[2003-07-21-NJPW Summer Struggle 2003] Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Katsuyori Shibata

[Ma Stump Puller]

For all the hype Shibata gets, you do forget sometimes that him pre-BIG MOUTH could be very hit and miss. Tana is in his weird punk-phase of his life as he sports a bizarre half-Mohawk/half-mullet with red and yellow dye just thrown in around to boot. Shibata's always looked the same pretty much. You'd think a match between the two even this early would be at least decent, but I don't think they clicked well at all. They do the "rolling out of the ring while in a submission" spot with dual Achilles Tendon holds applied to crickets, it's the least hype I've ever seen for that. Shibata's dickish heel antics are enjoyable, at least, but Tana is trying to be something he isn't: a mat-wizard. He's never been amazing at that, even if he has a couple of neat takedowns. He really just doesn't find a grove as he no-sells big boots...to just hold onto Shibata's leg a little longer. When he does the sensible thing and just rolls into a kneebar Tana immediately goes for the ropes because he doesn't want to engage with that. We drop the leg work to instead do chin locks instead while Shibata plays dead. The best spot was probably Tana doing his dumb elbow drop he used to do where he just recklessly throws himself up for it, Shibata no sells and socks him in the face with a punch instead lol. We get a brawl outside as Shibata throws more stiff shots as Tana looks a bit miffed and mostly awkwardly no-sells or moves away to stop getting hit.

The pair exchange slaps to go into full on catfight as the two throw wild haymakers in a blatant rip from Takayama/Frye, only this looked mostly sloppy. Shibata catches with a right hook and Tana falls to his knees for a roundhouse to the back of the head. Tana no sells a backdrop near fall to go for a roll-up, and that's Shibata's cue to randomly spam STO's for the next minute or so. Shibata landing a cool Pele Kick to counter a potential German suplex was cool, Tana doing a weird wiffed kick to counter a rolling wheel kick was definitely not. Tana then lands a normal Inoki flying kick and tries for a German before Shibata runs to and then hits the ropes to try to escape, only to get caught with a O'Connor Roll with arch for the finish. This struggled for a theme or, well, anything, really. Shibata is the heel and he does some heel stuff, but other than that it was a awkward showcase of Tana not clicking with someone who basically embodied the style he detested; stiff striking, shoot-style grappling, both things he's not good at and never wanted to be. The crowd was mostly dead for this as they did moves yet failed to really work them into the match, it's just lots of stuff that doesn't really go or add anything to this. The only cohesion is them building up the suplexes with lots of counters, even then I feel like I'm cheating doing that though because then nearly every half-decent match would have something like that added in. Rough stuff.