Clash of the Champions #28
Date: August 28, 1994
Location: Five Seasons Center, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Attendance: 4,200
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan

We continue our march through the final Clashes with the final one I have to go chronologically. The main event here is what else: Hogan vs. Flair for the title. Hogan had come in back during the summer and everything they had going had been thrown out for the sake of pushing Hogan (and his friends soon after) to the freaking moon. Also for no apparent reason, Antonio Inoki is on the card here. Let’s get to it.

We open with a video from Bash at the Beach where Hogan won the title in his first match. Heenan: “Tell me it’s a nightmare!”

The opening video is all Hogan vs. Flair and it’s one of those weird remixes where they say a word like five times in a row before continuing the sentence. Flair has a surprise tonight.

Austin and Steamboat are arguing in the back. Call the Hotline to see why! I’m not kidding: that’s what they say.

Here’s the National Anthem. The guy gets the words wrong. He’s a country singer because that’s all WCW knows about.

Nasty Boys vs. Pretty Wonderful

Pretty Wonderful are tag champions and Orndorff/Roma. This is non-title though. This is a grudge match as a result of a big brawl where Pretty Wonderful hit Knobbs with a crutch. Pretty Wonderful stalls and the fans like the Nasties a lot better. Tony says a lot of big stars aren’t here tonight for some reason. Gee that makes me want to watch more of this show. Brian and Paul start but it’s off to Sags quickly.

Roma tries a top rope cross body but is easily caught in a slam. They be clubberin Tony! Out to the floor and Orndorff chokes away a bit on Jerry to take over. Tony goes into a big thing about how WCW listens to the fans and Heenan says wrestling is cool again because WCW is number one. Yeah when I see Paul Orndorff and Paul Roma as tag team champions in 1994 and hear about the debuting Honky Tonk Man, I think it’s cool.

Sags is knocked to the floor and holds his eye for awhile. I guess this show is so cool it burns his retinas. Orndorff hooks a chinlock and this match sucks. Knobbs tries to come in without a tag and the champs double team. Orndorff calls for a piledriver but Sags is too fat. Off to Knobbs and everything breaks down. Roma hits a top rope splash on Knobbs and Sags hits a top rope elbow on Orndorff and the Nasties (with the illegal man getting the pin) win.

Rating: D-. Pretty Wonderful was just AWFUL so they kept the titles for about half of the year. The Nasties were just kind of there until we got to a better team really late in the year in the form of Harlem Heat thank goodness. The match was junk, but did you really expect anything else?

Hulk says to call Hulk’s Hotline.

Here’s Hogan but a guy pops up behind him with a pipe and hits him in the knee before anything is said. Hogan uses the Mr. Nanny acting skills to say his knee is really hurt. It takes awhile to get him out. Eric is there too and we hear that he’s Executive VP. I didn’t know they had revealed that this early.

US Title: Ricky Steamboat vs. Steve Austin

Austin is champion and he already beat Steamboat via some circumstances (Austin got DQ’d, Steamboat insisted they keep going, Austin pinned him) at Bash at the Beach so this is the second match. We go split screen to see Hogan leave in the ambulance. Ricky takes him to the mat quickly and Austin complains of a hair pull. That brings a smile to my face due to the future.

Austin has Dragon Slayer on his tights. If Austin gets disqualified, he loses the title. We stop commentary on the match while a stage manager gives Heenan a live report of what happened to Hogan. We’ll ignore the fact that everyone could see it and point out that WE CAN’T HEAR HIM! He’s whispering in Bobby’s ear (and I know because the camera went off the match to look at him doing so), making this totally pointless.

They chop it out and Steamboat takes over. He grabs the arm as Heenan rants about how he wouldn’t care if Hogan can ever wrestle again. We get a SWEET pinfall reversal sequence and Ricky grabs the arm once again. We finally see this loudmouthed fan that the announcers have been complaining about all night. It’s Barry “Smash” Darsow as the new character the Blacktop Bully. He was a truck driver and a bully. And people wonder why this company was always struggling.

Tony says Austin has held the title since December of 1983, or about 11 years at this point. It’s more like 9 months and December of 93 but you can’t expect him to be able to tell time or complicated things like that. After a quick chase on the floor, Steamboat hooks a sleeper but Austin kind of drops down and drives Steamboat’s chin into his shoulder. I’d jot that down if I was him.

We hear that Sting who was in Chicago, has chartered a plane and is on his way here and will wrestle in Hogan’s place if need be. Ricky stays on the arm and hits a top rope chop. Back to the Bully shouting as Austin apparently counters with something. We didn’t get to see it but why would we need to do that? They fight from their knees and Austin grabs a chinlock.

They chop it out again and Steamboat hits a double to take over. They chop it out for the third or fourth time and Austin hits a suplex. A second is blocked and Steamboat puts him on the ropes. The cameras glitch so we get a random shot of the entrance. Austin knocks him back to the mat but gets crotched. Ricky loads up a superplex but Austin hits a release forward suplex.

He comes off the top but gets caught and Steamboat makes his comeback. I’m not sure how much of a comeback it can be after such a short time on defense but whatever. Top rope crossbody gets canvas and here’s more Blacktop Bully. Steamboat Hulks Up and hammers away. A spinebuster gets two. Austin goes up but gets caught in an electric chair drop for another two.

This is getting really good. A few pinning combinations get two for Steamboat. Austin dumps him over but Steamboat holds the rope. If he had hit the floor it would have been a title change. Austin goes to slam him BUT YOU CAN’T SLAM RICKY STEAMBOAT!!! Ricky gets his small package and the US Title.

Rating: B. Very good match here which is even more impressive when you consider Steamboat destroyed his back in this match and had to retire before he defended the title. Austin was supposed to get a rematch at Fall Brawl but since Steamboat was hurt, Austin was awarded the title and Jim freaking Duggan of all people took the title from him in about 45 seconds. But Hogan never did anything bad for WCW and it was just a coincidence that a washed up guy like Duggan got the US Title over someone young and talented like Austin and that Duggan just happened to be a friend of Duggan right?

Eric doesn’t know anything at the hospital but Hogan said it felt like something tore. Heenan couldn’t be happier.

Here’s a music video for a guy arriving soon: the Honky Tonk Man. It would be guys like him and Duggan and Orndorff that were pushed instead of guys like Austin and Foley and Pillman and others like that. This song couldn’t be more of a ripoff of his old song if they tried. WWF song lyrics: “I pick a mean guitar, I wear the blue suede shoes, you ought to hear me sing the snakeskin blues.” WCW song lyrics: “I play a mean guitar, I play the rhythm and blues, you better not step on Honky’s blue suede shoes.” The music sounds almost EXACTLY the same too. Jimmy Hart wrote both too.

Nick Bockwinkle says Hogan will have to forfeit the title if he’s not here later.

We recap the Rhodes Family vs. the Stud Stable. The idea here is that Dustin has feuded with Colonel Parker’s stable forever and needs a partner. For some reason that no one has ever come up with a reason for other than Dustin is an idiot, he asked Arn Anderson. You know, the guy who is most famous for BREAKING DUSTIN’S DADDY’S LEG. As anybody with enough common sense to say that putting your face in a fire is a bad idea, Anderson turned on him and joined Parker after about 5 minutes.

So one night Dustin was talking about needing a partner and Dusty came out. They had a strained relationship because Dusty was never around because he was off being a famous wrestling cowboy. Dusty uses the same line of Dustin offering up his innocence and being paid back in scorn that he used when Sapphire turned on him. I don’t really know what it means but I don’t know what Dusty means most of the time. Dusty offered to be Dustin’s partner and Dustin hugged him to say yes. I’ll give Dusty this: the man could talk like few others ever could.

Dusty Rhodes/Dustin Rhodes vs. Bunkhouse Buck/Terry Funk

It’s a brawl to start of course and Funk brings in a chair. The younger guys, Dustin and Buck, start us off which is probably a good thing. Off to Funk who is quickly knocked to the floor. Off to Dusty who gets a big reaction. An elbow puts Buck down and Funk wants in. Back to Dustin and everything breaks down. Some heel miscommuncation puts the heels down but Dustin is knocked the to the floor. Here’s Anderson and Dusty is in trouble. That doesn’t last long as Dustin comes back in and hits clotheslines for everyone. Bulldog takes Buck down and Arn runs in for the DQ.

Rating: D+. Pretty boring match here but this was more about setting up WarGames. Yes, THIS was what they used for WarGames. Not Flair and company vs. Hogan and company. Hogan didn’t even wrestle at the show. Dusty was there for nostalgia purposes and that’s about it. Nothing to see here and it was a really boring feud all around.

Post match Dusty cleans house but Parker’s bodyguard Meng comes in. Dusty thinks about hitting him then thinks about an elbow but then says wait a minute. He goes outside and gets a wooden chair which he breaks over Meng’s head. Meng doesn’t move and hooks a nerve hold as the Stud Stable leaves the Rhodes boys laying.

We go back to the hospital and Hogan’s lawyer has advised him to relinquish the title. He’ll get the first title shot in exchange. Hogan won’t listen of course so apparently he’ll try to wrestle. Hart and Brutus come up and say Hogan is going to do what he wants.

Flair does one of his usual ranting and screaming promos about how he wants the title handed to him by Hogan. Flair had been doing really well as the face champion but Hogan was here so they turned him into a psycho heel which made him look like an idiot, because Hogan can’t lose right?

Hogan is on his way back here. Oh joy. Heenan PANICS.

Steven Regal vs. Antonio Inoki

This is based on the idea that Inoki is having his Final Countdown retirement tour and got a plaque in WCW. Regal protested so here’s a match. I don’t think anyone really got the point of this. Inoki fires off kicks as Tony butchers the name of Rikidozan. They go to the corner and I don’t think anyone knows who Inoki is. This is a very technical/foreign style match which means it means nothing to most American fans.

Regal hits a headbutt and they go to the mat with Regal dominating. Inoki heads to the floor and Regal won’t let him back in. This is really not working at all. The fans are quiet so Tony plugs Fall Brawl a bit. Inoki grabs the arm and Hogan is back at the arena. They go to the mat for a leg lock and I really can’t tell who is in control. Bockwinkle comes out and Inoki uses a blatant choke to take over. Regal kicks away and the announcers are talking about Hogan. This has been about 90% strikes. Butterfly suplex gets two for Regal. Inoki throws on another choke and Regal is out as Heenan freaks again.

Rating: F. This isn’t wrestling. I don’t know why it happened or why Regal, the TV Champion, was choked out this fast. This didn’t work at all and no one knew who Inoki was. “But KB he’s a legend and you have to respect him.” Or I could watch people have entertaining matches and have a point to being here. Just a thought.

WCW World Title: Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair

Flair says give me my title. Hogan takes awhile to get there and then charges right at Flair. Now before I get into this, remember that Hogan allegedly has a severe knee injury and is fighting RIC FLAIR. Hogan takes him down and shrugs off a chop. The shirt is shoved down Flair’s throat and Hogan bites the forehead. Heenan advises Flair to go for the knee so they go to the floor where Flair chops him.

Hogan is limping a bit but other than that looks fine. Back in the ring and Hogan keeps beating on him with what appears to be the robe. Flair pokes him in the eye, snapmares him down….and goes up. Like I said, Flair was made to look like an idiot at this point. Flair is knocked to the floor again as this is a total squash so far. Up the aisle now and Flair gets beaten down some more.

The champ misses a chair shot and Flair hits some knees to the back (instead of the knee) and suplexes Hogan. Hulk is up first and drops elbows to keep momentum going. Flair Flip in the corner and he gets clotheslined to the floor. A fan tries to hit Flair with a cane. This match runs about 15 minutes. Seventeen and a half minutes in, FLAIR HITS HIM IN THE KNEE!!!

An early Figure Four attempt is countered and Flair hits a chop block. To the floor for the fifth time in about 8 minutes and there go the bandages. There’s the Figure Four (wrong leg, even Tony points this out) and after about 55 seconds, Hogan grabs Flair’s leg and shoves it off of his own. He Hulks Up and hits the big boot and legdrop but his knee gives out. Another Figure Four goes on and Hogan Hulks Up again and makes the ropes. He rolls into the ropes and Sherri, Flair’s manager, hits him with a shoe. Hulk falls to the floor and loses via countout.

Rating: F. No. No. No. NO. Flair looked like an IDIOT here and for what? To show that Hogan can’t feel pain in his knee? This was ridiculous and was nothing more than a sign of things to come. Hogan wouldn’t lose the title for over a year and Flair would look stupider and stupider every time they fought. Just pathetic.

The Masked Man comes out and they double team the knee. Another Figure Four goes on but Sting runs out for the save. Flair leaves with the belt.

Hogan is taken back to the hospital to end the show.

Overall Rating: D-. You could see the problems that would kill this company staring you right in the face here. I’ll go with this: the rumored main event for Starrcade was going to be Austin vs. Flair. Instead, we got Hogan vs. Brutus Beefcake. Foley was run off and Austin was fired for being too unpushable. Strange how that decision was arrived after Hogan got there no? 95 was just awful as it was basically the late 80s all over again and until they caught a miracle in Hall and Nash, this was a horrible long term idea. At the end of the day, WCW isn’t around anymore, so what does that tell you?

 

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Kollision in Korea
Date: August 5, 1995
Location: May Day Stadium, Pyongyang, North Korea
Attendance: 150,000 (Day 1), 190,000 (Day 2)
Commentators: Eric Bischoff, Mike Tenay, Kazoa Ishikawa

So a lot of you have heard about the World Peace Festival that Inoki held that had over 300,000 people there. Well this is it. WCW filmed most of it and made it into a PPV. Now this was filmed back in April of 95 but it aired just after the NWO debuted. No idea why there was a delay but it did indeed occur. The crowd here is bigger than Mania 3 and nearly double that so it’s indeed epically huge. The main event is Inoki vs. Flair, so let’s get to it.

First off, anyone find it odd that a festival promoting PEACE is based on a violent sport? That always made me chuckle.

Regarding the crowd, allegedly the people were told to go or risk being shot. Given the insanity of their leaders, that wouldn’t surprise me.

This aired on a Monday. I’m sure there was nothing else on TV at that time.

We’re told that Koreans don’t know much about professional wrestling. Good to know. And yet over 300,000 people showed up to see it. Yeah I’m sure there’s nothing to that rumor of the government forcing the people to go at all. Not a thing. Oh and Sonny Onoo is named Mr. Ishikawa here and is just a normal person.

2 Cold Scorpio vs. Chris Benoit

Benoit is named Wild Pegasus here. Eric talks about how the lives in Korea are as so much is closed off to them and they have never seen anything like this. This really is something to see. New Japan is co-promoting with WCW here so you’ll see a lot of puro in this. This is a pretty choreographed and gymnastics based match to start which the fans applaud.

It’s so strange to see a totally new audience see something like this. If nothing else it’s cool to see their reaction to seeing something like this which they’ve never seen before. Onoo is playing a heel here that only likes the Japanese guys. His voice is very hard to hear as he’s really soft spoken. Benoit hits a jumping tombstone and the headbutt hits on Scorpio for the pin.

Rating: C+. These are hard matches to grade. There are no angles or anything to them as this is really just an exhibition and an attempt to expose wrestling to a brand new audience, even though they’ll hardly ever see it again. That being said, I’m not expecting much from these matches, but it’s nice to see. The grades will be far less harsh based on how these matches are going to be drawn up.

Yugi Nagata vs. Tokimitsu Ishizawa

Nagata you might know from a really boring run in WCW. Eric says they look alike and they’re wearing identical tights. This could be hard. This starts as a submission thing as Onoo talks about how much better this is.

Ok make that most of the match is submission stuff. You can hear the Japanese announcers over the American ones which makes things a bit complicated and hard to pay attention. The announcers are in Tokyo as they couldn’t get into Korea. That’s really hard to believe. I don’t mean they’re making it up but it’s hard to fathom. This isn’t much as far as a match goes but Nagata hooks a Crossface and that’s it.

Rating: D. Even new rankings considered, this was pretty boring. Nagata was a guy that I never could get into at all. To be fair though in four minutes, how much can you really do? Still though, this wasn’t much at all. It was all submission stuff but the commentary was far more interesting.

We see stuff from the buildup to this show, which is a lot of people in choreographed dancing etc. It’s kind of cool I guess.

Masahiro Chono/Hiro Saito vs. El Samurai/Tadao Yasuda

The first team is using Rey Mysterio’s future music. We talk about Chono’s recent heel turn. Samauri is in the mask which should help me remember that. Chono and Yasuda start us off. Yasuda is a big old boy and of course you’ve heard of Chono. Muhammad Ali is supposed to be an important part of this show but we haven’t seen him yet. Apparently this a compilation of two days of matches and we’re just seeing the best stuff I guess. The rest wasn’t filmed.

I figured something like that was the case. I’ve heard a lot about Samurai but haven’t seen much of him. Chono hits the Mafia Kick and of course Eric knows nothing about it. Tony asks if if it’s called an Irish Whip in Japan. That’s actually a good question. Thesz trained Chono. That explains a lot. Chono kicks him low three times in a row and Eric and Tenay try to analyze it. That’s rather funny. Chono hits a shoulder off the top for the pin Samurai.

Rating: C+. Better. This was probably the best match of the night so far because they gave it some time and had heels and faces in there. It was a very basic match but it came off as watchable. Other than this it’s been just random pairings with no story at all. This wasn’t much but by comparison it was solid.

We go to a package of Flair, Inoki, Ali and some other wrestlers touring Korea. This is cool. It’s 15 seconds long but it’s cool.

Bull Nakano/Akira Hokuto vs. Manami Toyota/Mariko Yoshida

This should be good. Bischoff points out the culture shock of this as women have little to no rights in Korea, which is very true. The more famous names here are far more aggressive as we’re told that Nakano is a lot like Vader, who would have been about to main event Summerslam when this aired in America. Well it’s a squash so far. I’m not entirely surprised. The smaller girls start using a lot more speed stuff and it’s far more successful.

This has turned into a pretty decent match actually. We finally start busting out some high spots and it gets more fun. Toyota hits a nice moonsault for two. The heels finally realize they’re about twice the size as the other girls and just beat the tar out of them and Nakano’s leg drop ends it. Also Tenay, the legdrop and moonsault are not holds.

Rating: B-. This was FAR more fun than the rest of the card. Power vs. speed is pretty much the quintessential tag team combination and this one was that to the letter. This was actually a fun match with some good high spots and decent wrestling. I’ve seen some stuff from these four and I’d like to see more. Fun match.

IWGP Championship: Scott Norton vs. Shinya Hashimoto

I’ve heard a lot about Hashimoto and how much better Norton is in Japan. Hashimoto is champion here and comes out to what would become . We get a funny story about Norton having issues in Korea because everyone kept following him and making sure he didn’t break any rules. Hashimoto is like 30 here so he’s young and in solid shape. Norton of course is just a power guy.

Norton beats the tar out of him with basic power stuff but Hashimoto uses a bunch of great kicks to destroy him. Eric is in heaven explaining the physics of kicks etc. They talk about Hashimoto getting training in Canada at the same place as Benoit and Brian Pillman. That place would be more commonly know as the Hart Dungeon. The problem with Eric doing this is that he gets WAY too complex with the descriptions as he calls something like a spinning back leg round kick.

Translation: he kicked Norton in the head and spun a bit. We hear about a charity football game that the AWA held where Norton allegedly beat up Dave Caspar who is in the NFL Hall of Fame. Norton gets to no sell as he invites Hashimoto to kick him. Onoo is REALLY annoying as he talks about how smart Hashimoto is and how bad Norton is. He belongs in the IWC. Hashimoto does have some great kicks. I can’t argue that.

I love the racism from Onoo as he talks about how the Japanese wrestler is better even though Norton was primarily a wrestler in Japan and had the majority of his success there. And let’s hit that chinlock! We talk about bringing New Japan guys to WCW which would happen about 7 months after this. This is a decent match but the size of both guys is kind of hampering things a bit.

Both guys are big power guys and it makes the power moves look weaker as they can’t throw the other guy around as much. We hear about how there has been no press in Korea (note that when I say Korea I’m referring to North Korea every time. South Korea has no bearing on this show whatsoever but I do know the difference) since the end of the Korean War which was about 40 years ago at this point. That’s very bizarre to think of.

This is getting mainstream international press though and while it’s likely that a lot of this is being put on to make Korea look good and isn’t really indicative of what the country is like, it’s still saying a lot that wrestling managed to get inside the country first. Norton hits a top rope splash but the time limit expires as he’s about to win the title. Hashimoto would lose the title to Great Muta about a week or two later.

Rating: C-. Pretty cheap ending but I can understand why they did it. The thing here like I said was the clas of styles. This just didn’t work as far as a good match goes. It was two power guys that didn’t have much chemistry at all. That’s never a good thing but it’s nice to see a title match to give the match a bit of meaning.

We get a video about the festival which more or less was something like the opening ceremonies at the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Hawk vs. Tadao Yasuda

It’s the same guy from the Chono tag match so I’m assuming this is from a different day. Hawk and Animal are big deals in Japan but Hawk usually teamed with Kensuke Sasaki in Japan and the team was called the Power Warriors. They do some sumo stuff and Yasuda loses. Hawk isn’t very good on his own. He misses a top rope splash as Eric is getting into his traditional style. This is a great one apparently. I’m thinking no on that one. A top rope clothesline ends it.

Rating: N/A. I can’t grade a 2 minute match, but if I did this one would be pretty bad. There just was nothing of note here and it was a total squash. Hawk was a big deal in Japan though so that’s fine I guess.

Steiner Brothers vs. Kensuke Sasaki/Hiroshi Hase

The Steiners of course you know and Sasaki would actually win the US Title later in the year. Here the Steiners are actually NJPW guys. That’s a weird thing to see. These teams had a GREAT match at the first New Japan/WCW Supershow. We’ll get to that one soon. So far this is intense if nothing else. No one can accuse any of these guys of not working out there. Well they could but they would be incorrect.

Scott busts out an STF. And yes he knows more than 5 moves. I could watch this Scott Steiner throw suplexes all day. Oddly enough the Steiners are dominating here and are beating the heck out of Hase. Onoo of course says this isn’t important. Hase comes back and hooks a Giant Swing on Rick.

Apparently he’s famous for spinning people around a lot and his record is 44 spins. Ok then. Sasaki might have been in this for 30 seconds. He and Rick fight on the floor and in the ring, Scott hits the Steiner Screwdriver for the pin. For those of you that haven’t seen that move, it might be the craziest move in history.   Look it up.

Rating: B-. We got to see the Steiners look awesome, but this was almost a glorified squash. The Steiners as heels makes for a very odd showing but it pretty much works. The key thing to it is that they’re really good wrestlers and can bust out a lot of stuff when they want to. This is one of those moments. The lack of competition hurt it for me though.

We see Flair and Inkoi getting ready.

Ric Flair vs. Antonio Inoki

Any bets on who wins this one? Inoki actually has an experience edge in this. We hear about Flair’s heel turn that was going on in America at this time which is kind of interesting. Inoki is the protégé of Rikidozan who is like the Hulk Hogan of Japan and was born in North Korea so this is a very symbolic match. This is their first match ever actually so it’s a cool thing.

The commentary is definitely being performed afterwards as they talk about stuff that happened later. We hit the mat to start so we’re going with the basic stuff first. Ali is here and we hear about Ali vs. Inoki in the 70s which is considered to be one of the first mixed martial arts match. The crowd moves a bit for Inoki which is a real sign of respect. They’re very quiet during the matches but would pop for the endings. I guess it’s a cultural thing.

Bischoff talks about going out jogging with Inoki and getting tired after about half an hour due to the pace of Inoki. That’s pretty cool. Flair is dominating for the most part here which is about what I expected to set up the big comeback win for Inoki. Oh like he’s losing in the main event of the show he set up. Flair throws on an STF. Well ok then. Time to work on the leg. Eric talks about how evil Flair must look by trying to make a man not be able to walk.

And let’s talk about Hogan. We’re told that Hogan is better than Flair and so and so, which makes me ask the obvious question: Hogan isn’t here…why? Oh that’s right: he might not get cheered and worshipped. Figure Four goes on but there’s little drama to it. I was looking away to type and they didn’t even mention it going on. And now we punch it out. Inoki punching looks odd for some reason.

Flair goes up and of course it doesn’t work. Bischoff says he thinks Flair might be getting tired. Has he ever watched a Flair match? Inoki was in his early 50s here so he’s likely the one that’s going to get tired. We’re getting more or less a Flair match without much outside of the basics.

That’s fine though as a vast majority of the fans here have never seen wrestling or especially Flair. Inoki Inokis Up and hits a few kicks and ends it with the Enziguri (one of his finishers) to get the pin. Flair comes after him post match but shakes his hand.

Rating: B-. Not bad, but this was far more about closure to the show than anything else. It’s certainly not a terrible match or anything but just not that great. Flair was having his first match in a long time here so he was a bit rusty. The lack of drama hurt it a bit but this worked for the most part and it made Inoki look good which is how this should have ended.

Overall Rating: C. This is an odd one to say the least. The wrestling is decent at best and boring at more realistic. This was far more of a spectacle than a show though and it worked very well I thought. This was about showcasing athletic competition to a whole new audience and on that level it worked.

Also factor in this was part of a festival promoting peace and I think in that respect it worked very well. This is worth seeing if you never have before as it’s a sight if nothing else. It’s about two hours long and it’s on Youtube although that version of Flair and Inoki is clipped. Worth seeing, but not for the wrestling.