NJPW Wrestling World 2000

Legacy Review

NJPW Wrestling World 2000

January 4, 2000 from the Tokyo Dome

Not much to say as an overall intro for this one, we'll get into relevant background match by match. Lots of stuff going on at this show. As usual this is from the New Japan World archives so Japanese commentary only.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa (c) def Minoru Tanaka and Kendo Kashin in 13:19- Tanaka is the new boy here, a quickly rising star in the junior division that was wrapping up his first full time year in New Japan and would go on to a very good career across almost every major Japanese promotion, a career that's still going today. Otani offers a handshake before the bell. Tanaka's not interested. Tanaka and Takaiwa start. Takaiwa strikes and Tanaka grapples on the mat. They trade off some leg work. Otani tags in and wants Kashin. Otani tries to mat wrestle but Kashin is too slippery. Kashin gets a series of fireman's carry takedowns. He hooks in a legbar and Otani quickly gets to the ropes. Tanaka hits a dropkick and hooks in a cross armbreaker. Takaiwa backs him into the champs' corner and they do a little double teaming. Tanaka hits a kick combo. Kashin/Takaiwa slugfest. Kashin rolls through some fancy cradles for near falls. Otani holds Tanaka so Takaiwa can chop him down. Slugfest. Tanaka wobbles Takaiwa with a high knee. Legbar and another rope break. Takaiwa floors Tanaka with lariatos. Otani hits his signature boot scrapes. Springboard dropkick for 2. Everyone's in and the challengers both hook in armbreakers! Both champs escape. Tanaka accidentally takes out his own partner with a spinning heel kick, but he cuts Otani off and hooks on another armbreaker. Takaiwa breaks it up. Tanaka flips through an Otani German suplex attempt! Otani ducks a spinning heel kick and hits a back kick. Kashin trips Otani, tags in and takes over. Takaiwa tags in with a lariato and we're donnybrooking again. The champs set up a double team. Kashin rolls through Takaiwa's power bomb and hooks in the armbreaker! Takaiwa gets to the ropes. Kashin places Takaiwa on the top rope, but before he can do anything Takaiwa comes off with a flying lariato. He deadlifts Kashin in another armbreaker and flips him over into a Samoan drop! Tanaka breaks another pin up and Otani takes him out. Takaiwa starts his triple powerbomb combo. On the third one Kashin lands on his feet, but Takaiwa counters the counter, lifts Kashin up, and hits a tombstone! That gets the pin. Really fun closing stretch. Like previous matches since the creation of the junior tag division, it's less focused on high spots and more on smart tag team psychology. Otani and Takaiwa's reign would not end until July at a record 348 days, a record that still stands today. ***1/4

 

Shiro Koshinaka def Satoshi Kojima in 10:17- Koshinaka is riding around pretty much rudderless since the breakup of his old Heisei Ishingun stable. This would end up being his last 1/4 Dome show match before being let go by New Japan in 2003. Screw your intros, we're going! Double lariatos! Kojima dodges a hip attack and hits a lariato. Koshinaka rolls to the floor. Kojima TOPE SUICIDA! MAMA MIA! Senton on the floor. Senton back in the ring. Koshinaka fights back with his hip based offense. Kojima gives that a try and it doesn't work so well. Koshinaka Russian leg sweep and single leg crab. Chopfest. Kojima wins that. Koshinaka tries to headbutt out of a leg hold and only ends up hurting himself. Kojima inverted atomic drop. Mat stalemate and reset with a Koshinaka headlock. Kojima Saito suplexes out. Long suplex standoff that Kojima eventually wins. Koshinaka shrugs off forearms and hits hip attacks. Kojima jawbreakers out of a chinlock. Corner forearm. Kojima hits the elbow off the top rope for 2. He goes up again and Koshinaka dodges a top rope senton. Koshinaka hip attack off the top rope. German for 2. Kick wham Kojicutter outta nowhere! Koshinaka ducks a lariato and gets an octopus cradle for 2. Kojima lariato for 2. Brain buster for 2. Koshinaka fights off another Kojicutter. Reverse DDT! Powerbomb! That gets the pin. Not sure about that booking call. The match was solid enough, pretty much Koshinaka's ceiling. **1/2

 

Hiroyoshi Tenzan def Wild Pegasus in 10:55- Pegasus is of course Chris Benoit, one of several WCW wrestlers to come over for this show as WCW moves into its final year of existence. Benoit had a very successful early career run in New Japan as a junior heavyweight under the name the Pegasus Kid before going to WCW. We're just days away from Benoit finally (FINALLY) winning the WCW World Heavyweight title at Souled Out, WCW's last ditch effort to keep him from jumping to WWF. Spoiler: it didn't work. It's 2000 WCW, nothing worked. Lockup and Benoit goes right to the chops. Tenzan headbutts back. Speed run, Tenzan hits a shoulderblock, Benoit gets a drop toe hold and basement dropkick. Tenzan goes to the floor. Benoit hits him with a baseball slide. Huge Benoit lariato for 2. Chops fire Tenzan back up and he hits Mongolian chops. He grabs a leg but Benoit hits him with an enzuguri. Classic Benoit snap suplex for 2. Vintage even. Huge back suplex for 2. Tenzan hits chops, slams Benoit, and hits a diving headbutt. Benoit short lariato. Another Tenzan Mongolian chop and he hits the low headbutt that always goes a bit south of Saskatoon. Benoit's Canadian so I can use that. Tenzan spinning heel kick for 2. He goes up top. Benoit meets him and superplexes him off for 2. Rrrrrrrrooooooooooooling Germans! Aw, he only did three. If there's anyplace for four it's the Tokyo Dome. Throat slash and Benoit goes up top. The headbutt hits! Tenzan kicks out! Tombstone reversal and Tenzan hits it. Benoit dodges a moonsault. He ducks a lariato and hooks on the Crippler Crossface! They're in the corner so it's an easy rope break for Tenzan. Tenzan suplex for 2. Hurricanrana! Tenzan hits his headbutt off the top, and gets the pin! Nice little match. **3/4

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Jushin Thunder Liger (c) def Koji Kanemoto in 3:56- Yet again these two are facing each other in the Dome. Liger is in his 11th and final junior title reign after working a short US tour in late '99 where he lost the title to Juventud Guerrera on Nitro then won it back a couple of weeks later. Clearly something's happened to escalate this feud. This isn't Kishin Liger, but he is dressed in all black and super cereal. .5 Kishin Liger. Cross ring staredown after the bell and they charge into the lockup. Shotei! Kanemoto lays in some kicks and we have a slugfest. Liger ducks under a leapfrog and hits more shoteis. Kanemoto is almost out. Liger doesn't care and shoves the ref away. More open hand slaps in the corner. Kanemoto tries to match Liger slap for slap but goes down again. Liger sets Kanemoto up top. German superplex! HUGE sit out powerbomb! Brain buster! That gets the quick pin! Wasn't much of a match, but it got its point across. Liger's final junior title reign would end in July at the hands of Tatsuhito Takaiwa, kicking off an influx of new blood in the junior title scene. 1/2*

 

Manabu Nakanishi def Kenzo Suzuki in 6:41- Suzuki is making his pro wrestling debut in literally his first recorded match. On January 4 in the Tokyo Dome. Nakanishi's profile has risen considerably after pulling off one of the biggest upsets in New Japan history, winning the '99 G1 Climax. He's also currently one half of the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team champs. Charging lockup. Suzuki hits a shoulderblock. Suzuki spear! Ground and pound! Rookie's out to make a name for himself, but Nakanishi quickly gets him in his place. Chop exchange. Suzuki blocks a suplex and hits his own, followed by more mounted slaps. All he's doing is pissing Nakanishi off. Nakanishi gets on top and goes into beatdown mode. Legdrop for 2. Lariato. Suzuki comes back with some chops and knees. Back suplex. Nakanishi goes back into beatdown mode. Suzuki is bleeding from his nose, which is honestly a great visual. Another Suzuki spear! He goes for Young Lion Submission Hold 1A, the Boston crab. Nakanishi easily flips out of it and puts his own crab on. Suzuki has to fight to get to the ropes. He tries more chops but Nakanishi kills him with a lariato. Backbreaker and elbow drop for 2. Nakanishi spear! He hooks Suzuki in the torture rack and it's over. Perfectly acceptable debut, but you'd think they could have found something better for the defending G1 winner at the biggest show of the year. *1/2

 

Yuji Nagata def Kazuo Yamazaki in 6:44- In complete contrast to the last match, Yamazaki is wrestling his retirement match, and unlike others in the sport he actually stayed retired. His student and rapidly rising New Japan star Nagata is the one sending him off. Nagata is the other half of the current tag champs with Nakanishi. Feeling out start with lots of kick swinging with little connecting. Yamazaki gets a leg takedown and they go back and forth on the mat at bit. Reset. Nagata lands some kicks. Yamazaki ducks an enzuguri and hooks in a kneebar. Nagata has to go to a rope break. A punch sends Nagata to the floor. Yamazaki teases a plancha but thinks better of it. Another mat exchange. Yamazaki blocks an armbreaker. Snap mare and kick from Yamazaki. More kick dodging. Nagata hits a belly to belly suplex. His kicks really start landing as Yamazaki is getting wobbly. Saito suplex with a bridge. Yamazaki kicks out! Nagata goes to it again and this time gets the pin. Nothing special but for a retirement match it did its job. *

 

Kimo def Kazuyuki Fujita by DQ in 4:02- Welcome to the Inokism portion of tonight's program. Kimo is another MMA fighter brought in. He's got more acting credits on his resume than professional wrestling matches, that should tell you all you need to know. Fujita was a highly touted Young Lion a couple of years out of the dojo but had struggled for traction behind contemporaries like Nagata and Nakanishi. Encouraged by Inoki, he was starting a transition from wrestling to MMA. This being one of those hybrid work shoot fights we're not going to spend much time on this one. Fujita dominates the match, showing his strength advantage by tossing Kimo all over the place. At one point Kimo manages to get an armbreaker but Fujita gets a foot on the rope. While striking Kimo down in the corner Fujita knees him in the nads and the ref DQ's him. Blech. 1/4*

 

Scott Norton def Don Frye in 8:50- These two had a match at the Jingu Climax outdoor stadium show the previous summer that shockingly wasn't completely horrible. After intros Frye wanders up the ramp into the crowd and jaws at some fans. Frye opens up with jabs (on Norton, not on the fan). Norton ducks a right cross and slams Frye. Another ugly slam spot follows. Norton chops away in the corner. Frye ducks and does a German....can't really call that a suplex, it was more of a waistlock throw. Norton backdrops Frye over the top rope onto the ramp. Slugfest on the ramp. Norton lariato. Frye gets a chair and gives Norton some shots with it. He brings the chair in the ring, fights the ref trying to take it away, and Norton hits a lariato from behind. Now Frye takes some chairshots. They go to the floor again and both guys take turns getting posted. Norton's run into the barricade. Frye gets jawey with the fans again. Big Norton lariato. Norton suplexes Frye over the top onto the ramp! Frye's back is posted. Norton goes for a powerbomb but Frye backdrops out. Another try and Norton hits the powerbomb. Can you say "pointless counter"? While being covered Frye locks Norton in a sleeper/choke hold. Norton just gets a foot out to the rope. Another Norton powerbomb, Frye kicks but the ref counts 3 anyway. Good, no one wanted that to go any longer. Don't bother looking for any smoke or mirrors in stores in Japan, they were all used in this match. And still didn't help. 1/4*

 

Rick Steiner def "Macho Man" Randy Savage in 11:08- Two more WCW guys coming over as the promotion starts drawing its final breaths. This is late career ponytail/earrings/necklace/Team Madness Savage. He's also much more bulked up than during his peak years. Physically both these guys are shells of what they used to be so I'm not optimistic this is going to get this show back on track. Too bad, put these two together around '91 or '92 and it could have been an all time classic. In fact, this was Savage's final televised singles match and he'd only have three more matches total before retiring, so a bit of history here. Before the match Savage is pissed at the ring announcer and someone on commentary (I think Masa Saito but I'm not completely sure) that no one is calling him Macho Man. They open up with some extended rope break shenanigans. Steiner gets a leg takedown. Savage quickly goes to the ropes and rolls out. Back in Savage hits a lariato. Rope run and......there's some kind of collision that Steiner flippy sells. Not sure what they were going for but I'm pretty sure it wasn't that. Steiner suplexes out of a facelock. Steiner belly to belly suplex for 2. Steinerline! Savage goes into some basic heel offense. Steiner blocks a suplex, then ducks an elbow and hits a trio of German suplexes. Not rolling Germans, not when he lets go after each one. Bulldog off the top for 2. Savage hits a blatant low blow that Steiner does a tremendous sell of. He slams Steiner on the ramp and drops an elbow. He punches Steiner, who falls off the ramp into a section of VIPs! Savage gets a chair and hits Steiner in the head with it. Surprised Steiner sold that. Savage goes up top, almost slips off, catches himself, and hits the top rope elbow! Steiner kicks out! Savage tosses the ref out. Steiner blocks another chairshot. Steinerline! DDT on the chair! Steiner goes up top....slips and does fall off! The crowd boos. He goes up again, barely hits another top rope bulldog, and gets the pin. Yeesh. How the mighty have fallen. 1/2*

 

Shinya Hashimoto and Takashi Iizuka def Kazunari Murakami and Naoya Ogawa in 11:29- Like Ogawa's other matches this has been wiped from the New Japan World archive. It took a lot of digging, but I managed to find a copy hidden away in a hard to find corner of Al Gore's interwebs. You're welcome for my dedication. That and my completionism makes me hate gaps. Hashimoto and Ogawa had the infamous shoot fight incident at the previous year's Wrestling World that most credit as the birth of Inokism, but in the time since have manged to put any ill will behind them and continue their long running feud with no more incidents, a feud that is arguably the hottest in the company at this time. Murakami is another MMA guy that came with Ogawa when Inoki brought him in. All four guys in this match are wearing MMA gloves. Ogawa and Hashimoto stare daggers through each other. Mruakami attacks Iizuka before the bell! The crowd is nuclear. Iizuka covers up and gets to the ropes. Murakami tosses ref Tiger Hattori away. Hattori physically pulls him off. Murakami kicks Iizuka right in the face and he drops like a rock. Hashimoto checks on him. Murakami gets a mic and has some choice words for everyone. Too bad Chris Charlton isn't here to translate. Hashimoto loses it and attacks Murakami! The pop almost takes the roof off the Dome. Ogawa is in with Hashimoto! Ogawa kicks him down. Reset. They grapple in the ropes while the New Japan seconds all come in and fight with Murakami! What a scene. The bell rings, likely Hattori throwing the match out because it's pure chaos. Everyone is held back. The crowd is literally throwing things into the ring. A JAPANESE crowd. Everyone argues. INOKI HIMSELF IS IN WITH A STICK! He directs traffic. Inoki takes the mic and likely says "THIS MATCH MUST CONTINUE". The bell rings to restart with Murakami all over Iizuka again. Iizuka armbreaker! Murakami gets a foot on the rope. Iizuka gets ground strikes. Murakami tries to turn it into a triangle choke. Iizuka gets a leg takedown. Kneebar! Murakami gets the ropes again. Hashimoto tags in. Murakami keeps fighting Iizuka. Hashimoto lets him know who's legal with a couple of stiff kicks! He wants Ogawa! So does the crowd. And here he comes. The fight is on. There's actually a clean rope break. Both guys swing exploratory kicks. Hashimoto headbutt! He pounds Ogawa down. Ogawa rolls to the ramp. One of Hashimoto's gloves is off. Ogawa is back in and Hashimoto is all over him again. Ogawa manges to take things to the mat. Hashimoto Saito suplex! Ogawa rolls out again. Back in Hashimoto gets another takedown. Ogawa uses it to hook in a triangle! Hashimoto takes a rope break. Ogawa takedown. Iizuka runs in! Ogawa takes him out. While Ogawa is mounting Hashimoto Iizuka dropkicks him in the back! Murakami comes in and takes Iizuka out. Hashimoto follows Ogawa to the floor and continues the pounding. Iizuka gets a sleeper on Murakami. Murakami goes out and Hattori calls it! Hashimoto and Iizuka win, but things are anything but settled between Hashimoto and Ogawa. The fight continues a bit after the bell until everyone is separated. For all the future shortcomings of Inokism, that was one hell of a spectacle, with everyone playing their role perfectly and backed by one of the hottest crowds you'll ever hear at a Japanese wrestling show. ****

The feud between Hashimoto and Ogawa continued, with Hashimoto vowing that if he ever lost to Ogawa again he would retire. Unfortunately for him, in April he did lose again to Ogawa in a singles match. New Japan forced him to keep his word and made him leave the promotion, but Hashimoto did come back for a handful of special matches, including the next year's Wrestling World, so I'll save the rest of the story for then, but on the whole it was a strange and shocking fall from grace for the man that dominated the promotion for the second half of the '90s.

 

Masahiro Chono def Keiji Mutoh in 25:00- Chono is now leading his Team 2000 stable while Mutoh is still the leader of NWO Japan, a stable Chono originally created. The stipulation for this match is if Mutoh loses, NWO Japan must disband. Some back and forth mat wrestling to start. Chono works a headlock. Speed and Chono shoulderblock. Some more mat work as this is starting fairly slow, laying the groundwork. Right at the 5 minute call Mutoh rolls under a Yakuza kick and Chono quickly dodges a knee dropkick. Stalemate reset. Mutoh suplexes over in a test of strength and floats over into a headlock. Snap mare and elbow drop. Kick exchange. Chono dodges the handspring elbow! A Chono Samoan drop almost drops Mutoh right on his head. He seems to need a minute to recover. Mutoh hurricanrana! Chono plants him with a piledriver! He tries for the butterfly lock but Mutoh blocks it. Mutoh catches a kick and tries for a dragon screw but Chono blocks it. Another Chono piledriver and Mutoh blocks the butterfly again. Mutoh rolls to the apron. Chono goes up top and tackles Mutoh off the apron down to the floor! He sets Mutoh up on a ringside table for a piledriver. Mutoh gets free and gives Chono a dragon screw off the table! Dropkick to the knee and another dragon screw on the floor. Back in Mutoh hits a missile dropkick. He sets Chono on the top rope. Hurricanrana! Another knee dropkick and dragon screw. Mutoh figure four! Chono tries to reverse and manages to grab a rope break. Mutoh stays on the knee. Chono rolls through and tries for the butterfly again. Mutoh gets to the ropes. More knee picking apart and the figure four is back on. Chono gets to the ropes. Mutoh hits the ropes. Chono gets a spinning heel kick! Mutoh responds with a pele kick! Mutoh pops up. Backbreaker. The moonsault hits! Chono kicks out! He goes for the figure four again. Chono counters with a roll up, but instead of a small package he rolls into the butterfly again! Mutoh gets another rope break. Mutoh hurricanrana with a floatover into an armbreaker! Chono rope break. Mutoh backbreaker. Moonsault...Chono gets his knees up! The STF is hooked in! Mutoh barely gets to the ropes. Chono ties Mutoh's legs up good and puts the STF back on! Mutoh taps! And with that, NWO Japan is no more. This would be another crossroads in Mutoh's career. Over the next year he would debut the shaved head and goatee look that he still uses today. ***1/2

 

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kensuke Sasaki def Genichiro Tenryu (c) in 14:43- Tenyru defeated Mutoh for the title less than a month before this show in a classic New Japan "outsider wins the title to drop it to a home talent in the Tokyo Dome" angle. In Tenryu's case it could also definitely be seen as a career accomplishment trophy (one that Minoru Suzuki should have gotten at some point, not just the Intercontinental title, but that's a whole different issue). The bell rings and Sasaki runs into a Tenyru lariato! Chop exchange, and I mean stiff as all shit chops. DAMN. Hard Sasaki shoulderblock. Tenyru back suplex. Sasaki no sells! Lariato! They go to the floor and when Tenyru gets whipped toward the barricade he almost takes out about three ringside photographers. They quickly get back in the ring and slow things down a little with some mat work. Tenyru chops in the corner. Sasaki floors him with a punch! Slugfest, and Sasaki is out there throwing absolute stiff potatoes right on Tenyru's jaw. Very Vader like. More big chops and Sasaki is still swinging potatoes out there. Tenyru hits stiff chops back. The 5 minute call hits, and it's been five minutes of these guys beating the absolute piss out of each other. Screw your Inokism fake MMA crap, this is strong fucking style professional wrestling at its absolute best. Just get these guys some icepacks once the match is over. Sasaki wins a long suplex standoff. Lariato. Sasaki hooks on a Scorpion Death Lock. Tenyru gets out and is throwing punches again. Huge flurry of corner jabs and punches that beat Sasaki down. Sasaki hulks up and kicks off another slugfest. Tenyru enzuguri! He sets Sasaki up top and gives him a German superplex! Falling reverse elbow drop off the top for 2. Powerbomb for 2. Double lariato and no one moves. Tenyru brain buster! Sasaki kicks out! Tenyru goes for a top rope hurricanrana. Sasaki blocks it with a powerbomb! He sets Tenyru up top. Hurricanrana! Arm flip slam. One more open hand slap slugfest. Sasaki lariato. Tenyru doesn't go down. He runs into a Tenyru enzuguri! Sasaki brain buster! A second one! That gets the pin and Sasaki wins his second heavyweight title! During his postmatch celebration Sasaki is bleeding from a spot on his chest that got busted open by all those stiff chops. Sasaki would hold the title most of the year and would go on to win his second G1 in the summer, becoming to date the last wrestler to win the tournament while champion. This match won't be everyone's cup of tea, but to me it was a masterpice of violence and a fantastic Tokyo Dome main event. ****

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: It started out solid enough, fell off a cliff in the middle, but recovered nicely with a great closing stretch. On the whole, I think this was the best January 4 show in several years.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-