Loss Posted December 2, 2010 Report Share Posted December 2, 2010 Talk about it here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted December 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2010 So we know the story with juniors and dome shows, but this match was pretty good and would have had way more heat in a smaller arena. No typical juniors feeling out period, as they started tearing into each other right away. Kanemoto dominates most of the match early on, working over Liger's knee, while Liger is pretty helpless. The crowd starts to come slightly alive when it's obvious they're building to the finish. Liger's release German is awesome, although obviously it's at best the second best German suplex on this show. Kanemoto is good here, but he can't compare to Liger, who between his selling and the offense he busts out to finally put away Kanemoto is on another level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted December 18, 2010 Report Share Posted December 18, 2010 I don't think I ever saw the full match, but I always thought it was weird that they couldn't use a better camera angle of the finish, especially since Liger never used that move before (or since). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted December 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2010 Yeah, I couldn't even really tell what he did. You'd think it was the 1988 JCP camera crew filming Sting's big show dive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted December 18, 2010 Report Share Posted December 18, 2010 It was some kind of corkscrew moonsault. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hollinger. Posted December 24, 2010 Report Share Posted December 24, 2010 I really wasn't into this until the ending. I'm interested to see how NJ Juniors stuff holds up on the rest of the set. I've never been the biggest Kanemoto fan, though, so it may just be an outlier for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted December 25, 2010 Report Share Posted December 25, 2010 Honestly I think Kanemoto is the only one of the big name juniors who got better the older he got. His prick heel act is a lot more interesting and effective now, when he relies less on flash and sizzle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert S Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 The (even for Tokyo Dome standards) complete absence of heat made this kind of hard to get through. I think I would have enjoyed this if they had wrestled in front of 20 people in some high school gym. Though Liger and Kanemoto are not completely innocent here, they didn't even try to interact a little bit with the crowd, which both are very capable of (and already were at this point). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJH Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 I don't think much NJ '90s Juniors holds up too well, but this was never really considered a classic and so doesn't bring with it the disappointment I've felt for Liger's more revered matches with El Samurai or Ohtani. It's good, but nothing ground breaking or revelatory or anything particularly special. And, yeah, juniors in the dome... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Evans Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 This felt more like a ROH/X Division match than anything. The constant kickouts got annoying but I thought the match was good. Kanemoto's injury fake was great and I liked Liger's multiple palm strikes. I agree the lack of heat kinda hurt it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kronos Posted January 18, 2011 Report Share Posted January 18, 2011 Count me another vote for hating the dead crowd. Was this one if those tennis crowds, only responding to big moves? Wrestle this match on a TNA ppv, and you'll see a much diff atmosphere. Or think about Pillman/Liger in Nitro to see the difference in a good but not great match that has an interested crowd. Tough to make it through this one, though the movez themselves were good enough. As the Mutoh match is beginning, it's amazing how much louder the crowd is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack_Briscoe_Is_My_Hero Posted January 30, 2011 Report Share Posted January 30, 2011 I would agree that it is simply ok. I still remain a novice at Japanese wrestling even after all these years of dabbling in it so all of the 96 stuff is new to me. The powerbombs at the end seemed a bit of an overkill for me. Some variety as well as the other stuff mentioned above would have made it more enjoyable. Nothing offensive at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wahoos Leg Posted February 6, 2011 Report Share Posted February 6, 2011 Got a little powerbomb happy at the end but I thought it was a pretty entertaining juniors match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishbaugh Posted May 27, 2013 Report Share Posted May 27, 2013 Matches with no heat are always a little rough getting through, but I'm also surprised that neither guy tried to pull the crowd in more. Kanemoto is a favorite of mine but this isn't his best showing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Ridge Posted June 29, 2013 Report Share Posted June 29, 2013 Liger has the split personality look like Piper from WrestleMania 6. I thought the camera caught the finish pretty good. Better match than the 93 one against Ultimo Dragon. It’s curious why the Junior Heavyweight matches didn’t get over with the Dome crowds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zenjo Posted October 17, 2013 Report Share Posted October 17, 2013 In commemoration of this match I decided to write a very short song: 'Juniors in the Dome, Juniors in the Dome, Juniors in the motherfucking Dome' The action had more of an aerial emphasis than normal. The execution was quite variable. Kanemoto's selling was atrocious. Liger followed up his Super J Cup victory to leave no doubts that he was back, and the ace of the division. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soup23 Posted December 2, 2014 Report Share Posted December 2, 2014 I have no problem giving the big FU to the dome crowd for junior matches so that didn't bother me here. What did was the fact that Liger didn't do nearly as good a job selling his limbs as he does at other times. Kanemoto as a spunky junior is a little unnerving too as he got much better when he ramped up the douchebag tendencies. A good match but not really the great one I was hoping for and overall I am ready to chalk this feud overall as secondary to Liger vs. Otani. (***1/4) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted December 18, 2014 Report Share Posted December 18, 2014 I do love Liger's special Dome outfits. Here he's rocking a Two-Face-style half-red and half-blue number. I think people seem to be overselling the deadness of the crowd--it didn't strike me particularly as such, and they were certainly into things toward the end. I liked the matwork, but in NJ junior fashion it didn't really go anywhere. And what struck me is that despite being the defending champ, Kanemoto never felt on Liger's level. There are two long, drawn-out sequences where Liger just repeatedly drops Kanemoto on his head for repeated covers, first with fisherman busters and then with Liger bombs. Outside of a few token moves, Kanemoto gets no such run of his own. He shows some grit and fire by kicking out, but this feels like Liger as established champion against Kanemoto as the in-over-his-head challenger. Not really an impressive Koji performance, but the belt is back where it belongs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted February 10, 2017 Report Share Posted February 10, 2017 IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Koji Kanemoto vs Jushin Thunder Liger - NJPW 1/4/96 One of those interesting dynamics where the champion is coming in as the underdog with something to prove. I think what makes this match interesting is that Kanemoto does not wrestle that way. He wrestles like he is already Liger's equal. Look at the difference a year makes. Here he backs Liger to the ropes and gives a clean break. In '97, he does not miss a beat in chopping Liger. In '97, he is wrestling like he has something to prove. It is because he was not on Liger's level and Liger proved that here. Kanemoto was the Junior ace for 1995 and the champion for the majority of the year only broken up by a short reign by Sabu of all people. I think they made a conscious effort to skip the matwork and have Kanemoto throw bombs in order to get the notoriously difficult Dome crowd to react. I think there one misfire was not giving Liger the shine instead of Kanemoto. I think the crowd would have gotten behind Liger more readily. Once they realize that no one is resurrecting this dead as doornail crowd they return to their basics. They take it back to the mat and Kanemoto focuses on the knee. Liger's verbal selling is great here. The bright side of a dead crowd is we can hear Liger's screaming. Liger is single-handedly taking this routine match and making it great. Liger needs a Shotei and a Kappo Kick to turn the tide. Then it just becomes a Liger offensive display. HE'S BAAAAAACCCKKKKKK! He drops Kanemoto on his head like it is a Misawa/Kawada match. Gnarly stuff. I thought the long-term selling down the stretch could have been better. Kanemoto mounts a comeback fresh as a daisy even though he was dropped on his head a bunch. I did like the transitions like Kanemoto holding onto the ropes for second Top Rope Frankensteiner and holding up his feet for diving headbutt by Liger. Kanemoto gets his usual finish run with Tiger Suplex and moonsault which actually gets a pretty good reaction from the crowd. Liger SWATS Kanemoto out of the sky with a Shotei, didn't look great but Liger sold his hand. Three Ligerbombs and some sort of crazy corkscrew moonsault (the camera crew totally missed it, like WCW's levels of whiffing) win him the match and the King has returned to his Throne. It is two great offensive wrestlers running through their offense. Kanemoto looks strong in the beginning but is not wrestling with urgency and this bites him once Liger makes his comeback. It just felt very routine, but when you are as good as these two it is still enjoyable. *** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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