The Furious Flashbacks – WCW Collision in Korea

The Furious Flashbacks – WCW Collision in Korea

Massive crowd, little event

This is one I missed out during the WCW run as it doesn’t really have any relevance to the storylines at the time. It’s more a supershow recorded in another country. It took place in April 1995 but didn’t air in America until August 1996. It was filmed over two days and between those two days attracted a world record 340,000 fans. The biggest audience being the 190,000 on the second night, which is also a record by some distance. The giant stadium, the Rungnado May Day stadium, was built to house Kim Yong-Il’s military displays with a capacity of 150,000. For wrestling with the ring taking up so little space they managed to cram more in. The only major International event to ever take place there was this show so naturally WCW didn’t make a big deal out of it or even send much of a roster to compete.

We’re in Pyongyang, North Korea. Hosts are Eric Bischoff, Mike Tenay and Mr Ishikawa, which is just Sonny Onoo explaining how historically important this is. He made his first appearances in WCW under the false name of Kensuke Ishikawa.

Too Cold Scorpio v He Who Must Not Be Named

The DVD actually skips over this match and I have to wind it back. The power of the WWE is really quite startling now. I spend the opening feeling out process checking out the crowd. It doesn’t have that massive audience vibe like say Wrestlemania III or Summerslam ’92. They don’t seem particularly excited to be there and oddly enough most of the ringside fans are wearing suits. Scorpio flips around a bit to wake them up. The commentator’s debate which guy is stronger but that’s not that important as they’re both really quite fast. Near falls sequence creates a little buzz. Scorpio with a moonsault press for 2. Sonny Onoo is hard to understand on commentary making various comments about martial arts under his breath. Scorpio misses off the top as Bischoff points out how the crowd is starting to pop things. He Who Must Not Be Named gets the crowd to clap him. Scorpio tries for a Tombstone but that’s countered and the diving headbutt finishes at 6.22. *1/2. Meh, they dogged it but it still had little cameo bits of better matches.

Yuji Nagata v Tokimitsu Ishizawa

These guys look almost identical and both wear black. Ishizawa gained a personality when he got shipped off to CWA in Germany just after this where he added a mask and changed his name to Kendo Kashin. I didn’t realise Nagata used to be young but he looks a little fresh faced here. They run a whole lot of nothing on the mat with Nagata holding onto the arm. Bischoff rambles about how few Americans have been here and says it’s an overwhelming cultural difference. Nagata misses with an Enzuigiri called a back leg kick by Bischoff but connects with a belly to belly. “Back leg round kick” follows and that sets up a crossface for the submission at 4.28. ½*. That was a bunch of nothing with horrible commentary.

POST MATCH we get clips of the show the government put on pre-wrestling.

Masa Chono/Hiro Saito v El Samurai/Tadao Yasuda

Chono & Saito come out to Rey Jr’s music from WCW. They mention Yasuda used to be a sumo wrestler but he didn’t have a great career in sumo. He was a Maegashira, the lowest rank in sumo. Samurai has to carry the effort for his team with Yasuda looking uninspired when he’s in there. Being a sumo failure will do that for ya. Tenay explains how Samurai got his mask and name in Mexico while Chono YAKUZAAAAAAAAAAA kicks him in the jaw. He gets preoccupied with Yasuda hanging around on the apron doing nothing and fails to pin. Crowd laughs at Yasuda as he misses an elbow drop. Interesting. Saito hits a running senton, a move he popularised, for 2. Yasuda overpowers him quite easily. Samurai gets a tag and gets beaten up for a while. Bischoff notes that Chono is “very aggressive”. No shit. Samurai gets kneed in the balls a few times. Onoo claims the Japanese are abusing him for training in Mexico. Bischoff gets excited about seeing Yasuda’s “sumo style” although he doesn’t use anything remotely similar to sumo moves instead replacing them with bland normal wrestling holds. Chono back in to kick Samurai in the nuts again. YAKUZAAAAAAAAA KIIIIICK. Chono isn’t done and adds a shoulderblock off the top for the win at 8.06. *3/4. That was kinda alright with Chono making it more entertaining than it would have been. Bischoff points out Chono kicked Samurai in the groin three times to set up the finish. And your point is? Chono still wins because he’s badass. He didn’t need to go low; he just thought it’d be funny. And it was.

POST MATCH we get Ric Flair, Antonio Inoki and Mohammed Ali being shown the sights of North Korea.

Manami Toyota/Mariko Yoshida v Bull Nakano/Akira Hokuto

Toyota is in her babe phase here, which is good news. There is some serious quality in the ring here. Nakano has blue hair this evening. She dropped 10 dress sizes when she retired. I wonder what she looks like now? She’s pursuing a career in golf believe it or not. Hokuto realises the danger of Toyota and kicks out of the ring before the bell. Ref totally loses it from the off as Nakano abuses the other ladies. Toyota takes a huge bump off a stern clothesline. Toyota comes back with her dropkick and then the missile dropkicks. Why is it ok for girls to land on their back off dropkicks? Yoshida in and she gets picked off in short order as Hokuto spin kicks in the face and hits a piledriver for 2. Hokuto with a surfboard as Tenay explains her various nicknames. Bischoff is lost. Shock. Nakano in with her standing hanging surfboard. Toyota has seen enough and kicks her in the spine. Nakano doesn’t let that put her off and she continues to wail on the isolated Yoshida. She manages a crossbody and starts cartwheeling, which irritates me because it’s unnecessary and shows a lack of selling. Yoshida goes up top but Hokuto picks her off with a superplex for 2. Why didn’t Yoshida just tag out? Selfish. Toyota comes in now but Hokuto gets her feet up on a splash. That was sick. Nakano then strolls in to POWERBOMB her and that had some serious stink on it. Toyota takes a hell of a bump. They try to suplex Nakano but she double suplexes both women. Hokuto gets herself picked off with a double dropkick. She bails and Yoshida hits a tope then sets them up for Toyota to hit a springboard plancha. That was cool because Yoshida held them in place for Toyota so the rope spot made sense for once. Back inside Toyota hits a moonsault for 2. She goes for the Ocean Cyclone but Hokuto blocks into a victory roll for 2. Yoshida comes in but gets picked off again in a German suplex for 2. She springboards off the ropes to catch Nakano with a crossbody and that’s the first time Nakano has looked bothered and they get her again with a double dropkick. Hokuto helps out with a double missile dropkick. Now Hokuto hits a senton onto both her opponents on the floor and it’s Nakano who holds them in place. Neat. Nakano finishes off Yoshida with a leg jam at 8.34. ***. Nice demonstration of how good women’s wrestling can be especially at that time in Japan. Toyota was on fire and was given wrestler of the year by the Observer in 1995. Yoshida proved to be the weak link and was picked off several times before the finish.

IWGP title – Shinya Hashimoto (c) v Scott “Flash” Norton

Bischoff comes up with background for a change saying that Norton got his “flash” nickname in arm wrestling. Hash is on his third and final IWGP title run. He kept the title over a year before losing it to Kensuke Sasaki. Norton won it himself in 1998 and then again in 2001. This starts slowly with Norton trying to wear Hash down. Of course that won’t work because Hash just absorbs punishment and Onoo points out this is the Rope-A-Dope tactic. This carries on for some time with Norton just running through Hash and Hash just lying around in between abuse. Hash comes back with a “jump leg round kick”. Geez, Bischoff sure sucked at commentating didn’t he? That was another Enzuigiri in case you were interested. Like the other Enzuigiri he called something else. Hash lays in the kicks and I’m tempted to switch commentary off. Norton completely no sells the kicks so Hash goes for a spin kick. Norton ducks it and lays him out with a clothesline for 2 while Bischoff berates Hash for being predictable. Hash eats up another couple of minutes of beating. Norton takes a lousy bump off a bad dropkick from Hash. High flying isn’t one of Hash’s strengths. Bumping isn’t one of Norton’s. Norton makes a mess of the Vaderbomb and goes to a chinlock to eat up some time. I never got why New Japan kept pushing Norton. He was just so bland. Look at his failure to get over in WCW when he was given every chance and that should be the same everywhere. Hash gets a DDT for 2. Another chinlock to kill some time. Norton has given up on pretending to wrestle and now he’s just totally dogging it. He gets Hash up at the fourth attempt for a suplex. I can’t believe how little has happened in this match. It’s really quite remarkable. We just passed 17 minutes. They start chopping each other and Norton doesn’t sell so much as show the crowd how tired he is. Onoo starts calling kicks stupid names as well so it must be catching. Norton breaks out a powerbomb. And the crowd goes mild. Norton heads up top for a big splash. That gets 2. Should have pinned after the powerbomb. Time limit expires at 20.00. If this was in the UFC the crowd would have booed the hell out of it. *. Incredibly tedious. Norton had no business being in there for 20 minutes even with a great worker and that isn’t Hash.

We move on to the second night so I presume that piece of shit main evented night one. Jesus. I’d be upset.

Tadao Yasuda v Roadwoyah~! Hawk

Animal was still out with a back injury but was close to coming back. Tenay points out that Hawk has been keeping himself busy in New Japan tagging with Kensuke Sasaki. Yasuda does some horrible sumo striking, which Hawk ignores. Hawk pretty much uses that as his tactic in this one. Why bother selling for a bunch of Koreans? Hawk’s only selling comes from him missing off the top. When Yasuda hits a suplex right after that Hawk just completely no sells again. Hawk hits a shitty clothesline off the top for the win at 2.21. DUD. Terrible match. Thankfully very short.

Steiner Brothers v Hiro Hase/Kensuke Sasaki

The Steiners have just gone back to WCW after a stint in the Indies in 1995. They’d win the tag titles shortly after this and go on to feud with the Outsiders leading to the breakup angle. Tenay gives the Steiners the nod in terms of tag experience. Scott just overpowers Hase to start and presses him out of the ring onto one of the young boys. The Steiners pose…to no reaction whatsoever. This is a weird crowd. Either they don’t understand what’s happening or they don’t care, which is weird. Why even bother going? Hase comes back with a dropkick but Steiner just overpowers him again. He’s really not giving Hase anything here. Rick gets in there and barks a bit. Sasaki gets in there too and Tenay talks about his lack of amateur background. Sasaki gets knocked over a few times but pops back up again. Rick gets suplexed on his neck but he pops back up to hit a belly to belly. Is anyone planning on selling here? Sasaki hits a powerslam. Hase tries to beat Rick up but he ignores it. Scott in with the White Thunder belly to belly and Sasaki has to save. Scott does a much better job of cutting the ring off than Rick who just can’t be bothered. Then he drops Hase on his head. Gotta love that Rick Steiner! Is he blown up? He hasn’t done anything! Scott hooks up the STF but Hase drags himself right across the ring into the ropes. Scott takes out his frustrations with a belly to belly. Hase can’t get anything going here. He tries for comebacks and just gets cut off right away. Scott with his Tiger Driver and I like how he’s working all his trademark stuff into the match. Rick by comparison is worthless. Hase hits an Exploder and tags out. Sasaki goes nuts and cleans house but the Steiners are there to double team. Sasaki cuts them both down. The Japanese pick off Rick for some abuse but Hase has already taken so much abuse. Hase with the giant swing. Rick covers his eyes up as a defence against it, which is interesting. Either that or he’s trying to stop himself throwing up. Rick dumps Hase on his head again. Makes you wonder why Hase would choose to stay in there. Scott murders Hase with the Steiner Screwdriver and the idiot producer decides watching meaningless brawling on the floor would be more interesting and MISSES IT. Oh, come on! How often do you get to see the Screwdriver? Match time was 11.51. ***1/4. Scott looked really motivated. I could just live without Rick. Hase took one hell of an ass kicking in there.

Ric Flair v Antonio Inoki

Inoki pretty much organised this show on his own so you know he’s main eventing. Inoki is easily the most over guy in North Korea because he was trained by Rikidozan who was Korean. Onoo has been harping on about how the Japanese are superior to American wrestlers. Most of the time the Americans have gone over but in the most important match, this one, is a different story. Crowd chants “In-oh-ki”. They talk about how Flair came out of retirement just before this. This would be their first match. The crowd pop the chaining on the mat and it’s clear that Inoki is THE guy for this country. Flair breaks out a WOOO and he seems irked by the crowd reaction and steps out to shut them up. Flair tries to take it back to the mat but Inoki gets the ropes to prevent it. Inoki lays in some kicks, thankfully not called by Bischoff, and Flair bails again. Bischoff talks about Inoki’s incredible conditioning. Flair decides to stop playing nice and lays the boots in. Inoki’s corner men include Hase who tries to get him fired up. Flair takes his time setting for the leg attack but decides he can’t wait around for a mistake and works the leg over. Flair clips the knee and the crowd is looking upset. Think they’ll riot? Naaaah. They’re way too polite for that. Flair hooks up the Figure Four. Inoki pulls the one leg away and rolls into the ropes. Flair goes for it again but gets cradled for 2. Sloppy backslide gets 2. Inoki blocks the chops and this becomes a slugfest that Flair loses heavily. Flair takes a face bump and begs off. Flair corner bump and he ends up on the floor. He heads up top but, shock, gets thrown off. Inoki with the 53 year old dropkick for 2. Inoki breaks out the Koppou kick, which barely connects. Still he’s 53 years old that’s mighty impressive. Enzuigiri finishes at 14.52. Hmm, seemed shorter. **1/2. Passable considering how elderly Inoki and hell, even Flair, was.

The 411: The crowd isn’t that impressive. There may be 190,000 people there but we can’t see or hear them. There were a few decent matches particularly the women’s tag match but instead of getting this I’d suggest just getting some All Japan Women’s wrestling instead. Thumbs in the middle for this pointing slightly upwards thanks to a couple of decent matches. There’s nothing epic enough for the surroundings though and if this was the stuff they kept for the American broadcast (Hash-Norton for example) then the stuff they cut out must have been lousy.

Final Score:  5.0   [ Not So Good ]