This is the fruit of that partnership, and a juicy fruit it is.
Much like Vice. WOOP WOOP WOOP!
Welcome, welcome, cats and kittens to yet another Swatch Watch sponsored edition of Cewsh Reviews. This week we have a special treat for you all, and while we always say that, this time we truly have tapped into to something very different for us. That’s right, we’re hopping into our wrestling time machine, setting the dial to 1991, and slapping a “Japan or bust” bumper sticker on that bad boy, as this week we tackle the WCW/NJPW Supershow from 1991 entitled “Rumble In The Rising Sun”. The best of New Japan gets pitted up against the best of WCW in one of the very first international supershows, and we are beaming with pride to cover this epic and important show with all of you.
Will the famous Cewsh Reviews wit manage to avoid making nothing but 90s jokes from here on out? Or will we have to cut…it…out? You’ll just have to keep reading to find out, as we pass our judgmental lens over yet another piece of wrestling history. We're also going to make a concerted effort this time out to use pictures and gifs to bring the past to life for you. To give you some idea of what we see, and to share the experience with us. We'll see how it goes. Come on along for the ride.
So without any further ado, let’s do a motherfucking review!
Cewsh: Well, this was 1991, what are you really expecting? There’s some awful Japanese sounding music with some electric guitars, some cheesy graphics, and clips of really wacky looking early 90s wrestlers. That isn’t the real story, though. The real story is when they pan to a shot of the crowd and its is motherfucking ENORMOUS. They say that 50,000 people are in attendance, and while WWE has drawn bigger crowds, this looks like the biggest wrestling crowd I have ever seen.
It is just an unbelievable seething mass of humanity, and its fucking amazing. Then JR and Tony Schiavone (an odd pairing, especially since Schiavone is definitively the color guy here) lead us into the show by mentioning that ringside seats were $250 (ONLY THAT MUCH FOR THIS SHOW?!) and then they cut to some clips of the WCW guys and the NJPW guys signing the legal documents that allow this show to exist. And then, for what I can only assume is shits and giggles, they show Ric Flair and Arn Anderson shopping at a store, and Arn Anderson trying on a Geisha outfit. Which is adorable, and suits him scarily well.
I don’t know if you can tell but I am in love with this show already. The card looks amazing, the production values are good but nostalgic, and the wackiness factor is already off the scale. I am so excited, I think I just peed myself a little.
Vice: JR explains that the crowd (which is pretty fucking massive) is not bored, and that the Japanese fans are very quiet and respectful, and will make noise at much different times. Explaining that was very crucial. He also mentions that the ring is much stiffer than the rings in America, which brought to my attention just how concrete-like it was. Ouch.
Vice: Vice needs to see more Brian Pillman and Z-Man. This much is obvious. Tim Horner and the Japanese folk.. not so much.
Fun opening match. Japan wins. That’s basically it.
Cewsh: MULLETS!
Okay, so this is the 90s. All the Americans have huge, fluffy mullets, and all of the Japanese guys have ridiculously high pants and shiny jackets. Also good to remember, is that this is probably the first time that an American audience was in any way exposed to Japanese wrestlers to this extent, and certainly to the Japanese fanbase. JR has to make a point of telling the audience that the fans aren’t bored, but are instead maintaining a respectful silence. I’m actually blown away, initially, by how amazing Ross and Schiavone are working together as an announcing team. They complement each other incredibly well, and Ross especially is just fantastic to listen to. Seeing this really does drive home how much of a shell of himself he’s become these days. Depressing, really.
The match itself was hard to get used to at first, because we as wrestling fans have gotten used to some truly incredibly displays of high flying, and exciting opening match wrestling in the past 18 years, and to see this, I wasn’t even conscious, at first, that that’s what they were going for. As the match unfolded, though, it became more clear, and I actually found myself impressed, not with Pillman or the Japanese guys, and certainly not with Horner, but instead with Tom Zenk. What the shit happened to Tom Zenk? The guy had an amazing look for the early 90s, and his offense was actually really fun to watch. To say nothing of how fluid a team he and Pillman were. I was really getting into the guy, and it’s a good thing, because I just finished watching the match twelve seconds ago, and I couldn’t tell you anything about the Japanese guys, aside from the old one with the Harley Race sideburns. They were basically just there, and seemed like complete cannon fodder for the Americans.
Which, of course, made it even weirder when the young one (Kobayashi I think?) ran in and hit a Dragon Suplex on Horner to get the win. Seemed completely contrary to the match altogether, but it was probably booked by arrangement between the two companies anyway, so I guess I can see how it would work out that way.
Interesting opener. Not great. Not bad. Interesting.
65 out of 100.
Cewsh: Akira, for reference, is actually the AKIRA who you might find hanging around the Legends circuit in Japan these days, NJPW especially. He’s the guy Vice thought was a rookie in 2009. Note that not only is he in this match 18 years ago, but he had actually left Japan for a full year prior to this match to train in other countries and make movies. Sorry Vice. Had to do it.
Jushin Liger, on the other hand, is one of the handful of Japanese wrestlers of all time that is known all over the world, and its definitely a treat to see him here, because this is during the era where he might very well have been the best wrestler in the world, and was definitely in the discussion. To get a chance to see him in his prime is more than a treat, its damn near a privilege, and I’m absolutely 100% grateful we got the opportunity to review a match of his from this period.
Unfortunately, though, it had to be THIS particular match. See, either Liger gets legit hurt in the opening moments, or something else happens, because this match is as awkward and uncoordinated as it gets. Liger does some jumps out of the ring onto Akira, and instantly, he starts clutching his ankle, and the ref comes to check on him. After a few seconds they continue, and Liger hits two powerbombs and a top rope DDT and boom. Its over. We couldn’t help but to scratch our heads at this whole thing and wonder whether this was the play or if Liger was legit hurt and it messed everything up. Regardless, it’s a huge shame that this match couldn’t live up to potential (well, for Akira it probably surpassed his potential) and hopefully we get a better chance to see Liger at his best down the road.
40 out of 100.
Vice: This match is very short and is incredibly awkward like two minutes into it, after a shady spot with Liger jumping to the outside and eating a kick on the way down from AKIRA:
Liger is either amazing here or he’s legitimately hurting. AKIRA doesn’t look too good either, having landed knee first (and hard) on the concrete. There are a few quick little spots where you can tell Liger is supposed to do ____, but that doesn’t happen right, and AKIRA just kind of stares at him like WTF before moving on to the next spot. The match is only 4 minutes long, which does lead me to believe that they had to improvise.
Yes, the person I was most looking forward to on this entire card was in a four minute match. Which means that lesser people are going to be getting more time. However, perhaps only four minutes of AKIRA is a gift from the gods above us. Buuuuut four minutes of Liger just isn’t enough.
Considering what this match was, it wasn’t baaaaad, but there wasn’t much to it for reasons already explained. But, I’ll leave you with this:
Vice: According to Schiavone, this is Arn Anderson’s first time wrestling in Japan. Someone hit the confirm on that, ‘cause I don’t trust Schiavone at all. He could be right, though.
Match was very solid. I had high expectations and they weren’t met, but I still enjoyed the match quite a bit. It didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the show thus far in any way though, which is a good thing. Chono is so young. Scary. The number of people on this show that still wrestle to this very day is kinda crazy. They’re young in this show and turning to dust nowadays—even if they’re still good.
This match also made me wish Arn wrestled longer. He was very good.
The finish was a bit quirky to me, but I’m sure it’s all nitpicking. Saito is holding Arn from behind as Windham bounces off the ropes. Arn ducks down and Windham blasts the utter fuck out of Saito with a lariat, all while Chono is looking on while in the ring. He starts moving to the outside as Arn goes for the pin. This is where my eyebrow shot up. Why didn’t Chono break up the pin? Did he not know the power of Windham’s lariat? Did he have too much faith in his partner? Saito kicks out at 3.01 and shoots right back up to his feet, completely no selling it. Chono looks confused. Saito’s mannerisms basically say “ruh roh…”, and Arn and Windham have the “oh hey, we won? Cool I guess!” expression on their faces.
SHENANIGANS?
Probably not, but I was still a bit confused at it all. If I had to guess, I’d say that it’s America winning but Japan looking as good as Hulk Jarrettly possible. It’s kinda lame though. Kicking out of a roll-up at 3.01 and shooting right up is fine. Kicking out of a death move at 3.01 and shooting right up is silly.
Cewsh: Alright, here we are now.
After the first two matches, what I was really craving, more than anything else, was for a bunch of guys to come out and just beat the fuck out of each other, and finally I got that very thing from these four. It was funny watching this, though, because it put a lot of the things I think on their heads. I always knew that, say, Arn Anderson was a wrestler once and Masahiro Chono was once not the Black Charimsa Chono and was actually a young kid once, but to see both of those things at the same time, along with Barry Windham looking like the world’s most homoerotic cowboy, and Saito looking like the coolest dude ever, it was just a little bit staggering.
I didn’t have a ton of time for reflection though, as these guys started the ass kicking early, and rode it on into a good match. It was actually the classic clash of Japanese style tags and American style, with the Americans making a ton of tags, and focusing on teamwork and fluidity, and the Japanese team relying on the young guy to get his ass kicked until the other team got tired, and then tag in the veteran destroyer to rip the other team apart. The surprising part was how well the styles wound up jelling for me, resulting in a really fun little match that really saved this show up to this point. Chono took a beating, Anderson looked like a fucking pro, Saito was a beast, and Windham sucked a dick. It was everything I wanted and nothing I asked for.
Gotta love it.
78 out of 100.
Cewsh: So okay, I finally got a decent match, and then…
Fuck me.
So they get into the ring, and the Japanese fans are actually going BALLISTIC for Gigante. He’s is actually clearly regarded as a huge star, and this is reflected even more when Gigante grabs Cat and goes for a suplex, causes the whole arena to rise to its feet, and flashbulbs to go off like crickets on an August afternoon. He delivers the suplex to huge cheers, and jumps up pandering to the adoring crowd. It is at this very point where I made possibly the biggest mistake of make (fake) journalistic career. I actually considered, just for a moment, that Gigante might be underrated. That everyone else who has ever told me about him might be wrong, and he’s actually a charismatic, agile, awesome big man. For the space of exactly 4 seconds I thought that thought, and then he delivered a big boot that was in no way big at all. He got his foot up to roughly Cat’s groin, and then, grabbed Cat’s face, pushed him to the mat, and got a three count.
And the entire building goes silent.
Now, Japanese fans are quiet, true, but at the end of matches is where they release all of their pent up emotions from the match, and at the very least politely applaud out of respect. But there was no respect here, boys and girls. Just absolute silence. The sound of 50,000 ripping up their tickets to the El Gigante autograph show later on that night. A sad and bitter silence, from whence I tried to piece together the ashes of my journalistic integrity.
Sadness and woe.
14 out of 100.
Vice: El Gigante reminds me a lot of AC Slater from Saved by the Bell. But, you know, on a much much larger scale. And older, obviously.
This match is going to be AWESOME. As awful as El Gigante is, I actually am a bit of a mark for him. I miss him wearing his Giant Gonzalez outfit (which is amazing), but whatever. He’s still cool. He’s also very charismatic here and the fans love him. Amazingly, he’s by far the best wrestler in this match. And this is by far the best move from the best wrestler:
Ok, so the match isn’t exactly five stars. Or one star. Or a quarter of a star. In fact, I don’t have any idea why this match was even on this card. Or how I actually managed to watch the entire match without falling asleep. Or killing myself. It’s certainly something to think about. Maybe I’ll do that tonight as I sleep. Better yet, I’ll never think of this match ever again. Yeah. That will do.
El Gigante is still fucking great though. So loveable.
Vice: This match was fucking awesome. It’s the style of match that ROH and so many other indy companies try to capture with their epic tag team matches. This was hard, fast, and just enjoyable as hell to watch. The Steiners were totally great like they were at this time, and the Japanese guys were super good too.
Seriously, this is the match that so many people wish they could wrestle and butcher over and over and over and over again. Why? Because they aren’t as good as the people in this match. That’s pretty much all there is to it. It’s really insane to think of the evolution of the Steiners. Rick has more or less disappeared from the business, only making a random appearance here and there (and being awful..), and Scott has become pretty infamous over the years. I shouldn’t really need to explain that. While I think he’s still amazing, it’s crazy how different he is these days. It’s like watching an entirely different person. Plus, his Frankensteiner RULES:
Yeah. That’s Scott Steiner, not Rey Mysterio.
I don’t really ever rate individual matches because that’s not my thing, but, if I had to give it a star rating I’d give it a SHELL YEAH. If that made sense to you, it’s clearly 5:41am.
Cewsh: This match was fucking awesome.
Hase and Sasaki were awesome, the Steiner were awesome, its was just fucking awesome. We’re talking about a match between 4 great wrestlers who just go out into the ring, and destroy each other for 20 minutes. I am probably among the biggest detractors of tag team wrestling that there could possibly be. I don’t like it, I think the match nearly always look the same, and I feel that its an immensely lost art that should be simply left to die. However here we get to see exactly what HAS been lost over the years, as these guys show an absolute understanding of what they want to accomplish, and a complete knowledge of how to accomplish it. Hase plays the babyface in peril to perfection throughout the match, and Sasaki did a great job of being an absolute killing machine for the short time he was in the ring.
The thing that surprised me about the match, though, was that the Steiner’s didn’t wrestle like I’ve seen them wrestle in the past, even during this same era. Rick spent the whole time he was in the ring getting his ass kicked, and Scott was clearly booked as the star of the match, but he was not only sloppy at points, he seemed like his head was elsewhere. Like during a hot sequence, and Hase hits the Northern Lights Suplex which motherfuckers did NOT kick out of, the camera clearly show Scott just hanging out, not looking concerned at all. It sucks, because it other parts, Scott was on fire, but it did detract from my affection for this match. Which is a shame, because it deserves better, but I have to give it what I think it deserves.
82 out of 100.
Cewsh’s Download Seal of Approval.
Vice: Stiiiiiiiing. It’s incredible to think that he has never once stepped in a WWF/E ring in his career that started while the dinosaurs roamed the earth. This is oldschool Stinger right here. Blond hair with a rat tail, more “traditional” face paint, and coming out in a red, white and blue jacket with fringe. Very very different from the crow Sting I’ve had on television for the past decade+.
When watching that happen, it was totally in slow motion in my head. The very first thing that popped into my head was that Muta was about to Sabu himself into a broken neck. He lands at a nasty angle in a nasty way on a very nasty canvas. Fortunately it didn’t end in the same way as Sabu. So, it clearly not that bad. In fact, not bad at all. Why am I even discussing this in such detail? No idea.
It felt like a really classic match. Loved it. Both guys were on form and it was very entertaining. It was just a big, important match pitting USA against Japan with some big stars from each country.
The finish was fucking AWESOME as well:
Sting goes for his trademark Stinger Splash, but while in mid-air, Muta mists the shit out of him and sidesteps in the incoming Sting, who crashes and burns into the turnbuckle. One splash later and it’s all over for Sting. It was controversial, but I expected as much because it was a pretty huge match between countries, and obviously both countries wanted their guy to win. Japan gets the win via aid from the mist, which makes about as much since as peanut butter and jelly. So, a lot of sense.
I really need to see more of these guys’ work from this time period, because I was definitely impressed with their styles and the physicality. Very good match.
Cewsh: This match is why we’re reviewing this card. I was aware of the Flair match here, and that this was an important show, but when I happened to stumble across this show, it was this match that instantly drew my eyes. Early 90s Muta vs. Early 90s Sting? That’s a fucking incredible matchup, and also happens to be a matchup that I personally have never seen. Muta has been a personal favorite ever since I started keeping up with Japanese wrestling, and early Sting is one of those things that I just entirely missed out on in wrestling, and I adore the chance to check out what all the fuss is about by seeing him here.
They both come out to huge cheers from the fans, and Sting especially comes out dressed like a pimped out Uncle Sam and even gets some cheesy 90s pyro which is essentially two really big sparklers going off for about twelve seconds. Then they both get into the ring and are introduced in a flurry of streamers and bad haircuts, and the match begins. Before I begin, let me make perfectly clear, that I have never seen either of these men work a match prior to the year 1997. I don’t know if I expected them to be exactly as good and young and fresh half a decade after this match, I don’t really know what I was thinking at all. But the second that bell is rung, my mind becomes completely and utterly blown. These two are FLYING around the ring. Muta is doing moonsaults with ease and grace, Sting is like a lightning bolt hurling himself all over the ring, and even diving out of it Undertaker style. These guys are agile, they’re stiff, and they have the kind of chemistry that money and practice can’t buy. Its fucking great.
I just found myself sitting in disbelief with my mouth hanging open throughout this match as big move after big move was unloaded from one man to the other. Muta, clearly playing the heels in this match, antagonizes the crowd just enough to make sure they’re against him all the way through, and half of Sting’s moveset inspires actually screams of delight from the huge crowd in attendance. They drop all the bombs they have on each other, and the match speeds downhill until finally Muta sprays Sting with the mist, rolls him up and steals a victory. Sting, in what I assume is an uncharacteristic move at this point, grabs him, hits the Stinger Splash, and locks in the Scorpion Deathlock on Muta in revenge as the entirety of both rosters tries valiantly to break them up.
When people talk about “classic” matches, there are two things they generally mean. Either that the match is simply old and they’re being polite, or that the match was legendary and if one for the ages. While this had elements of both, I just don’t think it would be fair to label it as either. Aside from some sloppy moments and the way both men looked, this match could have brought the house down on any Raw or Smackdown today, but, at the same time, this is also a match brought down by the expectations it can’t help but generate. This is a really good match. But its not as good as the one they wrestle in my imagination. And while that may seem like an absurd thing to penalize them for, I have to be true to my system and dock them simply for not living up to expectations.
80 out of 100.
Cewsh’s Download Seal of Approval.
Cewsh: Oh Ric Flair, you cheeky monkey. Its good to see you young again.
I’ll be honest with all of you right here and now, I’ve never thought as highly of Ric Flair’s body of work as perhaps some others have. The matches of his from his prime that I have seen simply didn’t appeal to me personally. It may be because they’re dated, it may be because the style was very different in those days from what I’m accustomed to, but for whatever reason, Ric Flair has never been at the top of my personal list of Best Wrestlers of All Time. However, my opinion is pretty much null in this case, as the man is revered as a god by his peers and the general populace of wrestling fans as a whole, so I never hesitate to get a chance to see the man get in the ring in his prime and tear it up. I keep hoping that one day it’ll finally click for me, and I’ll be the Ric Flair fan I dearly wish to be. When I got his autograph in Mannassas last month, I felt like a traitor for not revering him as much as I feel like I probably should, and I would dearly like for him to bring me around.
The match starts off with both of them coming out to the ring and having both men’s national anthems played, and I’ve got to tell you, this is probably one of the ten most epic pre set ups to a match that I have ever seen. JR and Schiavone are going nuts hyping it up, and they basically set up Fujinami as the biggest fucking deal in the history of Japan. Its fantastic, and as the bell rings you can feel the crowd buzzing with excitement. They lock up and the crowd explodes. Flair takes the advantage and their breath catches in anticipation. Fujinami fights back, and they become electric. The beginning of this match is SO hot and SO over and SO exciting…that there’s kind of a problem. See, there’s nowhere to go but down.
Much like Ric Flair here:
Not to say that this is a bad match, because it isn’t. These guys have a great match, and its pretty much the standard fare for Flair, with him taking a beating, cheating to get the advantage, and then taking another beating. Flair gets bloody, which is something that still comes as something as a shock to me in a Japanese wrestling ring, and they beat on each other toot sweet for a good long while. Finally, though, we make our winding way to the end, which is either famous or infamous, depending on who you ask. Basically what happens is Fujinami throws Ric Flair over the top rope to the outside of the ring, while Bill Alfonso (oh yeah, THAT Bill Alfonso) the referee is knocked out on the floor. Fujinami rolls Flair back into the ring, rolls him up and a Japanese referee makes the count and boom. Fujinami wins. So new NWA World champion, right?
Well not so fast.
See, in WCW at that time, there was a rule on the books that said that if you threw a man over the top rope, then you would be disqualified, and the throwee would win the match. However, this rule was not recognized by Japanese fans, officials, or wrestlers, so when it was added to the main event, it was essentially forgotten. So when Fujinami threw Flair out of the ring, he actually, by the rules of this particular match, got himself disqualified. However, since Alfonso was knocked out, he was not able to enforce this rule. So Fujinami walks out with the belt, while everyone tries to sort things out.
To put it bluntly, this was a weird ending to the match. That’s not to say it was a bad one, since in many respects it was actually a great idea to do things this way. The Japanese fans think that Fujinami is the champ and go home happy, and things are explained for the American fans watching at home, so it hypes the unification rematch which takes place in America later. It smells strongly of a compromise worked out in a boardroom, and it was fairly successful in practice. The problem, though, is that it’s a shitty finish to a match like this. Its basically your classic Dusty Finish, and just seeing it filled my throat with bile as I remembered the countless times that this same shit happened in old timey WCW, and usually in much less successful ways than this.
The finish made sense. It made everyone happy. Except for me.
78 out of 100.
Vice: Flair WOOOO s and the crowd BOOOOOOs. Wait.. the crowd actually BOOED someone? They must absolutely despise Flair. Yes, they do. He is hated. I mean, seriously, they just don’t like the man. It’s not like a “BOOOOOOO!!!!” “YAAAAAAAAAY!!!!” kinda crowd, but yeah. Flair doesn’t have many fans.
Like Sting and Muta, I really haven’t seen enough old Flair. I’ve seen his matches with Steamboat, Savage and a bunch of others, but I haven’t reaaaaaaaaaaaally seen old Flair. Err.. young Flair? Vintage Flair. He’s really great. Sometimes I doubt his wrestling, and I’m constantly reminded why he gets the praises he gets.
He’s a wonderful wrestler. Even in a really intense, huge match like this, he does his trademark spots like getting thrown off the turnbuckle and doing a few Flair flops.
I mean, that’s such a goofy spot and a ridiculous thing to do, but he makes it look awesome and it comes off as serious, which makes it even better. I really do like Flair. I really do need to see more of him. Matches like this make me glad I met him and got his autograph.
I knew very little about Fujinami coming into this match, but what I saw impressed me. Yeah, he’s pretty damn cool. And had a pretty damn good match with Flair. It was SUPER AMERICAN SWINGER vs. SUPER JAPANESE BADASS, with the pride of their countries on the line. From the second the music of the first entrance hit, you knew it was a big fucking deal. I got caught up in it and half of me thought it was a real showdown, and the other half thought I was watching a Rocky-style movie. Either way, it had me on the edge of my seat and loving it from the very beginning. It didn’t disappoint at all.
One thing I found interesting was a bit of JR’s commentary. At one point in the match, Ric Flair goes for his knee drop and "misses":
Fujinami sells it, so at first I thought it was similar to John Cena missing his five knuckle shuffle fist drop thing (which happens fairly often). JR, however, makes it absolutely perfectly crystal clear that Ric Flair completely missed it, which went against what was going on in the match. Even after it’s made even clearer by Flair and Fujinama that it did in fact “hit”, JR still talked about how it missed. So, this is definitely oldschool JR here before he learned how to cover everything up and make things wonderful by the use of the word “modified”. While obviously not a huge deal, I found it amusing. JR evolved by leaps and founds in the years following this event.
The finish raised by eyebrow at first, but after thinking about it a bit, it was brilliant and perfect. So, there had to be a controversial finish of some kind. Flair ain’t be gettin’ no IWGP title and Fujinami ain’t be gettin’ no WCW world title. But, there needs to be a finish to this match. So, they do the only thing that makes perfect sense to please the feuding countries:
The ref dies. Obviously. And bloody hell does he die good. Pow. At the time, it was a disqualification to throw someone over the top rope in WCW. So, with the ref dazed outside the ring (and looking in), Fujinami chucks Flair over the top rope. Thus, by WCW’s rules, Fujinami just lost. Fujinami beats Flair up a bit more before getting the pinfall—by the Japanese ref. Flair won. Fujinami won. Bill Alfonso, the American ref, is trying to make it clear that it’s his match to call and thus Fujinami faces a disqualification. Japan basically says fuck off and that Fujinami got the pin and WCW’s over the top rope disqualification rule is retarded. With Fujinami both winning and losing, there’s simply too much controversy to have any titles change hands. Since there was really no other way to do this, it makes total sense and is quite clever. I liked it.
Lovely, lovely match.
Cewsh: After the match, JR interviews Sting and he looks JACKED UP. I mean seriously. Muta’s mist seriously must be full of shards of glass and sand to make him look the way he does after this. For reasons that may be understandable, Sting politely asks for a rematch in the United States. I’d pay to see it, I’ll tell you that much.
So then we get to see Fujinami having a post match press conference in the “Press Room” which is blatant just a table, a screen, and 5 guys in folding chairs in the middle of a storage room. Fujinami doesn’t get but 5 words in, though, before Ric Flair bursts through the door wearing a headband like the karate kid, starts yelling, grabs the belt, and runs away with it. Then everyone looks around in feigned astonishment, and Fujinami delivers a challenge to Flair in Engrish so bad that JR doesn’t even pretend to understand it. NINJA FLAIR STRIKES AGAIN!
------------------------------------
Cewsh: This was a fun fucking show. I know my low score doesn’t really reflect that idea, but if it weren’t for the Gigante match and Liger’s (probable) injury, or even if there had been a few more matches, this show would have gotten a much more respectable rating. Still, though, 2 matches that are absolutely worth downloading out of only this many is kind of a rousing compliment. This show isn’t hugely about quality anyway, it was about a moment in history, and that’s not something you can measure by averaging out the match ratings. It was a special event that was a pleasure to watch. I don’t get to say that enough about watching wrestling anymore.
Vice: Overall, this show was pretty boss. I really enjoyed it. Well, the majority of it anyway. I’ve gotten really tired of shitting on wrestling and simply not enjoying it. Sometimes I question why I’m even a fan of something I can’t find much to like about. This was pretty much exactly what I needed to get back in the game. It had a number of different styles and stories, and had a fantastic feel to it. It was a big show that delivered, in my eyes. It also makes me wish for more giant cross promotional cards, but that just simply won’t happen these days. TNA doesn’t count. I want WWE taking on Japan, but WWE is the only game in town in WWE-land. It makes sense from a business standpoint, but it really does piss me off that they almost never acknowledge that even one other company in the entire world MIGHT do the same thing as they do.
NOW EVERYBODY GET YOUR GRUB ON!
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