SWS 10/29/1991

Yoshihiro Asai vs. Bestia Salvaje

We have a young Ultimo Dragon here, wrestling unmasked, even featured in a pre-taped interview before the match, where he displayed the dashing good looks that supposedly once earned him the nickname “Ultimo Hottie” from Stephanie McMahon. Imagining the alternate universe where Stephanie leaves Hunter and infuriates Vince by becoming Stephanie McMahon Levesque Asai is a Shakespearean romance, or perhaps a Vince Russo fever dream. The sad truth is that even then, Vince would likely still prefer Steph to poor Shane.

Even at this early stage of his career, after only wrestling for about four years, Yoshihiro Asai’s in-ring work was exceptional; everything he did, from his aerial maneuvers to his strikes, looked polished and impactful.

Salvaje, who I’ve always been a fan of, was also excellent here, making the young Asai look like a million bucks, including taking a beautiful, sky-high backdrop. Both men executed incredible moves to the floor for that era, highlighted by a beautiful Asai moonsault by Dragon and a plancha from the top turnbuckle by Salvaje.

The crowd fully embraced Asai as the babyface, getting loudly behind him when Salvaje locked in a grounded octopus stretch and teased the finish. Asai eventually mounted a brief comeback and won the match with a bridging German suplex in 9:18.

This was a good match and fun junior heavyweight action for the era, earning ***1/4. However, it perhaps needed a little more time or, at the very least, a more extended comeback sequence to feel truly great.