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NJPW, 1/30/03 (SXW) (Buy)
Tokyo Korakuen Hall 1,554 Fans - Super No Vacancy
1. Ryusuke Taguchi beat Naofumi Yamamoto (7:02) with a crab hold.
The first tour of 2003, "FIGHTING SPIRIT 2003", kicked off with a show at Korakuen. I remember last year's February tour, and how gloomy it was for me as a New Japan fan, with all the changes and then Yasuda's title win. Things this year looked a lot better, after many positive changes and shake-ups in 2003 that really rehabilitated New Japan and put the company in a better position. Hopefully, 2003 can be another good year, continuing to lay the foundations in these relatively dark times (for business), for a bright future. With the wealth of youth talent and stellar veterans that New Japan has, I think the future is very bright unless something goes majorly wrong. They ran a segment on the rookies who were initiated last year (Nakamura, Nagao, Yamamoto, and Taguchi), and compared their body stats from when they joined to what they are now. With Nagao having debuted on 2/2, this class has now graduated to the circuit (and in Nakamura's case, to high profile vale tudo fights), and more have been initiated (including three amaresu champions!). Jado & Gedo vs. Super Crazy & Curry Man was a hot, fun match. Jado & Gedo were the only New Japan wrestlers I grew heavily bored of last year, but late 2002 saw a more motivated Gedo, and Jado followed suit, with both men putting in very good performances. Seeing Jado do super-quick chain wrestling with Crazy convinced me that he's fired up as much as Gedo. Jado vs. Curry in the last sequence of the match was GREAT, and led to Jado taking Curry down into his crossface hold, forcing the tap out. Lots of heat for all four wrestlers, and an entertaining match. Iizuka & Yano vs. Harimao'z was another hot match. Harimao'z entered, but Iizuka and Yano ran in without entrance music and attacked them, leading to a wild brawl at ringside. Korakuen was molten for Iizuka, chanting his name and everything, and he showed more fire than he ever has outside of his feud with Murakami in 2000, just losing it and attacking Makai #5 (Nagai) with a chair. They got back in the ring, and the wrestling started, but before too long Iizuka snapped again, throwing the referee down and getting DQ'd. Iizuka went for Makai #5's mask, but was hit from behind by a carefully timed kick from Makai #4. #5 stood over Iizuka, and continued to one-up him. 2003 could be a big comeback year for Iizuka, who is looking better than ever doing both technical matches and brawls. Match four started just like the one before it, with "Team Korakuen" Hiro & Goto running in and attacking the original masked Makais from behind. Lots of brawling in this match, before combinations and signature moves later on. The finish was beautiful in all it's simplicity. The referee's back was turned, so Goto threw a knee dOWnstairs to Makai #2, and hooked a leg for the win and HUGE response from the crowd (they have to give Hiro & Goto a shot at the tag belts in Korakuen!). The old guard earned a place in the IWGP Tag Team Title #1 Contender Tournament as a result of this win, setting up a first round match against Makabe & Fujita. The second junior match was probably the best of the night, with the new alignments seeing Kanemoto, Liger & Samurai face Heat, Kakihara & Tiger Mask. Lots of action from start to finish, with a lot of intensity and animosity between the sides. There was serious hate here, even though there aren't really any "bad guys" in the feud, just two armies that can't stand each other. I think better matches can be done with this talent involved, and I'm looking to the 2/16 Elimination Match for hopefully a prime example. Can't wait to see that one. There was a great exchange at the end between Heat and Samurai, leading to Sammy slapping on a chickenwing armlock for the upset submission. Minoru Fujita showed up in a Heat mask after the match, and provoked Kanemoto, heating up their 2/6 title match. The New Japan-style Royal Rumbles are always fun, because they don't follow the "over the top" system, so instead of trying to pushing wrestlers over the ropes for minutes at a time, they are fighting instead. Having said that, while this was enjoyable, it wasn't as entertaining as the three New Japan Rumbles last year. It started with Chono vs. Tenzan, which last January's ended with. The first big surprise of the match was MINORU FUJITA pinning MASAHIRO CHONO cleanly with a huracanrana! Perfect momentum for Fujita before his title match with Kanemoto in Miyagi, and probably the single biggest pinfall he will ever score in his career. The next surprise was the appearance of Kengo Kimura, his first in-ring performance since Osamu Kido's retirement match on 11/2/01. He got a huge response, and quickly eliminated Fujita with his famous Inazuma leg lariat. The eliminations came quick later on, with wrestlers dropping like flies. Nakanishi pinned Steele with a German suplex hold, but almost immediately after, ate a Yanagisawa jumping knee kick and was pinned. Nishimura pinned Yanagisawa, then Barton pinned Yasuda after a brief alliance resulted in betrayal from the American. It came down to Barton and Nishimura, and need I tell you who the fans supported? Barton seemed to have the match wrapped up, Nishimura held high in position for the Barton Buster. He wriggled though, got out of it, and quickly hooked on a backslide for the win! Nishimura took the microphone, and said he would take the IWGP Heavyweight Title from Nagata in Sapporo on 2/2! Like I said, a fun match, but slower than the other New Japan Rumbles, and also lacking the fun storylines they had (such as Nakanishi vs. Kensuke, Liger vs. Team 2000, and Yoshie vs. Tanahashi from last year's three). The main event was an interesting tag match, pitting the new team of Nagata & Wolf against Takayama & Saturn. This was Nagata and Takayama's first meeting since their excellent match at the Tokyo Dome last May. I was a fan of Saturn in WCW, but had no idea what he was like coming into this, since I haven't watched WWF/E for a long time now, and last time I did he was playing with a mop. My initial thought was how huge he looks, muscles bulging, and more tattoos than I remember. He was in there with three good talents, so had chance to prove himself right away. And he did fit in well, better than I expected in fact, considering it was his first in Japan for a long time. The match played to one of Saturn's strengths, and that is throwing suplexes. All four men hit some wicked suplexes, especially Wolf, who is unbelievably powerful. Saturn seemed quite comfortable in the environment, which a lot of foreigners aren't. Although he slotted in nicely, everyone wanted Takayama in there, and the match was at it's most interesting when he was. Against both Nagata and Wolf, he was in good form, and Wolf really took it to him with brutal chops. Although Takayama eventually pinned Wolf with his "Everest" German suplex hold, the young lion looked quite the part, and this was an example of New Japan's gradual youth movement, giving young wrestlers the chance to move up like they should be allowed to, an ideal some other promotions have abandoned. Takayama introduced Hiroshi Nagao, the final dojo boy of 2002 waiting to debut, and announced that he would team with Nagao on 2/2 in Sapporo. Takayama told Nagao to display his big leap, and the 6'4" Nagao effortlessly slingshotted over the top to the floor... and went down. It was like he disappeared into a black hole, but instead he suffered ligament damage, and this was about as unfortunate as possible for him. Nice show overall. Somewhat non-descript and minor, but the matches were enjoyable and the crowd was hot for nearly every match. It also helped further some developing situations, like the new junior feud, Iizuka vs. Nagai, and Nagata vs. Takayama II. The main event satisfied, and a good variety of styles were presented, a New Japan specialty.
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(11:37) when Jado used the Crossface of JADO on Curry.