From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze)
Subject: Wrestling TidBits   -   08/13
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 14:43:39 GMT

 - It was Hulk Hogan's birthday two days ago.  Interestingly enough,
   while reading the paper yesterday, I learned that the largest
   ever bust for trafficking steroids (with a record seizure of
   the drugs) in North America took place the day before.  As
   Arsenio Hall would say, just something to make you say hmmmmm. 

 - You've really got to hand it to the WCW production crew in the past
   little while.  They've really worked hard to get very recent 
   happenings encapsulated for TV in only a few days.  It was great
   to see so much coverage of the Jake Roberts vs. Sting angle and
   the Ron Simmons vs. Big Van Vader match the week it happened.
   As I reported a while back, Roberts was brought in for a program
   with Sting.  Apparently, he had to make a deal with the WWF regarding
   licensing of his name and character.  The title match airs in
   it's entirety this weekend on Main Event.

 - The WWF has it's SummerSlam PPV scheduled for August 31st (to be
   taped at Wembley Stadium in London, England, on August 29th).
   The line-up is as follows: 
     - Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior for the WWF Title
     - Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith for the IC Title
     - Undertaker vs. Kamala
     - Shawn Michaels vs. Rick Martel
     - Money Inc. vs. Legion of Doom 
     - Beverly Brothers vs. Natural Disasters
     - Tatanka vs. Berzerker
     - Crush vs. Repo-Man 
     - Nailz vs. Virgil
     - Jim Duggan & The Sheepwhackers vs. The Mountie & The Nasty Boys
     - Papa Shango vs. Tito Santana  
   The post-SummerSlam marriages will be: 
     - Randy Savage vs. Razor Ramon
     - Ultimate Warrior vs. Kamala
     - Davey Boy Smith vs. Repo-Man
     - Bret Hart vs. Papa Shango
     - Ric Flair vs. Undertaker
     - Bossman vs. Nailz
     - Legion of Doom vs. Beverly Brothers
     - Tatanka vs. Rick Martel
     - Nasty Boys vs. Money Inc.

 - The current run of Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair matches end with
   Curt Hennig giving Flair a foreign object, Flair laying out Savage,
   Flair hiding the object under his arm, Flair being awarded the title, 
   Flair raising his arm in victory only to drop the object and the
   referee reversing the decision.  I was a little surprised last night
   while watching a video of Butch Reed vs. Magnum T.A. from 1984
   Mid South, when they did the same finish with Ernie Ladd passing
   Butch the object.  Then again, I guess no finishes are completely
   original these days (except for the infamous evil twin referee
   finish and the fake Sting finish).
     Talking about that 1984 action from Mid South, Jim Cornette was
   priceless.  This was September 1984 (8 years ago!) and Jim Duggan
   was going to go up against Hercules Hernandez in a match where
   if Duggan lost he'd have his head shaved and if Hercules lost 
   Cornette would have his head shaved.  The build up interviews
   were great, with Cornette saying that Hercules couldn't lose
   because that would make Cornette's momma cry, and he never makes
   his momma cry.  Of course, Hercules lost.  The R'N'R Express
   helped catch Cornette and shave his head.  Cornette then did 
   and interview under a hood, crying the whole time, saying
   that he had a list of everyone involved in embarrassing him
   and that he would make them pay the price.  It was great to
   watch.  There were also some interviews with Cornette about
   the Midnight Express going up against Bill Watts & Stagger Lee.
   Cornette kept reminding Watts that "this isn't Bonanza, and
   you aren't on the Ponderosa."  When Watts had his interview
   time, I kept waiting for him to say that the two teams were
   gonna hook 'em up.

 - WCW has a Clash of Champions scheduled for September 2nd on WTBS.
   Matches will included Ron Simmons vs. Cactus Jack for the WCW Title
   and it looks like Bill Watts may get rid of the "no off the top 
   rope moves" rule.

 - Following hot on the heels of last week's addition of 9 videos
   to my collection, I've arranged to receive 36 other videos,
   31 of which will be wrestling from Japan from 1980 to 1987,
   with the other 5 being Calgary Stampede Wrestling from 1987.
   This could round out a nice decade's worth of videos from Japan,
   as the majority of my current collection is from 1988 and later.
   I'll post some details when the videos arrive (two weeks?). 
   It looks like I'm gonna have to figure out a better way to 
   catalogue my collection, too. ;-)

 - A couple of people have asked me about Jushin Riger's career.
   In the 1990 Observer Yearbook, Dave Meltzer wrote an article
   covering Keiichi Yamada's rise to being Jushin Riger.  I'll
   present a summary in the following paragraphs.
     Yamada was the star of his high school wrestling team,
   but only stood 5'3".  He achieved a fair bit of success as
   a high school amateur athlete.  After graduating, he
   went to the New Japan offices and asked about becoming a
   wrestler for the group (which had had great success with 
   it's Jr. Heavyweight division and Dynamite Kid (Yamada's
   idol), in particular).  He was told he was too small.
     Yamada didn't give up.  He had saved enough money to go to
   Mexico, where he figured he wouldn't be too small.  He got
   into a wrestling school in Mexico, but he didn't speak the
   language, wasn't working in the rings yet, and was homesick.
     In June, 1983, New Japan had a taping in Mexico.  Yamada 
   surprised the head of the group by having the dedication to
   go to Mexico and, after giving his amateur credentials, was
   offered a try-out.  Yamada survived the New Japan wrestling
   school and had his pro debut on March 3, 1984, against
   fellow debuting student Naoki Sano.
     Yamada did well in his first year, establishing a following
   despite only being a prelim wrestler.  He worked like his
   idol and was nicknamed "The Japanese Dynamite Kid" by fans.
   His matches were consistently *** right from the start.
     In early 1986, Yamada was still working great matches on
   the undercard.  Japanese promotional philosophy is that you
   can't just repackage a wrestler as a star after having him
   work prelims for so long; they usually send the wrestler on
   tours of other areas and when he returns he can be promoted
   differently.  So, Yamada went to England.  Yamada won the
   World Heavy Middleweight title from the Black Tiger on
   September 26, 1986, losing it back in April, 1987.  Yamada
   then went to Calgary Stampede.
     Yamada stayed in Calgary from April, 1987, through to
   August, 1987.  (Now you see why I'm excited about those
   1987 Calgary tapes I'm getting ;-)).  He worked prelims
   through to main events, and help raise the work levels of
   other Calgary wrestlers of that time: Brian Pillman, Owen
   Hart, and Chris Benoit.  After this stint, he returned to
   New Japan.
     The date was August 19, 1987, and the event was the 
   "Summer Night Fever" Jr. Heavyweight tournament (which
   is also supposed to be one of the tapes I'm getting! ;-)).
   Yamada lost his first round match against Nobuhiko Takada.
   A week later he did his first in-match shooting star press
   when he and Muto faced Owen Hart & Black Tiger.  The 
   shooting star press became his finisher: with his opponent
   laid out facing up in the ring, Yamada would come off the
   top rope facing into the ring, do a pretty slow quarter
   rotation of a backward somersault (so it looked like he
   was going to do a back-splash on his opponent), and then
   do a very quick half rotation just before hitting his
   opponent (so he'd land chest-to-chest on his opponent).
   This move remains unduplicated.
     He spent 1988 challenging for the Jr. Heavyweight Title.
   He faced Hiro Hase, Owen Hart, and Shiro Koshinaka (all of
   whom were title holders).  In the 1988 Observer Yearbook
   fan votings, he was ranked 5th in the world, behind Ric Flair,
   Tatsumi Fujinami, Barry Windham, and Ted DiBiase.
     In the fall of 1988, the Jushin Riger cartoon show debuted
   on TV-Asahi.  Jushin means "God of animals" and Riger is a
   combination of Lion and Tiger (hence, the Americanized version 
   of Liger).  Satoru Sayama had quit the promotion five years
   earlier, and the bigwigs decided that they needed a character
   like that again to attract children.  The Jushin Riger cartoon
   became very popular and the idea of getting a wrestler to play
   the character seemed natural.  
     Yamada was the obvious candidate.  The same promotional
   philosophy held though, and in December of 1988, Yamada left
   to go to Europe, with an announced absence of two years.
   Yamada began designing the Riger costume.  Five months 
   later, on April 29, 1989, Jushin Riger debuted defeating
   Kuniaki Kobayashi in a slightly lackluster match (***)
   in the Tokyo Dome in front of 53000 fans.  Yamada wasn't
   used to carrying around the weight of the costume.  Less
   than a month later, though, he was.
     On May 25, 1989, one month after his debut, he won the IWGP
   Jr. Heavyweight Title from Hiro Hase in a much better match
   (****).  On July 13, 1989, he had his fist defense against
   Naoki Sano (****3/4), ending with a double knock-out finish.
   The rematch was on August 10, 1989, and Riger, working with
   a shoulder brace, put Sano over clean with a slightly tainted
   win (****3/4).  The next rematch was September 20, 1989, with
   Sano pinning a completely healed Riger (****3/4).  They may
   have had other singles matches, but the final one was on
   January 31, 1990, with Riger winning the title back in a
   bloody match, where his mask would be almost completely
   ripped off and the commentator would start calling him "Yamada
   Keiichi" (*****).  This won "Match of the Year" by a substantial
   margin in the 1990 Observer Yearbook.  
     On August 19, 1990, Jushin Riger would put Pegasus Kid
   (Chris Benoit) over cleanly in the ring after Kid did a 
   leg drop from the top rope (****3/4).  By putting over a
   wrestler in a completely clean way, Riger made him into a
   superstar.  It happened with Sano and it happened with Kid.
   Amazingly, Riger lost no appeal and popularity whatsoever
   for doing clean jobs.  Later in the feud, the wrestler would
   put Riger over cleanly to return the favour.  On November 1,
   1990, Riger would regain the title from Pegasus Kid (****1/2)
   (The four Riger vs. Sano matches and both of these Riger vs.
   Pegasus Kid matches are on the video I've put together for the
   group, so many of you will have the chance to see them).
     Riger would go on to lose the title to Norio Honaga, a member
   of New Japan's "Blond Outlaws" heel group.  The fans wouldn't
   buy Honaga as champion, and Riger regained the title on 
   February 2, 1992 (***1/2).  Riger also won and then lost
   the WCW Lightheavyweight Title from and to Brian Pillman,
   defending both his titles in Japan when he held them
   simultaneously.  Riger recently lost the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight
   Title to El Samurai.  Their matches have been fantastic by
   all reports.  New Japan has also brought back Tiger Mask,
   putting a pretty green Koji Kanemoto under the hood.  Once
   he matures, we should see even more spectacular matches involving
   Jushin Riger.  In the mean time, there's always Chris Benoit
   (now wrestling unmasked) and El Samurai.  
 
                                                           Herb... 
Newsgroups: rec.sport.pro-wrestling