WAR Wrestle And Romance – Revolution Rumbling ’94 In Korakuen Hall 02/24/94
By Maffew Gregg on 24 December 2023
Wrestle And Romance
Tokyo, Korakuen Hall
Attendance: 2,000
Hashimoto finally beat Tenryu at NJPW’s February 17th Sumo Hall show, I guess so NJPW can claim they got something out of the WAR feud. Whatever helps them sleep at night, TENRYU 4 LIFE.
Tenryu and Kabuki showed up at the WWF Royal Rumble 1994 to assist Yokozuna on behalf of Mr. Fuji. This involved attacking Lex Luger with a broom, and Kabuki looking rubbish in the Rumble match and never being mentioned again on WWF TV.
That’s our Kabuki!
Lion Heart vs. Rio Lord Of The Jungle
It’s the WAR debut of a young lad from Calgary Winnipeg, Chris Jericho!
Jericho’s here on the recommendation of CMLL friend Ultimo Dragon and because timing is everything, his other Lucha mates Gedo and Jado have also just joined. All became friends due to the mutual language of “broken English” according to Y2J’s book. Makes sense that people like Jericho when they can’t understand what he’s saying.
He only gets the chance to show off his springboard-to-the-apron spot (currently using an elbow instead of the dropkick he’d later favour) before landing a high-angled Quebrada and a lovely Lionsault to end 1:33 of a 9:55 match. Why only so little shown?
Sadly, another Jericho tradition continued when I had another stinker of a debut match.
I worked against Rio Lord of the Jungle, a male stripper turned wrestler who later worked in WCW as the Ultimate Warrior rip-off, the Renegade. He was massive and green, which was a tough combination to overcome.
We opened the show and when I beat him clean with the Japanese debut of the Lionsault, it was the only good part of the match. You never get a second chance to make a first impression…
I did an interview with Gong Magazine afterward where I was asked how it felt to beat the Load of the Jungle. Because of the difference in the Japanese pronunciation of the R sound, Lord became Load. I think if I was a Lord, when in Japan I’d change my name to Boss or Supervisor. I’m sure the Warload and Load Steven Regal would agree.
Despite my load-of-shit match, I liked the WAR style. It was the hard-hitting, no-nonsense, technical type of match that I’d become a fan of from watching Stampede and New Japan. The matches were athletic competitions between two warriors, with a winner, a loser, and no bullshit.
Well maybe some bullshit, as a treat.
Ultimo Dragon vs. Koji Ishinriki
This is not for the UWA World Middleweight Title for some reason, despite Ishinriki defeating Dragon for it last time before the man lost it in a rematch at CMLL a week before this. Actually given the disappointing nature of Ishinriki’s performance last time maybe they’re pretending Dragon doesn’t have it so he doesn’t get another run.
Dragon is the clear fan favourite and sticks Ishinriki in the ‘Grandad playing with his Grandson’ hold. Ishinriki responds by chopping Ultimo directly onto his well-protected chest-gear so Dragon walks up and down the ropes to make him look even more like a dumb dumb than he already looks. Ishinriki unleashes his sumo strikes onto the chest plate too, before dropping Dragon directly onto his head with an unnecessarily high backdrop suplex. Dragon pops right up after that, clearly annoyed and spikes Koji with a high German Suplex in revenge. Frankensteiner pin is kicked out so Koji gets his own and boy is the difference between the two moves unflattering. Instead of Dragon bringing Koji up to his level, he’s only exposing how far beneath him he is. Top rope crossbody to the outside reveals there’s already blood on the ringside mats. Dragon kicks out of Koji’s half speed Sunset Flip and drills him with the in-ring Asai Moonsault for two. Flying clothesline gets two but a repeat sees Dragon convert it into a sunset flip for two, before Ishrinriki bridges Dragon like last time for the anticlimactic win at 16:43.
I’m surprised they did the same finish as last time, you’d think they’d use that as something to play off but instead it was just “welp it sucked the first time so maybe doing it again will be better.” It wasn’t. Match was notable only for Dragon’s annoyance.
Koji Ishinriki pinned Ultimo Dragon in a non-title match on the show. It was originally scheduled for a UWA middleweight title match but there was a problem. WAR was giving Ishinriki the big push and didn’t want him to do a job for Dragon since he had a match on 3/2 against Koji Kitao in a battle for the formers sumos. Originally he was supposed to be the champion so a win over Dragon would have fit fine, and after the Kitao match (which he’d surely lose), he could then drop the strap to Dragon.
The only problem was he did so bad in Mexico that EMLL didn’t want Dragon to be unable to beat such an unimpressive wrestler so the 2/18 match at Arena Mexico that was originally supposed to have Ishinriki keep the title going to a draw was changed to Dragon winning the title, which forced the match to be non-title.
After their previous match, Liger showed up to scout talent for the Super J Cup. It says a lot about what the company thinks of Ishinriki that they went with Gedo instead.
WARgun vs. HanWARgun
WAR isn’t feuding with anybody right now so they’ve decided to feud with themselves, so we’ve got this anti-WAR challenging the undercard. The following five matches are taking place with everyone on either side hanging around on the outside before their matches to add heat, King Of Fighters style.
Ashura Hara vs. King Haku
Hara teases a clean break just to be a bitch. But he’s against Haku so he responds by taking Hara’s skin, which Hara simply smiles off and retaliates with lariats until Haku savate kicks the ancient one down. Hara and Haku trade headbutts for old times’ sake but neither of the granite faced grapplers concede anything and not even a Japanese Table can put a dent in Hara. Some backdrop suplexes only stun Hara who is able to stand up eventually, only to get stuck with a piledriver and a sit-out powerbomb. Crowd is really wanting Hara to come back from all this and come back he does with a backdrop and a lariat ending it abruptly at 11:52.
Hara doesn’t have the stamina to match Haku anymore but he still has the endurance, with the loud crowd adding to the emotion his other matches have been lacking recently. Good stuff.
WARgun 1 HanWARgun 0
Yuji Yasuraoka vs. Gedo
Both men jump in before the bell even rings and hey it’s the WAR debut of Jado and Gedo!
WAR ran a big angle on 1/16 at Korakuen Hall. After Ultimo Dragon & Ashura Hara upset Ishinriki & Genichiro Tenryu, Gedo & Jado, who were the top native tag team for W*ING, suddenly showed up and attacked Dragon, with Tenryu making the save. Tenryu then announced after the match that Gedo & Jado would join WAR the next tour to feud with Dragon. The one who was the most surprised was W*ING booker Victor Quinones, who was at the show live and saw his top tag team appearing with a rival group. Apparently the two were upset about money being late, although apparently they recently had been paid and Jado made the comment to promoter Mickey Ibaragi that he’d like to join WAR, but Ibaragi didn’t realize he meant this soon.
Don’t know how much of that is real but if any of it is true then it’s amazing.
Anyway they start off hot and then slow it wayyy down with a long hold. And then we clip ahead and they’re in another hold. And then we clip ahead as the editors furiously search for anything to use before deciding on Yuji’s springboard crossbody to the outside. Both men trade kick-outs and the crowd is so enthused someone throws streamers mid-match. Having the wrestlers at ringside was a great idea, even if this match isn’t much. Gedo evens the odds with a diving headbutt. 5:17 shown of 16:53 (!)
WARgun 1 HanWARgun 1
Nobukazu Hirai vs. Jado
Jado peppers Hirai with strikes while Arashi and Masao go at it. Jado is a lovely prick as he knows this is all about the heat, so he sticks to chokes and mouthing off at the audience. Hirai gets some of his biggest reactions by simply not being Jado.
We clip ahead to Hirai taking a ball-shot but he recovers enough to trade piledrivers before Jado lands the JERRY LYNN PILEDRIVER which Hirai shrugs off (boo BOOOO) to land a tombstone and crowd quiets a bit after that. The fuck are you doing no-selling a JERRY LYNN PILEDRIVER? He lost a hundred matches against RVD with that move. This goes on for longer than Hirai should ever be booked in a singles match with him needing to brawl on the outside because he’s ran out of ideas. Crowd’s still into it thanks to Jado being a dick , so of course Hirai messes up the finish by trying for a sunset flip and missing, causing him to splat and then roll up Jado for an awkward pin at 17:56 (!!)
WARgun 2 HanWARgun 1
Masao Orihara vs. Arashi
Orihara fires off a dropkick to Arashi before the bell even rings. Wait, who is this masked sumo Arashi anyway?
A sumo wrestler who used the ring name Daitoko, 30 years old, 6-4 1/2 and 330 pounds, who retired from sumo on 1/24 after finishing his final tournament the day before, announced he was going into pro wrestling with the WAR group. He wasn’t a famous sumo wrestler such as Tadao Yasuda (debuting next month for New Japan), Kitao (who was the best sumo–and maybe the worst pro wrestler, of all the sumo-turned pro wrestlers), Tenryu, John Tenta, Ishinriki or Akira Taue.
I think Dave was being a bit optimistic there because Arashi’s even worse than Kitao. Orihara tries but he’s been out-dicked (docked?) by Jado and all he can do is lock in a Jeff Jarrett style sleeper and run at Arashi while he figures out what’s going on before slapping Orihara out the air at 3:08. Felt longer than the Hirai match. Hell, it felt longer than the Mesozoic Era.
WARgun 2 HanWARgun 2
Takashi Ishikawa vs. Kim Duk
Hey it’s Tiger Chung Lee, star of Red Heat aka no-one’s favourite Arnie film!
Despite being 46, Duk starts the match with a dropkick and acts like it’s no big deal. Ishikawa is taped up but is still able to come back with strikes, which are immediately ignored because Duk is even more of a hard-arse than Haku. We clip ahead because Duk wearing out Ishikawa’s enormous band-aid isn’t interesting. Duk takes the Sgt. Slaughter bump through the ropes which again, is amazing considering he started in the 60s. His friends are all dead! Like this crowd as Duk beats on Ishikawa until he rolls him up out of nowhere at 7:49. Barely anything outside of Duk’s agility.
WARgun 3 HanWARgun 2
The idea was nice as Japanese crowds really will switch on whenever anything is presented as vaguely interpromotional, shame all the talent wasn’t into it as much as the fans were.
Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki & Super Strong Machine
How did Machine end up in the main event? What, now that the NJPW feud is over, this means WAR has to keep him? Just stick him in a box outside Baba’s house, knock and run away.
Fuyuki and Tenryu trade lariats to start things off hot before Koki tags in like a cold bucket of water before Machine tags in like a drink of sodium hypochlorite. Koki manages a lovely German Suplex but still no-one cares about him. Blind Elbow gets two before Machine comes back as I count the empty seats clearly visible on the hard cam. Fuyuki throws a ton of offence at Koki but no-one cares about him. He’s un-carable. Fuyuki starts taking offence and people applaud that as Fuyuki Must Suffer. Machine works over Koki with some slow DDTs. You’d think you couldn’t hit a DDT slowly but apparently Machine’s dullness is a stronger force than gravity. Koki gets worked over to the sound of silence, no matter how boring the offence is. Clothesline in the corner isn’t getting a pop? Better try a suplex then. Tenryu realises this match is flat-lining and drags Fuyuki outside to clatter chairs around but Machine quickly smothers the action with a pillow. Fuyuki finally clatters Tenryu with a lariat to get this match started after ten minutes.
Fuyuki powerbombs his boss but Koki makes the save, as effective as it sounds. It all breaks down but these guys are just not the types to be doing that kind of thing as there’s zero intensity or sense of urgency. Tenryu’s powerbomb is broken up by Machine which allows Tenryu to lock in an Abominable Stretch (of all things) to end it at 16:22.
Tenryu predictably leaves immediately after the bell rings, the ultimate sign of “oh man that sucked like Kronik vs. Brothers Of Destruction, I hope no nerds watch this decades later and say it’s bad as that’ll hurt my feelings, not even the surgically implanted balls I have in my groin can give me feeling right now.”
11/11/93 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Genichiro Tenryu vs. Ashura Hara
You know a show has gone well when they’ve added a bonus match that takes up the lion’s share of the space on the VHS cover. Like buying a DVD for the bloopers.
Crowd are immediately into this and cheer the opening stiff strikes as Hara shakes his hand to cool it off. Big bad chop from Tenryu and crowd are thirsty for meat already. Both men hear the crowd’s enthusiasm and start teasing the chops out, each one sounding like five pounds of pork mince being dropped on the floor. Hara punches Tenryu right in the face so you don’t feel sorry for him when the chops start flying and HERE THEY COME, exploding Hara’s chest worse than Ridley Scott’s Alien. Hara is still relying on his lariat spams but here against this beast they call a man, they’re survival techniques and don’t feel repetitive. Tenryu gets mad and lands a rare dive through the ropes to kill his best friend some more. Hara beats the count out but walks right into further chops and kicks, with the crowd chanting at Hara to keep at it. Hara’s headbutts do nothing and Tenryu knocks him head-over-tit on a lariat, with even a kneeling Hara leaving himself open for chops and soccer kicks. Hara responds with jabs and a backdrop but the fucking welt on his chest resembles Davey Richards’ tattoo.
Hara flies off the top rope and Tenryu lets him connect with his clothesline just so he can hit his own on Hara in the process HELL YEAH THAT FUCKING RULED. Tenryu lands a rolling kick but a Dirty Powerbomb can’t get his friend to give up as all the crowd chanting Hara’s name now. Tenryu keeps landing lariats on Hara but the golden oldie won’t stay down. Tenryu bounces off the ropes twice to really build up steam, only to land directly into one of Hara’s lariats. Both men lariat one another at the same time with Tenryu having more stamina and being able to shake off Hara’s moves, finally finishing off his friend with a Dirty Powerbomb at 11:02.
Manly man match for men. Hara took an absolute shellacking here as Tenryu was determined to give his friend who he loves very much at least one last great match before he retires at the end of the year, and the crowd loved every pound of flesh he took out of him.
Overall: Jericho’s debut is a non-event and the team series was mostly about the heat, so you can do a lot worse than just skipping to the bonus match and watching your chest hair grow.
Tape could have been worse, here’s the main event from Jan 14th:
The main event on the show was weird with Tenryu vs. Shiro Koshinaka, with Koshinaka apparently scoring the upset win with the ref counting three, but then restarting saying Tenryu had his shoulder up. After the match Tenryu said his neck is in very bad position and he’ll be retiring soon and challenged all the top wrestlers to wrestle him soon or they’ll never get to.
