[1998-05-18-NJPW] Jushin Liger vs Masakazu Fukuda

[Jetlag]

Fukuda enters the BOSJ and pushes the legend to the limit! Liger goes out of his way to make this indy nobody look great! It's hard not to love Fukuda here with how he withstands Liger's stiff shotais and busts out a bunch of great throws and holds. Opening matwork was pretty rockin' and better than the usual Liger trademark surfboards. Fukuda's sleeper variations were pretty choice and him getting control over Liger was done nicely. They do a pretty great section where they exchange pitbull headbutts on their knees to mix up the bomb throwing. The crowd gets hugely into the possible upset too. Sweet match.

[MrMoonlight]

Really good match. Fukuda's grappling is slick and meaningful, he also has a bunch of brilliant throws like his sort of “Ogawa’s STO” and his german suplex, or “lift german” should I say. Liger lets him plenty of offense and comes back mostly thanks to his palm strikes and wins thanks to his ability to throw big bombs (that top rope brainbuster!). We can easily watch this and think the only thing Fukuda needs to get to Liger's level are better strikes and better big bomb execution, which is kind of true in and out of kayfabe here. 3.5*