OOOLD SCHOOOOL

[NEWM]

I'd like to think that paragraph has opened the door for a few more of my fellow UKFFer's to open up and admit there love for the Dungeon of Doom.

 

I wouldn't say the Dungeon of Doom as a whole, but there's something morbidly phenomenal about the Monster Truck match and Hogan & Savage vs Everybody Ever from Uncensored 96.

[The Cum Doctor]

Kensuke Sasaki

[Kenny McBride]

I'm hating Craig Pittman at the moment.

 

But how can you hate a man with such a convincing grimace?

 

Great to see Disco continuing his great antics though. I never thought I'd see myself enjoying his stuff as much as I have been. That one where his music gets shut off so he gets the tape player out is brilliant.

 

Yes.

[PowerButchi]

I'm hating Craig Pittman at the moment.

 

How? He's responsible for one of the greatest lines in Wrestling history.

 

The Beatings will continue until morale improves!

 

Then of course he got Teddy Long as a manager, joining a stable with such luminaries as Jimmy Powers. And it was all downhill from there.

[freaky]

I've started copying my old videotapes onto DVD, with the first two going onto a disc being WWF's Greatest Champions from 1991, and Wrestling Superstars Before They Were Famous from 2001, hosted by Jerry Lawler during his stint away from the WWF at that time.

 

Some of the notable matches include:

 

Mr Perfect v British Bulldog, June 1991

It seemed the natural progression for these two to clash after WrestleMania VII, though for it to be a TV-based programme without that PPV payoff seems a shame, but they put on a fine little match with Hennig throwing himself all over the place to sell Bulldog's power moves. They even do that spot where Perfect gets his face hit into the turnbuckles, descending from the top one all the way to the mat.

 

Bret Hart comes out to nullify Coach's interference midway through, and both involve themselves in the finish. The ref gets knocked out, Bulldog gets an inside cradle, Coach tries to break it but Bret makes the save, then counts the three. The ref comes back round, sees Bret and Perfect fighting and DQs the Bulldog. Nice contest.

 

WWF Champion Hulk Hogan v Undertaker, date undetermined

I say undeterminded because Lord Alfred Hayes introduces the match by saying Hogan's a 4-time champ, which implies this match comes after Tuesday in Texas. However, as part of the commentary in the match, Undertaker is referred to as undefeated, which makes you think it took place before December 3, 1991. And to confuse things even more, WWF Champ Hogan pins Undertaker after a shockingly boring match after kicking out of the post-Tombstone pin. So this couldn't have happened before Survivor Series 1991, where Undertaker was still billed as unbeaten.

 

And it couldn't have happened after Tuesday in Texas anyway, as Hogan was pretty much immediately stripped of the title - and Undertaker was pinned at that show, so he wouldn't be undefeated...

 

So I really can't tell you when this match took place, as none of the commentary is consistant. I know that the undefeated schitck of Undertaker's was fuzzy anyway, considering he'd been pinned by the Ultimate Warrior contantly on the house show circuit - though in those times, if it didn't happen on TV, it didn't happen - and by Tito Santana, which WAS televised. However, things are so fuzzy here that it's fucked up my head for 18 years.

 

Thrillseekers v Heavenly Bodies, SMW 1994

You know the one - it's where Chris Jericho wrestled the whole thing with one arm in a cast after breaking it the day before practicising shooting star presses and then bled a 0.9 on the Muta Scale at least.

 

A great tag team match, with Jericho's blood being used as an easy shortcut to defelect from the fact that he couldn't use his right arm for anything, and Lance Storm carrying the load for the bulk of the match for his team. Awesome drama after the blood too. And Brian Hildebrand's the ref, so it's impossible to find anything to dislike about it.

 

That Before They Were Famous tape also features a great SMW promo from Jim Cornette about the temporary return of the Heavenly Bodies to the promotion which features clips of an eyewitness recording of an assault on the Thrillseekers, where Cornette says he's trying to get the masked assailants off Storm and Jericho, and the clip shows him laying into them with kicks and tennis rackets. Tremendous.

 

There's also a nice one from Cactus Jack from his indy days in 1995 talking about someone called the Colorado Kid where he refers to himself as a 'garbage man' who is throwing out all the crap wrestlers from the profession.

[The Cum Doctor]

My Nitro downloads have gone a bit on the haywire side. ARGH ! I'll still do as much of these as I possibly can.

 

But how can you hate a man with such a convincing grimace?

 

Fairly easily !

 

WCW Nitro 27/11/1995

 

After that PPV, there's all sorts of stuff unsettled going into this next batch of Monday Nitro.

 

Johnny B. Badd © vs. Diamond Dallas Page - WCW Television Championship

 

DDP comes out with flowers for The Diamond Doll looking like he might be wanting to win her back, but uses it as a chance to sucker punch Johnny. This wasn't a match really. Just a way to add a wee bit intrigue to the "is she really in Badd's corner" thing that they seem to be going with, but I can't help but feel that they are doing this sort of storyline far too much.

 

The Taskmaster and Jimmy Hart are with Mean Gene. Taskmaster blames Luger for the loss of the title to Savage. Jimmy Hart will sort it out apparently.

 

Cutie Suzuki and Mayumi Ozaki vs. Bull Nakano and Akira Hokuto

 

Another rematch from last night. I can't see them getting as much time as they did on the PPV. I don't know if that will be a hinderance or a welcome change. This wasn't as good as the night before, but it was still really enjoyable stuff and the crowd was waaaayy into it.

 

Hugh Morrus vs. Hulk Hogan

 

This was pretty much your standard Hogan affair against wrestlers of a similar status. The heel beats on him for a wee while and then Hogan comes back with the Big Booy and the Leg Drop. It was fun the first couple of times, but these matches are getting awfully tedious by now.

 

We now have Savage and Hogan to look at the footage. The video goes blank when we're about to see Hogan pulled under the bottom rope, and this then leads to the Dungeon of Doom hitting the ring. THE GIANT CHOKESLAMS SAVAGE ON THE AISLE !!! WHOA !!! We head for the ring, where Sting does his bit to help out, and distracts The Giant long enough to let Hogan beat the crap out of The Giant with a chair. That was a pretty good segment apart from the weakass chair shots from Hogan.

 

Bryan Pillman and Arn Anderson vs. Sting and Lex Luger

 

TENSION~~~!!! I am, of course, talking about Sting and Luger, and Luger tossing Pillman off of the top rope right into Sting. This was "accidental" though, and Luger did everything in his power to help Sting through the course of this match. Pillman was all over the place in this match and made everything he did look horrible. Was he already on the decline by this point ? I can see he looks a bit podgy. Anyways, a disappointing outing here.

 

After the match, we have an AMAZING segment with The Four Horsemen doing a number on Luger and Sting, only for Hogan to hit the ring. Flair tries to stand his ground and evidently, that doesn't go well. We're left with Sting, Luger and Hogan in the ring. Hogan wants Luger but Sting manages to hold him off and then Sting and Hogan share a manly hug. Aaaaawwww. Heat packed segment which is just bags of awesome.

 

WCW Nitro 12/04/1995

 

Harlem Heat © vs. The American Males - WCW Tag Team Championships

 

The Heat must have gotten a rematch due to the weird nature of the Males title win. The WCW camera crew clearly see the love story between the Colonel and Sherri as being more important than the tag team titles. Losers. Some insane heat for Harlem Heat in this match, both positive and negative. Jesus christ, this team are OVER. This wasn't a bad match but Scotty Riggs is still doing my head in. He makes Bagwell look good in comparison. Then again, Bagwell might actually be good at this point.

 

Sting and Lex Luger are on the aisle with Mean Gene. Gene says that there is a Triangle Match coming between Flair, Luger and Savage. Sting says that momentum is going his way, so he expects to win. He says that he'll go after Luger as much as Flair. Luger says the exact same thing, except he says that he is going to win the title.

 

Kurasawa vs. Sting

 

Col. Parker isn't with Kurasawa because he is busy shagging Sherri. Ugh. This is pretty much a sqush match.

 

Scott "Flash" Norton vs. The Giant

 

This one is intriguing. They have done a decent job of making Scott Norton look good up untill now. I'm not expecting him to WIN here, but a competitive showing could do the world of good. That was a very good big man match only because of how much of a competition Norton made it. Norton should come out of this match in a better position than he was in.

 

Charles Barkley comes out with "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair. Barkley says that he isn't a patch on Flair. Man knows. Flair says that the two of them are going to tear the town down. Barkley says that the best wrestling fans are in the arena. Flair says that Barkley might become a Horseman full time. That might have been the most pointless segment of all time.

 

Randy Savage © vs. Lex Luger - WCW World Heavyweight Championship

 

Anyone who got the World War 3 PPV will be pissed with this. Luger and Savage have a nothing match which acted as nothing more than angle development and it wasn't much more than five minutes long, while the TV show gets a match between the two men about two weeks later for the title. Add to that the fact that this was a long and physical match worthy of a PPV, then you have an absolute farce.

 

All sorts of shenanigans post-match with Jogan hitting Sting instead of Luger. After the break, Mean Gene is in the ring and the fans are booing. Sting just confirms that he is on Hogan's side, and he says that Luger is his best friend regardless of the Jimmy Hart thing. Savage points out that he predicted Luger's turn and he's right, and Sting continues to back Luger up. This is turning out like an episode of Jerry Springer. Hogan tells Sting to keep Luger out of his face. Sting says he'll do everything in his power to do just that.

 

End of show.

[The Cum Doctor]

WCW Nitro 11/12/1994

 

Mr. JL vs. Eddie Guerrero

 

Jerry Lynn was absolutely woeful a lot of the time in these matches that I'm watching with him in them. Thankfully, they keep this match pretty short, but the action during the match manages to be pretty non-eventful most of the way apart from JL doing his Somersault off of the apron.

 

Lex Luger and Jimmy Hart is with Mean Gene. Lex Luger says that he owns Randy Savage. Lex Luger says that if it comes down to him and Sting, may the best man win. That was rather pointless.

 

Disco Inferno vs. "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff

 

Such a jump from awesome theme music to Orndorff's music should NOT be allowed. Orndorff has a much bigger mirror than last time. I love that he just looks like a grade A prick. This match features a quite terrific dancing Elbow Drop, directly followed by a BRUTAL Back Drop Driver. The match really wasn't very good, but I got some laughs from it, so I'm not complaining.

 

Ric Flair, Bryan Pillman and Arn Anderson are with Mean Gene, and Pillman says it's an honour to be one of the Horsemen. He says that Hogan wanted to be a Horseman so badly, he started dressing in black to please the Horsmen. Pillman then goes batshit crazy and when talking about the Dungeon of Doom he does a hilarious shark impression. Ric Flair finally gets onto the microphone, but then Paul Orndorff heads for them, and has words for Pillman. Pillman with a right hand and this one kicks off big time. Horsemen of course help Pillman to get his shots in. SPIKE PILEDRIVER ON THE CONCRETE FROM ARN AND FLAIR !!! Oh dear. Horsemen 3:16 says "We just paralysed ya.".

 

Back from commercials and Orndorff is being helped from the arena.

 

Lex Luger vs. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan

 

Does Luger really need the help of the cheap shot with a 2x4 to beat Jim Duggan ? I'm not happy with that I'm afraid. I can't understand Duggan hitting a Running Clothesline and then going for his finisher, which is the exact same thing. Anyways, this match was short as hell, so I don't have much to say about it other than the action during it was pretty inoffensive.

 

Ric Flair and Arn Anderson vs. Hulk Hogan and Sting

 

It's WCW Nitro, so you know that there's some sort of "TENSION~~~!!!" storyline going through this bad boy. Hogan got booed heavily when he headed to the ring. The heat on Hogan at this time is NOT good. A huge "Hogan Sucks !" chant breaks out during the match as well. It turns out that the crowd are just HEAVILY pro-Horsemen since they are in Flair's hometown. This was a brilliant tag team match with all sorts of great heel shenanigans from the Horsemen, and the usual idiot refereeing you get in a tag team match.

 

Bryan Pillman comes into the ring and helps his buddies, and then Lex Luger comes into the ring and helps Sting, but not Hogan. Randy Savage comes into the ring and he's not happy with Sting, so Sting hits him with a right hand. Oh deary me. Mean Gene heads into the ring because we have a potential explosion here. Hogan tries to play the peacekeeper. Sting offers his explanation for hitting Randy Savage. Savage decides that they should all just take a chill pill and everyone decides to stay together, which doesn't amuse the Horsemen fans in the audience. End of segment, and it went downhill fast.

 

End of show.

 

WCW Nitro 18/12/1995

 

We open the show with Madusa coming to the commentary booth. She has the WWF Women's Title with her. WHOA !!! She then she throws it in a bin. FUCKING JESUS WHOA~~~!!! Give me some of that ! William "The Fridge" Perry is heading for the commentary booth to make sure nobody goes to the booth. This show has peaked too early !

 

Ric Flair vs. Eddie Guerrero

 

This is going to be some great wrestling right here. Eddie Guerrero has been mega pushed on WCW so far, although this might be a step too far. Eddie Guerrero did look absolutely magnificent in this match, and looked on the level of Ric Flair in every way. Then Ric Flair does a bit of cheating and manages to run away with the match. It was a great match up untill the "injury" to the knee. From that point it was all Flair.

 

Arn Anderson and Ric Flair are with Mean Gene. Arn Anderson says he respects Paul Orndorff, but the Horsemen reacts to situation. He also says you don't put personal stuff ahead of the group. Ric Flair is about to talk, but The Taskmaster and Jimmy Hart hit the ring. The Taskmaster says that Bryan Pillman is a loose cannon and wasn't happy with Pillman slagging the Dungeon of Doom. "You better keep Pillman on a short leash.". Ric Flair says there's no problem. Arn Anderson doesn't agree.

 

Sgt. Craig Pittman comes to the commentary booth, and he wants Bobby Heenan to manage him. Heenan says that he doesn't manage anymore. Pittman says he's not gonna take any prisoners if he doesn't get the help promised.

 

Lex Luger vs. Marcus Alexander Bagwell

 

Lex Luger is getting fed LOTS of cannon fodder at this moment, and is probably getting the biggest push on Nitro of anyone. This was actually a good back and forth contest. Probably more than it should have been considering that Bagwell is very much a tag team guy and not that big a one either, even if the American Males won the tag team titles not so long ago. Regardless, still a good match.

 

Jimmy Hart and Lex Luger are with Mean Gene. Luger says that he has made Savage submit and then says that he had him pinned as well. He says that he'll win the title as a result of all of this.

 

"Earl" Robert Eaton vs. Sting

 

I don't think I've even seen a match from any of the Blue Bloods on these shows outside of their brief involvement in the World War 3 match on the PPV. This can only mean one thing. A Stinger Demolition. Eaton doesn't look unlike Bob Backlund from a distance. Rather nice moment here when Sting joins in on the crowd's mexican wave. I like how Bob Eaton going for his big finish lead directly to Sting's finish. Other than that, this was pretty much a nothing match.

 

Mean Gene is with Sting. Sting says that he would love to be a six time world champion. That's pretty much it.

 

Randy Savage

Edited August 6, 2009 by Haraga_Version_One

[Devon Malcolm]

Ric Flair, Bryan Pillman and Arn Anderson are with Mean Gene, and Pillman says it's an honour to be one of the Horsemen. He says that Hogan wanted to be a Horseman so badly, he started dressing in black to please the Horsmen. Pillman then goes batshit crazy and when talking about the Dungeon of Doom he does a hilarious shark impression. Ric Flair finally gets onto the microphone, but then Paul Orndorff heads for them, and has words for Pillman. Pillman with a right hand and this one kicks off big time. Horsemen of course help Pillman to get his shots in. SPIKE PILEDRIVER ON THE CONCRETE FROM ARN AND FLAIR !!! Oh dear. Horsemen 3:16 says "We just paralysed ya.".

 

I remember that angle and incident pretty well. If I'm right they sold that incident pretty impressively for a good couple of weeks afterwards.

[Kenny McBride]

Ric Flair, Bryan Pillman and Arn Anderson are with Mean Gene, and Pillman says it's an honour to be one of the Horsemen. He says that Hogan wanted to be a Horseman so badly, he started dressing in black to please the Horsmen. Pillman then goes batshit crazy and when talking about the Dungeon of Doom he does a hilarious shark impression. Ric Flair finally gets onto the microphone, but then Paul Orndorff heads for them, and has words for Pillman. Pillman with a right hand and this one kicks off big time. Horsemen of course help Pillman to get his shots in. SPIKE PILEDRIVER ON THE CONCRETE FROM ARN AND FLAIR !!! Oh dear. Horsemen 3:16 says "We just paralysed ya.".

 

I remember that angle and incident pretty well. If I'm right they sold that incident pretty impressively for a good couple of weeks afterwards.

 

Orndorff remains important to the Pillman angle. That's all I'm saying.

 

That thing with Pillman starting shit with Orndorff though is one of the key moments in kicking off his Loose Cannon shit. The next two months feature him almost every week and he's doing some absolutely nutty stuff. It's all less exciting when you know how it plays out, but it's still fucking fantastic.

[mikey]

This brings back fond memories.

[Gladstones Bitch]

Really enjoyed those Nitro reviews Haraga, hopefully there's more to come.

[The Cum Doctor]

WCW Nitro 25/12/1995

 

No rest for the wicked I'm afraid, especially with the PPV being two days later.

 

Lex Luger vs. Scotty Riggs

 

Sorry Scotty, but if Buff doesn't stand a chance against the Package, I'm pretty sure that YOU don't stand a chance either. This was even MORE competitive than the match that Luger had with Bagwell and it was all the better for it. I even thought Riggs had a chance of winning at one point ! I hated the ignoring of all of the arm work that Riggs done as he really went for it. That aside, good match.

 

On the aisle with Sting and Mean Gene. Sting has had enough of Gorilla asking questions of him about Luger. He says he wants to lock the Scorpion Deathlock on Flair and never let go. He then says that NJPW are on WCW territory at Starrcade.

 

Big Bubba vs. Sting

 

Sting is looking a bit suspicious on the way to the ring, getting angry with his pyro (?) and hesitant with the fans before finally deciding to slap away. I thought they botched the ending untill I realised that it was actually the right ending ! This was far too long considering who was involved. Big Bubba got far too much offense and most of it I have already forgotten about. I still think it was a Sting squash, even though it was far from.

 

Mean Gene is with Jimmy Hart and Lex Luger. He says that you couldn't have a more premiere match than the Triangle Match. He says that he is going to win the title and then Jimmy Hart gets on the mic, and Craig Pittman comes out. He wants Hart as a manager. My video cuts. WHAT ?!?!

 

Dean Malenko vs. Mr. JL

 

Oh FFS. JL has been pretty poor thus far on these shows. Thank goodness that they seemed to get it sorted before he went to ECW. Seems like there was a pretty bad injury at the end of the match on the Super Gutbuster. I had a bad feeling when Malenko was struggling to keep Lynn on. This was the best Mr. JL match so far thanks to Malenko just being far too good to have anything other than a good match. It helped that JL was actually on a bit of form as well.

 

Mean Gene is with Ric Flair. He basically pimps the main event for this show and for Starrcade.

 

Randy Savage © vs. Ric Flair - WCW World Heavyweight Championship

 

FUCK YEAH !!! I've been dying to see one of these matches since I started watching these shows. Flair is on his very best heel form here, doing all sorts of cheap shots and short cuts to basically annoy everyone watching. Savage just could not buy a break through this match as Flair had his number for the vast majority of it. They sacrificed the match for the story, which was fair enough as it made Flair look like a credible challenger. Not a great match by any means, but understandable.

 

Luger hits the ring and attacks Savage. Sting runs down and gets cut off by Flair. Sting and Savage manage to clean house. Savage and Sting have words.

 

End of show.

 

WCW Starrcade 1995

 

The World Cup of Wrestling is on the line this evening. The WCW ! Get it ?

 

Chris Benoit vs. Jushin Thunder Liger

 

Chris Benoit is a strange one. He's supposed to be a member of the Horsemen, but we never hear anything about that unless he's wrestling. He never comes out for promos or beatdowns. I bet the Horsemen are glad they have him. I absolutely hated the ending to this match. I thought they were going to just let these two guys go at it, but it's WCW so no chance of that I'm afraid. This was a brilliant hard hitting match though with both guys throwing big bombs at each other.

 

NJPW 1-0 WCW

 

Koji Kanemoto vs. Alex Wright

 

I haven't really seen any matches of Alex Wright that went any great length. I watched a match he had with HHH in WCW one time, but he was boring as sin when he went to WWE initially, so I don't think that's such a great place to judge someone. This match had completely lost the fans half way through it because of how awkward and slow things were between the two of them. This match could have probably done with some pre planning. They finally won the crowd back in the end, but too late for me I'm afraid.

 

NJPW 2-0 WCW

 

Masa Chono vs. Lex Luger

 

I'd be very surprised to see anything other than a Luger win here. The weird thing here is that the fans are expected to cheer for Luger in this match and then boo him later on the same night. Sure enough, Luger gets the win, but he was made to work for it, as Chono put Luger through every kind of hell he could in this rather short match before Luger made his wee comeback at the end. Not a good match though. Infact, it was kinda shit.

 

NJPW 2-1 WCW

 

Masa Saito vs. Johnny B. Badd

 

Man, Saito is a vicious looking man. The fact that THIS guy is named "Mr. Torture" does not bode well for the TV champ. Not even nearly enough ass kicking from Saito in this match for me. Another very poor match, which was only interesting when the two guys were just going mental on each other.

 

NJPW 2-2 WCW

 

Shinjiro Ohtani vs. Eddie Guerrero

 

I watched this match not long ago, but I'm going to watch it again because it was bloody good the last time around. This was an absolutely terrific match watching it again. The ending sequence was just fabulous and capped off the match perfectly. Both guys broke out some amazing stuff, especially Eddie, who's offense just looked so crisp. It also played out much like many NJPW Jr. matches that I've seen, and since Eddie has been there seen it and done it, this match was great.

 

NJPW 3-2 WCW

 

Randy Savage vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan

 

The scoreline and the fact that Savage is the champion just confirms what the result of this match is going to be. I almost feel like just skipping the match, but I'm gonna stick with it. This match was as boring as sin. The fans just didn't give Tenzan a hope in hell of winning this match and they just stayed dead silent for the entire time he was in control. It didn't help that his entire offense consisted of kicks and chops.

 

NJPW 3-3 WCW

 

Kensuke Sasaki vs. Sting

 

The winner of this match wins the World Cup of Wrestling for their team. The match these two guys had for the US Title in Japan was pretty impressive, I have to admit, so I'm hoping they have a similar match for a big prize here. This was a very different match from the NJPW match and therefore was nowhere near the quality of the match in Japan, but you had to expect the style of match to be different. It did lead to the match being very disappointing though. Certainly not worthy of being the last match of what was supposedly an important tournament.

 

WCW 4-3 NJPW : FINAL RESULT

 

Lex Luger vs. Ric Flair vs. Sting - Triangle Match

 

Ric Flair almost seems like a bit part player in all of this, with Sting and Lex Luger playing out the main story in all of this, as well as Randy Savage having issues with Luger and almost blowing up at Sting. Ric Flair and Randy Savage had a match on Nitro though and it was pretty good. I'm surprised by the lack of heat for the Sting/Luger portions of the match. The heat whenever Flair was in there was off the charts, and his interactions with both of the opponents was top notch. The interactions between Sting and Luger were interesting but dodgy to watch because of the lack of heat. Great ending to this match and the whole thing was pretty good.

 

Randy Savage © vs. Ric Flair - WCW World Heavyweight Championship

 

Very much the underdog, Ric Flair going through really gave the main event an unpredictable feel. Obviously this match couldn't be as good as previous matches because both men had wrestled in matches and they never got long to put on a good match either. The match was still a lot of fun. I was a bit shocked at the lack of arm work from Tenzan so I was pleased to see that Flair didn't forget about it. I loved the pop that Flair got for the win. The arena went fucking ballistic when the pinfall was counted

[Kenny McBride]

The Kanemoto/Wright match absolutely did not lose the crowd, and from what I recall, it was probably the second best match of the night.

[The Cum Doctor]

The Kanemoto/Wright match absolutely did not lose the crowd, and from what I recall, it was probably the second best match of the night.

 

They seemed pretty dead for most of the match to me, although they woke up towards the end when Alex Wright got back into things. The crowd were hot for WCW throughout the best of 7 series, even when the action was a bit shifty.

[Kenny McBride]

The Kanemoto/Wright match absolutely did not lose the crowd, and from what I recall, it was probably the second best match of the night.

 

They seemed pretty dead for most of the match to me, although they woke up towards the end when Alex Wright got back into things. The crowd were hot for WCW throughout the best of 7 series, even when the action was a bit shifty.

 

Maybe it was just the people around me, but I remember people really buzzing for that match. I seem to recall Tenzan, Saito and Sasaki not getting over so well, but everyone knew Liger, so he got a good reaction and Kanemoto (with his sexy American tights) and Ohtani got over on the strength of their work. Bearing in mind that with the exception of Sasaki and Liger, none of the Japs had been on TV in the previous six months and that the line-up had barely even been discussed on Nitro, it's pretty amazing that the rather weird-looking Ohtani probably walked out of the building amongst the biggest stars. The dude I went to the show with had never been to a wrestling show before and he was Ohtani's biggest fan by the end of the night.