Mike Reviews AJPW King’s Road New Century 2001 – 28.01.2001

Happy Friday Everyone!

We’ve got some AJPW for you today, courtesy of F&C. We’re heading back to January 2001, as All Japan Pro Wrestling visits the Tokyo Dome for a show to honour the memory of former owner Giant Baba who passed away in January 1999. This looks to be a VHS that only covers some of the matches on the show, with Steve Williams and Mike Barton being the big match included here, although it wasn’t the bout that closed the show itself.

AJPW had suffered a talent exodus in 2000, with Mitsuharu Misawa leading a group of wrestlers away to form Pro Wrestling NOAH. This was the first big event that the company had tried to run since the exodus, with them inviting New Japan stars and Freelance talent in to put on a show capable of getting people to come to the Tokyo Dome to see that All Japan could still put on a good event.

You can view the full card for King’s Road New Century below

AJPW King’s Road New Century 2001 Card

AJPW King’s Road New Century is emanating from the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan on the 28th of January 2001

Stan Hansen Retirement Ceremony

Hansen had been a huge star for AJPW ever since jumping over from NJPW in the 1980’s. He had wrestled in the tournament to crown the new Triple Crown Champion after Kenta Kobashi had vacated it to head over to NOAH, where he had ended up losing to eventual tournament winner Genichiro Tenryu. With his body feeling the effects of years of hard wrestling, Hansen decided it was time to hang up the boots. We get a video package to start, recapping Hansen’s career in All Japan, starting with him showing up to help Bruiser Brody and Jimmy Snuka win a tag team tournament before covering his team with Brody and his wars with the likes of Toshiaki Kawada and Giant Baba.

Obviously they don’t show any footage of him wrestling the likes of Misawa or Kobashi seeing as they’d skipped town at this point and had basically been written out of AJPW history. Hansen is all smiles for the ceremony, a contrast to the snarling violent expression he wore during his in-ring days. Lord James Blears is there, as he was the on-screen authority figure in AJPW, kind of in the same way that Jack Tunney was in the WWF. Wrestling legend The Destroyer is there as well, as is Mrs. Baba and Kawada, who both present Hansen with gifts in a nice moment. They read off all of his achievements, and it takes a while, as you’d imagine, with Hansen starting to look a bit awkward after a certain point.

Nevertheless, this is a very nice ceremony and Hansen gets to say a few words, with the ring announcer translating for any non-English speakers in the crowd. Hansen thanks his wife and family for supporting him over the years. Hansen also makes sure to thank Baba, and I believe the two worked together for years on just a handshake without a contract because they had such trust for one another. Mrs. Baba, Jumbo Tsuruta, Bruiser Brody, Terry Funk and the Japanese fans also get shoutout’s from Hansen, with the crowd being appreciative and respectful for it all. This was a bit lowkey in some ways, but it was also earnest and pleasant, which is nothing to be sniffed at considering how some wrestlers end up going out.

Atsushi Onita and Terry Funk are getting ready for the next match

Abdullah The Butcher and Giant Kimala Vs Atsushi Onita and Terry Funk

Butcher had been a big scary foreign Heel who had feuded with Giant Baba over the years. Kimala had previously been known as The Botswana Beast, with his character basically being “Kamala if he did MOVEZ”. Onita had originally got his start in Pro Wrestling as a member of the AJPW roster, but a knee injury caused him to briefly retire from wrestling and leave AJPW. Onita would eventually return to wrestling, running his own promotion called FMW where he could do violent brawls to cover for the fact that his knees didn’t allow him to work a more athletic style of wrestling anymore. However, he had since been kicked out of FMW and had returned here to AJPW. Funk was a huge star in AJPW in the 1970’s and 1980’s, where he initially retired in 1983 in an emotional scene. Funk of course reneged on that retirement many times over, but he was still popular in Japan so coming back to AJPW in their moment of need was a big deal here.

Funk’s classic Japanese entrance music gets the expected “OOWARRR” reaction from the crowd as soon as it hits in a nice moment. Onita had started doing an act around this time where he’d walk down to the ring in a leather jacket whilst smoking, and he does that here but he’s also smiling and waving to the crowd, seemingly happy to be working an All Japan show again on such a big stage. Onita and Funk both say something on the mic to start. I can’t understand what Onita said sadly, but I can understand Funk, who declares that he’s returned home and that Giant Baba is #1, which gets the expected warm reception from the crowd. Even the music of the scary Heels gets a pop from the fans here, who are clearly happy to see the star power and readying themselves for some wild brawling. And wild brawling is what they certainly get!

The fight starts before Abby and Kimala can even make it down to the ring, with Abby and Funk fighting at ringside whilst Kimala and Onita duke it out in the ring. It’s not long before Abby has used what looks to be a broken bottle to bust Funk open, with the claret FLOWING out of the Funker. Start as you mean to go on I suppose! Onita soon gets jabbed with whatever weapon Abby has as well, and I’m still not entirely sure what it is, but it’s certainly causing a lot of damage. I’m not sure if this is specifically a hardcore match or not, but the referee seems to just let them all brawl in the ring with weapons, so either it’s a gimmick match of some kind or the referee has decided to be especially lenient in this one, even for Japan!

As it’s an Abby match, we of course get a fork used at one stage. Hopefully Abby didn’t then go on to use that very fork at his House of Ribs restaurant. I don’t know about you, but I like my ribs with a side of potatoes, not hepatitis. Abby ends up getting jabbed with the fork at one stage as well, and hitting people with weapons and bleeding was basically his entire act by 2001 so he’s giving the people their monies worth at least. The referee continues to just let the four have at it, likely for his own safety, with the fight spilling back out to ringside at one stage, where people get slammed into tables and the tables themselves are used as weapons. Kimala almost pins Funk with a splash, but Funk survives and eventually catches Kimala in the famed Funk Spinning Toe Hold for the submission victory.

8 Minutes

WINNERS: ONITA & FUNK
RATING: ***

Thoughts: I feel phrases like “this won’t be for everyone” are kind of pointless when it comes to reviewing anything, as of course most things aren’t going to be for everyone due to how subjective art can be, and that’s why there are so many divergences within most art forms. That being said, this match was a great example of a style of match being executed well, but that not really meaning anything to you if you don’t like the style in question. It was four wild blokes hitting one another with weapons and bleeding all over the shop whilst the fans cheered along. If that sounds like something you’d enjoy then this match is worth watching. If that sounds repulsive to you then you’re best off giving this one a miss

Onita and Funk place Kimala in a tandem submission following the bout whilst sharing a bloody hug and Abby looks annoyed on the floor. The brawl of course picks up again after that, because all four of these people are nuts, and the crowd continues to have a fun time with it all. Abby and Kimala eventually leave, giving Funk and Onita a chance to do some post-match mic work for the fans.

Blue Panther and Arkangel de la Muerte Vs Mil Mascaras and El Hijo del Santo

This is like Tonal Whiplash: The Video Tape thus far. We’ve had a nice retirement ceremony, a wild brawl with a bunch of maniacs, and now we’ve got some Lucha Libre action. Mascaras was always a big star in Japan, so him coming in for a special occasion like this made sense. I don’t tend to watch a lot of Lucha or know much about it, but I do know that Blue Panther is considered one of the best practitioners of that style, so I’m excited to see what he might bring to the table here.

Panther and Hijo del Santo do some decent mat wrestling to start and then Santo sends Panther to the floor and delivers an insane TOPE SUICIDA, with the two flying over the railings onto a table at ringside, which doesn’t break, because Japan. The crowd is polite for all of the action going on, although they’re not getting super excited for it either outside of occasional moments. Mascaras fires off some signature jumping headbutt’s at one stage to AdlM and the crowd enjoys that.

The Panther and EHdS parts of the match are definitely the best, with Santo even busting out a rana off the apron onto Panther at one stage. Considering that Mascaras was nearly 60 at this point, he actually moves quite well in there, which a testament to doing lucha rolls instead of taking bumps and taking the lions share of offence in your matches I guess. Panther gets the big submission tease on EHdS with a leglock at one stage, although the crowd doesn’t seem to recognise how dangerous it’s supposed to be and doesn’t really react that much for it as consequence.

Mascaras gets to a do a big dive off the top rope onto his two opponents at one stage, which gets the expected pop, and in fairness it was an impressive thing for someone his age to try, even though he mostly kind of just fell off the top in their direction and they caught him. EHdS ends up pinning Panther whilst Mascaras gets a top rope crossbody onto Muerte and that’s enough for the three count and some more polite applause from the crowd.

14 Minutes

WINNERS: MASCARAS & HIJO DEL SANTO
RATING: ***

Thoughts: Panther and El Hijo del Santo were both very good here and Mascaras threw in a couple of impressive moves for a guy his age, so the match was a success overall in my opinion, even if the crowd seemingly viewed it more as an amusing diversion rather than something to get especially invested in

Mascaras and Destroyer show some masked man love following the bout with a hug, which gets a nice pop from the crowd

Kim Duk and Shigeo Okumura Vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Nobutaka Araya

Duk wrestled as Tiger Chung Lee in the WWF in the 1980’s after previously wrestling for AJPW in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Okumura looked to be more of a freelancer until 2000 when he joined AJPW and had a run with them up until 2005. Fujiwara is a legendary tough Japanese wrestler who famously popularised the Fujiwara Armbar. Araya had worked for the WAR promotion (check out Maffew’s archives if you’d like to know more about that promotion, amongst others) and had jumped over to All Japan once that promotion folded.

Duk looks old and out of shape here, whilst Fujiwara looks old but still capable of hurting you, like a world weary wise old sage in an anime who teaches the hero a new skill after whooping them for a bit first. Okumura and Araya are not folks I’ve seen a lot of, but they come across as solid if unremarkable. Despite looking like he’s less familiar with a gym and more familiar with Jim Bean, Duk actually does okay once he gets in the ring, with him doing an acceptable exchange with Fujiwara in the contractually mandated “grumpy vets being grumpy” section of the bout.

Duk actually catches Fujiwara in some kind of hold and Fujiwara can’t break out of it on his own, meaning that Araya has to come in with a slew of stomps to rescue his partner. That leads to Fujiwara and Duk trading headbutts and uppercuts respectively. The crowd isn’t super excited by the action, but they’re not turning on it either and are watching it intently and respectfully. Fujiwara no sells getting flung head first into the ring post at one stage (with it making an audible “ding”) and the crowd do give a mildly impressed reaction to that.

We don’t get the entirety of the bout here, with there being a clear bit of clipping at one stage. Duk and Okumura manage to get Araya trapped in their part of the ring, leading to Fujiwara and Okumura fighting outside the ring whilst Duk pins Araya with a sloppy looking Piledriver inside the ring, which gets a tepid reaction from the crowd. We don’t really get any post-match or even get to hear Duk’s music, as we whirl away quickly to the next bout.

15 Minutes

WINNERS: DUK & OKUMURA
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: I can’t rate it because we didn’t get to see all of it. What we saw wasn’t terrible, but it was just four fellers having a match with Duk and Fujiwara occasionally making it interesting when they showed some personality whilst battling one another

All Japan Vs. BattlArts
AJPW: Masahito Kakihara and Mitsuya Nagai Vs BattlArts: Alexander Otsuka and Mohammed Yone

This is four shoot style guys going at it (yes, Yone was a shooter prior to becoming a comedy act in NOAH), with Kakihara and Nagai flying the flag for the home team. I enjoy Kakihara’s work and don’t mind shoot style when it’s done well, so hopefully we get a good example of it here. I’m not sure if they’re doing pins in this one, as when they get on the mat and work for holds the referee isn’t counting when a wrestler has both of their shoulders down. Kakihara and Otsuka do a simulated MMA fight and seem to work to a stalemate.

We then cut to them doing Pro Wrestling spots and going for pins, so the faux MMA section of the bout looks to be over. Yone puts an exclamation point on that by getting an elbow drop from the second rope, like real MMA fighters don’t, and the match just becomes your standard tag bout with a load of kicks following that. What action we get to see is entertaining at least, with the work being snug and Yone showing some good personality in there. Kakihara and Otsuka fight out on the floor, which allows Nagai to put Yone in the arm bar for the submission win, giving us a chance to hear the awesome UWFi theme.

12 Minutes

WINNERS:
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: I think the bout actually got better when they eased up on the shoot style and just started doing standard Pro Wrestling to be honest. I can’t rate it because it was clipped, but I enjoyed what I got to see

Johnny Smith, Jim Steele, and George Hines Vs Barry Windham, Curt Hennig, and Mike Rotunda

Smith, Steele and Hines had been regular members of the AJPW roster over the years. Windham held versions of the Tag Titles with both Hennig (WCW) and Rotunda (WWF) over the course of his career, and now he’s teaming with them both here at the Tokyo Dome. Rotunda has his Syracuse gear on here in a call-back to his days in the Varsity Club. We get the in-ring intros, with Smith getting the best reaction of the bunch, perhaps surprisingly, and then we cut forward to the AJPW guys working over Hennig. Hines ends up outside of the ring and is flung over the railings by Rotunda to leave him isolated in the WCW/WWF corner.

Windham is actually rocking his old West Texas Rednecks shirt here, calling back to his team with Hennig, Kendall Windham, Bobby Duncum Jr and Curly Bill in WCW. Rotunda looks okay but is notably slower than his prime days, whilst Hennig and Windham are moving well. Hines sells well whilst getting worked over and makes the tag to Smith, leading to Smith getting to come off the top rope with a dropkick onto Hennig before delivering a kip up to pop the crowd.

I kind of wish we’d got that Smith Vs Rob Van Dam match at Anarchy Rulz 1999 actually, as based on what we get to see of Smith here I think that would have been a decent match and definitely more exciting than seeing RVD have a match with Balls Mahoney. The crowd is polite but subdued for what we get to see, but the wrestlers are working at a decent clip for the most part and the work is okay, outside of Windham and Steele making a bit of a mess of a couple of Irish Whip reversal spots. Things eventually break down, with that leading to Steele getting a sloppy gut wrench powerbomb onto Windham for the three count.

15 Minutes

WINNERS: SMITH, STEELE & HINES
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: No rating because it was clipped, but I thought what we got to see was okay. I seem to remember Steele not being too terrible during his AJPW run, but he was certainly the weak link in this one. Smith and Hines both looked good, Rotunda was serviceable, and Hennig and Windham were both solid from what we got to see, outside of Windham and Steele not really working well together. I’m actually kind of surprised that Windham felt the need to wrestle in a shirt here, as he looked pretty trim and was moving well

Doctor Death Steve Williams Vs Mike Barton

Williams had historically been one of the biggest foreign stars that All Japan had featured, with him taking a brief trip to the WWF in the late 1990’s that ended up in disaster. Barton had been knocked out by Butterbean at WrestleMania XV, but he had managed to rebuild his career in Japan, where he had formed successful teams with both Johnny Ace and Jim Steele. These two famously met in the WWF’s Brawl 4 All tournament in 1998, which was a shoot competition that combined amateur wrestling and boxing. Because of his impressive amateur background, the WWF expected Williams to win the tournament, but Barton was a tough guy with some fighting experience, so he ended up knocking Williams out on route to winning the whole thing.

Williams also has a Varsity Club shirt on here, which makes me think they reunited the team for this tour or something. They exchange some loud chops in the early going, with neither backing down, which seems to earn the respect of the crowd. I’m not sure how big a deal this was to the All Japan fans at the time to see these two go at it, but they seem into this and the action itself is snug and believable, so it works as a grudge between two guys who have a history. It looks like Wally Yamaguchi of “I choppy-choppy your pee-pee” fame is the referee here. In a BRUTAL spot, Williams gives Barton a back suplex onto the railings surrounding the ring, with Barton landing head first onto the top of the railings.

We cut to Doc working Barton over back inside the ring, with Barton selling that well and Williams targeting the head and neck with his offence. Barton manages to fight back and muscles Williams up into a big vertical suplex at one stage, which gets ripples of applause from the Tokyo Dome crowd. Barton ends up sending Williams to the floor and follows with a dive off the top rope to the floor. Williams has Mike Rotunda as a second whilst Barton has Jim Steele, so each has their partner to back them up. Williams tries to stick Barton with the Oklahoma Stampede, but Wally takes a bump from a stray leg in the process, leading to Barton slipping out and getting an Ace Crusher for his visual pin.

Barton tries heading up for something, but Williams jams the ropes to put a stop to that and gets a big belly to belly suplex from the top rope before following up with a Doctor Bomb for two in a good near fall. Barton manages to slip out of the Dangerous Back Drop Driver at one stage, but he doesn’t a second time and Williams adds another for good measure to ensure that he gets the three count. One nice thing about this bout was that Williams did Gary Albright’s taunt a few times during it, which was cool seeing as Albright had a good run in All Japan in the 1990’s before sadly passing away during a match in-between tours.

15 Minutes

WINNER: STEVE WILLIAMS
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: I can’t rate it due to not getting the whole match, but what we got to see was entertaining in a “two burly blokes knocking lumps out of one another” kind of way. Williams was clearly well past his prime at this stage, and Barton was a solid wrestler but never that exciting a worker, so this was solid more than it was thrilling, but it was fine for what it was. I’m not sure the ref bump really made sense in a promotion like AJPW, but if you’re booking two American’s to wrestle one another based on an issue stemming from their time in an American company, then I guess you can’t get too mad when they Americanise their match up like they did in this one

In Conclusion

It’s a shame that this tape didn’t include some of the other matches on this show, as the likes of Keiji Muto, Genichiro Tenryu and Toshiaki Kawada all worked on it. That being said, I enjoyed the bloody brawl with the four nutters and the match with the luchadores, and I liked how there was a decent variety of styles on offer here. This isn’t a tape you desperately need to seek out, but I found it to be an easy watch and the Hansen retirement was an historical moment that was worthy of the occasion.