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IWGP Heavykyu & NWA World Heavyweight Double Title Match: Great Muta (IWGP champ) vs. Masa Chono (NWA champ) 1/4/93 Tokyo Dome (63,500 sellout) |
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This should have been an excellent match, but failed to reach that level because they didn't take the time to figure out why they were doing things. Instead, the did a match where only their respective finishers, the moonsault and STF, had any real meaning. The rest of the moves, while almost universally well done, were really just there. This was vintage Muta, mailing it in for a useless first half then turning it on for an excellent second half. This is why I'd never rate Muto/Muta very high on a best wrestlers list. It's not that he doesn't have the talent, it's just the opposite. It's that he has more talent than most everyone, but is more than content to waste most of it. All the effort in the world isn't going to make Jim Duggan a better wrestler than Muto. However, when you have two guys whose ability is fairly similar, the guy that tries harder because they care more will almost always give you better production over the course of a year. In the later years, Muto injuries were an excuse for all his weak efforts, but the fact is he was doing the same thing years before he was all banged up. The first half was wasted because they didn't really do anything to advance the match. The problem with the match was that they didn't have any real direction or focus, so aside from teasing the STF or moonsault, which they didn't even do, there wasn't enough substance for them to do anything to set themselves up for later. Of course, this doesn't justify the first half of the match, it points out that while the second half looked nice, it also didn't live up to it's potential. Anyway, the first 9 minutes had a lot of stalling and no direction or focus. The pacing was uneven because on the rare occasion they'd do a nice sequence, they'd immediately kill the momentum they gained by some form of stalling. For instance, they'd go right to a restmission or on one occasion Muta hopped out of the ring to take a powder. The match started to take off when Muta gave Chono a facecrusher on the ramp then his windsprint lariat. Chono tried to comeback, but Muta cut him off on the top rope at 11:00 and nadare shiki no brainbustered him into the ring then went to his big moves. After hitting his space rolling elbow, Muta tried for the moonsault but Chono avoided it and immediately applied his STF. The fans didn't buy it as the finish, but both guys trying their finishers back to back got them to finally start to come to life. The pace slowed down again with a sequence where Chono hit Muta with his Yakuza kick, but Muta fired back with his dropkick and both sold. The selling in this match wasn't very good though. It was just sitting or lying in one spot doing nothing. I don't mind even the slowest paced matches if they are doing something all the time, but this was the usual Leizi Muta crap where he can't be bothered with making any effort in between the moves. Unfortunately, Chono was content with following Muta's lead in this regard. Actually, this isn't that surprising, but Chono is usually smart enough to make his plethora of shortcuts not seem like shortcuts at all. Muta suplexed Chono over the top onto the runway, but this didn't look good because it was obvious that Muta's butt and back hit before Chono touched, so you could see just how little impact Chono absorbed from this. Muta tried to follow with his space rolling elbow, but Chono avoided then backdropped Muta on the ramp and crawled back into the ring. Chono took a long time to recover, so Muta was able to get up and try a Sting type of move where he runs (in this case the runway) and leaps over the top rope into the ring. The problem was that while Muta did forearm Chono, his balls landed on the top rope and he flopped in headfirst. Apparently Muta remembered to wear his cup because it got really good from here with Chono landing on his feet to avoid a suplex then doing an abdominal stretch turned into a pinning predicament. Chono followed with his signature moves like the diving shoulder attack, Samoan drop, and STF. Muta came back, hitting his head on the canvas while performing a Frankensteiner then trying for the moonsault only to land on Chono's knees. Chono tried his diving shoulder attack again, but Muta sidestepped and did something of a facebuster so Chono would crash into the canvas that much harder. Muta then hit his moonsault for a big pop, but Chono just kicked out. Muta immediately went up to the top again and did another moonsault for a big pop, with Chono being unable to kick out this time. Thus, Muta successfully defended the IWGP title and won the NWA title. Aside from a few Muta spots, everything was really well done. The lack of reaction to all but a few moves was surprising, but otherwise it was pretty much what you'd expect from these two work wise before they broke down. The main difference between this and the '91 G1 Climax final, which is the best I've seen from these two, is that they did so many more big spots in that match. Considering the importance of the match and who was involved, big spots was guaranteed to get them heat. I don't mind that they toned the match down here. What I minded was that they didn't try to improve the other areas to make up for all the spots they took out. 19:48
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