Lively opener that the fans were into from the get go because the big stars Sasaki & Chono started. Sasaki was really fired up for high impact matches during this period where he was the man against All Japan, which was the most productive of his career. He didn't get much help here, but whatever good was supplied by him. Chono worked over Sasaki's left knee, but that didn't amount to much in the end. What hurt the match, of course, is that these Machines are no replacement for real wrestlers. T2000 (Tatsu Goto) couldn't even take Sasaki's facecrusher close to properly, with all the impact winding up being on his knees. SS Machine (Hirata) pinned T2000 following his diving headbutt. A much better opener than usual simply because they had a couple guys that weren't opening match caliber.

14:37

Rating:

 

Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Yutaka Yoshie

Outside of the few times he ran the ropes, Yoshie was seemingly in the same little area the entire match. That shows how good Tenzan is because he was still able to get a good dramatic match out of this immobile lug. The main reason the match worked is Tenzan allowed Yoshie to get him in legit trouble. Once the fans believed in Yoshie's chances they were reacting to all the big moves and near falls. Yoshie actually did a few good moves like the spinebuster and dangerous German suplex. He was just going off on Tenzan, who was making each move look like it might be the last he could withstand. Obviously there were elements that weren't up to Tenzan's usual standards, many of them in fact since even the blows weren't as convincing as usual. However, there was a good story of the up and comer being on a role and perhaps finally getting one over, and Tenzan was doing his best to make Yoshie a star. I was shocked when Yoshie got the submission with his reverse figure 4, but it was good in the sense that everything was leading in the direction of Yoshie winning and they were willing to deliver rather than have Tenzan suddenly take him out with two moves and put Yoshie right back in his place. From an ability standpoint Yoshie should lose to all the natives, but at least New Japan understood that in order to keep guys credible they have to perform better than normal sometimes and score the upset.

13:38

Rating:

 

Kendo Kashin vs. Michiyoshi Ohara

Kashin was out of favor in a big way following his embarrassing loss to Ryan Gracie on PRIDE.10. Ohara jumped him before the bell instead of shaking and threw him to the floor. Kashin rolled right back in and pointed out how brilliant he was, but that was about his only highlight in this match designed to further bury him. Ohara threw him back out and introduced him to the guard rail and post. Kashin tried to comeback with his forearms, but Ohara was soon roughing him up. His best offense was a low blow, but going after the ref for scolding him about this infraction led directly to his demise. Ohara caught Kashin off guard with a jumping neckbreaker drop then pinned him after a nodowa otoshi. I'm sure some people in the NJ office found this amusing, but I doubt many people buy their PPVs to see public humiliation.

3:07

Rating:

 

Satoshi Kojima vs. Kenzo Suzuki

I thought this would be like Tenzan vs. Yoshie. It was in the sense that Kojima had to do just about everything, but Suzuki was not at all competitive. Suzuki is really terrible and honestly shouldn't be competitive, especially at this early point in his career, but why not put this on first or second where we don't expect much and give more importance to the Yoshie career highlight by putting it in the more prominent position?

Suzuki never got anywhere. He caught Kojima with something here and there, but no sustained offense and no moves that had any lasting effect. I guess that can be expected when one of his favorite moves is the deadly cobra twist. The best thing I can say about him is he has some energy. The finish saw Suzuki stop Kojima's lariat with a spear then try another spear only to run into Kojima's lariat.

9:40

Rating:

 

Shin Nihon Puroresu vs. Osaka Puroresu: Jushin Thunder Liger & Minoru Tanaka & Shinya Makabe vs. Super Delfin & Takehiro Murahama & Tsubasa

Fast-paced intense match with bodies flying everywhere. They were creating and building rivalries as soon as they came out. The match started off good, but just picked up in speed, heat, quality of moves, and so on as it progressed. Quick tags with good teamwork. The Osaka team did consecutive dives capped by Tsubasa's Orihara moonsault

What really impressed me was how well these guys worked with one another. It was extremely smooth and fluid. Usually the heat the interpromotional match generates helps make up for the match not being as complex, but they were working together as well as Liger's team does with Kanemoto's. Murahama was really the standout. He did really quick spots with Tanaka, who is something of his mirror. Meanwhile, he did speed vs. power stuff with Liger. Liger was knocking everyone around early, but then Murahama used his kicks among other things to try to take away Liger's shotei arm. This led tot he first near finish where Delfin & Tsubasa blocked the opposition and Murahama tried for the submission with a chickenwing armlock then udehishigigyakujujigatame. With the exception of the generally invisible Makabe, everyone was very impressive and pretty much went full throttle for 16 minutes. Tanaka made Tsubasa submit to his Minoru special.

16:46

Rating:

 

Manabu Nakanishi vs. Osamu Nishimura

Not much of a matchup given Nakanishi basically does no technical wrestling and Nishimura doesn't like to rough house. Not surprisingly, Nishimura was stuck doing Nakanishi's thing for the most part. He only got something resembling his style in a few times off a counter like when he slipped out of Nakanishi's Argentine backbreaker and applied his sleeper. Basically there wasn't much for them to do together, so they kept it short. What they did do looked pretty good, but the match seemed incomplete because they just started using a few submissions and suddenly Nishimura is submitting to the Argentine backbreaker.

11:48

Rating:

 

EPILOGUE OF DRAGON 2nd.: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Koji Kanemoto

Fujinami treated Kanemoto as an opponent, and he treats his opponents with respect. He believes in give and take and remembers his own junior roots. Kanemoto never had him in big trouble, but Fujinami allowed Koji to establish himself right off the bat and be in the match throughout. Kanemoto caught Fujinami by surprise with a dropkick as the ref was checking Fujinami then had a good spurt with a moonsault near fall and some hard kicks until Fujinami escaped to the floor. Kanemoto was laying in the kicks until Fujinami turned one into a Dragon screw. Koji's submissions and low kicks injured Fujinami's knee, and he went back to it when Fujinami missed his diving kneedrop. Kanemoto wasn't hurt enough for Fujinami to do his Dragon rocket, but he was able to give Tatsumi one of his own. He stopped Fujinami's Dragon sleeper with a kick to the head.

The match was exciting because Fujinami allowed Kanemoto to make it such, and with Kanemoto always appearing to have a chance it was easy to be in to. Kanemoto hurt his knee when he missed a moonsault. He survived Fujinami's first figure 4, but then succumbed when Fujinami applied it in the center following the Dragon backbreaker. The match was short, but you came out of it reassured that Kanemoto was good rather than thinking he was some scrawny impotent dude.

10:34

Rating:

 

Shin Ni vs. Zen Nihon Tag Saikyosen: Takashi Iizuka & Yuji Nagata vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Masanobu Fuchi

Excellent match with a great crowd. Kawada was at the top of his game here, actually getting to do his style tag match that was about the roles and interaction of the combatants, the reasons they were doing certain moves and acting certain ways, rather than simply what moves they were doing. Nagata & Iizuka were willing and able to do Kawada's match, with Nagata also giving you everything you'd expect performance wise. This was a match about the teams being even, so instead of a bunch of near finishes they tried to get over that it took too much time to wear each other down to the point they'd have a chance to win the match. They didn't rush anything, instead building the match and selling well.

Fuchi started out since he was the guy people didn't care about seeing and he's old so in a long match like this he needs the rest. It was calm early as Fuchi annoyed the opposition with cheap tactics, but had it's explosive moments like when Nagata knocked Kawada into the corner with a powerful kick and went to work on him in there. While Kawada avenged this almost immediately, that made them even and even was good for Nagata. In spite of being the lower ranked member of his team, Nagata was obviously the star and was a force every moment he was in. The fans went nuts Nagata vs. Kawada, especially the fantastic exchanges of strikes that were so fast and lively.

One of the keys to the early portion was getting over the roles they would be playing. Fuchi was the weak link, while Kawada was the enforcer. Fuchi was prone if you could keep Kawada from saving him. Iizuka essentially played heel, knowing that since this was on a NJ show the fans would root for him no matter what he did. He was kind of out of control, baiting the opposition and doing whatever damage he could regardless of what the rules and ref said. Kawada wasn't going to let his partner be abused, so when Iizuka wouldn't break his sleeper despite Fuchi being in the ropes Kawada would have to kick Iizuka off. The key spot saw Iizuka go after both Kawada and Fuchi with elbows, then putting his sleeper on Fuchi when he went after Iizuka (Kawada was legal). Once this sleeper was broke up you had Fuchi on the floor recovering for 4 minutes (vintage AJ) and Iizuka also out of the picture after rolling to his corner to make the hot tag.

This series between Kawada & Nagata that started before 20 had some great stuff. The heat was excellent because they'd kept these two apart as much as possible to build to this big confrontation, which started as a big AJ exchange of stiff shots. It led to a couple near finishes, but all of this was setting up the first real danger of the match where Kawada would have his knee kicked out to set up the Nagata lock II. I loved Fuchi's save because he was just making it back to the apron and saw his partner in danger, so he wobbled in and tried to save him. The thing is Fuchi was so out of it that it took 15 seconds of him hitting Nagata for him to do enough damage to make Nagata break, with Kawada inching closer and closer to having to succumb. Iizuka, who recovered suddenly, followed Nagata in going after the left knee - trying to put Kawada away with a hizajujigatame - but overall he and Fuchi were nothing special and certainly the reason this fell just shy of greatness. The final 10 minutes were super though with both teams fighting so desperately to get the win.

Kawada finally tagged Fuchi, who limped around acting suitably spent between his backdrops. Though Fuchi isn't that capable anymore, he was extremely smart here and totally at home in this style of match, which allowed him to get into the routine he used in so many excellent matches as a member of Jumbo's team against Misawa's. Kawada kept Nagata from saving by applying his stretch plum, which gave Fuchi plenty of time to work his facelock. Finally, Kawada & Nagata hooked up again in the last minute with a torrid exchange of slaps then a desperation attempt to finish before the bell. This was everything an early interpromotional match is supposed to be - heated, intense, high quality, even, and really leaving you wanting more.

30:00

Rating:

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