This was the best match on the show, although at best marginally better than what you usually get from these guys. It's funny how so many people thought Silver King was washed up when he was in WCW, but all it took for him to start delivering the goods again was for him to get out of that poor working environment. He wasn't exceptional here, but he's still getting used to working with these guys so I'd expect him to look a lot better in a couple months if he's still being booked. He did a Super Crazy like 3 consecutive moonsault spot except his starts with one from a standing position and ends with one off the middle rope. This is one of those weird spots where Crazy's version looks cooler since he finishes with one off the top, but that's the easiest and the one from a standing position is the hardest since you have the least amount of time to pull off the backflip. Tanaka was probably the best in the match, although if so Samurai wasn't far behind. I like that Tanaka shows off his athleticism more in New Japan. At one point he landed on his feet when Samurai ducked his kneel kick. The finish saw Wagner not really sell Takaiwa's Death Valley bomb and Tanaka's missile kick, as he would summon his inner strength. However, Kanemoto used something of a falcon arrow on him then his moonsault press, which proved too much for Wagner. It seemed a little soon for the match too end, which may have been why some of the earlier near falls got a better reaction than the finish.

14:55

Rating:

 

Tatsutoshi Goto & Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Brian Johnston & The Sledge Hammer

This was the worst match on the show. It went nowhere, and was not only boring but contrived. Johnston's punches were so pitiful, especially for a guys that's only here because he had some success in shoots. Goto & Ohara weren't exactly bad, they just didn't do anything until the last 20 seconds.

7:16

Rating:

 

Shiro Koshinaka & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Osamu Nishimura

This got off to a very promising start with a heated first segment between Liger & Koshinaka. Unfortunately, the match and crowd died down if not out once Liger tagged. Yoshie has become a lump. He wasn't any good before, but now that he's gained weight, he can't move well to boot. The match was good when he wasn't in because Nishimura's performance was better than expected and sub par efforts from Liger & Koshinaka are still a better than a good effort from most of the rest of the roster. It seemed like Yoshie was always in though, and Liger & Koshinaka didn't get anything going after the opening. Nishimura managed to do a couple nice transitions with Yoshie, but that was about it. The match was a tease in that there were a few moments that excited you, but they didn't keep it going and never built any momentum.

14:14

Rating:

 

Manabu Nakanishi vs. Super J

Considering who was involved, it was good because J's offense was focused once he began attacking the knee. The knee attack was important because Nakanishi's knee gave out before he could make J submit to his Argentine backbreaker. J's offense was better and more focused when he came back after the knee gave out, the problem is none of his best moves have anything to do with the knee. J tried to use Nakanishi's Argentine backbreaker on him, but Nakanishi turned it into an iron claw. Neither move is interesting to watch, but it worked well enough within the setting and context. What I hated about this match, even more than the slow, methodical restmission laden opening, was the finish. Nakanishi had been taking a beating the whole match, but suddenly after tackling J he's jumping around doing a sack dance as if his knee is 100% and then he applies the Argentine backbreaker for the win. The stupidity of the finish undermined the whole knee attack the match was built around.

11:31

Rating:

 

Takashi Iizuka & Yuji Nagata vs. Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai

The most enjoyable match on the show for me. A good technical U.W.F. style bout. It kept getting better as it went along, but it never reached the level I think they are capable of. It had a lot of brutal kicks, mainly received by Nagata, and fairly strong matwork. The thing is it didn't have the flow, the continuosness, that I was hoping for. Perhaps that's because these guys aren't used to working with each other. The style they fought was better 10-12 years ago, but now I look for the guys to make each other work a little harder. It could have used more movement and countering on the mat, and would have been better if the guy receiving the kick did more to try to defend himself because usually it was too obvious that he was a willing recipient.

Nagata and Kakihara were really impressive as always though, particularly Nagata because he does it all. Nagai reared back and fired so many kicks that he was tiring himself out. There was a nice spot where Nagata waited for Nagai to throw a kick so he could sweep his plant leg. Iizuka pretty much stuck to attempting submissions, but his submission style works better when he applies them as counters to "regular" moves then when he's on the mat trying to get them on. Aside from the kicking, the highlight was a brutal German suplex by Nagata that Kakihara took a perfect bump on. Unfortunately, this effect of the spot was somewhat undermined by Kakihara coming back so quickly with his victor shiki no hizajujigatame (roll into a kneebar), although at least this is a counter that he pulls out of nowhere.

This match definitely had the stiffness and intensity. Unfortunately, AJ doesn't book Kakihara & Nagata well (they have serious ability, but are "too small" so they have a seriously lame win loss record) so the fans knew they had no chance of winning, and that resulted in this having nowhere near the heat of Kawada or Fuchi's matches against NJ. One thing the AJ vs. NJ feud has proved is that the brand name only goes so far. If guys they see as important are involved, people will buy tickets and there will be major heat. Otherwise, it's not going to sell and will only get a marginally better reaction than a regular undercard match of equal quality.

17:03

Rating:

 

Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Riki Choshu & Shinya Makabe

Choshu's conditioning and stamina aren't that good, but he's only been back for a few matches so I guess that can be expected. I don't know how much he can improve though because his age is showing a little more with each match. At this point, he basically just punches and kicks, but he's a legend so the fans are into every punch and kick. Makabe was over more than he has been simply because he's Choshu's new partner. Makabe is a good partner for Choshu in that he has a lot of energy, is young and healthy enough that it's not a problem for him to work most of the match, and his athletic style breaks up the monotony of the kick, punch, chop, stomp style the others displayed.

An incredibly basic match, but it was pretty intense and the selling was good. Kojima was easily the best wrestler in the match. The finish saw Kojima put Choshu in a figure four then Tenzan gave him a moonsault press for the surprise win. Choshu getting pinned didn't get anywhere near the reaction I expected though. Choshu lariated Tenzan after the match. Tenzan & Kojima's promise to vacate the title if they didn't win in 10 minutes or less wasn't taken that seriously, probably because nobody believed it. There were some near falls as the match neared the 10 minute mark, but it really didn't add much drama or lead to any notable improvement in the match.

15:20

Rating:

 

Don Frye vs. Masahiro Chono

I've almost never liked any of Frye's matches, but even by his standards this was incredibly disappointing. Chono was either too injured or totally disinterested so he did nothing. I mean, he may not have used an actual wrestling hold in the whole match. In spite of Team 2000's interference, Chono was on the defensive maybe 2/3 of the match, but Frye either punched or used a submission that nobody believed would be the finish, so it was no better when he was on offense. Chono's rib injury played into Frye's hands as Frye likes to use body punches, but it did not make for a good match because in a work Frye's punches generally hold little water. I give Chono credit for putting over some lesser guys of late, but the result was the only noteworthy thing about the match.

12:27

Rating:

I didn't expect anything special here, but I was still very disappointed. The match was so short, yet not much happened while they were out there. Murakami didn't have one of his better days. His strikes were lame in comparison to what we'd seen from Kakihara, Nagai, & Nagata. The impact was fine if they connected right, but it didn't seem like many were really finding their mark.

Muto's execution was really good as always, but not surprisingly he only did a few of his famous spots. Although Muto was on defense most of the match, no one believed Murakami could beat him. Muto didn't exactly put Murakami over, which didn't help. Muto used his knee weakening moves at the end, which is rather pointless if he's going to win with a hizagiri. The first of these knee kicks was pretty impressive, but it seemed like they weren't on the same page on how many Muto was going to throw. Since Murakami got up part of the way, Muto had to use another, but it was more of a nudge than the killer blow you'd expect to see used to take out an opponent that's so prone. Murakami's shooter gimmick took another hit here since he went down so easily.

The totally uninspiring angle saw Shinzaki walk out a little before the 3 minute mark in a white mask, white T-shirt, and gray sweats, an outfit that made The Medic look pretty swank. He didn't do anything to give away which side he was (near the end, it looked like Murakami was distracted by him but I couldn't tell if Shinzaki did anything to elicit this response) on and neither wrestler seemed to do anything to let us know whether they were happy to see him or not. After the match he got in the ring, Muto had him unmask, and he left with Muto & Kea.

6:01

Rating:

Not a spectacular match, obviously, but it was good and what it had to be. Although Otani gained around 30 pounds, he still has no physique so he went from being slender to kind of soft. Of course, he's not as quick or athletic as he was before. I'm still looking for the redeeming factor of him gaining all this weight since he was tall enough to wrestle with the heavyweights (not that there's a size requirement, but he's taller than Sasaki) and it's not like he was that scrawny (I could see gaining 10 pounds, but there's no reason for him to be in the 230's).

Otani didn't bother to take his jacked off, he attacked Sasaki before the ring intros, wiping them out. Otani focused on Sasaki's bad right lariat arm once again. It was kind of slow paced, but Otani was consistent even though some of his arm moves like the arm bar were dull and elongated. Otani dominated the match, which was the way it needed to be worked since he needed whatever credibility he could get.

I really can't complain about Sasaki here. He did a good job of selling, executed all his moves precisely, and was even the one that pushed the pace. The fans bought Otani's cobra claw finisher well enough, especially the 2nd time he applied it.

The biggest problem with this match is that, while it had it's moments, it didn't build up any momentum. This was another match with a disappointing finish. After Sasaki had sold the whole match, he came back with a lariat (which he did sell his arm on) and powerbomb then won with his northern lights bomb. Otani should have kicked out there, but instead he looked like a sap and it was easy to forget how well he'd done for the 1st 14 minutes.

14:53

Rating: