[2000-01-04-NJPW-Wrestling World 2000] Jushin Liger vs Koji Kanemoto

[soup23]

Liger’s suit is boss and here he comes out with two women to put everything over the top. That said, the IWGP junior title is one of the wimpiest looking things I have ever seen. I know the narrative of dome junior matches sucking but with these two, I was still really looking forward to this one. They bump the opening mat work exchange for heated strikes and I was really on board. Liger works over Kanemoto hits a series of bombs and then wins with the brainbuster. WTF????? Why was Kanemoto made to be the sacrificial lamb here? This really actively pissed me off. 1/2 *

[Loss]

Well this was a massacre, to the point that it seemed to shock the hell out of everyone in the building. Guys are really beating the shit out of each other on this show. Yeah, considering the great matches Liger and Kanemoto have had in the past, and even more so, considering how many of those matches we have in clipped form only, it's doubly frustrating that this was booked the way it was when it wasn't going anywhere productive anyway. This would have been an awesome way to start a match to do something very different with these two, and Liger really did look like a killer. But they had done a lot to establish Kanemoto over the previous four years of feuding with Liger that felt a bit all for naught after this.

[stro]

Personally I thought it was hilarious. Koji had lost to Liger 3 times on 1/4 shows. Overall, Koji was 3-10 against Liger over 6 years. Liger had already proven to be the better competitor, pretty decisively, and if you're just watching the 1/4 shows, you're wondering why the hell they keep running this match. And then Liger absolutely squashes him to prove he ain't shit once and for all. They have another 1/4 match 5 years later and...Liger wins AGAIN.

[BigBadMick]

First thing that came to mind with this was Lesnar/Cena at SummerSlam. Just shocking, statement-making stuff. Enjoyed it while it lasted.

[Robert S]

From what I remember the idea here was to prepare Liger for a heavyweight run. Actually I thought he challenged Sasaki for the IWGP heavyweight title shortly after this but apparently it was a no title match. I looked a bit at Liger's booking in the couple of months after this (spoiler alert, I guess) and he worked mostly in the junior heavyweight division apart from a couple of single matches against heavyweight on bigger shows where he jobbed almost every time (for example he ended the G1 1-4 with a win over Goto). The biggest problem I have with that booking is that Liger carried the junior heavyweight title during this whole thing making the division look like a joke, but I suppose that is Choshu booking for you.

[fishbaugh]

That was...unexpected. Liger vs Kanemoto is a match I always enjoy, so I was a little pissed at what we got here. That being said, I kind of agree with Stro -- Liger always beats Kanemoto, so if they keep running the same match, eventually Liger is just going to put him down. This is one worth watching, if only for the novelty factor of Koji being jobbed out hard.

[Laney]

Well this was interesting. Worth watching, but you have to wonder why this was booked this way. Liger looks like an absolute beast here, so if that was the goal, it was accomplished very well. The idea of this being done to perform Liger for a heavyweight run is interesting. You would think they would find a way to do it without making the junior division look like a total joke.

[KB8]

I remember watching this for the first time about thirteen years ago, at a point when I was super high on the junior heavyweights, and my take on it was basically, "well, that wasn't what I wanted at all." I wasn't following Japanese wrestling in 2000, but reading about that period I think the prevailing take on Liger was that he spent most of the year in no-sell mode, with this being the match that kicked it off. Should be interesting to see if that's how it comes off while revisiting it (or most of it, anyway).

[AstroBoy]

I watched this thinking that Kanemoto maybe had broken his jaw or gotten a concussion early on or something. This was shocking and brutal. Honestly I kind of enjoyed it as a change of pace knowing it was a conscious decision to go this way. I totally understand the undermining quality of what it does to Kanemoto but just as a standalone match I kind of wish more things would crop up like this. Liger was absolutely laying shots in during this match.

[Karl]

Not sure what to say really....Just dont get it at all.

[Willninho]

Ignoring the booking for this, I thought this was fun for a squashing big match. I liked their slugfest at the beginning then how shocked the crowd was at the result.

[GOTNW]

I would probably Liger a lot more if his work connected with me in a way that made me perceive it as more violent. I'm a completely unapologetic lover of Battlarts over the top stiffness, but I love Kanemoto matches just as much, and he doesn't take any shots that make you question the safety of his work, but still resonate as badass and violent. The Liger I want to see sometimes crawls through when he's faced with young lions, working opposite Sano or on an JIP against Kengo Kimura from 1996 where, I have no godly idea why he decided to so thoroughly beat the shit out of Kimura but boy did he ever.

 

This is usually a match up that one would associate with overblown junior wrestling, lots of highspots and nearfalls and all that but the moments where they worked it evenly really made it seem like they could've had a great brawl. As for what it was, Liger had some nice moments of violence in the beginning, but for a match where 95% of his move-set was made of slaps he didn't really give an impression he had mastered slaps as much as you'd get from say chops in a Kobashi match. Asking how stiff should something be worked may be a slippery slop but the violence of most of Liger's offence didn't quite live up to what you'd ideally want out a match structured like this, especially when he *did* lay his shots in at times, making the contrast that much more obvious. Kinda like how Lesnar shoot slapping Reigns at Wrestlemania was a great moment but only made him throwing worked slaps a minute after that much more eye rolling. A fun little match nonetheless. **3/4

[smitlick]

Yeah dont have anything new to add.. Was expecting like a sprint or something super crazy.. Got a squash was disappointed.

[puropotsy]

This was a fun sprint that I would really call a squash. Liger was just nailing him in the corner with the slaps to the face. Liger’s overhead release German superplex was crazy and it looked like Kanemoto might have hurt his knee on it but it could just be selling. Liger then used the brainbuster to get the extremely one-sided win. Liger as a monster heel is fun.

[Moonsault Marvin]

I love squashes! Black suit Liger completely destroyed Kanemoto.

[bucky]

Yeah man, I don't know what the hell this was. I've heard people talk about the fabled Black Suit Liger era but never watched much of it. This was bizarre. I don't have much to say beyond that really. Worked well as a squash for sure, but I don't know what they were trying to accomplish here. What, let's put this guy, the most famous Jr. Heavyweight in the division, let's put him over as a dominant force? In a division he's already mostly dominated for like a decade? What's the point? Maybe I need more context, but this seemed really weird. Well executed if this is what they were going for, but definitely weird.

[grendel]

I really didn't understand this at all. This could have been a great match, but instead it was booked as a squash. The only thing positive I have to say about this is, that I really like the Black Liger suit. Strange match.........

[Stiva]

Black Suit Liger beats the crap out of Kanemoto like he's Venom-infused Spiderman, destroying some poor bank robbers.

[JourneybyTrain]

I really like black Liger, not sure how long this lasts but I hope we have a few more matches of him palm striking his way through the junior division. Match definitely could have been done better while achieving the same thing but I like the way the top-rope German kind of ends the match but he punishes Kanemoto with the Liger Bomb and Brainbuster anyways.

[Zero]

Welp. Didn't see that coming. Liger just rips into Koji, and beats him fairly easy. The Liger Bomb in this was brutal.

[drew wardlaw]

A strange. It incredibly stiff match, essentially a squash. I actually liked this better than the Dragon and Sasuke Dome matches, but just continues thy faithful narrative of poor junior title matches at the Dome.

[ohheylook]

Man this fuckin ruled.

 

No its not a great match or hardly a match at all and is, I suppose, disappointing considering it is a Dome match, but I love a squash like this, especially from one of the best to ever do it.

 

Wasnt as brutal, chaotic or frenetic as the 2 minute Hiromu/Kushida beating from 2017, but where that one felt like a fluke of insanity, this feels like the most convincing act of dominance.

 

I know hes north of 50 now, but I would love Old Man Liger to dawn the black one more time and go on a short, grumpy dominant run. Super fun stuff.

[klhare]

Liger's look here is absolutely incredible. He looks so cool. The match itself is very interesting because it is so weird. It's a squash in a place where the crowd absolutely isn't expecting a squash. I want to say that Liger comes out looking like a monster, and he does to an extent, but honestly it was all done SO quickly that I'm not sure I even really got that coming out of the match too much.