Quebrada

by Mike Lorefice (M.L.Liger@juno.com)

Novermber 2, 1996

There have been some new developments in Mexico regarding the split between Konnan and Antonio Pena. Last week I mentioned that there would be two tv shows. One show will be traditional Lucha and the other Extreme Lucha. PROMELL will keep its name and that will be the traditional show. Mascara Ano 2000 is now president of PROMELL. Top draw Cien Caras has joined PROMELL to reform Los Hermanos Dinamitas with his brothers Mascara Ano 2000 and Universo 2000. Konnan's group will be Promo Azteca and they will have the Extreme show. This basically means that TV-Azteca will be running two separate wrestling companies with separate tv shows and different styles and identities. This will probably lead to a promotional feud later on, but right now I don't think one group will use many of the other groups wrestlers.

Promo Azteca's talent roster includes all the former AAA wrestlers that work WCW plus Vampiro. The also got Robin Hood, Frisbee, Halloween (now in WCW), Damian (now in WCW), and Mini Frisbee (will now be Metro Konnan). WCW wrestlers may be used as foreign talent. I haven't heard any more about Perro Aguayo leaving AAA, not that his leaving made any sense to me in the first place. Tinieblas Jr., whom I thought would jump, decided to stay with AAA because his pay was doubled from $140 per match to $280 per match. As low as that sounds, $280 per match is huge pay by Mexican standards and puts him above most of country's top stars. You can see why a WCW contract seems like winning the lottery. Pierroth Jr., AAA's top heel, is expected to leave for Promo. AAA didn't tell him about their strategy meeting on how to deal with what was happening and when he found out and showed up the meeting was canceled because they were afraid he would leak the information to Konnan.

Some more reasons cited for the split by Konnan were the prominence of AAA heel ref Tirantes. Konnan didn't like his gimmick (slow counts for faces & fast counts for heels and missing key infractions by the heels such as fouls), nor the fact that he is the focal point of several matches, which takes away from the performers and makes him a bigger star than many of them. Konnan didn't like the announcing because instead of calling the matches they make jokes and try to get themselves over (wonder what he thinks of the job WCW does, particularly with Juventud and Calo). The press clapped when he cut up the announcing. It's nice that someone in North America other than ECW cares about announcing and realizes that it is the key to getting wrestlers over, which should lead to making money. Aside from the original Sagrada's comments about Pena and Aguilla de Acero's (Sagrada Jr.) sexual preferences, he also claimed the wrestlers don't see any money from tv or commercial video (AAA doesn't do commercial tapes, but he was talking about a Japanese company video taping a show for Japan release only). Sagrada said 2% of AAA wrestlers earnings go to a retirement and injury fund union that doesn't even exist. This was all on National tv and covered by the nightly news and print media in Mexico.

Juventud Guerrera went on tv and spray painted his AAA title belt. Then he called Antonio Pena a fag and threw the AAA belt in the trash. This sounds like WCW's NWO spray painting angle combined with the Madusa jump. To my knowledge this has never happened in Mexico, so it would be a real shock.

If you have any interest in legitimate fighting, you should check out Pancrase's Tokyo Tough PPV on November 3rd or 6th. In my opinion Pancrase has the most talented group of fighters. Due to the high talent level and their familiarity with each other (basically all the natives train with Masakatsu Funaki and all the foreigners trained with now departed Ken Shamrock) it was becoming nearly impossible to get a submission and most of the matches were draws. They made some rule changes that started on this show, such as standing the fighters up when there was a stalemate or no action. This resulted in a lot more strikes, which leads to more victories by knock out. The new style is more like muay thai with submissions. While I would rather see a strategic technical match, that style has less overall appeal because most people haven't been educated to it. This show was said to have been far more exciting and brutal than any Pancrase show to date. It has also been billed by some as the greatest Pancrase show to date. Yuki Kondo vs. Frank Shamrock and Bas Rutten vs. Masakatsu Funaki are supposed to be incredible matches. Both were mainly stand up fights with a lot of high impact blows. I look forward to seeing them for myself.

Supposedly IWA Japan is not going out of business. They have shut operations down, but supposedly will start running cards in early 1997. This is good news, but the shutdown may cause their remaining fans to switch to another garbage wrestling promotion like Big Japan or Tokyo Pro Wrestling.

All Japan's Real World Tag League tournament starts on 11/16. The tournament is being run differently this year. They have cut the number of teams down to 7 and teams will meet each other twice instead of once. Having each team fight each other twice is good for the fans in the smaller Japanese cities because they will get the same big matches as the big arenas. Other than that, I can't see this as a good move because it is obvious what will happen, splits. The top teams will most likely beat the bottom feed and split with each other. The fans have already caught on to the split idea when it comes to the big interpromotional matches featuring guys like Takada and Tenryu. In the interpromotional dream matches the first match was highly anticipated because you had two big stars whom in many cases hadn't fought each other before. On the other hand, the rematch had less overall interest and did worse at the box office because you knew the wrestler who won was going to return the favor by doing the job. Another reason this tournament doesn't look that great is the teams themselves. You have three potential winners in Steve Williams and Johnny Ace, Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama, and Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue. The other four teams, Kenta Kobashi & Patriot, Stan Hansen & Takao Omori, Jun (formerly Ryukaku) Izumida & Giant Kimala II, & Gary Albright & Sabu, don't have much chance. Kobashi & Patriot will most likely come in fourth, with Patriot doing most if not all of the jobs. Hansen was once a great wrestler, but he is so far past his prime now. Since Hansen is a legend he will be protected and Takao Omori will be doing jobs like he did in the 1995 Champion Carnival Tournament (he was winless). Izumida & Kimala II have been getting a push recently, but neither is that good and they aren't legitimate stars. Albright and Sabu could be an interesting team. Albright is heavily pushed, so I doubt he will do too many jobs. On the other hand, Sabu is liable to walk out on the company if they job him too much. Sabu's contract is only for one tour though, so if he starts making a bunch of demands he won't be back. Sabu will not fit in with this group at all. His weaknesses, such as being devoid of any mat skills were all too apparent during his New Japan stint and he was working with super workers like Kanemoto & Guerrero there. Not to say that All Japan doesn't have super workers, but considering he was allowed to use his props in New Japan ( I doubt you will see him breaking tables in traditional All Japan) and the New Japan style is more like what he is used to working, it seems inevitable that he will be exposed once again. Maybe Sabu can learn psychology and how to build a match, but don't expect it right away. This tournament will produce some great matches, but there aren't enough contenders and the talent of the non- contenders isn't Furnas and Kroffat quality.

Michinoku Pro's annual "Michinoku Futaritabi" tag team tournament began on October 30. This tournament looks a lot more intriguing because every team has at least one of the groups top stars. The six teams are Great Sasuke & Kato Kung Lee (1995 winners), Super Delfin & El Hijo Del Santo, Dick Togo & Shiryu, Taka Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki, Gran Hamada & Naohiro Hoshikawa, and Tiger Mask & Gran Naniwa (last year Naniwa & Delfin were runners up). The only real weak link is Kung Lee because he is well past his prime. This should be a very exciting tournament with lots of great high spots because everyone in it can fly. I expect this to be booked like a New Japan tournament (parity and even booking throughout). Super Delfin & El Hijo Del Santo are probably the favorites and they have already defeated Sasuke & Lee. I don't know the status of Santo's contract with the group, but even if he is only in for one tour I doubt his team will do worse than the finals.

The year is coming to a close, which means it's about time to start filling out your awards ballot. I thought it would be interesting to review one of the top foreign matches each week, so even if you haven't seen them and don't vote for them at least you will have a better idea of why they are great and on the list. I'm not going to list every move, just the highlights and important parts of the match.

Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. Shinjiro Otani 3/17/96 (aired 3/30) Amagasaki, Japan. Liger was defending his IWGP Jr. Title (which he has since lost). This match started off slow. Otani worked on Liger's arm to set up moves for later in the match. Liger hit two consecutive kneecap dropkicks. Otani stomped Liger's arm. Basically the story early on was when Otani was on offense he would use moves and/or submissions that focused on Liger's arm, while Liger would work on Otani's knee. They interspersed some high spots between the submissions, which is one thing that they do so well in Japan and so poorly in America. There are many matches in America where they do all the mat work and submissions in one bunch and then go to high spots, which makes the mat work boring because it lasts too long and there is no chance of submission. That was not the case here. Liger used a brainbuster. They did stiff slaps back and forth. From this point on the match turned into a really hot match with awesome moves, crisply executed spots, great transitions, and great heat. Otani used two jump spinning heel kicks on Liger and as soon as Liger fell Otani slapped on the cross armbreaker. Liger whipped Otani into the turnbuckle and used his Koppo kick (rolling heel kick). In an awesome sequence, Liger whipped Otani into the corner, but Otani did his famous spot where he rolls over the corner landing on his feet on the ring apron(basically Flair's flip bump done a lot quicker and without taking the impact of hitting the turnbuckle), Liger was charging the corner and right after Otani landed on the apron he dropkicked him which sent him to the floor, Liger ran across the ropes and it looked like he was going to do a tope but he did a nice handstand fake, then he went for a plancha but Otani moved out of the way, Otani got in the ring and did a springboard plancha (announcers called this a swandive body attack). This was truly a great sequence particularly because the timing was excellent. When Liger got back into the ring Otani used his springboard leg lariat (a.k.a. springboard spin kick). Otani attempted a German suplex, but Liger countered with a go- behind and hit an awesome Doug Furnas like belly to back suplex with an overhead flip. As soon as Otani got up Liger gave him the Koppo kick. Liger set Otani up with a side breaker and used a splash off the top rope for a near fall. Liger used the new version of his Liger bomb finisher where he holds the opponent at a high angle (like Benoit's powerbomb) and jumps for a near fall. The crowd really popped when Otani kicked out of the great Liger bomb. Aside from being a tremendous worker, Otani has awesome charisma and really pumps the crowd up during his matches. Liger tried the Liger bomb again, but this time Otani countered it with a huracanrana for a near fall. Otani hit a jump spinning heel kick off the ropes and then used the Frankensteiner off the top (which is one of Liger's famous finishers) for a near fall. In a great spot Otani hit a springboard dropkick and with a super fast transition put Liger in the cross armbreaker. Even though I don't speak Japanese, I could understand the announcers going wild yelling "Gracie, Gracie" to get the move over. This is a legitimate finishing move in Japan (finisher of Takada who is the number 1 fake shooter in the country) and the combination of the hot crowd and the excited announcers really gets the move over on tv. Liger got out of it though by grabbing the ropes. Otani then went for a pumphandle, but Liger got his arm loose and got him in a sleeper. This was a new spot to me and it was really good because of the speed the counter was done at. Liger did a drop toe hold and then before you could blink used La Magistral, but Otani kicked out. Liger used his fisherman buster (cradle suplex set up into a brain buster) for a 2 3/4 count. Liger tried to fisherman buster Otani off the top rope, but Otani knocked him off then dropkicked him off the top. Otani used his dragon suplex on Liger, but let go of the pin at the 1 count. Otani dragon suplexed him again and it looked like he might have won, but Liger had his foot on the ropes. Otani went for a third dragon suplex, but Liger got a rope escape. Otani tried yet another dragon suplex, but Liger countered with a back elbow and ran off the ropes. Otani ducked Liger's attempted clothesline and kept running off the ropes, on the way back Liger caught him in the chin with a palm blow for the pinfall. ****3/4