This Week in 90’s Wrestling: March 15th – 21st

MARCH 17

1992

UWFI held a card in Nagoya. Mark Silver faced Masahito Kakihara in a ***3/4 match.

1993

WCW held a show in Dublin, Ireland, in front of 3,000 fans. In the main event, Vader regained the WCW World Title, defeating Sting, who won the title in London only six days earlier.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6dvvm_sting-vs-vader-wcw-title_sport

1995

JWP held a card in Hakata in front of 1,800 fans. The highlight of the show was a ****1/4 street fight between long-time rivals Mayumi Ozaki and Dynamite Kansai.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_qv0zINk8c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVOn9nvXhHI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcAAeMLvV6E

AAA held a card in Zacatecas where El Hijo del Santo, Octagon and Rey Misterio Jr. faced Blue Panther, Psicosis and Fuerza Guerrera in a ****1/4 match.

1996

New Japan held a card in Amagasaki in front of a sellout 5,500 fans. The in-ring highlight of the show was Jushin Liger’s successful defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Shinjiro Otani in a **** match.

The WWF held a house show in Madison Square Garden in front of a sellout 17,000 fans. In the main event, Bret Hart teamed with The Undertaker to face Diesel and Shawn Michaels. Diesel had been wrestling as a tweener for months, but he attacked Michaels with a chair in the post-match fracas to cement his heel turn before departing for WCW.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7qc4e_bret-hart-undertaker-vs-shawn-micha_sport

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7qd2z_bret-hart-undertaker-vs-shawn-micha_sport

1997

WWF Monday Night RAW aired live from Syracuse, NY, in front of 4,737 fans. The show featured a fun minis match with Mini Goldust teaming with Mascarita Sagrada against Mini Vader and Mini Mankind. Sagrada’s charisma and high flying got him over great with the live crowd and the WWF might have had something, but he did not really fit their vision of wrestling. In the main event, WWF World Champion Sid defeated Bret Hart in an interference-filled cage match. The post-match angle was legendary, as Bret Hart shoved Vince McMahon to the ground before cutting a scorched Earth promo and swearing on live television. The show did a 2.5 rating, tying their second highest of the year to this point; however, they still heavily trailed Nitro, which drew a 3.55 rating for the evening, even with a largely uneventful show.

CMLL held the first of many Cibernetico matches, in which 16 wrestlers faced off in a battle royal to determine pairings before facing off in an 8 vs 8 elimination match. El Hijo del Santo, Shocker, El Texano, Mr. Niebla, La Fiera, Dr. Wagner Jr. and Mascara Magica faced Negro Casas, Black Warrior, Felino, Mano Negra, El Dandy, Scorpio Jr. and Silver King in a **** match.

1998

WWF Monday Night RAW aired a show taped the previous day in Phoenix, AZ, in front of a sellout 13,598 fans. The great hype for Wrestlemania XIV continued, with three excellent video packages on Mike Tyson, Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels. The show was daringly headlined by a match between Sable and Luna Vachon. Kane destroyed everyone in sight and was headed for Sable when The Undertaker returned to confirm that the two would have a match at WrestleMania.

1999

New Japan Pro Wrestling held a card in Hiroshima which included what appeared to be a really strong match in clipped form when it aired on television, as Koji Kanemoto defeated Jushin Liger to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Sadly, only about 10 minutes of the 31:38 match have yet to air anywhere.

In The “To Watch” Queue:

Manami Toyota vs Suzuka Minami (AJW 03/17/91)

Akira Hokuto vs Aja Kong (AJW 03/17/91)

Bull Nakano & Kyoko Inoue vs Bison Kimura & Mika Takahashi (AJW 03/17/91)

Ultimo Dragon vs Corazon De Leon (CMLL 03/17/95)