Stew Style
WWF/AJPW/NJPW Wrestling Summit (13/4/90)
The card takes place less than a fortnight after the WWF packed the Toronto Skydome with 67 thousand fans for WrestleMania VI. It also marks the first time that arguably the three biggest wrestling companies in the world co-promoted on a single show (WWF/All Japan/New Japan)
Haku & Jumbo Tsuruta vs Mr Perfect & Rick Martel
Haku was quite the name in Japan, back before his WWF run. He was a former Sumo competitor, before leaving that to work with All Japan in 1977. This is probably why he’s teaming up with native legend Jumbo Tsuruta. Perfect & Martel are just there as the fall guys. The match is very old school in it’s approach, with Haku playing face-in-peril for a long time before making the hot tag to Tsuruta who cleans up for a quick win. Reasonably interesting from a historical standpoint of seeing Jumbo working with three WWF guys… but hardly a great moment for him. Blah match.
Randy Savage (w/ Sensational Queen Sherri) vs Genichiro Tenryu
The Japanese aren’t used to old style heels and interfering female managers all that much, so Savage’s stalling routine goes down incredibly well with the natives. The two manage to construct an interesting match, which is more notable for the crowd heat than anything the wrestlers actually did. Funny (and embarrassing) to see Savage deliver two of the worst looking clotheslines known to man, in a country where the clothesline is over as a match-ending move… granted, Tenryu didn’t exactly sell them like much, but pretty inexcusable all the same. Tenryu wraps it up with an enzuigiri and a powerbomb for the three count. Savage seemed only mildly interested, as was usual during his “Macho King” period. Worth a look.
Ted DiBiase vs Ultimate Warrior
This is for Warrior’s recently won WWF Title. Warrior is way over with the Japanese crowd, who once again prove that no matter how elitist puroresu reviewers can be over things like talent and workrate… the actual native puroresu fans will pop for the same crap the Americans will. Actually, the fact that Tiger Jeet Singh was huge in Japan proves that if anything they’re even less picky. Anyway… this match was awful. Warrior posed a bit, pushed DiBiase round the ring for a while, and finished with a couple of lariats and a splash. DBASE’s few moments on offence mid match were spent jawing with the ringside crowd… which pretty much tells me that he couldn’t even be bothered trying to work with the Warrior. Pathetic excuse for a match, so I suggest you fast forward. I watched this match so you don’t have to.
Andre The Giant & Giant Baba vs Demolition
Much like Warrior, Demolition were fresh off winning the titles at WrestleMania… but unlike Warrior, they’re not protected at all and made to practically wrestle themselves as they bump around for the embarrassingly bad ‘offence’ of Andre & Baba. The fans are eating the Giant’s offence up with a spoon (see what I mean about the Japanese cheering any old crap?) as Ax & Smash try their hardest to make it look like the two broken down old men are actually hurting them. I feel their pain in a different way, of course. If you’ve ever seen either Baba or Andre, you can imagine how bad it is. Fast forward and don’t look back.
Hulk Hogan vs Stan Hansen
This was the main event of the evening, with Hogan taking on Stan Hansen (after Terry Gordy had refused to put Hogan over, so the story goes.) I remember reading in Pro Wrestling Illustrated back in the day about how it was a huge shock that Hogan could beat Hansen… and indeed twelve years later when I see the match, it truly is shocking. Nothing to do with the result, of course… but rather to do with the strangely high match quality. This is unquestionably the most watchable Hogan match I’ve ever seen, suggesting that behind all those abysmal performances lurked a competent wrestler…! Well, whatever the story, Hogan went to work in this match, segueing nicely between keeping the brawler Hansen subdued with wrestling holds, and then going outside the ring to get hardcore with some tables, and doing a decent blade job. This is Bizarro Hogan. Back in the ring, Hogan finishes off with a clothesline from hell for the three count. This is Hogan’s greatest ever match, coming a mere twelve days after what I had previously believed was Hogan’s greatest ever match (versus Warrior at WrestleMania), suggesting to me that for a fortnight in 1990, Hogan really WAS great. Of course, he’d be back to his usual tricks pretty soon afterwards in the WWF, taking months at a time off to make crappy movies, having crappy matches with Earthquake and demanding he be given back the WWF Title. Ah well. Hogan’s performance in this match exempts him from any further abuse for now.
Kenta Kobashi & Masa Fuchi vs Jimmy Snuka & Tito Santana
As a Kobashi fan, it was interesting to see this early match in his career. He had yet to graduate to wear orange, instead opting for red trunks. Even back in this early point in his career, Kobashi had a certain spark which kept him interesting… which is no mean feat when he’s in there with Tito Santana & Jimmy Snuka. Actually, Santana (to his credit) seems to be one of the WWF wrestlers who is actually making an effort on this card, looking more watchable here than I remember him being back in the day. Snuka, on the other hand, looks not-at-all interested. I wonder if (since this card wasn’t being shown in the US) most of the WWF roster decided it wasn’t worth their time bothering to try. Anyway, the match is average stuff, capped off with a Superfly Splash on Masa Fuchi for the pinfall. Nothing bad about the match, but hardly worth getting worked up about.
Greg Valentine vs Great Kabuki
Oh no. Valentine is in his “Boxcar” phase, as part of the tag team of Rhythm & Blues. I always thought how unlucky Valentine was to have gone from having one of the greatest (and most highly underrated bouts) of his career against Ronnie Garvin at the Royal Rumble in a tremendous submission match, to playing The Honky Tonk Man’s sidekick in a crappy gimmicked tag team in the space of about three months. It’s no wonder Greg looked bored out of his skull during the majority of the match, then. The Great Kabuki is a character I’ve not come across all that much in my tape collection, but suffice it to say he’s the prototype for Keiji Mutoh’s Great Muta character (in fact, I think there was a (worked) claim made by some promoters that Muta was Kabuki’s son). This was a short match, and despite Valentine’s apparent boredom, he actually assembles a decent little match. His attempts at ‘dancing’ at least get a cheap pop out of the Japanese crowd before he gets rolled up from an attempted Figure 4 Leglock for the three. Much like the previous tag match, there was nothing particularly bad about the match, but nothing that would make me want to recommend it to anyone.
Apparently there are a couple of other bouts which should be on the tape (including Tiger Mask II v Bret Hart), but that’s where my version of events cuts out. The tape is worth getting hold of to see Hogan’s greatest ever match, and the sheer strangeness of seeing WWF guys working with Japanese guys… but truth be told, there’s not a lot going on here… and if Hogan is outworking the rest of the WWF roster, you know you’re in trouble. Thumbs down.