[1998-09-23-NJPW] Scott Norton vs Yuji Nagata

[Superstar Sleeze]

Scott Norton vs Yuji Nagata - NJPW 9/23/98 Vacant IWGP Championship

 

Holy shit! Did this come out of left field! Great match!

 

So some context: Chono had to relinquish the championship after winning the belt for the first time from Fujinami due to injury in August of '98. So why the hell are two midcarders wrestling over the title? The top three players in New Japan were Keiji Mutoh (NWO 4 Life), Kensuke Sasaki and Shinya Hashimoto. It feels like the booking had graduated Hashimoto to a Choshu or Inoki class where he no longer needed the championship and instead would be in special attraction matches against Naoya Ogawa. Mutoh was penciled in to win the championship at 1/4/99 and thus needed a challenger. However, Sasaki vs. Mutoh was showcased at both the '97 & '98 Dome so cant run that again. Sasaki just had his big run from 8/97 into 4/98. So it was Mutoh's turn with title, but I agree that Mutoh challenging at the Dome against a mid-carder is a better version than Mutoh winning in September and then defending against a midcarder. Before the injury, you got to believe Chono vs Mutoh was the Dome Main Event of 1/4/99 NWO JAPAN EXPLODES~! They wanted to stick with NWO Japan vs NWO Japan story so giving it to Norton makes sense because you don't want Tenzan or Kojima looking like a transitional champ because ultimately you expect those two to be big time players in 4-5 years. What surprises me most is that Nagata was chosen for this slot. He had his run in WCW, but really hadn't done much in NJPW. Nakanishi or even Tenzan & Kojma (both were NWO 4 Life, but that could have planted the seeds of NWO Japan EXPLODES~!) seem like better candidates.

 

So this is how New Japan established Yuji Nagata as a contender on short notice. Sasaki & Nagata won a round robin tag team tournament with Nagata submitting Yamazaki in the final (Yamazaki's partner was Hashimoto) and then declaring he wanted the IWGP Championship. Here's the kicker the round robin tag team tournament was for a shot at the WCW World Tag Team Titles. LOL! Afterwards, Hashimoto, Sasaki, Yamazaki pump up Nagata and give him the rub.

 

Now onto the match, for two midcarders wrestling over the IWGP Championship, this was friggin' awesome. It was like All Japan invaded New Japan for a night. Scott Norton was on fucking fire. Probably because he was going to win the championship, but he was so motivated. He did NOT SELL SHIT in this match. But I mean that in a good way. He finally wrestled the way he looks. A TOTAL ABSOLUTE MONSTER! The first sequence is straight out of the All Japan playbook, Nagata kicks Norton hard and then Norton stands up, big heel kick from Nagata and then Nagata Back Drop Driver. Norton pops up and STEAMROLLS him. The whole match is built around Norton destroying Nagata with chops and lariats. Nagata tries his best to target the arm for a cross armbreaker. I love that when he cant get it that he goes for the Short Arm Scissors. Norton is so awesome offensively and Nagata does a great job selling for him and putting him over as this human wrecking ball. I love Norton overhead shoulderbreaker into a Fujiwara armbar. Great selling from Nagata. Super hot nearfall for Nagata with the Triangle Choke complete with the arm falling down two times. Norton breaks out. Then Norton JUST THROWS NAGATA DOWN WITH AN EPIC POWERBOMB!

 

I fucking loved this. Norton was a power wrestling god in this match. Nagata was the perfect blend of strategy (arm), selling and hot hope spots. He was just credible enough to make you believe, but vulnerable to make you believe Scott Norton was Baddest Man On The Planet. Check this out! ****

[Jetlag]

Norton does his best Goldberg impression and just steamrolls young Nagata to become the IWGP champ. Really great Norton performance and Nagata looked good too even though this was almost a squash. Norton just blasts him with power moves repeatedly and Nagata tries to string some kicks together which are mostly blown off by Norton. Also loved how Norton would use his shoulderbreaker and go straight into an armbar. This was pretty much to establish Norton as an absolute beast with the japanese audience as he would go on to sell a lot more for his opponents in future title matches.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Glad somebody else watched this. Wasnt this way more fun than you expected it to be on paper? I have fond memories of it even seven months later. 

[MrMoonlight]

I finally watched this one, as I heard Scott Norton saying in a shoot interview it has been his best single match ever.

First, I've got to say: what a weird choice for a vacant title figh!. Nagata had just come back from us excursion, and won a tag tournament with Sasaki and looked great since his return, but not a signle big win in singles. Actually, I don't recall having seen one single match (I'am actually going through all the njpw tv + some other stuff for '98). As for Norton, he was just this dominant dude in 6 men tag nwo japan vs njpw guys. Then again, without a big single victory as of late. In the meantime Hashimoto was freh out his first G1 win...

Anyway, It's a weird blend of strong style (as in "on his way toward shoot style" style, not being stiff or any other nonsense definition of it), so blend of strong style from Nagata with Hulkster like over the top no sell entertainment from Norton. On paper it seems there's no way this mix will end up with some good nugget, and, in a clumsy way at time, it does. It's basically a David vs Goliath dynamic, you know this works when the most brief glimpses of hope for the David gets big reactions from the crowd, and from you I guess. We definitively have that effect here, but they didn't do that much with it because the Nagata hope spots where not that many nor that big.

So overall a nice match, pretty unique and though not a great match, something worth experiencing.