SEGUNDA CAIDA DECLARES WAR!!! 4/2/93

So one of the crazier things we did here at Segunda Caida is get a bulk buy of all the WAR ever. So over the course of the next decade we will be reviewing WAR for you. This is one of WAR's first big shows in their feud with New Japan, and is pretty spectacular from start to finish.

Jushin Liger/El Samurai v Ultimo Dragon/Masao Orihara

There was a time where people used to get WAR tapes for the juniors matches, I am pretty sure that this project will be all about rediscovering the great Heavyweight slugfest and less about Lance Storm tags. Still an interpromotinal tag with Liger acting like a fucker is a good way to start the juniors. Samurai is rocking the awesome baby blue tarheel gear, which I don't remember seeing before. Ultimo and Orihara had a classic at the end of 1992 with Liger and Kanemoto, and this wasn't at that level. Still some fun stuff thought. Match kind of went back and forth at the beginning, it had some nice character moments from Liger and Orihara, but it felt a bit like time killing. They moved into a really great looking criss cross dive train, Orihara's moonsault to the floor is still breathtaking even in 1992. After that they had a nice finish run with Orihara eating a nasty little beating, it felt like it ended a bit flat though, Orihara had a dramatic kickout, makes a comeback but then just gets rana'd and pinned. Good match, but not a great one.

Haku v Dick Slater

This is the kind of match which puts the Romance in Wrestle and Romance. Unfortunately this didn't live up to its awesome promise. They spent the first part of this match working holds, and that is not what you want to see out of Haku and Dick Slater. They break it down and chop and punch each other, and Haku throws Slater into some chairs, and I started to get into it, but then Slater works a leg for a bit, and it ends with a Haku belly to belly. It wasn't terrible or anything but the match in my mind was awesome, this was mediocre.

John Tenta v. Rio Lord of the Jungle

Surprisingly entertaining short match. Tenta hits really hard, and all of his sledges looked like they knocked the wind out Rio aka The Renegade. I liked Rio running from turnbuckle to turnbuckle to hit flying axehandles, and Tenta did a great weeble wobble sell. Full Worldwide point.

Shiro Koshinaka/Kengo Kimura/Michiyoshi Ohara/Akitoshi Saito v Super Strong Machine/Ricky Fuyuki/Ashura Hara/Koki Kitahara

THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE. THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE, THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE IS WAR!! Eight lumpy dudes potato shotting each other, crazy crowd heat, great pace, lots of violence. This is what makes WAR great. The crowd seemed really behind the Heisei Ishingun team, which was weird for invaders. I imagine lots of NJ fans showed up. The WAR team was a total murders row of WARish dudes, Hara is great with his pedo mustache and awkward crowbar clotheslines, fat Fuyuki has a ton of charisma and great timing, we all know how great SSM can be from New Japan Set, and Kitahara is one of the great mulleted face kickers in Puroresu history. Akitoshi Saito is pre-mullet, but those two just go off on each other and their match ups are the highlight of a match with lots of highlights. There are no lulls like in the juniors tag, this thing is pretty much a semi-riot from the first bell, until Kitihara gets a chair chucked at him while he is going to the top, falls off and gets planted by a Koshinaka power bomb.

Tatsumi Fujinami vs Great Kabuki

This was a bunch of fun too, with the Texas set and the upcoming All Japan set Kabuki is ripe for a critical revaluation, and he was damn fun in this match. Fujinami comes in gun blazing, but gets cut off with the red mist to the eyes. Kabuki controls a lot of the middle part of the match, throwing his weird hunched over uppercuts, and landing a nasty superkick. They do a bunch of nice stuff around Kabuki working an armbar, this was a much more deliberate match then the matches preceding and following it, but both guys are so charismatic that it worked well. Finish was awesome as Fujinami is working for a sleeper and when he finally gets in locked, Kabuki sprays green mist as he loses consciousness. Just a beautiful visual.

Riki Choshu/Shinya Hashimoto vs Genichiro Tenryu/Takashi Ishikawa

Tremendous, tremendous match. Three of the all time great asskickers in professional wrestling history kicking major ass, and Ishikawa desperately trying to hold up his end. Really spectacular performance by Ishikawa, he was excellent as the burly, lumpy overmatched guy who was going to jump right into the fray. He was constantly cheap shotting the NJPW team from the apron, running in a stomping then in pin, clubbering them for behind. He both absorbed and delivered a beating worthy of the other three guys in the match. We get an awesome opening Tenryu v. Hashimoto scramble with both guys working crazy fast to grab and arm or leg. The match hits another gear when Choshu gets posted and starts bleeding, Tenryu may be the greatest "blood in the water" wrestler of all time, he just lasers in on the cut, punching and kicking Choshu right in his bloody head. Then we get a spectacular Hashimoto hot tag where he just splits guys in half with kicks, ending in a super hot finish run. I honestly though this was par with your high end All Japan tags of this period. Same level of heat and drama, just replacing the headrops with lariats and kicks to the eye and throat. Highest recommendation, WAR MOTHERFUCKER WAR!!!