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 NJPW "FIGHTING SPIRIT MEMORIAL DAY IN KOBE", 10/27/02 (WPW) (Buy) Kobe World Hall 6,300 Fans - No Vacancy
1. Toru Yano beat Naofumi Yamamoto (4:40) with a crab hold.
The second half of a big mid-tour double header drew a good crowd to Kobe World Hall, and although it wasn't a full house, it looked to be on camera, so that's a good thing from a visual perspective. It had to follow up on an incredible 10/26 PPV, which of course was capped off by the epic Nagata vs. Chono time limit draw. The crowd in Kobe was a lot hotter than in Fukuoka, responding in some way to most matches (especially the 5 vs. 5, but more on that later). The first three matches were clipped down a lot, as they had to conserve some time. Yano picked up his third career win, beating the same man he got his first two victories against, Yamamoto. It was strange seeing Yano suddenly in the role of a peer, after spending the past five months being dominated by his seniors, but now he was the senior, and controlled against Yamamoto. The fans liked these two young lions, and seemed interested. They only showed a couple of minutes of the first junior six man, so we didn't get to see much. It was mostly Heat in there during the portion aired, and he put away Ricky. The final clipped match was Hiro & Goto against Norton & Jack. Norton bombed Jack by mistake with a lariat, and Hiro capitalized with a senton. Goto followed with a backdrop suplex, and pinned the big man. The first match that wasn't chopped up was the second Jr. Triathlon Survivor semi final, pitting Sammy, Kakihara & Naruse against Kanemoto, Jado & Gedo. The winning trio would go on to face Liger, Heat & Tiger Mask in Makuhari. First fall was absolutely awesome, with 7 minutes of non-stop action between Kanemoto and Kakihara. These two showed the chemistry that can create a classic match, combining great matwork with high impact moves and the regular flying from Kanemoto. Kakihara won after two Kaki Cutters, a major upset because Kanemoto had beaten Bas Rutten the day before! The second fall, Samurai & Naruse vs. Jado & Gedo, couldn't match up to the scorching opener, but was still good. It had it's slow moments, namely when Jado & Gedo controlled, but because the match was shorter than their usual affair, the assault didn't last as long. Really good towards the end, and Jado trapped Sammy in his crossface hold for the tap. The final fall was another incredible one, again thanks to Kanemoto and a worthy opponent. This time it was Samurai, he and Kanemoto battling for for much of the 7 minute final fall. Their exchanges weren't entirely unlike those from their 1997 classic, some tremendous action. Sammy even busted out the avalanche-style reverse DDT, and Koji was saved by his friends more than once. Samurai went for the vertical drop reverse DDT that he beat Kanemoto with in Okinawa in January, 2001, but Koji managed to flip over. He eventually revived the Tiger suplex hold to put Samurai away, the match lasting over 23 minutes in total. Really good stuff, even better than Team Liger vs. L.A. Dojo from the day before. Kanemoto was the star of the show, but also excellent individual performances by Kakihara and Samurai. Kanemoto offered Kaki a title shot post-match, and the two scuffled, heating up their eventual December clash. Yoshie & Wolf vs. Makabe & Fujita was next, Makabe's second match back on New Japan tours after he and "Little" Fujita made short work of Kakihara & Naruse the day before. This wasn't as easy for Makabe though, who was dominated for literally 3/4 of the match. Fujita was battered early on, and Makabe was then isolated and took most of Yoshie and Wolf's moves. It was shocking to see how overwhelmed Makabe was, but he kicked out of everything thrown at him. He eventually tagged out to Fujita, who had a really great short flurry of fast offense, which included a corner charge elbow and springboard dropkick. Yoshie punished Fujita with some of the sickest bodyslams ever, and I'm surprised Fujita didn't go through the ring. When he tagged out to Makabe again, Makabe made incredibly short work of Wolf, just like Kenzo on 10/14. Spear, German suplex, Dragon suplex hold, 1-2-3, that was it. Strange match, as I didn't expect Makabe to be dominated so much, but enjoyable. I really like the power fighting Yoshie & Wolf team, and have said for a while that they could be a good hard-hitting tandem. After their disappointly short match in September, which lasted under 5 minutes, Nishimura and Liger met again, this time under European Catch rules. Nishimura had gradually gotten the hang of this concept, so now was in a position where he was the favourite to defeat Liger. But Liger can pick anything up fast, so wasn't outdone and knew what he was doing. This lasted five rounds and had some beautiful technical wrestling, so pure and traditional. They exchanged many holds, and were very equal on the mat. Liger spent almost an entire round in a figure-four leglock, and when the bell saved him, Nishimura became EVIL NISH, refusing to break! When the referee couldn't pull him off, Nishimura was shown the yellow card! Soon after, Liger also got angry, pushing the referee aside and hitting a baseball slide dropkick. He too received the yellow card, and we saw ANGRY LIGER. After some tussling, that resulted in the referee getting thrown down, each got a second yellow card, and were nearing the dreaded red card. Liger went on an offense flurry in the fifth round, and seemed to have Nishimura beat. But when he ran towards the ropes for the shotei, Nishimura followed, pushed him into said ropes, and cradled him with a Japanese leg roll clutch hold for the win! All rather sudden, just as Liger seemed to have it won too. The match lasted 16 minutes, 36 seconds, in total, and although this isn't short, it didn't seem long enough for the two to have their potential best bout. The technical wrestling was great, very entertaining. I don't think it was as good as Nishimura vs. Bas from the Tokyo Dome though, largely because that match was twice as long, so they got to do more. From TECHNICAL to FIGHT, as the second volume of the New Japan vs. Makai Club 5 vs. 5 Series was next. Makai won a Singles Elimination Match in Fukuoka, and today's installment was a singles series, like the New Japan vs. Team 2000 one from May. Each New Japan team member selected an envelope before the show, and revealed his partner. Although the previous two matches were fun, the crowd had grown quiet, so this molten feud had to raise the tempo. The first match was Tanahashi vs. Yanagisawa. Tanahashi's t-shirt read "TRY&TRY&TRY", which defines him perfectly, and also defines his performance in this match. He matched up well to Yanagisawa at first, but a combination of submissions and brutal kicks had him on the defense with all shields up. At one point, Yanagisawa kicked Tanahashi down repeatedly, but Tanahashi would NOT stay down. NEVER SAY DIE TANAHASHI! Now the crowd was on fire, in full support of Tanahashi. Tanahashi fought back, and almost won it. Fighting spirit can only take a person so far though, and doesn't reduce the misery of taking a high kick to the head, like Tanahashi did. Tanahashi was flat out, and despite the roars of support, couldn't answer the referee's count, being KO'd! This was Yanagisawa's best match since appearing in Shin Nihon, much thanks to Tanahashi's great effort and determination. Kenzo vs. Makai #2 was next. This was short, and like Makabe earlier, Kenzo was unexpectedly dominated. Makai controlled him with an some really cool moves. He knocked Kenzo out of the ring, but made the mistake of turning his back. Kenzo crept in, and speared #2 from behind! TWO backdrop suplexes followed, before Kenzo took #2's head off with the Hagakure, and covered for the win! With things tied up, Nagata and Makai #1 had their turn, and went right at it, Nagata charging with a high kick. This was a strong 6 minute match, where Super Strong Makai looked really damn good, in much better shape than he was for a long time before his injury. This was intense, and they fought out to the ramp, where Nagata tugged at #1's mask. Everyone wanted to see who was under the mask, just to eliminate that SLIGHT doubt. Nagata couldn't get it off though. #1 hit a familiar flurry, two corner charge lariats, a DDT, then the Devil/Makai Windmill suplex hold, but Nagata kicked out! He took #1 down into the Nagata Lock II, and had it won, so the Club interfered and #1 was DQ'd. Nagata saw his chance, and COMPLETELY tore off #1's mask. The formerly hooded figure quickly covered up and #2 concealed his face. There was no mistaking who it was though, and a HUGE "HIRATA! HIRATA! HIRATA!" chant broke out. Shin Nihon was now 2-1 up, and the next encounter was a rematch from 5/5/01, with Iizuka facing Yasuda! Iizuka was mega-popular with the fans, who were happy to see him back. This was Yasuda's best singles match in quite some time, really intense and heated like all the New Japan vs. Makai matches are. Yasuda nearly started three riots, one for not breaking his illegal guillotine/forearm choke, and two for hitting sneaky low blows. Yasuda found himself in Iizuka's deadly sleeper hold later on, but more interference from the Club saved him. They got involved repeatedly, preventing Iizuka from scoring a win that he almost obtained repeatedly. When he re-applied the sleeper, Yasuda backed him into the ropes, and Yanagisawa threw a high kick from behind. Yasuda covered with one foot for the win, much to the disgust of the fans. Yet again, Yasuda cheats to win, continuing to throw away his remaining self-respect. It came down to Nakanishi and Murakami to decide who would win chapter two, and you knew right away this would be hot. Murakami was as maniacal as always, and Nakanishi was ready for him. They had the most heated, dramatic match of the night, just beyond the intensity level of anything else in this feud so far. Nakanishi looked like New Japan's leader, above even Nagata, and had the fans on their feet. They were literally screaming and stomping their feet, which is something not as common as it used to be. Nakanishi's strength was awesome, he picked Murakami up with ease, and threw him down. When the Club raced in to help Murakami, the New Japan army ran them out. Nakanishi lifted Murakami into a modified Argentine backbreaker, where the terrorist was facing the opposite way, and it looked really cool. With the damage done, Nakanishi threw Murakami down and covered for the 1-2-3! New Japan secured a 3-2 victory! There was so much emotion and hatred in the air after the match, with Hoshino almost coming out of retirement to fight. Nagata, Iizuka, Kenzo, and Tanahashi each climbed the turnbuckles, while Nakanishi stood in the middle of the ring. For one night only, at least for the time being, Nakanishi was the ace of New Japan, and to be truthful, I think he suited the role more than Nagata. Backstage, he and Nagata exchanged a few words, and seemed on course for a title match in December, but happenings on 11/4 would change that. The main event saw Chono & Tenzan make their V3 defense of the IWGP Tag Team Title. Their opponents were listed as "Joanie Laurer & X", because GREAT MUTA blew out a knee in Kobe the day before, messing up the proposed title match. He walked out after Laurer on crutches, and suddenly Great Kabuki's entrance theme hit. Big reaction for that, and Kabuki was announced as Laurer's tag partner. He was the only logical replacement for MUTA, except for maybe Scott Norton (who had joined the L.A. Dojo team at the start of the tour, and was feuding with Chono). The match was a lot better than I expected, and if I said Chono & Tenzan vs. Laurer & Kabuki was better than Chono & Tenzan vs. Rick & Scott Steiner, what would you say? Because it was. Despite the surprising quality, this was not really a fitting main event or title match for New Japan. It certainly wasn't Nagata vs. Chono, that's for sure. However, the right team did win, with Chono tangling Kabuki up in an STF for the tap. Norton, who had appeared with Jack during the match, attacked Chono and went to powerbomb him. Laurer slapped Norton though, so he kicked her and tried a powerbomb. Chono, returning the favour to Laurer, Yakuza kicked Norton, and put him in an STF too. When Norton disappeared, Laurer stood quietly as the champions, along with Nagata, Nakanishi, and others, celebrated. Laurer offered a handshake to Chono, and after a pause, he accepted. She shook hands with the New Japan army, and they posed for cameras. Backstage, she showed the humility she learned in Japan saying, "If you can't beat the best, join the best. And you guys [New Japan army] are the best!". To end the show, they all celebrate by pouring beer over each other. Really cool actually to see her accept complete defeat. Another good show. Although it didn't stack up to 10/26, not many shows do, and as a stand-alone this was fun. I'm not sure how popular New Japan vs. Makai Club with people in the west, but I love it. Hatred, intensity, passion, I'm not certain if things will remain this way long-term, but for now it is bringing back the ANGER that Inoki and Shinma talked about. All this show needed to make it excellent was a better main event, and the IWGP Tag Team Title match didn't really accomplish much, except once and for all telling people that Joanie Laurer couldn't defeat Chono. I would rather have seen a NOAH team or something brought in, but they wrapped up the Chono vs. Laurer situation instead, and had MUTA been healthy, I think Tenzan would have avenged his 10/14 loss.
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beat Yutaka Yoshie & Blue Wolf (9:02) when Makabe used a Dragon suplex hold on Wolf.