WAR Wrestle Association-R Final ~Reborn To Future~ 07.26.06

Korakuen Hall
Attendance 2,150

Previously In WAR…

The last WAR event, taking place six years after the last show. That’s some delay in between issues, was Kevin Smith writing it?

I’m unsure why this show is happening but the broadcast starts with a long advert for the Mr. Puroresu Best of Tenryu In WAR DVD so I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark that it’s to plug that. Tenryu was spending his 2006 dividing his time between Dragon Gate and HUSTLE so it’s not like he didn’t have the time.

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Koji Ishinriki

Ishinriki looked like the next big thing in SWS before being left for dead by Ultimo Dragon in WAR. Ishii on the other hand used WAR to start kicking arse and losing neck, so the result isn’t in doubt.

Chops are exchanged along with headbutts which seems a foolish thing to attempt on Ishii the human Diglett. Ishinriki’s sumo strikes pop the crowd but only get two as Ishii just-about lands a sloppy delayed superplex. Ishii follows that by barely being able to get up Ishinriki for the Tombstone before a falling headbutt gets two. Giant frigging lariat sets up a Brainbuster and…wow that was it at 6:14? With only two and a half minutes making TV?

It’s rather damning to wrestle for that length of time and still have your match edited. Ishinriki had long given up by this point but would continue to wrestle until 2022 for whatever reason. Ishii didn’t look especially motivated either so the stand-out performer here was the editor.

Genichiro Tenryu & Rumi Kazama vs. Eagle Sawai & Magnum TOKYO

Tenryu and Tokyo are feuding in Dragon Gate. Why they’re teaming up with Eagle and Rumi (who are both a year away from retiring) I don’t know.

Eagle and Rumi run through some butt bumps before Tenryu punts Wagle right in the face during a pin attempt. Crowd alternates between sounding horrified and amused. Eagle attacks Tenryu on the apron, with Tokyo helping her suplex Tenryu into the ring. Tokyo comedy butt bumps Tenryu who responds with a back drop and an enziguri. Eagle saves her guy, which annoys Tenryu enough to make him tag out. Rumi gets worked over by the camp heels before easily rolling to Tenryu’s corner for the mild tag and hard chops. Tokyo pretends he can go chop-for-chop with Tenryu but realises he’s out of his depth quickly. He does manage a quick high knee but Tenryu immediately ignores it to drop him with a 53 Years Old. Eagle gets her chance to attack a downed Tenryu but he gives her an evil glare. Eagle delivers a sit-out Missile Dropkick to Rumi instead, and with Tokyo holding Tenryu back (who I’m pretty sure missed his cue so Tokyo has to hold him for a comedically long period of time), Eagle drops Rumi with a powerbomb to end it at 6:15.

This was intended as mid-card silliness and it delivered for most of the match until it really fell apart near the end with everyone being on different pages. Crowd liked it at least.

Dos Caras & Gran Naniwa vs. Damien & Super Battle Ranger

Oh here we go. Caras was part-time at this point, only wrestling six matches this year. 2006 would be Naniwa’s last as a full time pro. Meanwhile, Damien and Ranger are still going in 2025.

We’re JIP to Damien doing his old school impressions. He yells “TENRYU” before delivering chops in the corner. “CHOSHU” gets the crowd chanting for the man himself as he locks in a Scorpion Deathlock. Ranger tags in to silence which is even more quiet than usual as Caras is given a hero’s welcome by the crowd when he heads in. Caras busts out his trademark headlock/headscissors before landing two consecutive topes to the floor. What a hard working old dude, that’s a Real Arse Luchadore. And then he lands a plancha with Naniwa to both foes after that! Damian attempts to pin both lads with a weird move that I think was comedic. It’s sometimes hard to tell. Some low-tier bumps from Caras’ foes silence the crowd which Ranger clearly notices as he busts out a lovely Asai Moonsault to the outside. Meanwhile, Damian yells “MUTOH” so he can miss a moonsault, allowing Caras to win via Frankensteiner pin at 7:59.

Not much here but the point of the match was to see Caras outshine everyone half his age, just like he did in the 90s.

Dragon Kid & Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito vs. Kenichiro Arai & Susumu Yokosuka & Yasushi Kanda

This will be fun to watch and a bitch to type about because I only know Dragon Kid, who starts off with his wonderfully quick and smooth lucha abilities. Oh good it’s highlight only anyway, wahoo. Kid lands a tremendous lucha good-look-typing-this-fuck-it-i’ll-just-GIF

Multiple rolling Fisherman’s Suplex sequence makes me wonder why no-one else has stolen that spot. Dragon again tags in as the editor knows how good he is, even when taking a ton of double teams from the others. Oh then we get a casual double-stacked Frankensteiner off the top and even THAT isn’t the finish.

Rest of the highlights make Dragon Gate look like the coolest wrestling company in the world in 2006 and I feel deeply uncool for not knowing more about these lads. Crucifix Driver finally ends it at…14:45? Wow it seemed like a much longer match because of the amount of cool spots even with just highlights.

Gedo & Jado vs. GENTARO & Kintaro Kanemura

Gedo & Jado are wearing their old pyjama gear along with the Fuyuki robes out of respect for the deceased Fuyuki, a wrestler Tenryu kind of liked. Not enough to have him pin him. Or to not fire him. But enough to book when he felt like it. Crowd are very into the tribute until GENTARO dives outside to start this match the only way Kanemura knows how: with plenty of chair shots and crowd brawling. Production isn’t ready for it so it’s not the most well shot or produced matches to ever grace the Hall. The action isn’t much to talk about either so it’s like Norman Mailer directed this match.

Finally they get back into the ring where Jado is bleeding like Adele Morales while he takes an extended beatdown from the Apache Army. Kanemura lands a pretty Lionsault to stimulate things, with GENTARO joining in with a twisting Quebrada with only the back of his head colliding. Frog Splash meets Jado’s knees, allowing Gedo to hot tag in and…kind of land some starting offence on both lads. Crossface threatens to end it but Kanemura eye-rakes to save. Jado has recovered enough to do a real hot tag and clean house until the ref gets thrown outside. This allows a metroplex of chairs to be set up so Kanemura can take a superplex through them all to finally get this one above 1/4*. Superbomb lands on GENTARO but Kanemura is able to recover to break it up to make that a giant waste of time and to make the crowd groan. Thankfully a Superfly Splash ends it at 14:52.

Most of the lads here are capable of so much more which is why this was mildly infuriating because I’ve seen people picking up dog shit with more enthusiasm than this.

Afterwards, Jado and Gedo would promote the CTU Korakuen Hall show on July 30th talking about returning to Korakuen Hall to face the Apache Army once again. They then spoke about their former boss and mentor Kodo Fuyuki with Jado stating that he believes Fuyuki is looking from the dead world saying “Those guys are no good!” and how Fuyuki was the one that taught them so much about pro wrestling including how to get the fans in the palm of your hand.

WAR International Junior Heavyweight Title

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Pentagon Black

Here’s me getting all excited for an early Pentagon Jr. match but no, it’s not the one you’re thinking of. He’s a journeyman Luchador was with Dragon Gate as King Shisa.

Mochizuki is technically still the WAR International Junior Heavyweight champion because he was the last champion but it’s also not been defended since 1999. But he’s a fun wrestler so we’ll allow it.

Penta starts the match with some Pocket Sand so he can drag Mochi to the outside for more crowd brawling and chair shots for some variety after the previous match. Penta throws more powder but that only powers up Mochizuki (don’t think about it too much) into kicking Penta in the back. Penta again resumes chair shots on the outside but misses a lariat into the ring post to give Mochizuki a limb to work on. It’s not done in an overly exciting way but at least it’s not boring chair shots. Damian at ringside cheats to assist his mate, resulting in Mochizuki kicking a ring post. Penta works on that limb which I don’t appreciate because Mochizuki’s kicks are his best attribute. Oh and then Penta spits on a front-row Salaryman. Crowd is so quiet you can hear the spit and the landing. Penta works over Mochizuki’s leg in a workmanlike way but the crowd are passionately urging Mochizuki so it’s working. And it’s effective in getting Mochizuki to power up as he lands his springboard kick to Penta on the apron as the crowd goes wild yelling “he used to do that in WAR!!”

Mochizuki fights over a suplex back inside before landing that springboard kick again. Crowd aren’t into the match though so Penta thankfully kicks out. Mochizuki lands a falling front armbar slam off the ropes and into a very high angled armbar but Damian interferes again to really kill the crowd’s mood. Penta disrobes the top turnbuckle, Mochizuki blind charges into it and Penta follows with a Lionsault to the outside. Crowd do not appreciate that, which I think is down to Penta’s heel work so he Tombstones Mochizuki on the outside out of spite, before spitting into the camera lens. Penta’s got the crowd now, taunting them before busting out a crazy Pump Handle Fire Thunder Driver. Penta misses a moonsault which allows Mochizuki to kick Penta into a Falcon Arrow…for two. Crowd are chanting Mochizuki’s name now. Mochizuki goes for a third springboard kick, with Penta crotching him on the exposed turnbuckle to land Splash Mountain…for two. OK I thought that was it. They fuck up a reversal of something or other before a Tombstone gets the crowd yelling in high-pitch again. Lariats clash at the same time in the middle of the ring until Mochizuki gets 2.999 with a German Suplex. It was a sweet one too. And then Mochizuki rolls a Powerbomb into a Frankensteiner but Penta rolls that into a Sunset Flip for the win and title at 19:42.

Took a while to get going but got exciting near the end and featured some lovely crowd explosions so well done.

Mochizuki would win it back in Penta’s only defence four months later.

Heisei Ishingun (Akitoshi Saito & Masashi Aoyagi & Michiyoshi Ohara & Shiro Koshinaka) vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Don Fujii & Koki Kitahara & Masao Orihara

We get clips of the wild, wild WAR vs. NJPW feud of the early 90s and I can’t say enough good things about how heated and fucking cool that giant feud was. Kuniaki Kobayashi is also here to wave the flag for the evil NJPW stable because Puro fans love a good flag waving. The NJPW lads won’t even allow Tenryu into the ring which means we get to hear his sweet theme song play for an extended period. As soon as it calms down long enough for the introductions to be quickly read out, the crowd is already at a fever pitch. The brawl is on as soon as the final announcement is made and Tenryu is dragged out the ring covered in streamers. This is already the highlight of the night.

It’s a giant crowd brawl to start of course but the heat is there from the get go. Tenryu keeps the streamers on him as he lobs chairs around, looking like the coolest old dude in the world. Once things are settled, Fuji takes Saito’s headbutts and responds with hip thrusts. Koshinaka’s like “hey that’s my gimmick” and shoves his hip into Don’s face. Don resists even that, so Aoyagi kicks him in the chest & face until he takes the hint. Jeez. I know your Dads are watching but chill. Ohara double stomps Fuji off the top rope and rubs his arm into dust upon collision. Saito does the same and you bet your arse he’s selling now. Aoyagi then misses whatever he was going off the top rope and the crowd laugh, proving they’re braver than me. The memory of that is immediately written off as Fuji takes a Spike Piledriver on the exposed floor. Fuji takes a Foley-esque Tree Of Woe before Saito gets into it with the WAR guys. It results in Fuji taking even more Hips to the face. Fuji attempts to send Koshinaka away from him via sumo slaps but Koshinaka simply stares at him like he’s asking about events from 1980 VHS being in 4K.

Fuji finally tags in Tenryu who no sells everything to chop the entire NJPW contingent down. Koshinaka refuses to fall down so all of Tenryu’s mates join in to kick him down. Tenryu is too busy landing a running dive off the apron onto Ohara. Koshinaka follows *that* with a running Arse Dive into Tenryu’s newly-dyed hair. Tenryu ignores it to land the 53 Years Old with no issues on Koshinaka, with his mates breaking it up. Saito lands a huge Axe Kick to the back of Tenryu’s head but it has no effect. Kobayashi smashes the flag-pole over Tenryu which allows Saito to kick Tenryu to the mat as the crowd are like “noooooooooo”. Tenryu headbutts Ohara in an impressive moment before everyone jumps on the human bulldog. Orihara gets his chance to soccer kick the Ohara into the head so he can miss a very shoddy moonsault because he’d stopped doing them as regularly at this point. Koshinaka knows Orihara’s reputation as a dickhead so pulls none of his strikes as they face off. Orihara appears to get rocked by them and it’s hard to feel sorry for him, even when everyone stops to see if he can actually continue for real-real.

Saito at least kicks him in the chest to make sure, with Orihara spitting in his face and earning a giant lariat for his troubles. It really is like old times.

Aoyagi takes a Downward Spiral from Orihara to kick start Tenryu’s hot tag, but Tenryu sends his mates to kick everyone off the apron first so there’s no interference. What a wonderfully simple moment that ruled. Tenryu drops Aoyagi with the 53 Years Old to win a feud that will probably never be over at 15:23 (and a quick search reveals Koshinaka was still beefing with Tenryu until his 2015 retirement).

If you didn’t watch the original WAR Feuds With Every Company And Wins LOL period then you probably wouldn’t give this a second glance. I’ll admit it was fun nostalgia bait that still managed to have serious heat even with nothing on the line. The company isn’t even real anymore, but the crowd treated this match like it was. Stiff shots, real hatred and unreal heat. Yeah I’d recommend this (providing you give a damn about WAR).

Tenryu thanks the fans for coming and reminds them to buy his DVD, you cheap pricks.

Overall: Bit of a random get-together that didn’t do a grand job of selling the best memories of WAR until the main event. The show almost like DX vs. Brothers Of Destruction in Saudi compared to the feel-good ending from 2000 that saw Tenryu riding off into the AJPW sunset to claim his throne. But it’s a harmless waste of two hours (if you skip all the commercials like I did) topped off by a grand revisiting of some fond memories. Hard to recommend unless you’re a person who cares that much about WAR that you’re typing about it on a blog that mostly specializes in rebooking Starrcade 1989 but still.

I’ve been Maffew.