WAR Wrestle And Romance – Revolution Soaring In Komazawa 04/27/94
By Maffew Gregg on 7 January 2024
Wrestle And Romance
Komazawa Olympic Park Gymnasium
Attendance: 2,500
Super Strong Machine and Ashura Hara turned heel against Tenryu to breath some life into the main event. And then on 4/21 in Gifu, Fuyuki pinned Hara and afterwards mentioned how his long-time tag team partner Kawada is now the top wrestler in All Japan winning the Champion Carnival and it’s time for him to be the top wrestler in WAR. Hey look, momentum!
Also FMW held a press conference on 4/7 with Onita giving Tenryu a Best Of Onita VHS so he could see what an explosive barbed wire match is all about. Tenryu destroyed the tape and then Onita cried.
Oh it’s worth pointing out that the first Super J Cup happened two weeks prior to this. WAR representative Gedo defeated NJPW’s Dean Malenko and M-Pro’s Super Delfin before losing to Wild Pegasus. The show was so loaded with talent I tend to forget Gedo was even there.
Nobukazu Hirai vs. Yamato
This is Yamato’s VHS debut and I know nothing about him. This is clipped to hell and what’s here ain’t great, with Hirai hurting himself on a missed dropkick and Yamato the big sumo guy looking unsure what to do. Yamato tries for a Steve Williams’ style backbreaker into the corner but casually drops Hirai as he loses his grip. They left that in? Match ends with a suplex (yeah a suplex). Next.
Elimination Match
Takashi Ishikawa & Koki Kitahara & Ultimo Dragon & Masanobu Kurisu vs. Super Strong Machine & Jado & Gedo & Ricky Fuji
FMW’s Ricky Fuji is here and he’s in great shape! By which I mean “round.” Everyone takes their time working over him before Ishikawa chokeslams him out of the match and that’s it. No save, no tag out, no nothing. Thanks for coming.
Dragon gets his handspring elbow on Gedo before we clip as this one isn’t exactly setting the world on fire so far. Kurisu gets his old-man old school armdrag to much joy before Machine bores him out of the match.
Dragon gets isolated by Gedo & Jado but their nifty double teams can’t stop him. This goes on for ages as Dragon finally gets eliminated leaving the never-over Kitahara left to fend for himself against Machine who takes him out with a Liger Bomb at 30:33. Some OK spots spread over a painfully long run time. Next.
Mil Mascaras & Dos Caras vs. Koji Ishinriki & Lion Heart
Oh Jericho loved wrestling Mil:
Now the antithesis to Dick Murdoch was Mil Mascaras. He arrived in WAR with the same giant ego and piss-poor attitude that he’d shown me in Mexico.
But the loyal Japanese fans loved him because of his success as a pioneering high-flyer in the 1970s.Now that he was in his seventies (note from Maffew: fifties) he was a nightmare to work with.
I drew the short straw when Tenryu told me he was bringing Mil in and wanted me to work with him every night. “It’s not going to be fun for you I know, but you’re a good worker and maybe you can get a decent match out of him.”
I couldn’t.
But I worked my ass off every night trying to make chicken salad out of chicken shit. I was especially ticked off after our match on the second to last night of the tour when Mil cornered me. “Nobody cares about you. They just care about me. Nobody paid to see you, they paid to see me. So no more of your moves tomorrow night because nobody wants to see them.” Then he arrogantly walked away.
Too many blows to the head had left me with a memory problem and the next night I couldn’t remember if he’d told me to give him none of my moves or ALL of my moves. Just to be on the safe side, I gave him every damn move I could think of.
He didn’t say a thing to me after the match and I’ve never spoken to him since.
Wrestling Rio Lord Of The Jungle, teaming up with Ishinriki and now wrestling Mil. And you thought Jericho’s first year in WWF was rough.
Jericho’s misery was more interesting than talking about another Mil match. This one is cut to remove all but one of Jericho’s offensive moves (his springboard to the outside) with Ishinriki getting zero before the usual Mil spots kick in at 12:25. Next.
Ashura Hara vs. Kudo Fuyuki
Two people feuding over being mis-used and miserable? A E DUB A E DUB. Both men start off with multiple headbutts before Hara lands a dropkick and then they slow aaaalll the way down as Hara is supposed to be dominating but there’s not enough coal in his engine for sustained offence. Both men slug it out slowly until Fuyuki lands multiple backdrop drivers and wins with a Stretch Plumb. They should backdrop drive Hara to the retirement home already. Next.
Five Three-Minute Rounds
Genichiro Tenryu vs. Arashi
Look, I know Tenryu is really good at making bad wrestlers look decent but Arashi is honestly so bad that Atlas would struggle to carry him.
Tenryu chops the former sumo who ignores them, causing Tenryu to mouth off until they both sumo strike one another causing Tenryu to escape the ring (so Arashi can breath). Tenryu pounds away in the corner until Arashi lands a few uranages, which honestly look like Tenryu picking himself up using Arashi’s arm. The bell rings to end Round 1 as I wonder how Tenryu would do against Ed Wood’s octopus.
Tenryu connects with enziguris and Arashi just stands there like he’s trying to process reality. Tenryu dumps him with an impressive back suplex and lands a Blind Elbow for two. Arashi manages an Abominable Stretch which gets a reaction from the crowd (probably “wow he can do a move!”) before more sumo strikes keep Tenryu in the corner. No-one puts Tenryu in the corner however and he lands an enziguri after the bell because it’s his company.
Tenryu tries a rolling kick but misses, with Arashi not capitalising on this because he’s so rubbish so HE JUST STANDS THERE leading to Tenryu getting up and firing more strikes. Repeated enziguris connect until Tenryu locks in an Abominable Stretch before Arashi’s Second throws the towel in to end it.
No-one in the crowd reacts. Arashi’s Second chokeslams Tenryu as the crowd say and do nothing. Ouch. I’ll take vigorous booing over the sound of silence any day. Match was as good as it was going to be (meaning “crap”). Next.
Koji Kitao vs. King Haku
Respectful reactions for both men. Kitao lands his clumsy kicks with Haku doing a wonderful job of selling by keeping away. Sadly Kitao puts Haku in the corner and has to throw big strikes but they look pitiful. Kitao armbars Haku for a while with the King escaping by applying an ankle lock. Kitao counters THAT with one of his own but it looked as natural as Shamrock vs. Slice. Kitao chops Haku in the corner, leading to Haku to respond with his own and smash him with a dropkick. Haku reduces Kitao’s height with a meaty piledriver before following with chops until he sends Kitao to the canvas with a back suplex. Haku tries for the finish with a chinlock but Kitao braves out of it and then lands his unconvincing knees before landing his Axe Kick to Haku. Sadly he lands it while Haku is bent over so it’s nowhere near as effective as it should be at 6:42. Match was just Haku puppeteering Kitao around until the finish. Next. Oh that was the main event.
There’s a video with nearly 96k views of a moment in this match where I guess people assume all the exaggerated drunk wrestler stories are to be taken at 100% face value, and Haku was just shooting and fucking his way through Japan like Tetsuya Yamagami on Bluechew:
Yeah look at Kitao trying to shoot on Haku with…chops to the chest! And Haku comes back with a…shoot dropkick! YEAH FUCK LIBS, HAKU BAD ASS.
And this would be Haku Soprano’s last recorded match for WAR as he’d sign with WCW to take wooden chair shots from Dusty Rhodes instead. He was a great addition to SWS and WAR but the company had no interest in doing anything with him in a main event capacity.
WAR Puroresu Fan Appreciation Day 05/22/94
We get clips of the footage of fans playing Bingo with the roster as well as the WAR video game for the SNES (which sadly only features Tenryu along with some Jimmy Hart versions of real-life guys).
Animal Hamaguchi vs. Nobukazu Hirai
Animal Hamaguchi, who retired from New Japan four years ago (which was his second retirement), had a press conference on 5/13 and announced he was returning to wrestling on 5/22 for WAR and on 6/1 would headline a WAR show in Matsumoto teaming with Genichiro Tenryu & Koji Ishinriki against Super Strong Machine & Ashura Hara & Arashi. Hamaguchi, who turns 47 this summer was a top star for the old IWE during the 1970s, and gained his biggest national fame in the early 1980s as Riki Choshu’s regular tag team partner with New Japan. He was pushed to mid-card level when he joined Choshu in jumping to All Japan in late 1984. When Choshu jumped back to New Japan in 1987, Hamaguchi retired from wrestling and became a bodybuilder, winning the Over 40 Mr. Tokyo and placing in the Over 40 Mr. Japan, before returning to wrestling with New Japan for a few years feuding with Choshu. Hamaguchi was a great underrated worker prior to his first retirement, but was obviously washed up in his comeback. However WAR is now a haven for past-40 guys who are past their prime. Hamaguchi now sports a Road Warrior Hawk style haircut.
Yeah great. Match is clipped worse than Animal’s haircut and he wins with a chinlock.
Five Three-Minute Rounds
Koki Kitahara vs. Arashi
There was a Great Sasuke match on this show but instead we got this. Koki attacks Arashi at ringside, with Arashi’s second having to throw a pile of salt to save him. Mega-clipped match, with Koki impressively dropping Arashi with a backdrop suplex before getting kicked harder than Del Rio when he fought Cro Cop. Match goes to a draw.
Fuyuki-Gun vs. Ashura Hara, Super Strong Machine & Daitako
Machine gets a nice delayed Butterfly Suplex off the second rope but it’s not a great sign when they’re heavily clipping the main event. All three good guys charge at Gedo in the corner but Fuyuki sticks a chair up so Hara collides with it. Fuyuki-Gun are somehow able to Super Powerbomb the large Daitako, before Gedo dives through the ropes to take out Hara and Fuyuki Stretch Plumbs Daitako for the win. Fuyuki-Gun were so cool. Not here, just in general.
Then we get an interview with Tenryu who has the same enthusiasm as someone having to ring a call centre to reset their password.
And that’s the end of the tape.
Overall: B-Side collection for die-hards and weirdos only, with not even the Tenryu match worth recommending. Post-NJPW has been rough for WAR so far. Next.