NJPW Battle Autumn 1992
IWGP Tag Team Title Match: Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) (c) vs. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki - NJPW Battle Autumn 1992 - Day 11: Battle Hold Arena 23/09/1992
This was pretty solid. But I can’t help feel that this was a bare bones version of their previous matches. There wasn’t much selling, even less than usual with the two teams just hitting their spots for nearly 20 minutes. **1/2
NWA World Heavyweight Title Match: Masahiro Chono (c) vs. Steve Austin - NJPW Battle Autumn 1992 - Day 11: Battle Hold Arena 23/09/1992
I thought that this was actually low-key pretty awesome. I liked Austin mixing it up and adopting more 70s style grappling which is more up Chono’s alley. The back and forth was pretty entertaining as some one of the counters were pretty neat and just seeing these two match up is interesting on its own. Austin was really good in this match as well but I don’t think he was over enough with the crowd to make this a raucous title defense for Chono. The neck break is unfortunate. Chono tries to go home instantly but Austin doesn’t really seem to get that’s what he was doing, I guess because Chono didn’t hook the legs probably (I don’t really blame him since the neck can affect those things, even in a small way) so they do it again and end the match on a flat but understandable note. ***1/4
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Great Muta (c) vs. Shinya Hashimoto - NJPW Battle Autumn 1992 - Day 11: Battle Hold Arena 23/09/1992
Okay. I think I’m totally souring on Muta. Anytime he was on offence, the match was so flat. He got little heat except a few smattering of noise here and there. He just wasn’t compelling or captizating unless Hashimoto was kicking his face in. This stunk. Poor Hashimoto *
NJPW Super Grade Tag League II
Super Grade Tag League II Final Match: Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Riki Choshu & Shinya Hashimoto - NJPW Super Grade Tag League II - Day 11 21/10/1992
The natives collide. Hase and Sasaki are one of the more prolific teams of the era but they are against two of the top stars of the promotion, former IWGP Heavyweight champion, Choshu and Hashimoto so the odds aren’t stacked into their favour. But they are great underdogs as a result. Choshu and Hashimoto work with tons of malice in their strikes and holds. Some of their double team work even draws a few boos which I never expected to hear directed at Hashimoto. Sasaki shows some great fire when Choshu attacks Hase on the corner, running right at him and laying him out and then slamming Hashimoto. Hase was on fire as well. He threw some wicked slaps and had some great exchanges against Choshu. Awesome match. ****
NJPW Wrestling Scramble 1992
The Hell Raisers (Hawk Warrior & Power Warrior) vs. Hiroshi Hase & Riki Choshu - NJPW Wrestling Scramble 1992 - Day 12: Battle Zone Space II 23/11/1992
This only went three minutes but it was so action packed. The Hell Raisers came in with tons of energy and went wild on Hase and Choshu, beating them so easily. Fuck yeah! This ruled. Hell Raisers coming out to Paranoid was rad as well. ***
Genichiro Tenryu, Koki Kitahara & Takashi Ishikawa vs. Heisei Ishingun (Kengo Kimura, Masashi Aoyagi & Shiro Koshinaka) - NJPW Wrestling Scramble 1992 - Day 12: Battle Zone Space II 23/11/1992
This looks amazing on paper. The invading WAR trio against Heisei Ishingun, who are kind of heels in New Japan. But most importantly, it’s fucking TENRYUUUUUU!! And he makes his only second non-co show appearance in New Japan (first being the Misawa tag against Choshu and Takano in ‘90). This is so heated immediately with the team almost fighting during the ring announcements. The WAR team gets booed out of the building except Tenryu who gets cheered more so than the others. The tag wrestling was really good. Most of it involved Wrestler A irish-whipping Wrestler B into Wrestler C while he does a wild kick (Kimura) or a hip attack (Koshinaka). Aoyagi was a sly dog with his kicks, laying them in on unexpecting WAR wrestlers while he was on the apron waiting for a tag to be made. Koshinaka and Tenryu have some awesome chemistry that’s on show instantly. It was just magic any time he was in the match. Takashi Ishikawa got his butt kicked for most of it, but he took it really well and showed some tremendous fire in doing so, stubbornly staying on his feet and fighting back. Tenryu getting triple teamed and just barely surviving every big shot was super compelling action. And the crowd being so hot for it all put the match over the top as a great one. Tenryu calling out Choshu in his promo after the match gave me chills. And of course, Inoki coming in was such a big deal. God I love inter-promotional warfare. ****1/4
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