Collision in Korea, officially known as the Pyongyang International Sports and Culture Festival for Peace (平和のための平壌国際体育・文化祝典, Heiwa no tame no Pyon'yan kokusai taiiku bunka shukuten),[2][3][4] was a professional wrestlingpay-per-view (PPV) event jointly produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The event featured 15 matches[5] over two evenings on April 28 and 29, 1995, at May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea. It aired in North America on August 4, 1995, when WCW broadcast a selection of eight matches from the show on pay-per-view.[6] It was the first event hosted by an American professional wrestling promotion in the country.[7]
The second day of the event holds the record for the largest ever attendance for a wrestling event, with a claimed audience of 190,000. The first day holds the record for the second-largest ever attendance, with a claimed audience of 165,000.[8][9] Day two of the event generated a live gate of $7,500,000 (equivalent to $14,997,000 in 2023) and day two of the event generated $8,500,000 (equivalent to $16,996,000 in 2023), which were two of the biggest live gates ever in wrestling.[10]
Retired boxerMuhammad Ali was the event's guest of honor.[11] NJPW's Hidekazu Tanaka was the ring announcer for the show, while Masao Tayama and Tiger Hattori refereed the matches. Commentary for the WCW pay-per-view presentation of the event was provided by Eric Bischoff, Mike Tenay, and Kazuo Ishikawa.
As of 2023, the event is one of the few WCW PPVs not available for streaming on the WWE Network. Collision in Korea is one of the topics covered in the third season of Vice TV's Dark Side of the Ring in May 2021.[12]
The idea for a professional wrestling event in North Korea came from Antonio Inoki, a Japanese politician, professional wrestler, and head of the professional wrestling promotionNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).[7] At the time, Inoki was struggling with his political career and envisioned the event as an opportunity to improve the diplomatic relations between Japan and North Korea.[7] Inoki had a positive relationship with the government of North Korea, and as a wrestler, he had trained under Rikidōzan, a Korean-Japanese wrestler whom the North Korean government had used extensively in propaganda following his death in 1963.[7] Additionally, Kim Jong Il had recently become Supreme Leader of North Korea following the death of his father Kim Il Sung in 1994 and was allowing some foreign tourists to attend the event, with The New York Times stating that it may have been in an attempt to showcase his leadership of the country.[7]
While planning the event, Inoki wanted to get American wrestlers to participate, and he reached out to Eric Bischoff, president of World Championship Wrestling (WCW), an American promotion with which NJPW had a working relationship.[7] Bischoff was enthusiastic about the event and was even able to convince retired boxerMuhammad Ali to attend the event.[7] At the time, WCW was competing in a ratings war against the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) promotion, and Bischoff believed that a largescale international event could bolster WCW's popularity worldwide.[7] As part of the working arrangement, Inoki would compete in the main event against a famous American wrestler from WCW.[7] Bischoff initially approached WCW wrestler Hulk Hogan, but he declined to participate.[7] In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Bischoff stated, "I might as well have asked him to row a boat to Pluto. It was not gonna [sic] happen".[7] As a result, Bischoff asked Ric Flair, who agreed.[7] In addition to Flair, other WCW wrestlers who participated in the event included 2 Cold Scorpio, Chris Benoit (under his gimmick as Wild Pegasus), Road Warrior Hawk, Scott Norton, and the Steiner Brothers.[7] Reporter Mike Chinoy also came to cover the event for CNN.[7] WCW consultant Sonny Onoo contacted the Japanese embassy to inform them of their plans, with the embassy stating that they could not guarantee their safety, and the wrestlers traveled to North Korea from Japan on a military transport plane.[7] Upon landing, the people had their passports confiscated and were split into two groups with handlers assigned to each.[7] They were then given a tour of North Korea and laid flowers at the foot of a statue of Kim Il-sung.[7]
The second bout was a singles match in which Akira Hokuto defeated Bull Nakano for the CMLL World Women's Championship. The match ended with a pinfall.[5]
The third bout was a singles match in which Black Cat defeated El Samurai by pinfall.[5]
Following the event, North Korean officials requested that Flair read a statement that the nation had the capability to dominate the United States, though Flair declined and instead made a statement wherein he expressed praise for the "beautiful and peaceful country" of North Korea and said, "His Excellency, Kim Il-sung, will always be with us".[7] In late 1995, an image taken during the event showing a bloody Flair being beaten by Inoki was featured on propaganda leaflets that were dropped by the North Korean government over Seoul.[7]
In the United States, the show garnered little news attention, and when the event was released as a pay-per-view later that year, it only received approximately 30,000 buys, a small amount compared to the company's other pay-per-views.[7] Following the purchase of WCW and its assets by WWE in 2001, the company has rarely acknowledged the event and has not released the event on its WWE Network, despite having released almost all other WCW taped events.[7] According to Bischoff and sports journalist Dave Meltzer, this may be because WWE claims the attendance of 93,173 people for their WrestleMania III in 1987 as one of the largest ever for a professional wrestling event, and acknowledging that a competitor of theirs broke that record would hurt their image.[7]
References
^ abMeltzer, Dave. "April 11, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter". f4wonline.com. Wrestling Observer. Retrieved April 7, 2016. The all-time pro wrestling attendance record would be for shows on April 28 and April 29, 1995 at May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea. The announced crowds for those shows were 165,000 and 190,000, although the real numbers were about 150,000 and 165,000. The first show was headlined by Scott Norton vs. Shinya Hashimoto and the second by Antonio Inoki vs. Ric Flair. While there were tickets sold, most of the people attending got in free and were pretty much ordered to attend, so it's not a fair comparison.
