[1999-01-05-FMW-New Year Generation] Hayabusa vs Tetsuhiro Kuroda

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This is Kuroda working over Hayabusa’s knee. Hayabusa responds by going after Kuroda’s arm. Kuroda’s stuff was solid and Hayabusa’s was terrific. Hayabusa’s arm work was very Hashimoto-like in this match. In a way, this was a dome show match worked in a really small arena. Kuroda did the Muto thing where he runs as far as possible to hit a lariat, but they had no huge ramp since they weren’t at a dome, so he did it in the crowd. Hayabusa responded with a rana that sent Kuroda tumbling down the stairs. When Hayabusa threw the chairs on Kuroda and moonsaulted him, it sort of pissed me off because the match had been so pure up until that point, but this *is* FMW, so there’s probably always going to be a little of that. They sort of treated it like something obligatory and got back in the ring to work their preferred basic match quickly, which I appreciated. Hayabusa hits a 450 for a great nearfall near the end. Kuroda’s lariat isn’t very good, but Hayabusa puts it over well enough that it doesn’t matter. They do the bomb throwing at the end. This had a New Japan build, an All Japan finishing stretch, and like two minutes of old-style FMW stuff to try to nod to the crowd they were working in front of. This was a very good match.

[tim]

I liked the outside stuff, I'm sort of really into good garbage matches at the moment in general, but yes it did feel odd coming right after a mat-based limb work opening segment. Overall I feel like this match would've been better if they started off quicker and transitioned almost immediately into the dives and crowd brawling stuff and then moved on to the bomb throwing ending, cutting out the opening portion which was solid enough but whjich I wouldn't have missed. The end stretch was fun but man those Kuroda lariats at the end were way too obviously thrown with the explicit intent of not hitting. Hayabusa landing on his feet off the springboard moonsault to the outside was a cool spot too. Good match.

[soup23]

Really good match and made me hopeful for the Busa in 1999. Kuroda didn't fully focus on the leg for all that long which was good as Busa was able to do his flashy stuff in the finishing sequence without any annoyance from me. I also thought his arm work was surprisingly good. This match had some things that usually annoy me (long running clothesline and chairs being piled) that actually felt pretty organic and natural here. The FMW I watched before the set was pretty fantastic and this was just a taste of what is to come. (***1/2)

[Tim Evans]

This was good but I'm still not that into Hayabusa. Liked when they went into the crowd and Hayabusa did the ddt I think down the stairs. I'm gonna watch it again to see if it's better on second viewing.

[Zenjo]

In the early stages they exchanged body part attack segments. Instantly blown off in both cases. Then to the outside as this is FMW. No countouts in this one. Putting chairs on your opponent and then moonsaulting them is illogical, dumb and dangerous. Then back into the ring for the intended thrills and spills. I was beyond caring by that point. A bad junior match with the FMW touch.

[PeteF3]

I didn't dislike this as strongly as a lot of the '98 Hayabusa matches but I didn't think it was much better than average. The FMW guys know how to create big near-falls in a vacuum, but still can't find a way to compel me to care about who wins or loses. Hayabusa actually did try to sell his way through his comeback, which I appreciated, and made this seem like something a *little* more than just trading big moves back and forth.