Into the Indies 12.20.11: Super World of Sports

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that almost defected to PWTorch.

This week, we’re taking a look at a wrestling promotion that, technically speaking, is probably a bit too big to be called an “indy.” However, it’s a failed attempt at a major league promotion, and I guess you could backdoor that into the definition of indy by saying that it’s a wrestling company that never became one of the major groups in its home country. Why are we playing these semantic games? It’s because I want to watch the show, and, if I’m going to watch it, I’m going to get some material for the site out of watching it, dammit.

Strained definitions aside, the company we are talking about is Super World of Sports (or SWS), which was founded in Japan in 1990. At the time, there were only two major wrestling promotions in the country, New Japan Pro Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling, and it had been that way for quite some time. Pro wrestling was incredibly popular in the country, and it was just the sort of business that a multi-millionaire from another industry could try to cash in on with some startup capital from his original business. Cue “Megume Super,” a company that had made a small fortune off of selling eyeglasses. (Now there’s a sentence that you don’t read too often.) Megume Super formed Super World of Sports to go head-to-head with NJPW and AJPW, but there’s a bit of a hurdle you have to overcome if you want to create a major league wrestling company out of thin air. If you’ve got two big time companies each with its own big time stars, you can’t typically go right up against them with a roster that nobody has ever heard of. People want to see stars, so, if you come after them with a crew of unknowns, you’re likely to crash and burn.

SWS got over this hurdle by conducting perhaps one of the most aggressive talent raids in all of pro wrestling history, poaching wrestlers from the main event level all the way to the bottom of the card from both of its competitors. Among the jumpers were Yoshiaki Yatsu, a former Olympic-level amateur wrestler who was with AJPW before SWS came calling; the legendary Great Kabuki, who would go on to found IWA Japan when SWS folded; Koko Fuyuki, who at the time was a member of the AJPW roster but would go on to perhaps become more closely associated with FMW; former sumo wrestler Arashi (at the time competing under his real name of Isao Takagi); George “Cobra” Takano, who was a key part of New Japan’s junior heavyweight division during the 1980’s; NJPW’s Takuma Sano, who remains active in Pro Wrestling NOAH to this day; and another former sumo in the form of Koji Kitao, who was trained to wrestle by NJPW, debuted with the company, and then almost immediately jumped ship to SWS. The biggest “get,” though, was All Japan’s Genichiro Tenryu, so popular at the time that he was referred to as “Mr. Puroresu,” and obviously he was the guy who the promotion was going to be built around. Tenryu, however, significantly pissed off AJPW boss Giant Baba in making this jump, so much so that, even when SWS flopped (largely attributed to fans feeling that it was “too corporate” as opposed to being a wrestling promotion that cared about wrestling for wrestling’s sake instead of profiting), Mr. Puroresu was not allowed to return to All Japan and instead had to flounder around in smaller groups like WAR for the remaining prime years of his career.

Aside from effectively ending the big league career of Genichiro Tenryu, the other thing that SWS is remembered for amongst puroresu fans is having a working relationship with the World Wrestling Federation, which lead to the top WWF stars of the era coming in to Japan for several major shows. It’s one of those major shows that we’ll be taking a look at today, coming to us on the magic of VHS from the Egg Dome in Tokyo Japan on December 12, 1991, before a sold out crowd of 40,000.

Match Numero Uno: Masakatsu Funaki vs. Jerry Flynn

Readers from the US are most likely to remember Jerry Flynn from his time as a JTTS (and one of Bill Goldberg’s most frequent opponents) in WCW during the late 1990’s. However, he had been wrestling for close to a decade by the time he landed in WCW, training with Boris Malenko and competing for some time in FMW. Masakatsu Funaki (not to be confused with the “Funaki” who was in WWE – they’re completely different guys), meanwhile, was a New Japan trainee who, in the years after this show, would join Pancrase and become one of the single largest pro wrestling/MMA stars in the entire country for a period of time. Currently, he’s part of the All Japan roster after making a surprising comeback to the ring in 2009. At the time of this show, both guys were part of Yoshiaki Fujiwara’s shoot-style wrestling company, creatively called “Fujiwara Gumi.”

The wrestlers try to score with kicks early, but neither does any appreciable damage for some time until Funaki grabs one of Flynn’s legs on a kick attempt. Flynn looks for an enzuguiri out of that position, but Funaki grabs his other leg as it’s in mid-air and basically double legs him. Funaki mounts Flynn on the mat and tries to get a kimura for a little while before switching to an attempt at a cross arm breaker. Flynn blocks it and snags Funaki’s leg as he shifts positions, trying to trap the Japanese wrestler in a heel hook. Funaki gets out of it, though, and puts on a headlock variation for a bit until he finds a way to maneuver into a standing position and from there attempt the cross arm breaker again. However, by this point, the wrestlers have wiggled their way very close to the ropes, so Flynn grabs those. The wrestlers are separated by the referee and stood up, at which point Flynn DRILLS Funaki out of nowhere with a high kick that sends him down to the mat.

The referee immediately administers a ten count, and it takes Funaki until six or seven to get up to his feet. Angered, he is able to almost immediately take Flynn down, again trying to lock on the kimura. Flynn rolls out of harm’s way and regains a vertical base for a split second, but Funaki masterfully returns him to the mat and slips over into a figure four choke. Again, Flynn makes the ropes. This time when the wrestlers are stood up, it is Jerry Flynn who gets the first takedown, but Funaki defends from his back and prevents Jerry from doing anything horribly effective. In fact, Funaki quickly manages to switch places with Flynn and apply a hold that I’m not familiar with – which essentially looks like an upside-down full nelson – to get a quick submission victory.

Match Thoughts: I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of MMA. Despite its insane popularity amongst men my age (particularly those who are also into wrestling), it’s never really grabbed me and I watch about one fight a year if I’m lucky. As such, I don’t know that I’m well-qualified to talk about how this match succeeded in terms of emulating a mixed martial arts encounter, which seemed to be the point. However, purely from a professional wrestling standpoint, this was an entertaining enough opener. I’ve always enjoyed mat wrestling with clever reversals and good, tight holds, and that’s exactly what this provided. Most of it seemed to be Funaki doing the work while Flynn hung on for the ride, but Jerry didn’t do anything to screw up the flow, so I can’t knock the match too badly. All in all, about *** affair.

Match Numero Dos: Ultimo Dragon vs. Jerry Estrada

We started out with two wrestlers who were on loan from Fujiwara Gumi, and now we’ve got two wrestlers who are on loan from Mexico’s CMLL promotion, with Estrada being one of the company’s biggest stars in the 1980’s. Though he’s a Japanese native, Ultimo Dragon got his first major exposure in lucha libre after floundering in his early puroresu career – where he wrestled without a mask and under his real name of Yoshihiro Asai – due to his lack of size. In fact, this may be one of the first times (if not the first time) that he brought the Ultimo gimmick back to his homeland, as this would not have been long after he debuted it and I believe that I heard the announcers dropping his real name during the course of his entrance.

Oh, and speaking of that entrance, check out the sweet, sweet headdress that Mr. Dragon used to sport . . .

Anyway, Estrada attacks the masked man as soon as the bell rings, but Dragon lands on his feet off of a back body drop attempt and hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker to change the momentum. Estrada avoids a couple of big kicks from the Dragon by hooking his arms on the ropes as he runs them, and then he takes over on the Japanese wrestler with a hammerlock. Ultimo flips over Estrada’s head to escape that and catches him with a headscissors and a back body drop. Dragon connects with an armdrag and applies an armbar to slow down the action, and then he heads immediately into a cross arm breaker. He keeps the hold on for a fairly long time until Estrada rolls through it, at which point Dragon transitions to a headlock. Estrada gets to his feet and shoves Ultimo off, but the Dragon remains in control with a monkey flip and a leaping headscissors from the second rope.

Everything appears to be going Dragon’s way until he charges at Estrada in the corner and the luchador elevates him with a backdrop that sends Ultimo over the top and crashing down to the arena floor. Estrada doesn’t follow and instead allows Dragon to reenter the squared circle, where he takes him down with a clothesline. However, it’s only a matter of seconds before Ultimo is back in control, hitting another headscissors and a slingshot-esque maneuver for which Estrada takes a big bump over the top rope and down to the floor. Estrada rams Dragon’s head into the turnbuckles as he reenters the ring, following up with a wacky lucha submission that makes it look like he was attempting a Rocker Dropper but just gave up halfway through.

Ultimo reverses the hold and goes into a leglock of sorts, only to have Estrada slam his free knee into the Dragon’s face. Jerry runs the ropes, and they do a really weird spot in which Dragon catches him and the two guys basically take turns reversing each other’s victory rolls until it culminates with Estrada being thrown through the ropes and to the floor. Ultimo goes to the apron and hits what is essentially an Asai moonsault, though it culminated with a cannonball-style flip as opposed to a simple backflip. The wrestlers go back to the ring, where Estrada almost immediately tosses Ultimo back out and hits his own cannonball, albeit off of the ring apron. Jerry tries to suplex Ultimo back into the ring, and the two men fight over the hold until Dragon SUPLEXES ESTRADA OFF THE APRON AND DOWN TO THE FLOOR~! That would have been crazy enough, but Dragon follows it with THE MOST GODDAMN INSANE ASAI MOONSAULT OF ALL TIME~!, made all the more crazy by the fact that he overshoots his target and takes both himself and Estrada over the ringside barricade, causing one of the announcers to shriek and flee for his life, as demonstrated in the below blurry-but-best-I-could-do-given-the-video-quality-and-motion screencap.

The Tokyo Dome crowd reacts huge to that, and the wrestlers lay around for a bit before returning to the ring and flying into each other with stereo cross body block attempts. The referee applies a ten count to both of them, but they’re up around seven. The two trade a couple of rapid-fire pin attempts, after which Dragon misses a quebrada to set up an elevated surfboard by Estrada. However, he’s so exhausted (in storyline) that he can’t hold on and almost immediately drops Dragon. Instead, Jerry hits a quick slam and heads to the top rope, completely missing a senton bomb. Ultimo gets a two count off of that with no further offense, after which he tries for a rana. It’s blocked and turned into a powerbomb, which gets two from Estrada. Dragon avoids a backdrop suplex and hits a German, which gets him a nearfall of his own. A second German immediately connects, and Dragon rolls through on the bridge to earn the three count.

Match Thoughts: This pretty well ruled. Generally I think of lucha libre prior to the mid-1990s and the ascension of Rey Misterio, Jr. and his contemporaries as being pretty bland, with singles matches that were more about posturing and demonstrating some concept of Latin machismo that I can’t really relate to than they were about actual professional wrestling action. However, this particular bout defied those expectations and showed that there were at least some people transforming lucha into an action packed, high impact stunt show several years before I normally think of that transition occurring. These two gelled very well together and put on an epic match with at least two big spots that I’m probably going to remember for years to come, which is a rarity given the amount of pro wrestling that I see in any given year. Again, just a really fun match that you’re going to want to go out of your way to see if you even slightly consider yourself an Ultimo Dragon fan and are interested in seeing something from the infancy of the character. ****1/4

Match Numero Tres: Ashura Hara & Davey Boy Smith vs. Haku & Yoshiaki Yatsu

Aaaaaand here’s our first WWF participation on the show, with Haku and the British Bulldog teaming up with Japanese partners to go at it. Who are those Japanese partners? We briefly mentioned Yoshiaki Yatsu and his Olympic background earlier in the column. Ashura Hara, meanwhile, was a veteran midcarder with AJPW before jumping ship to SWS. As was the case with most All Japan guys who walked out on Baba to join this group, he was blackballed from AJPW after Super World of Sports folded, competing mainly with New Japan until his career wrapped up in the mid-1990s.

We are joined in progress with Hara chopping Haku and shooting him into the ropes. The King of the World Wrestling Federation responds with a kick and tags out to Yoshiaki Yatsu, who immediately connects with a DDT. That somehow turns into a chop exchange, followed by a headbutt exchange. Hara wins that when he hits a series of four big headbutts in a row, but Yatsu no-sells them and lands an eznguiri and tries for a bulldog. However, he can’t quite get it, as Hara hooks the ropes with his arms. This leads to a run-in by the British Bulldog, who attacks Yatsu with absolutely no repercussions, allowing Hara to get a tag. Davey Boy immediately goes a chinlock on Yatsu and, after clamping it on for fifteen seconds, tags back out to Hara. Hara gives his man a vertical suplex for a nearfall and brings Davey back. Hara hits an axe bomber but Davey’s attempt at the hold misses, giving Yatsu an opening for a German suplex.

That gives us our hot tag to Haku, who puts the boots to Smith and tries to powerbomb him, only to have the move cut off by Hara. Haku opts to toss the Bulldog down to the floor instead, shooting him into the rails. Davey takes his sweet time coming back to the ring, where Haku gives him a shoulderbreaker for a two count and then slaps on the chinlock. Eventually he voluntarily relinquishes the hold and tags out to Yatsu, who gives Smith a lariat for two and then a piledriver. Hara breaks up that pin to save the match for his team, leading to Haku tagging back in. Haku drops DBS with a series of backbreakers, with Hara gain making the save on a pin attempt. Smith starts to show some signs of life, reversing Haku’s offense off the ropes and landing on top when both men try cross bodies. He gets a two count off of that and tags in to Hara when it doesn’t get three.

Hara immediately plants Haku with a brainbuster and dispatches Yatsu when he tries to interfere. Hara and Smith give Haku a double team suplex and a series of lariats. In a weird spot, Hara misses one of his lariats and gets tangled up in the ropes, while Davey Boy Smith catches Haku off guard with an inside cradle for the three count. Haku and Yatsu aren’t happy and lay out Davey with a powerbomb/elbow drop combination after the bell.

Match Thoughts: This was inoffensive but not particularly interesting. Though the British Bulldog was pretty bloated and, as a result, going through one of the worst in-ring periods of his career at this time, the other three men involved in the match were all stocky types who were not afraid to hit one another, and I figured that would result in us having a good, physical match between at least seventy-five percent of the competitors. It didn’t really pan out that way, though. Everybody just sort of plodded around the ring and did a tag match that really didn’t even do that much in terms of telling a traditional tag team story, which is an easy-yet-effective route to take if you’re going to do a slower match. Again, there was nothing bad here, but it was just sort of unremarkable. **

Match Numero Cuatro: George & Shunji Takano vs. The Rockers

Well, hopefully everybody reading this is aware of who the Rockers are. Otherwise, I’m not entirely sure what you’re doing here. Their opponents are the brother team of George and Shunji Takano, a team that, oddly enough, has clearly defined “Shawn” and “Marty” roles just as much as the Rockers do. George, the older brother, is considered a great in-ring performer and was a fairly big star with New Japan in the 1980’s. Shunji, the younger (albeit much bigger) brother, had some personal issues with George and was largely forgotten by the professional wrestling world after a few middling runs in New Japan, Michinoku Pro, and, of course, Super World of Sports.

We are joined in progress again, this time with Marty Jannetty on the mat against George Takano. The two jockey for position, and it is Takano who gets the advantage with a chinlock. Marty fights it but can’t quite get out, with George making the decision to tag out to Shunji. Jannetty almost immediately gets the better of him and makes his own tag to Shawn Michaels, with the two double hiptossing Shunjji and double superkicking George when he tries to make the save. That would’ve been a surefire finish in 2011. Shawn maintains the advantage against Shunji Takano for a bit, hitting a high kick. However, the much larger Shunji comes back immediately with a backdrop driver and gets the tag to George. Jannetty tags in as well, with the Rockers taking Takano down and Jannetty applying the chinlock once more. George whips him out and goes to an armbar, following it up with a dropkick off of the ropes and another tag to Shunji.

Shunji goes to the second rope and comes off with a missile dropkick, even though he’s much larger than a man you would normally expect that from. Eventually he tosses Jannetty from the ring, where George whips him into the rail. Shawn Michaels runs in and superkicks George in the jaw, which George doesn’t sell at all . . . again a weird visual in 2011. Jannetty is thrown back to the inside, where Shunji hits a brainbuster followed by a George frog splash for two. George stays on his man with European uppercuts but his thrown off-kilter when Jannetty catches him in a small package. George tags out to Shunji to regain his bearings, but Shunji doesn’t do much better, as Jannetty controls him virtually the entire time he’s in until Shunji powers him back to the corner for another tag by George. George lands a few chops but is hit with a Jannetty back elbow for a two count, and here’s the exchange to Shawn Michaels. The THIRD superkick of the match this for two, and it is the set up move for a Rockers double back elbow. I wish I could make this up. Some reversals off of the ropes see Takano come back with a dropkick, which he follows with the tombstone piledriver. George then gets a superfly splash, but Michaels makes the save before the match can come to a close.

All four men rare in the ring for a period of time. Marty goes to the top rope to hit something on George, but George leaps up and dropkicks Marty as he stands on the top rope. Shawn runs interference before Takano can do any more damage to his partner, slamming George to set him up for whatever Marty had planned. Jannetty tries to steady himself on the ropes but apparently takes too long for Michaels, who gets up behind his partner and basically shoves him off the ropes so that he goes flying at Takano in a splash position. George gets the knees up, though, and that’s all Marty manages to hit. George pins him off that, and the Rockers actually get in each other’s faces to tease their breakup that would occur about a month later in the World Wrestling Federation.

Match Thoughts: This is another match, like the prior tag, where I had an idea in my head of how things would pan out, only for my conceptions to not be matched. The Rockers were a really slick junior heavyweight tag team at this point in wrestling history, and George Takano was among the best junior heavyweight singles wrestlers in the world. I figured that, with George, Jannetty, and Michaels trading off in the ring, we were set for a damn fine professional wrestling match. However, that never really surfaced for whatever reason, and, instead, we got something that was good but not great. I’m almost embarrassed to admit this, because I’m a big advocate of watching matches while keeping in mind their original context, but one of the things that really took me out of the bout was the repeated use of the superkick by the Rockers with no real repercussions. Granted, it wasn’t a finisher at the time, but seeing it used that way for over a decade makes it jarring to see the move used mid-match. **1/2

And that does it for this round of reviewing SWS. We’ll be back next week with the second half of the show, including the I2I debut of HULK HOGAN~!

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