[1996-06-05-NJPW-Best of the Super Juniors III] Black Tiger vs Shinjiro Otani

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

What's this, is Otani building some momentum after a rough start to the year? Very good match, as these two seem to always work well together.

[MJH]

Eddie looked every-bit one of the best in the world (as he was) here. Just great movement, athleticism, execution. Ohtani for his part was really good as well, but this was more of a one-man-show than any of the other juniors (/Ohtani) matches I've watched the last few days. The leg thing plays up down the stretch for those who that matters more than me for, but it's Eddie's attack that's more notable. The finish is quite sudden, the springboard dropkick/Tiger Suplex not having the kick of Ohtani's springboard DDT against Benoit as a sufficient spot to pull out the win against the flow/Eddie's dominance. But a very good smaller show match all-in-all, and like any of these junior matches, it's better than the stuff today in all bar flash.

[Zenjo]

Solid work during the build. Tiger worked over the knee, including some liberal usage of a chair. It looked like he was going to wrap up a fairly comfortable win until Shinjiro kicked out of the Frog Splash and began his comeback. They took it on a bit and Ohtani's charm really boosted the rating. He was in the form of his life, and I don't think this type of match would've been anything notable in other years.

[PeteF3]

Yeah, Eddy really has morphed into a complete worker by this point. The fans practically pleading with Otani to go for the cover as he began his last comeback was also a treat--this time, Otani goes for the kill when he can, and successfully puts Tiger away to end a very good match, that blended studio wrasslin' style body part work with high-flying juniors action.

[soup23]

This is great. Eddy has came on strong with his Flair match and this and Otani is still my pick for WOTY at this moment in time. I have loved his progression as he does capitalize on his offense in this match and doesn't let his emotions get the best of him. I am impressed when Eddy can get over the stoic nature of Black Tiger given his insanely charismatic personality. This feels like a great time to be consumed with NJ juniors overall. ****

[Superstar Sleeze]

Black Tiger vs Shinjiro Ohtani - NJPW Best of Super Juniors 6/5/96

 

This is right before Ohtani's big break as Kanemoto gets injured and has vacated the UWA Light Heavyweight Championship. That was the championship he challenged El Samurai in January. Ohtani defeats Sakuraba (before he becomes SAKURABA THE GRACIE HUNTER) for that championship and that's what qualifies him for the J-Crown where he goes onto have that breakout performance against Ultimo Dragon. I guess you could say he did win the inaugural WCW World Crusierweight Championship over Benoit and I would imagine if Kanemoto was healthy that could have switched one of the other titles onto Ohtani instead. Just a neat point that I don't know how much people discuss.

 

Great match! Whats funny is I did not know this was the round robin portion so I assumed Eddie went over to set up the match with Benoit and lo and behold Ohtani wins. Whats funny was during the final five minutes, I was like this is really setting up for an Ohtani victory because it is classic puro for the guy who is pouring on the offense to lose. That is what happens! Thought Eddie was on fire in this match working the leg. I loved he saw that opening with Ohtani's leg dangling off the apron and just came crashing down on it with all his weight. That's who to effectively parlay opening matwork into a heat segment. Just absolutely great job by Eddie always going back to the leg, loved him using a chair on the leg to ratchet up the heat, great, liberal use of the figure-4! Of course, there is a downside to working the leg in the juniors match and that is it will be blown off. Love Ohtani and I thought that passion was there from him. Way too many uses of bridging pins on that bad leg, dude! I loved them setting up Eddy's bombs by Ohtani missing his springboard moves. Eddy really poured on the offense late and it looked great. I loved how he used the leg psychology to set up bombs and when Ohtani was making a comeback he always could fall back on the leg. Really great wrestling. Ohtani does manage to hit the springboard dropkick and Tiger Suplex with the bridge, for shame, for the win.

 

Besides the victory over Benoit, this was definitely his biggest win to date as Eddy seemed to be getting pushed pretty hard by NJPW before WCW seemed to stop sending Eddie & Benoit over. I thought Eddie gave a great workmanslike performance. Ohtani had the passion, wish he was more creative with his offense to compensate for leg psychology. ***1/2

[tim]

Eddy looked awesome in this match, busting out some cool matwork in the beginning and doing a great job working over Otani's leg. I do wish Otani put more into selling the leg, as it was such a prominent theme in the match. Otani is my pick for wrestler of the year so far too. He's still great here, and they do a good job building toward the big springboard dropkick that sets up the finish. Very good juniors match.