NJPW Battlefield

Legacy Review

NJPW Battlefield

January 4, 1994 from the Tokyo Dome

This is the third annual Jan. 4 Tokyo Dome show, the line that will eventually become Wrestle Kingdom, and the first to not be co-promoted with WCW. As would be tradition for years with New Japan's big show, wrestlers from outside were still invited to appear.

As usual this is from the New Japan World archives so it's Japanese commentary only.

Heisei Ishingun def El Samurai, Osamu Kido, Manabu Nakanishi, Satoshi Kojima and Yuji Nagata in 12:09- Nakanishi and Nagata are both in Young Lion all black. I believe at this point Kojima is still considered a Young Lion as well, but he's in green long trunks. Heisei Ishingun was a top heel stable branching both New Japan and WAR. They're all in matching purple pants. I'm not hugely familiar with most of the HI guys outside the Great Kabuki and since this is your usual New Japan multi-man tag opener we can skim a bit. Kojima seems the focal point as the heels want to get their hands on him. Nakanishi takes a baseball slide and crashes back into the guardrail. Kojima tags in to a decent crowd reaction and lets fly with forearms. Nagata works some kicks, takes a Saito suplex and tags out. Samurai wraps up a Boston crab. Nagata hooks in a sleeper with a grapevine. Kojima hits an elbow off the second rope but gets caught in the heel corner. Samurai gets thrown out onto the raised entrance ramp and gets faceplanted. He takes a hip attack double team. Kojima gets a tag and hits some huge running forearms but walks right into a Kabuki superkick. At this point I had issues with the video playback on World, after several tries the best I can do is skipping ahead a couple of minutes to Nagata taking a couple of choke slams and getting pinned. Usual solid large tag opener from what I could see. **3/4

 

J-J-Jacks def Akitoshi Saito and Masashi Aoyagi in 14:07- The J-J-Jacks (short for Japanese Jolly Jacks) are Akira Nogami and Takashi Iizuka. Saito and Aoyagi are also Heisi Ishingun as evidenced by their purple gis. Their standard offense is kick, kick and kick some more. Aoyagi and Akira start and it quickly devolves into a brawl. Iizuka and Saito feel each other out. Iizuka gets a slap on a rope break to heat things up. An armbar attempt is blocked and Iizuka gets kicked into the heel corner. Iizuka is going borderline heel here, ignoring all the ref's instructions to break until the last possible second. The IG team responds by double teaming. Aoyagi has a kick flurry. Akira hits him with a sloppy faceplant. Saito suplex by, er, Saito for 2. Aoyagi and Akira have a kick/chop exchange. The Jacks go to a lot of leg focused submission holds, not a bad strategery when you're going against guys who are primarily kicking. At one point they both hook up legbars! After a double team escape Saito hits Iizuka with a spinning heel kick for 2. The IG guys are starting to have issues with their baggy gear, especially Saito. Eventually his belt comes off and he discards his top completely. IG hits a Hart Attack like spinning kick for another 2. Iizuka blocks a third one with a high knee and rolls into a single leg crab. Aoyagi kicks him to hell. Akira sees enough and illegally comes off the top rope out of nowhere. He tags in and hits a splash off the top, then hits a German suplex with a bridge for the pin. Decent. **1/4

 

Brutus Beefcake (w/Jimmy Hart) def Black Cat in 8:06- Beefcake hadn't yet signed with WCW and was appearing here as a freelancer. He's still got his red and yellow Mega Maniacs gear on. On the initial speed run Cat drops an elbow on Beefcake's back when he drops down for a trip attempt. Lariato by Cat. Hart's megaphone is echoing all over the Dome. Good things he's not using it very much. Great acoustics though. Cat gets annoyed at Hart and Beefcake hits him from behind. He chokes Cat with his leg and poses. Cat comes back with some stiff shots. A straight left floors Beefcake with a pretty amazing sell. He hooks a Boston crab in but Beefcake is right by the ropes. Beefcake wins a slugfest and goes into some eye gouging and biting, so it's clear who's playing the heel here. Big....er, medium boot for 2. Cat gets in some kicks to the hammy and tries for a Scorpion Death Lock. Beefcake fights out. Beefcake has clearly done all he's going to do as he hits simple punches on Cat for near falls. Cat gets a boot up in the corner and a sunset flip for 2. Saito suplex for 2. Beefcake dodges an elbow and hits a falling headbutt for 2. They both hit the ropes. Beefcake hits a high knee, and that gets the pin. That was about as much as you were going to get out of Beefcake at this point of his career. *

Super Strong Machine def Tatsuoshi Goto in 8:51- SSM has turned face and turned on his old Raging Staff heel partners, who I believe merged into Heisi Ishingun. Goto is also wearing IG purple. A very young Red Shoes Unno is reffing this match! This is the first time I've seen him in reviewing these shows. Yes, he is wearing red boots. After a rough lockup SSM no sells a corner lariato, and Goto no sells the rebound lariato to the back. A test of strength ends in a stalemate. Goto no sells open handed strikes. Shoulderblocks also end in neither man budging. SSM unloads some heavy artillery that finally staggers Goto. For a moment. SSM gets on a sleeper. Goto powers out of a butterfly arm hold. SSM hits a lariato and huge suplex. Bulldog off the top rope. Goto counters with a snap German. SSM blocks a Saito suplex and turns it into a bulldog. He hits a German for 2. Goto goes for the Saito again, but SSM twists in midair and lands on top of him! He goes up, hits a diving headbutt off the top, and that gets the 3. The no selling was fun and the counters at the end were decent, but overall there wasn't a whole lot of "there" there. *3/4

 

Mask vs Mask Match: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Jushin Thunder Liger def Tiger Mask in 14:26- Liger's celebrating one full year on this current junior title reign and would go on to hold it a record 628 days, but it's not on the line tonight. This is Tiger Mask III, AKA....well, we'll get into that. Classic Liger red and white tonight. He offers a handshake. TM slaps him instead. There's a lot of smoke in the arena, likely from some intro pyro. Man, I wish entrances were on here for these old shows. The Tokyo Dome stage is always amazing no matter the era. Liger transitions some leg work into an early modified surfboard. TM is up with a spinning kick. Liger works a headscissors. TM chops Liger down with some kicks. Saito suplex. Now it's TM's turn for a headscissors. Liger transitions into a camel clutch. He hits a tiltawhirl backbreaker and does the full surfboard. He bends TM over and adds on a facelock! That's nasty looking. TM eye rakes to get out. Liger hits some signature rolling kicks. He tries coming off the top with a dropkick but TM was also thinking dropkick and they both crash. TM tries an armbar and hits some ground and pound punches. He ties Liger up in the corner and dropkicks him. Backbreaker. TM goes for a moonsault. Liger dodges but TM adjusts and lands on his feet. As soon as he does Liger hits him with another rolling kick! A dropkick sends TM to the floor. Liger with a baseball slide. He loads up for a dive. TM moves to dodge and Liger handsprings off the ropes. TM sends him to the floor, and hits a dive of his own! Corkscrew moonsault from TM back in! He covers, but pulls Liger up at two! Bold strategy, Cotton. That never ends well. He tries a straitjacket suplex. Liger switches, runs, and hits a diving lariato. Powerbomb! He places TM on the top rope and hits a hurricanrana! TM kicks out! Ligerbomb! TM kicks out again! He goes for another Ligerbomb, but TM counters into a sit down cover for 2. TM places Liger on the top rope and dropkicks him onto the ramp. He goes up the ramp, gets a head of steam, and hits Liger with a handspring crossbody! TM tries coming off the top again but Liger dodges and he splats on the ramp. He recovers and hits a missile dropkick back in. German suplex! Liger kicks out! TM corkscrew senton off the second rope. He goes up top but this one Liger dodges. Liger goes up top. Shooting star press! That gets the win. After the bell TM unmasks voluntarily, revealing Koji Kanemoto. He angrily throws the mask at Liger. Liger walks over and consoles him, and they end up with a polite bow and handshake. This unmasking did nothing to hurt Kanemoto's career. In fact, his list of accolades is almost as long as Liger's: 5 time junior champ, 3 time BOTSJ winner, was the first junior to have major success in World Tag League and the G1. He did OK. After the turn of the century the Tiger Mask mantle would be taken on by Yoshihiro Yamazaki as Tiger Mask IV, the man still wearing the mask today and who has had arguably the best career as Tiger Mask ever. As for the match itself, it's good but not as good as Liger's previous Dome matches. ***1/2

IWGP Tag Team Championship: The Hell Raisers def The Jurassic Powers (c) in 12:47- The Hell Raisers are the Road Warriors stand in team of Hawk and Kensuke Sasaki as Power Warrior. The Jurassic Powers are youngish Scott Norton and oldish Hercules Hernandez. The Powers beat the Raisers for the tag titles the previous summer during the G1 Climax tour. Norton and Hawk start. The crowd is here for this one. Lockup standoffs. A double lariato is doubly no sold. Doubly. Triply. Hawk hits his flying tackle and fist drop. He hits a lariato off the top and covers, but Norton pops right back up at 1. Both sides swap and Sasaki and Herc have a shoulderblock standoff. Herc tries a corner whip but Sasaki blocks it and hits him with a lariato, then a misdirection faceplant. Hawk and Herc renew acquaintances (before this extended feud in New Japan the LOD and Power and Glory had a quick Wrestlemania feud in '91). Hiptoss blocks across the ring. Herc hits a piledriver. Hawk pops right back up. Powerslam from Hawk. Norton kills Sasaki with lariatos but Sasaki refuses to die. He responds with a huge lariato of his own. Norton with a back suplex and powerslam. Hawk and Herc slug it out. Hawk gets pulled to the floor. Norton goes out and posts his back. The Powers go to work on the wounded back....for a bit. Norton hits a neckbreaker for 2. Herc drops Hawk across the top rope then hooks on the backbreaking chinlock. Hawk comebacks are cut off. Herc forearms Hawk's back and slaps on a bear hug. The Powers hit a double football tackle. Now Norton hooks on a bear hug. Herc tries coming off the second rope but Hawk dodges (with Herc landing on his feet before splatting on the mat). Hawk doesn't tag. Instead he hits a tackle, then goes outside to the ramp. He walks up, gets a huge head of steam, and leaps over the top rope to tackle Herc again! Donnybrook! Hawk hits both Powers with a lariato off the top. Sasaki tagged in somewhere in there, hits Herc with a powerslam, and gets the pin to get the titles back! Everyone shakes hands afterwards. Fun power match. ***1/4

The Steiner Brothers def Keiji Mutoh and Hiroshi Hase in 20:51- The Steiners were near the end of their short WWF run and got rare special permission to work this show. After dropping the IWGP Heavyweight title the previous fall Mutoh was starting to work more under his real name rather than as The Great Muta. The Steiners have their stars and stripes gear on. Code of Honor handshakes at the start and the bell rings with the crowd all jacked up for this one. All four of these guys were hugely popular in Japan. Hase and Scott start with some extended mat wrestling, mostly controlled by Scott. After a few minutes both sides tag. Mutoh and Rick both get on all fours and stare each other down. Rick lifts his leg up like a dog taking a piss. Mutoh charges. Rick grabs him and bites his ass! Scott belly to belly suplex and Mutoh rolls out to think. Hase tries a belly to belly on Scott but Scott fights it and turns it into a takedown. Some more solid mat wrestling follows. Scott hits a butterfly powerbomb and everyone runs in. The Steiners hit stereo press slams! They clear the ring and strike their pose while Hase and Mutoh recover on the outside. Scott shrugs off Hase chops. Mutoh throws Scott out onto the ramp, then suplexes him on the ramp. He runs up the ramp and we get the vintage Mutoh ramp run and lariato! Rick and Hase join. Hase suplexes Rick on the ramp, then does the Mutoh run and lariato himself! Back in Mutoh puts Scott in a figure four. Hase slaps on an Indian Death Lock. After Scott gets out Hase chops. Scott chops back and hits a snap dragon suplex! Rick scoops Hase up and runs him upside down into the turnbuckle pad! Hase gets back up with chops. Mutoh with a snap mare/elbow combo and he slaps on an arm scissors. Rick deadlifts him up, ALL the way up and drops him! Hase comes in and hits Rick with a uranage! He goes up top but Scott grabs him from the apron. Rick pops up and gives him a belly to belly superplex! Scott in with Steinerlines. Tiltawhirl slam for 2. Scott shouts "He ain't getting up from this one!". He lifts Hase up in a suplex......THEN DROPS HIM STRAIGHT DOWN ON HIS HEAD WITH A TOMBSTONE PILEDRIVER! The crowd goes insane for that. Mutoh tries to interfere to give Hase recovery time. He goes up top, but Rick meets him and gives him a belly to belly superplex! Scott drags Hase's corpse back in. Hase ducks a Steinerline. He doesn't duck the second. Or the third. But the contact is waking him up. Uranage! A second one! Scott kicks out! Mutoh tags in and hits a backdrop. Hase holds Scott up and Mutoh gives him a bulldog off the top rope! Mutoh with a plancha on Rick! Hase German suplex! Scott kicks out! Rick belly to bellys Mutoh on the floor. Hase gives Scott a Northern Lights suplex! Rick just gets in to break the pin up! Mutoh hits the handspring elbow. He goes for the dragon suplex but Rick breaks it up. Hase holds Rick down as Mutoh moonsaults Scott! Scott kicks out again! The crowd is absolutely freaking ballistic at this point. Scott Frankensteiner outta nowhere! Both sides crawl over and tag. Rick Steinerlines Hase and press slams him. Tiltawhirl backbreaker. He takes out Mutoh and lifts Hase on his shoulders. Scott goes up and gives Hase an AVALANCHE DDT OFF RICK'S SHOULDERS! The Steiners take Mutoh out again to make sure he can't interfere and hit the classic Steiners top rope bulldog. Rick covers and gets the pin with Mutoh just a fraction too late coming off the top rope to break it up. What a freaking match. It wasn't all tossing guys around either, there was a lot of solid tag psychology going on, particularly in the stretch run. Mutoh and Hase would remain a regular team and end up dethroning the Hell Raisers as tag champs in November. ****1/2

Hulk Hogan (w/Jimmy Hart) def Tatsumi Fujinami in 13:33- Like Beefcake, Hogan is appearing as a freelancer as he hadn't signed his megadeal with WCW yet. This is the third time these two legends have wrestled each other in a New Japan ring, but the first time in almost 9 years. Fujinami was getting into the latter part of his career, but was coming off his first (and only) G1 Climax win in '93 and would win the IWGP Heavyweight title for a then record 5th time the following April. For anyone not familiar with Hogan's work in Japan, he would work a completely different style over there. None of the classic Hogan shtick, he would actually wrestle wrestle. Code of Honor handshake before the bell and we're off. Fujinami works a headlock for a while. Hogan tries to back suplex out but Fujinami hangs on. He ducks a Hogan back elbow and gives him some armdrags. More Fujinami headlock. Hogan counters with a headscissors. After they get up he sells the hell out of a Fujinami arm wringer. Hogan grabs a handful of hair to run Fujinami into the corner pad. Fujinami ducks a blow, hits another armdrag and dropkicks that send Hogan outside. Fujinami teases a dive but pulls out. Reset lockup and Hogan works a headlock. Fujinami cobra twist! He tries to roll it into a cradle but Hogan's foot lands on the rope. Now Hogan wraps up a cobra twist and does the same cradle roll. Fujinami escapes. They do a test of strength. Hogan uses the opening for a knee to the gut. Huge Hogan chops in the corner as things start to escalate. Hogan suplex and elbow drop for 2. He goes for the legdrop but Fujinami dodges it and starts in with hammy kicks. Hogan goes to the desperation eye rake. Running high knee! He lariatos Fujinami 360 over onto the ramp. Hogan whips Fujinami on the ramp, they reverse positions, and Fujinami lariatos Hogan 360 back in! Fujinami knee drop off the top for 2. He locks in a Scorpion. Hogan grabs the rope. Fujinami dodges a corner lariato. Sleeper! Dragon sleeper! Hogan's in trouble. He just manages to squirt out. Corner lariato! HUGE Hogan lariato in the middle of the ring, and that gets the pin! Now, this won't be everyone's cup of tea but I enjoyed it. A lot of it was grappling on the mat, but given these guys' stature that works just fine to me, they kept the intensity up, and once they cranked it up a gear it got going pretty damn good. Some more time and it might have been better, depending on what Hogan's conditioning was like due him being in the middle of his layoff. ***

Riki Choshu def Yoshiaki Fujiwara in 9:04- Yes, this is Fujiwara as in Fujiwara Armbar. He was a famous pro wrestling/shoot fighting/MMA crossover guy and is here representing his own Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi promotion (who among the other founders was a young Minoru Suzuki). He and Choshu also have a history going back a decade of battles both in the ring and backstage. Lockup stalemates and Choshu slaps. Fujiwara cranks a headlock for a bit. Test of strength. Choshu puts Fujiwara on the ground. Fujiwara escapes and gets a leg takedown. Commentary got very excited for that. Choshu wraps up a body scissors and grabs an arm to crank. Fujiwara works into a mounted position and lays in some stiff ground and pound. Fujiwara tries for a classic armbar submission but Choshu won't let him extend. He stomps Fujiwara down on the ground and provides commentary while doing so. Stiff Choshu kicks to the gut. Fujiwara counters with a leg tackle and twists a variation of an ankle lock. Choshu fights out. Fujiwara ducks a lariato and grabs an arm. Kicks to the arm. Choshu constantly fights out of attempted holds and starts murdering Fujiwara with lariatos. At first they barely move him, but eventually he goes down and Choshu gets the pin. They did an excellent job of selling that like a real shoot fight. It was as intense as anything, the crowd gasped every time Fujiwara grabbed a limb, but for me it didn't get enough time to get it to that next level. ***1/4

 

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Shinya Hashimoto (c) def Masahiro Chono in 28:00- Hashimoto is in the first of three title reigns that would see him be the dominant champion in New Japan over the next 3-4 years. Some feeling out kicks at the start. Some hit, some don't. Hashimoto drops Chono with an open hand slap. Chono gets some headbutts and we have a kick exchange. There's several contested rope breaks that ref Tiger Hattori has to physically separate them. Hashimoto drops Chono with a shoulderblock, does a leg takedown and goes to work on said leg. Chono gets up, takes Hashimoto down with a drop toe hold and also cranks a leg. Headbutt exchange. Chono enzuguri! Hashimoto hits a thrust kick to Chono's throat and hooks in a single leg crab. Another kick exchange ends with a Hashimoto spinning heel kick. I just now noticed Hashimoto was bleeding a bit from the mouth or nose, it's all dried up now. Chono not surprisingly caught him stiff with one of those kicks. Chono lays in some knee lifts. Hashimoto responds with an "F you" lariato for 2. Saito suplex for 2. Snap belly to belly for 2. He hooks in for his DDT but Chono fights out. Hashimoto German suplex for 2. It's suplex city tonight, bitch. We cross the 15 minute mark and Hashimoto has dominated almost the whole way so far. Chono fights another armbar. He grabs Hashimoto's ankle and cranks it. Hashimoto is up with more stiff kicks. Chono slips out of a suplex and hits a Saito suplex! He goes up top. Hashimoto meets him and hooks him up. They have a stalemate for a bit before Chono pushes Hashimoto back down. Tackle off the top! Chono can't immediately follow up. He hits a Samoan drop for 2. Single leg crab, and he transitions into the STF! Hashimoto tried to fight it but it's hooked in. After a minute Hashimoto starts crawling so Chono switches it over into a grounded sleeper. Hashimoto literally pushes Chono's arm off his chin to get out. It's definitely his nose that was bleeding, it's gushing out now. Chono kicks but Hashimoto won't go down. Flash arm takedown! He hooks in the DDT again. Knee right to the testes from Chono to get out! Pure, absolute desperation. He rolls Hashimoto into a leg hold, kind of a calf crusher variation. And back to the STF! Hashimoto hangs on without quitting and Chono releases it in frustration. Hashimoto dropkick! Sweep kick! He hooks in a leg bar and stretches the hell out of it. Chono won't quit. Hashimoto rolling slam for a long 2 count. He tries for the DDT again. Chono wraps up a small package for 2! Hashimoto puts Chono on the top rope and hits a superplex! Chono kicks out! A flurry from Chono is cut off by a Hashimoto enzuguri. Chono brushes away a spinning heel kick. Hashimoto hooks in the facelock again, lays in a whole bunch of knee lifts to try to keep Chono from escaping yet again, and hits a vertical drop brain buster! He can't cover right away, and when he does Chono kicks out! Hashimoto sets up Chono in the middle of the ring. Running DDT! That's all she wrote. For the second straight year Chono comes up short in the Heavyweight title match in the Dome. File that one under "simple but very effective". You can quibble about it being a bit one sided for a title match, but I think they did enough to scrape the upper echelon. ****

 

Genichiro Tenryu def Antonio Inoki in 15:56- This was set up at the end of the previous year's Dome show when Inoki congratulated and challenged Tenryu following Tenryu's main event victory over Choshu. I believe this is also the kickoff of Inoki's four year long retirement celebration, the "Final Countdown". This is also a huge match in the ongoing NJPW vs WAR battle with the two leaders facing off and wrestlers from both promotions at ringside. Usual feeling out start with Inoki headbutts. Lots of positioning going on but it's all intense and never boring. Straight right hands from Inoki! Huge pop for that. Tenryu responds with an open hand slap and enzuguri. Inoki backs off from a slam attempt and pops Tenryu with another straight right. Inoki enzuguri. Sleeper! Actually it's a rear naked choke. Tenryu goes out like a light. Hattori backs Inoki up and has a lot of angry words for him. Tenryu's out cold. The WAR guys at ringside try to wake him up but nothing's working. Hattori keeps arguing with Inoki then grabs a mic for an announcement. I assume it's something along the lines of "this match MUST continue". Tenryu's still napping like John Cena at Elimination Chamber '17. Inoki hits Hattori! Hattori lets it go and tries to slap Tenryu awake. Choshu comes over from the New Japan side and slaps him! Finally he starts to come to and slowly rolls to the floor. Someone on the WAR side dumps water on him. He's on his feet but has no idea if he's in Tokyo, Saskatoon or Timbuktu. He chops one of his WAR guys! The others help him back in the ring. Inoki is quickly all over him. Tenryu fires back with chops! More Inoki enzuguris! He hooks on the Octopus! Tenryu manages to get out and hits a rolling kick. Inoki tries an armbar but Tenryu blocks it. Eventually Inoki stretches it out but Tenryu's feet are on the rope. Knees to the face from Tenryu and Inoki goes down to the floor. Tenryu chops. Corner whip, but Inoki comes back out with a rolling kick! He hooks on the choke again! Hattori tries to physically pull his arm off. Inoki breaks with Tenryu wobblelegged but not out. Slugfest. Another Tenryu enzuguri. Kick to Inoki's head for 2. Powerslam for 2. Tenryu powerbomb! He pins Inoki with it! I think that was a shock result for everyone. With that Tenryu became the only man in history to pin both Inoki and Giant Baba. After the bell WAR celebrates and while there's some tension with the New Japan guys Inoki and Tenryu show some respect for each other, and at the end everyone in the ring joins in with Inoki's traditional show closing shout. Well, that was an interesting and unique match. In a lot of ways that was the New Japan equivalent of a bells and whistles, smoke and mirrors kitchen sink match. It's another one that's going to have sharply divided opinions. I'm falling somewhere in the middle- I really enjoyed it and it told a great story but don't think it had enough to be considered in the upper echelon. ***3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- New Japan kicks off the "proper" lineage of 1/4 Dome shows, minus the WCW co-promotion, in considerable style. Once you get past the usual OK undercard stuff, everything from the Liger match on delivers in one way or another.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+