World Pro Wrestling Special (#214) WRESTLING WORLD 2001 in Tokyo Dome taped 1/4 Tokyo Dome
IWGP Oza Sodatsu Tournament Ikkaisen: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Satoshi Kojima
IWGP Oza Sodatsu Tournament Ikkaisen: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Yuji Nagata
IWGP Oza Sodatsu Tournament Junkessho: Masahiro Chono vs. Kensuke Sasaki
IWGP Oza Sodatsu Tournament Junkessho: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Riki Choshu
IWGP Oza Sodatsu Tournament Ketteisen: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kensuke Sasaki
Do Judge!! 10/9/00 Tokyo Dome
OPENING MATCH: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Tatsumi Fujinami. Something of a worked shoot, but it wasn't very believable since Fujinami's technical stuff is so based in pro style. Fujinami wasn't going to take Hashimoto's stiffness, so there was really no point beyond the outcome. The win helped reestablish Hashimoto some, but Hashimoto is boring when he's not laying into someone. **
SUPER Jr. GOLDEN AGE: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Super Delfin. Probably good but not their best. 3:12 shown
OCTOBER TARGET: Takashi Iizuka vs. Don Frye. Moderately interesting match that wasn't believable in spite of the supposed shoot style. Frye did a nasty backdrop. 5:00 shown
IWGP Junior Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Koji Kanemoto. Disappointing match where Takaiwa made several mistakes and didn't go with the moves too well. 4:41 shown
IWGP Tag Senshukenjiai: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi. What they showed was pretty much all Tenzan & Kojima's big offense, so it was good. Nakanishi did pull out a huge momentum killing iron claw though. 3:22 shown
Scott Norton vs. Steve Williams. Williams was more energetic here, and was carrying the match as well as you could hope early on. They tired very quickly though, perhaps because they were lifting each other as opposed to the usual 235 pounders, and the match got incredibly sloppy at the end. It was like once one move went wrong neither knew had to recover and they could never get back on the same page. You knew neither guy could bump and they weren't going to put each other over much if at all, but between the miscommunication, the poor job of going with the moves, and both guys blowing up before the 10 minute mark this was much more of a disaster than expected. In spite of all this, the crowd reactions were large when they didn't screw the big moves up. -*
Masahiro Chono & Mr. T vs. Masa Fuchi & Shiro Koshinaka. T was Tatsu Goto in an SS Machine mask. Slow-motion match that was so dull it wasn't heated. Even Koshinaka piledriving T on the ramp and trying to unmask him didn't excite the crowd. Overall with Koshinaka in it was alright once they started doing spots, but Fuchi showed nothing and the mask didn't stop T from looking as bad as always. *1/2
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Toshiaki Kawada. Fierce dramatic war. Kawada built anticipation by taking control with a headlock after Sasaki missed a big chop off a lockup rather than rolling out a high spot immediately. Thus, when Sasaki shoulderblocked Kawada down it was important because it was the first knockdown of the match, and people reacted as such. These two sometimes looked like what they were, two guys that never worked with each other before. They didn't have great chemistry so some of the strikes looked contrived and the selling of them (although generally effective) false. Everyone rightfully saw this as a huge match, so the atmosphere made up for a little problem here and there. What they did was quite simple beat the hell out of each other. Lots of trading back and frother with neither wanting to show a weakness or that the other was capable of hurting them. It was a major display of machismo with both men taking all these powerful strikes and being able to fire back, yet the impact was obvious and they'd always show that the blows hurt even though most of the time they were able to stay on their feet. Even though most of the match was blistering each other back and forth, they'd use the strikes to work up to the next big move and when it wouldn't finish the match they'd go back to the strikes. So while the strikes were the constant the most important stuff really lied between these segments. End wasn't that effective because of the spot right before the finish where Sasaki tried to stop Kawada's lariat with an enzuigiri. I'm not sure what was supposed to happen, but you got the idea that it didn't coincide with what did and they improvised. Sasaki isn't nearly the wrestler Muto is, but he was willing to do what it took which is why he his first match with Kawada was far superior to Muto's. He worked a brutal well built match, while Muto wimped out and relied on his usual stall tactics. Sasaki's impact was often greater than Kawada's. Kawada is about keeping it simple, and when Sasaki does that he can be effective. What made 3 of the 4 matches in this set perhaps the three best singles matches of his career is that he did his effective stuff, but everything he did was exceptionally stiff. He basically used the same moves, but the impact elevated them from pedestrian to absolutely brutal. ****
12/14/00 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan The 2nd. Judgement!!: Takashi Iizuka & Yuji Nagata vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi. Excellent match with a great crowd. Everything you'd expect from Kawada & Nagata, except perhaps that there weren't a lot of near finishes. This was a match about the teams being even, so 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 annoys 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. Nagata "injured" Kawada's left knee with sweeps to set up the Nagata lock II. Iizuka 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. They really left you wanting more. ****1/4
1/4/01 Tokyo Dome IWGP Oza Sodatsu Tournament Ikkaisen
Satoshi Kojima vs. Kensuke Sasaki. Kojima was great here, but amazingly Sasaki was on a high level once again too. This was pretty similar to the Kawada match in style, an intense extremely high impact war. It was generally pretty basic, of course, but in this setting a spot like Sasaki's ipponzeoi counter for Kojima's lariat seemed great. There was one big screw up in the match, and it happened right away. Kojima did a tope, but Sasaki was too close so Kojima largely flew over Sasaki and crashed hard into the guard rail resulting in a bad cut to the side of his left eye. Kojima wasn't phased though, and soon launched a good focused arm attack that included armbreakers in the style you'd normally see neckbreakers. You could hear every strike they were doing. ****
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Yuji Nagata. Like the previous match it was nothing fancy but extremely stiff. It didn't have near the level of focus though, they just beat on each other. Tenzan shows that a big tough guy can sell well for a smaller guy with a credible style without his image being damaged. ***1/2
SUPER Jr. 21 Version: Minoru Tanaka & Koji Kanemoto vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Shinya Makabe. Tanaka was really good, but no one else was anything special. Still, it was a good match. It would have been much better though if Takaiwa & Makabe were on opposite teams, but it still would have been killed by the crowd only reacting occasionally for a cool move. 10:27 shown.
Technical Wrestling: Takashi Iizuka vs. Kendo Kashin. This name didn't help the match any. It's bad enough that Kashin isn't actually a good technical wrestler, just a guy that uses submissions but isn't good at going in and out of the holds, but it was a brawl from the get go. Kashin's kicks to the balls were hardly technical, and the match was short and uneventful. Iizuka did a slick transition or two, but that was about it. 1/2*
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Masahiro Chono. This was back to the boring Sasaki of old. They shouldn't have made this match because Chono's body isn't capable of taking the kind of punishment that Sasaki has been dishing out. To try to make that less than obvious, he dominated the match. Unfortunately, Chono's while Chono did at least attack the arm, his domination was slowing the match down to a crawl and just using a bunch of rest holds and cheap tactics. On paper this was one of the biggest matches on the show, but the fans weren't all that interested because of the way it "had to" be worked. *1/2
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Toshiaki Kawada. They just beat each other up, but it wasn't as stiff and intense as Sasaki vs. Kojima. The selling was excellent, showing they could take the heavy blows but also that it wasn't a picnic. Both guys were motivated, but that didn't translate to the crowd. Part of the problem was that Tenzan's a heel and Kawada's the enemy, so the fans didn't have someone they cared to root for. They did some of the best near falls of the night though. The wrestling was probably a little better than Tenzan vs. Nagata, but that match was 50% longer. ***1/4
Keiji Muto & Shinjiro Otani vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Jushin Thunder Liger. A showcase for Otani who was wrestling his first match in Japan since they decided to convert him to fodder, err, heavyweight. Otani was no more muscular, he just looked soft and pudgy. Exciting spurts, but it was such a short match and still had it's down time with Muto in even though Otani carried the team. Great U.W.F. style hardway German suplex by Nakanishi. Great sequence where Otani where he ducked Liger's shotei and went into his Dragon suplex, but Liger blocked it so Otani went right into a German suplex. Otani used an Argentine backbreaker in front of Nakanishi, so Nakanishi put him in it later and threw him into Muto when Muto tried to save. Otani made Liger submit to show he's "above him' now that he's put on 20 pounds of fat. **1/4
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Riki Choshu. Really good match with an incredibly lame finish. Hashimoto wouldn't budge from his corner when the match started then finally left the ring. When he eventually returned and attack he perhaps caught Choshu off guard. In any case his beating the hell out of Choshu looked "real," especially since he seemed so pissed, vicious, and untamed. Hashimoto didn't listen to the ref at all, finally taking him out with a chop when the ref pushed him away from Choshu. Choshu hit as hard as he could when he finally came back, but the way he goes about striking doesn't make them look that impressive, especially after seeing the way Kojima, Sasaki, Tenzan, Nagata, Kawada, & Hashimoto were pounding away. Hashimoto was so fierce and his striking so awesome that Choshu was totally outclassed. Since the match in a way showed that and Choshu didn't make Hashimoto ease up at all, all Choshu's liabilities didn't hurt the match much. What hurt though was Fujinami just stopped the match because they were trying to beat each other up rather than win and Choshu was taking too much punishment. ***
IWGP Oza Ketteisen: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kensuke Sasaki 10:30. Not considering length, this was definitely one of the most brutal matches I've seen. They killed each with mad stiffness and to a much lesser extent big moves from start to finish. There was a knee drop where Sasaki's head was off the mat so Kawada drove it in. Sasaki did one of the nastiest lariats. Kawada got a bloody nose from hard slaps. Excellent atmosphere, although not at the level of their first meeting. The problem is the drama was all from the setting, not from anything they did. Also, at just over 10 minutes the match was much too short. The length isn't as big an issue as it could be because they'd each fought a brutal match earlier in the night, and they way they were laying into each other with a little extra on every move you wouldn't expect them to last 25 minutes. As you'd expect they worked with each other better than the first time, so the increase in quality somewhat negated the decrease in length. The fans loved the finish, but it was terrible long term. The timing was especially stupid because even if they were going to choose ego over business like they did, this is their one dome show that draws 60,000+ regardless, so why give away here what you could put off to the April dome that needs something much bigger to even have a chance to equal 1/4 attendance? ****
Koji Kanemoto & Wataru Inoue vs. Katsuyori Shibata & Tatsuhito Takaiwa 12:57
Kenzo Suzuki vs. Hiro Saito 6:36
Brian Johnston vs. The Sledge Hammer 7:13
Jushin Thunder Liger & Kendo Kashin vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. & Silver King 15:14
Michiyoshi Ohara & Super J & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Osamu Nishimura & Riki Choshu & Yutaka Yoshie 8:46
Super Delfin & Takehiro Murahama & Tsubasa vs. El Samurai & Minoru Tanaka & Shinya Makabe 15:37
Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka vs. AKIRA & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima 16:10
Keiji Muto & Shinjiro Otani vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Shiro Koshinaka 12:55
Silver King vs. Shinya Makabe
Osamu Nishimura vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Minoru Tanaka & Koji Kanemoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. El Samurai & Kendo Kashin & Dr. Wagner, Jr.
Takashi Iizuka & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Tatsutoshi Goto & Michiyoshi Ohara
Manabu Nakanishi & Kenzo Suzuki vs. Super J & Hiro Saito
Yuji Nagata & Brian Johnston vs. Shinjiro Otani & The Sledgehammer
Kensuke Sasaki & SS Machine & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & AKIRA
Minoru Tanaka & Koji Kanemoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. El Samurai & Dr. Wagner, Jr. & Silver King 14:55. A real nice opener showcasing a lot of different styles, all of which seemed to mesh perfectly. The first half was solid with Junior Stars showcasing their kicking and Samurai's team showing some nice teamwork. Samurai & Tanaka really picked things up in the middle, and the match continued at a very high pace and level until the finish. Everyone made some nice contributions, but Takaiwa & Wagner were less notable than the others. ***1/4
Tatsutoshi Goto & Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Brian Johnston & The Sledge Hammer 7:16. 1/2*
Shiro Koshinaka & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Osamu Nishimura 14:14. *3/4
Manabu Nakanishi vs. Super J 11:31. *1/2
Takashi Iizuka & Yuji Nagata vs. Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai 17:03. ***1/4
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Riki Choshu & Shinya Makabe 15:20. **1/4
Don Frye vs. Masahiro Chono 12:27. 1/2*
Keiji Muto vs. Kazunari Murakami 6:01. *
IWGP Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Shinjiro Otani 14:53. ***
Katsuyori Shibata & Wataru Inoue vs. Black Cat & Katsushi Takemura 11:03
Kendo Kashin vs. Negro Casas 8:35
Junji Hirata & Osamu Nishimura & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Hiro Saito & Michiyoshi Ohara & Tatsutoshi Goto 11:55
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Shinya Makabe & Yutaka Yoshie 9:40
Yuji Nagata vs. Takashi Iizuka 13:06
Don Frye & Keiji Muto vs. Osamu Kido & Riki Choshu 15:23
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Title: Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka vs. El Samurai & Jushin Thunder Liger 8:17
Scott Hall & Scott Norton vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Manabu Nakanishi 16:59
Wataru Inoue vs. Katsuyori Shibata 7:48
Shinya Makabe vs. Katsushi Takemura 9:01
Minoru Tanaka & Negro Casas vs. El Samurai & Kendo Kashin 11:40
Brian Johnston & Jushin Thunder Liger & Takashi Iizuka vs. Hiro Saito & Michiyoshi Ohara & Tatsutoshi Goto 14:10
Scott Hall vs. Yutaka Yoshie 8:21
Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata vs. Don Frye & Rob Rage 15:25
Kensuke Sasaki & Riki Choshu & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Scott Norton 11:15
Wataru Inoue vs. Katsushi Takemura 5:00
Black Cat vs. Katsuyori Shibata 8:05
Kendo Kashin & Minoru Tanaka & Negro Casas vs. El Samurai & Jushin Thunder Liger & Shinya Makabe 12:35
Yutaka Yoshie vs. Michiyoshi Ohara 7:13
Scott Hall & Scott Norton vs. Brian Johnston & Manabu Nakanishi 10:15
Riki Choshu & Shiro Koshinaka & Takashi Iizuka vs. Hiro Saito & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima 10:37
Kensuke Sasaki & Yuji Nagata vs. Don Frye & Rob Rage 14:35
3/13/01 Hokkaido: Manabu Nakanishi & Osamu Kido & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Scott Hall & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Tatsutoshi Goto
3/14/01 Hiroshima: Jushin Thunder Liger & Wataru Inoue & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Minoru Tanaka & Kendo Kashin & Negro Casas
3/15/01 Kyoto
Osamu Nishimura vs. Katsushi Takemura
Takashi Iizuka & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
3/23/01
Yuji Nagata & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Shiro Koshinaka & El Samurai
Kensuke Sasaki & Minoru Tanaka vs. Takashi Iizuka & Shinya Makabe
3/24/01: Kensuke Sasaki & Minoru Tanaka vs. Yuji Nagata & Jushin Thunder Liger
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Wataru Inoue 8:05
Kendo Kashin & Shinya Makabe vs. El Samurai & Negro Casas 10:54
Hiro Saito & Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Yutaka Yoshie 10:28
Takashi Iizuka & Brian Johnston vs. Osamu Kido & Osamu Nishimura 10:32
Minoru Tanaka vs. Jushin Thunder Liger 16:01. Fluid technical match that was something of a dry run for their memorable Super Jr final on 6/4/01. They did Minoru's match, and Minoru was impressive, but Liger never quite seemed at home. Liger focused his attack on Tanaka's taped right bicep, but didn't gain enough of an advantage from posting him and never seemed certain how he was planning to go about winning the match. Tanaka kept hunting for the armbar as well, and this created sort of an odd situation that emphasized the strengths and weaknesses of both men. Tanaka worked under the you hook the submission you win shootstyle mentality so his other offense wasn't particularly meaningful, while Liger did a nice job of working the arm in the pro style fashion of you debilitate it you win, except he really wasn't going for potential arm related finishers so his arm attack ultimately wasn't particularly meaningful despite all the time he devoted to it. In any case, though it wasn't their best psychology or even a blow away match, you had a new match between two of the best in the world, who were taking it seriously and working on a very high level. ***3/4
Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata vs. Scott Hall & Tatsutoshi Goto 12:29
Keiji Muto & Don Frye vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima 20:04
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Scott Norton 11:49
Negro Casas vs. Katsuyori Shibata. Casas wrestled smartly, but this wasn't too interesting and never picked up. Shibata looked clumsy when in with such a smooth opponent. *
Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai vs. Minoru Tanaka & Kendo Kashin. Tanaka stole the show with his quickness and athleticism. Solid match, but only Tanaka was flashy. I loved Tanaka's handspring counter for Samurai's swing DDT. There was an intense pull apart between Liger & Murakami after the match where Murakami ripped Liger's mask. If Murakami's wrestling ability was 1/5th of his intensity in these situations he'd actually be quite good. ***1/4
Yutaka Yoshie vs. Scott Norton. It was so short that they didn't have time to screw up too badly. *
Manabu Nakanishi vs. Scott Hall. Hall was as slow and boring as he was in America, but at least we didn't have to endure the quiz. Sadly, he was the better of the two. These two didn't work well together, so it was pretty clumsy. 1/2*
Shiro Koshinaka & Osamu Kido & Brian Johnston vs. Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto & Michiyoshi Ohara. Dull match. Johnston tried, but no one did anything of note. The heels kept doing exciting moves like the choke. 1/2*
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Osamu Nishimura. It was more technical than the usual Sasaki match due to Nishimura. As usual, with Nishimura involved it was solid, but not particularly exciting. If it was competitive it would have been good, but Nishimura never had a chance and went down easily. *3/4
Takashi Iizuka & Yuji Nagata vs. Keiji Muto & Don Frye. Muto & Frye didn't do much other than drag the opposition way down. It was pretty dull and heatless early on with a slow pace and the wrestlers sitting in their holds. It picked up over the last 5 minutes, but never maintained a high level for a length of time.**
IWGP Tag Senshukenjiai: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Riki Choshu & Shinya Makabe. The fans didn't really take Makabe seriously, but he did a pretty good job of carrying his team. He needs more offense though. Makabe's lip was bloodied. All the heat was when Choshu was in. Tenzan & Kojima are good enough to carry Choshu, who wasn't selfish here. The problem with the match was there wasn't much drama because Makabe is such a distant forth and Choshu wasn't coming close to winning either. Short and kind of one-sided. **1/4
STRONG STYLE 1st: Minoru Tanaka vs. Takashi Iizuka. Tanaka was on offense most of the match, but everyone knew he'd lose and he rarely came close to proving them wrong. Iizuka was unselfish, but for the most part only turned in a decent performance. Tanaka was impressive as usual, doing his hard kicks and amazing takedowns into submissions. Due to him, it was a good technical match, but due to the junior vs. heavy deal it was hardly the match they are capable of having. **1/2
STRONG STYLE 2nd: Yutaka Yoshie vs. Shinya Makabe. Yoshie is not progressing at all. He doesn't do much of anything, and what he does doesn't look good. Makabe tried, but he also doesn't have much offense and Yoshie can't work or bump so that doesn't leave much. Even though it was a bad matchup for Makabe and a dull match, he managed to be decent. *1/4
STRONG STYLE 3rd: Kendo Kashin vs. Brian Johnston. I don't understand the point of this match. The idea has been for Kashin to have a rematch with Ryan Gracie (which he since had and won even if Gracie was at half strength) because a win there is the only thing that might get him back to where he was. With a few more matches like this, you almost wonder if he could mean anything again if he beat Rickson Gracie. The match was too short to amount to anything except putting virtually the final nail in Kashin's coffin. It was decently worked for the 2:20 it lasted due to Kashin, but at this point you almost wonder if he could get heat if he carried Inoki to a great match.
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Kazunari Murakami. This deserves an entry in the how to kill two potentially good matches off in one pointless swoop section of bad booking 101. Murakami lost it almost immediately, trying to rip Liger's mask off when he was under the ropes and knocking the ref around a few times, which lead to the typical DQ at all of 1:47. Liger was pissed taking his mask off, tossing it at Murakami, and then tackling the punk. As soon as Liger tackled Murakami, everyone hit the ring. This lead to a seemingly endless angle with Ogawa where he got into it with Hashimoto, who was broadcasting, for seemingly the thousandth time. Ogawa was "out there so long" that they started the introduction for the next match, with Choshu's team conventiently coming out first even though they were the "home team." Ogawa and Choshu then got into it, which took all the focus off the first meeting between Kawada & Choshu.
Riki Choshu & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi. I don't know what these guys were thinking. They didn't get heat because of the big distraction, but that doesn't excuse the fact that the way they did this match gave it no chance of being good. It was short with no real drama or build. It wasn't even intense. Basically just kicks, chops, and lariats back and forth, and not even that stiff given Kawada. The execution was fine and everything, but the match pretty much just ended. **
This is STRONG STYLE: Yuji Nagata vs. Manabu Nakanishi. Nagata did everything he could to make this good. Nakanishi did little as usual, but it didn't much matter because Nagata made it a thoroughly good and entertaining match with his excellent perfomance. Nagata's kicks were really nasty. ***
BATT vs. T2000: Keiji Muto & Taiyo Kea & Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Masa Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima. Tenzan & Kojima kept the quality up with their good work and teamwork. Unfortunately, they didn't get a lot of help. Shinzaki did some of his usual good spots, but he isn't going to take over a match with these guys. Chono did nothing and Muto beyond a few good moments Muto was nothing special. Hase was broadcasting, but wound up fighting with Goto outside the ring. After the match, Hase gave everyone his uranage then pinned Kojima. **
IWGP Heavykyu Senshuken No Rule Match: Scott Norton vs. Kazuyuki Fujita. Neither of these no rule matches had any identity. This was the more "realistic" of the two, but it still had a powerbomb, brawling, fighting outside the ring, and so on. Norton tried a lot harder than I expected to carry Fujita and do his style. Fujita simply can't work though. His slams were screwed up and his punches were obviously fake. Boring and unbelievable because it was not well worked. Fujita won the title.It's amazing that NJ started the year with Sasaki as champ, and through two title changes have only been consistent in downgrading when it comes to the ability of their title holder. 1/4*
No Rule Match: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Shinya Hashimoto. I'm not even sure what to think of this match. It was just kind of there. It was short and had no drama. Hashimoto did a few nasty strikes, but as a whole it was hardly memorable for his stiffness. Sasaki did little offensively aside from one short segment with a few lariats toward the end. Otherwise he was mainly using exchanges of strikes. Fans weren't into it even though it was the main event. Like me, they may have been waiting for it to pick up, which never happened. In another of the many angles that went nowhere this year, Hashimoto & Nakanishi got into it after the match, which lead to the ring flooding and several NJ vs. ZERO-ONE skirmishes. *1/2
1/4/00 Tokyo Dome: Keiji Muto vs. Masahiro Chono
4/7/00 Tokyo Dome: Keiji Muto vs. Masahiro Chono
1/4/01 Tokyo Dome: Keiji Muto & Shinjiro Otani vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Jushin Thunder Liger
2/23/01 Hokkaido-ken Sogo Taiiku Center: Keiji Muto & Shinjiro Otani vs. Masahiro Chono & Don Frye
2/11/01 Osaka Maeshu Arena: Keiji Muto & Shinjiro Otani vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Shiro Koshinaka
2/18/01 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan: Keiji Muto vs. Kazunari Murakami
3/3/01 Niigata Shi Taiikukan: Keiji Muto & Don Frye vs. Takashi Iizuka & Brian Johnston
4/9/01 Osaka Dome: Keiji Muto & Taiyo Kea & Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
Wataru Inoue vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi 7:46
Minoru Tanaka vs. Katsuyori Shibata 10:07
Dr. Wagner Jr. & Silver King vs. El Samurai & Kendo Kashin 15:43
Michiyoshi Ohara & Super J & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Osamu Nishimura & Shinya Makabe & Shiro Koshinaka 9:26
Satoshi Kojima & Scott Hall vs. Rob Rage & Takashi Iizuka 14:54
Keiji Muto vs. Jushin Thunder Liger 16:36
Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata & Yutaka Yoshie & Riki Choshu vs. Hiro Saito & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Masahiro Chono & Scott Norton 12:35
Dr. Wagner, Jr. & Silver King vs. Katsuyori Shibata & Wataru Inoue. Wagner & King worked hard even though they were fighting two youngsters in the opening match. Shibata & Inoue were badly outclassed. The biggest difference between them and Silver King is he's poetic motion, while they still appear to be thinking about what they'll do next. Still Wagner & King made it a good match almost by themselves. **1/2
Kendo Kashin & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinya Makabe & Katsushi Takemura. Takemura, who was with MUGA, showed nothing and surprisingly wasn't even solid. The others were solid, but unspectacular. Basic and rather dull. Some hard slaps back and forth, but not much else of note. *1/4
Tatsumi Fujinami & Shiro Koshinaka & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Super J & Tatsutoshi Goto & Michiyoshi Ohara. Fast-paced match that was good when Liger was in. He set the tone for the match, so it was fairly good and entertaining. Nothing too difficult, but this is the kind of match where simple is more effective. **1/4
Manabu Nakanishi & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Masahiro Chono & Scott Hall. Boring. Hall didn't modify his style very much for Japan, instead stalling a lot. There were a few good comedy spots and Chono & Nakanishi were passable. The highlight was Chono doubling up with Hall for his back suplex off the middle rope. *
Takashi Iizuka & Yuji Nagata & Osamu Nishimura vs. Scott Norton & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima. Got off to a slow and unspectacular start, but build up well. The final 4 minutes were really good with a lot of dramatic near falls and excellent crowd reactions. ***
El Samurai vs. Super Delfin. I had high hopes for this match, but it didn't deliver. The work was subpar and there was too much in the way of uninspiring mat work that wasn't generating any more excitement in the crowd than in me. Delfin wasn't that sharp. The last 5 minutes saved the match to some extent, but if anything this seems like an example of the worst match these guys could have together. **1/2
IWGP Junior Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Minoru Tanaka vs. Takehiro Murahama 15:51. The best match of Murahama's career. It was a case of perfect synergy, of similar athletic ability and technical skill trumping familiarity, as these two managed to wrestle as though they knew exactly what the other was going to do, and had the answer for it. The speed and explosion of the moves and counters was a sight to behold, with the suplexes being particularly electric. Two of the keys to the greatness of this match were the way Murahama was used by NJ and Tanaka's unselfishness. NJ brought him in for a main event title match and Tanaka, while wisely not dominated, put Murahama over a great deal, especially early on, to establish him as a serious threat to bringing NJ gold back to Osaka. Tanaka allowed Murahama to show his stuff even though his strengths - quickness, athleticism, & shoot style - are the same as Tanaka's. In fact, while Murahama is not as skilled a worker, it was pretty clear that he's quicker and more athletic than Tanaka. He didn't ultimately become a better wrestler even though he was worlds better than Tanaka was at the same experience level, which I suppose could be expected since he was a late starter who continued to pursue a legitimate fighting career. In any case, the match had excellent heat because the outsider was shown to be for real and also due to them playing every near finish for maximum drama. Although it was mat oriented and technically excellent, this is not the kind of match most people who don't like good worked RINGS would find boring because they are so fast and explosive in everything they do. This was not a worked shoot by any means, in fact it was more of a traditional junior style match with a high work rate, super quick counters, flying moves and dives. It's just that the technical aspects were the key to the match and everything was done perfectly with the possible exception of the right side of Tanaka's face being busted open when he headbutted Murahama off the middle rope. Murahama announced himself to the world with this match and Tanaka once again showed his goal is to have the best match, not to feed his ego. ****1/2
WRESTLING DONTAKU Opening Match: Wataru Inoue & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinya Makabe & Katsuyori Shibata. I expected them to try to make more of an impression. There wasn't anything specifically wrong with the match, but it was rather dull. *1/2
Shin Nihon vs. T2000: Shiro Koshinaka & Yutaka Yoshie & Osamu Nishimura vs. Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto & Michiyoshi Ohara. All the T2000 guys showed nothing as usual, but looked good in comparison to Yoshie. Yoshie was in for what seemed like forever. Almost all he did was strike, but he can't even do this well. He did a few "urakens" where he hit his opponent with his forearm. Match was sometimes decent when Koshinaka & Nishimura were in. *
TOP OF THE SUPER Jr.: Minoru Tanaka vs. Kendo Kashin. Good while it lasted, but too short with no heat. They chained the moves together well, but didn't do enough. Everything was well done, but they didn't generate the intensity or excitement they could have. **3/4
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Match: Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. & Silver King 19:09. This was like the junior tags of a few years ago, they went at it from the get go delivering a fast paced match with loads of action and flying. Wagner & King used their superb teamwork to dominate the match, really working well as a unit. I liked the spot where Wagner assisted King in a standing moonsault press over the top rope only the ramp. It was really Wagner's match, as he was the ring general, though amongst the universally strong performances, it was King who stole the who with his superior athleticism. I was particularly impressed by his somersault leg drop from a standing position. Liger can still do fast sequences and Lucha when he wants to. His stuff with King was excellent. This wasn't the best they could do because there wasn't much in the way of psychology and it could even have been more dramatic, particularly the finish, but the work was just so strong. Everything was well executed, and had good flow and fluidity. ****
Saikyo Gaikokujin Ketteisen!: Scott Norton vs. Don Frye. King of a weird match because you'd expect Norton to get a win here since he lost the title on the previous dome show. Instead, he sold so much I was about to write down that you could tell Norton was going to win when he submitted. Frye worked over Norton's left arm and knee, mainly with punches. Norton is not much of a seller even when he tries. Otherwise it wasn't too bad considering, just dull. *1/2
Takashi Iizuka vs. Tadao Yasuda. More realistic than the "no rule matches" on the previous dome show, but obviously that hardly makes it Tamura vs. Kosaka. Iizuka carried Yasuda to a technically competent match, but it was dull. The finish came out of nowhere, which was okay since it was fairly shoot oriented, but they could have done a lot more before it happened. *3/4
Undercard highlights
Ishu Kakutogisen: Yuji Nagata vs. Rainy Martinez. Worked shoot. It was realistic enough for these fans, but they didn't give them much to cheer about. Nagata had a few nice takedowns, but that's it. Short, fairly uneventful match that didn't get over.
BATT vs. T2000: Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase & Taiyo Kea vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima. Solid match that kept getting a little better. I liked the giant swing spot because when Hase was doing his post swing dizzy act, Tenzan came in and lariated him. Kojima got up, but he was still too dizzy so he fell on top of Hase. Hase wound up taking a lot of the punishment,. getting trapped in the ring for a long time after Kojima was able to tag. Match was never outstanding, but good throughout. Chono was dull and unimpressive, but everyone else was good. Liger & Nishimura saved BATT from the T2000 jobbers after the match. Liger wouldn't shake Muto's hand though, instead signalling to Nishimura that it was time to leave. ***1/4
Riki Choshu & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami. Ogawa & Murakami didn't make it overly obvious that they were trying to embarrass the opposition, didn't shoot on them in the sense of hitting for real, but they destroyed the match so they'd look good even though they lost and the opposition would look terrible even though they won. Ogawa & Murakami wouldn't really cooperate with Choshu & Nakanishi. They made fun of them and didn't sell. They didn't do much to them though. Basically they used their striking to do some damage, make the opposition look silly, and keep the opposition from doing some damage. It was hardly a kickboxing clinic, but since Ogawa has the reach and Murakami has the quickness, it was some offense and looking competent to no offense and looking incompetent. Choshu & Nakanishi could grap Ogawa & Murakami once in a while, but they wouldn't let them throw them or take them down. Nakanishi tried not cooperating with Ogawa on a slam, but Ogawa was able to slam him anyway. This might have been interesting to watch from some sense because you could tell it wasn't going as Choshu & Nakanishi expected and they were getting frustrated by the unprofessionalism of their opponents and their inability to do much about it, but it was a boring match with way too much inactivity. DUD
Note: matches digested to about 7 minutes each
5/5/01: Kendo Kashin & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinya Makabe & Katsushi Takemura
7/20/02: Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner vs. Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi 13:42
4/23/03 G2 U-30 Climax Final: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinya Makabe 12:44
7/21/03 U-30 Openweight Title Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata
12/9/03 U-30 Openweight Title Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Naomichi Marufuji
2/15/04 IWGP Heavyweight Title Tournament 1R: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama 14:39
6/5/04 IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi 11:45
8/15/04 G1 Climax 2004 Final Match: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi 21:01
11/3/04 IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi 25:35
4/24/05 New Japan Cup 2005 Final Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Manabu Nakanishi 19:21
Tatsutoshi Goto & Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Just kind of there. Fairly basic match with no execution problems, but not a ton of effort shown outside of Tanahashi. Tanahashi seems ready to break out of the opening match. The last few minutes were good, with the crowd getting into it. *3/4
AKIRA & Gran Naniwa vs. El Samurai & Katsuyori Shibata. It's too bad AKIRA has been largely wasted for so many years because he sure knows how to wrestle and perform. This is the kind of very good match you should get all the time on house shows when you've got some talent involved. They didn't do that much and it wasn't even that long, but they made you feel like there was a lot more to the match than their really was. Nobody killed themselves, but they didn't need to because they worked intelligently. They showed their athleticism often, but by playing the various counters and lesser moves they made you feel like they did something important without having to do 450's. Mostly thanks to AKIRA, you got strong execution, a lot of athleticism, and a lot of "performance" (playing to the crowd, but in a way that made you anticipate the moves and didn't detract from the pace or flow of the match). The fans were totally into it when they started using the big moves because these moves were above the lesser ones that were already shown to be important. Naniwa & Shibata were nothing special, but you only need to be a carryable worker to do good things with Samurai & AKIRA. The highlight to me was Naniwa giving Shibata his nadare shiki no Frankensteiner then AKIRA leaping from another corner with his diving body press, but Samurai sliding by Naniwa with a low dropkick to break AKIRA's pin just in time. ***1/2
Shiro Koshinaka & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Junji Hirata & Rob Rage. Koshinaka & Hirata are well past their prime and Yoshie & Rage still have me wondering if they'll ever have one. This was putting me to sleep. They tried to pick it up for the finish, but since it was between Yoshie & Rage even this wasn't good. *
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VII Leaguesen A Block: Silver King vs. Chris Candido. Short, but very exciting athletic match. Silver King looked really good. His athleticism is amazing for his age and all the wear on his body. Candido looked good as well. Really fluid work with nice moves and counters. ***1/4
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VII Leaguesen B Block: Dr. Wagner, Jr. vs. Super Shocker. Solid, well executed match. Good performances by both. It had some dull points, but was mainly good with the last 3-4 minutes being really good. Shocker nearly landed on a guy in the front row ***1/4
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VII Leaguesen A Block: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Wataru Inoue. Such a smart performance by Liger. He kept things simple enough that Inoue could accomplish them, but logical enough that it didn't matter because you really cared about what was going on. The match was so well structured. It started off with Liger stretching and smacking the young punk. Inoue went on offense about 5 minutes in, and from here almost all his offense was to Liger's knee. Inoue had some good counters, particularly for Liger's deadly shotei, which was made meaningful because Inoue kept avoiding it. For instance, he ducked the shotei and went into a hizajujigatame. Inoue was able to stay on offense largely because of his counters and the fact he was weaking Liger. At one point he turned Liger's quebradora con hilo into an arm drag, gave him a tope, then went back to the knee. Liger doing some really good selling added to the feeling that Inoue could actually win. You knew Inoue couldn't beat Liger, but there were a few occassions when Liger had you believing he was doomed. This match had far more drama than such a mismatch has a right to. The fans were chanting Inoue's name after the match even though he obviously lost. Liger wanted to shake his hand, but Inoue slapped it away and got in his face, which got him another good reaction. Inoue's execution wasn't perfect, but it's a lot easier to look past that when the logic behind what he's doing is strong. If Inoue was even in Liger's league as a worker this would have been excellent, but all the more credit to Liger for getting such a good performance out of Inoue and making it look like Inoue belonged in the tournament. ***1/2
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VII Leaguesen B Block: Minoru Tanaka vs. Shinya Makabe. Makabe was pretty much exposed here. He's not much on the mat and Takaiwa's move set seems highly impressive in comparison. The length didn't help him any either beacuse he doesn't have the move set. He had a hard time hanging with Tanaka, but Tanaka is so good that in a lot of cases it didn't matter. Maybe I just expected too much, but in a lot of places I could see where the match wasn't as good because Makabe doesn't have the smoothness, diversity, or skill that the older guys in the division do. It seemed disappointing, but in the end it was a good, dramatic match with several quality near finishes. The final minutes were really good, but it dragged early. The middle two junior matches were about the right length, but the 1st was too short and this one was too long. ***
Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka & Brian Johnston vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Super J. Nagata & Kojima were not surprisingly the best, but this was far from their top performances. Iizuka & Tenzan didn't make their presence felt. Johnston & J were typically unimpressive. *3/4
Keiji Muto & Taiyo Kea vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Osamu Nishimura. Execution was good and crisp. Kea was good, doing all kinds of cool kicks. Nishimura & Muto were solid. Nakanishi was mainly just there. Decent, but unspectacular with the exception of Kea. **1/4
Silver King & Super Shocker vs. Shinya Makabe & Wataru Inoue. King & especially Shocker were quite impressive, but Makabe & Inoue did nothing of note. There was no chance Makabe's team was winning this one, they just don't have the standing or offense to compete. It was short, but King & Shocker made it worth watching. Shocker did a cool corkscrew elbow from a standing position. **1/4
Osamu Nishimura & Rob Rage vs. & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsushi Takemura. Only Nishimura vs. Tanahashi was worth watching. Roid Rage has yet to show me any potential. *1/4
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VII Leaguesen A Block: El Samurai vs. Chris Candido. This match was way too short. It didn't seem like a match that was going 5 minutes, but suddenly it ended out of nowhere. They worked fairly well with each other, chaining a lot of moves together. Just no time for anything to develop though, and the vast majority of their best stuff was shelved. *3/4
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VII Leaguesen B Block: Minoru Tanaka vs. Katsuyori Shibata. This is the best Shibata has looked. The match got off to a quick start with Shibata dropkicking Tanaka when he tried to enter the ring then giving him a pescado. Unfortunately, Shibata gave Tanaka all the time he needed to recover. Shibata avoided Tanaka's patented spot where he twists into the kneebar after his opponent catches his leg and gave Tanaka a bicycle kick ala Satomura. A little later Tanaka caught one of Shibata's many kicks and Shibata stole his kneebar spot. Shibata got the crowd behind him with his effort. Tanaka made everything look easy as usual, and Shibata is a good opponent for him because he's mainly a kick, suplex, and submission guy. Unfortunately the match only lasted about 6 1/2 minutes with Shibata going down fairly easily, but it was an excellent short match that showed Shibata's potential as well as why Tanaka is one of the best. ***
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VII Leaguesen B Block: Dr. Wagner, Jr. vs. AKIRA. AKIRA wanted Wagner to weigh himself, but Wagner wound up hitting him with the scale. Wagner took the rudo role, which makes sense because he's so good at it and AKIRA is the one with the flying and his charisma can work either way. Wagner worked on AKIRA's right knee. Solid, well executed match, but they could have done a lot better. Again it was on the short side and ended rather quickly. ***
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VII Leaguesen A Block: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Gran Naniwa. About as bad as a Liger singles match gets. Naniwa wasn't impressive at all. He was even hesitant at times. Liger did some nasty powerbombs and a little crab walk to make fun of Naniwa, but this was one of the only singles matches in this division in recent times that had no story or focus. **1/2
Super J & Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Takashi Iizuka & Yutaka Yoshie. Better than it sounds. They worked at a decent pace and no one was bad. **
Yuji Nagata vs. Michiyoshi Ohara. Ohara attempted to work Nagata's style, but it's not his thing. Of course, Ohara would have been way below the level in any style and Nagata is the one being pushed as something of a shooter, so it made sense. Anything with Nagata can't be too bad, but this was clearly the bottom rung for him. *3/4
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Kenzo Suzuki. Tenzan & Kojima have a routine where they keep things good, fast, and solid. What's important about it is they don't need good opposition to have a quality match the way they wrestle. This is lucky because they are generally against Nakanishi and his crew, who once again did little that was impressive. Suzuki did do a Frankensteiner. There was a funny spot where Nakanishi & Suzuki tried to do a double shoulderblock, but their timing was off. Suzuki hit first and knocked their opponent over, so Nakanishi wound up falling when he lunged and hit nothing but air. Kojima was by far the best, which obviously comes as no surprise. **3/4
disc 1
4/24/89 Tokyo Dome: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi
5/25/89 Osaka IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Hase vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
7/13/89 Tokyo IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Naoki Sano
8/10/89 Tokyo IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Naoki Sano
1/31/90 Osaka IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Naoki Sano vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
6/12/90 Fukuoka Martial Arts Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Masashi Aoyagi
8/19/90 Tokyo IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Pegasus Kid
11/1/90 Tokyo IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Pegasus Kid vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
disc 2
4/15/91 Tokyo Top of the Super Junior: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Dave Finlay
4/28/91 Saitama Top of the Super Junior: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Owen Hart
4/30/91 Tokyo IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Top of the Super Junior Final: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Norio Honaga
7/4/91 Fukuoka Mask vs. Mask Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Pegasus Kid
8/9/91 Tokyo IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Akira Nogami
2/8/92 Sapporo IWGP Junior & WCW Light Heavyweight Double Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Norio Honaga
disc 3
4/16/92 Tokyo Top of the Super Junior: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. El Samurai
4/30/92 Tokyo Top of the Super Junior Final: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. El Samurai
6/26/92 Tokyo IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. El Samurai
1/4/93 Tokyo Dome IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Ultimo Dragon vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
8/3/93 Tokyo: Jushin Thunder Liger & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Koki Kitahara
1/4/94 Tokyo Dome: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Tiger Mask
2/24/94 Tokyo: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Shinya Hashimoto
disc 4
4/16/94 Tokyo Super J Cup 1st RD: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Hayabusa
4/16/94 Tokyo Super J Cup Semifinal: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Great Sasuke
5/1/94 Fukuoka Exhibition Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Satoru Sayama
6/13/94 Osaka Best of the Super Junior Final: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Super Delfin
9/23/94 Yokohama: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
10/9/95 Tokyo Dome: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Naoki Sano
1/4/96 Tokyo Dome IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Koji Kanemoto vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
4/29/96 Tokyo Dome IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. The Great Sasuke
disc 5
6/12/96 Osaka Best of the Super Junior Final: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Black Tiger
6/17/96 Tokyo MPW British Commonwealth Junior Title: Dick Togo vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
8/2/96 Tokyo WAR International & British Commonwealth Junior Title, J Crown Tournament 1st RD: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Ultimo Dragon
9/23/96 Yokohama: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Wild Pegasus
1/4/97 Tokyo Dome J Crown Title: Ultimo Dragon vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
5/3/97 Osaka: Jushin Thunder Liger & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Antonio Inoki & Tiger King
7/6/97 Sapporo J Crown Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. El Samurai
11/2/97 Fukuoka: Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger King vs. Koji Kanemoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa
disc 6
1/4/98 Tokyo Dome: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Riki Choshu
2/7/98 Sapporo IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Shinjiro Otani vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
8/2/98 Tokyo IWGP Junior Tag Title League: Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai vs. Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa
3/17/99 Hiroshima IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto
4/10/99 Tokyo Dome IWGP Junior Tag Title: Dr Wagner Junior & Kendo Kashin vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Great Sasuke
5/25/99 Ishikawa Best of the Super Junior: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Gran Hamada
disc 7
6/4/99 Kagawa Best of the Super Junior Block A: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa
10/11/99 Tokyo Dome IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Kendo Kashin vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
1/4/00 Tokyo Dome IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto
2/4/00 Sapporo IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Minoru Tanaka
3/20/00 Hyogo: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Don Frye
4/7/00 Tokyo Dome: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Kensuke Sasaki
8/7/00 Osaka G1 Block A: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
8/9/00 Hiroshima G1 Block A: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Tatsutoshi Goto
3/6/01 Tokyo IWGP Junior Tag Title: Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka vs. El Samurai & Jushin Thunder Liger
5/25/01 Fukushima Best of the Super Junior Block A: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Gran Naniwa
disc 8
6/1/01 Kanagawa Best of the Super Junior Block A: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Silver King
6/4/01 Osaka Best of the Super Junior Final: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Minoru Tanaka
8/4/01 Osaka G1 CLimax Block B: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
8/5/01 Osaka G1 Climax Block B: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Keiji Muto
8/6/01 Nagoya G1 Climax Block B: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Masahiro Chono
8/8/01 Sendai G1 Climax Block B: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Satoshi Kojima
10/19/01 Oita IWGP Tag Title: Osamu Nishimura & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Keiji Muto
disc 9
11/16/01 Ishikawa G1 Junior Tag League: Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai vs. Gedo & Jado
11/23/01 Tokyo G1 Junior Tag League: Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai vs. Katsuyori Shibata & Wataru Inoue
12/7/01 Hiroshima G1 Tag League: Jushin Thunder Liger & Osamu Nishimura vs. Giant Silva & Masahiro Chono
5/2/02 Tokyo Dome IWGP Junior Tag Title: Gedo & Jado vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Minoru Tanaka
5/24/02 Tokyo Best of the Super Junior Block A: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Katsuyori Shibata
5/28/02 Sendai Best of the Super Junior Block A: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto
disc 10
8/29/02 Tokyo IWGP Junior Tag Title: Jushin Thunder Liger & Minoru Tanaka vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
1/4/04 Tokyo Dome GHC Junior Title: Takashi Sugiura vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
7/19/04 Sapporo IWGP Tag Title: Minoru Suzuki & Yoshihiro Takayama vs & Jushin Thunder Liger & Kensuke Sasaki
5/14/05 Tokyo Dome: Jushin Thunder Liger & Masahiro Chono vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Tatsumi Fujinami
1/4/06 Tokyo Dome: Jushin Thunder Liger & Gedo & Jado vs. BADBOY Hido & Kintaro Kanemura & Masato Tanaka
8/8/06 Yokohama G1 Climax Block A: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
2/17/08 Tokyo IWGP Junior Tag Title: Minoru & Prince Devitt vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & AKIRA
disc 11
7/21/08 Sapporo IWGP Junior Tag Title: Jushin Thunder Liger & AKIRA vs. Minoru & Prince Devitt
1/4/09 Tokyo Dome: Jushin Thunder Liger & Takuma Sano vs. Koji Kanemoto & Wataru Inoue
2/15/09 Tokyo IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Tiger Mask vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
4/4/10 Tokyo IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Naomichi Marufuji vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
5/3/10 Fukuoka CMLL World Middleweight Title: Negro Casas vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
5/27/12 Tokyo Best of the Super Junior Block A: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. PAC
6/16/12 Osaka IWGP Junior Tag Title: Taichi & TAKA Michinoku vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask
5/24/13 Tokyo Best of the Super Junior Block A: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Hiromu Tanahashi
9/29/13 Kobe NWA World Heavyweight Title: Rob Conway vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
11/8/14 Osaka NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title: Chase Owens vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
5/22/15 Tokyo Best of the Super Junior Block A: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Yohei Komatsu
disc 12
5/3/16 Fukuoka IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: KUSHIDA vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
5/17/17 Tokyo Best of the Super Junior Block A: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. TAKA Michinoku
5/31/17 Osaka Best of the Super Junior Block A Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Taichi
3/25/18 Long Beach: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Will Ospreay
6/9/18 Osaka: Jushin Thunder Liger & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Cody & Hangman Page & Marty Scrull
3/6/19 Tokyo IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Taiji Ishimori vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
9/22/19 Kobe: Jushin Thunder Liger & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Rocky Romero & Tiger Mask vs. DOUKI & Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr.
10/14/19 Tokyo: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Minoru Suzuki
Dr. Wagner, Jr. & Silver King vs. Shinya Makabe & Chris Candido
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VII Leaguesen B Block: Super Shocker vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Junji Hirata & Rob Rage vs. Hiro Saito & Michiyoshi Ohara
Super J & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Takashi Iizuka & Osamu Nishimura
Manabu Nakanishi & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VII Leaguesen A Block: El Samurai vs. Gran Naniwa
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VII Leaguesen A Block: Minoru Tanaka vs. AKIRA
Yuji Nagata vs. Brian Johnston
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Keiji Muto & Jushin Thunder Liger
El Samurai & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Super Shocker & Gran Naniwa. Shocker was very impressive. His work was so fluid. Shibata is still outclassed, but is definitely benefitting from working with superior opposition of late. Samurai dida good job, as always. Good little opener. **3/4
Junji Hirata & Katsushi Takemura vs. Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Adequate match. No great moves, but it had a good deal of action. Suzuki was competent. *3/4
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VII Leaguesen A Block: Wataru Inoue vs. Chris Candido. Inoue did a nice sequence where he turned Candido's powerbomb into a Frankensteiner (which Candido totally saved), dropkicked Candido to the floor, and gave him a tope suicida. He lacks the big moves to be a threat or even competitive on this stage. Candido did a good job of carrying the match. Unfortunately, it was only 5 minutes, so it couldn't be all that great. **
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VII Leaguesen B Block: Shinya Makabe vs. AKIRA. AKIRA is quietly having a really good year. Makabe's lack of a move set wasn't an issue here because he got him to focus on the left arm. Meanwhile, AKIRA focused on Makabe's back. The fans were into the submissions because they made them important. Makabe did a wakigatame off the middle rope, which is cool because in this form it does damage to your opponent when he lands hard and there's also (at least theoretically) a much greater jolt to the shoulder from this. AKIRA tried his diving body press twice, but it didn't have full effectiveness because of his bad arm (it makes sense if you think about how AKIRA spreads his body to perform the move) so Makabe was able to kick out. The final 3 minutes were very heated and dramatic. It was kind of short and there were a few minor miscues, but it was a very smart and extremely focused match. ***1/2
Shiro Koshinaka & Brian Johnston & Rob Rage vs. Tatsutoshi Goto & Michiyoshi Ohara & Super J. One of those boring matches where no skill is displayed and it's just about of kicks, punches, stomps, lariats, and cheating. Johnston wasn't good, but he was the only exception to this. 3/4*
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VII Leaguesen B Block: Minoru Tanaka vs. Dr. Wagner, Jr. Solid, Well worked and executed match. Started off slowly, but got better as it went along, with the last 5 minutes being really good. In spite of that, the match kind of just ended. ***1/4
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VII Leaguesen A Block: Jushin Thunder Liger vs.Silver King. Very well worked and executed match. Liger showed speed and athleticism early because that's Silver King's thing. Silver King then worked over his knee, so Liger began hobbling around and predominantly relying on his shotei. This wasn't repetitive or anything because King got most of the offense in since he was doing the job. The match was too short and didn't build up nearly as much drama as I expected. Everything they did was good, but unfortuately this wasn't an attempt at a great match. ***1/2
Takashi Iizuka & Yuji Nagata vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Nishimura. The final 3 minutes with Nagata vs. Nishimura were damn good. Unfortunately, the 1st 12 were BORING. Mainly a lot of dull legwork. Fujinami & Iizuka contributed nothing. **1/4
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Yutaka Yoshie. Certainly a two man show. Tenzan & Kojima did just about everything and were able to have a good match with a couple of brooms. ***
Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Wataru Inoue & Katsuyori Shibata. Not the best execution, but they had some spark and took it too each other. Fairly stiff. Suzuki was clutzy, but the other three were satisfactory. *3/4
El Samurai & Gran Naniwa & Chris Candido vs. Dr. Wagner, Jr. & Silver King & Super Shocker. What a waste to have all these guys in one match that doesn't even last 10 minutes. I'm really impressed with how good Shocker looked in this tournament and how well he adapted for this tour. I've liked him in Mexico for quite a while, but he was no where near this good in the '99 SUPER Jr. On the other hand, Naniwa was clearly the worst of the outsiders in the league. Good action, but it didn't really build or have anything out of the ordinary. All the Mexicans were impressive, especially Shocker, and Candido also looked good. Samurai didn't work enough. **3/4
Shiro Koshinaka & Rob Rage & Shinya Makabe vs. Super J & Hiro Saito & Michiyoshi Ohara. Koshinaka is really having a down year. I'm not sure if age has finally done him in or it's just that his opposition almost always sucks. Makabe gave us a good minute or two, but that was the highlight of the match. The other guys are never anything special. The pace was alright, and the lousy guys did try. *1/2
Takashi Iizuka & Brian Johnston vs. Osamu Nishimura & Yutaka Yoshie.Very short and uneventful match. Yoshie was out of place (as usual) and stunk. Iizuka & Nishimura were solid, but their matwork didn't go anywhere. Johnston made a nice move turning Nishimura's manjigatame attempt into a standing heel hold for the win. *1/4
Tatsumi Fujinami & Super Strong Machine vs. Masahiro Chono & AKIRA. AKIRA doesn't get to do his thing in this kind of match. Instead he gets to take all the bumps for Chono and submit. It's good for Chono because there's almost no wear and tear on his body from this match, and obviously that's important because he's arguably their best draw. A safe match that was just kind of there. *1/2
Yuji Nagata vs. Tadao Yasuda. Worked not very well shoot. It was supposed to be exciting, but it was just short with shoddy execution. Coleman was at ringside and shook hands with Nagata after the match. *
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Manabu Nakanishi. Started off slow, but was well built and got quite good. The key holds were worked in well, with the crowd getting into the match as it progressed and some dramatic near finishes. Tenzan did a very good job of laying out the match and carrying Nakanishi. Nakanishi didn't do anything wrong and his offense was better than usual. All the early striking was kind of weak for a Tenzan match, but the psychology we saw mainly during the 2nd half made up for it. ***
Keiji Muto vs. Satoshi Kojima. Very smart and well focused match. Both men worked over each other's knees. Kojima was basically using Muto's own knee attack on him. Strong selling. As the pace was quite slow you noticed how good Kojima's facials are more. Well built. Crowd wasn't very into it. The match lacked the top 2 or 3 gears to get the audience going. It wasn't until the last minute or two that they pulled out some big moves to bring them to life. Finish wasn't that great though. T2000 beat Muto up after the match until Kojima got in the way of hitting Muto and left alone. ***1/2
BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VIII Yushoketteisen: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Minoru Tanaka 26:12. Superior long, dramatic Super Jr final. Liger did Tanaka's match, and although he's obviously not as good at the shoot style submissions as Takehiro Murahama, they were able to compensate by telling pro wrestling stories that incorporated the submissions into the greater scheme of the match. Tanaka worked Liger's arm, which not only increased his chance at his armbars but also compromised Liger's feared palm strikes. Liger eventually came back with kneecap dropkicks, and began working Tanaka's knee, which took away some of his advantages in quickness and athleticism. The selling was strong throughout, and the fact that they were so focused on putting over the toll of the match rather than delivering the usual junior fireworks because they are superhuman added greatly to the drama and urgency, garnering bigger reactions for each of the potential finishers down the stretch. Read Review. ****1/4
Shinya Makabe & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi 8:14
Shin Nihon vs. Zen Nihon Godai (5 big) Single Match: El Samurai vs. Masa Fuchi 9:32
Shin Nihon vs. Zen Nihon Godai (5 big) Single Match: Minoru Tanaka vs. Masahito Kakihara 6:21
Shin Nihon vs. Zen Nihon Godai (5 big) Single Match: Takashi Iizuka vs. Mitsuya Nagai 8:00
Shin Nihon vs. Zen Nihon Godai (5 big) Single Match: Manabu Nakanishi vs. Mike Barton
Shin Nihon vs. Zen Nihon Godai (5 big) Single Match: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Satoshi Kojima 15:16. A real high point of the NJ vs. AJ program, almost unbelievably effective given it's a midcard match with an unquestioned ace against a guy who challenged for the IWGP Heavyweight Title twice. We may not realize just how explosive Kawada is because his big matches tend to be a half hour or more. His NJ matches weren't the psychological masterpieces of mid 90's AJ, but they were some of the fiercest spectacles you'll ever see. I prefer this sprint to even the awesome wars with Kensuke, as the speed of this contest is just amazing. Kawada is pure dynamite here, brutalizing his up and coming opponent with some of the fastest and most precise kicks you'll ever see. Kojima, in his own right, joins in with some lightning strikes, and it just seems like they are running, jumping, flying at each other to get as much force behind their blows as humanly possible. Both men go all out with Kojima was showing super motivation as he's the one who had something to prove, looking to solidify his place at the top of the card rather than just being a tag team ace. The crowd was firmly behind him, and the atmosphere, like the wrestling itself, was electric. Kawada dominated the early portion with furious anger behind every kick, but Kojima was scrappy, pulling a counter such as a Dragon screw to keep himself in the match. As the match progressed, Kojima began to hold firm, doing enough to give the fans hope. Despite the brevity of the match and the high pace, Kawada did some brilliant selling, making it look like Kojima legitimately injured him around 3 different times. Kojima is always more or less playing from behind, but he does better and better as the match progress, and the wrestlers and crowd are equally feeding off each other's energy, leading to a remarkably dramatic contest considering Kojima's mother is the only one who'd wager a yen on him. ****1/2
Jushin Thunder Liger & Taiyo Kea & Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Taiyo Kea
Keiji Muto vs. Hiroshi Hase
IWGP Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Yuji Nagata
Kenzo Suzuki vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Osamu Nishimura vs. Katsushi Takemura
Minoru Tanaka & Gran Naniwa vs. El Samurai & Chris Candido
Scott Norton vs. Rob Rage
Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto & Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Yuji Nagata & Shinya Makabe
Jushin Thunder Liger & Katsuyori Shibata & Wataru Inoue vs. Jado & Gedo & Negro Casas
Keiji Muto & Taiyo Kea vs. Masahiro Chono & Super J
IWGP Tag Senshukenjiai: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Yutaka Yoshie
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Katsushi Takemura 7:15
Rob Rage vs. Shinya Makabe 9:16
El Samurai & Minoru Tanaka vs. Chris Candido & Negro Casas 10:41
Hiro Saito & Super J & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kenzo Suzuki & Shiro Koshinaka 13:12
Gedo & Jado vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Wataru Inoue 12:21
Manabu Nakanishi & Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Michiyoshi Ohara & Satoshi Kojima 11:28
Yuji Nagata vs. Yutaka Yoshie 14:59
Masahiro Chono & Scott Hall vs. Jinsei Shinzaki & Keiji Muto 13:22
AKIRA & Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Osamu Nishimura & Shiro Koshinaka & Yutaka Yoshie 13:52
Tadao Yasuda vs. Michiyoshi Ohara 6:14
Osamu Kido & Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kenzo Suzuki & Shinya Makabe 10:43
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Match: El Samurai & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Gedo & Jado 19:06
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Minoru Tanaka vs. Masayuki Naruse 11:27
Gary Goodridge vs. Manabu Nakanishi 6:06
Mark Coleman vs. Yuji Nagata 7:59
IWGP Tag Title Match: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Jinsei Shinzaki & Taiyo Kea 16:28
Masahiro Chono vs. Keiji Muto 16:09
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Don Frye 7:22
El Samurai vs. Katsushi Takemura. Takemura showed a little better offense today. However, he's ranked so lowly that he can't even compete with little Samurai. Short and fairly uneventful. *1/4
Yutaka Yoshie & Shinya Makabe vs. Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Makabe looked pretty good here, and was able to help get some nice things out of Tanahashi. Not that it says much, but the match was better than it sounds on paper because Makabe worked most of the match. *1/2
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Minoru Tanaka vs. Tadao Yasuda. They did a match that focused on the strengths of both fighters, although Tanaka wasn't able to have much success anyway. As with his shoots, Yasuda's strategy was to back his opponent in the corner and beat on them. From this position, he was able to "injure" Tanaka with knees that had no impact if they even hit. Tanaka tried to take Yasuda down, but Yasuda, who weighs twice as much, wouldn't let him. The fans popped for everything Tanaka did because he was such an underdog. Yasuda sucked as always, but the match was structured so well and Tanaka is so good that it still worked. **1/4
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Liger is in "Battle Liger" mode for his G1 matches, which basically means he doesn't wear a shirt. This helps in that the visual of him against the big guys is more believable when you see how thick and pumped up he is. Liger tried to match power with Tenzan, and Tenzan actually allowed him to do it to some extent. Even though Tenzan is the bullish toughguy, he wasn't selfish or worried about looking bad. Liger's offense was legitimately damaging, so he had no problem putting it over. That said, most of the early portion was him pounding on Liger. What they did here was play up Liger's underdog status, having him get largely trounced but counter or stop enough of Tenzan's moves to stay in the match and give his fans hope. When Liger showed them that he had a chance to win, they really got into him. I liked the spot where Liger blocked the 3rd straight Mongolian chop, taunted Tenzan, and then gave him a Mongolian chop of his own. Liger also dusted off some old moves like the diving headbutt and Frankensteiner as a counter for Tenzan's powerbomb. Although Liger lost like everyone figured, he gave Tenzan a hard time and made him drag out the TTD because he'd kicked out of Tenzan's other finishers. ***3/4
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Keiji Muto vs. Osamu Nishimura. Muto was willing to work Nishimura's (Fujinami's) style since it's the safest and least tolling in the promotion. The downfall of this match is that, not surprisingly, Muto didn't work the holds much so it was a lot of laying around on the mat. Muto did do a great job of selling the damage Nishimura did to his knee. As has been the case with Muto's matches all year, his opponent made the match. Nishimura did most of the work and even had the better looking offense. Muto only did a few different holds again, and his dropkicks weren't impressive. Nishimura dominated the match, so Muto's lack of diversity wasn't too detrimental although Nishimura's offense is hardly stellar or exciting. The problem is when Muto finally did a few moves, that was it for Nishimura. Pretty good albeit very dated match. **1/4
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Manabu Nakanishi vs. Tatsumi Fujinami. Fujinami did what you pretty much have to do with Nakanishi, keep it short and work a fast pace. It was somewhat exciting, especialy by Fujinami's standards. **
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Yuji Nagata vs. Kazunari Murakami. Nagata was good enough to keep this together, but as usual with Murakami all you get is stares, snears, and wild uncontrolled strikes. Nagata got a bloody nose from one of Murakami's strikes and another wild one seemed to legitimately mess up Nagata's right eye. As always, all the intensity and heat Murakami brings amounted to no more than a short screw job. At least Murakami sold for Nagata. **
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Satoshi Kojima vs. Masahiro Chono. Fairly safe match for Chono, but pretty well worked. I thought it would be a good match, but it came off flat. **1/4
Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. El Samurai & Katsushi Takemura. Samurai didn't get a whole lot of help. Takemura & Suzuki were adequate, I suppose, while Takemura showed nothing. *1/2
Yutaka Yoshie vs. Shinya Makabe. Another dull uneventful match from the DUD Yoshie. Lots of strikes from in close since they didn't move around much. 3/4*
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Minoru Tanaka vs. Kazunari Murakami. Lamest Tanaka match I can remember. Murakami sold nothing, broke Tanaka's nose with an errant left hand because he's so careless, and lost to a flash pin he made as unbelievable as possible. 3/4*
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Tadao Yasuda vs. Tatsumi Fujinami. Short and not crisply executed. A few good ideas, but they didn't come off too well. *
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Osamu Nishimura vs. Satoshi Kojima. Much better than Kojima's match with Chono because he pretty much had free reign to do what he wanted here. Much faster paced and higher impact. Nishimura was still able to use his old style submissions, but they were incorporated in an interesting way. Kojima took it to Nishimura the whole match, but Nishimura would make sharply performed counters into his submissions as well as pins to keep his hopes alive. The timing was really good. Kojima also did an excellent job of putting over Nishimura's damage, particularly to his knee, without stalling or slowing the match down. Performances like this show that Kojima has become a top 10 worker. ***1/2
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Keiji Muto vs. Jushin Thunder Liger. Liger did an excellent job of making the match and taking Muto along for the ride even though this was hardly the best style match for him to work. He showed he can still supply the offense, dusting off moves like his moonsault (to Muto's bad knees as part of his knee attack) and Frankensteiner off the top. Muto did two pathetic headlocks, but otherwise Liger would keep countering Muto or putting pressure on him so he couldn't lie around doing nothing. The problem with this match is that fans don't believe a junior can beat a heavyweight because it happens so rarely, so Muto needed to do a big time job of putting Liger over instead of what we got which was his usual disinterested and ungiving selling. The other problem was just when I thought it might be a great match anyway, Liger was KO'd practically out of the blue. ***3/4
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Masahiro Chono vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Not a dull match by any means. Chono picked today for one of his best matches of the year. He took considerably more punishment than I expected. I thought Tenzan would do more selling since he likes to get beat on anyway, but the match was much better due to him being on offense so much because his offense is way better than Chono's. Chono did drag out some old moves like the superplex, while Tenzan gave Chono a calfbranding neckbreaker off the apron into the guard rail. Hard fought match that was worked in a manner that gave you very little to no indication of who was going to win. Excellent performance by Tenzan. ***1/2
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Manabu Nakanishi vs. Yuji Nagata. Nagata was sharp here, punishing Nakanishi with his kicks. Unfortunately, Nakanishi isn't talented and wasn't able to step up from his typical mediocrity to warrant his main event status. Nakanishi winning out of nowhere with a mere bulldog after taking such a beating was really lame. The match was no worse than you'd expect, perhaps even better, but came off disappointing because it was supposedly the big match on a show that had just boasted three of the NJ's best heavyweight singles matches of the year. **1/2
Yutaka Yoshie & Katsushi Takemura vs. Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Clumsy, plodding, and dull. This match actually ended with a shoulderblock. 1/4*
El Samurai vs. Shinya Makabe. Short, disappointing, somewhat stagnant match. The last few minutes were good, but in a 9 minute match you need to do something before the 7 minute mark. **
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Tadao Yasuda vs. Manabu Nakanishi. Even though these two aren't good, in a way this was better than the previous match because the maximized the short (not that you'd want these two to go long) time they had. Very intense match. Yasuda was really aggressive from the get go, and Nakanishi followed suit. They rarely paused. Nakanishi would let Yasuda up, but only so he could plow him right back down. **
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Osamu Nishimura. Long generally well worked submission oriented match. Meandered early, but gradually got good. Both men - especially Tenzan - did a good job of working and putting over the holds. Nishimura "injured" Tenzan's knees with submissions then Tenzan "reinjured" it giving Nishimura a calf branding neckbreaker and missing his moonsault. Kojima's match with Nishimura was much better than Tenzan's because he put more of his moves in it to keep it modern and interesting. Tenzan's match had it's moments, but certainly not as many of them because he gave Nishimura much more opportunity to do his thing. **3/4
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Masahiro Chono. Quite an exciting match for two guys that are "so boring" offensively. Liger bombarded Chono with shotei's at the outset, nearly leading to a countout. Chono gained the advantage around the 4 minute mark when he piledrove Liger on the floor after avoiding Liger's pescado. My favorite spot was Chono rolling through on Liger's diving body attack, but before he could hook Liger's leg for the cover Liger had barred his arm for a version of the wakigatame. Although Liger was losing all his G1 matches, everyone but Muto showed him a great deal of respect, let him get enough offense in, and legitimately put his moves over. Chono even beat Liger with a counter for his la magistral where it looked like both mens shoulders were down for two and then they got them up. Mind you, this screw job finished came too soon and hurt the quality of the match a good deal, but it definitely helped when it came to not totally killing Liger off. Of course, having Liger and Tanaka get one win each was yet another major blow to what little remains of the junior division's credibility. ***1/4
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Kazunari Murakami. Murakami blasted Fujinami with a kick around the eye when Fujinami was bending over to enter the ring before the match. Murakami used punches and knees until Fujinami went down then threw punches from his knees. The ref and seconds tried to stop him, but he knocked them out of his way until 3 seconds ganged up on him and held him in the corner. Murakami picked up where he left off when the match finally started, but Fujinami small packaged him for the unbelievable 36 second win. Murakami tried to kick Fujinami after the bell, but Fujinami caught it and Dragon screwed him. The pre and post match action were good in a way, but as always with Murakami bell to bell was crap with a really stinky finish. DUD
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Yuji Nagata vs. Minoru Tanaka. Nice technical match, but unlike with Liger, no one was even able to delude themselves into believing Tanaka was capable of winning. Nagata didn't put Tanaka over that much, which was made worse by the quick and easy manner in which Tanaka was defeated. **1/2
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Satoshi Kojima vs. Keiji Muto. Muto got off to a fast start with his space rolling elbow and facecrusher to get the crowd going, but then they killed 5 minutes. Kojima began attacking Muto's knee around 8:00. Muto came back at 10:30, somehow winning an exchange of shots to the knee. Muto's bad knees probably helped the match as far as his selling went. He just sat on the mat after each move, but eventually he had to get up and then his knees are so bad that he would put over Kojima's knee attack by hobbling around. What made the match come off weak is Muto got so much offense between 10-17 that it made no sense for him to suddenly lose at 17:30. It was obviously hard for Muto to rebound having fought long singles match the previous two days as well. He did more acting than normal to help cover his limitations, but his execution was not as good as usual including hitting his head on the canvas while performing his Frankensteiner. ***
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Wataru Inoue. Only basic offense and still some flubs. Generally a pretty solid match with a lot of stiff chops, but it didn't build or pick up. *1/4
Yutaka Yoshie & El Samurai vs. Kenzo Suzuki & Shinya Makabe. Yoshie & Suzuki were their usual weak selves, but Samurai & Makabe underperformed and didn't come close to saving this. *3/4
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Satoshi Kojima. Very good match that should have been better, but Liger's psychology was strangely absent. Instead, they did the offensive display of the tournament, largely due to Kojima. Kojima took Liger seriously and unleashed the heavy artillery. The crowd was more popping for the spots like Kojima's Koji cutter off the apron than the match as a whole, but the fans believed Liger could win even though Kojima was beating him up most of the match. The execution was of the expected high quality, but the sequences were a cut above because they have more speed and athleticism than the others (sans Tanaka and perhaps Nagata). I liked the early sequence where Liger told Kojima to run off the ropes and shoulderblock him after Kojima didn't go down for Liger's shoulderblock only to have Liger leg trip and la magistral Kojima. ***3/4
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Minoru Tanaka vs. Tatsumi Fujinami. Tanaka did an Orihara moonsault in the 1st 10 seconds. After the hot opening it got technical. The problem is Fujinami doesn't have the athleticism, quickness, and stamina to do Tanaka's modern technical style. Still, it was one of Fujinami's better recent matches because Tanaka is so smooth and diverse. It was too short to develop the match or get Tanaka over in the loss. **1/4
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Kazunari Murakami vs. Manabu Nakanishi. One hell of an intense match with Nakanishi even exceeding Murakami in that department. Of course, with Murakami match=2 minute then DQ. For once, this match was very good for what it was. Nakanishi dashed to the ring and tried to take Murakami down, but he ran right into a knee then took several punches. Effective chaotic post match brawl.
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Masahiro Chono vs. Osamu Nishimura. They took us back 20 years, but not for something particularly interesting. Actually, the problem was more that the match was way too long for Chono. I generally liked the 2nd half with Nishimura injuring Chono's knee and going to work on it with a diverse attack rather than 20 dropkicks and 3 Dragon screws, but the match was so drawn out. Nishimura isn't charismatic, but he's getting better at providing dramatic moments so you have something to get excited about if not someone. Good selling. **1/2
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Yuji Nagata vs. Tadao Yasuda. Best singles match of Yasuda's career. Shoot oriented pro wrestling. Nagata was great with the transitions and passing it all off as "believable." Yasuda still sucks, but he's in better shape due to the shoot training and the crowd was really into this as a serious match rather than the old cult comedy figure reaction Yasuda got. ***1/4
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Keiji Muto vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Some good moves interspersed early made it more interesting than the typical Muto match, but Muto's inability/unwillingness to take much stiffness made it worse than most of Tenzan's matches. The match was just kind of flat, in good part because it was slow and lethargic with nothing to hook you in. Tenzan, of course, was by far the better of the two. **3/4
Shinya Makabe vs. Dolgorsuren Seribudee. Dull but mistake free rookie style match. Seribudee had only the most basic offense. *
Shiro Koshinaka & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Kept moving, but it was mainly elbows and the like. Suzuki had one of his better matches. Fine when Yoshie wasn't in. *1/2
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Osamu Nishimura. Very solid well worked match. Liger showed his technical side, though they mainly did the dated Fujinami style. For that reason this match was better several years ago, but in a way it was better today because we don't see this style anymore except from Fujinami & Nishimura, and this was arguably the best opponent for Nishimura to do it with. It would have been nice to see Hase vs. Nishimura rather than or in addition to Hase's long technical match with Muto to see how they'd compare. The match showed classic submissions can still be highspots in pro wrestling. The fans were quiet early as usual, but as they match progressed they accepted the style and understood which moves were the potential finishers even though they probably wouldn't be in a different style match or if different wrestlers were involved. I was pretty sure it would be a draw halfway through, but they got some thunderous reactions in the last 5 minutes. One thing I like about Nishimura's knee attack is it seems to come more naturally. Early on he weakens the whole body with his submissions then he pulls out one damaging move or counter to the knee, so it seems like he's just exploiting the weak point rather than going all out to injure the opponent's knee so he can try for a figure 4 submission. This also helps justify the length and not kill off the credibility of his knee moves by going to them too often to fill the match time. ***3/4
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Minoru Tanaka vs. Manabu Nakanishi. These two didn't work well together. Nakanishi is too clumsy for Tanaka. Tanaka wasn't allowed to compete, and due to Nakanishi not being able to do certain things and doing others in an unsatisfactory matter he didn't look good either. DUD
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Kazunari Murakami vs. Tadao Yasuda. These guys have no hope of working well together. Murakami must have really exerted himself here, going almost 4 whole minutes since this shockingly had a clean finish. DUD
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Yuji Nagata vs. Tatsumi Fujinami. Nagata got Fujinami to work quicker and be a bit more lively. Well worked, but it was kind of short and never turned into anything. Nagata's win seemed ho hum because they didn't do much to get the crowd going. **1/4
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Keiji Muto vs. Masahiro Chono. Luckily it was short because both get by on their opponent and smoke and mirrors. They didn't waste any time here, but Chono had very little offense after the first couple of minutes and Muto basically only does 4 moves these days. They were aggressive and trying, but you need to develop something when you can no longer rely on the physical. Overall, it was better than I expected because they did what they did well and got out. **3/4
G1 CLIMAX Koshikisen: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Satoshi Kojima. Started slow, but kept getting better and better. A very equal match with good back and forth struggle that either man could have won. They used all their moves, but they made me care about them. Of course, they beat each other up with elbows and chops, but they mixed the moves in between and did a lot of counters. The biggest problem was that these guys are partners and heels, so the reactions didn't come close to the quality of the action. Still, it was so good that the crowd was buzzing during the final minutes. The best spot was Kojima turning Tenzan's diving headbutt into his Koji cutter. ****
El Samurai vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi. Samurai did a good job of working to Tanahashi's strengths without sacrificing his own. A very slow match for Samurai, doing a more believable style fighting in close or on the mat. It probably would have been good if Tanahashi was at the level where he could present some challenge to Samurai. **
AKIRA & Jado & Gedo vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Minoru Tanaka & Wataru Inoue. Not up to the usual standard due to Inoue being prominent and Jado & Gedo not being the ones to carry anyone in this division. Inoue doesn't have the offense to be a face or the attitude to be a heel. Jado & Gedo aren't too impressive individually, but they work well as a team and AKIRA fit in so well he could easily call himself Akido. AKIRA vs. Tanaka was by far the highlight, very explosive. Liger seemed to have weights in his boots as 5 hard matches vs. heavies were taking their toll. **3/4
Masayuki Naruse vs. Shinya Makabe. Naruse doesn't know pro style and Makabe doesn't know shoot style. Makabe tried to carry this, but that's not something he's learned to do yet. I'm not sure how much it would matter because Naruse is deliberate with his spots and sequences and has weak transitions. Kashin was in the 1st row to help build anticipation for the next title match. *1/2
Osamu Nishimura vs. Kenzo Suzuki. Suzuki isn't a technical wrestler. Nishimura did a decent job of leading him through, but it wasn't interesting or competitive. *1/4
Riki Choshu & Shiro Koshinaka & Osamu Kido vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto. Kido was effective since he was spotted. This is the crowd that still cares about him, and he was more since he's finally retiring soon. Choshu was the other wrestler that was featured, and he still looked decent thanks to Tenzan. *3/4
Satoshi Kojima vs. Yutaka Yoshie. Kojima was excellent carrying this, and leading Yoshie to probably his best singles match. He made Yoshie passable by keeping him from doing anything that required skill and just having him hit hard. Kojima did the good things offensively to mix things up. The problem, for once, wasn't Yoshie but that he was so outclassed and outranked that Kojima beat him easily once he was done taking Yoshie's moves. **1/2
G1 CLIMAX Junkessho: Keiji Muto vs. Tadao Yasuda. Basically pro style vs. shoot style, and since Choshu & Muto were involved pro style won. Muto made a better attempt to do his pro style without hurting Yasuda's shooter gimmick, but a lot of the match wasn't all that good or convincing. Muto should at least learn to do an udehishigigyakujujigatame right if he expects "credible" wrestlers to submit to it. Yasuda actually made Muto look better than Muto made him look because Muto doesn't care to learn shooting. There were some nice spots like Muto turning Yasuda's Tigerdriver into a Frankensteiner and Muto springboarding off the refs back for a shining wizard after Yasuda threw the ref down for forcing him off Muto in the corner. Still, by far the best thing about the match was the heat. **1/2
G1 CLIMAX Junkessho: Yuji Nagata vs. Masahiro Chono. Their styles didn't mesh. Chono can't do Nagata's style or take his stiffness. Started dull, but got better as Chono turned it into a brawl. Still didn't seem to go anywhere or build to anything though. **
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Dolgorsuren Seribudee. Standard boring rookie fair. As you'd expect, it was shorter and less ambitious than Seribudee vs. Makabe. 3/4*
AKIRA vs. Wataru Inoue. Good action, but with Inoue is so far below AKIRA's level that it hurt the match quality, especially since AKIRA likes to make them dramatic. **1/2
El Samurai & Minoru Tanaka vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Masayuki Naruse. Another disappointing match due to Naruse being featured. Also shorter than usual and hurt by a weak finish. Tanaka has the background to work with him, but Naruse isn't natural or quick enough in pro style for Tanaka to do much with. Liger looked much better today, working fast sequences with both opponents. **3/4
Riki Choshu & Kenzo Suzuki vs. Yutaka Yoshie & Shinya Makabe. Choshu & Suzuki don't do anything interesting. Yoshie pretty much doesn't do anything well. Makabe injected some life into it, but Choshu wouldn't sell for him. *
Masahiro Chono & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Osamu Nishimura. A few good things, but it just ended at the 6 minute mark. Chono introduced Giant Silva & Singh before the match. After the match, Silva ran out and beat the already beaten plus any seconds that got in his way. He took 2 guys out with his diving body attack. *
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Tadao Yasuda. Tenzan & Kojima blitzed the opposition to get off to a strong start. They got a lot of offense in, with the fans reacting to Nakanishi's comebacks. The match started to sputter with Yasuda in since he's not a good seller, but the excellent finish where Nakanishi was trying to take both on at once more than made up for it. Nakanishi is at his best with Tenzan & Kojima because he too likes the stiff and aggressive style. There was a nice spot where Yasuda tried to come back with a lariat, but almost to avoid it Kojima gave him a kneecap dropkick. ***
GI CLIMAX Yushoketteisen: Yuji Nagata vs. Keiji Muto. I wanted to convince myself they were building anticipation, but it was nothing more than the typical Muto stalling with almost nothing happening in the first half. The match lacked intensitity and I didn't believe in the submissions, in good part due to the laid back way Muto sells them that makes them seem like they hurt some but are no real threat. Basically, he sells an udehishigigyakujujigatame like one might sell a chinlock. The crowd was fantastic, but that was the only thing. The match was better when Muto did his pro spots. Unfortunately, most of the match was Muto trying Nagata's world, a place where he's never been effective. 22:03. **1/2
Giant Silva & Hiro Saito vs. Yutaka Yoshie & Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi 8:45
Jushin Thunder Liger & Gran Naniwa vs. Dr. Wagner, Jr. & Silver King 10:27
Kendo Kashin vs. Minoru Tanaka 1:14
IWGP Junior Tag Senshukenjiai: Jado & Gedo vs. Wataru Inoue & Katsuyori Shibata 11:39
IWGP Junior Senshukenjiai: Masayuki Naruse vs. El Samurai 7:35
Yuji Nagata vs. Osamu Nishimura 21:10
BATT vs. TEAM 2000: Kokushi Muso (Keiju Muto) & Hakushi (Shinzaki) vs. Masahiro Chono & Mike Barton 14:45
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Mitsuya Nagai 21:36. Disappointing match that had none of the electricity of Kawada's singles matches with Tenzan and Kojima. It was a nice well executed, hard hitting match, but it wasn't much better than the average TenKoji match, despite far better than average opposition. ***1/4
2001 G1 WORLD Yushoketteisen: Don Frye vs. Scott Norton 6:11
SKYPerfecTV! Special Match: Manabu Nakanishi vs. Gary Goodridge 4:38
Giant Silva & Hiro Saito vs. Yutaka Yoshie & Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi 8:45
Jushin Thunder Liger & Gran Naniwa vs. Dr. Wagner, Jr. & Silver King 10:27
Kendo Kashin vs. Minoru Tanaka 1:14
IWGP Junior Tag Title: Jado & Gedo vs. Wataru Inoue & Katsuyori Shibata 11:39
IWGP Junior Title: Masayuki Naruse vs. El Samurai 7:35
Yuji Nagata vs. Osamu Nishimura 21:10
8/19/01: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Dan Chase R1 0:36
BATT vs. TEAM 2000: Kokushi Muso (Keiju Muto) & Hakushi (Shinzaki) vs. Masahiro Chono & Mike Barton 14:45
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Mitsuya Nagai 21:36
2001 G1 WORLD Final: Don Frye vs. Scott Norton 6:11
SKYPerfecTV! Special Match: Manabu Nakanishi vs. Gary Goodridge 4:38
Gran Naniwa vs. Wataru Inoue
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kenzo Suzuki vs. Hiro Saito & Super J
Giant Silva & Jado & Gedo vs. El Samurai & Dr. Wagner, Jr. & Silver King
Jushin Thunder Liger & Kendo Kashin vs. Minoru Tanaka & Masayuki Naruse
Manabu Nakanishi vs. Kazunari Murakami
Riki Choshu & Osamu Kido & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Masahiro Chono & Tatsutoshi Goto & AKIRA
Yuji Nagata vs. Scott Norton
IWGP Tag Senshukenjiai: Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Nishimura vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
Sankan Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Keiji Muto vs. Scott Hall
JUNIOR WORLD DELUXE: Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai & Minoru Tanaka vs. AKIRA & Jado & Gedo
Yutaka Yoshie & Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Wataru Inoue vs. Giant Silva & Giant Singh
Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Gary Goodridge
IWGP Junior Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Masayuki Naruse vs. Kendo Kashin
Tatsumi Fujinami Debut 30th Anniversary Match: Tatsumi Fujinami & Bob Backlund vs. Dory Funk, Jr. & Terry Funk
Riki Choshu & Osamu Nishimura vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
Manabu Nakanishi vs. Tadao Yasuda
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Kazuyuki Fujita
Puroresu 50th Anniversary Dream Match CROSS GENERATIONS: Yuji Nagata & Jun Akiyama vs. Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Yutaka Yoshie
Dan Devine vs. Katsushi Takemura
Tatsutoshi Goto & AKIRA vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Dolgolsren Ceruzibde
Katsuyori Shibata & Wataru Inoue vs. Kendo Kashin & Chris Candido
El Samurai & Minoru Tanaka & Masayuki Naruse vs. Jado & Gedo & GOKU-DO (Pat Tanaka)
Scott Norton & Super J vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
Masahiro Chono & Giant Silva & Giant Singh vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Kenzo Suzuki
IWGP Tag Senshukenjiai: Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Nishimura vs. Keiji Muto & Jushin Thunder Liger
Super J vs. Yutaka Yoshie
Kendo Kashin & Masayuki Naruse vs. GOKU-DO & Chris Candido
Masahito Kakihara vs. Wataru Inoue
Shin Nihon vs. TEAM2000 Elimination Match: Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai & Minoru Tanaka & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Koji Kanemoto & AKIRA & Gedo & Jado
Manabu Nakanishi vs. Osamu Nishimura
Kensuke Sasaki & Dan Devine vs. Yuji Nagata & Hiroshi Tanahashi
Keiji Muto & Taiyo Kea vs. Riki Choshu & Kenzo Suzuki
TEAM2000 Elimination Match: Masahiro Chono & Scott Norton & Giant Silva & Giant Singh vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Dolgolsren Ceruzibde
Masayuki Naruse vs. Wataru Inoue
Jushin Thunder Liger & Kendo Kashin vs. AKIRA & GOKU-DO
Giant Singh vs. Chris Candido
Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Nishimura vs. Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi
Giant Silva vs. Yutaka Yoshie
Kensuke Sasaki & Dan Devine vs. Super J & Scott Norton
Riki Choshu & Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Hiro Saito
IWGP Junior Tag Senshukenjiai: Jado & Gedo vs. El Samurai & Minoru Tanaka
Giant Silva & Giant Singh vs. Wataru Inoue & Katsushi Takemura & Dolgolsren Ceruzibde
Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai & Masayuki Naruse vs. Jado & GOKU-DO & Chris Candido
Scott Norton & Super J vs. Yutaka Yoshie & Dan Devine
Minoru Tanaka vs. Masahito Kakihara
Kazunari Murakami vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
SKY PerfecTV! CAP Tournament: Yuji Nagata vs. Tadao Yasuda
SKY PerfecTV! CAP Tournament: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Manabu Nakanishi
IWGP Junior Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Kendo Kashin vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Riki Choshu & Osamu Kido & Kenzo Suzuki vs. Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto & AKIRA
Masahiro Chono & Mike Rotundo vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
IWGP Tag, Sekai Tag Senshukenjiai: Keiji Muto & Taiyo Kea vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Nishimura
SKY PerfecTV! CAP Tournament FINAL: Yuji Nagata vs. Kensuke Sasaki
Kendo Kashin vs. Katsushi Takemura
Masahito Kakihara & Gran Naniwa vs. El Samurai & Masayuki Naruse
Manabu Nakanishi & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Osamu Nishimura
Osamu Kido Intai Jiai: Riki Choshu & Osamu Kido vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura
Masahiro Chono & Hiro Saito vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
Keiji Muto & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Yuji Nagata & Minoru Tanaka 15:13. Junior and heavy tag that was quite technical but nothing special. They did a solid paired down striking and submission match, but only Tanaka showed much motivation. He added some flair, but the other three gave standard efforts. Liger did most of the work for his team, with Muto attempting to move when he was in, but not always being all that successful. ***
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Dolgolsren Ceruzibde
Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Yutaka Yoshie & Kenzo Suzuki
G1 Jr. Tag League Koshiki Leaguesen: Masahito Kakihara & Gran Naniwa vs. Wataru Inoue & Katsuyori Shibata
G1 Jr. Tag League Koshiki Leaguesen: Minoru Tanaka & Masayuki Naruse vs. Kendo Kashin & Black Tiger
Kensuke Sasaki & Dan Devine vs. Yuji Nagata & Rob Rage
Tatsumi Fujinami & Manabu Nakanishi & Osamu Nishimura vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & GOKU-DO
G1 Jr. Tag League Koshiki Leaguesen: Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai vs. Jado & Gedo
Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Kenzo Suzuki & Katsushi Takemura
Dan Devine vs. GOKU-DO
Manabu Nakanishi & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Osamu Nishimura & Dolgolsren Ceruzibde
G1 Jr. Tag League Koshiki Leaguesen: Jado & Gedo vs. Kendo Kashin & Black Tiger
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Rob Rage
G1 Jr. Tag League Koshiki Leaguesen: Masahito Kakihara & Gran Naniwa vs. Minoru Tanaka & Masayuki Naruse
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Yuji Nagata & Hiroshi Tanahashi
G1 Jr. Tag League Koshiki Leaguesen: Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai vs. Wataru Inoue & Katsuyori Shibata
Katsushi Takemura vs. Dolgolsren Ceruzibde
Masayuki Naruse & Masahito Kakihara & Wataru Inoue vs. Minoru Tanaka & Gran Naniwa & Katsuyori Shibata
El Samurai & Kendo Kashin & Black Tiger vs. Jado & Gedo & GOKU-DO
G1 Tag League Koshiki Leagusen: Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Scott Norton & Super J
G1 Tag League Koshiki Leagusen: Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Osamu Nishimura & Jushin Thunder Liger
G1 Tag League Koshiki Leagusen: Masahiro Chono & Giant Silva vs. Kensuki Sasaki & Dan Devine
G1 Tag League Koshiki Leagusen: Mike Barton & Jim Steele vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
Yutaka Yoshie vs. Rob Rage
El Samurai & Wataru Inoue & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Masayuki Naruse & Masahito Kakihara & Gran Naniwa
Tatsumi Fujinami & Minoru Tanaka vs. Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto
IWGP Junior Tag Senshukenjiai: Jado & Gedo vs. Kendo Kashin & Black Tiger
G1 Tag League Koshiki Leagusen: Mike Barton & Jim Steele vs. Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi
G1 Tag League Koshiki Leagusen: Osamu Nishimura & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Scott Norton & Super J
G1 Tag League Koshiki Leagusen: Masahiro Chono & Giant Silva vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
G1 Tag League Koshiki Leagusen: Kensuke Sasaki & Dan Devine vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi
Wataru Inoue & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Katsushi Takemura & Dolgolsren Ceruzibde
Rob Rage vs. Hiro Saito
Kendo Kashin & Black Tiger vs. El Samurai & Masayuki Naruse
Minoru Tanaka & Masahito Kakihara & Gran Naniwa vs. Jado & Gedo & GOKU-DO
Giant Singh vs. Yutaka Yoshie
G1 Tag League Koshiki Leagusen: Scott Norton & Super J vs. Mike Barton & Jim Steele
G1 Tag League Koshiki Leagusen: Kensuke Sasaki & Dan Devine vs. Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi
G1 Tag League Koshiki Leagusen: Osamu Nishimura & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Masahiro Chono & Giant Silva
G1 Tag League Koshiki Leagusen: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi
Giant Singh & Hiro Saito vs. Rob Rage & El Samurai
Masahito Kakihara & Masayuki Naruse & Gran Naniwa vs. Wataru Inoue & Katsuyori Shibata & Katsushi Takemura
Scott Norton & Giant Silva & Super J vs. Osamu Nishimura & Yutaka Yoshie & Dolgolsren Ceruzibde
G1 Tag League Yushosen Shinshutsu Kettei Tournament: Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Dan Devine
Hiroshi Hase & Taiyo Kea vs. Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi
G1 Tag League Yushosen Shinshutsu Kettei Tournament: Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
Jushin Thunder Liger & Kendo Kashin & Minoru Tanaka & Black Tiger vs. Koji Kanemoto & Jado & Gedo & GOKU-DO
Sankan Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Keiji Muto vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
G1 Tag League Yushoketteisen: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Mike Barton & Jim Steele
1/4 Tokyo Dome
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Riki Choshu
IWGP Heavykyu Senshuken Kettei Tournament Kesshosen: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Toshiaki Kawada
3/17 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan IWGP Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Scott Norton
4/9 Osaka Dome
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Kazunari Murakami
IWGP Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Scott Norton vs. Kazuyuki Fujita
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Shinya Hashimoto
4/20 Tokyo Korakuen Hall IWGP Junior Heavykyu Senshuken: Minoru Tanaka vs. Takehiro Murahama
5/5/01 Tokyo Dome: Riki Choshu & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami
6/4 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. VIII Yushoketteisen: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Minoru Tanaka. Read Review. ****1/4
6/6 Tokyo Nippon Budokan IWGP Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Yuji Nagata
7/20 Sapporo Dome
IWGP Junior Heavykyu Tag Senshukenjiai: Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai vs. Jado & Gedo
Manabu Nakanishi vs. Gary Goodridge
Yuji Nagata vs. Mark Coleman
IWGP Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Don Frye
8/12/01 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan GI CLIMAX Yushoketteisen: Yuji Nagata vs. Keiji Muto
10/8/01 Tokyo Dome
IWGP Junior Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Kendo Kashin vs. Masayuki Naruse
Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Kensuke Sasaki
Yuji Nagata & Jun Akiyama vs. Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase
10/28 Fukuoka Kokusai Center IWGP Tag & Sekai Tag Double Title Match: Keiji Muto & Taiyo Kea vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Nishimura
1/4 Tokyo Dome Kensuke Sasaki vs. Yuji Nagata
11/23 Tokyo Korakuen Hall G1 Junior Tag League Koshikisen: Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai vs. Katsuyori Shibata & Wataru Inoue
12/11/01 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken: Keiji Muto vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
G1 Tag League Kesshosen: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Mike Barton & Jim Steele