Jushin "Thunder" Liger

[Timbo Slice]

That Momota match was really good. They gave him a shot at Lyger and then a shot at the GHC Jr. Tag Titles and he was great in both.

 

Liger is going to be really high with me, as even now into his 50s he can still do some great stuff. He's got perhaps the best longevity case out of anyone on the list outside of Funk or Lawler, and like Dylan said, he very rarely has a boring match. Just an incredible worker and someone who has done more for wrestling that can be quantified, really. His influence is absolutely insane.

[Death From Above]

I cannot think of a single professional wrestling match I have ever seen Jushin Liger in where I thought to myself his presence made the match worse than a realistically available alternative.

[Jimmy Redman]

His physical charisma is amazing. I suppose it kind of has to be when you're in a full bodysuit and mask, but the amount of expressiveness he can get across is insane. You can't see an inch of his face, and yet so often you can almost see his expression. You can't see an inch of his body, but you can gauge exactly what he's feeling from the extent of his swagger and his movements.

 

That he can show more emotion than almost every unmasked wrestler ever is just something else.

[WingedEagle]

The worst thing I can say about Liger is that I'm not sure what he's done to rank above Flair, the All Japan elites or Bryan. That's really as low as I can see him going.

[JerryvonKramer]

Objectively one of the strongest cases, one of only a handful of guys who scored 7+ in all six of the categories I was looking for.

 

What he has over the All Japan guys for me is the travel, and the different crowds, opponents and contexts that come with that.

[Eegah]

Liger is the best junior heavyweight ever, he is supremely talented and obviously cared, a good case in point points to the latest Between the Sheets where the boys talk of him being infuriated that a house show match went badly. That kind of dedication seperates the great from the good.

[WingedEagle]

What are Liger's best matches as a heel other than the NOAH feud?

[shoe]

The more I think of Liger, the more I realize I love him just as much as when I 1st saw him in 92. The guy who got me into tape trading. He was the guy who hooked me as a fan. He was such a state of the art worker at the time. Steve Austin said it best last year. Jushin Fucking Liger is still wrestling. Not just wrestling, but having good matches still.

[WingedEagle]

Just watched his match from the '85 Young Lions Cup. Don't know how many official matches he had under his belt at that point, but my god was he really good even that early. It still amazes me how someone that small and fast often wrestled so big. At no point in his career as the preeminent junior heavyweight did he feel like a stereotypical flyer.

[goodhelmet]

I have him in my Top 20. He's in good company. Right next to El Dandy.

[WingedEagle]

I was also dead wrong saying Fujinami would be my highest ranked NJPWer. That honor goes to Mr. Liger.

[pol]

Is the Momota match online?

[abrasiveobelisksa]

Is the Momota match online?

Search for Momota here: http://theditch.us/00-04.html

[pol]

Ahhh I assumed it would've been on the NOAH site. Thanks.

[Eegah]

Ive been trying to find footage of the Liger/Virus match from January. Has it popped up anywhere?

[Tim Cooke]

Lynch has it

[BigBadMick]

Any recommendations for Liger matches in the 2010s? 

He's been talked about as great for so long, and in the 90s that was absolutely the case, but did his career just quietly roll along for the last few years?

Happy to be - actually, hoping to be - proven wrong here!

[Ed.]

4 minutes ago, BigBadMick said:

Any recommendations for Liger matches in the 2010s? 

He's been talked about as great for so long, and in the 90s that was absolutely the case, but did his career just quietly roll along for the last few years?

Happy to be - actually, hoping to be - proven wrong here!

The ones that come to mind:

Vs KUSHIDA - Wrestling Dontaku (3/5/16 - Jr title match)

Vs Volador Jr - BOSJ Night 6 (27/5/16)

Vs Hero - PWG BOLA Night 1 (2/9/16)

Vs Takahashi - BOSJ Night Day 2 (18/5/17)

Vs Ospreay - Strong Style Evolved (25/3/18)

Vs Ishimori - 47th Anniversary show (6/4/19 - final shot at Jr title)

Vs Suzuki - King of Pro Wrestling 2019 (14/10/19 - final singles match) 

---

He'll be a top 10 contender for me.  Greatest Junior Heavyweight ever, and I was still digging his stuff 30 odd years into his career.

[Boss Rock]

I agree with all of those. Even as he got de-emphasized, he was still really good and even better than a decent amount of the roster. One of the rare examples of someone retiring when they still had plenty of gas left in the tank. Top 10 candidate easy.

[Kadaveri]

I also really love Liger vs. Taichi 05/31/17. It's Liger's last ever Best Of Super Juniors match and it's such a wonderful individual performance I can't recommend enough for something I acknowledge probably isn't a "great match" in a vacuum.

[DylanZero]

1 minute ago, Kadaveri said:

I also really love Liger vs. Taichi 05/31/17. It's Liger's last ever Best Of Super Juniors match and it's such a wonderful individual performance I can't recommend enough for something I acknowledge probably isn't a "great match" in a vacuum.

I was sour on him not because he wasn't still awesome and he had good matches, but because he went winless. One of the true fanboying moments I had in wrestling and even from a business standpoint, I think there was a ton of money left on the table in his career by NJPW on the back end.

 

I can't say anything that hasn't already been said on his career, but stylistically it might be a bit controversial but Otani & Kanemoto appealed to me more but there's no way they all won't go high on my list. The 90s were a magical era for Jr. Heavyweight wrestling and Liger was at the forefront of it while never losing it after 2000 all the way to the end pretty much. 

[Jmare007]

I remember Liger giving Marufuji a very good match in the 2010 at a point were I couldn't stand Maru. If cagemstch is correctvthe date is 4/4/2010. 

 

 

Also did Liger give Tyler Breeze the best singles match of his career at that Takeover?  Wouldn't call it a must watch but an old ass Liger coming to NXT randomly for 1 match and putting e "***-***1/2" match like it was nothing was pretty damn cool. 

[elliott]

I really thought one of the great victories of 2016 was that Liger finished 6th behind only that murders row of a top 5. Ahead of Kobashi, Kawada, Lawler, Jumbo. These are some big names. I didn't have him that high, but its a result I was happy with. A lot of folks seem to think he doesn't have the peak, but I think 89-97 Liger is about as good as it gets. Cool that he really survived the juniors backlash unscathed. 

[Quentin]

Would also add the Liger vs Eita match from the first round of that 2016 Super J Cup for great Liger 2010s stuff 

[ohtani's jacket]

Liger is a guy I struggle to find interesting. I thought the NOAH stuff would spark some interest but it only soured things more. I did enjoy the Hase handheld match, though. Perhaps I need to go back to that era.