NJPW Battle 7

Legacy Review

NJPW Battle 7

January 4, 1995 from the Tokyo Dome

 

This is the fourth annual January 4th Tokyo Dome show, the line that would eventually become Wrestle Kingdom, and one of the last ones with a random name like this (the Wrestling World series starts the next year). Part of tonight's festivities is a one night, four man tournament called alternately the Final Countdown BVD tournament or BVD Cup Martial Arts tournament, part of the celebrations of Antonio Inoki's continuing Final Countdown retirement tour. What is BVD you ask? Well, it's the underwear company that's sponsoring it. Yup. They've even got ads on the ring mat, a regular thing for New Japan now but very rare back then.

As usual this is from New Japan World so Japanese only commentary.

 

UWA World Welterweight Championship: Shinjiro Otani (c) def El Samurai in 15:17- The UWA was a promotion in Mexico that would actually shut down later in '95, but this title continued to float around for a few years after. The promotion only lasted about 20 years, but they're credited with bringing the popular modern format of trios wrestling to lucha libre. This belt was brought to Japan through Michinoku Pro and is the first non-IWGP or WCW/NWA title to be defended on a Jan. 4 show. All intensity right from the bell. Otani does some early leg work. Samurai turns it into a crossface. Kicks to Otani's head only piss him off. Otani works into a half crab. He refuses to break on the ref's orders in the ropes and has to be told multiple times. Samurai takes a minute to walk it off on the floor, but as soon as he gets back in Otani's all over him again. Samurai jawbreakers out of a chinlock. Piledriver. Saito suplex. Neckbreaker. Another suplex for 2. Samurai going high impact after all the early submission work by Otani. Otani dodges a dropkick, hits one of his own, and a senton for 2. Samurai puts him up top and hits a superplex for 2. Pretty crazy how that's already become a transitional move in New Japan. He rolls under an Otani spinning heel kick and hits a dropkick that sends Otani outside. TOPE SUICIDA! Otani crashed hard into the barricade taking that. Samurai headbutt off the top rope back in. Otani kicks out! Samurai German suplex for a long 2. Tombstone! Otani just kicks out again! He pops up with a spinning heel kick. Samurai goes to the floor. Otani jumps up, LANDS ON THE TOP ROPE AND LAUNCHES HIMSELF OFF IT FOR A CROSSBODY TO THE FLOOR! DAMN! He just used the top rope as a smegging trampoline. And after Samurai gets back in he does it again off the apron, this time hitting a dropkick that gets a long 2 count. He sets Samurai up top. Hurricanrana! Samurai immediately rolls over and cradles Otani for 2! Slide under by Samurai, and he hits a reverse DDT! And then his own hurricanrana off the top rope! Otani just gets a hand on the rope at 2 to save himself. Samurai powerbomb! A second one! Otani barely kicks out again! This man will not die. They go into a crazy counter exchange and Samurai fights off both a dragon and German suplex, but Otani finally gets him over for a dragon suplex and that gets the pin! Hell of an opener. ***3/4

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Norio Honaga (c) def The Great Sasuke in 14:39- Jushin Thunder Liger's record 628 day junior title reign ended in the worst way possible: injury. He broke his ankle in a tag match in September and was still on the DL for this show. In fact he's on commentary, something he does full time now. Some feeling out leg work at the start. Honaga then gets serious on Sasuke's arm with Sasuke doing some grade A selling. After a bit Sasuke rolls out for some breathing room. Honaga has none of it, follows and posts Sasuke's arm. Shoulderbreaker back in. Honaga lifts Sasuke in a suplex, but then drops him hard on the top rope. More arm picking apart with Sasuke selling it like his arm's being ripped off. Honaga lifts him and Sasuke rolls it over into a snap mare to finally get some offense in. He does a nifty flip off Honaga in the corner. Honaga congratulates him by murdering him with a lariato. Then he gives the crowd a Spaceballs salute. Spinning heel kick by Sasake. He hooks on a chinlock with the "bad" arm. Guess it's OK then. I wouldn't really criticize if it wasn't for the fact he sold it so hard earlier. He stretches Honaga's arm out in an armbar, then works into a bow and arrow. Honaga flips over out of that into a cover for 2. He lifts Sasuke up in an atomic drop position and drops him crotch first on the top rope. Cover for 2. Sasake tries for a German suplex. Honaga low blows him out of the ref's line of sight. Sasuke handspring elbow! Honaga goes to the floor. Tope con hilo! A dropkick sends Honaga to the ramp. Sasuke springboard moonsault on the ramp! Back in Sasuke hits a German for 2. Honaga dodges a spinning heel kick and hits a huge lariato for 2. Samurai superplex for 2. Tombstone. He goes for a moonsault but Honaga gets his knees up. Honaga hooks in a crucifix, and that gets the pin! ***1/4

 

Heisei Ishingun def J-J-Jacks and Osamu Kido in 13:12- Representing the heel HI stable are The Great Kabuki, Akitoshi Saito and Kuniaki Kobayashi. No matching purple pants for them this year. Akira and Kobayashi start. An Akira dropkick quickly moves the action out to the ramp. Kobayashi gets slammed on the ramp. Saito joins them and gives Akira some ground and pound, then legally tags in. This Saito is one big boy. But Akira runs him over before the faces trade off on him. Saito and Akira have a big chop exchange. Kabuki and Kido have a veteran mat wrestling tradeoff and stalemate to the delight of the crowd. Iizuka gets caught in the heel corner. Kobayashi gives him a fisherman's suplex on the ramp. Saito and Iizuka have a huge open hand strike exchange, with Iizuka winning. Double tackle by the Jacks. Aikra hooks on a Boston crab and Kido hits a kneedrop off the top rope. Neckbreaker for 2. Iizuka kicks Saito's head off and suplexes him. More Jacks double teams. Akira catches a Saito kick and gives him a fisherman's suplex. Kabuki tags in and hits a lariato for 2. Jacks double lariato. Iizuka runs straight into a Kobayashi kick. The HI guys take turns saving each other from Kido's Fujiwara armbar that the crowd gasps for every time he almost gets it on. Akira Saito on Saito for 2. He gives Kabuki an enzuguri, then hits a splash off the top rope. Everyone in the pool! While everyone else fights outside Kobayashi gives Akira a suplex, and Kabuki nails him with a lariato for the pin. Fun undercard trios stuff. ***

 

Koji Kanemoto def Yuji Nagata in 14:43- Kanemoto had lost his mask as Tiger Mask to Liger on the previous year's show and was slowly working his way up the junior ranks. In fact, he would beat Honaga for his first junior title in February. Nagata is still a Young Lion. Lots of kick swings from Nagata. Kanemoto grabs his leg and tries a takedown. Nagata slips out. Now the hands are flying but not much landing. They're feeling each other out. Kanemoto hits some forearms and a wicked spinning kick to Nagata's head. Moonsault for 2. Nagata grabs an exploder suplex and lays in some kicks. Soon to be classic Nagata arm breakdown work follows. Kanemoto comes back with kicks. Nataga hits a flurry of kneelifts and a standing enzuguri. He wraps up a cloverleaf type hold. As the match goes on Nagata is clearly the superior mat wrestler. He pulls an armbar but Kanemoto gets to the ropes. Both guys grab the other's ankle while on the mat and jaw at each other. Nagata gets back the advantage. Kanemoto slowly works to get on top. Nagata blocks an armbar. After a rope break Nagata lays in more kicks. He goes for a German, but Kanemoto grabs an arm and takes him down! He stretches out an armbar. Nagata gets to the ropes again. Both guys take turns at blocking dragon suplex attempts and trying more arm submissions. Nagata gets some softening kicks in and hits a release German suplex for 2. Snap Nagata belly to belly. He hooks on a coquina clutch! Kanemoto gets to the ropes. Nagata charges and Kanemoto hits him with a dropkick followed by seriously stiff back kicks. Spinning kick off the top. After a suplex Kanemoto goes up top and hits an awful shooting star press that he almost Wrestlemania 19 Brock Lesnars, but that gets the pin. That was a really compelling mat battle with some seriously stiff strikes. Kanemoto was on the path to becoming a legend in the junior division, but this Nagata kid, he's going to be really freaking good man. This show's off to a damn good start. ***1/2

 

Hiroyoshi Tenzan def Manabu Nakanishi in 7:40- Tenzan is starting what would become another 1/4 show tradition, a young wrestler making his return from excursion. In Tenzan's case he's coming back from two years in Germany, and he's got his horns. Like Nagata, Nakanishi is still a Young Lion. Shoulderblock standoffs for these two very large wrestlers, especially by Japanese standards. Tenzan grabs Nakanishi running and press slams him, then lariatos him 360 to the floor. Back in Tenzan lays in the corner beatdown then an opposite corner lariato. Nakanishi grabs a running Tenzan and suplexes him, but then runs into a Tenzan kick. Headbutt exchange. Tenzan spinning heel kick. Clubbing blows and forearms from Nakanishi. Tenzan chops back. Nakanishi jawbreakers out of a chinlock and cranks Tenzan's neck. He hooks in a cobra clutch and swings Tenzan around in it! Nice. Running elbow for 2. He hooks a Scorpion Death Lock on. Tenzan does some push ups and easily powers out. A Tenzan power bomb almost drops Nakanishi on his head. Senton. A long range headbutt off the top gets a 2 count. After a sit out tombstone Tenzan hits a moonsault! That won't stay in his moveset for long I don't think. He has Nakanishi beat but stands out of the cover, he's not done with him yet. Mongolian chops! That would become Tenzan's signature for almost his whole career. He whips Nakanishi, hits a reverse DVD and takes the win. Our streak of good matches ends here, but it's still a perfectly serviceable Young Lion beatdown/excursion return match. **1/4

 

Tiger Jeet Singh and Tiger Jeet Singh Jr def Shiro Koshinaka and Michiyoshi Ohara in 11:23- Singh Junior is best known for his run as Tiger Ali Singh in WWF in the late '90s. The video starts up with all four guys brawling in the small gap between the entrance ramp and the barricade. Junior has the Singh family's signature rapier and he's going to town with it. His dad has an umbrella, which he also uses. After a few minutes of this Koshinaka snatches the umbrella away on the ramp and gets in the ring with Singh. Junior and Ohara keep fighting on the floor until Junior rolls Ohara in for his dad. Ohara still has his robe on and they quickly go back to the floor. He gets run into the barricade. Finally we have a bit of a reset, everyone gets their entrance gear off and gets in the ring. Ohara continues to get beat down. Chop exchange with Junior. Ohara gets put in the tree of woe and soon all four guys are fighting again. Singh gets too cocky and gets caught in the face corner. In a nice subtle touch, the faces pulled the top part of the buckle pad back to expose the steel. Singh does a straight cock punch to try to get out of trouble. Ohara with a weak diving clothesline for 2. Junior shouts "FUCK YOU" to someone, probably in the crowd. Ohara with a sleeper. Singh fights out and tags. Junior power bomb. Koshinaka breaks up the pin. Singh gets in the wrong corner again and does another blatant low blow. After another swap Singh gets his spike out on the apron. The whip gets reversed and he hits Junior with it. Donnybrooking. Ohara gets the spike and hits Singh with it. Singh counters a backdrop, grabs a Greco Roman throat hold (Taichi approved), pushes Ohara down and pins him while holding the throat the whole time. Well that's certainly an end to our decent match streak. The closing stretch was particularly brutal. That was a pretty standard Singh match from what I've seen of him. The nicest thing I can say is he's an acquired taste that I have not acquired. 1/2*

 

Final Countdown BVD Tournament Semifinal: Sting def Tony Palmore in 4:29- Cool of WCW to let Sting work this show. Of course, he wasn't doing much anyway as Hulk Hogan was sucking up all the babyface oxygen and Eric Bischoff seemed to have no idea how to use him. So who is Tony Palmore? Well he was a professional kickboxer, a very accomplished one apparently but was also about 20 years past his prime. This is his only professional wrestling match and Sting has no experience working with guys like this so gird your loins, this is likely to be ugly. Palmore is wearing boxing gloves and Sting isn't, I can see that causing problems right from the off. Sting goes into dodge mode, taking some soft kicks and getting rope breaks. Eventually he gets a hip toss and hooks on a sleeper. Palmore gets a foot on the rope. More Palmore kicks, some catch Sting in the head. He drops Sting with a Rocker Dropper type move then punches him in the back of the head while he's down. Tiger Hattori didn't like that one bit. Sting waistlocks Palmore and hits the ugliest German suplex in the history of mankind. Palmore's fault, not Sting, he had no idea how to take it. Palmore's kicks and punches are getting weaker and lamer as the match goes on, not that they were much to start with. Finally Sting has enough, takes Palmore down, and wraps up the Scorpion Death Lock to end the misery. This is one of the most notorious wrestling disasters in the history of the Tokyo Dome. DUD

 

Final Countdown BVD Tournament Semifinal: Antonio Inoki def Gerard Gordeau in 6:37- Gordeau was a martial artist that moved into MMA and was one of the UFC's original fighters when the promotion started. Fortunately he had some wrestling experience as well. I think he and Inoki had a shoot MMA fight before this but I'm not 100% certain. This is most certainly not a shoot, but it is part of Inoki revisiting his MMA past as part of his retirement tour. There's not a whole lot to say about this one. Bugger all happens for 90% of it, both guys position and take swings. In the end Inoki grabs a kick, works around and puts on the rear naked choke to get a submission. He also took some shots in his leg to set up a wounded leg in the final with Sting later. 1/4*

 

Riki Choshu and Yoshiaki Yatsu def Tatsutoshi Goto and Kengo Kimura in 12:32- Goto and Kimura are Heisei Ishingun. Choshu and Goto start with a gut kick fest. Goto hits a blatant low blow. Choshu responds with a leg takedown and straight nut stomp. After a couple of swaps Choshu ends up in the wrong part of town. He grabs a quick suplex on Goto. Goto no sells Yatsu headbutts. The heels do a bit of war drums on Yatsu. After a bit more beatdown Yatsu Saitos Kimura. The faces hit a spike piledriver! Yatsu elbow off the top rope. Powerslam for 2. Kimura hits a running knee. Goto Saito on Yatsu for 2. Goto charges down the entrance ramp....and lariatos his own partner! Choshu in with a lariato and Scorpion on Kimura. Goto breaks it up. HI double teams. Yatsu hits a powerslam on Kimura. Bulldog. A second one. Goto breaks the pin up. HI does a supposed double team on Yatsu but only Kimura made any actual contact. HI sets up a spike piledriver. Choshu breaks it up and superplexes Goto. Choshu lariatos on Kimura finish it. Eh. *1/2

 

Masahiro Chono and Sabu def Junji Hirata and Tatsumi Fujinami in 11:18- Chono continued his dominance of the early G1 Climax tournaments in '94, winning for the third time in four years, but this was well before that got you a 1/4 title shot. Plus, Chono had lost Heavyweight title matches the last two 1/4 shows so it was time for someone fresh there. Hirata is a babyface unmasked Super Strong Machine, now wrestling under his real name. ECW legend Sabu is making his New Japan debut here, which will kick off a kind of bidding war between NJPW and ECW over who will get him full time for most of '95. During entrances Sabu points at the sky, gets in the ring and dives in! Well not literally dives. Yet. Full on Suzuki-Gun ambush by the heels. Sabu grabs a couple of chairs, sets them up on the ramp, and does a chair launch crossbody on Hirata! He takes a chair and sets it up in the ring. He launches again, but Fujinami dodges and he hits Chono! Two chair spots and no screw ups from Sabu. Might be a record. Hirata has enough of the screwing around and tosses the chairs out. Fujinami hits a kneedrop off the top rope on Sabu and hooks on a sleeper. Sabu gets to his corner and tags out. Hirata no sells a Chono lariat, kicking off a sequence where they no sell each other to show their fighting spirit. Sabu tags in, takes a long time explaining a spot to Hirata, then flips over him and kicks him back into the face corner. Fujinami tries to mat wrestle Sabu. Sabu somersault legdrop on Hirata for 2. Hirata responds with a corner lariato. DDT. Sabu sandbags a Fujinami suplex and gets him in the heel corner. Chono tackle off the top rope. He goes up again. Hirata meets him and superplexes him. Chono dodges a Hirata charge, and as he moves pulls the buckle pad down so Hirata goes into the steel! Hirata goes in peril for a bit. Eventually Fujinami has enough and charges in. Donnybrook! Sabu and Fujinami fight to the floor. Sabu goes to the first row and tries to take chairs from fans but no one will let him. He finally gets a couple from somewhere else. While he did that, Hirata got the "backup" table and put it in the ring! Sabu sets Hirata up on the table, then takes his chairs and set them up on the top rope. He gets up on the chair and comes down with a legdrop that barely hits anything, and the table naturally didn't break. We are in Japan. That was ugly. The faces get the advantage back. Hirata powerbombs Chono. Headbutt off the top. Chono kicks out! Sabu hits Hirata with a chair. Chono gives him a big boot kick, and covers for the pin. That was all kinds of chaotic and sloppy, but came out OK. Sabu felt like an actor that wandered into a movie from the set of a completely different movie and didn't belong (like, say, Laura Dern in The Last Jedi, I still don't know what movie she thought she was doing). **1/2

 

Road Warrior Hawk (w/Road Warrior Animal) def Scott Norton in 7:41- These two had some wars over the tag titles the previous couple of years. They take a moment to let the crowd react and get a middling response. Hawk breaks clean in the corner. Norton doesn't. Huge Norton corner lariato. Both guys hit the ropes for a big head of steam. Norton wins the collision. Norton powerslam and big boot. He charges, but Hawk backdrops him down to the floor. He whips Norton into the barricade. Norton ducks Hawk's lariato from the top rope and Hawk slides back down to the floor. Norton gets posted. Back in Hawk hits a suplex. He walks up the ramp, charges, dives but almost falls down on his head and barely touches Norton. Norton sells it anyway. Think his feet caught the top rope. Hawk tackle for 2. He goes off the top again. Norton catches him in midair and hits a backbreaker. Samoan drop while staring down Animal. Power bomb, again while focused on Animal. He taunts Hawk and tosses him to the ramp. Norton sets Hawk up on the rope and hits a hangman's DDT on the ramp, but with a bad camera angle showing Hawk's head went nowhere near hitting anything. Animal gets up on the ramp and Norton chops him. The ref backs Animal down. Back in Norton puts Hawk in the torture rack, again with all his focus on Animal. Lariatos with arrogant posing between. Animal has enough and trips Norton. While they argue Hawk sneaks up top, hits a lariato to the back of Norton's head, and gets the pin. After the bell everyone argues and the ring attendants have to run in to break it all up. They were having a decent power match until it became all about Norton and Animal with Hawk as an afterthought. *1/4

 

Final Countdown BVD Tournament Final: Antonio Inoki def Sting in 10:26- There's an English commentary option on this match, but it's only Kevin Kelley doing an intro to it from it sounds like 2019 that frankly contains no information that you can't get in this review, and a quick closing, the match itself is still all Japanese commentary. Inoki has a cut on his leg from the last match. Once again let's sum up the match: Sting tries, in succession, an STF, a single leg crab, another STF, his Scorpion and a figure four, all of which Inoki slowly fights off. That's most of the match. After that Sting hits a powerslam for 2. He lifts for another one, but Inoki uses the position to grab the Inoki choki, and Sting submits. These guys could have had an awesome wrestling match, but to keep in the theme of the tournament they worked the shoot style Sting had no experience with and frankly didn't look comfortable doing, and it didn't come together at all. Plus, Inoki had literally one offensive move the whole match and won so LOL Inoki wins again. *

 

IWGP Tag Team Championship: Hiroshi Hase and Keiji Mutoh (c) def The Steiner Brothers in 25:12- These same teams tore it up at last year's show, why not do it again? The Steiners were working essentially full time in New Japan after their mid-'94 WWF departure until popping up in ECW for a bit in the summer of '95. Hase and Scott start with the usual solid mat wrestling. Rick has some fun bouncing on the bottom rope. Scott laughs, tags him in and lets him loose. Rick runs his laps around the ring. He catches a leapfrogging Hase and powerslams him! Everyone runs in. The Steiners stereo press slam, clear the ring and strike their pose. Hase goes over and gets a kiss from a woman at ringside. I assume that's his wife. Scott jumps down and tries to get her to give him a kiss! A few years later lord knows what he'd say to her. Probably ask her to be one of his freaks. After that Rick leaps out, grabs a different woman at ringside and kisses her! I hope she was in the know on that. Funny stuff though. Rick commences mat wrestling with Mutoh. Same with Mutoh and Scott. Hard chops from Hase crank things up a notch. Senton on Scott for 2. Mutoh cranks Scott's knee, and takes a second in the Steiner corner to mock Rick's run! Hilarious. Hase and Mutoh focus on Scott's knee for a bit with some nifty knee based double teams. Mutoh hooks on a figure four. Rick breaks it up. Scott hits a deadlift suplex and tags. Steinerline! Rick runs Hase upside down in the corner. So does Scott! Hase gets caught in the tree of woe, with Scott cranking his neck from the floor. Scott hooks on an STF. No feeling out now, he's cranking it hard. Hase gets out of bounds (the under the ropes white area on the mat), which is as good as a rope break. Now Rick hooks on an STF with Hase just getting a hand in the white again. Rick puts Hase up top and gives him a release belly to belly superplex! He just plain tossed him. He places Hase up top again. Hase counters and hits a tornado DDT! Mutoh in with a handspring elbo....no, Rick catches him! He turns for a German but Mutoh elbows out of it! Great callback to a previous Dome match (Steiners vs Muta & Sting in '92). Mutoh springs to the top rope and comes off with a crossbody. He dropkicks Rick to the ramp and faceplants him. Here comes the Mutoh ramp run......Rick ducks the lariato and Mutoh runs into a Scott Steinerline! Another good callback. Back in Scott hits a delayed belly to belly and puts Mutoh in a dragon sleeper. Rick belly to belly (lost his balance a little there). Another Scott belly to belly for 2. He tosses Mutoh on the ramp again and suplexes him. Scott tells Hattori to count. Mutoh gets up, and runs into a Rick Steinerline! Now it's Scott's turn for a belly to belly superplex. Suplex city, bitch. Brock built it but the Steiners made the blueprints. Rick lifts Mutoh up and Scott powerslams him from the second rope for 2. Hase runs in and gets beat down. Double whip. Scott Frankensteiners Hase, but at the same time MUTOH FRANKENSTINERS RICK! Scott covers Hase but he's not legal. Scott small package on Mutoh for 2. Release dragon suplex from Scott. He yells "It's over!". He lifts Mutoh up, pulls him down for a tombstone, but Mutoh reverses and hits the tombstone! Another callback to the last match, and judging by the crowd reaction they picked up on it. Tag to Hase. Uranage on Rick! Hase grabs Rick's legs and gives him a Cesaro style giant swing! The crowd counts. He got about a dozen rotations in, on a guy much larger than him too. Hase kicks, but Rick bounces off the ropes with a Steinerline! He blocks another uranage. Rick DDT! Everyone's in again. The Steiners set up their finisher. Hase victory rolls Rick for 2! Mutoh jumps up and hurrianranas Scott off the top rope! Rick hits a release German on Hase. He goes for one on Mutoh but Mutoh flips out of it! Hase northern lights suplex! As Mutoh holds Scott off that gets the pin! Another classic from these teams, though just a small smidge skosh behind the last match. ****1/4

 

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Shinya Hashimoto (c) def Kensuke Sasaki in 19:36- I think there's going to be some big strong boi slapping in this match. After working primarily in the tag division Sasaki is getting his first taste of the main event. Hashimoto is on title reign #2 after Fujinami took it for about a month in the spring of '94, and this one would last just over a full year. Hashimoto cuts a promo during intros. Commentary mentions Inoki. He's had a quick change into a suit and is at ringside so it might have been directed at him. Code of Honor hand slap before the bell and we're off. Random Ring Gearhead thought, I really like Hashimoto's gear. Something about the cut of the pants and pattern down on the leg really works. Rough corner break at the start. And yup, here's the big boi slaps. Hashimoto gets staggered and Sasaki is all over him. Hashimoto comes out of the corner with a dropkick and hits stiff kicks in the opposite corner. Hattori tries to corner break and Hashimoto tosses him aside! Sasuki uses the opening for a lariato! Shoulderblock/lariato combination for 2. Sasaki works a chinlock. Hashimoto scissors his ankle. Sasaki tries for an armbar. He stretches it out but Hashimoto gets to the ropes. Small reset. Sasuki gets back on top on the mat and lays in some ground and pound. All that does is set Hashimoto off. Arm slam! He cranks Sasuki's arm. Hashimoto with a superkick and dropkick off the top rope (guy that size you can't call it a missile dropkick, it was more a heavy bombing run). DDT. He goes up again. Sasaki meets him. They fight a bit for leverage, and Sasaki flips him over with a powerslam off the top! Lariato for 2. Sasaki DDT. Hashimoto fights off, juding by the reaction, a finisher submission hold from Sasaki. Commentary keeps saying dragon hold so we'll go with that. Sasuki power bomb for 2. After a powerslam he finally hooks the dragon hold on. Hashimoto gets out, grabs a waistlock and hits a belly to belly suplex. Sasaki blocks a DDT and suplexes Hashimoto. He hooks the dragon hold on again! The crowd's going nuts. Hashimoto powers out. Sasaki does his arm grab powerslam. Hashimoto kicks out! Now the crowd's really going bonkers. Hashimoto sweep kick! He hooks for a DDT, pummels Sasaki with kneelifts, adds a kick to the head for good measure, and hits the DDT. Sasaki kicks out! Hashimoto spinning heel kick. Another kick out! Hashimoto with a fisherman buster! He's not kicking out of that. Just what you'd expect from a Tokyo Dome main event. ****

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Quite the proverbial roller coaster, this one. It started really good with a streak of good matches, fell off a cliff about a third of the way through, then finally recovered with two great matches to close out.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-