[1996-08-05-NJPW-G1 Climax] Keiji Muto vs Shiro Koshinaka

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

If the match these two had a few days later was really good, this was great. There were a few All Japan tributes in the middle with Koshinaka trying the series of powerbombs to put Muto away and it not working. Muto does the dragon screw leg whip a few times to catch an over-excited Koshinaka off guard, including a final one off the top rope, which plays into the finish nicely. I love the inside cradle off the figure four, because I don't associate flash pin attempts with Japanese wrestling very often. Very enjoyable.

[Ditch]

I really enjoyed the last 5 minutes or so, maybe one of the best Mutoh match endings, but the stuff before then was filler. Worked like a TV juniors match in that respect.

[El-P]

The 96 Climax was so great.

[Ditch]

If the match these two had a few days later was really good

Wait, what match a few days later?

[Loss]

Sorry, should read a few days earlier.

[Ditch]

That was a mistake, on the 2nd it was Mutoh vs Yamazaki.

[Tim Evans]

The last 10 minutes of this is pretty exciting. The crowd gets into it and Muto is motivated. Muto getting powerbombed from the top looked painful though. Good match.

[Zenjo]

The majority of the time it was the feeling out and matwork section. Then all of a sudden the cameras start rolling and it's hyper turbo stretch time. There was some excitement yet not building towards it is a big limiting factor. I used to like 90's Kosh, but he was nowhere near the level of worker I once thought he was.

[PeteF3]

Weird junior-y layout, but with a finish that fun and heated, so what? I've probably criticized other matches for doing the same thing, but here it worked. The near-falls and Koshinaka hope spots down the stretch were heart-stopping.

[soup23]

This may be my bias against both guys but this didn't do a lot for me at all and I thought the powerbomb, butt butt, dragon screw series felt very unimaginative in the end stretch. The opening junior wrestling was also uninspiring. The crowd went nuts and I can see how this match has fans, but it left me very flat. **1/2

[tim]

The struggle over the sharpshooter in the beginning was a nice piece of matwork. They botch a rope-running exchange and the match gets bogged down for a while after that, but once they get into trading big moves it's an awesome sprint to the end. Koshinaka gets a number of awesome nearfalls that the crowd totally buys, and Koshinaka's sense of urgency is great and really makes the match feel like a bigger deal. This ended up being another very good G1 match.