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Great Muta vs. Hiroshi Hase 12/14/92 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan |
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The match showed why Hase was considered one of the best non-AJ heavyweights for psychology. They didn't do a ton of huge moves, but they weren't needed here. The match was simplistic, but what they did was done right and done in a way that made it meaningful and effective. There were really only two problems with the match. First, Hase was in much worse shape at the end than the amount of offense Muta did to him justified. Second, although the selling got across the basic points it needed to, it was inconsistent or overdone in points. The roles of these wrestlers were reversed from the 9/14/90 match. Although Muta is a heel, it was Hase that played heel during this match. This made some sense based on the storyline they played up. Hase knows the kind of crap that Muta is going to pull, so there's no point in him being a sap and letting Muta get away with it. Instead, Hase wanted some payback. Hase had never received a shot at the IWGP Heavykyu Senshuken, and Muta was the current champion. Hase knew winning this match would get him to the dance, so he was totally relentless in his attack and didn't care what he had to do to get the job done. The normally very popular and respected Hase was able to pull it off, as the fans were pulling for Muta and he wasn't getting any cheers. The roles being reversed points out one of the reasons I enjoyed this match so much. They wrestled a lot differently than they normally did, and actually than anyone in New Japan normally did. The thing that made this special though was that these unusual things were actually really well done, and you just don't normally see that when the unusual things are the backbone of the match. More than anything, the match showed that they had the talent to excel in basically any style if they put their mind to it. Once again, the thing that stood out the most was the blood. This was like the old days when guys would blade for a real purpose, to get over the story of the match. It was a great blood match more than it was a great brawl, but that's not a bad thing. There's certainly nothing wrong with beating the shit out of your opponent with your hands and feet to win the match. A garbage can full of props is basically just for people that can't do anything but swing them, and there's no reason or purpose to having guys falling 15 feet through an object on every show. I mean, personally I like it when my favorites can actually walk around without any trouble, and there's really not much of a thrill to a stunt that everyone knows is coming. The funny thing about this match was that they did a lot of nice wrestling moves like suplexes, but as far as the story of the match goes, those moves really took a back seat to the brawling to the point they really aren't even worth mentioning. This doesn't mean they were out of place or didn't serve a purpose, they were just the moves that lead to things that were important like Muta missing his moonsault. Mainly though, they replaced the typical useless Muta weardown holds with mid level high spots, so the "down points" of the match were a whole lot more interesting than you'd expect. Hase wasn't going to put up with any of Muta's antics. When Muta did his ceremonial spew to start the match, Hase caught him off guard with a dropkick. When Muta would get up, Hase would knock him right back down. Muta didn't know what hit him, so he tried to escape to the floor after Hase's uranage, but Hase followed him right out and put him into the bars and a table. Muta made his comeback with ninja striking way too soon, which hurt the story initially because Muta didn't give Hase enough time to get it over. To make things worse, in typical fashion, Muta wasn't really going anywhere with anything he was doing either, just killing time with submissions. The match had purpose again when Hase turned Muta's kamagatame (Indian death lock and reverse front facelock) into a submission of his own then went to Muta's eyes and raked them when Muta wouldn't submit. Muta got Hase good when he escaped a headlock by crotching Hase on the top rope, with Hase falling to the floor. I think Muta was actually supposed to get the knee instead of the crotch because Hase appeared to be selling his knee on the floor and, when Muta followed him out, the first thing he did was drop Hase's knee on the guard rail. Hase hobbled around a bit on his comeback where he took distinct pleasure in raking Muta's eyes across the ropes. Muta threw a chair in, but the ref, Tiger Hattori, got to it at the same time as Hase, so Hase had to kick him to get it away. Unfortunately for Hase, while he was dealing with Hattori, Muta came in and kicked him, so Muta wound up being the one that got to use the chair. This led to Muta going for his moonsault, but Hase got up and threw him to the floor. Hase went back to his erratic knee selling while Muta got either the tool they use to tighten the turnbuckles or an ice pick from under the ring. Hase kicked Hattori to the floor and hit Muta with a chair when he reentered then drove the object into Muta's head like it was a stake. Muta did the sickest blade job ever that didn't involve New Jackass and a exacto knife. I mean, when he rolled to his stomach it was flowing out of his head like water from a faucet. Hase went right after the cut, resulting in his chest and arm being covered in Muta's blood. Hase must have set a record here for the wrestler that had the most real blood on him without using any props or getting one of those obscene hardway cuts they want to ban kids in New Jersey that aren't at boxing matches from seeing. Muta tried to comeback with his space rolling elbow, but Hase got out of the way and continued his head attack. leading to trying to put Muta out with a sleeper hold. As bogus as this version of the move is, it was a good choice since Muta had already lost about three donations worth of blood. The big moves came after 20 minutes with Muta missing his moonsault. This gave us another gross visual, as blood was dripping off his nose as he laid their on his stomach. Hase got a couple of near falls when he had enough in him to do a move, but his long selling allowed Muta to comeback with a Dragon suplex for a near fall after fighting off Hase's uranage. Muta got an adrenaline rush and gave the finish sign then did another Dragon suplex, but Hase was out before 2 1/2. The match was goofy from here on out because Hase was lying motionless on his stomach. I like the Dragon suplex as much as the next guy, but considering Hase was in control for the majority of the match and Muta didn't do anything other than two Dragon suplexes here, it just didn't make any sense that Hase couldn't get up. Anyway, Hase's only motion was coughing. Muta's energy ran out after that one Dragon suplex, but Hase was down forever so Muta didn't have to rush. Muta dragged Hase up and gave him the sidebreaker to set up the moonsault. Muta then hit the moonsault for the first time in the match to pin Hase. 23:02
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