[1995-08-12-NJPW-G1 Climax] Keiji Muto vs Masa Chono

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Fun fact: This, Kawada/Kobashi and Kawada/Taue are the only matches to show up on every single yearbook so far. I've come to enjoy Muto/Chono as a yearbook tradition because I like seeing the matches progress over time. I loved the '96 match, and one thing that stands out here compared to the '92 and '93 matches is that Chono has so much more charisma and presence than he did before the heel turn.

 

Muto is fired up here and gives a great performance. He juices and Chono works the cut like crazy with punches, kicks and gouging while Muto plays up great facial expressions for the camera. He's on quite the athletic roll before this and Chono slows him down and throws him off his game. Muto's comebacks are tremendous in that he has brief offensive flurries before Chono does something underhanded to turn the tide back in his favor. Chono's STF looks brutal because he's doing more of a choke than a crossface.

 

This is an interesting match to compare to Misawa/Kawada and Misawa/Taue, in that it has the unconventional focus on Muto's face. Chono wrestles like Kawada-lite with some of the tactics he uses against Muto and of course, Muto's bloody face is an added dimension the All Japan matches don't have. I hate out-of-nowhere finishes, and this was an out-of-nowhere finish, but there's too much other good stuff for that to take the match down too much. The post-match brawl between the two is awesome and Muto's celebration is a great moment. Easily the best match of the G1 Climax matches on this set so far.

[Tim Evans]

Best part of this was Hiro Saito shielding Muto's elbow outside and then getting into a fight with the ref. Muto surviving the STF for that long was very Cena like. Good match.

[PeteF3]

Mutoh has gone through quite the resurgence in '95, after several years of Lazy Mutoh polluting a lot of singles matches. Chono has, as noted a few times, had quite the resurgence himself, but I'm starting to think Norio Honaga did this style with a little more panache. He doesn't have Chono's star power, though, nor does he have goons to run interference like Hiro Saito does here. We even get a total U.S. style "YOU! OUT!" from referee Tiger Hattori as he ejects Saito from ringside. But Mutoh is busted open in the process, and while this is hardly an early-'90s Muta Scale performance, the blood flows pretty freely. Ending is a little too similar to Sasaki-Hash for my liking, as both guys go from getting their asses kicked to hitting two big moves for a fluky pinfall. Unlike Sasaki, Mutoh puts an exclamation point on things by effectively kicking Chono's ass after the match. Pretty good, though so far Mutoh/Koshinaka has been the best match of the tournament.

[Zenjo]

Mutoh did a characteristically juicy blade job here. You could even spot him putting the blade away afterwards. This instigated the type of brawling style bout which Chono would do with regularity through much of his career. I always felt he was better at the wrestling side. The match seemed to go down well with the crowd but wasn't my cup of tea. The finish was poor. The frankensteiner isn't a good choice for a flash pin as there is little weight on the torso overall. Day 2 was a comedown from the opening day. Flair vs Koshinaka was weak. The other 3 bouts were solid fare.