Wrestling World 2001

Legacy Review

Wrestling World 2001

January 4, 2001 from the Tokyo Dome

This year's show has a singular focus: a one night tournament to determine a new IWGP Heavyweight champion. No other title is on the line, a first and only for 1/4 Dome shows. Kensuke Sasaki won the title at the previous year's show and dominated the year, even winning the 2000 G1 Climax with the only blemish on his record a draw. To this day he's still the most recent wrestler to win the G1 while reigning champion. But lightning finally struck in October, when he lost to All Japan's Toshiaki Kawada in a non-title match on a NJPW/AJPW joint show. Sasaki, disgusted he lost to an outsider, agreed to vacate the title and a 6 man tournament was set up for New Japan's biggest show of the year to fill the vacant title. I'm honestly not sure how the byes were determined, but Kawada got one and Sasaki didn't, making his road to getting the title back even harder. Masahiro Chono got the other bye.

As usual this is from the New Japan World archives so only Japanese commentary for shows this old.

Quarterfinals: Kensuke Sasaki def Satoshi Kojima in 16:33- After a lockup standoff Sasaki goes straight into a Saito suplex out of a headlock. Kojima dodges a lariato and Sasaki falls all the way to the floor. Kojima teases....stops....TOPE SUICIDA from almost a standing position! When he gets back in the ring Kojima is bleeding from above his right eye after a bad landing. Sasaki's arm hit the guardrail on the floor and Kojima goes to work on it. Sasaki hits chops to get out of it. Suplex. Kojima jawbreaker/cutters of out a chinlock and goes back on the hurt arm. Senton. Sasaki blocks an armbreaker. Totally random, but I'm just now seeing Square has ads on the neutral white corner pads. Cool. Square or Squaresoft, now Square Enix, is the developer of, with apologies to many other franchises, my favorite video game franchise of all time, Final Fantasy. In 2001 they'd be in the middle of development of FF X on PS2. Anyway, I'm undistracted as Sasaki hooks Kojima up for a Scorpion Death Lock. Kojima fights it but Sasaki manages to get him turned over. Kojima gets to the ropes. Big chop exchange. Kojima cutters Sasaki's hurt arm. Some more focused arm work follows. Running corner elbow from Kojima. He hits the elbow off the top rope. Kneedrop on the arm. Sasaki attempts to fight it off but Kojima hits a dropkick off the second rope also targeting the arm. Sasaki tries to hulk up with chops. He catches a leg and slams Kojima, but Kojima hangs onto the arm all the way down and has an armbreaker applied! Sasaki gets to the ropes. Kojima hits the ropes but runs into a Sasaki powerslam! Sasaki tries a misdirection faceplant but Kojima anticipates it and runs Sasaki's arm into the corner! Kojima spinebuster for 2. Back to the arm again. Sasaki pulls him into a short arm lariato! Both sides lariatos from Sasaki. He goes for the northern lights buster but Kojima blocks it and turns it into a Michinoku Driver! Cover for 2. Kojicutter for 2. Lariato for 2. He stretches Sasaki's arm out again, almost into a Fujiwara armbar. Sasaki gets a foot in the white out of bounds area. Kojima pulls into an armbreaker but the ref forces a break. Kojima reverse DDT for 2. Sasaki blocks a lariato. Kojima goes again and it hits! Cover for a long 2. Sasaki arm flip slam! Lariato! Kojima absorbs it! Another one puts Kojima down! Northern lights buster! Instead of covering, Sasaki puts on a Boston crab. Kojima submits! Damn good match to get the tournament going. The crowd was into it more than any opening match on a 1/4 Dome show so far. Sasaki also now has a wounded arm to watch the rest of the tournament. ***3/4

 

Quarterfinals: Hiroyoshi Tenzan def Yuji Nagata in 16:45- Two of New Japan's fastest rising young stars in this one. I forgot to mention earlier, the TenCozy team of Tenzan and Kojima are also the reigning IWGP Heavyweight tag champs. They start out with some corner break jockeying and extended standing chain wrestling. Nagata eventually works Tenzan down and the back and forth continues on the mat. Tenzan escapes and reset. Chop exchange. Nagata hits forearms, Tenzan a headbutt and Mongolian chops. Nagata belly to belly suplex! A kick to Tenzan's head wobblelegs him and Nagata covers for 2. Stiff chest kicks from Nagata kicks off (no pun intended) a long sequence of kicks. Snap mare and a kick to the back of Tenzan's neck. Nagata hooks in a leg scissors and Tenzan gets to the ropes. Nagata continues work on Tenzan's leg and ankle. Tenzan goes to a desperation eye rake to get out. Snap mare and Tenzan drops some throat chops. Forearm exchange. Mongolian chop. Nagata blocks a second and hits a somersault kick! Tenzan pops out of the corner with a lariato and his own somersault kick. More Mongolian chops and corner lariatos. Kneedrop off the top for 2. He goes up again. Nagata joins him and hits a belly to belly superplex! More kicks. Enzuguri! Northern lights suplex for 2. Nagata puts a heel hook on! Tenzan gets to the ropes. Nagata ducks a lariato and hits a Thesz Press! He hooks Tenzan in a modified figure four! Tenzan fights to the ropes. More Mongolian chops. Nagata kicks at Tenzan's knee. Tenzan backdrop. He hits the headbutt off the top rope! Nagata kicks out! Dropkick to the leg from Nagata. He goes for the modified figure four again. Tenzan low blows him! Nagata low blow and roll up for 2! Tit for tat. He gets the modified figure four on again! Tenzan tries for the ropes but Nagata keeps him in the middle of the ring. After a bit Tenzan doesn't submit so Nagata lets go. More leg kicks. Both guys are standing and swinging haymakers. Chops, forearms, Mongolian chops, everything. Unloading the gun rack. Neither will go down. Tenzan lariato! Sit out tombstone! The moonsault hits, and Tenzan gets the win! Nothing against Tenzan, but booooo to Nagata losing early, he's one of my favorites from this period. Another good early tournament match. ***1/4

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Junior Stars def Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Shinya Makabe in 18:02- Junior Stars are a true all star tag team of longtime Liger rival and multi-time Junior Heavyweight champion Koji Kanemoto, and the current junior champ in his first reign Minoru Tanaka. Shinya Makabe, better known now as Togi Makabe, is making his Dome debut and I believe is still officially a Young Lion at this point. Takaiwa would soon leave New Japan to be a co-founder of Zero-One with Shinya Hashimoto, more on that later. I'm not sure why the titles aren't on the line here but whatever. Tanaka and Makabe start. Makabe looks so different with the basic Young Lion look. Especially the hair. After some stalemate wrestling Makabe gets some corner knees and a slam. Big chops from Takaiwa. Kanemoto and Takaiwa do some back and forth mat wrestling. Takaiwa muffs a slam a bit. The Stars both kick the piss out of Makabe. Tanaka dropkick and kip up. He and Makabe trade off some leg work. Makabe works Kanemoto down. More Takaiwa chops lead to a slugfest. Tanaka suplex and kneedrop of Takaiwa. Makabe chops and dropkick on Tanaka. The Stars take turns hitting chest kicks on Makabe. Kanemoto gets caught in the wrong corner and chopped down. Takaiwa powerslam. Kanemoto combo kicks put Takaiwa down. Takaiwa hits a DVD for 2. Kanemoto dragon screw! Takaiwa lariato and Kanemoto gets set up for a big double team move. Tanaka comes in and breaks it all up and the match breaks down a bit. Makabe whips Tanaka into the guardrail, then breaks up Kanemoto's ankle lock on Takaiwa. One punch from Kanemoto floors Makabe! Makabe ducks a kick and hits a German suplex! Spear! Not a great one though. It's funny how the spear has always been a transitional move in New Japan, but it's a finisher for multiple wrestlers in WWE because Vince loved it so much. Makabe and Takaiwa load up for the double team move they were trying before and hit it this time, a kind of doomsday device powerbomb. Then they hit Kanemoto with a lariat/northern lights suplex combo. Kanemoto kicks out! He blocks a Makabe suplex and hits a falcon arrow. Tags on both sides and we're DONNYBROOKING. Tanaka avoids a double team, hits a spinning heel kick on Makabe and backslides Takaiwa for a long 2. Takaiwa blocks a spinning heel kick. Makabe powerslam. After a long counter sequence Makabe hits another German. A second one with a bridge! Kanemoto just fights free of Takaiwa to break the pin up! Tanaka spins into an armbreaker! Takaiwa breaks that up. Makabe and Kanemoto have a stiff open hand slap exchange. Makabe comes out on top. German! Kanemoto rolls into the ankle lock! Makabe gets to the ropes. Tanaka dropkicks Makabe's leg and Kanemoto puts the ankle lock back on! Makabe taps! ***1/2

Takashi Iizuka def Kendo Kashin in 6:12- This is a rare cross-weight class singles battle, with Kashin a junior and Iizuka a heavyweight. It's also billed as "Technical Wrestling". We'll see how long that lasts. The first couple of minutes lives up to the billing with a very extended back and forth chain wrestling sequence. Young Red Shoes is the ref for this match, working his way up the card. They both go to the floor and Iizuka whips Kashin over the barricade and into a VIP area! Guess the technical part of the match is over. Iizuka slam back in for 2. An armbreaker is blocked. Kashin gets on top and fights to get a leverage pin. Iizuka escapes and reset. Kashin hits European uppercuts and Iizuka chops. Kashin blatant low blow kick! Then he kicks Iizuka in the head. Red Shoes is not at all happy, but come on, it's Red Shoes, he's not DQ'ing anybody. Kashin wedges Iizuka's legs in the corner and hits a Greco Roman Nut Kick. Iizuka gets out and mauls Kashin with forearms. Kashin rolls into an armbreaker. Iizuka gets to the ropes. Kashin superplex. Iizuka tries a whip but Kashin holds onto the arm and turns around into a sleeper! Iizuka gets in the ropes. Exploder suplex from Iizuka. He puts on a sleeper. Kashin taps! OK match. **

 

Semifinals: Kensuke Sasaki def Masahiro Chono in 11:28- Rough lockup to start. Shoulderblock standoff. Sasaki wins a second try. Suplex. Sasaki runs into a Yakuza kick! Chono hits knee strikes and elbow drops. ARMBAR! Sasaki hits rapid fire chops in the corner. Misdirection faceplant. Chono works into a headscissors on the mat, then gets back on Sasaki's wounded arm. Sasaki hits a flash dropkick. Chono gut kick and he puts on a butterfly lock. Sasaki backdrops out. Chono goes to the floor and stalls a bit. Back in he hits another Yakuza kick. Sasaki doesn't go down. Chono goes up top. Sasaki meets him and hits a superplex. Chono pops back up! Yakuza kick! Sasaki hits a powerslam. Now it's Chono's turn to hit a superplex. Sasaki pops back up and hits a lariato! Chono Yakuza kick to the hurt arm. Spinebuster into the STF! Sasaki slow crawls and manages to get to the ropes. He gets the arm flip slam, which is badly sold by Chono. But Chono rolls around and puts the STF on again! Another rope break. Lariatos from Sasaki and cover for a long 2. Powerbomb for 2. Piledriver. He puts on his dragon hold submission. (I guess that's what it's called, Japanese commentary always says that in English when he puts that on) Chono taps! **1/2

 

Semifinals: Toshiaki Kawada def Hiroyoshi Tenzan in 10:45- They charge into the lockup right at the bell. Tenzan hits headbutts then RUNS Kawada over with a shoulderblock. Mongolian chops. Kawada hits some hammy kicks, a slam and back kicks. Chop exchange that Tenzan stops dead with another headbutt that drops Kawada. Backdrop. Spinning heel kick. Kawada dodges the headbutt off the top. Tenzan is still up first, lays in some more headbutts and hits a tombstone. A second try and the top rope headbutt hits! Slow cover for 2. Tenzan superplex. Kawada collapses in the middle of the ring on a corner whip. Corner chops from Tenzan. Kawada swings a hard right hand and floors Tenzan! That gets a replay. Face kicks from Kawada. Running corner kick. Tenzan fights out of a hold attempt so Kawada kicks him right in the head. Tenzan grabs a leg on another kick attempt and gives Kawada a dragon screw! A second one! Modified figure four! Kawada gets to the ropes. Enzuguri from Kawada! Tenzan lariato! He goes up for the moonsault. Kawada kicks him from behind, lifts and gives him a back suplex for a long 2. Another Kawada enzuguri. Front enzuguri for 2. He goes for a powerbomb but Tenzan fights out. Another big kick to Tenzan's face. Another powerbomb cinch up. Tenzan tries to fight it but Kawada slowly gets leverage and hits it, then stacks Tenzan up for the pin. **3/4

 

Keiji Mutoh and Shinjiro Otani def Manabu Nakanishi and Jushin Thunder Liger in 5:44- Getting all the big names with nothing else to do on the card. This is Mutoh's big return to New Japan after being forced to disband NWO Japan after losing at the last 1/4 show, then spending most of 2000 in the US with WCW and taking time off to rehab injuries. He was supposed to have a singles match with Hayabusa from FMW tonight but Hayabusa was injured. Mutoh is also debuting his shaved head and goatee look in New Japan. This is in the short period where Liger and Otani were both moved up to the heavyweight division as part of a very unsuccessful experiment. In fact, Otani would be another defector to Hashimoto's Zero-One promotion as a co-founder soon after this show, a promotion he'd stay with the rest of his career. Liger is in his super cereal all black gear for the second straight 1/4 show. The previous year when he wore it he destroyed longtime rival Koji Kanemoto in less than 5 minutes. Nakanishi had been treading water at best since his massive upset win in the '99 G1. Mutoh and Otani jump as soon as intros are over and we're on. Otani hits a running corner kick and German on Liger while Mutoh drops his signature elbows on Nakanishi. As the ring clears Otani puts Liger in the torture rack, which is a bit of an FU to Nakanishi. Everyone's in again. Mutoh gives Nakanishi a dragon screw and Nakanishi rolls out to the floor. Mutoh suplex on Liger. Liger tries to fight back so Mutoh eye rakes him. Liger hits an enzuguri and tags out. Nakanishi/Mutoh chopfest. Mutoh grabs a kick and hits another dragon screw. Figure four! Otani cuts Liger off. Nakanishi does the slow crawl and gets to the ropes. Otani chops Nakanishi in the corner and starts to do his boot scrapes, until Nakanishi pops up and nails him with a spear! Spear for Mutoh! Otani dropkicks Nakanishi from behind. Powerbomb. He turns to hit the ropes but Nakanishi grabs him and German suplexes him! He puts Otani up in the torture rack. Mutoh comes in so Nakanishi throws Otani on Mutoh! Liger's tagged in and hits Otani with shoteis. Brain buster! Otani kicks out at ONE! He ducks another shotei, hooks up for a dragon suplex but quickly switches and gives Liger a German instead. Nakanishi breaks the pin up. He puts Mutoh in the rack while Otani gives Liger a spinning powerbomb for 2. Mutoh escapes and puts Nakanishi in an armbreaker. Otani cobra clutch on Liger! He gets Liger down and grapevines his body. Liger taps out! They did the absolute best they could with the little time they got. ***

 

Riki Choshu and Shinya Hashimoto no contest in 15:20- This one is really putting the special in special shingles matche. Hashimoto was New Japan's most dominant wrestler for the second half of the '90s and held the record for longest IWGP Heavyweight title reign. In '99 he started a feud with shoot fighter Naoya Ogawa that quickly turned nuclear intense and even crossed the business/real life personal line a few times, including the infamous incident at the '99 1/4 show. Hashimoto vowed to leave New Japan if he lost to Ogawa again, which he did in April 2000 and New Japan made him keep his word. It was a very strange ending for such a dominant run. As mentioned earlier Hashimoto put together his own promotion, Zero-One, but would still make the occasional New Japan appearance as a freelancer, including tonight. Choshu was one of New Japan's early stars in the '70s and '80s. He retired with much fanfare at the '98 1/4 show, but as usual in wrestling retirement didn't last long. He was also New Japan's booker in this era, though Inoki had a lot of say too. Absolutely epic atmosphere for the start of this match. The bell rings.....and Hashimoto refuses to get out of his corner. The ref says let's go. Choshu kicks him. Hashimoto isn't budging. More entreaties from the ref and he still won't move. Massive disrespect here. Finally Hashimoto deigns to get out of his corner.....and steps outside onto the entrance ramp. Oh the crowd doesn't like that at all. After more stalling Hashimoto gets back in and he's swinging! A kick puts Choshu down. Hashimoto follows with some ground and pound. Choshu stands back up for about a second and another kick puts him right back down. More ground pound and corner stomps. The ref forces Hashimoto to back off. Hashimoto punches the ref out! Good thing Tiger Hattori was already ringside as backup. He hops in and takes over. Nakanishi, who's part of the ringside New Japan contingent, gets on the apron and he's pissed. Hashimoto charges into a Choshu punch! Kicks and stiff punches from Choshu. Hashimoto rolls out. He takes his time on the floor, and takes off the MMA gloves he had been wearing to this point. Lockup back in and Hashimoto pounds away again. Open hand slap fest. The crowd is absolutely nuclear during this exchange. Choshu hits a Saito suplex! Lariato! Another one! Hashimoto won't drop! A third one drops him! Choshu is clearly favoring his lariato giving arm after those shots. Hashimoto kick wham DDT! He hits chops to Choshu's shoulder, clearly seeing that arm is bothering him. Choshu chops back. More Choshu lariatos and Hashimoto kicks. Choshu is down again and Hashimoto wants him to stand up and fight you scum sucking pig you son of a motherless goat. The last part might have been lost in translation (points for anyone who gets that movie reference). Choshu catches a kick and elbows Hashimoto's knee. Hashimoto hits the hurt arm again. Another long open hand slap exchange that ends in stalemate after both guys have no swings left. Hashimoto is up first and Hattori counts Choshu down. Choshu gets up at 9 and wobbles Hashimoto with a huge punch. Lariato! Both guys are down again. Hattori steps out to the ramp and consults Tatsumi Fujinami, who's on commentary, about something. When they get up both guys continue to swing haymakers. Hashimoto lariato. Fujinami waves from commentary, gets up and goes to ringside. Both guys are down again. Fujinami gets on the apron, flashes the X sign, and calls the match off. All the seconds get in as the wrestlers cool down. I guess it's because of Choshu's arm? I don't think there's ever been a definitive answer other than it was all a work, not a legit injury. Fujinami gets the mic and gives the crowd the Ferris Bueller "it's over, go home" speech. Oh shit, we still have a main event. Don't go home. The match was good while it lasted and incredibly stiff with a molten hot crowd, but that ending sucked. I guess no one wanted to take a loss. This is pure speculation on my part, but word is Hashimoto got a reputation in New Japan during his dominant run of being unwilling to do any jobs to anyone, which might have been part of the reason he was essentially let go and this might have been more of that. Again, that's me connecting dots that might or might not be on the same page, don't take it as gospel. ***

 

Tournament Final for the Vacant IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kensuke Sasaki def Toshiaki Kawada in 10:30- Another big match atmosphere here as this is the tournament final everyone wanted to see. They charge in right at the bell and Kawada hits an enzuguri! Another one! Saito suplex for 2! After some Kawada kicks Sasaki backdrops out of a powerbomb attempt. Another Kawada enzuguri for 2. Chest kicks. Sasaki catches a kick and drops him! Lariato! Kawada face kick, Sasaki lariato, repeat again. Sasaki pulls Kawada up for a hard lariato that gets a replay. Powerbomb for 2. Kawada fights out of a German and hits a Pele kick. Sasaki powerslam. Open hand slap tradeoff. Kawada gets a German suplex! Lariato! Rapid fire open hand strikes from Kawada don't faze Sasaki at all. Snap mare and back kicks from Kawada. Kneedrops for 2. He puts on what looks like a variation of Sasaki's dragon hold. Sasaki goes down and Kawada covers for 2. More face kicks from Kawada. After a long struggle the powerbomb hits! Sasaki kicks out! More kicks and Kawada goes for the powerbomb again. Sasaki fights, lifts and spinebusters Kawada! Boston crab! This is where Sasaki winning a match with this earlier tonight turns out to be good booking, because now you believe he can win with it here too. After a long struggle Kawada manages to get to the ropes. The northern lights bomb is blocked! Kawada enzuguri! FULL SPEED DOUBLE LARIATO! Kawada goes down, Sasaki just manages to keep his footing. Kawada blocks a German by grabbing the ropes. Sasaki gives him a straight shot right in the back of the head, goes again and hits the German! Lariato! Kawada *just* kicks out! Northern lights bomb! Sasaki gets the pin and the title back! The crowd was ape shit for that whole finish sequence and the win. Amazing sprint. ****1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The main event is the only thing approaching greatness, but the whole show is solid from top to bottom with everything being at least watchable to near good and carried literally start to finish by a superb nightlong performance from Sasaki in the tournament. It's also refreshingly free of the Inokism style that had been coming to the forefront the previous couple of years and plays more like a classic early/mid '90s NJPW show from before Inoki lost his booking mind in retirement. Sadly that wouldn't last. Overall it's one of the best pre-modern Wrestle Kingdom January 4th shows, but it is a little disappointing there were no other title matches.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+