Superstar Sleeze

Kazuyuki Fujita vs Masahiro Chono - NJPW 8/14/05 G-1 Climax Finals I watched this yesterday but only getting to the review now. It is honestly that good to get everything exactly right so I’m not too worried. Fujita is the ultimate coulda woulda shoulda wrestler. With the right management and right mentor on psychology, this dude could’ve been real money. Chono is Chono. He is over like rover but I just don’t give a shit about him. Fujita comes out like a beast ground & pound knees. I like the route they take at the beginning cat & mouse. The only way Chono can get an opening is if Fujita hurts himself. Fujita misses a charge and tumbles to outside or kicks the post. There’s a great Fujita German off the apron to the floor. Chono’s transition is both good and bad. I liked that Fujita no sold the initial Saito Suplex and it took a string of four bombs for Chono to actually gain control. I still felt that it came out of nowhere and was not earned. I don’t know when this started but it seems Chono replaced the Yakuza Kick with the Shining Yakuza Kick. He seems to use his foot rather than his knee (Mutoh would use his knee). I don’t know if this was a conscious decision or Chono just couldn’t bend his knee properly. At one point he tears his tights, so he can expose his knee pad but repeatedly runs the flat of his foot into Fujita’s face which honestly looked more painful than a normal Shining Wizard but also has nothing to do with the exposed knee. I forget Fujita’s finishing run I’m sure it was a lot of chokes and knees. Chono set his up with an STF which is a great spot. He does a great STF, it generates a lot of heat and it feels like he can win but obviously Fujita was not going to tap. So a bunch of Shining Yakuza Kicks wins the day. It was a little sad to see big bad Fujita job to this fossil but the people were happy. I thought the match was a mess and nothing too terribly interesting happened.

Fuck I didn’t know I had already watched this match. I’m about the same ballpark as I was before I think I was going to go 2.5 stars or 3 stars once I finished writing. The first 12 minutes of this match are utterly pointless. They don’t establish a hook or anything. It is broken up into little segments that don’t connect and are not that interesting on their own. Nominally I’d say they are going for Chono is the legend that is out-gunned by the giant shooter badass. Takayama picks him Up out of the guillotine and drops him off the top turnbuckle to slap him. Or in a firefight Chono strikes are over but is eventually a losing battle. But then he will randomly win a strike exchange or apply a really shitty reverse surfboard. The selling in segment was good but not between segments. The finish run was good: Takayama kneelifts, the Everest German, the big Jumping Knee. The spinning heel kick for Chono to take over was bad but I LOVED THE STF! I wish he won it with the STF rather than the barrage of Yakuza Kicks. I’ll be generous and go ***. I had zero recollection of watching lol

IWGP Champion Brock Lesnar vs Giant Bernard - NJPW 5/3/06 Inokiiam ends with a whimper not a bang. Im pretty sure this is the last IWGP title defense under Antonio Inoki and it is a Smackdown 2002-03 match. Also 5/3 was a typical Dome show date and it was not a Dome show in 2006 showing how far the business has fallen. This starts interesting but gets progressively less interesting. Bernard throws a better clothesline than Brock. One of the few things Brock does not do well is throw lariats. Brock actually wrestlers small here which makes for a better match. Bernard is winning the clothesline war and using his bulk to bully Brock around. It is only on an errant charge to the post that Brock takes over a very small spot. Brock suplexes and when Bernard tries to use his weight Brock puts Bernard’s injured arm into a vicious top wristlock. Great sell. Fujiwara armbar less so. You can tell Brock is a product of the early 2000s because he uses a toe kick to set up moves that is so out of style now it is jarring. Big belly to belly. More arm submissions starts to drag. Albert actually picks things up on a switch into the corner. It is charges and shouldertackles that win. Baldo Bomb sets up his finishing run with a Vaderbomb and Scissors Kick. On 2nd Vaderbomb Brock hits a German. Pair of DDTs what he beat Akebono with but this time it is the F-5 that wins the day. I am confident enough in my Brock love to know this was not his day. There was so good bumping and selling early. I thought he was much better at wrestling underneath to A-Train who had great offense. Brock obviously is a great offensive wrestler but I don’t think he brought it today. ***

IWGP Champion Kensuke Sasaki vs Bob Sapp - NJPW 3/28/04 Well this was FUCKING AWESOME!!! Couldnt find any of Tenzan’s title defenses or Sasaki’s title win. Nakamura vacated the tile after 1/4 I assume due to eye injury. Tenzan seemed liked a great transitional champion than Sasaki. But I cannot complain too much because we got a killer match. Bob Sapp looks like a hundred million bucks. They just get into a three point stance and charge each other like two battering rams. It is just beefy wrestling, slapping their meats against each other and I’m here for it. Big body slam by Sapp establishing his power and size advantage. Sasaki butts low to get a laugh from the fans and then TOPPLES SAPP OVER THE TOP ROPE TO THE FLOOR WITH A BIG LARIAT! HUGE POP! Sasaki presses his advantage on the floor. He is mugged by masked members of Makai Club. So who comes to save him but his wife AKIRA HOKUTO WITH A FUCKING SAMURAI SWORD! Crowd is going wild and pretty sure changing her name. Once they tuck tail and run, we see the damage is done and Sasaki is wearing a CRIMSON MASK! Massive choke slam and dropkick and it looks like Sapp has it in the bag. Sapp charges and Sasaki back drops him over the top rope. He gives chase but this time there’s no Makai Club (thanks wifey!) and he beats Sapp down with a chair from the stands, smashes his head into the post and then it is FLYING BLOODY SASAKI from the top rope to the floor. Back in the ring, Hokuto continues to pay dividends and she passes him IWGP title and he smashes it into Sapp’s chest. NORTHERN LIGHTS BOMB! Awesome near fall! Sasaki tries to charge him but Sapp just BEAST MODES HIS ASS! Sapp’s last lariat actually looks kinda good! POWERBOMB! Of course Sapp weirdly is lifting Sasaki’s arm up on the winning pin and is also using 2001 Space Odyssey as his theme. Then he says he is not a part of Makai Club, he is a member of K-1! Oooooooooo DRAMA~! Nakamura comes out to challenge him…great post-match angle. Look if Sapp bled too after the chair shots or if Sapp come throw a proper clothesline (it is like he cannot lift his arm all the way up) this would be an all-timer. The beefy wrestling to start, Akira Hokuto with a samurai sword, Sasaki bleeding, chair shots, dives, belt shots, choke slams and powerbombs this is an easy thumbs up. RAUCOUS MAYHEM~! ****

IWGP Champion Shinsuke Nakamura vs NWF Heavyweight Champion Yoshihiro Takayama - NJPW Tokyo Dome 1/4/04 I could’ve sworn I’d seen this match before but no review and I didn’t have any recollection of it while I was watching. Takayama was used a lot in big shows from 2002 up until time period. Even though, Takayama won the IWGP Championship from Nagata he was able to lose it to Tenzan without dropping NWF title. I don’t know how that was possible but this match is for the Unification of the two titles. Right away you see Nakamura’s right eye is all fucked up and he came into the match that way. Don’t know what happened, but it is all black and kinda red and swollen. It is unsightly and nasty. I don’t know if it was for that particular reason or just as the young Lion he started off very aggressive. It is about 15 minutes long and it tells a simple but elegant story. Nakamura does all he can to end it early with submissions. He starts off with a heated leglocks. Takayama is a bit bewildered to start as Nakamura is a Tasmanian Devil and the much larger Takayama is just trying to get a hold of him slowing him down with headlocks and smothers. Nakamura in all his haste left himself open to a wicked kick to the face. Takayama got full extension and got round that kick. Nasty. Nakamura keeps on fighting. He even gets two big throws on Takayama. There is a cool kick-catch into a powerbomb that feels really organic that people should steal. Again he pounces on Takayama with submissions but it is a Triangle that seems to spell his doom. Takayama powerbombs out of the triangle and PUNCHES HIM RIGHT IN THE BAD EYE! The rest of the match is one long heat segment. Takayama punches, claws, kicks, grinds, smashes the eye at every turn. Nakamura sells really well. I think a Triangle was his only real hope spot. The eye work is fantastic. Takayama is absolutely brutal. He is such a great bully doing things like the one foot cover to show his domination. He hits the Everest German to put Nakamura out of his misery but Nakamura kicks out of the bridge and seamlessly gains a side mount and a double wristlock for the flash submission victory! This plays very well with Nakamura’s early gimmick as a counter-wrestler specifically flash submissions which is how he beat Tenzan. Unlike Tenzan, the legitimate eye injury was a much better hook and Takayama is better at working on top. I think there are people who like these type of matches more than me so I highly recommend people watch this as I think this is an incredible young babyface takes a lickin and keeps on tickin’ match. Nakamura’s selling is a good here but you have to wonder is it selling if it actually hurts. Takayama’s offense is perfect bully offense. What I don’t like about these matches (Brock/Roman 2015) is the battering is too much to credibly believe in comeback. They poured it on too thick. It began to undercut the match credibility but made Takayama look like a choke. One thing they did do well is that there were zero Takayama near falls besides the Everest German. That saved Takayama. I wanted more hope spots, it could’ve led to immediate cutoffs but I needed more fight from Nakamura but this was still an awesome Dome match. ****

IWGP Champion Tadao Yasuda vs Yuji Nagata - NJPW 4/5/02 I thought this was a more spirited match from start to finish than the February match but I think the blood and rousing finish stretch keep the 2003 match ahead of this. Takayama is in the crowd and it is clear they are building to the Dome match in May for the IWGP championship. I like Yasuda just fine but I do think Nagata was the right choice for the Dome match with Takayama. Two over-arching ideas to touch on. 1. I love the selling in Inokiist Japan. It is all register and great selling in holds. Today’s selling goes from 0 to 100% in one highspot back down to 0% to hit a couple moves back to 100% with the glassy eyed sell. There are levels to this. When you do a register-heavy selling, you leave room for escalation. 2. I am not sure like this in all contexts. I find it more interesting than anything else. Is the use of suplexes/throws as ways to discombobulate your opponent and position them for finishing submission or Bomb. Obviously head-dropping ones should be sold. I think it’s interesting how Yasuda threw Nagata with a butterfly suplex. Nagata came rushing at Yasuda. We know from MMA suplexes look cool as fuck but don’t do much damage. So I think it is interesting way to use suplexes more as takedowns and set up moves. I think there are situations where suplexes should be big finishing bombs and where they should be takedowns to set up Opportunities and use it for body positioning. Hot start which was missing from their other matches. Nagata is aggressive out the gate but Yasuda comes out with Sumo Slaps to bully him into the corner. Guillotine Choke as he shoves the ref off. Pummels Nagata in the corner. Terrific opening. The inevitable grappling is fine. It helped I read that post that Yasuda won a major match using his forearm to choke out an opponent. It is the usual Yasuda using his weight to get takedowns or shift his weight in to smother Nagata in various chokes (forearm on throat, head-arm triangle, and rear naked). Nagata was going for cross-armbreakers and leglocks. Nice call back to the February match is that when it looked like Yasuda was going to win the double underhook but this time the fighting spirit compelled Nagata to throw the big Yasuda over. This leads to two very hot Nagata leglocks. Yasuda looks in trouble. Loved the three move sequence. Yasuda catches a kick. Creams Nagata with a beautiful right cross. Dude should be throwing more punches. Tiger Driver (loves those double underhook) and right after the kick out he pounced with a Head-Arm Triangle. The efficiency was sublime. It is choke city for Nagata. Yasuda left his ankles crossed but nothing happened. The one flaw of the match was on a third Guillotine attempt Nagata executed an armbar takedown into a Crossface felt too out of nowhere and easy. I love Nagata stumbling on his big high kick only for YASUDA TO ROAR AND HIT A MASSIVE DROPKICK! Tiger Driver! 1-2-No! Great strike exchange; Yasuda’s throws a great punch. Nagata German! Yasuda back to Guillotine but Nagata struggles and counters into a Wrist-Clutch Exploder! I love the sell and Crossface for the win. Very entertaining finishing stretch and I just love the efficiency of these matches. ***3/4

Yuji Nagata vs Tadao Yasuda - NJPW 2/16/02 Vacant IWGP Title I enjoyed their April 2003 match with the blood a lot and am intrigued by this match for the Vacant belt. It is unclear to me that they were fully behind Yasuda and just plugged the plug after the Tenzan defense or the plan was always to have Nagata lose this one and get it back in time for Takayama in the Dome on May 2nd. The people above really do a good job defending Yasuda and I agree with all of it. Just as a counterweight, I would say there is a ceiling to Yasuda. I would get into this argument from time to time with Matt D over people like Demolition. There is only so much staying true to your character and story can do. Eventually you do need interesting execution to take you to the next level and a lot of Yasuda’s stuff can be boring even if it is sensible. There’s a reason I watch pro wrestling and very little MMA. Most MMA I find boring because it is exactly the stuff Yasuda does. Maybe education on my part would help but I can only offer review based on my world view. They establish the size advantage for Yasuda that he can throw his weight around in the clinch, takedown and on the mat. Nagata needs to us technique and strikes to win the day. The first peak is Nagata’s kick barrage in the corner…I believe a spinning heel kick and kappou kick. This rocks Yasuda and seems to give Nagata some confidence. He ends up slapping Yasuda which snaps Yasuda back into it. My recollection is Yasuda starts winning the takedown/mount battles. The most execution part for sure was Nagata’s Volk Han-esque ankle cross escape out the choke and going into the Nagatalock. It was not just the sequence of moves that had heat but Yasuda’s selling was incredible. He was writhing and screaming. Terrific. All chokes should be broken by ankle crosses. Nagata seemed to have it pouring it on with kicks and a German Suplex but Yasuda won a double undertook struggle (Nagata wanted a belly to belly). Yasuda bullied Nagata into the corner. Yasuda loves his double underhooks. Tiger Driver! Yasuda gets the Head-Arm Triangle. Yasuda looks to have it with a Guillotine (dude is all about the choke) but Nagata reverses into a Crossface. Yasuda is just throwing bear paws once gets the rope break. He is wounded and is just flailing trying to connect with something. Great selling and response to Nagata offense. Nagata running out of steam tries to throw kitchen sink at him including a Kappou Kick. Nagata shoots for takedown but is caught with the Guillotine and taps out. Once the ankle cross happened this got really good. I thought Nagata being so aggressive was awesome. Yasuda creates a pretty natural Everest to climb. The beginning was pedestrian but it was a rousing finish. Two dudes sticking to their characters and the story just naturally unveiled itself. ***1/2

IWGP Champion Tadao Yasuda vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan - NJPW 3/21/02 Yasuda is probably the most forgettable IWGP Champion but even with his short reign he was able to sneak in a successful title defense here against Tenzan. Yasuda defeated Nagata the month prior to win the vacant belt. I am unclear why Fujita vacated the title, but I think it was due to injury, I need to some research. On this show, Nagata beat Norton to become #1 Contender for the next big show. Nagata/Norton from '98 I believe it my pick for best Norton match of all time, but reading Jetlag's review of the 2002 match sounds like something I can skip. This is only my second Yasuda match, but I am not going to judge too much as Tenzan is not the best person to judge against. I watched this match about 5 hours ago during my lunch walk but it was sub-15 minutes and nothing really happened in the first 5 minutes so it shouldnt be too bad. As I just said not much to report in the first 5 minutes, Tenzan bullrushed Yasuda early but Yasuda used his size and shoot skills to quash that. It seemed like goon/bully move for Tenzan to try. Tenzan is like the world's best Nasty Boy and without his size advantage I was interested to see what he did. Lots of pedestrian grappling. Yasuda started to gain an advantage so Tenzan bullied him into the corner and started to make some headway with clubbering. He deviated from that. Went into a Guillotine, but that played right into Yasuda's hands who quickly countered and bloodied Tenzan's mouth with some ground & pound. Yasuda loves his double underhooks and hit a Tiger Driver. My memory is a little foggy but I know the next major transition was Tenzan headbutting the knee of Yadusa and that's a very Tenzan thing to do. Most people would kick or chop block but he headbutts. In terms of strategy I dig it. It is tried & true pro wrestler vs shooter strategy for the pro wrestler to weaken limb to make in-roads. Tenzan worked the leg pretty well. He hit a diving headbutt to the leg again very Tenzan. Tenzan moonsault and a modified Michinoku Driver for two big nearfalls. The crowd did get into it. He started doing his Mongolian Chop and headbutt shit. Yasuda started his hulk up and eventually Guillotine Choked Tenzan out. Nobody is going to confuse this with Inoki/Brisco '71, but it was better than I expected. The boring first five minutes drags, but they tell simple, elegant story. They explain how Tenzan manages to get some offense, build to some hot Tenzan nearfalls and efficiently have Yasuda win. I see a lot worse day in, day out in WWE and AEW now so I cant complain. ***

I always thought optimistically that Imperium is the Modern Day Holy Roman Empire (Austria, Germany & Italy) and not just the Axis Powers but when Gunther wears that long red coat it makes hard not to think they arent leaning into the Nazi shit which is just gross.

As a huge Byzantine nerd, I popped for his. Waiting for the Holy Roman Empire spinoff, if Shane/Steph need to make a break for it lol

Shinya Hashimoto vs Kensuke Sasaki - NJPW Osaka Dome 4/9/01 There is 1/4 Dome match between these two I think in 96 that I like a lot so I was intrigued by this match as the stipulation was a Death Match which just means Last Man Standing but MMA-style because it is 2001 New Japan. Hashimoto is full on Zero-One and this has to be one of the last matches he had with NJPW. Sasaki has hit the skids after a great 2000 and early 2001. He dropped the IWGP belt to Norton and lost this match to an invading Hashimoto. The writing is definitely on the wall for Sasaki who I don’t think would find his footing again until 2005 against Kobashi in the Dome. I thought this was pretty good but nothing too wild. Hashimoto has MMA Gloves, Sasaki has his mullet. Striking and clinch work to start. Sasaki gets the first throw out of a waist lock. He uses the takedown to try a Double Wristlock and then executes the Cross-Armbreaker but leaves it on extra long in the ropes because it is a Death Match. Hashimoto has to pull himself out to break which was a great spot. Best drama of the match. Hashimoto comes in and WAILS on Sasaki. Brutha punches right to the face; Sasaki takes them like a champ. Now Sasaki powders. The gloves comes off. Hashimoto CHOPS him down with the edge of his hand! Gets a 7 count. Hashimoto goes for an armbar takedown and Sasaki gets a crotch hold into a half Northern Lights Bomb half body slam. Go Sasaki Go! Big meaty Lariats! Weak transition as Hashimoto blows this all off to hit some knee lifts into a Brainbuster, it takes a couple more kicks and that’s it. I think if Sasaki got one big near fall and they came up with a better way for Hashimoto to take back over this would have been incredible but as it is a solid shoot-style brawl. ***1/4

IWGP Champion Scott Norton vs Kazuyuki Fujita - NJPW Osaka Dome 4/9/01 On April 9, 2001, Inokiism went into full effect and didnt end until Inoki was ousted in 2006. Clearly Naoya Ogawa was the original Inokiist experiment, but I feel like it was only when Fujita won the title they went full bore. After going 6-1 at PRIDE with victories over Ken Shamrock and his only loss to Mark Coleman, Fujita was brought back to New Japan in grand fashion to win the IWGP Championship after never making it past the midcard in the late 90s. Interestingly, Fujita came out with a title belt I did not recognize. Norton defeated Kensuke Sasaki for the title and was clearly a transitional champion. So that the traditional pro wrestling Ace, Sasaki, did not have to job to Fujita. They did have a non-title match in October that Fujita won. Funny enough, Norton was still rocking NWO gear even though WWF had purchased WCW a month prior. Match is 7-8 minutes and based on that I expected to see Fujita steamroll Norton, but thats not really true. Norton takes the majority of the match. I think this was twofold to make Fujita's win seem more impressive against a game champion and to promote the MMA style of flash submissions. After Norton had beaten down Fujita with traditional pro wrestling tactics of a powerbomb, chops and wrestling outside, he was felled by a flash cross-armbreaker which then led to a rear-naked choke. It showed the superiority of MMA submissions over conventional pro wrestling tactics. The only other thing to note was the opening spot was Fujita hoisting Norton up in a very impressive double leg takedown that was more like a Alabama Slam. Norton is no small guy. Norton's powerbomb looked very good. There was a brief scuffle between NWO Japan/Team 2000 (Chono/Tenzan) with the MMA boys, but other than that not much to report. Definitely different than expectations, but it got the job done establishing the New World Order of Inokiism & MMA-influenced pro wrestling.

IWGP Champion Yuji Nagata vs NWF Heavyweight Champion Yoshihiro Takayama - NJPW Tokyo Dome 5/2/03 One of those watched this in the morning before the girlfriend woke up, but only getting to the review 12 hours later so sorry in advance if shit is out of order. Nagata successfully defended his IWGP title last year to the day against Takayama at the last May 2nd Tokyo Dome. Here's how things have changed since then. Nagata is still champ and successfully defended against numerous challengers most recently Yasuda. Takayama won the resurrected NWF title at the 1/4/03 Tokyo Dome show (the show Nagata defended against Barnett). After he Nagata/Barnett match, Takayama/Nagata had a staredown. After Nagata defeated Yasuda in a bloody war, Takayama came in and suplexed the defeated Yasuda only to be drilled with a Saito Suplex leading to a pull-apart. Pretty good build here. Pretty standard New Japan start with the feeling out grappling. Takayama rocks Nagata with a head kick early, but doesnt lead to much. The big opening early was a Takayama knee lift to the head. The knee lift is always a Takayama bread & butter and it is important in this match. Takayama pummels Nagata and goes for King of Mountain. He knocks Nagata off the apron twice, but Takayama goes for a Sheamus-style Ten Beats of the Balrog, Nagata snaps the arm over his shoulder and then over the top rope. I love that spot so much. There's so much drama to it and the guy usually taking it really sells the shit out of it. This leads to the big limb psychology of the match as Nagata really goes after the arm with kicks and submissions. It is something he goes back to quite a bit. Takayama sells it down the stretch during the strike exchanges. Takayama's big comeback spot is a huge knee lift into the breadbasket. Nagata's two best chances at winning are Super Exploder (not much heat, I dont think Nagata was going to lose and figured it would take more) and a round kick that damn near takes Takayama's head off late. Takayama's selling of the arm down the home stretch is so good. Takayama weathers some Kawada-style enziguiris and STEAMROLLS Nagata with a Kneelift. A barrage of kneelifts later and an Everest German and we have a new IWGP Champion! My recollection is the 2002 match is better, but this is still pretty good. Good, stiff strikes. It is lacking some sort of hook or cool aspect to take it to the next level. It is a good meat & potatoes match. ***1/2

IWGP Champion Kazuyuki Fujita vs Kensuke Sasaki - NJPW 10/9/04 One of the most bizarre world title changed in history. Look I get it, Fujita is a legit successful MMA fighter so getting him to drop the title will always be challenging. Until GOTNW brought it up, I never thought that was Fujita throwing the match early at 2:30 to avoid a more decisive loss because that could make sense. Fujita comes out gets a Head-Arm Triangle which he switches to a standing choke, Sasaki falls back and he is forces to the relinquish the hooks to kick out. In This short time, they manage to do a strike exchange, Sasaki steams rolls him with a lariat. Northern Lights Bomb, I knew it’d be short so I thought that was the finish but Fujita kicks out. Ok. Weird. They re-do Head-Arm Triangle spot with Sasaki falling back and this time winning with the pin. I get the logic here a long match with a decisive finish is worse loss for Fujita than slipping on banana peel but at the very least just job clean to the flash bomb. The 1-2 punch of Sasaki lariat and Northern Lights Bomb is a good compromise. Instead he kicks out of Sasaki’s finish and Sasaki wins like a chump. Either bad booking or a shitty double cross.

Kazuyuki Fujita vs Kensuke Sasaki - NJPW 10/8/01 Fujita is the current IWGP Champion defeating Norton for the title and with wins over Nagata and Don Frye. Some reason this match is not a title match. Sasaki was the heir apparent with Hashimoto leaving to form Zero-One and Mutoh joining AJPW and Chono being banged up. However the rise of MMA and Inokiism brought an end to that. That being said Sasaki was still the top traditional pro wrestler so I think they did want to protect him. I expected Fujita to bulldoze Sasaki and force him to fight underneath but Sasaki controlled 75% of this which is typical Japanese style. I am a big Sasaki fan and he held his own. Big meaty clotheslines, great armbars and leg work. Fujita caught him with a spine buster on a charge and did his standard ground & pound knees. Sasaki got out of the head & arm triangle. Sasaki looked to be in dominant position targeting the leg with kicks and drop kick. He had Fujita in that inverted Figure-4 Liger likes but Fujita just beat the shit out of him from his back with punches. PRIDE-style punches to the back of the head end it with red tackling Fujita. Sasaki looked great on offense and got a chance to hold his own, but this is Fujita’s world we are just living in it. ***

IWGP Champion Yuji Nagata vs Tadao Yasuda - NJPW 4/23/03 I had no clue what to expect out of this match because I have never seen a Yasuda match in my life. Besides seeing his name crop up on the list of IWGP Champions, I have never heard much about him, but I knew he was an ex-Sumo, shooter. I feel like if Nagata was the #3-#4 guy in New Japan with two all-timers in at the Ace and #2 positions he would be highly regarded. He just doesnt have the charisma to be the Ace, but he is a really solid wrestler and I have grown to like him more and more. Do not let the pedestrian start this match has a raging crescendo! There is a lot of hype for the upcoming Dome match between the NWF Champion Yoshihiro Takayama vs Nagata in a couple days. Yasuda is backed by his MMA cronies including the wild Kazunari Murakami who Nagata had the best match of his career with in December 2002. The opening pummeling and grappling solid, nothing memorable. There was some chippiness at the start with Yasuda being kind of an MMA prick. It picks up a little when Yasuda tags Nagata when the ref orders a break. Nagata targets Yasuda's leg with kicks and then works over the leg. Murakami distracts Nagata and this leads Yasuda take advantage with a head arm triangle (somewhere in there are sumo slaps, a butterfly suplex, but my memory is failing me on the order). Nagata switches from the leg to the arm and intends to break off Yasuda's arm and take it home with him. Yasuda's selling is really good. and I love the Japanese spot of snapping the arm over the shoulder. It is such a dramatic spot. Quick tangent in these matches I am often interested to see how is portrayed as the better wrestler. Is Yasuda due to his shoot credentials and Nagata's relative nascent Ace status considered the better wrestler and Nagata needs to overcome him by being valiant and a great wrestler? Or is Nagata the champion, full Ace and Yasuda has to be a dick to have a chance. It turns out it is the latter, but it took a while to get there. It is clear that Murakami's interference was necessary to make Yasuda a threat as seen by the next spot. The climax of the arm work is a cross-armbreaker where Nagata will not break (there's be a couple instances of Yasuda not yielding clean breaks) and Murakami throws a water bottle at Nagata! HELL YEAH! It is on. Nagata dives into the fray, but he is not just fighting Murakami, he is fighting the whole crew and ends up getting mugged. Nagata comes up a bloody mess and is thrown into Yasuda. This is when the match goes from good to great! Yasuda works the cut with some nasty jabs. DRAGON LEG SCREW! HELL YEAH! Yasuda grabs a kicks and PUNCHES HIM IN THE OPEN WOUND! Yasuda goes back to his tried and true choke. NAGATA CROSSES HIS ANKLES WEARING A CRIMSON MASK! VOLK HAN SHIT! FUCK YEAH! YASUDA COMES BACK WITH A BALL SHOT! Shoot-style with ballshots is Marty Sleeze wrestling!!! Nagata survives. It is a bomb fest now! Tiger Drivers from Yasuda and Exploders from Nagata. It was a charge by Yasuda that led to an overhead throw by Nagata. Then Tenryu/Kawada-style enziguiris led to a barrage of Exploders for the win! Terrific ending. Nagata has way more bloody matches than I thought. Takayama demolishes Yasuda and Nagata drills Takayama with a Back Drop Driver. Melee ensues. Everything feels red-hot going into the Dome. This is Inoki at its finest! Blood, Shoot-Style and a Brawl at the end. Awesome stuff. Cant go much higher than **** due to the beginning, but killer ending.

IWGP Champion Brock Lesnar vs Shinsuke Nakamura - NJPW Tokyo Dome 1/4/06 Wow Brock does it again! He only had four title matches in New Japan, but half of them been killer! This match was the opposite of the Akebono match which really shows Brock's range as a pro wrestler. The Akebono match was all about wrestling small, vulnerable and underneath. Here he wrestles so big and powerful. He is Mount Everest and a Grizzly Bear wrapped in one. Then only in the finish stretch he shows his vulnerability enough to make you believe Nakamura has a chance. In fairness to Nakamura, he wrestled really well here. I slagged him a lot in the Tenzan match for pedestrian selling and not scrapping enough underneath. This match he was just hurling his body at Brock for 9 minutes hoping to Dear God something would stick. Nakamura came out hot with strikes. The way Brock would just shove him around was so powerful. He is a force of nature. He would catch kicks and just STEAMROLL him with a clothesline or with a wicked capture suplex. Nakamura would just keep coming. Brock was cruising. They spill to the floor. The way Brock just bulled him into the apron was so powerful. Nakamura gets the high ground first and that's so important. He gets his first major head-rocking kick to Brock. Brock registers it, but he does not oversell it. If he did that would undercut Nakamura's offense and the credibility of the match. Instead he starts registering these Nakamura's strikes. You can see he is slowing down absorbing these blows but he is still overpowering Nakamura. Nakamura's big finish run was when got a hanging armbar/triangle over the ropes. Boom here comes that grizzly bear selling that makes Brock, Hansen and Vader so special. Forces of nature that at the right, SELECTIVE moments show vulnerability. Nakamura missile dropkick! Nakamura German! Cross-armbreaker! Triangle! BROCK POWERBOMB! HE THROWS HIM DOWN! BROCK STEAMROLL CLOTHESLINE! F-5 WIN! All bow down to the greatness that is Brock Lesnar and an awesome underneath performance from Nakamura. ****1/4

IWGP Champion Brock Lesnar vs Akebono - NJPW 3/19/03 It is matches like this that make me proud to be a Brock Lesnar fan! I always assumed Brock Lesnar phoned in his IWGP Title Reign and just collected a paycheck, but no sirree Bob, Brock was committed to this match. The dude clutched his back just as he was running the ropes and stopped dead in his tracks. It was phenomenal. Whoever coached Brock on selling should coach everyone. Not because of how well Brock sells, but because how much he believes in selling. He wrestled this entire match underneath. He wrestled so vulnerable and really like Akebono bully him. That takes great self-confidence. He did not do what was best for him; he did what was best for the match. When you live in service to the match, the match pays you back double! Brock tries to overpower Akebono early like he would most, but there's nothing doing. His shoulderblocks have no effect. He cannot Irish Whip the massive Akebono. Akebono is able to Irish Whip. He puts Brock down on the shouldertackle battle. He picks Brocks up and slams him. He is manhandling Brock in a way that probably only Big Show has ever done. So Brock completely changes strategy and he wrestles small. He works a heavy diet of chop blocks and sleepers. He gets impatient and deviates from this strategy and tries to go for the F-5 but his back gives out. Great attempt here as he just collapses and Akebono takes quite the bump. Akebono starts pouring on the fat guy offense. Butt splashes in the corner, big splashes and elbow. He splashes in the corner, but Brock pulls the ref there. They give Akebono the visual pin; Brock gets the a belt shot for what I expected to be the lame finish, but Akebono kicked out. This is when Brock does the great sell of the back when he tries to run the ropes to get more momentum. Terrific. Akebono gets one more throw as Brock tries come off the ropes and Akebono gets his last nearfall. Brock punches the breadbasket great selling from Brock. DDT and Brock wins it! This match was way better than it has right to be and it is all thanks to Brock! Excellent underneath performance! ***1/2

U-30 Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kazunari Murakami - NJPW Steel Cage Death Match 3/28/04 So there's so much unpack this. For first off, this is Empty Arena. There's no referee really. It is a steel cage match that I would say the finish is in style of Alley Fight. It is one of those Inokiist absurdities that can only exist and work in his universe. The U-30 (Under 30) Championship was a title invented for Tanahashi for him to be pushed as the main Young Lion, the only other champion would be Nakamura who won the IWGP title in late 2003 and was always Tanahashi's biggest rival for Ace. Murakami is a amazing cocky, violent, mean shooter with Tasmanian Devil Tornado energy. He is terrific. He has this wild eyed look in his eye that makes you believe at any point he could snap and go into business for himself. Unfortunately, I watched this in the morning and didnt get a chance to write the review until 12 hours later. This match is terrific. I got on Twitter immediately sounded the sirens for a Hidden Gem alert. After watching this match, I felt like IMMMMMM BAAAAACCKKKKKK! I never want to leave. I think for Tanahashi haters (I am one of the biggest Tanahashi fans in the world) they would still like this match because Tanahashi brings the violence and stiffness early. I was surprised he overwhelmed Murakami early and throw a German. Murakami took the advantage on the outside using the steel cage. Murakami jaws with an old timer who ends up playing the role of ref later on in the match. Tanahashi takes control and when someone enters the ring he kicks them off. Murakami takes back over and commits legalized bloody murder in the ring. Let me repeat that for those in the back...MURAKAMI COMMITS LEGALIZED BLOODY MURDER IN THE RING! HE PUMMELS TANAHASHI INTO A BLOODY PULP! It is fucking sick. I just watched it back and actually it was Murakami's headbutts that made him bleed hardway and SQUIRT BLOOD ALL OVER TANAHASHI! WOW! Seconds come in and Tanahashi's beats up Murakami's second. Tanahashi makes a comeback with Germans and Dragon Suplex. Murakami BITES Tanahashi in a last ditch attempt! There is blood everywhere! I dont whose it whose. Tanahashi ends up standing up on Murakami's neck with all this body weight CRUSHING Murakami's head into the Cage and that's the finish! A match unlike any others I have seen, the close comparison is probably the Alley Fight between Patterson & Sarge. So unique! ****1/4

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Shinsuke Nakamura - NJPW 12/9/03 I don’t think the Shooters were necessarily the issue during the “Inokiist Era” (c. 2001-2006), I think more of it has to do with Tenzan, Kojima (though he had a lengthy AJPW) and to a lesser extent Nagata. Nagata is better than those two but he needs to wrestle someone better than him for him to be good. You can get good things out of Tenzan and Kojima against Tenryu but for the most part they are lifelong midcard acts that were forced to become main event acts because of the lack of star power. Tenzan to me is the most possible Nasty Boy. He looks and wrestles like a goon. He is the perfect enforcer, heavy, bruiser for the main boss. His most successful was just try for Chono in the 90s. He just does not scream final boss or champion. I think there were issues bringing shooters in but I think larger part was this generation was weak. On to the match, Tenzan does a lot of Tenzan things that means he be a clubberin’! I don’t mind clubberin’, kick/punch, grind, stomp but this was not done in a captivating way. I am not a Nakamura guy and he gets better in 2009 but 2003 Nakamura was adding next to nothing working underneath. His selling was bland and hope spots mostly nonexistent except for two notable exceptions. Basically it was an extended squash but then it dawned on me…this is going too long, Japan using who dishes it out the most, takes the pin, doesn’t Nakamura wrestle Takayama in the main event of 2004 Dome show. FLYING TRIANGLE! HANGING CROSS ARMBREAKER! The young Lion wins out of nowhere lol. Let’s break down the narrative now. Until the finish, Nakamura only got two hope spots: a flash ankle lock and a flash Triangle. This is one thing Nakamura excels in Japan but lost in America is that he is a terrific defensive wrestler. He exploits openings and turns them into offense with submissions really well. So they foreshadowed the finish really well as it was a Flying Triangle that won it. It was like Nakamura’s version of a puncher’s chance, he could hit the submissions anywhere anytime for the win. Love the story but a great layout does not mean a great match. Tenzan and Nakamura needed to be better in between the major plot points to really engage me as a viewer. I’ll give them *** because I really liked the story but can’t got much higher than that.

GHC Champion Jun Akiyama vs Yuji Nagata - NJPW Tokyo Dome 1/4/02 Fujita was stripped of the IWGP Title on this night according to an above post that he injured himself. I have not had a chance to research the background to this but my recollection was this was always the plan because wasn’t Akiyama shown in the crowd during Nagata matches in the run-up to this. This is not an Inokiist match obviously very much a tame AJPW/NOAH match but it happened in the Inokiist Era so I gave it watch during lunch break. They start with the standard All Japan rope break will he or won’t he spot. Nagata rifles Akiyama with kicks. They go to the strike exchange never a fan. All Japan Exploder trade Akiyama Shining Wizard. The transitions are pretty weak throughout the match. Nagata gets a guillotine than a couple piledrivers. I was like well they have to transition back to Akiyama since Nagata climaxed. Nagata misses a spin wheel kick. Akiyama pops up DDT on ramp, Tombstone on outside and piledriver inside. Very symmetrical match. Since Akiyama climaxed Nagata gets a suplex. So it is endgame which means trading Crossfaces and slaps. Nagata gets his big hurrah at the end with the head kick. Akiyama hits Emerald Flowsion and some Exploders to win. My turn/your turn bare bones All Japan match here. It was just going through the motions. I’ll be generous ***

IWGP Champion Kazuyuki Fujita vs Don Frye - NJPW 7/20/01 Sapporo Dome As much shit as the Inokiist Era gets, it did pretty massive business until it ran itself into the ground. Undercard looks kinda interesting Nagata vs Coleman, I’d say Mutoh vs Chono does not intrigue me but it is 2001 Mutoh so it could be cool. This match here underwhelmed. Both dudes look cool as fuck and I want them to be great pro wrestlers but they really aren’t. Besides that awesome Fujita vs SHIBATA match he just doesn’t have that killer charisma you want. I think the biggest difference between Inokiist NJPW and 90s Shoot-Style is NJPW is too influenced by MMA and it leads to a generally uninteresting style of ground & pound and mounts and guards. It can be entertaining and great but it has not been. The front half of this was boring takedowns. Business picked up when Fujita did his one calling card: the ground & pound knees to head which leads to the Frye powder. Frye came back firing with punches which leads to a Fujita powder. They brawl on the outside, solid but not the best shoot style brawl I’ve seen. Fujita finished him with a Guillotine Choke. I hope some other matches delivered on this show as this did not.

IWGP Champion Yuji Nagata vs Bas Rutten - NJPW 7/20/02 I have heard for Bas Rutten since I was in high school, my chemistry/physics teacher was a big fan. Never seen a shoot or worked match with him in it. It is a sub-10 minute match so perfect for my walk. Not as fun as some of the other Inokiist matches actually pretty boring until the finish. Lots of half-hearted takedowns and bundle of leglocks. In my opinion, these matches are the best one of two ways: 1. Clearly defined style differences such as striker vs a grappler 2. Overmatched pro wrestler has to figure out how to beat the cocky invading shooter This match presented both as equals so it just felt like there was no interesting a narrative. Rutten catches him with a Palm Strike that Nagata sells like a KO and Nagata gets choke. Nothing is sticking until the finish. Rutten rocks Nagata with a Shining Wizard and this causes Nagata to powder and take an 18 count. Upon getting in, Rutten kicks his head off. Rutten gets caught celebrating a premature KO so Nagata drops him on his head with a wicked Wrist-Clutch Exploder. Then catches a kick, ankle lock morphs into a cross face for the win. The finish stretch is enough to give this a thumbs up but not a must see. ***

IWGP Champion Yuji Nagata vs Josh Barnett - NJPW Tokyo Dome 1/4/03 Barnett is definitely more of a natural than Bob Sapp. If he dedicated his time to pro wrestling I think he would’ve been great. He has the mechanics down pat, he just needed to get the soft skills down like interacting with the crowd and showing his emotions. Due to that and Nagata being a rather dry performer it makes for a good but not great match. A trope in puroresu is he who takes most of the lickin’ ends up in winning’. Barnett takes most of the early match with the usual MMA style work think double wristlocks, cross-arm breakers, chokes and leglocks. He busts out a cool body scissors takedown into a cool cloverleaf. He does something else cool that I can’t remember because it’s been a couple hours. He rocks Nagata with a flying knee that doubles as a tackle. Nagata avoids the second and step up knee rocks Barnett. This is Nagata first major in-road. He was peppering Barnett with kicks but this is the first time he got the advantage. He throws Barnett around. Barnett does get a last gasp. A guillotine choke I believe but a rainbow spin wheel kick ends Barnett’s day. Finish was a bit anti-climatic out of nowhere but I do like Inokiism commitment to head-rocking strikes being turning points. The newly crowned NWF Champion Takayama strolls down for a stare down with Nagata. To quote David Coverdale…Oooooooooooo DRAMA! ***1/2

Yoshihiro Takayama vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka - NJPW Tokyo Dome 1/4/03 Vacant NWF Title Kohsaka in New Japan?!? LFG! I would’nt have expected him to get such a high profile match as the finalist to resurrect the NWF title. Takayama was a shoe-in to win this match but Kohsaka didn’t make it easy. Kohsaka got about 75% of the match and was an absolute Tasmanian Devil out there. Everything was a cloud of dust, legs and arms. You keep expecting Takayama to catch him with a big bomb and murderize him but it never happens to the absolute end. Kohsaka worked all the usual bag of tricks leglocks, armbars, and chokes. I liked Takayama modulating his selling. Getting more desperate and more worn down as the match progressed. On every stand-up, Takayama always got a strike flurry of kicks and knees. This led to Kohsaka getting progressively more rocked. There’s a point where Takayama tries the Everest German too early but he needs more kicks and knees to execute it. I thought it was over after the Everest but Kohsaka gets a Hail Mary Triangle I think they wanted a powerbomb to seal it but they lose control and Takayama hits an ugly sliding knee to finish off a run, scrappy contest. ***1/2