William Bologna

The NJPW World version of this has some fun front matter - Masa Fuchi (current All-Asia tag team champ!) comes out and talks for a while, then Riki Choshu comes out and they shake hands. But then Chono busts in and acts very disrespectfully, to the point that Fuchi throws a hat at him. No entrances, unfortunately. I remember Kawada's trip to the ring being something special. The match . . . well, the philosophy is interesting. The new All Japan is going to be less about head drops and more about hitting dudes really hard, which I'm all for. If only that didn't involve those idiotic "now hit me and then I'll hit you and we can show our fighting spirit" spots that have plagued wrestling ever since. I hate that shit. Other than that, you have some fumbling and rolling around that is neither interesting nor realistic and some good exchanges. Sasaki's clotheslines are lousy (as are Kawada's), but his kicks are surprisingly good. There's some very intricate psychology here, which prefigures the Kawada/Tenryu Triple Crown match later in the month: Kawada doesn't respond well to getting punched right in his damn head (from a kayfabe standpoint; Kawada's the best punched-in-his-damn-head seller ever). Would this get four stars from anyone if it weren't a landmark interpromotional match in front of a molten hot crowd? The Tenryu match had the same philosophy and head-punch psychology and was much better.

But it didn't kill their business immediately. You'd think 80% of the roster, including all the champions, bailing would have, but they sold out (or at least claim to have sold out) the next three Budokan shows. Mike Rotundo in a main event sold out Budokan. Had 'em hanging from the rafters. Kawada, Tenryu, and Muto on top could draw. It wasn't a sellout every time, but pre-split AJPW wasn't doing that either. Hashimoto vs Arashi in 2003 sold out, and I don't even know who Arashi is. Things got bad in late 2003, but that was more than three years after the split. Something killed their business, but it wasn't the split.

How bad was the split for AJPW's business actually? They continued running Budokan for a few years and reported good attendance (I have no idea how reliable those numbers are). They even ran a Tokyo Dome show in 2001 - can you imagine today's AJPW doing that? At a glance, it doesn't look like they turned into an "indy" until 04-05. Maybe it wasn't Misawa and Kobashi leaving that hurt the promotion. Maybe it was Tenryu.

Kawato's great. He's got a great dropkick, he throws better elbows than Okada, and he's got this really expressive over-enthusiastic body language. Like, he's always in a hurry and when he changes directions his body keeps going in the wrong direction. He's like a puppy on a hardwood floor. He and Desperado have the normal young lion shows his fighting spirit match, and it works. Maybe it's Desperado's timing or maybe it's Kawato or maybe it was just a great crowd, but they are into the comebacks. This was a perfect young lion match and the highlight of what wound up being a pretty fun show. I'm not going to make claims for any match but this one, but it was an enjoyable two hours. Red Shoes got to ref his son's first match, there was a guy pretending to be a dinosaur, and you didn't have to worry about anyone going 40 minutes and ending their career.

Normally during a Tokyo Dome juniors match, the crowd sits on its hands and waits for the highspots. Liger and Dragon knew that going in, so they subverted the audience's expectations by building a match not around highspots but around Ultimo Dragon's fuckups. Just some next-level psychology right here. It really changes the way you think about wrestling.

I loved this show even though everything except the Michinoku Pro match was terrible. The pre-show had a Dudleys/Eliminators/House of Pain hype video that I remember being pretty great. (I found a version on YouTube, but it's not the right one. I'm very particular when it comes to forgotten House of Pain singles accompanied by wrestling highlights.) One more fond memory: after Joel Gertner took a Total Elimination, they go back to Joey Styles, who says something like, "Someone call Joel Gertner's mother and tell her her little boy's not coming home . . . *looks away from the camera* *looks back at the camera* . . . EVER!"

I agree completely with this review. It really stuck out how badly they lost the crowd in the middle of the match. The start was hot, but it was funeral quiet for Akiyama's crappy piledrivers.

Is there anyone in this Lion's Gate thing I need to make sure to watch? I like what I've seen of Kiwata, and a dude called "DINOSAUR TAKUMA" is obviously going to get a look. I wish more of the matches were mixed rookie/vet tags so you don't go in definitely knowing who's going to win.

I really dig both of these guys. Takahashi comes off as legitimately weird - who eats athletic tape? - and I've never seen a Kushida match I didn't like. So this was cool but disappointing. I wanted a solid 15. Takahashi's jacket was great. Ricochet's promo was lousy, but I guess it doesn't matter.

I don't know. It was good, but it didn't make any sense. I think my real problem is that I don't really buy Okada. As mentioned above, when he stood there with Shibata, he looked overmatched. So what does he do to counteract that? Nothing really. He can't hit as hard; he's not as good at submissions; he's not a flyer; he doesn't cheat. You can get away with getting beat on and then winning out of nowhere if you've got a killer finish, but the Rainmaker isn't it. So i just didn't "believe" it when that mediocre clothesline took out Shibata. Also, I thought Okada's transitions were lacking - it was just "this time I'll get up faster." It started with that first one where he set Shibata on the top rope and dropkicked him off. Shibata just let him pick him up and swing him around, I guess? Think how much more sense that would have made if he'd poked him in the eyes first.

I like how when Sabre locks in a submission, he always has an extra move he can throw in to get heat. Like, he'll lock up your arm, wait a beat, and then start messing your wrist or whatever. That said, I found my attention wandering during this. Neither of these guys is particularly engaging, and nothing made that clearer than Minoru Suzuki's involvement. There's a guy who knows how to project a character.

I liked this, but I can't help but grade Fale matches on a curve. It's like, everyone says he's crappy, and he looks like he's going to be crappy, and then he's a little better than crappy and I'm all "Good job, Fale! Good for you!" I found Shibata a little colorless in this. There was neat payback spot - Fale had thrown him into chairs and throttled him with a towel. Later Shibata throws Fale into chairs and chokes him with his own shirt. Neat. But it didn't really land because Shibata didn't react to getting throttled with a towel much differently than he does any other kind of damage he takes. He didn't evince any outrage when Fale resorted to that, and there was no sense that he was doing something out of character when he responded in kind. Still, pretty darn good. Better than Shibata/Suzuki. Everything looked like it hurt, and I'm amped for Shibata vs Okada.

Long time (I guess? It's not like I keep track) lurker here. I watched some WWF as a kid in the 80s, but I really got into it again in 1995 (I didn't know it was terrible!). I really enjoyed the Monday night wars, and then seeing the Michinoku Pro match on the first ECW PPV changed everything for me. I rented an AJPW tape from a Japanese video store, and I've been a 90s All Japan mark ever since. (It was the 97 tag league. Misawa/Akiyama vs Kobashi/Ace. They teased a draw but then Misawa pinned Ace with a tiger driver. I didn't have to look any of this up.) I'd kept up reading about rasslin on the internet without actually watching much of it, but I always enjoy New Japan on AXS. That, combined with needing something to watch while I do cardio, got me to sign up for NJPW World. My likes include Tenryu, Kawada, and matches where it's a flippy dude vs a shooty dude. My dislikes include Furnas and Kroffat being stuck at All Asia tag title status.