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NJPW "G1 WORLD 2002 SPECIAL", 9/22/02 (WPW) (Buy)
Osaka Namihaya Dome 4,000 Fans - No Vacancy
1. Blue Wolf beat Wataru Inoue (6:24) with a Mongol slam.
"G1 WORLD 2002 SPECIAL" was the conclusion to "G1 WORLD 2002", and took place after the main bulk of shows, with only Japanese wrestlers involved. Osaka Namihaya Dome was dead for most of the show, and the best most matches got were small bursts of crowd response. The opener showed off two good young lions, Wolf and Wataru. The main content of the match was technical wrestling, Wataru effectively attacking Wolf's arm, and Wolf going after an ankle. Eventually, Wolf overwhelmed Wataru with three suplexes (front/overhead belly to belly, Exploder, and a beautiful delayed Mongol slam) for the win in a nice opener. Koshinaka & Naruse vs. Hiro & Goto was another fun match featuring the old school name-takers, Mr. Senton and Mr. Backdrop. Hiro was Mr. Versatility too, working well with Naruse, somewhat surprising given their opposite styles. Koshinaka was the first man to get any real response, just for being his energetic self, and later on for throwing the dreaded hip attacks. The finish was really great. Hiro & Goto seemed to have Koshinaka finished, and Hiro held him up for a Goto attack. Naruse took out Goto though, and rushed over to Koshinaka, who ducked in perfect motion to avoid the Crazy Cyclone, which clobbered Hiro. Koshinaka quickly put Hiro away with a hip attack off the ropes to end a good traditional tag match. Samurai & Tanaka vs. Jado & Gedo was a rematch from 10/26/01, when these teams met for the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Title. It wasn't as good as that match, but was good other than the regular slow patch in the middle when Tanaka had his shields up. It was very good towards the end too, with some nice moves and combinations. The finish between Tanaka and Gedo was great, Minoru eventually locking on a cross armbreaker for the tap. Jado & Gedo's fall from the junior tag ace rank continued, with another critical loss. Tanaken vs. Yoshie & Kakihara was definitely best match of the night up to this point, a textbook fast paced New Japan tag. With more heat, it would have been awesome, but was very good anyway. Yoshie & Kakihara showed no real teamwork, but were very good as individuals. Tanaken had the edge because they showed great teamwork AND worked well as individuals. Quite a see-saw match, with the only one-sided session coming when Kakihara was neutralized for a while, and had his leg worked over Fujinami-style by Tanahashi. It got even better later on, and Kakihara very nearly submitted Kenzo with a cross armbreaker. Yoshie got the big tag, and was on fire. Even after he beat Tanahashi in the G1, their issues don't seem settled, as there's a lot of intensity when they fight. The finish was awesome, Tanahashi sending Kakihara down to his knees with an enzuigiri, then Kenzo almost taking the former UWF-I fighter's head off with a knee attack for the impressive win. I'm pretty sure Nishimura vs. Liger would have been a strong contender for match of the night (and maybe year) had it not been so short. Everything was going as normal, and looking great, until they suddenly picked up the pace significantly and were doing things we'd usually see 20 minutes later. Nishimura cradled Liger off a charge with a ground Cobra Twist for the 251 second win, and Liger quickly went over to the referee in disbelief. It would have been nice to see such great wrestlers go for longer, but they had a 16+ minute rematch on 10/27, so I'll look forward to that. Kanemoto vs. Tiger Mask was another one that I looked forward, as these two worked really well together, and just couldn't stand each other leading into the match. There was a lot of technical wrestling in this, but also some flash, as both men have cool moves, so can mix it up on the ground and in the air. The ground work was very good, but like previous matches, lacked crowd heat, so was flatter than it should have been. Kanemoto explained his intentions early on with a kneebar, and worked towards the ankle hold. He eventually reached the phase where he went for it over and over, and he's really relentless with this move that has been winning him so many matches. The crowd was responding by the end, because the match was so good, and Tiger eventually tapped out to the ankle hold. This was a VERY good match, but I can't help but think they have a much better one in them. If this had happened at New Japan's other main Osaka stop, Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, the crowd would have been red hot. Kanemoto taunted Heat, who was sat at ringside, post-match. Heat took the microphone and got himself a title shot at the Tokyo Dome on 10/14. Everyone knew who it was, and the PBP man didn't try to hide it, saying "Tanaka Minoru". However, the fans were more responsive to Heat here than on previous shows. The main event was a gauntlet-style Singles Elimination Match, where the winner of the fall stayed in, and the loser was replaced by a team mate, until one side was abolished. It was again New Japan vs. Makai Club, with Chono, Nagata, Tenzan & Nakanishi vs. Yasuda, Yanagisawa, Makai #1 & Makai #2. Hoshino throws these pro-Makai pamphlets to the crowd, and the crowd throws things right back at him. This was the least heated of the New Japan vs. Makai matches so far, but was still easily the hottest match of the night, with inconsistent heat, which is better than the no heat most other matches got. The falls varied, but most were fast paced and entertaining. The first was the worst, with Chono against Makai #2, who is a green young wrestler from Kaientai Dojo. He is big and athletic, but inexperienced and it shows when he keeps going back to the standard choke. Although short, it was a sluggish start, and Chono thankfully put Makai #2 away with a Yakuza kick. Makai #1, who everyone knew, entered next and attacked quickly. Chono started getting the better of him, but Makai #2 returned with a missile kick, and Makai #1 capitalized with the familiar Makai Windmill suplex hold for the upset elimination, which drew a collective "ooh!" from the crowd. Tenzan was next in, and went opposite "Super Strong Makai" in the only fall of the bout that was like a complete "match". He and Hirata fought to a 15 minute draw, and Hirata was impressive, looking better than he did for a long time prior to his injury. He tore off his shirt early on and looked to be in great shape. He used a ton of moves, mostly nicely done power techniques, but couldn't put Tenzan away. Tenzan had control later on, but before he could finish off Makai #1, the bell rang and both men were eliminated. Nakanishi vs. Yanagisawa was a good follow-up, a fast paced fall with no stopping. Nakanishi was fired up, and got the fans rallying behind him for his moves. They fell to the outside, where things got out of control. Nakanishi racked Yanagisawa with an Argentine backbreaker, then went to slide back into the ring, but was blocked, and both men were counted out. So it came down to Nagata and Yasuda, in their latest (of many) battle. This started slow, but picked up and was tremendous later on, and the heat showed it, as the fans were suddenly alive for everything. Lots of submissions and counters to them, such as Nagata sliding out of a front sleeper and getting Yasuda in the Nagata Lock II. He had Yasuda just about beaten, so the club started jumping on the apron to try and interfere. Nagata cleared them all off, except an unidentified masked man in a New Japan t-shirt, who avoided Nagata's swing and leapt off the apron. He tore the mask off, revealing Nagata's personal menace, Kazunari Murakami! Murakami flipped, and Yasuda crept up behind Nagata with a punch to the back off the head. Before Nagata could begin to regain his senses, Yasuda had covered him for the Makai Club victory! So another win for Makai, and their falls were again all dirty, none clean. Murakami's internal time bomb exploded, and he started screaming and flailing his limbs, being dragged to the back by an army of seconds. It didn't end here though, as Chono grabbed the microphone and provoked Yasuda for a regular eight man tag match. Yasuda accepted, and the groups had a 5 1/2 minute sprint to finish off the show, with tons of heat. This situation again managed to wake up a dead crowd. When Nagata got his hands on Makai #2 it was all over, and he dropped the youngster right on his head with a wrist-clutch Exploder for the easy win, New Japan leaving the show as winners! The four New Japan pinnacles climbed the turnbuckles and posed to end the festivities. Last year's "G1 WORLD" turned out to be the worst series of 2001 because of the "foreigner G1" tournament that was not only awful for match quality, but made no impact at all. This year's looked to also be the worst in a very good year for New Japan tours, but was much better than I expected. The New Japan vs. Makai Club feud isn't as good as New Japan vs. Team 2000 for athletic competition, but is a lot fresher and seems to be interesting fans bored of basically the same feud that lasted from 2/97 (as nWo, then nWo Japan from 4/97) to 8/02 (as Team 2000, the breakaway group that absorbed the entire nWo Japan except Muto). I doubt it'll last as long, and even if it stays long-term, it may become a third group like SWING-LOWS was. For now, it is a good transition to hopefully a bigger feud down the line, maybe with Tenzan in charge of his own group (wishful thinking). Overall, 9/22 was a good show to finish the tour off, with several very good matches, and only one disappointment, that being a quiet crowd for most of the matches.
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