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[2000-04-01-Michinoku Pro-Super J Cup] Jushin Liger vs Tiger Mask


Loss

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The crowd treats Liger like the superstar of the tournament, giving him the biggest reaction so far, and really responding in a huge way when Tiger Mask gets offense on him, almost like they totally didn't expect it to happen at all. This is almost like the best moments Vader-Sting matches without the size difference in terms of how much the crowd gets into TM's bursts of offense. I *love* how heated the matwork is. Liger was very giving here, which worked because of how much of a bully he has been all year, so fans have grown to expect him to steamroll everyone. TM getting the first shotei kickout was awesome too. One of those matches I'm not sure I would have appreciated as much as I did without the context of seeing Liger in the first three months of the year. It's in many ways one of the most selfless performances I've ever seen from a star, all in the name of getting over a match first and foremost, more so than either performer. And in that sense, it was fantastic. ****

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I liked this but I think Charles liked it a bit more. I do agree that this was a great showcase for Liger to convey the character he has been doing since the beginning of the year while also helping to put over Tiger Mask. Tiger Mask has also impressed me in 2000 and has character and the flash currently to feel appropriate carrying on the TM moniker. This stage of the J Cup took a real traditional stance of tournaments with compact first round matches ramping up to the big finale in a week. ***1/2

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  • 1 month later...

I thought this was fairly brilliant. The sparse matwork at the beginning is milked for all it's worth and sets a super competitive tone. We get escalation with Tiger Mask going on his spurts of offense including baiting Liger in to the corner with a missed koppo kick. Liger fires back with a shotei and Liger Bomb and from there the crowd goes nuts for two extremely well-timed Tiger Mask fighting spirit kickouts. The shotei is blocked from the left but hit from the right and Liger gets the win. I just thought they really drew so much out of the stature of their characters and squeezed everything out of doing so little. There was no excess, it was not a moves heavy match, yet everything had tremendous weight to it that resonated big time.

 

****

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  • 3 weeks later...

Matches like these are the best prove that Liger is one the best of all time and very likely the best Japanese junior heavyweight wrestler of all time. He made Tiger Mask, a decent but not exceptionally good wrestler, look like a million bucks here.

Liger not squashing his opponent here to me is more of a story of being a different character in this multi-promotional tournament setting (the character of the junior heavyweight ace to beat by the younger guys, but still a guy who can be seriously challenged - similar as in the first two J-Cups: in 94 had a match with a similar story against Hayabusa and in 95 against Naniwa) compared to the character he portrayed in New Japan at that time (the junior heavyweight ace who wants to prove that fighting all these other guys is below him and that he rather should face heavyweights).

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After Liger slaughtering everyone earlier in the year, I was expecting the same, but this match was very competitive. They showed Tiger Mask's skill with him trapping Liger into submissions and he came across as a fighter surviving Liger's big moves. I liked the frenzy of Liger waving his arms when he was in the sleeper on the mat. This was a well put together match that made both wrestlers look good. Very good match.

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  • 6 months later...

Fantastic match. My favorite from this first round of the Super J Cup. The nuts is going bonkers from the start and they stay captivated for the rest of the match.

 

Fantastic performance from Liger. Tiger Mask is usually categorized as boring and lazy by many fans, but Liger does a fantastic job getting him over.

 

Those slaps on the ground by Liger are fantastic. TM kicking out at 1 of some Liger's biggest offense and then countering a shotei before being put down by a big one had the crowd going nuts and made for the perfect finish to get TM over.

 

****

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Yeah, this was good, and really picks up with Liger on offense -- I really liked his spurt of back-orientated offense on Tiger with the wrenching camel clutch and powerbomb whip. He really sold Tiger's submissions like a million bucks and the fans were all in on Tiger submitting Liger. The double arm suplex off the top into the armbreaker really had them losing their shit but Liger makes the ropes. The finish was awesome. Tiger with the adrenaline kick out at one off the brainbuster and then that last ditch effort to stop the shotei, only for Liger to finish him off with the right hand. Love that shit.

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  • GSR changed the title to [2000-04-01-Michinoku Pro-Super J Cup] Jushin Liger vs Tiger Mask

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