SWS (6.7.91) review 

 

June 7, 1991  

 

We’re at Ryogoku Kokugikan, the home of sumo. Capacity here is 11,000+ and attendance is listed as 8,691. As with previous tours, this one has WWF presence on it. The talent for this includes Randy Savage, who’s retired in the USA but enjoying a few yen related pay days before returning to the ring. Other talent involved are Haku, Rockers and Power & Glory (who face each other). Plus, bizarrely, Tugboat who’s facing Rochester Roadblock. Famed for WCW jobber status, despite his enormous 6’ 8” frame and WWF once tried to turn him into a character called the Golden Retriever. That…did not work. 

 

Notable absentees from the show are everyone from Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi, after the ‘shoot’ incident between Apollo Sugawara and Minoru Suzuki back in April. The loose agreement between companies remains, and all the stars would return at the Dome show in December. Another show co-promoted with WWF where they’ll need star power to sell tickets in a cavernous arena.  

 

The run time on this is 96 minutes. Oh, hell yeaaaaah. Keep em short and snappy fellas. That’s how I like ‘em. We start with some VT of Haku and Randy Savage having a falling out over Haku busting Tenryu open. For some ungodly reason SWS decided Haku was going to be their monster gaijin. Presumably based on his real world toughness. Haku would end up milking it for the entire SWS run and didn’t go back to the WWF at all. Well, he’s in the 1992 Royal Rumble, and he did eventually return in 2001 after WCW folded.  

 

Don Arakawa & Akira Katayama vs. Fumihiro Niikura & Hiroshi Hatanaka 

Niikura’s career is dead after Fujiwara embarrassed him earlier in the year. It’s a fun fast paced opener with Katayama particularly energised with a big dive to the floor and a tasty German suplex. Katayama is also wearing pants that ride up so we get a lot of buttock for an opening match. SWS after dark. Arakawa is a fun guy to watch. He’s a big muscular guy who does a lot of comedy selling. He catches Hatanaka in an armbar for the win. This was a fun way to start the show. **½  

 

Kenichi Oya vs. Masao Orihara 

Will this follow the same format as previous Orihara matches? IE: lots of nothing then he does a moonsault to the floor out of nowhere. It’s made worse by Oya working his legs over. Oya’s mat work leaves a lot to be desired. He’s very clunky but keeps trying stuff. Considering this show is clipped, it’s astonishing how much leg hugging action is left in here. Orihara makes a comeback, dropkicks Oya out of the ring and MOONSAULT TO THE FLOOR! He knows his audience. The Orihara Moonsault is such a great move. Oya just takes back over inside and Orihara has to eat more heat before beating him with a backslide. Lots of disjointed 90s spot work going on here but also a long, boring limb work sequence beforehand. Urgh. *¼  

 

Tugboat vs. Rochester Roadblock 

The Tugger has his entrance left on tape! He’s so over, brother!  

As you can see, the Roadblock is also enormous, which rather takes away from Tugboat’s size. Tugboat is keen on the ‘Stunner set up kick’ but does nothing afterwards. His strikes look lame, and he resorts to a bore-hug. Roadblock, if you can believe this readers, is EVEN WORSE. Tugboat wins with a splash after a few minutes of large man incompetence. -*. Roadblock would go on to be a jobber, but Tugboat stayed with the fed until 1994, which seems like a long time. The steroid scandal made for some interesting decisions regarding talent. 

 

Shunji Takano & Apollo Sugawara vs. Kendo Nagasaki & Goro Tsurumi 

Sugawara is dreadful here, again. You can see why Minoru Suzuki slapped this bitch in the face. No one else is good either and Takano fucks up the bump into a sideslam, enraging Kendo, who redoes the spot. Then he beats him with a piledriver and they rough Sugawara up after the bell, for a laugh. Shoot on him Kendo! ½* 

 

Great Kabuki, Shinichi Nakano & Ishinriki vs. Samson Fuyuki, Takashi Ishikawa & Tatsumi Kitahara 

Ishinriki has been a stand out for SWS so far. It boggles my mind that he never amounted to anything. Meltzer clearly agreed with me on Ishinriki and gave him good ratings almost every time out. Kitahara has interesting gear. It’s Kawada’s gear but instead of yellow, it’s pink. It looks good. Kabuki and Ishikawa start to get testy with each other. Two old men wanting a punch up is a vibe. Kitahara puts his pink kick pads to use, and Nakano batters him for it. Ishinriki is again good here, taking lots of bumps during a heat segment. Kitahara puts the boots to him and Ishinriki is ALL FIRED UP! The sumo palm strikes are very over in Japan.  

 

I love how Kabuki and Ishikawa occasionally just stop the match so they can have a fist fight. Ishinriki’s spots are a mixed bag. His springboard back elbow isn’t quite right, his spin kick looks a bit rough but then he does a slingshot splash and a dive to the floor, and they’re both on point. He’s certainly attempting a lot of THINGS. The match breaks down but it makes sense as it starts with Kabuki going after Ishikawa again. Ishikawa has the last laugh, countering a pin on Nakano for the win. This was really good fun with all the character work and everyone getting their moments to shine. Cracking pro-wrestling. ***½ 

 

Power & Glory vs. Rockers 

WWF vs WWF! Rockers enter to “Crazy Train” for reasons I don’t understand. How does Herc still work here? Has nobody noticed how rotten he is? P&G work heat on Marty, which is straightforward Rockers action. It’s weird how often they slotted into this formulaic crap. Maybe they were told to? The trouble is Power & Glory are not creative enough, or violent enough, to make this entertaining. It’s all very pedestrian with Marty overselling. Herc even works a bore-hug. FOR AGES.  

 

Herc’s weirdest tick in this is his total inability to take a bump. He gets superkicked three times and just staggers around afterwards. FALL ON YOUR FUCKING BACK. Everyone forgets what tags are at the finish, and Shawn gets a crossbody for the pin on Roma. God forbid Jercules take a bump. Anyway, this sucked. Power & Glory were awful, and most of the match was a boring heat segment on Marty. *¼ 

 

George Takano vs. Naoki Sano 

Takano has arguably been the best in-ring guy for SWS so far. Having great little matches with Tenryu and Bret Hart. I’m also happy to see Sano not wrestling shootstyle. Some elements still slip in there, and there’s more mat work than I would want from this pairing. They do some innovative throws, based around judo. Takano tries to no sell a double stomp off the ropes here, kipping up and doing a big MUSCLE POSE so Sano DROPKICKS HIM CLEAN OUT OF THE RING. FUCK YOOOOOOOUUUUU. As Takano staggers around recovering, Sano cleans him out again with a senton to the floor. Sano figures he’s got this in the bag and tries to suplex Takano back into the ring, but he’s countered and GETS SUPLEXED OUT OF THE RING TO THE FLOOR!  

 

If they could maintain this level of intensity this match would fucking rule all, boys. Sadly, the work around it is so mixed in terms of quality. Takano winds up on a big lariat and barely connects. Sano has no idea how to bump it. They both try for submissions, and I like the different counters. Takano powering out, Sano looking to counter into a pin. We also get three jumping Tombstones in this. Sano gets a dragon then a tiger suplex at the finish and picks up the upset win. They went balls out in this and if the execution had been more consistent, we’d be talking MOTYC. It falls a little short of that. ***¾ 

 

Haku & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Randy Savage 

Yatsu has been established as Tenryu’s main native rival. The addition of Haku gives Tenryu a bigger mountain to climb. Savage & Tenryu are teaming after a rivalry has made them respect each other. Haku doesn’t sell a lot and that seems intentional. They want to create a monster for Tenryu to slay. Yatsu seems fairly motivated too. He wants to knock Tenryu off his perch. You need someone to force the pace in this company. Tenryu has been chilling out so far.  

There’s a lot of this going on. Tenryu taking the bulk of the match and eating heat. Despite Savage’s caffeinated efforts from the apron, it’s a slog. Especially when Haku is in there. He’s not that good, and his strikes, in particular, contain needless gapping. Savage gets a hot tag, which lasts about a minute, and then gets busted open on the floor. This leads into our second heat segment and Savage, despite his bloodletting, clearly isn’t that into the match.  

He spends about a third of it lying on the apron and that only gets worse after they piledrive him out on the floor. Tenryu is left 2 on 1. They fuck up a double team powerbomb, so Haku just redoes it for the pin. SWS at least had the balls to leave their golden goose laying in the ring here, but it had gotten to the stage where someone had to get over by beating him. A bloodied Savage clears the heels out with the ring bell, the very thing that busted him open. 

The match had too much heat. If Tenryu was losing it needed to have a big old shine at the start. Or least have the hot tags lead to ‘cleaning house’ sequences. None of that happened. It was a 20 minute long match too. **¼. If Haku had been better at his heel work, this might even have still come off, but it doesn’t. It left me more excited for Yatsu as a challenger to Tenryu’s position as the company’s ace.  

 

The 411: 

A very solid show. Your mileage may vary on some of the matches I wasn’t that into. If you like heat, it’s better than I’ve said it is. The Takano-Sano semi-main is a very good match but a little sloppy with it. The Ishinriki trios match is also very nice. For SWS, I quite liked it. The 90 minutes flew by too. It was an easy watch, compared to some of their bigger shows, which have dragged. God bless clipping for tapes.