[2002-08-08-NJPW G1 Climax Night Five] Osamu Nishimura vs Yuji Nagata

[Ma Stump Puller]

Unsurprisingly really good action from two guys in one of their best years of activity collectively. The main factor here is the tension; Nishimura and Nagata are tied points-wise, but because Nagata lost to Nakanishi and Nishimura drew with him he would win in a tie-breaker, so Nagata HAS to win, he can't afford to do anything less than that. Nagata is actually able to take the initiative early and break out of Nishimura's usual old-school Catch sequences, using his more modernised mat-work to counter any approaches while pushing for his own; namely conventional holds like the side mount and some early arm work. Nagata starts hurling out committed strikes by the 10 minute mark, which Nishimura automatically gets weary of pretty quickly as he tends to get more defensive from now on. Nagata works over his opponent more with arm locks before more strike exchanges, with Nishimura baiting Nagata into massively overcommitting with a boot so he can counter with a Dragon Screw.

The two try for Nishimura's signature leg drop on a outside table spot, but it doesn't get much height and they semi-botch it. Nishimura continues leg work with the ring post, as well as a good spot where Nagata keeps booting him in the face while laying down but can't get the man to budge. He tries this a few times but Nishimura eventually adapts and keeps him down by timing his kicks. Figure-four spot was a lot of fun as the two exchange leg locks, with Nishimura using leverage at one point with a head arch to reverse Nagata's reversal of the move, which was a really small but great feature that defined Nishimura's advantages here. Nagata gets a second wind with more strikes and a big top rope Exploder. The last five minutes of the match have Nishimura merely surviving as Nagata runs though him with big-match bombs. He gets in some awesome counters, but Nagata is typically one step ahead for him: there's a great bit where Nishimura goes for a German and Nagata just quickly slips out to grab on a Nagata Lock II out of the blue.

The crowd at this point are pretty hot as Nagata's time for success keeps slipping away. We get more fast-paced stuff as the two exchange sleeper holds with Nagata once again coming out on top with a regular Nagata Lock. Him screaming and shouting, almost trying to convince himself at this point of his victory...isn't able to get the win as Nishimura is able to hold out against a sudden cross armbreaker before the bell sounds. Crowd loved this, and I feel like this was about the best match these two could've had under the conditions: it kept Nagata strong while getting over Nishimura, who was a massive fan favourite here. The two really got over the fatigue of such a physical bout, which them barely able to keep their respective holds on by the end without falling over and/or stumbling, which was used to explain how Nagata inevitably lost the match as he only got dragged down to the mat and forced to work against someone who could just drag him back to bad positions with raw endurance and skill. Nishimura was a perfect underdog, combining technical brilliance with good selling and lots of unsuspected counters and near fall sneaky pins to showcase his ring IQ alongside general crowd popping. Great showing, probably would've been a top contender for the best G1 match had we not also got Taka/Nishimura literally 2 days after this.