Quebrada

by Mike Lorefice (M.L.Liger@juno.com)

2/9/97

EMLL

The tour of Japan got off to a good start. I like the fact that they sold out Korakuen Hall on 2/2, but the really cool thing is that they outdrew New Japan’s Korakuen Hall show on the same day. I know that both were sellouts and the difference was that New Japan had fewer seats available, but it’s still nice to see a foreign promotion beating the #1 promotion in the world on their own turf. FMW Guru Zach Arnold was nice enough to translate the results of the show for us.

1. Esther Moreno/Lady Apache <1-0, 17:44 Shadow Special> Chaparrita ASARI/Mariko Yoshida

2. Bestia Salvaje/Hijo Del Santo <1-0, 21:20 Camel Clutch> Super Astro/Negro Casas

3. Felino/Apollo Dantes <1-0, Neck Lock> Kendo/El Rayo de Jalisco Jr.

4. Shinobu/Ultraman Jr./Mascara Magica <1-0, High Roll Back Clutch Hold> Arcangel de la Muerte/Cadaver de Ultratumba/Espectro Jr.

5. Rey Bucanero/Pirata Morgan/Black Warrior <1-0 12:37 submission> Mr. Niebla/Shocker/Lizmark

There are two things you should notice about these results. First, in the tradition of Puroresu, all the matches were 1 fall rather than the traditional 2/3 fall Lucha matches. Second, all the matches had clean finishes. I don’t see 1 fall as a bonus since the 1 fall Lucha matches usually don’t build as well, but that’s what the Japanese fans are used to. Having clean finishes is definitely a bonus because Puroresu fans don’t stand for screw jobs (this is a good thing). The worst possible way to introduce a new product would in Japan be to have screw jobs. It’s apparent that EMLL is taking the Japanese market seriously since studied the market and tried to make their product fit it.

Conspicuous by his absence is Hector Garza. Despite Televisa’s efforts, Garza decided to stay in Mexico and work AAA rather than make good money in Japan with EMLL. Televisa is still trying to get AAA and EMLL to work together, but these two promotions get along about as good as WWF and WCW. Lizmark Jr. debuted for Promo Azteca, so he didn’t go to Japan. Black Warrior did go to Japan, so if he goes to Promo it will be in the next week or two. I was complaining about ASARI coming back on 2/11 against Yagi, but this is even worse. Instead of 5 weeks to heel a broken hip, she was out for less than 4.

FMW

The key match on the current tour is The Gladiator defending the double world titles against Masato Tanaka on 2/18 at Korakuen Hall. I think this could be a title change. I don’t know if President Arai is still mad at Gladiator for no showing the January tour, but it certainly can’t help Gladiator’s standing with the company. Tanaka’s the guy they are looking to push. Onita thinks of him as his son. Tanaka is the better worker and FMW is in need of a native to draw. Tanaka would most likely play a bigger part in the All Japan fued than Gladiator, so the double titles should make him more desirable to Baba. It’s rumored that FMW may make an appearance at AJ’s 3/1 show at Budokan Hall. I look for Tanaka to win the title and possible show up at Budokan.

Gaea Japan

Gaea has a tournament upcoming to create a WCW women’s cruiserweight division. The 10-woman tournament consists of: Chihiro Nakano, Meiko Satomura, Sugar Sato, Makie Numao, Sonoko Kato, Chikayo Nagashima, Kyoko Ichiki, Maiko Matsumoto, Toshie Uematsu, and Malia Hosaka. Aside from Hosaka who’s in from the U.S., the tournament consists of the future stars. Unlike AJW, the young Gaea future stars are already something. In general, they seem to understand how to work a match better than the young AJW girls. The young Gaea girls seem to have superior psychology and building while the young AJW are better on their transitions. Right now, Uematsu and Satomura seem to be the best of this group, but that doesn’t necessarily mean either will win and given WCW's history it's probably best if GAEA just sacrifices their worst worker to toil there.

New Japan

The major story here involves Masa Chono and the NWO. Chono’s contract was up, so they turned it into an elaborate angle. In an angle, Chono won’t sign a contract with New Japan because there is a clause that gives New Japan exclusive video rights. This would mean that Chono wouldn’t be able to appear on any NWO videos. He certainly wouldn’t want to be left out of that "great" Souled Out commercial tape or any subsequent debacles. All the guests at his backyard BBQ's, which are probably as many as buy WCW tapes, might decide even big boys playing with themselves is more exciting. To add to the intrigue, they got Big Japan involved. Gong is reporting that Chono has talked to Big Japan President Shinya Kojika about joining Big Japan and feuding with Shoji Nakamaki. When they are done with the angle, Chono will sign an "NWO contract."

The NWO invasion began on 2/2 at Tokyo Korakuen Hall. The NWO team of Chono, Buff Bagwell, and Scott Norton defeated Keiji Muto, Manabu Nakanishi (known to one as the only NJ worker that’s possible worse than Masato Tanaka and Hisakatsu Oya, but, of course, we all know that’s ROFTL material) & Satoshi Kojima. To get the NWO over big, Norton pinned Muto with a powerslam in 12:43. One would have expected Kojima to do the job in that one. After the match, Chono’s usual New Japan tag parters Hiro Saito and Hiroyoshi Tenzan joined Chono in the ring and the NWO team worked over the defeated New Japan stars. The next day, Muto announced that he would fight against the NWO and revenge the embarrassment of the previous day. With Muto and Chono involved, the NWO vs. New Japan fued will be a headline fued in Japan as well.

Pancrase

Yoshiki Takahashi made an interesting debut for UFC on the 2/7 PPV. Takahashi met Brazilian Jui Jitsu star Wallid Ismail in the first round of the Light heavyweight (under 200 pounds) tournament. Ismail, who is yet another product of the Gracie’s (Helio has much better fighers than Carlson though), has great credentials which include defeating Renzo Gracie in a Jui Jitsu match. He was highly touted and definitely considered to be the real deal. Takahashi dominated the stand up portion of the match, which isn’t surprising since the BJJ guys are masters on the mat. Takahashi did a nice leg pick and got on top, but Ismael used the famous BJJ guard. Takahashi had a strong base, which allowed him to strike from the top without being in any danger. Takahashi punched and headbutted from the top, bloodying Ismail’s nose. The match went into overtime. Ismail was totally gassed during the overtime and it looked like Takahashi could have knocked him out. Takahashi seemed confident that he would win via decision and his hand was probably hurting, so he didn’t want to make a costly mistake. This victory proved to me that the Pancrase fighters are indeed the best in the world. I wouldn’t consider Takahashi to be one of the 5 best Pancrase fighters, yet he handily defeated someone who by all accounts is a dominant guy in the most respected style. Takahashi is mainly known for his striking, but his domination here came on the mat. Takahashi didn’t seem to understand the rules at all though. He held onto the fence so many times that it was ridiculous. I understand that he doesn’t speak English, but referee John McCarthy did everything he could including hitting Takahashi’s hand a number of times to get the rule across. Takahashi was looking for the ref to count after he knocked Ismael down. He also kicked Ismael when he was standing and Ismael was down, which was illegal unless you wear a certain style of footwear. Maybe winning without even knowing the rules is more impressive on paper, but if you saw the fight there were some embarrassing moments. I’m not sure the American people took too him. If they didn’t, his win won’t help the buy rate of Pancrase PPV’s. Takahashi would have had an excellent bout with Jerry Bohlander in the finals, but he was forced to forfeit due to a hand injury.

The next show is on 2/22 at Tokyo Bay NK Hall. Bas Rutten is making his return on this show. Rutten faces Osami Shibuya, so he shouldn’t have too much trouble. King of Pancrase Masakatsu Funaki has a non-title match against giant kickboxer Semmy Schiltt. Pancrase is as competitive a league as there is, but that’s about as close as Funaki will get to a walk over. The key match is between Yuki Kondo and Guy Mezger with the winner getting a title shot in May. Kondo is excellent, but was a rookie last year so he’s inexperienced. Mezger is very good, but has a decided edge in experience. Kondo defeated Pancrase’s other top rookie from 1996 Kunioku Kiuma on the last Pancrase show. I look for Kondo to win here, but both are talented and it could go either way.

Promo Azteca

Rey Misterio Jr. needs to have knee surgery, but he’s not going to have it. The surgery would keep Rey out of action for four months. Rey has decided to work with a brace until it "heels." I don’t think this is a wise move because it’s working through injuries like this that leaved you banged up later in your career. When Ultimo Dragon first came to AAA, he preached to him about letting his injuries heal and adding more matwork so he wouldn’t be banged up by the time he was in his mid-twenties. I guess it fell on deaf ears though as Rey seems to be making the same mistakes that Dragon did in his youth. What’s even dumber about not getting the surgery is that WCW would have paid for the surgery and paid him while he was out. WCW paying a wrestler’s bill is apparently a new development of the U.S. wrestling wars.

La Parka blew out his knee on Nitro this week. Apparently, he missed his booking on Tuesday because he couldn’t even walk. Three days later, he not only worked the WCW tapings in Orlando, but he stole the show.

Things don’t seem to be going as planned for this group. After speaking with Vampiro, Bob Barnett told me that the house shows are drawing well in the interior of Mexico, but poorly in Konnan’s home base of Tijuana. The group has had a different promoter for virtually every Tijuana show, which certainly isn’t a good sign. The TV situation has been a big problem. TV Azteca’s signal is weak in Tijuana and they don’t have a regular timeslot there. A key factor in getting Konnan to jump was his brainchild, the Extreme tv show, but apparently he’s not involved with any of the tv. The way the Extreme style was introduced may be part of the reason the crowds are down. The style change was drastic and it may have been pushed too hard. I think too many gimmicks and angles were introduced at once, and in that situation they come off as pointless overkill rather than something new. The crazy spots, gimmicks, and angles could have been more effective if they were introduced gradually. Lucha Libre has traditionally drawn poorly in markets where they had no tv or the tv was outdated. Basically the fans don’t show up if they don’t know the angles, so crowds could easily rebound if the tv situation in Tijuana is improved.

Tape Watching

I saw AJW TV 10/6/96, which was taped on 9/28 at Hakata Star Lanes. This was a very good show, but the Hakata crowd was pretty dead. The show opened with Takako Inoue, Tomoko Watanabe, & Yumi Fukawa vs. Toshiyo Yamada, Etsuko Mita, & Chaparrita ASARI. I really don’t like the way they are using the young girls with the established stars. Rather than try to get them over, Fukawa wasn’t in during the 9:30 that was shown. The other girls are all good to great workers, so it was a good match though. The highlight was ASARI hitting both Watanabe and Fukawa with a cross body plancha. There were tons of near falls, but the crowd wasn’t reacting to them. Watanabe was surprisingly the most over of the six. Watanabe pinned Mita with her screw driver. ***1/4. Next was Kyoko Inoue vs. Yoshiko Tamura. Remember Tamura is supposed to be the most pushable of the young girls, so of course this was a 1:53 stomp. Tamura ran from side to side ramming Kyoko into the security rail. Once they got in the ring, Kyoko did a couple of moves and used the crab for the submission. I don’t think Tamura learned much and it certainly didn’t help her credibility. *1/2. Then we had a star and young girl vs. star and young girl where Aja Kong & Rie Tamada defeated Yumiko Hotta & Kumiko Maekawa in 14:45. This match basically proved what I was saying about Maekawa. She’s just too small for her kicking gimmick, so to maintain credibility, she really only worked with Tamada. Tamada actually looked pretty good in this match. She still has a long way to go, but her transitions were good and her limited offensive repertoire isn’t obvious in a tag match. The veterans, Kong and Hotta, worked most of the match. The crowd seemed to like the bigger girls as Kong, Hotta, and Watanabe were the only workers on the show that the crowd was into. It built well, had heat for the near falls, had lots of good transitions, and was well put together. Aja surprisingly pinned Hotta with a brainbuster. ***1/2. The main event was Manami Toyota & Mima Shimoda defending their WWWA Tag Titles in a 2/3 fall match against Kaoru Ito & Mariko Yoshida. This was a strong match of the year candidate. Unfortunately, the crowd didn’t react like they were seeing a classic. The match got off to a fast start. Yoshida & Ito did double handspring elbows off the ropes. Toyota went for her moonsault early, but Ito got her knees up. Toyota hit her springboard plancha. Toyota was placed on an unbreakable table outside of the ring. Yoshida did a splash off the top onto the unbreakable table. Ito followed with her double boot stomp off the top on the unbreakable table. Remember, these tables barely give, so Toyota must have been in a lot of pain after that one. Ito looked as good as she ever looked. She was actually the most impressive of the four. Ito continued to hit double boot stomps left and right. Ito and Yoshida hit a double superplex before Ito pinned Toyota with a super fisherman buster. Shimoda started to shine during the short second fall. Ito did a northern lights bomb where she started with her opponent on her back, rather than in a fireman’s carry. Shimoda pinned Yoshida with a released Tiger superplex. The third fall was excellent. Toyota hit three consecutive missile dropkicks for a near fall. Yoshida got into submission holds, something that was lacking in the first two falls. Yoshida & Ito missed a double diving headbutt off the top earlier, but it worked the second time. Shimoda hit a tope then Toyota did her springboard somersault plancha. Toyota & Shimoda did double missile dropkicks. Ito & Yoshida started showing some great teamwork with a double DDT off the top. Ito & Yoshida did double handspring elbows off the ropes again and followed with simultaneous topes. Yoshida then tried a running cross body plancha, but she wound up hitting Ito with it. Shimoda got a near fall with La Magistal. The crowd would pop for certain moves, but not for near falls. La Magistral and the Dragon screw were the most over moves in Japan in 1996, so this got a reaction. Toyota used her Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex on Yoshida, but Ito made the save. Toyota got a near fall on Yoshida with a Tiger suplex. Toyota finally pinned Yoshida with the Japanese Ocean. This fall, and the whole match for that matter, just had tons of hot moves and great near falls. The execution was super since they did so many high spots in the 25:30 that aired and only 2 didn’t look right. Everything was great about this match, but the crowd heat. Even with a dead crowd, it could have been five stars if they did more matwork. The first fall in a good EMLL match isn’t nearly as exciting, but the mandatory matwork leads to a better built match. One of the top ten matches from 1996 as far as I’m concerned. ****3/4.

I saw the Champ Forum that aired Gaea’s Road to WCW tournament. This was taped on 12/13/96 in Chiba. The first 2 rounds of the tournament were shown in highlight form. The final was Toshie Uematsu vs. Bomber Hikaru. This showed the difference in training between Gaea and AJW. This match was high in build and psychology, but the transitions and execution were nothing special. That’s basically the exact opposite of the AJW young girls. This was a good match. The finish was good since Uematsu won by turning Hikaru’s screw driver finisher into a victory roll. Chigusa Nagayo had a handicap match with Sugar Sato & Chikayo Nagashima. The handicap match was good because Chigusa could sell for the tiny youngsters without losing credibility. It was scientific early, but turned into a brawl. Sato & Nagashima did a double facebuster off the second onto a table. Nagayo & Nagashima juiced. Nagayo pinned Nagashima with a high angle running powerbomb. This was a good match for development purposes. The youngsters were noticeably better in the scientific portion of the match than the brawling portion. The psychology and build weren’t much, but it was still decent. Akira Hokuto & KAORU vs. Sonoko Kato & Meiko Satomura was a very good match. It’s definitely the best Gaea match I’ve seen. Satomura was fiery and pretty stiff for a small girl. She did a new spot where her and KAORU were on the middle rope. Satomura hooked KAORU’s arm and did a somersault off the middle rope, taking KAORU with her. Satomura held onto the arm and when they landed, she applied the cross arm breaker. Hokuto looked as good as she’s looked in a year. She was back to her old great self doing her patented flip dive and everything. Kato did a crucifix roll off the middle rope, which is a pretty hot move. The finish saw KAORU go for her moonsault, but Kato got her legs up. Kato then Dragon suplexed KAORU for the win. The good thing about this match is that the young girls were credible against the veterans. The veterans sold plenty for them and carried them to a good match rather than sell for 1 minute and polish them off. Everyone looked good and the young girls weren’t out of place at all.

Riki Choshu vs. Shinya Hashimoto 1/4/97 Tokyo Dome Match Review

This was a very important match and possibly the biggest money match of 1997, so I feel it’s worthy of review even though I hated it. The version I saw from the 1/11 tv show joined the match in progress, skipping Hashimoto’s first flurry of stiff kicks. Choshu had Hashimoto in his famous scorpion deathlock. Choshu let go of the scorpion and waited around for "immobilized" Hashimoto to get up. Choshu then hit 3 Riki lariats-Hashimoto went down after the 3rd-for a 2 count. Choshu hit 3 more Riki lariats-Hashimoto goes down after 3rd-2 ½ count. Choshu hit 3 more Riki Lariats-Hashimoto went down to his knee after the second but wasn’t knocked down until after the 3rd-2 3/4 count. So far there’s been nothing that I would deem a transition since I don’t consider standing by the rope for 45 seconds and then doing a move a transition. Choshu went for his 10th Riki lariat, but Hashimoto chopped his arm. This was the only real attempt at a transition and it looked pretty bad. Hashimoto unloaded his stiff kicks. Choshu made a comeback, knocking Hashimoto down after a couple chops. Choshu did the worst superplex I ever saw. It’s bad enough that Massao Hattori has to hold his butt while he’s on the top rope for balance, but Choshu didn’t even get him up vertically. It looked like a snap suplex that had no snap. Choshu hit Riki lariat #11 then knocked Hashimoto down with #12. Choshu went to the top rope, but Hashimoto got up and superplexed him. Hashimoto did his DDT, but Choshu had to get a no sell spot in, so he kicked out at 1. Hashimoto did another DDT for a 2 ½ count. Hashimoto tried for his brainbuster finisher, but Choshu blocked it for. Hashimoto tried again, but again couldn’t get Choshu off the ground. With his 3rd effort, Hashimoto brainbustered Choshu for the win at 18:04.

I absolutely hated this match. I would definitely call it unenjoyable. The match was as basic as any I’ve ever seen in Japan. It was totally devoid of creativity. I think anyone who’s seen these guys could have scripted this match. Every move used was a signature spot. The transitions were nonexistent. There was as much time in between moves as there was in the nightmare Shinzaki vs. Hayabusa match from 10/10/96. There were some good points to the match though. This was the match the Tokyo Dome crowd came to see, so the heat and crowd reaction were excellent. It was very dramatic and told a story. The work was stiff and somewhat realistic. Dave Meltzer called this a **** match. I’m giving it *1/2. Drop me an E-mail if you have an opinion on it.