Stew Style

2nd February 2003 – Fighting Spirit 2003

I hadn’t realised as I watched the show that Shinsuke Nakamura was involved in a big six man tag match, so it was a real surprise to see the Super Rookie walk out with the more established names of Iizuka and Blue Wolf. As is becoming a regular occurrence every time Nakamura steps in the ring, he steals the show completely, and this was no different… much like his performance at Wrestling World 2003, Nakamura showed great fighting spirit in the face of heavy opposition and even though he got his ass handed to him, he did it with such aplomb that I couldn’t help but admire the kid. Usually, rookies are brought along very, very slowly in New Japan, learning their craft month by month… but in Nakamura it seems they’ve produced practically the finished article right off the bat… someone capable of completely capturing the crowd’s imagination either in victory or defeat.

In stark, stark contrast to Nakamura, the debuting Hiroshi Nagao looked completely AWFUL in his tag match. OK, so he blew a knee out a few days prior and could hardly put any weight on his leg… but he was treated with complete disdain by the Makai Club. Nagao couldn’t even throw a decent looking strike. If New Japan think they have something special with Nagao by sticking him in such a high profile match for a debut… then they’ve still got a lot of work to do in my opinion.

And then… the main event! These two had the best NJPW singles match of 2002 (at the G-1) and one of the best NJPW singles matches of 2001 (at the G-1 World PPV), so I was completely looking forward to this match as a definite MOTY contender for 2003… but I was drastically disappointed. In fact, I was so disappointed the first time round that I decided to watch the match again just to see if it grew any on me… and while it did, I still have grave reservations about it. To be fair, there was nothing technically wrong with the match… and the story of the match was based around Nishimura’s underdog struggle to defeat the powerful IWGP Champion… it’s just – well, I hate to say it – that the match almost played out like an elongated squash. Nagata established himself early with an intense flurry of kicks, and from that moment on, Nishimura was almost totally dominated, except for a few short flurries. Don’t get me wrong, I understand what they wanted to do… and you can argue that they succeeded, since the fans were really behind Osamu, with big “Nishimura” chants… but after watching the two go hold for hold as (practically) equals in the G-1 last year where Nagata just couldn’t beat Nishumura, it was a big comedown to watch the surly Nagata be put over as convincingly as he was. It was strange at the time how Nishimura got an IWGP Title match with practically no buildup at the start of a tour… and his complete defeat in this match sadly demonstrated to me that Nishimura won’t be IWGP Champion for quite a while, if ever. The first big letdown of the year, I’m afraid.

11th February 2003 – Fighting Spirit 2003

I really enjoyed the Gedo & Jado v Crazy & Curry match. A definite step up from their 30/1/03 match, this was probably the best match I’ve seen in ages from the former IWGP Jr Heavyweight Tag Champions. Super Crazy was a bit spotty, but Curry Man made up for it with great charisma, workrate and just general entertainment.

Team Nishimura v Team Saturn was a cool match, with Nish and Yoshie doing the majority of the work for their side in order to protect the rookie Yano as much as possible. Yano had a great spell of offence at the end of the match before falling to defeat, but he still always really impresses me.

The Junior Ideology six-man match is the best match I’ve seen in the feud so far. Although Heat seemed quite bored in the early going, everyone was 100% “on” by the end and the match was incredibly exciting… Kanemoto and Tiger Mask in particular had one hyper-fast extended exchange which had me marking like crazy. As if I wasn’t already, I’m now REALLY looking forward to seeing Kanemoto defend his belt against Tiger! On a related note… how come AKIRA can take months off at a time to do his acting and still come back to be at such a high standard? He always looks like one of the absolute best in the world. Interesting story with the match too, as Kanemoto obviously can’t understand why his old T-2000 buddy would choose sides with the shooter group ahead of the traditionalists… and while he tries to mend fences with AKIRA, Liger keeps telling him to forget it and just fight!

Moving on to the #1 contender match for the IWGP Tag Titles, and let's just leave it by saying that at least they kept it short... and that Jim Steele is abhorrently crap in the ring.

And then the main event... the match I bought the tape for... Nagata & Nakamura versus the tag champions. There was some really solid work from all four of these guys, with Nakamura getting his biggest chance to show off some offence. What he did was great, but there was a very heavy reliance on the cross-armbreaker spot... a technique he went back to time and time again. I hope that's just because he's still learning his craft and really doesn't have a wide enough array of moves under his belt... because I think it'd be a shame if he became a totally shoot-obsessed worker. Either way, it's another feather in Nakamura's cap that he traded move for move with the tag champions, as the evolution of this most promising of workers continues.


16th February 2003 – Fighting Spirit 2003

Shown over two weeks, this card had several highlights. One of them was not the opener, sadly. I'm a very big fan of Tanahashi, but his return match on this show was highly disappointing. I suppose much like Nagata v Nakanishi from earlier in the tour, it told a good story... but once again, I was disappointed at the lack of competitiveness. Nakanishi treated Tanahashi with relative ease, winning with the German Suplex. Hopefully there'll be a lot better to come from Hiroshi later in the year.

Curry Man v Osamu Nishimura, on the other hand, was a complete delight of a match. I really dig the Curry Man character, as Chris Daniels always puts 110% into his work and body language when he's under the hood... and it was great to see Curry Man trying to come to grips with the MUGA style of Nishimura. Along with the regular escapes and handstands, Nish brought out a brand new technique in this match when he went into the Lotus Position and began to meditate in the midst of a Curry Man sleeperhold! Seriously, this is a see-it-to-believe-it moment! Great match, which showed Nishimura bringing the innovation even in an unimportant match like this.

Match of the night was the elimination match in the Junior Ideology feud. Going a half hour, this was another great encounter... and wow, have Kanemoto's feelings towards AKIRA changed...! Whereas Kanemoto was interested in mending bridges with his friend five days ago, now he wanted nothing more than to punish him! Indeed, the match was top notch action from start to finish, with the early star of the show being young Minoru Fujita. I can't get enough of Fujita these days as he plays the spunky punk so well... and it can only benefit him that he's teaming regularly with people of the calibre of Kanemoto & Liger. In the end, it came down to the team of Kanemoto & Liger on one side and the team of AKIRA & Heat on the other... and that's when it really started to get good, as AKIRA & Heat put forward a hell of an effort against the so-called "Unbeatables". Would Liger's army crush the younger generation again, or would AKIRA mastermind a huge win for his team? Heck, buy the tape and check it out!

Chono & Tenzan's Tag Title defence against Yasuda & Murakami came about as a result of Jim Steele's injury, which took him and Mike Barton out of their top contender role. Having seen Barton & Steele earlier in the tour, I say thank goodness for small mercies...! The match was OK, I suppose, but nothing more. TenChono had a better defence against the team of Yasuda & Yanagisawa in December.

The main event was a lacklustre affair as Takayama squashed Yanagisawa to retain his NWF Title in his V1 defence. For someone as talented at having great matches as Takayama, his last couple of major singles outings have been major flops - First with Kosaka at the Dome, and now with Yanagisawa. I think it's just the case of finding the right opponent for him... and neither TK nor Yanagisawa offered that. As a result, it was a pretty blah match. Since all the matches up to the Junior Elimination match were shown in the first week broadcast, with only the last three shown on the second week, I'd suggest checking out the first part of the show specifically for the Elimination match and the Nishimura match, and leaving the second part unless you want the complete event.


6th March 2003 – Hyper Battle 2003

Currently watching this tape...!












2nd May 2003 – Ultimate Crush At The Tokyo Dome

Well, this was the first major new NJPW show I intentionally avoided reading spoilers for until I saw the card… and for a while there, I wished I hadn’t gone to such lengths. Tenzan is DEATH in singles matches, and he seemed to leech any spunkiness out of Tanahashi in a very limp affair. Ken Shamrock’s NJPW debut (about 6 years later than planned) was a complete washout, and the junior tag team match seemed to be stuck in first gear until the closing minute. Amazing, therefore, that it would be the Vale Tudo matches that would rejuvenate my interest in the card!

Shinsuke Nakamura’s win over Jan “The Giant” Nortje was inspirational to say the least! I had expected the smaller Nakamura to struggle against the bigger, more experienced Nortje, but time and time again young Shinsuke took the big man down and basically twatted him across the face several times as the commentators (and both Steve and myself) excitedly exclaimed “Punchy, punchy!!” For the young man in only his second shoot match, Nakamura had the Tokyo Dome in the palm of his hand. Truly, barring any stupid Vale Tudo risks (like a match against Cro Cop or whatever) the sky is the limit for the Super Rookie. In subsequent VT matches, Josh Barnett v Jimmy Ambriz was a standing war – for as long as it lasted before Barnett cleaned his clock with a KO. As Steve said, I think Fujita was asked to take it easy and to let Nakanishi get to the third round, because quite frankly, the clueless Nakanishi was there for the taking at any time during rounds one and two should Fujita have wanted. Nakanishi showed good heart though, and that display of fighting spirit should at least ensure that no damage will have been done to his pro wrestling position on the card.

With the VT section out of the way, and my excitement restored, we moved into the final three pro wrestling matches of the evening. I was expecting nothing from Inoue v Murakami, but was definitely pleasantly surprised by the bloodbath which followed. The moment when the bloody Murakami is just standing there, pretty much no-selling a mega stiff flurry of shots from Inoue as the blood shot everywhere is simply an outstanding markout moment! Full credit to both men for working within their limitations and putting on a great match.

And then… the big one… Kenta Kobashi in NJPW for the first time! It’s a testament to both men that they managed to put on such a great match, especially considering Chono’s serious knee injury. I had been convinced ever since seeing the Chono & Misawa v Kobashi & Taue match from January in NOAH that Chono & Kobashi could have a classic at the Dome, and I wasn’t disappointed. While the whole match was impressive as hell, it’s the insane finishing sequence which really has to be seen to be believed… it’s Chono’s Dangerous Backdrop Driver versus Kobashi’s Half Nelson Suplex… with every one causing much “ooh”-ing and “ahh”-ing from the crowd (and me). Stunning.

I’m not sure how you follow an emotional rollercoaster like Chono v Kobashi, but Takayama and Nagata certainly gave it a go. The match was definitely the source of most heat chez Steve, but that’s because we’re both unapologetic Nagata marks. I don’t think the match managed to live up to either the previous match on this card, or Nagata v Takayama from last year’s May Dome show, and I think part of that was due to the rather abrupt ending, which seemed to come out of nowhere. I’d have loved Nagata to retain the belt too, but it’s been a hell of a ride and all good things must come to an end and all that… I’m positive the strap will be back round Nagata’s waist before too long anyway.