Antonio Inoki vs. Masa Saito in and ISLAND DEATHMATCH (and other Dream Matches!)

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This week, I have a match I’ve wanted to see for YEARS- the infamous Antonio Inoki/Masa Saito ISLAND DEATHMATCH, where they fight on an island in between two of Japan’s major islands in a bloody war that lasts over an hour! FINALLY I get to see the entire thing! And OMG you gotta see… part of it.

After that, it’s a look at WCW in early 1992, as first we get a Wacky Mishmash Six-Man with Big Van Vader, Cactus Jack & The Taylor Made Man facing “Heavy Metal” Van Hammer, Ron Simmons & El Gigante! And then Johnny B. Badd takes his bizarre Little Richard act against fellow babyface Firebreaker Chip! And finally it’s our PWI 500 feature of the week, as I find Austin Steele, a guy doing a riff on Ric Flair’s act (despite Flair being very active in the 1990s), doing an indie match against Krazy Kane Atoms, then a squash match where he takes on Mabel in 1994 WWF!

ISLAND DEATHMATCH:
ANTONIO INOKI vs. MASA SAITO:
(New Japan, Oct. 4th 1987)
* This match has long fascinated me for the sheer over-the-top carney brilliance of it, but I’d never seen it. Manjiimmortal showed me that someone uploaded a FULL VIDEO to Archive.org, though, meaning I can finally watch this in its full two-hour glory! The idea here is that Inoki, legendary hero and Ace of his own promotion, is taking on the Olympian powerhouse Masa Saito, and only an ISLAND DEATHMATCH will do. I’ve long felt that the ultimate final form of any wrestling feud should be “I want you dead, but murder is illegal so let’s do a match where everything I do can be nice and legal”, but this elevates it to a form even beyond that: “I Hate You SO MUCH That I’m Willing To Risk or Shorten My Own Life In Order to Cause You Harm”. I mean, just the idea is so incredibly “Martial Arts Movie” or “Comic Book Supervillain”- “They only way we can end this is to fight a DEATHMATCH on the FORBIDDEN ISLAND!”. This is, ON PAPER, the greatest idea in the world. So time to see the actual execution!

The dramatic establishing shots, sadly making this look less like forbidden wilderness and more like “just some mundane island with some trees”. It was chosen because it was the site of a famous battle between samurai Kojiro Sasaki and Musashi Miyamoto in 1612.

Wrestling has done the occasional “Empty Arena Match” or things like that- the famous SuperBowl Halftime match between Mankind & The Rock, the Boiler Room Brawl, the Memphis one with Lawler, AEW’s Stadium Stampedes, etc. It’s an epic idea- a match so ruthless and outlawed and personal that it’s just two guys fighting and nobody else around them but a guy to count falls. The reason it’s so rare is kinda obvious- wrestling promotions wanna MAKE MONEY and that means selling tickets- hard to do that when the audience is zero. So with stuff like this it’s more about drawing ratings, selling recordings of the match, etc. Sadly the build for this one looks pretty mundane- when I heard “ISLAND DEATHMATCH”, I was thinking some forbidden isle in the wilderness with trained guides using lost maps and no civilization for miles, but this is a pretty plain island with normal Japanese domestic buildings in the background, and they go by speedboat and there’s a bunch of guys with dorky white “we’re BOATING” safety hats about. Ganryujima Island is actually just a small island between Honshu & Kyushu (two of the major islands that make up Japan itself) and few trees, not some wilderness (Japan is surprisingly wild, with 13 people killed in bear attacks in *2025 alone*, including All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling referee Katsumi Sasazaki).

30 minutes in and they’re still doing fuckery on this tape, with endless flyovers and shots of spectators sitting next to flags. A white ring is set up far away from everyone, with neckless beast Saito wearing long tights and having compression stuff around his left arm. STEALTH INOKI is finally seen crouching in some short bushes with a big-ass boat seen behind him, and the two enter the ring LIKE GENTLEMEN.

This starts out very “early UFC”, in that they circle doing jack shit because they’re afraid to over-commit and get caught. Saito finally ankle-picks Inoki and sticks the ankle under his armpit, Inoki turtling up. So he’s like my little brother or cousins when we play-wrestled. Well it’s effective- hard to put holds on a guy who skooshes up like that. Inoki does an ugly roll-out and stalls, then manages to get Saito’s back, drawing first blood by pressing his forearm into the nose as he fishes for holds on the mat. Saito takes the back next, holding a headlock for an eternity as they roll around. Inoki fishes for an armbreaker and they’re tied up in the ropes- at least every movement looks like they’re fighting & struggling, fishing for an advantage while being VERY careful not to leave themselves in a vulnerable position. They tease FIGHTING ON THE GRASS, but no- the fans must wait. Inoki mostly works a bodyscissors for 3 minutes and Saito looks BEAT, sore and tired after Inoki releases and taunts him. Saito fails a judo throw and can’t get anything going on wrestling- Inoki throws some shots at him until Saito finally muscles him to the ground and work the arm. Inoki slips his legs in for a jujigatame attempt before giving up. 25+ minutes gone now. Saito can’t get a proper takedown so weakly ends up on top & Inoki tries a keylock, but Saito figure-fours the legs and leans on him- Inoki has to bend an arm again. 32 minutes and they roll out and FIGHT ON THE GRASS, Inoki taking him down and working a headlock until Saito can stop over him and stretch him out.

These holds go so long it’s actually believable guys will release due to being tired and the other dude just slipping out- Saito holds Inoki in a chinlock FOREVER until they roll back into the ring from the grass and Inoki manages a backdrop suplex! Our first actual non-hold 44 minutes into the match, lol. They’re both down, but Saito holds a chinlock, countered by Inoki rolling out and sorta holding Saito’s injured arm against the ring apron’s edge. A single armbreaker against it after a minute (lol even if this match it’s 1:00 increments for holds) and they’re BACK TO CIRCLING OH MY GOD. They show the sky darkening then pan the view back to nothin’ going on- Saito finally dives in and fights for a keylock, then just grinds his forearm against Inoki’s face. For ages. But then the ring boys light some fires to give us some light, which makes the match look a million times cooler. Inoki, ever the showman, knows to immediately slide out of the ring to FIGHT BY THE FIRES and give us a better visual.

I present this last image with no added context.

Saito leans on Inoki and holds a headlock, but they stroll over to a torch and Saito’s RUN INTO IT, cinders flying and the torch smoking up the grass! Saito kinda just stares at it like “WTF man” and throws a single kick, Inoki throws one (57 minutes and we’ve escalated to strikes!), then Inoki’s silly little back kick in the ring sends Saito to the outside again. Saito sells that on the grass for a bit before heading back in- Inoki counters his forever hammerlock attempts with a headscissors, then releases to slam him. Then… just stands there not capitalizing so Saito can outwrestle him again and just holds both his arms back in another resthold. And then it’s like “ok it’s dark now time for the actual match” as Inoki immediately leverages out, dumps Saito to the grass and starts unloading with shots to his forehead, smashing him into the ring apron and headbutting him. Saito rolls over dead while Inoki stands their menacingly (ie. waiting for him to blade), then throws more headbutts, gets back in the ring like “Come on!” and throws more, just taking him to the woodshed now, leaving Saito groaning in pain as Inoki fires off punches to the cut. He waits for Saito to get up and show the blood running down his chest before slugging him again. Like, Saito’s literally stumbling around in a daze, kinda defiant and looking tough before falling to one knee, making it look like Inoki just wants him DEAD and is stalking his prey.

They roll to the grass while Saito just walks around all stiffly… but OH NO HE’S GOT A STICK. He grabs one of the slabs of firewood and swings it to send Inoki rolling across the grass. Saito stalks him (ie. rests for 30 seconds between strikes) before shoving him with a boot, then smashes him in the head with the firewood. Inoki lies there a while and then goes into the post, eats two headbutts, and then tries to throw him into the torch, but BAM! Inoki grabs two sticks to smash it and send cinders everywhere, causing Saito to disengage. Inoki then collapses and they slug it out by the ring so they can lean against it and wipe blood all over the white ring apron (CLEVER!), leading to both guys half-dead.

THERE’s our money shot! A huge explosion of cinders in the dark.

Wrestling 101: If you’re gonna bleed, make sure something nice and white is nearby to wipe it.

Inoki gets a vertical suplex and rolls out, leaving a bloody Saito to Scream Defiantly in the ring, egging him on while Inoki gives us the “Superstar Shot” of him staring forward with blood all over his face and upper body. Saito can barely stand, rolling out to meet Inoki and slowly throw overhand punches that Inoki can’t answer. Back in- backdrop suplex! Both are down for ages, but Saito STILL HAS THAT FIREWOOD, and he blasts Inoki in the head with it and adds another backdrop! Exhausted, he tries to finish with a lariat, but Inoki ducks him! Then hits a dropkick and bails. Back in, Saito hits a punch and headbutt, but both fall to their asses and Saito takes a stroll… Inoki sneaking behind him with a Sleeperhold! After a minute’s struggle, Saito collapses to the ground in a deceased manner, and so Inoki triumphantly stumbles off, making sure to dramatically collapse in the dirt several times on-camera in order to sell the accumulated damage and pain (1:22:28). An arbiter or someone checks on Saito’s corpse, and he’s indeed down for several minutes before he finally rolls over, revealing a full crimson mask. The announcer’s hushed, whispered tones really sell the drama, lol. Saito is loaded onto a stretcher and taken into a tent where they check his heart for signs of life, marking Inoki as the ultimate victor. We end things with a happy Inoki in a blue jumpsuit doing an interview, long after the match is over.

Haha, what even is this match? How does one judge this? SIXTY-THREE MINUTES of restholds and circling like Shamrock/Severn and it goes absolutely fucking nowhere, then they go “K, it’s dark enough, time to do the actual match” and they suddenly start trying, throwing hands and cutting each other up. That part of the match was GREAT, as they use the exhaustion from the other stuff to justify “hitting one shot, then falling over or standing there waiting for the other guy to get up”, making it look like methodical punishment. Saito is the first to use a weapon, showing how desperate he is once Inoki started beating his ass, while Inoki only used one out of CLEVERNESS, stopping a torch-shot with it and making Saito disengage. Or because he wimped out of going into the torch and still wanted a cool “exploding torch” visual, lol. Then they have this exhausted beatdown and smear their blood all over the white ring apron to create another great visual. So the match is like a total DUD with a **** brawl stuck on at the end of it, with tons of great visuals, defiance and anger.

The sheer difference between the “waiting for darkness” and “okay time for the real match” is hilarious because it’s so stark. It finally gets dark enough to get the visuals they want and BOOM- off to the races with good visuals, weapon shots, and more. It really makes you notice how obvious the “restholds” are when it barely even works up a sweat for them even though they’ve gone longer than an NWA Title Match by this point. And yes I cranked fast forward on some a’ that shit. I HAVE MY LIMITS! I checked periodically to see what kind of effort was being put in but nooooooooooppppe. Another disappointing thing is the lack of viciousness and rulebreaking considering there’s no referee. Saito shoulda been trying to shove splinters in Inoki’s eyes or found other makeshift weapons in the trees around them or something. I kept expecting a bloodbath as they fight through a forested area, but this is just some “light foliage” so again disappoints.

Rating: **1/4 (watch the “actual trying” stuff if you can, but OH MY GOD how can you give 63 minutes of restholds a good rating?)

BIG VAN VADER, CACTUS JACK & THE TAYLOR MADE MAN (w/ Harley Race) vs. EL GIGANTE, “HEAVY METAL” VAN HAMMER & RON SIMMONS:
(WCW, Jan. 14th 1992)
* WILD. One of those weird mishmash six-mans that seem nearly impossible, you have Terry Taylor floundering in WCW alongside the two top heels, then a random babyface squad of a failing giant (Gigante), a failing midcarder (Van Hammer, carrying around a guitar he can’t play), and future World Champion Ron Simmons.

Vader & Simmons start off, unable to overpower each other so Vader makes use of their collegiate football backgrounds by daring him to go to a three-point stance and they’ll have a TACKLE OFF. Ron is finally shamed into doing so, at which point Vader just pops up and starts hammering on his back, haha. Vader beats him up and throws an avalanche, but hits knees on the next one and Ron nails him with a flying shoulderblock, a running one, then a powerslam before tagging Van Hammer. He tries an armbar but Vader immediately just punches him in the face and tags in Taylor, who quickly eats a facecrusher and slam. Cactus tags himself in, but in comes Gigante to the best reaction so far, and he easily squashes Cactus in the corner and “throws” overhand chops to the back, then puts on the Giant Claw. Taylor tries to fly in, but gets caught like a baby and thrown at Jack’s feet- Taylor suggests to Cactus they charge him, but they get clotheslined like a couple of bumbling boobs. He trades Jack over to Ron, who gets distracted by Taylor and Cactus shitcans them both to the floor with his clothesline. A beating on the floors sets up Vader’s lariat & splash for two. Taylor comes in and is immediately suplexed, to it’s Cactus/Hammer- Cactus clotheslines Hammer coming off the top but gets backdrop suplexed (“Van Hammer trying to come out of the one-dimensional wrestling style that he’s been basically in as a power wrestler”), luring in Taylor and soon everyone hits the ring. This FINALLY gives us a Vader/Gigante showdown, but they just fight to the floor, distracting the ref as Hammer hits Taylor with a Slingshot Suplex and covers the illegal man, leaving him vulnerable to the dreaded Interfereing Elbow off the second rope- basically an MDK in the early ’90s still- that gets the win for Cactus at (8:23).

Sadly, this whole match seems PERFECT for a Vader/Gigante clash, so of course that didn’t really happen until the very end, despite Vader standing right there while Cactus got bounced around and couldn’t get anything going on the big man. While Vader was a good enough worker to possibly get something going with Gigante, he was probably like “lol fuck that” because the only way to make a dude this useless look good is to just bounce off him, and Vader is the company’s top Monster Heel so that’s a no-go. Instead they throw some light shots and fight to the floor to set up Cactus beating the vulnerable babyface.

Rating: ** (your everyday TV tag match- it usually kept going and was fine without being high-effort or any good)

Johnny coming out laying “kisses” on girls and a fucking old lady literally tries to slip him some cash hahahahahaa. Lady got the THIRST. Tragically they call her “Badd’s grandma” or something, marking it as a STUNT GRANNY.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but the Johnny B. Badd gimmick is just SO bizarre. First off, it’s a 1992 gimmick based on Little Richard, who peaked in *1955*, so it’s literally 35+ years out of date. Then it takes Richard’s somewhat effeminate mannerisms and ratchets it up to near drag-queen levels with lipstick and rouge. But he’s a BABYFACE pro wrestler in a very homophobic time. Also he’s clearly named after Johnny B. Goode, a song by CHUCK BERRY, not Little Richard, and Berry had none of Richard’s flamboyance. Also he’s wearing very “1990s” gear with the sparkles and details on his gear. Oh, and HE’S NOT EVEN BLACK, but a guy from a Jewish background given very dark tanning to the point of blackface (enough that some kids actually thought he WAS black). Like WHAT WAS THIS? Why did anyone think this might get over? Imagine if today someone did a gimmick where they were a glam rock star, pushed it as far as being a drag queen, but also did blackface on top of it?

JOHNNY B. BADD vs. FIREBREAKER CHIP:
(WCW, 1992 sometime?)
* Poor Chip, in a fireman-red singlet, is demoted to already being in the ring while Badd comes out full of theatrics, planting gigantic “lips” stickers on pre-teen girls while a thirsty old lady tries to shove a wad of cash at him like he’s a stripper. Oh that’s apparently a thing- women and teen girls are putting cash in his thigh garter (THIGH GARTER) of this hip young babyface, who is apparently also a stripper. He tries to fire off his confetti gun, but no dice- it won’t go off and he just shrugs. Happens to the best of us! Uh, so I hear!

Badd & Chip shake hands to establish this is babyface/babyface, then Badd hits an armdrag, hiptoss & slam. Wait, didn’t last week’s WCW match I review start with exactly those three moves in that order? Chip manages his own slam, and starts getting worked up at Badd’s mannerisms, shoving him and earning a shoulderblock. Badd threatens a punch and Jim Ross goes into a long thing about how he keeps defaulting to that when he gets aggressive, which is a good character bit (Mero’s a legit boxer), but he leapfrogs Chip and dropkicks him to the floor, where Chip brandishes a big plastic chair at him. Back in, Badd takes a GREAT bump off a back body drop, then oh NOOOOOOOOOOOO poor Chip tries a fancy Run-Up move in the corner but buggers it up and lands ass-first on the top rope and falls backwards like a dope. Badd immediately pins him with a schoolboy at (4:16). Oh man was that supposed to be a crossbody that got countered? Bad win for poor Badd, who kinda just beats a loser since Chip messes up a move as the finish.

Rating: * (match was a fine Jobber Bout of a sort, with smooth wrestling save for one giant obvious botch, but nothing really impactful happening and ending on a rollup and not a finisher)

THIS WEEK’S PWI 500 GUY: AUSTIN STEELE:
Appearances: #466 in 1992, #268 in 1993, #351 in 1994, #265 in 1995, #263 in 1996

-Steele is a career jobber who did some WCW & WWF appearances, then indie stuff, and the most interesting thing is his bio is that after Flair left the WWF in 1994, Steele started doing Flair mannerisms while in squashes. He’s a bit burly and has longer bleach-blond hair, making him look Flair-like. Which is… weird. Like I get wannabes, but why pick one of THE MOST FAMOUS WRESTLERS IN THE WORLD if you’re gonna be a direct clone? Never mind one that’s still active. Steele was most active in the Pro Wrestling Federation in North Carolina… why was there a podunk indie right in Mid-Atlantic/Crockett territory in the early ’90s? Wasn’t WCW still heavily situated there? Also… “Austin Steele”? That’s a brutally generic wrestling name. Never mind there are too many Austins and Steeles in wrestling as it is. Actually the name is so generic there’s ANOTHER AUSTIN STEELE, as I can find some modern indie dork by the same name, haha. Much of his run is unlisted even on Cagematch.

THIS WEEK’S PWI 500 GUY: KRAZY KANE ATOMS:
Appearances: #486 in 1999

-Kane Atoms appears to have not had much of a career- just a few scattered matches around North Carolina and Cleveland- his Cagematch profile starts at 1994 despite wrestling as of 1991. His one PWI appearance is in 1999, too. He looks like some random guy- a decent jobber look but awful gear.

AUSTIN STEELE vs. KRAZY KANE ATOMS:
(FPWF, Nov. 9th 1991)
* Atoms has a simply terrible look- dark hair with a blond portion for the mullet, with a white tank-top and blue shorts with green kneepads and white boots. He looks like a 1980s calisthenics video host, but out of shape.

Steele keeps powering out of Kane’s full nelsons (doing Flair-style “WOOO!” stuff and flexing), so dares him to try it again and gets dropkicked into the corner and rolled up- he takes a powder and gets slingshotted back into the ring, but eventually gets a back body drop and takes over with choking, elbowdrops & kneedrops (Flair-style). I think he’s choking him while doing a front facelock but it’s unclear. He takes a shitty backdrop bump and begs off, but slugs Atoms out of a leg-twist and clotheslines him, but does a headbutt and Flair Flops himself off it. Atoms hits his own clothesline and some elbow & legdrops, working the arm then monkey-flipping him into a headlock. They collide and Steele works the leg, twisting the ankle, going “WOO!” and doing the stomp in the ropes. They do a clunky, bad International, Atoms defaulting to that clothesline again, then putting everything he has into a powerslam. He doesn’t go for a cover- he’s lucky Monsoon isn’t commentating this!- then goes up with a fistdrop. Steele sells a bunch, then does the Flair Flip in the corner and goes up… then just GOES BACK DOWN so he can eat another clothesline. Someone shoulda taught Atoms another move! Atoms throws some chops and is about to whip him when he suddenly mounts him for corner punches and takes an AWFUL bump off an inverted atomic drop. Steele chokes & mount-punches him but gets DDT’d by a probably blown-up Atoms, but Atoms can’t roll him over for a pin before he recovers, working over Atoms from the floor. Steele does a slam, elbowdrop and more “filler” offense to pad this out, Atoms fires off some limp chops, and they bump over the top to brawl to a MOTHERFUCKING DOUBLE COUNT-OUT at (17:12) lmaooooo. All that time totally not half-assing watching this shitty match and that’s the finish we get.

haha, so lame. This was one dude being Dollar Tree Ric Flair, openly mimicking the offense and mannerisms of one of the top wrestlers of that era, along with another guy who could only kinda work. Then they built a 16-minute match around “first month of wrestling school” offense so it’s very jobbery in addition to that. Atoms appears to totally suck AND get blown up, forcing Steele to use Jobber-Fu to carry 17 goddamn minutes more or less by himself until Atoms can mount 1-2 moves per “comeback”.

Rating: DUD (worth watching only for the botching and subpar Flair imitation, lol)

MABEL (w/ Oscar) vs. AUSTIN STEELE:
(WWF RAW, July 18th 1994)
* YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS an Austin Steele squash vs. MABEL! From WWF RAW! Steele looks doughy and big-bellied here, yet harmless compared to his gold & purple opponent. An ad following the entrance has Bret Hart shilling IcoPro as part of the secret of a World Champion. Macho Man is EXCITED about Oscar & Mabel’s approach, high-fiving both of them and making me long for a potential Macho/Mabel tag team. The Mega Missioners? The Men of Madness?

Steele grabs a headlock as I marvel he even has his KNEEPADS set like Flair, around his upper tibias. Mabel easily launches Steele across the ring, then throws him to the corner, dancing while Steele does the clumsiest, slowest run up the corner imaginable so he comes off and Mabel just swats him outta mid-air. hahaha well he’s a jobber so his stuff looking like shit actually works and is funny, here. Mabel hits a vertical suplex and Steele writhes in agony during a test of strength, indeed howling and flopping his hair around like Flair. lmao why is Mabel now working the ARM? Fuckin’ Mabel out here doing matwork, then he DESTROYS him with an avalanche in the corner. Steele Flair Flops and Mabel shouts “Whoomp! There it is!” and finishes him with the Bossman Slam at (2:37).

Rating: * (not the worst TV squash- Mabel easily bounces the guy around and his “Shitty Flair” act is more amusing as a jobber than trying to do a real match- 3/5 on the Squash Scale)