Stew Style
NJPW Indicate Of Next (28/10/01)
Jushin Thunder Liger, El Samurai & Minoru Tanaka vs. Jado, Gedo & AKIRA
As per usual, a Jr match to open the show, and with a line-up like this, there’s plenty to get excited about. Not that the Tokyo Dome crowd seem really into it. Junior matches usually die in the huge Dome setting. However, to pop the crowd and hopefully keep them hot during this match, the Team 2000 team of Jado, Gedo & AKIRA introduce the newest member of the group… Koji Kanemoto! Kanemoto comes out wearing shades, greeting his new teammates in the ring while his old IWGP Jr Tag Team Championship partner Minoru Tanaka looks on aghast.
Introductions done, the match gets underway. The heels get the advantage quickly, taking the face team to the outside and AKIRA putting Samurai though a table after a splash from the top turnbuckle to the outside. Back inside, Minoru plays face in peril for a while, falling victim to the slick teamwork of the T-2000 combo before finally making the hot tag to Liger. With Liger in, the action heats up… Liger gets a near fall on Gedo; Samurai hits a tope on Jado from a Liger Irish whip, and reverses a Superbomb attempt into a rana; Liger pescados onto Gedo as Tanaka does the same to AKIRA, allowing Samurai to try and put Jado away with a diving headbutt which only gets a 2 count. Then, it’s go time as the heels get medieval on Samurai until he gets the knees up into an AKIRA splash and everybody hits their moves, ending up with Tanaka and AKIRA in the ring, and Tanaka hitting the Minoru Special (jumping cross armbreaker) for the tap out. Post match, they tease the Kanemoto v Tanaka feud.
Well, that was certainly a good match, starting with the heel tactics at the beginning and eventually turning into a fast paced spotfest. There wasn’t any real heat from the crowd though, as they’re traditionally dead for Jr matches at the Dome… For fans of Jr wrestling, this was perfectly acceptable.
4 on 2 Handicap Match
Yutaka Yoshie, Kenzo Suzuki, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Wataru Inoue vs. Giant Singh & Giant Silva
Oh no. This is NJPW’s equivalent of one of the WWF’s most offensive moments ever… the Oddities v Kaientai tag match from SummerSlam 98. Here, the part of Giant Silva is played by… err… Giant Silva. Silva and Singh are living proof that despite how snobbish western puro fans are, the natives still mark out like crazy for hopeless wrestlers just because they’re really tall. No kidding, if The Big Show worked for NJPW, he’d be treated like a god.
The sacrificial lambs here are three promising young lions (Tanahashi, Suzuki & Inoue) and one awful waste of space (Yutaka Yoshie). Yoshie used to be pushed quite hard, but when Inoki unseated Choshu from the booking position, his boy Yoshie was de-pushed like crazy. No big loss, to be honest.
The match is simply a case of the Giants no-selling 90% of their opponent’s offence, and that 10% of offence that they DO sell is so badly done that you wish they’d not bother at all. For big men, Silva is almost passable. He’s got a really imposing size in the ring, and he didn’t seem to miss anything he went for. Singh, though, is pretty bad. I’ve no idea what this guy’s history is, so I can’t tell you what experience he has. He certainly looked green in the short times he was allowed in the ring. The end comes, not soon enough for this writer, at 9:06 after a weak Singh chokeslam on Yoshie and Silva hits a second rope splash (dubbed the Giant Press) on Tanahashi and Inoue for the double pin.
Disregarding their lack of talent for a moment, this match was obviously supposed to get the Giants over as a force in NJPW, yet it took them nearly 10 minutes to see off these four. Yes, it was 4 on 2, but the Giants showed no sign of any hurt or fatigue in the match from their opponent’s offence. The smarter booking would’ve been to use the Giants as a bulldozer team, beating opponents in under a minute with quick, slick execution of their moves. The longer the match went on, the longer it exposed how limited the big men really were.
Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Gary Goodridge
Ohara was on the run-up to a legit shoot fight in PRIDE against Renzo Gracie on November 3rd right back here at the Tokyo Dome, and this was his worked warm-up match against PRIDE fighter Gary Goodridge.
The match is fought in a shoot style, both men wearing MMA gloves. Strangely enough, for the duration of this fight, Ohara is the dominant one. He gets his opponent into a front neck crank, then a cross armbreaker, then knocks Goodridge down with one right punch and reapplies the armbreaker. The fans are reacting to this unexpected dominance (having been educated to think that wrestlers can’t beat shooters) and really buy it when Ohara gets Goodridge into a choke sleeper. Goodridge falls back to break the hold, and after taking his opponent to the mat, beats him with punches for a TKO at 3:36.
It’s easy to dismiss this as another piece of retarded Inoki booking, but considering what happened a month later (when Ohara was stupidly outclassed in his legit fight against Gracie, losing by decision) it’s probably just as well he wasn’t booked to win this match. A win here would give the impression to the Japanese fans that Ohara was going to be something to be reckoned with in the PRIDE fight, and the damage done in that loss would’ve been all the greater. A short match, but it certainly was kept exciting, and resulted in Ohara’s most watchable match in ages.
IWGP Junior Title Match
Masayuki Naruse vs. Tokimitsu Ishizawa
The challenger was announced to the ring as Kendo Ka Shin, but Ishizawa comes out without the mask (drawing a huge pop from the Dome fans) in an attempt to show his determination. Ishikawa has been on the comeback trail here following his PRIDE win over Ryan Gracie in July and his sub 1 minute thrashing of former Jr Division standard bearer Minoru Tanaka. Ishikawa had to be considered the heavy favourite to regain the gold…
Naruse gets the early advantage, backing Ishizawa into the corner (probably in order to bring back memories of the first Ishizawa/Gracie fight when Ishizawa was quickly overcome with punches in the corner) and hits his Crazy Cyclone (spinning back fist). He picks up Ishizawa who quickly transitions into a cross armbreaker for the tap out at 0:26. Huge pop for that, and Masayuki Naruse would go on to challenge Yutaka Yoshie for the title of most de-pushed man un NJPW.
Ishizawa refuses to accept the belt, waiting until he has the chance to get backstage and put on the Kendo Ka Shin mask first. Ohh-kay. Probably the right booking here, since Naruse had proven himself incapable of being able to work high-end junior matches. Rather than start Ka Shin’s title reign with a forgettable, ugly match, they decided to start it with a bang. The crowd approved.
Tatsumi Fujinami 30th Year Anniversary Match
Tatsumi Fujinami & Bob Backlund vs. Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk
I worry about Dory Funk, I really do. The man is OLD. Not to sound ageist about it, but surely one bump could break a hip or something, right? Maybe with this in mind, all four men keep the match simple, with ground based wrestling exchanges. To prove that JR-isms are not solely applicable to the WWF, it’s fair to say that Bob Backlund is still crazy as a pet coon, bah god, as he dances around like a madman, scrambling between the Funk’s legs.
The match is a sheer nostalgia trip, which is all it was supposed to be anyway. The finish comes when Dory had applied the spinning toehold (to a good reaction) and then been cradled for a 2 count. His attempted follow up elbow gets blocked and reversed into a Fujinami backslide for the three count at 10:40 (the same move that Dory had used the previous day to upset Fujinami’s pupil Osamu Nishimura).
The match was totally enjoyable for what it was, and although none of the old-timers really got to stand out as anything really special anymore, they still showed some old style fundamental wrestling knowledge that a lot of the younger talent would do well to learn.
Riki Choshu & Osamu Nishimura vs. Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Nishimura is the IWGP Tag Champion at this point, but is in the unenviable position of trading in one puroresu legend who can still go (Fujinami) for one who should just go, full stop. With Fujinami’s nostalgia match, Choshu was drafted in to this (almost) rematch from September 23rd when Tenkoji lost the IWGP Tag straps to Fujinami & Nishimura.
The majority of the match is worked so that the two more limited members of each team (Tenzan & Choshu) are practically never legally in the ring at the same time. As a result, there is at least one super talented worker in the ring at all times. Tenzan, to be fair, is in his element in this type of match where his excellent tag team instincts save him from running out of ideas and going back to the headbutt/Mongolian chop routine we so often see in his singles encounters. Choshu’s deterioration, however, has reached the point where if it doesn’t involve throwing a Riki Lariat he doesn’t even want to know.
The match was really the start of an angle where Tenkoji would go on a losing streak, and the end of the match came when Kojima accidentally clotheslined Tenzan and Choshu followed up with a whole string of Riki Lariats (even despite taking a Koji Cutter) for the eventual pin on Tenzan at 10:40. Choshu proved in this match to be nothing more than a hindrance, and his full time return to the tours (which has just happened as I write this in Feb 2002) is simply going to drag down match quality even further. Inoki comes out for an interview to pop the crowd like mad, and in this case, Choshu should take a leaf out of Inoki’s book. This was a decent match though, thanks to the work of the incredibly smooth work of Kojima and Nishimura, and Tenzan’s ability to know his role and allow his partner to dictate the match.
Manabu Nakanishi vs. Tadao Yasuda
This was actually rumoured at one time to be the main event of the show, which would’ve probably lead to quite a few thousand NJPW fans leaving before the final match. Someone saw sense and the match ended up third from the top (still way too high up the card for my liking though).
This was a rematch from the G1 Climax Tournament where Yasuda beat Nakanishi with a front neck crank at 7:11. This match lasted 6:02 and Nakanishi got his win back by forcing Yasuda to tap to a front sleeper/body scissors combination. That’s all you need to know about this match, which was pretty dire all told. Goodridge & Ohara kept their faux shoot match short and explosive (and therefore inoffensive) whereas this match dragged (even at 6 minutes, this was at least three too long) and produced nothing of note.
Nakanishi had completed a hat trick of wins over shooters (Murakami, Goodridge and now Yasuda) but the mini push never lead to anything. The concise review of this match is ‘move along, there is nothing to see here’
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Kazuyuki Fujita
This is Kensuke’s return match, following his short and embarrassing loss to Shinya Hashimoto in April. But first, Naoya Ogawa turns up to piss everybody off by bulging out his eyes and making challenges all over the place. The fans in the Dome though, eat this stuff up with a spoon. Despite Ogawa’s general uselessness in the ring and his political games backstage, he’s still one of the biggest draws in puroresu today.
Ogawa nonsense out of the way, it’s time to get on with the match. This is the new Sasaki (shaven head and all) but he starts off with the same ol’ lariat, following up with the same ol’ Stranglehold Gamma, popping the crowd. Despite the old standby moves from Sasaki, this match is wrestled as a shoot style match, with a heavy reliance on mounts, chokes and strikes. Sasaki shows himself to be very capable of taking it to Fujita in this style too, peppering the IWGP champion with stiff punches. He also adds in a very nasty looking released German Suplex, with Fujita landing hard on his head and shoulders. Fujita makes the comeback with a spinebuster, and the way Fujita pops up afterwards is very, very reminiscent of Goldberg (a good ting in Inoki’s eyes, since Fujita was his attempt to create a homegrown Goldberg). However, Fujita lacks the impactful moves of Billy Boy, and follows up with his patented side mount/knee combo and a side headlock.
The rest of the match is all Sasaki, dominating Fujita with punches, joint locks and even an STO. Fujita’s selling is first rate in this match, but of course he (unlike someone like Goodridge) was a wrestler first before he branched out into PRIDE, therefore having learned all the fundamentals in the NJPW dojos years ago. Then, in another homage to Goldberg’s ability to make instant comebacks, Fujita connects with a flurry of punches, knocking Kensuke down. Fujita gets into a back mount position and rains in a few more shots to the back of Sasaki’s head before the referee calls for a TKO at 6:36.
This was a really explosive, fun match. Unlike the Yasuda/Nakanishi worked shoot, which lasted a comparable amount of time but was boring an uneventful, I was genuinely shocked when I saw the official time come up on the screen at the end of the match. The match sure didn’t seem all that short since the two boys fitted in a lot of action in that short space of time. It wasn’t as good as the 6/6/01 Fujita-Nagata match, but it featured the same kind of dynamic, with the tank-like Fujita against the NJPW hero. Fujita gave a lot here (as I suppose he had to, since this was effectively an anti-climactic return for Sasaki) but still retained the aura befitting of the IWGP champion, even in a non-title match.
I assume that the reason for the booking here came down to a straight choice between re-establishing Sasaki as the top man in NJPW or reaffirming Fujita’s status following his sub 1 minute loss to Mirko Flipovic on the previous K1 v Inoki show. Obviously Inoki had the final say in the decision to put Fujita over, and the manner in which the match was done certainly underlined what Fujita is all about. The Flipovic match had ended via referee’s decision due to Fujita’s blood loss, but Inoki and Fujita complained afterward that Fujita was still able to continue. This match went a long way to promoting Fujita as the kind of person who can keep coming back to win even after being dominated.
Cross Generation Dream Match
Jun Akiyama (NOAH) & Yuji Nagata vs. Hiroshi Hase (AJPW) & Keiji Mutoh
This is the final agreed upon match, after there was a lot of backstage manoeuvring following the announcement of the original plan to have Mutoh/Misawa v Nagata/Akiyama (which put several noses out of joint, including Motoko Baba, who didn’t like the thought of the current AJPW Triple Crown champion teaming with the man who walked out on her company). Instead, AJPW sent part-timer Hiroshi Hase to represent them and be Mutoh’s partner in the match. Mutoh and Hase are two time IWGP tag champions anyway, so I don’t think Mutoh had any problem with that substitution.
This match was all about the young team (well… younger) of Akiyama and Nagata, especially Akiyama, who is wrestling in his debut Dome main event. He starts the match, in the first ever meeting between the Triple Crown Champion and the GHC Champion. The match starts slowly and methodically, allowing each man time to get some in-ring work. Periodically though, there are the requisite crowd pops for the patented stuff, including Mutoh’s Power Drive Elbow on Akiyama and Hase’s Giant Swing on Nagata.
The Giant Swing, which went on for 20 or so revolutions (and getting a near fall for Hase) really then ushered in the big time action, including Akiyama’s attempted Exploder Suplex on Mutoh, which when blocked by Mutoh gets transitioned into a Nagata Lock II (Crippler Crossface) while Nagata actually hits the Exploder on Hase and clamps on Akiyama’s patented Front Neck Crank! This was basically the payoff to the respect/friendship angle that had been building between Nagata and Akiyama where each had started to use the other’s moveset in their singles matches. Akiyama goes all AJPW/NOAH on us by attempting to Exploder Mutoh off the apron, but ends up getting Dragon Screwed off the apron for his trouble. Nasty. Mutoh follows up with a dropkick off the apron to Akiyama’s knee, and taking his opponent back inside wastes no time in going for his figure four leglock. Akiyama makes the ropes, but Mutoh stays on him, setting him up for (and delivering) the Moonsault. It was later discovered that Mutoh severely blew his knees out on that move, and indeed he does look a little second hand after the move.
Nagata and Hase take the strain for a while, with Nagata getting the better of the exchange with kicks, chops and an eventual Nagata Lock (Figure Four variant). Mutoh breaks the hold, and in the ensuing melee pops the crowd (and me) like mad by springboarding off Hase’s back and delivering a textbook Shining Wizard to the recovering Nagata!!! Akiyama then plows in, hitting the originator of the move with a Shining Wizard of his own!
After all four sell the effects of the match, Hase eventually finds himself in the Nagata Lock II, and before Mutoh can do anything about it, he is brilliantly dragged down into a Front Neck Crank by Akiyama, who simply refused to go down with a Dragon Screw. Hase makes it to the ropes, but Nagata and Akiyama double-team him quickly, Akiyama hitting the high knee to Hase in the corner, and delivering a head-drop Exploder. Nagata follows with a backdrop suplex hold, but Hase pops up at a 1 count! The crowd are stunned, and Hase has a glazed look in his eyes. Akiyama takes Mutoh out of the game by re-applying the Front Neck Crank, allowing Nagata to hit a second backdrop suplex hold for the elusive three count!
Wonderful main event, showcasing puroresu at it’s best. It was the kind of match you could just watch and enjoy for the talented work going on in the ring, but for the puroresu buff there was the added significance of seeing Akiyama and Nagata utilise each other’s moves, and of seeing a representative of Pro Wrestling NOAH squaring off against both the Triple Crown champion, and a representative of AJPW (and even being able to block the Shining Wizard and deliver one of his own). There was tremendous creativity in the match, and it mostly was focussed around the team of Akiyama and Nagata (rightly so) and their battle to overcome the old guard. Akiyama in particular looked very sharp, going a long way to disproving the prevailing opinion that he’s good but bland, putting in probably his best performance of the year. Nagata too seems right at home in the main event match, continuing a run of excellent performances from him.
The match was given time to build and develop (28:04), with several key moments to really get the fans responding favourably (always a problem in the vast Tokyo Dome) with near submissions and everyone hitting their finishing moves. Hase was always the obvious jobber in the match, but the ending sequences were kept exciting and interesting enough that it didn’t really matter. The young guys proved without doubt that they are all they are cracked up to be, and Mutoh in particular, kept up with them superbly (at least until the moonsault). Had Misawa been involved, the match would probably have been even better. Hase, although he has proven very, very capable of competing in great matches in 2001 (here and at 6/6 against Mutoh) he is definitely well past his prime. But that shouldn’t detract from the fact that this was a superb match, and a fitting end to a really great Tokyo Dome card.