Superstar Sleeze

Shinya Hashimoto vs Tom Howard - Zero-One 6/14/03 After using Misawa on his first two big shows, Hashimoto taps Tom Howard for the main event of his third big show and they do 8000+ in Osaka. Tom Howard, Tom Howard, Tom Howard. Where have I heard that name before? Oh that’s the right he’s the UPW guy who trained John Cena among others. He was better than I expected. He kinda felt like a fake Kung Fu guy like Seagal or what have you but he was actually pretty good in the ring. Unfortunately his look is pretty normal and he doesn’t have much in the way of charisma. Of course Hashimoto has charisma out the yin Yang. Hashimoto went to So Cal to debut one of his Japanese protégés. Things got testy and Hashimoto and Howard ended up in a brawl to set this up. I never really thought of what the aim of Zero-One was. I just kinda assumed it was Hashimoto not wanting to deal with the Inokiist bullshit. It looks like he liked the Inokiist style he just wanted to be the Ace and didn’t cede that to a legit shooter which is smart. Plus he brought Naoya Ogawa. Tom Howard feels like a martial arts practitioner that Inoki would’ve vanquished in the 70s. They stand and bang to start. Good stand up. Really good. Hashimoto throws a wild on and Howard gets behind with a Full Nelson. Steps on the knee to takedown Hashimoto. Howard’s execution and movement is good. He takes Hashimoto down again from behind using a Full Nelson. Hashimoto regroups and tries traditional wrestling but on a rope break Howard slugs him! Good heel heat and takes the match up a notch. Howard wrestled well on top and got a lot of offense. Hashimoto gets a comeback started By going into the clinch and shoving Howard into the buckles. SPINNING BACK FIST! DDT! Now Hash is rocking! Characteristic kicks. Howard connects with a wild round house kick to the head for his last near fall, Howard goes careening over the top turnbuckle to the floor on a wild spinning heel kick. Sick bump. LEG SWEEP~! Kinda and step over toehold by Hashimoto to win it. Pretty enjoyable match. I see why Howard was asked back but he feels more like a midcard act than a main eventer, ***1/4

I definitely more on OJ’s side on this than El-P. I thought this match was a mess. Toshiaki Kawada vs Shinjiro Ohtani - AJPW 9/6/03 Budokan Hashimoto got injured so he had to vacate the title. We do eventually get Hashimoto vs Kawada but in February 2004. Semi-finals are the same day. Kawada beat Gladiator (Mike Awesome) and Ohtani beat Kojima (in a match I watched but forgot but apparently I liked). Apparently Awesome has sour grapes about his loss and attacked Kawada and made a point to elbow his knee. You think this should be easy Kawada selling the knee and Ohtani attacking it but they make a mess out of it. This match is a part of the ongoing AJPW vs Zero-1 feud. Feeling out process. Kawada gets his normal heel kick Ohtani powders. Ohtani sick of getting bested kicks him in knee. Gets the facewash. This triggers the babyface shine with all the typical Kawada high spots, charging boot, half crab step on his head, Kawada Kicks etc…Ohtani goes back to the knee. It just felt like every transition was random and require done wrestler to no sell and take over. It was very my turn, your turn. Just a blend of their high spots. Kawada would do a bunch of offense, Ohtani would blow it off DROPKICK the knee. Kawada would take a bunch of punishment and then blow it off and make his comeback. Good example was Ohtani has pretty good momentum hit his standard springboard DROPKICK to the back only for Kawada to go back on offense. Ohtani gets a leglock and some suplexes especially his Dragon Suplex in his finish stretch. Kawada takes way too long to polish him off because this is 2003 Japan, one powerbomb should have sufficed but it ends up being like three more higspots. Kawada wins the Triple Crown title and finally goes on an epic reign but is it too little too late. Rough start to the reign.

Naoya Ogawa vs Bill Goldberg - HUSTLE 1/4/04 I don’t know how they got Goldberg as he was in the middle of his WWE run. Goldberg is perfect for Japan. Honestly he should have just worked Japan post-WCW (I know he worked some All Japan for Mutoh) but Goldberg in Inokiist New Japan would have been money. While this didn’t meet my lofty expectations I still thought it was very entertaining. These are two monsters who are very interesting in matches when conventional pro wrestlers have to get creative and figure them out. Here it is King Kong vs Godzilla which is fun but not as fun as when a mortal is involved. Oh Goldberg is aligned with Boss Takada who is in a normal suit no Generalissimo yet. Ogawa overwhelms Goldberg early and crowds him in the corner. The ref tries to come between them and Goldberg roars back. Excellent Steinerline by Goldberg. Military Pressing Ogawa was impressive but the catch & slam popped me. Honestly it is pretty late (I’m working night shift) and my memory is already hazy. Basically there were two many leglocks. It is King Kong vs Godzilla stand & bang throw each other around. Otherwise it’s awesome. Ogawa SPACE TORNADO OGAWA WAS KILLER! They both get sick of the ref and clobber him. SPEAR~! It is not even close. Goldberg has the best spear ever. Visual pin. OO-SOTO-GARI! Visual pin! Interesting. Ogawa wants another but Goldberg dead weights him. Giant Silva trips Ogawa and chops him. SPEAR~! Jackhammer! Takada celebrates with Goldberg. Hashimoto peels down the aisle in a hilarious moment. They argue. Sick melee where Ogawa RIPS Takada down and then it gets broken up. They should have ran Ogawa vs Takada immediately for HUSTLE 2. Fun power match. ***1/4

Toshiaki Kawada vs Mark Coleman - HUSTLE 1 1/4/04 HUSTLE 1 debuted directly opposite New Japan’s annual January 4th Tokyo Dome show. Pretty ballsy by Takada. Looks like Hashimoto, Ogawa and Kawada were the native talent and this basically became Ogawa’s home promotion until IGF. Kawada is the Triple Crown champion but it is not on the line. Alright match, I always get Coleman confused with Mark Kerr. He was pretty good. Trade good strikes early. Kawada doesn’t really connect with his front kicks and Coleman takes him down at Will. Kawada gets a Triangle then Cross Armbreaker out of defense. Reset. Coleman throws fucking bombs. Great Kawada sell. He comes back with kicks. Coleman throws him around at Will with beautiful overhead belly to belly into head and arm triangle, reset in rope break. Kawada gets a rolling heel hook out a waist lock and the ref calls. Coleman doesn't have the coolest look like a Don Frye but he was jacked to the gills and clearly athletic as fuck. He looked like he has potential but this was just alright.

Naoya Ogawa vs Tadao Yasuda - HUSTLE 10 7/13/05 HUSTLE seems fully entrenched in their over the top Fighting Opera style with Takada in the M. Bison getup leading the Monster Army and Yinling The Erotic Terrorist. According to one review this is Razor Ramon Hard Gay’s which seemingly would transfer the Ace Babyface role from Ogawa to Hard Gay. Yasuda was brought in as a hired mercenary for Takada to take out Ogawa. This is pretty good but not as good as I was hoping. Both guys are more spry than I expected moving around at a good clip but I wanted to see them just throws each other around. Yasuda jumps Ogawa at the bell and tries to choke him out first with his forearm and then a Guillotine. Ogawa pops out. Great collar & elbow tie up leads to a Ogawa figure-4 and they fight over reversing the pressure. Nobody really sells shit which I’m down with in this match. Ogawa tries a throw but Yasuda ball shots and charges Ogawa. Butterfly Suplex. Ogawa gets an armbar takedown then cross armbreaker. Yasuda escapes. SPACE TORNADO OGAWA~! They fight over an Oo-Soto-Gari great struggle and OGAWA SLAMS HIM TO THE MAT! Another one! Ogawa wins! Takada comes in I assume talks shit and hears Razor Ramon Hard Gay. The amount of time spent in home ratioed to how long the match was too high. It just was not beefy and massive enough. Some fun spots. The finish was killer. ***

Way harsh, OJ, I thought Kawada crushed it in this match. Great shoot-style brawl. Echo Jetlag’s sentiments completely the first ten minutes of this is sublime! AJPW Triple Crown Champion Toshiaki Kawada vs Don Frye - AJPW 10/26/03 Budokan The last of the October Anniversary shows to take place at the Budokan! Toshiaki Kawada is embarking on the Triple Crown reign he deserved for years finally not snake-bitten by injuries unfortunately this is decline of All Japan. Mutoh/Tenryu/Kawada was enough to keep All Japan competitive for 3 years but it was not a sustainable business model and outside of Kojima it looked like they didn’t have a future. For their big Anniversary show they tap Mutoh’s good friend, Don Frye! I think is a great challenger for a bigs how and gives All Japan a different wrinkle and Frye a different environment. Hands down this is the best Don Frye match I have ever seen! Frye looks bitchin’ as hell and I have wanted to love him but he didn’t click until now but that’s now surprising because Kawada works really with shooters. Frye really sold and bumped well for Kawada. After watching this, he deserved a high level run in the US or Japan. Frye brings an extra pair of fingerless MMA gloves and tosses them to Kawada. Kawada throws them away saying he is willing to breaking his hands on Frye’s skull. Fuck yeah! Frenetic start! Tasmanian Devil Dust Cloud! Bang on muthafuckas! Kawada gets the early advantage knotting up Frye’s hammie with kicks. Frye sells it like a million bucks. I love in these pro wrestler vs shooter matches how the pro wrestlers have to come up with openings against the shooters. Kawada is either working the leg or being a prick. He gets caught trying to get cute with Frye’s leg and Frye makes him pay with big bombs! This stretch here where they stand & bang rules! After the first barrage, Kawada is throwing desperation kicks from his ass to Frye’s hammy as Frye flops in pain. KAWADA POTATO~! That seems to wake Frye up who unleashes hell on Kawada! Kawada awesome sell and powder. It Is all Frye now as Kawada is playing right into his hands playing the stand & bang game. Frye chokes Kawada out! Ref stops to check Kawada in the ropes! This respite gives Kawada life he rocks Frye with bows from both sides. In the next scramble he gets a heel hook and never looks back. This is the one drawback of this match after that heel hook Frye gets zero offense. It lasts another 5-7 minutes. It is a great asskicking. Frye bumps and sells like a champ for Kawada but that’s what keeps from an all-timer. Kawada wins with a stretch plum! Even with the squashy finish I loved the first ten minutes of this. Killer shoot-style brawl! Add another feather in Kawada range cap! I still like Misawa and Kobashi more but this is something Kawada is clearly better at than them is wrestling people out of his comfort zone, adapting and making himself, the opponent and the match look good. ****

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Keiji Muto vs Tatsumi Fujinami - NJPW 12/11/01 This is the type of match that is so underrated. It is that mid-tempo rocker that you can just vibe and cruise too. It is never gonna be a banger or a 5-star classic, but it so damn satisfying and you can just cruise with the match. It is a lost art to have a match this simple but so appetizing. Terrific mirror match between these two. If Hashimoto is the heir to Choshu, I always felt there was a connection between Fujinami and Muto. Both a little undersized and aerial. Fujinami obviously a much better technical wrestler and Muto had more theatrics. I really love their 1991 match where Muto was in the Great Muta role. Feels like perfect 90s New Japan match. I love how they organically build from the typical New Japan amateur wrestling into such a rousing finish run. It is cool how they just take what the match gives them rather ham-fisting highspots. Muto gets the power driver elbow. He was looking for the Back Handspring Elbow and Fujinami goes for a choke. Muto breaks free and goes to his 2001 formula. He executes a Dragon Leg Screw on the Dragon. Fujinami brutha I invented that game. Hits the Dragon Leg Screw back and Figure-4s Muto (Muto screaming fuck three times helps a lot). It was brilliant. I was hooked. The rest of the match is a terrific showcase of how to do a symmetrical match (read lots of mirrored leg work). Muto keeps trying to play Fujinami's game working the leg (dropkicks to the knee, Dragon Leg Screw) but it backfires on him (he goes for figure-4, but Fujinami counters beautifully into a leglock). Fujinami is wrestling a brilliant defensive match. He throws in a Kappou Kick after a dropkick to the knee and that seems to help. Then a dropkick to the knee from the middle rope, but he leaves his feet one too many times and Fujinami throws him off with a DRAGON LEG SCREW! Fujinami hit a top rope kneedrop! Fujinami back to the figure-4! MUTO FRANKENSTEINER OUT OF NOWHERE! Shining Wizard Blocked! FUJINAMI SHINING WIZARD! CROWD AND I LOSE OUR COLLECTIVE MINDS! Fujinami goes back up top...TOP ROPE SHINING WIZARD BY MUTO! Muto hits a barrage of Shining Wizards to win! Terrific Lo-Fi match! That builds out of their chain wrestling into dueling leg work and then finally into the insane Shining Wizard barrage! Love it! ****

GHC Heavyweight Champion Jun Akiyama vs Vader - NOAH 12/9/01 Not at the Budokan but a pretty big event at 12000 with a GHC Tag Title match on the undercard pitting No Fear against Misawa & Y. Ogawa. I believe this must be Vader’s last major title shot, he looked shaky to start but once he gained momentum he looked great. This is Akiyama’s second title defense and he would be looking at main eventing the New Japan Tokyo Dome show on January 4th against Yuji Nagata. Beginning saw Vader just stand & bang. Akiyama held his own but any time he tries to pick up the Mastodon he paid for it. He tried to go up top to utilize gravity to his advantage but ended up getting clobbered to the floor. Vader looked great down here big shots and dropping Akiyama abdomen first on the railing but Akiyama came back throwing Vader on a table and attacking his right arm with a chair. Going to the outside definitively kicked this match up. Akiyama Worked the arm. Vader hit a ridiculous German Suplex to turn the tide. He basically launched him without falling back it was insane. Great spot Akiyama elbows the injured arm to break the grip but his good arm Vader clubs him. Vader works Akiyama’s abdomen on the outside. Scorpio is coaching up Vader audibly yelling “work the stomach”. Vader obliges. Perhaps Vader would have anyways but this guaranteed sound psychology. He was burying the fists in the breadbasket. Wicked front Suplex. Great selling. Insane Saito Suplex. Vaderbomb had great heat. Vader looks to take him up for the Powerbomb but Akiyama DROPKICKs the knee. He goes full Mutoh; Dragon Leg Screw and a rope-assisted Shining Wizard. Exploder! Guillotine but can’t cinch it in and Vader clubs him to get out. Vader is going for the Vadersault but Akiyama POWERBOMBS Vader! Wow! Vader throes a desperation bear paws out. Wild Vader chokeslam! Akiyama kicks out at 2. Vader goes for a super chokeslam but Akiyama wriggles into a cross-armbreaker.Exploder no go OO-SOTO-GARI! Cross Armbreaker wins it! Love Akiyama winning with something besides an Exploder or Guillotine Choke. Vader once he got rocking and rolling, looked like the killer grizzle bear he is. Loved him swinging bear paws to get out of trouble and set up his power offense. Vader still had it this late. Misawa and the boys have a formula that just works in how they accentuate their high spots and their transitions matter. ****

HONDA WRESTLED YASUDA ON THE FIRST ZERO-ONE BUDOKAN SHOW!!! LETS FUCKING GO!!!

GHC Heavyweight Champion Jun Akiyama vs Tamon Honda - NOAH 9/5/01 Ahhhhh I have been avoiding NOAH, but it seems like early NOAH actually has some shorter matches. Honda is one of those wrestlers a lot of people seem to like but I really have only watched the Kobashi match and maybe one or two others. I think sometimes on these projects, it is a disservice that the only Honda match I have watched was the biggest match of his career. Here he is challenging for GHC Title but this time against Akiyama in a much smaller venue, according to Cagematch just 3000 people. It is interesting that post-split All Japan was running the Budokan more and doing very good business even though they lost all these big stars. Obviously NOAH would get there with some big Dome shows. Interesting match, kind of confirms what I remember about Akiyama, he lacks personality compared to the other pillars. You know exactly who Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi and Taue are when they are in the ring. But who is Akiyama? Honda is another dude who instantly get as soon as he enters the right. He is the shoot amateur wrestler who is going to suplex you to death and then try to choke you out. He is like a better Yasuda. Scratch better. A more capable and dynamic Yasuda. I like how because Yasuda is limited he causes workers to get creative. Even though I have not watched NOAH in years, I just know Honda is getting Akiyama out of his comfort zone and working a different match. Man I wish we got Honda vs Yasuda or Honda in Inokiist Japan against any of the shooters he would have been interesting. Atypical NOAH start, doing more New Japan style matwork. The highlight by far is Honda's drop toehold to block a spinning toehold and counter into his own leglock. That was amazing! Someone needs to steal that spot. I love also how Akiyama slapped on a lazy leglock and Honda immediately countered into his own tight one. AJPW/NOAH transition to the action, Akiyama uses a drop toehold on a charging Honda to the steel railing to kickstart the match and consolidate control. DDT on ramp puts Akiyama firmly in control. King of the Mountain. Then some neck work. Honda back drops out of the piledriver. Akiyama shifts weight on the Saito Suplex, but in the scramble, Honda gets a leglock and looks like he has an opening. Back Drop Driver, but Akiyama responds with an Exploder. Akiyama charges, but Honda scoops him up and powerbombs him! Honda finish run here we go. He uses a choke to sap Akiyama energy and then throws him around with some HIGH German Suplexes that would make Takayama jealous. STF into Olympic Hell Choke and great nearfall here as the crowd is perking up. Akiyama grabs a Guillotine Choke out of desperation which stymies Honda's run. Honda throws a headbutt, Akiyama counters with a Jumping Knee. This sets up the Exploder Head Drop and Guillotine Choke (he had been using that as a finisher since he choked Kobashi out with it as the Second NOAH show). Tight, economical and efficient (usually not words associated with NOAH). Really solid wrestling. Honda leaves me wondering what could have been if we worked New Japan at this time. ***3/4

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Toshiaki Kawada vs Mick Foley - HUSTLE 3 5/8/04 HUSTLE is always a promotion I have wanted to check out because seems like it would be entertaining as hell. This is my sporadic request but if anyone has the video of Takada & Kawada singing Yeah, Yeah, Yeah send it to me. But this is before any Erotic Terrorists, Sumo Wrestlers hatching out of eggs or Takada dressing as M. Bison, this was when Hustle was a strait-laced freak show dream match promotion. Hashimoto/Ogawa vs The Outsiders sign me up! Overall this match was fine just a collection of their spots and Foley didn’t do anything too wild. This is within a month of his masterpiece against Orton so he could still go but they choose not to go too wild. It has been a long time since I have seen Kawada and that first glassy eyed sell made me fall in love all over again. They stand and bang nobody is bumping worth a shit Alleluia! Alleluia! Not everything deserves a bump! Kawada hits his trademark heel kick and sends Foley packing. Foley does his Terry Funk impression. Throwing chairs in the ring and gets a barbed wire Baseball bat he hits a young boy with it. Neither Foley nor Kawada takes which is lame. Foley runs through his offense piledriver, baseball slide neckbreaker, Cactus Elbow. Great running knee in the corner. Double Arm DDT he has peaked so it is time to go back to the Bat and Socko for the rest of the match. Both of those are thwarted. Kawada gets on a roll with kicks and a Stretch Plum. He gets derailed by Foley’s Japanese second who I don’t recognize tripping him. Socko! What a bizarre concept! Kawada elbows out and kicks Foley in the head to win. Felt like one of those greatest hits Dream matches where you just blend your high spots together but they didn’t bust out their big guns. Mediocre.

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Keiji Muto vs Dr. Death Steve Williams - AJPW 7/14/01 Budokan Not a bad showing for the Budokan at 12,800, Doc seems like a good first challenger for Muto. In the pre-match promo, Doc says the belts are coming home to All Japan so Muto must still be NJPW 4 Life and doing the invasion angle. Tenryu and Kawada are in the undercard in separate matches so definitely some support. I had no idea what 2001 Doc would hold but he was pretty damn fun! His body has definitely aged but he is still a Suplex machine and throwing in some Fuck Yous and Son of Bitches didn’t hurt. This happens smack in the middle of the 2001 Muto Renaissance but was not over laden with the 2001 Muto tropes. Muto was put in an early hole and had to use his new strategy to dig himself out of the hole. I dug this match a lot. Unfortunately we are JIP to Doc in control we are missing about 4 minutes on the front end of a 19 minute match so not horrible. Doc teases to Huck Muto out into the crowd with a Gorilla Press but drops him back into the ring. We get the beginning of the 2001 Muto run…Dragon Leg Screw, DROPKICK to the knee and SHINING WIZARD~! Holy shit is it already over? No! Muto hurt his knee on Doc’s face and rolls to the outside. He is really clutching it. Doc gives chase but Muto sidesteps runs him into the post. Muto hobbling tries to get back in the ring, chop block! Really nice Muto bump. Doc is firmly in control. He does a great job mixing the suplexes, knee work (headbutts to the knee ala Tenzan) and trash talk. Muto gets a Misawa-Rana out of the Doctor Bomb. Doc nails the Backdrop Driver. Muto powders classic AJPW. Muto kicks off the ring post on a second Backdrop Driver. Back in they trade FUCK YOUS! It is really off to the races. Doc hits his Doctor Bombs but no Oklahoma Stampede and some suplexes. Muto gets his moonsault but his knee stops him for capitalizing. Muto tries to go for Shining Wizards but first two times Doc catches and throws him. Doc tries another German Suplex but OLD MAN MUTO FLIPS OUT LANDS ON HIS FEET AND DROPKICKS THE KNEE! Look at Muto Go! SHINING WIZARD~! In true All Japan fashion, Doc has to eat 27 of them before he loses but his discombobulated selling after them is great and having not watched AJPW in a while I have Some nostalgia for it. Way better than I expected and it is not even really because of Muto, Doc really brought the offense and the intensity. Muto sold his knee well and built his comeback logically. ***3/4

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Great Muta vs The Gladiator (Mike Awesome) - AJPW 01/13/03 Well this was the worst match I have watched since I returned to reviewing. A heatless mess. Early on there was the spot that Big Sexy and other tall wrestlers do where the stick the boot up and choke their opponent in the corner. Awesome just had his boot resting languidly on Muta’s chest as Muta did not move. It was absolutely pathetic. They put zero effort in. Hall at least made sure his shit look snug. Awesome besides his plancha and top rope splash did not try at all. Scratch everything I said about Muta wrestling two different matches depending on his gimmick. We were back to drop kicks to the knee which didn’t connect, dragon screws, STF and Figure-4. This match made feature the most pointless use of blood ever. Muta hit a Shining Wizard off the apron and posted Awesome who blades because it is a Muta match but didn’t sell shit. Muta hit all his spots. Awesome just lariats after the back handspring elbow. Hits his power spots (powerbombs) and flying spots. Muta does not what to take the Super Powerbomb so he bails and it is kinda top rope Pedigree. Then He mists Awesome who doesn’t sell it. This is self-parody. Muta hits a bunch of rope assisted Shining Wizards to win. Great Muta felt like a self-parody doing all his cool spots but without any heat. Ice cold. Horrible match.

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Great Muta vs Shinya Hashimoto - AJPW 2/23/03 These two drew a sellout at the Budokan with ZERO undercard support, we are talking absolutely nothing. I think that is more impressive than the match itself. All Japan as a place for New Japan refugees + Kawada and Tenryu could have been great. Long term they would have needed more than just Kojima for their future but for the first half of the 2000s they actually were fine in terms of star power. The big thing going into this is re-adjusting yourself when watching Great Muta vs Keiji Mutoh. Gone are all the basement dropkicks, dragon leg screws, figure-4s and it is replaced by chairs, blood and mist. Yes the Shining Wizard and Moonsault are still there but you need to re-align yourself. The selling is another thing that took me a while to figure out. Great Muta sells with more of a register. My thought process is he supposed to be a horror movie monster. You can stun him but he keeps coming back for more. It used to feel like random no-sells but once you see Great Muta the Monster through that lens as opposed to Keiji Mutoh the Man his selling makes a lot more sense. A match that gets a lot more entertaining as it goes on. I am a Mutoh/Muta defender for the most part, but I forget some time how brutal his stalling as Great Muta can be. Lots of looking under the ring, powdering, making kids cry. The crowd was 100% there for these. They traded missed elbow drops and the crowd was whipped into a frenzy. These 16000 people were pumped for this match. Hashimoto finally gives chase. Muta whips him into the railing. Muta kicks a Young Boy in the stomach and he tries to use him as a stepping stool to hit a Shining Wizard. Either he lost his balance or the Young Boy Collapsed but Muta fucking ate it on the Shining Wizard one of those, it seemed cool in your mind but looked dumb in execution. Match picks up here as Muta slams into a post and crowns him with a chair to busts Hashimoto open. Muta is a great garbage brawler and this was pretty good. Choking with the cord, jabbing a pen into the wound, biting the wound all great shit. Hashimoto gets some kicks as a hope spot. Muta grabs a chair. Mists Hashimoto, the blood and green mist combo never gets old, always looks cool as fuck. He uses the chair to hit a sick Shining Wizard. Chair much more stable than Young Boys. Muta misses a moonsault. Hashimoto has his opening. Muta counters the Brainbuster into a DDT. Muta is back to hitting Shining Wizards and gets the Moonsault, but Hashimoto kicks out. Hashimoto BLOCKS the Shining Wizard with his forearm. HASHIMOTO SWEEPS THE LEG~! Perhaps the greatest sell of a Legsweep ever as Muta sells like he was shot in the back of the leg. Match is just worth watching for this. I vaguely remember Hashimoto falling in love with this Inverted Triangle submission, but Muta makes the ropes, this felt out of place. Hashimoto blocks the Mist with forearms and hits his own Shining Wizard! BRAINBUSTER! Sue me, but this was pretty fun. Dumb as fuck but pretty fun. If this was JIP to Muta busting out Hashimoto I could be convinced to go like **** as the finishing stretch was great Hashimoto as a Karate/Kung-Fu warrior taking on the evil horror movie villain who just keeps coming back. With the beginning, I think I will go ***3/4, but the last ten minutes or so is good craic.

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Keiji Muto vs Scott Hall - NJPW 9/23/01 Man if you ever wanted to show someone the most bare bones, stripped down pro wrestling match this might be the one. They just sleepwalk through this match. All of Hall’s punches and work are tight but he is putting in minimal effort. Muto is in 2001 cruise control mode. He found a formula that is bulletproof in 2001. Muto with the Triple Crown is still a mind fuck. Weird fun fact that Hall challenged for Triple Crown. I think there’s some lingering NWO civil war shit here. Hall is with Chono and Muto is with TenKoji. The first five minutes they work a headlock, Muto hits his power elbow. Hall hits a cool Eaton-esquires slingshot back Suplex to take control. His punches look great and he throws Muto out. More punches. The work is tight but feels pedestrian. Muto hip tosses out the ab stretch. Standard 2001 Muto stuff here. DROPKICKs to the knee, dragon leg screw, figure-4. Tries the back breaker/moonsault combo but Hall cuts him off with a super Back Suplex which Hall loved as a transition in the 90s. Hall runs through his shit: chokeslam, sack of shit. Muto works in the DROPKICK to the knee (that’s why 2001 formula is so good) and gets the moonsault but there’s shit with Chono and TenKoji. Shining Wizard but Hall hits a lariat, Razor Edge but Muto wriggles free and two Shining Wizards later he wins. A match that just never got out of first gear.

IWGP Champion Bob Sapp vs Shinsuke Nakamura - NJPW Tokyo Dome 5/3/04 Fantastic match! Totally different than Sasaki match, which you would expect but I don’t want to take for granted. Nakamura’s approach to taking down the Beast was submission technique as opposed to brawling. It was like shoot-style version of David vs Goliath. Stick and move became submit and move. Bob Sapp’s presence and aura is perfect. Shame he vacated the title after this and was never given a main event run somewhere. Dude was money waiting to be printed. I love how aggressive Nakamura was early. He was the Tasmanian Devil wrestling circles around Sapp taking him down. The problem was Sapp was just too fucking big. So even though his technique was flawless and he was getting takedowns, nothing stuck because Sapp could just raw muscle his way out. He was flinging Nakamura around with biels and hip tosses but Nakamura would just keep coming. Nakamura tries work up to big finishes like the cross-armbreaker or Triangle but Sapp just brute forced out. I thought his lariats have gotten better too. Massive DROPKICK by Sapp! He geared himself up for that sent Nakamura careening out of the ring. He tried to get back in but Sapp lariat him back out. A little king of the Mountain. He gave chase and on the ramp he looked to polish Nakamura off with a powerbomb but got caught in a Triangle. Great sell here as Sapp took an 18 count. I was watching this on a 1 inch x 1 inch screen so kinda lost what Nakamura did here but he stayed aggressive and was working through some submission combinations. They get into the clinch and SAPP MURDERS NAKAMURA WITH A LARIAT! Me and the announcer lost our shit! Sapp goes to a choke and NAKAMURA BITES HIS WAY OUT OF IT! HELL YEAH! Sapp hits a piledriver and is charging at Nakamura who clamps on a Guillotine than a DDT. Sapp reverses the full mount because he is a BEAST! His ground & pound looks killer! Head & arm triangle but Nakamura counters to a crossarmbreaker but Sapp picks him up and slams him! POWERBOMB! One count! Boooo! Sapp rocks him with big strikes and second powerbomb finishes him! Besides the dumb one count bullshit, this match rocked as a shoot style David vs Goliath match. Sapp looked massive DROPKICK, lariat and powerbomb all looked great. Nakamura May have never looked better as a submission Wizard, love how aggressive he was. I wish we got a lengthy Bob Sapp run on top. ****

IWGP Champion Satoshi Kojima vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan - NJPW Tokyo Dome 5/14/05 This is one of the most boring matches I have watched in a long time. It was excoriatingly boring at 20 minutes. Fucking Inoki gave them an HOUR, ONE FUCKING HOUR earlier in the year. Kojima won the title in a match that went 59:30. Are you fucking kidding me? I kinda sorta knew that long match existed because these two might be the most bizarre pairing to ever be given an hour. Going through the IWGP Title Defense history, Nagata/Nakanishi is also weird as fuck to go an hour and Nagata/Chono, I get the booking rationale, but fuck I do not want to see Chono go an hour in 2002. Kojima only other defense of the IWGP title was against Nakamura for an hour so yep not watching that. In a sick twisted way, I am morbidly curious what the fuck TENZAN DID FOR AN HOUR! We all know Kojima hit 60 different Ace Crushers and Lariats. Did Tenzan Mongolian Chop and Headbutt for 60 minutes straight?!? Hiroyoshu Muthafuckin Tenzan wrestled for an hour...like it is settling in now and what a what the fuck!?!? Alright the actual match. Look it is Kojima vs Tenzan, I was not expecting Misawa vs Kobashi here, but this was pretty fucking bad. Sasaki vs Suzuki was bad. I am not sure which of these was worse. Sasaki/Suzuki you know they can do better. Kojima has had great matches with Tenyru and Hashimoto. I have enjoyed Tenzan in his run and really enjoyed his Tanahashi match and I bet if I rewatched that Akiyama match I'd grade it higher. But man did this suck! You knew it was bad right off the bad as Kojima hits what else Ace Crushers. I have not seen Kojima wrestle in probably five years and it was just so nice to see the first move he hit was an Ace Crusher. There was no heat behind it. He did not hit out of nowhere no was their struggle. The issue with the match was not so much what moves they did or the order, it was how they were doing them. They were going through the motions. Ice cold wrestling. Hit a couple Ace Crushers. Dive to the floor. They chop on the floor. Back in the ring, they reset into standard New Japan mat wrestling. It is like what the fuck. So those Ace Crushers did not even pop the crowd and they did not mean anything to the story. Tenzan does what Tenzan does. Clubber. Kojima gets a back body drop flying elbow. Tenzan gets a back body drop and a top rope diving headbutt! Symmetry! Their transition is garbled, but make a long story short, Tenzan goes for the Tenzansault but Kojima meets him up there and hits an Ace Crusher because he is Fucking Kojima, bitch. Kojima goes for his big Lariat, but Tenzan hits the Side Effect and Tenzan applies the Anaconda Vice and then Tenzan Driver back to Anaconda Vice. Crowd does not give a shit at all. This is one of the weakest, most pathetic finish runs in history. KOJIMA COUNTER TO THE ANACONDA VICE IS A RUSSIAN LEGSWEEP! It is both pathetic and kinda awesome! He applies a weird top wristlock/crucifix I dont know if he was using or if this was just his counter to the Anaconda Vice. The one interesting that happens in the match is Kojima hits an Axe Bomber and Tenzan sells it like he is OUT FUCKING COLD! I saw that Kojima won the belt at 59:30 via KO so I am assuming this a play off that finish. They even do the ten count but Kojima interrupts it by turning to pin him, but he kicks out. Kojima blasts him with another lariat, kick out at one because you know Japan. Kojima goes for a suplex, once punch and Tenzan hits a Tenzan Driver. What a lame transition! Tenzan went from being almost KO'd to being in control. Now Kojima hits an Emerald Flowsion. Was it this shit? Kojima misses a lariat, Tenzan wild swing misses, but Kojima sells it. Tenzansault hits and sitout TenzanDriver ends it anti-climatically as Tenzan takes forever to cover him. What a shitburger...how bad must that 60 minute match be?

IWGP Champion Kensuke Sasaki vs Minoru Suzuki - NJPW Osaka Dome 11/13/04 New Japan was still drawing 28000 people to the Osaka Dome this late in the Inokiist Era. Pretty stacked card as this does not even close the show. There's Tenryu/Shibata on the undercard along with invaders (Kawada/Naoya Ogawa) vs Tenzan/Tanahashi (sounds tasty) and weirdo main event of Fujita/Kashin vs Nakamura/Nakanishi. The main event did not sound appetizing on paper and Jetlag's review made it seem even less so (except Inoki comes in and punches Nakamura apparently) so I will skip. On paper this is kind of a dream match for me. I am way higher on Sasaki than most people and I do like Minoru Suzuki (more recent Suzuki can be hit or miss, but this era I usually like). This match much to my shock and dismay kinda sucked. I am not even sure it kinda sucked. I think it might have sucked out loud. Usual New Japan feeling out process. Nothing wrong with that. I like Sasaki muscling Suzuki over but Suzuki keeps the headlock on and yanks him over the top with him. They stare off and both head back in the ring. Missed opportunity in my opinion but fine. Suzuki puffs out his chest which is the Universal sign of Hit Me. They trade some blows. Cool wrinkle here at the end. Suzuki hits a dropkick to get Sasaki off his feet. Suzuki invites Sasaki to do the same, but side-steps him and makes him look like a chump. This is weird it got weird again. Suzuki hit the lightest knees, threw some strikes tried to go for the arm but Sasaki just threw him off and reset. Ok it seemed like they had somewhere to go but didnt do much. I kinda forget what happens next (watched this about 5 hours ago) but the next big thing is Suzuki works the arm which is the bulk of the body that has any sort of progression. Suzuki would just wander a way for extended stretches and just leave Sasaki to sell. It was weird. Either Sasaki needed to throw in some hope spots of Suzuki needed to stay on him. The way they did it was just awkward. The finish run took what was a boring match made it actively terrible. Sasaki started throwing some lariats. Suzuki gets a Rear Naked Choke out of a Northern Lights Bomb attempt which was the first big "nearfall". He hits a piledriver, Sasaki kicks out at one. Sasaki hits Northern Lights Bomb with no struggle. Suzuki at least punches Sasaki a couple times before his second piledriver which Sasaki no sells and hits a lame Northern Lights Bomb. They are both out. Suzuki slaps Sasaki twice pretty good cracks. Sasaki misses on Lariat but gets him on the second attempt. Suzuki kicks out at one. Makes some faces, fall down and Sasaki wins. The first 15 minutes or so are pretty fucking boring. The last five minutes are terrible. I know Suzuki is supposed be mercurial and eccentric but this was just bad. Sasaki did not adapt at all either. I am sure most people would blame Sasaki but I thought Suzuki was just as bad if not worse. This could be one of the worst matches featuring two wrestlers who are otherwise pretty good at wrestling.

IWGP Champion Yoshihiro Takayama vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan - NJPW 6/10/03 Takayama’s first defense as IWGP Champion after defeating Nagata in the Dome. It is still unclear what constitutes an IWGP defense versus a NWF title defense. Tenzan came up short last year against Yasuda and doesn’t look like he got a shot against Nagata. Tenzan is incredibly over throughout the match so while I’m not a huge Tenzan fan based on crowd response he has earned this spot. My standard line he is the best possible goon or bruiser. He is like the best possible version of a Nasty Boy. I do appreciate that you always know what you’re going to get with Tenzan. With the right opponent, you can get a lot of mileage out of him because he puts parameters on what can and can’t be done which can inspire creativity. What’s interesting is I found the Yasuda more interesting until the very end because it was two very limited workers trying to figure out how to work a match. Takayama who is clearly much better than either however doesn’t really force Tenzan to wrestle an interesting match. Takayama because he is so dynamic and adaptable is able to just cruise through this and work a normal match. Whereas a Tanahashi can bring something special out of a Tenzan and a Yasuda causes me to be like how the fuck are these two gonna have a match. Takayama makes it too easy for Tenzan. Pretty standard New Japan feeling out process. They go the test of strength which is perfect for these two heavy hitters. Some shoulder tackle standoffs. Tenzan wins with a spinning heel kick then sends Takayama to the floor and its Air Tenzan! Now that was an ugly ass Slingshot Plancha and I was here for it. Big Suplex back in, nice struggle. Tenzan consolidates the advantage and does what Tenzan does: clubber. He leaves himself open to some Kicks and in the scramble Takayama rocks him with a big kneelift! Classic Takayama! Takayama’s control segment is solid, but uninspiring. I could watch Takayama throw kicks and knees for days but there was nothing special here. Takayama uncharacteristically goes to the top and gets thrown off. Tenzan tombstone for the first near fall. Takayama takes back over shortly only for Tenzan to catch a kick and HEADBUTT THE KNEE! The Yasuda strategy I dig. Perfect Tenzan psychology. Dragon leg screw. Top Rope Diving headbutt to the knee! Love it! Big Tenzan finish stretch…Tenzansault and Anaconda Vice. Lots of Tenzan clubbering after running out of things to do. TAKAYAMA LUNGES FROM HIA KNEES AND HEADBUTTS TENZAN IN THE FACE! HELL YEAH! Two big kneelifts and an Everest German and that’s all she wrote. This felt sub-*** to me until Takayama insanely sick headbutt transition to win. From tut headbutt to the German was like 30 seconds tops. It was like the best 30 seconds ever. So gotta be ***

GHC Champ Kenta Kobashi vs Masahiro Chono - NJPW Tokyo Dome 5/2/03 My first Kobashi match in two years! Yay! My first 25+ minute match in two years! Boo! I love Kobashi but this was just a sleepwalk match. Chono does not do much for me but unfortunately he is in the Dream Match role on these Dome cards, Misawa the previous year and Hulk Hogan later this year. He is just useless. Kobashi did the moves but he didn’t really bring that emotion takes Kobashi’s matches to the next level. The first ten minutes were pretty standard Kobashi fare: chops (Chono didn’t really bring it), tests of strength and headlock. Just Kobashi wrestling a broomstick. The one potentially interesting moment in the whole match was Chono was doing a ballshot to finally not get his ass kicked, but Kobashi blows it off to hit Suplex so lame. If Chono at least played an Eddie Guerrero like cheating scoundrel that could’ve interesting but they played it straight. The transition to Chono was the usual All Japan apron work. Kobashi was going to hit a Suplex but Yakuza Kick and a suicide dive out Chono in control. Chono did a Misawa-rana on the Ramp that popped me. We get the Chono bombs: Saito Suplexes, Shining Yakuza Kick, STF. I like the STF spot it feels hot. Chono does his shitty Iron Cross rest hold and Kobashi hits a shit ton of half Nelson suplexes and Lariats to win. At one point in between the Suplex barrage Chono’s hope spot was an Abdominal Stretch which made me laugh out loud because it was so lame. At least do the Octopus Stretch. It was standard All Japan/NOAH match Greatest Hits Dome match. Nothing interesting just hit your stuff go home. Kobashi just plugged Chono in and Chono did nothing interesting.

Kazuyuki Fujita vs Yoshihiro Takayama - NJPW Budokan 08/29/02 NWF Title Tournament So what I have gleaned in my limited research is Fujita vacated the title earlier in the year so he set up a tournament for NWF Title also called The King of Gladiators tournament. 4-men all shoot backgrounds. It is him vs Takayama and Kohsaka vs Yasuda. In my opinion, it is upsets in both as the new Inoki favorites go down. Inoki even comes out to hype up the crowd and NWF title is shown. This May be the most violent match I’ve ever seen. We will get there in a second. Scrappy amateur wrestling to start. I would’ve expected Takayama to use his reach advantage to keep the stockier Fujita at bay. Fujita slaps him on the ropes. A lot of guard and ground & pound. It is actually on the floor Takayama wins and Chono who beat Takayama early in the month for the G1 Climax gets in his face. Back in the ring Fujita catches a kick into a throw. I really like the struggle where Takayama earns his throw. Fujita ground & pound knees. Head-arm triangle. This is all good Inokiist wrestling then this happens… So they decide to stand & bang. I rewound here. I don’t think Takayama bladed. Fujita was throwing live rounds. He whiffed on two but he connected on two. One made absolutely disgusting sound and next thing you know blood is pouring from Takayama’s ear. Takayama gives in my opinion two receipts the first kneelift was stiff, then Everest German but that penultimate kneekift was SICK! I don’t know how Fujita’s nose was intact. Takayama obliterated his face the the final kneelift was more standard snug pro wrestling but the penultimate one was brutal. Check out the two wicked punches by Fujita and two kneelifts by Takayama. ***

Kazunari Murakami vs Katsuyori Shibata - NJPW 10-13-03 Tokyo Dome This is on the undercard of Hogan vs Chono and a Shooters vs Pro Wrestlers 5-on-5 Elimination Match. This was more angle than match. My sense was this was either a hazing of Shibata or he proves he was tough enough to be a member of Makai Club. You’d think Murakami death glares, stiff strikes and Shibata bleeding buckets would be an easy thumbs up but the majority of the match is Makai Club mugging Shibata and Shibata selling the selling loss of blood. Shibata jumpstarts the match attacking Murakami as he enters the ring but Murakami says if you’re gonna do that you better finish me as he recover brutally knees him in the face and shoves him out the ring. Makai Club mugging and Shibata is wearing the crimson mask. Murakami hits some great strikes does his usual double foot in the corner. Pretty easily KOs Shibata. I think they have another match in Big Mouth Loud to check out.

NWF Heavyweight Champion Yoshihiro Takayama vs Shinsuke Nakamura - NJPW 6/13/03 Budokan Six Months before Nakamura and Takayama squared off in the Dome to unify the IWGP & NWF Championships they met in the Budokan for the NWF title only. This is a bit weird as the previous month Takayama won the IWGP Championship from Nagata at the Dome but this didn’t unify the titles. He would defend the titles separately. I watched this about ten hours ago but the match is pretty basic so I’m not too worried. The match follows a different layout than previous Nakamura matches. In other Nakamura matches he is the young gun counter wrestler that use flash submissions to win matches. Here he is the aggressor and brings the fight right to Takayama with big strikes and a barrage of submissions. He even goes so far as to use Takayama’s one foot cover to show up Takayama early. It is an early Triangle that saps Takayama of most of his energy early. Nakamura is wrestling circles around Takayama because of it. Nakamura was catching kicks and turning him into powerbombs. The only reason Takayama gets can into it is a MASSIVE KNEELIFT! Nakamura shoots in for a takedown and eats nothing but knee. The Takayama heat segment and finish is just classic Takayama. Pretty similar to the Kenta if memory serves me correctly with Takayama just obliterating Nakamura with kneelifts and strikes before polishing him off with an Everest German. Besides a Nakamura Triangle Choke that Takayama powerbomb out of I don’t really remember much or hope spots. I appreciated the inverted narrative of Nakamura getting all his hope early looking like he was going to win on a fast break only to obliterated by a knee, cool match. ***1/2

Wow I was quite the hater back in the day. Have no recollection of watching this and liked it way more so re-doing the review from scratch. IWGP Champion Yuji Nagata vs Kensuke Sasaki - NJPW 6/7/02 Since I’ve been doing this project to watch all the IWGP title defenses between Fujita to Lesnar, I have had this one circled for a while. Sasaki is one of all-time favorites and brilliant power wrestler who had the misfortune of peaking during Inokiism. Nagata is someone who has grown on me and I don’t think he has the charisma of a potted plant anymore and also I own 10 potted plants now and I think potted plants can be charismatic. I watched this match before but I was out to lunch then. It is a ***1/2 match that deserves a better review. Nagata just won the title from Yasuda and defended at the Dome against Takayama. This presents a different more traditional pro wrestling challenge for Nagata. In the year 2000 Kensuke must have been pumped he was the heir apparent to the Musketeers and getting a big push against Kawada and All Japan. Then Inoki switches gears to Fujita and Yasuda and never looks backs. Nagata fits better in Inoki’s vision of a hybrid wrestler. This starts very New Japan for like ten minutes but ends very All Japan. I liked the mixture. The beginning matwork was classically influenced think NWA championship style: headlocks, wristlocks, armbars. Nagata starts peppering Sasaki with kicks who responds with ROARING Oo-Soto-Gari loved that response from him. Then they did my favorite thing they teased their finishers: Northern Lights Bomb and a Nagatalock. Then they back to matwork but more Shoot-influenced the struggle over the Cross-Armbar was tremendous. Nagata Dane out the better with a step over toehold. Nagata starts pelting Sasaki with kicks. Sasaki punches him in the face. NORTHERN LIGHTS BOMB! Nagata powder. A beautiful All Japan sequence straight out the Kawada playbook and the response by Nagata was genius simultaneously protecting the move and selling it. This is the more All Japan finish run. Sasaki hits his special armdrag. I really liked the transition to Nagata's offense. Sasaki mistimed a rope running sequence. He tried to ricochet off the ropes and catch Nagata bouncing off the turnbuckles. Nagata did not bounce as quickly so he missed Nagata who then kicked his head off! I love him paying for trying to be too convoluted. Nagata's control segment was a lot of kicks and then on a Sasaki powder, Sasaki tried the All Japan ricochet off the railing Lariat, but Nagata caught him in an Exploder. Nagata pretty much had the match won here. As he was getting back in the ring, Sasaki LARIATS the knee! This was a great, last ditch, desperation ploy by Sasaki. This leads to him using the Scorpion Deathlock and when that does not work trying to truck Nagata with Lariats, but he is running out of steam. Nagata kicks the Lariat arm some brutal kicks to the head. Wrist-clutch Exploder and two Saito Suplexes win the day for Nagata! I liked how they clearly showed Nagata was the better wrestler. He has better ground game and striking game, BUT Sasaki has a puncher's chance. His two best openings were the closed fist/Northern Lights Bomb combo and the Lariat to the Leg/Scorpion Deathlock. Sasaki could do damage but he needed a closed fist or a sneak attack chop block to gain an advantage. He put Nagata over strong, definitely an enjoyable match. ***1/2

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW 8/15/04 G-1 Climax Finals What a beautiful pro wrestling match! My reasoning for choosing Inokiist New Japan has my return to reviewing was twofold: 1. The matches are usually short most are under 10 minutes, 15 minutes max which suits my lifestyle well. 2. I have become very disenchanted with modern pro wrestling. People may find that surprising given that I usually praise WWE for the Bloodline, Cody Rhodes stuff and there's usually one AEW match a week that I think is very good to great. There is so much trash in current pro wrestling. I was kinda sick of it. I knew Inokiist New Japan would take out the two things I hate most in modern pro wrestling: 1. Running and 2. Overselling. As I ran out of Shooter vs Wrestler matches I have started to wade back into pro wrestling matches. This match really reminded how beautiful traditional pro wrestling can be. As Inoki once named his show, Pro Wrestlers Be Strongest! Both Tanahashi & Tenzan played to their strengths and the result was a terrific, elegant match. It is a battle of tempo that often gets lost in Shoot-Style or Inokiist style matches. Here it is the clubbering, lumbering Tenzan vs the quick, hit 'n run Tanahashi. Tanahashi is my choice for best Japanese Wrestler of the 21st Century. He is just on here. He is the best possible version of Keiji Mutoh. What is also so unique is this match is early enough in Tanahashi's career that it predates his formula of working the knee. The match when viewed through the lens of tempo just falls into place sublimely. If Tanahashi keep it uptempo, he has the advantage and is supplying the excitement, but there is also a looming dread and stress that any moment Tenzan can just headbutt him in the breadbasket. Early on we see that with a quick sunset flip attempt, Tanahashi tries to quicken the pace but is stopped dead with the butt to the solarplexus. Tenzan clubbers. If you seen one Tenzan match, you know the drill: headbutts, Mongolian Chops, general clubbering. He Irish Whips Tanahashi. This creates the space to allow Tanahashi to generate his offense. He springs into a reverse cross body. He just seamlessly without pause throws his body at Tenzan, elbow drop, Senton. He goes for a superplex, but gets the worst of it. Tenzan is back up and he is clubbering. Tenzan escalates he hits the Diving Headbutt the first big move of the match. Tanahashi cradles. This discombobulates Tenzan long enough that Tanahashi can increase the pace again. It looks like Tanahashi is overzealous and Tenzan is going to throw him to the floor but Tanahashi skins the cat. He is all over Tenzan. Nice dive! Finally Tanahashi by hurling his body and keeping Tenzan off balance has earned his right to hit bombs. He hits one German couldnt hold the bridge but holds the waistlock so he can get the bridge. Which I loved! Dragon Sleeper for Tanahashi. He goes for the win when he thinks Tenzan is unconscious. Tanahashi goes for the Dragon Suplex, but Tenzan elbows out. Mongolian Chops. Tanahashi goes to block...HEADBUTT TO THE BREADBASKET! OH HELL YEAH! Saito Suplex, great Levelling the Playing Field spot. Here comes the Fighting Spirit Breakdown, it is lame but short. Tenzan spinning heel kick another level the playing field spot. I always get worried about the home stretch in this timeframe. Very easy to go NOAH and do too much. Tenzan hits his weird Tombstone variant and then Anaconda Vice. Tanahashi rolls him on the shoulders which again fits with Tanahashi's offense strategy which is gets Tenzan into weird positions. My favorite part of the finish stretch was Tenzan missing the moonsault opening him up to an amazing finish stretch that would make Ricky Steamboat or Keiji Mutoh jealous. Shining WIzard! Dragon Suplex! Inside Cradle! Backslide out of a headbutt to the breadbasket attempt (THAT SPOT WAS *****)! Back to Dragon Sleeper! I love Tanahashi so much, I fell in love with him all over again and boy oh boy I wanted the kid to do it! Again Tanahashi cant win with the Dragon Sleeper. He gets to his feet first, but as he is picking Tenzan up, Tenzan does the only thing he can...LUNGE AT HIM WITH HEADBUTTS TO THE STOMACH! REPEATEDLY! I never know how much I could love a headbutt to the stomach. Tenzansault which I bit on as the finish. Great nearfall! Anaconda Vice is the finish but what he does is pick him up and throw him down to the mat while in the vice twice. I would have liked to see Tanahashi lose by pinfall here but still the tap out was great. I feel like this was Marty Sleeze special two dudes staying true to their characters, lets the clash of styles tell the story, using the headbutt to the breadbasket as the touchstone, Tanahashi generating his offense so well, really interesting transitions, everything feels organic and snug. Pro Wrestling Be The Best! ****1/2