Super World Sports Ishikawa-ken Sangyo Tenjikan 05/20/92
Ishikawa Industrial Exhibition Hall
Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan
Broadcast date: 05/26/92
Attendance: “3,050”
PWFG drew 9,600 to see ROBERTO DURAN fight Masakatsu Funaki. Sadly it sounds way cooler than it ended up being as Duran showed up out-of-shape and wearing a shirt to lose via armbar in the third round. As Quebrada put it: “At some point, Duran decided if he cant beat Sugar, he’ll just eat sugar.” Still, cool that it happened.
UWF-i responded with Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Mathew Saad Mohammed in a real shoot (that didn’t last long) along with Koji Kitao returning to combat against Kazuo Yamazaki to draw 16,300 at Yokohama. So it’s a really good time to be a worky-shooty-shooty-worky company but not so good to be a wrestling company based around money…
A weird story emerges with Great Kabuki hinting at a FMW crossover by appearing at their latest Korakuen Hall show, with the idea being that Onita can help draw for SWS and SWS can help Onita by giving him money. As soon as this was announced it was then un-announced by Kabuki and everyone moved on. Maybe FMW looked at SWS and realised maybe they didn’t need the money as much as they thought they did.
Wait why would Kabuki be trying to work with FMW by himself? Ah, because he resigned as SWS’ booker in March and it’s only emerged now because he’d “disappeared” for a bit. Takashi Ishikawa & Goro Tsurumi have taken over booking so both the pro-Tenryu and anti-Tenryu camps have their voices heard, with both apparently writing down their own cards then meeting up to figure it out together. This is the first of a series of cracks which is going to take down the company very quickly, in fact with such limited TV exposure we only have two more shows to watch before it all comes tumbling down so let’s hope they’re good ones.
Chavo Guerrero vs. Hiroshi Hatanaka
JIP five minutes in. Chavo lands two back suplexes and stretches his opponent for a bit. Hatanaka comes back with some scoop slams but misses a back senton. Flying butt bump sets up a German Suplex and yes, that was eight minutes of description. Instantly forgettable like the rest of Hatanaka’s career.
Tatsumi Kitahara & Kishin Kawabata vs. Nobukazu Hirai & Samson Fuyuki
You know it’s a Samson match because you can hear his yelling. I put on a AJW show and I could still hear him. Kitahara thankfully wastes little time in kicking his barnet. Fuyuki disregards so he get a lariat on Kawabata who doesn’t seem to want to put up with his crap and avoids his spin kick but ducks right into a Boston Crab. And that’s the finish. Oh.
The Great Kabuki vs. Takashi Ishikawa
Kabuki is still working for the company as a wrestler, obviously. I think the only person he was really working were the owners but never mind. Eternal rival Ishikawa slaps Kabuki around until The Great One chokes him with a chair. Kabuki dominates but he can’t do much in singles for too long without needing a nap and a bowl of milk so Ishikawa takes over as a necessity, with his Fat Man Dive over the top rope doing the job. Then Ishikawa runs right into the mist on a Pantera charge, setting up Kabuki’s awful back suplex to win after not-much. I’m not going to complain about clipping a singles Kabuki match but SWS aren’t exactly taking a All Killer No Filler approach to their limited time slot.
George Takano & Shunji Takano vs. Kendo Nagasaki & Yoshiaki Yatsu
We’re JIP to red hot Shunji action. Walking! Sweating! Eating! He does some of these things! George has enough of his idiot brother and jumps over the top rope to kick Kendo instead and both Nakanos bury him in chairs amongst the sea of un-sold seats. Shunji lands a second rope knee-drop to set up…a top rope knee drop because it’s the only bloody move he knows. Kendo is split open from the chairs but I guess with editing it makes Shunji’s knee offence look deadly. Crowd agrees and starts making noise. Don’t be fooled! Kendo lands his impressive jumping piledriver on George but can’t put him away and Shunji holds Yoshi back as George finishes off Kendo with a Frankensteiner Pin. First match to have a proper beginning, middle and end so well done.
Days after this show, Yatsu announced he was leaving SWS. More on this company-killing story next week!
SWS Junior Heavyweight Title Match
Naoki Sano vs. Rick Martel
Oh boy, another Martel SWS match. This’ll get the show from “fucking shit” to “just shit.” They exchange pretty headlock takedowns to polite applause before Sano shows off his tremendous tightness when it comes to simple things like suplexes. Something as little as a kick in the corner seem like assassination attempts when he’s trying. Martel’s also doing his best to make his opponent look solid by going AHH AHHH in Sano’s various ankle locks. Once Martel gets on offence though he’s less enthused and seems OK let Sano do this thing and stay on the mat. Martel gets put in his own Boston Crab which doesn’t get a reaction but crowd approve when Rick gets the ropes. Martel makes a hot comeback with a mega chinlock which somehow isn’t enough to stop Sano who superplexes The Model for two. Martel kicks out of a Sunset Flip and unleashes a mega headlock for variety. Was Martel losing that many matches in WWF at this point that he forgot what to do when on offence? Martel manages a rough O’Connor Roll for two before falling victim to an even rougher second-rope crossbody thing to end it. Crowd didn’t sound impressed with the finish but respected Martel for staying in first gear the whole match.
Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara & Ultimo Dragon vs. The Berzerker & Haku & Guerrero del Futuro
What the hell is this main event? Putting Tenryu and Ultimo in the same match is flipping off the undercard but including Berzerker in there is flipping off the fans.
Ultimo and Futuro start and I’m shocked to discover Guerrero actually retired in 2006. Luchadores don’t retire THEY GET FAT. Ultimo’s first move of the match is the Asai Moonsault so either he’s got a train to catch or this is mega-clipped. Haku and Hara tag in and trade each other’s skin with piercing shots. Berz tags in to take on…Ultimo? But not for long as the luchador realises he’s got no concept of timing for lucha so thankfully Tenryu lariats him out the ring. Berzerker does his Brody homage outside by yelling HUSS and throwing a table around and I wonder if any fan gave a toss? Haku headbutts Tenryu so Hara tags in as they don’t have any effect on him. Both heavyweights lariat one another to the CTE ward so Tenryu gets a Dirty Powerbomb for two on Haku. Futuro tags in as it’s revealed Guerrero del Futuro is part of a stable called Los Guerreros Del Futuro. That sounds like a “Bad Company by Bad Company from the album Bad Company” situation to me but whatever works for him. Hara looks like he’s going to sell for Berzerker but then decides he isn’t. Ultimo lands a missile dropkick on Haku then tries to slam him (to the shock of the crowd) before Nord big boots Ultimo and yells to zero response. Futuro gets a flying shoulder tackle which the crowd appreciates. Haku murders Ultimo with a jumping piledriver which always looks cool but now he’s doing it to a man half his size he gets Jordan Air on it. Tenryu casually kicks Haku in the back of the head before landing the Blind Elbow. Nord breaks it up for his first real crowd response of the match. Ultimo smashes Futuro with a moonsault off the middle rope but then Hara gets sick of Haku and brawls into the darkness of the outside. Tenryu lariats Nord so he goes outside and starts throwing chairs at fans instead. Sensible choice. Ultimo then uncomfortable connects with a German Suplex on Futuro before realising he has to the additional cradle over his opponent to end this Meh-n Event.
Apparently this went twenty seven minutes, of which we saw ten. This didn’t affect the coherence like many of the other matches on the show as we still got to see some nice exchanges between Haku/Hara and Haku/Tenryu and Haku/Ultimo but it only gave you a glimpse of what most of these guys were capable of doing. SWS by way of AEW Rampage.
Overall: SWS have gone from a ninety minute slot to a sixty minute slot yet still insist on trying to show as much of their product as possible. So the fast-forwarded crap and fast-forwarded great matches blurred together to the point of meaningless, like life in your thirties.
Next week: SWS Dies (Part 1)
