Quebrada
by Mike Lorefice (M.L.Liger@juno.com)
February 1, 1997
AAA
The deal with the WWF isn’t working well, but Antonio Pena refuses to admit it. Pena came back from Mexico saying how well his guys got over at the Royal Rumble. He must have been in a different building because you could have heard a pin drop during the trios match. The two legends, Perro Aguayo & Canek, got no pop coming out. There were no pops during the great Garza/Heavy Metal sequence. Garza’s awesome corkscrew plancha didn’t even get a pop. He said how pleased McMahon was with him, which may be true but WWF hasn’t taken enough interest in his product to learn anything about it. Even Jim Ross has no clue when it comes to Lucha. If you remember, Ross was the one who called Pierroth a great aerial wrestler. Ross’ announcing during the PPV didn’t exactly help Canek get over. Ross said Canek defeating Lou Thesz without mentioning the date (8/27/78 for the UWA world heavyweight title). The date is important because most people think of Thesz as a guy that wrestled 50 years ago, thus the 44-year-old Canek must be old enough to be a great grandfather. Pena made a big deal about WCW not allowing Konnan’s boys to fight their wrestlers. I guess Pena must have missed the classic Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Ultimo Dragon and Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Dean Malenko matches. In many cases, the reason the WCW guys don’t fight the Luchadores is the inherent style clash. Most of the WCW guys aren’t trained in the highly choreographed Lucha style. Thus, they don’t have the timing down and don’t know how to take the bumps. This apparently doesn’t bother Pena because he had Perro Aguayo, Cibernetico, & Pierroth Jr. vs. Razor Ramon, Deisel, & Jake the Snake Friday at Juan de la Barrera Gym. This is a top candidate for worst match of the year. You have three guys who stink and don’t know the style against three highly pushed but equally lousy Luchadores.
All Japan
Nobuhiko Takada reportedly signed with All Japan on 1/30. Takada was looking to get $1.2 million a year from All Japan. He was initially turned down, but it looks like Baba gave in. The plan is to have Takada start in early February. Initially, he will just show up at shows and work the crowd rather than wrestle. *This never happened and AJ never recovered from not giving Takada the money. The top of their card got staler because they couldn't develop a new star or buy the right one (they finally did something right getting Vader but by then it was too little too late) while Takada got rich embarrassing himself in dubious matches where he showed no PRIDE* Yoshihiro Takayama will also work All Japan. They did an angle where Takayama approached former UWF-I wrestler Gary Albright at the Korakuen Hall show, who supposedly talked to Baba and got him into the group. Albright & Takayama are getting a shot at the Double tag team titles on 3/1 at Budokan Hall. This is basically a joke. You have Hiroshi Hase, who was one of the top workers in the world for a decade starting with AJ in prelim matches, while the worst worker in UWF-I who doesn’t even have any name value gets an immediate title shot. Baba is proving that all he cares about is size. Takayama is big guy (around 6'4") while the good workers in UWF-I like Kakihara and Sakuraba are small junior heavyweights. Baba doesn’t appear to have any interest in the rest of the UWF-I workers.
It’s rumored that washed up shooter Yoshiaki Fujiwara will have a singles match with Toshiaki Kawada on the 3/1 show. This could be good if they used Kawada beating the "shooter" as a way to set up a Takada vs. Kawada match.
AJW
ASARI is being rushed back too soon, as I had feared. ASARI is booked to defend her light heavyweight title against the retiring Hiromi Yagi on 2/11. 2/11 is exactly 5 weeks after she broke her hip. I recall Plum Mariko missing 6 months with a similar injury. There is no good reason for her to return so quickly. The fact that it’s a title match only makes things worse. With a title match against a non-AJW wrester, you figure it has be a competitive match that lasts more than 10 minutes. In a match of that caliber and length, ASARI will be expected to do her dangerous high spots such as planchas and the Sky Twister Press.
EMLL
EMLL is touring Japan on their own from 2/2-2/6. The only other foreign promotion to try this was the WWF in 1994 and they weren’t exactly well received. Their product doesn’t have a lot of exposure in Japan, but the veterans have all worked Japan so they have some name value. 2/2 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall will probably tell the story of how the attendance is going to go. I say that because Korakuen is in the middle of Tokyo and if you can’t get 2,150 people in the big city interested enough to buy a ticket they probably won’t draw well in Nagayo or Kyoto. They have some pretty good matches on the tour. 2/2 has two potentially great matches: Lizmark Jr.(he probably won’t stay long enough to make the tour)+Hector Garza & Mr. Niebla vs. Black Warrior (if he stays long enough)+Felino & Rey Bucanero and Negro Casas & Super Astro vs. El Hijo Del Santo & Bestia Salvaje. 2/3 in Nagoya has Santo+Lizmark & Lizmark Jr. vs. Casas+Pirata Morgan & Bucanero and the killer match of Astro+Garza & Niebla vs. Warrior+Salvaje & Felino. 2/4 in Kyoto has another potentially great match in Santo & Astro vs. Casas & Felino plus Rayo De Jalisco (this guy is awful)+Garza & Niebla vs. Warrior+Salvaje & Apolo Dantes. 2/6 is a risk since they are trying to run Tokyo Komazawa Olympic Park Gym. Whether you think they are better than FMW or not, they aren’t more popular in Japan and I doubt they can get nearly 8,000 to attend their big show. They have the hottest feud in Mexico headlining it though in Casas vs. Santo. Garza vs. Warrior for Warrior’s NWA light heavyweight title should be excellent. Other good matches include: Lizmark+Lizmark Jr. & Astro vs. Morgan+Bucanero & Salvaje, Rayo+Kendo & Niebla vs. Dantes+Felino & Guerrero de la Muerte, & Lady Apache defending her CMLL womens title against Mariko Yoshida of AJW. Obviously, the best card is in the biggest arena. I think EMLL is coming in with the idea that if they can sell out Korakuen and get good crowds for the other shows it will be a success. They are looking to build a fan base, so future tours can do better business.
TAKA Michinoku, Yoshihiro Tajiri, and Seiji Yamakawa from Big Japan will do a tour with EMLL. Tajiri is a hot commodity since his Tokyo Dome match against Otani. He’s yet another guy to look out for.
FMW
After 3-years of inactivity, Sambo Asako is coming out of retirement for the next tour. Asako, Mr. Pogo (who was on ESPN the other day), and Atsushi Onita have formed the OB (usually means old boys but in this case it's Onita’s Boys) group. Asako goes back to the early days of the promotion. He was pushed fairly high in FMW as he often teamed with Onita in the main event death match. He seemed like a passable worker when I saw him on the old FMW stuff, but as time went on he did less and less wrestling and more and more bleeding. Asako lost 75 pounds and weights 240 now, so it sounds like he’s in much better shape then he was when he retired. During training, his ring work was said to look good.
Fuyuki Promotions
Hiromuchi Fuyuki along with his favorite cronies Jado & Gedo are starting yet another independent promotion. According to Weekly Pro, the purpose of this promotion is to "reorganize all the independent promotions." I’m not exactly sure what that’s supposed to mean, but apparently Fuyuki is adopting the Shinobu Kandori theory of being a big fish in a small pond. Fuyuki’s group will contain rejects from Tokyo Pro and Wrestle Dream Factory. The Tokyo Pro guys will really be rejects because the guys that are left are the ones that IWA didn’t even bother with. Fuyuki already has an interpromotional fued lined up with IWA Japan, so we have yet another garbage league on our hands. The fued with IWA started on 1/24 after the main event when Fuyuki came into the ring with a birthday cake. If your reading this, all I need to say is that Kabuki was on the receiving end. Fuyuki followed by trying to choke Kabuki out with a crate of bananas. 100% Banana Panic has (unfortunately) returned!
IWA Japan
IWA President Keisuke Yamada was seriously injured during the gimmick match main event of their return show on 1/24 at Korakuen Hall. Yamada was teaming with fellow Team IWA members Keizo Matsuda & The Great Kabuki against former Tokyo Pro workers Takashi Ishikawa, Kishin Kawabata, & Shigeo Okamura in a Broken glass window death match. After Yamada’s team won, Ishikawa suplexed Yamada into platforms filled with crushed glass. The broken glass made several puncture wounds that were described to me as being as deep as a Sea Lion’s teeth could inflict on a body. To make things worse, some of the glass was embedded so deep in his back that doctors were afraid he wouldn’t stop bleeding if they removed it. Unfortunately, it appears we won’t be seeing Yamada in action any time soon. The Great Kabuki will be running the show until Yamada returns.
New Japan
Antonio Inoki is trying to put together a deal with EMLL for a joint junior tournament in June. The tournament would be to create a World’s Best Super Junior title. I’m not sure why we need another junior title as it will take the focus away from the J Crown, which should be a more prestigious title. Inoki wants to use at least for of the following guys: Satoru Sayama, Jushin Liger, Shinjiro Otani, Great Sasuke, Tiger Mask 4, Ultimo Dragon, or Koji Kanemoto as the Japanese representatives. That’s an excellent lot, so good that without even knowing the Luchadores it sounds like a great tournament. This is far from a done deal though as to my knowledge Inoki hasn’t even discussed the idea with EMLL yet. *This never happened*
Looks like the NWO will be ruining upcoming New Japan shows as well. The first New Japan vs. NWO matches, Buff Bagwell+Scott Norton & Masa Chono vs. Keiji Muto+Santoshi Kojima & Manabu Nakanishi, headlines the 2/2 show at Korakuen Hall. That should be a bad match, but it’s definitely a better match and money maker than Pena’s brilliant match from 1/31 that I was talking about earlier.
Michinoku Pro
The great stars of Michinoku Pro will work 3 dates in the U.S. in February. They will be doing the trios match of Great Sasuke+Gran Naniwa & Gran Hamada vs. TAKA Michinoku+Terry Boy & Dick Togo. Mens Teoh is using his former gimmick, Terry Boy, in the U.S. because the gimmick was patterned after the legend Terry Funk. This should be an excellent match, but I think they could have made a couple different choices when it comes to who to send. Terry Boy is the worst of the six and his technical rather than aerial style has the least chance of getting over (unless ECW does something quick to get the Funk thing over). Shoichi Funaki would have been a better pick because he and TAKA could display all their great double team spots. I still wonder how Naniwa’s will be received. He’s a great worker though. I think Masato Yakushiji would have been a better choice than Naniwa because he’s a high spot machine and people could get into his lack of size. Yakushiji is like the Japanese version of Rey Misterio Jr. and Rey got over great in ECW. The date with CWA will be more important than the ECW shows on the 14th & 15th because Kevin Sullivan will be in attendance. If Sullivan is impressed, Uncle Eric will probably throw some of Billionaire Ted’s money in their direction.
Promo Azteca
Many more workers have entered this promotion. The key guy in my opinion is Black Warrior, who has great potential and is already good. Lizmark Jr. and Torrero have also jumped to Promo. Lizmark Jr. is a good worker while Torrero is a scrub with a matador gimmick. Lizmark Jr. and Black Warrior will most likely work WCW as well. They are working on the tv show, which should start fairly soon.
Tape Watching
I was in my glory, as I watched a compilation someone entitled Best of Jushin Liger 1987-1992. This had 21 matches, many were excellent and all were at least good. One of the things I noticed was the heat was much better during the 1987 and 1988 matches than it is today. The Yamada vs. Takada match from 8/87 had particularly great heat even though everyone knew Yamada was doing the job. During the Yamada vs. Hase match from 2/15/88, the whole crowd came to their feet for Yamada’s cross body plancha. I’ve never seen a reaction to a small package like the one in this match. Owen Hart’s great work was one of the highlights on this tape. He was so athletic back then. There was one spot that Liger did several times where a guy goes for a flying bodypress, but Liger would sidestep it and put his knee out for his poor opponent to land flush on. The legendary Sano fued was also on here. I’ve seen these matches probably 50 times (they were on the first Puroresu tape I ever got), but they still seem just as great. The four singles matches in that fued were all great in basically every aspect. Sano was so great back then, it’s a shame he sold out to the glass company. Ironically, the worst match on the tape (***1/4) was Yamada’s debut as Liger. Kobayashi was his worst opponent on this tape, but it seemed like Liger was having trouble working in his new costume. The newest match was against Pegasus Kid on 8/12/92. Not surprisingly, that was a great technical match with lots of great near falls. Benoit won with the Kamikaze Bomb (powerbomb off top), which I though was invented during the 1993 junior tournament. Definitely one of the best tapes I own.
I watched Lucha Libre on Galavision from June and July 1996. The EMLL stuff was much better than the AAA and that was before Konnan and cronies left. The EMLL stuff was much more solid. The good matches with the great veterans like Casas, Silver King, Dandy, Lizmark, etc. all had excellent technical wrestling and matwork building to a hot finish for every fall. On the other hand, the AAA stuff was generally unstructured. The matches didn’t build at all and there was too much pointless heel brawling. This was especially true of the La Parka+Konnan & Mascara Sagrada vs. Heavy Metal+Jerry Estrada & Pierroth Jr. match, which certainly sounds good on paper. The Payasos really stunk up the joint and made Los Atomic Juniors look bad. Coco Amarillo did 2 moonsaults in the same match, unfortunately they were about as good as Leatherface’s. The EMLL mini’s were more entertaining than I can ever remember. Pierrothito+Damiancito el Guerrero & Felenito vs. Brazito de Oro+Panterita & Ultimo Dragoncito was the best of the mini matches. Dragoncito did the greatest arm drag I have ever seen. As he was running off the ropes, he jumped doing a 360 spin around his opponents back then hooked the arm for the quick arm drag. The technicos did simultaneous Shiryu topes (dive through the middle rope with a somersault bodyblock). Mr. Niebla, Black Warrior, and Histeria are guys to keep an eye on. All three are great young flyers, who were doing some great high spots. Niebla did an Orihara moonsault, Black Warrior a quebrada, and Histeria (when he was Super Crazy) a sky twister press. These guys are still kind of green, but they are young and already good.
I also saw a tape called the Best of UWA #11, which consisted of four different commercial tapes each devoted to a UWA star. It’s amazing how the UWA just basically died. In the 1970's and 1980's, this was the number 1 group in Mexico. Almost every famous Luchador that’s 35 or older worked for this promotion. They had Casas, Santo, Canek, Perro, Silver King, Texano, Mascaras, Dos Caras, Los Villanos, etc. By the mid 1990's everyone had defected to EMLL or the newly formed AAA, so they had Canek and a bunch of unknowns. The Perro portion strengthened my belief that Perro was never that good. He was in his 40's here, so a conclusion on this is unfair. At best, I’d say Perro was a guy who was good in his day, but never advanced his style. The Santo tape was choice. It had a great Santo vs. Casas title match. It was pretty similar in style to the current EMLL in that it was slow building to a hot finish. Santo and Casas use the same signature spots today, but unlike Perro they have added a lot of high spots and technical wrestling to their matches. Santo had a mask vs. hair match with Brazo de Oro (give you three guesses who won) that Santo really carried. Oro was unimpressive as usual, but Santo looked really good and turned it into a good match. Brazo juiced a gusher and Santo also juiced. Next was Villano III. This guy is a really unheralded technical wrestler. He had a great highly technical match against Pegasus Kid (Benoit). The high spots didn’t even start until the 3rd fall. Villano adapted well to the Japanese junior style. The Canek portion wasn’t so great. He fought Yokozuna when he weighed in the 400's and went by the name Kokina. It was a bad match with a lame DCOR finish after Canek’s headbutt tope. Then Canek fought the Giant Warrior. Antonio Pena would have loved this one since Canek was working with an American who had no clue of how to work the style. Canek vs. Blue Blazer in a mask vs. mask match (another result you can guess) was good, but Canek wasn’t impressive. Actually, Owen schooled him. This was Owen Hart during the 1988-1991 time period when he was an off the charts worker, not the lazy guy we see every week on RAW. Owen had a lot of great matches in Japan during this time period, but he wasn’t schooling the juniors there.
I finally saw AJW Dream Rush which was 11/26/92 at Kawasaki Arena. This show was similar to today’s shows in that there were 2 super matches, but the rest of the matches were between ok and good. Kyoko Inoue vs. Akira Hokuto ****3/4 that had it all: psychology, build, hot moves, great execution, excellent transitions, etc. On top of that, there were a ton of great near falls and they were all sold like finishes. Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki was an off the charts ***** match. This was the first and best of their three meetings, all of which were 5 stars. The crowd was popping from the outset. Yamada really shined in this match. She was kicking the hell out of poor little Ozaki. There was an unbelievable number of hot moves and fake finishes in this one. I have no idea what gave AJW the idea that Terry Power could fit in with them, but she was awful. Power teamed with Takako Inoue vs. Yumiko Hotta & Suzuki Minami in an undercard match. She was a powerful bodybuilder who because of that power was too stiff and unathletic to sell the moves or take the bumps. She was so bad that she killed the match even though the other three are capable of great things.
The last thing I’ll talk about is Michinoku Pro Champ Forum from 10/5 taped 9/23 in Towada. The Champ Forum had Togo+Shiryu+Danny Collins & Shoichi Funaki vs. Hamada+ Super Delfin+Astro & Alexander Otsuka. This was a excellent **** match. Funaki is one of the best when it comes to rolling with a move and making it look good. Otsuka, who’s from Battlarts, didn’t look out of place at all in the Lucha atmosphere. I expected him to look like some of the UWF-I guys did during the New Japan feud, but it was actually Danny Collins from England that was out of place. Collins has no offense, but at least he took some good bumps. Super Astro was pulling out great athletic high spots left and right. He’s in his mid 30's yet he’s improved a great deal by working here. Tiger Mask 4 vs. Mens Teoh had great chain wrestling early, but then it turned into a brawl (not a strong poing in Michinoku) with 4 juicing. Tiger won the UWA Middleweight title in this one. Wound up being pretty disappointing and the finish wasn’t hot for a title match.