NJPW Jingu Climax

Legacy Review

NJPW Jingu Climax: Battle of Last Summer

August 28, 1999 from Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo

The tagline should probably be "Last Battle of Summer" but translation issues aren't unusual. While doing reviews for the annual January 4th Tokyo Dome shows I found that this show is also complete in the NJPW World archives, which is a rarity for this era so I figured what the hell. New Japan revisited Jingu Stadium in the summer of 2020 for the first Summer Struggle show, just as everything was starting to reopen post pandemic closedowns. At that show Tetsuya Naito defeated filthy dirty traitor EVIL to recapture the dual IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental titles (titles he never should have lost to EVIL in the first place but that's an argument for another time), which was doubly special for him because young fan Naito is in the crowd for this very show, one that would have a lasting impact on him.

Kazuyuki Fujita def Brian Johnston in 3:55- The opener continues the slow creep to Inokism that started at Wrestling World. Fujita is more a hybrid MMA fighter/trained pro wrestler, while Johnston is one of the regular MMA fighters that was brought in during this era. As you'd expect, this is one of those pseudo MMA shoot fight/wrestling match hybrids. Fujita shows his power advantage early and hits a spinebuster. Johnston gets a belly to belly suplex and they spend a while grappling around on the mat. Very little striking in the first half of the match. Johnston gets a DDT like takedown and does some ground and pound, and now here come the strikes. Fujita hits a fisherman buster, hooks in an armbar and Johnston taps. Not much going on here. 3/4*

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa (c) def El Samurai and Jushin Thunder Liger in 15:00- Liger held the junior tag titles for the first time for a short time in the spring, teaming with The Great Sasuke rather than Samurai. They dropped the titles to Otani and Takaiwa in July, the inaugural champs who then became the first ever two time junior tag champs. Liger and Samurai jump at the bell! Otani gets lariatoed while still in his jacket. Liger whips Samurai into a tope suicida on Takaiwa! Otani is double teamed still with the jacket on. Doomsday Device! Liger brain buster for 2. Power bomb. Samurai rips Otani's jacket off finally and whips him with it. Reverse DDT for 2. Otani gets a spinning kick to try to get some breathing room but Samurai is right back on him. More double teams. Otani gets a flurry of rapid fire strikes on Samurai and finally tags out. Takaiwa holds Samurai and Otani does his forever run and basement dropkick. Quite the crowd pleaser, that one. Takaiwa hits a brain buster and Liger breaks the pin up. Liger with a drop toe hold and surfboard on Takaiwa. Samurai hits a kneedrop off the top rope while Liger stretches Takaiwa out. Takaiwa hits a lariato to come back, tags, and Otani hits a springboard kneedrop. Both teams trade war drums. Liger hits a corner shotei on Takaiwa. Another shotei fires Takaiwa up. Liger fires up off a lariato. Takaiwa blocks another shotei and hits a rolling DVD. After a distraction Liger gets Takaiwa with another shotei and tags. Samurai runs into a powerslam. Takaiwa goes for a brain buster but Samurai turns it into a reverse DDT. Lariato from Takaiwa and he hits a triple powerbomb combo. DONNYBROOK! Samurai and Takaiwa do a long counter run that ends with a Samurai magistral cradle for 2. Takaiwa goes for another powerbomb but Samurai turns it into a DDT. Samurai powerbomb for 2. Takaiwa dodges a headbutt off the top rope. Springboard dropkick from Otani and he does his traditional boot scrapes on Samurai. Liger runs in with a shotei. Samurai hits a lariato and tags. Another Liger corner shotei. Fisherman buster. Liger brain buster and everyone's in again. Samurai piledrives Takaiwa on the floor. Otani blocks a Liger hurricanrana and hits a heel kick off the top rope. Samurai breaks the pin up. Takaiwa dodges a Samurai plancha. Liger goes for a superplex. Otani counters in midair! Spinning powerbomb! That gets the pin. Solidly good stuff. Otani and Takiwa would go on to hold the titles for just a few weeks shy of a full year, to date still the longest junior tag title reign in history. ***1/4

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Kendo Kashin def Koji Kanemoto (c) in 14:45- Kanemoto finally defeated longtime rival Liger in March to win the junior title for the third time, ending Liger's 9th reign at 403 days, his second longest (Liger also set a then-record of successful defenses that reign with 8). Meanwhile, earlier in the summer Kashin defeated Kanemoto in the finals of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament. The ref has to hold both guys back during intros as they want to tear into each other. The bell rings, they charge and we have a double lariato! Kanemoto is up first with knees and kicks. Forearm tradeoff followed by some takedown and counter jockeying. A big Kanemoto kick puts Kashin down. Kashin goes to closed fist punches and tosses Kanemoto to the floor. Snap mare exchange. Kashin flips the script by hitting a reverse DDT. He transitions from a modified surfboard to a camel clutch on Kanemoto. Kanemoto is up with his own flurry of punches and the ref is none to happy about it. No one cares. Another slugfest. Kanemoto cools things down a bit with a chinlock, a great example of an effective rest hold. Kashin backs him into the corner and hits uppercuts. Both guys are going pretty damn stiff so far. Kanemoto hits more kicks to the back and arrogantly covers Kashin with one foot. The ref doesn't even think about counting. Jumping knees in the corner and corkscrew off the second rope. Whip reversal, Kashin slides under Kanemoto's legs and keeps sliding all the way to the floor. Kanemoto charges and hits him with a baseball slide. Kashin hooks in the cross armbreaker on the floor! He posts Kanemoto's arm then starts working on it in the ring. Kashin goes up top, but Kanemoto joins him and hits a superplex. Kashin hooks on a cross LEGbreaker! Kanemoto grabs a rope. Kashin charges but Kanemoto kicks him down in the corner. Kanemoto hurricanrana. They run through some counters and Kashin hits diving lariatos. Brain buster and the armbreaker is on again! Kanemoto just stretches out his foot to hook the bottom rope. Kashin sets Kanemoto up top, but Kanemoto makes him pay for it by coming off with a rolling kick before Kashin could do whatever he was planning to do. Belly to belly suplex. Kanemoto moonsault! Kashin kicks out! Falcon arrow! Kashin gets a foot on the rope. Kashin hooks the armbreaker on again! Kanemoto has nowhere to go and taps out! Kashin wins the junior title for the first time, but the reign was short lived. Liger would defeat him for title reign number 10 in October. The match started great but couldn't quite keep up the momentum of the first half. ***3/4

 

Tencozy def Shiro Koshinaka and Tatsumi Fujinami in 8:38- Tencozy are NWO Japan members. They turn around to play to the crowd and Koshinaka jumps them before the bell! He tries a double hip attack but Tencozy catch and slam him. Things settle in with Koshinaka having chopfests with both Tenzan and Kojima. Fujinami blocks a Mongolian chop and responds with open hand slaps. Quick donnybrook and Koshinaka gives Tenzan a hip attack. Tenzan gives him a Mongolian chop and the extremely low diving headbutt. Kojima senton and he tries an armbreaker. Double lariato on Fujinami that he didn't look very interested in selling. Kicks from Fujinami. Tenzan responds with more Mongolian chops. Kojima hits the elbow off the top rope and everyone's in again. Tencozy with a 3D on Koshinaka. Everyone in wrestling is a move thief. Fujinami dodges a Tenzan avalanche and dragon screws both Tencozy members. Kojicutter! Fujinami ducks a lariato and hooks on a dragon sleeper. Tag and Koshinaka has hip attacks for everyone all day long. Power bomb on Tenzan for 2. Tencozy come back with lariatos. Super Kojicutter on Koshinaka! Tenzan headbutt off the top for 2. Koshinaka dodges Tenzan's moonsault, but coming back off the ropes runs right into a Tenzan spinning heel kick and that gets the pin. Average, but they kept it moving with lots of back and forth and no one staying in control for long. **1/2

 

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi def Mad Dogs (c) in 16:01- The Mad Dogs are former Heisei Ishingun members Tatsutoshi Goto and Michiyoshi Ohara. HI was New Japan's top heel stable for most of the '90s but had formally disbanded earlier in the year. Nakanishi was fresh off pulling one of the biggest upsets in New Japan history just a couple of weeks prior- winning the G1 Climax tournament, and defeating reigning Heavyweight champion Keiji Mutoh in the final to do it. The Dogs cement their heel status by tossing the belts away on the floor during their entrance. Surprisingly there's no jump start this match. Goto and Nakanishi start. Nakanishi pops the crowd with big early chops, showing his new star status, but quickly gets caught in the heel corner. Goto and Nakanishi trade headbutts. Nagata tags in to a nice pop, his star was also on the rise, and hits some kicks and works Goto's arm. Ohara hits some stiff clubbing blows on Nagata and a suplex. Double shoulderblock from the face team on Goto. They set up another double team and Nakanishi accidentally hits Nagata! Nagata shoves Nakanishi! The heels try to take advantage but get whipped into each other and suplexed. Nagata and Nakanishi shake hands and everything's good. More Nakanishi high impact moves followed by Nagata doing some leg work on Goto. Ohara tries to run in but Nakanishi takes him out as Goto stays in peril. Nagata locks in a crossface and Ohara's in again to break it up. More face leg work on Goto. Nakanishi chops the sweat off of him. Enzuguri from Nagata. He hits a northern lights suplex but the ref is distracted. Ohara comes in with a diving lariato. Goto Saito suplexes Nakanishi as the tide turns. The heels take Nakanashi out into Suzuki territory. Nakanishi is power bombed on the floor! The heels pick apart an isolated Nagata in the ring. Double hot shot. Lariato for 2. Nakanishi is slowly crawling back to his corner. More double teams on Nagata. The Dogs take him to the floor and give him a floor spike piledriver! Nagata comes back with kicks in the ring. Another Saito from Goto for 2. Nakanishi's back in and he's pissed! Nagata tags out and Nakanishi suplexes both heels. At the same time. Double spear! Nakanishi's bleeding from his mouth. He gets Goto up in the torture rack, sees Ohara coming and throws Goto onto him! Tags. Nagata and Ohara trade shots. Goto breaks up a kneebar. Ohara choke slam for 2. Another Goto Saito. Ohara powerbomb. Nagata kicks out! He gives Ohara a snap belly to belly suplex. I think Nagata has the best snap belly to belly since Owen Hart. It's so good. Nakanishi gets Goto up in the rack to keep him out of the equation. Nagata Saito on Ohara with a bridge, and that gets the pin and the titles! Nice celebration for the first of what would be many title wins for Nagata. This is Nakanishi's second tag title win, he had one earlier with Kojima as Bull Powers. The match started slow but had a very nice stretch run. The crowd was super into it too, more than they had been for anything else on the show so far. ***1/2

 

Don Frye def Scott Norton in 7:55- Norton is NWO Japan and recently had his first of two runs with the Heavyweight title. Frye is another one of Inoki's regular MMA invaders. He's also got a bunch of belts on him which I assume are MMA related. Frye pounds away with punches before the bell. Lots of jump starts on this show. Must be Wrestlemania. He chokes Norton on the ropes as ref Tiger Hattori tries to pull him off. Frye plays to the crowd and turns around into a Norton lariato. Frye blocks a Norton German suplex and gets a leg takedown. He hooks on a front facelock. Norton turns it into an inverted atomic drop. Frye gets back on Norton's arm. Norton blocks an armbreaker, rolls over and gets a very close near fall. He deadlifts Frye and slams him. Short lariatos. He goes for one too many as Frye ducks and gives him a German suplex for 2. Corner beatdown from Frye. Norton hulks up and hits an ugly powerslammish flippy thing. Hattori went down during that sequence. Norton checks on him and Frye low blows him. I don't think they teach that move in MMA school. Sleeper and Norton goes out. Not as horrible as it could have been. *1/4

 

Masahiro Chono def Shinya Hashimoto in 15:45- Chono is back from injury and is now leading his new group, Team 2000, in opposition to the NWO Japan stable he originally created. In practice Hashimoto is still being presented as the all time badass that dominated the Heavyweight title scene the second half of the decade. In reality, he's still trying to rebuild his image after getting pantsed by Naoya Ogawa in the infamous impromptu shoot fight at Wrestling World. Basic but aggressive start. Test of strength tease but Chono grabs an arm instead. Hashimoto punches Chono down. Both guys dodge spinning heel kicks, then dropkicks, stalemate and reset. Chono slowly works Hashimoto down with a drop toe hold Hashimoto tries to block. Hashimoto lays in some hammy kicks. Both guys shake their legs off. Chono with another leg kick and Hashimoto rolls to the floor. He does some squats to get his leg going again then gets back in. DDT from Hashimoto and Chono rolls out. Chop exchange back in. Chono dodges an elbow drop. Yakuza kick to Hashimoto's arm, hurting it even more. Chono targets it. Hashimoto tries to chop back but is too hobbled by the bad arm. Chono tackle off the top rope for 2. Another Yakuza kick and Hashimoto responds with a long chop beatdown. Chono drop toe hold. STF! He switches to an armbreaker on the bad arm. Hashimoto just gets to the ropes. Kick exchange. Enzuguri exchange. Hashimoto hits a spinning back fist/sweep kick combo and plants Chono with a DDT. He hooks on an armbreaker/headscissors combo that kind of looks like a reverse triangle choke. Chono makes the ropes. Hashimoto brain buster. He covers but ref Hattori is distracted by Chono's T2000 second at ringside (can't make out who it is, maybe old NWO Sting with different face paint, he went with Chono to T2000). Yakuza kick! Hashimoto kicks out! Hashimoto cinches up another DDT but the ref is distracted again and Chono gives him a low blow. He cranks Hashimoto's arm back. After a few minutes, and a couple of completely pointless apron distractions from Don Frye (also on T2000) Hattori calls for the bell. I'm pretty certain Hashimoto never gave up, Hattori just called it. Didn't seem any need for that either. Weird finish and the match never got into high gear anyway. *3/4

 

No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Barricade Explosive Land Mine Double Hell Deathmatch: IWGP Heavyweight Champion The Great Muta def The Great Nita in 13:32- Needless to say the title is not on the line here. Nita is Japanese deathmatch king Atsushi Onita. This is one of a series of deathmatches he worked in New Japan during the year. His Great Nita persona is, it should go without saying, mocking Muta, complete with parody facepaint and traditional Muta gear. The setup for this match is all the ropes are removed. On two sides of the ring there's barbed wire strung between the ringposts that "explodes" whenever anyone is thrown into it. On the other two sides with no wire there's boards of barbed wire placed on the floor for the wrestlers to fall into if they're thrown out, and I'm pretty sure they explode if that happens to. On top of that there's a switch on a ring post. Flip the switch, and two minutes later EVERYTHING goes boom. Win is by pinfall or submission only. The video starts up with Nita working Muta over with a sickle he's carrying that also has a chain on it. Muta's still got his entrance gear on, which is pretty much a jacket with football style shoulder pads on it. Muta gets thrown into the wire. BOOM! After he gets out of the wire he takes his jacket off. Clearly he left it on for protection in that spot. Nita is still using the sickle with no blood coming out at all. He wraps the chain around Muta's throat and tries to drag him off the ring onto the boards on the floor. Muta blocks it. Green mist! Nita does a tremendous slow flop after getting misted. More mist! Muta wraps the chain around his elbow and hits Nita with it. Elbow drop. Nita spits green mist back at Muta! Did he catch Muta's mist in his mouth then spit it back at him minutes later? Because that's sure what it looked like. Nita dances around, hits another sickle shot, and gives Muta a DDT for 2. Muta dodges a charge and Nita goes into the wire! BOOM! Sickle shot from Muta. Nita teases rolling off the ring. Nita throws a fireball in Muta's face! He looks at the siren and switch for a minute to milk the moment....then flips the switch! Sirens go off all over the stadium and the countdown starts. Nita powerbomb for 2. DDT. Muta mists him again! The countdown is in the last 10 seconds. Nita rolls onto the wire boards on the floor while Muta stands in the ring. KABOOM! Everything goes off. Honestly, that was a bit of a letdown. I was expecting something bigger. Nita got the worst of it on the floor. He gets back in and runs into a Muta sickle shot for 2. Another fireball that Muta dodges. Nita's thrown into the rope wires again! BOOM! Muta covers for 2. He whacks Nita in the head with the sickle, and covers again for the pin. Well, not a lot of great wrestling going on here obviously, but it was a moderately entertaining spectacle. The crowd was into it. Muta, on the other hand, did not look comfortable at all working this kind of match and seemed to want to be anywhere but where he was. The only shot he took he made sure to still have his double layer jacket on for. The lack of blood was also a letdown. They were hitting each other WITH A SICKLE! Call the whole package **

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The title matches deliver for the most part, but the less said about the rest of the show the better. The outdoor stadium did make for a nice atmosphere.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C