[2000-11-05-Michinoku Pro] TAKA Michinoku & Great Sasuke & Magnum TOKYO & Tiger Mask & Pantera vs Sasuke the Great & CIMA & Masao Orihara & Pentagon & Sumo Fuji (War Games Elimination)

[Edwin]

Oh man did this rule... Its a WarGames style elimination match where a new entrant comes in every 2 minutes and anyone can get eliminated at any point in the match and eliminations can be done by getting thrown over the top rope.

Finally we get the 2 top Crazy MAX guys with Michinoku Pros top heels and a decent lucha rudo. I really dug the stipulation and how the heels were able to keep the advantage and make the best out of it. I thought Pentagon and Pantera looked a bit lost at times, but it didnt drag the match that bit. TAKAs entrance was epic. It seemed he was a mysterious entrant and the crowd went nuts when the lights went out and his music hit. What hurt this for me was the eliminations near the finishing stretch seemed rushed. The wild brawl with everyone involved was great. I can see some disliking the way TAKA was built as Superman by kicking out of everything in the end, but considering the it seemed it was his return and he was built during his entrance, it made some sense to me. Really strong stuff.

****

[soup23]

Worked WarGames style with CIMA and Tokyo starting and one wrestler coming out every few minutes afterwards. You are also eliminated once you get thrown over the top rope which we see when Tokyo is the first person out. Tiger Mask and Sasuke the Great get eliminated next. I would like to know who was portraying Sasuke the Great here. This leaves Pantera in a 3 on 1 situation until Great Sasuke makes his way down. The rudos still have the advantage so they continue the beatdown and that only gets worst when Pentagon enters giving the rudos a 4 on 2 advantage. Pantera gets pinned and things are looking very bleak. Taka comes out to a superstar reaction but gets beat down too. This is quite the heel performance for the quasi Crazy Max unit. CIMA gets too cocky and gets thrown over the top rope followed quickly by Sumo Fuji in a fun sequence evening up the units to now being a 2 on 2 match. Match finishes with Taka vs Pentagon and it is a fun five minutes with all of the other competitors getting involved and doing dives and the finish resulting in Taka hitting the MIcinoku Driver for the win in just over 27 minutes. A fun match seeing a collection of the non NJPW junior talent in Japan in 2000. ***1/4 (6.4)