Dark Pegasus Video Review: WCW/New Japan Supershow I

WCW/New Japan Supershow I: Rumble in the Rising Sun by J.D. Dunn This would be the clipped American version, not the full one. March 21, 1991 Live from Tokyo, Japan. Your hosts are Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone. Opening Match, Six-Man Tag: Tom Zenk, Tim Horner & Brian Pillman vs. Shiro Koshinaka, Kuniaki Kobayashi & Takayuki Iizuka. Zenk and Pillman get the opportunity to revisit their doubleteams. Iizuka spends most of the match in the wrong corner after Horner comes off the top and wipes him out. The North Americans control, but it’s a lot of hit a move, go for a pin, hit a move, go for a pin. No real flow. It breaks down when Koshinaka makes a save. In all the chaos, Koshinaka Dragon Suplexes Horner for the win at 6:52. **1/4 IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Jushin Lyger vs. Akira Nogami. Nogami’s entrance gear looks like Oni from Saturday Night Slam Masters. That was an awesome game. Lyger blitzes him right away, hitting a spinning wheel kick and flying out on Nogami with a somersault plancha. Lyger tries again but gets dropkicked out of the air. Back in, Lyger tries a Tombstone, but his ankle gives out. Nogami goes right after the leg. Lyger small packages him for two and steps out of the way of a dive. A Lygerbomb gets two as Ross mentions that Nogami left Japan for a year after losing to Lyger. Lyger goes for a piledriver, but Nogami blocks. Lyger clotheslines him instead and finishes with the Avalanche DDT at 4:04 (clipped from 16:08). I have the full version on a compilation somewhere, I think. What was left in was quite good, and superb for its time. [***] Arn Anderson & Barry Windham vs. Masa Saito & Masa Chono. This is just after Chono retired Lou Thesz. The announcers mention that Thesz trained Chono and taught him a move called the Stepover-Toehold-Facelock or STF. Gotta wonder what Thesz would think about the STFU. Arn seems lost in there, possibly because he’s used to playing to an American audience. Windham hits Chono with Saito’s Saito Duplex. Chono tries to bend Arn in all manner of ways. Windham makes the save to the boos of the crowd. Saito tags in and starts throwing the gaijin around with the Saito suplexes. He tries to German Suplex Arn, but Barry sneaks in and hits a lariat for the win at 7:41 (clipped from 9:17). Pretty pedestrian stuff from the Horsemen. It looked like the first half to a much better match. **1/4 El Gigante vs. The Big Cat. Oy. This has the potential to be horrible. Gigante is HUGELY over with the crowd. I’m surprised they didn’t find some way to do Gigante vs. Baba. Gigante hits his suplex, which is supposed to be a big deal but isn’t. A flying kick sets up the Giant Claw at 2:14. Mercifully short. 1/4* U.S. Tag Team Titles vs. IWGP Tag Team Titles: The Steiner Bros vs. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki. The Steiners are already the U.S. Tag Champs and are on a hellacious tear in terms of match quality. In fact, I’d dare say that, at this point, the Steiners were the best any North American team had ever been. Scott and Hase fight over a Texas Cloverleaf until they wind up in the ropes. Hase sweeps the legs and we get an awesome cautious staredown. Scott takes him over and drops him on his head. Hase ducks a Steinerline and hits a back kick. Rick and Sasaki tag in so we get a match of the two power wrestlers of their teams. Sasaki gets a powerslam and a clothesline that nearly takes Rick’s head off. Scott and Hase tag back in and Scott delivers a pumphandle slam. Scott takes Hase up top and delivers a Super Angle Slam. Dear lord. Scott is too “enraged” to make the cover, and instead tags out. Rick rams Hase face-first into the turnbuckle pad. Scott tags back in and DDTs Hase. Again, he doesn’t cover. Rick puts Hase up top and delivers a belly-to-belly suplex. Hase is just getting murdered in there. Scott delivers a Tigerbomb, but Sasaki makes the save. The Steiners try to doubleteam Hase, but he hits uranages on both men and makes the hot tag. Sasaki gets his powerslam on Rick, so Scott makes the save to big heat from the fans. Sasaki then superplexes Hase onto Rick. Don’t see that one everyday. Hase tries to finish off Rick with a Northern Lights Suplex, but it only gets two. Both men clothesline each other for the double KO. Scott tags in and hits a tilt-o-whirl but plays to the crowd like a moron while Hase scampers over and makes the tag. Hase and Sasaki set up for the top rope bulldog, but Rick kicks Sasuke’s legs out from under him and slams Hase off the top rope. The Steiners then hit the top rope bulldog, and Scott finishes Sasaki off with the Frankensteiner at 12:56. Seemed really short. Anyway, it was a stiff, brutal match with insane crowd heat and tons of great mat wrestling. One of the best tag matches of all time. It’s also worth noting that this was the Wrestling Observer MOTY for 1991, and it also got five stars there. A definite must. ***** “Grudge Match”: The Great Muta vs. Sting. Muta jumps Sting right away and hits the handspring elbow. That sets up the backbreaker, and Muta goes up for the moonsault early! It misses, but Muta knocks Sting to the floor. RED MIST~! Sting hops back in and press slams him to the floor. RUNNING PLANCHA~! Muta nearly lands on his face off a reverse monkeyflip. He goes after Sting’s with the green mist poke. Muta blocks the Scorpion Deathlock and avoids the Stinger Splash. Sting goes for a press slam, but his arm gives way, and Muta falls on top for two. Muta hits the backbreaker and goes up, but Sting crotches him. Sting misses a flying elbowdrop. This is getting kind of awkward. Sting gets a backslide and goes for the Scorpion Deathlock. Muta is in the ropes. STINGER SPL-NO! GREEN MIST~! Sting is so disoriented that Muta hits a crossbody for the win at 11:41. After the match, Sting hits the Stinger Splash and puts Muta in the Scorpion for some revenge. This was awkward in points, but both guys’ innate talent wouldn’t let it slip into averageness. Not as good as their Great American Bash match, but not much of a “grudge match” either. **3/4 NWA Heavyweight Title: Ric Flair vs. Tatsumi Fujinami. What a headache this was. Fujinami hits a backdrop suplex early and locks in the Dragon Sleeper. Flair is in the ropes, though. Flair takes a serious ass-kicking early and gets backdropped. He eventually sidesteps a clothesline. Well, that looked weird. Flair goes after the legs, but Fujinami targets the back. Flair goes up and gets caught. Instead of getting slammed off, though, he just slips to the apron and snaps Fujinami’s throat on the top rope. Flair drops the knee between the eyes and delivers a stalling suplex. Fujinami finally roars back with strikes. The O’Connor Roll gets two for Fujinami. Flair is busted open. Fujinami hits a backdrop suplex. ONE, TWO, TH-foot on the ropes. They take it to the floor and chop it out. Referee Bill Alphonso gets bumped in the brawl. That allows Fujinami to backdrop Flair over the top. Fonzie apparently doesn’t see it, though. Back in, Fujinami drags him down with a Guillotine Pin, and Tiger Hatori counts the pin at 23:06. They never really seemed to be on the same page. Flair went back and forth from the “Flair formula” to trying to adapt to Fujinami so the match tended to move in fits and starts. The NWA would recognize the title switch, but the WCW didn’t. New Japan considered them separate titles, but WCW thought of them as one title. It’s a whole stupid mess that no one cares about unless they’re really, REALLY into title lineage politics. **1/2 Sting, who looks like Zombie Sting with the green mist on his face, promises revenge for his misting. Meanwhile, Ric Flair storms Fujinami’s victory press conference and steals the belt back, promising Fujinami will have to come to America to get it back.

The 411: Well, the Steiners tag match makes this an automatic thumbs up. I truly cannot describe the roll they were on in early 1991. You have to see it for yourself. The rest of the matches were disappointingly average, but they at least had great atmosphere thanks to the large crowd. Thumbs up.
Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]