Ryan Navigates '90 - #1 (Introduction and 1/1 - 1/4)
"WE ARE DYNAMITE!"
Good day!
With my analysis of Wrestling Society X in the history books, the time has come for a new project. I had a ton of fun doing “Ryan’s Dive into ‘95”, so I figured I’d do it again for a different year. After much internal debate, I decided to land on the year that was 1990.
Much like my 1995 series, I’ll be examining an entire year’s worth of wrestling using Goodhelmet’s 1990 Yearbook compilation (a massive 120-hour collection of notable matches, angles, promos, vignettes, and more) as a base. I’ll be looking at product from many different promotions, mostly from the United States, Mexico, and Japan, with a few stops in other places sprinkled in. I may also throw in some bonus content as I see fit.
In “Ryan’s Dive into ‘95”, I went with a ‘one week at a time’ format. It gave the series a sense of structure, but also made for some VERY long articles if there were particularly busy weeks. I’m going to be a bit more judicious in terms of how much content I cover in each outing so that I can pump these out in a reasonable timeframe, and the articles themselves are easier to digest. We’ll probably still end up with some mammoth reads, though.
There is usually a TON of American wrestling on the weekends around this time. The WWF and the NWA each had multiple weekend broadcasts, and the smaller US territories would often have their television on Saturdays. More likely than not, I’ll end up covering Mon-Thursday (or Friday) in an article and discussing the weekend stuff in the next article, but nothing’s set in stone.
For the name of the series and the banner, the mindset behind it originally wasn’t much deeper than “One Piece and mild alliteration! Yay!”, but the whole nautical motif ended up making some sense when I thought about it. There’s a TON of stuff here that I haven’t seen yet, especially from the smaller US territories. The material also came about a year before my actual fandom started in 1991, so much of the stuff I’m familiar with won’t be reviewed with nostalgia-tinted glasses. I’ll be sailing some truly uncharted waters here.
With the fresh decade comes significant change. New main eventers are minted while some top stars of the 1980s begin to cede their positions. New promotions are christened, while companies that were vastly popular in the 1980s would either close their doors for good, continue a downturn from which they would never recover, or will no longer exist in their current form. We’ll cover much of this stuff in great detail as we forge ahead.
With all that said, hop aboard, fasten your lifejacket (because SAFETY FIRST), and let’s get ready to NAVIGATE ‘90!
DATE UNKNOWN
We’ll take care of a few items that didn’t have date assigned to them first (as they were added first to the Goodhelmet Yearbook), then we’ll get into the calendar proper.
Catch Wrestling Association
To launch this series with a bang, we have a music video courtesy of Germany/Austria’s Catch Wrestling Association promotion! The song, “We Are Dynamite”, is sung in video form by many luminaries of Otto Wanz’s company.
This is primo cheesy synthpop, and it’s amazing. AEW really should do their own version for their Wednesday show, if only to amuse me, and only me.
I don’t recognize a lot of these guys (Europe’s always been a bit of a blind spot for me), but I spot Owen Hart, PN News (!), Dave Finlay, Giant Haystacks, Vader, and Steve Wright (Alex’s dad). There’re some really neat clips of the in-ring action, too. Incredible stuff. Watch it here.
World Wrestling Association
The next two matches come courtesy of Mexico’s World Wrestling Association promotion. It was founded in 1986 in Tijuana by Benjamin Mora, Jr., and spotlighted a LOT of high-level lucha talent. It also featured a lot of titles that ended up being regularly defended elsewhere in the world, particularly in Japan. The promotion is still technically active as of July 2024, believe it or not, despite largely being dormant during the 1990s.
El Hijo del Santo, Yoshinari Asai, & Gran Hamada vs. Negro Casas, Blue Panther, & Fuerza Guerrera - Our first match of the series, and it looks absolutely insane based on that lineup. Seriously, this is a murderer’s row of lucha and junior heavyweight royalty. Of course, Yoshinari Asai is the future Ultimo Dragon, just about three years into the business at this point.
PRIMERA CAIDA: Asai and Panther do some quality mat wrestling to kick things off, with some nifty reversals from both guys. Hamada and Fuerza to go at it, with Hamada getting the best of those exchanges with some slick armdrags and escapes. They stalemate after a reversal sequence, and now Hijo del Santo and Negro Casas check in. Santo vexes Casas by relentlessly riding him on the mat.
They jostle around for a bit, and it’s another stalemate. That was some HEATED matwork, which is expected given their antagonistic history. Santo continues working on top, hitting a chain of ankle headscissors, then we get another impressive sequence of reversals and athleticism. Panther and Hamada come in, with Hamada flying around the ring and fending off all three opponents. Asai tags in, and Guerrera looks for a handshake. Don’t do it, kid!
Surprisingly, he doesn’t kick the poor kid in the junk. Asai gets the best of Guerrero, catching him with a handspring elbow! Casas tags in and flies at Santo with a dropkick, but Santo comes back with a kneelift! He gets a Romero Special on Casas for the submission while Hamada pins Fuerza with a sunset flip and Asai connects with an Asai Moonsault to pin Panther. The tecnicos claim the first fall!
SEGUNDA CAIDA: Panther takes Asai down with a quasi-Sling Blade, but Asai zips around the ring, keeping Panther off-balance with aerial techniques. Guerrera and Santo re-enter, with Fuerza getting a hiptoss out of a handshake! Rude!
Fuerza flapjacks Santo, but the latter comes back with a big armdrag and a nice ‘rana. Casas and Hamada zoom around the ring like a pair of Masato Yoshinos, with Hamada getting a pop-up hurricanrana to eject Casas from the ring.
Asai and Panther resume their little war, with Panther getting the best of that exchange with a backbreaker. Fuerza dropkicks Hamada and applies a Boston Crab but releases to tag out to Casas. Santo comes back in and runs into a Casas tilt-a-whirl slam, then Casas pins Santo with La Majistral! The rudos take the second fall.
TERCERA CAIDA: Asai lays in some kicks on Fuerza, then applies a half-crab until Guerrera makes the ropes. Casas and Hamada come in and brawl it out, ending with Hamada hitting his AWESOME headbutt. Hamada stretches Casas for a while until Panther breaks it up. After a bit, Fuerza takes a huge shoulder bump in the corner, colliding with the camera. Asai comes in and peppers Casas with kicks, then they slap the starch out of each other until Asai hits a couple of spin kicks. Guerrera comes in and eats a dropkick, then a plancha to the outside!
Hijo del Santo gets a great sequence where he lands a senton atomico on Panther, then IMMEDIATELY pops up into a suicide dive onto Casas. Hamada pins Blue Panther, giving the match to the tecnicos!
The winners are presented with trophies, but I’m not sure what for.
**** - A couple of bits of awkwardness aside, this was an excellent encapsulation of the direction lucha was going in the 1990s and a lot of the stuff I love about it. Santo and Casas lit up the ring with their heated sequences, Panther controlled the mat, Fuerza heeled it up, and we got blistering, forward-looking action from Asai and Hamada, two guys that would popularize and perfect the “lucharesu” style.
El Hijo del Santo & Blue Demon Jr. vs. Eddy & Mando Guerrero - I’m not sad about more El Hijo del Santo, and we get to see a very young Eddy Guerrero, who, much like Yoshihiro Asai, is barely three years into the business. Mando is Eddy’s second-eldest brother. Demon, like Santo, is the son of an incredibly famous, beloved luchador. However, Demon Jr. was not related to the original Blue Demon by blood; Blue Demon claimed Jr. as his adopted son.
PRIMERA CAIDA: Everybody brawls before the bell or even before Santo and Demon take off their capes, with the Guerreros getting the upper hand. Eddy hits a double underhook and pummels Demon with knees while Mando harasses Santo. Demon and Eddy’s brawl spills to the floor while Mando presses his attack on Santo inside the ring. Eddy slams Demon on the floor, then Los Guerreros get three on Santo with a double bridging pin.
The Guerreros then do the same thing to Demon, but this time, they keep falling back, almost like an inverted Muta lock. Demon submits, giving the first fall to the Guerreros.
SEGUNDA CAIDA: Demon keeps getting double-teamed as the match settles into a proper tag structure, but not for long. It breaks down again, this time with the tecnicos mounting a big comeback. Santo pummels Mando on the outside, then Demon clotheslines Eddy out. Ever the rudos, the Guerreros beg off.
Mando and Demon each whiff on clotheslines but end up taking each other down. Mando takes somersault bumps off of Demon’s slaps, then Eddy and Santo square off again. Soon, both Guerreros get dumped, with Eddy taking a huge bump and landing on Mando. Double tope suicida from the masked men! The rudos are counted out, giving the second fall to Santo and Demon!
TERCERA CAIDA: It’s a donnybrook on the floor until Demon assaults Mando in the ring. Mando and Demon pummel each other with punches and headbutts, but Eddy breaks up a butterfly lock. Him and Santo then fight from pillar to post, with Santo ramming Eddy into the turnbuckle repeatedly. Mando comes in and hits Santo with a gutwrench, but Demon breaks up the pin. Scorpion Deathlock is attempted by Demon on Mando, but Eddy breaks it up and gets a grounded surfboard, which Santo promptly breaks up. Santo tries a grounded armbar, but it’s soon interrupted.
Everybody brawls again, and it spills out onto the floor. Santo takes out Eddy, while Mando stomps on Blue Demon…WHILE WEARING A SANTO MASK! I love that trope. Santo chases Mando out, then Blue Demon, thinking he was betrayed by the Son of the Saint, beats the crap out of him! Demon and the Guerreros continue the epic beatdown, with Eddy shoving the referee, leading him to presumably throw the match out (or award it to Santo and Demon).
***3/4 - I wanted to give it **** or so, but some of the actual work was slightly loose and lackluster at points. However, this was a really entertaining, angry brawl with great heel tactics from the Guerreros. Eddy was especially fantastic here, showing tremendous rudo charisma beyond his years while injecting the match with huge bumps and athletics. Mando wasn’t quite as crisp as Eddy, but he too added a lot of personality and fun bumping.
What really makes this worth watching, however, is the ending. I’m a sucker for the “heel beats down wrestler while wearing the mask of his partner, causing a turn” angle.
Alright, time for stuff with actual dates!
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3rd
AJPW New Year Giant Series 1990, Night 2
All-Asia Tag Team Championship: Footloose (Toshiaki Kawada & Samson Fuyuki) (c) vs. The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton & Tommy Rogers) - Kawada and Fuyuki are about to kick off YOUR Sunday shoes. I do wonder if they ever faced off against a team named “Fancy Free”. OK, enough bad jokes for this paragraph. Let’s continue our world tour of tag matches!
Readers who journeyed with me on the Dive into ‘95 will know my absolute adoration for Kawada. Fuyuki, along with several others, would leave AJPW along with Genichiro Tenryu to form Super World of Sports in July 1990. He’d gain his greatest fame as Kodo Fuyuki in Tenryu’s later Wrestle and Romance/Wrestle Association R promotion and Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling.
The Fantastics are, well, pretty fantastic. They’re contemporaries of legendary teams like The Midnight Express and The Rock ‘N Roll Express, though without quite the level of acclaim. They spent the 1980s in nearly every non-WWF territory in the United States. Interesting factoid: Rogers innovated the Tomikaze, otherwise known as Christian Cage’s Killswitch/Unprettier.
Footloose throws their tights into the ring for Gear of the Year contention. It’s jarring not seeing Kawada in his signature black and yellow, and with a look of youth, and not intense disdain for human life, in his eyes.
The Code of Honor is adhered to, then Rogers and Fuyuki battle over a top wristlock to kick things off. They then wrestle off of a headscissors spot, with Rogers managing to escape and chase Fuyuki out of the ring. Back in, Tommy continues to dominate on the mat, working a scissored figure four until Fuyuki escapes. Things pick up with Rogers hitting a dropkick on both Fuyuki and Kawada.
Fulton and Kawada check in, with the former working a headlock. Kawada gets outclassed for a bit until he teases some kicks. Dangerous K tries a suplex, but Rogers helps Fulton escape, and it’s dropkick-palooza!
The Fantastics back-bodydrop both opponents, forcing Footloose to regroup on the floor. Kawada and Fulton wrestle off a knucklelock, then the Fantastics double-dropkick Kawada. Fuyuki comes in and gets outwrestled by Rogers, leading to a bow-and-arrow stretch. Samson gets a bit of a comeback, but it’s immediately snuffed out by Rogers. We get a HUGE Rocket Launcher from the Fantastics for a near-fall, then Fuyuki gets worked over for a while longer until he dodges a Fulton charge. Kawada tags back in and unleashes the kicks!
Fulton soon catches a dropkick and applies a Boston crab, which Fuyuki promptly breaks up with a lariat to send Bobby to the floor. Kawada hits a plancha onto Fulton, but Rogers immediately follows with a suicide dive! It’s a brawl on the floor, then it settles down with Kawada nailing Rogers with a thrust kick. Rogers rolls over, holds onto Kawada, then muscles him up for a tombstone attempt, but Kawada reverses into a Tombstone of his own!
Rogers and Fuyuki end up brawling on the floor, where Samson has the advantage. Footloose, now the aggressors, beat down Rogers until he makes a timely tag to Fulton. Assisted kneedrop from the Fantastics gets two, as does a Fulton piledriver. Samoan drop from Fulton gets another near-fall, but Fuyuki soon re-enters and gets slapped repeatedly. Fuyuki gives Fulton his receipt, and Bobby immediately bails and tags Rogers. Fireman’s carry driver (kind of like Hiroyoshi Tenzan’s Mountain Bomb) gets two, as does a very nice Northern Lights suplex.
The Americans hit a double suplex, but Footloose thwarts another double-team, allowing Fuyuki to slam Rogers off the top for two. Seconds later, Footloose hits a double electric chair on Rogers, then Kawada hits Fulton with a sitdown powerbomb. After a Kawada spinning kick, Fuyuki hits a bridging German for three, allowing Footloose to retain!
***3/4 - This was a bit odd in terms of structure and lacked some of the epic atmosphere of a lot of big AJPW matches, but it’s a REALLY fun match; an interesting blend of the southern United States tag formula with King’s Road sturdiness. The Fantastics pulled off a lot of cool double-teams, Rogers was great on the mat, and Fulton delivered the personality. Footloose acquitted themselves rather well here, too.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 4th
This was the era before the yearly New Japan January 4th Tokyo Dome show, so The Lion won’t be appearing quite yet. However, we still have more tag action, this time from All-Japan Women’s Wrestling.
All Japan Women’s Wrestling
Akira Hokuto & Yumiko Hotta vs. Dream Orca (Toshiyo Yamada & Etsuko Mita) - Dream Orca is SUCH a cool name for a team. It’s up there with Muscle Orchestra, Miracle Violence Connection, and Jurassic Powers in terms of Japanese tag team names. If you have any other tag team names you loved, drop them in the comments!
Mita would have even greater success with Mima Shimoda as Las Cachorras Orientales, or “The Oriental Bitches”. Hokuto looks WAY different in 1990 than she would years later.
Mita attacks Hotta from behind before the bell, but Hotta makes her pay with some brutal shots. Yamada comes in and fires off some kicks to put Hotta on her ass. Hotta gets an overhead throw and it’s time for more KICKS. Lots more, until Hotta tags Hokuto in, who hits a nice pair of dropkicks. Hokuto applies a Scorpion Deathlock, then transitions into a high-angle half crab.
Hokuto sinks the hold in further until she releases, then Hotta comes in for some punishment. Yamada hits a stern kick to halt a Boston crab attempt, but Hotta soon gets a half-crab to continue Mita’s torture. Mita continues getting stretched out like Mike Teavee but bridges out of pinfall attempts out of spite. Hotta hits a rebound forearm on Mita, then lands a few kicks. Yamada tags in and takes the fight to Hotta with a battery of dropkicks and a couple of suplex variants for two. It’s Hotta’s turn to take a beating from Yamada as the crowd is especially into it.
Now Dream Orca gets a DOUBLE-SLEEPER on Hotta, which doesn’t last. Hotta continues to absorb punishment, this time from Mita. Mita applies a figure-four headscissors, but Hokuto hits her with a splash off the top! Hokuto tags back in, only to get hit with a Mita crossbody for two. Hokuto stoically absorbs some slaps from Mita, then puts her down with one of her own! Hokuto hits a dropkick for two, then follows with a clumsy piledriver for another near-fall. Mita is again absorbing heat, this time from weardown holds. Yamada tags in and Hotta immediately goes to choke her out!
Yamada looks to fade away, so Hotta hits a German suplex, but Mita breaks the pin. Hokuto tags in, and Yamada immediately fights back and tags out! Hokuto takes Mita down with a spin kick, but Mita catches her with a front roll-up for two. Seconds later, Yamada gets a VERY close two with a sunset flip on Hotta. Mita comes back in and looks to get beat down again, but she fights back with a gutbuster on Hokuto. Mita gets an airplane spin and a double-underhook suplex for two on Hokuto, then a double suplex gets another near-fall. Yamada goes up top, but Hokuto dodges, causing her to crossbody Mita instead! Flying back elbow from Hotta and missile dropkick from Hokuto gets three!
****1/4 - This was a very compelling watch. We got the requisite hot near-falls, big moves, and fast-paced sequences that we’re used to from joshi, but the match featured a lot of heat between the participants. The teams put across their apparent contempt for each other with the defiant bridging out of pin attempts, hard strikes (particularly from Hotta), and malicious matwork. There were a lot of chokeholds and weardown spots, but they were executed with pure disdain rather than to fill time and were sold in a way where it was believable that the match could have ended anytime. The crowd, which included a lot of loud teenage girls, really added to the atmosphere. Excellent match.
Now it's time for the first edition of a semi-regular new feature: THE TUGBOAT TRIBUNE!
This is where I chat about a few news items from the dates covered (or around the time) that I didn't discuss earlier in the article. They won’t be huge news dumps or extended thinkpieces, or anything of that ilk; just a few interesting news tidbits.
The news comes courtesy of “Diamond” Dave Meltzer and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
The WWF had their No Holds Barred: The Match/The Movie pay-per view on December 27th, 1989, which was basically the full movie (check out James Lees’ awesome review here if you want to know more about THAT cinematic masterpiece) and a cage match with Hulk Hogan & Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake vs. “Macho King” Randy Savage & Zeus afterward. It did a 1.6 buyrate, good for around $2.3 million, which wasn’t bad considering the movie was already in video stores for months.
Speaking of The Hulkster, the infamous Belzer vs. Bollea trial was set to begin on January 2nd, but the parties ended up settling out of court. Richard Belzer got enough money out of this to buy a house in France and name it “Chez Hogan”.
The Rock N’ Roll Express came back to the NWA, and “Mean” Mark Callous debuted as Sid Vicious’ replacement in The Skyscrapers tag team. We’ll definitely be seeing more of Mean Mark by the end of the year.
Stampede Wrestling shut down on 12/18, mostly stemming from a creative rift between Bruce Hart and Ed Whalen, and issues with finances.
NEXT TIME: It’s our first weekend article, with plenty of American content courtesy of the WWF, NWA, and the USWA!
Great picture from the CWA there. One I did notice there I think is AKIRA at the front far left.