WWF Mania Tour Night 2: Nagoya Mania 05/08/94

Wrestle And Romance/World Wrestling Federation

Nagoya Rainbow Hall
Attendance: 6,735

Previously In WAR…

In Nagoya on 5/8, they announced 6,735 in a 12,000-seat arena but live estimates pegged it at 2,500.

I don’t believe you, let’s check Ospreay’s tattoo.

Headshrinker Samu vs. Nobukazu Hirai

Splitting up the tag team to work individual singles matches? Yup it’s a WWF 1994 house show alright. Hirai gets a much bigger response than he deserves. Samu delivers a scoop slam and the crowd reacts strongly because oh my god this a loud ring. That slam almost counted as a jump-scare. Samu works a solid match with Hirai who is not solid in the slightest. Hirai can’t finish a Fireman’s Toss so Samu turns it into a headlock takeover because he’s GUNTHER compared to this dork. Second-rope DDT at 4:31 finishes a match that the crowd loved way more than it deserved. Going to be a good show with a crowd this pre-heated.

Jinsei Shinzaki vs. The 1-2-3 Kid

Kid is accompanied by some lass, unsure who she is but the crowd approves. Almost as much as they approve of Jinsei, who is more over than the concept of women. I think we all knew that already. Both men throw kicks with Kid taking a thrust before taking a powder. I think Kid would base the rest of his career on that sequence (especially the powder). Shinzaki press slams Kid and taunts to get his spirit meter up with Kid landing the only three-kick combo he knows. Rope walk gets a big arse pop as does the follow up dive to the outside. Kid then goes wild with a diving spinning senton to the outside off the top rope, before mocking Shinzaki’s taunt in the ring. Kid slows it down with some holds, but as soon as they get their breath back, Kid tries his big spin kick which Shinzaki sees coming and counters it into a backdrop driver. Praying Powerbomb only gets two but a diving headbutt misses, with Kid landing a perfect Victory Roll for…two! Multiple pin attempts go nowhere with even a Tornado DDT not even ending it. Kid finally finishes things at 9:35 and this was all bloody marvellous. Kid worked his arse off here and this was on the same level as their not-talked-about-enough Summerslam 1995 match. Better than the concept of Jinsei Shinzaki which is better than the concept of women.

Tatanka vs. Headshrinker Fatu

Just like last time, Tatanka is really over and so is his skipping as he heads into the ring. He should have stayed in Japan so people could yell his name with glee rather than disgust. Fatu offers a handshake but Tatanka yells “BUFFA-NO”. Fatu no-sells a face-first slam to the mat cos HE’S SAMOAN but he’s bothered by the insults being thrown his way by the crowd proving that hard heads can’t protect soft hearts. Tatanka connects with a Japanese armdrag and then a non denominal armdrag before falling victim to a backbreaker. There’s huge gaps of non-activity between the moves and the once-hot crowd loses interest. A back rake can’t get them back into it but a lengthy chinlock does. Tatanka counters a DDT with a small package to gobsmack the crowd. Yeah they murmured all over that one. Fatu no-sells a DDT and so we get another chinlock which annoys the cameraman so much he films the darkness of the crowd instead. When we return, Tatanka gets the pin after a crossbody off the second rope at 9:55. Cameraman already summed it up better than I could.

Doink & Owen Hart vs. The Smoking Gunns

This show is well after Wrestlemania X but Doink still gets a bigger pop than Owen Hart. Even the Smoking Gunns get a better reaction. Doink sprays water in Owen’s face and Owen is mad he didn’t think of doing it first. And with stronger liquid. Owen and Bart mat wrestle with vigour, with Owen celebrating the moral victory. I mean he’s out-wrestling a guy in jeans. Crowd are yelling stuff at Doink and he’s getting crazy reactions just for looking at the fans while Owen and Bart go through a lovely tussle on the mat. Doink gets the hot tag to show up Owen by slamming Billy all around the place, so Owen refuses to tag in out of spite. Owen’s heel antics get nothing and the crowd just stops making any noise for the action when he’s in. Bart taking the Jannetty Sell gets a small pop but this crowd wants the Clown and nothing but. Doink tags in and immediately misses an elbow drop to much laughter. What a bewildering crowd. Match drags on with the crowd giving up on even Doink’s antics until Owen accidentally dropkicks Doink and Billy rolls him up at 11:05. Fascinating for the crowd reactions but nothing else after that.

WWF World Women’s Title

Alundra Blayze vs. Sakie Hasegawa

No pop for Sakie but Alundra gets a respectful pop. Sakie absolutely tears Alundra apart with fast-arse suplexes until Alundra recovers from a Frankensteiner so she can slow Sakie down with a chinlock and catch a break. Sakie escapes to wear out Alundra some more with Blayze having to grab a hold again to stop the violence, which is telling a much better story than the Nakano match last night despite half the stiffness. Alundra just can’t catch a break whenever she’s vertical and ends up taking kicks to the face. Blayze still can’t slow down Sakie with pin attempts and even when Sakie gets sent outside the ring, she immediately re-enters and sends Alundra outside before she can capitalise. After taking another dirty kick right to the face, Blayze ducks a follow up and lands the German Suplex Pin at 11:00 to emerge out the wreckage in one piece. Alundra knew she couldn’t match her opponents’ quickness or stiffness so she instead took her lumps for the good of a simple story, good for her.

Bob Backlund vs. Masashi Aoyagi

Aoyagi breaks a board with his foot to get us ready while Backlund enters to no music and an enormous, loving reaction. Backlund’s seventies-style technical wrestling didn’t always work on his many returns but it works very well here against karate guy Aoyagi, with Backlund really emphasising the struggle of slamming a dude in a gi while he’s kicking you. Crowd loses their mind as Bob powers out of an armlock by picking up Aoyagi’s entire body. Aoyagi holds on though, resulting in a battle on the mat for dominance. Bob pulls Aoyagi up again and this time holds him like he’s the catch of the day to more crowd love, before launching him half way across the ring with a double underhook! And then Bob walks right into a small package at 6:30 for another exasperated pop from the crowd. They did like two spots here but made those spots look like a fight to the death and the crowd loved it.

The Undertaker vs. Yokozuna

Yokozuna is again announced as Yokozuna. Big heat for the big staredown before they go shot-for-shot with Yoko headbutting the dead man. Mr Fuji yells “Banzai Banzai!!” to some people’s amusement as Undi lands his flying DDT thing, before SITTING UP and getting clotheslined down. Yoko butt splashes but Undi SITS UP again and the crowd loves that bit. I mean, we all do really. Yoko takes a header outside as only he can with Undi bonking him into the ring post for the….count-out at 4:00????

They quickly play Undi’s music to drown out the boos but the crowd simply waits until it stops to start yelling insults. I’m not sure if they were yelling “refund” but they definitely weren’t yelling “yeah we love short matches with bullshit finishes!” I always liked Yokozuna/Undi due to both men’s selling complimenting the other, but the entrances were longer than the match.

Adam Bomb & Rick Martel vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Randy Savage

Macho Man gets the biggest pop of the show which proves how few people watched SWS. Savage eats it all up as crowd boo Adam Bomb. Well of course they would. Martel pretends to be on Savage’s level until Tenryu tags in to chop the shit out of Martel’s chest. Adam assures Tenryu he ain’t scared so Tenryu starts chopping and slamming him too. Bomb tries to take a breather out the ring but is too slow so Tenryu chops him in the back of the head while he’s walking away. Ha! Savage tags in so someone can get offence for a bit and Randy is about to get used to this tag formula with Hogan in a few months time. Bomb blows up Savage (ho ho) with backbreakers and taunts, with the Japanese crowd loving the silly American antics. Hot tag to Tenryu who deals with the broken dosimeter by throwing Enziguris around. Bomb and Tenryu brawl outside allowing Savage to land a small package out of nowhere to end it at 11:15. Not great, not terrible.

WWF World Heavyweight Title

Bret Hart vs. Bam Bam Bigelow

Only a polite pop for Bam Bam who I thought would have gotten more. Bret gets what he always gets in Japan which is resentful heat for not being Hogan or Flair or Bruce. Bret tricks Bam into coming near the ropes so he can wail away on him while he’s tied up. Crowd boos that! Bam Bam is twice his size, c’mon man. Bret sails over the top onto Bam to continue the Begrudging Respect pop the crowd is giving him. Bam press slams Bret so he recovers outside, leading to some more noticeable boos. Bret sends Bammers outside but that results in Bigelow trying to use the ring steps on Bret but the ref stops him so Bret can recover from whatever missed-by-the-cameraman shenanigans happened to him. Bret somehow makes it back in to take some falling headbutts and rope choking as crowd finally starts booing the Bam. The crowd’s polite clapping isn’t enough to help Hitman escape his chinlocks and backbreakers. Bret finally makes a comeback with a back suplex and The Moves Of Doom kick in with Bam halting that with a bearhug before squishing Bret with a failed back drop. The crowd are really popping for this now but as Bigelow sets up the moonsault, it’s clear the crowd are all chanting BIG-EH-LOW. Bam’s missed moonsault sets up the match-ending Sharpshooter at 14:30 and the cameraman can’t even bothered to record Bret’s post-match celebration.

Bret vs. Bam Bam is always fun, even with House Show Bret and a pro-Bigelow crowd. Eh, I’ve read Bret’s book I know there were plenty of women in the area to cheer Bret up.

Overall: Another fascinating look at how different people react to different things! Nowadays we have France’s love of Butch but back then it was all about Doink being more over than the Hart Bros. Even with the screwy finishes, these still have to be at the top of the WWF 1994 house show list ratings, if such a horrific list should exist.

I’ve been Maffew and I typed this up coming down from MDMA so if words bad then me no crae.