[1995-04-13-NJPW-Battle Rush] Wild Pegasus & Shinjiro Otani vs Gran Hamada & Koji Kanemoto

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This was a pretty good match. Mechanically, it was excellent, but there wasn't nearly enough emotion or fire behind most of this. Otani and Kanemoto tried for that, and it's obvious they're building a feud, but the audience didn't take to it at all really. Hamada brings something fun to the match because his highspots aren't really typical New Japan juniors highspots, but this still felt like a match smothered by a limited formula. It's very good, but it could have been better. Interesting in that it really exposes both the positives and limitations of that formula.

[Tim Evans]

Watching this and Benoit just seems above everyone in the ring. I don't get why he was in the juniors division for so long. Why didn't he challenge for the IWGP title? Liked the dive section towards the end.

[PeteF3]

Sort of indie-riffic here. Kanemoto pops up from a superplex like a proto-Davey Richards douche and gets leveled from behind by a flying Ohtani dropkick in the funniest spot of the match. The action is good and well-executed, but aside from the Ohtani/Kanemoto hate there's not a lot at stake or a lot of psychology here.

[Zenjo]

Hamada looked tiny when in the ring with the roided up Benoit. A watchable match and nothing more. The crowd was dead and it didn't feel consequential in any way.

[TheBean]

Koji steps to Otani during introductions. Otani responds by slapping Koji. This was a heck of a tag match. A nice mix of lucha & puro along with a bit of nastiness too. Pegasus/Benoit & Hamada were more neutral but the animus between Koji & Otani was ever present. So it had the right tone that kept this from just being an exhibition of maneuvers. Well..that and the hard chops everyone was throwing. I thought this was a near classic junior tag match. With its flawless execution, move complexity and story, it could be on TV or PPV today...but the closest style is resembles was mid-late TNA tags with Daniels, Joe, AJ, Sabin, Shelley and others. I dug this one!