[1998-06-05-NJPW-Best of the Super Juniors] Shinya Hashimoto vs Tatsumi Fujinami

[Jetlag]

Thanks GOTNW. This was phenomenal and one of the best pure skill vs. pure rage matches I've ever seen. Fujinami wants to open this MUGA style, but Hash blitzes him with a DDT and follows up with a huge barrage of kicks, setting the tone for the rest of the match: Hashimoto demolishing the old man, and wily Fujinami trying to catch the beast. No one kicks a man when he's down like Hashimoto, and he lays an all time epic beating on Fujinami including one of the most gorgeous high kicks I've ever seen. Fujinami is great withstanding the beating, selling his leg and making comebacks, and the psychology is top notch: In isolation, Hashimoto's leg sweep is a cool enough spot, but integrated into the match like this as a "fuck you" to Fujinami's leg screws and Figure 4s it becomes something entirely different. It all builds to some of the best submission nearfalls (and breakups) I've seen, Fujinami teasing the Dragon Suplex, a glassy eyed Hashimoto refusing to go down, a big "Dragon" chant breaking out etc. Great match.

[GOTNW]

Cross-posting my review from the Miscroscope thread:

 

Last time I saw these two square off Hashimoto gave Fujinami his worst beating since the infamous Maeda match. Fujinami is getting older I'm not sure he can take one more. They start off with some nice matwork as you'd expect until Hashimoto out of nowhere counters a Headlock with a brutal DDT. Then we move onto Hashimoto kicking Fujinami's legs really hard and I'm thinking that is an acceptable substitute in case Fujinami is getting too old for this shit. They do a great callback spot to their 1994 title switch and tease Fujinami countering Hashimoto's kicks a couple of times but never go through with it. This builds to Fujinami snapping and slapping the daylights out of Hashimoto which in turn makes Hashimoto lose it and THE BEATDOWN now properly begins. They do a great job utilizing their signature moves and maximizing their value and when Fujinami finally manages to counter Hashimoto's kick it's a big deal. It's also really well done because he just viciously threw Hashimoto's leg on the ground instead of doing a Dragon Screw as Hashimoto would expect so when he goes for the Dragon Screw Hashimoto's leg is already weakened but not enough for him not to fight back and you have this amazing struggle over whether or not the move is going to go through. Another thing I love about Hashimoto is how well he uses his weight, he did this amazing counter to Fujinami's Dragon Sleeper where he just threw himself backwards and knocked Fujinami off his feet and the finish was a very smart play on that. Hashimoto's glassy-eyed selling at the end is picture perfect. ****1/2

[Microstatistics]

Is this online?

[Jetlag]

Go here: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzg2OTg5NDQ=.html?spm=a2h0k.8191407.0.0&from=s1.8-1-1.2

[Jordan]

Wow, I didn't even know this existed in full. I bought the TV week it aired off Lynch but it was clipped.

 

EDIT: I finally watched this later this evening and had a blast. Opening work was simple but had the kind of cagey feel you'd want considering the differences (size, age, height, etc) between the two. Fujinami always looks ready to catch a kick and strike or dragon screw Hash's leg while Hash is looking to destroy. And man, after he hits that first DDT he really does go on the warpath. Unless the video quality tricked me, he breaks out some knee strikes to Fujinami's hamstring that I had never seen him do before. The variety of strikes he had at his disposal was always crazy to me. Fujinami really shines here too, as that strike exchange they had that got GIFed on twitter is even more awesome within the context of the match. Slaps, punches, close quarter combat that's off to the side on the ropes so it doesn't seem like some clearly planned standoff and finally Hashimoto closes things with a high kick to get back in control. When Fujinami finally breaks through and hits the dragon screw and starts to get some momentum in, it feels like a major and rewarding development. Submission work down the stretch had a lot of drama and really the way Fujinami immediately switched from the dragon sleeper right back to the normal sleeper when he saw Hashimoto threatening to rise to his feet was so smooth. Great match.

[Microstatistics]

Go here: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzg2OTg5NDQ=.html?spm=a2h0k.8191407.0.0&from=s1.8-1-1.2

 

Thanks.

 

Yeah, this ruled. No surprise there. From the deliberate start to Hashimoto's dominance to Fujinami's comebacks to the dramatic finishing stretch . Excellent performances by both. I liked how Hashimoto went from cool and calm methodical destruction to more chaotically violent and desperate as control of the match slipped from his grasp. Fujinami was great as the wily veteran while selling the enormity of the task ahead of him and the knee damage beautifully. **** 1/4

[superkix]

I'd only seen a clipped version of this a few years ago so it's cool to see it in its entirety. I like Fujinami's hesitation in the face of Hashimoto's unpredictability and how playing too much defense backfired. Fujinami's old man selling was good and of course, his "enough is enough" moment is awesome, with Hashimoto quickly shutting him down with a barrage. As others mentioned, I thought the finish was terrific, with Fujinami really tapping into the fluidity of the sleeper hold, transitioning the different variations depending on Hashimoto's position or attempts to break free. Really good stuff.

[KB8]

Yeah, this was one of the good ones. Thought Hash was sensational in it, having no time for Fujinami's headlocks and just taking penalty kicks to his leg. The way he'd easily shut down Fujinami's early comeback attempts to showing how much harder he needed to work as it went on was great, and I loved the part where he started kneeing the hamstrings. Then he'd high kick him in the face because he is who he is. The struggle over the dragon screw (and how Hash would grab the ropes as soon as Fujinami went for it), the weird leg yank thing and the dragon screw finally being hit properly were all built up really well. I was a little disappointed initially that they didn't do more with the legwork, but as a means of taking Hash's kicks out of play it worked fine. Everything around the sleeper variations was great; the struggle, Hash's desperation in escaping, Fujinami's doggedness in going back to it. Finish playing off the previous escape was cool as well, and I don't know if anybody makes being in a sleeper hold as compelling as Hashimoto. Badass match.

[eas]

Any chance of a re-upload on this one?

[MrMoonlight]

Sadly, I have a slghtly clipped version, which is annoying because they go for a lot of details. From the reputation it has on this forum, I was expecting something really great as I have already enjoyed Fujiami winning the title to Sasaki.

I feel like the work on the leg of Fujinami came as a surprise from Hashimoto but broke a little the pace of the match and in some extent the dynamic of striker vs grappler. On the other hand, I do dig that finish big time, Hashimoto’s acting is brilliant and it makes sense with what Yamazaki had done to Hashimoto during the tour before (Hashimoto is very dirty in those fights, going after Fujinami post fight and all) and obviously also by Fujanim’s skills. My only complaint is that I didn’t feel they built it soon enough in the bout and it stops that final part to be that ceiling breaker toward pure greatness, they were not reaching that built up spot yet.

 

Still it’s a really nice match with that unique feel of sort an obscure era for NJPW between Choshuism and Inokism with Fujinami as the champion. Very memorable as well and potentially better if I can get my hands on the full version. 3.75*

[Mr JMML]

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Tatsumi Fujinami (NJPW - 6/5/1998)

In the last match I wrote about Fujinami was brutal, working with someone like Genichiro Tenryu may have inspired such a violent contest but this match is different, this time his opponent is the best NJPW musketeer Shinya Hashimoto, his career isn’t short of matches like the one I covered yesterday but this time Fujinami got him in uncharted territory, Tatsumi tried to make this one a strictly technical contest and he pretty much succeeded, Hashimoto is famous for his stiff striking, his greatest matches came against wrestlers with a similar style like Vader, Genichiro Tenryu or Nobuhiko Takada, I’d say this match is the exception to the rule, Fujinami and Hashimoto are like night and day but that was what made it particularly interesting, the premise of this match was enticing to say the least, how a striker will adapt to submission specialist, it was a common situation in early MMA history when most of the fighters were pretty much one dimensional, the strikers had no idea of what to do in top mount while a submission specialist would do everything in his power to take you down to avoid striking exchanges and that’s what happened here, Fujinami took the striker and tried to submit him for around 25 minutes, it’s quite a spectacule if you’re a Pancrase or Pride fan, to be fair it resembles more a Pancrase fight than a Pride one but we aren’t talking about MMA, this is pro wrestling and in pro wrestling the underdogs prevail, in pro wrestling people chant out of passion and excitement, Fujinami had the crowd on their feet throughout the match, if you’ve been reading my Fujinami retrospective you’ll know he’s one of the greatest babyfaces Japan has ever produced, he always draws a reaction out of the people in the stands, his age doesn’t really matter, he never fails to surprise me and exceed my expectations he’s that special.