Wrestling World 2004

Legacy Review

Wrestling World 2004

January 4, 2004 from the Tokyo Dome

We're still in the doldrums of Inokism, NJPW's roughest period. This show features the largest card on any 1/4 show to date with a whopping 15 matches. Many familiar names to modern fans make their Dome debut on this show as New Japan continues to rebuild its roster following some high-profile defections.

As usual this is from the New Japan World archives so Japanese commentary only. Also, it's not mentioned on Wiki or Cagematch, but World lists the first five matches as "special gifts match", which through crappy online translation likely means preshow. Also this looks to me like the first Dome show to be recorded in HD, well before US companies made the transition.

Hirooki Goto def Naofumi Yamamoto in 6:21- "Always the bridesmaid but never the bride" Goto is making his Dome debut as a Young Lion. So is Yamamoto, who will later become known to US audiences as Yoshi Tatsu in WWE, a name he'd take back with him to New Japan for his fun run as the "Bullet Club Hunter". Him doing Triple H's entrance was a sight. Good lord, Yamamoto/Tatsu is bald. That look will change. Goto is also much smaller than he would be. I guess he hadn't grown into his body yet. There's hardly anyone in the crowd and no commentary so this must be a preshow. Typical Young Lion basic stuff at the start with lots of mat wrestling. Yamamoto blocks armbar attempts. He gets a drop toe hold into a legbar. Goto reverses into a single leg crab. Basic Goto slam and cover for 2. He works a headlock. Forearm exchange. Yamamoto hiptoss into an armbar. Dropkick for 2. Yamamoto locks in Young Lion Submission Hold 1A, the Boston crab. Goto gets to the ropes. Chop time. Goto dropkick. Goto whips Yamamoto in the middle of the ring but for some reason Yamamoto switches direction mid-whip for the corner instead. Goto corner dropkick. Belly to belly suplex. Boston crab. Yamamoto tires to fight but Goto sits on him and he has to tap. Perfectly serviceable training match, both guys looked very green still with clearly limited movesets. *3/4

 

Katsushi Takemura def El Samurai in 6:53- Takemura was mostly an All Japan wrestler that was having a cup of coffee in New Japan. Takemura attacks during intros. He ducks a Samurai leapfrog, turns and gives him a belly to belly suplex. Standing switch into a Samurai reverse DDT. Takemura fights out of an armbar. Samurai takes control with some fairly basic offense. Takemura goes to mask pulling and eye raking to get out. Both guys are heeling it up a bit here. Takemura starts undoing Samurai's mask. Samurai corner lariato and DDT. Headbutt off the top for 2. Another Samurai reverse DDT. Powerbomb for a long 2. Takemura dodges in the corner and hits a rolling kick to Samurai's back. German for 2. Samurai transitions into a kimura! Takemura gets a foot on the rope. Samurai takes forever to set up, hits a running lariato to Takemura's back, then runs into a sloppy Takemura Frankensteiner for 2. Some kind of arm suplex with a bridge from Takemura for 2. Moonsault off the top and that gets the pin. Bleh, not a lot happening here. *1/2

 

Makai #1, Mitsuya Nagai, Ryota Chikuzen and Ryushi Yanagisawa def Enson Inoue, Hiro Saito, Michiyoshi Ohara and Tatutoshi Goto in 11:55- After being the big new heel stable in New Japan the previous year, Makai Club was in their waning months. This is a preshow large undercard tag match on a 15 match show with no real huge names, so you'll excuse me if I save some time and breeze through this one. The brawl starts before intros are even done. Things settle in with the anti-Makai crowd taking control before Goto gets caught in the heel corner. An uppercut is completely whiffed but sold anyway. Saito has some serious balding going on. The big wrestler looking ref with Tenzan's haircut is working this match again, I remember him giving Makai Club a questionable win at last year's show. No such shenanigans this year though, after the mandatory donnybrook the Makai team gang up on Goto and get a clean pin. *

 

Toru Yano and Shinya Makabe def Blue Wolf and Wataru Inoue in 10:18- Yano is also making his Dome debut, and this is not the Yano we know and love now. In the first half of his career he was a mega-heel. Or at least he would be after this, he hasn't dyed his hair blonde yet. Makabe was slowly starting to work his way up the card, and later in the year in his first G1 he would change his name to what we know him by now- Togi Makabe. Wolf is a Mongolian wrestler that had a short career in New Japan. Inoue was on his way up to be one of the bigger stars of the junior division the second half of the decade. Yano and Wolf start. Wolf wins the first exchange and goes into some leg work. Inoue gets the better of Makabe with some slaps. The larger Makabe blocks a slam and hits one of his own. Makabe and Wolf pound each other. Huge open hand strike exchange that gets what there is of a crowd going a bit. Yano tags in, walks into an Inoue spinning heel kick and gets worked over again. Yano's getting nothing in this match, no wonder he was so pissed off at the world after. For years. He tries a stand up strike exchange with Wolf but gets put down again. Inoue suplex on Yano for 2. Boston crab time. Makabe breaks it up. Ugly spear from Yano. Tag to Makabe. Wolf powerslams him for 2. Makabe no sells a Wolf suplex and Saito suplexes him. Tag to Yano. Let's see how this goes. Yano belly to belly on Wolf for 2. Corner lariato/high knee double team on Yano and Inoue flips him over into an armbar. Makabe kicks Inoue out of it after much resistance. Tag. Inoue brain busters Makabe for 2. Makabe spear! A German on Inoue gets the pin. Decentish. I'm not sure the right team won based on who looked good in the match but as I said Makabe was on the rise. Yano did look awful green. **

 

Masayuki Naruse def Tadao Yasuda in 2:30- This is a couple of Inoki's MMA guys going at it, though Naruse transitioned into wrestling smoother than most of the others did. Yasuda was the leader of Makai Club. We've got commentary for this match but it's still the preshow. Yasuda hits some ground knees. He gets Naruse in a front facelock. The ref warns Yasuda for working Naruse over on the ropes. Naruse dodges in the corner and hits a messy .5 German. Chest kicks. He goes for another German but Yasuda low blows him. Another ref warning. Yasuda low blows again! The ref stops the match. After a discussion the match is restarted. Naruse runs into a big boot. He blocks a second and hits a dragon screw. Rear naked choke. Yasuda goes out and it's over. Pretty pointless. 1/2*

That's it for the preshow, the main show starts...........now.

 

Ryuske Taguchi def Akiya Anzawa in 4:53- Another Dome debut, this time the Funky Weapon himself and future organizer of Taguchi Japan. Anzawa was a Young Lion that wouldn't last long in New Japan or wrestling as a whole. Rough young boy lockup. Anzawa double leg lift and takedown and he goes for a quick Boston crab. Taguchi escapes. Basic headlock/headscissors exchange. Taguchi shoulderblock for 2. It's weird seeing him this intense. I love Big Match Gutch when he shows up but he still has some fun. Both guys try for arm submissions. Taguchi gets some ground strikes in. Forearm exchange. Taguchi blocks a slam and it's open hand strike exchange time. Taguchi slam for 2. He stretches out an armbar and Anzawa just gets a foot on the ropes. More stiff open hand slaps with Anzawa getting the edge. Running forearms. Taguchi dropkick and that gets a pin. Another fine training match. These guys were clearly a bit further along than Goto and Tatsu. **

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Gedo and Jado (c) def Tiger Mask and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Heat in 17:15- Heat was in his third reign with the junior title (the first two were unmasked under his real name Minoru Tanaka). He defeated Jado for that title and would hold it over a year, until the next year's 1/4 show. Heat's mask looks more Liger like than ever. Jado and Heat start. Lockup games and a speed/counter stalemate. Gedo stomps TM down in the corner. TM dodges a corner lariato and lays in kicks. Suplex and kneedrop. TM ducks under an elbow and tope suicidas the big guy cornering the champs on the outside! I honestly don't recognize who that is and nothing online helps. He's no junior, that's for sure. TM dodges a Gedo baseball slide and he kicks his own guy! TM crossbody off the top rope to the floor on both guys! Back in Gedo's knee gets worked on by both challengers. TM kneedrop off the top rope onto the knee. Big eye rake from Gedo on Heat to get momentum back. Jado starts pummeling Heat's back, clearly a weak point because he crumples up pretty quickly. Exposed buckle shot in the heel corner. Gedo eschews the back work for more eye raking. Another hard exposed buckle shot. Jado dodges a Heat dropkick. Heat rolls through, goes again, hits it and tags. TM missile dropkick. Standing moonsault knees for 2. The big guy outside distracts the ref and Gedo runs in with a low blow on TM. Jado dodges TM swings, hits another quick low blow and puts on a crossface. Heat gets free from Gedo and makes the save. Jado and TM have kind of a rough exchange that neither seems sure of what to do. Gedo faceplant for 2. TM flips out of a German and hits a Pele kick. Tag. Gedo dodges a Heat dropkick off the second rope. Heat basement dropkick to the knee on Gedo they were working earlier. Single leg crab. Jado tries to break it up and TM gets him out. Heat lets go anyway. Gedo collapses on a whip attempt. Standing switches and Heat rolls up a kneebar. Gedo gets to the ropes. Lots of blocks and counters ending with Heat landing a kick on Gedo's head. Everyone in the pool! Everyone takes shots and everyone's down. Heat dodges in the corner and rolls Gedo up for 2. Gedo inverted atomic drop/DDT combo for 2. Heat gets his knees up on a frog splash. TM with a tiger suplex. Heat fisherman's suplex for 2. Gedo blocks a kneebar and sits on Heat for a long 2, but on the kickout Heat rolls the kneebar in! The ref stops the big guy from coming in with one of the belts to interfere. After a long fight Gedo makes the ropes. Gedo drop toe hold. Gedo clutch! Heat kicks out! Gedo has the belt and whacks Heat in the head with it! Frog splash! Heat kicks out again! I think that mask is padded. Heat roll up for 2. The big guy holds TM back while Gedo and Jado hit their double team powerbomb. Another frog splash and Heat's not getting up now. Good but not great. ***

In March Gedo and Jado would drop the junior tag titles to the team of American Dragon and Curry Man. American Dragon you should know is Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan, winning the only title he's won in New Japan to date. That needs to change before he's done. Curry Man is not a man made of curry, this isn't a Red Dwarf episode. It's Christopher Daniels under a mask, a ridiculous but fun character he'd later bring back in TNA and, naturally, Chikara.

 

GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship: Jushin Thunder Liger def Takashi Sugiura (c) in 17:52- Nice to see someone's junior title being defended on a 1/4 show, in this case Pro Wrestling NOAH's, and even better having Liger in the match. This is Liger's first singles match on a 1/4 Dome show since 2000. Even though he was fully into his heel run at this point and would form Control Terrorism Unit (CTU) later in the year, since this is an interpromotional match it's more classic babyface Liger for this one. He's back in his normal red and white gear to hammer that home. Rough lockup. Liger slaps on the corner break. Midring slap exchange. Liger hits a rolling kick. Sugiura no sells it and hits a spear! Shotei from Liger and Sugiura rolls out. Liger baseball slide. Crossbody off the top to the floor. Sugiura attacks as Liger gets back in the ring. Mat leverage fight. Liger hooks on a camel clutch. Sugiura gets on top but the NOAH ref straight stops him from throwing a closed fist punch. He hooks on a kimura instead. Liger counters with a legbar. He works on Sugiura's leg for a bit, with some jawing and slapping. Sugiura puts on almost a straight choke. Liger jerks his whole body like he's being choked for real. After a minute Sugiura lets go and covers for 2. Dropkick from Liger and Sugiura goes to the floor again. Liger tries the baseball slide again. This time Sugiura dodges, lifts Liger up by the waist, carries him all the way up the ramp, and suplexes him! Pretty impressive raw power display. Sugiura mocks a fan in full Liger cosplay that's in front of him. He drags Liger back in and covers for 2. Liger tries to fight back but a huge forearm puts him down again. Sugiura suplex into a chinlock/rear choke. Liger dodges in the corner and gets a roll up for 2. Sunset flip for 2. Back suplex and now it's Liger's turn for a chinlock/choke. Corner shoteis. Liger hits a hurricanrana off the top for 2. Another spear from Sugiura. Corner spear/suplex combo for 2. Sugiura ducks a shotei and hits a German. Another German for 2. Sugirua comes off the top rope, right into a shotei! Liger fisherman buster for 2. Sugiura flips out of a powerbomb, blocks a shotei, and hits an Angle slam! Olympic slam, whatever. I always preferred Angle slam even if it's not from Angle. Sugiura dragon suplex! Liger kicks out! Sugiura sets Liger up top and goes for an avalanche Angle slam. Liger blocks and shoteis him back down to the mat. He goes for a splash but Sugiura gets his knees up. They go out to the ramp again. Sugiura goes for an Angle slam on the ramp but Liger blocks it. LIGER BOMB ON THE RAMP! Sugiura barely beats the 20 count to get back in. Shotei! Cover for 2. Liger brain buster. He goes for another. Sugiura counters into another Angle slam! Slow cover for 2. Liger hits another brain buster! Shotei! He sets Sugiura up top. Avalanche brain buster! That gets the pin and Liger has stolen NOAH junior title! Another good but not great match. It had some dull stretches, especially by Liger's standards. Sugiura wrestled more like a heavyweight which gave the match a bit of a weird vibe. ***1/4

 

IWGP U-30 Openweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) def Yutaka Yoshie in 17:06- The U-30 title was a short lived title intended to give the younger guys a spotlight. U-30 literally means under 30, as in under 30 years old. The title was basically created for Tanahashi, who even with Inokism clouding their judgement the company rightly saw huge things in. Feeling out start. Tanahashi manages to put on a waistlock, no easy feat with Yoshie's, er, girth. Headlock fight. They knucklelock for a test of strength that Yoshie wins easily. He gives Tanahashi some power shots. Tanahashi gets a leg takedown and goes for a Boston crab. Yoshie easily powers out and hits a butt splash. More Yoshie power shots. Powerslam and splash for 2. Now it's his turn to go for a Boston crab. It's been a crabby sort of night so far. Tanahashi tries to power out but can't and settles for a rope break instead. Drop toe hold from Tanahashi and Yoshie hurts his taped up knee on the way down. Tanahashi identifies the target and goes to work. Yoshie's vocally selling the hell out of it, I'll give him that. Tanahashi dropkicks the knee on the ropes and tells Yoshie to get his fat ass up. Hey, I'm just translating here. Forearms and response forearms. A Yoshie slap puts Tanahashi against the ropes. Yoshie lifts him up by the legs and flips him out to the floor! Tanahashi tries to pull Yoshie out with him but Yoshie kicks and Tanahashi falls back and flips backward over the barricade! That was just about on the Mr. Perfect/Dolph Ziggler overselling meter. Back in Yoshie works some more power offense. He squashes Tanahashi in the corner. Tanahashi gets a sunset flip but Yoshie butt splashes him for 2. Corner whip reversal by Tanahashi and he hits a corner dropkick. He manages to slam Yoshie! Shotgun dropkick off the top rope. Suplex from Tanahashi! Not much air time on that but he got Yoshie over. Enzuguri off the second rope. German for 2! Tanahashi goes for a dragon suplex, which I believe was his finisher this early in his career. Yoshie backs him into the corner. Tanahashi makes the mistake of getting on Yoshie's shoulders in an electric chair position. Yoshie drops him. Dragon sleeper from Tanahashi! Yoshie powers out and hits a German. Avalanche. Thesz press for 2. Thesz press from the second rope for 2. Tanahashi dropkicks Yoshie's bad knee again. Dragon screw! He goes for a figure four but Yoshie floors him with a punch. Yoshie goes for the splash off the top rope (HE'S A UNIT, KEVIN) but Tanahashi dodges. Yoshie ducks a Tanahashi enzuguri and hits a back elbow. The knee gives out. A trio of Tanahashi enzuguris put Yoshie down. Dragon suplex! That gets the pin. Tanahashi did the best he could with what he was given. He was too young to be a miracle worker just yet. **1/2

 

Josh Barnett and Takashi Iizuka def Kazunari Murakami and Katsuyori Shibata in 16:04- Shibata and Murakami are also Makai Club, and both are decked out in full MMA gear. As soon as the bell rings Shibata charges Barnett with a high knee. They go into some typical MMA grappling. Shibata's got the ESPN logo on his tights. Wonder what that sponsorship deal was. Barnett hits hammy kicks on Shibata. More grappling. Iizuka continues the attack on Shibata's hammy. Barnett slams Shibata on the floor. Shibata headbutts Iizuka back to the Makai corner and tags. Murakami works Iizuka over. The ref has to physically separate them in the corner. Murakami stays all over Iizuka. Iizuka fights back with ground elbows. Shibata comes in to protest. A pissed off Murakami straight right floors Iizuka. He pushes the ref aside to continue the attack in the ropes. Shibata hits knees and kicks. Cover for 2. The beatings on Iizuka will continue until morale improves. He takes more stiff shots in the corner. Murakami tosses Iizuka into his own corner. Iizuka wakes up enough to trap Murakami in the corner and tags out. Barnett comes in hot and pummels Murakami in the corner. Yet another Boston crab. I haven't seen so many crabs passed around in one night outside a college frat party. Murakami tries to escape so Barnett transitions into an ankle lock. Rope break. Murakami gets beat down in the face corner. He fights back on Iizuka and gets the advantage again. Iizuka puts on a sleeper. Shibata makes the save. They go to the floor and Murakami gets posted while Barnett attacks Shibata. Barnett guillotine on Murakami. He hits ground elbows into an armbar. Another rope break. German from Barnett. He hits an exploder suplex on Murakami and that gets the pin. It was well worked and stiff as hell, and while I love Shibata and respect Barnett, despite the stiffness I've been very clear over these reviews that I just can't get into this pseudo MMA stuff. **1/4

 

Osamu Nishimura def Minoru Suzuki in 9:39- Here's the last of our big debuts, the King of Pro Wrestling Minoru Suzuki. He'd made his name MMA fighting in Pancrase, but had wrestling training before that and knew what he was doing. He's also heel blonde for this match. Nishimura was more an old school wrestler that was mentored by Tatsumi Fujinami. Cautious start. Suzuki shocks everyone by giving Nishimura a clean corner break. Nishimura tries the same on the next exchange but Suzuki slaps him. Suzuki rides Nishimura on the mat. Almost literally. Nishimura grabs a headscissors that Suzuki slowly escapes from. Now Suzuki puts on a headscissors. Nishimura also goes through an elaborate escape routine, but while doing it Suzuki has a look on his face that says he's got an evil plan in mind and Nishimura's falling right into it. Nishimura handstands to get out, and when he does Suzuki grabs his arm into an armbar! Nishimura gets a foot on the ropes and rolls out to recover, physically and mentally. Back in Suzuki grabs the top rope to block a whip so Nishimura uppercuts him. Suzuki dodges a dropkick and hits his own. No clean rope break from Suzuki this time. He lays in kicks on Nishimura's arm, his strategy clear. Nishimura grabs a leg and gives Suzuki a dragon screw. Spinning toe hold. Suzuki counters into another armbar! Again Nishimura just gets a foot on the rope. The Gotch style piledriver hits. Suzuki grabs a Fujiwara armbar and *cranks* on it. Somehow Nishimura doesn't submit. Suzuki lets go and puts a rear naked choke on. Nishimura falls into the ropes to get a break. Cobra twist cradle from Nishimura for 2. Backslide for 2. Suzuki uses that to grab another armbar! Another just barely rope break. Suzuki stays on the arm. Nishimura counters into another backslide and gets the pin! Decent but it never really hit high gear. I'm not sure the right guy won either. Regardless Suzuki came off as a murderous badass, and even this early in his career his facial expressions during a match are second to none. **1/2

 

Manabu Nakanishi def Genichiro Tenryu in 10:20- One of Japan's most famous and consistent freelancers, Tenryu is making another of his occasional New Japan stops and would stick around most of the year. Nakanishi's going with leather pants tonight rather than his usual generic black trunks. Both guys hit chops on rope breaks after the initial lockups. Nakanishi shoulderblock. After that they go into a very long chop off sequence, just pounding each other's chests. Eventually Tenryu falls out of the ring. Nakanishi hits a (very gentle) spear off the apron. More chops all around the ring. Both guys' chests have to be hamburger meat by now. Red Shoes starting a count is the only thing that gets their attention to get back in the ring. Nakanishi picks Tenryu up into an Alabama slam. Backbreaker. The torture tack is on! Tenryu tries to grab a rear choke as a counter, gets out, and hits a bulldog. Enziguri. DDT for 2. Weak Tenryu lariato. He goes for another but Nakanishi grabs him and suplexes him. Powerbomb. Nakanishi goes up top. Tenryu chops him, then Nakanishi very obligingly turns around so Tenryu can powerbomb him off the top rope. Elbow drop and another enzuguri. More chops. Corner lariato and corner chop/punch combo from Tenryu. Another DDT for 2. More lariatos. Nakanishi counters into another rack. Tenryu manages not to submit. Nakanishi suplexes him off the apron back in. A Nakanishi knee off the top rope whiffs but Tenryu sells it anyway for 2. Double lariato, no one goes down. Follow up lariato by Nakanishi. He hits a perfectplex and gets the pin. It started out fun with the crazy chop fest, but after that Tenryu's age was definitely showing, and Nakanishi's ceiling and ability to carry someone was always pretty low. *3/4

 

Yuji Nagata def Kensuke Sasaki in 12:10- This is a powerhouse upper card matchup. Nagata had a year long run with the Heavyweight title in '02-'03 and had established himself as one of the company's top stars. Sasaki was the dominant Heavyweight champion the couple of years before that, but disagreements with management had caused him to go freelance, though he did still have a couple of Heavyweight title reigns in his future. Multiple refs are in the ring to keep them separated for intros. The bell rings and both guys charge in right to an open hand slugfest. Nagata hits kicks and a belly to belly suplex. Sasaki lariato. The crowd is fully into this already, reacting to every move. Sasaki gets an armbar and Nagata gets to the ropes. Sasaki won't let go and they fall to the floor. He runs Nagata into the barricade, then grabs a chair and hits Nagata a couple of times. Nagata kicks the chair into Sasaki's face! Sasaki is busted open. Nagata attacks the cut. Exploder suplex on the floor! Sasaki ducks a kick, whacks Nagata super stiff in the back of the neck with a clubbing blow, and runs his head into the post a few times. Now Nagata is bleeding. Red Shoes gets tossed aside as all they want to do is fight. Both guys get back in the ring and are absolute bloody messes. Headbutts from Sasaki. More back and forth slugging. Stiff slaps. Sasaki lariato. There's blood all over both guys' bodies. No telling whose is whose. While Nagata is laying on the mat blood is literally pooling behind his head. I mean literally. You can see a light reflection in it. Sasaki bites Nagata's cut! And spits blood out of his mouth! Red Shoes' white shirt even has blood on it in several places. Nagata tries to hulk up but keeps going down. Red Shoes checks if he's OK to continue. HUGE Sasaki lariato! Northern lights buster! No cover. Red Shoes gets the other refs to hold Sasaki back while he counts Nagata out. Sasaki breaks the count up. Powerslam. More cut punches. Nagata lands a head kick! Running corner knee! Another head kick! Nagata lock! This goes on for several minutes. Sasaki refuses to submit, but he can't escape either. Sasaki's chest and Nagata's arm are literally covered in blood. Finally Red Shoes says enough is enough and calls the match. That was a brutal, bloody, beautifully violent war. It's seriously one of the bloodiest matches I've seen in my whole life, up there with Magnum TA and Tully Blanchard at Starrcade '85. ****

 

Keiji Mutoh and Bob Sapp def Cho-Ten in 21:00- New Japan legend Mutoh is making his first return to the company after his shocking defection to All Japan in early '02. Sapp is one of Inoki's favorite MMA ringers and a bloody huge guy. He would inexplicably win the IWGP Heavyweight title later in the year in one of the worst examples of Inokism run amok. Tenzan was coming off his short first run with the Heavyweight title and also won the '03 G1 Climax, his first of two straight and three tournament wins in four years. The ring mat is covered with dried or partially dried up blood from the last match. Sapp and Tenzan start. Shoulderblock standoffs. Sapp hits an avalanche. Tenzan responds with headbutts and his signature Mongolian chops. He tries to slam Sapp but naturally it doesn't go well. Sapp slams him instead. Spinning heel kick from Tenzan. Mutoh tags in to a huge pop. He tries some leg work on Tenzan and hits his signature elbow drop. Tenzan Saito suplex. Chono tags in and goes face to face with his forever rival Mutoh once again. Lots of caution from both guys. Chono works a facelock. Mutoh ducks a Yakuza kick and hits a dropkick. He tries to put Chono in his own STF. Chono blocks it, and when they get back up gives Mutoh a dragon screw. Now Chono tries for a figure four but Mutoh is already in the ropes. Sapp tags in and easily overpowers Chono. Chono uses a test of strength to get some shots in. Criss cross. Chono dodges a punch to the delight of the crowd. He manages to get Sapp in a cobra twist. Sapp counters into a sleeper. Tenzan breaks it up. Chono dodges and Sapp crashes into the corner shoulder first. Cho-Ten go to work on the hurt body part. Sapp gets tossed out and Chono runs his shoulder into the post. Back in Tenzan tries to suplex Sapp. No go. Chono comes in and they both try. Sapp suplexes both of them instead! Tag to Mutoh. Dropkick to Tenzan's knee and dragon screw. Shotgun dropkick off the top rope. He hurricanranas Tenzan off the top for 2. Tenzan counters with a suplex and tags. Chono Yakuza kicks hit and Mutoh falls to the floor. Chono tope suicida! While that's going on the ref is explaining the tag rope to Sapp. Remedial wrestling education during a match. Cho-Ten Hart Attack like double team on Mutoh back in. Chono tries Mutoh's own move the shining wizard but Mutoh blocks it! Chono blocks Mutoh's shining wizard! The STF is on! Mutoh gets to the ropes. Dragon screw! Figure four! Tenzan breaks it up with a headbutt off the top rope! Chono hits a shining wizard! So does Mutoh! Both sides tag. Sapp lariato. Tenzan Mongolian chops. Sapp blocks and hits a Mongolian chop! He press slams Tenzan. 3 point stance football tackle. Tenzan ducks a lariato and Chono trips Sapp. Tenzan slams Sapp! Headbutt off the top rope! Tenzan puts on the Anaconda Vice! Mutoh breaks it up. Corner lariato/Yakuza kick combo on Sapp. He shrugs it off. Headbutt on Chono. Mutoh hits Tenzan with a shining wizard. Sapp hits a shining wizard on Chono! Powerbomb and Sapp gets the pin! It tried hard to be good but didn't quite get there. Considering the talent of most of the guys in there it's a bit of a disappointment. **3/4

 

Title vs Title Match: IWGP Heavyweight Champion Shinsuke Nakamura def NWF Heavyweight Champion Yoshihiro Takayama in 13:55- "Super rookie" Nakamura pulled off one of the biggest upsets in company history the previous December, winning the Heavyweight title from Tenzan and becoming the youngest IWGP Heavyweight champion ever. The NWF title was essentially the "hybrid MMA" title, won by Takayama at the previous year's 1/4 show and held by him since. He also held the IWGP Heavyweight title for a good chunk of '03. Nakamura looks like he hasn't slept for a week. They go nose to nose after intros before the bell. Nakmura charges at the bell with a takedown and instantly tries for a legbar. Takayama gets to the ropes and looks surprised. Back and forth grappling. Nakamura goes for the leg again and Takayama tries to turn it into an armbar. Takayama hits clubbing blows, then kicks Nakamura right in the face! That gets a slow motion replay. Nakamura grabs a rear naked choke. Takayama tries to flip him over but Nakamura holds onto it. Another rope break. Nakamura belly to belly suplex. Takayama blocks a German but Nakamura keeps fighting and eventually hits it! He goes for a triangle choke. Takayama lifts and slams him. Legdrop. Measured blows from Takayama. A closed fist gets a Red Shoes warning. Takayama kicks Nakamura 360 over the top to the floor. He drops Nakamura on the guardrail. More knees and kicks to the head. Back in Nakamura tries to fight back with forearms. Another punch puts him back down. More flurry attempts and more punch cutoffs. Takayama hits nasty looking measured elbows right on Nakamura's forehead. Knee to Nakamura's face and a one foot cover for 2. Another knee. The match is all Takayama. It almost looks like he's toying with Nakamura and not even trying to put it away yet. Nakamura reverses a whip into another triangle attempt! Takayama tries the slam counter again, but Nakamura rolls over into an armbar! Takayama stacks him up for 2. Nakamura runs into a HUGE knee. Cover for a long 2. Takayama forearms and knees in the corner. Corner basement dropkick. Nakamura tries to throw some weak forearms and takes another knee in the face. Takayama back suplex. Saito suplex. Nakamura tries to hulk up. Takayama arrogantly kicks him in the face. Running knee. Nakamura kicks out again. Takayama hits a German. Nakamura rolls into a kimura lock! Takayama taps out! Solidly good match but not what you'd expect from a Tokyo Dome main event. Nakamura was still young and learning. Not sure the layout helped much with Nakamura taking a beating most of the match, but the submission win did offset that a little. After this Nakamura almost immediately returned the NWF title to the oblivion from whence it came. ***

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- After putting on possibly the worst Jan. 4 Dome show ever the previous year this is a small rebound, especially if you're feeling generous and excuse the preshow (which I'm inclined to do). Everything on the main show is at least watchable, though most of it not much else, and there's no out and out disasters, but the only must see match is Nagata/Sasaki, and that one is not for the squeemish.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C

NXT Takeover: Brooklyn II

Legacy Review

NXT Takeover: Brooklyn II

August 20, 2016 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY

Commentary: Tom Phillips and Corey Graves

One year after Takeover: Brooklyn made history as the first large arena Takeover, Brooklyn II is the start of every Takeover taking place in a large arena. This is the night before Summerslam, the Takeover schedule will be tied to major main roster PPVs for a while. Graves has already made his move up to commentate for Raw, but will be doing double duty with NXT for a bit longer.

Austin Aries def No Way Jose in 10:42- NO WAY! JOSE! NO WAY! JOSE! Jose is making his Takeover debut a few months after his TV debut. He's got a giant fan conga line going all the way around the ring on his entrance. Aries tries to play keepaway after the bell. He ducks a lockup into a waistlock, takes Jose down and easily wins a mat wrestling exchange, letting Jose know by slapping him on the back of the head. Jose is up hot and Aries hides in the ropes. He offers a handshake. Jose takes it and slaps him! The crowd sounds more pro-Aries at this point. Chops from Jose. Aries dodges a big right hand and bails to the floor. Back in he gets hit by another right hand and falls back down to the floor. Jose double ax handle off the apron. Aries begs off back in. Both guys go up top. Aries fights Jose off and drops him face first into the top turnbuckle. Aries goes on the attack as now the crowd's booing him. What is it they want? Elbow to the back of Jose's head off the second rope for 2. Jose fights out of a chinlock but runs into a back elbow. He starts to hulk up and tosses Aries to the floor. Aries is run into the turnbuckles from the apron and Jose give him chops on the apron. Aries wraps up the bottom rope to try to get a breather. Jose pulls him off. Aries uses the opening to hit a kneebreaker and floats over into the Last Chancery! Jose gets to the ropes. He ducks the discus elbow and hits a TKO for 2. Aries fights off a full nelson slam and Jose rolls to the floor. Tope suicida! Aries gives Jose a neckbreaker in the ropes. Corner dropkick. Aries hooks up for a suplex or DDT, but Jose counters into an x-plex for 2. Aries blocks the full nelson slam again. The discus elbow hits! Jose bounces off the ropes and hits a clothesline! Aries continues to block the full nelson slam and hits a crucifix bomb. Another corner dropkick for 2. Aries goes up top. Jose uppercuts him and joins. Fight on the top rope. Aries sunset bomb! Into Last Chancery! Jose taps! Decent match. Jose was clearly limited in what he could do, which would be why despite his entrance and charisma he wouldn't make a big mark in WWE before being one of the many let go during the pandemic releases. **3/4

After the bell Aries continues attacking Jose. Hideo Itami's music hits! He's here! Itami (KENTA) was finally cleared to return after being on the shelf with an injury for more than a year, murdering any momentum he might have had in NXT. He and Aries have a very hard time getting on the same page on what to do, then Itami lays in some strikes. The crowd chants for the GTS. Itami hits it! Finally that move has been unbanned because of its association with you know who.

 

Ember Moon def Billie Kay in 4:35- Two Takeover debuts here. Kay had been in the NXT system for nearly a year but had failed to get any traction despite nearly a decade of experience on the indy circuit, making her debut in her native Australia when she was just 18. The Booker T trained Moon (currently Athena in AEW/ROH) is making her full NXT debut as the Next Big Signing in the women's division. Small reaction from the crowd for her. Lockup! Hammerlock exchange and Moon tosses Kay with a headscissors from the mat. She blocks a Kay hiptoss and armdrags her. Kay counters with a hard elbow for 2. Moon springboard crossbody off the middle rope for 2. Kay does a Mia Yim eat defeat (defeet?)-like move for 2, then lays in some ground elbows, showing some fire. She tries to lift Moon up, can't hold her, resets, and puts Moon in a Canadian backbreaker. Moon tries to power out but Kay slams her on her face for 2. Flash roll up from Moon for just 1. Elbow exchange and Moon starts to get some momentum. Neckbreaker/double underhook suplex combo. Handspring corner clothesline. The as yet unnamed Eclipse (top rope cutter) hits and it's over. The crowd is still lukewarm after the win, clearly not sold on Moon yet. OK debut. Botch aside Kay looked as good as Moon did. **

 

Bobby Roode def Andrade Cien Almas in 10:22- After being teased the last two Takeovers and making warm up appearances on NXT TV, Roode is making his big in-ring NXT debut here. It's easy to forget now since Roode has been just a guy on the main roster for years, and seemingly content to stay that way as he winds his career down, but this was a *massive* signing for NXT at the time, getting one of the biggest stars in TNA/Impact history and another guy nobody thought would ever be in WWE. Probably NXT's second biggest signing in all of 2016, after Shinsuke Nakamura, in terms of pre-NXT star power. His entrance lives up to the hype, with Roode descending down a high platform like Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 25 while the whole crowd sings his already legendary music. Almas gets absolutely nothing on his entrance, the crowd is 100% Roode. "This is glorious" chant after the bell. They let the moment breathe a bit before locking up. Roode armdrags out. "GLORIOUS!". Basic exchange and Roode dodges a dropkick. "GLORIOUS!". Cheap kick from Roode out of a corner break. He tosses Almas but Almas grabs the ropes into his tranquilo pose. Big Almas chop and basement dropkick. He headscissors Roode to the floor. Back in Almas ducks a clothesline, flips over the top rope and lands on the apron, and shrugs at Roode. Roode tries to stay composed but the mind games are clearly pissing him off. Almas goes up top. Roode runs into the ropes to knock him off. Chop exchange. Roode delayed suplex and knees to the back. Almas flips out of a back suplex. Roode gets on the second rope but Almas dropkicks him to the floor. Corkscrew plancha! Almas springboard forearm back in for 2. Bulldog for 2. He sets up for the meteora. Roode cuts it off with a huge clothesline for 2. He sets up a German superplex. Almas fights it off. Roode tries again and Almas lands on his feet! Almas straitjacket German for 2. Roode gets his knees up on a springboard moonsault. He sets up a fisherman's suplex but Almas counters into a small package for 2. Boo/yay elbows. Almas heel kick. The meteora hits! Counter exchange and Almas hits a big boot. Roode spinebuster! He hits the Glorious Bomb (a simple pumphandle slam) for the pin. That finisher needs to be upgraded, and will be. Fairly good match, but a, dare I say, glorious debut for Roode. ***

Promo for the soon to debut Sanity. After that Triple H unveils the trophy for the Cruiserweight Classic, the finals of which will take place in September. I need to review that sometime, I've been wanting to watch it again for quite a while. Mauro Ranallo and a few of the cruiserweight wrestlers are ringside for the next match.

 

NXT Tag Team Championship: The Revival (c) def Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa in 19:10- Gargano and Ciampa, two of the hottest names from the indy scene and close friends in real life, had been floating around NXT for a while but had only recently signed full time deals. Backstage before the match Ciampa presented Gargano with a "#DIY" t-shirt, which would be their team name after this. The Revival at this point had almost fully turned all their doubters into believers, becoming the first 2 time NXT tag champs at the last Takeover and stealing the show while doing it. Ciampa and Dawson start. Lockup! A rough one. After that is some intense arm work trade off. Dawson hits the first chop. He ducks a Ciampa shot and goes to the floor. Revival do the classic planning session/stall and let the crowd get riled up. Back in Dawson and Ciampa do some more nice counter wrestling. Ciampa hits chops and Gargano gets a shot in from the apron. DIY hit a couple of double teams. Huge "Johnny Wrestling" chant for Gargano. Revival work the ref and Dawson hair pulls out of an armbar. After some standing switches Gargano hits a shining wizard style kick. Dawson tags in and walks right into armdrags. Back elbow on Gargano. Gargano slides under a double team, everyone comes in and we have a 2v2 standoff. Slugfest! Dawson gets clotheslined 360 to the floor while Gargano superkicks Dash. DIY set up their finisher. Dawson pulls Dash to safety. Gargano TOPE SUICIDA! Did Mauro shout "MAMMA MIA" from the crowd? I hope so. Total side thought: I once had the idea to create a Twitter account to count Mauro's "mamma mia"s during Takeovers. I called it the Mamma Mia Meter. Never got around to actually doing it before he left again though. Anyway, once you've stopped laughing at my dumb idea, Dash does some clever maneuvering around DIY to get a tag. Dawson Saito suplex for 2. Revival beat Ciampa down in their corner. Drop toe hold/elbow drop combo for 2. Ciampa fights over to his team's side of the ring but Dawson lifts him up to cut off the tag. Ciampa rolls into a sunset flip for 2. Again Ciampa fights the champs off, reaches for a tag, but just as he's about to get there Dash pulls Gargano off the apron! Double team Revival front suplex for 2. Ciampa jawbreakers out of a Dash sleeper. He reaches for a tag but Dash *just* holds him back inches away from Gargano's fingers. Dawson tags in, mocks Gargano and kicks Ciampa. Bodyscissors. Ciampa gets up and pushes Dawson toward his corner. Dash "accidentally" falls over the top rope into the ring to create a distraction! Brilliant! Ciampa backdrops out of a Dawson piledriver and gets the tag, but the ref is still tied up with Dash and won't let Gargano in! That's how you take an ancient spot everyone's seen a thousand times and make it fresh again. Total genius. Huge boos from the crowd. Revival decapitation device! Ciampa kicks out! Dawson hits forearms that fire Ciampa up. A HUGE Dawson clothesline puts him down again. He pushes Gargano off the apron again. Ciampa dodges and Dawson crashes in the corner. Dash runs in but Ciampa dodges him too. Tag to Gargano! Snap belly to belly on Dash. Dawson hits a back elbow. Gargano hits the roll kick and a neckbreaker for 2. On a corner charge Dawson lifts Gargano on the apron. Gargano gives Dash an apron PK to cut him off, then hits Dawson with the slingshot spear! Cover for 2. Revival blind tag. Dawson suckers Gargano into a DDT for 2. Gargano rolls Dawson up for 2. Tag to Ciampa. He avoids Dawson's DDT attempt and flips over into an armbar! Dash gets free from Gargano and breaks it up. Revival go for a double suplex. Gargano spears Dash and Ciampa rolls Dawson up for 2! The crowd's going ape shit now. Ciampa/Dawson slugfest. Ciampa hits a stiff open hand slap and high knee. Stiff punch response from Dawson. Revival sets up for Shatter Machine. Gargano superkicks Dawson and Ciampa jackknife covers Dash! Dash *just* kicks out! Oh, the crowd bit hard on that one. DIY finisher! Ciampa covers for 3! NO! Dawson got Dash's foot on the rope just in time! The ref immediately waves it off and the match continues. Another old spot used to perfection. Dawson gets knocked around. Ciampa gets pulled out to the floor and posted. Dash clips Gargano's knee! Stomp to the knee off the second rope! Revival had "injured" Big Cass the exact same way not that long ago. Dawson hooks on a reverse figure four! Gargano tries to fight but has to tap out! The crowd deflates pretty bad, they really wanted DIY to win it, but I can't say it's a bad call. Afterward Ciampa helps Gargano out to a crowd ovation. What a match. Brilliant teamwork, stiff, physical, everything you could want. The tag title match steals Takeover again. And this isn't even the best match these two teams will have. ****3/4

 

NXT Women's Championship: Asuka (c) def Bayley in 14:07- Bayley was scheduled to get a rematch with Asuka at Takeover: The End and presumably move to the main roster after, but everything was delayed after she was injured in a match with, who else, Nia Jax. There was a ton of chatter online about why Bayley hadn't moved up already, but presumably Trips wanted to give her one last sendoff after healing. This is that sendoff. Bayley shows a lot of early fire, pushing Asuka out of lockups. Asuka doesn't looked fazed in the slightest. Dueling chants from the crowd. After a test of strength Bayley rolls through some flash pin attempts. Asuka takes refuge in the corner and Bayley hits her with a corner clothesline. Bayley comes off the second rope, but Asuka counters with a knee strike to the face. Bayley rolls out holding her nose. As soon as she gets back in Asuka is on her with knee strikes again. Corner hip attack. Asuka hooks on a cobra twist in the ropes. They trade off buckle shots, with Bayley going hard into the middle turnbuckle. She hangs in the ropes and Asuka kicks the hell out of her, including one vicious looking one where Asuka holds her foot then lets it go, snapping right on the back of Bayley's neck. Running knee on the floor from Asuka. More buckle shots wake Bayley up and she pounds Asuka into the buckle. Suplex. Diving back elbow and diving clothesline. Bayley Buddy elbow. Asuka lifts Bayley to the apron. She tries a running hip attack but Bayley dodges! Nice callback to the last match. Bayley pounds Asuka from the apron and snaps her over the second rope. Crossbody back in for 2. She goes for another one off the top but Asuka dodges. Shining wizard for 2. Bayley blocks a superplex, slides under, and puts Asuka in the tree of woe. Corner elbow drop. Forearm exchange. Asuka's going to win that every time. Running shot tradeoff. Asuka trips Bayley and puts her in numero dos! Bayley turns it over into a cradle for 2. Euro clutch bridge from Bayley! Asuka gets out before 3. Ankle lock! Bayley uses her free leg to kick Asuka to get out of it. A big punch floors Bayley. Asuka chest kicks. Bayley grabs her leg and tells Asuka to hit her again! Ooooh, that's not smart. Asuka does. Bayley grabs an arm into a backslide for 2. She gets her own strikes in. Asuka back fist! Bayley grabs Asuka's legs and lifts her, can't hold it, lifts her again, and faceplants her for 2. That didn't go 100% according to plan. Asuka goes for the Asuka Lock! Bayley fights but Asuka cinches it in! Bayley screams! Not this time! She fights out. Bayley to Belly! Asuka kicks out! Bayley goes for another. Asuka Lock! Bayley rolls over into a cover for 2. Kick to the head from Asuka. Bayley gets right back up! Bushido! Kick from Bayley! Harder kick from Asuka that puts Bayley on her knees. Asuka kicks Bayley's head off! That gets the pin! Another fantastic match from these two. I love the ending. After last time Bayley had the Asuka Lock scouted, so Asuka had to murder her to finally put her down. After the match Asuka helps Bayley up and they hug it out. Bayley gets her well deserved sendoff moment from the crowd as she was finally main roster bound to rejoin the other Four Horsewomen. ****

Joe's got the full security entourage for his walk to the ring. Wait, who's that? Why, that's current AEW World Champion MJF! And Joe shoves him on his way out! Now we know what MJF has been pissy about all these years. During the video package we see the build for this had one of the seminal moments in NXT history: Nakamura stealing Joe's nose. Vicious, blood feud stuff.

 

NXT Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura def Samoa Joe (c) in 21:14- How do you top the huge entrances Nakamura's had at his first two Takeovers. Why, with a live violin player of course! It's spectacular. The crowd comes absolutely unglued for Nakamura. This is another first time matchup of legends outside WWE taking place in an NXT ring. Joe shoves Nakamura before intros. Nakamura goes right into cool mind games mode. After the bell the crowd sings Nakamura's music again. Rough lockup and Joe scrapes Nakamura's face with his arm in the corner. Knucklelock and both guys try to hit kicks. Joe slaps! Nakamura gets a takedown. They jockey for position on the mat, with Joe showing he can mat wrestle as well as murder you. Arm wringer from Joe with a little added headbutt to the wrist spice. Nakamura does the elaborate escape and another mat wrestling stalemate. Joe cranks a headlock. Nakamura grabs his nose to back Joe into the corner! Nice callback to the build. He does the head waggle. Joe ducks kicks. Come on knee from Nakamura. More knees in the corner and good vibrations. Joe rolls out for a breather, then pulls Nakamura out with him. Huge Joe chop. Nakamura runs Joe into the apron. Another big Joe chop. Back in Joe does the corner elbow/enzuguri combo. Nakamura kicks Joe from the apron. Running floor knee. Joe dodges the apron knee and Nakamura splats knee first on the floor. Joe TOPE SUICIDA absolutely bowls Nakamura over! Back in Joe hits a back elbow, chest kicks and an elbow drop. He wraps Nakamura's head and cranks his arm right out of the socket. Nakamura gets to the ropes. Knee and forearm from Nakamura. Joe sweep kicks him. Hard powerbomb for 2. Joe transitions into a Boston crab, then an STF, then a crossface. Nakamura rolls him over for a 2 count. Enziguri and misdirection kick from Nakamura. Both guys are down. Nakamura starts getting momentum with strikes. Corner knee. Joe blocks the inverted exploder. Inverted atomic drop from Joe. Big face kick but Nakamura dodges the follow up senton. Nakamura guillotine. Joe lifts out. Nakamura takes him down and hits his grounded knees to the top of the head. Uranage in the corner from Joe. He didn't hit that 100%. He sets up for the muscle buster. Nakamura fights it off. Kick off the second rope. Forearms lead to a hard strike exchange. HUGE Joe clothesline with a 360 Nakamura sell. He tries a spinning clothesline but Nakamura rolls it into an armbreaker! Joe blocks it. He tries to escape but Nakamura transitions into a triangle choke. Joe counters into a cloverleaf. Nakamura gets to the ropes. Joe goes for the coquina clutch. Nakamura backs him into the corner. He runs into a huge Joe knee for 2. Ground elbows from Joe. He gets the clutch on! Nakamura barely manages to save himself by just getting a foot on the rope. Joe goes for the muscle buster again. Nakamura fights it off and hits a German suplex! Joe landed on his head. Kinsha....no, Joe snap powerslam for 2! Another muscle buster fight. Joe enzuguri. The muscle buster hits! Nakamura kicks out! Another setup. Nakamura gets free. Short kinshasa! Joe's holding his jaw after. Second rope knee. Full KINSHASAAAAAAAAAAAA! Pin and new champ! The crowd goes nuts. Joe immediately rolls out and the ref throws the X up. Nakamura hit Joe flush with that first short kinshasa and dislocated his jaw. It's Joe so he'd be back like a week later. Not a blowaway match by any means, but it's certainly a worthy Takeover main event. It's also another very non-WWE style match in an NXT main event. ****1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The first half is more solid than great, with decent matches and debuts of varying success. Once the title matches hit in the second half though, it's gangbusters. NXT delivers in Brooklyn once again.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A-

Wrestling World 2003

Legacy Review

Wrestling World 2003

January 4, 2003 from the Tokyo Dome

We're really starting to get into the worst depths of Inokism now, and to prove it all you have to do is look at the crowd. In just one year the attendance for this show has gone from 56,000 to 30,000. Part of the problem is New Japan was undergoing a forced roster overhaul after two high profile mass defections over the prior couple of years: the essentially exiled Shinya Hashimoto taking a group of guys with him to his new Zero-One promotion in '01, and just after Wrestling World '02 Keiji Mutoh shocked the wrestling world by leading another group over to All Japan. Compounding the problem is Inoki, in his zeal to try to blend the worlds of worked pro wrestling and shoot MMA fighting, trying to fill the voids more and more with shoot fighters that had little to no wrestling experience, severely hurting the quality of the product and turning more fans away.

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

 

Osamu Nishimura def Tatsumi Fujinami in 8:10- This is certainly an interesting opener. These two teamed up at last year's 1/4 show, now they're facing each other in a "student vs mentor" match. This is probably the lowest Fujinami has ever been on a New Japan card. I spot young Toru Yano as a Young Lion taking Fujinami's robe off. Watch out to see if Yano passed him any tape rolls. This is also the old school all black trunks and boots with no kneepads match. Fujinami hits a big backbreaker out of a lockup. And a second. Early dragon sleeper attempt. Nishamura gets to the ropes then rolls out for a think. Back in Fujinami works a headscissors. Nishamura does a nice delayed handstand to get out. Knucklelock. Nishimura bridges down, tries to fight back up and suplexes out. Cravat from Fujinami as he continues to dominate. Nishimura counters with a headscissors and goes to some arm work. Fujinami counter transitions to leg work. A Fujinami body slam is the first high impact move of the match. Nishimura immediately bridges back up and transitions into a cobra twist. Fujinami counters with a roll up. Nishimura hits uppercuts and dropkicks. Fujinami dodges a kneedrop off the top rope. Dragon screw! Sleeper! Roll up for 2. Nishimura rolls up a SANADA/ZSJ style Euro clutch and gets the pin! I believe this was Nishimura's first ever victory over his mentor. Perfectly fine old school rasslin'. With more time and a higher card placement they could have likely cranked out something pretty good. **1/4

 

Young Generation Cup Semifinals: Yutaka Yoshie def Shinya Makabe in 13:20- Part of tonight's festivities is a one night, four man Young Generation Cup tournament, a sort of spinoff of the Young Lion Cup tournament New Japan holds on a semi-regular basis. Makabe is Togi Makabe, who'll go on to have easily the best career of the guys in this tournament. Yoshie had gone through the Dojo all the way back in 1994 but had trouble finding any kind of career consistency. Arm wringer tradeoff and Makabe tries to work the much larger Yoshie down and they trade off headlocks. Big boi shoulderblock standoff. Forearm exchange. Makabe headbutt in the corner. Some more fairly dull mat work follows. Yoshie cranks on Makabe's taped up leg, obviously a hurt body part coming in. Big splash on the leg! Makabe gets some space and goes into his own leg work. He shows some fire by not breaking right away on a rope break. Big suplex fight that Yoshie wins. He stomps Makabe down in the corner. Makabe dodges an avalanche. Corner lairato and suplex from Makabe for 2. He hooks on a single leg crab. Another extended slugfest with some stiff forearms. Makabe powerslam for 2. Yoshie blocks a German suplex but runs into a double chop for 2. Another German try. Yoshie backs Makabe into the corner. This time the avalanche hits. Yoshie powerslam for 2. Thesz press off the second rope for 2. Nice of Makabe to get himself in position to get hit with that. Huge Makabe lariato. Another! Yoshie kicks out! The crowd's getting into it now. The German hits! Another kickout. Makabe runs to a Thesz press for 2. Yoshie big splash off the top rope! HE'S A UNIT, KEVIN! That gets the pin. Mostly dull match but the stretch run wasn't bad. *1/2

 

Young Generation Cup Semifinals: Ryushi Yanagisawa def Kenzo Suzuki in 9:23- Suzuki had actually won the most recent iteration of the Young Lion Cup in 2000. Yanagisawa was, shock, a former MMA fighter that came in the previous year and joined the big new heel stable, Tadao Yasuda's Makai Club, who were responsible for breaking up Masahiro Chono's Team2000. You'll be hearing a lot more from them as the night goes on. Suzuki charges at the bell and hits a spear! Into an armbreaker! Yanagisawa tries to block it. Suzuki stays on the arm. For a while. High knee from Suzuki and Yanagisawa rolls to the floor to recover. Suzuki charges and high knees him off the apron! Yanagisawa high kicks Suzuki from the apron and comes back in with an ankle lock. Suzuki slowly but eventually gets to the ropes. Yanagisawa puts it right back on. Considering his background the not so generous part of me wonders if that's the only hold he knows. Suzuki hulks up off kicks and wants some more. After about a dozen he grabs Yanagiawa's leg and slams him. Yanagisawa rolls right back into the ankle lock. Think that's my theory confirmed then. Suzuki gets to the ropes again. He pops out of the corner with another high knee. And a running high knee in the corner. Is that the only move Suzuki knows too? No, there's a Saito suplex. He charges but runs into a Yanagisawa enzuguri. Suzuki pops back up with another spear for 2. Sleeper from Yanagisawa. After a long fight Suzuki rolls to the ropes. More Yanagisawa kicks. Suzuki charges with a weak ass spear that Yanagisawa turns into a guillotine. Suzuki suplexes out. Running high knee from Yanagisawa and that gets the pin. Very not good. Doesn't give me much hope for the finals. 1/2*

 

Dai Majin and Makai #1 def Tatsutoshi Goto and Hiro Saito in 7:50- The first of back to back tag matches for masked members of Makai Club. Majin is Giant Silva and #1 is Junji Hirata, the former Super Strong Machine. The Goto/Saito team try the Suzuki-Gun jump but get jumped instead. Maijin fights off both guys on the floor. 1 works Saito over in the ring. Suplex and senton for 2. Jawbreaker from Saito and his own senton. Goto corner lariato. 1 says eff that and hits his own lariato. Low blow from Goto. Silva, er, Majin's in with his clubbing blows and stomps. He and Goto have a horrible time coordinating a whip then the Majin big boot at the other end is almost as bad. Majin slam and elbow drop. Saito tags in and Majin no sells chops. Back elbow on Saito. 1 gutwrench suplex on Saito. Saito chops 1 back into his corner. Double team headbutt. 1 goes Makai in peril a bit before hitting a low blow and corner lariatos. DONNYBROOK! 1 lariatos Majin. Majin still fights everyone off. Goto and Saito team up to dump him over the top rope by the legs. The Goto/Saito team have chairs! The ref tries to take one away but Goto hits him with a chair! Majin saves a pin and takes a chair shot that he, shock, no sells. Chair fight and Goto takes a chair shot. Lariatos all around from the Makai team. Majin powerbombs Saito. Makai's manager comes in and counts the pin. The ref allows it and the bell rings? The ref looks like a wrestler so there might be some shenanigans here I don't know about since I can't understand commentary. The match still sucks regardless. 1/4*

 

Makai #4 and Makai #5 def Masahito Kakihara and Takashi Iizuka in 10:54- Makai 4 is none other than young Katsuyori Shibata, while 5 is Mitsuya Nagai. Kakihara and I think 4 start. Hard to tell with the masks and shirts but I think that's Shibata. Lots of kick swinging. Kakihara goes down, but then works into a leg hold. 5 comes in and puts Kakihara into a leg hold at the same time! The ref restores order. 5 throws Kakihara in his own corner and wants Iizuka. Then when Iizuka tags in he tags right back out to 4 again. Classic heel work. Iizuka and 4 do a pretty decent extended mat sequence. Arm wringer tradeoff. 4 ends up in the wrong corner and Kakihara pummels him with knees and a suplex for 2. Now Kakihara is in the wrong part of town. Both Makai guys pick his leg apart a bit. 5 ends up in the face corer and Iizuka finally gets a hold of him, stomping him down in the corner. Iizuka Boston crab. 5 grabs a rope. 5 and Kakihara exchange kicks with 5 winning. 4 running corner elbow on Kakihara, followed by a suplex for 2. The Makais make a wish on Kakihara. Iizuka breaks up a 5 hold. Kakihara heel kick for 2. Iizuka tries an armbar but 5 gets to the ropes. 5 kicks Iizuka back to the corner and just abuses him with stiff kicks. Iizuka charges out with a tackle! Everyone in the pool! Iizuka rips 5's shirt off. Makai double team Pele kick/knee strike for 2. 5 springboard high knee for 3! The fight continues long after the bell with some of it cut off of this video. 5 and Iizuka want to kill each other. At least it was better than the last two matches. *

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Koji Kanemoto, Jushin Thunder Liger and Takehiro Murahama def Tiger Mask, Heat and Masayuki Naruse in 16:10- This is the early days of an interesting period in Liger's career when he was starting to flirt with heelishness, teaming up with longtime rival and former Team2000 pillar Kanemoto. It would be the path that would lead to Liger founding the heel stable CTU (Control Terrorism Unit, quite possibly inspired by the TV show 24, dammit Chloe) the next year. Heat is Minoru Tanaka under very lame Liger-esque mask. He's one step removed from the Super Liger disaster. In keeping with his new heel leanings Liger is in all red with black trim tonight. Everyone jumps before the bell and it's on! Murahama tope con hilo on Naruse! Liger dodges a TM plancha! Heat hits the ropes for a dive but runs right into a Kanemoto snap belly to belly suplex! Liger baseball slide on Heat and the heels stand tall in the ring. Reset with Heat and Murahama. Both guys swing kicks. A nice speed/counter run ends with a simo dropkick attempt. Murahama and Kanemoto double dropkick on Heat. Kanemoto corkscrew senton off the second rope. Heat gets him caught in the face corner. Kanemoto fights out of a headlock and gives Naruse a knee to the face. Liger splash off the top for 2. All three heels stomp the crap out of Naruse. Liger goes to work on his taped up arm and shoulder, ripping the tape off. Kanemoto and Murahama miscommunicate on a double team. TM is in with a dropkick. TM and Heat chop Murahama down with some kicks and Naruse gives him a PK. TM gets pushed in the heel corner and beat down. Tiltawhirl backbreaker from Liger. TM flips out of a brain buster and spin kicks Liger to the floor. Tope suicida! Liger grabs a TM kick and gives him a dragon screw. Kanemoto absorbs some Naruse kicks. Naruse gets beat down in the heel corner again. Murahama single leg crab. Liger elbow off the top to Naruse's back. Think that was supposed to hit his hurt shoulder. Naruse rolls to the floor clutching his shoulder and his teammates check on him. One of the ring attendants sprays it down with something. Liger dodges a Heat dropkick, but Heat rolls around and hits the next attempt. Dropkick to Liger's knee. Kneebar! Kanemoto immediately comes in to break it up. Liger corner shotei! Powerbomb! Murahama head kick and Liger fisherman's buster for 2. Murahama dodges a Heat missile dropkick off the second rope but runs into a high kick. Murahama tries a spinning heel kick on TM but TM catches and slams him! Murahama slips out of a suplex. TM hits a backbreaker. Double underhook powerbomb for 2. TM tries for a moonsault, sees the dodge and lands on his feet, but Murahama wobbles him with a kick. Murahama brain buster for 2. Spinning heel kick for 2. TM and Murahama kick each other in the head at the same time! Meanwhile, the camera cuts to Liger giving Heat a brain buster on the entrance ramp! He's dead. Kanemoto moonsault on TM for 2. Both guys try tiger suplexes that are blocked. TM dropkick. Open hand slaps. Kanemoto high knee on Naruse. Naruse manages to give Kanemoto about half an exploder suplex with his bum shoulder. Kanemoto dropkick on the shoulder! Ankle lock! Liger wipes out TM. Heat is stirring so Murahama goes out to make sure he's still dead. Naruse slips out of a suplex and rolls Kanemoto up for 2. Kanemoto sweep kick and back to the ankle lock. Naruse taps! The usual good stuff from the juniors, they usually deliver no matter what. It'd sure be nice to have a proper junior title match on one of these shows again. ***1/2

 

Young Generation Cup Finals: Ryushi Yanagisawa def Yutaka Yoshie in 6:48- Young Red Shoes gets this match. Slugfest at the bell. Yanagisawa hits a bunch of open hand slaps. Yoshie responds with stiff shots of his own and Yanagiawa is the first guy down. Yoshie slam and big splash for 2. He hits a trio of butt splashes for 2. Boston crab. Another forearm exchange. Yanagisawa kicks Yoshie down and he rolls all the way to the floor, clutching the arm Yanagisawa kicked. When he gets back in Yanagisawa is right back on it. Yoshie swings an ugly chop that hits Yanagisawa right in the face. Yanagisawa tries an armbreaker but Yoshie is too close to the ropes. Yanagisawa corner charge, Yoshie catches and spinebusters him. DVD for 2. Thesz press for 2. Yanagisawa hits a couple of high knees and an enzuguri. Yoshie wobbles in the middle of the ring. The armbreaker is on and Yoshie taps out. I appreciate the stiffness and fairly tight psychology, but it was still a boring and pretty sloppy match. If you were looking to showcase the company's young talent, these guys were not the right choice. Neither would make any major mark in New Japan and both would be gone within a few years. *1/4

 

Shinsuke Nakamura and Michiyoshi Ohara def Tadao Yasuda and Kazunari Murakami in 7:12- The year after Shibata and Hiroshi Tanahashi (who's not booked on this show because....well, it's a story, I'll tell you later) made their Dome debut, the last of the New Three Muskateers that would literally save the company post-Inokism is making his debut tonight, none other than the future King of Strong Style Shinsuke Nakamura. As mentioned, Yasuda is the founder and leader of Makai Club. Now this is not the Nakamura we've known and loved for years, it would be a long time before he developed that character and mannerisms. In his early days he was a super serious shoot-style fighter. With a goatee. Commentary calls him "super rookie" (in English) so his big push was already on, more on that at the end of the show. Nakamura charges right on Yasuda at the bell and we're on! They brawl on the mat with Yasuda getting the upper hand. Nakamura's busted open! He came in with a large bandage on his forehead so I assume it's an old cut reopened. Yasuda continues to pound away. Murakami takes his turn to smack Nakamura around and lets both him and the crowd know it's happening. Nakamura tries to fight back but gets floored again with one punch. Yasuda locks on a sleeper. Ohara comes in to break it up. More ground and pound from Murakami. Ohara causes a distraction, allowing Nakamura to tackle Murakami, get some knee shots in and tag. Ohara diving lariato. Murakami tries to get kicks in. Ohara grabs and choke slams him! Cover for 2. Yasuda big boot on Ohara. Ohara rolls and tags Nakamura. His head is all bandaged up now. He tackles Yasuda and the bandage comes off. So much for that. He goes for a German but Yasuda gives him a casual low blow. Running corner knees from both Makai guys and Yasuda hits a double underhook suplex. Power bomb on Nakamura for 2. Ohara trips Murakami on a double team attempt and Nakamura takes Yasuda down. He tries an armbreaker but Yasuda makes the ropes. Ugh, horrible corner dropkick from Nakamura. It's definitely early days. Brain buster from Ohara. Nakamura German on Yasuda for 2. Takedown into some kind of choke hold. Yasuda goes out and the ref calls it! That gets a pretty big shock pop from the crowd. The super rookie push is definitely on. The match was a very stiff and not bad sprint. Nakamura got the piss beaten out of him before winning. **3/4

So, Tanahashi. I have to take a minute to get into this because it's nuts. In November '02 Tanahashi was in the apartment of his (apparently psycho) girlfriend or ex-girlfriend who worked as a news reporter for TV Asahi, New Japan's domestic broadcast partner since pretty much the company was founded. Tanahashi tried to break the relationship off because he was already seeing someone else. The girl didn't take it well. In fact she snapped, grabbed a knife, and stabbed Tanahashi in the back twice, fully intending to kill him. It's a big cultural thing in Japan to keep private lives private, but this got out due to the fact they both had jobs that made them public figures. Fortunately her aim was awful and Tanahashi recovered quickly, returning to the ring in February and still going on to become the Ace of the Universe. No little stab wound was going to stop him.

 

Tencozy def Masahiro Chono and Manabu Nakanishi in 23:18- There's a lot happening in this one so bear with me. Tencozy broke up seemingly for good when Satoshi Kojima was one of the wrestlers who joined Mutoh in his All Japan defection, but he and Tencozy are back for the proverbial "one night only". Kojima's partner Hiroyoshi Tenzan teamed back up with old partner Chono to reform Cho-Ten and won the tag titles again in March '02. In fact this reign, their fourth, would be the longest in the title's history to that point at 446 days, breaking the record held by.....Tencozy. As of this show they're the reigning champions but are on opposite sides in this match. Despite them all being in Team2000 before it disbanded Chono wrestled against Tencozy at the last 1/4 show because they'd been butting heads and some of that is still percolating here. Nakanishi is kind of a hanger on but he and Kojima teamed up before Tencozy formed so there's some logical reason for him to be here. Oh, and because I always like to note these things, Chono won the fourth of his five career G1 Climax tournament victories in '02. Tenzan's really gone all out with his entrance gear tonight. He looks like a Final Fantasy mid-level boss. Kojima and Nakanishi start. Lockup stalemate. Shoulderblock standoff. Nakanishi wins the second one. Here comes the chops. Long exchange of them. Nakanishi hits a backdrop. Tenzan tags in and wants Chono. He's in and the current tag champs go at it. Decent mat exchange. Chono drops some cheap knees during a rope break. Tenzan shoulderblock and lariato. Chono hits the first Yakuza kick. Nakanishi and Tenzan do a test of strength knucklelock. With headbutts. Nakanishi tries to chop. Tenzan responds with Mongolian chops. Kojima/Nakanishi suplex fight that Nakanishi wins. Kojima gets chopped into the wrong corner and he knocks Chono off the apron just because. Kojima falls out of the ring and continues to attack Chono. Nakanishi drops a knee on him from the apron. Back in Kojima hits a Saito suplex. Tenzan and Nakanishi try to chop each other down. Kojima really lays in some stiff chops on Chono in the corner and brain busters him for 2. DDT from Kojima. Chono holds Kojima for a Nakanishi knee off the top rope. Tencozy pound Nakanishi down in their corner. Kojima corner elbow/top rope elbow drop combo for 2. Big Nakanishi lariato for 2. He goes for a German but Tenzan pounds him down from behind. Tencozy go for a double clothesline, but Nakanishi ducks, grabs, and suplexes them both! Chono's in with Yakuza kicks for everyone. Tackle off the top on Kojima. STF! Kojima gets to the ropes. He gets an inverted atomic drop and tags. Tenzan whiffs bad on a spinning heel kick but Chono sells the wind it created. Chono tries a boot up in the corner but Tenzan lariatos him right back in. Falling kneedrop off the top for 2. Kojima knocks Nakanishi off the apron into the barricade. Tencozy elbow drop/headbutt combo. Nakanishi comes back in with a spear! It's all breaking down now. Everyone takes shots and everyone is down. Tenzan grabs a Yakuza kick and dragon screws Chono. Kojima dragon screws Nakanishi! Figure four on Nakanishi while Tenzan wraps Chono up in a choke-type hold. Chono's legal so he gets to the ropes to break everything up. Tencozy double team Chono. Kojima dropkicks Tenzan in the knee! Now Nakanishi and Chono double up on Tenzan. Double knees from opposite directions! Chono Yakuza kicks Nakanishi! Those double teams never work out in the end do they. Tenzan Samoan drop on Chono. Kojima runs into a Nakanishi claw! He puts Kojima in the torture rack while Tenzan Mongolian chops Chono. Chono recovers to put Tenzan in a cobra clutch while Kojima is still in the rack. Lariatos and Yakuza kicks all around and everyone's down again. We're way, way past the 5 count here. FTR could write a novel on all the tag rules ignored in this match. Tenzan headbutt off the top on Chono. Nakanishi breaks the pin up. Kojima and Nakanishi go to the floor and up the entrance ramp. Torture rack on the ramp! Kojima gets free. Kojicutter on the ramp! Tencozy 3D on Chono! Chono *just* kicks out! Tenzan hits the moonsault! Chono kicks out again! Tombstone! Chono's not getting up from that. Good match for sure, but not quite the epic it could have been. ***1/2

After the match is over HIROSHI F'N TANAHASHI shows up! His hair is cut short but I know for sure it's him, it's the right logo on his tights. The video is edited all to hell so it's hard to tell the exact flow of events but he attacks everyone, argues a bit with Nakanishi and gets slammed by him, then after a cut is bowing to the crowd with Nakanishi and Chono looking on and then says a quick something on the mic. The future Ace is back. I wrote that whole bit earlier without even knowing Tanahashi showed up here. Eh, I'm not changing it.

 

Tournament Final for the Vacant NWF Heavyweight Championship: Yoshihiro Takayama def Tsuyoshi Kosaka in 10:19- The NWF (National Wrestling Federation) was a northeast US promotion. Inoki won this title in 1973 and brought it to Japan, where it was originally New Japan's top title before being retired by Inoki in 1981. The NWF itself folded in 1994. The title is being brought back to be a sort of MMA/hybrid style title, but with worked matches still, not straight up shoot fights. Takayama actually had more wrestling background than MMA, working for UWFi, All Japan and NOAH. Kosaka was a straight MMA fighter. Takayama looks like an out of shape shlub but apparently he can kick your ass in a real fight. A non-New Japan ref is handling this one too, maybe an MMA ref. Both guys try for leg based holds at the start. Kosaka gets a takedown but Takayama rolls into a legbar. Kosaka gets on top and tries some ground and pound. Takayama grabs that arm and tries for a triange choke. Kosaka turns over into an STF. Back up both guys swing wildly at each other, and not in a good way. Takayama kicks Kosada down. He misses a real bad dropkick attempt and Kosaka hits him with a halfway decent one. Kosaka tries for a triangle. Takayama fights out into a single leg crab. Kosaka rolls into a legbar, then an armbreaker. Takayama grabs a rope. Forearms from Takayama and he hits a kind of belly to belly suplex. Kosaka dodges what I think is supposed to be a basement dropkick and puts on a rear naked choke. Another rope break. Kicks put Takayama down again. He rope breaks out of a Kosaka armbreaker. Takayama tries a German. Kosaka counters with a very ugly takedown. The lights go out! Everyone turn your car headlights on! Like an old CZW show. They manage to get a spotlight on the ring. Running knee from Takayama. The lights are back. Kosaka tries for more leg submissions. Takayama knees Kosaka out to the floor. Back in he hits the German. Kosaka grabs an arm and tries the triangle again. Takayama escapes, hits Kosaka with a knee to the face, and gets the pin. I may be the low man on this but I just can't get into these pseudo-MMA matches. For a shoot style match is wasn't nearly as stiff as a couple of the previous matches either. *3/4

 

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Yuji Nagata (c) def Josh Barnett in 10:40- This is peak Inokism, with MMA fighter Josh Barnett getting the main event slot in the Tokyo Dome on the biggest night of the year in what is his first ever recorded professional wrestling match. On the other side, Nagata was on of the few bright spots of this era, a proper pro wrestler that was in the middle of a year long run with the title, a reign that would also set the record for most successful defenses with 10. Red Shoes is reffing this match! His first Tokyo Dome main event. It won't be the last. Barnett floors Nagata with a kick right after the bell! Commentary goes nuts for that. Another Barnett takedown. Nagata gets a rope break and goes to the floor to rethink things. Small reset back in with both guys trying kicks. Nagata gets a takedown and starts working on the arm. Both guys block armbreaker attempts. More mat jockeying ends in a stalemate. More standing kicks. Barnett gets a really nice takedown into a sort of MMA figure four. He rolls to keep Nagata from the ropes but Nagata eventually gets there. Barnett gets some shots in the corner but Red Shoes makes him break. Nagata enzuguri! Barnett blocks a Saito suplex into a takedown and headlock. Belly to belly suplex from Barnett into a kimura attempt. Rope break. Barnett straight lifts Nagata by the legs into an ankle lock. More kicks from both guys that start landing. Nagata forearms and knees wobble Barnett. Barnett blocks a kick into an exploder suplex! Guillotine. Nagata just gets a foot on a rope. Barnett flips him over into another kimura and another rope break. Running charge from Barnett with what I think is supposed to be a high knee but he just kind of flops onto Nagata. Nagata dodges another knee in the corner and whacks Barnett right in the face with a knee. Suplex for 2. Nagata crossface. Into a sleeper. Rope break. Another Nagata suplex for a long 2. Barnett blocks another one into another guillotine. Nagata turns it into an exploder! Spin kick from Nagata to Barnett's face, and that gets the pin! Barnett tries to turn over into a crossface but it's over. After the belt and trophy ceremony they shake hands. Oh, and here's new NWF champ Takayama to make a challenge. Not a completely terrible match thanks to Nagata being his usual awesome self and Barnett not being half bad for an MMA guy. He'd stick around New Japan for a while. **1/2

A few notes on the journey of the Heavyweight title over the course of 2003 before we close out: NWF champ Takayama would end up being the man to dethrone Nagata in May, ending Nagata's reign at 392 days (the third longest at that point) and becoming a dual champ. In November Takayama lost just the IWGP title to Hiroyoshi Tenzan, adding a major singles title onto his already impressive tag team record. His reign wasn't long though, as in December Tenzan dropped the title to the "super rookie" himself, Shinsuke Nakamura. Nakamura became the youngest IWGP Heavyweight champion ever, a record he still holds today. Interestingly though, the crowd didn't embrace Nakamura as they saw him as one of Inoki's MMA guys rather than a traditional wrestler, and Japanese crowds are usually slow to warm up to new guys anyway. Nakamura would change that as the years went on, but it's something he had to deal with his first reign.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- There's a few good matches, but it doesn't help save the show from being the worst January 4th Dome show to date. This is essentially New Japan's verison of rough times like '95 WWF and WCW, when the general malaise drags everything down. It'd be a few more years before they start to get out of it.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+

NXT Takeover: The End

Legacy Review

NXT Takeover: The End

June 8, 2016 from Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL

 

Commentary: Tom Phillips and Corey Graves

 

The "The End" name for this show (which was alternately "The End of the Beginning") mostly comes from the fact that it was the last planned Takeover to take place at Full Sail, they were all going on the road after this one. The weekly NXT show would mostly continue to be taped at Full Sail. Of course, 2020 craziness changed that but no one could predict that at the time. It also refers to this being the last match of the Samoa Joe/Finn Balor Takeover trilogy, the first matchup to main event three Takeovers.

 

In keeping with the "end of the beginning" theme the opening video focuses on NXT history from back to the very first show, alternating between NXT and main roster footage for NXT alumni like Seth Rollins, the Wyatt Family, the Four Horsewomen, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.

Andrade Cien Almas def Tye Dillinger in 5:22- Big reaction for longtime NXT workhorse Dillinger in his Takeover debut. I'm pretty sure he was technically still a heel at this point, but Full Sail loved him. Almas, who previously worked as La Sombra under a mask but is now maskless, is making his NXT debut as the latest big signing. Mostly a CMLL wrestler, he'd won every title under the sun there, as well as the IWGP Intercontinental championship during one of his New Japan stints. He was also a co-founder (along with Rush and La Mascara) of the original Los Ingobernables stable in CMLL, the faction that Tetsuya Naito started his own branch of in New Japan after joining the group during a CMLL tour, completely altering his image and career forever. They do some jockeying at the start with the crowd firmly behind Dillinger, followed by basic standoffs and some really nice chain wrestling. The crowd tries to give Almas some love too with a "He's 100" chant. Dillinger cartwheels out of a hold and gives us a 10! More extended counters, leapfrogs, ending with Almas hitting a basement dropkick. A flying headscissors sends Dillinger to the floor. Almas teases a dive but does his tranquilo pose in the ropes instead. Back in Almas does a handstand in the corner, but then runs into a Dillinger tiltawhirl backbreaker. Big Dillinger chop. Almas goes for a moonsault off the second rope, sees Dillinger dodging and lands on his feet, then hits a standing moonsault for 2. Forearms and another corner handstand. Dillinger takes the opening to give him a superkick! Cover for 2. The knee pad is off! Almas fights out of the Tyebreaker. Corner elbows. Almas handspring kick. Wheelbarrow into a DDT! Almas hits the meteora! That gets the pin. The match was OK, but Dillinger was not a good pick for Almas' debut both because it was a pretty big style clash (though that opening basic wrestling exchange was really smooth), and the crowd was cheering Dillinger when they should have been cheering Almas. It was foreshadowing in a way as Almas would have a pretty rough first year in NXT before finally finding his footing in the second half of 2017 after a heel turn and the addition of a very good manager. **1/2

 

NXT Tag Team Championship: The Revival def American Alpha (c) in 16:00-This is a rematch from the Dallas Takeover, where Alpha won the titles. Alpha come out in their Team Angle inspired entrance gear. Gable and Dawson start. Leverage fight and a quick Revival tag. Lockup! Dash works a top wristlock with Gable doing a nice bridge. Dash lets go and drops Gable. Chop from Dawson. Gable fights out of the corner. Dawson hits shoulderblocks. Gable gets a spinning armdrag and flying headscissors. Jordan tags in with dropkicks. He works an armbar on Dawson. Dawson fights out and we have a 2v2 standoff. Slugfest! Crazy extended double counter sequence and Alpha put on stereo ankle locks! Revival escape to the floor. Jordan outwrestles Dash into a 2 count. The champs works on Dash's arm. Dawson distracts the ref, giving Dash an opening to eye rake out and tag. Gable backslide on Dawson for 2. Gedo clutch for 2. A HUGE Dawson uppercut sends Gable over the top to the floor. Revival drag Jordan in. Gable comes off the top with a double clothesline! Alpha dropkicks! Double 360 clotheslines on Revival! Alpha strikes the Steiners pose as the crowd barks. Back in Gable hits an atomic drop. Dawson takes advantage of a Gable headscissors to work him into a double team hot shot! That was good. Double corner beatdown on Gable. Revival drop toe hold/elbow drop combo for 2. Dawson keeps Gable from tagging and gives him a basic slam. Gable dodges elbow drops, fights Dash off, and gets a sunset flip for 2. I really like how both teams are working in lots of old school simple moves. The basics of wrestling never go out of style. Ideally the moves are often less important than who's doing them, and why. There's a deep insight lesson for you. Dawson cuts off another Gable tag attempt and turns him over into an Arn Anderson spinebuster! He drops Gable on Dawson's knee for 2. Dash continues to work the old school ARMBAR. Another Gable tag is held back. Dash sets Gable up top, but makes the mistake of turning to jaw at Jordan, and when he comes back Gable grabs a hanging armbreaker! Very Minoru Suzuki hold there. Gable doesn't get out of it as gracefully as Suzuki does though and both guys fall to the floor. Dawson rolls Dash back in to tag. Off the charts tag wrestling IQ move. Gable dives for a tag but Dawson cuts him off with a dropkick! Alabama Jam! Gable kicks out! Gable fights off another double team, crawls under both Dash and Dawson's legs and gets the tag! Jordan hot tag run. The straps are down! Corner spear! Exploder suplex for 2. Dash drop toe holds Jordan face first into the middle turnbuckle. Dawson sunset flip off the top rope with a clothesline assist for a long 2. Uppercuts. Jordan counters into a backslide and blind tag. Alpha dropkick/German suplex combo for their own long 2. Dash pulls Jordan off the apron. Gable blocks a Dawson DDT! Ankle lock! Dash gets him free and Dawson gets a tights roll up for 2. Dash sets Gable up on his shoulders. Dawson comes off the top rope, but Gable grabs him and twists into a belly to belly suplex! Now that was a Steiner Brothers move. Cover for 2. Jordan corner spear! Alpha set up for Grand Amplitude. Dawson pushes Gable out of the ring! SHATTER MACHINE! Revival get the pin and become the first ever 2 time NXT tag team champions! In fact they're the first two time any kind of NXT champion. That was a masterclass in tag team wrestling that raised the bar even higher from their Dallas match, and the scary thing is we still haven't had the Revival's best match on a Takeover in 2016 yet. ****1/2

After the Revival leave Alpha are attacked from behind in the ring by two huge guys wearing all black! Commentary has no idea who they are, but it was the debuting Authors of Pain. After the beatdown Paul Ellering himself, the legendary former manager of the Road Warriors/Legion of Doom, appears on the entrance stage, clearly the brains behind this operation. This would end up being Alpha's last Takeover before moving up to the main roster, where'd they'd have some of the usual NXT guys going to the main roster issues, be broken up for no reason, and then Jason Jordan's incredibly promising career (even taking the awful Kurt Angle's son angle into account, he would have recovered from that) was tragically cut short by a career ending neck injury. He has stayed with WWE as a road agent ever since so I'm glad he's still involved in some way. Gable continues to chug along to this day, always one of the most underrated guys out there but he gets regular TV time and good matches at least.

Meanwhile, while Asuka is warming up she's wished luck by the woman she beat for the title, the injured (she had another match with Nia Jax) Bayley.

 

Shinsuke Nakamura def Austin Aries in 17:05- NXT is bringing us a first time matchup of two guys who've been big names outside WWE for years but somehow never crossed paths before. No one outright says it but you can figure this is a de facto #1 contender's matchup, there needs to be a fresh face in the main event at the next Takeover. Aries' ribs are taped up going in and no one knows why. After Nakamura's entrance Aries does some light mocking of his stretching routine. The crowd sings Nakamura's music after the bell. There's dueling chants for both guys, but the crowd is probably about 75% pro Nakamura. Midring leverage fight and Nakamura gets a takedown. Clean rope break. Nakamura does the classic World of Sport escape from a wristlock into another good basic wrestling exchange. Both guys dodge kicks and it's a stalemate again. Another rope break and Nakamura does the head waggle. Aries shoves him and Nakamura does the "come on" gesture. Aries does right into a knee strike. Why do guys keep falling for that? Aries works into an armdrag and basement dropkick, then tells Nakamura to "come on". Nakamura does with more knee strikes. Snap mare and kneedrop. Good vibrations! Twice! On the try for a third Aries grabs Nakamura's leg and hits a kneebreaker into a dragon screw. He dropkicks Nakamura's knee against the ropes. Second rope elbow to the back of Nakamura's neck. Aries goes into slow picking apart mode. Nakamura reverses a whip into a ripcord knee and hits a kick. Huge forearm and more kicks. Aries is doing some crazy selling of these kicks. Nakamura corner knees and the roll back knee. Aries blocks a reverse exploder attempt. Chop. He goes for the discus elbow but Nakamura cuts it off with a knee. Aries works around into a rollup for 2. Facelock knees to the head from Aries. The discus elbow hits! Nakamura falls out to the floor. Aries tope suicida! He rolls Nakamura back in immediately and covers for 2. Then for some reason Aries stands around for a minute adjusting his rib tape. Nakamura pulls him down into a triangle choke! Aries gets a leg on the ropes. Hard ground knees from Nakamura. Reverse suplex. He sets up to finish it. Aries blocks the Kinshasa, hits another kneebreaker and floats over into the Last Chancery! It's fully applied. Nakamura fights and manages to work it loose and get a foot on the rope. Aries hurricanrana off the second rope. Corner dropkick. He goes for the 450 splash. Nakamura dodges but Aries adjusts and rolls through. He blocks a Nakamura corner knee and pulls him out onto the apron. Forearm exchange on the apron. Nakamura enzuguri! Aries catches Nakamura leaping and gives him a DVD on the apron! Hardest part of the ring! While Nakamura's recovering on the floor Aries goes for another tope. Nakamura dodges and Aries crashes into the barricade! Knee off the second rope! Reverse exploder! KINSHASAAAAAAAAAAAAA! It's all over. Really good match with a red hot crowd, but it was missing that little something extra to get it to the next level. Probably the "Austin Aries in WWE" effect. ***3/4

 

NXT Women's Championship: Asuka (c) def Nia Jax in 9:12- As mentioned earlier, Jax beat Bayley in a #1 contender's match to get this shot, putting Bayley on the shelf in the process. This is the first Takeover ever that doesn't have a member of the Four Horsewomen in the women's title match (or first since Arrival if you count that as a Takeover). Asuka tries some stick and move early that frustrates Jax. Asuka is oozing confidence. Jax headbutts out of a wristlock and tosses Asuka across the ring. Asuka tries to fight out of the corner but Jax backs her into it. Corner clothesline. Asuka rolls around Jax and tries to wrap her in a cobra twist. She's way too big for that. Back kick from Asuka, then she runs into a Jax backbreaker. Jax stretches Asuka out in the ropes and tries to mock her by rubbing some of her facepaint line off. Asuka gets bent over Jax's knee. She escapes and puts on a guillotine. Jax has been beaten enough by that and even she's figured out a counter, suplexing Asuka out of it. Cover for 2. Asuka ducks a short clothesline, spins around in a headscissors into an armbar attempt. Jax escapes, but Asuka stays on her and tries for a triangle. Jax lifts and drops her in the corner. Running knee. She stretches Asuka's back around the post. Shots from Asuka are shrugged off and Jax grabs a bear hug. Asuka fights out into a sunset flip. Jax tries to counter but Asuka works her over into a kneebar. Jax gets to the ropes. Asuka is up with kicks. Jax hits a spinebuster. She goes for the legdrop but Asuka dodges. Running knee! Missile dropkick off the second rope. Back fists! Hip attack for 2. Jax grabs a kick and slams Asuka. Cover. Asuka turns it into an armbar! Into a Fujiwara armbar! Jax stands up. Asuka tries for the Asuka Lock but again Jax is too Yokozuna sized. By women's standards. Kick to Jax's head! Spin kick! A combo of kick's to Jax's face! She's out and Asuka pins her! The undefeated streak continues. After the bell Jax looks legit woozy and medical checks on her. Asuka got as much out of Jax as was humanely possible. ***

Earlier tonight, GM William Regal was being interviewed. During said interview Bobby Roode walks behind him. A PA comes up and whispers in Regal's ear and he has to hastily excuse himself.

 

Steel Cage Match for the NXT Championship: Samoa Joe (c) def Finn Balor in 16:10- After losing to Balor two straight Takeovers Joe finally wrested the title away at a house show in Lowell, MA in late April. Balor should have brought the Demon. He does tonight because it's Takeover. This is NXT's first ever steel cage match, and it's being used for what it was designed for- settling a long running heated feud. It's pin or escape rules tonight. Feeling out start. Joe turns and goes for the door, more to sucker Balor in than actually try to get out, and it works. Joe pounds away with jabs. Balor blocks a cage shot, hits kicks and a shotgun dropkick. Joe goes into beatdown mode. Balor gets both boots up in the corner, hits chops and a diving clothesline. Chops all around the world. Joe tries to go to the top rope but Balor kicks him off, and Joe's head falls on the rope coming down. Balor climbs and Joe pulls him back down. He throws Balor into the cage back first. Twice. I think they're being extra cautious about anyone getting accidentally busted open after what happened in Dallas. Shame, since it's a cage match it could use a bit of blood. Corner elbows into an enzuguri from Joe. Corner beatdown and boot scrapes. Running kick. Balor fights back and we have a slugfest. Joe tosses him to the cage again, again Balor taking it back first. He goes for the door but Balor stops him. Rapid fire strikes from Balor and he tries to dive for the door. Joe grabs him by the leg and drags him back in. German suplex from Joe for 2. He climbs and Balor joins him. Joe kicks Balor in the back and both guys fall down! Big Joe chop. Balor dodges and Joe crashes into the cage! Joe gets stuck on the ring apron between the ropes and the cage. Running chop from Balor. Another. Joe ducks a third, Balor runs into the cage, and Joe tries to hook on the coquina clutch. He's still on the apron so Balor snaps him over the top rope to get out. Shotgun dropkick from Balor. He starts to climb over Joe. Joe grabs a boot. Balor gives him a PK from the top rope! Balor loses his balance and falls down crotch first on the rope! After some recovery time Balor runs into a uranage. Joe hooks up for the muscle buster. Balor gets free and cradles Joe for 2. Forearm exchange. Balor swings a Pele kick as he's going down and both guys are down. When they get up both climb again. Chops and forearms on the top rope. Balor slingblades Joe off the top rope! Delayed cover for 2. Regular slingblade! Joe dodges the John WOOOOOO dropkick and hits a senton. The muscle buster hits! Balor kicks out! Joe is shocked, then angry. He shouts to Balor he's going to finish him. Stiff kicks. He tries to Razor's Edge Balor into the cage but Balor escapes and runs Joe into the cage. Another slingblade. John WOOOOO hits! Coupe de Gracie! Joe kicks out! They've kicked out of each other's finishers. The crowd chants "up", clearly wanting a CDG from the top of the cage. Balor sets up for Bloody Sunday. Joe counters into the coquina clutch! Balor works over, climbs the corner to flip out, and hits a double stomp. He looks up and starts climbing, fighting Joe off in the process. He gets one leg over as Joe grabs the other leg. Balor gets the second leg free and over, and dangles over the top of the cage as Joe holds onto him. Joe works Balor over into muscle buster position! Super muscle buster! That gets the pin! Demon Balor suffers his first ever NXT loss. The usual good stuff between these two, but there was also a little something off or missing. Part of it might have been, again, them being super careful not to get busted open after all the blood and stoppages in the Dallas match. In the end the first match of the Joe/Balor trilogy back in London was the best. I think the match also went a little short, as there's a lot of vamping and stalling the last few minutes of air time. This would not surprisingly be Balor's last Takeover. He'd move to the main roster over the summer and be pushed to the moon, winning the inaugural Universal title at Summerslam. But he'd also get hurt in that match and have to relinquish the title the next night on Raw, something that will lose you favor with Vince real quick. Since then Balor's been more a solid hand and upper midcard guy than a main event player. ***1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: Pretty middle of the road as Takeovers go. Everything is watchable and most of it is good, but the tag title match is the only must see classic, not the last time the tag title match will steal a Takeover in 2016.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+

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-