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After years of provoking and taunting, Atsushi Onita finally pried Riki Choshu out of retirement for a dream match on July 30th, 2000, at the Yokohama Arena. The Death Match pioneer returned to New Japan for this explosion match against Choshu, which overfilled the facility, with fans flocking in to see Choshu's first match since retiring at the Tokyo Dome on 1/4/98. As an added feature, this was New Japan's first ever live PPV, being hosted by the SKY PerfecTV! network. Could Power Hall once and for all drive Evil Ways out of New Japan? Beneath that huge main event, three matches in the ongoing heavyweight vs. junior series took place, while four of New Japan's top heavyweights competed in a semi final tag match.
Special participation:
Atsushi Onita
NJPW "RIKI CHOSHU REVIVAL!", 7/30/00 (PPV/WPW)
Yokohama Arena
18,000 Fans - Super No Vacancy Full House
1. Shinya Makabe beat Hiroshi Tanahashi (9:33) with a crab hold.
2. Minoru Tanaka beat AKIRA (10:32) with a cross armbreaker.
3. Junji Hirata beat Kenzo Suzuki (10:13) with a Devil Windmill suplex hold.
4. Shiro Koshinaka beat Koji Kanemoto (11:40) with a German suplex hold.
5. Takashi Iizuka beat Shinjiro Otani (11:04) with a sleeper hold.
6. Kensuke Sasaki & Yuji Nagata beat Manabu Nakanishi & Yutaka Yoshie (18:23) when Nagata used a backdrop hold on Yoshie.
7. No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Death Match: Riki Choshu beat Atsushi Onita (7:46) by referee stop.
Points of note:
Minoru Tanaka gave the juniors a huge start against the heavyweights, when he defeated former junior, AKIRA, in the second match of the night. An exciting encounter came to an end when Tanaka used a cross armbreaker, and AKIRA tapped out.
Koshinaka levelled the series when he defeated Kanemoto with a German suplex hold.
Iizuka fended off a spirited challenge from Otani to ensure that once more, the heavyweights overcame the challenge of junior heavyweights, the technician choking out Otani with a sleeper hold.
In the semi final, New Japan ace, Kensuke Sasaki, teamed with G-EGGS leader, Nagata, against two of Nagata's G-EGGS allies, the new team of Nakanishi & Yoshie. Nakanishi and Yoshie struggled to cooperate, arguing frequently, with Yoshie showing a bad temper. They still fought a long, competitive match though, before Nagata pinned Yoshie with a backdrop hold.
After the barbed wire and explosives were set up, the match everyone was waiting for began. "Wild Thing" played and Atsushi Onita entered the ring to an incredible response, being drowned by jeers and showered by trash. They erupted when Choshu walked to the ring, looking very intense and carrying a photograph of the late Masakazu Fukuda. For the next 7 minutes, 46 seconds, fans witnessed one of the most brutal matches ever seen, as Choshu dragged Onita from pillar to post, completely destroying him. Onita was thrown into the explosive barbed wire five times, and suffered a deep gash in an arm, that caused mass bloodshed. Finally, following a Riki lariat, Power Hall trapped Onita in his famous Scorpion Deathlock. Onita stopped responding, and referee Tiger Hattori called for the bell. Onita was stretchered out of the ring and rushed to hospital for surgery on his arm. Riki Choshu battered and maimed Onita, and finally drove him out of New Japan for good.
Miscellaneous:
New Japan's first PPV drew a massive buyrate of 40,000, the second highest buyrate in history for a sporting event on SKY PerfecTV! PPV, behind only PRIDE GP 2000 on 5/1 (50,000 buys). Additional, the TV Asahi rating for the convention was a good 3.9, so the Choshu vs. Onita match drew a great deal of attention overall.
Back to: "SUMMER STRUGGLE 2000" (6/25/00 to 7/20/00)
Forward to: "G1 CLIMAX 2000" (8/7/00 to 8/13/00)
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