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NJPW "THE SPIRAL II", 12/15/02 (WPW) (Buy)
Nagoya Rainbow Hall 9,500 Fans - Super No Vacancy
1. Yutaka Yoshie beat Toru Yano (9:13) with a back blow.
"THE SPIRAL II" was supposed to be a sequel to October's "THE SPIRAL", and Kantaro Hoshino kept talking about how he'd bring new Makai Club fighters to compete. However, both the original card (Nagata vs. Tanahashi, cancelled because of Tanahashi's stabbing, Tenzan vs. Kenzo, Nakanishi vs. Wolf, and Liger vs. Heat), and the modified one were mostly just a traditional wrestling show, with the Makai Club relegated to a couple of undercard matches. Nagoya Rainbow Hall was so quiet throughout this show, almost every match having no heat whatsoever, so that aspect was disappointing. About 5 1/2 minutes of Yoshie vs. Yano were shown, and it was mostly the STRONG STYLE ENFORCER pounding on Yano. Yano did get some offense though, including his shoulder clutch suplex thing, which is really cool and becoming popular with the fans. Yoshie sent Yano into dream land with a nasty back blow. Iizuka vs. Samurai was also unfortunately clipped, just 4 1/2 minutes of the 11+ aired. What was shown was the stellar wrestling you would expect from two veterans. Iizuka, in his ongoing attempt to find form lost by his lengthy absence, had surprising difficulty with Samurai that he wouldn't have had a couple of years before. They did some great reversals and counters at the end, leading to Iizuka choking out Samurai with his deadly sleeper hold. The final clipped match was Kakihara & Naruse vs. Yanagisawa & Makai #1, but they screened around 9 minutes of this, so plenty. This was more good, solid action, with the Makai members wrestling a more controlled match than they often do in those wild brawls against the New Japan army. Yanagisawa vs. Naruse was nice, both men disciples of famous names in shoot style wrestling history (Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Akira Maeda respectively). Although stylistically misplaced, Super Strong Makai again looked like a revitalized, shockingly athletic powerhouse, five days away from his 46th birthday. He scored the pin, capitalizing on a jumping knee kick to the neck by Yanagisawa on Naruse, with a Makai Windmill suplex hold. Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Kanemoto & Gedo seemed like a normal New Japan vs. Team 2000 match on paper, but was progressive in several ways. This was excellent action, with Gedo looking refreshed after a brief absence from New Japan, grappling on the mat with Liger, and not relying on the sluggish brawling tactics like he has for a long time now. Everything went well, with very good action, until Tiger Mask accidentally bombed Liger with a dropkick. Furious, Liger attacked Tiger, and left him for the wolves, Kanemoto quickly dropping a moonsault press for the win. The post-match situation was confusing, until Liger SHOOK HANDS WITH KANEMOTO! Now THAT woke the crowd up. The juniors quickly took their sides, Liger and Samurai standing with Kanemoto and Gedo, while Heat, Tiger Mask, Kakihara, and Naruse stood together, forming a UWF type army. A much needed shake-up in the junior division, I'd say. Heat vs. Fujita turned out to be an unofficial #1 contender match for Kanemoto's IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title, and most expected Heat to win. That wasn't to be though, as Fujita, who wore the Heat mask he tore off on 12/10, beat him with a combination of skill, trickery, and plain cheating. Heat dominated the main portion of the match, punishing Fujita with some really hard kicks. There wasn't much else to the match other than a nice closing stretch, and fans seemed surprised by Fujita's win, his first in any form since invading New Japan last year. Even Chono & Laurer vs. Murakami & Makai #2 wasn't too bad, and that's because Laurer limited her involvement to quick offensive flurries, and wrestled at a faster speed than we're used to seeing. Chono did most of the work though, and that's a good thing. Murakami threw some punches at Laurer that were laughable by his standards, as he didn't seem to want to hit the woman too hard. Chono and Laurer tied Murakami and Makai #2 in stereo STFs, with Laurer's on Makai #2 getting the tap out. Her fiancee, Sean Waltman, who had watched from ringside, entered the ring for a horribly soppy post-match situation where he put the engagement ring on Laurer, and they kissed. Laurer kept hugging and kissing Chono, and Waltman seemed jealous. He asked Chono for a Chono & Tenzan vs. Waltman & Laurer IWGP Tag Team Title match at the Tokyo Dome on January 4th. Chono was taken aback, and after some provocation from Waltman, hilariously called him (in English) a "street boy". Waltman slapped Chono down and punched him, while Laurer looked on crying. Thankfully this didn't go anywhere, as Laurer (and subsequently Waltman) seems to have parted with New Japan on bad terms. Nakanishi vs. Wolf was a match I really got into, as it wasn't pretty or glamorous, but was stiff, hard-hitting, and told us that Blue Wolf is on his way up the card. Unlike a year ago, when he would have been absolutely no match for Nakanishi in a singles bout, Wolf gave the Nakster some problems here, and lasted over 10 minutes with him. Their chop exchanges were cringe-worthy, really physical. Of course, Nakanishi won in the end, submitting Wolf with an Argentine backbreaker, but Wolf's growth was clear. Nagata vs. Makabe was the replacement for Nagata vs. Tanahashi, and while I would liked to have seen the latter (they had a 19 minute match in September, but it never aired), this was a nice match. Makabe has been having problems adjusting to his new frame and style, but against Nagata had his best performance yet. Nagata again showed that stoic vicious streak that he displayed against Murakami five days early, throwing some particularly brutal knee kicks in the corner, including a sort of Shining Wizard to the head. I like this Nagata, but for it to fully work, he needs to stop saluting before the match, after the match, and before the Nagata Lock, which detracts from such an image. Makabe took a lot of punishment here, but fought back and hit his cool Frankensteiner into a triangle choke combination, that looked great. Nagata seized control again soon enough, and took the match with relative ease, using a backdrop hold. The main problem with Makabe may lie in the previous match, oddly enough. Blue Wolf is a similar power wrestler, but much stronger, forceful with his strikes, and showing more superstar potential. Finally, "New No Fear" debuted, with Takayama & Kenzo forming a big man tandem against the pair of Tenzan & Nishimura. I would say this was the second best bout of the event, behind Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Kanemoto & Gedo, 21+ minutes of solid traditional wrestling. If it had heat, it would have been even better, though I could say that about every match on the show (unlike a lot of people, I think good crowd response really adds to wrestling matches, with Nagata vs. Murakami and Chono & Tenzan vs. Yasuda & Yanagisawa on 12/10 perfect examples). The finish was abrupt, as Takayama hit a sudden knee kick on Nishimura that didn't seem like his "finisher" knee kick, but got the win anyway. "New No Fear" would last one match, unless Takayama's freelancing ways take him to World Japan, so in retrospect, this growth match for Kenzo seemed wasteful, and could have been used on Wolf or Makabe, but New Japan probably wasn't sure if he was leaving yet. Overall, really good TV taping. Not spectacular and memorable like 12/10 was for it's big matches, but a good, fundamental New Japan wrestling show. What worries me after watching this, is that the big 3/9 show, also at Nagoya Rainbow Hall, could have no heat at all like this, which would hurt Nagata vs. Nakanishi and the other appealing matches set for the convention.
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beat Heat (7:21) with a Michinoku Driver II.