WAR Wrestle Association-R Battle Winter 02/08/97
By Maffew Gregg on 5 January 2025
Wrestle Association-R
Korakuen Hall
Attendance: 2,000 (yeah sure)
Ryo Miyake vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Miyake is Tarzan Goto’s student. He’s a good hand with a bad face. We get perfectly acceptable kicks and chops until Ishii lands a plunging German Suplex. Ryo doesn’t like that so he mule kicks Ishii low, setting up a Brainbuster directly onto the head. Ishii doesn’t have a need for a neck so he’s able to kick out before Ryo finishes with Randy Orton’s elevated enzymes DDT at 8:11. Very decent start.
Takashi Okamura vs. Atsushi Kikuchi
JIP to Kikuchi diving off the apron to Okamura as the crowd laugh at Kikuchi’s awful look. Black tights and a disgusting mohawk topped off with a fat child’s face. Okamura lands his leg sweeps before Kikuchi continues with basic power moves. This goes on for a while until a lariat is turned into a cross armbreaker for the quick tap out at 11:04. Nothing bad but nothing good either.
The Wolf vs. Onryo
The Wolf is some WYF guy because WAR loves collecting any random indie guy they find roaming the streets so they can give them a warm meal and a bed for the night. 1997 was a rough time for Puro indies.
Onryo takes a plancha but gets sick of Wolf’s yelling afterwards so he punches him in the balls. Onryo escapes a camel clutch by biting Wolf’s hand because the dead don’t care about rules. Wolf yells insults at Onryo which the crowd enjoys but there’s nothing going on aside from that. Onryo lands a really rough double jump swanton to the outside which also results in crowd laughter which maddens Onryo into doing a better one. Wolf tries to counter a back grapple but Onryo turns it into a stunner. This whole match feels like a demo reel for Onryo to try stuff out as he’s landing stuff for no rhyme or reason. Onryo is late kicking out on a crossbody and everyone in the crowd notices. A very high angled Butterfly Suplex nearly destroys Wolf but he kicks out, only to take a backslide to finish at 9:43.
Yeah no thanks. Wolf thankfully wouldn’t return.
Arashi & Shinichi Nakano vs. Osamu Taitoko & Tatsuo Nakano
Oh here we go! Crowd is as happy to see Tatsuo as I am. He controls Shinichi with an armlock until he smoothly rolls out of with an ankle lock.
We annoyingly clip ahead from what looked like a lovely and engaging feeling out process so Osamu’s useless arse can wobble in to bulldog Arashi. Osamu takes a baseball slide into the front row so Arashi can sail out with a sumo crossbody. Crowd don’t react to any of this as they don’t want a fat crowd brawl, they want holds and stuff. The Nakanos thankfully tag back in with Shinichi throwing Tatsuo around until he counters a suplex into a Kimura. Tatsuo delivers a German Suplex and instantly transitions into a crossface on the mat, not letting his opponent breathe. Tatsuo wants Arashi who obliges by belly-to-belly suplexing the tough bastard.
Tatsuo tags out as so does the editor as we clip ahead to Arashi Liger Bombing the chubby prick. Tatsuo breaks the pin before a count even starts with a brutal Johnny-Wilko-style kick to the back. Arashi goes for the Frog Splash with Tatsuo shaking the ropes, getting a dirty look from Arashi who is still able to land it for two. A second puts Osamu away with the two Nakanos giving each other the death stare at 16:48.
Lovely when the Nakanos were going at it but it felt like two different, awkwardly shaped matches happening at the same time. Plus shoving Osamu into encounters like this isn’t going to make him better by osmosis no matter how many times they insist on doing it, it just makes good matches worse. Shove him in the recycling bin and be done with him.
WAR International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match
Battle Ranger & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Lance Storm & Yuji Yasuraoka
This is a title rematch. Lance in the pre-match interview says he isn’t happy as he feels his opponents aren’t great and they shouldn’t have lost the titles to them in the first place. I mean just because it’s true doesn’t mean he should say it.
Yuji and Mochizuki tussle on the mat and the crowd is very receptive to their fast moving feeling-out segment. Then Yuji gets kicked in the face (as is tradition) leading to a standing eight count after a minute of action. Mochizuki tries to back grapple Yuji but he deals with this by diving out the ring with his opponent still attached. Which is a nice idea, except Mochizuki kicks him off the apron and baseball slides him into the front row fans.
Ranger and Lance take over, both dressed for Sendai shows. Storm takes an enziguri and a headscissors as the fans are really into this. Lance’s dropkick doesn’t hit as hard as usual, likely because Storm is having to aim low for once. Rolling Double Crab gets a nice pop though. His top rope swinging leg kick hits Yuji in the face which Mochizuki takes advantage of by kicking Yuji in the face. Ranger thinks the end is coming so lands a jumping Frankensteiner off the apron on to Lance, but Yuji kicks out. Mochizuki lands Yuji’s own double-jump kick (to the face) but Lance is able to save at the last minute.
Ranger protests that Yuji is in fact dead but the ref tells him he’s just sleeping so Mochizuki suplexes him off the apron so Ranger can land the ASAI MOONSAULT COS ULTIMO DRAGON HAS GONE. Not content with stealing from Ultimo, Ranger steals Liger’s spot of draping an opponent in the ropes and kicking him while they’re unprotected. Top rope Frankensteiner can’t put away Yuji and neither can Mochizuki’s German Suplexes. A dazed Yuji tags in Lance who powerslams both opponents before The Crappy Handspring gets a few heckles. Lance give it up, I’m begging you from the future. Lance made his ECW debut two weeks before this show which is probably why he’s having fun slamming people smaller than him while he has the chance.
Yuji lands his double-jump kick but it gets no reaction even though Mochizuki stole it from him. Both lads dive outside with crossbodies leading to a recovered Yuji landing a Frog Splash. It doesn’t put away Ranger and neither can a series of German Suplexes. Ranger comes back with a desperate swinging DDT and hot tags Mochizuki, who Yuji instantly cuts off and kicks in the face. Ha! Now you know how it feels! Storm & Yuji’s Powerbomb/Dropkick combo hits harder than usual as Storm is putting some spice on that one now, but Mochizuki still kicks out as the crowd chant his name. Mochizuki flails away with some stiff looking high kicks before landing Yuji’s own double-jump kick to end the match with the final insult at 14:28.
What a lovely, lovely match. Having watched their matches prior to this, it’s sweet seeing the new champs develop from nervous newbies to experienced workers with chips on their shoulders. Yuji didn’t mess anything up and Lance is delivering moves with more snap than before. Mochizuki was his usual stiff self and even Ranger didn’t look like a Dragon replacement *that* much.
Recommended match that you can watch here because I care about you!
“I feel like shit” says Lance as he consoles his mate backstage. “They kick harder than us but they’re not a better team than us.” Slightly-dick Lance is great.
Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara & Tatsuo Nakano vs. Hiroshi Hatanaka & Koji Kitao & Nobukazu Hirai
Hirai’s main eventing? WAR 1997 is like the last season of The Sopranos when Bobby Baccalieri is made Captain because everyone else is either dead or in prison.
Everyone brawls on the outside to start because it’s what the crowd want to see Goto doing. Goto throws chairs around before beating up Tenryu, with Araya having to come in to save. Kitao’s kicks stop that. Kitao is topless and wearing his trousers up to his tits to emulate Abdullah because Abby sucked at MMA too. Kitahara stops a Kitao STF immediately which garners a generous helping of boos because there’s a bunch of old Goto fans on the balcony with signs like “FMW FOREVER”. Makes for a nice atmosphere if nothing else, and crowd are so into Goto and the idea of this being FMW vs. WAR (which it isn’t) that Hirai even gets a reaction for his spooky face-painted bollocks. Tenryu chops him to the mat and Hirai NO-SELLS to the fan’s amazement so Tenryu hits him again. Hey everyone’s feeling it tonight.
Goto tags in so Tenryu tags out spitefully. Araya tries to chop Goto but he laughs and headbutts the orange one down. Kitahara tags in to take on Hirai and some of the crowd really hates Kitahara. Understandable. Hirai kicks him low and it doesn’t get half as many boos. Hirai delivers a sweet Dragon Suplex to Araya to summon Goto and his fork. Kitao back sentons Araya but Goto pulls his shoulder up on a pin so he can continue abusing him. Crowd are eating all of this up as Araya’s red blood starts to stain Kitao’s white tights. F M DUB F M DUB.
Kitao tags in to dispatch Kitahara with as much ease as an obese ex-fighter can. Goto tags in to take apart Kitahara until he powers up enough to bring in Tenryu who wastes little time on lariating Goto and kicking his head when he covers up. Goto sticks him with a fork and tags in Hirai who walks directly into the lariat. Araya takes apart Hirai out of revenge while Tenryu attempts to stop the heels. He doesn’t, and neither can the ref who can’t prevent more double teaming as Araya takes another dozen moves while still bleeding. Kitao devastates him with the Fire Thunder Piledriver, with Goto demanding he come in and stab him with his fork which is enough for Tenryu to lose it and dump Goto outside to bury him under a sea of chairs. Tenryu’s heated decision leaves Araya wide open for Hirai to finish him with a top rope elbow at 17:40.
Great heat segment and build for the big singles main event for the upcoming Anniversary Show, really helped by a lovely crowd. Goto felt like a big deal in this small surrounding, let’s see if it lasts until the big show (spoilers: nah not really).
Overall: 1997 is when the plane starts making worrying noises and you hope for a reassuring look from a air stewardess but all of them are avoiding you. The undercards are even more forgettable than last year with only the Junior Heavyweight Tag Title match worth searching for, unless you really love Tarzan Goto.
