12/9/88 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Shiro Koshinaka vs. Keiichi Yamada 11:01 of 15:16. I remember loving this match when I was young, but I'm not really seeing it now. Not that it isn't really good, but while everything was well done, the chemistry didn't seem to be clicking. Yamada still isn't that threatening in his third title shot, which was one of the reasons it was probably below the average IWGP junior title match. It's not so much that Yamada never made me believe he would win, but that the match was simply lacking the usual spark, fire, and drama that Koshinaka is known for. Yamada relied on his kicks early, saving the flying for after he had Koshinaka in some trouble. ***1/2
IWGP & WCWA Heavyweight Double Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Kerry Von Erich 5:40 & 6:15 of 18:26? I wanted to like this match, but it was one of those matches where you were just counting the minutes until the screw job. Fujinami was looking for a real match, but Von Erich just wanted to stall. Fujinami began with the strategy of using speed to beat power, but quickly got nasty, ramming Von Erich's broken fingers into the turnbuckle and stomping them. This instilled the intensity into the match, and had the crowd going. Fujinami continued in this fiery nature, giving one of his more charismatic performances, but it only does so much good when your opponent either does out and out rest holds or his iron claw, a rest hold that marginal, at best, talents used to use as a finisher. Von Erich even added a stomach claw to a cobra twist, but didn't really get a good one until they were on the outside, which of course led to a double ring out. They restarted the match, and Von Erich again had the claw on the outside, but this time Fujinami was able to whip him into the guard rail. Fujinami got pissed when Kerry tried to crack him with a chair, angrily using it on him then busted him open against the post. Kevin Von Erich rolled his brother back in to avoid the ring out, but once he saw how badly Kerry was bleeding, he began to have second thoughts and petition for the match to be stopped. Kerry kept fighting instinctively, mainly just keeping his arms up trying to protect himself, so once the ref identified this he did call it off. **1/4
1/6/89 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Hirokazu Hata & Naoki Sano vs. Sergio El Hermoso & El Bello Greco 14:04. Hata looks something like Akira Nogami with Hiroshi Hase's mustache. Based on this match, he could hold his own with those guys in the ring, too. He was very nimble with excellent body control. Though this wasn't the greatest showcase for Sano & Hata's talents, both looked really good when they were on offense. The match was almost exclusively lucha style, but the rudos weren't particularly flexible, graceful, or athletic. They do the homosexual gimmick, spreading their arms and doing a fairy ballerina hop every time they ran the ropes. They initiated few running sequences, enjoying keeping the opponent's close a bit too much for the quality of the match. But overall, this was good stuff in the typical old school lucha variety where the technicos offense is really fun and the rudos offense is basically throwaway brawling. ***
Shiro Koshinaka & Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. Super Strong Machine & George Takano 13:55. I didn't expect this match to have any chance of being better than Koshinaka vs. Yamada, but it actually was because they did the match you'd hope for rather than the match you'd expect. Koshinaka & Kobayashi were super motivated, basically determined to have a good match. They kept the energy level high and the offense very good throughout. Takano was pretty lazy in '89 despite his only tag title run, but he came to wrestle today, perhaps because Koshinaka & Kobayashi gave him no choice. For once, he applied himself, and that allowed him to more than hang with the opposition. Takano hurt his calf, accidentally hitting the railing when Kobayashi tossed him to the floor. This improved the match, as it gave some focus to the down spots in between the action. SS Machine wasn't doing anything of note this year either, and he again managed this consistent mediocrity, although as Takano stepped up and it was basically a junior tag match with the other three, rather than actually hurting the match he was just typically non descript. ***3/4
1/6/89 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Big Van Vader & Rip Morgan vs. Antonkio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami & Riki Choshu 8:57. Intense, fiery performances from Fujinami, Choshu, Bigelow, & Vader had the Hall rocking from start to finish. A thoroughly enjoyable little match. Though ultimately it didn't go anywhere and had the most predictable finish of Inoki over Morgan, it left you wanting more. **
1/10/89 Chiba Koen Taiikukan
Masa Saito & Hiroshi Hase vs. Antonio Inoki & Shiro Koshinaka 17:57. I expected a lot more from this match than they gave me. They wrestled as though it were a really long match. It was slow and had no intensity. That would have been okay if it ever actually picked up. I could have lived with Saito & Inoki killing time if Hase & Koshinaka were being themselves, but they seemed sucked into the complete indifference. *1/4
Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Tatsumi Fujinami 4:27. A peculiar match. It was going as planned and seemed on the way to being a good one when Bigelow ascended to the top rope, and just fell off! He seemed okay when Fujinami back body dropped him, but I guess his selling of his shoulder after his crash landing may have been legit because he shockingly failed to kick out of Fujinami's weight shift vertical suplex counter. Fujinami had a priceless look of disbelief when the ref raised his hand in victory. DUD
Riki Choshu vs. Big Van Vader
1/16/89 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Super Strong Machine & George Takano vs. Tatsutoshi Goto & Antonio Inoki
1/16/89 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Shiro Koshinaka vs. Hiroshi Hase 16:40. Well focused technical match with sporadic spots to spice things up. Hase worked over Koshinaka's lower left leg for the bulk. When Koshinaka finally came back, he tried a diving kneedrop to the floor with very little setup, only to reinjure himself. After sustaining more legwork, Koshinaka finally hit his Dragon suplex and thought he had the pin because he couldn't see Hase grab the ropes. This brought on a thrilling, but exceptionally short finishing sequence, culminating in a lucky victory for Koshinaka as he turned Hase's Northern Light suplex into a small package. Hase was disgusted he'd dominated the entire match only to lose like this, petitioning for a rematch. ***3/4
Riki Choshu vs. Big Van Vader
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow
1/20/89 Kumamoto Shi Taiikukan: Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Big Van Vader vs. Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami
5/25/89 Osaka Jo Hall
IWGP Tag Title Match: Super Strong Machine & George Takano vs. Osamu Kido & Kengo Kimura
Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Wakha Evloev
Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Victor Zangiev & Vladimir Berkovich
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Hiroshi Hase vs. Jushin Liger 8:39. Kind of an odd match, as they wanted the title on Liger as soon as possible because he was the new sensation, yet they didn't seem to trust him so Liger was pretty much protected in a short match that Hase totally carried. Hase surprised everyone charging at the bell with a dropkick and using a front suplex to set up a plancha, but soon showed it was going to be his style of diverse technical match rather than a Liger aerial assualt. Hase would have his way with Liger except when Liger would find an opening to use his speed and athleticism to counter than have a burst of flying before Hase countered back. Hase was precise and skilled as ever and Liger was all sorts of scrappy, so the match was fun, albeit not exactly developed. ***
6/10/89 Fukuoka Kokusai Center
Big Van Vader & Italian Stallion vs. Antonio Inoki & Takayuki Iizuka
Jushin Liger vs. Shiro Koshinaka 9:21. It's amazing how much things can change in 6 months. When Yamada challenged on 12/9/88, the division was Koshinaka & Hase plus Owen Hart when he was around, with Yamada in contention but not to the point they were even able to make me believe he was a threat to win. Now Liger is the new sensation soon to be the man, and Koshinaka & Hase are graduating to heavyweight. Or rather, Koshinaka is getting booted out of the division with force, as Liger totally dominates him in this fun little slaughter. Koshinaka is really just there to take Liger's kicks and catch him on his flying moves. The match is really about Liger gaining confidence and becoming comfortable with his new aerial oriented style. ***1/2
Japan vs. Russia 5 Match Series:
Timur Zalasov vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
Wahka Evloev vs. Kengo Kimura
Victor Zangiev vs. Osamu Kido
Vladimir Berkovich vs. Riki Choshu
Salman Hashimikov vs. Masa Saito
3/16/89 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan: Vicious Warrior (Sid Vicious) & The Avalanche (PN News) & Ron Starr vs. Seiji Sekaguchi & Kengo Kimura & Tatsutoshi Goto
5/25/89 Osaka Jo Hall, IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Big Van Vader vs. Salman Hashimikov
6/16/89 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Kengo Kimura vs. Timur Zalasov
Jushin Liger vs. Beef Wellington 7:19. Wellington wasn't the right opponent for Liger, as he's one of those mini musclemen who can't take that well. Liger had to tone things down and revent to they can't screw it up if I just jump at them mode. Wellington had a couple nice power moves, but didn't add to the match, which was very standard. **1/2
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Great Kokina (Maximus)
Big Van Vader & Brad Rheingans vs. Riki Choshu & Masa Saito
7/12/89 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Big Van Vader vs. Timur Zalasov
Super Strong Machine & George Takano vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Takayuki Iizuka 15:06. Koshinaka, Iizuka, & Takano were juniors who were being used in the heavyweight division, but weren't quite sure what style they wanted to wrestle. The match was fast paced, especially when Koshinaka was in. However, in the early stages they didn't use the pace to any particular advantage, as they were doing unskilled heavyweight striking, so it didn't really help to run first. Once Koshinaka began his hip attacks, the crowd got into it and they continued to do their more junior oriented signature spots until the finish. Koshinaka made the match as usual, but Takano tended to appear to just be doing stuff for the hell of it, for instance doing pushups while in Koshinaka's half crab amidst an otherwise serious match. **1/2
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match 3Min 10Rd: Jushin Liger vs. Black Tiger R5 2:53. Liger was the new ultra athletic superhero, so it was only natural that Black Tiger would be brought in to carry him and help get him over, just as he did for Tiger Mask. Though Rocco is a very talented wrestler, Sayama's matches with Rocco weren't as exciting as his other main rivals, and I wasn't overly thrilled with the direction Rocco took here. He got the crowd to react, but it was largely to his rudo techniques and Liger's subsequent fighting fire with fire rather than Liger's athleticism, which at this point was what made him special. Dives were so much rarer in these days that the entire crowd seemed to stand when Liger ascended to the top for his plancha. Tiger wrestled technically in the first and they got spot happy in the 5th, but in between Tiger was content to employ such deadly manuevers as choking Liger with his towel and attacking him with a plastic bucket of ice. The other aspect that seemed to hinder the match from reaching it's potential was the rounds style, which, more often than not, prevented flow and rendered the action that much more random. ***1/4
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Salman Hashimikov vs. Riki Choshu
7/13/89 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan: Great Kokina vs. Masa Saito
7/13/89 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Naoki Sano 13:55. Liger & Sano kicked off their legendary fued that first announced their arrival at the top level and soon made them household names with this futuristic aerial war, an insane battle of one-upsmanship that always ultimately proved how evenly matched they were because neither could sustain an advantage no matter what risks they took or how much they disregarded their safety. The match was way ahead of its time for highspots, athleticism, and daring, but also had depth because they were able to get across the idea they were so evenly matched they were pushing each other to previously unattained levels of excellent. The fued was so notable for its intensity, starting before the bell even rang as they wouldn't take their eyes off each other, their stone-faced stare unbroken even by a reluctant pre-match handshake. They matched each other's athleticism at the outset to pop the crowd then technical skill exchanging Romero specials. When the ordinary was not enough, they began raising the bar for daring further and further including Liger doing a rolling senton to the floor, Sano vaulting himself over the top rope Kamikaze style with a body press then following with a missile kick to the floor. There was a Sano huracanrana that didn't quite work and then Liger was too close after Sano's backflip out of the corner for Sano to do his rolling heel kick, but otherwise their chemistry was awesome and anything that didn't hit perfectly added to the recklessness factor. The fault of the match is the double knockout finish came out of nowhere because there was no selling to lead up to it. I understand the idea that this level of opposition called for them to do anything they could think of until they succeeded or their body gave out, but because they couldn't really gain an advantage it didn't make sense for them to both suddenly be unable to get up from Sano's avalanche backdrop. The finish drew gasps from the stunned audience that had been going nuts for quite a while; you could sense their disappointment but they soon gave both a good highly appreciative hand. ****1/2
Big Van Vader vs. Salman Hashimikov
IWGP Tag Title Match: Super Strong Machine & George Takano vs. Riki Choshu & Takayuki Iizuka 16:08. Choshu & Iizuka worked hard, but Machine and especially Takano weren't up to the task, so the effort of Choshu's team wound up resulting in them simply outworking the opposition by a wide margin. Iizuka stepped it up, showing he was more than worthy and capable of the big match. He was in suplex and submission mode, trying to use his sambo background to make up for his size and experience disadvantage. Choshu pushed the pace and tried to instill the expected intensity and urgency, but SS Machine gave one of his non descript performances and Takano simply wasn't good. Takano kept overacting and even mistimed his overacting once or twice. His big move was the Neal kick, but he kept connecting with his ass instead of his thigh. **
8/89
Masa Saito vs. Mike Huff
Dick Murdoch vs. Evgeni Archuhin (sp?)
8/89 Hamamatsu Shi Taiikukan
Super Strong Machine & George Takano vs. Italian Stallion & Billy Jack (Haynes)
Kendo Nagasaki vs. Hiroshi Hase
9/89 Iwate Ken'ei Taiikukan: Buzz Sawyer & Manny Fernandez vs. Super Strong Machine & George Takano
SUPER POWER BATTLE IN OSAKA 9/20/89 Osaka Jo Hall
Owen Hart vs. Tatsutoshi Goto 11:51. Goto was so outclassed you got the idea even he didn't believe he was a match for Owen. Hart wanted to wrestle a scientific mach, so Goto cheated or brawled when he could just to annoy him. Owen wasn't firing up for this, but was very precise and efficient. Goto was able to follow, and given his limited ability, faired better than expected, certainly wrestling a competent match. **
Kendo Nagasaki & Billy Jack vs. Kengo Kimura & Osamu Kido
Salman Hashimikov vs. Italian Stallion
11/29/89 Ishikawa-ken Sangyo Tenjikan
Steve Williams vs. Osamu Kido
Shinya Hashimoto & Super Strong Machine vs. Riki Choshu & Masahiro Chono
Manny Fernandez vs. Andrei Sulsaev
12/6/89 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
George Takano & Super Strong Machine vs. Kunaki Kobayashi & Hiroshi Hase
Shiro Koshinaka & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Tatsutoshi Goto & Norio Honaga
1/18/90 Yamaguchi Toyama Shi Taiikukan
IWGP Junior Next Challenger Decision League Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Hiro Saito 12:53. This is the Liger we are used to with the red mask, red and white body suit, and Thunder as his middle name. Hiro heels it up, introducing a chair, and Liger is more than happy to give it back to him, even piledriving Saito on a table. Hiro is not the least bit spectacular but nonetheless effective on offense as he usually was in the early 90's, having enough impact on his suplexes and senton to be credible. He will never have a match of the year, but he's fine for minor matches, the thing is they should be minor heavyweight matches. The downside of Hiro is woefully apparent here, as he doesn't have nearly enough athleticism for the junior division. He can't take a decent bump off the middle rope, and more importantly, he lacks the flexibility for even simple counters into basic pins, which by the way kills the finish of the match. Despite Liger having to dumb down and Hiro's girth getting in the way a few times, the match was both effective and entertaining. Unfortunately, it just kind of ended when you thought it was about to take off. **3/4
Big Van Vader & Great Kokina vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Saito
Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Riki Choshu
1/25/90 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center
IWGP Junior Next Challenger Decision League Match: Black Tiger vs. Owen Hart 12:30. The biggest drawback of Owen Hart is, although the guy had all the talent in the world, he would so often do just enough to make the match good. Tiger wasn't exactly doing anything to get him out of that mindset either, in fact he wasn't doing much beyond setting Hart up. Despite the brevity, there were a lot of restholds early. They did surround these with some nice stuff though. Actually, the match was looking promising with Owen bouncing all around, pulling off a kip up or backflip out of much of what Tiger could hold him with, but it was somewhat derailed when Owen couldn't get up for his leapfrog and thus took a headbutt to the groin, which didn't do wonders for Tiger's neck, either. They slowed down to recover when they'd normally be speeding up, and by the time they were ready to go, the match was almost over. **3/4
IWGP Junior Next Challenger Decision League Match: Jushin Liger v Akira Nogami 11:59. Nogami had the athleticism, and Liger was of the mindset to carry him. Nogami wasn't wrestling with a great deal of confidence, slowing down to make sure he knew the next spot, but he generally faired well. Liger sold a lot for him, especially early on to give him credibility. The fans weren't reacting, but I thought it was a fun little match. It was weird seeing Liger win with an Argentine backbreaker, as it was not only out of nowhere, but I don't recall him even using the move before. ***
1/31/90 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Senshuken Jiai: Naoki Sano vs. Jushin Thunder Liger 20:00. The ultimate climactic battle, the greatest junior heavyweight match bringing perfect indecisive closure to the greatest junior heavyweight feud of all-time. Not merely a grudge match of epic purportions, but right up there with Akira Hokuto vs. Shinbobu Kandori 4/2/93 as the greatest ever. Not simply state of the art wrestling with awesome drama and great intensity, but the measuring stick. An extremely rich and deep match, with great single match story and psychology, but also playing off the entire brilliant feud in many ways. Heel Sano offers to put the past behind them at least long enough for a display of pre-match goodwill only to get embarrassed when Liger slaps him across the face. Liger roughs up his incited opponent, but Sano quickly exerts his will, proceeding to control 90% of the contest. Roughing Liger up and mauling him, Sano uses a piledriver on the floor and in-ring tombstone to set up embarrassing him by ripping his sacred mask. Posting Liger until he bleeds, Sano is soon at his cockiest, not wanting to settle for a simple pin, but wanting to prove a point and knock his opponent out. Their first singles meeting on 7/13/89 ended in a double KO, but this time Sano is going to drain his opponent of his lifeforce if not his blood and pummel him until he can no longer stand. Sano nearly succeeds with moves such as the superplex. Liger finally makes a hot comeback, introducing his flying into the match, but it’s suitably short lived. The match is about making the prospects of Liger’s victory look as bleak as humanly possible. At the same time, Liger’s refusal to surrender despite losing a bucket of blood subtly shifts Sano into deciding the victory is more important than the manner, as the belt is what proves he’s the best and will make the fans and promotion eventually see it. The selling is quite simply amazing, more toward Misawa & Kawada dominated All Japan heavyweights from a few years later than anything we'd expect from juniors before or since, with Liger down for lengthy periods as a good deal of drama is placed on each attempt to simply stand. In the best hope spot, Sano tries to take it to the next level with a superplex with both standing on the top, but Liger saves himself by shifting his weight to land on top, though he’s still unable to gain control. Liger’s inability to mount an offensive continues until the final seconds of the match when he counters Sano’s huracanrana with a Ligerbomb. Everything we are used to about pro wrestling tells us Liger will turn it on now, but the series is about making stars of both wrestlers, so even though it’s the blowoff Liger isn’t going to prove true superiority. He’s a beaten down man with nothing left, so he decides to go for broke, positioning Sano with a tombstone and delivering his shooting star press. Liger wins because he has the greatest move and was able to will himself, or simply lucky enough, to hang around long enough to execute it. *****
IWGP Tag Title Match: Masa Saito & Shinya Hashimoto vs. Big Van Vader & Great Kokina
2/10/1990 Tokyo Dome:
Naoki Sano & Pegasus Kid vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Akira Nogami 7:14 of 16:54. The final chapter in the amazing Liger vs. Sano fued, but they didn't face off with near the intensity we saw in their previous 4 singles matches, and the match was ultimately notable for the arrival of Pegasus. Pegasus was solid, certainly a few steps above Nogami, but not nearly in the class with Sano. It was a good state of the art junior match, though really rather standard for the first 13 minutes. The final 4 minutes was like a different, potentially exceptional match, heated and intense with great offense. Considering it was the Tokyo Dome, aka the mausoleum of juniors, I was surprised at how loud the audience was as soon as the finishing sequence kicked in. The offense was quite impressive, but the match had been very average for these guys up to that point, and wasn't exactly building to the explosion. ***1/2
Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto & Norio Honaga vs. Hiroshi Hase & Kuniaki Kobayashi & Kantaro Hoshino
Steve Williams vs. Salman Hashimikov
Super Strong Machine & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Riki Choshu & George Takano
1/30/90: Masa Saito & Hiroshi Hase vs. Osamu Kido & Kengo Kimura
3/2/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Wild Pegasus & Cheetah Kid vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Takayuki Iizuka 6:34 of 8:10. Entertaining little sprint. Liger was more motivated here, and beginning to get into a groove with Pegasus. These two are very good, and Cheetah, while hardly great, is at least more than happy to catipult his body.
Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Saito vs. Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Punisher Dice Morgan (The Undertaker)
Super Strong Machine vs. George Takano
Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Riki Choshu & Masahiro Chono
3/5/90: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Cheetah Kid (Ted "Rocco Rock" Petty) 9:24. Cheetah had a way of making everything look at least a bit awkward. For such a good athlete, he was rather mechanical and, next to Liger, came off as nothing more than an imposter indy junior. The match was very much of the you do your spots and I do mine variety. Liger tried, but they had no chemistry. *3/4
3/5/90
George Takano & Masahiro Chono vs. Super Strong Machine & Hiro Saito
Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Larry Cameron vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Riki Choshu
3/15/90
Hiroshi Hase & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Norio Honaga & Hiro Saito 14:46. Simple, effective match with Blond Outlaws controlling through shady methods, setting up brief bursts of hot offense from Liger & Hase. Blond Outlaws jumped Liger & Hase before the bell and generally roughed them up, quickly cutting them off with a low blow or double team everytime they seemed to gain momentum. Liger eventually had enough, taking a chair to Saito then jumping off the top to stuff Hase's piledriver. Hase & Liger were very good, and Honaga & Saito were able to stay within their element. ***1/4
Masa Saito & Koji Kitao vs. Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Punisher Dice Morgan
3/15/90
Masa Chono & Shinya Hashimoto vs. Larry Cameron & The Barbarian (John Nord)
Seiji Sakaguchi Retirement Match: Scott Hall & Mike Kirchner vs. Seiji Sekaguchi & Kengo Kimura
Riki Choshu & George Takano vs. Strong Machine & Tatsutoshi Goto
3/19/90 Hiroshima Kenritsu Taiikukan: Hiroshi Hase & George Takano & Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. Norio Honaga & Tatsutoshi Goto & Hiro Saito 14:50. Though you want your main heel to not merely dominate, but strike fear in the audience's heart, what you really want from your other heels is to be annoying so they'll elicit fiery performances from the faces. Blond Outlaws jumping the faces at the bells, and taking their shortcuts only served to motivate the opposition, who wrestled with a spark. The difference in Takano was most noticable, as he's prone to being lackadaisical. You knew the match was working when you heard the audience's reaction to the faces all putting the boots to Goto at once. Fun and effective match. ***1/4
4/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Tatsutoshi Goto & Super Strong Machine vs. George Takano & Masahiro Chono
Koji Kitao vs. Mike Kirchner
Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Larry Cameron vs. Riki Choshu & Shinya Hashimoto
4/27/90 Tokyo Bay NK Hall
Kengo Kimura vs. Osamu Kido
Jushin Thunder Liger & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto 9:18. Minor entry in the Liger vs. Blond Outlaws program. Liger is super over, getting reaction to everything he does, especially his flying. There's surprisingly little reaction to Outlaws double teams and low blows though. It's like the fans boo them once, then realize that's all these guys can do. Liger got a big pop for laying kicks into Hiro's chest until he released his Boston crab on Kensuke though. **
Super Strong Machine vs. Shiro Koshinka 10:46. This wasn't their finest moment. It had a few brief good segments, but they weren't clicking. Koshinaka missed a leap frog and hurt his ankle landing on his feet to counter a suplex. Machine worked the ankle, and I guess this played into the finish as Machine kinda grabs the ankle in midair to counter Koshinaka's hip attack, but it doesn't look like much. *1/2
5/5/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Super Strong Machine & Hiro Saito vs. Hiroshi Hase & Apollo Sugawara 16:34. Starts in the requisite Blond Outlaws manner with them jumping before the bell, but rather than the typical shady domination, Saito winds up doing quite a bit of selling. Sugawara has the posture of the thuggish bodyguard who can't get out of his own way, but althogh he lacks grace, he does his moves well enough. Still, you are begging Hase not to tag because he's the best wrestler in the match by miles, and is elevating the quality quite a bit without much assistance. Hase's enthusiasm keeps the crowd involved in this rather ordinary match. Finish doesn't really work, as although Blond Outlaws aren't getting their way as usual, this is one of those rejects from the pre-UWF era where they seemingly just pick an indescriminate time to end it via screw job. In this case, Animal Hamaguchi tooks the opportunity to flash his diving elbow. **1/4
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Masahiko Takasugi
Shiro Koshinka vs. Jushin Thunder Liger 16:52. Intense match in the style of the Koshinaka era, mixing UWF strikes and submissions with energetic running segments. Liger starts in full martial arts mode, blistering Koshinaka with kicks and now adding the shotei to his arsenal. There's a few too many indescriminate submissions, but these two are so motivated the time always passes quickly. They are also smart, doing something to pick the crowd up in between stretching each other out. Koshinaka might not have the best high spots, but his speed and enthusiam more than make up for it, and he always winds up getting some of the best crowd reactions. The fans are really hot down the stretch, but as with many of the junior matches of this era, it ends just when you begin to think it has the potential to be something special. ***3/4
Masahiro Chono & Shinya Hashimoto vs. Masa Saito & Riki Choshu
5/24/90 Tokyo Bay NK Hall
Hiroshi Hase vs. Norio Honaga 11:13. Match is just kind of there. Honaga is fine in tag, but has yet to figure out how to work around his lack of offense in singles. He has the advantage too much, and it hurts the match. Hase also isn't into this one as much as usual. **
Jushin Thunder Liger & Osamu Kido & Kengo Kimura vs. Hiro Saito & Super Strong Machine & Tatsutoshi Goto 13:45. Liger was a real spark plug, working brief fast paced segments that ignited the audience. He was singlehandedly making the match, which was lucky as he wasn't getting much help. Saito was the best on the heel side, taking a lot and showing something beyond the Blood Outlaw standard when he was on offense. Kimura wasn't doing much to distinguish himself from the heels, and Kido can always pop the crowd with his couple of over moves, but doesn't deliver a whole lot else. **3/4
5/28/90 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Kensuke Sasaki & Kuniaki Kobayashi & Apollo Sugawara vs. Animal Hamaguchi & Super Strong Machine & Tatsutoshi Goto
Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Steve Williams 9:46. This battle of the super heavyweight gaijins had promise, but never really came off. They began structuring the match around parity spots, building up to who could knock each other down first. Williams nearly died when Bigelow couldn't bend low enough for Williams to leap frog him. Okay, I exaggerate, but Williams was down for two minutes, shoeing Bigelow away every time Bam Bam tried to restart the match. Eventually, when he was ready to go, Williams did the Chono reverse kick to the balls to make things even. The intensity picked up tremendously as they exchanged stiff shots, but that lead to them brawling on the outside forever. I kept getting ready to get pissed that it was going to be a countout, doubly so since with the interruption, they really hadn't even got going yet. The ref ignored that part, but then disqualified Williams for repeated chair shots once they'd reentered. Bigelow bladed, and they continued brawling until Williams had to be restrained because he'd beaten Bigelow helpless, but still this was really just the concept of these two having a wrestling match.
Big Van Vader vs. Koji Kitao
5/28/90 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
IWGP Tag Title Match: Keiji Muto & Masa Chono vs. Hiroshi Hase & Shiro Koshinaka 21:01. A nice combination of Chono and Hase's old school technical style with Muto & Koshinaka's fast paced junior match, getting excellent contributions across the board. The match built slowly, with Chono & Hase being the driving forces in the scientific early stages. The scientific wrestling was very well executed, but generally meandered as it lacked story or focus to either give it meaning or make us believe in the moves as finishers. The match would pick up when Muto & Koshinaka came in, but they saved most of the spots for the later portion. In stages, they picked up the pace and incorporated more spots until they were generally sprinting in the final minutes, apart from an attempt at a legit submission finisher such as Chono's STF. The fans were into it all the way, not showing any particular allegiance, but rather supporting whoever was losing or exciting them at that particular moment. ***3/4
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Riki Choshu 13:34. Although a bit on the short side, this is my favorite of the Hashimoto/Choshu matches I've seen. Their matches are always brutal fights, wars really, so the offense is more or less the same, but I like how they structured this one, and it resulted in awesome reactions to every notable event. Though Choshu is the legend and previous IWGP Heavyweight Champion whereas Hashimoto is more than 3 years away from his first title run, Hashimoto did defeat Choshu at the Tokyo Dome on 4/24/89, and they use that and his generally overwhelming toughness to play the match as though he's the favorite and Choshu is the underdog. Choshu was fine when he could tie Hashimoto up, though that doesn't provide any offense of interest, but lost every toe to toe battle because his headbutts were no match for Hashimoto's kicks and chops. He basically had to concede this fact, and figure out a surprise attack in order to go on a run. Choshu finally scored, catching a charging Hashimoto by laying him out with a wicked elbow. The good news for Choshu is he was able to bully Hashimoto once he seized an advantage. However, once Hashimoto countered with a DDT, he effortlessly resumed devouring Choshu. Choshu again had to pull something out of the hat, countering a charging Hashimoto, this time with his Riki lariat. Choshu totally unloaded on Hashimoto, using multiple Riki lariats, the diving kneedrop, sasorigatame, all his mainstays and anything he can think up. Hashimoto again had trouble regaining the momentum once Choshu was rolling, but could take everything Choshu can throw at him, and was simply too brutal and powerful for Choshu to handle. The result was another upset that went a long way toward solidifying Hashimoto's upper card status because at no time did the match ever feel like an upset, it instead felt like an inevitability, and that's really to Choshu's credit, as unlike the fluke during the IWGP Heavyweight Title Tournament, he put Hashimoto all the way over in this one. ***3/4
6/12/90 Fukuoka Sports Center: Keiji Muto vs. Masahiro Chono 26:26. A Chono style technical match of the slowest and dullest variety, the match quite simply dragged and was ultimately about as soporific as Muto vs. white Chono can get. Supposedly built around parity, it often seemed to have the motto "I can do nothing just as well as you." It was several steps down from what Chono was doing with Hase on 5/28/90, which is surprising even given how much better than Hase is on the mat than Muto. Thought Muto can be counted on to work a knee, the sort of continuity that was missing in the 5/28/90 tag, he is also at least as willing as Chono to lay around and do next to nothing, whereas Hase has a much better sense of when to move on to a different hold or leave the mat entirely. Chono eventually took Muto's knee, primarily with figure 4's, but most of this was getting little to no reaction as the activity level was generally very low. When they finally stood up, they did stereo dropkicks but Muto's elbow defeated Chono's jumping elbow and he put him away with the moonsault. **
6/26/90 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
Kengo Kimura vs. The Soultaker
Owen Hart vs. Pegasus Kid 12:10. I wish these two would have had more matches, as you could see the potential for greatness, but they lacked the familiarity with one another, and mainly Benoit lacked the belief. It started great with Pegasus really taking it to Owen, guerrila pressing him to the floor and following with a snap suplex. Owen tried to use his speed to counteract Pegasus' power, but got caught in a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. This woke Owen up, and he began showing Pegasus he could be as stiff and powerful as him. For whatever reason, Pegasus lost his confidence as soon as Owen took over and began carrying the match. Pegasus didn't look at home during much of the body, which mixed Owen's gymnastic counters with too many rest holds. Though they hadn't developed their chemistry, causing a moment or two of uncertainty, Pegasus was really on early and nothing happened that should have changed this. Luckily, Pegasus got it back for the finish, surprisingly kicking out of the moonsault then scoring the big upset, knocking Owen out with the nadare shiki backdrop. ***3/4
Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Steve Williams
2/3 Falls: Riki Choshu & Kensuke Sasaki & Kuniaki Kobayashi & Shiro Koshinaka & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Animal Hamaguchi & Strong Machine & Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto & Masanobu Kurisu
6/26/90 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan: Keiji Muto & Masahiro Chono vs. Masa Saito & Shinya Hashimoto
6/30/90 Nagano Ueda Shimin Taiikukan
Masahiro Chono vs. The Soultaker
Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Owen Hart vs. Steve Williams & Pegasus Kid
Riki Choshu & Shinya Hashimoto & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Animal Hamaguchi & Tatsutoshi Goto & Masanobu Kurisu
6/30/90 Nagano Ueda Shimin Taiikukan: Keiji Muto vs. Brad Rheingans
7/5/90 Iwate-ken
Masa Saito vs. Steve Williams
Masahiro Chono & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Brad Rheingans & Pegasus Kid
Keiji Muto vs. Owen Hart
Riki Choshu & Shinya Hashimoto vs. Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & The Soultaker
7/22/90 Sapporo Tsukisama Green Dome
Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Masanobu Kurisu
Riki Choshu & Masa Saito vs. Great Kokina & Wild Samoan
Keiji Muto & Masahiro Chono vs. Animal Warrior & Hawk Warrior
8/16/90 Chiba Koen Taiikukan
Jushin Thunder Liger & Kensuke Sasaki & Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. Super Strong Machine & Tatsutoshi Goto & Pegasus Kid
Animal Hamaguchi vs. Masanobu Kurisu
Riki Choshu & Kengo Kimura vs. Mike Enos & Wayne Bloom 8:53
8/19/90 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Saito vs. Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & The Soultaker
2/3 Falls: Masanobu Kurisu & Hiroshi Itakura & Ryuma Go & Masashi Aoyagi & Masahiko Takasugi vs. Tatsutoshi Goto & Super Strong Machine & Animal Hamaguchi & Hiro Saito & Norio Honaga
9/14/90 Hiroshima Sun Plaza
Masahiro Chono & Masa Saito vs. The Great Kokina & Wild Samoan
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Big Van Vader
9/14/90 Hiroshima Sun Plaza
Riki Choshu & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Takayuki Iizuka
Hiroshi Hase vs. The Great Muta
9/30/90 Kanagawa Yokohama Arena
IWGP Junior Title Next Challenger Decision Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Villano V
Exhibition Match: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Shiro Koshinaka
9/30/90 Kanagawa Yokohama Arena
Masahiro Chono vs. TNT
Great Muta vs. Ricky Steamboat
10/90 Green Dome Maebashi
Tiger Jeet Singh vs. Big Van Vader
Tatsumi Fujinami & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Riki Choshu & Animal Hamaguchi
1/90 Chiba Koen Taiikukan: Keiji Muto & Shinya Hashimoto & Masahiro Chono vs. Big Van Vader & The Soultaker & Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow
10/90 Green Dome Maebashi
Jushin Thunder Liger & Takayuki Iizuka vs. Masashi Aoyagi & Masahiko Takasugi
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Larry Cameron
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Masahiro Chono
10/90 Green Dome Maebashi: Hiroshi Hase vs. Keiji Muto
10/29/90
Jushin Thunder Liger & Takayuki Iizuka vs. Hiro Saito & Pegasus Kid
Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Super Strong Machine & Tatsutoshi Goto
Keiji Muto & Masahiro Chono vs. Tiger Jeet Singh & Masanobu Kurisu
10/29/90
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Animal Hamaguchi
Riki Choshu & Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Saito vs. Big Van Vader & Larry Cameron & Bad News Brown
11/28/90 Fukuoka Hakata Starlane
Keiji Muto & Masahiro Chono vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Saito
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Ryuma Go
11/28/90 Fukuoka Hakata Starlane
Masanobu Kurisu vs. Hiro Saito
Riki Choshu & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Super Strong Machine & Tatsutoshi Goto
12/3/90 Baghdad Iraq: Riki Choshu & Masa Saito vs. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki
12/7/90 Kanagawa
Jushin Thunder Liger & Takayuki Iizuka & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Tatsutoshi Goto & Hiro Saito & Norio Honaga
Keiji Muto & Masahiro Chono vs. Andrei Sulsaev & Chimur Zarasov
12/7/90 Kanagawa
Tatsumi Fujinami & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Masa Saito & Kuniaki Kobayashi
Riki Choshu & Kensuke Sasaki & Hiroshi Hase vs. Brad Rheingans & Bad News Brown & Scott Norton
12/11/90 Nagoya Rainbow Hall
Masa Saito vs. Scott Norton
Keiji Muto vs. Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow
IWGP Tag Title Match: Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Super Strong Machine & Tatsutoshi Goto
12/11/90 Nagoya Rainbow Hall: Tatsumi Fujinami & Shiro Koshinaka & Takayuki Iizuka vs. Riki Choshu & Osamu Kido & Kuniaki Kobayashi 11:43. With Fujinami, Koshinaka, Iizuka, & Kobayashi you basically had a who’s who of (former) juniors who are quick and willing to push the pace, but don't possess great offense. Choshu isn't as athletic, but bursts of energy define his heavyweight tag style. The offense was expectedly pretty basic, but the pace could have been a little better, especially since the match was on the short side. The heat was on Fujinami vs. Choshu, and they worked with each other enough to content the crowd, with Kobayashi, Iizuka & Koshinaka doing most of the running around. A decent effort and match, but nothing substantial. **
12/13/90 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
Masa Saito vs. Ax Demolition 6:05. There wasn’t even an instance of skill on display in this WWF style match where Ax kept escaping to the floor for breathers, 6 minutes being a real iron man challenge and all. The match finally started when Saito went to the floor too for some brawling then they did some more punches in the ring and it mercifully ended soon after that. DUD
Keiji Muto & Masahiro Chono vs. Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Bad News Brown 13:18. A huge disappointment. Muto & Chono weren’t bad, they simply had little opportunity to do anything useful since Bad News was in full WWF street fighter gimmick and Bigelow was choosing to be lazy and join in the punching and headbutting. The gaijins were on the offensive for 85% of the match, with Muto & Chono mainly standing around waiting to get hit. As the match was merely striking, and they weren’t even exchanging strikes, it was incredibly methodical with no timing or flow. There was one good spot where Bad News hit his ghetto blaster on Muto but chose to taunt, allowing Chono to sneak up from behind with one of his own, but that was about it. *
IWGP Tag Title Match: Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Takayuki Iizuka 21:11. Could look like an excellent match with the right editing, but the structuring was somewhat crude and it took too long to get going. The majority of the match was disappointing, technically sound and certainly not bad but rather slow and not particularly intense. The main theme was Iizuka working on Hase’s knee, but without much in the way of a transition, they dropped the matwork and picked the pace up five notches, exchanging signature spots. Almost all the NJPW matches of this period had finishes that were much faster paced and more spot oriented than the rest of the match, and the crowd was really hot for this final portion. It's not that it wasn't quite good, but it was one of the most offensive examples of the general problem with the promotions matches of the period in that it really had little to do with the rest of the match. ***
12/13/90 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan: Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura vs. Riki Choshu & Osamu Kido 16:13. A Choshu match needs to be inspired because its primary strengths are energy, emotion, and intensity. There was a little interplay and hatred, with Kimura & Choshu getting into it at the outset, but as a whole, this one wasn’t. so they weren’t able to make you forget how basic it was. Everyone was okay, but it was all rather standard. *3/4
taped 1/4/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Keiji Muto & Masahiro Chono vs. Super Strong Machine & Hiro Saito 14:24. Muto & Chono were fairly motivated, and the match got off to a good start with the duo dominating Saito. Saito selling is never a particularly good thing, but he also has by far the worst offense in the match, which is usually the case if he's not teaming with Goto, so even though you can’t win with him, at least Muto & Chono were on the move. The match slowed considerably in the middle with some kneework on Chono leading to his hot tag, where Muto did a whole two moves before letting Chono close it out. No one was anywhere near outstanding, but they were all on and into making it an acceptable match. **1/2
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Matthew Rambo 4:35. Despite it being a total throwaway, they didn’t seem to consider mailing it in. Rambo leans toward the awkward and clumsy side, but made a genuine effort, and Fujinami was showing some fire. It was far from the most graceful work, but it was passable. Fujinami seemed poised for the quick win when Vader snuck in behind him and broke up his Dragon sleeper. Vader wasn’t helping Rambo, who he soon knocked to the floor with a lariat, but rather wanted to get a headstart on his heavyweight title match with Fujinami on 3/4/91.
Riki Choshu & Masa Saito & Shinya Hashimoto vs. Big Van Vader & TNT & Mark Laurinaitis 8:35. Great booking, using an insubstantial small show match to advance the feuds and set up the big matches. Because it was done so well, it seemed important and as if you’d actually seen something, when neither was really the case. Not great wrestling by any means, but extremely effective because they had a firm grasp of how to play up the rivalries the audience cared about. There was tremendous heat on Vader vs. the natives, which they exploited from pre match to post match. Vader pretty much made the match, having intense if not overly stiff exchanges with Hashimoto & Choshu. No one cared about his partners, but the reaction to even wobbling Vader was impressive. Vader’s team lost, but he was still ready to have a go at any or all of the natives afterwards, and Fujinami wound up jumping Vader this time and brawling around the arena with him. It’s hard to rate this match because it wasn’t good or complete in any traditional manner, but it was so heated and intense when Vader was in that you were riveted throughout. ***
2/5/91 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. David “Fit” Finlay 9:27. An odd and disappointing match. They didn’t seem to have much timing or chemistry when they did work together, so after a couple off spots Finlay seemed to avoid sequences and counters as much as possible. They ultimately did so few spots where they actually worked together Finlay might as well have been wrestled a doll for the first 8 minutes. Finlay totally dominated Liger, stomping his hands and attacked his joints. His offense was precise rather than stiff. It was okay, but he didn’t do anything that was really impressive or brutal. The match got a little better at the end when Liger finally offered something in return, but they still didn’t seem to have a feel for one another. **
3/6/91 Nagasaki, IWGP Tag Title Match: Super Strong Machine & Hiro Saito vs. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki 19:15. A fired up Hase gave a top notch performance, showing some of the best offense in the NJPW heavyweight division, doing an excellent job of depicting how his physical condition was effecting his wrestling, and generally keeping the fans into a match they had some reason to be frustrated with. Unfortunately, Hase didn’t get that much help, as Machine & Saito seemed to specialize in killing time. Though they ultimately transitioned from there into an effective attack on Sasaki’s knee, they relied way too heavily on filler such as brawling strikes and non threatening submissions. Hase managed to make the ordinary dramatic, and eventually the other three began to wrestle with conviction. Unfortunately, this didn’t occur until Sasaki’s hot tag, which was practically the end of the match. If Machine or even Sasaki would have wrestled with more fervor, it could have been damn good, rather than merely meeting the acceptable level. ***
3/4/91 Hiroshima Sun Plaza, IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Big Van Vader vs. Tatsumi Fujinami 3:37 of 13:14. They seemed to bring their A game for this one, stepping up the pace and giving highly motivated performances. The fans bought into their emotion, as well as the high quality of the match, or at least going nuts for the finishing sequence. I enjoyed the style Fujinami employed against the Big man, vaulting his body at him with running and jumping attacks to put him down and then working for an arm submission. Fujinami’s left knee was injured before they joined the match, so Fujinami was hopping around when he ran the ropes, but Vader wasn’t attacking it anymore, as he'd moved on to his finishers. He was just using his size and strength to maul Fujinami when he could catch or corner him. Vader finally snatched Fujinami out of the air, trying to counter his diving body attack with a powerslam, but Fujinami recountered with a small package for the win. It looked like a memorable match, but most of these matches that are complete sputter and meander along and then suddenly catch fire for the final few minutes, so I’m hesitant to get too excited about a clip which only shows the portion of the match they are guaranteed to show up for.
3/14/91 Nagoya Rainbow Hall: Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Takayuki Iizuka 24:10. They did the desperate and energetic match they should have done when they met for the titles on 12/13/90. Universally better performances from all parties, with Hase being particularly excellent. Koshinaka vs. Hase was by far the best, with the longtime rivals showing excellent chemistry. Iizuka was excited to have an opponent that could actually go on the mat, and threw all his sambo techniques at Hase, while using more junior offense against Sasaki. It was the best performance I’ve seen from Iizuka in quite a while. Though the match slowed some in the middle, they were stiffer than expected to make up for it. As they picked the pace up again, the match kept looking as though it were about to end, but it continued to go back and forth for quite a while. ***3/4
3/14/91 Nagoya Rainbow Hall
Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Big Van Vader & Super Strong Machine 13:53. Vader is still a ways away from becoming the greatest fat man in the history of wrestling, but one of the reasons he was able to attain that status is he possesses the desire of a half pint who everyone repeatedly told didn’t have a chance of making it. Vader always brings it, and since he has so much push and heat on him, his opponents always bring it against him. Choshu & Fujinami could get away with a mediocre performance, but because it’s Vader they are wrestling with intensity and urgency. Vader really is the perfect big man for the Choshu style of match because he doesn’t have a lot of big moves at this point, but he loves to work fast (even if he stands and the opponents charge him) and clobber people. Choshu was on top of his game today, not showing any particular skill, but giving an energetic performance that was extremely efficient, showing great timing that got him his pops. Machine was better than he’s been of late, but doesn’t fit the match because he’s so flat, showing no energy or emotion. Fujinami may have been legitimately stunned from a sandwich lariat because Choshu got away with saving him and rolling him to the side of the ring, continuing as if a legal tag had been made. Choshu went 2-1 while Fujinami lay on the apron for around 3 minutes, but Fujinami looked fine when he made the hot tag to finish off the match. ***1/4
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Norio Honaga 10:18. An effective little match that got sidetracked at the end. Honaga was at his most merciless, injuring Liger’s ribs immediately by laying him out on the guard rail and working them over throughout with actual wrestling such as the stomach breaker and some good old fashioned chair shots. Honaga is far from the ideal junior, but his lack of skilled offense didn’t hurt this match to the normal extent because his kicks and stomps were all directed at the injured area. What hurt the match was Liger failing to do a particularly convincing job of selling the rib injury, particularly in the later stages. Honaga would immediately cut Liger off with a shot to the tender area, but Liger finally came back, bloodying Honaga on the turnbuckle whose padding he removed. Saito distracted Liger to end his nice little run, and then they went home at least 5 minutes too soon with a finish that needed to be explained. It looked as though the ref counted three, but everyone pretended someone rang the bell at two. The stunned ref awarded the bout to Honaga, and it was soon revealed that Liger’s next challenger, Akira Nogami, was sitting at the timekeeper’s table. Liger’s injury should have been enough reason for Honaga to beat Liger, the Saito distraction was somewhat unnecessary and the whole Nogami deciding the outcome out of nowhere bit was just silly. Focusing on what’s next is obviously good in theory, but it just stole Honaga’s thunder. If they had to have Nogami play a role, I would rather have had him distract Liger and Honaga take him right out with a shot to the ribs. ***
Keiji Muto vs. Mike Rotundo 9:40. I figured this could be incredibly boring because Muto doesn’t usually need much impetus to play for time, and few wrestlers are more prone to stalling than Rotundo. Muto surprised me though, counteracting Rotundo’s restmissions as well as one could hope. Rotundo would tie him up, but Muto would push the pace whenever he broke free. It was nothing extraordinary, but they did a solid job of following a basic premise from start to finish. **
3/21/91 Tokyo Dome
Kengo Kimura & Osamu Kido & Kantaro Hoshino & Animal Hamaguchi vs. Super Strong Machine & Tatsutoshi Goto & Hiro Saito & Norio Honaga 12:10. I have no idea what the purpose of this match was beyond getting a bunch of guys on the show. There was no particular story or heat to the old generation wrestling the new generation, and the match just kind of went along without developing, well, anything. They switched often, but the lack of guys who gave well or received well was extremely limiting. There weren’t many quality moves and no one seemed to wrestle enough to find their rhythm, much less get on any sort of roll. They seemed to try, but didn’t know how to use the numbers to their advantage, so it wound up falling into the trap of the baseball all star game, just giving everyone an at bat and whatever happened, happened. *
Scott Norton vs. Equalizer 2:23. Saturday morning enhancement at the Tokyo Dome? They matched Norton against a gaijin who was as tall, and had him run right through him. Norton capped it off by not catching Equalizer properly on his powerslam finisher, resulting in there being less impact than placing a throw rug. DUD
3/21/91 Tokyo Dome
Greatest 18 Club No Time Limit No Referee: Riki Choshu vs. Tiger Jeet Singh 11:07. Any match with Singh is a worst match of the year candidate, unless the inclusion of Singh simply disqualifies it from counting as actual wrestling. The only highlight of his latest abortion was Choshu bending Singh’s toy sword into a bow shape, which had me laughing long enough to spare me from some of the torture. Choshu tried his best to take this seriously, but as Singh may not even understand wrestling, he was mostly forced to just play along with the aimless brawling. Singh began by attacking the timekeeper for interrupting his endless traipsing about by ringing the bell, and busted Choshu open almost immediately. Singh bled heavily as well, so between the novelty of a double juice brawl and the audience’s frustration with Singh beating up wimpy officials and using weapons on their beloved Choshu, they took their anger out on Singh in the manner the wrestlers hoped rather than laughing this circus crap out of the building. Choshu actually used his signature moves at the finish, not that Singh can even take a lariat decently. The crowd went nuts when Choshu put Singh in an armbar after the match. -*
NWA Heavyweight & IWGP Heavyweight Double Title Match: Tatsumi Fujinami (IWGP champ) vs. Ric Flair (NWA champ) 23:06. These two wrestled their age, and then some. Flair’s lack of subtlety was so out of place. The harder he tried to get a reaction by overdoing every mannerism, the more he was greeted with utter silence. Flair looked a lot older than Fujinami, but Fujinami was suddenly lazy, doing one rest or submission hold after another in the first half. Flair began wrestling, and it was decent, but still flat. They just seemed to lack motivation, or at least they were unable to convey any semblance of intensity, emotion or enthusiasm that would get the crowd into it. They had some good chop exchanges, but nobody cared. Fujinami busting Flair open by repeatedly ramming his head into the guard rail helped a little. The match actually seemed to be gaining a little momentum when there was a ref bump of all things, on Bill Alfonso of all referees to be officiating a Tokyo Dome main event. Fujinami pinned Flair, but Alfonso was no where to be found. Flair kicked out of a second pin in time, not that it mattered, and Fujinami wound up “accidentally” back body dropping Flair to the floor. Alfonso still missed this, but when Fujinami went for another pin a Japanese official came in and counted the fall. As it was Fujinami who scored the victory, the finish didn’t go over too poorly. Overall though, it just seemed the wrong version of each wrestler doing the wrong match for the wrong crowd. It wasn’t bad, but it was a match that was simply hard to care about, which is exactly what a Tokyo Dome main is not supposed to be. **
3/91
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Negro Casas 6:52. The Liger vs. Casas series was immensely disappointing because the sum of the parts never came close to adding up to the whole. Even though they could do each other’s style, they didn’t have the timing, chemistry, and proficiency to do it at the level of overall lesser wrestlers doing their most comfortable style. Today’s match leaned more toward Casas doing the Japanese junior style, wrestling stiffer and on a move for move or brief sequence basis. He alternated athletic holds with rudo cheapshots. I loved the general malevolence of the match, particularly the sequence where Casas dove off the top to the floor with a chair then tried a tope, but Liger avenged by stopping it with the chair. They did Lucha sequences here and there, but as they didn’t have a great feel for one another or because of the communication barrier, it was rather easy to tell what they were setting up. Though I’m cutting the match up to some extent because a few sequences and counters were surprisingly deliberate, I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was one of the more offensively interesting Liger matches of the era. Liger actually didn’t have that much offense, but Casas pulled out a bunch of moves you don’t see in Japan. I always had a particular affinity for Casas’ boomerang headscissors. Though it does no particular damage, it's about as graceful a flying move as you'll see. The match could have been notable if they did even a normal length match, but for some reason they had Casas use the ropes for a cheap flash pin, which was kind of bizarre in that Casas had dominated the match up to that point, which would lead you to believe he’d either lose or at least win after Liger had a big run. ***
Tatsumi Fujinami & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Super Strong Machine & Hiro Saito 12:12. Koshinaka kept everyone moving, resulting in the most motivated Blond Outlaws performance so far in 1991. The intensity was there, so even though there was very little offense of interest before the finishing sequence, there was something to all the punching and stomping that made you feel as though they meant it. It wasn’t complex or pretty, but it was effective enough. **1/2
3/91
Riki Choshu & Masahiro Chono & Keiji Muto vs. Scott Norton & Wild Samoan & Great Kokina. Overachieving match. Chono & Muto came to work, and there was a lot of heat on Norton (especially vs. Muto) and Kokina. They did the smart match, with Muto & Chono using their speed to try to counteract Norton & Kokina’s power, but the sheer mass of the gaijins stifled them even on some of the most basic maneuvers such as the snapmare. Muto dove out of the way of Norton’s football tackle, and busted him open on the floor. Norton had something to prove here, and was at his most entertaining. Choshu was a non-factor, but Norton pinning him in his powerslam was huge for the world’s slowest Flash. Norton then attacked Muto on the floor twice to further promote their singles match. Samoan is the best worker on his team, but also played only a minor role. The match was short, but that’s a good thing because, knowing that, Norton & Kokina were able to “sprint”. **1/2
Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Masa Saito & Kuniaki Kobayashi 13:21. Hase is wrestling at a level or more above the opposition in each and every match this year. Kobayashi was good here, slick and precise, but for the most part it was Hase who singlehandedly made the match good. Sasaki is still trying to find himself. He’s competent, but doesn’t know what sort of wrestler he wants to be, and Hase tends to take 60-75% of the match and let him have a few brief bursts of offense, unless Sasaki is in a long time because he’s selling consistently (not the case here). The surprise of this contest for me was how much Saito was selling, very willingly playing the underdog for Hase. ***
Negro Casas vs. Pegasus Kid 11:52. A much different match than Casas had with Jushin Thunder Liger on the previous SKY-A classics, this time playing more a technico role. Not that there was much cheating from either, but Pegasus did start laying into Casas and took it to the floor after Casas suggested a congratulatory handshake. Pegasus seemed much more comfortable doing Lucha than Liger did, so the match was more proficient in that aspect, yet there was little in the way of running sequences, so the level of difficulty was rather disappointing. It was one of those matches where they delved in a lot of different areas and kept changing things up, but none of it seemed to add up and they never gained any momentum. It was all entertaining and competent, but it felt rather incomplete. It seemed as though they were searching throughout, so I was rather shocked that they went home so soon without ever really sticking to anything or particularly picking the action up. ***1/4
Osamu Kido vs. Masahiro Chono 9:51. Kido is the sort of opponent who brings out the worst in Chono, happy to do as dated a match with as few highspots as possible. I don’t mind that it was 70’s style technical wrestling with no moves, but that it felt totally uninspired. They didn’t make me believe in anything they did; it had no intensity and seemed meaningless. The wrestling was as competent as could be, but none of it seemed to be doing particular damage or leading anywhere. It didn’t seem to be done with any particular aim, or have any special importance, and then it fittingly just ended with them rolling back and forth after a sunset flip. *1/4
4/28/91 Omiya Skate Center: Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Super Strong Machine & Hiro Saito 18:45. I was disappointed enough by their 3/6/91 tag title match, but at least they made some effort there. Tonight they just phoned it in. It was the worst Hase & Sasaki match thusfar in 1991. They sold almost the entire match for opponents who were only concerned with stalling. Machine & Saito used one submission after the other, with no real attempt to make us believe in any of them. It was totally, obviously, just a ploy to sit in a Boston crab or stand in a sleeper for a minute at a time. Hase was still the best in the match, but this time he wasn’t doing much either, and didn’t find the willpower to try to save it. Everyone finally showed up for the final two minutes, but it was too little too late. I figured Blond Outlaws were going over to avenge their loss in the title match, but after a performance that cemented them in last place in my unofficial ’91 NJ tag rankings, I was more than normally excited to see Sasaki pull out his avalanche style powerslam for the win. *1/2
4/28/91 Saitama Omiya Skate Center
Top of the Super Junior II League Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Owen Hart 14:58. Graceful and precise wrestling, truly a thing of beauty. The junior division has been very disappointing in ’91, largely because there are no natives beyond Liger that are doing anything of note. This is the match that could have, should have been a classic. Owen was in top form and they were certainly wrestling at that level, both individually and collectively, from the get go. However, the second problem with the junior division in ’91 is the brevity of the matches. I can see that there might be some benefit in not having Casas’ matches go too long because his style is somewhat alien to NJPW rings, and this was actually quite a bit longer than any of the other junior matches that have been shown, but for a match where they were committed to doing some legitimate body work in the middle, they would have benefited from not having to pack so much into 15 minutes. The opening was great, then it slowed in the middle but Owen’s attack of Liger’s left elbow was very well done. It would have been a strong point if it wasn’t totally dropped due to time constraints or laziness, and Liger’s body attack that never really developed was another point where you felt as though the match would have really benefited from even 3 more minutes. As they transitioned to the finishing segment, there were a few spots where the choreography was a little off, but generally the match was better than their even shorter match from 1/30/90 because they seemed so much more comfortable working with each other. They were on the same page, and able to do whatever they could think of. The offense in the final minutes was highly impressive, but they didn’t do a great job of making it as dramatic as it could have been, of making you buy into the near finishes, which there also didn’t seem to be enough of. One could argue that 15 minutes should have been ample, but either way, this was not a blow away match by any means. Maybe I wanted them to do a final rather than a league match because that's what this should have been (unless Pegasus came through), but regardless, this was their only opportunity and as good as it was, they also very clearly left a lot in the tank. Still, it was the best NJ junior match thusfar in 1991 by a wide margin. ****
Tatsumi Fujinami & Riki Choshu & Keiji Muto vs. Scott Norton & Great Kokina & Wild Samoan 11:58. Muto being one of the only guys that ever made Norton look good is the obvious point, but Norton actually brought out the best in Muto as well. Norton’s size and strength forced Muto to rely on his quickness and athleticism, which was the most entertaining aspect of Muto when he actually had knees, and the fact that the fans were reacting to Flash calling Muto out and trying to bully him kept Muto focused and on the go. Muto was on top of his game here, and Norton, though somewhat clumsy and inflexible, did a great job of playing the obnoxious badass heel, taunting and challenging Muto at every turn. He even busted Muto open by dropping him on the exposed turnbuckle, causing Muto to bleed heavily enough to do a decorative spew. There was too much Kokina, and the rest of the match wasn’t particularly distinguished, but the others knew what the match was about, and were willing to make a minor contribution then get out of Norton & Muto's way rather than distracting from the focus or trying to steal their thunder. Norton got so far under Muto’s skin that Muto armbarred him after the match until his partners took pity on Norton and pulled him off. ***
5/11/91 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
Karate vs. Boxing Ishu Kakutogisen 3 min 10 Rd: Masashi Aoyagi vs. Tony Halme R3 1:57. I expected an out and out travesty, but the match actually could have been good if Halme would only have punched believably. Aoyagi was entertaining, throwing a lot of nice kicks from the outside and trying to use his knees when Halme pinned him in the corner. The match was pretty good with Aoyagi on offense, but Halme was so atrocious one wonders how he was ever asked back. It was easily a worst match of the year candidate with Halme on offense. His showboating and hamming it up would have made it hard to take serious, if his whiffing on most of his punches and making minimal contact on the rest didn’t already render the notion impossible. The match would have been better if there were a third as many knockdowns, but of course the real problem was Aoyagi kept diving to the canvas from phantom punches. DUD
Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami 19:52. Looking back, it’s hard to figure why Hase didn’t amount to more. Despite being a former junior he was as tall as the other three wrestlers in this match, who happen to have 14 IWGP Heavyweight Championship runs between them. He was stealing the show in every tag match, totally over, and had begun to seem to be the man in the tag division due to a successful push. Choshu & Fujinami were not only taking him seriously and totally motivated to wrestle him, they were putting extra effort into knocking him off his perch. Hase was diverse and cocky enough to take both on in their own element. Tonight's match was more about him matching technique with Fujinami, but I loved the intense bruising exchange he had with Choshu. Choshu was the disdainful grumpy old man here, on a mission to keep the new generation firmly behind the old one (in story, in booking he was taking a step toward the opposite). He was out to put a beating on the tag champs, and it was one of his stiffest and most intense performances of the year. Sasaki never did too much in any of these matches with Hase; he was always alright, but it was the Hase show with Sasaki playing a totally supporting role. Hase logging so much ring time finally didn’t work out here, and I disliked him doing the job which felt counter productive, but overall the match still seemed to put the duo on a higher plateau. I preferred this match to most of the other Hase & Sasaki tags because they actually got strong support from the opposition, mainly Choshu stepping up the intensity and making the contest feel important. ***1/2
4/30/91 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
Keiji Muto vs. Scott Norton 9:07. Muto was a man possessed here, actually wrestling to his capability and then some. This motivated Muto, unfortunately one we rarely see in future years, is indeed one of the great heavyweight wrestlers, and he carried Norton to a highly entertaining back and forth sprint that was one of the highlights of Scott's career. Norton isn’t exactly graceful and doesn’t always execute well, but he's intuitive about getting crowd reaction and willing to allow his size to work against him as much as for him. These two wanted each other badly, and Muto was catapulting himself all over the place from start to finish in an effort to counteract Norton’s mass, which made for an entertaining contest. He also worked Norton’s wrist, which was presumably injured from his post match armbar on 4/28/91. I wouldn't have been opposed to Norton incapacitating Muto, but as it was their first big singles match and Norton was the new monster, the finish of having Norton go over but not in a particularly decisive manner also made sense. I think keeping it short also helped because both were able to go full force the entire contest, and as Norton doesn’t have much more than he showed here he’d likely become counter productive if it went much longer. ***1/2
Top of the Super Junior II Final, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Decision Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Norio Honaga 21:54. We were in the midst of a great period for heavyweights coming up the ranks with Hase, Muto, Hashimoto, Chono, Koshinaka, and Sasaki all on the rise, but there weren’t any particularly promising juniors. A repackaged Nogami failed to set the Tokyo Dome on fire on 3/21/91, so we were ultimately stuck with Honaga. Honaga had yet to show anyone why he belonged in big matches, but alas he was here. This was his coming out party, upsetting the two top juniors in one night (he defeated Pegasus in the semifinal) although he wasn’t sure who he was or what to do. Honaga tried for better offense early to make it memorable, throwing in a plancha, a powerbomb on a table, ripping Liger’s mask and so on, but he generally seemed to lack a sense of what defined him as a wrestler and was just getting by throwing in a little of this and a little of that. Or perhaps he knew he needed to step it up to compete at the highest level, but he didn't know how to? There was nothing he was better than Liger at, but he badly needed big match credibility so Liger sold and sold and sold. This is the one junior match so far in 1991 that had the time, but Honaga couldn’t fill it. 15 minutes into the match, Honaga was still stomping Liger. Honaga can be crafty, he can get heel heat, he can sometimes tell a story in his simple but effective manner, but sustained offense from Norio is never a good idea. Liger finally made his hot comeback, throwing his body around. This set up a great near fall that’s exactly the sort of thing Honaga does well, avoiding a back body drop by sliding and quickly hooking Liger’s arms with his legs to almost flash pin him. There was way too little of effective Honaga though, as he wasn’t really setting anything up, instead relying on quantity over quality, but quantity from him isn’t even good heavyweight offense. A Honaga match is much better when he sells and comes up with the well timed, probably shady counter then follows up with some cheap shots to sustain the heat, but in his first tour final singles main event, he simply lacked the credibility for that. They followed with one near fall after another until the finish, and the crowd was apparently responding to the effort over the quality, as they were really into it. Both men tried really hard, but ultimately Honaga is still a pedestrian wrestler who is in the junior division by virtue of being decidedly too small to be a heavyweight. It was a nice match because they worked so hard, but it was a poor showcase for a junior division that needed a jumpstart. ***1/4
5/31/91 Osaka Jo Hall
Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto vs. Masanobu Kurisu & Kim Duk 12:35. I can understand why Saito & Goto are here, as even though they aren’t good, at least they are young enough to potentially improve (too bad they only got worse). However, bringing Kurisu & Duk back when they are years past their prime and aren’t going to make any money for NJ makes no sense. I mean, Duk is slow as molasses and can hardly bend at the waist, and yet with these guys, he isn’t noticeably worse than the rest. I’d tell you about the wrestling, if they actually did any. Duk actually tried to slip a move or two in, but it was pretty much punches, stomps, and headbutts throughout. DUD
Riki Choshu & Keiji Muto vs. Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & TNT 10:37. Muto continues to be one of the most consistent and motivated wrestlers in the league, an easy second best in the tag scene behind Hase. He put on a show again, completely overshadowing Choshu, who I hardly remember even being involved. Bigelow did a nice job as well, displaying the quickness, offense, and bumps of a man half his size. TNT was one-dimensional as ever, doing nothing beyond throwing kicks. I enjoyed Muto poking fun at TNT by making a bunch of corny gestures after kicking him. **1/2
5/31/91 Osaka Jo Hall, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Norio Honaga vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
6/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall:
Jushin Liger & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Kengo Kimura & Kuniaki Kobayashi
Tatsutoshi Goto & Hiro Saito vs. Kim Duk & Masanobu Kurisu
Pegasus Kid & Super Strong Machine vs. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki
Masa Chono & Riki Choshu vs. Bad News Allen & Brad Rheingans
7/91 Kagoshima Kenritsu Taiikukan: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Brad Rheingans
7/4/91 Fukuoka Kokusai Center
Hiro Saito & Super Strong Machine vs. Kim Duk & Masanobu Kurisu
Mitsuhiro Matsunaga vs. Masashi Aoyagi
Mascara Contra Mascara: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Pegasus Kid
Tatsumi Fujinami & Riki Choshu vs. Demolition Ax & Canadian Giant
7/4/91 Fukuoka Kokusai Center: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Scott Norton
Keiji Muto & Masa Chono vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Hiroshi Hase
7/91 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center:
Hiroyoshi Yamamoto vs. Koji Kanemoto
Masao Aoyagi vs. Michiyoshi Ohara
7/91 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center
Kengo Kimura & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Tatsutoshi Goto & Norio Honaga
Hiro Saito & Super Strong Machine vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Kuniaki Kobayashi
Great Kokina & Samoan Savage vs. Black Cat & Masa Saito
Jushin Thunder Liger & Masa Chono vs. Mad Bull Busters Rex & Spike
Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Tiget Jeet Singh
7/91 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center
Great Muta & TNT vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Hiroshi Hase
Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Kim Duk & Masanobu Kurisu
Big Van Vader vs. Shinya Hashimoto
7/91 Obihiro City Comprehensive Gymnasium:
Shiro Koshinaka vs. Mad Bull Rex
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. TNT
7/91 Nagano Ueda Citizen Gymnasium:
Kensuke Sasaki & Hiroshi Hase vs. Mad Bull Busters Rex & Spike. Joined in progress
Tiger Jeet Singh & Kim Duk vs. Super Strong Machine & Tatsutoshi Goto
Big Van Vader & Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & TNT & Wild Samoan & The Great Kokina vs. Keiji Muto & Masa Chono & Shinya Hashimoto & Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami
7/91 Iwate Prefectural Management Gymnasium: Big Van Vader & Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Keiji Muto & Masa Chono
7/91 Iwate Ken'ei Taiikukan
Hiroyoshi Yamamoto vs. Michiyoshi Ohara
Koji Kanemoto & Black Cat vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi & Takeshi Misawa. Joined in progress
Kengo Kimura vs. Osamu Kido
Jushin Thunder Liger & Kantaro Hoshino & Masayoshi Aoyagi vs. Hiro Saito & Super Strong Machine & Norio Honaga
Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki & Riki Choshu vs. Tiger Jeet Singh & Kim Duk & Masanobu Kurisu
8/7/91 Nagaya Aichi-ken Taiikukan
Norio Honaga & Tatsutoshi Gotoh vs. Kim Duk & Masanobu Kurisu
Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Hiro Saito & Super Strong Machine
Mitsuhiro Matsunaga vs. Masashi Aoyagi
8/7/91 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan
Jushin Thunder Liger & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Akira Nogami & Kuniaki Kobayashi
Brian Pillman & El Gigante vs. Osamu Kido & Kengo Kimura
8/11/91 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
Akira Nogami vs. Norio Honaga
Big Van Vader & Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Scott Norton vs. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki & Tatsumi Fujinami
8/25/91 Yomiuri Land Co & Ltd EAST & Outdoors: Osamu Nishimura vs. Black Cat
8/11/91 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, '91 G-1 Climax Final: Keiji Muto vs. Masahiro Chono
8/25/91 Yomiuri Land Co & Ltd EAST:
Kuniaki Kobayashi vsTatsuyoshi Goto
Kengo Kimura vs. Masao Aoyagi
8/25/91 Yomiuri Land Co & Ltd EAST
Jushin Thunder Liger & Akira Nogami vs. Hiro Saito & Norio Honaga
Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Osamu Kido
Elimination Match 4 vs. 5: Shinya Hashimoto & Koji Kannemoto & Osamu Nishimura & Hiroyoshi Yamamoto & Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Masa Chono & Kensuke Sasaki & Hiroshi Hase & Shiro Koshinaka
9/12/91 Tokushima-shi Taiikukan: Takeshi Misawa vs. Michiyoshi Ohara
8/25/91 Yomiuri Land Co & Ltd EAST: The Great Muta vs. Super Strong Machine
9/12/91 Tokushima-shi Taiikukan:
Koji Kanemoto vs. Frank Anderson
Kuniaki Kobayashi & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Osamu Kido & Kengo Kimura
Black Cat vs. Brad Rhenigans
Pegasus Kid & Brad Armstrong vs. Super Strong Machine & Masa Saito
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Tournament: Akira Nogami vs. Norio Honaga
12/26/90 Hamamatsu Arena
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Negro Casas. Joined in progress
Keiji Muto vs. Tiger Jeet Singh
Lou Thesz vs. Masahiro Chono
Masa Saito vs. Nick Bockwinkel
IWGP Tag Title Match: Kensuke Sasaki & Hiroshi Hase vs. Super Strong Machine & Hiro Saito
12/26/90 Hamamatsu Arena
Ishu Kakutogisen 3Min 10Rd: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Tony Halme
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Riki Choshu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
11/91 Matsumoto-shi Sogo Taiikukan
Kantaro Hoshino vs. Masayoshi Aoyagi
Masa Saito & Osamu Kido & Kengo Kimura vs. Kim Duk & Masanobu Kurisu & Hot Shot
11/91 Matsumoto-shi Sogo Taiikukan
Jushin Liger & Akira Nogami vs. Hiro Saito & Norio Honaga
Masahiro Chono & Tatsumi Fujinami & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Bad News Brown & Super Strong Machine & Mad Bull Rex
Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Scott Norton
12/5/91 Chiba Koen Taiikukan: Shinya Hashimoto & Kantaro Hoshino & Masa Saito vs. Super Strong Machine & Hiro Saito & Norio Honaga
12/5/91Chiba Koen Taiikukan
Jushin Thunder Liger & Akira Nogami vs. Negro Casas & El Katara
Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase vs. vs Scot Norton & Brad Rheingans
Masahiro Chono & Tatsumi Fujinami & Riki Choshu vs. Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Kim Duk & Tim Horner
12/16/91 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Osamu Kido & Kengo Kimura vs. Masa Saito & Tim Horner
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Negro Casas
12/16/91 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Tony Halme
Masahiro Chono & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Akira Nogami & Riki Choshu
IWGP Tag Title Match: Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Scot Norton
undercard digest
2/4/92
Tony St.Clair & Brad Armstrong vs. Kengo Kimura & Masa Saito
Tony Halme vs. Kim Duk
Hiroshi Hase & Masahiro Chono vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Shiro Koshinaka
Keiji Muto & Riki Choshu & Shinya Hashimoto vs. Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Scott Norton & Rambo
2/8/92 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Shinya Hashimoto & Akira Nogami vs. Pegasus Kid & Brad Armstrong
2/8/92 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center
Scott Norton vs. Tony Halme
Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Shiro Koshinaka
Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Matthew Rambo vs. Riki Choshu & Akira Nogami
IWGP Junior & WCW Light Heavyweight Title Unification Match: Jushin Thunder Liger (WCW champ) vs. Norio Honaga (IWGP champ)
2/8/92 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center
Akitoshi Saito vs. Michiyoshi Ohara
Koji Kanemoto vs. Osamu Nishimura. Digest
Black Cat & Kantaro Hoshino vs. Osamu Kido & Hiroyoshi Yamamoto. Digest
Masa Saito & Kengo Kimura vs. Tony St. Clair & Kim Duk. Digest
2/10/92 Nagoya Rainbow Hall
Bam Bam Bigelow & Tony Halme vs. Rambo & Kim Duk
IWGP Junior & WCW Light Heavyweight Double Title Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Pegasus Kid
Ishu Kakutogisen: Kuniaki Kobayashi & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Akitoshi Saito & Shigeru Tajiri
2/10/92 Nagoya Rainbow Hall
Masahiro Chono & Shinya Hashimoto & Akira Nogami vs. Riki Choshu & Kengo Kimura & Masa Saito
IWGP Tag Title Match: Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase vs. Brad Armstrong & Scott Norton
2/92 Osaka Furitsu Rinkai Sports Center
Osamu Kido & Masayoshi Aoyagi vs. Brad Armstrong & Kim Duk
Scott Norton vs. Matthew Rambo
2/10/92 Nagoya Rainbow Hall
Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Tony Halme vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Saito
Jushin Thunder Liger & Akira Nogami vs. Pegasus Kid & Flying Scorpio (2 Cold Scorpio)
Shiro Koshinaka vs. Akitoshi Saito
Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase vs. Riki Choshu & Masahiro Chono
3/1/92 Kanagawa Yokohama Arena
Black Cat & Hiroyoshi Yamamoto vs. Kantaro Hoshino & Kotetsu Yamamoto
Seiji Sakaguchi & Strong Kobayashi vs. Tiger Jeet Singh & Umanosuke Ueda
Tiger Mask Kanemoto vs. El Samurai
Satoshi Kojima vs. Osamu Nishimura
Brian Blair vs. Michiyoshi Ohara
3/1/92 Kanagawa Yokohama Arena
Shiro Koshinaka vs. Akira Nogami
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Masahiro Chono
Antonio Inoki & Osamu Kido vs. Riki Choshu & Kengo Kimura
3/9/92 Kyoto Furitsu Taiikukan
IWGP Tag Title Match: Big Van Vader & Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Masahiro Chono
Kuniaki Kobayashi & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Akitoshi Saito & Masa Aoyagi
3/11/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Jushin Thunder Liger & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Madbull Rex & Madbull Spike (Madbull Busters aka Pitbulls)
Hiroshi Hase & Kengo Kimura vs. Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Brian Blair
4/92 Oita-ken Hita-shi Sogo Taiikukan
Top of the Super Junior III League Match: Negro Casas vs. Koji Kanemoto
Top of the Super Junior III League Match: Pegasus Kid vs. Norio Honaga
Top of the Super Junior III eague Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Dave Fit Finlay
4/30/92 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
Top of the Super Junior Advance to the Final Decision Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Norio Honaga
Top of the Super Junior III Final: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. El Samurai *****
5/17/92 Osaka Jo Hall
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. El Samurai 26:06
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Oz 9:23
Antonio Inoki & Hiroshi Hase vs. Rambo & Brad Rheinghans 13:54
Pegasus Kid vs. Tiger Mask 12:56
6/20/93 Ueda Shimin Taiikukan
Shinya Hashimoto & Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Kengo Kimura & Shiro Koshinaka
Tatsumi Fujinami & Hiroshi Hase & Riki Choshu vs. Scott Norton & Hercules Hernandez & Brad Armstrong
taped 7/13/93 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center
Yuji Nagata vs. Shinjiro Otani
Kuniaki Kobayashi & Masaji Aoyagi & Akitoshi Saito vs. Super Strong Machine & Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto
Tiger Mask III vs. Norio Honaga
7/13/93 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. El Samurai
Satoshi Kojima & Michiyoshi Ohara & Hiroshi Hase vs. The Great Kabuki & Shiro Koshinaka & Kengo Kimura
Scott Norton & Hercules Hernandez vs. TNT & Brad Armstrong
Tatsumi Fujinami & Masahiro Chono vs. Osamu Kido & Yoshiaki Fujiwara
IWGP Tag Title Match: Hawk Warrior & Power Warrior vs. Keiji Muto & Shinya Hashimoto