NWA Starrcade In Tokyo Dome 21/03/1991
Show Facts: This show is a joint show with NWA/WCW teaming with New Japan Pro Wrestling who was the top promotion in Japan at the time. It was the first of a few more Supershows these two promotions would have. The show drew an attendance of 64,500 in the Tokyo Dome which is a massive amount, it’s almost triple what New Japan gets today which shows you just how popular New Japan was in the 90’s.
Darks matches
Now, this show had three other matches that are available on New Japan World but since they were dark matches, I decided to skip them and go straight to the main card. But I’ll give you the finishes from reports I found including the Observer’s report. Animal Hamaguchi & Kengo Kimura & Osamu Kido & Kantaro Hoshino beat Super Strong Machine & Tatsutoshi Goto & Norio Honaga & Hiro Saito in 12:08 when there was a miscommunication finish with Machine hitting Goto by accident. Kuniaki Kobayashi & Takayuki Iizuka & Shiro Koshinaka defeated Brian Pillman & Tom Zenk & Tim Horner in 12:10 when Iizuka pinned Horner with the Dragon suplex. And, Scott Norton pinned the Equalizer in 2:23 when Norton hit the Equalizer with a botched powerslam.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match
Jushin Thunder Liger (c) vs. AKIRA
AKIRA was wearing some head gear that look pretty cool and Liger was wearing some green attire opposed to the usual white and red suit. The match started off with some mat based wrestling with Liger doing some of his usual stuff like the surfboard and the the headstand headscissors. They head to the outside where Liger caught AKIRA, who was jumping to the outside, with a nice drop kick but he hit his knee hard on the concrete. AKIRA then started to work the leg which suggest to me that it was suppose to happen. Liger sells it very well, limping around and hints of Liger trying not to show that it was hurt which was interesting to see. AKIRA coutines to works on the leg and tries to hit a frog splash with Liger blocks with both of his feet. Then they exchange a few close pins which get the crowd into the match. Liger goes for a Tombstone Piledriver but drops AKIRA and sells the leg. Excellent from Liger. Liger hits two powerbombs for a close two count then hits a top rope DDT!!! for the win in 16:08. It was a good match with some good selling from Liger. It took a while to get into the good, fast paced stuff but the mat based wrestling was never boring and kept me interested. ***½
Tag Team Match
Arn Anderson & Barry Windham vs. Masahiro Chono & Masa Saito
Just an observation, Barry Windham looks huge here. Just a standard tag team match to start, all men take turns with each other, they do a move, a few arm locks and tag. Arn Anderson goes to the top rope and does the flair spot and Chono throws his off to the floor and Chono hits a high cross body himself. Chono locks in the STF and Windham breaks it up to great heat from the crowd booing the heel out of him. Anderson and Windham work over Chono, separating him from Saito. Chono eventually gets the tag to Saito and he gets worked over but that doesn’t last long as Saito no sells the offence and hit’s a few belly to back suplexes. . But suddenly out of nowhere Windham hits Saito with a lariat for the win in 9:17. The finish was very sudden and out of nowhere but the match went by so fast, it felt very short despite being near 10 minutes long. Nothing special **
IWGP Tag Team Title Match
Hiroshi Hase and Kensuke Sasaki (c) vs. The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner)
Before this match, there were rumors of tension between Hase and Rick Steiner but nothing seemed to transpire and everything went smooth in the match. The crowd was very hot for this match chanting for Hase very early on. Scott keeps taking Hase don with the legs showing of his amateur wrestling skills. Then Hase clotheslines Scott to the outside popping the crowd and Scott tags Rick, Hase then tags in Sasaki. Sasaki catches Rick Steiner with a beautiful scoop slam and a nice lariat turning Rick Steiner inside out. Scott Steiner then comes in, as does Hase and he hits a samoan driver type move of the second rope. The Steiners then take control of the match and work on Hase with suplexes.Rick hits a over head belly to belly off the top rope to massive reaction. The Steiners continue their assault on Hiroshi Hase, grounding him with body scissors but Hase then hits Scott Steiner with a belly to belly and Rick tags in and locks in a arm lock. Scott Steiner then it's a nice double underhook powerbomb to hate but the cover gets broken up by Sasaki and Hase gets the hot tag, he takes out the Tseitners with dropkicks and another scoop slam. The momentum switches between the two teams for a while until Saki gets nailed with the Steiner bulldog and the frankensteiner for the win in 12:56. NEW Champions!!!! The Steiners beat Hiroshi Hase and Kensuke Sasaki in a good match. It was very stiff with some great tag team wrestling. Hase was a great babayface here, selling really well and the crowd cheering him on all match. Sasaki didn’t really get involved much but he took the pin so that makes up for it. ***¾
Singles Match
Big Cat Hughes vs. El Gigante
Huh, I saw this on the match card and I hoped that it was a dark match so I wouldn’t have to be forced to watch it, it wasn’t. El Gigante is surprisingly or, not hugely over but over nonetheless. El Gigante did usual big man offence, a body slam, a few clubs to the back on the head but he surprisingly did a suplex which the crowd reacted too. Giant then won with The Claw in 2:11. Now, I expected much worse. El Gigante didn’t do any comical selling and he stuck to what he could do. I don’t think Hughes had ANY offence at all. *
Tag Team Match
Big Van Vader & Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Doom (Butch Reed & Ron Simmons)
BIG MAN WRESTLING. Vader is highly over here, and he looks different with a different mask and attire. Big Van Vader dominates Bitch Reed for the opening moments with splashes in the corner. Butch reed then slams Vader and tags in Ron Simmons. Bigelow wows the crowd with enziguries and drop kicks to Doom. The two teams exathes hard trikes and clotheslines until Bigelow gets slammed on the outside by Ron Simmons. Doom dominate Bigelow for the majority of the match, slowing down the pace but the crowd is still hot chanting for Bigelow at times. Bigelow eventually gets the tag to Vader to unloads on Doom with lariats and stiff punches. Doom regain control and hit a double suplex on Vader but Simmons misses with a high cross body and gets nailed with a splash by Vader for the win in 13:17. Then “DOOM EXPLODES” they break up and start attacking each other to no heat. The match was a bit boring and dragged at times, the crowd was into Vader and Bam Bam Bigelow but it wasn’t enough to make it any good. **½
Singles Match
Great Muta vs. Sting
Now here we go. Sting vs Great Muta, fuck yeah. Been waiting for this all show. Both men are extremely over. Muta strikes first attacking Sting and hits a handspring back elbow into the corners, he lands on his feet after a missed moonsault and hits a spinning heel kick and an enziguri to Sting and hits a high cross body to the outside. Great start from Muta. Sting catches Muta with a boot to the stomach and hits an impressive gorilla press to the outside, followed by a plancha by Sting!!!! After a quick criss cross, Sting takes Muta down with a monkey flip which Muta botches the landing. Muta regains control with rakes to the eyes and hits Sting with vicious kicks. Sting makes a few comebacks, hitting a bulldog. Sting then drops Muta onto the guard rail on the outside. Sting attempts a Scorpion deathlock but Muta gets out of it and hits a less theatrical people's elbow. Muta misses another handspring elbow attempt but Sting then misses the stinger splash in the corner as well. Muta goes for the moonsault but Sting gets the knees up. Sting attempts at gorilla press but Muta reverses and drops down on Sting. Muta goes to the top rope but Sting catches him and hits a belly to back suplex of the top rope to a good pop. Sting follows the formula in the match of going for a big move but misses. Sting almost pins mUta with a backslide and muta almost catches Sting with a school boy. Sting goes for a Stinger Splash in the corner but GREEN MIST from Muta and Muta then hits a springboard crossbody for the win in 11:41. Sting then attacks The Great Muta after the match and locks in the Scorpion Deathlock. This match was really, really good. Excellent reversals, very fast paced match up. Muta was just before his prime but he is still great here, as is Sting. ***¾
Greatest 18 Club Title No Disqualification No Referee No Count Out Match
Riki Choshu vs. Tiger Jeet Singh
Oh god. No, not now. Please not this match.I watched this match and I did write a review for it but the draft didn't save and I made a decision not to rewatch the match. It's terrible. It's just Riki Chosu bleeding and Tiger Jeet Singh choking him for 11 minutes. Nothing of note happens in the match. I barely written anything other then another choke, in fact this paragraph is already bigger then the review for it. It's awful. -*
IWGP Heavyweight Title / NWA World Heavyweight Title Match
Ric Flair (c) vs. Tatsumi Fujinami ©
Okay, it’s title for title Flair is the NWA Champion and Fujinami is the IWGP Heavyweight Champion. The crowd is hot for this and so am I. This is a dream match, the top guy for New Japan, the top guy for NWA, wow. And Fonzie is the ref, the whilst guy from ECW. They lockup to start off with, Fujinami locks in a dragon sleeper but Flair gets to the rope quickly. Flair gets a few chops but he gets hip tossed and drop kicked out the ring by Fujinami. Fujinami grounds Flair with headlocks but Flair breaks out of it but then gets a backdrop for him troubles. Flair takes control with a belly to back suplex and moves out the way of a jumping clothesline. The two fire of strikes and Fujinami misses a drop kick and Flair drapes his leg on the ropes and jumps on it. Flair continues to work on the leg for a bit and the crowd began to react more negatively towards him. Fujinami locks in the Sharpshooter in the middle of the ring but he then translations into a modified cross legged STF. .
Flair goes to the top rope but before Fujinami can throw him down, Flair grabs Fujinami’s head and goes to the outside. Flair does his usual offence with knees to the head but he does pull off a nice double underhook suplex to an applause. Fujinami fires back with some open hand chops to Flair but gets cut off by Flair who then goes to the top rope and Fujinami catches him. Fujinami sends Flair to the outside and Flair does the Flair bump to the outside.They come back in and do the ten punch spot. FLAIR BLEEDS. And a Flair flop to some groans from the crowd. An enziguri by Fujinami. The two exchange nasty chops with their chests starting to turn raw. Fujinami reverses a suplex with a roll up for a near two.
There is a ref bump which the crowd pops to. There are a few pin falls which aren't counted and then Fujinami rolls up Flair AGAIN but this time Tiger Hattori runs in and counts to THREE!!!!! Tatsumi Fujinami wins and becomes the new NWA Heavyweight Champion in 23:20. The match is fine, a bit too long but it was good. It had its usual Flair moments but they never really flowed as well as they normally do. ***¼
Now, I know what you are think, Flair didn’t lose the title here.Well, they reversed the finish the next day. I think it had something to do with Flair going over the top rope which would be illegal in the NWA around this time. Also, according to live reports, the fans didn’t like many of Ric Flair’s antics such as the begging off and the famous Flair spot over the turnbuckle which comes to a shock since most people love that stuff in the U.S. Different types of fans, I guess.
My thoughts on the show.
The show was pretty good overall, had some really good matches with Jushin Thunder Liger vs. AKIRA, Steiners vs Hase/Sasaki and Muta vs Sting more then making up for any bad matches. It was a pretty good show, recommend the show. My only regret is Shiyna Hashimoto was not on this show.
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