IWA Japan Opening Stage Battle States 05/23/94

International Wrestling Association Japan

Korakuen Hall

Attendance: 2,050

IWA Japan is the cool, new hardcore Puro company of 1994 that came about as a result of everyone abandoning Mickey Ibaragi’s quickly-sinking W*ING. Pretty much the entire roster left to set up a new company owned by Víctor Quiñones in the same style but under a different paint of coat because puro companies only die for a short time before coming back to life. No wonder Doctor Who has a cult following in Japan.

Sold out show at Korakuen Hall is a good start. There’s no dirt leading up to this apart from Victor attempting to poach Hayabusa from FMW. Hayabusa declined out of loyalty, and if he didn’t leave for AJPW when Misawa asked then he was sure as hell wasn’t going to leave for diet FMW. Funny to think what would have happened if he had jumped though.

Johnny Gomez vs. Hiroshi Ono

Gomez says it’s always been his dream to wrestle in Japan, baby. He looks rough and middle-aged and it’s impossible to tell if he’s just starting the business or about to leave it. Imagine Tommy Wiseau in tassels and you’re half-way there.

Ono left NOW to join W*ING and now he’s joined IWA, hopping from bodies like the villain from Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Gomez throws a half-speed punch so rookie Ono can grab it and spin him into an Atomic Drop. Gomez’s leapfrog and duck down are hilariously slow and unathletic looking. Crowd are receptive and give him a “GO-MEZ-UH” chant. They’re going to be blown away if there’s any trained wrestlers on the show. Running bulldog gets two, with a superkick getting more Gomez love as this crowd is really hot. Ono heads up top but Gomez cuts him off so the crowd laughs at Ono. I’ve never heard that from a crowd before, that’s adorable. Johnny’s rolling neck snap motivates Ono into delivering a backdrop suplex and his first bit of crowd love. Gomez blocks a Patera Charge before a rough DDT sticks poor Ono into the mat like a railroad spike. Ono kicks out of a powerslam before a much better DDT sets up a sit-out dropkick/body press thing off the top to finish for Gomez at 4:57.

Unsure what Johnny was going for with the finish but it doesn’t matter because he leaves to the dulcet tones of 2 Legit 2 Quit. No, you’re not too legit for that Gomez.

Miguel Perez Jr. & The Winger vs. Crash The Terminator & El Oriental

Crash puts over his partner’s ability to “flip and fly” before using the spikes on Oriental’s mask to pick his nose.

IWA Japan has a working relationship with AAA hence the luchadores. Unlike Gomez who should be in AA.

There’s a lot of questions I could ask about the name “El Oriental” but I think it’s best I focus on the important things. Like Perez Jr’s back looking a barber’s floor. He may be the hairiest wrestler this side of A-Train.

Crowd get excited as the camera reveals…Tiger Jeet Singh and Umanosuke Ueda watching from the crowd?? Oh no oh no oh no. They’d both left Network Of Wrestling after their egos and wages were too much for the dying company. Oh and Tiger no-showed a tribute event for Toshimitsu Naoi because he’s a cunt.

Winger and Oriental begin a feeling out process on the mat that kills a few minutes before a RVD-style flipping standing moonsault gets the crowd “ooo”ing. Crash and Perez Jr. tag in to feel each other out until Crash salutes a fan who yells his name. Crash heads up top to miss a crossbody that impresses the crowd, so Perez Jr. lands his tumbling body attack and a standing moonsault of his own. He is at least twice the size of his partner so the crowd appreciated that. Perez Jr. locks in an armbar so Oriental kicks him in the back of the head…to no effect, so he has to try it again until he’s even noticed. Oriental runs away when Perez Jr. heads his way and slaps him off the apron. Ha!

Winger and Oriental go at it, with Winger landing an elevated butt drop from a pop-up. Horrible way to describe it, but it did look effective. Winger takes a breather before taking on Crash with Japanese arm-drags (not often you see them in this country) before a crossbody is easily caught by Crash who sets his foe down on the hardest part of the ring like a small child.

The action continues as the crowd gets quiet because the rhythm and flow is very stop-start stop-start. Perez Jr. lariats Oriental so hard he lands on his neck which causes the crowd to yell his name (before stopping and asking themselves if they should be doing that). Perez Jr.’s impressive moonsault only gets two to the disbelief of the crowd. Oriental can’t knock his hairy foe off his feet with lariats so manages to land a running rolling body attack. Perez Jr. heads outside but side-steps behind the ring post so no-one can dive onto him. Psychology!

Crash runs in to save his mate but gets posted to the outside so Perez Jr. can bust out a crossbody which Crash is not able to catch. Nice and simple built up spot there. Perez Jr. enjoys that so much he lands an ungainly yet beautiful Asai Moonsault which kick-starts a dive train!

Crash stops this by giving Winger a powerbomb on the outside. This leaves Oriental in the ring attempting to give Perez Jr. a Frankensteiner. It gets turned into a powerbomb of his own before a chokeslam gets the win for Team Perez at 16:47.

What a fun match with big bumps, actual psychology, dives and Perez Jr. moving like the 1994 version of Bron Breakker. The flow and focus was messy but that can be overlooked when the spots delivered. Good times!

Unrelated but if you google “Crash The Terminator” this comes up:

Dick Murdoch vs. Masayoshi Motegi (SPWF)

Remember kids, you can’t spell Dick Murdoch without adding three Ks at the end.

Motegi is representing Super Professional Wrestling Federation which I’m blanking on as a concept but it would last until 2010 which is very impressive for a 90s indie Puro company. I think only BJW can brag about lasting that long. Wait I just checked and the very company I’m typing about managed to last until 2009 so I’m going to move on.

Motegi attempts to take Dick down but he defends with the power of racism and chicken nuggets. Dick blocks another takedown and uses his strength to reverse a hold while on the mat. Motegi has to really fight to get back vertical and a playful slap to the back from Dick gets polite applause. Hey this is better than expected, wake up idiots. Motegi applies an arm scissors with Dick attempting to escape out of it by slapping his own hand for some reason. I didn’t get that but Motegi rolls Dick over as he continues to slap himself. They fight over this position for a while until Motegi releases the hold himself because Dick wasn’t going to power out by himself. Five minutes have passed and most of that has been Dick on his back.

Dick takes Motegi to the mat with a kneebar but Motegi is able to lock in an armbar and we’re in a standoff! Which is won by Motegi’s Fujiwara Armbar. Dick wriggles out and starts landing elbows to an apron-leaning Motegi. Motegi gets mad and snaps Dick’s arm on an armbreaker, tries it again and Dick elbows him on the top of the noggin to completely discombobulate him. Crowd half-cheer and half-boo. Motegi applies another armbar to take Dick down (with him adding a tiny “aw fuck” while on the mat).

Ten minutes pass so Dick lands closed fist punches and gets warned. Backdrop suplex connects (with the camera picking up Dick saying “finish”) but Motegi kicks out. Sunset Flip to Dick only gets a two-count as this match has kicked up a gear. Lariat staggers Dick but Motegi runs right into a back elbow. Dick yells for the “Brainbuster” and crowd goes wild for the announcement and the move which ends it at 12:52.

Hard to rate as Dick was going through the motions until he got the “ten minutes have passed” announcement and finished with the finisher everyone wanted to see. Petey Williams can relate. The armbar work and exchanges early were fun to watch but this was ehhhh.

Post-match The Headhunters try to attack Dick so he delivers the facebuster thing from the second rope before succumbing to the odds. While Dick’s getting stomped, his loud-ass trumpet theme music is blaring out like he’s Bizarro New Jack. Eventually Crash and Perez Jr. make the save so Dick can grab the mic and challenge “those fat sons-of-bitches” to a six-man. They don’t re-appear so Dick leaves. OK then.

Barbed Wire Baseball Bat

Yukihiro Kanemura vs. Shoji Nakamaki

Kanemura really loved W*ING, to the point where he would use it as his first name (which would be like Tommy Dreamer re-naming himself “ECW Dreamer”) so he refused to leave W*ING even after it was declared dead. Holding on for until the bitter end like Guru Larry on That Guy With Glasses.

I need to point out Kanemura is wearing a House Of Pain football jersey that he must have picked up while in SMW.

Nakamaki is “Danger Man” who would develop a reputation as a crazy bumper before retiring very early which says a lot about what he was doing.

Kanemura challenges Tiger Jeet Singh to get in the ring but thankfully he’s talked out of it. That couldn’t have been a hard sell. “You’ll get the paid the same if you do nothing.”

Kanemura already has the baseball bat as Nakamaki heads to the ring which isn’t fair. Kanemura abandons it to drag Nakamaki outside for a harsh chair shot and then we brawl into the lobby for some shaky handheld camera action. We don’t get the best of camera work here but the fans are *really* into this which makes up for it. Nakamaki is already bleeding and it’s weird seeing Kanemura being this dominant considering he’d end up as a training bag for everyone else. Nakamaki absorbs some baseball shots to his (shirted) chest before coming back with headbutts and lariats. Nakamaki’s running bulldog gets two with a diving headbutt off the top more impressive but still getting two. Kanemura sends Nakamaki outside so he can break chairs over his foe’s head while grinning like a goon.

Kanemura is bowled into the front row to take out as many chairs as possible, but again the cameraman is not used to this style of brawling so the view ain’t amazing. Thankfully they head back inside so Kanemura can break another chair over Danger Man’s head. Kanemura then brings in a large…silver tray? From an oven? I’m not sure what it is but I think Gus Fring knows how to clean one. Nakamaki takes yet another baseball bat shot before a piledriver on the oven bit ends it at 7:52.

Kanemura isn’t done and chair shots the ref so he can continue beating up poor Danger Man. Trainees show up to take more chair shots from Kanemura which gives Nakamaki time to recover and scare Kanemura away.

On paper, Kanemura was booked strong as a heel here but the crowd didn’t stop cheering for him which took away from the effort. Also the bad camera work and starting the match with the baseball bat already in the ring were things that needed work. So this was only OK as Nakamaki didn’t appear comfortable doing anything other than bleed and get hit. No wonder he exited the industry early.

Silver King vs. El Texano

Los Cowboys explode! If Silver King wins here, he becomes Gold King HOW BOUT IT.

King slaps Texano very hard across the face to start before going through a beautifully smooth wristlock escape sequence. Crowd loved that. Texano wriggles away from a King ankle lock before escaping an abdominal stretch before these two go mad attempting multiple pin falls on one another and Texano sails outside on a springboard crossbody. These two chunky lads are going balls to the wall here.

Back inside, the lads see who can chop the hardest and quickest in the corner, with King going under the turnbuckle to escape before coming back inside to meet a lariat. These guys rule. Texano’s forearms in the corner are a welcome variant from chops and I wonder why more people don’t do them. I don’t even care that they’re blatantly calling spots in Spanish, if it’s good enough for Dick it’s good enough for Los Cowboys. Texano avoids a charge by backflipping off the top but ends up taking a kneeling Powerbomb for two. STF on Texano gets no reaction so I guess there was a lot of AJPW fans in tonight. Giant splash only gets two for King.

Texano armdrags out of an aborted something-or-other so King can get a chance to land a top rope crossbody to the outside. Back inside, Texano delivers an armdrag off the top as the crowd have switched off. I don’t think they like armdrags that much. Frankensteiner pin only gets two so King kicks Texano in the balls to lock in a Sharpshooter. Why didn’t Bret do that more? Texano blocks a monkey flip by kicking King in the face before another Kneeling Powerbomb gets two. Texano’s top rope moonsault to a vertical King only gets two as we’re hitting the big moves now and the crowd are back on their side. Cross armbar shuts them up again so Texano sails with a delicious tope con hilo. A follow-up Aeroplane Spin looks grand as well but King still kicks out, so Texano finally puts his partner-foe with a Sunset Flip out the corner at 13:11.

Both men hug and let everyone know they’re still friends as Hearts On Fire blares over the speakers. I thought this ruled and made me want to find more prime Silver King matches.

The Headhunters vs. Misterioso & Nobutaka Araya

The Headhunters’ promo is all yelling and growling. “This is IWA! This is Japan! Oooooo!!” They redeem themselves by making their entrance to March Of The S.O.D. and I stop the review for an hour so I can listen to that album.

Misterioso is a 1958 live album by the American jazz ensemble the Thelonious Monk Quartet. For some reason he makes his entrance to Barry Manilow.

It’s been years since I’ve seen The Headhunters so I forget if I’m supposed to love or hate them. Crowd adore their scary shenanigans. When the crowd chants for Misterioso, one of them stares back at the fans unmoving for ages.

A starts with Araya who struggles with knocking A over with shoulder tackles and takes a harsh lariat as a result. A’s chops in the corner are harder than the veins in his thighs which sets up the first dropping elbow for two. Crowd admire the agility of the lads considering they’re bigger than the national debt. A holds the ropes so Araya’s dropkick misses but the dude is so large he very nearly hits him anyway. Damn that’s fat. Araya attempts to clothesline A over the ropes but he struggles and rolls under instead. Araya gets his first real offence by landing an ORIHARA MOONSAULT to the outside. By 1994 that was everybody’s move. Misterioso tags in with offence off the top but A slaps him to tag out to B who flies off with a chop and a “moo”. Misterioso literally bounces off B, causing the crowd to make a “awwww” noise. Misterioso’s top rope crossbody doesn’t shift B but some crap dropkicks send him outside…with B clotheslining Misterioso so he can’t dive onto his brother. Great strategy, crowd booed it.

Misterioso is caught by A but ducks so B lariats his bro resulting in Misterioso double Japanese Armdragging both men at once. An impressive spot, that is nullified by both men recovering to set up their own insane tope con hello spot.

Christ that was stupid. I loved it.

Misterioso follows with a lovely twisting crossbody to both men. Back inside, Misterioso gets sick of B no-selling his dropkicks and punches him in the face to make him fall down. Misterioso then really sells how wide these two guys are by landing his top rope crossbody that he was trying to miss. And all the crowd noticed and laughed along with yourself just picturing it. A continues to work over Misterioso until Misterioso has to *really* lay his shots in so A falls down so Misterioso can go up top and finally land his uh missed spot. Wow they re-did the whole-ass spot but with the other twin. Now wonder they call it magic.

Araya tags in to land the lariats stiffly because he’s been paying attention. Araya’s dropkick barely registers so Araya single-legs him. B cuts off any submission attempts the lads have planned, before a Misterioso sleeper is countered by falling backwards. Because he’s fat. Misterioso absorbs a full-on top rope splash but he kicks out somehow. Araya tries a schoolboy roll-up which is good enough for two, before he wraps B up in a STF and he reacts by making whiny bitch noises that really takes away from his whole persona. I don’t know what he was aiming for with that, but he wasn’t hitting anything. Big fat lariat puts the offence back on Araya, with B landing a flying top rope splash which is again unrealistically kicking out of. Araya manages a Sunset Flip for two making him a braver man then I ever will be. A goes up top yet again for an absolutely crazy moonsault for a close kick out thanks to Misterioso save. Crowd can’t believe it. Misterioso is ejected out the ring so The Headhunters can land their version of the Doomsday Device (Araya was facing the other way) to end it at 14:03.

There’s a lot to enjoy about Headhunter matches but just as much to get annoyed at. Their style is so full-on that they dominate everything from the offence to the defence and it is amazingly impressive and dumb that they’re able to even do it…but they also swallow up their opponents because the eyes are always on the Headhunters. Hey nice moonsault luchadore, shame A no-sold it and then B did a better one. It’s a very anal criticism but I don’t recall them taking on many wrestlers who looked like they could go toe-to-toe with them. Still, everyone should watch at least one of their matches at least once to give them something new to moan about for a while.

Nobutaka Araya said after the main event that he was not yet an ace as a wrestler, but that he would work hard from now on and look to the people who had also previously left Wrestling International New Generations .

Nice words mate, but what else would you be saying or doing?

Overall: Not a bad selection box here with two lovely matches, some legends, and an absolute car crash of a main event. The roster would improve greatly by the end of the year too so the company will only get better (before shitting itself and carrying on for several more years afterwards).

I’ve been Maffew.