IWA Japan Who Is The Best 07/14/94

International Wrestling Association Japan

Korakuen Hall

Attendance: 2,105

IWA Japan’s next show comes to us via Champ Forum, the variety wrestling show that showcased many Puro companies pre-Samurai TV. I’m not a huge fan of these as the match audio is lowered so the hosts can natter away but it’s sometimes the only way certain shows are released so eh, what are you going to do?

IWA World Heavyweight Title Tournament First Round

Dick Slater vs. Johnny Gomez

JIP to Slater monkey flipping Gomez. Gomez looks uncertain about what to do so he tries to pick up a bridging Dick. No-one bridges Dick so Gomez ends up in a neck crank. Dick starts no-selling and pounding his arms like the Ultimate Warrior before missing a clothesline on Gomez who sells it anyway. Crowd don’t even react to that, oof. Dick converts a backdrop into a neckbreaker before the crowd goes wild for the Figure Four Leg Lock. Gomez eventually complains out of it to nail a quick DDT before attempting to backdrop Dick again, getting an elbow into the back of the head. Gomez’s missile dropkick is side-stepped by the very agile Dick who piledrives to victory at 9:09.

Gomez is terrible and Dick sure as hell wasn’t about to overclock himself saving him. Rubbish.

Casket Death

Jason The Terrible vs. New Jason The Terrible

Jason is the original Jason from W*ING, the Puerto Rican one. New Jason is (of all people) Tracy Smothers. Neither are the original original Jason from Stampede or the original original original one from Crystal Lake.

Jason storms to the ring but as soon as New Jason wanders out with his arms outstretched like Karloff’s Mummy, Jason bum-rushes him in the aisle to start this brawl in the crowd. They disappear quickly because like last time, the camera crew are not prepared to fight the crowd so they have to film them from a distance. The Jasons head to the balcony to tease throwing one another off, with New Jason removing Jason’s mask to bonk him over the noggin and launch the mask into the crowd. I am greatly appreciative of that, it makes figuring out who is who so much easier. New Jason tries to scare the fans out the way by shoving them and yelling “get the fuck outta here” but his Southern accent sends the TV hosts into hysterics. Jason is bleeding now as we go back to watching them brawl in the crowd again. Imagine that one video of Bigfoot but he’s wearing a janitor outfit and you’ve imagined half of this match so far.

We make it back to ringside as Jason’s blood is coming down in a straight line on this face which connected to his mohawk makes it look like he’s sporting a Misfits style devilock. New Jason continues to antagonise the crowd with middle fingers which isn’t very Jason of him. New Jason lands an elevated DDT onto chairs to completely spread the blood all over Jason’s face. Jason gets dumped in the casket but he has a ten count to answer to before he’s declared the loser. He sits up Undertaker style at 9 and the crowd goes wild for that. New Jason is clotheslined over the ropes but we get one of the worst skin-the-cats-spots in history as New Jason eventually wriggles over and clotheslines Jason.

gif 19:15

Jason hates that so much he sends New Jason out for real-real so he can land a frigging Asai Moonsault of all things. TV hosts talk about “Smoky Mountain” so I guess it wasn’t a secret who New Jason was. New Jason gets dumped in the casket now but he sits up undramatically at 8 to loud boos. This is what El Grande Americano vs. El Grande Americano aspired to be. New Jason splats the original into the casket with a missile dropkick, nailing him so hard he knocks it over and has to re-dump him. Jason sits up again to immediately take a shoulder tackle back into it. OK that spot ruled and the TV hosts lost their minds laughing at it. Yeah sit up bitch, I’m just going to hit you again. Jason sits up again so New Jason breaks a chair over his head…but it has no effect. New Jason whips Jason into the erect casket as the crowd has quietened as they figured that would be the moment Jason hulked up, but he throws New Jason into the side of the casket before again brawling to the back.

They come back to the ring after doing nothing outside so New Jason can undramatically drop the lid onto Jason. New Jason nearly loses Jason on a powerbomb to again pop the TV hosts. Man, they’re loving this. So New Jason decides to powerbomb Jason into the casket but again loses him because there’s too much crap on him and oh my god the poor bastard gets dropped directly onto his neck on the side of the fucking thing.

27:20 gif

That’s enough for New Jason to win the match at 16:17 with Jason not responding as it’s hard to sit up when your neck is shaped like Modern Art.

Oh it’s OK cos Leatherface (Rick Patterson) is here to celebrate with New Jason and bring him backstage. Honestly felt like Leatherface was New Jason’s mam letting him know his dinner is ready.

Jason is helped out of the coffin by ring boys to really sell the carnage. He is reluctant to put the Jason mask back on and explains to the ring announcer there can be only one Jason and he can’t wear his while that other one exists so he will be back. Crowd cheers. Jason was cool, even when losing.

This was very much the early days of future, much better brawls by better guys but I’ll be damned if the crowd weren’t eating every ounce of this and demanding seconds so it had a lot of charm to it.

IWA World Heavyweight Title Tournament First Round

Nobutaka Araya vs. Yukihiro Kanemura

Araya has his face pointed in a Rising Son motif which we will quickly ignore and focus on the intensity as he immediately sends Kanemura outside for even more crowd brawling. You know, for variety. It’s the same barely-visible stuff as before so we’ll fast-forward until I can see something.

OK we’re back at ringside and Kanemura is bleeding. Araya blocks a Kanemura charge with an elbow and a springboard clothesline. Araya lands a stiff shoulderblock/clothesline as he’s really feeling it tonight. Kanemura decides to land a tope con hilo and makes it look easy which is wild but he’s much skinnier in IWA. As evidenced by his follow-up mid-air spinning clothesline (like D-Von Dudley used to do when he could be bothered). Araya misses a Patera Charge to walk directly into a lovely German Suplex that makes the TV host yell “ay ay ay ay!” We get yet another crowd brawl which is one thing I do not miss about early 90s hardcore matches. It must have been amazing live but I wasn’t there.

Araya is bleeding through his facepaint for a beautiful brutal image. Kanemura helps by landing a massive Liger Bomb. It only gets two so a twisting moonsault is attempted. Kanemura is trying really hard for this televised match, I wonder if that is relevant (FORESHADOWING). Kanemura takes back-to-back twisting bumps from lariats, the ones that would become his trademark in FMW. Araya powerbombs Kanemura onto chairs and actually lands his follow-up moonsault. And a DDT. And then another moonsault! And a third! Bloody hell you nationalist calm down. Oh it won the match at 11:12! Forget what I just said, sorry! I’m so used to that being a kick-out spot in 2026.

Both lads were passionate about their bump-taking and bump-giving but they’re still learning on the job and nowhere near the level they would get to. Still a nice preview of things to come for both men.

Sadly for IWA Japan, this would be Kanemura’s last televised match as he wouldn’t be happy about his reduction in pay compared to what he was making in W*ING so he rang FMW and Onita gladly snatched up one of his rival’s biggest stars. Considering W*ING raided FMW of Mr. Pogo years earlier, it was all fair in love and WAR.

In FMW, Kanemura would team up with Matsunaga as the W*ING stable. FUN FACT: Onita would not pay the actual company for the name or logo, they just used it because they knew W*ING didn’t have enough money to sue them for using it.

Also Kanemura was told by Onita to only take taxis while travelling for a while rather than use the subway because he was worried the Yakuza may murder Kanemura for his betrayal. Understandable behaviour.

Dick Murdoch would eventually win the tournament after defeating Nobutaka Araya in the finals to become the first IWA World Heavyweight champion in a non-televised event.

Dick would then vacate the title in September to go see his sick mum back home, and would then jump to WAR when he returned to Japan. What a Dick.

Overall: A must-see if you want to hear a crowd go wild over early 90s crowd brawling.

I’ve been Maffew