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WAR - Wrestle and Romance/Wrestle Association R


Mattsdmf

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Its all good because Tenryu beats the ever loving crap out of Pogo's second. The fans cheer this. Saves the match? Or maybe this was all planned?

 

That's probably Pogo not wanting to do a job, so that was the shit finish planned I'd think.

 

Yeah, it was crappy as I think most people would have been cool with a DQ or double count out finish like the 70's or 80's. Although it could be considered avant-garde booking as it predates the 'worked-shoot' boom in the US ;P

 

I too feel that wrestling is homogenized nowadays and current NJ being synonymous with Japanese wrestling is kinda a shame. People might eventually forget about the older non star rated stuff. To me this is the stuff I couldn't afford to explore on VHS when I was younger. But I've been having a blast watching "new" old, random stuff online...

 

For instance, just finished WAR 5/5/97 Tenryu, Kitahara & Jun Kikuchi vs. Abdullah The Butcher & Tarzan Goto & Ryo Miyake Cage Match. Pandemonium from the get go with the heel team waiting with chairs by the WAR team's entrance. Tenryu nearly falls thru the cage at one point, he & Abby have a nifty strike exchange, Goto brings glass into the mix, Kitahara is rocking camo pants and ups his manliness quotient by 10% (like he needed it), and this is random awesomeness.

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I started buying footage as a teenager just as tapes were giving way to DVDs, but having stuff delivered to Scotland always seemed to take forever and it's not like I had much spare cash to blow on the random sleazy Japanese indies with the lumpy little dudes most corners of the internet deemed shitty at the wrestling. So like most newcomers I mainly stuck to the heralded All Japan, New Japan juniors, etc. It wasn't until 2007 or so, when I stopped closely following wrestling on a week-by-week/show-by-show basis and took a step back to check out things I passed over before, that I truly discovered guys like Tenryu and WAR at large. I'm very much someone who is always looking for fun new discoveries and looking under rocks that had been left relatively unturned (though I think PWO as a collective has turned just about every rock there is to turn), and a promotion like WAR ticks pretty much all those boxes.

 

This is really just a longwinded way of saying WAR was the greatest and Japan needs more indies with ugly little bruisers who kick people in the spleen rather than handsome athletes who're all shredded and less willing to kick spleen.

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Nothing like a jip SWS tag match to get back in the swing of things.

 

Fuyuki & Shinichi Nakano vs Kendo Nagasaki & The Great Kabuki, I believe from 9/17/91. It picks up at just about 8 minutes in and things are going at a good pace. The action starts getting good once Kendo slams Fuyuki on the table. Kabuki's offense is great here and while nothing otherwise amazing happens, its fun for what we see and certainly an incentive to see if more Kendo & Kabuki tags are out there online.

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Another gem from SWS 8/9/91, Ashura Hara & Genichiro Tenryu vs Kendo Nagasaki & Shinichi Nakano. I think a misconception that I had about Strong & Straight Super World Sports' association with WWF was that they'd tone down the stiff rugged wrestling.

 

I've come to know that the native vs native matches are some great clubbering stuff. No toning down. This little match is no exception! Holy Guacamole! They just beat each other ugly. Of course the bruising Revolution team go after the smaller Nakano like they want his lunch money. Kendo is older brother trying to keep little Shinichi safe. And then Shiny-chi goes all Ralphie on Tenryu's Farkus...definitely some pent up rage behind those Choshu/Sekimoto chest punches.

 

This was a great violent match and under 10 minutes too. You know, this was more a fight than a match...I want to watch this again :)

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I watched the 5/26/96 commercial tape. It had an undercard of WAR vs. Yume Factory matches, so I couldn't resist. Unfortunately all the matches were clipped to just a few minutes. The longest surviving footage was Kitahara vs. Shinichi Nakano with 6 out of 10 minutes shown and it looked really damn good, with Nakano selling his arm and landing huge punches to Kitahara's face. Also it was fun watching Osamu Tachihikari bleeding and raging, waffling everyone in sight with chairs as a response to Motegi's heel tactics. Tenryu/Nakano was as cool as it sounds and the main event - Fuyuku/Jado/Gedo vs. Anjo/Takayama/Kenichi Yamamoto was fun as fuck with the UWFi guys working super stiff and the WAR residents going for heel tactics and brawling while keeping the match mostly in the ring. After that they showed about 30 minutes of interviews. Damn you, WAR editors! Some people CARE about Yume Factory.

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Yeah! I saw the Tenryu/Nakano match a few days back and it was sweet stiff and to the point :)

 

My favorite thing about going thru the SWS/WAR stuff is finding good short matches between known quantities like Tenryu & Nakano and enjoying them for the sake of pure enjoyment. No analysis of limb psychology or critique of layout needed...Two dudes hitting each other at like 80% strength for 8-12 minutes. I can buy that...no need to go too deep.

 

Another favorite thing (in addition to raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens) is finding out about wrestlers I have never heard of...and then watching them have darn good matches. Akira Katayama was an unknown to me until the Kitahara match previously mentioned. Sure 'hara was awesome but, Akira was good...too good not to have never heard of.

 

Anyhow, watched Akira Katayama vs Kenichi Oya SWS from 9/17/91 and man, this was some good stuff! For whatever reason I thought Oya was gonna be some skinny crew cut rookie but, nope. He's a solid man with a beard and shit...perhaps rockin' a surfer gimmick?? I guess it was '91 so those orange and neon yellow trunks were pretty standard... I think I had swim trunks like those actually so, perhaps that's why I'm thinking surfer...I digress. Two relatively unknown wrestlers, mid carding a short lived promotion putting on a solid meat & potatoes, steak & eggs match...all under the watchful eyes of papa Tenryu. This is fun :)

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Katayama's leopard print trunks in that Kitahara match were too awesome not to be worn by someone who didn't have confidence in his own abilities. I'm not surprised to hear that he was solid.

Yeah he's rocking full on animal print pants in the Oya match. There's that song Cotton Eyed Joe from the early 90s and it says "where did you come from where did you go?" I wonder that with Katayama. Seemed like an easy fit for WAR or even FMW and M-Pro with his awesome attire and ability.

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  • 1 month later...

After an inadvertent month long break, I'm eager to pick back up my exploration of the unsung midcard matches of WAR and SWS (as well as the obscure Japan Indies of the 90s).

 

Here's a good way to get back in the pool: Super Strong Machine, Tatsutoshi Goto & Yoshihiro Ito vs The Great Kabuki, Shiro Koshinaka & Kengo Kimura 6/17/93 WAR

 

The inclusion of Kabuki made this one a must watch. Glad that I did! This was a nice quick paced brawling-in-the-ring six man. It was fun but became memorable when Kabuki's team started beating up Ito toward what seemed to be the 2/3rd mark. Koshinaka was elbowing him in the jaw, and 'buki snap punched him the in the same fashion all Strong style as the kids say. Raging Staff (Strong Machine's uncomfortably named stable) was adroit. They kept up their end of the bargain...anyhow a nice Friday after work match.

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Oh man! That 8 man match from 4/93 was the one that started me down the WARpath :P Guys from yesteryear beating the crap outta each other at a fast realistic pace and emphasizing a less moves-more hate ethos.

 

The 4/2/93 show is pretty great in general esp. with the main event plus, Kabuki vs Fujinami is a dream match to me. A perfect show to check out for a defunct puro promotion!

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Just finished Tenryu, Kitahara & Masao Orihara vs Koshinaka, Kengo Kimura Aoyagi from 10/21/92 War vs NJ.

 

Just some brief take away comments:

 

Orihara's awesome opening...hell Orihara's awesome performance overall. The dude made the match.

 

All of the Tenryu vs Koshinaka interactions...straight up windpipe chops. I love both of these guys' enthusiasm/hatred.

 

Kitahara vs Aoyagi kicking the crap outta each other is good. Would like me to see more...

 

The violent chaotic finish...I mean Kimura is eating chops to the face...how is that not fantastic!? Women are crying, men are shouting, Ishikawa comes out, streamers...oh yeah.

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OK, so I was digging Orihara from the 10/21 match that I decided to watch the first match in the War vs NJ series - Orihara vs Masashi Aoyagi 9/15/92.

 

I was glad that I did. Aoyagi did his karate kick expert thing and Orihara did his spunky underdog act. He never went off the top rope against the martial arts master but, used his quickness and dropkicks to try and regain advantage. The crowd was pumped for this and I felt the outcome was in doubt. Nice drama by both guys as they played their roles well.

 

Definitely going to check out more of the unsung matches of Wombats and Roses versus New Japan.

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10/23/92 Tenryu & Kitahara vs Kimura & Koshinaka: wow this was chaos! Fans going nuts, brawls between guys on the outside, blood, all time classic Tenryu glares.

 

It wasn't supremely awesome from a building the match to a climax standpoint but, awesome in building the feud as a whole. It hope that makes sense :) plus an appearance from the human tank that is Masa Saito!

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Finished the main event to WAR's 2/14/93 show: Tenryu & Ishikawa vs Fujinami & Hase. This was a dream match for me. Marky Mark for all four wrestlers but, this wasn't some exhibition or feud transition match. This was fiery and exciting as heck!

 

All four guys were quick and on point all match with that WAR gang rumble pace. Everybody really impressed me...this was a great match. Then when Hashimoto came out after the bell, it sealed the deal. This whole segment, or whatever you wanna call it in today's terms, was classic!

 

Also on this show is the fantastic Choshu vs Ashura Hara match. GOTNW's review of this in the Supplemental Viewing folder for '93 is perfect.

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Checked out Haku vs Tenta from 2/14/93 as well since other matches on there were pretty good... Uh yeah this was OK. I guess they did well for their spot and Tenta sold his giant size in a couple simple yet effective ways...best part was still Haku chopping the shit out of his furry chest.

 

Fast forward to 6/17/93 for Chono vs Kitahara. This match I was liking...I'm probably a bigger Chono fan than most folks. Its something about his deliberate, grinding the holds based offense that I like. I purposefully have stayed away from NWO era stuff so maybe that's where the crap resides...

 

Anyhow, very evenly fought match. It was real back to basics and I appreciated the variety in the NJ-WAR stuff- brawls, wrestling, gimmick type matches with Muta. Here they wrestled to win the match and prove who was better. It of course sets up the Chono-Tenryu main event next show...

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  • 1 month later...

I reviewed the 4/1/91 SWS show and added it to our ongoing WAR review list. It had a bunch of WWF guys on it, including the infamous Tenta/Kitao staredown, a really good Hart/George Takano match, a way too fun Savage/Tenryu match, and 4 minutes of Hogan's greatest matwork.

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/11/segunda-caida-declares-war-sws-wrestle.html

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Hogan gets a little sluggish and sandbaggy the longer the match goes, but the first 4 minutes are awesome. Hogan had some instinctive mat reactions that mat the idea of Shooter Hogan believable.

 

Tenryu and Savage each contribute greatly to the match. Tenryu doesn't tone down his stuff for an American, really blasting Savage with chops. Savage works an energetic match with hard bumps, lots of character work and crowd interaction, two big leaps from the top to the floor, 3 flying elbows; Savage was really busting ass for that part of his career, and Tenryu's selling was top notch even for him.

 

Hart/Takano was really good too. It was a show that was really saved by the WWF guys.

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I think the first time I saw Hogan work Japan was on the DVDVR New Japan set and I was sort of blown away by him working the mat with Inoki and Fujinami. He was really fun and I'd definitely be up for seeing him do more of that.

 

I've been holding off on watching those Tenryu/Savage matches for ages, because I guess I'm a weirdo and want to save them for something or other, but I love both those guys and the fact they matched up at all just tickles me.

 

 

It was a show that was really saved by the WWF guys.

 

Watching some of those early SWS shows I always dug the WWF guys coming in and seeing what they'd bring to things. I'm not saying Warlord working Japan was noticeably different or better compared to Warlord working any US-based WWF show, but it was certainly interesting seeing him opposite a guy like Sano, when Sano would do a reckless plancha and Warlord would take it with Sano's entire torso across his forehead because he absolutely was not expecting to be plancha'd (because, I mean, when would he ever really need to bother taking a plancha under normal circumstances?). You'd get Barbarian working Kendo Nagasaki and they'd just potato the face off each other like Barbarian never really got to do with anyone in 1991 WWF (other than maybe Haku, who was his partner).

 

There was a novelty factor at worst, and at best you had situations like you described with Hogan working the mat or Bret flexing his heel muscles. I miss Tenryu feds is what I'm saying, basically.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Reviewed the 11/9/96 show, which didn't have any blowaway matches but was still a really fun show. It had a weird Matt Borne-as-Doink match where he stiffs the hell out of Onryo but also makes Onryo look good. It has Tenryu and Araya as the heels against Kazuo Yamazaki and Iizuka. It has some great undercarder performances from guys who were wrestling short timers, like Gokuaku Omibozu. El Samurai and Liger look awesome in the main event. A real fun show.

 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/11/segunda-caida-declares-war-11996.html

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