[2004-02-29-NJPW] Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Minoru Suzuki

[Superstar Sleeze]

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Minoru Suzuki - NJPW 2/29/04

Who knew in 2025, I’d become more of a fan of Tenzan than the mercurial Suzuki. Suzuki had returned to pro wrestling about 8 months prior to this. He & Takayama defeated Tenzan & Nishimura for the tag titles earlier in the month to set this up. Tenzan beat Tenryu about two weeks prior to this to win the vacant IWGP title. 
 

Tenzan is a good Suzuki opponent in the sense he is not going to take any shit and he is not going to play Suzuki’s dumb games. You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes like Tenzan wrestling you down by raking your eyes and then applying a tight Anaconda Vice. Both wrestlers are at their best as counter wrestlers. Here we see Tenzan the Clubberer more with Suzuki doing a couple cool things but overall it doesn’t get to the highs I want them to even if there is a lot of piss & vinegar. 
 

Most of that piss & vinegar is from Tenzan early. Suzuki makes him powder on some strikes but Tenzan overwhelms him with some clubbering. Some of the best stomps you’ll ever see. The Kappou Kick into the full mount raining down fists was great. Aforementioned eye rake into Anaconda Vice. I even liked Suzuki’s counters like the cool head scissors choke and the Armbar. Tenzan comes up swinging and starts roughhousing the ref and a wild swing connects with the ref. Suzuki puts Tenzan out with a Guillotine, Piledriver and then a choke. Nishimura is tempted through in the towel. I don’t know why we needed a ref bump none of those moves were illegal nor did Suzuki get that much of a visual fall. 
 

Suzuki wakes up Tenzan with some slaps. This is where they lose me with the strike exchange which neither man is good at. Tenzan throws some great headbutts into the breadbasket to win this. Tenzan Driver! Missed Top Rope Headbutt. Mongolian Chop, Headbutt and Top Rope Headbutt wins the day. 
 

Tenzan is always good for some piss & vinegar. Suzuki kept the stupid shit to a minimum. It is a Lo-fi New Japan match minimalist strike-bases scrap. There were some great stretches, some weird choices like the ref bump and some mediocre stretches but all in all it was entertaining. *** 1/2