SEGUNDA CAIDA DECLARES WAR!!! 7/15/92

WE DECLARE WAR

This is the day after the debut show, and after digging that so much, I checked out what the same crew would look like with different matchups

Yuji Yasuraoka v. Nobukazu Hirai

PAS: This is the only rematch from night one and was worked pretty differently. The night one match was a potato fest, while was more of a wrestling match. Still pretty good stuff with both guys breaking out some neat moves. Yasuraoka does some very cool legwork including a nifty rolling kneebar Hirai does the Manami Toyota rolling cradles, which he actually used as a pinning combination. I am a fan of this match up, and wouldn't mind seeing a rubber match.

Ponzona v. Masao Orihara

PAS: I have not been a huge fan of Orihara in juniors match so far, but this was pretty good. Ponzona was there to be a rudo, and was pretty much just eating offense and catching Orihara. Masao wanted to make the most out of his showcase and he hits three crazy dives, including two trademark moonsaults. Nice German suplex ends the match, and it would get the full Worldwide point.

Kodo Fuyuki v. Kerry Von Erich

PAS: This was better then the previous Kerry match, as Fuyuki is a guy who is really good at working smoke and mirrors around a stoned corpse. It was amusing as Kerry worked virtually same match, same bumps, same finish as he did the night before. It was a little shorter, and a little less chinlocky so it was better. Fuyuki's win was dimmed a bit by Kerry previously losing to Haku. They probably should have had him only lose once, as it would have meant more.

La Fiera v. Ultimo Dragon

PAS: We have been killing Ultimo in these reviews, but this was good stuff. It was a Japanese Juniors match and had some of the flaws of that style (Fiera tombstoning Ultimo on the concrete led Fiera to have a nice run of offense, rather then leading to a career threatening neck injury), but if you can get past that, it really was that style done well. Ultimo looked very crisp, hitting all of his signature stuff well, and breaking out some cool shit I haven't seen before (including an awesome kappo kick). He also took some big bumps, including getting thrown into the crowd. Fiera was a beast, bumping around crazily, laying in a nasty beating and hitting a beautiful over the top tope which crushed Ultimo. Perfect rudo combination of sadism and masochism. I need to get Will to do a bulk mid 1990's CMLL buy because Fiera is just off the charts.

Takashi Ishikawa v. Koki Kitihara

PAS: Takashi Ishikawa continues his violent journey into my heart. Kitihara comes into the match with his eye bandaged from last night's Tenryuism, and after some initial grappling Ishikawa paints a bullseye in blood right there. He starts by landing two right hands full force right on the eye. There was nothing wrestling about the punches at all, full force, he twisted at the waste and followed through right on the eye. After that it is just a vicious attack, toe kicking the eye, stomping the eye, kneedropping the eye. Kikihara has his moments, as he realizes this crazy fuck is trying to blind him, so when he fires back he throws his kicks as hard as he can in attempt to slow the attack. Finally Ishikawa has knocked Kitihara down and is just stomping him brutally in the eye, the ref finally gets him off and stops the match. Second match in a row that Ishikawa has forced a ref stoppage, in both cases you really buy the ref stopping the match, I can almost hear Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas screaming that Kitihara has had enough. He is working that gimmick in FUCKING WAR of all places, can you imagine the beatings you need to lay down to have a ref stoppage gimmick be plausible in WAR?

Haku/Great Kabuki v. Genichiro Tenryu/Ashura Hara

PAS: This isn't at the level of the true high end WAR tags, which isn't really a slur, that is a ridiculously high level. My main critique is that the Haku and Kabuki team controlled a ton of the match and it tended to drag in parts. Still this had lots of the face kicking and shoot headbutting you want from a WAR tag. Kabuki was especially on fire, as he was sneaking in some perfectly timed awesome superkicks. For example Tenryu backdrops Haku and as he is standing up Kabuki just obliterates him with a kick. I also love all of the Hara v. Haku interactions, as you can just tell they love beating on each other. Still ending fell a bit flat, and it never kicked into the awesome gear that your best of this style has. The kind of match which is comfortably great, but a step below something truly otherworldly.