Tokyo Dome
Tokyo, Japan
April 13th, 1990
This show is a big deal for the time but it’s mostly been forgotten to time due to various licensing issues + promotion politics. There was a lot of bad blood between NJPW and AJPW, mostly because Inoki and Baba fucking hated each other with a passion. There’s been some reports that McMahon, of all people, had to play intermediary or even peacekeeper numerous times, but who knows? Let’s see how this turns out, but my hopes aren’t high. I’m expecting house show efforts at best.
Match #1: CanAm Connection & Joe Malenko vs. Samson Fuyuki, Tatsumi Kitahara & Toshiaki Kawada
This was a dark match on the show, so I only have a fancam of it, but it’s a prettt decent fancam. Real paint by numbers stuff here. The heel trio work over Joe Malenko for the majority of the match. Early on, Furnas got his shit in, including the back flip to a nice pop. Kawada and Kitahara did some really solid work on Malenko, just cutting the ring in half, lotta solid double team stuff, built up the hot tag well. When he gets the hot tag, all six men brawl before I think Furnas (it’s shot from a far distance) does a sit out Tiger Driver on Kitahara to win.
**1/4
There’s a very famous pic from this event of Vince McMahon and Jushin Liger that’s floated around internet message boards for decades:
And like a complete nerd, I scrubbed the entire portion of this video to see if you could find it, and son of a bitch, you can…
This benefits nobody and was a waste of even a little bit of time. But it popped me. So fuck off. And die.
Match #2: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Akira Nogami
Another dark match, another fancam. But this is shot at a bit better of an angle. Nogami does some really good work on Liger’s knee for the first 3-4 minutes of the match. Then Liger just completely no sells it, AND goes the extra step of almost flaunting that fact by doing leg based submissions where he like gets Akira in a reverse surfboard and then starts bench pressing him up and down with his legs. It’s funny but, c’mon. Akira takes back control with a few good strikes and throws but Liger goes on his finishing run and runs up the corner to hit sort of a springboard moonsault onto a standing Nogami to get the pin. Fun house show stuff.
**3/4
NOW we’re in the real show (with some exceptions).
This was 95% Tito working against Fuchi and Kobashi. And it’s good for what it is. But I can’t help but feel this would’ve been so much better if Tito was still teaming with Martel. Basic stuff though, nothing incredible. Again, this whole show is likely going to be a house show effort from mostly everybody. So it is what it is. Kobashi gets some good strikes in on Tito and Snuka finally gets the tag. Snuka takes both men down in the typical clear-the-house style hot tag. Snuka looks like he purposely trips Fuchi at one point and Fuchi goes down holding his knee. This could’ve just been selling or maybe even miscommunication, but I’m suspicious of everything on this show. Tito comes in now and takes on both opponents for a bit before downing Fuchi and tagging Snuka back in. Tito cuts Kobashi off with a flying forearm while Snuka hits the Superfly Splash on Fuchi to win. Inoffensive, but would’ve rather seen this be Strike Force or even just Tito vs. Kobashi.
**1/4
Match #4: Bret Hart vs. Tiger Mask II
This was a popular request on message boards for years as people salivated at the thought of watching Bret Hart face off with Mitsuharu Misawa, who was under the mask as the second Tiger Mask. I’ve seen this once before (earlier this year actually) and it’s INCREDIBLY disappointing. Less than being a house show effort, it just felt like either these two didn’t have chemistry, or they just weren’t into it at all. It’s not a bad match. But you hear it’s a match with these two, and you’re expecting at least the framework of an all timer. Meanwhile, this could’ve been a sub main event on Superstars or even one of the B Shows. Just nothing really incredible happening. But again. It’s not BAD in the slightest. Bret is sort of working defacto heel in this but doesn’t really show it til later, after Misawa’s done some leg work and Bret sells the knee on a run like he’s legit hurt, making the ref stop the match briefly only for Bret to take Misawa’s head off with a lariat. Bret does some really good work on Misawa and wears him down with a rest hold chin lock into a side headlock for probably a bit too long. Misawa hulks up out of the hold and does the big comeback. But just as he hits a flying cross body for a pin, time expires, and we’ve got a draw. I’d say give this a chance. Just expect a solid match, and eliminate any preconceived ideas you’d have about a Bret/Misawa match beforehand.
***ish
Greg Valentine is in his Rhythm and Blues era so it’s just funny to see him escorted out to the ring by Japanese police in full HTM garb.
Match #5: Greg Valentine vs. The Great Kabuki
This is whatever. Both men are far past their primes at this point, and I was never a big Kabuki guy to begin with. There’s nothing to really recap here. That’s the trouble with most of this show. Valentine controls the whole match and when he gets cocky Kabuki surprises him with a small package to win. Whatever.
1/2*
Match #6: Jake The Snake Roberts vs. Big Boss Man
This was good! Jake has a lot of umph to him here, like he came to fucking work, and the crowds decently hot for these two so hell yeah. Jake gets a few shots in on Bossman, sending him to the outside a few times, before Bossman takes over with some really good work on Jake’s arm and shoulder, and some good power stuff. Jake makes his typical comeback but it spills to the floor where they brawl a bit. In a bit of a surprise, Jake and Bossman are on the floor at a corner of the ring, separated by the post, and Jake reaches through the ropes to grab Bossman and yank him shoulder first into the post. That rules. Jake does a bit more shoulder work and cuts off a Bossman comeback with a DDT to win.
***
Post-match, Jake gets a HUUUUGE reaction for bringing the snake out. But he can’t get the snake to lay on top of Bossman, and the snake almost as a defense mechanism curls around Jake’s arm completely and won’t come off, so Jake just walks to the back with the snake around his arm like a gauntlet. Hell yeah dude.
Match #7: Masa Saito/Shinya Hashimoto (c) vs. Masahiro Chono/Riki Choshu [IWGP Tag Team Championships]
Another dark match, so another fancam. No idea why this wasn’t broadcast but I don’t know enough about Japanese promotional politics. Because I see a match with these four and I’m gobsmacked it’s not being broadcast. But I’m sure these four were aware it was going to be a dark match because again, another house show effort. There’s some nice strikes and throws at points, but nothing incredible. Match breaks down at the end into a decent enough brawl between all four with some broken pinfalls. Saito pins Choshu to retain during the melee. Moving on.
**
Match #8: Mr. Perfect/Rick Martel vs. Jumbo Tsuruta/King Haku
Hey, this is good too! Fun melee to start. Jumbo is great. I’ve only seen a handful of his matches but I’ve yet to see a bad one. He hits some high knee shots to Martel early on, and Perfect is pinballing himself around for both Haku and Jumbo. Martel even does a hurricanrana at one point! Damn. Perfect & Martel take over and work over Haku for a while, and it’s really good. You’ve got four great wrestlers in here man and I’m just grinning like a pervert. Jumbo gets the hot tag off the long control seg and fucking WRECKS shit. All four men get in to brawl, and the finish comes when Haku takes Perfect’s with a big kick, and Jumbo hits Martel with a backdrop driver to win!
***1/4
Next match gets the first real, big feeling entrances of the night.
Match #9: Randy Savage vs. Genichiro Tenryu
Dude, this was AWESOME. Just a ten minute sprint and they got so much done. Right off the bat, after some feeling out, Tenryu flips out of a Savage suplex and unleashes hell on him:
Tenryu stays on top of Savage but Savage uses a distraction from Sherri to regain control. He gets a nice control segment that even spills to the floor and the super unsafe platform NJPW had back then (that later on ended Rick Rude’s career). Tenryu gets out of a sticky situation after the diving elbow drop from Savage and makes a super fiery comeback. Ending sees Savage selling the knee after a bit of work, and with his back turned, Tenryu is able to sneak up and hit a BEAUTIFUL enzuiguri to the back of the head, and then finishes Savage off with a Powerbomb into a jackknife pin to win!
***1/2
Hey there’s a backstage segment! A correspondent tries to interview Warrior in his locker room, but he’s pacing around and growling and he scares the interviewer away.
Match #10: The Ultimate Warrior (c) vs. Ted DiBiase [WWF Championship]
You know what you’re getting here. DiBiase attacks Warrior during his entrance in the ring. Warrior gets his early offense in before DiBiase takes over with real basic shit to wear Warrior down. Warrior makes his typical comeback. All fast paced, messy shit. But honestly it’s like...it’s fine, dude. Warrior’s an awful person and an unskilled wrestler, but there’s far worse people. The issue was he just didn’t want to get better so his matches plateaued early. Warrior wins after the shoulder block and splash to the back.
3/4*
Backstage, an interviewer talks to Baba and Andre. Baba speaks but I can’t translate obviously.
This is Andre’s big return to Japan. His first match since the Fall of 1986, at least by the records I’m seeing. This is just a week or two after his farewell match at WM VI where he was so banged up he had to stand on the apron the whole match. Honestly, before tonight, I thought Andre wrestled maybe a handful of times between WM VI and his death. Turns out it’s like 100-150, which is insane.
Match #11: Demolition vs. Andre the Giant & Giant Baba
Much to my surprise, Andre is suddenly mobile! I get it, he’s gonna do whatever he can to work when he’s in Japan. Just funny because every piece of WWF propaganda tells you how bad of shape he was in by 1990 and how he had to work that whole WrestleMania match on the apron, etc etc. And while there’s probably definitely truth to it, I mean this is two weeks later. And he’s taking a bump! A legitimate bump to the canvas! At the end of the day, it’s Baba and Andre at the absolute end for both of them so this isn’t good, and I say that as an “Andre was a great worker” truther. Demolition do what they can and show a lot of fire because they’re probably excited at the very least. Andre gets the win for his team with a big elbow drop on Smash.
3/4*
So there’s some backstory to our main event, some behind the scenes shit, and as always, I liked to give my readers that information incase they’re not aware. This comes from a website called thesignaturespot.com:
“Arguably the biggest story from the show itself was the several changes made to the main event, involving Hulk Hogan’s opponent. According to the rumors, Hogan’s original opponent was set to be Genichiro Tenryu in what could have been a great match to actually allow Hogan to show he can work given the proper circumstances. For whatever reason, this was changed as apparently, Vince McMahon wanted the main event to feature two American performers, likely for American distribution reasons. At this point Terry ‘Bam Bam’ Gordy was slotted into the main event, another match that could have allowed Hogan to do something different while remaining highly marketable for the Japanese fans due to Gordy’s legendary Gaijin status. Given that Hogan would be winning the match clean and had recently dropped the WWF Championship to the Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania 6, Gordy was afraid a clean loss against someone who was not a Champion would negatively affect his status in Japan and bowed out of the match. At this point, Stan ‘The Lariat’ Hansen was put into the main event, agreeing to take the clean loss against Hogan as he was quite confident in his own Gaijin status in the Land of the Rising Sun.”
Match #12: Hulk Hogan vs. Stan Hansen
Another case of Hogan working Japan and proving he can work. This was a super fun throwback to that 85-87 run where Hogan was honestly a top 5-10 wrestler in the WWF at any given time. Like he could legit go. He gets bad wrap, and it’s deserved, because of how much shit he mailed in starting in ‘88, but the dude knew when to turn it up. He’s on Hansen from the get go and they have a TERRIFIC brawl both in and out the ring. It’s a borderline squash early on. Hogan takes Hansen into the crowd even and body slams him through a table! AND HANSEN’S BLEEDING ON A 90’S WWF PROMOTED SHOW BABY YESSSS. Hogan works the cut a bit but Hansen catches him with errant boot out of the corner and now he finally goes to work on Hogan. This is where it becomes a little formulaic, but maybe sensing that, Hansen takes it back out to the floor and now he throws Hogan around the first few rows of the crowd and now HOGAN IS BUSTED OPEN. HELL YEAH. Hansen starts gearing up for the Lariat but Hogan keeps evading it, INCLUDING WHEN HE HITS A FLYING CROSS BODY OFF A ROPES SEQUENCE. WHAT. Hogan then makes his full comeback, hits a Lariat of his own (albeit a shitty one) on Hansen and…that’s it? He pins him to win. Well, not only was Hansen comfortable taking the loss, he was apparently okay taking it off of his own finisher. Wow.
***1/4
And Hogan poses to end the show.
Overall, this show was better than I expected. There’s only a couple of downright bad times, but everything after the last dark match turns the show from a fucking shit show to something honestly half decent.
Some cool photos I found too of stuff that happened post show for just the crowd in attendance and before, too:
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