[2003-09-06-AJPW-Summer Action Series II] Shinjiro Otani vs Satoshi Kojima

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Satoshi Kojima vs Shinjiro Ohtani - Budokan 9/06/03

 

Another good Kojima match will wonders ever cease! I should let this girl know the effect she has had on me. Making me like Kojima, craziness! I was totally shocked by the finish, but I should not have been given the layout. This was the first time since Kojima joined All Japan he was not the underdog (Mutoh, Kawada, Tenryu and Hashimoto) and I was intrigued what he would do. I actually thought he worked an energetic and hot match from on top. I would liked to seen more dickishness and heeling from Ohtani since this is part of the AJPW vs Z1 feud. I liked the opening with them hitting finishers early to kick off the match with a bang. They reset to a more standard opening with Kojima dominating Ohtani for the most part except when Ohtani was able to rake the eyes and get his facewash. Kojima teases doing the Ohtani facewash and he really should have! I liked how they had each other scouted Ohtani dropkicked Kojima going for his elbow drop and Kojima returned the favor when Ohtai went for the springboard dropkick. Kojima nearly kills himself with a wicked suicide dive into the railing. Kojima is really throwing himself into his spots. Kojima destroys Ohtani with an elbow and he does the lifeless sell. I should have realized once Kojima was destroying Ohtani with Ace Crushers, but was not finishing him off that Ohtani would win because that is Japanese Match Layout 101, but I presume this was when Kojima gets his victory over a veteran and bring his ascent. I didn't like the finish because I thought Kojima killed Ohtani too much. Thus it made Kojima look weak and the Ohtani comeback look unbelieveable. I really bit on Ohtani getting two Dragon Suplexes to counter the Lariat and then Kojima nailing him with a Lariat. If that was the finish, this match would have finished a bit better, but it would have been more of an extended squash. Ohtani mounts his comeback with a spinwheel kick and springboard dropkick to the back of his head. He cant get the powerbomb and Kojima knocks him out of his boots and again a perfectly good finish for a Kojima victory. Ohtani powerbomb and then a Dragon suplex brings it home for Ohtani.

 

My two knocks against this match is that if you want Ohtani to win the whole match ought to be restructed or at the very least not have Kojima totally annihilate him and that finish run did not fit the rest of the match. They were working a fun upper midcard match to establish Kojima on top then they all of sudden tacked on this "epic" finish run. It is still a good match, but did not think the complete package will make my top 100. ***

[ohtani's jacket]

I don't have much time for Ohtani as a heavyweight, but Kojima has been one of my favorites in 2003. Ohtani was an absolute genius as a junior heavyweight. I could write a tome about his junior heavyweight work. I've never really put much thought into why his heavyweight work disappoints. I suspect it's because he was never really The Man in the junior ranks. His juniors schtick was predicated on being the unlucky loser. It's hard to see where you go from there. Here, he was in two minds about whether to be the asshole heel invader or the plucky underdog. Kojima seemed unsure of his role too. Was he meant to be the gatekeeper to the Triple Crown title shot? The first stage boss? A contender as well? The finishing stretch was decent, but Japanese finishing stretches are almost always decent. I was looking for a reason to care and couldn't really find one. It wasn't a bad match. Just like of average. I actually kind of wish Kojima had gone over, but I guess inter-promotional crap was still the rage.