[1990-08-19-NJPW] Jushin Liger vs Pegasus Kid

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Terrific match. Liger's highspots look great, as you'd expect, but the early punishment he took on the mat was actually my favorite part of this. The dropkick/armdrag stuff at the beginning felt like a very American way to start a match, which just emphasized to me how much Liger really could have gotten over in the U.S. if he was used more. Benoit wins the match and the IWGP Jr title after a sloppy top rope legdrop, but that doesn't really take anything away from the match.

[Childs]

Really well-executed match, no surprise there. But it left me a little cold compared to my favorite juniors matches of the year, which would probably be Liger-Sano and Fuchi-Kikuchi. There wasn't a great sense of fight to it. As great as these guys were and as many good matches as they had together, I'm not sure they ever pulled off a "Holy shit, that was amazing!" match.

[PeteF3]

That ending kind of left me cold. The legdrop was sloppy enough to look like it killed Liger, but that 3-count was kind of out-of-nowhere. Before that this was quite good, though I agree it wasn't Liger/Sano. This had a lot of shit that faceless indy guys would imitate, like the fish-out-of-water sunset flip reversals and the trading armdrags & backdrops, but this looked way more organic and less forced than a typical indy-standoff spot. Liger's crunching top-rope somersault senton was absolutely sick-looking.

[shoe]

A good match. Everything they did had impact too it. I felt their was a little too much your turn/my turn to the bout for my tastes.

[soup23]

Very good match. The opening matwork was tight and interesting and the highspots were great like usual and well timed. Ending was sloppy but didn't detract much from match overall.

[Kevin Ridge]

Benoit press slams Liger to the floor outside. Long bump to take. Benoit flying around the ring as much as Liger. Top rope leg drop wins it for Benoit. This compared to the Owen match really does show how much better suited Benoit was in Japan compared to Hart. Really enjoyable match.

[Zenjo]

Benoit's first and in fact last IWGP Junior title win, so an important stopping point in his progression. The Canadians inexperience showed at times, although it was generally good quality. Liger pulled it all together nicely down the stretch.

[ajtroma]

I started this whole thing as a casual Liger fool, but I'm just an out loud Liger mark now. I loved that just out of nowhere Coppo Kick and the body squishing somersault senton.

[garretta]

It's nice to finally see Benoit on this yearbook even under a mask. This was a nice little match, but not one of Liger's better performances compared to what we see elsewhere on the set.

 

Call me whatever you like, but Benoit's finishing legdrop didn't look all that sloppy to me. How can you tell this on video? Maybe I don't have a discriminating enough eye compared to some of you, but a spot damn near has to be botched for me to be able to tell if it's sloppy or not, and this spot wasn't, at least to me. It certainly didn't detract from my enjoyment. I agree that the three-count wasn't very definitive.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing more Benoit on the yearbooks, both with and without the mask.

[drew wardlaw]

Liger is having a great year. This was another winner. Aways cool to see Benoit young, becaise he's already very good, but doesn't have the attitude or viciousness yet. The ending didn't really look sloppy to me, just looked kind of brutal, so it didn't bother me. Not quite at the level of the other great Liger matches this year, but just super solid and very good.

[dawho5]

One thing that gets me about some of these NJ juniors matches the more I watch them is the lack of emotion when it's not a rivalry. Once you get to somebody like Koji or Ohtani being a dick to Liger and the response, these matches can get really great. But when it's this kind of match, incredibly well-executed for the most part, cutting edge and fast-paced, but without any real emotion from either guy it loses a lot. That being said, the work was terrific as you would expect from these two.

[ClassicsPuro1983]

The Liger vs. Pegasus feud couldn't quite match Liger vs. Sano, but this is still a impressive feud. Benoit is young, but he's already very good, but he doesn't yet have the tough style he will have in the future. The match is split in two parts. The first part is a very interesting matwork. The second part is more a traditional Jr. highspots. The match is great even if I find that it lacks in emotion. Pegasus Kid won his only IWGP jr. heavyweight championship of his career after a guillotine legdrop. (****1/4)