NJPW - 01/04/03

[Guest PlatypusFool]

Credit to Stuart of Strong Style Spirit for the results...

 

NJPW "WRESTLING WORLD 2003", 1/4/03 (WPW)

Tokyo Dome

50,000 Fans (Sell Out)

 

Pretty much the same drawing power as The Spiral had in 2002, apparently, and a good start to the year for NJPW. Fans are starting to really get into Nagata as champion I feel, and are starting to see him as a defender for the pro wrestling way, making him intresting to them.

 

1. Osamu Nishimura beat Tatsumi Fujinami (8:10) with a Japanese leg roll clutch hold.

 

Nishimura defeats his mentor for the first time in singles competition. A good result for Mr. Muga here, and a start to what should be an awesome breakout year for him. This one should be a good match as well, with two of the foremost experts on old style wrestling that are still working doing what they do against each other. If 2003 ends without a Nishimura IWGP title shot, I'll be very surprised.

 

2. Young Generation Cup - Semi Final: Yutaka Yoshie beat Shinya Makabe (13:20) with a diving body press.

 

I'm quite dissapointed by this result. Although Yoshie has improved quite a lot this year, Makabe has recently returned from his learning excursion, and promised much. He is yet to deliver on the promise, however. He probably qill later in the year though.

 

3. Young Generation Cup - Semi Final: Ryushi Yanagisawa beat Kenzo Suzuki (9:23) with a high knee.

 

Yeah, I pretty much expected this one. Although I haven't seen Yanagisawa yet, this should have been alright, I've heard decent things about him. It makes sense for one of the Makai Club to at least go into the final.

 

4. Dai Majin & Makai #1 beat Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto (7:50) when Goto was DQ'd.

 

Dai Majin is the Makai's new giant, probably Giant Silva under a mask. This match is likely to be pretty bad, but with the story built around it of who can be the biggest heel, at least they will have had something to work with.

 

5. Makai #4 & Makai #5 beat Takashi Iizuka & Masahito Kakihara (10:54) when Makai #5 used a springboard knee attack on Iizuka.

 

Now this should have been a great little spotty match. Springboard knee attack you say? Like the Hyper Knee? Yup, the new Makai #5 is indeed Mitsuya Nagai! He should be a great addition to the Makai Club, and NJPW in general as he suits their style very well. Also this match will be well worth seeing because of the stories surrounding Nagai, Iizuka and Kakihara. Nagai was the one who put Iizuka out of action last year, and he used to team with Kakihara in AJPW, so this will be a great little midcard feud starting here.

 

6. Koji Kanemoto, Jushin Thunder Liger & Takehiro Murahama beat Heat, Masayuki Naruse & Tiger Mask 4 (16:10) when Kanemoto used an ankle hold on Naruse.

 

The new junior factions of semi-shooters and wrestlers go against each other for the first time in what was probably a very good, but expected match. These guys have been around forever now, doing their entertaining things, and it is about time they got some new juniors in. However, Lyger & Kanemoto working a limb (Naruse's leg) is always wonderful to watch. This match also sparked out a lot of tension between former friends Lyger and Heat. Another reason to pick up this show methinks.

 

7. Young Generation Cup - Final: Ryushi Yanagisawa beat Yutaka Yoshie (6:48) with a cross armbreaker.

 

Yup. Well, who the hell wanted to see Yoshie challenge for the IWGP title in february anyway? Yanagisawa challenges for the big belt on 2/2.

 

8. Shinsuke Nakamura & Michiyoshi Ohara beat Tadao Yasuda & Kazunari Murakami (7:12) by referee stop (Nakamura beat Yasuda).

 

It's only his second pro wrestling match ever, but Nakamura defeats Yusuda in no uncertain terms after bleeding like a stuck pig at the hands of Murakami. This year's gonna be huge for this prospect, and NJPW are gonna push him to the moon. Hopefully the fans will take to him and he'll go far, maybe as a tag team wrestler to start with. If not, they can always build him up in the traditional way - slow and steady.

 

9. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima beat Masahiro Chono & Manabu Nakanishi (23:18) when Tenzan used the Tenzan Tombstone Driver on Chono.

 

Tenkoji return, and Tenzan defeats his mentor! The 'new' Tenzan (with a new pair of tights to go with him) starts what will probably be his year for the big push with a great win. I'd be very surprised at this point if Tenzan isn't the man who will finally beat Nagata for the title at some point late in the year.

 

10. NWF Heavyweight Title: Yoshihiro Takayama beat Tsuyoshi Kosaka (10:19) with a knee kick to become the 19th champion.

 

Yay for Takayama. Probably my favourite heavyweight in the world right now gets a belt! And will hopefully hold on to it for a decent amount of time. I hope they give him a few defences of this belt before doing the IWGP / NWF unification, which is certain to happen at some point in the near future. I'm looking forward to this match too, lots of stiff strikes

 

11. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Yuji Nagata © beat Josh Barnett (10:40) with a kneel kick (7th defense).

 

And yay! Nagata retains again! Apparently Josh showed some good stuff, and is likely to become a NJPW regular. I don't have a problem with that, as long as he is an ok worker.

 

And thats that, a VERY good start to the NJPW year, and yet another NJPW show I will definately have to pick up. There's something interesting going on at every level within NJPW at the moment, from the great wrestling of the young lions, the juniors, Nagata and Nishimura, to the cool gimmicks, to the very heated feud between the Makai Club and NJPW, to the constant progression of the upper midcard guys by beating their mentors, everything works perfectly. For me, you have to conclude that NJPW is the greatest promotion on earth right now. Any thoughts anyone?

[EL DANDY~! 0]

Sounds great. Tenzan sure is coming along. I agree. I see him and Nishimura being the two guys to make runs at the IWGP title. Makai Club gets stronger with Nagai and I am REALLY interested to see how deep the Nagai/Kakihara/Iizuka situation goes.

[Guest BionicRedneck]

 

The "New" Hiroyoshi Tenzan

 

IWGP Heavyweight Title/G-1 Climax Final for this man in 2003.

[Guest Jubuki]

The stupid thing about Yoshie is that he's already been involved in one of these Young Generation tournaments - SEVEN years ago.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

And didn't Yanagisawa just come out of retirement? Wouldn't it being called a Young Generation Tourniment require that the participants be somewhat young?

[EL DANDY~! 0]

Dood, Tenzan looks like Road Warriors SHOULD have looked. That is TRES cool, my friends.

[Guest TheGame2705]

Nish will definitely get his title shot, title win I doubt. I felt bad that they teamed Makabe with Fujita upon return but this guy is nothing but all talk and no backing it up. I wanted Suzuki to win his match. The tourny should have been called the "We have nothing better to do with you" tournament. I think they should have had Tanahashi and Suzuki vs. Yoshie and Makabe and Yanagisawa take on one of the frequent MMA fighters instead like Fujita or someone. Atleast it would have kept that annoying cunt Tanahashi happy. I mark for fat men doing sentons and DBZ hair so I'm mad about Human Oddity Silva and Junji Makai beating them. I dunno why but I marked for Nagai's green tights and the name Hyper Knee and the Mitsuya Nagai. Kanemoto>All Juniors. Ohara came back.......yay I REALLY wanna see match number 9 as I mark for TenKoji in tag and singles and I mark big for Nakanishi. I hope they sign a match for Kojima vs. Tanahashi and Kojima beats his ass BADLY. Stupid ugly prick. Takayama rules, glad he won. I had no doubts about Nagata.

[Guest PlatypusFool]

Yanagisawa is only slightly older, at 30, than the others in tournament, who are all in the 27 - 29 range I think.