SEGUNDA CAIDA DECLARES WAR!!! 3/7/93

WE DECLARE WAR

Yuji Yasuraoka vs. Yoshiro Ito

This is the best I have seen Ito look as he wrestles more like a rich man's Ice Train then a poor mans Warlord. He actually bumps a little, and works stiff. Yuji unloads on him every time he gets a chance and gets thrown around nicely. He has a really nice run of offense to get near falls, including a great clothesline out of the corner, and a superfly splash. They build to a nice hot finish, including a great looking powerslam by Ito. Not long, but definitely the kind of thing which would standout on an episode of the Pro.

Nobukazu Hirai vs. Rio Lord of The Jungle

Not bad at all for a Renegade match. Rio did a couple of nifty athletic things (including a really fast skin the cat) and Hirai worked over the knee and bumped big for backdrops and slams. I was expecting this to be a total squash, so I was surprised how much of the match Hirai took. Everything didn't look good, Rio has some terrible looking elbow drops, an embarrassing drop kick, and one point they just repeat a sequence which made the crowd crack up, but I am grading on the Renegade scale. I imagine this is what Flair v. Ultimate Warrior would look like if they worked 8 minute Nitro match in 1998.

Ultimo Dragon vs. El Samurai

This was damn good. The fact this was WAR v. NJ added a ton of heat to the match, and gave this much more of story then your usual juniors style exhibition of moves. They added a lot of little dickish touches, like Ultimo punching Samurai in the ear to escape a submission hold. There is this great moment where Samurai dismissively side steps a pescada, the crowd starts booing, only to have the NJ fans start a Samurai chant. Ultimo gets beat on, only to take control again when he gets a receipt by sidestepping Samurai's pescada. The finish run was really exciting including some very slick dives which we didn't catch fully because of the HH. It actually made them look cooler because it looked like they were flying into the abyss. I actually liked they indy roll up section, because it came near the end of the match and felt less like diddling around and more like guys pulling out everything to get a pin. Less Lynn v. Storm and more Steamboat v. Savage. Samurai refusing the post match handshake actually got the heat RF was hoping for back in the day. Easily the best Ultimo performance I have seen so far.

Koki Kikahara v. Kuniaki Kobayashi

Great fired up inter promotional match. Kobayashi jumps Kikihara in the aisle and they keep at that frantic pace throughout. When they get into the ring each guys spits in the other guys face and you palpably feel the seething dislike between the two. I loved how whenever one guy would get the advantage on the other, they would chuck them out of the ring and start flinging chairs. Finish was great with Koki being a brutal bastard and just kicking a bloody Kobayashi into oblivion. Then just to add to the fun we get a pull apart NJ v. WAR brawl.

John Tenta v. Haku

This is just what I like from my WAR Haku, he gets another big guy in front of him and they tee off on each other. Not a ton of selling or moves, just big scary looking guys throwing. Tenta does get pretty impressive height on any move that requires him to get height. Haku chops really hard, and when it get out of control and they both get counted out, you buy it. Because how could something like that stay in control.

Ashura Hara/Kodo Fuyuki vs. Shinya Hashimoto/Michiyoshi Ohara

Tremendous match, another real hidden gem of this WAR project. The whole show had been building to a New Japan v. WAR explosion and we get it here. Fuyuki comes in and cheap shots Hash at the bell, and we get some wild exchanges early. Then Hara and Fuyuki isolate and brutalize Ohara, they rip his bandage off and just spill his blood all over the ring. Hara is such a fucker in this landing nasty clotheslines, vicious headbuts and swaggering taunting. There is a moment where Ohara gets some separation, he is crawling on his hands and knees to the corner, and Hara just casually walks up and kicks him right in the forehead. Hashimoto is one of the great hot tags in wrestling history, and the whole match builds to the moment where he finally gets in and he explodes, finishing off Hara with a enzgiri which looked like it squirted Hara's brains out of his nose. Pretty much a master class on how to work this kind of tag match. I would have liked to see maybe two more minutes of Hashimoto at the end, but it is minor quibble. WAR v. NJ has to be one of the greatest in ring feuds in wrestling history.

Genichiro Tenryu/Takashi Ishikawa/Masao Orihara vs. Great Kabuki/Shiro Koshinaka/Kengo Kimura

This is very similar to the six man two days earlier, but I liked it more. The match was also based around the HI team isolating Orihara, but the beatdown sections were shorter and more dynamic. We got more cool Tenryu chopping and kicking plus some really great Ishikawa asskicking. The coolest thing about this match is how the fuck ups kind of add to the story. Orihara badly blows a couple of spots, but it works well, he just took an ass stomping, why should we expect him to be able to hit a moonsault cleanly? Also the finish run was really great. Ishikawa knocks Kimura loopy with a knee lift, and the ref stop and checking on him lead to a crazy hot finish when he shakes the cobwebs loose. Good match, although probably only the fourth best match on the show, which isn't normally where your Tenryu will end up.