[2001-05-05-NJPW-Wrestling Dontaku] Riki Choshu & Manabu Nakanishi vs Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakmi

[Superstar Sleeze]

Riki Choshu & Manabu Nakanishi vs Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami - NJPW 5/5/01  Fukuoka Dome

Weird match both in execution and booking. Looking at everyone’s cagematch history match seems really random. The show drew 25000, Don Frye, Yasuda and Nagata are on the card but they are each wrestling people you’d expect them to beat. There’s an All Japan vs New Japan match but All Japan is represented by Mutoh & Hase and it is against Chono & his gang so not really a new permutation. Ogawa vs Choshu sounds like a draw but a pretty big number. It seems like Choshu was out by 2002 and starting his new promotion in 2002. Perhaps this was the only person Hashimoto trusted Ogawa with but Inoki always seemed high on Ogawa so I don’t think he fuck him over. Strange booking. 
 

The match also sucks which is super disappointing given that Ogawa/Murakami are usually raucous mayhem. It starts off very promising. Ogawa slugs Choshu at the bell and applies a rear naked choke. Nakanishi has to pry him off with some clubbering. Murakami tags in. He I just not that frenetic Tasmanian Devil you want. He is throwing good jabs but it is the blizzard of punches. Ogawa comes in and the match energy goes way down. I can’t tell if he is sandbagging or he has been knocked loopy because he is just not moving right. It is really awkward and heatless. Nakanishi tapped Murakami out with a double wristlock. Ogawa basically never wrestles for New Japan again so it doesn’t make sense for them to win, Choshu is old so that doesn’t make sense but Nakanishi also doesn’t go anywhere. So the whole thing doenst make any sense. No reason to watch this.