Quebrada #19

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

4/2/97

All Japan

The Champion Carnival opened on 3/22 and is now in full swing. The main news about the opening is Baba getting Steve Williams into Japan despite Williams being a repeat drug offender. Japan is really stiff on drug offenders, and he would have been deported at the very least if not for the clout of Baba. Jun Izumida injured his foot and it out for around six months, so he had to withdraw from the Carnival. They calculated the bye vs. Izumida into the standings at the beginning, so everyone started out with two points. Izumida being out really doesn’t affect things much since pretty much everyone would have gotten those two points anyway, and the bye was probably more enjoyable than the match would have been. Here’s a look at the results through 4/2.

The major upset of the Carnival is Kenta Kobashi scoring his first ever singles pin on Misawa. Kobashi won with a lariat, so that proves how AJ psychology carries over from previous matches since Kobashi was trying desperately to put Misawa away with the lariat on 1/20, but failed there. I never thought I’d shake my head about Kobashi getting a win over anyone, but this is a stupid move. If Kobashi was going to pin Misawa in early 1997, it should have been the Triple Crown match on 1/20. This is really not making sense to me. They gave Kobashi the title, but don’t let him pin anyone but Hansen while he was champion. They had a chance for Kobashi’s first win over Kawada and that win or Kawada regaining the Triple Crown was what the fans were looking for, but they did the draw and it didn’t go over well. Kobashi was still champ, but he hadn’t established himself as a champion. They had the chance for Kobashi to establish himself, but gave the title back to Misawa. Kobashi’s first win over Misawa isn’t special if it’s just a regular carnival match. In the finals, it would have been special. For the title, it would have been special, but this doesn’t strike me as special. Now, it makes more sense to Kobashi vs. Misawa for the Triple Crown. With that said, the only way to do that right away is to have Kobashi win the carnival. But wait, the last guy Misawa defended the Triple Crown against was Steve Williams and he also pinned Misawa in the Carnival today. There’s no reason to go back to this match anytime soon, so there’s no point in Misawa doing this job. It’s especially dumb in wake of Williams drug problems and the possibility he’ll work for WWF. They should work on Misawa vs. Kawada or Misawa vs. Taue since those matches haven’t been done yet in 1997, rather than give guys Misawa just defending against payback wins over him.

The second night saw Hansen upset Kawada. Kawada may be in the dog house again if he’s jobbing to Hansen rather than Taue. This match only went 10:46. I don’t really see the logic behind Kawada doing a lower level job to Hansen. If he’s going to do a lower level job, the only good thing about it being to Hansen is that Stan’s beaten him before, so it’s not wasting a first victory. Hansen’s getting way too big of a push. I can’t believe they had him do two draws, especially since one was against Williams. The guy is simply too limited to be working 30 minute matches these days.

As I feared, Akiyama’s being wasted. It’s sick that he’s behind Kimala II now, even if that won’t last. Akiyama doesn’t even have a legitimate win yet. I know AJ is traditional, but since they are so worried about stirring things up, it would be better to toss Akiyama a bone than to give them to guys like Hansen and Williams, who’s work could generously be described as on the downside.

Misawa drew Kawada for the fifth straight year. They showed about 15 - 20 minutes of this match on television Sunday night and it was said to be great. Kawada dominated with jumping kicks and powerbombs, but unable to put away the champ. Misawa had a couple of nice counters, once turning a powerbomb into a huracanrana, and another time into a flying head-scissors. They teased having Kawada powerbomb Misawa from the apron onto the floor. Misawa escaped the Stretch Plum near the middle of the match. Misawa sold a shoulder injury the entire time, and the selling on both sides was superb. I can’t wait to get a hold of this one.

They are really trying to get Kobashi’s lariat over as a key finisher. I think Kobashi’s lariat will be over for some time now that he beat Misawa with it, but since they followed by having him beat Akiyama with it, it should be really over. Taue’s used two nodowa’s in rapid succession to beat Williams and Akiyama.

Albright’s matches continue to be short. This is most likely due to conditioning problems brought on by complications from diabetes. It looks like he will finish lower than last year.

Standings after the 4/2 bouts:

14 - Taue (7-0-0)

13 - Kawada (6-1-1)

12 - Kobashi (6-0-0)

10 - Hansen (4-0-2)

09 - Misawa (4-2-1)

08 - Ace (4-3-0)

07 - Williams (3-1-1)

04 - Kimala (2-4-0)

03 - Akiyama (1-4-1)

02 - Albright (1-4-0)

02 - Honda (1-5-0)

02 - Omori (1-4-0)

Hayabusa made his All Japan debut on 4/2 teaming with the Masked Tornado (Richard Acelinger aka Richard Slinger) to defeat Satoro Asako & Maunakea Mossman in 16:46. Hayabusa working with Mossman in tag was apparently his test in working against heavyweights. Naoki Sano, formerly of UWF-I, now of Kingdom I assume made his AJ debut 3/30. I believe he defeated Asako. Right now, AJ is doing the same thing as AJW, using interpromotional wrestlers in non-key positions where they are pretty meaningless when it comes to drawing. It will be interesting to see if they will feel comfortable moving them up on the card or they will just not use these guys at all. I’d really like to see Sano get a chance with some of the top AJ workers to see if he can regain the awesome workrate he displayed prior to selling out to the glass company (SWS). Sano’s been misused for basically his whole career and it’s been too long since he got a decent break. Somehow I doubt he’ll ever get a break though and he’ll most likely continue to toil until retirement.

AJW

AJW had the second worst attendance in the wrestling history of Yokohama Arena on 3/23 for their annual Wrestling Queendom show. Yokohama Arena holds 17,000 people, but AJW got around 5,000 in the building (announced as 8,300). Only the WWF has ever done worse in Yokohama Arena. Everyone knew this was a weak card going in, but there are a lot of weaker cards in major arena’s whose attendance blows this away. The real problem, as mentioned 1000 times before is that the young workers in AJW pretty much suck. All the matches with the older workers have been done to the point where even the top match ups don’t mean anything at the box office anymore. Kyoko Inoue defending the newly created Triple Crown against Aja Kong should have drawing power, but it didn’t. Kyoko has never defended against Aja and aside from Manami Toyota, they are the top two in the promotion. If this match can’t draw, then AJW basically has nothing within the league that can. Kyoko vs. Toyota can draw, but you can’t run it too often or, despite the out of this world match quality, it won’t be a special match anymore. It’s high time for another big interpromotional fued like the JWP feud in 1993. All the women’s leagues lack depth and have aging stars, so wouldn’t it be better for a couple of them to team up and draw some decent houses? AJW would be better off conceding some wins to less talented workers than conceding to a half-filled arena.

Results of the show saw Kyoko retain the Triple Crown pinning Aja Kong in 29:29 with two powerbombs. Kyoko now wants to add Mariko Yoshida’s CMLL title and make it a Quadruple Crown. An interesting idea and a good to very good match, but if Aja’s not a strong enough opponent to draw then Yoshida certainly isn’t either. The semi final shows the problems in the promotion. The stiff Kumiko Maekawa’s push continued as her and Tomoko Watanabe defended the WWWA tag titles against Takako Inoue & Mariko Yoshida in a 2/3 fall match. Maekawa is like AJW’s Rocky Maivia. She’s totally garbage right now, but they shove her down everyone’s throat. It’s worse in AJW where workrate is at a premium. I can’t see how this push will get Maekawa over. The more she’s pushed, the more frustrating it gets that she beats wrestlers whose workrate far is out of her league. It’s just getting ridiculous and her popularity (if you can call it that should drop). There’s just a definite credibility problem with Maekawa holding this title. Maekawa won the first fall by pinning Yoshida in 4:56. Takako pinned Watanabe in the second fall at 5:39. In the deciding fall, Watanabe pinned Yoshida at 15:32. It’s pretty bad that Yoshida was pinned twice and Maekawa didn’t do one job. Kaoru Ito scored a shocking (at least to me) upset defeating Manami Toyota in 29:29 of a #1 ranking match. This had a 30:00 time limit, so they teased a draw before putting Ito over. Sounds like an excellent match. I’ll be interested in hearing what kind of pop Ito got for the biggest win of her career. I understand the move because they need to create new stars and since the women that are actually new aren’t star material they have been making the women who were previously secondary into top stars. Ito’s work has been really good on all the recent stuff, so she can have a hell of a title match with Kyoko when that happens, but will anyone attend? In something that’s been expected, the older bodies are unfortunately starting to break down. The Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita vs. Yumiko Hotta & Toshiyo Yamada match was stopped at 19:15 when Hotta blew out her knee. Hotta had reconstructive knee surgery and is gone for two months minimum. It’s bad news that Hotta is breaking down because the style she works, that’s short on crazy bumps, should allow her to work longer than most. At 30, Hotta is the oldest worker in AJW. With no new stars on the horizon, it’s very important that they don’t lose her. Hopefully she can recover and come back just as good as before. Rie Tamada & Yumi Fukawa defeated the Gaea team of Makie Numao & Chihiro Nakano when Fukawa pinned Numao at 17:09. Nakano & Numao are kind of just there in Gaea. They really don’t do anything to distinguish themselves. The other match with Gaea workers saw the quality Oz Academy team of Chikayo Nagashima & Sugar Sato defend the All Japan Tag Title against the absolutely horrible team of Genki Misae and Saya Endo in 10:49. Nagashima & Sato are going 20 minutes plus most of the time in Gaea, but with this competition they probably went 5 minutes too long. AJW vs. Gaea was a split, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. The two better teams won, so hopefully they will meet again for the AJ Tag Title and produce another quality match like they did on 9/1/96. The problem with the Gaea workers AJW is using is that none of them have drawing power. They need to get the leaders of the groups like Chigusa, Ozaki, Hokuto, or KAORU involved if they want to stir up some interest. Emi Motokawa of IWA Japan & Yuka Shiina beat Yoshiko Tamura & Tanny Mouse when Motokawa pinned Tanny at 14:09. The only logic behind this is that for some reason AJW is sending their workers out to the garbage shows and they always beat the poor working Motokawa, so they had to give her a win sometime and it certainly isn’t going to be against someone like Yoshida whom she met on the Ishikawa Ikka debut show. Motokawa is one of the worst working women in Japan. Hell, she even looks awful on Jd’ tapes. Tamura has athletic ability and some potential, but she’s toiling in the prelims. They should start something similar to the Oz Academy and let someone that can help the young workers like Shimoda take them under her wing. Shimoda’s being wasted now since losing the WWWA tag titles. She’s shown the ability to be a good heel in her matches against the young workers like Fukawa. This group would give the youngsters a position and teaming with Shimoda on a consistent basis should easily improve their workrate. In addition, the heat is non-existent these days, so a heel group could liven things up a bit. Tamada, Fukawa, or Tamura would be good candidates for this group. The opener saw Momoe Nakanishi, who’s got potential, defeat Nanae Takahashi in the final of the All Japan Junior Championship Round-robin tournament. The match went 4:35, so that should tell you all you need to know.

AJW had a one night trios tournament on 3/22 at Osaka Messe Arena. It contained the most ridiculous result as far as workrate differential I’ve ever seen among all AJW workers. In the first round Tomoko Watanabe, Kumiko Maekawa, & Saya Endo defeated Mima Shimoda, Etsuko Mita, & Toshiyo Yamada. Sayo Endo is nearly 24 and hasn’t shown any potential in her pitiful career. Why someone like Mita, Shimoda, or even Yamada should have to job when Saya is involved is beyond comprehension. Freedom Force (Toyota, Ito, & Yoshida) won the tournament defeating Takako, Rie Tamada, & Yumi Fukawa in the finals.

New Japan

New Japan is out to once again prove that in wrestling, there’s often no correlation between match quality and drawing a good crowd. Their latest sorry Tokyo Dome show will be held on 4/12. Tickets are said to be going slowly and looking at the card it’s easy to see why. The main problem with the ticket sales is that NJ broke a cardinal rule of wrestling by announcing a big money main event before it was a done deal. Ken Shamrock may not be the national star that Naoya Ogawa is, but Shamrock is the real deal in Japan with a proven track record in NHB competition, so he’s a more interesting opponent. For years, New Japan has matched their top star, usually Inoki, against legitimate fighters, but they never had anyone that was as big a name and as respected in Japan (when the fight was announced, not anymore) as Shamrock was. Anyway, the show will most likely sell out and even if it doesn’t, it will be very close and they will get another $5,000,000 gate.

The main event of the show is IWGP heavyweight champion Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa in a martial arts match. Ogawa won a silver medal in judo in the 1992 Olympics and placed 5th in the 1996 Olympics. He was also a judo world champion in the 209-pound weight division in 1987, 1989, and 1991. Ogawa is much bigger now, more like 285 pounds, so he’s around the same size as Hashimoto. Since the match is under martial arts rules, it’s a non-title match. Hashimoto is the master of telling a simple, but effective story, so this match has some potential. I’ve never seen Ogawa wrestle obviously, so I have no idea is he can work or not. This is an interesting match, but not on the level that Shamrock vs. Hashimoto for the IWGP Title would have been. Ogawa is getting New Japan a lot of mainstream publicity, which is always good, but especially good in Japan where they don’t laugh at pro wrestling like they do when a mainstream sports star like Lawrence Taylor works a match.

Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. The Great Sasuke for the J Crown should have been the best match on the show, and may still be, but it’s more questionable now. Sasuke was injured during a Sekigun vs. DX tag match where he teamed with Gran Hamada & Masato Yakushiji to defeat Dick Togo, Hanzo Nakajima, & Shoichi Funaki. Sasuke was injured taking a stiff kick from Hanzo. The injury is probably a broken orbital bone in his eye. Shiryu definitely has this injury and I believe Mens Teoh has it also, so that really puts a damper on Michinoku Pro. Sasuke will find a way to come back from this injury in time to work this show and the ECW PPV because he has one of the greatest work ethics in the sport. Basically, Sasuke only misses a date when he’s in the hospital, in a wheel chair, or that sort of thing. He must have a tremendous tolerance for pain or a death wish. Once he steps in the ring, he at least seemingly forgets about his injuries and goes all out, but the injury sounds serious enough that even with his best efforts, he may still be severely hampered. Observer reports that Liger came into the ring with some sort of injury on 3/25 against Samurai and they had a toned down sub 10:00 match. Hopefully it’s nothing serious and he’ll be fine for this match. These two met at the Tokyo Dome nearly a year ago (4/29) and it was a great match, although not as great as some of their matches elsewhere. I can’t see this being below four stars if both are healthy.

Manabu Nakanishi vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan will be bad. This is a battle of the two young guys who are pushed far above their skill level. Nakanishi has been looking a little better lately, but he’s still pretty bad. Both of these guys can be effective in tag, when it’s booked properly, but I’ve never liked a Nakanishi singles match and Tenzan’s only good singles matches have been when he was carried by good experienced workers. Tenzan will probably win since he’s in the NWO, but that’s not a given. Hopefully it will be kept short.

Shinjiro Otani vs. El Samurai should be a great match. This could be the best match on the show, even if Liger and Sasuke are 100%. Samurai gets little respect for some reason, maybe because he’s not that glamourous, but he’s a great worker. The thing with Samurai, is that he’s the perfect counterpart for basically any of the NJ juniors. Otani is a slight notch away from being the best worker in the world. Super work is a given with either of these two. These two met at the Tokyo Dome on 1/4/95 with Otani winning via Dragon suplex at 15:17. That was a great match, the best on that Dome show. Otani is much better now than he was then, so this should be even better. The winner of this match would be the logical #1 contender for the J Crown. With that said, Samurai may be due to win this one because Otani and Kanemoto just had their shot at the J Crown in February.

I never thought I would dread seeing a major Chris Benoit match in Japan, but the day has come. Benoit takes Kevin Sullivan, which will be more rehashing of their original bathroom brawl. Benoit will make the match at least decent, he has in all their past matches, so that’s not why I dread the match. NJ is seeing fit to lower their standards by bringing "Woman" and that Jacquelyn thing to Japan. One of the cool things about Puroresu is they don’t have the useless managers with their lame interference, stupid angles, and screw jobs. Now, we will have to see Woman’s horrible no impact blows ruining a match in Japan. Maybe she can make it 2 minutes before blowing up this time. New Japan seems to stoop to a new low at every Tokyo Dome show whether it’s destroying UWF-I credibility with Muto beating Takada via figure four, Choshu no selling Kakihara, the Big Japan garbage wrestlers appearing and then the way Chono gave Nakamaki less than no credibility, etc. You have to give them credit because they make money. The workrate leagues like AJ, AJW, and Michinoku Pro are losing fans while NWO mania is running wild. Anyways, the match will have some good spots, but the women’s fighting will be weak with little credibility and probably poor selling and timing.

Satoshi Kojima & Junji Hirata vs. Kazuo Yamazaki & Osamu Kido is questionable as far as match quality. Kojima has been looking much better lately. He’s probably one of the most improved workers thus far in 1997. His teamwork with Nakanishi is pretty good, so hopefully it will hold up with the better Hirata on his side. Yamazaki has Kido rather than Iizuka in his corner, which is a drop off of epic proportions. Kido is by far the worst worker in this match and I can easily see him reducing Kojima’s workrate in this match. I really don’t understand the purpose of this match being on the card.

The new interpromotional fued has Heisei Ishingun vs. Ishikawa Ikka. Sounds really exciting, right? Anyway, Shiro Koshinaka will be given yet another chance that he’s the best worker in the world at carrying an opponent. This time, they are giving him 44-year-old garbage wrestling stiff Takashi Ishikawa to deal with. I’ve only seen Shiro once since his reconstructive knee surgery and the match was subpar. Of course, he was fighting Muto as Muta in a gimmick match. He lacked fire in that match, which is uncharacteristic, but it’s probably hard to get excited about working with Muta. Still, even with the bad gimmick and typical lack of effort, Muta is better than the typical garbage they give Shiro to work with like Ishikawa. I don’t think it will suck, but it will probably be disappointing for a Shiro match. Since it’s Shiro, NJ might give Ishikawa a win to get the fued off. Since it’s a NJ Dome Show, I doubt NJ will concede anything to another promotion though.

Tiger Mask Sayama meets Antonio Inoki in a legends match. If it was 1983, this match could have sold out the Dome as quick as the box offices could have handled the floods of people trying to purchase tickets. However, in 1997, this match doesn’t mean a lot at the box office. Sayama is a shell of his former self at best. He’s fallen to the level where Shinzaki’s match against TAKA in December was better than Sayama’s in January. Very sad. This will be a shoot style match, since that’s the style they have been working toward for the Peace Festival in Mexico. It will undoubtedly have some poor matwork by Inoki that will look more like a rest hold than a finisher. Sayama is very credible in this style and probably better at this now than at the junior style since shooting doesn’t get outdated as the years progress. It will be better than that awful match with Willie Williams at the last Dome Show, but that statement says little to nothing. I don’t think either will be willing to do a job, so it will probably be a draw.

Great Muta vs. Masa Chono is a NJ vs. NWO match. Knowing it’s Muta is enough to knock 1/2* off minimum. Basically this will be Muta in the role of Sting continuing the copying of WCW angles. These two have had great matches in the past, but that was the old Chono, pre knee injury, who was a very good worker. It will probably be a combination of a gimmick match and an angle match. Maybe a table will be involved and probably some NWO run ins. Yawn.

Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura defend the IWGP Tag Titles against Riki Choshu & Kensuke Sasaki. Fujinami & Kimura have looked better than I thought they would lately, but given the horrible, limited, no-sell team they have to work with I can’t see this being remotely good. Sasaki will probably work most of the match with Choshu just coming in, making them sell his two spots and tagging out. Choshu won’t do a job, so either his understudy does one or they win the tag titles.

The show on 3/22 in Nagoya at the Tsuyuhashi Sports Center, which drew a sellout 2,800, didn’t go as I thought it would. The young stars, Yuki Kondo and Kuima Kunioku continued to win, which isn’t surprising. Kondo handily defeated Kim Jong Wan in 0:25 with an arm bar and Kunioku beat Hayger Chin, also with an arm bar, in 7:44. Jong Wan usually loses quickly, but now he’s going from 1 and 2 minute loses to sub 30 second loses. King of Pancrase Masakatsu Funaki also got an easy win defeating Paul Lezenbee in 4:26 with an armlock. The surprise of the show was 20-year-old Osami Shibuya going to a 15:00 draw with the returning Bas Rutten. Shibuya remains undefeated in 1997, but his previous wins against Fuke and Jong Won were no big deal. This however, could be a sign that he’s coming into his own. Another surprise was Semmy Schilt defeating Yoshiki Takahashi in Takahashi’s first bout since his famous UFC win. In the last column, when I predicted Takahashi to win, I forgot about the size advantage Schilt has. Schilt is a big guy at 6-9 while Takahashi is a junior. Another thing I forgot is that Schilt is mainly a striker, since Takahashi falls in the same category, it was a tough match for him due to Schilt’s reach advantage. Schilt won in 7:00 via TKO from a palm blow. Still, I have to think that Pancrase figured Takahashi would win because why would you put someone who’s totally over due to a major win outside the league in with a guy he’ll lose on his first match back?

The next show is a major show on 4/27 at Tokyo Bay NK Hall. At this show, TAKA Michinoku, the best worker in Michinoku Pro wrestling and one of the best in the quasi-shoot Battlarts promotion, will become the first standard style pro wrestler to work an interpromotional match within Pancrase. TAKA’s opponent is Keiichiro Yamamiya, who debuted with Pancrase in July.

Keiichiro Yamamiya’s Pancrase record

I think Yamamiya is probably a good opponent for TAKA in his first match. Yamamiya’s inexperienced and doesn’t have any noteworthy wins. TAKA’s main liability is size, but Yamamiya is small also. TAKA’s height and weight are listed at 178cm and 88kg while Yamamiya is listed at 178cm and 87kg. In other words, they are virtually the same size. They are also almost the same age as Yamamiya is 24 while TAKA is 23. The thing with TAKA is that he’s been a pro for 4 1/2 years, while Yamamiya’s only been around 8 months. This experience difference may make up for the fact that Yamamiya has a huge advantage since he only does the legit Pancrase work. The thing that worries me is that TAKA can’t be training that much for the match. He’s still working all the Michinoku shows, while Yamamiya is probably spending most of his day working out in the Pancrase dojo. Pancrase is a style that is totally different from anything TAKA’s even done. Sure, he uses his tremendous speed to dominate in Battlarts, but those guys are giving him openings. To beat Yamamiya, he’s going to have to work for opening rather than have someone give them to him. I really don’t know what submission skills TAKA has. I mean, he can apply a submission in a work, but I could put you in a cross arm breaker or Wakigatamae if you let me also. The key will be whether he can work for an opening and get a submission on. He may be able to use some effective strikes, but he doesn’t display ability in this area in his typical matches. Generally, in Michinoku his strikes are done to piss his opponent off and get him over as a surly young rat-bastard. Michinoku is basically Lucha Libre and strikes aren’t really a part of that style so he probably has more ability there than he typically displays. We haven’t seen him in a legitimate bout before, so there’s nothing to gauge his work in that area on.

RINGS

Akira Maeda defeated the company’s best native worker, Kiyoshi Tamura on 3/28 at Tokyo Bay NK Hall. This is totally ego feeding on Maeda’s part. Maeda’s was sure great in his day, but he’s not in that great of shape now and he needs to pass the torch to the younger Tamura. Results like this will lead to drawing problems when he retires.