Wrestling World 2002

Legacy Review

Wrestling World 2002

January 4, 2002 from the Tokyo Dome

A year after the January 4th Dome show was centered completely around a tournament for the vacant IWGP Heavyweight Championship and no other title matches, this year we have the complete opposite- no IWGP Heavyweight title match at all for the first time ever on a 1/4 show. The grip of Inokism will become more and more powerful the next few years, leading to some more, er, unique card structures on these shows. This year is mostly wrapped around matches involving Masahiro Chono's TEAM2000 stable, his successor to NWO Japan, and, in the absence of an IWGP Heavyweight title defense, a unique main event. Little that anyone knew it at the time, this show would also feature the Dome debut of no less than three future New Japan legends, including possibly the biggest star in the company's history.

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

 

Masayuki Naruse and Masahito Kakihara def Wataru Inoue and Katsuyori Shibata in 10:50- Future New Japan legend Shibata is making his Dome debut along side fellow Young Lion and real life friend Inoue. Shibata and Naruse start with some exploratory kick swinging. Shibata grabs a leg and gets a takedown. Extended mat leverage fight with Naruse trying to put on a triangle choke. Light strike exchange. Tags on both sides and reset. Inoue and Kakihara have their own extended mat exchange. Kakihara hits some open hand strikes and Inoue ends up in the wrong corner. Naruse lays some kicks in. Inoue tries to chop back. A back kick drops Inoue and Naruse shoves him down to the floor with his boot. Back in Inoue ducks strikes, gets a leg takedown and tags. Shibata grabs a kick for a leg takedown but Naruse reverses it into an ankle lock. Shibata gets to the ropes. Double team kick on Shibata for 2. Kakihara suplex for 2. Shibata tries to hulk up off Naruse kicks but goes back down. He gets a desperation back kick and tags. Inoue lariato for 2. Suplex into Young Lion Submission Hold 1A, the Boston crab. No, it's just a single leg crab. Hold 1-1A. OK, that makes me wonder what's hold 1-1A-2B and if there's a 000 Destruct 0 code hold. Anyway. After a rope break Naruse grabs a kick and gives Inoue a dragon screw. Shibata hits a spinning heel kick on Kakihara. Kakihara kick to the face for 2. Double team kicks on Shibata. Shibata ducks strikes and gets a roll up for 2. German suplex for 2. Kakihara fights out of a dragon suplex. The Young Lion team hits a double team corner elbow and suplex. Stereo one leg crabs! Shibata keeps Naruse tied up in a facelock on the floor while Inoue wraps Kakihara up in the ring. Naruse escapes and makes the save. Kakihara rapid fire slaps on Inoue for only 1. Naruse hits a knee strike and Kakihara gets a lariato, and that gets the pin on Inoue. Perfectly serviceable "Young Lions show appropriate fighting spirit before losing" match. **1/4

 

El Samurai and Minoru Tanaka def Koji Kanemoto and AKIRA in 12:31- Kanemoto and AKIRA are members of TEAM2000. Tanaka wants Kanemoto bad. Kanemoto initially stalls but then obliges. He suckers Tanaka in with an immediate test of strength tease, throws him to the floor, and AKIRA dives right out with a tope suicida! Kanemoto tries to take Samurai's mask off while AKIRA and Tanaka continue to fight on the floor. When Tanaka gets back in Kanemoto continues to work him over. Really good heel stuff from Kanemoto here. Springboard corkscrew off the second rope for 2. AKIRA starts to pick Tanaka's leg apart. Kanemoto continues with it. AKIRA tags in and hooks on a figure four. Kanemoto beats Tanaka down while the hold is on! Finally Samurai has enough and his distraction breaks everything up. Kanemoto fights off a double team and hits a belly to belly suplex on Tanaka. An AKIRA missile dropkick accidentally hits Kanemoto! Kanemoto recovers to hook an ankle lock on Tanaka. With a full leg grapevine! Whenever Kurt Angle got that on it was over. Tanaka, however, manages to get to the ropes. They fight to the floor. Samurai goes for a tope suicida of his own but accidentally wipes out his own partner! Kanemoto moonsault back in for 2. Tanaka gets a basement dropkick and finally tags out. Samurai hits a headbutt off the top rope. He sets Kanemoto up top and gives him a hurricanrana. Kanemoto rolls through it into a cradle for 2! Snap belly to belly on Samurai. Kanemoto does some kind of spin kick and both guys are down. I don't think that went quite how they planned. Kanemoto hits a tiger suplex. Tanaka breaks the pin up. AKIRA diving lariato on Samurai for 2. Splash off the top for 2. Standing switches and AKIRA hits a DDT. More standing switches and Samurai hits a reverse DDT. Another headbutt off the top for 2. Tanaka and AKIRA have a good counter sequence that ends with a Tanaka dropkick. AKIRA responds with his own dropkick for 2. Enzuguri for 2. Kanemoto hits a falcon arrow and AKIRA immediately follows up with a splash off the top. Tanaka kicks out! Tanaka grabs an armbreaker! AKIRA fights, Tanaka tries to pull him back, but AKIRA manages to get a foot on the rope. Tanaka flips out of a German attempt. The heels collide and Tanaka gets a roll up for a long 2. He backslides AKIRA, and that gets the pin! Solid stuff, but it was one of those matches that was missing something you just can't quite put your finger on. **3/4

 

Yuki Ishikawa and Kazunari Murakami def Kenzo Suzuki and Hiroshi Tanahashi in 8:00- Here's the first Dome match for the future Ace of the Universe and the man who more than anyone else will save New Japan from going under post-Inokism, Hiroshi Tanahashi. Suzuki was also a Young Lion, but he didn't spend much time in New Japan. After stops in WWE and Mexico he would become an All Japan stalwart. Ishikawa is more a straight wrestler while Murakami is an MMA guy. Ishikawa and a very fired up Tanahashi start. Tanahashi gets the first takedown that leads to mat grappling. Ishikawa works into a chinlock, then a crossface. Tanahashi gets a hammerlock takedown. Leg scissors from Ishikawa. Tanahashi is the first to go to strikes, with forearms and a dropkick. I instinctively want to see him do some licks on the air guitar after that, but not yet. More mat grappling follows with Ishikawa getting an ankle lock. Tanahashi escapes and tags. Ishikawa hits Suzuki with an enzuguri that he barely sells. Standing switch and Suzuki hits a German. Ishikawa tries an armbreaker but Suzuki blocks it. Murakami tags in. Both guys swing exploratory strikes. Suzuki gets a takedown but Murakami works it into a triangle. Sasaki lifts him up but Murakami escapes. Some uninspiring MMA style mat tussle follows. Suzuki lifts Murakami and drops him on his head, then hits another German and an ugly suplex. Tanahashi tags in and is fired up to try to save this match like he'll save the company. Murakami half turns and stiff punches Suzuki right in the mush while he's standing on the apron! That sure looked like some kind of receipt for something that happened earlier. German from Tanahashi. He tries some ground and pound. Murakami reverses and pummels Tanahashi. Tanahashi gets up firing! Both guys stand and swing strikes like crazy as the crowd starts going nuts! Murakami nails Tanahashi in the head with a kick. Young Red Shoes, who'll be going up with Tanahashi all the way up to the main event, says Tanahashi is out and calls it. It started pretty good and Tanahashi tried to save it at the end, but that middle with Suzuki and Murakami was not pretty. *3/4

 

Jushin Thunder Liger, The Great Sasuke and Tiger Mask def Dick Togo & IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Gedo and Jado in 20:12- This is the Dome debut for Tiger Mask IV, still the current Tiger Mask today and easily the most successful. The famous Gedo/Jado/Togo trio are also in TEAM2000. Of some note: Liger won his second and final Best of the Super Juniors in '01. All his title reigns were behind him at this point however. Liger and Jado start. Shoulderblock standoff and Jado poses like he won something. Jado ducks an enzuguri. Liger tosses him to the floor and hits a baseball slide. Everyone's in and the faces clear the ring. All three faces hit planchas! Back in Liger hits a cannonball senton for 2. Tiger Mask hits a dropkick and Jado falls into the face corner. Sasuke comes in and Jado gets him over in the heel corner. Gedo hits some punches because that's a heel move in Japan. Sasuke gets a swing kick and back elbow. Gedo falls to the floor. Sasuke teases a plancha, lands on the apron, and hits a springboard moonsault! He landed all the way on the other side of the guardrail! Liger hits a powerbomb into a camel clutch. Togo breaks it up. TM gets pounded down in the heel corner. Armdrag from TM but he runs into a back elbow. He climbs up the ropes to flip out of a hold and hooks on a chicken wing. Liger works on Togo's knee. Spinning toe hold. Togo counters with a small package for only 1. Sasuke hooks on a single leg crab. TM headscissors. Togo escapes and TM ends up in the wrong part of town again, kicking off a bit of a face in peril run. Chops from Jado. Jado and Togo hit a 3D-like move for 2. TM gets run into an exposed turnbuckle. Togo starts undoing his mask and tries to take it off. TM fights free. Jado corner lariato for 2. Back suplex. Togo gives TM some mocking slaps to get him to fight back and hooks on a sleeper. After some arm drop checks Liger breaks it up. Togo powerslam for 2. Gedo jawbreaker/superkick combo for 2. DDT for 2. TM gets a kick combo on Togo and tags out to Liger. Shoteis for everyone! Togo gets a boot up in the corner but runs into a belly to belly suplex. Liger frog splash! Sasuke top rope blockbuster for 2. Missile dropkick for 2. Togo dodges a springboard moonsault. He gets thrown out onto the ramp. Sasuke misses a dive and splats on the ramp. Togo German suplex on the ramp! Sasuke landed right on his head! New Japan being New Japan they show that in a slo mo replay. Jado drags Sasuke's corpse back in. Powerbomb. Top rope splash. Top rope senton. Cover but the pin is broken up. The heels hit a trio of corner elbows, set Sasuke up and hit a triple team avalanche powerbomb! Very Shield style. Jado doesn't cover and instead hooks on a crossface. TM breaks it up. Sasuke flips out of a suplex. Jado blocks a German but runs into a handspring elbow. Tag. TM crossbody off the top for 2. He does a standing moonsault into a double knee on Jado. Headbutt off the top for 2. Jado lariato and tag. TM flips out of a Gedo German and hits a Pele kick. Tiger suplex! Gedo barely kicks out! Liger bomb! Again Gedo *barely* kicks out! Liger goes for a brain buster but Gedo escapes. Superkick. Jado hits a lariato and it's everyone in the pool again. TM dive to the floor on Togo! Gedo clutch on Liger! Liger kicks out! Shotei! Another! Brain buster on Gedo! That gets the pin! Damn good match with everyone playing their parts perfectly. ***3/4

 

Manabu Nakanishi def Giant Silva by countout in 6:49- Nakanishi is still a man going pretty much nowhere after his huge upset '99 G1 Climax win. Silva is a 7 foot monster formerly of The Oddities in Attitude Era WWF and is a member of TEAM2000. Nakanishi shoves. Silva chokes and backs Nakanishi into the corner. Nakanishi tries to attack Silva's leg but Sliva flips him down by the leg. Clubbing blows and a slam from Silva. He tosses Nakanishi out. Silva jumps over the top rope down to the floor. Commentary got all excited like he was actually going to do a dive or something. Please. Nakanishi tries to chop on the floor but takes more blows from Silva and gets posted. Back in Silva hits a suplex. Nakanishi dodges an elbow drop and puts on a sleeper. After a struggle Silva manages to power out. Nakanishi lariato. He goes for the torture rack! I'm not so sure about that strategery. He can't lift Silva up. Silva instead lifts Nakanishi up on his shoulder and drops him. Splash for 2. Silva argues with the ref and Nakanishi knees him in the back. A series of lariatos gets Silva to the floor. Nakanishi lets Silva get back in. He goes for the rack again! And manages to lift Silva up! It's still too much and they both tumble over the top to the floor. Nakanishi slowly gets up, goes up top, and dives down on Silva on the floor. Not the greatest dive in the world. Nakanishi gets back in. Silva doesn't and gets counted out. After the bell Silva attacks and choke slams Nakanishi to get his heat back. Nakanishi tried, but it's a Silva match. 1/2*

 

The next bit isn't in the World archives as it's a very rare non-match segment on a New Japan show. Antonio Inoki comes out, followed by IWGP Heavyweight champion Kazuyuki Fujita in a wheelchair, the first of several guys with MMA backgrounds who'll get a run with the belt thanks to Inokism. He broke his leg shortly before this show and officially vacates the title. Inoki says the title will be awarded in a tournament, then introduces another of his pet projects, Tadao Yadusa. Yasuda was an underwhelming undercarder for New Japan in the '90s, but he had just started winning MMA matches so Inoki was going to push him to the moon. Yasuda would win the tournament for the vacant title. Fortunately he only held it about a month before dropping it to proper wrestler Yuji Nagata for Nagata's first singles title win. He'd go on to hold it for over a year and set a new record for successful defenses in one reign with 10, one of the few bright spots in an otherwise difficult time.

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Kendo Kashin (c) def Daijiro Matsui in 5:43- Matsui is one of Inoki's MMA projects. Unusually for the MMA vs wrestler battles of this period, wrestler Kashin is the clear heel here. Lots of positioning and jockeying after the bell. Kashin steps out to the ramp to rile the crowd up. When they get going Matsui has a clear mat grappling advantage. Kashin offers a handshake. Matsui, naive fool, takes it and Kashin kicks him right in the junk. That sets Matsui off and he pounds Kashin down in the corner. Armdrag and more ground work. Kashin lifts Matsui up and I think is supposed to crotch him on the top rope but Matsui doesn't land right and has an ugly fall off the ropes to the mat instead. They go to the floor. After some more weak brawling Kashin gets whipped over the guardrail. Matsui gets back in, goes for a plancha but his hands slip off the top rope, then decides to try a dive through the ropes and does what might be the single ugliest dive I have ever seen, landing right on his head and missing Kashin by a mile. That's why MMA guys don't dive. Then he pops right back up and pounds on Kashin some more. Back in Matsui hooks on an STF. Kashin gets to the ropes. Kashin fights out of the corner, some more fumbling follows, the ref gets punched in the corner for no reason at all, Kashin does a headscissors into a victory roll and gets the pin. Fugly as hell. 1/4*

 

Hiroshi Hase and Keiji Mutoh def Osamu Nishimura and Tatsumi Fujinami in 16:44- Hase was a huge New Japan star in the first half of the '90s. He retired at the '96 1/4 show but, as usual in wrestling, the bug hit again and he was in All Japan by '97, where he and Mutoh co-founded the cross-promotional BATT (Bad Ass Translate Trading) stable. Mutoh is currently half of the IWGP Heavyweight tag champs along with another BATT stablemate, Taiyo Kea. He's also the reigning All Japan Triple Crown champion thanks to NJPW/AJPW's longstanding cross-promotional ties. For now. Nishimura and Hase start with a very long but pretty good amateur style sequence. After tags Mutoh works on Fujinami's arm. Fujinami counters and Mutoh blocks an armbreaker. Hase and Fujinami have a test of strength knucklelock. Hase bridges and straitjackets Fujinami. Both guys try for leg holds. Hase gets into the wrong corner and his arm is worked on a bit. Hase escapes from a headscissors with some style points and tags out. Mutoh takes Nishimura down and drops his trademark elbow, then starts in on the knee work. Hase and Nishimura have a slow mat battle. Hase gets worked into the wrong corner again and Fujinami gives him a kneedrop from the top rope. Dragon screw! Partial figure four/spinning toe hold from Fujinami. Nishimura puts Hase in a bow and arrow. Fujinami open hand slap that floors Hase. Speed run, Hase blocks a hiptoss but Fujinami works him down. More Fujinami open hand strikes. Hase blocks a whip into a Russian leg sweep. It's giant swing time! The crowd counts along. After Hase gets his bearings back he goes for a Saito suplex. Fujinami turns over and covers for 2. Tags on both sides. Mutoh goes for leg dropkicks while Nishimura tries to counter with strikes. Mutoh dragon screw. Both guys trade knee kicks. Another dragon screw. Nishimura tries to put on a cobra twist. Mutoh blocks and escapes. Nishimura sleeper. Mutoh flips him over to get out. He tries to put on his own cobra twist. Fujinami runs in and gives Mutoh a high knee in the face! Commentary is screaming "shining wizardo" but that was more a straight high knee. Nishimura missile dropkick. German suplex. Hase breaks the pin up. Another German. Mutoh kicks out. Hase uranage! He blocks a Fujinami dragon suplex and hits him with a northern lights suplex! The ref doesn't count because neither of them are legal. Mutoh leaps over both of them and hits Nishimura with the real shining wizard! Another shining wizard! That gets the pin. Not bad at all. Four vets doing what they do. ***1/4

A week after this show Mutoh dropped the equivalent of a nuclear bomb on the Japanese wrestling world: he was leaving New Japan and moving to All Japan full time, leading a small defection to AJPW that also included Satoshi Kojima and Kendo Kashin. This was a huge blow to New Japan, especially coming soon after another mass defection to Shinya Hashimoto's new Zero-One promotion. As a result, New Japan ended their longstanding partnership with All Japan and the two companies ceased putting on the joint shows that were common between them to that point. Mutoh and Kea were stripped of the IWGP Heavyweight tag titles, but Mutoh continued as Triple Crown champion until losing to Toshiaki Kawada in February.

 

Kensuke Sasaki and Naoya Ogawa no contest in 4:02- Ogawa, the thorn in Shinya Hashimoto's side and the biggest of Inoki's shoot fighter projects, is back in the Dome after a year off. Despite their previous differences Ogawa has joined Hashimoto in his new Zero-One promotion. The New Japan crowd loved to hate Ogawa. No matter how you feel about shoot fighters in wrestling, he certainly got reactions. Big ones. He was a natural dick heel. Sasaki took over from Hashimoto as the company's dominant champion for the past couple of years and was the centerpiece of the previous year's tournament, but he was on a slide back down the card due to disagreements with management and would be out of the company by the end of the year. Like all of Ogawa's matches this has been scrubbed from the NJPW World archive, and unlike previous shows I've done I can't find a copy of this match in any corner of Al Gore's interwebs. Ultimately it's not a huge loss as it's not much of a match, it's more of a giant scrum between the New Japan roster, the other shoot fight guys, and the Zero-One wrestlers also there. Nothing was settled and nothing was accomplished other than pissing the crowd off. This would end up being Ogawa's last singles match ever in New Japan. Moving on.

 

Tencozy def Masahiro Chono and Giant Singh in 10:47- Giant Singh is, I kid you not, early career Great Khali here to stink up the joint. TEAM2000 has two giants that can't wrestle. In fact, this is an inter-TEAM2000 battle. Tencozy had been on a losing streak and Chono was annoyed at them. Tenzan and Chono start. Tenzan jumps right in with Mongolian chops but runs into a Yakuza kick. Shoulderblock standoff. Tenzan lariato and more chops. Chono gets a boot up in the corner. Kojima comes in to a small pop, the only guy in this match that gets any real reaction. I think the crowd was still reeling from the awfulness of the last "match". Singh comes in to no pop. He tosses Kojima out of a lockup and no sells chops, then floors Kojima with one chop. Kojima tries for a slam which of course fails miserably. He gets slammed instead. Very gently. Horrible whip from Singh and even worse big boot. Even for a guy his size that was a medium boot at best. Tenzan comes in and Singh puts them both in headlocks. Tencozy double back suplex Singh! Singh lariatos both of them. He lifts Kojima up in a suplex position and Chono crossbodys him off the top, which inadvertently knocks Singh down as well. Yakuza kick. Piledriver for 2. Kojima gets an inverted atomic drop and dropkick. Corner chops. Chono dodges the elbow off the top rope. Yakuza kick for 2. STF! Tenzan breaks it up. Kojicutter! Tag and Tenzan is in with more Mongolian chops. Samoan drop. A Tenzan spinning heel kick.....misses? He swung wildly and Chono just wobbled in the middle of the ring with no contact. I have no idea what the hell that was supposed to be. Tencozy headbutt/elbow combo. Double team Kojicutter. Tenzan headbutt off the top for 2. Lariato for 2. Singh breaks a Tenzan hold up. Chono and Tenzan go for spinning heel kicks at the same time. Inverted atomic drop from Chono. Singh is in again. Yay. He no sells more chops. Goozle powerbomb on Tenzan. Kojima gets chokeslammed. Another powerbomb on Tenzan. No cover, Singh just stands there. Giant Silva gets on the apron. Tencozy run Singh into Silva, and roll him up for the pin. After the match Singh and Silva argue. They struggled at points even when Singh wasn't in there, and you know it sucked when he was. *

 

GHC Heavyweight Championship: Jun Akiyama (c) def Yuji Nagata in 19:58- With the IWGP Heavyweight champion freshly on the shelf Pro Wrestling NOAH's top title takes the main event stage, with rising New Japan star Nagata challenging. Nagata had a very up and down 2001. On the plus side, he won his first (and only) G1 Climax tournament that year to solidify his continued rise up the card. On the down side, as part of Inoki's continued effort to meld pro wrestling with MMA Nagata competed in an MMA match on New Year's Eve '01, just a few days before this show, that he promptly lost in 21 seconds and seriously hurt his credibility with wrestling fans. Just to let you know, this is the first time I've watched Akiyama wrestle so I'm not familiar with his moveset, apologies if I don't know names for his big moves. Cautious start into a leverage battle. Akiyama gets in a cheap shot on a corner break. That sets Nagata off. He pummels Akiyama with stiff kicks until he falls down to the floor. Akiyama takes his time getting back in. When he does Nagata immediately grabs him again. Mat grappling with Nagata doing some arm work. He transitions into a sleeper. The NOAH ref says it's a choke and forces a break. I'm sure that was an unbiased opinion. Akiyama blocks an armbreaker, gets free and stomps Nagata. They go into a great stiff forearm exchange that finally wakes the crowd up. Nagata big boots. Exploder! Akiyama exploder! Shining wizard! Nagata blocks another exploder and gets a facelock takedown. Piledriver from Nagata. Akiyama tries to fight off a second one but Nagata hits it. Cover for 2. Chest kicks. Akiyama ducks a spinning heel kick in the corner and hits a dropkick. They go to the ramp. Nagata blocks an exploder. Akiyama changes tacks and DDTs Nagata on the ramp! That had extra sauce on it because Akiyama dropped off the edge as he dropped Nagata! Really nasty looking. He drags Nagata down and tombstones him on the floor! But then he doesn't press the advantage and lets Nagata recover before getting back in. Akiyama hits a piledriver when he does and covers for 2. He hooks on a sleeper but Nagata gets a foot on the rope. Akiyama high knee. Nagata fights out of a German. Snap belly to belly from Nagata! He goes for an exploder, but Akiyama counters it into a crossface. Again Nagata just gets a foot on the rope. Akiyama corner knee. He tries coming off the top but Nagata kicks him coming down. Crossface from Nagata! It's Akiyama's turn to barely reach out a foot on the rope. Open hand slap exchange with sweat flying! Akiyama forearm. Brain buster! Nagata kicks out! Akiyama hooks on a guillotine. Long struggle as Nagata fights to keep from going out. Akiyama rolls hm into a cover for 2. Nagata kick to the head! Long 2 count! He goes for the armbreaker and gets it! Again Akiyama barely gets a foot on a rope. Enzuguri from Nagata. Saito with a bridge for another long 2. The crowd is finally really into it. Akiyama ducks another enzuguri and slams Nagata on his head. Brain buster exploder! Nagata kicks out! Pumphandle exploder! That gets the pin! Good match, but like a lot of stuff tonight was missing that extra something to get it to the next level. ***1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGTS- This was the start of a very bad period for New Japan as Inokism really started to take hold. There were some good matches, but you have to wade through quite a bit of crap to get to them and even the best matches on this show had a little something missing, nothing was must see. I think the best indicator of how rough it was going to be for New Japan the next several years is attendance for the next 1/4 Dome show was a little more than half of this one, and it wouldn't recover fully until the Wrestle Kingdom years.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-