[2000-02-04-NJPW] Jushin Liger vs Minoru Tanaka

[soup23]

I was really critical of Liger blowing through Kanemoto at the Dome but I kind of secretly loved this because Tanaka is not that established and he really brings it to Liger. As a result, this felt like a five minute war that essentially could have been a glorified shoot in some instances. Liger is a prick and takes the battle destroying Tanaka but he doesn’t go down easy. Excellent sprint. ***1/4

[Loss]

This was a really spirited five minute match and I enjoyed the hell out of it. Liger continues to look like a killer and Tanaka gets his moments. He looks much better here than he does in BattlARTS, which I may have said once before. There are lots of cool little things here, like Tanaka holding on as long as possible before breaking the cross armbreaker when Liger reaches the ropes that show that he knows he has to dig a little deeper to beat someone at that level. I also love Liger countering the arm wringer into a sleeper. Such a simple counter I'd never seen done. Lots to appreciate in a very short but very good match here. Kind of like a Ramones song, but a wrestling match. ***1/2

[cramerjason87]

There is something about this and the Dome show squash that didn't click with me. Liger brings intensity and has a ton offfense here. They even do a nice hope segment with Tanaka. Not badly executed but lacked for me.

[Moonsault Marvin]

Black Liger comes out super aggressive again. They put together a nice story of Liger underestimating Tanaka and getting caught with an armbreaker. Liger gets a nice counter with the sleeper to regain the advantage and go on to finish off Tanaka. Liger is so great with his body language that the viewer can imagine the face he's making even though he's under a mask. Good short match.

[Willninho]

I didn't love this. I think there's a way to do a 5 minute juniors match but this just felt like a clipped match. It felt they just skipped the beginning stages instead of doing a sprint and or squash.