|Date: January 4, 1992
|Venue: Tokyo Dome |City: Tokyo, Japan
|Attendance: 50,000

|tweet me: @BastionBlogger

Eric Bischoff welcomes us to the second WCW NJPW Supershow. He runs down the card. Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone are on commentary.

Masashi Aoyagi, Akira Nogami & Jushin “Thunder” Liger vs. Hiro Saito, Super Strong Machine and Norio Honaga

WCW NJPW Supershow Record Record: Jushin Liger is 1-0, Akira Nogami is 0-1. Everyone else wrestles at this event for the first time tonight.

Match: There’s lots of quick tags between the heel team as they keep Aoyagi away from tagging in his partners. Saito and Honaga are regular tag team partners and they make lots of tags. Jushin Liger gets a tag and picks up the pace. Super Strong Machine is a more rotund fella and he slows down the pace. Liger hirs a rolling Yakuza kick and tags in Aoyagi. Nogami tags in and they keep Honaga from tagging out. It’s back and forth from here. Super Strong Machine gets a near fall following a clothesline. Nogami is impressive, he had a lot of high impact strikes. Liger hits a moonsault for a near fall. Liger hits a double underhook superplex but tags out to Nogami. The heel team hit a spike piledriver for a near fall. Liger and Nogami hit a spike piledriver of their own. Saito and Honaga hit a double powerbomb for a near fall and all six men then go at it. Nogami hits a dragon suplex with a bridge on Saito to keep him down for the three.

Result: Masashi Aoyagi, Akira Nogami & Jushin “Thunder” Liger win by pinfall.

Review: An ok match to kick off the show. It’s hard to tell how much the crowd are into it when they’re so quiet. It was back and forth but there was only ever going to be one winner.

Rating: 5.5/10

Michiyoshi Ohara & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Larry Zbyszko & Arn Anderson

WCW NJPW Supershow Record Record: Shiro Koshinaka is 1-0, Arn Anderson is 1-0, the other two men wrestle at this event for the first time tonight.

Match: Larry Zbyszko and Ohara kick off the match and it’s back and forth between the two men. Arn Anderson soon tags in and takes control for his team. Not for long though, it turns into a back and forth affair between the two teams. There’s plenty of at wrestling in this one, especially from the likes of Ohara and Arn Anderson. Zbyszko is so vocal in the ring but he’s on the wrong side of a side Russian leg sweep. Arn Anderson tags in and takes control for his team who start to make quicker tags. There’s plenty of cheating from Larry and Arn. Ohara tags in and picks up the pace against Anderson but can’t keep him down for a pinfall. Zbyszko hits Ohara with a cheapshot and Arn hits a spinebuster for the win.

Result: Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko win by pinfall.

Review: Again, another pretty average match really. It was back and forth and the heels played the heels well. Again, hard work with the crowd being so dead so the psychology was difficult.

Rating: 5/10

Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes vs. Mr Saito & Kim Dok

WCW NJPW Supershow Record Record: Mr Saito is 0-1, everyone else wrestles at this event for the first time tonight.

Match: Dustin Rhodes and Kim Dok kick things off. There’s an old school criss cross and then some sloppy ring work from Dustin. Dustin Rhodes does have the advantage in the early going, dictating the pace. Mr Saito refuses a tag. Kim Dok takes the advantage and still Saito won’t tag in. Dusty Rhodes tags in for the biggest pop so far tonight and in comes Mr Saito. Dusty takes the fight to the outside where he hits a powerslam and elbow drop on the ramp. Saito hits Dusty with a cheap shot to take control. Kim Dok tags in and keeps the advantage. He’s a big bloke. Saito then accidentally nails his own partner and Dusty tags out to his son. Dustin tries to take on both opponents and it backfires. Dok hits a piledriver for a near fall. Saito hits a Saito suplex for a near fall. Dustin hits his bulldog on Kim Dok for the win.

Result: Dusty & Dustin Rhodes win by pinfall.

Review: Another run of the mill match really. It was nice to see Dusty Rhodes back in the ring, he just brings so much charisma. This match really gets Dustin Rhodes over though, he got the pin in the end and looks like a star. I liked the psychology of Mr Saito and Kim Dok with them not accepting tags.

Rating: 5/10

El Gigante vs. Big Van Vader

WCW NJPW Supershow Record Record: El Gigante is 1-0, Big Van Vader wrestles at this event for the first time tonight.

Match: El Gigante absolutely towers over Big Van Vader. Vader hits stiff right hands in the early going and then a splash in the corner. The fans do seem to be behind the former IWGP champion, Vader. He takes El Gigante down with a waistlock and then drops an elbow and a splash for a two count. Gigante hits some big right hands of his own and then applies the claw but Big Van Vader gets into the ropes to break the hold. The fight goes to the outside where they exchange right hands. They continue to battle where they both get counted out! After the match Big Van Vader sprays smoke from his mask into El Gigante’s eyes.

Result: Double count out.

Review: This match was short and sweet. It was as long as it needed to be to be honest. Neither man comes out on the losing side so neither come out of it looking weak. It was a battle of strikes which I’m all for. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this rivalry continue.

Rating: 4/10

Lex Luger (c) vs. Masahiro Chono – WCW Championship match

WCW NJPW Supershow Record Record: Masahiro Chono is 0-1, Lex Luger wrestles at this event for the first time tonight.

Match: It’s a cagey start to the match but Luger shows both his explosivity and strength. Chono is slightly quicker of the two and uses more ground based wrestling and he quickly looks for an STF but Luger escapes. Chono takes control, hitting arm drags and applying armbars. Lex fires back with a clothesline and then drops Chono on the top rope. It’s really back and forth from here. Lex looks for his torture rack submission but Chono counters and picks up the pace as the crowd start to buzz. Chono then locks on the STF but Luger gets to the bottom rope. The two men exchange rollups, Luger avoids a top rope shoulderblock and applies the torture rack but Chono gets to the ropes. Lex then applies the torture rack outside the ring before dumping Chono in the floor. Chono beats the count back into the ring. Lex hits a low blow before the referee’s back and then a double axe handle off the middle rope for the win.

Result: Lex Luger wins by pinfall.

Review: It was nice to see a singles match tonight. Lex picks up the big win which wasn’t too surprising. It wasn’t the cleanest of victories but it just shows how much of a heel Luger is at the moment. A decent match.

Rating: 6/10

Tatsumi Fujinami (c) vs. Riki Choshu (c) – Singles match for the IWGP Heavyweight and the Greatest 18 Championships

WCW NJPW Supershow Record Record: Fujinami is 1-0, Choshu wrestles at this event for the first time tonight.

Match: It’s a cagey start to the match. It’s all headlocks in the early going. Fujinami picks up the pace with a knockdown and powerslam. Back to the chinlock. Choshu applies a modified version of the scorpion deathlock before rolling over and applying it in the standard way but he then chooses to break the hold. Fujinami then locks on the same hold but also chooses to break it. Fujinami hits a kneedrop of the top rope and then a piledriver before applying a dragon sleeper but Choshu gets to the bottom rope. Fujinami applies the dragon sleeper again but again Choshu gets to the bottom rope. Choshu hits a superplex, two Saito suplexes and three lariats which is enough for the three.

Result: Riki Choshu retains the Greatest 18 Championship and wins the IWGP Championship by pinfall.

Review: This was a respectful battle between two of the best mat wrestlers in the world. It had a slow pace to it but they picked up the pace when needs be. Riki Choshu won the match and becomes a double champion. It felt like a battle between two old enemies and they countered each others holds like they’d wrestled a lot of times before. A decent match.

Rating: 6.5/10

The Steiner Brothers (Scott & Rick) vs. Sting & The Great Muta

WCW NJPW Supershow Record Record: The Steiner Brothers and Great Muta are 1-0 at this event, Sting is 0-1 having lost to The Great Muta at last years event.

Match: The Great Muta and Scott Steiner kick off the match. Muta shows off his speed and martial arts strikes. Both men make tags and Rick Steiner controls the match with his power. Sting takes control with a clothesline of his own but Rick avoids a Stinger splash. Scott Steiner hits a sit out powerbomb and tilt-a-whirl for a two count. Sting hits a tombstone piledriver and tags out. The Steiners take control with stiff offence and suplexes. Scott hits a Samoan drop off the middle rope and then applies a dragon sleeper. Rick Steiner tags in and keep control for his team. Muta hits a Saito suplex on Scott Steiner and tags out. Rick Steiner also tags in but Sting hits him with a Stinger splash. Muta then tags in and looks for his handspring elbow but Rick counters with a German suplex. All four men go at it, Sting and Muta hit a double bulldog on Scott. Sting then launches Muta into Rick, sending both men out of the ring before diving out off the top on to Rick. Muta dives out into Scott. Rick and Scott hit double clotheslines off the top, Scott looks for a tilt-a-whirl but Sting counters it with a roll up for the three! Rick had Muta pinned at the same time but it’s Sting fall that will count.

Result: Sting and The Great Muta win by pinfall.

Review: This was the best match of the night. It had a much quicker pace to it and more of the American style that we’re used to watching. The Steiner Brothers were stiff whilst Sting and Muta bought the pace. It was a good match.

Rating: 7.5/10

And that was the second annual WCW/NJPW Supershow. It was pretty hit and miss. There was nothing too terrible but some of the matches struggled to keep my interest. There was a lot of average matches. Jushin Liger and co winning the opener was fairly predictable but I didn’t know much about four of the men in the match so I wasn’t too interested. The next two matches were WCW vs. NJPW and it was the WCW tag teams that won. Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyszko and then Dusty & Dustin Rhodes. It was nice to see Dusty Rhodes in action, he’ still got a lot of his charisma and I wouldn’t mind seeing him in the ring again. El Gigante and Big Van Vader wrestled to a count out before Lex Luger retained his WorldHeavyweight Championship against Chono. Riki Choshu then beat Tatsumi Fujinami to win the IWGP Championship. That was a pretty good match but the main event between The Steiners and the team of Sting & The Great Muta was the match of the night for me. Overall it wasn’t a spectacular show, it was very average. Not one that I’d go back and watch to be honest.

Overall Rating: 56.4/100 (ranked 10th out of 28 NWA/WCW PPV reviewed so far)

Match Of The Night: The Steiner Brothers vs. Sting & The Great Muta
Worst Match Of The Night: El Gigante vs. Big Van Vader
Surprise Of The Night: A new IWGP Champion is crowned
Worst Booking Of The Night: N/A
Superstar Of The Night: Riki Choshu
WCW/NJPW Supershow II Will Be Remembered For: The crowning of a new IWGP Champion