JANUARY 2
1991
All Japan Pro Wrestling kicked off the New Year’s Giant Series, its first tour of each calendar year, at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall. The in-ring highlight of the show was a ***1/2 match between Stan Hansen and Kenta Kobashi. While Hansen and Kobashi would go on to have better matches against each other as Kobashi continued to establish himself, their chemistry, even this early, was undeniable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmSgIWOEusg
1992
All Japan Pro Wrestling kicked off the 1992 New Year’s Giant Series at Korakuen Hall. The show was headlined by Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi teaming against Jumbo Tsuruta and Masa Fuchi in a ***1/2 match. While Misawa and Kobashi would eventually become one of the top tag teams in wrestling history, they were not a regular tag team at this point since Kobashi was still working his way up the card. Kobashi would often team with Misawa in six-man tags, but in tag matches, Misawa’s usual partner was Toshiaki Kawada. The same could be said of Jumbo teaming with Fuchi, as Jumbo’s usual tag team partner at this time was still Akira Taue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzP8bPkphUM
1993
Bobby Heenan hyped the debut of Narcissus, someone he described as “beyond perfection” to tease a feud with Mr. Perfect, at the upcoming Royal Rumble pay-per-view. Narcissus was not identified by any other name, but he was of course Lex Luger. Luger hated the name and pushed to have it changed to “The Narcissist” Lex Luger, and he was billed that way when he finally made his WWF debut. Also on the show, Raymond Rougeau conducted the first interview with Doink the Clown, who provided us with a name for him for the first time. In a great moment, the camera cut to a young girl in the crowd during the interview who mouthed, “He thinks he’s soooo funny.”
Fans watching in syndication received a nice treat, as Ricky Steamboat and Shane Douglas faced Barry Windham and Brian Pillman in a ***1/2 match on WCW Worldwide, which was taped on December 9 in Louisville, KY. The match looked to be a rematch of their excellent Starrcade match just five days before this match aired. However, Douglas was injured early and was later replaced by Dustin Rhodes, a change which was allowed by the referee in an odd bit of booking. You can imagine how Jesse Ventura, who was doing color commentary next to Tony Schiavone, responded to that.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x63890_steamboat-douglas-vs-windham-pillma_sport
Bill Dundee announced his departure from the USWA on television, as Bill Watts hired him to join WCW’s booking committee. Dundee’s previous booking of Mid South Wrestling in 1984 led Watts to his most profitable year ever as a promoter. When Watts was ousted from power in WCW only a month later, Dundee remained with the company, but was eventually placed in an on-air role. He acted as a stereotypical ringside second for Steven Regal and was billed as Sir William, often hitting Regal’s foes with an umbrella. Also on the show, Jerry Lawler explained his recent appearance on WWF television, which came as a shock to everyone within wrestling at the time since Lawler was very openly critical of the WWF for years. He mentions that he saw Randy Savage, Curt Hennig and Jimmy Hart in the WWF locker room, all of whom broke into wrestling in Memphis, before getting into a brawl with Mike Miller to set up a match on Monday’s Mid South Coliseum show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw8C52nmvvg
WCW Saturday Night featured an announcement that Vader regained the WCW World Heavyweight Championship from Ron Simmons on December 30 in Baltimore. The match never aired on television, but they did air a few stills from the match. The title change was originally planned for the December 29 show in Philadelphia, but Simmons got wind of the change and skipped the show, fearful that dropping the title would leave him with no leverage in ongoing contract negotiations. All in all, Simmons’ run on top was a failure for a variety of reasons. Bill Watts made him champion in an attempt to draw black fans, but his push was built on an outdated premise of what would draw money and it felt very cynical as a result, even by the already-low standards of pro wrestling. Also on the show, Jesse Ventura interviewed Arn Anderson, who hyped his feud with Erik Watts by telling him that “Daddy” may be able to protect him in WCW, but would not be able to protect him in movie theaters, parking lots or when he is with his girlfriend “at one of these ice cream shops”. Arn revealed during the interview that Bill Watts had not renewed his contract, which was an example of real life being incorporated in a storyline, as Arn was inexplicably placed on a nightly deal during the Watts regime. The show did a 2.1 rating.
1995
Charles Wright, the former Papa Shango and future Godfather, debuted his Kama gimmick in a vignette on WWF Monday Night RAW. While he eventually became Kama Mustafa and was a member of the Nation of Domination, he was billed as the “Supreme Fighting Machine” in a play on UFC’s Kimo Leopoldo. The show was headlined by Lex Luger & Davey Boy Smith vs Bam Bam Bigelow & Tatanka and did a 2.1 rating. You can watch this show on the WWE Network.
1999
Father and son went to battle against each other when Jerry Lawler and Brian Christopher faced off on the Power Pro Wrestling television show. Power Pro revived Memphis wrestling after the USWA died in the summer of 1997. In one of those “only in Memphis” builds, the match was signed after Christopher and Sean Stasiak (later Meat in the WWF) attempted to break into Lawler’s house and Lawler threw a fireball straight from the kitchen to run them off. Stasiak interfered and attempted throwing a fireball of retribution on Lawler, but botched it badly, which ended an already disappointing match on an anti-climatic note.
In The “To Watch” Queue:
Ricky Steamboat vs Dan Spivey (WCW Saturday Night 01/02/93)
Barry Windham vs Johnny B. Badd (WCW Saturday Night 01/02/93)
Mitsuharu Misawa, Jun Akiyama & Satoru Asako vs Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa (AJPW 01/02/95)
Hiroshi Hase vs Kentaro Shiga (AJPW 01/02/97)
Gedo & Jado vs Yoshihiro Taijiri & Ryuji Yamakawa (BJPW 01/02/97)
