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"THE SPIRAL" was New Japan's third Tokyo Dome convention of 2002. Unlike the last two though, this one saw a desperate struggle for New Japan, as they fought the invading Foreign Army, which united the Makai Club, who had been dominant on the September series, several MMA stars, and even a female fighter. It was all-out war, with seven matches determined between the two sides, concluding with a rematch of the 2001 Tokyo Sports match of the year, as Kazuyuki Fujita looked for his second victory over Yuji Nagata, and if he could manage that, would grasp the IWGP Heavyweight Title. Additionally, the NWF Heavyweight Title Tournament continued, with former RINGS star, Tsuyoshi Kosaka, facing Makai Club leader, Tadao Yasuda. The mysterious masked man, Heat, made his debut, challenging Koji Kanemoto for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title. Shinya Makabe made a triumphant homecoming after an extended overseas excursion, teaming with his friend from Puerto Rico, Kaientai Dojo's Minoru Fujita, against Tanaken. To display New Japan's full military power, three matches were presented before kickoff time, making "THE SPIRAL" a fourteen match show!
Foreign participation:
Bas Rutten
Bob Sapp
GREAT MUTA (L.A. Dojo)
Joanie Laurer (L.A. Dojo)
Tony St. Clair (as a referee)
American Dragon (L.A. Dojo)
The Havana Pitbulls (Rocky Romero & Ricky Reyes) (L.A. Dojo)
Special participation:
Kazunari Murakami
Kazuyuki Fujita
Tsuyoshi Kosaka
Minoru Fujita (Kaientai Dojo)
NJPW "THE SPIRAL", 10/14/02 (WPW)
Tokyo Dome
50,000 Fans - No Vacancy
1. Blue Wolf beat Toru Yano (5:59) with a Mongol slam.
2. Jado & Gedo beat El Samurai & Wataru Inoue (11:33) when Gedo used a Superfly splash on Samurai.
3. Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto beat Shiro Koshinaka & Takashi Iizuka (9:58) when Hiro used a diving senton on Iizuka.
4. Jushin Thunder Liger, Masahito Kakihara & Tiger Mask beat American Dragon, Rocky Romero & Ricky Reyes (12:26) when Liger used a brainbuster on Romero.
5. Shinya Makabe Return Match: Shinya Makabe & Minoru Fujita  beat Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi (7:29) when Makabe used a Dragon suplex hold on Suzuki.
6. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Koji Kanemoto (c) beat Heat (debut) (18:43) with an ankle hold (2nd defense).
7. NWF Heavyweight Title Tournament - Semi Final: Tsuyoshi Kosaka beat Tadao Yasuda (2:15) with an achilles tendon hold.
8. New Japan vs. Foreign Army: Yutaka Yoshie  beat Ryushi Yanagisawa  (5:33) with a diving body press.
9. New Japan vs. Foreign Army - European Catch Rules: Osamu Nishimura vs. Bas Rutten went to a draw (R10 3:00) when the time limit expired.
10. New Japan vs. Foreign Army: Kazunari Murakami beat Masayuki Naruse (4:22) with a sleeper hold.
11. New Japan vs. Foreign Army: GREAT MUTA beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan (6:43) with a tornado clothesline.
12. New Japan vs. Foreign Army: Masahiro Chono beat Joanie Laurer (11:35) with a Yakuza kick.
13. New Japan vs. Foreign Army: Bob Sapp beat Manabu Nakanishi (6:26) by countout.
14. New Japan vs. Foreign Army - IWGP Heavyweight Title: Yuji Nagata (c) beat Kazuyuki Fujita (12:55) with a backdrop hold (4th defense).
Points of note:
Takashi Iizuka's second match back was a tag loss, but he fought well and received a rousing response from the Tokyo Dome.
The L.A. Dojo junior trio, American Dragon, Rocky Romero & Ricky Reyes, suffered their first loss in New Japan, falling to Liger's army in an action-packed match to kick off the event officially.
Shinya Makabe's return was cut short when Kenzo pinned Fujita after only 31 seconds with a Shining attack. By Makabe's appeal though, the match was restarted, and he fought much of it alone while Fujita was recovering. Eventually, he hit a German suplex, followed by a Dragon suplex hold on Kenzo to complete a victorious homecoming.
Koji Kanemoto made his V2 defense of the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title by defeating the new masked man, Heat, who had unmasked himself as Koji's nemesis, Minoru Tanaka, days before. Heat used a wide range of techniques, but was outdone by Kanemoto, who defeated him with an ankle hold.
In the second NWF Heavyweight Tournament semi final match, Tsuyoshi Kosaka made short work of Yasuda, hooking on an achilles tendon hold for the 135 second submission! This set up a final of Kosaka vs. Yoshihiro Takayama for the revived title back at the Tokyo Dome on 1/4/03.
New Japan vs. Foreign Army opened with quite an upset, as Yutaka Yoshie took down former Pancrase and RINGS star, Ryushi Yanagisawa. Yoshie displayed the strength of Strong Style, and made a rare trip to the top rope, using a diving body press for the win.
Osamu Nishimura and Bas Rutten fought to a very technical, ground-based draw in a European Catch Rules Match (ten 3 minute rounds, 30:00 in total), which was officiated by Tony St. Clair. After having a negative record in this catch concept on the pre-Dome mini-series, Nishimura fought with heart and took the former UFC star to a stalemate.
Kazunari Murakami made his first in-ring New Japan appearance since the January Tokyo Dome convention, picking up the Foreign Enemy's first win of the series when he put Masayuki Naruse to sleep in under 4 1/2 minutes.
The new Great Muta, called GREAT MUTA, was seconded to the ring by Great Kabuki, the other Great Muta's "dad". MUTA was dominated by Tenzan during their clash, but interference by Kabuki led to him scoring the big win and giving the Foreign Army a 2-1-1 lead!
In the match fans voted for, Masahiro Chono met former WWF female superstar, Joanie Laurer, in a much hyped battle. Chono dominated, but Laurer showed admirable fighting spirit by lasting well over 11 minutes, before falling to a Yakuza kick. Chono humiliated Laurer following the match, publically spanking her over his knee.
The mighty Bob Sapp, replacing the injured Yoshihiro Takayama, made his New Japan debut, facing Manabu Nakanishi. In a match that delighted fans and had the Tokyo Dome rallying, Nakanishi took it to the K-1 star, even lifting him into an Argentine backbreaker at one point! Although he eventually fell to Sapp, it was by countout, so he avoided a pinfall or submission loss to the monster.
The main event saw the big rematch from June, 2001, with roles reversed this time, as IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Yuji Nagata, faced Kazuyuki Fujita. Nagata needed a win to tie the series, and fought so hard that he was bed-ridden with lumbago for days after the match. Following a physical and intense war, Nagata hit four backdrop suplexes to seal the win and V4 defense, and gave New Japan a massive main event victory!
Miscellaneous:
The fan vote for Chono's opponent at the Tokyo Dome ended up as follows (top ten),
1. Joanie Laurer (3335 votes)
2. Kazuyuki Fujita (3257 votes)
3. Keiji Muto (2999 votes)
4. Tadao Yasuda (2677 votes)
5. Shinya Hashimoto (2340 votes)
6. Naoya Ogawa (1983 votes)
7. Yuji Nagata (1709 votes)
8. Ryushi Yanagisawa (1304 votes)
9. Jun Akiyama (1123 votes)
10. Yoshihiro Takayama (1098 votes)
The series was tied at 3-1-1 in the end, but New Japan could be considered slight victors, as they won the main event, and their only other feature match loss was a countout defeat for Nakanishi. Still, the war was by no means over, with more frantic fighting to come.
The event drew 50,000 fans, the lowest attendance in New Japan history at the Tokyo Dome, but Inoki insisted that New Japan would only list real numbers now, rather than inflated ones.
Back to: "FIGHTING SPIRIT SERIES 2002 PROLOGUE" (10/6/02 to 10/12/02)
Forward to: "FIGHTING SPIRIT SERIES 2002" (10/19/02 to 11/4/02)
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