[2002-09-17-NJPW G1 World 2002] Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata & Yutaka Yoshie vs Makai Club (Makai #1, Makai #2, Ryushi Yanagisawa & Tadao Yasuda)

[Ma Stump Puller]

Good hidden gem that I found while I was doing Yasuda's Deep Dive. This was a fairly hot Korakuen huge brawl that had the Makai Club use their antics to stay on top of the big babyface troop: as you might imagine this was messy, but you can't really help that when there's so many lads in the ring. Yoshie was surprisingly on point here as he has good, super scrappy stuff with Yasuda and the gang, throwing some hard forearm shots and having a really stiff brawl with Yanagisawa despite everything else going on, honestly was probably the best I've ever seen him in terms of outright performance and looking like a world-ender in his own right. Makai Club afterwards isolate out Tenzan with a dive from Makai #2/Ryota Chikuzen as well as utilising unfair team-ups and cutting him off from the other side of the ring.

Outside of a slight botch where Makai #2 goes for a double wristlock and then randomly drops it to land a awkward knee, this bit is solid, as is Nagata's great hot tag when Tenzan is eventually able to recover and send Yasuda flying with his signature jumping wheel kick. He has a good back and forth with Yanagisawa with kicks before he springs for a cross armbreaker attempt, also wrecks Yasuda with a big belly to belly throw when he creeps in like a vulture to beat him down after he'd been softened up, was a great spot. The crowd also loves Nakanishi coming in like a brickhouse and just wrecking everyone with shoulder tackles and whatnot, especially a awesome double spear to the two Makai guys. Yoshie come in for his own stuff, but Yasuda uses his Makai Club goons to beat him down and they all hit him in the turnbuckle corner with different moves, including a lariat, belly splash, and a nasty jumping knee from Yanagisawa.

The crowd thinks the match is over when Yasuda goes for the Butterfly Suplex but pop huge when it is instead a near fall. Yoshie lands a big German suplex and snaps on a Camel Clutch, but gets a brutal Maeda/Choshu-lite kick to the back of the head by Yanagisawa to break it up. With everyone brawling with the Makai Club, it's easy pickings for Yasuda to snap in and get the pin off said kick for the scummy victory. This was a really good sprint of a match that was designed to take advantage of the big crowd with lots of easy to get, digestible action, and it definitely paid off given the reactions. 

I think it also did a really good job of getting Yoshie of all people over as he remarkably leads the charge against the Makai bullies and takes it to them with some beefy slams and strikes. Guys like Yasuda, Yanagisawa, Nagata etc all play their parts great when they need to do so, and even the more limited guys do get to do their thing without it seeming much of a issue. Super good brawl that supremely took advantage of team dynamics between the two teams and did a considerably impressive job of getting everyone involved. I know the consensus was that early 2000's NJPW was the pits most of the time but this really didn't reflect that as this was a all action and no filler contest that didn't drag and had something for everyone.