Pro Wrestling Crusaders – Born Again 05/09/96
By Maffew Gregg on 18 August 2024
Tokyo, Japan
Korakuen Hall
Attendance: 1,500
The last recorded PWC show. The company somehow survived longer than NOW despite having more egos than stars.
This time we’re in Korakuen Hall for a not-even-close-to-sold out show which is the moment in the sad film when the old woman coughs quietly into a tissue then tells the main character “oh it’s nothing dear, don’t worry.”
Sanshiro Takagi vs. Hiroshi Watanabe
I’m trying to give up watching these black gear Young Lions matches because they’re dull for my health. Both lads are happy to deliver loud slaps and the crowd is already boisterous. Both wrestlers are still going in 2024, good for them. Next.
Super Judist vs. Raiou
Judist refers to his judo gear, sadly he’s not a guy who betrays everybody. Curt Hennig was already doing that gimmick in WCW anyway. Raiou busts out the sumo slaps early which are obviously effective on a fat guy wearing judo gear. This match stays in first gear with ankle picks & armbars so the crowd murmur amongst themselves. Judist executes a Judo throw off the top rope and wins with a Crucifix arm lock at 5:58 to boos. Eh.
Different Style Fight
Kazushige Nosawa vs. Masakazu Nagase
So in PWC’s desperate desire to stay afloat they’ve previously jumped on the garbage bandwagon, the music bandwagon and now they’re on the shoot style bandwagon. The future NOSAWA wins in eighteen seconds with a choke. OK then. I’d assume that was a real shoot given it’s shortness but you can never tell with a company like this.
Different Style Fight
Uchu Power X vs. Kamen Shooter Super Rider
Two guys in ludicrous outfits pretending to fight for real. Commentators are already laughing but both lads are treating it as seriously as a bug man and a dodgy alien can with hard kicks and furious takedowns. Just as Kamen makes another mount and I wonder if this is actually real-real, Kamen is forced to adjust his dopey mask and Uchi doesn’t take advantage which takes me out of it slightly. It’s still miles above the rest of the card in terms of pace and stiffness, as they’re going their absolute hardest despite the limitations of their outfits. Kamen maintains the advantage by repeatedly dogging Uchu on the mat, until Uchu tries an armbar that’s wide enough to force Rider out of position which was a lovely counter. Sadly the round ends before he can take any advantage.
Round Two starts with more low kicks until Kamen misses a crazy backflip and stays on the mat Inoki-style. Uchu doesn’t approve and insists his bug mate stands up so they can continue properly, resulting in both men standing up and immediately going to the mat anyway. Uchu lifts Kamen out of a hold and powerbombs him but Kamen shrugs it off. As someone who has only done light sparring, I can’t get over these two doing all this in full body outfits in a sweatbox like Korakuen Hall. Uchu gets a sleeper but the round ends at the worst possible time again.
Round Three finally sees both lads slow it down and lie on the mat with the occasional punch to the padded mask as it’s about now that I’d be vomiting. Both men slide outside so they can breathe and to empty the sweat out their arses like the tubes in Dune.
Round Four carries on with more strikes but ones that have no chance of connecting, only being thrown as self-defence. To the mat we go again as these two are moisturising through their outfits. Their limbs must resemble boil-in-the-bag spaghetti. Uchu is drunk on heat and can’t stop any strikes so he goes to the mat for more armbars but Rider sweats out of the control to end the round.
Final Round with more strikes that have no chance of colliding. Shades of the late, great Shane McMahon. Both gimps go for ankle picks at the same time with Rider able to hold on despite Uchu turning his entire body around, demonstrating how wet both these lads must be. Rider gets prodded outside for an entire ten second break which lets him attempt a Fujiwara Armbar. Uchu has the strength to move Rider’s entire body into a different hold as the bell rings to end it on a draw. Both lads hug.
What a strangely enjoyable display of shoot-style, effort and ungodly amounts of perspiration. Wasn’t sophisticated but was full of nice little moments on an already weird show like this. Mild recommendation.
El Hijo del Santo & El Sharak vs. Blue Panther & Fuerza Guerrera
Sharak has no details on Cagematch or WrestlingData so he may not exist. He very competently lands the expected armdrags and lovely split-legged leapfrogs but stumbles on the top rope and the fans do not appreciate that at all. He still connects with the leaping armdrag but the commentators are howling with laughter at that one moment. Jesus, I thought I enjoyed mistakes in wrestling. Santo tags in to a hero’s welcome. And to get bodied by Fuerza until Santo counters an armdrag into a headlock takeover and sends Fuerza flying almost out the ring with a monkey flip. Commentators are wooping all over Santo’s headscissors and Frankensteiners but the crowd are much more subdued. Sharak connects with a double springboard armdrag and double headlock takeovers as the crowd have zero respect for him. Ooof. Santo connects with a beautiful tope onto Fuerza and half the front row, before immediately rolling in and attempting to pin Panther with the momentum. Panther strongly disagrees and lands a massive butterfly backbreaker, with Santo ignoring it to get a slick Sunset Flip. Sharak tags in to silence so Panther attempts to eat his hachimaki.
There’s got to be a reason for the crowd and commentators hating Sharak but I doubt I’ll find it. Panther abuses him with leglocks to the point where he immediately starts landing armdrags on Fuerza so he doesn’t have to take anymore. Commentators AGAIN laugh at Sharak despite his lovely headscissors and leaping Frankensteiner off the apron. Man I’ve NEVER seen this level of open disrespect in Puro before. Santo connects with a crossbody for two with Fuerza ignoring it as I guess only Mil can do that one respectfully. So Santo absolutely soars with a top rope crossbody to the outside with the cameras stood underneath him so it appears he flies thirty feet. Meanwhile, Sharak attempts to unmask Blue Panther and crowd hate him for trying. He in fact manages to tear a giant hole in the top and has to stop to avoid actually unmasking Panther. Sharak counters to the slowest Sunset Flip I’ve ever seen resulting in more laughter and boos. Panther low blows Sharak and there’s small cheers. Panther misses a top rope moonsault so Sharak connects with a top rope on to a standing Panther and it isn’t very smooth so the crowd craps all over it yet again. And that’s your finish at 11:11!
Decent lucha things here but the crowd’s negative reaction to Sharak made this fascinating viewing. Bill Watts didn’t hate the gays as much as the commentators hated this dude and it completely took away from everyone else’s efforts, as competent as they were.
PWC Heavyweight Title Match
KY Wakamatsu (c) vs. Hiroshi Shimada
KY was a spryly 54 years old here. He’s still wrestling occasionally in 2024 at the age of 81 so he’s nearly ready for NXT.
It says on cagematch he’s the PWC champ and he does indeed come out wearing a title belt, however there’s no record of how he won it or anybody else’s title runs. Hiroshi Shimada meanwhile looks like depression. The type of weird looking blob that gets cast in films set in oldy-timey England to show how rough life was before mushy peas were invented.
KY looks in far better shape than his opponent less than half his age. He is absolutely up for this, bouncing on his feet ready to pound yesterday’s desert out of Shimada. Not a lot happens until Uchu Power sends Hiroshi into the front row of chairs while KY yoga stretches to gets his health back. KY is hilariously over-dramatic with his jumping knife edge chops, yelling loudly every time he throws one. This has been five minutes of nothing but KY screaming.
Shimada finally gets on offence but it’s chinlocks. KY rams Shimada’s head into the turnbuckles which defies all logic because KY is wide enough to cover that entire area so Shimada is bumping in theory of striking the pads. Shimada gets sent into more chairs as the crowd sounds bored. Shimada is sent to the back and we transition backstage (like in WWF Smackdown 2) to him being covered in bin juice. I can’t tell if this is supposed to be comedy or not because the crowd doesn’t give a damn about anything happening. Abdominal Stretch looks to finish for KY until a masked…someone shows up to get immediately taken out by Uchu and have no impact on the match. Shimada manages a snap suplex and a splash so amazing that he BOUNCES off the impact and is so happy he does another to win the match and possibly even the title at 14:14.
Shimada is indeed given the title afterwards as KY teases stealing his trophy too.
A surreally awful match designed to entertain no-one. I’ve got nothing here.
Batman (The Great Sasuke) & Shunji Takano vs. The Great Zebra & Gran Naniwa
No I don’t know why Sasuke is Batman. Or who The Great Zebra is. Or why Shunji booked himself to be in the main event with all these light heavyweights.
The offence is deliberately paced to start with both Naniwa and Zebra moving their pawns in this human game of chess. It’s all very competent but I’m bewildered when Shunji tags in and receives the biggest pop of the night. Whenever you’re feeling like you’re suffering from imposter syndrome, remember this drunk fool had Stans. Zebra lets himself be bashed around by Pukahontas until Batman tags in to na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na No Pop. Sasuke & Naniwa continue to wrestle perfectly cromulently anyway until Naniwa busts out THE CRAB ELBOW.
Sasuke betters that by countering a Flying Nothing into an armdrag. Oh that’s a nice variation. Shunji beats up Zebra some more until Sasuke busts out the Cool Offence meaning a Handspring Elbow and an Asai Moonsault. Zebra follows with a nice Plancha before SHUNJI GETS INTO IT BY messing up a vault so badly he drags himself back into the ring to do it again.
They should put pictures of Shunji on the warning labels of alcohol to increase sobriety. Sasuke lands a top rope Frankensteiner and in-ring Asai Moonsault as you get the feeling he’s going through the motions even when doing cool moves. Maybe because Sasuke isn’t the most popular guy on a show like this and he has a hell of a cult of personality of his own. Sasuke lands his massive swanton to the darkness of the outside and that thankfully gets a pop, but only because Shunji told him to do it. Shunji amazingly busts out a very fast release Northern Lights on Gran which was weirdly cool as you don’t see many of them. Shunji messily throws Sasuke off the top rope into a splash as both lads follow up with stereo planchas again. He really is the guy who has a few pints and thinks he can do the Worm in the middle of the dance floor. Naniwa tries a Frankensteiner so Shunji can reverse into a powerbomb but Shunji can’t even manage a simple counter like that and decides to drop him before powerbombing Naniwa for the kind-of-a-counter victory at 11:55.
It promised three great cruiserweights and a dude filled with more coke than your average Brit-Wres locker room and that’s what we got. Shunji was heard to have told Sasuke “they never should have made you Batman” before passing out backstage. Not a bad match but definitely a weird one so it was fitting to headline this already odd show.
Overall: About what you’d expect from an indie ran by a crazed drunk with a show named after a rotten Black Sabbath album.
Aftermath
Nine shows and thirteen months later, the crazy train would finally de-rail with a final miserable event attended by “around 100 fans” which knowing Puro finance means “some dog walkers” finally ending PWC’s run of terror.
George Takano would concentrate on UWF-i and kickboxing before returning to wrestling part-time in 2001.
Shunji would bounce around ZIPANG, Dosanko Pro Wrestling Dojo Geki, Federacion Universal de Lucha Libre and other companies that sound like I just made them up until 1998. He mostly spends his time bothering people online and greatly exaggerating his contributions to wrestling (i.e. eating and drinking).
Sad Genius would set up his own company United Nations Wrestling to limited success but lots of insanity that occasionally gets discussed on social media. Here’s some of the best bits:
when inoki announced his upcoming retirement sad genius spent months challenging him, near the end of this campaign he had a match where he just absolutely dogwalked a masked guy named “tokyo tom jr” and then cut a promo after where he shootnamed inoki. tokyo tom was inoki’s name in america.
just so wild to me that someone like Sad Genius could exist, a millionaire from birth trained by Lou Thesz and Satoru Sayama, spending his whole career on the sleaze indies having controversies with everyone he worked with
s/o to the 1997 UNW “Iron Man Contest” korakuen show where he and fellow Thesz trainees Mark Fleming and Henry Robinson wrestled for an hour it may have drawn less than 100 people but it did sound awesome
nowadays sad genius is mostly into philanthropy, giving lots of money to hospitals and orphanages, but he does still talk about wrestling a lot on his blog, telling wild stories from his time in PWC and stuff he heard from all his political/pro wres connections
I honestly don’t know when Genius and Onita started to develop a business relationship, but the earliest traces of it I’ve found go back to the 09/24/2000 Onita Pro show, where Sad Genius faced Super Tokyo Tom in the semi-main (one of the only full Sad Genius matches we have)
Following this, Genius would actually challenge Onita to a singles match, and it would *almost* happen before Onita pulled out at the last second, leading to Tiger Jeet Singh replacing him in the main event of the 03/24/2002 UNW show
Genius immediately tried to sue Onita for 10 Million yen for pulling out of the match, but after negotiations were held, the lawsuit was dropped in exchange for Onita promising to appear in a tag match against Genius on the 04/27/2003 UNW show
The match was a total disaster, with Onita spending most of it on the apron, yelling at Genius’s sister. Once it ended, Afterwards, Genius tried to rush Onita, resulting in Onita’s posse beating the shit outta him, including Shoji Nakamaki who kicked Genius hard in the eye.
Of course, this immediately led to a new lawsuit, with Genius demanding 15 Million yen this time, claiming that Onita had gone off script and betrayed their new agreement, leading to the fight and Nakamaki kicking him which resulted in Genius’s eye getting injured
A long legal battle ensued, with Onita supposedly sending lots of threatening emails to Genius, and Genius releasing a book about the shoot and his business with Onita In 2006, the case was settled, with Onita being forced to pay 780,000 yen instead of the demanded 15 million.
All in all though, this would end up being Genius’s final match ever, as following his eye injury he took a break to recuperate, before eventually deciding his pro wrestling career was over.
One final bonus in case this is the end of the thread, Sad Genius vs. HARLEY RACE almost happened in 2001, with Race apparently agreeing to do it, before an unknown third party organization stopped Race from doing the match. The below image is all that came out of this:
resurrecting the thread once again because I’m reading even more Sad Genius stories and this guy might be the greatest wrestler ever the following tweets will have a lot of info taken from Mark Fleming’s autobiography, “It’s Wrestling, Not Rasslin’!”for anyone that hasn’t heard of him before, Fleming was one of Thesz’s trainees, and outside of working in no-name promotions like “NJPW”, “UWFi”, or “WCW”, he also a solid amount of matches for Genius’s promotion UNW, as the two had trained together under Thesz
according to Fleming, Genius was a genuinely gifted worker, and everyone knew that he would be a big deal once he headed back to Japan. Thesz had so much confidence in him that less than a year into training, he set up a meeting with NJPW officials to get Genius a job there.
And then Genius didn’t show up for the meeting. Eventually Fleming asked why and Genius said that he was more interested in becoming a big deal in America and saw no point in putting himself through being a young boy.
This whole situation basically ruined Genius’s relationship with Thesz, who felt pretty betrayed by Genius just not showing up. Fleming does say though that Thesz kinda always thought Genius was an unstable weirdo, but that he was talented enough that it didn’t matter.
Eventually, Genius started up UNW and Fleming got a call to main event the first show. Thesz was actually really against the idea of Fleming working in UNW, but Fleming had no personal issues with Genius and had fun working in Japan, so he went anyways.
Fleming ended up working UNW for the next 5 years, and although he was pretty weirded out by how Genius and his dad (who handled the business aspect of the promotion) did business, he noted that he loved working with Tsunehito Naito, and said he was as good as anyone in NJPW
In June 1999, Fleming is booked on what would end up being his final UNW show. Before he’s flown to Japan, Genius’s dad calls him and asks him to bring the Virginia Heavyweight title. Fleming is confused by this, but he agrees to it after they say they had advertised him as champ
Right before the match, Genius’s dad asks Fleming to put Genius over. Fleming is again kinda weirded out by this, but agrees to it without thinking much of it.
Genius and Fleming get into a massive argument backstage, but eventually the two come to some agreement that Fleming will leave the belt in Japan. This doesn’t end up happening though, as Fleming takes the belt back to America. This is where the story ends. For about 5 years.
In 2004, lawyers appeared at Fleming’s doorstep. It turned out that Genius had flown himself to the United States and gotten lawyers, and now he was gonna try to sue Fleming for the title. Genius held up the trial for a long time and the judge immediately threw the case out.
Fleming’s final Genius story came a few years later, when Fleming was going to do a wrestling exhibition at a summer camp. Genius somehow found out about this and sent a letter to the camp, telling them that Fleming was a fraud and not the REAL Virginia Heavyweight champion.
Going back to the title situation, Fleming and Genius actually agree on what caused it. In 1989, VWA’s new management tried to take the belt from Fleming, who had the rights to it. The court ruled in favor of Fleming and said “the belt is owned by the champion”.
These were entirely different situations though, and Genius thought he could use this decision to “legally” steal the title from Fleming. Fleming’s final words on Genius: “In summary, what a failure and a waste of our time Yuki Watanabe turned out to be.”
