THE 1996 PROJECT - Week 4!
This week we’ll be covering All Japan, the usual Monday night madness and some time down Memphis with a great heel turn plus of course the news from the dirtsheets for that week!
Let’s kick off with the notable matches in All Japan from the 12th January at the City General Gym in Takamatsu, Kagawa
We got a big six-man as the main event - Super Generation Army (Kenta Kobashi, Jun Akiyama and Mitsuharu Misawa) vs Team HOSS in Stan Hansen, Gary Albright and Bobby Duncum Jr but before then we have Dangerous K Toshiaki Kawada vs Tamon Honda.
Fun opening bout here as Honda tries to use some catch style wrestling to take down the kickmaster which catches Kawada off guard at first but then he applies some of his own that Honda manages to counter into a German… which Kawada gets up quick from and decides to kick Honda’s face off as a fuck you.
Honda not taking too kindly to hit hits a few more suplexes but all it does is anger Dangerous K so cue the kicking!
Honda then goes back to the submission game and targets the right leg of Kawada to at least try and stop the kicking he was getting…
A spinning toe hold is countered by Kawada kicking him with the left leg – proving that focusing on just the one is bad when dealing with him – leading to a kick/headbutt off between the two that naturally Kawada wins.
Honda tries a top rope headbutt but misses but lands a standing one afterwards and decides to try a powerbomb but it’s countered into a back body drop by Kawada, Honda is getting more pissed off and hits a vicious spinebuster then attempts a piledriver but is kicked by Kawada to drop him and then Kawads goes for an armbar Fujiwara style but Honda gets to the ropes.
Kawada then applies a single leg Boston crab with some extra kicks for good measure but Honda gets up and hits some headbutts and a spin kick into the Boston crab with some kicks of his own!
Honda then again goes for the Boston crab but Kawada quickly gets his left leg into a front leg lock for the submission.
We then join the big 6-man in progress as Kobashi is being attacked by Hansen as he attacks the right arm into a commercial break and as we quickly return Kobashi is chopping the hell out of Hansen into a diving shoulder block, Akiyama then tags in and hits a northern lights suplex with a bridge onto Hansen but kick out at two, Akiyama tries to do an X-ploder but it’s countered with a DDT by Hansen who tags in Albright who hits two giant belly to belly suplexes but as he starts to put on an armbar Misawa breaks it up.
Duncum Jr then tags in and hits a bodyslam and elbow drop for two, he then tags Albright back in who hits a big backdrop on Akiyama and throws him out for Hansen to attack on the outside.
Hansen then puts Akiyama back in for Albright to only get a two count so cue the double team from him and Duncum Jr in a suplex but again it only gets a two. Duncum Jr applies a Camel Clutch but Akiyama ends it quickly by getting his right foot on the bottom rope. Stan – getting annoyed at his partners not getting the job done – decides to get in there and hit Akiyama with an elbow drop of his own after a double team suplex… but even he gets a two!
As Hansen’s about to powerbomb Akiyama Kobashi comes in to prevent it with a few elbows so Stan knocks him down with a shoulder block and Akiyama knocks Stan with an elbow and falls right where he can tag Misawa.
Misawa then comes in from the hot tag and hits a spin kick then a flying clothesline to knock Stan down, he then hits elbows in the corner and tries to whip Hansen into the other corner but fails as Hansen reverses it then hits a back drop and a clothesline. Albright is then tagged in and attempts to german suplex Misawa but when Misawa counters that Albright hits a belly to back suplex into an armbar which Kobashi counters with a leg drop and Misawa then follows with a SENTON!
Kobashi then comes in and hits Albright with a LARIAT for a two and then begins to chop Albright’s neck as Albright tries and ultimately gets Kobashi down into an armbar position but Kobashi hits a kick to the chest and a standing leg drop to the back to set up Akiyama but Jun gets quickly put into an armbar which Misawa breaks up.
Hansen then throws Misawa out and then sets up for Duncam Jr to hit Akiyama with a powerslam for two but he then hits a bulldog on Akiyama – again it only gets two due to Kobashi which leads to him and Albright fighting on the outside while Misawa and Hansen are on the other side.
Meanwhile Duncam Jr hits rolling elbow drops on Akiyama and a running leg drop for 2.9999. He then hits a kick from the corner and as he tries to hit a big boot he gets countered into an X-ploder by Akiyama for the 3!
(A very fun half hour of television here with a styles clash between Kawada and Honda topped with a great 6-man having Akiyama playing a great face in peril while there’s chaos all around him as Misawa/Hansen/Albright and Kobashi renew their wars.)
The only other notable match on this card is Ogawa vs REX KING for the AJPW Junior heavyweight title and you can find that here:
Now time for some USWA action from January 13th!
We join the show right as PG-13 vs Dangerous Doug Gilbert and Wildfire Tommy Rich continuing a great feud – for the USWA tag titles – which leads to PG-13 picking up the win after some miscommunication involving Gilbert, Rich and a chain and starts essentially the main story of the show..
We come back to a joined in progress battle royale for a shot at Jerry Lawler’s USWA heavyweight title that Tommy Rich wins earning the shot right after the commercials!
The title match starts off as a babyface vs tweener affair between the two until Tommy distracts the ref long enough for Doug Gilbert to redeem himself for earlier by attacking Lawler with a chain allowing Tommy to get the cheap win and the title!
Tommy of course being unaware of the chain being used – wink wink.
We then get a 6-man squash match as the Rock and Roll Express and Koko B Ware beat the hell out of 3 guys establishing their new heel trio.
Lawler then demands answers from Gilbert and Rich over earlier – Gilbert comes out and blames Lawler for him losing the tag titles at the beginning of the show, clearly implying that Lawler had booked them to lose against Doug’s wishes while Doug also brings up Jerry turning down the memorial show for Eddie put on by Dennis Coraluzzo, Lawler then brings up the time Eddie slammed him through a windshield, got glass in Lawler’s eye by putting a baseball bat through one and even ran him over. This leads to a beatdown by Rich and Gilbert culminating with a spike piledriver onto Lawler as the show goes off the air!
(Another solid hour of USWA and I love the slow realisation of the Gilbert/Rich turn throughout the show.)
BONUS BATTLARTS!
We take a slight deviation as thanks to the Internet Archive the first BattlARTS show from Koruaken Hall is available to view… and we’re going to focus on the main event from the card as an extra treat via the Champ Forum programme that aired in March 1996. (Think the Japan equivalent of a Pro Wrestling This Week deal…) also to note due to the crossover matches with FMW and Michinoku Pro the show is actually under Alpha Vision but that would change very quickly!
Shochi Funaki way before he became Smackdown’s number 1 announcer and Yuki Ishikawa vs Daisuke Ikeda and Katsumi Usuda in a strong indicator for what BattlARTS would become with the biggest rivalry starting up right here in Ishikawa vs Ikeda…
Seeing Funaki doing more of a strong style deal is a very nice pleasant change from all the bullshit comedy he’d end up doing in WWF/E but seeing Ishikawa/Ikeda trade holds and strikes gives me LIFE PLUS Ikeda does at points kick the SHIT out of Funaki so I don’t entirely blame him for getting away from that a year or so later haha!
Highly recommended for those wanting to get a good idea of Ishikawa/Ikeda/BattlARTS.
Now however we got WWF Raw from the 15th January and again it’s taped from last December so again we have squash matches as Undertaker beats Issac Yankem DDS, Ringmaster beating Matt Hardy and Smoking Gunns beating the Spiders (not from Mars).
Marty Jannetty and Owen Hart is the only match worth catching – mostly due to it featuring Owen Hart tbh!
We get the Free For All announcement that reveals there will be a match that will decide who will be first and last in the Royal Rumble and we await throughout the show Razor Ramon confronting Goldust (after Goldust does a… interesting interview with him teasing Vince and King calling him queer (which is better than what he’d call him a year later on live TV) that culminates in a great backstage brawl into the snow outside!
Billionaire Ted continues the pettiness by calling Huckster etc washed up and alluding to the upcoming acquisition of Time Warner.
WWF NEWSLETTER SIDEBAR
Despite the so-so show on this particular week we start with the news that 123 Kid will be back in time from a hip injury for the Rumble, Sid will however not be and there is talk that he tried to defect to WCW but due to past issues (the Arn Anderson incident in 1993) they are not planning to bring him in at this time. (Wait another 3 years.)
Due to Sid’s injury the tag title match at the Rumble is now Bodydonnas vs Smoking Gunns.
The Headhunters will be in the Rumble as the Swat Team while the Sabu situation got as usual with Sabu complicated – it was dead last week despite WWF offering 5k (standard outsider fee for the Rumble) and allowing him to eliminate himself with his own table plus his name because Heyman made it very publicly known at House Party he didn’t want Sabu to do it – but at the start of this week people such as Dennis Coralluzzo (who has a rivalry with Heyman naturally due to the 1994 NWA belt incident) were trying to convince Sabu to do the event…
Sabu then decided to put things into the hands of his uncle The Shiek who then at first said no but when given a 3k booking payoff from Bruce Pritchard (find out more when we do our Rumble 96 mega post soon!) and the opportunity to accompany Sabu to ringside he warmed up to it, WWF then taped promos and mentioned him on the hotline, Pritchard then offered an exchange to Heyman of multiple wrestlers but was told no and finally Sabu pulled out since Heyman refused to let any ECW wrestlers be on a PPV before he’s done his first!
(All this when WWF WANT to co-operate… no wonder they went back to destroying their competition by pretending to offer exposure.)
Heyman then offered Sabu a headlining PPV slot before June 12th. Spoilers – we will never cover an ECW PPV on this project.
Boston Herald then reported that WWF wanted Peter McNeeley (boxer who had fought Mike Tyson the year prior) for the Rumble – this of course doesn’t happen.
Now – Nitro time!
Savage vs Luger kicking things off and refreshingly we get a clean finish with Luger winning with the Torture Rack after Savage missed the Macho elbow drop, we then are supposed to get Arn and Pillman vs Taskmaster and Hugh Morrus but we see both Horsemen and Dungeon Of Doom come down to the ring with Mean Gene…
What it all boils down to is an alliance, one that is going to try and end the Madness and Hulkamania… but Pillman needs to be removed from the Horsemen according to Taskmaster, which Arn disagrees on and Pillman emphatically backs up but when he turns back to Double A he gets a slap and told to keep his mouth shut.
Taskmaster (and for those thinking btw Greg Davies has shrunk and gained a Boston accent – different Taskmaster XD) then brings up the Hogan match for later tonight and leaves.
We finally get the debut of Public Enemy as they face the American Males (American Males repeat ad nauseum) and get the win in an upset then put Bagwell through two tables with the Drive By from Rocco after the match is over!
The latest chapter of Sting vs Flair follows and it’s very greatest hits style – not a bad thing granted – until the finish where miscommunication by Luger causes Sting to get knocked out by the megaphone and a cheap submission win for Flair. Luger then tries to get Ric off Sting when Hogan and Macho decide they need to get involved (very randomly I might add) so Luger and Ric scatter…
(The ending started with some sense but Hogan deciding I’ll save Sting brother… is very random and just spotlight taking as per…)
Hogan then tries to get Sting to wake up and smell the coffee on his ‘good friend’, Macho being more blunt and Sting goes to confront Luger, Hogan then decides to turn on Savage still feeling sore about World War 3 back in November!
Hogan/Meng is the same old shit with the Hulk up, Dungeon interference getting foiled, Hogan getting the cheap win on Meng (your TOP BABYFACE USING A SPIKE.) AND THAT’S HOW WE END?!
What a shit show of a Nitro that has the stink of Hogan all over it.
(NEWSLETTER TIME!)
Terry Taylor deciding to run his mouth off and call Sandman a ‘drug addict’ and Sabu ‘a car crash’ got Paul Heyman threatening to sue the company, Taylor then attempted to clarify by saying he was referring to Sandman’s characteristics rather than the actual person but didn’t do the same for Sabu!
No WWF shots this week after the previous week’s Billionaire Ted skit on Raw… can’t think why. XD
Doesn’t help that when Bischoff tried to go well 3 people that failed our steroid policy are headlining in WWF – problem is WCW never suspended the 3 in question when they DID fail!
And that’s your lot for this week – next week has an insane Lucha match with Psicosis as the starter before we do our first PPV event special with Royal Rumble 1996. (The following week will be WCW SN, Nitro, WWF Raw and WCW Clash…)