WCW SuperBrawl, St. Petersburg, FL
This is the main event of the first ever SuperBrawl. Flair and Fujinami had a match in Japan in March, where Fujinami won and became the first man to hold the IWGP and NWA championship. But the NWA and WCW championships were considered separate in Japan, so Fujinami did not win the WCW title, Flair came back with it. For the TV build in the U.S., WCW chose to make this much less interesting and dumber, so it’s Flair fighting for fuckin America or whatever.
The referee situation has Tiger Hattori from NJPW in the ring, and Bill Alfonso from WCW as the second referee outside, a backup right there in waiting if needed.
They wrestle briefly, and then Flair starts throwing the chops. Then they’re trading chops and Fujinami gets the better of it. The big problem with this match as a PPV main event for what was meant to be a big show is that WCW put no effort into making American fans give a shit about Fujinami, who really was a great international star, a big name and one of the top guys in the world.
Fujinami gets a Boston crab on. The commentary during the intros was leaning a little “everyone’s gonna hate the foreigner,” but since mostly the crowd is indifferent and the wrestlers are just working a pretty normal match, it calms down into a lot of respect for both.
Fujinami working the back and legs, but they go outside and Flair drops Fujinami’s schlong over the guard rail. Flair gets the figure four on in the ring, but he makes a mistake and slaps Fujinami disrespectfully, which Dusty and Jim figure basically just woke Fujinami up, and gave him the power to turn the hold over and break it.
Fujinami gets the Scorpion Deathlock on. Flair gets the bottom rope. They go back outside, and Flair runs the blade and gets his head posted. Fujinami has Flair in the familiar vulnerable spot up top but isn’t reaching up with his left hand so Flair forces it there so he can be slammed. Fujinami still doesn’t really use the left hand on it at all. Fujinami is me in 7th grade trying to figure out how to do a slow dance and Flair is my annoyed 7th grade girlfriend like HAND HERE DUMBASS goddamn calm down Jessica nobody ever taught me this.
Fujinami gets the octopus on; Jim notes this is a move rarely used by American wrestlers. Dusty puts it over big because Antonio Inoki has had him in it before.
They get back to the 50/50 a bit and Flair kicks Fujinami off, sending Fujinami crashing head-to-head with Tiger Hattori. That leads to Flair yanking the tights, rolling Fujinami up with an obvious handful of tights, and Bill Alfonso counting the three. The commentary doesn’t make any note that Flair had an obvious handful of tights and they do not show a single replay. They’d shown replays of every match prior. And then they DO show a replay, but from the angle where you can’t see Flair grabbing the tights. And they again make no mention that Flair, meant to be the American hero on the night, did his usual Ric Flair shtick.
It’s an OK match. Depends on your tolerance for mid-tier Flair. The work is good, they were both very good and didn’t lack chemistry or anything. But Fujinami isn’t over here, really, and the presentation is confused and inconsistent.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
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