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NJPW "KENGO KIMURA RETIREMENT SHOW", 4/18/03 (WPW/NJ+IWTV Internet) (Buy)
Tokyo Korakuen Hall 1,851 Fans - Super No Vacancy Full House
1. G2 U-30 Climax - Block B Semi Finalist Decision Match: Blue Wolf beat Makai #4 (5:10) with a Mongol slam.
"STRONG ENERGY 2003" continued the chain of tours to begin at the mecca. This was a specially themed show, because of Kengo Kimura's retirement, and other than two closed off sections, Korakuen was packed. This was very much a diehard crowd, lots of Mugaites there I think, they were hot and vocal for nearly every match. Highlight of the night was "Yaaaaano! Yaaaaano!" chants for young Toru Yano from a few guys :). The opener was short, but fine. Wolf beat Makai #4 in a quick match, with both men wrestling at a fast pace. Wolf only lost two regular group stage matches, and one was to #4, so he avenged that at Korakuen. Match numero dos started a bit slow, but became a cool one later on. Yaaaaano! He is soooo much fun to watch even at this stage of his career. I can't wait until he "grows up" as a wrestler. Kakihara was good against both men here, but spent a lot of time on the apron as Yano took a beating. Kaki eventually when down to a very high angle Barton buster though. The third match was highly anticipated by myself, as it saw the New Japan debut of Mexico's top team, Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero. After seeing their Toryumon Japan stuff and some CMLL from Samurai! TV footage of them, I purchased a two tape compilation of them (their matches vs. Santo & Negro Casas are worth going out of your way to see), and they are really a tremendous team. Understandably, they weren't at their best here, as they need time to settle in, and at times seemed a little confused by the different style. Whenever Crazy was in there with either one of them though, you could see the real GDI. In fact, Crazy was absolutely TREMENDOUS, looking the best I've ever seen him. Bucanero is renowned for his crazy landings, and he didn't disappoint in this match, going right over the top and landing on his tailbone at ringside from a monkey flip! Former Michinoku Pro boys, Tiger and Fujita, took it home with a nice closing stretch that saw the #1 contender for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title cradle Fujita for the victory. Crazy Dogs vs. Makai Club was the usual. By this point, the matches were losing their novelty a bit. However, seeing Murakami take a beating from the Dogs was great. Next up was Kengo's retirement match against Nishimura. He was scheduled to face former tag partner, Fujinami, but Dragon got hurt in a car accident, so his disciple stepped in. Fujinami did commentary, hence was nearby. This had five rounds, lasting three minutes. Kengo was seconded by the successor of Inazuma tradition, Kakihara, who had a New Japan towel around his neck. Kengo struck right away with an Inazuma leg lariat! After that, they spent the first couple of rounds doing the feeling out process. Things picked up in the third, and the last two ROCKED. This became more than a novelty match with traditional Muga moves, it turned into a really fun match. Kengo was so popular, so when referee Hiroyuki "Red Shoes" Unno gave him TWO yellow cards, Unno became SUPER HEEL REFEREE, receiving jeers aplenty. Nishimura and Kengo got really vicious and intense with each other, throwing Muga out of the window and hitting hard. Kengo took a shot to the nose, and blood was streaming out of it. He hit an Inazuma leg lariat for a near fall late on, and then another, but couldn't properly cover before time expired at 15 minutes. The true charm of Muga was felt in this match, and later on they added another dimension by getting nasty with each other and racing home. Kengo looked in great shape, and didn't seem ready to retire. The U-30 semi finals were next. Who would go to Hiroshima? Wolf had already wrestled going into his bout with Makabe, so was at a disadvantage. This was their first singles match since August, 2001, when Makabe faced Wolf in the Mongol's debut match. This was naturally a lot better, more competitive than that, and Wolf controlled strike sequences with his frightening strength. Many strikes, it was like Kensuke vs. Nakanishi 2K3, with lots of running and hitting, with both warriors staying up. Later on, Wolf threw this absolutely MAULING lariat; Makabe HAD to go down, simply no choice! Both guys seemed really tired after all this, and the pace slowed later on. Makabe clamped on a Texas Cloverleaf hold, and Wolf tapped out after a gallant fight. Yoshie vs. Tanahashi was the second semi, and match of the show! Even better than their G1 match last year, TREMENDOUS stuff. This may have been the best single performance of Yoshie's career, he was remarkable here, working so hard, with such passion and intensity. He controlled a lot of offense and dug really deep into his moveset. Fans were crazy into Yoshie, calling his name even when he was on offense. It was hard not to smile at his great effort here, he's such an entertaining wrestler. Tanahashi spent a lot of the first half on defense, but came back and was the Tanahashi we all know and love, busting out all of his cool moves and fighting with ~PASSION~. They fought so hard over everything they did, and the intensity level was high. No one was sure who'd win, which made things even more interesting. Tanahashi hit one of the most perfect German suplex holds on a bulky wrestler I have ever seen, and impressively held his bridge. Yoshie nailed Tanahashi with his deadly back blow strike, but the force was almost too strong, as it sent Tanahashi flying to the outside. Yoshie opted to wait for the countout, which may have been a mistake, as Tanahashi scraped himself into the ring with a second to spare. At the end, Tanahashi landed a flurry of enzuigiris, then leaped on Yoshie's shoulders, and rolled forward with a front cradle for the big win! His first singles win over Yoshie in fact. This revived the intensity of the two from their bitter feud last summer, which culminated with their really good G1 match. They took it to another level here, and I loved it enough for it to sneak on to my New Japan top ten list. This would have been a great final itself, but that wasn't to be. Super effort by both men, awesome match! The semi final was second best match of the night, and not too far behind the awesomeness of Yoshie vs. Tanahashi. It was a special tag to celebrate the career of Kengo Kimura, pitting the IWGP Tag Team Champions (Chono & Tenzan) vs. the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Champions (Kanemoto & Liger). It was non-title, but would have made for a really good IWGP Tag Team Title main event. Kanemoto's popularity seems to be at an all-time high, he was even more popular than Liger in Korakuen. Right away, his punkish attitude went into effect, as he shook hands with Tenzan, then threw a cheap shot! Bwahaha! Tenzan was irate. Primarily, the match pitted the speed of the juniors against the strength and size of the heavyweights. Many of the exchanges stayed true to this theme, creating a lot of entertaining scenarios. The cool thing was that the fans BELIEVED. They BELIEVED that the junior tag kings could upset the heavyweight tag kings. Liger's deceptive strength again was evident when he gave Tenzan a running Liger bomb. Soon after, he powerbombed Tenzan in position for a Kanemoto moonsault press, which got a hot close count. The best near finish came when Tenzan missed a moonsault press (it makes me cringe every time he does that move now), and Kanemoto instantly locked on his ankle hold. Again, the fans BELIEEEVED, and were going nuts until Chono broke free of Liger and saved. The heavyweights naturally ended up as victors, Chono Yakuza kicking Kanemoto, and Tenzan following with a diving headbutt for the win. There was a golden moment after the match, when all four men - the strongest heavyweight tag team and strongest junior heavyweight tag team - raised each others' arm to a HUGE response. Another super fun match, and even in loss the top junior tag team in the country looked even stronger than before, as they had pushed Chono & Tenzan to a difficult fight. The last match was a direct double feud confrontation (Nagata vs. Yasuda and Iizuka vs. Nagai), and also the first preliminary skirmish for Nagata's V10 defense of the IWGP Heavyweight Title on 4/23 against Yasuda. Given the excellence of the last two matches, it was a somewhat flat close to the show, but effectively built up Nagata vs. Yasuda. Nagata was mugged on the outside by the Makai Club no less than THREE times. Hoshino took several cheap shot punches to the face of Nagata, and later in the match, when he tripped the champion, Nagata raced out of the ring and went after him, only to receive his third mugging. Nagata was choice as always, and in there for most of the match, as Iizuka got KO'd at ringside and was out of action for a stretch. Iizuka was back to finish things off though, and found himself cheated out of a positive result when Yanagisawa stepped in the ring and nailed him with a high kick to the back. Yasuda followed with a diabolical punch to the back of Iizuka's head, and covered for the win. Thankfully, the show didn't end with the negative of the hated Makai Club being victorious. It was time for Kengo Kimura's retirement festival! Kengo gave a speech (the rough transcript of which can be found in my April news archive), and was crying by the end of it. Sakaguchi and Fujinami, stood at ringside, held back tears too. Kengo's long-time wife as well. The ten count followed, ten gongs of the bell. Hidekazu Tanaka ran through Kengo's achievements, one of which was being a founding IWGP Tag Team Champion with Fujinami. The two gave those belts such prestige early on, and were one of New Japan's greatest tag teams. Finally, Hidekazu roared, "KIMURA KENGO!!!", and his career was formally over. Admirable thing is, Kengo turned down a retirement match/parade at the Tokyo Dome, believing himself to not be big enough a name to finish his career there. The wrestlers entered the ring, and tossed him up and down. Kengo Kimura was never a main event singles wrestler in New Japan, but was one of those wrestlers that makes a promotion feel complete. He was one of the premier tag wrestlers, his tandem with Fujinami being legendary. Although he may be gone as a wrestler now, he plays an important part backstage, primarily as New Japan's talent scout, which fuels the greatest youth system in professional wrestling. Arigato gozaimasu, KenKim! New Japan has had some sweet Korakuen Hall shows in recent times, but I think this was my favourite in a while. Really hot crowd and several very good matches. Yoshie vs. Tanahashi was my match of the night, followed by Chono & Tenzan vs. Kanemoto & Liger, then the junior eight man, and after that Kengo vs. Nishimura. The crowd was really great, loving everything, just lately (well, all of March TV besides 3/7 and 3/21, and this show to start April TV), the crowd heat has been really good, after a quiet (literally) February. Check out this show, one of the most entertaining WPW tapings in some time.
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, Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero (12:58) when Tiger used a flying reverse cradle on Fujita.