Super World Sports – Toyama City Gymnasium 09/17/91
Toyama, Toyama City Gymnasium
Miyagi Prefectural Sports Center
Attendance: 3,130
It’s the day after the previous show so there’s no news, let’s jump to the dodgy wrestling instead.
Super World Sports – Return To Fukui Fukui-Shi Taiikukan 09/16/91
Super World Sports – Takasaki-Shi Central Gymnasium 08/09/91
Yokohama Arena
Attendance: 14,650
Tonight, SWS goes head-to-head with NJPW who were running the same night nearby. NJPW were worried that SWS and the device they use to give away free tickets would mess with their attendance, but they sold out all three days for their long weekend at Sumo Hall with LOADED shows, so they needn’t have worried.
Also this week, Koji Kitao announced his retirement from wrestling. He’d get better.
Super World Sports Takasaki-Shi Central Gymnasium 08/05/91
Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture
Attendance: 2,769
Aired on WOWOW Cable TV
Meltzer delivered his awards and SWS walked away with MOST UNDERRATED WRESTLER (Naoki Sano), ROOKIE OF THE YEAR (Ishinriki) and BEST WRESTLING MANEUVER (Orihara Moonsault) which is a nice positive for a promotion so criticized. Meltzer hopes Orihara survives doing the move on a regular basis to see 1992, which is kind of back-handed after you’ve rewarded the crazyness.
Oh also Tenryu picked up the Observer award of Newest President of SWS.
This show is a set-up for SWS’s big show at the Yokohama Arena in four days time (going head-to-head with New Japan’s first Sumo Hall show) which will feature the second annual SWS tag team tournament. SWS wasn’t crazy enough to run a 17,000 seater without something special so today’s show features the return of his old tag partner Ashura Hara.
Super World Sports – Miyagi Prefectural Sports Center 07/09/91
Sendai, Miyagi
Miyagi Prefectural Sports Center
Attendance: $$$
Glass Man (boop boop) Tanaka is looking at funding another new promotion, this one based around Koji Kitao. I don’t know if this was the early days of what would eventually become Kitao Dojo but he’d have to wait until 1994 if it was.
Tanaka is reportedly is confused how the deep SWS roster can barely give tickets away for their shoes whereas the four-member PWFG’s NK Hall is nearly sold out. So clearly the answer is “more Kitao.”
UWF-i ran their third show and they’re still ironing out certain issues, like flying in JT Southern (aka the drummer from Clash Of The Champions X) before checking to see if he can actually wrestle shoot-style. For an idea on how it went, here’s Kazuo Yamazaki’s happy face after winning.
Meltzer is dubious at SWS’ plan to run the 17,000 seat Yokohama Arena in a month’s time given that they’ve only been able to sell out Korakuen Hall with a half-paying crowd. I’m sure some sort of big return might help.
Super World Sports – The Battle Hall IV 06/26/91
Tokyo, Japan
Korakuen Hall
Attendance: 2,297
Apparently Randy Savage is trying to work out a deal where he’ll work for All Japan while remaining with WWF and even called Baba’s office several times. This despite WWF and SWS working together. Savage wouldn’t appear again for SWS so maybe there’s some truth to this. Or maybe I just want it to be true for the sheer nerve of it all. (and in case you were wondering, Savage wouldn’t wrestle for AJPW either and would return to Japan for the WWF/WAR Mania 1994 tour).
It’s been reported that SWS was so desperate to draw a legit sell out for this show to shut up the HATERS that they lowered the price of GA tickets from the usual price of $22 to just $7. However it doesn’t say who you had to cheer for if you sat in those seats.
Super World Sports – Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium 06/10/91
Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium
Attendance: 7,709
Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby Heenan, and Jim Neidhart are in the booth, closing out the television taping in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Gorilla Monsoon and Hacksaw Jim Duggan start the broadcast on commentary, which is taking place in Los Angeles, California. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the show drew a crowd of 15,500. The show drew an estimated buyrate of 2.8 (an estimated 400,000 buys). This was a decline from the 3.8 buyrate of WrestleMania VI, with 150,000 fewer households buying the show versus the previous year, and marked the first time that fewer fans purchased a WrestleMania than the prior edition.
Willie Nelson does a nice rendition of “America the Beautiful.”
Chip Kessler and Les Thatcher are calling the action, originating from Caywood High School in Harlan, Kentucky. According to prowrestlinghistory.com, the taping, which took place on October 9, drew a small crowd of 200 fans.
Chip Kessler and Les Thatcher are calling the action once again from Cookeville, Tennessee.
Chip Kessler and Les Thatcher are doing commentary and they are finally kicking off a new set of television tapings at the Cookeville Community Center in Cookeville, Tennessee. According to prowrestlinghistory.com, the tapings took place on September 5 and drew 400 fans.
And we’re back with more of wrestling’s weirdest side-matches. This time some stuff Maffew showed me- possibly the greatest disparate bunch of dudes ever, all from a one-night tag tournament in Tenryu’s WAR promotion in Japan! Even better, there’s Buddy Rogers vs. Haystacks Calhoun from 1961, and Antonio Inoki versus the famous “Fat Motorcycle Twins”.
KOJI KITAO & EL GIGANTE vs. TYPHOON & THE GREAT SHINJA:
(One-Night Tag Tournament, Wrestle Association R, Japan, 12.08.1995)
* Maffew got this one for me, so you can blame him, lol. Gigante you know as the most hopeless wrestler ever; Kitao is infamous for the 1991 match where he & Earthquake shot on each other, and was a failed yokozuna-level sumo (promoted just to “have a native Sumo at the top level”), retiring in disgrace after never having won a tournament and feuding with his stable bosses (sumo is dirty as FUCK, though). Typhoon is from the WWF, and… Earthquake’s partner, so that’ll be interesting. The Great Shinja is Akio Sato of the Orient Express (in the shittier original version), and was also Hakushi’s manager Shinja in the WWF. Gigante’s in red shorts, Kitao’s in a white gi, Typhoon’s in his WWF gear (and pretty much exactly the same size as Kitao), and Shinja’s in a white shirt & pants that just make him look like someone’s dad who just wandered into the ring.
