WCW Halloween Havoc, Paradise, NV
A request! These two get the opening slot at Slim Jim’s Halloween Havoc, headlined by Hogan and Piper in the cage.
Nagata has the eternally useless Sonny Onoo in his corner. Nagata is a young man in the game still. Dragon used to be managed by Onoo.
(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)
Mike Tenay joins the show for the first three matches because they all have small foreigners and that is his expert specialty. You can’t leave that up to Bobby and Dusty. Bobby was enthusiastic enough about it, but not knowledgeable, and Dusty was, at the time, prone to getting very mad at everyone who didn’t wrestle like it was 1977, and at the idea that they were good and doing something fresh.
Onoo has Nagata, his “hired assassin,” here to teach Ultimo Dragon respect or whatever. He’d been targeting Dragon’s shoulder in the build to this showdown. Nagata’s the bigger man, but Dragon doesn’t back off at all, bringing some fight to his younger foe, using his speed and craft to neutralize any disadvantages.
Nagata grounds it and cranks on a chinlock, because with both on their feet, Dragon can get around him too fast. Couple of nice suplays early from both guys, then Nagata starts landing heavy, thudding kicks. Dragon’s known for his great kicks, but his are sharp and fast and come in combination. For raw power and heft, Nagata’s kicks do more damage per. Basically it’s a warrior vs a rogue in PVP.
Dragon calling on the kicks as Nagata takes it over, trying to get the bigger man to make a mistake, and he does, Dragon capitalizing with a dragon screw legwhip, but then Dragon slingshots out to the floor right into a Nagata kick to the belly-welly.
Raven and his “The Flock” make their way to ringside. Asai moonsault from Dragon! Back inside and Nagata goes for a Slim Jim’s Superplex, but is countered with a Slim Jim’s Sunset Bomb from the middle turnbuckle.
This moves, moves, moves. Dragon’s fairly well over in WCW, Nagata isn’t, but it’s a PPV opener, a lot of the crowd are still excited simply to be there, and they’re meeting that energy, which is of course a big part of the PPV opener job.
Nagata goes to the arm, Dragon suffering with bone chips in his elbow recently, and it’s just a ruthless assault on the arm. Beautiful overhead belly-to-belly from Nagata gets two, and then the Nagata Lock on the legs, but silly Nagata, Dragon’s legs are still on Green.
Dragon Sleeper! Nagata gets to the ropes quickly enough, and that arm is still hurting, hindering Dragon’s run of offense, and also keeping it really difficult to get the Dragon Sleeper when he goes for it again. Dragon taps out fast when Nagata grabs an armbar, so it’s a big win for Young Yuji. (I mean, he’s, like, five years in at this point, but still just beginning to build his legend.) Onoo gets a shot in at Dragon’s elbow, too.
Pretty much exactly what it’s designed to be, what it needed to be, and all that it can be. They weren’t gonna get 25 to do a big epic, they got about 10 and they made the 10 count.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 