[1996-06-01-World Wrestling Peace Festival] Jushin Liger vs Great Sasuke

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Obviously, Liger is awesome, but I'm a little detached from him by this point. It feels like he wins too much and while he delivered a good match here, I think the U.S. fans kept waiting on him to do some crazy spot that never came. Liger's matches lose suspense for me sometimes during this period because he doesn't really lose. I compare this to the tag match on the same show, where the guys felt compelled to do a showcase match because they knew they might have a lot of fans watching them that don't follow them regularly. Liger and Sasuke didn't really do the intro to New Japan juniors match that you'd expect.

[Tim Evans]

I liked this more than Loss. It wasn't a great match like the tag but it was fun and Sasuke's dive looked really great.

[PeteF3]

Funny how perspective changes things. My criticism of Liger watching these Yearbooks is he loses TOO much--he spent so much time trying to make rivals out of Honaga, Nogami, and others that it tended to undermine his ace status. Still, I was disappointed to see this was an extended squash, with Sasuke getting a run of offense that lasted like 30 seconds before being decisively put away, with not even a few token kickouts.

[soup23]

I liked this a good bit too and it was only a slight step before the match before. This felt like more of an exhibition and a showcase for Liger than the great matches these two have produced against each other at times. LIger is still one of the best workers in the world for 1996 so far from what I have seen and this show overall is interesting to watch from a concept perspective.

[tim]

This was a really good match. They do some pretty good matwork in the beginning, working a nice little segment around a headscissors. They don't wait too long to get to the meat of the match though, and most of it is just fast-paced juniors action throwing out big moves and a couple nice dives. Great match to put on for the crowd.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Jushin Thunder Liger vs Great Sasuke - Inoki World Peace Festival 6/1/96

Sasuke beat Liger for the IWGP JR heavyweight championship on 4/29 at the Tokyo Dome but this is non-title because Liger is winning and they didn’t want to do the title change. I am sure there was some kayfabe reason like it is in LA for this exhibition festival but let’s be honest they didn’t want to do a title change and they wanted Liger winning in America. Since the 1994 Super J Cup was so popular in America and Liger/Sasuke was the most popular match of that tournament it makes sense this is the match to bring to America. 
 

I liked the 4/29/96 better slightly higher stakes bigger crowd matched intensity more but this is still good. It is just an exhibition though. Opening chaining is done very well. Sasuke grabs a Camel Clutch. Liger shows a variety of attacks on leg, back and arm. We get Liger running through his standard offense after a Sasuke powder. Liger missed a top rope Headbutt but a Sasuke side sault eats knees. We trade some cool dives. Sasuke’s swan dive and karate kick off the Ring post look so cool. I love Liger’s Superman splash to the floor. Eddie was the GOAT at this. Ban Moonsaults to opponents on the outside bring back Superman Splash! So sick! Sasuke tries for his two finishers the Tiger Suplex and Crucifix Powerbomb but Liger stuffs him. Shotei! Ligerbomb win!

It never drags it has some fun stuff in it but this is not their 1994 work. It is just pretty good. *** 1/4