7/6/97 Sapporo Makomania Ice Arena From World Pro Wrestling 8/2/97 Summer Struggle '97
Samurai got this shot due to beating Koji Kanemoto in the great, but severely flawed and vastly overrated, Best of the Super Jr. IV final. This match was undoubtedly butchered in the editing room, but seems to be very underrated nonetheless. These two pulled out all the stops, with Liger doing far more big spots than normal. They worked a very solid and exciting match, with Liger, of course, carrying things. Aside from Samurai blowing a suichoku rakka shiki no reverse DDT, which was the planned finish but they pressed on so it didn't turn out to be a real killer, they couldn't have done much better in the portion that aired on tv. Granted, this wasn't coming close to matching 4/30/92 Super Junior Final, but if only half that match made it to tv, it wouldn't have seemed like arguably the best junior match ever either. The fans weren't really into this match, and I can't offer any explanation as to why. They popped for the spots, but Samurai wasn't really over. The fans rooted for Liger, but they really didn't seem to care who won. Unless things really went awry early on to the point they lost the crowd, there was no reason the match shouldn't have worked. The juniors weren't the draw on this show, or just about any other NJ show from 1997. Thus, I don't feel you should start chopping stars off in the absence of any logical reason for the lack of heat, other than that the fans were there to see Riki's retirement road.
"This was a very good match, as I expected it to be. Samurai is great when he's in with the best Jr. in the world, but he seems to have a tough time getting motivated for guys he may have to carry. Samurai's move set was its usual great self in this one, and Liger did his usual consistent, solid, carrying to make the match. My favorite thing about Liger is that every single match he has (except when he's working with someone he's never faced before), the timing and pacing are at worst extremely good and at best flawless," wrote Hadi
Liger was hitting Samurai really hard, but Samurai came back and soon hit a nice tope suicida, which had meaning because it was properly sold long by Liger. Samurai continued using his big spots until Liger avoided his diving headbutt and la magistralled Samurai for a near fall. One of the things that separates Liger from almost all the other juniors is that instead of coming right back and matching Samurai's big spots, he let Samurai, who was in better shape based on what had recently transpired, stay on offense and get a near fall with a huracanrana. Sometimes Liger would choose to come back there, but he would do it right and put over the previous damage, not just start flying around the ring like a Mexican jumping bean.
"YEAH! Otani's no selling and no-sell comeback annoy the heck out of me. Spot wise, he's good and has entertaining moves, but the quickie comebacks just piss me off. At least he's not trying to be a heavy like Takaiwa, who had a monster 1997 and now has done his same spots over and over," wrote Sam.
They
got up slowly, and Samurai ran off the ropes, but Liger caught him with a kneecap
dropkick. Samurai showed why he is a great bump taker here, flipping forward
to make the move seem killer then grabbing onto his knee. Samurai was now "injured,"
so Liger took the offensive, using a series of moves that focused on Samurai's
"bad knee." Liger struggled to suplex Samurai to the floor, but Samurai
stopped it and wound up trying to pescado Liger. Liger was in good shape, so
he avoided the pescado, and guess what body part Samurai came
crashing down on? Liger got his dive in, and since it was a big match he pulled
out the topé atomico (somersault headbutt, in this case off the top to the floor).
Liger delivered an explosive suichoku rakka shiki brainbuster, but Samurai avoided
his diving headbutt. I didn't like Samurai's selling, or total lack thereof,
but Liger cut him off with his shotei,
which Samurai took another wicked bump on, for a nice near fall.
Liger was throwing bombs until Samurai held onto the top rope to avoid the finisher of their 4/30/92 classic, the nadare shiki no Frankensteiner. Samurai came back with a swinging DDT. He tried to overpush the pace now, using his nadare shiki no reverse DDT and trying to go right to another spot like his last move was something pedestrian, so Liger just wouldn't get up for him until the move had been sold long enough. Samurai then did one suichoku rakka shiki no reverse DDT for a near fall, but the second, which was to be the finish, was blown. Liger just sold it like the reason it was blown was that he was too limp for Samurai to do the move to him. Samurai threw in a Samurai bomb (thunderfire powerbomb) before redoing the finish to take the J Crown for the 1st time (4th overall champion).
This was Samurai's second run with the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title (the best belt in the J Crown), coming a little more than five years to the day he had won it for the first time, also by defeating Liger. As always, the reason Samurai's singles matches with Liger are so much better than the rest of his singles matches (ok, the Super Junior final vs. Koji was better, but I don't think I need to explain why you could safely say it was intended to be so) is that Liger carries him, instilling the proper pacing, timing, selling, and so on. Some would say that the Samurai vs. Takaiwa match that aired three weeks later was better. I'd say it was more heated, but you are kidding yourself if you think their match, since neither can carry and all they can do together is roll out meaningless spots back and forth, would be better in unedited form. 19:40 (9:29 aired). ****1/4