Quebrada

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

12/1/96

The first 24-hour combat sports cable channel starts in Japan today (12/1). The Samurai TV cable channel will air pro wrestling, legitimate fighting events, and martial arts. This should be a big bonus to the independent promotions in Japan. Right now, only the big 2 (AJ & NJ) have weekly tv shows. All Japan Women and JWP have tv specials roughly every other month and some of the other groups like WAR, Pancrase, and FMW get a tv special once in a while. The only tv exposure the rest of the groups get is the weekly Champ Forum show on the sportschannel Gaora. The problem for the small groups is that Champ Forum is an hour show a week, which is hardly enough considering they air Michinoku Pro, FMW, Gaea, Jd’, and the garbage wrestling groups. Champ Forum sticks to one promotion a week. Michinoku and FMW are the biggest promotions they show, so they are on the most. This leaves the smaller groups an hour of tv time, on a tv station with a lower viewing audience than the big 2's stations, every few months. The smallest Indies like Masayoshi Motegi’s Yume Wrestle Factory, Yoshiaki Yatsu’s Social Pro Wrestling Federation, and Ryuma Go’s Samurai Project don’t even get on Champ Forum (at least in the case of Go’s promotion that is a good thing because Champ Forum would be lowering their high standards by airing the horrible comedy matches his promotion puts on). This should all change because the new channel will have weekly shows from many of the independent promotions. Another good thing is that the channel will be running weekly shows from other parts of the world. They plan on showing Lucha and some of the American crap we all love so much. This will be beneficial to the Luchadores because they had no exposure in Japan. When the fans get a chance to see their true talents, they will gain popularity and have a much better chance of being booked into Japan. Since the fans will have seen the luchadores and know their gimmicks, the Japanese promotion won’t have to do as much to get them over. With exposure, the biggest stars in Mexico should theoretically mean something at the gate in Japan. The channel will also have a daily news program that is similar to Sportscenter, but just covers this genre of sport. This should be interesting because the Japanese media covers wrestling as a real sport. You would think that you would get more hardcore and insider news on this program, but I don’t think it will come close to the extent we are used to getting our sheets.

Antonio Inoki is producing a show tonight from Tokyo Yoyogi Gym that will air live on the Samurai TV channel. This is being done to garner immediate interest in the station. Despite Inoki’s involvement, New Japan wrestlers cannot appear because they have an exclusive contract with TV-Asahi. Therefore, this show has become a showcase for the independent talent. To say that this show has a weird concoction of talent would be an understatement.

The main event of Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada, Super Delfin, Naohiro Hoshikawa, and Masato Yakushiji vs. Dick Togo, Mens Teoh, Shiryu, TAKA Michinoku, and Shoichi Funaki should be an awesome spectacle. All ten wrestlers are very good. They are all among the best in Michinoku Pro with Sasuke, TAKA, and Delfin being among the best in the world. This will be aerial warfare at its best with one great move after another. Despite the fact that Sasuke’s team has the three most famous wrestlers, I expect them to lose with Hoshikawa or Yakushiji doing the job. TAKA will be at his best because he is opposing Delfin. TAKA used to team regularly with Delfin, but he wanted to get away from the comedy and develop into the great wrestler that he has become. 4 3/4 stars is not out of the question.

Ultimo Dragon vs. Gran Naniwa for the J*Crown should also be an excellent match. Naniwa is only 19, but he has been wrestling in Michinoku since the league was formed in 1993. He has improved by leaps and bounds since then and I feel that he should be one of the best around by the time he is 22. The only problem is Gran Naniwa’s gimmick, which translated means the great crab. He wears an absurd outfit to the ring equipped with large awkward crab arms. He takes those off, but he wrestles with the crab mask. I like the gimmick, but it makes it hard to take him seriously. The other problem is that unlike TAKA he hasn’t gotten away from Delfin and his comedy routine. This match will not be a joke though. Since it is a title match on live tv Ultimo definitely won’t be resting his bad ankles. I foresee Naniwa proving to everyone just how talented he is. Ultimo can make up for whatever limitations Naniwa has and make this a 4 star match. Ultimo will definitely get the win and retain the J*Crown.

After the top two matches (Ultimo vs. Naniwa won’t necessarily be the semi, but I’m talking quality) the card probably falls off a lot. I say probably because the great one Satoru Sayama may be able to carry Masaaki Mochizuki to a very good match. I haven’t seen Sayama since his return, so I don’t know what he has left. From what I have heard, he can still do his great spots from the early 1980's though he's much heavier now, but he since he missed 13 years he hasn’t been able to change his style to fit 1996 standards yet. The thing I like about this match up is that Sayama’s flying whether it is outdated or modern won’t make that much of a difference. Mochizuki is from Kitao’s shoot promotion and has the shooter gimmick. Sayama has a martial arts background and despite his aerial excellence he always preferred that style. Sayama was also an excellent trainer and he ran several shows with his trainees in the past (the most notable trainee would be Manabu Yamada of Pancrase fame). Mochizuki proved at the 2nd Super J Cup that he could have a good match with high spots without his shooter gimmick suffering. I expect a lot of kicks and matwork along with Sayama doing his great moves. Sayama isn’t as good as Otani right now, but you shouldn’t doubt the skills or intelligence of the innovator of all wrestling that rules! He could work the same style match as Otani did with Mochizuki and have it be nearly as good or possibly better since Mochizuki has probably improved during the past year.

Now on to the bad matches. Koji Kitao vs. Mabel has a chance to be the worst Japanese match of the year. I don’t need to tell you how bad a worker Mabel is. Kitao was a star in Sumo, but as we know from the likes of Earthquake, no Avalanche, no a Face of Fear, no Shark, wait he doesn’t have gills, of I mean John Tenta this doesn’t necessarily translate into being even a decent worker. Tenta wasn’t nearly the star of Kitao in Sumo, so maybe Tadao Yasuda who is also horrible is a better comparison. Anyhow, Kitao is just an awful worker and even when he is in there with someone who can carry him it is just bad. Kitao will win because as I’ve mentioned in previous columns he needs to save face from recent loses in legit matches. I will be surprised if this match is worthy of a star.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Shinichi Nakano should also be brutal (to watch). Fujiwara is a legendary "shooter" in Japan, but he is one of the dullest workers. Most people could have looked good fighting the likes of Takada, Maeda, and Yamazaki in their primes, but I still never thought Fujiwara was decent. Unfortunately, Fujiwara is one of those wrestlers that the Japanese fans love and American fans can never understand why. Fujiwara will forsake the continuous low blows he used in FMW and revert back to his less than lethal headbutt as his main offense in this encounter. Nakano was good at one time, but he is past his prime and won’t be able to save this one.

In another match with the shoot theme the 55-year-old Wilhelm Ruska takes on Yuki Ishikawa. Ruska, who was an Olympic gold medalist in judo, was a legendary opponent of Inoki in the 1970's. If you saw the Inoki vs. Ruska match they showed on New Japan tv back in January of 1995 then I need not tell you how bad Ruska is. That match was so bad. The funny thing is that, as bad as it was it was, it aired on the same show as Sting vs. Tony Palmore which can’t be bottomed. Yuki Ishikawa is a solid worker. He can do the shoot style or do Inoki better than Inoki can these days. Unfortunately, in America, he gets no respect because most people have only seen him in that bad match against Iceman (Ricky Santana) from IWA Kawasaki Dream. Since Ruska can’t sell high spots and Ishikawa is working under his real name rather than his Kamikaze gimmick, I expect this to be a couple stiff blows and some matwork which at least on Ruska’s part will be bad. Ruska will win because he is the legend.

Antonio Inoki was scheduled to fight Gerard Gordeau, but Gordeau canceled. Now Inoki is supposed to fight someone known as Pirate. I have no idea who this Pirate is, but I know it isn’t a world class worker so there is no chance that this Pirate will be able to carry the aging Inoki to a good match. I guess that Inoki can work this show because he isn’t a regular New Japan worker. Call me uninformed, but it would take Kenta Kobashi for this to be good and if it was someone of that caliber using a different gimmick there would be a buzz.

The other wrestling match that I know of is a Battlarts tag match with Carl Greco & Katsumi Usuda vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono. This will be another shoot style match. Ikeda is good, but he is a cronie of Fujiwara whom I despise, so I’m not exactly his biggest fan. I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on the likes of Katsumi Usuda. This match could be ok because you have younger guys that will be thrilled to be on tv. They also might be so thrilled that they freeze up. Send me some E-mail if you have any incite to add to this one.

The other matches are legit involving kickboxers and the like. Ryushi Murakami is the only noteworthy name. Murakami has developed almost a cult following because he beat Bart Vale on the last EFC PPV. Many people hate Vale because he made a career in legitimate fighting off a worked victory over Ken Shamrock. This was back in the days of PWFG when Vale, who ran a really small shoot group in Florida, had a working agreement with Fujiwara. Vale even got a feature in Sports Illustrated a while ago. With all this fame based on no substance, many were glad to see his self-created myth end.

Basically whether you think this card is good or not depends on whether you look for a good show from top to bottom. If you feel that a few great matches negate a bad overall card than this is the show for you. Hopefully the lineup has been reworked a bit. Obviously I don’t know the politicking it took to put this together, but I think it could be improved. I would like to see the Ruska vs. Ishikawa match changed. Since Ishikawa is a Motegi cronie and Inoki/New Japan have given Motegi a lot of exposure in the last couple of years they should get him to team with Ishikawa. Inoki/New Japan has been working with WAR and Liger & Samurai recently dropped WAR’s International jr. tag titles back to Yuji Yasuraoka and Lance Storm. A Yasuraoka & Storm vs. Motegi & Ishikawa seems feasible. With Storm involved it could even be "Thrilling." It would definitely be a much better than Ishikawa vs. Ruska. I’m sure there is another young worker with a shooting gimmick that would put Ruska over. I don’t know how a bad match with Mabel will increase Kitao’s value. I guess they just like the size match up. The main thing I don’t like about this card is that with all the varying styles on the Independent curcuit why showcase so much shooting. It seems that all the good matches will be aerial warfare and all the bad matches will be badly worked shoot style matches. Even if the card goes awry it can’t be bad for the workers because they are getting much needed tv exposure.

In wrestling it has been proved many times that someone will always come up with something new and ridiculous. The recent Cactus and Scorpions Life Death Match between Shoji Nakamaki and Mitsuhiro Matsunaga is a prime example. In this match, the ring was surrounded by plastic and every five minutes, a ring attendant would open up a box of live scorpions and put them into the ring. On many occasions, the ring attendents would actually drop the scorpions on Matsunaga. They also had a real cactus which they used as a foreign object. The sick and stupid thing is that these two were brutalizing each other in front of a minute crowd. Matsunaga was legitimately injured and had to go to the hospital from bad cuts. I have to see this match because it sounds even weirder than the No Rope Barbed Wire Lumberjack Cobra Snake Death Match between Poison Sawada and White Mummy that IWU ran nearly 2 years ago.

This weeks match of the year candidate is Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera from 3/16/96 in Tijuana. Rey Misterio Jr. was defending his WWA world welterweight title in this 2 out of 3 fall match. This match took place a week after the famous ECW Arena match. Although the matches were so close together and contained some of the same spots, they were very different because they were worked to the style the crowd would appreciate the most. The ECW match was faster paced and contained more high spots and brawling. This match built better and had better psychology. The biggest difference was the crowd heat though and the Tijuana crowd was a lot more into the match than the Arena crowd.

The early part of the match was designated to show that the two were equal (Wake Up Eric Bischoff). Each would try to get one up on the other, but their attempts failed. One interesting spot was when Rey monkey flipped Juventud out of a lock up. Neither let go of the others hands and both were lying on the mat with their shoulders down. The ref counted 2 before both men simultaneously bridged to break the count. Rey monkey flipped Juventud over the top then hit a somersault bodyblock version of Silver King’s tope con hilo. Juventud went for a clothesline, but Rey countered with a double tilt-a-whirl headscissors (two tilt-a-whirls before turning it into the headscissors). Juventud back body dropped Rey over the top rope, but he didn’t know Rey countered and landed on the apron, so he posed to the crowd. Rey leaned over the top rope and pulled him down by his hair. When Juventud got up, Rey caught him with a flying Frankensteiner. Rey used the Sabu Arabian moonsault to the floor. Rey got a near fall when he countered Juventud’s fall back superplex with a sunset flip powerbomb. Juventud used a brainbuster for a 2 1/4 count. Rey Irish whip, Juventud baseball slides through his legs, Juventud jump spinning heel kick, Rey back body drops Juventud over the top, Juventud lands on apron and then uses a springboard leg lariat for a near fall. That would have been an excellent spot, but Juventud’s leg lariat was a bit off target. Juventud used his dragon suplex to win the first fall.

They did a double shoulderblock where both men fell and right after they both simultaneously kipped up, Rey hit a Frankensteiner for a 2 count. Juventud whipped Rey into the corner, but missed a dropkick. With Juventud on the apron, Rey hit a huracanrana off the top to the floor. Juventud took the bump off the apron onto Halloween. Unfortunately there was only a couple feet between the ring and the security rail which isn’t enough room, so the move didn’t look as good as it should have. Rey draped Juventud on the middle rope and hit a springboard somersault leg drop. Rey got a 2 count with a Frankensteiner off the top. Rey then pinned Juventud with a Doctor Bomb (gutwrench Liger bomb).

The pace really picked up in the third fall. Juventud used a jackknife that was much better than any that scrub Nash has ever performed. Juventud hit a somersault leg drop off the top (a.k.a. Harlem Hangover) for a near fall. Juventud went to the top again, but this time he missed a flying leg drop. Rey then powerbombed him for a 2 3/4 count. With Juventud out of the ring, Rey used his baseball slide headscissors. Rey threw a chair, which hit Juventud in the head. Juventud used a kneecap dropkick followed by a Frankensteiner off the top for a 2 1/4 count. Juventud tried a high angle powerbomb, but Rey turned it into a Frankensteiner. Juventud went for his dragon suplex, but Rey held onto the top rope. Juventud used the Super Delfin swinging DDT off the 2nd for a 2 3/4 count. Juventud knocked Rey out of the ring with a jump spinning heel kick. Halloween held Rey and Juventud tried to plancha him, but Leon Negro knocked Rey out of harms way and Halloween took the brunt of it. Misterio used a Liger flip dive. Juventud attempted to suplex Rey back in the ring, but he blocked and they went back and forth until one of the Pandilleros took Rey’s leg out. Then a brawl broke out involving Halloween, Pandilleros, Leon Negro and Los X-Men. Juventud tried a flying Frankensteiner, but Rey caught him in the air and powerbombed him (same spot used in finish of Hayabusa vs. Liger from the 1st J Cup). Halloween took the ref out with a DDT. Rey used a Lionsault. Pandilleros then double teamed Rey until the technicos made the save. Negro and X-men did a simultaneous quadruple dive spot on the rudos. Rey was triple teamed until Konnan came out with a barbed wire bat and made the save. The technicos whipped each rudo off the ropes and Konnan hit them with the bat. Rey tried to use the bat on Juventud. Juventud escaped once by sliding through his legs, but when he got up he was greeted with a bat in the head. Rey then used an Arabian moonsault for the victory. ****3/4

This was a great match, but I think the 3/9/96 ECW match was better. The ECW match was one of those special matches where both men came out fired up and did unbelievable spots from start to finish. The ECW match had a higher level of difficulty, more creative counters, and a better finish. The ECW finish where Rey turned the Die Hard into a Frankensteiner was awesome. The run-ins in this match were good and well executed, but it isn’t like these two needed any help. This was the best feud of the year in my opinion and you definitely can’t go wrong with either match. Last year I though Guerrero vs. Malenko was the best feud of the year, funny how WCW always finds a way to ruin a good thing.