SWS – Beginning of Hamamatsu Fighting Party 11/22/90

Ishikawa hadn’t wrestled in nearly two years before SWS and reviews suggest he’s OK at plodding along to the strength of his opponents. He’s getting on a bit but’s he’s veal compared to Kabuki. Sano was kicking arse with his feud with Liger before Money Puroresu came calling so you’d think he’d be able to batter Ishikawa but that’s not how puro works, with Ishikawa firing wooden shots at Sano until both men can tag out. Takano remembers the war he had with Kabuki last time and takes him down and straps in a Boston crab before Kabuki can do the same to him. Ishikawa saves him but can’t lock in a Sharpshooter so Takano and Sano team up to land Le Bomb De Rougeau for deux. Ishikawa surprises me with an impressive flying dropkick before Sano tries putting him away with a second rope Superplex. Takano tries a second rope knee-drop but that can’t put half-man half-tree away either. Kabuki saves his old friend with a side suplex but Takano doesn’t like Kabuki and piledrivers him immediately afterwards. It breaks down with Ishikawa exchanging pin-falls before Sano gets a sweet looking Mexican Surfboard on Kabuki as the bell rings…to signify the match has gone to a fifteen minute time limit draw but the panel have decided Palasetra are the winners. Huh. Meh ending aside, everyone played their roles here fine and Ishikawa plodded along just fine.

OK here we go, how can two ex-Sumos who have no chance of going back to their original employers any time soon co-exist? Tenryu and super-brawler Kendo start off in the match “the wrestling fans have been waiting for today!!” yells our favourite commentator. Kendo immediately chops Tenryu out the ring and over the guardrail because he’s stronger on the outside. Goro tags in and gets taken down immediately so Tenryu can tag in Kitao who gets a weird pop. The whole crowd sounds far more quiet than the previous show. Tin-foil hat me wonders if they deliberately didn’t mic them well to cover most crowd’s negative reaction to Kitao. Or maybe no-one turned up, SWS didn’t have the best rep at filling arenas. Kitao gets into it with both Dojo members and doesn’t look bad. His selling is still poor but he manages a nice Northern Lights Suplex out of a front headlock to a “oooo” reaction which is promising. He then accidentally kicks Tenryu so disregard everything I just typed. We skip ahead to Kitao selling (kinda) so Tenryu can tag in and trade delicious chops with Kendo.

Kendo gets the advantage by simply pushing Tenryu as he’s running the ropes so he loses his balance and plummets into the side of the ring. That’s a nice simple move that Tenryu takes well. Kitao doesn’t understand and kicks Kendo in the head in response, who ignores it to tag out Goro. Goro tags in quickly wishes he didn’t as Kitao just murders him with a backdrop suplex.

Goro is so out of it that Kitao can’t even get him into position for a pinfall attempt. That afro did not save any of that impact like the bad guy from Mr. Nanny falling into the empty pool. Goro locks in a calf stretch on Kitao so Tenryu runs to assist and runs directly into a superkick from Kendo…which Tenryu shrugs off because he’s had enough of this bloody match and wants it over. Kitao tries a suplex and the editing team cut away to a couple at ringside so it must have been perfectly executed, and that gets the finish. Ooof. As you would have expected, this was hard-hitting and lovely with Tenryu and Kendo but rougher than a badger’s arse when it was Kitao.

Yatu’s career has been interesting so far. Having been denied entry in the 1988 Summer Olympics for being a professional athlete, followed by leaving NJPW to join AJPW to win tag titles with Riki Chosu and Jumbo Tsuruta. I don’t see his name being brought up in the same sentences as those guys often but in fairness, those are some legendary names to be hanging around with. A quick look at Other People’s Opinions seem to say he was past his prime at this point. We’ll see. Takano wastes no time kicking him down and stretching Yatsu’s ankle. Also the ref is now a mulleted American for some reason. Where did he come from? Takano makes Yatsu fight out of that hold and he does so with headbutts. A beautiful piledriver sets up a missed top-rope elbow from Yatsu, so Takano tries a tope-rope splash but meets knees. Takano can’t get his own piledriver so Yatsu gets a release German Suplex instead as the crowd start laughing at random things. What’s their problem? This has been a nice little match so far. Maybe they forgot to wash the ring of all the Kitao fail-sweat. Takano gets a tombstone for two and no reaction. Both men fight over a DDT with Yatsu dropping Takano on his damn head with a Northern Lights. Never seen that before. Takano very unhappily crossfaces Yatsu in response. Takano keeps the crossface in and the ref announces Yatsu submitted with nothing to indicate that he in fact submitted. Crowd’s like “are you sure??” and the production team moves on quicker than when someone wins a title in AEW. What’s up with this crowd and these finishes tonight? Edited down to just the cool moves, this was fine but didn’t answer any major questions about if Yatsu can still go.

So what would have happened if both Revolution teams had won the semis? Just wondering. Kitao starts off with Takano who is smart enough to keep it simple and treats Kitao like he’s Terrible Ted. Sano does the opposite and starts kicking him full-force until Kitao responds with the same. Tenryu tags in and nearly gets pinned after a very snug German Suplex from Sano. I like Tenryu because he’s more open to playing with his food before he eats it than most in his position. Takano and Kitao continue to practice a match, not realising they’re in front of a crowd right now. I’m sure the Shawn Michaels and Logan Paul practice sessions looked better than Kitao vs. Takano. Tenryu can’t put away Takano with his Backwards Elbow (so-called because it’s backwards to not look at your opponent when jumping off the top) so Sano tags in and gets all his cool moves in. Kitao sadly tags in and sticks to running and striking, giving an idea of what Ken Patera vs. the police may have looked like. Tenryu tags in to take a giant Missile Dropkick as he plays Miserable Bastard In Peril. Sano locks in the Mexican Surfboard as Tenryu seems to have made it his pet project to get this match and Kitao over and is therefore prepared to do anything to make it work. Kitao tags in and lands a Running Powerslam before applying a sharpshooter. Sano has to turn himself over before Kitao does in order for it to work but still. Kitao suplexes Sano and has no concept of ring awareness as he drops Sano’s legs in the ropes on the way down. Tenryu tags in and attempts to screw Sano’s leg off but Takano saves with a knee drop. Crowd are finally making noise. Tenryu chops away on Takano but misjudges how badly hurt he is and runs right into a brutal lariat.

Takano goes up top and Tenryu tries to throw him off like Flair, but Takano rolls with it and turns it into a small package for a close two and the crowd is finally alive. Tenryu’s struggling powerbomb gets halted by Sano so Kitao takes him out, allowing Tenryu to deliver another and score the pin. A worthy, credible main event despite Kitao’s best efforts to drive it into the side of the wall.

Overall: Tenryu was working hard here but there was only so much you could do with Kitao hanging around. He’s like IBS without the pills. The production was way worse than last time and the crowd was only into Tenryu so if you want to watch SWS pre-WWF, watch the previous weekend double header instead (Ah who am I kidding, you’re only reading for the drama. And so am I).