The 1996 Project - we finally finish January!
We finally come to the end of January with some All Japan goodness, the debut of PANCRASE plus our usual weekly TV.
All Japan Tag Team Titles: Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue (champions) vs Stan Hansen/Gary Albright
Two of the Four Pillars vs two of the hardest hitting gaikokujin (better word to use when talking about non-Japanese talent than the usual one fyi!) to ever grace puroresu for the tag belts? You’re damn right you should watch this.
Taue/Kawada AKA Holy Demon Army have held the belts since July of 1995 and this is their second defense.
Highlights of the match are: Hansen deciding right at the start to shoulder block Taue and then decides he wants Kawada NOW so after knocking him off the apron – he keeps an eye on him after hitting Taue with forearms and elbows as if to say ‘see what I’m doing to him? That’s you next!’ Kawada in response to Hansen goes straight for the enziguri as soon as he gets in the ring.
Albright just impressing me with the sequence early on where he grabs Kawada’s leg, shoves him down as he goes for the big boot, hits a belly to belly like it’s nothing into an armbreaker which Kawada quickly counters into HIS attempt at one.
Albright btw has been a great discovery and it’s a damn shame that someone with such potential sadly has their life cut short.
Kawada getting his revenge on Hansen later on by attacking him as he tries to enter the ring while Kawada has Albright in a sleeper.
The Taue/Kawada Demon Chokeslam Driver doubleteam.
Kawada knowing that if he gets up Hansen’s going to hit LARIATO~! so he falls down, hits Hansen with a kick as he gets pulled up but a quick forearm puts Kawada back down.
The beautiful finish as an attempt of the Demon Chokeslam Driver on Hansen is stopped by Albright who German suplexes Kawada hard leaving him prone to the LARIAT OF DOOM from Hansen despite Taue trying to stop it and a big boot attempt by Kawada that got countered into the LOD. One 3 count later – new tag champions!
TV block for the 27th January
Superstars does have a couple of eventful moments as we get the debut of BRADSHAW beating Bob Holly which is how you expect it to go and a HBK vs Tatanka match (which you don’t get on your Main Event type shows…)
When it comes to some USWA action (
) we have to first note how BRIAN CHRISTOPHER is getting Superkick chants in 1996… and his gear does look a bit on the Young Buckish side! Naturally he wins a squash against ‘The Star’ and then on the crowd’s insistence – UNMASKS HIM which is weird considering it was just some job guy. XD
This is followed by a great promo segment where Christopher is cautious about Jeff Jarrett screwing him over again via interference from The Roadie and is then told to calm down by The King (notably wearing his WWF gear) who states that HE should be getting the Unified Title shot against JJ. Brian goes off about loyalty to the USWA and accuses Lawler and JJ of running off to WWF when they get the chance to which King counters by saying maybe Brian’s stuck in USWA because there’s no demand for him. To cut it short – Lawler demands the first shot if Christopher wins.
Lawler and Doug Gilbert have a great segment later on in the show that goes over the Lawler-Gilbert family feud nicely which you need to watch.
Koko B Ware just murdering jobbers with the brain(Bird)buster and then calling them loudly pieces of shit on morning TV is gloriously hilarious.
Tracy Smothers getting the cheap win with the flagpole on JC Ice… beautiful heel work.
WCW Sat Night builds up DDP vs Johnny B.Badd (which I point out for something a few months down the line…), the debut of FINLAY beating Regal up which also contains a funny moment when he goes ‘do you know who I am?’ both Tony and Dusty go NO. You also have to admire that Finlay’s motivation is basically Irish history – kind of like Kneecap are now in music tbh.
We get the reveal that Flair vs Savage will happen again at Superbrawl and so will Giant vs Hogan – both in a STEEL CAGE.
Johnny B.Badd btw is looking more of a Wildman during his promo… funny that.
ECW also taped Hardcore TV on this day - at the ECW arena. We begin with a montage: Hack Myers beating Mr Hughes, Stevie Richards and Meanie deciding to rip off The Fabulous Ones, 2 Cold beating El Puerto Ricano and keeping the TV title, Cactus cutting a great promo and mentioning how the same fans here will be cheering for him at the Spectrum when he’s wristlocking Mabel, Headhunters killing Bad Crew, Stevie trying and failing at an apology to Francine after superkicking her months ago when he joined Raven’s Nest by asking if SHE’S pregnant leading to Pitbulls beating him up then Eliminators beating THEM up while Gangsters watch on!
Naturally it becomes a 3 team brawl until 911 shows up and chokeslams EVERYONE then we get Tod and Fonzie fighting which leads to Taz getting involved then Axl Rotten getting involved and Total Eliminated. Pure chaos and exhausting to type out I tell ya!
Francine gets superkicked again and after all of this madness… Gangsters win with a chairshot and pin.
After all that – it’s a relief to have Buh Buh Ray Dudley (pre podcast grift) and Dances With Dudley beating JT Smith (who is thinking he’s Italian American at this point) and Axl in 19 seconds.
We then get highlights of Sabu vs RVD for the first time! Quickly we go to Jack and Mikey vs Dreamer and Douglas – the Philly crowd singing Hit The Road Jack as only they can along with Dean Is Dead chants.
In the end Cactus gets his revenge on Douglas by getting the win via drop toe hold to the chair (naturally going back on saying he didn’t need one to beat him earlier on in the match) retaining the belts for him and Mikey setting up Cactus vs Douglas for Feb 17th.
We end with Sandman vs Raven for the ECW heavyweight title – Raven debuting Kimona and dissension showing between Sandman and Woman due to her recent appearances in WCW. Naturally after interference from Cactus, Dreamer, Meanie and Stevie and a missed Rolling Rock leg drop by Sandman onto a chair, Raven hits the Evenflow for the 3 and the title. Stevie attempts to celebrate but gets shoved down as Raven does his crucifix pose with the belt Woman then tries to get Sandman to join her in WCW but he rebuffs her citing loyalty (give it a year…) 2 Cold steps in to resolve it and gets given an ultimatum – Sandman or Woman. He then picks Sandman (again, give it a year!) and carries Woman out of the building. Credits.
And now let us welcome PANCRASE – a place that gave us Bas Rutten, the Shamrocks, Minoru Suzuki and more - with the first in their Truth 1996 tour… with two matches I urge you to check out - Masakatsu Funaki vs Ryushi Yanagisawa and Frank Shamrock vs MINORU SUZUKI for the Pancrase Interim Openweight Title. Ken Shamrock is also on the card against Yoshiki Takahashi should you want to pursue that as well.
GAEA Heartful Body Language in Nagoya has a main event worth checking out – Chigusa Nagayo, Meiko Satomura and Sonoko Kato vs Combat Toyoda, Kaori Nakyama and Yukari Ishikura – as part of unbeknownst to many at the time one of Toyoda’s last few matches (wait for May…)
https://vk.com/video5773044_456255314 (Skip to 35:05)
Now it’s time for the War Report for this week…
Raw’s notable moment was nothing wrestling related (unless you count Tex Slazenger being repacked as Phineas Godwin) but the absolutely petty and at points disgusting Billionaire Ted ‘press conference’ which included a disgusting shot at Turner for taking lithium for his bipolar disorder while also saying that he wasn’t a hillbilly and ‘reporters’ complaining how he could have put Nitro on at any other time and he’s trying to run WWF out of business.
This was all in response to Bischoff sending a cease and desist – because of course it was.
Roddy Piper doing a great promo as he gets announced President – one of the best promo cutters and always missed especially for his takedown of Bill ‘grifting where the wind blows’ Maher back in 99!
Oh and we get a teaser for someone called Mankind… one to keep an eye on for sure.
Nitro shockingly had Hogan get beat by Ric Flair – of course not cleanly – beginning the era of THE HIGH HEELED SHOE OF DOOM!, has the spirit of Farmer Burns haunted Hogan in the night? Nope, Flair had threatened to leave being sick of the shitty booking (I understand.) and by the end of the show we naturally get Hogan stands tall bullshit again.
Meanwhile there’s a wild match between Madusa and Sherri – which ends up being Sherri’s final appearance after a suplex spot ends up pretty much knocking her out leading to some heat backstage between the two.
Behind the scenes rumours are swirling about the main event for March’s PPV – a triple cage of doom match… probably nothing memorable will come out of that one.
At long last – we’ve finally vanquished January 1996. Roll on February which is remembered for one simple phrase – I respect you… BOOKERMAN.