IndyMania: My Wrestling Vacation Part 3

Saturday April 6th we slept getting up at seven am to start our day.  It was a gorgeous morning walk to the subway station unlike last yesterday where it rained all day with a high of 43 degrees.  Today was sunshine and clear skies hitting the lower 70's.

We got to the convention hall about 8:30 am just in time for the Ohio Valley Wrestling press conference announcing the Al Snow Wrestling Academy Combine coming this June.

Once again when doors open people were able to file in at a quick pace.  Mikey and Jay headed off to who they needed to see and I found myself only needing to meet Christian, my final presale.  I got him to sign a Japanese card of him and Edge as The Canadian Rockies.  He commented that he didn't see that card often at all.

I went down the the Rhinelader room and saw Magnum TA sitting at his table with no line so I went up to thank him and to tell him how much I love his match with Tully Blanchard from Starrcade 1985 the infamous I Quit steel cage match.  While there I saw he had a stack of what looked like a trading card based on the 1982 - 1983 Wrestling All Stars set, the back of it was blank.  I bought the card and had him sign it.  Check out my post about the card here.

I left the hotel looking for a instant photo machine, which the concierge told me was just down the street.  I headed down the road and it was even nicer outside looking for the Duane Reade pharmacy, which I saw across the street.  Entering the pharmacy I didn't see a photo machine and when I asked the clerk she pointed out the window saying, "We don't have one but the Duane Reade across the street does."  Yup.  So I crossed back over and went in where for $4 I was able to print and 8 x 10 of Faby Apache and I from Friday.  It came out nice.

I headed back to the convention getting my picture signed by Faby and she took another photo with me.  She remembered me and thanked me again for the cards and letter.

I met Jay and Mikey in the grand ballroom for Wrestling Revolver's Pancakes and Piledriver's III with a bell time of eleven am.  Before the show I bought cards from Sawyer Fulton and Dave Crist and got cards signed by Chris Brookes, Adam Brooks, and Sammy Guevara.  I even made Guevara's Vlog in a montage of him signing for fans.

The show started a little late to accommodate the 1200 fans that needed to file into the ballroom.  We had front row once again for this show, in the same section as both shows yesterday, just different seats.

There were nine matches on the card but featured 50 wrestlers on the show!  The best match on the card and the one of the best matches of the weekend was Ricky Shane Page vs. Tessa Blanchard.  It went on second to last and stole the damn show!  I cannot say enough good about this match!

This was my first time seeing RSP in person, I love his entrance and his balance on the top rope is crazy good! You could tell that he led this match and he did a phenomenal job.  The match told a great story and featured Tessa giving RSP a Canadian Destroyer off the top rope!!

They had a Hoss fight and it was cool to see Ace Romero on the show.  Jessicka Havok entered herself and took a wicked beating including a top rope splash from winner Jacob Fatu.  She is one tough lady.

Main event featured Shane Strickland's final match on the indies as he has signed with NXT.  Here is the rest of the card:

April 6, 2019 Wrestling Revolver  Hilton Grand Ballroom, Manhattan, NY
Pancakes and Piledrivers III

Moose Defeated David Starr & Brian Cage
Pro Wrestling Revolver Tag Team Gauntlet:  The Besties in the World: Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett eliminated Aussie Open: Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis; The Rascalz: Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz eliminated The Besties in the World: Lucha Brothers Pentagon Jr & Rey Fenix eliminated The Rascalz; LAX: Santana & Ortiz eliminated Lucha Brothers and Team Tremendous: Dan Barry & Bill Carr defeated LAX winning the Tag Team Championships
JT Dunn defeated AR Fox, Ace Austin, & Sammy Guevara
PWR Open Invitational Scramble Champion: Caleb Konley defeated Clayton Gainz, Daga, Ian Maxwell, Jake Manning, Arik Cannon, John Skylar, Kyle the Beast, Lance Anoa'i, Mance Warner, Try Miguel and Shigehiro Irie to retain the championship
Matt Cross pinned Adam Brooks
Impact X - Division Champion: Rich Swann pinned Chuck Mambo
Jacob Fatu defeated Larry D, Ace Romero, Jessicka Havok, Dan Maff, Fallah Bah, & Madman Fulton pinning Havok after a splash from the top rope
Tessa Blanchard pinned Ricky Shane Page
The Unwanted: Shane Strickland, Joe Gacy, & Eddie Kingston defeated OVE: Sami Callihan, Dave Crist, & Jake Crist

After the show I stopped to tell RSP how awesome his match was.  Mikey and Jay hit the convention to meeting a few more wrestlers before we headed out around three.  Once outside there was a Tartan Parade that featured some really good bagpipe music.

We stopped at Shake Shack one last time and along with my burger we had some of their chicken nuggets which are amazing!  The place was packed to the gills and we were lucky to find a table.

We ended up being able to rest up at the room for about an hour before heading out to Madison Square Garden, the reason this trip was thought of the begin with.  Mikey had never been before so we made sure to stop on the main concourse to show him the WrestleMania I display.

Just before the display the World Arm Wrestling League was setting up a booth and giving out free trading cards of their champion "Monster" Michael Todd who was accepting all challengers...I did not win.

Our seats were in the front row of the balcony and we had a good view, my only complaint is that my legs were a bit cramped.  Also the show itself from dark match to main event almost six hours, so we were sitting in our seats longer.  During the ladder match I had to get up and stretch my legs.  I was able to watch it from the concourse because they have bar seat openings.  For the main event I took my seat again.

The show opened with a women of honor six woman tag team match dark match that will probably be on the DVD release.  The pre-show featured the 30 man Honor Rumble battle royal and was included on the New Japan broadcast.

During the Honor Rumble we got a lot of New Japan talent that weren't on the main card including Jushin Thunder Liger, and Ishii and Suzuki squaring off with some stuff shots to each other.

A surprise entrance in King Haku, and a Delirious who rarely wrestles anymore and typically just on the Ring of Honor shows in Japan and the UK.  The biggest surprise of all was entrant number 30 THE GREAT MUTA!!  I legit lost my shit and am surprised I didn't explode my throat I yelled so loud.

I remember reading more than once over the years that the one thing Muta hasn't done in his career but wanted to was wrestle in Madison Square Garden.  When New Japan first announced the show in July 2018 Muta has just had double knee replacement surgery in May and I thought, I wonder if he'll try to get on the show in a tag match.

In the coming months he was announced to appear at House of Glory, then that he was wrestling in a six man tag, then he was appearing at WrestleCon.  I held on a hope that he just might appear at the Garden.  I don't know why I was so happy about it, but I just wanted Muta to check that box so badly.  We saw a lot of wrestlers make their garden debut on this night but the one that is the most exciting is that we saw the Madison Square Garden debut of The Great Muta.

Here is the entire card:

April 6, 2019 NJPW/ ROH G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden

Dark Match

Odeo Tai: Kagetsu and Hazuki & Jenny Rose defeated Hana Kimura, Sumie Sakai, & Stella Gray

Pre-Show

Honor Rumble: Kenny King won outlasting Minoru Suzuki, Cheeseburger, Beer City Bruiser, Sho, Shingo Takagi, Bushi, Yoh, Shaheem Ali, Rhett Titus, LSG, Ryusuke Tagushi, Will Ferrara, Chase Owens, Rocky Romero, Brian Milonas, Bad Luck Fale, Jonathan Gresham, Tracy Williams, Yoshi Hashi, PJ Black, Jushin Thunder Liger, TK O'Ryan, Vinny Marseglia, Delirious, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, Colt Cabana, Hirooki Goto, King Haku, & The Great Muta

Main Card

ROH World Television Champion: Jeff Cobb pinned NEVER Openweight Champion: Will Ospreay to win the championship
Rush pinned Dalton Castle with The Boys in 15 seconds, post match Dalton turned on The Boys
Kelly Klein defeated Woman of Honor World Champion: Mayu Iwatani to win the championship
New York City Street Fight: Flip Gordon and Lifeblood: Juice Robinson & Mark Haskins defeated Bully Ray, Shane Taylor, & Silas Young
Dragon Lee defeated Bandido and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion: Taiji Ishimori to win the championship
IWGP Heavweight Champions: Guerrillas of Destiny: Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa with Jado defeated ROH World Tag Team Champions: Villian Enterprises: PCO & Brody King, Los Ingobernables de Japon: Sanada & Evil, and The Briscoe Brothers: Mark & Jay to win the championships
British Heavyweight Champion: Zack Sabre Jr with Taka Michinoku submitted Hiroshi Tanahashi
Kota Ibushi pinned IWGP Intercontinental Champion: Tetsuya Naito to win the championship
Ladder Match: Matt Taven defeated Marty Scrull & ROH World Champion: Jay Lethal to win the championship
Kazuchika Okada defeated IWGP Heavyweight Champion: Jay White with Gedo to win the championship for fifth time

The show really felt like it was two different shows in one, Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling.  And the ROH side of the card wasn't very good at all, except the ladder match.  The Woman of Honor title match was bad and the introduction of Angelina Love and Velvet Sky post match was meh.  Enzo and Cas jumping the rail in an apparent worked shoot was ridiculous and if you watch the show they aren't shown or even mentioned.  The street fight was just okay.

The New Japan half of the card was tremendous!  Ibushi vs. Naito was one of the best matches of the weekend.  Okada vs. Jay White was a classic Okada paced match, and we got to see the top two titles in New Japan change hands.

I really think that New Japan needs to distance themselves from Ring of Honor and do their North American expansion on their own.  I definitely think that they can do it on their own.

After the show we grabbed some slices at Bravo's, running it Flip Gordon, and headed back to the room.  I'm so glad that we got to see this historic card at Madison Square Garden, the first wrestling promoter to run a show at the world's most famous arena since 1960 that wasn't a McMahon.

I know Jay & I said this last year, but I really don't need to go back to the Garden anytime soon, unless I want to take my sons someday.  I happy going to indy shows and their intimate settings or going to WWE here in Maine.  I don't feel the need to go to huge arena shows.

The next morning we took the train back to Providence where Amy picked us up.  We stopped on the way back picking up big sandwich fixings and other snacks.  Back at Jay's we watched more of Takeover until the WrestleMania preshow started.  We made big sandwiches, they were excellent!  We took in WrestleMania from his couch and it was perfect.

Jay wasn't feeling well so he went to bed early with Amy, Mikey and I stayed up and watched all of Mania, I dozed off during the main event but caught the finish.  All in all it was a very good WrestleMania card.

Monday morning Mikey and I headed back north, it rained heavily most of the way and once we got back into Maine it turned to snow and the roads got pretty bad to closer to Gardiner that we got.  We stopped on the way home in Mass to get Kate a Jimmy John's and we passed time during the driving recording a podcast about the weekend.  You can download it here: Our Indy Mania Weekend!

I'm going to make one more post that summarizes the week with my favorite moments, matches, and highlights.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page and while you're at it check out my weekly podcast The Wrestling Insomniac on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network. 

Until next time!

DDT Pro Judgment 2018 the 21st Anniversary Show

I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered a couple hours before bell time that DDT Pro Wrestling was live streaming their 21st Anniversary show for free on their DDT Universe streaming service.  I lost my shit when during the match announcements I was reminded that The Great Muta was wrestling his final match on the show.  He had previously wrestled his final match as Keiji Mutoh on Wrestle-1's March 14th.  He is having double knee replacement surgery at the end of the month that will most likely end his in ring career.

I have never watched and entire DDT Pro show before and I can not claim to be familiar with any of the current storylines or even who their main Japanese talents are.  They are known as a promotion that heavily features comedic elements in most all matches, however their roster has featured some of the most athletically gifted wrestlers including Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega.

Some of their most well known viral clips including:

Kenny Omega wresting an 8 year old little girl

The Iron Man Heavymetalweight Championship that Joey Ryan defended 24/7 around the world

This is where Joey Ryan first flipped someone with his dick

Yoshihiko a blow up doll and 10 time Iron Man Heavymetalweight Champion that even defeated Kota Ibushi for a reign

Kota Ibushi has had so many unique and unbelievable matches in DDT Pro, feuding with Yoshihiko, wrestling a matches in the woods or on the street, and just plain bizarre stuff

Lets get to the matches!

Gauntlet Tag Team Match:
Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata defeated Lilico & Makoto Oishi vs. Reika Saiki & Lady Beard vs. Akito & Shunma Katsumata vs. Antonio Honda & Ethan Page vs. Naomi Yoshimura & Keisuke Okuda

This match was tornado style with two teams starting and the next team joining once one was eliminated.  Elimination was by pinfall, submission, or throwing one of your opponents over the top rope and both feet touching the floor. The only person I was familiar with in the match was Ethan Page.  One team was a girl and guy, Reika Saiki & Lady Beard, both dressed as J-Pop singers and they did a song and dance number before entering the ring that was actually pretty entertaining and catchy.

Lady Beard - photo courtesy of @puroresueikaiwa

The match itself varied from over the top comedy at the beginning to serious wrestling at the end.  Nothing really stood out to me in the match and I'd rate it as fair.  Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata last eliminated LiLiCo & Makoto Oishi when Hirata pinned LiLiCo

Colt Cabana defeated Joey Ryan

The premise of this match was Joey trying to get Colt to grab his dick or forcing blow pops in Colt's mouth.  In the end Colt forced Joey to grab his own dick with his left hand and using his right forced Joey to flip himself leading to the Billy Goat's Curse submission.

Colt Cabana & Joey Ryan - photo courtesy of @puroresueikaiwa

Tokyo Joshi Pro Six Woman Tag
Saki-sama, Yoshiko-sama, & Azusa Christie defeated Miyu Yamashita, Maki Ito, & Mizuki

The stream cut out at the beginning of the match so I only got to see the last few minutes.  From what I saw although there was some comedic elements that match was more akin to the hard hitting joshi style match where these girls let it all hang out and beat the crap out of each other.  What I saw was excellent.  Saki-sama pinned Mizuki

Iron Man Heavymetalweight Champion: Super Sasadango Machine pinned Jiro Kuroshio

Super Sasadango Machine gave some sort of power point presentation after is introduction that went several minutes that I think outlines his plan for winning his match tonight which included a comically large iron leg trap and handing out fans to the crowd that featured his opponent so when he walked over to their section he would get caught in the trap.

When Jiro came out he spent several minutes dancing around the building narrowly missing the giant trap twice and then landing directly on it when he made his rolling dive into the ring.  After a few minutes of action Jiro had Sasadango pinned and after a count of two music kicked on and everyone seemed to freeze, then the lights dimmed and a video came on the big screen.  I have no friggin clue what is going on.  They then wrestled in slow motion while the music and video continued.  Jiro cut an impassioned promo while someone placed a large golden trap on Sasadango's prone body, the music cut out, Jiro moonsaulted onto the trap and was then promptly pinned with a school boy for Sasadango to retain.  Yup

Kota Umeda, Yuki Ueno, & Koji Takeda defeated KO-D Six Man Tag Team Champions: KUDO, Yukio Sakaguchi, & Masahiro Takanashi to win the championships 

This match was fantastic.  Very serious, hard hitting, fast paced with some hard hitting action.  This match exemplifies the fact that even when the commentary is in another language if the match is good you can follow along, enjoy, and appreciate it.  Yukio Sakaguchi took the fall costing his team the titles.

Your NEW KO-D Six Man Tag Team Champions - photo courtesy of @puroresueikaiwa

Weapon Rumble 5 Way Tag Loser Gets Anal Blast Match
"Speed Ball" Mike Bailey & MAO defeated Sanshiro Takagi & Ippanjin Munenori Sawa vs. Yuko Miyamoto & Soma Takao vs. Isami Kodaka & Fuminori Abe vs. Michael Nakazawa & Chinsuke Nakamura

Chinsuke dresses like, has his hair cut like, and acts like Shinsuke Nakamura complete with violin styled music that a black guy came out pretending to play a violin during his entrance.  So the match starts and we got a 8 man head scissors with a 9th guy putting the first guy in a boston crab that forced everyone to roll over.  We got an eight man overhead suplex.  In between the comedy spots we did get some good high flying wrestling.  The finish came when Mike Bailey dropped the double knees on Michael Nakazawa and MAO landed a 450 splash for the pin.  Nakazawa was supposed to take the Anal Blast but ran to the back.

Then I think everyone and the referee played some elaborate game of not it.  The last guy, Sanshiro Takagi then "took one for the team" I guess, he removed his boots, knee pads, and trunks as he walked down the walkway laying down with his ass exposed near the entrance while a knock off instrumental version of "we can be heroes" played.  At the last moment he couldn't do it, so Munenori Sawa laid on top of him with his ass exposed and lacing their fingers together then pressed the red button setting off an explosion that apparently anal blasted them.

Every minute a new weapon or competitors come to the ring.

Weapons: metal wash tub, surf board, locker style metal cabinet, cardboard and paper mache steamroller, giant barbed wire board, it took up a third of the ring! a ten foot ladder,

Competitors: Cross dressed trio, a trio of monks that brought a dead wrestler back to life, two guys in black body suits with plastic bats that hit everyone in the ass, a guy on a pedal bike that rode around the ring clotheslining people, another guy in a black body suit with a plastic bat and he took struck everyone in the ass because they lined up for him.  Each of these people would leave right after they did their gimmick.

The big take away for me in this match was that Speed Ball and MAO are a great tag team and I would like to see them in some serious matches.

Dramatic Dream Match
The Great Muta, Daisuke Sasaki, & Tetsuya Endo defeated Danshoku Dino, Keisuke Ishii, & Ken Ohka when Great Muta pinned Ishiii

I marked out big time for Muta's entrance and his awesome costume.  Muta always moved oddly in the ring, but you could tell that his knees are giving him trouble.  Whenever Danshoku Dino was in the ring it was all sexual comedy spots, that's his gimmick, but when he wasn't it was a very good match.  We saw green and red mist in this match.  The finish came when Muta gave Ishii his patented fast backbreaker and landed one last moonsault for the three count.

The Great Muta's final entranace - photo courtesy of @puroresueikaiwa

At fifty five I truly believe that this will be his final match and I'm ecstatic that I got to see it.  When he was walking to the back with the classic Muta music playing I couldn't help but get a little emotional.

I later read in post match comments Danshoku Dino challenged Muta to a singles match.

The Great Muta - photo courtesy of @puroresueikaiwa

Daisuke Sekimoto & Kazusada Higuchi defeated KO-D Tag Team Champions: HARASHIMA & Naomichi Marufuji to win the championships 

Work interfered with me paying close attention to this match.  From what I saw it was a strong style heavy striking tag team affair .  From what I could gather the story was watch how hard we can hit each other and he who hits the hardest wins.  I enjoyed the match though.

KO-D Openweight Champion: Konosuke Takeshita pinned Shuji Ishikawa

At 42 Ishikawa is a serious contender even though he is 20 years older than the champion Takeshita. He is a four time KO-D Openweight champion, former AJPW Triple Crown Champion, and his back shows the scars from his wars in Big Japan.

Konosuke Takeshita - photo courtesy of @puroresueikaiwa

This was an excellent match, hard hitting, good story of the veteran putting over the younger guy but making him work hard for it.  Takeshita got the pin with a straight jacket german suplex.

Match of the night for me is a toss up between the The Six Man Tag and Takeshita vs. Ishikawa.

Michelle @puroresueikaiwa on twitter resides in Japan and graciously allowed me to use some of the photos she took at the event.  You can see more photos including a video of Great Muta's final moonsault on her twitter and be sure to check out her blog as well it is in both Japanese and English - http://ameblo.jp/catbearmouse

Again this is my first complete DDT Pro show and even though I was completely confused a couple times I must say overall I was thoroughly entertained.  

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page and while you're at it check out my weekly podcast Podcast of 1,000 Holds on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network. 

Later Readers!

Starrcade 1990 & the Pat O'Connor International Tag Team Tournament

 I'm watching Starrcade 1990 and it features the Pat O'Connor International Tag Team Tournament.  I remember watching this back after it came out on home video as my Dad rented all the wrestling home videos for me back then and being surprised at all the wrestlers that I've never heard of before that were in it.

Starting with 1990 WCW was never been shy of having a major card, either a Pay Per View or Clash of the Champions, and either bringing in non-roster wrestlers for a one shot, or debuting a wrestler rather than highlight their full time roster talent.  Starrcade was the first time they did it on such a grand scale. 

The United States was represented by the Steiner Brothers and need not to be talked about, others in the tournament I'm familiar with now but at the time, except for The Great Muta I wasn't.  Here are the teams and what I found out about them:

South Africa: Sgt Krueger & Col. DeKlerk
Sgt Kreuger better known as Ray Apollo who also portrayed Doink the Clown in the WWE.  Real name Ray Liccachell, Apollo wrestled as enhancement Talent in the WWE for many years before he was asked to become Doink the Clown after Matt Borne was released.  Apollo was paired with Tiger Jackson as Dink and had a nice run in the WWE has a fan favorite. 

Col DeKlerk was none other than "Flyboy" Rocco Rock, Ted Petty.  At the time of the tournament Ted Petty has been wrestling for 12 years and had yet make an impact in the United States.  Three years later he would be teamed with Johnny Grunge to form the Public Enemy where they would go one to be ECW & WCW World Tag Team Champions.

At Clash of the Champions XIII on November 20, 1990 Sgt. Krueger & Col. DeKlerk defeated Kalua & the Botswana Beast to advance to the Pat O'Connor International Tag Team Tournament to represent South Africa.  This is the only official qualifying match that I could find for this tournament.  It was noted in the team bios on the PPV that all the teams qualified for this tournament.

Great Britain: Norman Smiley & Chris Adams
Norman Smiley debuted in 1985 wrestling in the Florida Independents, Japan, & Mexico's CMLL before he debuted in WCW in 1997.  However back in 1990 he had this one match at Starrcade teaming with Chris Adams.  I find it odd that it took him seven years to return.

Chris Adams was well known as a headliner in World Class Championship Wrestling having major feuds with just about everyone during the hey day of World Class.  After WCCW closed down Adams has this one match in WCW where he received quite the pop upon his introduction.  Adams is also now well known for training Steve Austin and their initial feud in World Class and the USWA.  Adams would return to WCW in 1997 for a two year run where he was used primarily as a jobber.  This match would be his only WCW Pay Per View appearance. 

Mexico: Konnan & Rey Misterio
Konnan debuted in 1987 wrestling in Mexico for CMLL and later AAA.  He made his US television debut teaming with his trainer in this tournament.  He also wrestled a couple house shows for leading up to this PPV.  Konnan would reach phenomenal heights in Mexico before returning to WCW in 1996.

Rey Misterio debuted in 1976 in Mexico becoming a major star.  He began training wrestlers in 1987 training some of the greatest names in Lucha Libre including his nephew Rey Mysterio Jr.  This event was his major American debut and his only matches in WCW.  He still competes as a headliner in Mexico.

USSR: Victor Zangiev & Salman Hashimikov
Victor Zangiev is a well established amateur wrestler winning several tournaments and cups before leaving amateur wrestling in 1988.  Zangiev debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1989 after training with Antonio Inoki.  He also competed in the UWFI in 1994.  This event would be his only known matches in the United States.  It should be noted that he was ranked #71 in the 1991 PWI 500.

Salman Hashimikov

Salman Hashimikov is also an established amateur wrestler winning the gold medal at the World Championships in freestyle wrestling from 1979 - 1983.  In 1989 he moved to Japan and trained with Antonio Inoki for New Japan Pro Wrestling later wrestling for UWFI before retiring in 1994.  This event was his only North American wrestling appearance.  On May 25, 1989 Hashimikov defeated Big Van Vader to capture the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.  RIGHT!  He would hold the title for 48 days before losing it to Riki Choshu.  I'm actually quite surprised the neither Jim Ross nor Paul Heyman mentioned that he was a former IWGP Champion, instead just discussing his amateur credentials.  

Canada: Troy Montour & Danny Johnson
Try as I might I can't find much on either of these two.  Johnson was apparently a second generation wrestler and was featured a lot in the Hamilton, Ontario, Canada area. He is apparently in the Slam! Canadian Wrestling Hall of Fame. He died in 2003 from liver problems.  I can't find even less on Troy Montour, he may have been a full blooded Native Canadian Indian other than this event I've got nothing on him wrestling anywhere.  Considering the number of fantastic wrestlers that are from Canada I'm also surprised that these two are who they went with. 

Japan: Mr. Saito & The Great Muta
Mr. Saito was not unknown the United States wrestling fans as he held the WWF Tag Team Championship with Mr. Fuji.  He was later involved in a major public incident that resulted in his arrest.  Mr. Saito would later capture the AWA World Heavyweight Championship.  This event and Starrcade 1995 marked Saito's only appearances in WCW.

The Great Muta, if you don't know who The Great Muta is then you are sadly missing out.

New Zealand:  The Royal Family: Rip Morgan & Jacko Victory
Morgan and Victory were actually very well known to the fans of WCW at this time and regularly competed there through out the year.  Rip Morgan wrestled primarily in New Zealand but did have a two year run in WCW.  He is currently still promoting wrestling in New Zealand.  Jack Victory is probably best know for his time in Extreme Championship Wrestling. 


I hope you found this as interesting as I did!

Later Readers!