[1999-03-17-NJPW-Hyper Battle] Jushin Liger vs Koji Kanemoto

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

What we have of this is absolutely great and it’s a decent amount of footage too. Plus, it’s Kanemoto finally defeating Liger to win the title. But the match is actually 31:38! I'd kill to see this in full because it looks to be their best match yet. Depressing that the whole thing has never aired.

[tim]

31:38 sounds awfully long for a singles juniors match, but what we have here is pretty awesome. I really like Kanemoto hitting a big chop toward the beginning of the clip in the same style Liger would hit a shotei. Also really liked Liger getting his knees up on a moonsault and following it up with some palm strikes to the ribs. Ending felt like a big deal.

[Tim Evans]

Crowd is really hot for this which is nice for the Juniors. Kinda glad this was JIP cause it wasn't too long or too short, just right. I liked Kanemoto's ankle lock. Finish was good too.

[soup23]

I would really die to see all 31 minutes of this. The action we got progressed well so as long as we had interesting mat work to start and nothing egregious like tons of limb work that was blown off, I see this being a sure fire MOTYC and would probably have it at #2 overall based on what I project the beginning section to be. The finish was sublime and Kanemoto has rose the ranks and looked better and better vs. Liger as the years have gone on. Here he picks up his biggest win.

[PeteF3]

Not as into this as everyone else--I'm about over Koji Kanemoto entirely because I go into all these heavily pimped matches of his and he keeps letting me down. He's shown to me between the Wagner match and here that he's a fucking shitty comeback, so the drama doesn't build and the wins don't feel earned. And I found the dueling shoteis to be eye-rolling instead of climactic. Let me know when the title's back on Otani.