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Episode 68: WCW / New Japan Supershow III
56 Plays11 months ago
We head back to Japan for, unfortunately, the last time, as we close out the WCW / New Japan Supershow series with Supershow III - a heavily (and awkwardly) edited version of Fantastic Story in Tokyo Dome, which unfortunately is not about elves and wizards fighting dragons in Tokyo Dome, but is, at least, a darn good wrestling show. Jushin "Thunder" Liger faces Ultimo Dragon in a dream match (okay, so there is one Dragon)! The Great Muta and Masahiro get another chance after their Starrcade 1992 effort underwhelmed us! Sting faces Hiroshi Hase in a contest for most naturally likeable wrestler! Plus, just what the heck is going on with commentary in that six-man tag match, and what big match got left on the cutting room floor this year? For all this and more (but no ceremony or presentation, goodness no), let's go to the ring!
Music by Michael Gary Brewer at https://www.instantmusicnow.com/
Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LetsGo2theRing/
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
um my my notes for this. ah You want to guess how many pages? 12. More than that, but not by not by that much. 18. Oh, very good. I can't remember the last time I've only had 18 pages of notes. I think maybe Bunkhouse Stampede.
00:00:18
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds about right, yeah. Because that only had like what, five matches? I think so, yeah. But even that had some complicated stuff to discuss, so I may not have made it on that one, I'm not sure. So I'm thrilled. That's good.
00:00:57
Speaker
Hello everyone, and welcome to Let's Go to the Ring, where we take a look at the good old days, and not so good old days, of World Championship Wrestling Series by Series. I'm your host, the mysterious masked Super Bob Machine, and I'm joined by the similarly mysterious Super Owl Machine. Who could we be? It's a mystery. It will never be solved. We will destroy the White Hummer and get out of here. Yes. How's it going tonight, Al? It's going all right with me. How about you?
00:01:27
Speaker
I'm, I'm doing good. I'm a little sad because this is actually our last super show, which is just bizarre to be saying. I mean, this is, uh, the shortest series we've done definitely at this point, right? Uh, like the closest was Wrestle war had four shows. That sounds right. Yeah. 8 9 92. I think it was. Yeah. And wrestle war was also a series I really loved. So yeah. why Why is it that, that the ones we love are always short? I guess maybe we love them because they're short because they don't ever touch the end of you or maybe I mean, that definitely helps, yeah. Yeah.
WCW New Japan Super Show 3 Context
00:02:00
Speaker
yeah ah No one whose name Brian was Tusso is booking these shows. This is true. but So that's also a factor. ah Yeah. Well, tonight we are taking a look at WCW New Japan Super Show 3, which is a cut down form of the much cooler named New Japan Tokyo Dome Show. Fantastic story in Tokyo Dome. The only way it'd be better if it was the never ending story in Tokyo Dome.
00:02:26
Speaker
Yeah, though that would be a very long pay per view to watch. I mean, we'd still be watching it today because never ending and all. Yeah, there's always a catch. Yeah, yeah. I've really like ah an interesting like marathon wrestling show that just keeps going on and through the arrows and people just come on in and and leave when they want to. So that's an interesting idea.
00:02:45
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, you can have father-son acts in there because they would just have a kid during the show at some point. Dusty would be on like the first couple of shows and Dustin would pop up about 10 years in, you know, Cody be here about now. It'd be interesting. Yeah.
00:03:02
Speaker
Fantastic story in Tokyo Dome was held on January 4th, 1993 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan in front of 53,500 fans per ProWrestlingHistory.com.
00:03:14
Speaker
It aired on pay-per-view in America in March 1993 as WCW New Japan Super Show 3. As with prior years, I was unable to find the exact date or the actual pay-per-view numbers. It is weird that these shows that had an official air date is just not a record of it around. Yeah, I'm sure there's somewhere that I could find it, but I just just have not been able to discover any place that has like a solid, solid record of that.
00:03:44
Speaker
Interestingly, I believe that this means, however, that it was recorded when Bill Watts was still in charge of WCW, but it aired in America after they'd changed over to Eric Bischoff, as I believe that that all happens around late January or early February. That sounds right, yeah.
00:04:03
Speaker
I know on JR's podcast, Grilling JR, he talks about him having left WCW, I believe in February 25th about, I think he says, and he left in response to Bischoff being hired. Oh, okay. so so That obviously affects the show in a few different ways, as we'll get to. I'll say, to clarify, it's Bischoff being promoted because he is around the company. Yes, I'm sorry. It's how it's it's okay. It's a big deal, but yeah.
00:04:28
Speaker
So once again, as a WCW podcast, we will be reviewing the WCW version of this show, which means we're going to miss out on several matches. So let's see what's missing. We have Shiro Koshinaka, the great Kabuki, who we have not seen since our first official episode, Starrcade 83. Yep.
00:04:50
Speaker
Masashi Aoyagi and Akitoshi Saito vs. Super Strong Machine, Hero Saito, Tatsu Toshi Goto, and Norio Honaga.
Missing Matches and Speculations
00:05:00
Speaker
So it's a Saito vs. Saito match there. Yeah, that's interesting. Next, and this one hurts.
00:05:09
Speaker
the Hellraisers, Hawk Warrior, i.e. Road Warrior Hawk, and Power Warrior, i.e. Kintsuki Sasaki, versus the Steiner Brothers, for the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Now this did end in a double countdown, which makes it hurt a little bit less to miss it, but still, Hawk and Sasaki versus the Steiners in the early 1990s and we don't get to see it.
00:05:33
Speaker
ah So I just make some extra credit by the way. I found that match online. Oh yeah. Someone uploaded a day of motion very long time ago, like 2005 or six is what it says. I think it's like 17, 18 years ago. It tells you like vaguely when it was uploaded. So it's been there a while. If you guess you're looking for it. Okay.
00:05:52
Speaker
Apparently it ran in the UK because it's has got a WSW credit and it's got English commentators on it. So it's not like the. Previous one of these, I did where the Vader Bigelow match where it's just the Japanese commentary because that's the actual show. Okay. So someone did run this at some point later. Amusingly they act like it's their match and and they, and like, there's a part where they fight to the outside. They go, wow, he almost fell in your lap. I'm like, yeah, sure. You were there. ah Wow. Pretty funny.
00:06:22
Speaker
How does this include Robore Hawk press slamming Scott Steiner to the outside over the top rope? Oh geez. At one point Scott Steiner puts Robore Hawk in the Boston crab and his response is to start doing pushups. It's very strange. Nice. I guess it's like, this would hurt me. No, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna do some prep for while I'm stuck here. It's a very Hawk thing to do. Yeah, true.
00:06:46
Speaker
The match is fairly even, although at a certain point it turns very much against the Hellraisers. So there's a section of the match near the end where they start and basically hit all the double teams on Power Warrior, aka Kazuki Suzuki. They don't hit any on Hawk at all. He takes the double Bulldog. He doesn't take the double DT, but he does take a Doom to Device. He also takes the move that took out the guy at Russell War. The, hold the guy over your shoulder and then the elbow drop.
00:07:16
Speaker
and then fall down with them. Okay. It does not take out Sasaki because they land properly. Good. Yeah. This time Scott goes down with the fall. So it's like to a flat bump and basically Rick Steiner, elbow drops him into the ground or do the managers say, but all on the chest. So he's fine. Good, good. Yeah. Plus he's Sasaki. He's super durable.
00:07:38
Speaker
As we know, Sasaki is one of the few people in the world that has the ability to dominate the Steiner's, so don't tick him off. but No.
00:07:49
Speaker
One curious bit is, so during the bit where they're constantly a double team moves on to Zaki, they do a dupe device, which of course they started doing an homage to the road warriors. So Rick picks up the guy, instead of climbing from the corner, like the road was always doing the stars always do Scott kind of awkwardly amount to the middle rope and then jumps off there like a springboard. Oh, interesting. Maybe just felt like I don't want to do it the same way as the road warriors when we're facing one of the road warriors.
00:08:16
Speaker
It's very possible. Yeah. It might've been a positioning thing. Maybe cause obviously Rick does the bar. He picks the guy up on his shoulders. Yeah. Maybe he hadn't faced that way. And he's like, well, rather than having Rick sort of awkwardly turn around with the 270, whatever pound man on his shoulders. I'll do it from here. It's fine. Fair enough. Yeah. It does look cool. But I was like, wait, what's he doing? Oh, he's doing that. Okay.
00:08:36
Speaker
Don't worry, there is reprisal. The Team of the Hell razors do the doomsday device to Scott Steiner on the outside of the ring. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Tazaki just super casually gets Scott up on his shoulders, you know, just squat lifts him, basically. Roy Warhawk dives off the corner of the ring and clotheslines him. This leads to poor Scott falling into the metal barricade. Oh.
00:09:02
Speaker
And Hawk is jumping, so Hawk lands past the barricade onto the floor to the outside.
00:09:12
Speaker
Following that, Tzazaki and Rick, who obviously don't take damage from that, just started fighting the ring, but the ref is not paying attention. The ref has decided, I think half true, that Hawk and Scott are the legal men. So he's just ignoring them, fighting the ring and counting them out to 20.
00:09:30
Speaker
I was going to say, there's no way that can't be the finish. but Yeah. No, I'm not as good at following that, but I like who's actually legal, but I'm pretty sure it was Scott and to Zaki we were actually legal, but and it's the finish. So yeah, gotcha. Yeah, it it is
Steiners' Departure and Wrestling Politics
00:09:46
Speaker
available online. I will send you a link to it and great may post it to our page as well. It's a shame that double double count out, but it's a real fun match to watch. And having seen it, I'm like, man, I really put some the show. Mm hmm.
00:09:58
Speaker
Should we explain why is it on the show? Well, yeah yeah. So it's interesting because actually at the time that the show was recorded, even the Steiners were not working for WSW anymore. Oh, really? Yeah. At first I thought, oh, they put them on the show and then they left and they got ticked off about it. And that's why it's off. But actually at the time that it was recorded, the Steiners were already gone from WSW. They had debuted in the WWF in December of 1992.
00:10:25
Speaker
Oh, interesting. Yeah, yeah, really through me. Yeah, the way the story is normally told is that the match was pulled because between the time of the match occurring and the match airing, they told them to be that they weren't planning to re resign. Because yeah, most people remember this when they think of the Steiners never to be after the first memory is WrestleMania.
00:10:43
Speaker
Yeah, but they actually show up, I think, at Royal Rumble 1993, even. Oh, if I'm recalling my research correctly. But yeah, they apparently had left even before that show. So all I can assume is maybe there was a contractual obligation. We've already signed you up for this. So you still have to do it. Oh, yeah, you're right. On the Wiki page, it says diners fought the Beverly Brothers. Uh huh. Okay.
00:11:07
Speaker
Yeah, so it's really, really interesting. I really did not expect to see that because you and I had both thought and it made perfect sense that, you know, they recorded the show were originally intending to use it. They took it off after that point. But yeah, I mean, maybe and maybe it was something like that where they were still intending to use it, even though they were gone. But then, you know, they got really big in the WWF or the WWF said, hey, you can't do that. I don't know the details behind that. But yeah, it was a really interesting thing to find that out.
00:11:36
Speaker
So what that was me about that with that new information is how well as was discussed how the commentary later in the show was handled then. Yeah, that's where I think maybe there was still something surprising about them not being able to use the match. It feels that way. Yeah. So we'll discuss that a little more when we get to it. But um it was it was interesting to find that out. Gotcha.
00:12:00
Speaker
The Standard Brothers, because they're working with WWF and also with New Japan, they will actually be at the very next super show, the 1994, the January show they do. It's just not a WSW New Japan show it anymore. Right. Now it's the Standard January 4th Tokyo Dome shows that they're doing that eventually become Russell Kingdom. Mm-hmm. Exactly.
00:12:21
Speaker
The third match that we were missing is, and this one again hurts, Tatsumi Fujinami versus Takashi Ishikawa. And I just, I really would have loved to have another Fujinami match on this series because that guy's just good. Yeah, absolutely. I know I found as well about that 94 Super Show, which I'm not covering. Fujinami is wrestling on that show against Hulk Hogan.
00:12:47
Speaker
Now here's the thing about that. This is Hogan having left WWF, but before he's at four. Yeah, exactly. So it's the between period. That's interesting. Yeah. There's a period where him and other people, it is sort of a circle. They leave WWF, but they work new Japan and some other shows between officially come back to wrestling with WCW.
00:13:08
Speaker
And then the fourth one that we're missing is Genichiro Tenryu versus Ricky Choshu. And i've I've heard of Tenryu and it would have been really cool to see him. And of course, we both really like Choshu last year. So yeah, that's another one that honestly, like all four of these matches, I'm I'm kind of upset at not having on the show, though I'll admit I'm um I'm a little glad to not have to recap the eight man tag. Yeah.
00:13:34
Speaker
Speaking of WWF, uh, Tenry, whose match was getting cut from the show, he would wrestle the 1994 Royal Rumble
New Japan vs. WAR Matches
00:13:40
Speaker
match as part of the New Japan WWF cross motion that would occur. Kicked WCW away and started partnering with the WWF, huh?
00:13:50
Speaker
ah well And one last note about the matches we're not getting is that a bunch of the matches we're not getting, say for one that is on the show, were part of a theme where it was New Japan versus WAR war. Right. Another Japanese promotion. Just an amazing name. Yeah. Is that like Russell and romance or something that it stands for? At this point, yes. It changed a couple. Yeah, it changed a couple of times. But yes, it was that point. Oh, my gosh, I love you, Japan.
00:14:15
Speaker
Yeah. So it seems like WCW higher ups had no interest in telling that story because, you know, they have no, you as I say, they have no, uh, no stake in that game. They, that's why they cut 10 reviews of Matt presumably because that's all about that story. Right. He's the big star of of war. That's why he's fighting Chosu, the, you know, one of the big stars in Japan. Gotcha. Yeah. That's the running themes of the show and they cut all context of it, which makes one metric of her later a little weird. Yes. Yes.
00:14:44
Speaker
So will what is left over give us a good show anyway to find out? Let's go to the ring. We get the traditional opening music with a very abbreviated opening bit that just shows Turner Home Video and WSW Japan Super Show logos. We don't even get the traditional opening set of pictures of the performers this year. No. Just throws straight to a brief shot of the arena, then to Eric Bischoff.
00:15:09
Speaker
who it seems pretty clear is being recorded in post, but is trying very hard to act like he's there in the arena, with crowd noise apparently piped in, yeah and what looks like a static and very dark shot of the arena interior behind him. Bischoff claims that 67,000 people are attending. About 14,000 more people than are than our records say. Correct, yes.
00:15:35
Speaker
He builds up the night's matches quickly and calls the first match a dream match that the Japanese fans have been waiting for for three years, and then throws to Tony Shabani and Jim Ross, our commentary team for the evening. So away we go then. Our first match is Jushin Thunder Liger versus Ultimo Dragon for Dragon's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. As for the referee, if you think I ever got to hear the referee's name, you don't know this series.
00:16:06
Speaker
If it helps the extra match, I i watch and reviewed the English commentary nicely. Tell me that tiger Atari rough that match. Okay. It's not on the show officially, but to say, you know, they said it. Yeah. Well, I mean, tiger Atari, they actually do say the name of when he's the referee. Cause they actually know who he is. I gotcha. So he's always the one ref that I get the name of dragon won the title late last year, leading to this dream encounter. Notably Liger is at this point, a five time champion.
00:16:35
Speaker
Wow. Which is it impressive. of You remember that the title is seven years old. Dang. Yeah. He is all over that belt. Yeah, yeah I would say so. and And the commentary team states that Dragon doesn't actually work directly for New Japan at this point. Did you have anything on that?
00:16:54
Speaker
So apparently the situation was he was sent down to Mexico to work. He worked in the CMLL, which is one of the two big promotions there. CMLL was the all Japan of Mexico, essentially, if you consider AAA to be the new Japan. Well, working there, he also signed with War, W.A.R. So this is another cross promotional match as part of that series. Gotcha. On the show. They just don't explain. So we got we got close to explaining it. Then we're at least mentioning that he works for a different company.
00:17:22
Speaker
Yeah. I wonder if he just didn't know, like, you know, they didn't brief him me on this because they're not going to cover the story because they have no personal investment in why these two wrestling companies are fighting with each other on the show. They probably didn't bother telling him. Considering WSW doesn't bother to tell him how to pronounce Rey Mysterio at various points. Yeah. You know, that's not surprising.
00:17:45
Speaker
As Liger enters, Tony claims 63,500 in the Tokyo Dome, so 3,500 left between Eric's intro and the first match. That's a shame. Yeah. Guess they all had to go to the bathroom. Liger's outfit is red, white, and blue, though the cape is gold. It's a very Captain America otherwise. so Yeah.
00:18:07
Speaker
Ultimo Dragon, called Ultimate Dragon by the commentary team of course, comes out in a very different look from his norm in the WCW days. He's got kind of a almost Aztec warrior inspired entrance gear with a big headdress and cape. Yeah.
00:18:23
Speaker
His actual ring gear is much more like his normal ring gear, but more visibly scaly. Speaking of Captain America, it kind of looks like the scale male segment of his outfit in some eras. Absolutely. Yeah. Like ah the shoulder piece he has that normally has more of a scaled texture.
Liger vs. Ultimo Dragon Match
00:18:39
Speaker
Yeah. Depending on the artist that they either draw that super detailed or they just occasionally draw a little half circles on the chest at random points. How much do we want to bother with this? Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
00:18:50
Speaker
It looks super cool though. I mean, it's, I always love dragons look, but I think this is actually my favorite that I've ever seen from him for the, for the ring gear. Yeah. I don't remember which one it is because he's done so many Russell manias, but I know there's one year where we're mysterious comes out with a big Aztec address, which obviously he's being Mexican makes perfect sense. Yes. It looks very similar though. I might say I couldn't find a comparison trash shot of the two wonder if he borrowed it from him. Wouldn't surprise me.
00:19:21
Speaker
JR, building up the importance of this match, as Dragon doesn't actually work for New Japan for a wrestling, notes that it's like if WSW held a show and had a wrestler from another wrestling organization, they're defending one of their titles. Just couldn't think of one. Yeah, kind of undercuts your point a little bit when you can't even name another company, JR. Yeah, right.
00:19:44
Speaker
They prove evenly matched with some initial counterwrestling, and pause and pose dramatically for the crowd to cheer. The crowd obliges. They move into fast-paced, complex matwork, mostly a variety of leg holds to try to take away each other's aerial strength. We get leg locks, death locks, a kind of elevated figure four by Liger, both guys folding each other like pretzels, a grapevine reverse chin lock by Dragon,
00:20:08
Speaker
dragon bow and arrow, cool, different variants on the Mexican surfboard hold by both and more. They both constantly fight for position and never let a hold just lie there. It's virtually an entire normal match length before we get our first major impact move. A Liger tilt a whirl backbreaker for two. That's that's not a complaint. It's really, really good. Oh, it is. Yeah.
00:20:32
Speaker
That opens the well, so they move primarily into striking, throws, and acrobatics. Again, they're evenly matched, trading off control. Dragon cartwheels out of the way of one Liger dive. Later, Dragon slips off the top rope, but still manages to mostly land a kick, and redeems himself with a handspring back elbow, differing from Buddha's, in that Liger is not braced in the corner first. It looks really cool. It does, yeah.
00:20:57
Speaker
That knocks Liger out of the ring, so Dragon Slide kicks him, then dives over the ropes and the barricades to send Liger and himself through some tables. Absolutely epic dive. They finally start going for pins. Dragon Brain Buster, Dragon Slip off the top rope into a falling headbutt, Dragon Rapid Suplex, Liger Roll Up, Dragon Roll Up, Dragon German Suplex, all get close.
00:21:20
Speaker
Liger gets fed up and counters a whip with a flip kick, sending Dragon out, then power bombs him outside, and hits a flipping sentin from the top to outside. Back in, Liger German Suplex gets two, as Liger pins Dragon with one hand. Quite arrogant there. A bit, yeah. Liger sustains offense for a while, and then they clothesline each other on a Liger dive, and Dragon hits a crazy flip into Liger and the barricade. Both slow to get up, understandably.
00:21:49
Speaker
Liger, amusingly, counters the dragon Hurakurana by just tossing him casually to the mat. Yes, she's like, no, you're not doing that. Two counts with a dragon Frankensteiner, dragon powerbomb, dragon drop toehold, Liger top rope DDT, Liger hits an absolutely massive powerbomb and puts dragon up top for a Frankensteiner for the three count and the win. Dragon nearly bridged out there but couldn't do it in time.
00:22:17
Speaker
Liger celebrates and listens to the crowd's cheers. JR points out the guy that hands over the belt is the current NWA president as well as an official for IWGP. Liger, of course, gets an enormous trophy with streamers on it, which he immediately hands off to somebody outside the ring because it's massive and to heavy. You have the right idea, Liger. Absolutely.
00:22:40
Speaker
Dragon comes over and they shake hands and raise each other's hands for some well-deserved cheers as we cut to replays of the Crazy Dives and Holds. Thoughts on this one? This is a great match. Oh yeah. I really can't understate this. What I might think about this match is that it's arguably a pair of great matches. Yes. I could have had a really solid 10-minute technical match between these two, the way they constantly, which ain't whole, they're always fighting in Holds.
00:23:09
Speaker
It's never, oh, my I'm going to lay here and catch my breath. There's always an activity. Like you said, they vary up the holes as well. At one point, dragon pulls him back in his report and then puts him in a headlock. Why is he bridging backwards? It looks really painful. Dragon later returns the favorite, give him the same hole by putting him in basically a dragon sleeper while his legs are locked. Yes. Yeah, it was amazing. Some real yoga stretching going on there.
00:23:36
Speaker
The flexibility that these guys had to have to make those spots safe is just mind boggling. Mm hmm. Absolutely. Yeah, the math section is really great. And then I like how they transition to the striking, I guess you call it the neural match segment with that big backbreaker. It's just here's a change of a point as we're doing this match now.
00:23:57
Speaker
It's a good emphasis point on that. Yeah, yeah. And you're you're like, oh, OK, we're going to get just a little bit of this before the end and we'll be happy. And then it's like, oh, no, we're we're doing a complete second match. Yeah, ah for we're not tired yet. It's OK. Yeah, it goes against so much wrestling logic for used to because.
00:24:17
Speaker
Generally, especially even with small guys that wrestle really fast, you know, a quick section five, you know, maybe 10 minutes, depending on what time they have on the show. And then they'll start working holds. That's again, to catch their breath and for reset. And go here here's the next spot here. We gotta do this, this, this, this. But this one, they do all of that at the beginning, just so that they can. And then they just wrestle a normal match they would have after that. Yeah. It's like that whole match was just warm up for a normal match with them. Exactly.
00:24:47
Speaker
It's like, you know, we can go in the back and do our stretches, or we could just stretch each other in the ring. Which wish do you want to do? Yeah, it's ah so incredible. It really is just two complete match storylines that they just cut between finally in the middle. And like you said, you would have been perfectly happy even with just the first part of this match. Yeah. But the fact that they are still able to go and give you a very satisfying second entire match plan is just amazing. Mm hmm.
00:25:19
Speaker
I remember early on in my wrestling fandom, I started watching WWF. They had a few going between Crispin, Wong, Kurt Angle. And there's one show, I forget which one it was now. They had like a 15 minute Iron Man match. That was submission only.
00:25:33
Speaker
So the whole match is then, it's basically like this match. This is half a match. And I'm thinking, wow, this is amazing. I know it's a good work. Next time they match, I really love it. But I've also seen just straight other normal singles matches where they still trade holds, but it's much more of a striking match between Angle and Benoit. So seeing both them squish together and then not feeling awkward or weird is really impressive. Yeah, absolutely amazing.
00:25:59
Speaker
thing I match like this is it's so good. You could just kind of ignore the things that don't quite go right. Poor dragon. Both of his jumps off the top rope early on just don't quite work out. It's a shame. I've seen too far worse botches. I rarely see the recovery of those. They go by so quickly. You're like, Oh, why didn't quite get all of it? And then they just go on like normal. So Right. what What is amazing is how well he recovers like actually mid botch. Yeah. The first one he legit still manages to land a kick. Yeah. It was clearly not the kick he intended to land, but no he still manages to land a kick adapting in mid air to what's going wrong. The second one he more visibly like hits the map first and then falls into the headbutt. But it's still like far from the worst botch that you've seen. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
00:26:48
Speaker
but Yeah, this is really good. You get all the stuff that you expect from them. Some great power bombs by Liger, the striking by Dragon. He does the self moonsault, which is always nice.
00:27:01
Speaker
I do love the repeated thing about how when he goes to the top rope, but there's the times he actually hits the boo. He's he's constantly cut off by Liger. Like I say, I'm not letting you do a top rope. Yes, yes. In a weird way, he's helping him because the other times, you know, fortunately things don't quite go right. So he's like, or just let him do it. He'll he'll slip again. Exactly. Yeah. Can't say that's a good thing about this match. It's really good.
00:27:24
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely bonkers incredible opener between two of the best. My summary did not do it justice and I will admit that openly. WCW described this as a dream match leading in and it absolutely lived up to it. Despite the minor botches we mentioned by Dragon that he somehow saved each time,
00:27:43
Speaker
The majority of the match consists of crisp, pristine moves performed with a blistering pace that nevertheless respects each move and lets each one have its impact before moving on. And as you mentioned Al, even more incredible, we darn near get two entire matches of content.
00:28:00
Speaker
Mm hmm. Yeah, it's it's just amazing how they managed to put on two basically completely different match plans and make both of them entirely satisfying and at full match length on their own. Just just great. The only notable mark I would put against this is maybe questioning the choice of the final move, which while impressive, doesn't feel quite as impactful as some of what led up to it. But still, this was amazing, brilliant and so much fun.
Ron Simmons vs. Tony Holm Match
00:28:30
Speaker
Yeah, my only critique, and this is not of the match itself, it's that throughout WCW history, we get so many matches, thankfully, with Liger, and we get Dragon matches. Like we've, you know, we've gotten Liger against Rey, we've gotten Rey against Dragon. I don't know if we get any Dragon-Liger matches at WCW. Yeah, I don't recall us at least having covered one yet.
00:28:53
Speaker
Yeah, I'm hoping I'm wrong. And there's a really good one. I just don't remember or haven't seen yet. That said, if this is the only match we get between them covering the show. It's a great one to cover. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. the This makes me want to see like a billion more matches between them because it's, it's so good. Absolutely. Lager would go on to hold the belt for 628 days.
00:29:16
Speaker
The rain would only end when he injured his foot, not clearly restoring a match during training, which would lead to him but like the title. so Sadly, no one gets the rub of beating Liger off this massive run, but 620 days of matches like this or any quality like this are worth it. Man. So our second match.
00:29:39
Speaker
is Ron Simmons versus, so JR says this guy's name is Tony Holm. So it's spelled H-A-L-M-E. And the question that we have and have not found the answer to is, do you pronounce the E independently like home? Or do you pronounce it as more like home? Like J.R. So J.R. goes with home. The Japanese ring announcer pronounces it homemade or homemade. Yeah. Neither is finished to actually know. Yeah. So since we're a W.C.W. show, I'm just going to say we'll go with J.R. OK. I have no idea which one is actually correct. Fair enough.
00:30:16
Speaker
So our second match is Ron Simmons versus Tony Holm, the referee, no idea. Notably, Ron Simmons was the world champion until just a few days before this show. Yeah. Yeah. They mentioned that he lost the title at a house show. They held December 30th to Vader, the guy he beat for the title back in August. Okay.
00:30:39
Speaker
So by all accounts, this was booked by New Japan and WSW as a WSW title match between Tony Home and Ron Simmons. But now it's just a match or having anyways. Poor Tony Home, then. like Yeah, I lost a world title shot because they didn't book a match between you and the WSW champion. They booked it between you and Ron Simmons. Yeah, right. To be fair, he would have it would had to fight Vader. So that that is true. Maybe he was like, oh, good.
00:31:08
Speaker
It's like, do I get to pick who I fight? I'm not really invested in this title, but but i'm and I'm invested in walking. So if you don't mind, I'll fight Ron Simmons. Yeah. Which not to say Ron Simmons couldn't beat the crap out of you, because obviously he could and did. He's a tough dude. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, he's not going to flatten you like Vader will. so Correct. He's not going to put your face over a a scary helmet and blow hot steam into it. That's true. He's not going to steep you.
00:31:39
Speaker
Notably, Tony makes the cut this year. Last year, he was actually on the show, and that's against Scott Nord, but they cut that. and Okay. Simmons gets an entrance wearing FSU colors, complete with a Tomahawk logo on one leg of his tights and pride on the other. Holm is already standing in the ring. JR notes that this is going to be slower paced than the previous match, but that just about anything would. Fair enough. Absolutely.
00:32:09
Speaker
They ward each other off with punches to start, and Holm proves the stronger by shoving Simmons away on several lockups and no selling shoulder blocks. But Simmons outsmarts him with a drop toe hold, and lands clotheslines, a double-handed bulldog, and a pile driver for two. Holm just kind of stands there on a Simmons diving shoulder block, and Simmons awkwardly falls sideways. I don't think that went how they wanted it to. Yeah, I didn't look right.
00:32:34
Speaker
Holm takes over with heavy strikes, gaining two counts off an elbow drop, sidewalk slam, and spine buster, and decks Simmons out of the ring. Simmons sells being stunned really well. Just like trying to shake it off out there is really really good spot for run. Oh yeah. Back in, Holm powerslam for two, and Tony notes that Simmons used that move to win his world title. Simmons powerslam for two, and it seems like Holm almost fell out of his grip there.
00:33:00
Speaker
Simmons gets two with a couple of roll ups, then hits a somewhat disappointing spine buster for the three count in the win. I don't know if home was just heavier than the normal guys that he does that to or wasn't doing what he was supposed to. But it just did not have the snap I'm used to. Yeah, it looked and not to point fingers, it looked kind of like he sandbagged a bit. Yeah, it could have been intentional or it could have been he was not ready for it. So he didn't jump with it. It's kind of a timing off thing. Yeah.
00:33:28
Speaker
Yeah, a second too late could make that move not look right. Simmons rolls right out of the ring and gets his hand raised and we cut right to the next match. Sure. You know, former world champion, no big deal, right? Yeah. Thoughts on this one. It's it's all right. Obviously, it's hard to follow the match that we just covered. So when that we didn't really mention is the order we're watching the show is a bit mixed up. True. Yes. That said,
00:33:58
Speaker
This literally did follow dragon and liger. So gotcha. It works in both cases. The thing really goes wrong here. It's fine. It's a pretty basic power match. Ron looks really good. I like that he does the trap told as a counter. So they break up the I'm real big with a short blocking. You won't sell what bit. Yes, that was really good. So there's touches of a good match here. ah Home.
00:34:23
Speaker
At this point, he's not doing a whole lot. And from what I've seen, his later work is does kind of seem like how he wrestles in general. It's a lot of punches, some real basic docu-round bits, shoulder blocks, and clothes lines. He's not going to suddenly burst out a German suplex, you know, combo like Chris Benoit or anything, or a moonsault, heaven forbid.
00:34:44
Speaker
So I think it's just how he wrestles, but and this kind of match, it's, it just doesn't really stand out super well because Ron dressed things similarly, but with little flourishes, like the drop kick and counters there. In fact, they both do power slams. I think Ron generally looks better. I believe they both kind of do a spine buster. And again, Ron, is even though the timings of the loft still looks better.
00:35:06
Speaker
I remember us us both saying, OK, Ron, show him how to do a spine buster. And then, unfortunately, the Simmons one just doesn't have the right snap on it. and But Ron's spine buster, I think it still looked better than Holmes did. yeah It did, yeah. Yeah.
00:35:20
Speaker
I do wonder if in a parallel world where they hadn't decided to switch the title up to Vader before this, I guess this is legit booked as a WCB title match like we got with Luger on the previous show, would be judging this more harshly because I would think the stakes would be higher. Yeah, like it'd be more more critiquing of it if it's a title match versus four champion this guy just wrestling because they're wrestling.
00:35:45
Speaker
That is an interesting question. Are your expectations affected by it being a title match? Yeah. More than just the performers in it. I don't know. That's an interesting question. For me, I think it is to some degree. Yeah. Because once something's a world title match, you add more gravitas to the match and thus add more expectations, at least for me.
00:36:05
Speaker
One wonders, of course, then does that affect their performances as well? We're like, OK, this is important. Let's really pour it on. yeah You'd hope that they would. So that would be interesting. Obviously, we can't know. But yeah, what changes if this remains a world title match? Yeah. I think I should note as well.
00:36:23
Speaker
The real guy, Tony Holm, he had a tattoo that's, let's say, very bad. Yes. That he had a long time to get rid of or change or tweak or cover up. That as far as I know, he never did. Yes. So when he wrestled in the Bethelcock about, they would make him put tape over it. Because he would wrestle in the sort of longer shorts and not full pants. Right. And big boots here.
00:36:49
Speaker
So I don't think that's really why Ron rolls out suddenly at the end. I like i don't know if he knew about it, but putting the two things together, the guy with the Nazi tattoo on his leg and then Ron's quick gathering got to go by. ah Yeah, I don't know. You can you can infer some things. It can't be the most comfortable thing for Ron Simmons to be facing a guy who has I believe it's a tattoo of the SS. Yes, it is not the secret police.
00:37:16
Speaker
Yeah, so it's another in the long, unfortunate series of times that we've had to occasionally say our comments regard this person's performance on the show, not his quality as a human being. Yes.
00:37:31
Speaker
Yeah, for my part, this started off quite strong as a good solid big man match. Holm had some very good body blows, I will say that for him for sure. And Simmons did a really good job of fighting back and using clever tricks and leverage to deal with somewhat unusually for him being the smaller man in the match. Unfortunately, in the late match, the two just did not seem to gel anymore, with several moves just lacking the impact and smoothness that they needed, including the match finish.
00:37:58
Speaker
Unlike dragons minor flubs in the first match, they just couldn't really fully save the move or move on effectively in this one. It was kind of an awkward moment after each one. Yeah. If they could have kept the solid impacts going for the whole match, this would be a really good big man match. But as it is, I would call it acceptable, but nothing special. Still, it was really fun to see Ron Simmons again. We haven't in a while.
00:38:21
Speaker
Yeah, I will say it's funny. I think I'm attention while we're watching this based on his just general general look and body type. I was getting real young Brock Lesnar vibes from Tony there. It's the creativity. It's the crew cut. It's the blonde hair and the build. I can definitely see that. The other person that it had me thinking of was Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV. Yes, which I think later they definitely were actually actually going for. But in New Japan, they weren't.
00:38:52
Speaker
Due to alleged issues backstage with Scott Norton, they basically had a fight. Depending who you ask at the time, either he legit knocked out Scott Norton or he sucker-punched him. It doesn't really matter at this point, obviously. New Japan making a choice. Which one do we want to support, which one do we want to keep? They were Scott Norton, the future IWGP champion.
00:39:13
Speaker
Good choice. Yeah, good choice. Yes. So it would lead to Holm going to the WWF where he would become the Finnish Ludwig Borger who hated America because they only take my notes polluted the earth. Oh, yeah. What a, what a Dick. I guess it's a very, especially nineties ventricle man takeaway. That's very strange.
00:39:41
Speaker
I hate the Americas, we pollute. We should boo him. I think we've said this on an earlier episode, but like of all the countries to have a a scary villain from. Yeah, I know, right? ah finish Yeah. Granted, Lordy is, Lordy are Finnish and they are very scary, but they are dressed like monsters. They have that edge. They're seem to be very nice people otherwise.
00:40:04
Speaker
His run at WBF would be fairly short. However, he would get injured while working a house show and then he would decide not to re resign and they didn't really stop him. He would have a brief acting career. He would appear as heavies, much like Kim Duck on the previous show we talked about. Lowest of the 90s, not the 80s. He would appear in such films as Fisk the North Star. Oh, okay. He is one of the henchmen alongside Vader. Okay. Yeah.
00:40:30
Speaker
So again, if we had a Vader, Tony Holm Matt on the show, that's a direct bridge to the fifth star film. That's fair. Author of noting, he would parlay that small bit of fandom. He moved back to Finland and he'd become a politician. He had another in a long chain of wrestling politicians. How many are so many wrestling politicians in this series? I know. Yeah. Yeah. We've three that I can think of off the top of my head with Enoki, Hase and now this guy, but I feel like there was at least one more that we mentioned.
00:40:59
Speaker
Yeah. All we really needed to fill that out would be, ah they got Ventura Drew commentary. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's really tied all together. We cut right to our third match, which is Scott Flash Norton and the natural Dustin Rhodes versus Masa Saito and Shinya Hashimoto, referee, who knows.
Rhodes and Norton's Tag Match
00:41:24
Speaker
Like Tony Holmes, Scott Norton would also be cut, although he'd be cut twice, finally making the actual show this time, which is nice. Yes. So, Norton would wrestle in the very first show and a match that was cut against the Equalizer. which No regrets on that one. Yeah. And on the second show, as mentioned earlier, he'd wrestle Tony Holmes, which would also be cut. I kind of want to see that match to a certain extent, but I don't know if it would have the extra stuff that him and Simmons did, but I don't think it'd be bad.
00:41:53
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, Norton tends to have enough personality that he can kind of make something work, I think. And it definitely would be a big beef match. Yes. As I mentioned briefly in commentary, this match was supposed to be turned into a gnocchi. Yes. Teammate with Shiny Hashimoto. But he injured his foot, I believe what they say. Yeah, he has. Actually, they say it's an infected foot. Oh. Which is ew.
00:42:19
Speaker
That's not good. So it's crazy to think that even in a tag match, we almost got Dustin Rhodes and Tanyu Inoki. Yes. Masa, look, Masa Seito is by no means a bad replacement. The guy is very, is very good and fun to watch. Absolutely. But it really would have been cool to see Inoki in a match against Dustin Rhodes. yeah Yeah. Because I believe around this time, they were building up Nordness, another big sort of scary Gaijin that would come in and dominate because they had Vader, but he wanted to work only in WCW, we don't want to work for a company. So Norton is a very good replacement to fill in that spot. So it would fit a natural story that he'd be there alongside one of the young i been up and coming talents like Ashimoto against Norton with poor, poor Dustin is kind of stuck in the middle. I don't think he has a personal beef with either of them. Nor does he really have personal stake in Scott Norton either.
00:43:13
Speaker
Yeah, it actually almost improves the storytelling of the match a little bit when Masa Saito is added, because Saito obviously has a long history with Dustin's father and they had a match the previous year. Correct. Yeah. So it almost actually gives you a more straightforward story. Yeah. Yeah. On on that end itself, it it kind of weirdly works better, but historically speaking, yeah. Enoki, remember how you feel about him personally? He's such a huge star that his absence is notable. Yeah.
00:43:43
Speaker
Rhodes and Norton come out to a lyric list version of Rhodes is the natural theme. Aw. Yeah. I listened to it a few times and was like, wait, wait, wait. Yeah. No, I can definitely sing his song to that. So this is that, this is that piece. JR runs through Norton's arm wrestling achievements and both commentators reflect on the legacy of dusty Rhodes. Dustin has his excellent shiny jacket. He only ever has one, but it's a great one. Yeah.
00:44:12
Speaker
Sayito and Hashimoto come out to the show theme as J.R. Yes tells us that Sayito is replacing Antonio Anoki as Anoki had an infected foot and had to withdraw. Hashimoto, of course, we saw, or we'll see if you want to think of it that way, on collision in Korea facing Scott Norton. Correct. So it's cool to see them here a couple of years prior. Yeah, absolutely.
00:44:34
Speaker
Tony worries about Norton and Rhodes' teamwork as they've never teamed up, and he notes that Saito has great tag team experience. JR agrees and says that Hashimoto has also watched Saito wrestle for years, and Saito is kind of a mentor to younger Japanese athletes, so it'll be probably easy for them to gel. Tony does note that Rhodes has won the tag titles with two different partners, though, so he's also accomplished as a tag wrestler.
00:45:01
Speaker
Norton and Hashimoto to start, and Norton challenges Hashimoto to kick him, then pretty much ignores his kicks, which are not soft. No. Hashimoto is a good kicker. Norton ducks a spin wheel kick, which nicely sets up that that would have been a problem, and beats Hashimoto down, but Hashimoto back body drops him and hits the spin wheel kick for one.
00:45:23
Speaker
Norton proves the stronger on a chopfest, getting two, and tags Rhodes, who lands strikes until Hashimoto tags Sayito. They trade strikes, and Rhodes gets two with a nice suplex, then does his trademark crossbody to splat on the entrance ramp when Sayito ducks. Gotta love you, Dustin. Oh yeah. Sayito beats up Dustin, but gets beaten up by Norton, though Sayito's suplexes stun both guys in turn. Hashimoto in for two off a cool stalling suplex into an elbow drop,
00:45:51
Speaker
But Rhodes and Norton trade off wearing him down, earning two off Rhodes' axe handle, kick, and elbow drops, and nothing off Norton's big moves, as JR and Tony note that he avoids pinning and wonder if he's too different from Rhodes' philosophy to be a good partner for him. He just kind of seems to want to inflict more punishment all the time. Exactly, yeah. At one point, Norton calls for Dustin to hold up his knee, and Dustin puts his boot out for an Norton to run Hashimoto into it. Dustin may need anatomy lessons. Yeah, yeah.
00:46:22
Speaker
Norton finally goes for pins off a power slam and a power bomb, but Sayito breaks them up. Hashimoto catches Norton with a Spike DDT, and tags Sayito, who has fun with Sayito's suplexes for one, but Norton catches him with a power slam and tags Rhodes, who gets two with a Flying Lariat, and virtually no-sells a Sayito's suplex, to dropkick Hashimoto. That was surprising. Yeah.
00:46:46
Speaker
I don't know if Hashimoto maybe started getting in a little faster than he expected, so he had to spring up, but you don't normally see them no-selling that. Yeah, it's true. Hashimoto kicks the crap out of him, gets two counts with a spin wheel kick, big clothesline, and sideways DDT, as Sayito can't stop Norton saving, until Hashimoto hits Rhodes with an enziguri for the three count and the win, as Sayito does finally stop Norton.
00:47:11
Speaker
I kind of wonder if the enziguri was being used as a tribute to the missing enoki, since that's his move. You know, but that's fair. I don't know if Hashimoto just also does that. It'd be interesting if they didn't really change the match booking at all for enoki. And then what we wrote wrote down is a gurikake fins that wins the match. So can you do it Hashimoto? Yeah, yeah, sure. I'm okay. but Yeah, I'm the two. I'm pretty sure I'm much, I don't know. I can't picture cellular doing that. You might've been able to.
00:47:38
Speaker
Hashimoto looks like he has a nosebleed as they celebrate. I didn't catch exactly when that might have happened, but really looks like he's got a little bit of blood coming down. Yeah. We got straight to Eric Bischoff. The show wastes no time. Yeah, right. It's a brisk presentation. Thoughts on this one?
00:47:55
Speaker
I thought this was a pretty good tag match. My only real issue was there wasn't a ton of variety to it. Norton is very good at the things he does, especially at this point. The problem is the things he does are mostly clotheslines and throwing his body at you, which do look gay and they look good. It's just... I kept thinking, oh, he's going to do like, is he going to do more suplexes and some something different than a regular power slam? But not not really. I do like that Norton kind of does the falling fridge elevator. Yeah. Tashimoto. Oh, the timing of that one looked weird. Like Hashimoto was like not quite up when he gets run into. So it's like Norton threw his body at him, but aimed his knees at his chest, essentially.
00:48:36
Speaker
Yeah, i I think I remember the spot you're talking about. Yeah, I remember thinking that looked up a little bit weird, but it did look cool. Yeah. It feels like they're maybe not quite on on timing, but it still looks like it works. Yeah. I imagine the timing timing wise, it was, you know, you get up now and I'll run into you. But he was like half getting up and I go, I'm already running. and And I really can't stop. I'm ah i'm a freight train. ah Not a nice train. That's the other guy. But that's true. He's a fire train, I guess. Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:07
Speaker
Let's say Coltrane, but I don't think that really works. Yeah, this is a very meaty match. Yes, it is. Because I mean, yet Norton has this big old muscle belly is the best way to describe it. And he's no selling the kicks the chest and chops the chest. It's very believable. Oh, yeah. He is one of the one of the only guys in wrestling that I think you don't question at all when someone kicks him as hard as Hashimoto does. He just shrugs it off. Yeah. The dude looks like you took a barrel and wrapped skin around it.
00:49:39
Speaker
That's, that's fair. Yes. I definitely liked the overall story here. They throughout the matches special that they tell the story that Norton is very confident and he, you know, he ought to move and not go for a pin or i go for pin way late. And then things nicely escalate at the end when both teams realize, Oh, we're hating the harder moves now. I actually need to break up the pin because I'm not sure if my partner is going to kick out or not. Mm-hmm.
00:50:07
Speaker
I do wonder about the third time, Norden's getting really tired of being hit in the back of the head and back by Hashimoto running in to hit him. He's like, come on, man. Because you see Dustin, at one point, duff when Dustin breaks up a pen, he runs in and basically rolls, I think, a Saito off of him. He just like shoves him off, like, yeah. Yeah. Norden's probably like, can you do that to me, please? You keep hitting the back of my head, it's really uncomfortable.
00:50:33
Speaker
That does play into the story of the match towards the end nicely because he's he's knocked out of the ring from that blow. So he's not able to get in in time at the very end. Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, it gets there a little bit sooner than he did on the previous attempt. So kind of like man, just ah to stay in his way where in the previous one, Norton was able to dive past and get to him. Exactly.
00:50:54
Speaker
It's one of the things I always wonder how Matt would play without Sayido as good as he is. And with Anoki, obviously there's no way to know. Yeah. But I still enjoyed the match quite a bit.
00:51:06
Speaker
Yeah, this was a really good solid tag match with two good teams that both engaged in some really nice storytelling work. I really enjoyed Hashimoto in particular. He had some tremendous kicks and deep variants on suplexes and the DDT. But everyone did good work here and Norton brought some tremendous personality to the match. The tale of Norton's power and arrogance and Rhodes's faster speed and discipline was a good one and the commentators played it up really well.
00:51:32
Speaker
I like that Norton and Rhodes, despite having different styles and philosophies, didn't really argue. No, they still tried to work together consistently and had good interactions, just had different styles. I maybe could have done with Norton's arrogance more visibly costing the team, though you can certainly make a case that they might have won off with some of his earlier moves, so that's the cost. It could just be a tad more visible that he, like, does something arrogant and actually gets kicked for it or something, leading up to the finish.
00:52:01
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, yeah you you do get the moment where he does superplex and doesn't even bother trying to pin the guy. That's the thing. Like definitely there's a strong portrayal that they could have won earlier and didn't because he didn't bother with pins because he was too busy having fun. Yeah. But they just don't have that like strong. Oh, this is why you lost that I kind of felt I felt like it was building to and it didn't have that. Yeah, I can see that. Otherwise, a really enjoyable tag match with a good mix of styles on the teams. Quite nice.
00:52:32
Speaker
So about a week after this show would be taped, not aired, mind you, they would hold the finals of a U.S. title tournament to our new champion Rick Root's absence. As you recall from Starkey 1992, his neck was injured, which took him out of his WCW title match and thus also out of future U.S. title matches.
00:52:50
Speaker
as he was stabbed in the back by a neurosurgeon, as I recall, was his line. Correct, yes, that's the one, yeah. and That is exactly what he said, yeah. It's probably about a line that sticks with you after and how long ago that show was. It's been a while. It has been a while, but yeah, as you just said, I remember exactly how he said it too.
00:53:08
Speaker
but I remember he pops up behind the commentators. He's yelling at him. Yep. He has no mustache, which really threw me at first. Yeah. I immediately picture at moment that moment. So that is as a ah testament to Rick Rood's legacy and endurance, the character that I immediately remember that from like three years, I don't know, three years out, let's say. Yeah. Yeah. So Dustin would have one of the US title leading to some matches will be covered as part of the beach blast series with him and a returning Rick Rood.
00:53:38
Speaker
In the meantime, he would have a talent match set for Super Brawl, which is in February.
Muda vs. Chono Match
00:53:43
Speaker
The match was booked to be him against Ron Simmons, but unfortunately, Ron Simmons got injured between these shows and did not end up wrestling that match. As for Sayido, he is obviously wrestling New Japan. As I mentioned before, the very next show involves Hogan and his buddies showing up.
00:54:04
Speaker
ah Believe it or not, they booked Masasito to lose to Brutus Beefcake. Oh, yeah, that happened. That happens in, I think it happens in May, the next Big New Japan show. Wow. Wow. Yeah, so maybe we could lose to and and they, beefer.
00:54:26
Speaker
I mean, he he is an important character in the WWF. Yeah. you So like in place on the card, it's not, you know, an insult, but no, just in terms of the match quality. I'm sure it was I'm sure Saito did what he could. Yeah. Goodness. Yeah, I was surprised to read the result. Like, really? OK.
00:54:49
Speaker
I will say this is the first time that I believe we've had Masa Saito on one of these shows, and JR does not say Japanese version of a Steiner. Oh, yeah. Probably because the Steiners are already gone from WSW at that point. Yeah. He was told not to mention their names, I imagine.
00:55:09
Speaker
We cut immediately to Eric Bischoff, who praises the action and briefly builds up the upcoming Muta vs. Chono and Sting vs. Hasei matches, then throws right back to Tony and JR. That was kinda pointless. Yeah. So our fourth match is The Great Muta vs. Masahiro Chono for Muta's IWGP World Heavyweight Championship and Chono's NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
00:55:34
Speaker
The referee for this one is Tiger Hitori, the only Japanese referee named that the WSW commentary team actually knows. It's a tale of almost parallel runs to get here. Muda would win the championship for Mickey Choshu in early August 1992. Literally four days later, they would hold a final match as part of the G1 Climax tournament.
00:55:59
Speaker
which due to the vacant nature of the NWA title, due to this complicated nonsense, vacuring between WHO and NWA would be for that title. So four days later, from Muda win the title, Chono win the NWA title. Notably, as I mentioned in commentary along the way, it's not the finals, I don't believe, but he does actually beat Muda during the tournament, which helps him get enough points to win the whole thing. Also worth noting that the two of them Between that event and this one, would it have how a match at Starrcade 1992? Yes. Notably that match as we said at the time.
00:56:37
Speaker
very technically sound, very well done. It's just there was no like heat to it at all. I remember us all saying, this is a match that we should like better than we do. Yeah. And and just feeling so unusual with with watching it and like even recounting the moves that they were doing in the match, I was like, I should like this more. But I just am not really enjoying it at the time. Yeah.
00:57:03
Speaker
Yeah, there's some sort of hard to define, like that Genesee Kwa is just missing from that match. It's too very talented people that I don't recall there being any botches or but timing issues or anything. It's just, it's performed, it's adequately insulting, but it performed adequately, it formed well. Maybe better to say that. Yeah. But yeah, there's, there's no heat to the match.
00:57:26
Speaker
The match goes on, the crowd didn't seem super invested. There's no extra sort of level of ferocity or energy in the match. They wrestle it and it's fine, but it's not just even disappointing really. It's and maybe under one week is a nice way to say it, but yeah. Yeah. So we have another chance on this show, just barely, you know, two, three weeks later, see if they can do a better job. It's time for both titles.
00:57:52
Speaker
Though notably, Bischoff and then Tony only say that this is for the NWA title, they don't mention the IWGP1 being included in the stakes. So make of that what you will. Yeah. But I definitely have read in other places that it was for both, so maybe they're just, we're only concerned about the NWA. Exactly.
00:58:10
Speaker
Chono, in green and white, looks terrific with the big gold belt. The commentators namedrop Flair, Luger, Sting, and Chono's trainer, Lu Thes, as former NWA champs, so we're past a new Flair bad blood at this point, and he can be mentioned again. At the time this show originally aired in Japan, Flair was still with the WWF, but by the time it was on pay-per-view in America, he was back in WCW. Notably, of course, Lex Luger is with the WWF wf at this point under his The Narcissist gimmick.
00:58:40
Speaker
Yes. JR and Tony discuss Chono coming out first as champion, theorizing that it's because Muda always makes such an entrance. But of course, this match is actually for both titles. So both are champion and Buddha's title is the Japanese one. So it kind of makes sense that he come out in the normal champion order.
00:58:56
Speaker
Yeah. In theory, it'd be interesting if they had a second ramp and they came out at the same time because they're both champions. That would be awesome, actually. I kind of want to see that at least once. Yeah. Yeah. Muda does make quite an entrance, showing up as a shadow behind paper first, then tearing through it. He's got white sparkly ninja gear tonight. J.R. and Tony discuss Muda's split personality centered around his face paint again.
00:59:24
Speaker
JR says his real name is Kenji Muto rather than Kiji, which gets Tony doing that too. Yeah. The face paint is white today with red kanji characters. Mm-hmm. Buddha sprays some green mist as we get started. They go for arm holds to start, and Shono gets the better of some mat wrestling, so Muto rolls out and grabs what looks like a scary spike from under the ring. Yeah. But the ref quickly takes that away because murder is definitely de-hue-worthy.
00:59:53
Speaker
Yes. Back in, Muda lands kicks and the power drive elbow and a cross arm breaker, but Chono works his leg with kicks, a leg lock, scissors, uh, legs scissors, sorry, not scissors. Those are also illegal. Yes, those would also be illegal. And a leg grapevine. Muda throws Chono out and to the barricade. Tony points out that Muda pauses for a while between each move, thinking that he might be indecisive having lost to Chono once before.
01:00:21
Speaker
I think he's more going for intimidating mystery myself, but I think it's a good theory. Buddha top rope chop, and he throws chono back out over the top rope to the ramp. JR, still bitter, notes that that's not a DQ in Japan. Yes, it's very bitter.
01:00:36
Speaker
Muda hits a one-handed bulldog, then an absolutely massive clothesline after charging much of the way down the very long elevated entrance ramp, sending himself hurtling into the ropes from the force of it. It's a great way to sell how hard you hit somebody. Oh, absolutely, yeah. Muda poses in the ring for the crowd, but a ticked-off chono decks him. But Muda interrupts the top rope move with a superplex, then gets two counts with a saido suplex and a German suplex.
01:01:06
Speaker
handspring elbow, but Chono dodges the moon salt and smoothly locks on the s STF. Muda at first can't find the ropes as Chono is actually covering his eyes, but he works his way clear and gradually makes it to them. Excellent standing dropkick by Muda, but Chono gets two counts with a float over on a suplex into a roll-up, a diving shoulder block, and a powerbomb. Most of Muda's face paint is gone by now. He really needs to talk to Sting about more durable face paint. Yeah, absolutely.
01:01:34
Speaker
Muda tries the moonsault, but Chono gets his knees up. Chono up top, but Muda sidesteps a diving shoulder block and throws him down, then hits the moonsault. For two. Massive reaction to that. Muda up top again, and he hits the moonsault again, and presses extra super hard on Chono for the three count and the win.
01:01:57
Speaker
He just, like, really gets up and presses down with both hands and his knees, I think, on Chono's chest. Yeah. And, like, that to make sure that he stays down. Mm-hmm. Muda gets his hand raised, and we cut to a quick replay of the final moonsault before we cut right to the next match. For the world title match, WCW. Mm-hmm. Seriously. Holy crap, it's one of your belts this guy just won. Did Vince Russo edit this? Makes you wonder, yeah.
01:02:27
Speaker
That's the only other type of show that I've what i've seen this pacing. Mm hmm. Thoughts on this one? For me, this is a much improved match from the Starrcade match. Mm hmm. Well, said what whatever we can't quite explain is missing from that previous match you know intensity or crowd. It's definitely here. Mm hmm. These guys rush each other a lot. It really shows they're both real pros at this.
01:02:56
Speaker
They find just the right amount of times to counter without making the other guy look bad. Cause you know, you're constantly getting all of his moves. What's the point of this guy? They make every move look impactful. Muda really sells desperation gun to the rope to get out of that hold. Cause yes, Jeff is so strong. And as you note a note of commentary that plays off a previous match, because when he lost to Chono in the G1 Climax tournament, he could not get to the ropes and tapped out.
01:03:24
Speaker
There's even, I forgot to mention this, but there's even a point earlier in the match that's really nice where Chono starts doing the, I think he ends up going for like the leg grapevine or the deadlock type of move, something like that. But because that has the same starting point as the s STF, where he wraps the legs together like for the STF.
01:03:44
Speaker
hu Buddha gets really agitated. Oh, yeah. And starts really starting to fight that hold a lot. It actually almost looks relieved when Shono does something different. Yeah, just a subtle bit of storytelling there from Buddha. Very nice. And lots of little things that they match. The way that he fights on the outside and tries to run, just they slowly walk up like halfway almost to the back.
01:04:09
Speaker
And then to do a fat full charge and close lines. So awesome. The run goes just long enough to make you think, is he going to hit him? Like, is he going to get like backdrop? Does he get struck? And like, just the time to think about what's going to happen. And then the strike hits and the way he sells going past him with the impact is really good. It's the best thing since that dramatic charge by staying down, down a similarly elevated entrance ramp to save Davey boy. Oh yeah. Of course. That's a good competition there. So which one is better? Yeah. Mm-hmm.
01:04:38
Speaker
Aside from how well they work, again, the crowd really seems to invest in this match. They pop for all the big moves, all the struggling. It really sells how important this match is. People talked about this from when shows literally could not have crowds for almost a full year. You really, really do realize how much crowds affect a match. Yes. It's like like watching live comedy versus tape comedy. You know, like in here.
01:05:07
Speaker
your canned studio laughter or canned applause versus real one. It really does have an effect on you. Well, and just also energizing the performers as well, because exactly there's definitely like I think um was our most recent series where we had the match where I was just complaining constantly about the crowd, the Jersey Triad one. Oh, yeah. And that one, it was interesting because I felt like they still managed to have energy, but the crowd was against it. So I I was still able to enjoy the match.
01:05:37
Speaker
where with the Starrcade 92 when it felt like maybe Chono and Buddha were also a little dead end in part because they weren't getting any kind of reaction from the crowd. Yeah. So it affected the match performance and also therefore affected our enjoyment. But yeah, like, as you said, just having crowd noise in there can help. Honestly, we've had some cases where a not very good match was getting a good reaction and therefore we were able to enjoy it a little more as well. But a good match can be deadened by a dead crowd as well.
01:06:05
Speaker
Yeah, I've talked about matches before that I didn't really particularly love, but then I go, but the crowd seemed really invested, so I can't really attack it too much because obviously it worked for somebody. Yeah. And just like you're, you're inclined to look at things a little bit better just because they are getting these cheers. You can kind of let go a little bit more then. Yeah. So it's, it's interesting effects that that can have.
01:06:28
Speaker
The finish is interesting because they build up mood and misses the moon salt two different times throughout the match. Uh-huh. Uh, once with an actual counter and we're just rolling all the way. So then when he hits it and doesn't win, it was a great story of going, what do I do now? I hit my biggest, my best shot. I was, the answer is just do it again. And this time plant your entire body on top of him.
01:06:50
Speaker
Which, it looked really cool. I'm glad ah god it worked. Yeah, yeah, I think that was a great, great spot for the finish. It did not devalue the moonsault. What it was reminding me of was um Fujinami and Choshu from last year. Oh, sure, yeah. Choshu's lariat does not take Fujinami down on the first time, so he just does it twice more. And it doesn't feel like, oh, the lariat is weak. No. It feels like Fujinami is strong. ah Exactly, yeah.
01:07:14
Speaker
And that's the same thing here. It doesn't feel like the moonsault is a weak move. It feels like Chono is just he's that tough of an opponent to beat. And Buddha just needs to try even harder and put a little extra oomph into the moonsault and a little extra oomph into his pin or a lot more extra oomph into his pin, honestly. Yeah. To keep this guy down. The one I other also remind me of is the big street fight from the World Rumble 2000 between Mick Foley and Triple H. Mm hmm.
01:07:43
Speaker
Triple H hits the pedigree on Foley. He kicks out of the pedigree, which was a few times that hadn't been a regular thing at this point. So now in that, in that case, what happened was Triple H just getting the pedigree gig again, but this time onto the thumbtacks, which are probably mad. Yes, Al. Obviously it's a little different, but it's still the idea of, am I finished rather than losing all hope? Let me just do it again and find a way to make it more impactful. Again, his case, it was the move and not the pin. In Moody's case, it's the pin, not the move. So it works either way. Yeah, very interesting. I am so glad that this was excellent.
01:08:20
Speaker
As you said, these guys fought at Starrcade 92 and we were kind of underwhelmed, but this one delivered on the drama and intensity that that one was missing in spades. With Muda and Shono both in their element, pulling out big moves, calling out to the crowd, and building a detailed story with lots of good counters and spots where they just clearly learned from earlier matches and from this match.
01:08:42
Speaker
They really did a good job building up the moonsault as important, with Jono working hard to counter it until he just couldn't anymore. The early counters really got me watching for it to finally hit. And so, as you said, when it does hit and still doesn't do the job, it was genuinely shocking. Yeah, so Muda hitting it again and just putting on one of the most forceful pinfalls that I have ever seen. Pushing down with his entire body weight to make sure Jono stays down felt just really epic.
01:09:10
Speaker
this match redeemed this pairing for me and I'm really happy about that. There's no question these two could have a really great match together. So when we didn't get one the first time, it's disappointing. So yeah, and having this one where everything worked, the stars aligned, whatever they need to do differently, they did. And yeah, it's a great match. Absolutely. Just terrific match.
01:09:36
Speaker
Muda would next appear at super brawl in February, where we'd be defending the end of the way title against Barry Windham. Okay. Of course we saw in the previous super show. Mm-hmm. Speaking of the next new Japan show, I mentioned a couple of times. That show is very notable, but for both good and bad reasons. So then IWGP champion, Muda would face then WWF champion Hulk Hogan and a non-title encounter on that show. Again, as part of their work relationship.
01:10:07
Speaker
So it's the dream match for these two. Unfortunately, it's notable for a pre-match build-up promo where Hogan is talking to the press. Oh, the this belt is a toy? Yes. It refers to the WWF championship as a toy and like they called it up and this drops it admissively at the table and says, the IWDP title, that's the real belt I need and the real belt I want. Yeah. that's so weird It's amazing that Vince McMahon let that happen.
01:10:30
Speaker
Yeah, I wonder if they had a question. I said that I know they had a conversation after that. I'm wondering what it was like. Yeah, yeah. I can't imagine if it's like, oh, yeah, yeah, totally totally. Say my world title is a toy. You don't care about it. Yeah. Especially a title he's held multiple times. It's not like he he doesn't want and didn't care about it. He seemed to care about it before. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he seems happy when he gets at that time. So it was it definitely was an interesting moment. And I really wonder about what was happening backstage at that point. Yeah.
01:11:01
Speaker
As for the IWDP title itself, I made me start earlier, but get a chance to shine. In September, Muda will lose that title to Shinya Hashimoto. Cool. Beginning his first of three range with the belt. Very neat. Very neat. Hashimoto's good. So it was good to hear that. And now as we saw part of one of his range of the belt at collision Korea. Yes, we did.
01:11:24
Speaker
We cut to our fifth match, which is a six-man tag, El Samurai, and and I'm not sure how to pronounce this. It's either J.J. Jaxx or J.J. Jaxx, which is Takayuki Izuka and Akira Nagami in New Gimmicks, versus Nobukazu Hirai, Masao Urahara, and Koki Kitahara in a six-man tag match. The referee for this one is Unknown.
01:11:54
Speaker
I've talked about a recurring theme that the show is the crash special battle between war and new Japan. So let's talk about that since this is the only match that they actually really promote that way. War is a right of motion set up in 1992. That company we would actually host a co-production with the WWF. I'm talking about them a lot on the WCP podcast, by the way. Yes, it's surprising amount this time. Yeah. The big match on that show would be then WFP and Ric Flair.
01:12:23
Speaker
against the founder, Gedichiro Tenryu, who was cut from the show, unfortunately. That sounds really good. By the way, between this and a number of shows, The Kool-Aid and collision in Korea, Flair really is your go-to cross-emotional match guy. Absolutely. Yeah. And it makes sense. Why? Oh yeah, totally. I mean, you have Tenryu, we have Fujinami on the very first Super Show. You have collision in Korea.
01:12:47
Speaker
It's an obvious choice, but it's interesting how many times it happens. And again, in different promotions. Yeah, true. You know, some are WWE, some are WWF. So the rival team here is representing war. Not that the commentary really mentions that all that much or cares about it. No, but at least they have their war shirts on. So
JR's Departure and Commentary Issues
01:13:06
Speaker
that that helps you figure out, hmm, something's going on here. Yes.
01:13:11
Speaker
Eric Bischoff takes over on commentary, claiming that JR and Tony needed a break and went to a sushi bar, noting that's going to be interesting as Tony prefers Italian food and JR Southern cooking.
01:13:22
Speaker
so So... Originally, I thought that that was because they'd originally planned to air the Steiners match, but decided to replace it with this one when they left and needed urgent new commentary. But as we discussed at the beginning of the show, the Steiners actually left late in 1992, so I'm not sure anymore.
01:13:41
Speaker
In any case, another very interesting factor on this show is that JR resigned from WCW in late February 1993, February 25th according to his show Grilling JR, following the removal of Bill Watts as the head of WCW and the promotion of Eric Bischoff to replace him, beating out both Ross and Tony Schiavone.
01:14:04
Speaker
Per Ross, he was also being taken off of TV and put into work selling WCW for syndication and working behind the scenes, as Bischoff did not want him on commentary, and JR didn't see it as likely that he was going to get back on the air, and he wanted to be on the air, so he left. In any case, JR went to the WWF and eventually became one of their longest-running and best-regarded commentators.
01:14:28
Speaker
There's other sources that will cover that whole situation in much more detail than us. I'm sure that's not the main focus of us at this time, so I think we can leave that to to other sources to discuss in more detail. But the main point is JR is not, of course, going to get sushi during this match, so the Eric has to take over. I'd say what's most likely happened here is that WSW, not originally planning to use this match, didn't have Tony and JR record commentary for this match originally.
01:14:58
Speaker
whether they were going to use the Steiner's before they got big in the WWF or for some other reason, when they eventually decided to use this match, they no longer had J.R. to fill in commentary with Tony anymore. So Eric has inserted himself instead with the weird excuse of them going to a sushi bar. I guess it's better than did the whole plan. I have my space thing where your place fail to go see with the dentist and just put his cape up. So, yeah, Bischoff at least does not pretend to be J.R.
01:15:26
Speaker
Yeah, they wouldn't have a comment to do that till a bit later. Yes, that's true. Yeah. oh god We'll cover that abomination soon enough. I mean, we've we've covered Oklahoma at least once. I know, but we have to cover at least one more time. so Yeah, unfortunately. What Bischoff has not done has gotten really good information on the people involved in this match. He knows the six names, but clearly doesn't, mostly at least, know who is who. Yeah. He only actually ever uses two of the guy's names in the match, El Samurai and Hirai, and I'm about 95% sure that he's mixed up Hirai and Urahara.
01:16:09
Speaker
And he doesn't ever refer to any of the other competitors by name. No. I had a hell of a time looking through any other New Japan matches with these guys and war matches, I assume. Yeah. With these guys from about the same time period and comparing it to the very low resolution copy that we found at this show. Yeah, that's a problem. To try to figure out who was who on my end. And so I apologize profusely if I end up mixing anything up.
01:16:34
Speaker
You'd think it would be easier with Izuka and Nogami given we've seen both before, but they both entirely changed their looks for this show. So I had to look for 1993 matches for them, too. I'm, I don't know, about 70 percent sure that I've got everything right. Well, maybe soup you can match up. I'm pretty sure Nogami is the one in the pink slash purple trunks. I am pretty sure that Nogami is the blue and Izuka is the pink. Very, very possible.
01:17:01
Speaker
but but But this is the thing. I have seen other write-ups on this show. I have seen it both ways. Interesting. people People disagree on which one is which, which is interesting. But what I'm going off of is I found Izuka on another show from about the same time period wearing the pink trunks and with this hair that style. OK. So I'm almost.
01:17:23
Speaker
ah I don't know, I think I can only say 70% sure. But I'm going to call him Izuka. If it's not Izuka, if that's Nagami, I apologize. I've only ever seen Izuka with shorter hair and Nagami with face paint on. So just know everyone that is where that's coming from. OK, to the match. Just to dig the knife in a little more, the team of Harai, Orahara and Kitahara come out to a wordless version of the Steiner's Steinerized song. Oh, yeah.
01:17:52
Speaker
The music for both entrances is dubbed Over the Ring Announcements, removing one of the tools that Bischoff and I could have used to figure out who was who in a spectacularly boneheaded move by WCW. I'm not sure why they had to do that. Orahara and Harai do at least have their names on their jacket and shirt respectively though. Okay. However, both are visible for about a single frame each. Yeah. But that is something.
01:18:19
Speaker
Okay, I'm going to stop ranting about how hard it was to do this now, but it it was hard, Al. I just want you to appreciate that and comfort me. I feel for you. Thank you. During the ring intros that are dubbed over, the camera guy gets several unfortunate shots directly of Izuka and Hirai's buttocks. Seriously, dude, move. Yeah. Handshakes are offered by the team of Hirai, Urahara, and Kitahara, and Izuka looks really smug.
01:18:48
Speaker
Orihara versus El-Samurai to start. Bischoff is going to continually call Orihara hooray for the duration. I'm 95% sure that I'm right on that one. El-Samurai dominates with his power, but Orihara uses speed and agility to regain the advantage. We trade off to Izuka and Kitahara, and it briefly seems like Bischoff might actually know which one is Kitahara, but that's only because Kitahara happened to get into the ring while Bischoff was listing all three guys on the team and it just accidentally aligned.
01:19:19
Speaker
They're pretty even, doing some counter holds. Kitahara tags Orahara, but he quickly ends up in the other team's corner, and Izuka, Nogami, and Samurai trade off demolishing Orahara's legs for the next several minutes, with stomps, leg locks, single leg crabs, and more. I'm still a little worried at this point that I've mixed up Izuka and Nogami because the guy I'm calling Izuka does a single leg crab quite like Nogami did on a previous show,
01:19:43
Speaker
But then so does the guy that I'm calling Nagami, so I'm pretty sure I'm right based on the matches I found. Anyway, Kitahara makes some saves, but they keep beating the crap out of poor Orahara. About the time you start wondering if he insulted their mothers backstage, he finally tags Hirai, who gets some good drop kicks and a nice vertical suplex, but eats a samurai punch and slap, and then gets overwhelmed by a samurai, izuka, and nagami teamwork.
01:20:07
Speaker
Orahara tries to save, limping, nice, and it takes multiple kicks to free Hirai from an izuka scorpion death lock. Hirai eventually escapes and tags Orahara, who had to be thinking, come on, buddy, we've got a third member of our team. Yeah, right? Orahara gamely charges in and lands a dropkick, then gets grabbed and beaten down by the whole team again, including Elsam Rai possibly accidentally inventing the silos clash as it looks like he fell over during a Pile Driver attempt.
01:20:36
Speaker
Yeah, I can see that. Seriously, does Orahara owe these guys money? That's my line. Sorry. That was fun. Orahara finally stuns El Samurai while Kitahara has him distracted and tags Hirai, who hits one dropkick before getting thrown to the mat and beaten up.
01:20:54
Speaker
Arahara saves off a Nogami splash, and Hirai tags Kitahara, who actually blessedly gets some offense for a bit with kicks and a German sublox for two, only for a Nogami to jump-kick him, and tag Izuka to run wild with drop kicks like Nogami was making a hot tag after a long beatdown.
01:21:09
Speaker
Kitahara kicks him down from his insolence and tags Orahara, then throws Hirai and Orahara in turn into Izuka. Orahara immediately gets kicked flat and powerbombed for two as Hirai saves, but Orahara is unconscious. Legit knocked out by the powerbomb.
01:21:29
Speaker
They do another couple pins on him while they try to rouse him, but he's out good, so everybody into brawl briefly. And Izuka ends up in alone with him and just pins Urahara for the three count and the win. Urahara did move a little on the final pin, but clearly was not able to continue. The victors pose as Hirai goes to check on Urahara and signals that they need some help. As we cut, it looks like Kitahara and some staff are coming over to check as well.
01:21:57
Speaker
I did check, by the way, on ah on Cage Match, and one, Orahara has a long career after this point, and two, he, in fact, wrestled literally the next day. Oh, wow. At War Revolutionary Song 1, Japan's still rocking it with names, so he was fine, or perhaps taking risks with his health the way that wrestlers sometimes do, but in any case, he he went on to a long career. Okay. Thoughts on this one? Oh, my note was poor Orahara. Did he owe them money?
01:22:28
Speaker
It's interesting because so this match, regardless of why it exists on here, like whether, you know, the timeline is unclear, it feels so weird to be here. Because again, they don't have any interest in this whole war versus New Japan thing on the show as a whole. They could have mentioned war during Dragon's match. That's what he worked for. Yeah. But they didn't. And they didn't mention any of that stuff.
01:22:53
Speaker
at all so it's really weird that they suddenly seem like oh let's throw this match instead of another match now which led to the weird bit of Bischoff running into a booth by himself not having all his notes apparently and the people's names written down like little cue cards for it and just calling that by himself with the epilepsy excuse of going to get sushi yes You know, given the frantic nature of the editing here, as mentioned, we're about an hour to the show. So if Tony and JR needed to break an hour into a show, how are they doing any pay-per-views? Yeah. When they regularly do like two and a half hour pay-per-views just fine. Yeah. I could always try to be cute and all, but it really stands out. Mm-hmm.
01:23:34
Speaker
So that's the unfortunate thing. This match is actually quite enjoyable, as long as you're not over horror, obviously. If it was just, hey, here's this match, we're gonna have to run because it's a fun six man match. And it's been normally, I'm not judging in the same way I am here, where it's put on a seemingly out of spite, someone haphazardly would finish up by himself calling the match in a booth.
01:23:58
Speaker
So it really does affect the match, at least for my viewership. If you can watch it separately and not be distracted by all that going on, it's quite enjoyable. Six fan matches always offer an extra man or person and playing the match. So you can have more frequent tags in and out, more variety that we covered on the previous Super Show or the last AWS show, which has a six fan match.
01:24:24
Speaker
So in a bubble, the match is enjoyable. I'm not super invested in the stakes, so there's three guys I've never seen before, two guys I've seen a couple of times, and samurai, technically, timeline, I haven't seen yet, but I will later. Honestly, in marriage, it's enjoyable. it's It is very much to beat down this one poor guy for some reason. and never That was the plan all along, we just kind of escalated that way. It's still fine. um It's kind of awkward at the ending where he's actually knocked out and he's trying to figure out to do with them. Yeah. There's a fall brawl show, which you've not coverage yet, which has a similar circumstance happen in it. I think they handle it better here at least. So that's something. they They do a good job of making it look like a fight still at the end, but one that has a very obvious ending to it. Yeah, they they quickly realize. Yeah, I think genuinely, I think her ride doesn't at first realize that the guy is knocked out when he goes for that second save or they probably would have just let that be it. Yeah. But.
01:25:23
Speaker
The actual match is fine. It's just presented in a really weird, distracting manner, which really takes away from it, unfortunately. Unfortunate ending aside, this was one heck of a fast-paced six-man tag, constantly moving and featuring loads of hard hits, perhaps slightly too hard towards the end. Yeah. I feel like it's a bit too one-sided, as Orahara and Harai get next to no offense after their introductions. But admittedly, the match clearly ends before it's supposed to, so maybe they were going to get more comebacks if they just went another few minutes. Possible, yeah. It does seem like Kitahara is kind of like setting them up for something bigger. Mm-hmm.
01:26:00
Speaker
The beatdowns on them, particularly on Orahara, are excellent, though. Orahara takes more punishment to his leg in a few minutes than in a whole year of brick flare matches, yeah and sells it exceptionally well, never slipping up or forgetting. Even when he gets into the match late in to do a couple saves, he's always limping. yeahs true it's It's really, really good work. It all looks absolutely brutal and definitely built sympathy for him very effectively.
01:26:27
Speaker
Izuka, Nogami, and El Samurai got very creative with their offense, and for what offense they got, the team of Urahara, Hirai, and Kitahara did as well. Lots of great teamwork, making for a very fun tag match, just unfortunately not one that got to end the way that they wanted. I didn't find Eric's commentary that distracting in it necessarily, or the the the concept of what was going on in the match that distracting.
01:26:52
Speaker
I guess I should correct myself on that. I think I did feel that was distracting the first time I watched it. Sure. But then when I went back the second time, I was past the oh, what's going on here and was just able to enjoy the match for what it was. Yeah. I think if you're going to watch this match, that's how I would advise to do it as well as just like get through your first watch of it, understand that it's going to feel weird and then go back and actually take another look at it seriously like you're watching a normal match.
01:27:16
Speaker
I will say most people, if they're going to watch the show, aren't going to do it our way where they watch it together. And then this is true. I get your point 100 percent. But yeah, if they're going to watch the show, they're going to watch it. Wait, wait, where they are. And don't you go, huh? It will feel strange. Yes, absolutely. And now the WWF connection, weirdly enough.
Sting vs. Hiroshi Hase Match
01:27:36
Speaker
I don't know why I keep finding these things just a chain. The show, my goodness, it is. Yeah.
01:27:40
Speaker
So Hooray, and by the way, I would play the Wiki page on him, so I know it's Hooray because I'm reading off his page. Yes. I'm not sure which guy is in this match, but I know it's Hooray I'm talking about. Hooray would compete in 1994 Royal Rumble match. Oh cool. Oh, slight caveat. That is to say he competed in a house show they held in May 1994. Oh. And they crossed promotion, yes, of World War. Yeah, they held like a 10-man Royal Rumble match. That's not Royal Rumble.
01:28:09
Speaker
I know, I know. It's a battle royale. If it helps, it did force out a future event because Undertaker, understandably, being the top guy in that match, won the Royal Rumble. So he won it a good, what, 13 years before he'd actually won it, I believe? Oh, interesting. Yeah, funny. I was like, Royal Rumble, Matt, that can't be right. Oh, I went to Cage match. Oh, that's really misleading. Yeah. Ten-man Royal Rumble. Yeah. I figured I'd do that little rug pull on you there.
01:28:37
Speaker
It's like saying he won to he won a 20-man World War III. I know. It's way too sane. Good gosh. We got right to our final match, which is Sting versus Hiroshi Hase. Yes. Referee for this one is unknown. At Circuit Night 92, we have the great match between Vader and Sting to declare the King of Cable. Did he get a ring from that? I'm still not clear.
01:29:07
Speaker
I don't think so. I think the rings were only for the um previous year's Battle Bowl. They at least get a new TV. You would hope so. Yeah, right. Or a crown that's shaped like a TV set. Oh, I like that. Or more accurately, I guess, a crown that's shaped like a cable box, probably. Yeah. It's the king of cable, not just a TV. True, true. I like that a little rabbit ears, though, to adjust that in your crown. I mean, you probably joke with this at the show. I don't remember. It's been so long, but I feel like making a joke again. Yeah.
01:29:37
Speaker
Hase, by the way, is involved in a bit of history in the buildup to this show. And December 9th, 92, heat up a match against then IWDP champion. Great Muda, which would be a very bloody affair. Oh. In fact, it is so bloody that the Muda scale, how you grade how much someone is bleeding in a match, come from this match. Okay, interesting. Hase is not the guy that I would be expecting to be the other partner in that match then. yeah He seems too nice to to end up bloodying someone that badly.
01:30:10
Speaker
Now, Wikipedia mentions that I guess in 1990, they had a match that led to Hase bleeding very, very heavily. So in a way that was supposed supposed to be a reprisal, I guess. Gotcha. Gotcha. Or just an accident that happened in the match and they kind of had to go with it. Yeah. You can't exactly stop bleeding in a match. As Kerry Von Erich demonstrated once. Yes. Yes, definitely he did.
01:30:37
Speaker
J.R. and Tony are back. Bolstering our theory regarding the prior match, Tony and Jarrah make no mention of returning to commentary after handing off to Bischoff, so yeah, they didn't hand off at the time that they recorded their commentary. No. Sting has a great light blue, white, and gold long coat with fringe this time, with blue and white face paint. It looks great.
01:30:59
Speaker
Hiroshi Hase comes out in a letter jacket in blue and gold. I approve. You would, yes. Actually a little bit shocked that WSW let that entrance show since he's wearing the University of Michigan's colors. True, yeah. Given the Steiners have left. Hase throws his t-shirt to the crowd. Tony and JR both express their respect for Hase, and JR runs through his background as a teacher and then calls him his favorite athlete in Japan. Oh wow.
01:31:27
Speaker
Hase and Sting shake hands, and Hase also shakes hands with the ref because, you know, you might as well. Yeah, sure. JR notes that he wants to get back home and have a burger that costs less than $20, drawing a chuckle from Tony. Sting is clearly the bigger and stronger, pressing Hase up and pumping him in the air, then knocking him out of the ring with drop kicks before giving a stinger call. JR points out the crowd loves Hase, but are still huge fans of Sting. Hase into the ring and Sting lets him stand up.
01:31:57
Speaker
Hase lands kicks and chops, then locks on a headlock, nicely kneeling to negate Sting's height advantage. They face off with shoulder blocks and simultaneous drop kicks, and Hase gets Sting down for various leg holds, including the grapevine chinlock from Dragon vs. Liger. Hase also pauses at one point to dance kind of like Rick Rood, oddly. Is that just a Hase thing at this point? I don't know. Yeah, they cut his last match so we don't know.
01:32:24
Speaker
Hase goes for the scorpion death lock. But Sting punches free before he gets it on. Hase works the leg with kicks and a high elevation single leg crab. Really nice. Sting suplexes him for one, but Hase hits a Russian leg sweep and JR points out that Sting keeps reaching for his hurting leg.
01:32:43
Speaker
Hase gets two counts with a swinging neck breaker and a top rope knee drop, and tries a sleeper, but Sting turns, so Hase smoothly turns it into a headlock and body scissors. But the ref forces a break, as Tony theorizes it might have been turning into a chokehold. More two counts with a Hase rock bottom and bridging German suplex, but Sting sends both through the ropes on a full Nelson and slams him and sends him to the barricades.
01:33:10
Speaker
Back in, Hase kind of counters a Sting top rope body press with a knee, but they don't quite have the positioning right, so it looks a bit awkward. Yeah, Sting kind of falls front towards him. Yeah. Whereas Hase needs to be like on the side for that to really work. Yeah, it looks like it kind of hurts a little bit for both of them, but they recover. Yeah. Sting starts to no-sell Hase's kicks and chops and roars at him.
01:33:33
Speaker
double-handed bulldogs by Sting for two, and he puts Hase in an elevated backbreaker hold, but Hase flips forward and flips Sting over for two, but Sting bridges out, kicks off the corner, and sprints across the ring and rebounds off the corner into Hase for two. Really cool, complicated sequence there.
01:33:50
Speaker
yeah More two counts with a Sting German suplex, a Hase roll up with grabbing the tights, interestingly enough, and a massive Sting clothesline. Sting hits a huge jumping DDT, slams Hase, and hits a top rope splash for the three count and the win. Sting takes a moment to rest before getting his hand raised, and we see folks trying to rouse Hase, but unlike Orahara, I'm pretty sure he's just selling as nothing looked like it would have caused a legit knockout there. No.
01:34:20
Speaker
we got right back to Eric Bischoff. But first, thoughts on this one? I thought this is a really strong match. It's interesting that it's, as far as I can tell, a real face versus face match. Yes. They're definitely being treated that way by the crowd, at least. Those can be really good or really heatless, depending on the performer. It's a challenge situation to not have a guy that is you know blatantly evil or corrupt for a face like Sting to go against. Obviously, his greatest rivals are people like Flair and Vader, right where there's no question of what their like their allegiances are.
01:34:53
Speaker
Yeah, you you can lose the crowd just because they're not sure who to cheer for. Yeah. Or because they don't want to cheer against either guy. So they kind of just stop. Yeah. But in this case, they were into it quite well. On the plus side, this is in Japan, so we don't get a USA chant. This is true. Yeah. That would make it a little more awkward.
01:35:11
Speaker
This is one of the matches where you really get to see Sting, like how strong he is, back especially at this point. I mean, his upper body, not his lower body, his thighs are very massive and thick looking in this outfit. Obviously, when you fight Vader, you get to see hints of that because moving Vader at all is impressive. But yeah like Hase, he really gets to play the power wrestler, which is nice. It's it's interesting, definitely, like this is a different atmosphere to this sting match than the dorm that we that we get. Mm hmm.
01:35:40
Speaker
Hasei, meanwhile, does just a nice part of his own, despite being a slightly smaller guy. Those Sambo Suplexes are the ones where it sort of spins him around and knocks him down and looks really nice. He definitely has the whole counter-rustling thing down, which is a nice touch. Yes.
01:35:55
Speaker
I'm sorry not to say that Sting is not a technical wrestler because obviously Sting knows his holds very well even at this point. But definitely playing that more with Hase like he knows how to counter out a lot this sort of hold in more. Sting very much becomes a reactionary wrestler at certain points in the match. His sudden as JR says he wants a three point stance in the clothesline when he's just fighting at moves like that. It's an e-dynamic to see Sting wrestle like this.
01:36:19
Speaker
Yeah, because there's no no heel cheating and not a flare working the leg over poking the eyes. With lesser people, this probably couldn't work because they said the crowd would be divided. They make they don't want to cheer against Hasei, for instance, so they won't cheer at all. Really quite a good match in that regard. Yeah, I think the crowd kind of decides early on. We like both of these guys and therefore we're happy with whichever one wins. So we're just going to cheer for both of them. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. It's an interesting atmosphere.
01:36:47
Speaker
I thought it was interesting to see Sting do his sort of backwards dive out of the corner. I don't think I've seen him do that before. He's obviously dived towards the corner quite a bit. He spent, you know, 30 years doing that. Yeah. I think there might be one other match, maybe where we got that spot, but not off of the complicated sequence that led up to it in this one. Yeah. I decided to dove that move, by the way, the reverse falling fridge. and He's throwing his back at him instead of his whole chest at him. Yeah. Yeah. I could see that.
01:37:17
Speaker
That'd be a really dangerous thing, actual reverse falling fridge, because like that's the electrical panels and fans and stuff would be. Oh, yeah. That's true. There's no good way to have a fridge fall on you, but there's definitely worse ways ever for it to fall on you. Yeah, yeah, especially if it's plugged in. Oh, yeah, for sure.
01:37:33
Speaker
Yeah, I like that how competitive the match was. They obviously had moments where things like this worked over, but it's never a full like, Oh, I'm going to be stayed down for long periods of time. He's always fighting. So the match is always active. I thought Bolton did a really good job in that regard. I just like the competitive nature of it, even though there's no real story to this.
01:37:54
Speaker
I could see that having this match, for instance, at a WCW pay-per-view, for instance, like ah a legit one, not what this is, and go like, you know, let's say Sting wants to challenge against Muda for both titles, hypothetically. So him and Hase have a match, and then someone kind of has a match. I could definitely see a match like that working.
01:38:13
Speaker
Stakes would definitely elevate this match even further than it is. As it is, it's a very fun, competitive match, well-worked. And even though I know it's not actually the main event of the show, it works as the WWE main event of the show. Yeah. Yeah. If they had to pick one other than the actual main event to make their main event, this one makes sense. That's a big cross-promotional match. The only other one that I could see them shifting into that order would be the Muta versus Chono one, just because of the importance of it with the titles.
01:38:41
Speaker
but that one's not really a cross-promotional one, so if they want that atmosphere, it makes sense to use this one. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, this was a tremendously fun contest between two guys I genuinely never thought I would get the chance to see fight. There's a really neat feel to this one, with Hase definitely the smaller guy by a bit. Sting actually almost plays Vader to Hase Sting in some points. Yeah. With Hase working to get him down in much the same way that Sting works on Vader in their matches.
01:39:10
Speaker
Aside from some very minor stretching of the rules by Hase, they do a good job both fighting as clear faces, even allowing the other to stand after returning from outside rather than taking advantage of a weak moment. They told a good story of Hase using speed and clever tactics to try to outdo Sting's power, with Sting landing less blows but more impactful ones. Interestingly as well, this actually lacks some of the normal Sting spots. There's no Sting or Splash. Yeah.
01:39:38
Speaker
And only Hase actually goes for the scorpion death lock. True. Yeah. So this
Overall Show Critique and Production Issues
01:39:43
Speaker
was a really unusual sting match, but a really good and fun one. Hase is so much fun to watch and I'm glad I got to see more of him in this series. I really enjoyed this. Oh yeah. Sting would go on to have this famous White Castle of Fear match. A good fader at Superbowl in February. Which as I recall has another amazing sting strength spot. Yes, I believe so. I'm not going to spoil it. We'll talk about that eventually.
01:40:08
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. As for Hasi, he would have one more impact on WSU television, or very at least a WSU promotion. In 1994, he would briefly hold the WSU international heavyweight title, winning it from Rick Roode and then losing it back to him as part of a Japanese tour. Oh my gosh. I'm sorry, Hasi.
01:40:28
Speaker
Then, of course, he'd pop up again in collision in Korea, which they don't like talking about. But, you know, they the show still happens, though. Yeah. i I just realized that's probably the first point where we actually mentioned Hiroshi Hase, because I think we talked about the WSBU International World Heavyweight Championship well before we saw collision in Korea, because it came up on the Star Kid run. Yes. We probably mentioned his name at some point during there and at the time didn't know who the guy was. Yeah, I probably go like, oh, yes, some guy named Hiroshi Hase won the title. Little did we know we'd love him.
01:40:56
Speaker
but Yeah, I'm sure I didn't give it the same reference I give it now.
01:41:02
Speaker
Bischoff thanks us for joining WCW for the Super Show. You're welcome, Eric. And calls the action tremendous. And Super Show 3 is done. That was unceremonious. Yeah, right. So overall thoughts on Super Show 3? It's a very strong show as far as in-ring goes. All the matches are, I'd say good to great.
01:41:25
Speaker
Homemade Simmons doesn't quite deliver fully. And there's some outside aspects affecting the six-pan match, but there's not really a bad match. Yeah. Yeah. The previous shows has had the Elle Gante matches, which at varying degrees of success. This one doesn't have that going against it. By no means is Simmons and Fries Homemade comparable to Elle Gante match. Yeah.
01:41:49
Speaker
It's a shame there's just not more stakes in the show. I mean, as it is, it's a cross-motion super show where these guys wrestle. A lot of the matches where there are actual stakes are either for titles that don't really matter in, in WCW, like let's be honest, the NWA title, really. They don't pretend like it is, but it doesn't really matter. Or they cut the matches where it matter, like cutting the tag team title match featuring the Steiners. Yeah.
01:42:17
Speaker
I wish the show was easier just to watch and not have to go through hoops like we did to track it down or even realize there was a copy to watch. Either visit maybe 240p if you're being generous. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's right. Yeah.
01:42:31
Speaker
Because as a whole, it's a very enjoyable show. Again, there's no real stakes. Let's just super invested in the IWTP title, but every match is good to great. It's enjoyable. It's just a shame that it's so chopped down to fit. I assumed to fit a two hour window. It goes just under two hours and it feels like they're really pushing to get it there. They're not paying for the extended play tape. I was going to make that joke. i would
01:42:58
Speaker
It's i rare that someone else references VHS tapes before me. So I appreciate that. You've trained me well, Al. Yeah, there we go. This was less a full-fledged pay-per-view and more just somebody's quickly spliced tape of matches that they liked.
01:43:12
Speaker
There's absolutely no production to this whatsoever. WCW did the bare minimum work that they had to do with it, cutting nearly all of the ceremony, most of the entrances, and absolutely everything other than the matches themselves. It comes off quite poorly in that regard compared to the first Super Show, which felt like this big international partnership and production, even in the severely cut down version that WCW released. This is almost a contextual obligation. You got to do one more of these. Yeah, yeah.
01:43:39
Speaker
We don't even get to see more than like a single giant trophy and most matches cut seconds after the match ends without any of the victory celebrations. It feels so very basic. Yeah. It's a good job then that the matches themselves are really, really fun. Yeah. As with prior years, you could make a solid argument for nearly all of them being match of the night with only Simmons versus home suffering a little by comparison. As you said, it's not bad. It's just not the level of the others.
01:44:05
Speaker
Everything else was great and really enjoyable to watch. And really, to be fair, if you had to pick one element of a wrestling show that had to be good, the matches are probably the part you should pick, right? I think so, yeah. It's just that there's literally nothing else to this show. Yeah. There's no promos, no glitz and glamour, no cool ceremony, nothing to suggest that it's big or important or exceptional. Nothing.
01:44:30
Speaker
The show outline literally is Bischoff, match, match, match, Bischoff, match, match with Bischoff, match, Bischoff, end. And the three Bischoff only segments are pointless.
01:44:40
Speaker
yeah Tony and JR again do a great job on commentary, talking up both WCW and non-WCW performers quite well. There are a few times where their lack of familiarity does show through this year, with them having to theorize rather than state things with clear knowledge. But by and large, they again help build up the action and keep things going strong, which helps deal with the show's odd atmosphere.
01:45:03
Speaker
Bischoff is less good on commentary, though I will say his martial arts focus does honestly help him explain some elements of the six-man tag fairly well to give him some credit. Yeah, it's just so abundantly clear that he doesn't know who five of the six men in the match are, and he only knows El Samurai because he's the only one in the mask.
01:45:24
Speaker
It makes it impossible to follow his commentary to any real degree, but he does have great energy and enthusiasm, which helps. yeah Still, I definitely prefer Tony and JR on this show. Yeah, I wonder if, like, given how it worked, if they could have gotten someone else in the booth and Ethan wasn't a regular guy, technically even, uh, Ventura was around and one of Ventura couldn't get thrown in booth with, with Bischoff. Or just have Tony in there too. I mean, yeah, have somebody to play off of. It's, I don't know if Tony just, schedule wise, wasn't able to do it when they needed to do it. Cause he's still with the company, obviously. So true. Yeah. It's, it is a very weird thing that.
01:46:01
Speaker
They're not only doing this, but they slot in Bischoff solo, which is your credit credit to him. And admittedly, this was probably his choice. So he has himself to blame. But credit to him. That is a hard thing to do. Sure. Yeah. And he does a good job of maintaining energy throughout the match. It's just the specificity of his commentary could have used some work. Yeah.
01:46:23
Speaker
Otherwise, there's not much to say about the show. There's some weird audio moments that I'm pretty sure are the result of WCW post-production, like dubbing over the ring announcements in the six-man tag. And there's some camera work issues here and there that I can't blame on WCW because that's not their camera crew. But otherwise, what we get is fine, just so short and perfunctory that it makes the show feel somewhat underwhelming at times, despite the really good action.
01:46:48
Speaker
If you can watch wrestling purely for the action and stunts and don't need the story or atmosphere at all, this one is still a really good watch despite itself. But if you need a little more effort put into the production to really enjoy a show fully, this will be the toughest of the super shows to enjoy. Yeah, it's still good. It's just not as easily good as the others.
01:47:10
Speaker
I'm guessing they had a contractual obligation, which is why this show is put together like this, but I could see, given that they had a weekly TV show, they had the TBS one at this point, obviously Nitro is two years out still. I could see if they wanted to sort of bolster their tape shows, pick a match like once a month or once a week, maybe. And so here's a special match that aired in Japan yeah and show like Stinghase match on the TBS show.
01:47:34
Speaker
I could see that being a good thing because they clearly do not value this as a pay-per-view now. No. So I could see just saying, but we have this cool footage, so let's use it. And maybe maybe we might be able to get some of these guys over here at some point. It'll be a good setup for our American fans to see it. They actually get more mileage out of it in that respect by doing it on your free TV show. Yeah.
01:47:55
Speaker
Yeah, cause as it stands, this sort of show at the time really existed to the tape trading market. Right. People that were actually trying to follow New Japan through tapes, pal tapes, maybe at that point and trying to find footage it that way. Cause the internet's not really a thing like it is now, obviously in 1993. So you're really, you're marketing a show to a niche audience.
01:48:18
Speaker
inside your own audience. And then you're really doing it in a lazy sort of haphazard way. Yeah. Other than, Oh, we get to watch Ding House they even wrestle, which is a good thing. It's a great thing. I don't know if you're really pleased in that audience with them, which is maybe why they didn't do a fourth one. Yeah. Match of the night and MVP. So Al, what is your match of the night?
01:48:40
Speaker
Okay. Like you said, case game made for nearly all the matches being matched the night. Obviously as mentioned, some stuff takes away from the six man match and the Simmons home and matches disappointing in a certain degree, but not terrible. So I'll tell you exactly what I did. So what I did, I still watched the show from the beginning. I rewatched it. I rewatched Liger and dragon, but this batch is amazing. Like I said many times, I'm going to go on my notes. I'm going to write this down as match the night.
01:49:07
Speaker
letting me watch the rest of the show. And if they changed my mind, I will rewrite my note for this. Gotcha. As good as the other matches are, especially Muden Shono, ultimately nothing, even Stinghase took the spot away from me from Dragon and Liger. So it was a beginning and remained my match the night. I also have to go with Liger versus Dragon.
01:49:31
Speaker
Almost every match on this show is some variety of great, but the fact that these two pretty much put on a full technical mat wrestling match before moving to a full acrobatic aerial match, nearly giving us two complete matches in one and doing an excellent job with each just made for an incredible performance that despite a couple of minor botches stands out among the rest. It's an amazing, amazing match to be able to stand out on a show full of really good matches.
01:49:56
Speaker
What does it remind me a bit of is when we did the first Beat Blast, which has the Iron Man match between Rick Roode and Rick Steaboat. As we said on that show, some of these matches are good. I think matches in this show are generally better, but the point remains.
01:50:11
Speaker
And the only unfortunate thing about those matches and matches in this show was that they're on the same show with such a great match. Yes. In this case, Dragon Lord has such a great match. It's as good as anything else is, it's hard to overcome that, at least for us. Yeah. Your mind may vary. On any other show, virtually any of the other matches that were on this show could have been match of the night. But yes, they have the misfortune of being on a show that has Dragon versus Lycra on it. So sorry, guys. It's a real case of stealing the show.
01:50:41
Speaker
Yes. MVP? Yeah, so I went back and forth on this quite a bit. It's always the hardest one for me to pick. Because you know, my formula is unless someone in the match night is so amazing, I can't ever look at it. I generally try to spread it out a bit and give focus someone that doesn't quite make matches at night. There's definitely a case of that because those matches are so good.
01:51:02
Speaker
So, I mean, i just going through quickly, I could pick almost any one in the the tag match. The Dustin and Scott Norton one, they're both quite good in their own ways. Sayedo impressed him with his throws. Hashimoto is a real standout, even in limited capacity in this match. Obviously, both men in the title match are really, really great. Steak and Hase, Steak, of course, always livers. Hase, at least in limited mind, we've got him, also always delivers.
01:51:30
Speaker
So it's a real tough
Series Reflection and Conclusion
01:51:31
Speaker
pick for me, one of these people, and obviously, Tiger and Dragon, if I was gonna pick them, easy picks. I think for me, for giving little extra things, like his extra run on his clothesline and a little extra bit like his extra pin, the slight edge, enemy very slight edge, goes to Great Muda. Okay.
01:51:52
Speaker
Yeah, there were so many good performances on this show. I could name just about every performer, honestly, and I really gave strong consideration in particular to Scott Norton. Me too. For just the extra character bit he added to that match really strongly. Plus his great mullet too. That was also good. But I'm going to go with an unusual one, I think. Okay. And that is assuming again that I have identified people correctly. All right. Or a Hara. Okay.
01:52:19
Speaker
He takes an absolute kicking in the six-man tag and sells it really impressively, he does drawing tons of sympathy and making Izuka, Nagami, and El Samurai look amazing. And watch him from the moment he takes the first strike to his leg to the point where he unfortunately gets KO'd, he never once forgets to sell the leg. It is tremendous work. And that wraps up our review of Super Show 3. If you've enjoyed listening to us tonight, you can find us on Facebook as Let's Go to the Ring.
01:52:47
Speaker
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01:53:13
Speaker
Many thanks to ProWrestlingHistory dot.com for attendance figures, and Gina Trujillo for our logo. Sadly, we are already done with this series. yeah Only three shows, but man, what a lot of terrific matches we got to see. Being completely honest, this has been one of the greatest series that we have watched in my opinion. I think the only series that approaches the consistent warm feelings I've got about these shows is Wrestle War.
01:53:37
Speaker
Yeah, it's fair. So next time we're going to wrap up this series with our usual reflection on the series as a whole. We'll share our thoughts on the overall series, play some games, build our ultimate cards, and likely have some very weird rebookings. And then we're going to let you know what we'll be up to next. Join us for the fun. This is Bob Moore for Alec Pridgen, signing off. Good night, everybody. Happy wrestling.
01:54:16
Speaker
Jono, in green and white, looks terrific with the big gold belt. He name drops Flair, Luger, Sting, sorry, not he, Jono does not say that.