PWC 3/22/1993

 

PWC 3/22/1994
 

Shunji Takano & Katsunari Toi vs. Yukimasa Watanabe & Hiroshi Shimada
KAZU vs. Tsunehito Naito
Ultraman Robin vs. Poison Sawada
Hiroshi Shimada vs. Tetsuhiro Kuroda
Iron Horse vs. Benkei
Isao Takagi vs. Gerry Morrow


PWC is top shelf level bizarre wrestling material. This show had a lot of unprofessional beatings.

The opening match already was something else. The story of "Sad Genius" Yukimasa Watanabe is that he was a rich boy who had his mom pay to fly him to the US and get trained by Lou Thesz. Thesz was able to get him a NJPW deal, but because Watanabe wanted to be a star right away and skip the black trunks rookie phase, it fell through. Then, he somehow joined PWC. On a previous show, he took a nasty, one-sided uncalled for beating from Shinichi Nakano. Here, he either injures his leg, or he is the best in the world at selling a leg injury. His leg just gives out and he can't continue the match. But they keep dragging him back into the ring. Toi potatoes him with some chairs. Shunji Takano was an absolute menace in this. What a maniac. The finish is Shunji finishing off Watanabe with a kneedrop off the top rope that couldn't have been pleasant.

Later, Watanabe started a promotion called UNW where he booked himself against guys like Naoshi Sano or Gypsy Joe. Apparently he also badmouthed Shunji Takano and PWC a lot. Who can blame him, his experience must have been a nightmare.

The next match had another borderline unprofessional beating. UWF boy Naito tries to work the mat with indy random KAZU for a minute or so before realising that KAZU is useless. Then he just waffles KAZU with open hand strikes and kicks before spiking him with a series of Dragon Suplexes.

The next match had Ultraman Robin and Poison Sawada. Apparently, Ultraman Robin is another money mark/fellow backyarder. These guys absolutely suck, but they also potatoed each other a little.

Then Shimada shows up again to fight a rookie Tetsuhiro Kuroda. This was mostly Shimada taking down Kuroda and controlling with amateur style matwork. Kuroda has nothing going for him and sucks even at this point but I enjoyed Shimada working like a proto-Honda.

Then, Benkai, who is Hideki Hosaka in a goofy costume, faces a big kickpadded gaijin, Iron Horse. Benkai sucks and also has nothing going for him, but Iron Horse potatoes him a lot with some kicks. Terrible match, but I wouldn't mind seeing more of Iron Horse.

The main event has an old as dirt Gerry Morrow, who I believe used to work IWE. It's a lumberjack match for some reason. All the lumberjacks will just roll you back in the ring, except Shunji Takano, he will hit you with a chair. Morrow does the fun thing where he receives a batch of flowers and then attacks his opponent with the flowers. He also has really great punches and a nice european uppercut. Isao Takagi absolutely blows in this. I wouldn't mind seeing more Morrow.

 

THE LIBRARY

PWC BORN AGAIN 5/9/1996

 Motherfucking Pro Wrestling Crusaders. Full show is here

Sanshiro Takagi vs. Hiroshi Watanabe

Unto all things… a beginning! Takagi would go on to conquer Japanese wrestling in the next 2 decades. Watanabe remained hidden in the underworld. They are both mere black trunks wearing rookies here, although they have a solid black trunks rookie match. Watanabe has kickpads and both guys crack each other hard with some shots and Watanabe hits a really nice dropkick. Single leg crab ends it because that is how these things go.

Super Judist vs. Raioh

I think Super Judist may be Black Hole. He is a tubby guy in a judo gi with a mask. What gives? Raioh has the cool “singlet and taped feet” look and sumo rushes the Judist at one point. This was a fun if inconsequential big boy tumbling match that lasted about 6 minutes. Raioh hits an Ace Crusher of all things but Judist completely no sells it. Judist was putting on cool submissions on Raioh the whole match and he wins with a really cool facelock and armlock move.

Kazushige Nozawa vs. Masakazu Nagase

A singlet wearing Nozawa completely steamrolls Nagase, choking him out within seconds. TAMA mastermind Kancho Nagase deserved better.

Uchu Power X vs. Super Rider

It’s alien shootstyle, baby. I think this is Koichiro Kimura under the Uchu Power mask. This was a completely straight grappling match. They didn’t even do any floor brawling like I’ve seen them do in West Japan and DDT, and there were only one or two vicious strikes from the alien. Other than that, this was all guys in poncho and freaky masks scrambling for chokes and heel hooks. Rider looked good tenaciously grappling with his bigger opponent. Cool match and I wish we had more alien shootstyle.

Blue Panther & Fuerza Guerrera vs. Hijo del Santo & El Sharak

El Sharak was a guy in a ninja costume. I am guessing he was a Japanese guy that PWC was going to push, because he was the focus of this match, although he looked a bit amateurish here and there and blew some spots. The other guys could have a good match in their sleep though and all their stuff was super on point. No matwork sadly but they were there to pop the crowd, and that they did.

Hiroshi Shimada vs. Shogun KY Wakamatsu

Weird match. Wakamatsu is the guy with the hat who managed the Strong Machines in NJPW and various monsters on the indy scene. He was an IWE guy who came back to pro wrestling in SWS and then just kind of stuck around in these sleaze indies. He would hit lots of eccentric offense, chokes, throat jabs etc. He controlled basically the entire match and it really wasn’t very good. There was also some chaos around Uchu Power X being Wakamatsus second at ringside and more random guys interferring. I guess it upholds the sleaze factor but I I thought Shimada, who apparently was the PWC World Champion at this point (raising even more questions about PWC than I had before) deserved better.

Shunji Takano & BATMAN (Great Sasuke) vs. Great Zebra & Gran Naniwa

I have no idea who this Great Zebra guy is. Maybe George Takano? This was a pretty fun match where everyone had their working boots on. We start with a cool 5 minute stretch of matwork which was neat. Sasuke and Naniwa worked hard for their paychecks here. Sasuke in the 90s is such a guy where even when he is kind of mailing it in he looks like a high end pro wrestler. Takano didn’t brutalize anyone, but he showed he could go. You can say a lot about the whackiness of sleaze companies like PWC, but there was lots of good serious pro wrestling on this card.

THE LIBRARY