[2001-04-09-NJPW-Strong Style 2001] Scott Norton vs Kazuyuki Fujita

[Superstar Sleeze]

IWGP Champion Scott Norton vs Kazuyuki Fujita - NJPW Osaka Dome 4/9/01

On April 9, 2001, Inokiism went into full effect and didnt end until Inoki was ousted in 2006. Clearly Naoya Ogawa was the original Inokiist experiment, but I feel like it was only when Fujita won the title they went full bore. After going 6-1 at PRIDE with victories over Ken Shamrock and his only loss to Mark Coleman, Fujita was brought back to New Japan in grand fashion to win the IWGP Championship after never making it past the midcard in the late 90s. Interestingly, Fujita came out with a title belt I did not recognize. Norton defeated Kensuke Sasaki for the title and was clearly a transitional champion. So that the traditional pro wrestling Ace, Sasaki, did not have to job to Fujita. They did have a non-title match in October that Fujita won. Funny enough, Norton was still rocking NWO gear even though WWF had purchased WCW a month prior. 

Match is 7-8 minutes and based on that I expected to see Fujita steamroll Norton, but thats not really true. Norton takes the majority of the match. I think this was twofold to make Fujita's win seem more impressive against a game champion and to promote the MMA style of flash submissions. After Norton had beaten down Fujita with traditional pro wrestling tactics of a powerbomb, chops and wrestling outside, he was felled by a flash cross-armbreaker which then led to a rear-naked choke. It showed the superiority of MMA submissions over conventional pro wrestling tactics. The only other thing to note was the opening spot was Fujita hoisting Norton up in a very impressive double leg takedown that was more like a Alabama Slam. Norton is no small guy. Norton's powerbomb looked very good. There was a brief scuffle between NWO Japan/Team 2000 (Chono/Tenzan) with the MMA boys, but other than that not much to report. Definitely different than expectations, but it got the job done establishing the New World Order of Inokiism & MMA-influenced pro wrestling.