which should be solid stuff. Theres also Muta vs. Chono in a title for title match which should be solid. Also on here is Tony Halme, the future Ludvig Borga. All that being said, lets get to it.
Eric welcomes us to the show and looks as slimy as possible.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Ultimo Dragon
This is billed as a dream match which might be true I think. Dragon has the title here. This should be good. Fans are far more behind Liger here. Dragon doesnt work for New Japan here so hes kind of the foreigner in a way. The lighting is kind of weird here. Both announcers keep saying Ultimate Dragon. Wheres Mike Tenay when you need him? Both go for arm drags and dropkicks as its a standoff to start.
Liger works on the knee to try to take over which doesnt get him that far. We get some decent mat work here from both guys which is always fun to see. Liger gets a guillotine choke on Dragon as this has been far more submission based than I expected it to be. Dragon works on Ligers knee which makes sense. We get that move that needs a name where Dragon has a leg grapevine on and bridges back to hook Ligers face. It looks awesome and Ive only seen a handful of guys use it.
Liger fights up and hooks the Surfboard which is always sick as hell looking. How in the world does he do that? Im not sure if Im liking this or not. For a match between two legendary high fliers theyre not really flying all that much. They kick each other quite a bit as Dragon sets for a surfboard of his own but instead of rocking back with it he hooks a Dragon Sleeper to no reaction from anyone including the announcers.
Off to a camel clutch instead to offer us some variety. Were about ten minutes in here and while its not bad, its just not at all what we expected which makes it hard to judge. Dragon goes up but gets stopped short. Handspring elbow by the Dragon. Dragon gets a BIG dive off the top to the floor to send Liger into the VIP area which knocks away some tables.
Remember there are 20 counts in Japan. Modified brainbuster gets two for Dragon. Both guys counter Tombstones until Dragon finally gets a decent one but doesnt cover. He slips off the top completely, making a headbutt he was going for more or less miss entirely. Theyve sped up a good bit here and its helping a lot. German suplex gets two for Dragon.
Rolling Liger Kick sends Dragon to the floor as they crank it up again. A Liger Bomb on the floor would seemingly kill Dragon so Liger hits a moonsalt onto his corpse. Liger throws him back in but puts one hand on Dragon for the cover as hes being kind of heelish here. And just as I say that he hits Dragon with the heel of his palm to put him down. Half crab goes on as Dragon is in more trouble every second.
Dragon wakes up a bit and catches Liger coming off the top with a clothesline. Corkscrew flip from the apron to the floor has both guys down. We get a quick wide shot of the stadium and it looks pretty awesome. Liger Bomb is countered into a rana for two. Asai Moonsault gets no cover. Powerbomb and a cradle both get two for the champion.
Dragon cranks it up again and goes up which even Ross thinks is stupid. Liger counters and hits a top rope DDT to more or less kill Dragon again but somehow it only gets two. BIG Liger Bomb puts him down but Liger doesnt want the pin yet. A top rope Frankensteiner finally ends this one.
Rating: B. Solid stuff here but the botches and odd choices on not covering kind of hurt this. They hit a bunch of different styles for the most part and the whole thing mostly worked. The submission stuff was a nice little surprise in there, but the lack of high flying really did comes off as a disappointment here which isnt a good thing at all. Still though, rather good match.
Ron Simmons vs. Tony Halme
Simmons lost the world title less than a week before this so who do you think is going to win this? Halme remember is Lugvig Borga and looks like a total badass here. This is more or less wrestler vs. striker so this is more like an MMA match than wrestling. It was supposed to be a world title match which makes the ending all the more obvious.
They exchange power shots which gets no one anywhere. Simmons grabs a drop toehold out of nowhere and gets the advantage from it. Nice little bit of psychology there as he knew he couldnt use power. Piledriver gets two. They kind of mess up a knee lift and Halme takes over. We get some basic power stuff that is a bit faster pace than what you would expect it to be.
In a weird moment Halme hits a spinebuster, Simmons finisher, which is acknowledged by Tony and Jim, but they call it a sidewalk slam. Halme gets a straight punch that sends Simmons to the floor and suplexes him back in. Powerslam, another Simmons trademark gets two. Simmons gets one of his own for two. A horrible looking small package gets two. In one of the most anti-climactic endings Ive ever see, Simmons cant beat Halme with anything he tries until he hits the spinebuster (sidewalk slam again) to end it.
Rating: D. This was rather awkward. Nothing really clicked at all and the whole thing came off as clunky and sloppy. Halme was a guy that was an incredibly odd case and would be in the WWF in a few months. This was an awkward match though and never really felt right which is an odd description but its the best I can do.
Shinya Hashimoto/Masa Saito vs. Dustin Rhodes/Scott Norton
Thats an odd pairing to say the least. Norton actually means something in Japan so hes the bigger star on his team somehow. Saito is a replacement for Antonio Inoki apparently. Hashimoto wont shake Nortons hand to start. Norton takes a bunch of his kicks and just runs over Hashimoto in a nice shot. They chop it out and in short, Norton wins. Off to Dustin now and Hashimoto is like bitch please and drills him.
Nice suplex gets no count for Dustin. Not that he didnt cover but Saito kicked out before one. Saito throws Dustin over the top and Tony thinks Dustin is lucky that he landed on the ramp and not the floor. Sweet damn is that the most intelligent thing Tony has ever said? Saito hits Norton a few times and it doesnt get him anywhere at all. Norton hits him once and down goes Masa. AMERICA WINS AGAIN BITCH!
Norton makes a mistake and gets caught in a Saito Suplex which is more or less a slightly modified belly to back. Dustin gets one as well which more or less does nothing. Back to Hashimoto who beats the tar out of Dustin again. Norton back in with a superplex and he doesnt cover like a big stupid man. Dustin gets a big boot on Hashimoto for two.
Norton comes in with a powerslam and powerbomb both for two. This is needing to end as its getting somewhat boring. And of course as I say that Saito breaks up a pin. Hashimoto gets a DDT to bring in Saito who hits that suplex on Norton and then a second one for no count as Dustin saves. END THIS.
To show how awesome the Saito Suplex is, Saito hits Dustin with it and tags out. Dustin hits Hashimoto with a dropkick as he comes in, being down for maybe 4 seconds off the suplex. Hashimoto beats on Dustin with a bunch of kicks, Norton makes some saves, the enziguri from Hashimoto FINALLY ends this.
Rating: D. Did ANYONE think this needed almost fifteen minutes? This went on FAR too long with all the breakups and the boringness of the whole thing. Totally boring match that would have definitely been ok if they had cut it down by about five minutes. The last seven or eight minutes were all repetitive and it was so dull it was painful.
NWA Title/IWGP Heavyweight Title: Masahiro Chono vs. Great Muta
This is title for title in reality but they only mention the NWA Title, Chonos title, being on the line here. Chono isnt doing his mafia thing yet and looks REALLY young. Muta hits the floor quickly and grabs a hammer from under the ring for no apparent reason. He drops it soon but what was the point there? I love that elbow Muta hits. It looks awesome. Muta grabs the arm and we hit the mat for a bit.
Its kind of an extended feeling out period here. Nice looking leglock by Chono but a rope is grabbed. This was the final of the NWA World Title Tournament where Chono got the title so this is a rematch. Muta jumps from the apron to the top rope to get a chop between the eyes but then stops to walk around for a bit. They go to the ramp and Muta does his big running clothesline from about 150 feet to take down Chono.
Superplex by Muta but he still wont cover. Saito Suplex gets two. The referee is counting in English for some reason. Its a Japanese referee. Theres the handspring elbow as this is ALL Muta. Moonsault misses though and Chono hooks the STF out of NOWHERE and Muta is in trouble. The fans applaud when the hold is broken which Im not sure what that means. Chono hits a shoulder block off the top for two.
Powerbomb gets two and some applause. Muta goes up for the moonsault which gets knees. The paint is completely off his face which looks odd. Another shoulder block misses and here comes Muta. The third moonsault misses but since its Japan the finisher doesnt work. A second gets one which is kind of anti-climactic but were done.
Rating: C+. Not a classic or anything but it was pretty good. Chono was so different in just a few years that its unreal. The ending was pretty abrupt which isnt a good thing here but at least the finisher ended it completely clean. Not a great match but it worked rather well and Muta looked very strong which is the point here.
Takayuki Iizuka,/Akira Nogami/El Samurai vs. Nobukazu Hirai/Masao Orihara/Koki Kitahara
The only one of these Ive heard of is El Samurai. I think these guys are from WAR. The latter team comes out to a music only version of what would become the Steiner Brothers theme song. Eric Bischoff is doing solo commentary here and I have no idea why. Instantly the attendance jumps up by 3,500 as hes talking. He gets the next match wrong, saying its Sting vs. Fujinami when its actually Hase. Who cares about facts though right?
Ill do my best to know who is who here but I make no promises. Samurai is in the mask. Were a minute in and Bischoff has not yet said who the guy that Samurai is fighting. Yeah he has no clue, calling him the opponent or his man. None of the latter team has Wiki entries so Id assume theyre jobbers or no names. Ah ok that one is Hirai. Im also not sure at all which team they belong to.
Hirai backflips from the apron to the floor. It doesnt add anything but he did it anyway. Samurai brings in the guy in pink trunks to a big reaction. He wants to fight the other guy in pink. This is the best I can do and Bischoff isnt telling us anything at all. Still waiting on a name for either guy in the ring at the moment. Its so odd to hear things so quiet. Back to Hirai. Well we still know two people in this.
Bischoff knows the names of everyone on the team but no idea of who is who. And this man was on the verge of being made the head of the company for all intents and purposes. Hirai gets his leg worked on as we go back to the only member of that team that Bischoff knows. Another tag as the poor president of the company stays confused a bit longer. Leg lock by the face in pink.
Off to a half crab now. This is rather funny but also amazing in a way that Bischoff has absolutely NO IDEA who these people are. The face in blue tights hooks a half crab of his own on Hirai. We list off the production people to avoid having to talk about who is in the ring. Its Hiari, who looks like Kaval, and El Samurai again. Samurai has a partner in pink and a partner in blue. Hirai has a partner in pink/black and a partner in yellow.
Yellow comes in and also has no name at all apparently. Is it really that hard to slip a piece of paper in saying yellow = Orihara? I have about as much evidence for that as anything else so why not go for it? Pink vs. yellow now as I feel like Im watching Power Rangers based on what Im writing here. The sad thing is Im not overlooking them. The names simply arent being said.
Pink gets a Scorpion Deathlock on Yellow but its broken up by Hirai. Back off to blue now as its Billy vs. Kimberly. Hirai vs. Blue now. Back off to Samurai as you can feel Bischoffs sigh of relief. Tombstone sets up a diving headbutt for two for Samurai. For the second time Bischoff says that this is a marathon. Pink/black vs. Blue now. Blue gets an enziguri to bring in Pink who cleans house.
Another issue with the Japanese crowds being silent so often is its really hard to tell who is face and who is heel. BIG powerbomb by Pink onto Hirai. Yellow saves a pin attempt. Hirai is more or less dead from it as in not moving an inch with people fighting around him. Pink walks up and pins him. Im pretty sure thats Nogami but Wikipedias result to the show is wrong so its hard to tell whats going on.
Rating: C. This was pretty good but at the same time the whole not knowing the names was just WEIRD. Whens the last time you remember commentators not saying peoples names every five seconds? Now imagine that not happening for almost 15 minutes. Its just weird to hear and it kind of took me out of the match. The match was ok though with the Samurai team dominating for like 90% of it. Decent enough stuff though.
Sting vs. Hiroshi Hase
Back to Tony and Ross who are professionals and actually know complex things like names. Hase has a straight up porn mustache going on here. Hes definitely a face or at least is acting like one. Sting gets the gorilla presses and a SWEET dropkick to put Hase on the floor. Hase gets a half crab (popular move in Japan) and then off to a leg lock.
Hase gyrates his hips for some reason ala Rick Rude. Back to the knee by Hase as hes mostly controlling here. Sting fires back as this feels more like an exhibition than a competitive match. The Japanese guy gets a Russian legsweep on the American for no cover. Hase gets a delayed Piledriver and goes up for a top rope knee for two. No leg hooking either. Sloppy dude.
Hase gets a rear naked choke and shifts it into a sleeper but its broken up for no apparent reason. The announcers arent sure either. I guess the whole ITS A CHOKE thing. After some stuff on the floor Hase busts out some suplexes in the ring for two. A high German gets two and Ill avoid repeating the nationality joke. We go WAY old school with a full nelson. We get a Chris Benoit reference in 1993 to blow the hell out of my mind. I know he was around in the early 90s but not 1993.
Back to the floor again as Sting is confused by the whole 20 count thing. Sting kind of messes up a cross body off the top as I think he misjudged the distance and you could see him kind of try to pull back halfway through and it messed things up. Sting cranks it up again and given that this is anytime in the 90s before 98, Sting is more or less unstoppable now. He busts out an Argentine Back Breaker of all things which Ive never seen him use. He was scary good at times.
In another cool move Sting got a running start and jumps onto the middle rope and just jumps backwards, driving his back and ass into Hase for two. They mess something up on a German suplex by Sting as the referee has to stop counting because they miss their kickout cue. Sting gets a jumping DDT to continue mixing up his offense. A slam and a top rope splash ends this clean.
Rating: C+. Again this was a good match but it felt odd for some reason. It felt like two guys performing rather than a competitive match which has to be expected as theres no heat or backstory on this. That doesnt make it bad per se, but it feels really awkward. The match itself is fine for what it is and got pretty good down the stretch. Its no classic, but its a good enough match to close a PPV, especially with Sting being very popular in his own right in Japan.
Overall Rating: C+. This wasnt bad. Its nothing great but keep in mind this is the home video version which is heavily clipped. Its more or less the only version I was willing to look up though as I had no intention of sitting through a show longer than the two hours that this ran. The vast majority is here and thats really all you need. Nothing too bad here but nothing really worth going out of your way to see.