1/23/00 Kanagawa Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken Jiai: Vader vs. Jun Akiyama
1/9/00 Fukuoka Kokusai Center: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Hiroshi Hase
1/10/00 Kumamoto Shi Sogo Taiikukan Sekai Tag Senshukenjiai: Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Vader & Johnny Smith. Digest
1/17/00 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada
1/17/00 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Akira Taue & Vader
1/23/00 Kanagawa Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama
Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Masahito Kakihara
Battle Royal
Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jun Izumida
Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Stan Hansen & Akira Taue & Takao Omori
Daisuke Ikeda & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kentaro Shiga & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota vs. Makoto Hashi vs. Masa Fuchi & Haruka Eigen & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Giant Kimala & Jun Izumida
Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Stan Hansen & Johnny Smith
2/12/00 Tokyo Korakuen Hall World Tag Championship Next Challenger Decision Match: Vader & Steve Williams vs. No Fear
2/17/00 Sapporo Hokkaido-ken Sogo Taiiku Center
Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Next Challenger Decision Match: Kenta Kobashi vs. Steve Williams
Toshiaki Kawada vs. Vader 13:44. Kawada tries to do a Vader/Takada UWF-I style match, but isn't getting much help from Vader. Kawada blitzes Vader at the outset, and basically just flurries on Vader the entire match. Vader isn't really lively, with even Kawada using the Vader hammer on him failing to get any rise from the big man. Vader just kinda stands there taking Kawada's strikes the entire match, firing back once or twice a minute. Kawada has to avoid all Vader's strikes because Vader is the super monster, but he's pretty much kicking himself out on Vader's chest, so the quality of his strikes tends to decrease as the rallies extend too far. Some of it is brutal, but I'm not used to Kawada barely connecting or even missing the way he sometimes does here. Vader resorts to coming back with an eye gouge early, and hits a move here or there, but it's essentially total Kawada domination then jobbing the first time Vader really rocks him. ***1/2
2/20/00 Kobe World Kinen Hall Sekai Tag Senshuken: Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Vader & Steve Williams
2/27/00 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jun Akiyama 23:40. Misawa isn't the wrestler he was 2 1/2 years ago when this series truly began. We see less smooth, athletic work from him and more resting. The problem with this program remains that Misawa is totally content to allow Akiyama to make every match, and Akiyama is totally content to attack Misawa's neck in every match. Akiyama adds quite a few new wrinkles here, and his focus is much better than in the past. The best sequence comes early when Akiyama takes over leg tripping Misawa into the guard rail, delivering a kneedrop with Misawa hanging off the apron, a piledriver on the floor, and finally using an exploder on the apron. Misawa finally comes back with a wicked back elbow and a nasty dropkick to the same area of the face to set up a facelock that he actually works really hard, but still gets the same reaction to, zero, as in his lazy early resthold version. It's one of those matches where the fans are just burned out, and even when they should get a big reaction, it usually doesn't seem to come. Akiyama hit some more sweet neck spots including a calf branding neckbreaker into the guard rail. You began to sense that this was finally the time Misawa's neck was going to cave into all the abuse, but the match just lacked something, that spark, buzz, and excitement, that drama that the should come with the big singles victory we've been waiting all these excellent matches for. Part of the problem is although it was a strong match, it wasn't quite as good as any of their others. Part of the problem is Akiyama has went to the well one too many times, and part of the problem is Misawa is just along for the ride. It's a damn good match, but Akiyama's huge victory is really the only thing that distinguishes it. ***3/4
Triple Crown Heavyweight Title Match: Vader vs. Kenta Kobashi
Highlights of Vader's big AJ matches
Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken: Vader vs. Kenta Kobashi
Takao Omori vs. Naomichi Marufuji digest 3 min
Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru digest 3 min
Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota & Takeshi Rikio vs. Haruka Eigen & Jun Izumida & Makoto Hashi digest 5 min
10 Man Battle Royal
Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Shigeo Okumura 5 min of 10:04
Jun Akiyama vs. Kentaro Shiga 8:45
Asia Tag Title Match: Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone 10 min of 23:46
Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi 27:41. A throwback to the great early 90's tags. They even decided to make it more than mere nostalgia by actually caring, the result yielding one of the best AJPW Korakuen Hall mains of the past 4 years. The problem with the match is they always relied on Kikuchi, and he's now the least effective of the six. Fuchi, although ancient, always relied more on guile and the ability to be annoying in these matches, so he was still adequate. The problem is that no one cares about Kikuchi now that his offense and bumping don't even pale in comparison to their '93 level, so Fuchi's heel routine drew indifference, and the match would just die when these two were in together. They started the match, but Misawa quickly resurrected it with a burst of fast offense, and then Kawada got involved, and they ratcheted up the intensity, hitting each other harder with each blow. Kawada vs. Kobashi was more brutal, with Kobashi creating a big red patch on Kawada's chest after just a few chops. Taue faired well when he was in, but it was mainly Kawada carrying his side when it came to interesting sequences, though Fuchi technically logged the most ring time. Similarly, it was Kobashi and Misawa who were the contributors on their side, though Kikuchi logged the most ring time. The match would gain a ton of momentum whenever the big names were in. They should have understood that, and kept Fuchi & Kikuchi out of the match during the final minutes, as they lost all the steam with their portion before the finish and then there was only a little time left to not make the final statement necessary to make it memorable. But still, it was mostly quite good, and a lot better than anyone actually still paying attention to AJ's Korakuen shows would expect to see in 2000. ***1/2
Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota & Makoto Hashi vs. Masa Fuchi & Haruka Eigen & Jun Izumida
Champion Carnival Ikkaisen: Johnny Smith vs. Tamon Honda
Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Masao Inoue vs. Vader & Steve Williams & Wolf Hawkfield
Talk with Momoto, Morishima, Kanemaru, Marufuji, Hashi, & Akiyama
Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Naomich Marufuji
Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa & Maunakea Mossman vs. Johnny Ace & Mike Barton & Scorpio
Kentaro Shiga & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Takeshi Morishima & Naomichi Marufuji
Masao Inoue vs. Makoto Hashi
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Jun Akiyama & Maunakea Mossman
Champion Carnival Nikaisen: Kenta Kobashi vs. Johnny Smith
Rusher Kimura & Jun Izumida & Tamon Honda vs. Masa Fuchi & Haruka Eigen & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Steve Williams & Wolf Hawkfield
Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Johnny Ace & Mike Barton & Scorpio
taped 4/11 Ishikawa-ken Sangyo Tenjikan
Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota & Tamon Honda vs. Masa Fuchi & Haruka Eigen & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Masao Inoue & Takeshi Morishima vs. Johnny Ace & Mike Barton
Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Jun Akiyama & Maunakea Mossman
taped 4/15 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Champion Carnival Yushosen: Kenta Kobashi vs. Takao Omori 25:12. Kobashi leisurely controls the first 8 minutes until Omori catches him in the badder knee with a dropkick. Omori stays on the knee, highlighted by a kneebreaker through a table. Omori's knee attack is hardly inspiring, but at least he's totally focused on it. Around 17 they just leave the knee and do all the big spots back and forth for the duration. Omori isn't much of a worker and his offense is uninspiring, but the fans reacted to him in his underdog role. Omori does his best and Kobashi keeps it together, but Kobashi is not the spectacular wrestler he used to be and could never carry a match very well. The execution is sharp, perhaps surprisingly so given Omori, but it all seems rather routine. Certainly a solid match, but it never pulled me in and I never believed Omori could win. ***1/4
3/24/00, 1st Round: Johnny Smith vs. Tamon Honda 1:40 of 15:12
3/26/00, 1st Round: Jun Akiyama vs. Takao Omori 0:07. Given the length it was not totally ridiculous. Akiyama ran the ropes, but was caught by surprise when Omori pushed the ref into him. Before he could recover Omori landed an axe bomber. Akiyama staggered up, but Omori got him with two more for the win.
3/26/00, 1st Round: Akira Taue vs. Steve Williams 17:15. These guys need a more active athletic type. It was only going to be good if they beat the hell out of each other, which didn't happen. One good segment was when they were outside the ring and Taue tried to nodowa Williams off the apron and Williams tried to backdrop driver Taue in the stands. Otherwise it adequately executed but dull. **
3/31/00, 1st Round: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Mitsuharu Misawa 16:05. They didn't bother with a beginning or middle, they more or less started with the finish. Misawa was in bad shape quickly and since they couldn't do their usual carny draw due to the tournament format they tried to make you believe it would be a short match. The near falls started before the five minute mark. There was some story as Kawada injured Misawa's eye with a back kick then went after it with punishing strikes. This led to a big spot where Misawa tried a diving elbow, but got caught with a jumping giri. A very good match, but so disappointing by their own standards. They did their famous spots, and more, but in taking out 15 minutes they removed the build, selling, and generally the significance. ***3/4
4/8/00, 2nd Round: Kenta Kobashi vs. Johnny Smith 2:41 of 17:43
4/9/00, Semifinal: Takao Omori vs. Steve Williams 10:33. Boring and messy. They booked Omori into the finals by giving him a few opponents he could possibly beat, but he was not exactly exciting anyone about those prospects with Williams leading him to restholds and a few awkward looking sequences. *3/4
4/11/00, Semifinal: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi 7:35 of 26:08. Why show what's almost certainly the best match of the tournament in its entirety when you can show two Death matches instead?
4/15/00 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Final: Kenta Kobashi vs. Takao Omori 25:12. Kobashi leisurely controls the first 8 minutes until Omori catches him in the badder knee with a dropkick. Omori stays on the knee, highlighted by a kneebreaker through a table. Omori's knee attack is hardly inspiring, but at least he's totally focused on it. Around 17 they just leave the knee and do all the big spots back and forth for the duration. Omori isn't much of a worker and his offense is uninspiring, but the fans reacted to him in his underdog role. Omori does his best and Kobashi keeps it together, but Kobashi is not the spectacular wrestler he used to be and could never carry a match very well. The execution is sharp, perhaps surprisingly so given Omori, but it all seems rather routine. Certainly a solid match, but it never pulled me in and I never believed Omori could win. ***1/4
Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Morishima vs. Masao Inoue & Takeshi Rikio
Akira Taue & Makoto Hashi vs. Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga
Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Stan Hansen & Eric Watts
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Steve Williams & Johnny Smith & George Hines
This tape contains digest versions of the 7/1/00, 7/2/00, & 7/9/00 shows plus one complete match.
7/1/00 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Masa Fuchi. Ridiculously stiff. Read Review. ***3/4
This tape contains digest versions of the 7/11/00 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan & 7/23 Tokyo Nippon Budokan show
Toshiaki Kawada & Genichiro Tenryu vs. Stan Hansen & Maunakea Mossman. Really rough match. They beat each other's chests red. Hansen couldn't do many things at this point, but he could still hit hard. Of course, it made a big difference that Mossman proved he was worthy of a top spot. Granted, there's still a lot of room for improvement, but he carried his team and was able to credibly stand toe to toe and exchange with Dangerous K. Since the slugfest style allowed Tenryu & Hansen to stay within what they can do, Tenryu gave a very good performance and Hansen was effective. The level of difficulty wasn't exceptionally high and as always there were a few spots where Tenryu & Hansen looked bad and/or ancient, but overall the execution was great. It was weird seeing Kawada consistently interjected himself illegally to try to get the fans to root for Mossman since he was the only wrestler in the match that wasn't over. Otherwise, the match really didn't develop much of a story, but it was fun seeing Mossman try to take it to Kawada. ***3/4
Clips of M2K vs. Damian 666 & Halloween & Super Calo
9/2 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Masaaki Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda & Susumu Mochizuki vs. CIMA & SUWA & Sumo Dandy Fuji Nichi. These trios always show good teamwork and work well together. The match was too short and a big sloppy, but generally it was very good even though the crowd could have cared less. CIMA did an awesome spot where he gave Susumu a quebrada except in midair before he did this he dropkicked Masaaki off the apron, so basically his backflip was off Masaaki's chest. CIMA also did a cool move that was a combination of a DDT & Russian leg sweep. SUWA was pretty much invisible, but Fuji didn't hurt the match and the other four all did a good job. ***
Clips of Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Stan Hansen
9/2 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Toshiaki Kawada & Steve Williams vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen. A smart match because the many weaknesses of Williams & Hansen were minimized by simply doing a match where everyone pounded the hell out of each other. There were hardly any moves, but everything they did was high impact. The problem was there were no dynamics at all, so the standing and striking got rather repetitive and monotonous when it went on for around 20 minutes. The match picked up after this and to their credit they all had the stamina for the home stretch so the lack of movement helped out. The match would have been better if it was 10 minutes shorter, but Hansen was still as good as current Hansen gets and Williams also didn't let anyone down. Unfortunately, Kawada & Tenryu weren't impressive by their own standards for big matches. ***
Clips of Taiyo Kea matches
9/2 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Taiyo Kea & Jinsei Shinzaki & Mohammad Yone vs. Mike Barton & Johnny Smith & The Cedman. There was no real direction to this match. Everyone did their thing and looked fine, but it never came together as a whole. Smith & Shinzaki looked good. Standard match that was decent to watch. **1/4
Clips of Sabu's matches
9/2 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Sabu vs. Damian 666. Fun match. Damian would keep trying to do his immitations, but Sabu would know what he was doing and counter with a big move. As Damian doesn't have much offense, this worked out pretty well. Of course, it was sloppy and probably much worse in the complete version. There was so much tape on Sabu's chin it looked like it was taped onto his face. He did a swinging DDT onto two chairs that were facing one another, and wasn't afraid to (or was allowed not that Giant Baba was gone) use his regular spots involving tables and chairs. Not a good match, especially with the lame finish, but not a bad one to watch. 6:44 shown
Clips of The Cedman's matches
Clips of Masa Fuchi's matches
9/2 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Masa Fuchi vs. Masa Chono. Fuchi came out first even though he was the home wrestler. The fans were all excited to see Chono, but mostly wound up rooting for Fuchi. This had by far the best heat of any match up to this point since Misawa & co. left. One of the reasons is they did a big start where Fuchi used his backdrop and crossface. The match slowed considerably after this with Chono taking a powder, but they had gotten the fans riled up right away and for the most part they stayed very into it. Chono using his heel tactics on Fuchi when he reentered helped keep the fans rooting for their guy. Neither wrestler has any offense and they can't bump, but the match was what it needed to be and the heat made it seem good. Although they wrestled intelligently, the crowd was getting weaker as the match progressed and there was little reaction to Chono's key low blow counter. The match picked up after that with Chono using a cradle piledriver and starting to use his finishers, so the noise picked up considerably. Basically the match quality wasn't any good considering it was the first AJ vs. NJ match in over a decade, but there was enough interest in the program to give the match a special aura that made an otherwise fairly dull match very watchable. **1/4
Sankan Oza Tournament Ikkaisen
Johnny Smith vs. Shiro Koshinaka. Disappointing. I kept waiting for it to kick in, but it never really happened. The last minute and a half was fine, but not considering that was all they were going to do. 5:49 shown
Toshiaki Kawada vs. Steve Williams. Williams looked bad in points, but since they stuck to brutality - the one thing Williams can still do well - what was shown looked good. 5:26 shown
Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Stan Hansen. That they edited this down to nothing probably tells you everything you need to know. Shinzaki is athletic enough to be a good opponent for current Hansen, but he can only do so much against a guy who stands in one spot the whole time. 1:17 shown
Mike Barton vs. Genichiro Tenryu. Tenryu tried to turn back the clock to make up for Barton, but at his age he can only look so good running around. 1:16 shown
Sankan Oza Tournament Junkessho
Genichiro Tenryu vs. Stan Hansen. Why they showed all of this match is beyond me. Tenryu caught Hansen with a tope when he was running to the ring and then another when he got up. These weren't good topes, but nonetheless there's something amazing about seeing two topes before the bell when there's over 100 years of age about to be in the ring for a singles match. Hansen wrestled every bit of that 100 years. With his knee in terrible shape, he was laboring terribly to get around at all. Tenryu had to move for both of them, which totally isn't his style. Even though the strikes were hard, hard enough that Hansen bled above the nose, the match got boring quickly because Hansen had to just stand there. These two can't very well have a 5 minute match, but for a match that wasn't terrible this was an exceptionally long 11 minutes. Tenryu's effort was excellent and it was a smart match given Hansen. I wanted to like this match, but it could only be so good with Hansen in absolutely no condition to fight. *1/2
Toshiaki Kawada vs. Shiro Kashinaka. Maybe this match was disappointing, but at this point they could have done better than Hansen in their sleep. What I saw looked really good, but it was butchered to the point it had little flow. Still, this was the only match so far where both men were clearly trying for a great match, and with their ability it's hard to imagine they fell flat to the point we needed to cut more than 2/3. 5:12 shown
10/28 Tokyo Nippon Budokan New Triple Crown Heavyweight Title Tournament Final: Genichiro Tenryu vs. Toshiaki Kawada 26:28. A totally badass striking war. They just laid into each other from start to finish. As neither was willing to give an inch, the only option was to take it like a man and fire back even harder. It was apparent almost from the start that this was the sort of match that would only end when one man was unconscious. Though it wasn't the psychological classic Kawada used to have in Budokan main events, it was a tremendous match that continued in the new direction. This extremely fierce, brutal, and vicious style was what Kawada debuted as the new All Japan style against Fuchi on 7/1/00, but tonight's match was far superior because Kawada's former mentor Tenryu is a legend who commands equal offense and massive respect. It was the peak of an unfortunately very short lived movement that made more of a mark on Kensuke Sasaki - turning him into a wrestler to watch for the next decade - than on anyone actually in All Japan, which got pussified by the entrance of Keiji Muto. It could certainly be considered a precursor to the Kenta Kobashi vs. Sasaki 7/18/05 in that it was just a wickedly savage battle of will power, ego, and machismo. They started out in hit me as hard as you can mode and that never changed because they kept staring each other down - giving each other the intense and evil eyes - and proving they could take everything their opponent had to offer. The match was well structured, starting out by simply alternating blows until one of them dropped then getting into series of brutal blows. Tenryu actually went at Kawada's eye with gu punches early but settled into focused many of his strikes on Kawada's knee, leading to a submission segment. There really weren't many seeds being planted; the match was logical and didn't seem excessive because they knew when to sell, but certainly wasn't deep and rich Kawada. I can't even say there were many specific spots that stood out. Certainly Kawada getting so pissed at Tenryu's gu punches that he decked him with one of his own was notable, and especially Kawada busting Tenryu's nose up badly by knocking him off the apron to the floor with a running kenka kick then following him to the outside and knocking him over the guard rail with a second one were very memorable, but it was more about the culmination of tons of very hard blows that kept getting harder as the match progressed until they were so stiff and brutal that the initial ones seemed weak. The whole match was riveting with all the blows feeling wickedly nasty and meaningful, and it was one of the most grueling matches you'll ever see, which Tenryu really deserves props for as most guys half his age couldn't withstand such a vicious beating. ****1/2
10/28/00 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Yasushi Kanda & Masaaki Mochizuki & Susumu Mochizuki vs.TARU& Gran Naniwa & Ryuji Hijikata
Stan Hansen & Steve Williams & Wolf Hawkfield vs. Masa Fuchi & Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Johnny Smith
Shiro Koshinaka & Nobutaka Araya vs. Johnny Smith & Mohammad Yone. Digest
Shiro Koshinaka & Nobutaka Araya vs. Mike Barton & George Hines
Digest of Battle Royal
Jinsei Shinzaki & Masahito Kakihara vs.Taiyo Kea & Mohammad Yone
Return of Atsushi Onita
Highlights of Masahiro Chono in AJ
10/21/00 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan
Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Johnny Smith
Satoshi Kojima & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Steve Williams & Nobutaka Araya
Masa Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Hiro Saito vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Shiro Koshinaka & Masa Fuchi 17:37. The intensity and urgency to win it for their promotion were there, but this wasn't exactly the template for a big interpromotional match. Kawada was fired up but no one cared to do anything with him and Koshinaka was able to drag something out of nothing as usual, but they really didn't get any help. Fuchi is just too old to really be taken seriously, but Team 2000 were the real problem as they wrestled like it was a run of the mill New Japan house show. Well, T2000's effort may have been slightly better than that, but they just did their typical unskilled brawling, so it didn't exactly feel special. Even with good acting, the match lacked the big match aura. Tenzan really needed to step up and do some of his big time striking to light a fire here, but he was in Chono lacky mode rather than willing to branch out on his own, or even just go along with what Kawada would have loved to have done. **1/4
11/19 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Tag League: Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Danny Kroffat (Real Shooter) vs. Steve Williams & Mike Rotunda (Varsity Club) 1:07. At attempt to help rebuild Doc's image and once again have an imposing gaijin team.
Tag League: Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai (Team Strongs) vs. Mike Barton & Jim Steele (Super Power) 11:08. Kakihara & Nagai should be a good team, but a shooter team only works if you put them over. This was some bad start putting them against supposed tough guys who are clueless in shoot style and only going to sell so much. The teams worked fairly well together and kept things moving to cover certain wrestlers faults, but starting Team Strongs in this manner made them dead on arrival. **1/2
Tag League: Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya (New Revolution) vs. Barry Windham & Kendall Windham (Texas Red Necks) 9:59. Tenryu showed up and carried his team. Araya was just there to get beat on. Windham's just did some unskilled brawling, but were better as a team than individually. Effort was pretty good and match was passable since they kept it short.
Tag League: Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi (King's Road Racer) vs. Taiyo Kea & Johnny Smith (Future Stars) 10:27 of 30:00. With this name, I guess they are hoping Smith will become a star by his mid 40's. Must have been quite stiff because their bodies were showing the signs of getting smacked around. Appeared to be quite good, but good Kawada needs to be seen in its entirety.
11/27 Niigata: Shigeo Okumura & Mohammad Yone & Gran Naniwa vs. Mike Barton & Barry Windham & Kendall Windham 8:42 of 14:13. Style and pace was dictated by whomever was on offense. They tollerated each other and more than worked together. Barton vs. Naniwa was actually pretty good. Decent match.
12/9 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Gran Naniwa vs. Ryuji Hijikata 4:30 of 9:28. The moves were nothing special, but they put together some pretty good sequences and counters.
Masahito Kakihara vs. Danny Kroffat 2:55. Kakihara's win meant something because Kroffat has a good history as a junior and is now a supposed shooter. Even in this short time it was obvious Kroffat is a shell of his former self though.
Genichiro Tenryu & Mitsuya Nagai vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Mohammad Yone 12:09. Stiff match with everyone playing tough guy and just standing toe to toe trading shots. Simple match, but at least it was good within it's narrow focus. Yone took quite a beating. **1/2
12/6
Tag League: Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Danny Kroffat 4:43 of 12:04. Despite all the shooters, it was not particularly realistic.
Tag League: Taiyo Kea & Johnny Smith vs. Steve Williams & Mike Rotunda 9:07 of 17:40. Simple but fairly effective match. Pretty one-sided though. Rotunda gave a better effort than usual, but the crowd was totally dead.
Tag League: Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya 21:08. This is the kind of match we should get often, and it would still be an interesting promotion if they took the time to make it such. Fuchi is still effective when he's got a role and there's a story to tell. Araya was the "young" guy that didn't belong, so he was given a rude introduction to the main event. Kawada & Fuchi kept him in and stiffed him, going to the face repeatedly. Rather than bail him out, Tenryu rooted for Araya and let him try to prove his worth. At one point it looked like Araya was going to get by Fuchi and finally make the tag, but the crafty vet pulled out a leg trip from the ground. After Araya missed his moonsault, Tenryu "slapped the fighting spirit into him" ala Inoki. Finally Tenryu hurt Fuchi when Araya was legal and told Araya to get him. Fuchi looks really silly when he gets into his head bobbing selling, and there were a few spots in this one where the selling was so fake and exaggerated the crowd just laughed at them. Kawada & Fuchi made the match, with Tenryu hardly working but at least putting effort in when he was in. Fuchi's chest was beat red and Araya must have been in much worse shape but it doesn't show as much on his darker skin. ***1/2
12/9 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Tournament Semifinal: Taiyo Kea & Johnny Smith vs. Steve Williams & Mike Rotunda 8:20. After these teams drew each other Williams lariated Kea and Rotunda took Smith out. Rotunda would hit smith anytime he started to get up, leaving Kea to fight the first 6 min on his own. Kea was very motivated and looked good. Smith, who eventually made the hot tag, also brought energy. The gaijins beat them up as good as could be expected and this would have been a good match if they didn't have to save something for later. **1/4
Tournament Semifinal: Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs. Mike Barton & Jim Steele. Nothing special. They went through their spots, but their styles don't mesh. Ironically it was far more heated than the previous match, which seemed better and to have a lot more going on. Fuchi looked pretty corny bumping for Steele. Some good near finishes at the end even if they were pretty basic moves.
2000 Sekai Saikyo Tag Kettei Leaguesen Yushosen (Final): Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs. Steve Williams & Mike Rotunda 21:27. Iizuka & Nagata were at ringside scouting Kawada & Fuchi for the 12/14 NJ PPV (which turned out to be a memorable match). Not much talent, but they got the most out of their abilities. They kept 3 or 4 guys involved throughout the match, building little rivalries and keeping people in focus. In the later stages, you knew the status of both guys on the team that was losing. They put the big moves in the right spots, which was really important since they don't do flashy moves. A smart match that made the individuals look better than they are, and Varsity look better as a team than individually. Kawada was on top of his game, even putting some of his little touches in. This won't exactly go down as one of the great tag finals, but considering one of the teams is far below average and the other has a 46-year-old wrestler that was phased into the comedy match long before the split you could hardly ask for more. ***1/2