| WCW/New Japan Supershow I | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Promotion(s) | World Championship Wrestling New Japan Pro-Wrestling | ||
| Date | March 21, 1991 Aired April 1991 | ||
| City | Tokyo, Japan | ||
| Venue | Tokyo Dome | ||
| Attendance | 64,500 | ||
| Pay-per-view chronology | |||
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| WCW/New Japan Supershow chronology | |||
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| New Japan Pro Wrestling events chronology | |||
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WCW/New Japan Supershow I, (known asStarrcade in Tokyo Dome[1] in Japan) was aprofessional wrestlingpay-per-view (PPV)event that took place on March 21, 1991, in theTokyo Dome inTokyo, Japan. It was co-promoted byNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), who hosted the event, and theUS-BasedWorld Championship Wrestling (WCW), which supplied a number of the wrestlers on the show. The event was the inauguralWCW/New Japan Supershow. The show also aired on tape delayTV Asahi in Japan the same day along with airing onpay-per-view in April 1991.
The event was viewed by 64,500 people live in attendance in Japan and later shown in America on a PPV in April, 1991. Several of the matches on the show were not included in the PPV broadcast, held for the benefit of the crowd in attendance only. The WCW/NJPW Supershows were part of a small group of WCW-produced PPVs not included in the "on demand" features when theWWE Network was launched in 2014.[2]
The event featured elevenprofessional wrestling matches and two pre-show matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds andstorylines. Wrestlers portrayedvillains,heroes, orless distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.[3]
| Role: | Name: |
|---|---|
| Commentator | Jim Ross |
| Tony Schiavone |
The opening bout was aneight-man tag team match pittingAnimal Hamaguchi,Kantaro Hoshino,Kengo Kimura, andOsamu Kido againstHiro Saito,Norio Honaga,Super Strong Machine, andTatsutoshi Goto. The team of Hamaguchi, Hoshino, Kimura, and Kido won the match. This was adark match that did not air on the pay-per-view broadcast.
The second bout was asix-man tag team match pittingBrian Pillman,Tim Horner, andTom Zenk of WCW againstKuniaki Kobayashi,Shiro Koshinaka, andTakayuki Iizuka of NJPW. The match ended when Koshinaka pinned Horner following adragon suplex.[4]
The third bout was asingles match betweenThe Equalizer andScott Norton. The match was won by Norton. This was a dark match that did not air on the pay-per-view broadcast.
The fourth bout was a singles matches in whichIWGP Junior Heavyweight ChampionJushin Thunder Liger defended his title againstAkira Nogami. Liger won the bout by pinfall following anAvalanche DDT.[4]
The fifth bout was atag team match pitting theFour Horsemen againstMasahiro Chono andMasa Saito. The match ended whenBarry Windham of the Four Horsemen pinned Saito following alariat.[4]
The sixth bout was a tag team match pittingWCW World Tag Team Champions theSteiner Brothers againstIWGP Tag Team ChampionsHiroshi Hase andKensuke Sasaki. The Steiner Brothers won the match whenScott Steiner pinned Sasaki following aFrankensteiner, thus becoming double champions.[4]
The seventh bout was a singles match betweenBig Cat Hughes andEl Gigante. El Gigante won a shortsquash match by submission using aclawhold.[4]
The eighth bout was a tag team match pittingBig Van Vader andCrusher Bam Bam Bigelow againstDoom. Vader and Bigelow won the bout. This was a dark match that did not air on the pay-per-view broadcast.
The ninth bout was a singles match in whichGreatest 18 Club ChampionRiki Choshu defended his title againstTiger Jeet Singh. Choshu won the bout by pinfall. This was a dark match that did not air on the pay-per-view broadcast.Lex Luger was originally scheduled to face Choshu, but Luger's contract with WCW did not require him to wrestle in Japan.[5]
The tenth bout was a "grudge match" betweenThe Great Muta andSting. The Great Muta won the bout via pinfall by spraying Sting withGreen Mist and then giving him acrossbody. Following the match, Sting gave The Great Muta aStinger Splash and then applied theScorpion Deathlock to him.[4]
The eleventh bout was a singles match pittingIWGP Heavyweight ChampionTatsumi Fujinami againstNWA World Heavyweight Champion andWCW World Heavyweight ChampionRic Flair The match was presented very differently in the United States and in Japan. During the show it was announced that Ric Flair's NWA World Heavyweight Championship was on the line, but not the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. In the United States, those were considered the same championship and represented by one title belt. The PPV announcers stated that Fujinami's IWGP Heavyweight Championship was also on the line in the match even though no such mention was made during the introductions. The outcome of the match was also presented differently, to the Japanese crowd Fujinami defeated Flair by pinfall (counted by NJPW refereeTiger Hattori, who had replaced WCW refereeBill Alfonso after a spot in which Alfonso was knocked out) and thus won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. The title change was ignored in the United States, with WCW claiming that Fujinami had been disqualified for throwing Ric Flair over the top rope during the time Alfonso had been knocked out and thus did not win the match.[4][6]
Following the main event, a celebratory Fujinami's press conference was interrupted by Ric Flair, who stole back the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and stated Fujinami would need to come to the United States to get it back.[4] A later rematch between the two atSuperBrawl I saw Flair regain the NWA title, but in all promotional material produced by WCW it was billed as a successful title defense against Fujinami.[7][8]
Dave Meltzer reviewed the event in theWrestling Observer Newsletter after attending it live. He was largely positive, crediting it for having a great presentation for the main event championship match and praising matches such as the tag match between The Steiner Brothers and the team of Hiroshi Hase and Kensuke Sasaki, the six-man tag, the match between Jushin Liger and Akira Nogami, and the final two matches of the night. He argued the show would have been more effective for WCW if it was aired in the United States on television as aClash of the Champions rather than as a pay-per-view.[9]
The ending to the main event was not well received in Japan, as the crowd was not used to "dirty" finishes like theDusty finish used in the main event. Meltzer reprinted comments from Japanese newspapers covering the situation that contained comments like "This WCW dirty trick finish is nothing but trouble. They've already ruined their company at home with it and now they're going to ruin our wrestling with it."[9]
Fujinami went on to face Flair again in the main event ofSuperBrawl I in May of that year in a match for both the NWA and WCW World Heavyweight Championships.
