[1992-05-17-NJPW-Super Heavy Crush] Riki Choshu vs Keiji Muto

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

It's early in the decade, but at this point, this is the best I've seen Choshu look in the 90s. I am unsure if I'd call it his best match, but it is my favorite performance from him. I love the early matwork because it has the feel of an old-style classic world title match, and Choshu really caught me off guard when he did the flying headscissors into the takedown out of nowhere. There's a really struggle and authenticity to the matwork that is rare. Muto falls short, but makes a strong showing, and the match just really hits the right note in Choshu winning but giving Muto just the right amount of offense. I'm guessing this is the highlight of Choshu's IWGP title run.

[jdw]

01/04/92 Riki Choshu over Tatsumi Fujinami (12:11)

 

05/01/92 Riki Choshu over Scott Norton (10:31) **1/4

05/17/92 Riki Choshu over Keiji Mutoh (15:55) ***1/4

06/26/92 Riki Choshu over Masahiro Chono (17:57) ***1/4

07/31/92 Riki Choshu over Super Strong Machine (11:43)

 

08/16/92 Great Muta over Riki Choshu (11:26)

 

I can't find the ratings for the Dome match. The title change to Muta was only on commercial tape if I recall as New Japan was pre-empted a ton that year. Dave skipped a ton of recaps due to the August trip, so the SSM match fell through the snowflake cracks if it was on TV (I don't remember it as all).

 

A come between Jumbo's last run, Hansen's last run (since he was one-and-done in 1995), Fujinami's last sustained run on top and Choshu's last run in 1991-92 doesn't come out all that great for the New Japan legends. Choshu was a bit hurt by not having a defense against Hash.

 

John

[jdw]

It's early in the decade, but at this point, this is the best I've seen Choshu look in the 90s. I am unsure if I'd call it his best match, but it is my favorite performance from him.

Have you seen his 11/01/90 defense against Hash?

 

John

[shoe]

I enjoyed this. The selling of struggle was great. Agreed it had a total old school feel to it. Towards the finish, they seem slightly off, but still a good match.

[Kevin Ridge]

Headscissors by Choshu was well done. That was out of nowhere. Better of the Choshu matches but there seemed to be a mix up late in the match with a clothesline and DDT that didn't look right. They were able to recover enough though.

[WingedEagle]

Why do we have an English ring announcer here? Slow matwork to start with a focus on Choshu's knee, including a long figure four spot. Choshu's backdrop suplex gets a pretty big big crowd pop. Muto's hot stretch sees him break out a a moonsault and dive, pulling out all the stops against the champ. Nice finish with Muto withstanding one lariat but not a few. Reminiscent of a low-rent Misawa-Hansen in that regard.

 

***1/4

[PeteF3]

Didn't like this much at all. Surprisingly heatless for a title match main event involving Choshu, and Muto did lots of sitting around whether in holds or when he was allegedly selling and 1991's Best Wrestler is rapidly showing signs of the Muto that tends to piss me off. Finish was well put together but this isn't in either guy's top 10 performances of the decade so far.

[MikeCampbell]

I can't say that this really did anything for me. It wasn't horrible or anything, but seemed rather unspectacular to me.

[Zenjo]

A slow burner with plenty of matwork. Generally solid if unspectacular. Ground based matches were never Choshu's forte. Unfortunately once the pace picked up they horribly blew a series of spots which killed it stone dead. Both men were culpable.

[GOTNW]

Terrible Mutoh performance, which is a shame since their 1990 match was great. He blew pretty much every spot he could. Finish was fun but this had Mutoh in control for like 90% of the match which was a terrible choice. Uneventful. Highlight of the match was the announcer talking about the symbolism behind the colours of their ring shoes.

[garretta]

I don't usually go into matches looking for blown spots and the like, but after reading this thread I was ready for them in this match. At about the seventeen-minute mark, I was about ready to say that you guys didn't know what you were talking about. Then Muto blew the moonsault, of all things, Choshu whiffed on a DDT, and a couple of his lariats looked less than crisp as well. Everyone can blow a spot once in a while, but three or four such noticeable ones in such a short span of time is just a sign of laziness. Add to that several times late in the bout where Muto didn't seem to know what to do next, and this bout goes from solid if unspectacular to a profound disappointment.

 

I didn't notice Muto being especially lazy, unless you guys mean that he wasn't struggling enough in Choshu's submission holds, which is debatable and takes the discussion down a bit of a slippery slope. If he'd been selling too actively, I'll bet some of you would have criticized him for it the way you've criticized Ricky Steamboat in the past. I found Muto's selling in this match to be perfectly competent, if a bit understated.

[dawho5]

Beginning of the match was really good old school matwork.  They lost me on the ending.