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

Assorted Mumejuku

 

European Rounds: Hiroshi Watanabe vs. Ultraman Robin, Mumejuku 12/8/2007

 

Nothing says indy sleaze like Ultraman Robin. Every Robin match I‘ve seen has been pretty bad, but Watanabe carries him no problem. Robin doesn‘t look good here, his brief run of standing offense is so non-athletic and embarassing, but he is okay rolling on the mat, and Watanabe is the man. If Watanabe can get a 25 minute match this good out of someone as bad as Robin, then there‘s no limit to what the man can do. This was the usual MUGA style match with Watanabe doing plenty of cool twisting up Robin and neat pin attempts. Especially dug his weird modified indian deathlock. Last round was great as Watanabe was hellbent on grappling it out with Robin until he connected with a rotten enzuigiri out of nowhere.

Hiroshi Watanabe vs. Kosei Maeda, Mumejuku 6/2/2007

Apparently this is from the very first Mumejuku (or Mumejuku-related) show, and what a match to set the tone! Maeda has kickpads and throws some surprisingly violent strikes, and this had the feel of an 80s NJPW vs. UWF match, and that‘s a really cool type of match to start a promotion with. I thought Maeda was along for the ride initially, but he started to win me over as the grappling went on. As usual, plenty of crafty holds and counters from Watanabe, and Maeda did some bigger moves than you normally see in these maestro style matches. Watanabe‘s Inoki inspired-but-not-quite-straight-up-ripping-him-off act was great and the finish was really cool. Another gem, really.