Pro Wrestling Crusaders – Shunji Takano vs. Cosmic Powers! 01/27 – 02/17/94
By Maffew Gregg on 17 December 2023
Tokyo, Japan
Korakuen Hall
Attendance: 600 (uh oh)
Oh boy let’s strap in for the only PWC release of 1994 and no in case you were wondering, things aren’t going well. KY Wakamatsu (The Jimmy Hart of Japan) has declared war on Shunji Takano and has brought in an army of…nobodies!
Tape opens up with Shunji wearing a trilby as it’s always good to start off hot.
We get photos of the non-recorded events leading up to this and you wonder why anyone would admit to staging any of these “inviting people to your BBQ on FaceBook” size gatherings.
PWC has been introducing more and more gimmicks with cage, barbed wire and nail boards all showing up which at least look cool when shown in photos.
KY yells on his megaphone backstage as one of his masked Power X lads sets his hand on fire. Mate if you want people to keep away from you just say you’re booked for PWC.
Nail Barricade Death Match
Uchuu Power X & Uchuu Power XX v Shunji Takano & Nobutaka Araya
The Powers are two stunningly generic masked dudes in black shirts that could be anybody and I’m amazed they were even able to draw 600 fans with this.
According to cagematch, one of them (X) is Goro Tsurumi, which would be the height of Takano madness to have your biggest name hide his identity like that. A red light flashes during the Power’s entrance as old 1950s sci-fi music blasts out over the speakers.
The turnbuckle pads are wrapped in barbed wire and there’s barbed wire boards as well as a nail board surrounding the outside. Takano slow-mo resists falling into the nails before taking it by landing on his arse. I’m surprised Guinness didn’t start flowing out of the holes Looney Tunes style. Some slow-mo cutting kills a few minutes as KY helps his team by yelling “AAAAHHHH” repeatedly into a megaphone. Takano lands his top rope knee-drop to a surprisingly loud pop before Araya completely and utterly misses a moonsault. I had to stop the video and walk around my new flat for a bit to get over the second-hand embarrassment. KY wraps Takano in barbed wire on the board outside to prevent him from saving his useless mate before a flaming shotei ends it at 9:39.
Despite the inclusion of fire, crowd isn’t happy with the finish as whenever W*ING used the Nail Board gimmick the match would only end when someone went onto it. Here, it was briefly avoided by Araya once and that was it.
Ah wait, after the bell Araya gets gently placed onto the nails and repeatedly leg-dropped while The Best Of Dr. Who – The Hartnell Years gets played over the speakers. Then The Powers keep on brawling with people backstage, going on and on and on until W*ING Kanemura finally shows up to make the save, helping Takano do his “yeah I’m the best” promo with the crowd cheering him. I assumed the crowd are cheering because he kind of kooks like Onita if he drank chip fat after every match instead of water.
And then Takano heads to the back and gets attacked yet again by The Powers! The sun from Super Mario Bros. was less persistent than these guys.
Not much to recommend here with everyone relying on the bottom-tier hardcore wrestling method of rolling around and blading rather than actually bumping on anything.
01/29/1994
Barbed Wire Match
Uchuu Power X & Uchuu Power XX v Shunji Takano & Nobutaka Araya
No details of this show on cagematch because I’m sure they have better things to be thinking about. Araya takes the pin again after getting folded in half with an Electric Chair Backdrop and this time he’s shoved in between two boards which KY promptly sits on to pray in a hell of a visual.
Match was shown in highlight form and we are all the better for it.
02/17/1994
Tokyo, Japan
Korakuen Hall
Attendance: 1,090 (uh oh)
Super Scramble Anywhere Death Match
Uchuu Power X & Uchuu Power XX & Uchuu Power XXX vs. Shunji Takano & Yukihiro Kanemura & Kazuhiko Matsuzaki
So with Araya unable to continue due to having more holes in him than a Metal Gear Solid plot, it’s time for Takano to put on his dragon gear and team up with Kanemura and…Kazuhiko Matsuzaki! Yeah, some cheap W*ING guy! Alright!
Everyone brawls around the Hall with Kanemura heading to the toilets to blade. Sounds like a solution in Broken Sword. Kanemura is still recovering from taking that bump into flames (google at your own discretion) so he isn’t capable of doing that involves effort. Not sure what everyone else’s excuse is.
The camera cuts between all three encounters in an attempt to make it look exciting and there’s even noticeable cuts during the action, which boggles the mind. How can you have six guys brawling and still need to clip? But there’s nothing going on aside from blading and walking around so it’s for the best. Electric Chair Drop eliminates Matsuzaki after 7:06. Oh wait it’s not elimination, Matsuzaki just does nothing for the rest of the match.
XX chokes Takano with a coat-hanger. I wish someone had used a coat hanger on this match before it got booked. Kanemura manages to kick out of the dreaded head claw before shrugging off a DDT onto a chair before rolling up X at 10:46 to even the odds as it’s apparently a 2/3 Falls match.
Kanemura keeps getting choked because this is one of those HOLDS ARE BARRED match Scott Keith used to joke about decades ago. Kanemura lands a top rope crossbody to set up Takano’s Top Rope Knee Drop to eliminate X or XX or who fucking cares at 12:20.
And then The Powers attack everyone again to send us home happy.
Overall: It’s interesting seeing how the low-level indies are attempting to adapt to the changing landscape of Puro.WAR’s getting Kitao to pretend to be a UWF-i style guy, PWC is pretending to be IWA Japan, and NOW is uhh dying. But apart from that minor intrigue, even hardcore hardcore fans would be disappointed by the lack of violence so enjoy this GIF rather than bother seeking this out.
I think the most surprising thing of this tape is seeing how over Shunji is, despite being rubbish. He’s nothing like his amazing brother and…wait where is his amazing brother George Takano?
Oh a quick check reveals he left months ago, which is why Shunji is trying to make chicken shit out of chicken shit.
And this company would somehow carry on until 1997!
Next week: WAR heads to the Royal Rumble.
