[2001-08-11-NJPW G1 Climax, Day Six] Keiji Muto vs Tadao Yasuda

[Ma Stump Puller]

Was interested in seeing this given Muto isn't much of a Inoki-Ism guy (so much so that he'd be gone a few months later) and Yasuda at this point was all about them Inoki-Ism traits given his MMA gimmick. They tease a upset by having Muto wreck his opponent early with dropkicks and even a flash moonsault attempt, but Yasuda rolls out to escape the pin. We get some vintage Yasuda stalling as he stands around for a bit. The middle bit is a weird mish-mash of Muto-style filler grappling while also having Yasuda pull out his usual shtick, so you get the two going for pseudo-shoot style work but then it doesn't go anywhere beyond said Muto filler grappling. After a few minutes we go into leg-work as per standard; while this was revolutionary at the time as Muto just keeps relentlessly going back to leg dropkicks to keep his opponent down and springs on them like a wild dog when they try to get up, these days it isn't hard to see it as rather antiquated and one-dimensional. Not bad as per his standards, but still. Yasuda finally gets his own back by epically punching Muto during a Dragon Screw and snapping into a rear naked choke which finally woke up the crowd and got them going, even if it was going for a rope break anyway. We get the expected Tiger Driver, but Muto counters with a cool Frankensteiner before going into a cross armbreaker. That gets a rope break and Yasuda sells the arm well, but Muto goes back to his leg work again with a figure-four.

Despite Yasuda selling like death he escapes, but Muto spams his dropkicks. We get a great momentum shift as Yasuda socks him in the face when he tries for a second figure-four with yet another dirty closed fist which allows him to snap on a grounded Guillotine. Muto escapes, Yasuda is all over him with more Guillotine attempts, knees to the body and then a rear naked choke to finish things off to really get the intensity going. Muto really gets the crowd going for him as he teases falling unconscious by going limp only just springing his body to life to cling to the ropes. Yasuda is pissed off and just starts hurling punches all over Muto in the corner, no longer able to hide his frustration. This builds to a brilliant finish (that'll be stolen or given homage to numerous times) as Yasuda shoves the protesting ref to the floor to throw more shots, Muto runs and springs off the back of said ref for a really awesome super Shining Wizard and then a regular one for the pin. This started really slow as per Muto matches tend to do: these two also aren't the best match given their styles, which lends to some awkward moments. This however also had some pretty great counters though and as much as I can moan about the guy, Muto is just amazing when it comes to raw flashy shit and knowing how to play a crowd, unreal performance for a guy who'd been considered washed just last year. Yasuda for his credit while obviously not being as physically able is also a good spoiler that the crowd don't want to see win, so he gets in his fair share of good, MMA-shtick stuff, really getting the crowd to hate him whenever possible. Good for what it was, the incredible spots bump this up far more than it could have been. Muto was untouchable around this time.