Japan TV 1-15-88 6-man tag team main event!
Feb 6, 2022 15:56:06 GMT
Post by Chitohausen on Feb 6, 2022 15:56:06 GMT
World Wrestling Kingdom; Lou Thesz, Chairman
Airs on Saturday, January 15, 1988 on:
Taped: January 3 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan
Announcers: Kenji Wakabayashi and Kotetsu Yamamoto
Ring Announcer: Takashi Yamada
Referees: Tiger Hattori, Joe Higuchi, and Kyohei Wada
The following clip plays over the opening credits:
A moment later, Fujinami eliminates Tenryu, and we’re down to the final two, Tatsumi Fujinami and Mitsuharu Misawa!
With only two remaining, pinfall or submission can now be used to win, along with sending your opponent over the top rope.
Fujinami and Misawa trade holds and counters, with Fujinami eventually getting the upper hand. But when he sets Misawa up for a suplex, Misawa reverses it, and rolls Fujinami up in a small package!
The International champion is caught completely by surprise, and can’t kick out! Mitsuharu Misawa has pinned Tatsumi Fujinami to win this Battle Royal, and 10 million yen!
KENJI WAKABAYASHI and KOTETSU YAMAMOTO open the show.
They welcome us to this week’s edition of World Wrestling Kingdom!
This week, Shinya Hashimoto continues his 5-match trial, as he faces Antonio Inoki! Hash fell in defeat last week to Mitsuharu Misawa, can he redeem himself this week against one of his mentors, the legendary Inoki?
Riki Choshu and Masa Saito of the Revolution Army square off with Jacques and Raymond Rougeau!
Another tag team match will see Dynamite Kid and Fit Finlay, two of the top junior heavyweights from the UK, against the unusual pairing of junior heavyweight Super Tiger, and the 6’7”, 280 lbs Shunji Takano! How will Takano fare in this otherwise junior heavyweight match?
We’ll see two former sumo stars face off, as Genichiro Tenryu faces Hiroshi Wajima!
And, the feature bout will see Tatsumi Fujinami, Mitsuharu Misawa and Yoshiaki Yatsu face the gaijin trio of Bad News Allen, Jim Neidhart and Bob Orton Jr!
SHINYA HASHIMOTO 5-MATCH TRIAL SERIES:
MATCH #2:
ANTONIO INOKI beats SHINYA HASHIMOTO. Hashimoto put up a valiant effort against Misawa last week, and does so again this week against Inoki. They shake hands to start in a show of respect, and wrestle a good, clean scientific match. Hashimoto and Inoki both prefer a hard-hitting striking style, and it’s on full display here, as they tear into each other with everything they’ve got. As we pass the 15-minute mark of the match (though we don’t see it all on TV), Inoki connects with the Enziguri, and Hashimoto drops like a sack of potatoes. Hash, however, showing his fighting spirit, is able to kick out of the pin! We see a quick smile from Inoki, clearly impressed by his former student. Inoki then hits a second Enziguri, and this time Hashimoto is down for the 3-count!
Inoki helps Hashimoto up afterwards, and the two men shake hands again.
RIKI CHOSHU & MASA SAITO defeat JACQUES & RAYMOND ROUGEAU. The Rougeau brothers are skilled technical wrestlers, able to hold their own with anyone in the world, but they can’t match the raw power of Saito and Choshu. In the end, we see all four men in the ring at the same time. Choshu hits Raymond with a Lariat, and Saito, the legal man, then delivers the Saito Suplex to Raymond for the 1, 2, 3!
An ad airs for the “New Year All Star Wars!” tour, which runs until January 28! Live WWK action can be seen in the following cities as part of the tour:
Tonight, January 15, 1988 we’re back at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo!
January 17, 1988 in Mooka, Tochigi at the City Gymnasium!
January 18, 1988 in Honjo, Saitama at the Citizen Gymnasium!
January 20, 1988 in Ueda, Nagano at the Citizen Gymnasium for a TV taping!
January 21, 1988 in Nagano at the Citizen Gymnasium!
January 24, 1988 in Tono, Iwate at the Citizen Gymnasium!
January 25, 1988 a TV taping at Central Hall in Koriyama, Fukushima!
January 26, 1988 the first of three consecutive nights at Korakuen Hall!
January 27, 1988 a TV taping at Korakuen Hall!
January 28, 1988 the tour ends with a TV taping at Sumo Hall in Tokyo!
We see a highlight package focusing on Mitsuharu Misawa. We see some clips of him wrestling as Tiger Mask II, then unmasking after his loss in the All Asia title match with Genichiro Tenryu on New Year’s Day. The video ends with Misawa pinning International champion Tatsumi Fujinami to win the big New Year’s Battle Royal on last week’s show!
Wakabayashi and Yamamoto talk about Misawa. Wakabayashi says that he started as a pro in the summer of 1981, and over the past six and a half years, Misawa has really started to come into his own, as we saw when he pinned Tatsumi Fujinami at the end of last week’s Battle Royal!
Yamamoto says that Misawa may have come up short in his first big title match, against Genichiro Tenryu for the All Asia title, but he thinks that if the two men meet again down the road, the result might be very different!
DYNAMITE KID & FIT FINLAY beat SUPER TIGER & SHUNJI TAKANO. Last week, Super Tiger and Shiro Koshinaka fell in defeat to Finlay and Dynamite. This week, Super Tiger has the 6’7” Shunji Takano as his partner, but unfortunately the result is the same. This time, Dynamite Kid gets the win for his team, hitting Takano with the Diving Headbutt from the top rope for the 1, 2, 3!
After the match, Dynamite Kid gets on the house mic and says that he and Finlay have beaten Tiger two weeks in a row! He says that it doesn’t matter who Tiger gets as his partner, because the fact is, he’s washed up and he’ll never be able to beat Dynamite Kid and Fit Finlay!
DK continues, saying that Super Tiger was once a great wrestler, not as great as him of course, but still pretty great! Now, he’s just a shell of what he used to be, and Dynamite says that Super Tiger is just embarrassing himself and should retire!
Super Tiger goes after Dynamite, and the two men brawl, before their partners and several other wrestlers get in between them!
GENICHIRO TENRYU (w/ Masa Saito & Riki Choshu) beats HIROSHI WAJIMA. Tenryu gets the win in this battle of former Sumo champions, when he drives Wajima into the mat with the Folding Powerbomb for the pinfall after about 7 minutes of action.
TATSUMI FUJINAMI & MITSUHARU MISAWA & YOSHIAKI YATSU defeat BAD NEWS ALLEN & JIM NEIDHART & BOB ORTON JR. This match ran about 20 minutes, but was clipped for TV time. The gaijin trio are all accomplished technical wrestlers, but would much rather brawl, while Fujinami, Misawa and Yatsu try to keep things scientific. In the end, Fujinami hits Orton with the Dragon Suplex for the 1, 2, 3!
Wakabayashi and Yamamoto wrap things up, and hype next week’s show.
Credits Roll
© 1988, World Wrestling Kingdom
Working on it now.