WAR Wrestle Association-R 5th Anniversary Show 07/06/97

Wrestle Association-R

Sumo Hall
Attendance: 9,760 (closer to 6,000)

Previously In WAR…

I’m sure Meltzer was losing his mind at WAR making it to five years given that every time he mentions them in the WON it’s about how they’re seconds away from death. However, it’s not all positives as this is the show WAR had to do rather than wanted to do:

Genichiro Tenryu held a press conference this past week to announce his 7/6 show at Tokyo Sumo Hall which commemorates both the 20th anniversary of his pro wrestling debut and the fifth anniversary of the WAR promotion. The line-up is a major disappointment as Tenryu’s attempts to get Toshiaki Kawada in as his opponent failed. New Japan won’t be able to help Tenryu since it’s running a major show in Sapporo the same night.

The biggest news at the show was the appearance of Akira Maeda, who came to the ring after Tenryu won and shook hands with him and congratulated him on his 20 years in the ring. Maeda has never wrestled Tenryu, but said that he wasn’t here to challenge him to a match. Maeda said over the house mic that he was going to retire in 1998 and was working on doing his retirement match against either George Foreman or Rickson Gracie.

Great, the most interesting thing on the show was someone walking out with flowers. And it made the cover of the VHS!

Tadahiro Ishii & Shigeo Okumura & Shoichi Ichinomiya vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Takashi Okamura & Yoshikazu Taru (Kitao Dojo)

This is mega clipped but the Dojo lads’ kicks are still fantastic. Just as well, it’s the only thing they do. Ishii retaliates with hard slaps as everyone here looks hungry and eager to please. Ishii lands a German Suplex but Dojo kinda break it up so Ishii’s mates take the hint and blocks them before a second one ends it at 13:49. Too clipped to assess but looked fun.

Battle Arrival

Battle Ranger Z vs. Ryo Miyake (Shin FMW)

What do you mean “Battle Arrival”? Ryo’s been here for months. Maybe he’s pulling a Homer and insisting every day is his first day. He’s the same size as him in fairness, which isn’t a good look for the respected company he’s representing which is uuhhh (what’s that say?) Shin FMW.

Ranger lands the Asai Moonsault while clipping the ringside tables he probably couldn’t see because the house lights are off. This is ultra-clipped to Ryo folding up Ranger with a powerbomb before a Butterfly Suplex ends it at 7:50.

Mega clipped but unlike the first match, what we got looked rough as arseholes. You’d wonder why they’d even show any of it.

WAR vs Ishikawa

Takashi Ishikawa & Kishin Kawabata vs. Osamu Tachihikari & Jun Kikuchi

Oh God WAR are so desperate that they’re doing interpromotional stuff with Tokyo Pro, a company that died months ago. Jun has decided to make himself look less grimey by dying his mohawk ginger. Well done. People must have cared about Ishikawa at one point in his career but by 1997 all his fans have died of old age because there’s no response for anything he does.

Bang-average Kawabata at least tries to make it interesting by holding Jun in an ankle lock and yelling at him. Osamu tags in for the big showdown with Ishikawa. Which means a belly-to-belly and then Kawabata coming in to do all the work. Ooof. Ishikawa tags in after several minutes of basic activity to land a Demolition Decapitation for two before the Sharpshooter causes Osamu to break it up. Another one a minute later, with a cheeky pose ends the match for the only pop at 13:27.

Osamu is annoyed at Ishikawa so there’s a half-hearted brawl afterwards. Ishikawa wouldn’t return to WAR after this, probably because of the state of his performance here. He’d join BJW before starting Tokyo Pro II (!!!!) before retiring in 1999. As a mate of Tenryu’s, he was capable of being an entertaining cog in the WAR wheel but he lost all relevance after that.

Revolution Spirits

Arashi & Shinichi Nakano vs. Joel Deaton & Tatsuo Nakano

Hell yeah it’s sumo Arashi, the shoot style Nakanos and…80s cowboy wrestler Joel Deaton?

Tatsuo starts off with a sick release German Suplex and tags in Joel who is dressed in cut-off jeans and a bandana around his neck. Crowd love him. I must be missing something here. He gets double Irish Whipped and nearly falls on his arse in the process. Shinichi stops selling his shots so Joel goes “woah ok” and tags out. Eventually Tatsuo and Arashi go at it with tasty Dragon Screws with Tatsuo working in first gear so he doesn’t overshadow the cowboy fella. Joel sends Arashi into the guard rail as you can see plenty of empty seats when the light briefly shows that part of the arena.

This meanders until Tatsuo lets himself be distracted by Arashi on the apron to take a lovely release German from Shinichi. However, Arashi heads in and Tatsuo absolutely vollies him with a flurry of vicious strikes to the entire body. Hot tag to Joel who appears in need of a place to stay for the night and nearly looses off a stun gun. The rope move, not the weapon although that would have been funny. Frog splash ends a big ol’ mess of a match at 15:03.

Arashi mocks Tatsuo by gyrating his hips afterwards. Yeah whatever.

Abdullah The Butcher vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Excuse me? Fujiwara chops Abby in the titties and face until Abby come back with throat thrusts. This is more clipped than Abby’s forehead.

Abby tries striking but Fujiwara locks in the His Name Armbar but Abby’s able to drop a tittie on the rope to break it up. Running elbow drop threatens to end it but Fuj kicks out and is able to disarm Abby of his own fork and stab him in his giant gash to cause some lovely bleeding. Running crossbody ends it at allegedly 11:50.

Eh wasn’t offensive or anything for the limited amount of time it was given and crowd liked it I guess.

International Junior Heavyweight Title Match

Yuji Yasuraoka vs. Masao Orihara (Mobius)

A reminder than Yuji beat Jushin Liger for this title. This is Orihara’s first WAR appearance since 1995 after going free-lance. He’s representing his own company Mobius which was set up in January 1997 but wouldn’t run a show until 2000. Eh? First WAR were beefing with companies that are dead and now they’re moving onto companies that aren’t alive yet.

Orihara batters Yuji loads while yelling at the fans. He’s got a load of personality and anger in him. Yuji is able to take the shellacking and help build sympathy even as champ. Orihara has a point to prove and does so by picking Yuji up and scaling the ropes to deliver a Kryptonite Krunch so vicious he nearly spikes himself.

Orihara picks Yuji up for a piledriver and rotates him like Dreamer with Francine before nonchalantly pinning Yuji. Orihara is aghast that Yuji is able to kick out because he’s really hamming it up here. Crowd are responding wonderfully too, all shrieking and high-pitched noises to piss off the dogs in attendance. Spider German Suplex smashes Yuji daft as does a follow up moonsault but Yuji still kicks out. Yuji finally makes a comeback so Orihara immediately kicks him in the dick and follows with the ORIHARA MOONSAULT.

Orihara is a machine so he powerbombs Yuji on the fucking concrete before rolling in and daring him to continue. Yuji just about manages it before taking even more abuse. Orihara tries another casual cover but this time Yuji holds his arms so he can handcuff him and kick him repeatedly. it’s enough to help Yuji land a Frankensteiner…that’s instantly turned into a Liger Bomb for two and crowd are pumped now. C’mon Yuji. Orihara obliterates Yuji with a Brainbuster and lazily pins him but now it’s possible he could lose to one of them. Yuji gets a few lucky DDTs as crowd is chanting his name. The double-jump kick lands three times because it’s a big show but doesn’t end it to the crowd’s “oooOOOooo.” Yuji instead swinging leg kicks Orihara in the back of the head and gets the quick submission with the WAR Special.

Finish was underwhelming as Yuji’s offence really needed meatier moves than running and jumping off the top repeatedly, but everything before that was GOLD JERRY, GOLD. Orihara digging a massive hole into Yuji and acting like he was better than him (probably not far from his real life feelings) was everything plucky Yuji needed here.

Recommended match!

World 6 Man Tag Title Decision Match

Koki Kitahara & Nobutaka Araya & Lance Storm vs. Koji Kitao & Nobukazu Hirai & Tommy Dreamer (ECW)

This is two weeks after Dreamer was shoot-hit in the balls during Cornette’s one appearance in ECW. If you’ve seen the footage you can probably still hear Dreamer’s screams as you read this text.

Originally they had announced Dory Funk and were negotiating to bring in five wrestlers from ECW. Dreamer being on the show is interesting politically since Dreamer shot an angle in ECW for FMW with Terry Funk and Wing Kanemura, and now he’s working for WAR although the plans still are for him to work later this year for FMW.

That’s Dreamer from “ECN” as it’s spelled in the chyron. Hirai and Araya do the business-killing spot of landing piledrivers and no-selling them until something gives, except it gets no response so Kitao tags in to clumsily lariat Kitahara. Dreamer tags in to duke it out with Storm in a match that precedes any of their ECW matches. Dreamer’s moves are so basic it’s hilarious he got booked here.

Storm flies off the top tope with a back elbow and makes it look easy. Dreamer’s stuck doing shoulder tackles. Kitao back sentons Araya then brings a Japanese Table into the ring. Dreamer balances it on top of Araya and delivers a leg drop. Crowd goes “oh” and the table is put back outside. Lot of work for that one mediocre spot. Dreamer steals RVD’s jumping Tree Of Woe with chair for a better reaction. Hirai and Dreamer set up a Top Rope Fire Thunder Piledriver and even though we were all looking forward to seeing Araya die, Kitahara stops it. Dreamer lands a piledriver and tries the “ECW!!” DDT, but Kitahara counters to a Northern Lights. No-one in the crowd knows who Dreamer is. They probably think his name is ECW.

Lance lands three springboard moves onto Dreamer to make it clear they’re in different leagues. Tommy lands the “FUCK YOU!!” DDT, which is more powerful than the “ECW!!” DDT but it doesn’t work on every TV network. Araya and Hirai go through their usual match, which is full of top rope Frankensteiners and moonsaults. Crowd don’t care but at least they’re trying. It all breaks down and Storm & Kitahara are able to land a double-team swinging leg sweep/back suplex onto Kitao to the crowd’s impressed murmuring. Kitahara finally ends it with a Liger Bomb at 18:56 for the titles.

Some people were working harder than others but it all ended up as a heatless affair for a set of belts that would only last six months. Skip unless you’re really interested in seeing Dreamer get zero reaction in a foreign country.

TENRYU Triple Memorial Special Match

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Tarzan Goto

If Tenryu wins, then Goto has to be his Second forever and if Goto wins, WAR President Takei has to become Goto’s second. Yeah great, who gives a shit?

If nothing else, WAR have done a good job of building Goto up as a big nasty heel. Goto has had the advantage in tag, multi-men and cage matches but now it’s time for the Whole Forkin’ Show to take on Mr. Wrestling one-on-one.

Goto is able to start off well enough with various strikes until Tenryu aims his kicks at the enormous gashes on Goto’s arms. They looks like Carlos Colon’s forehead. Ryo at ringside helps Goto remove Tenryu’s boot so Goto can drop elbows and work it over. I enjoy Tenryu selling different styles capable of taking him out, it’s a shame the Pogo match became a disaster. Goto gets a bottle but the ref stops him from using it. For a few seconds, with Goto smashing it over the ref at ringside (who had a towel placed on his head seconds earlier to completely nullify that spot). Tenryu is sick of the bullshit and chases Ryo away to the back, with Tenryu yelling that he’ll replace the ref with someone more efficient as Animal Hamaguchi appears to the crowd’s adulation.

Both men go strike for strike with neither conceding until Goto lands a lariat for two. Animal encourages Tenryu to man up so he does, directly into big shots from Goto. Tenryu lands a load of chops on Goto but he’s able to smirk them off as the original ref complete with head pissing blood returns to officiate. Eh? What was the point of that then? Crowd don’t care because they like Animal. All this distracts from Tenryu kicking out of Goto’s sit-out piledriver. Tenryu kicks out of two top rope splashes as the crowd sounds lost. Tenryu powerbombs Goto but he kicks out of one with the crowd only murmuring in response. Tenryu lands a few enziguris but it’s not getting any reaction at all. Tenryu manages a Blind Elbow for another one count as this match is dying. Goto kicks out of another powerbomb at one and this is just sad. Blind Elbow SMACKS into the back of Goto’s head before a third powerbomb gets something resembling a pop to end it 16:59.

This was perfectly decent until they fannied about with the referees and they over-egged the pudding. A ref bleeding to death is supposed to be non-biased towards Goto? Tenryu’s boot being removed went nowhere, Goto didn’t use a fork or bleed and the crowd gave up. Nothing-arse Sumo Hall anniversary main event.

Overall: Tenryu shoved all the fancy names into this show’s title to make it sound more than what it actually was: WAR’s last Sumo Hall that didn’t sell out or even come close to it. Crowd were so quiet and badly lit they may as well have wrestled in an empty hall which put a dampener on the matches which seemed to have been booked at random with whoever was free that night.

The interesting thing about WAR a few years ago was that the whole company was beefing with other companies and working with the West. In 1997 UWF-i is dead, FMW isn’t the draw it was, and there’s no WWF or WCW or CMLL or AAA to send aid.

So it’s only WAR. And WAR by itself is good for absolutely nothing (say it again y’all).

Yuji vs. Orihara is worth a watch but make like NJPW and decline Tenryu’s phone call.

I’ve been Maffew and I was happy when I made it to five years old too