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Everyone is probably extremely familiar with AJPWs 4 Pillars or the 5 Heavenly Bodies if you want to rightfully include Jun Akiyama. Kentas famous losing streak, Misawa being booked over Jumbo after Baba heard the crowd as they were filing in, Kawada finally beating Misawa, Taue jumping to Jumbos team. Plus they produced some of the most incredible wrestling matches ever seen. But there were two giants of Japanese wrestling at the time and NJPW had the 3 musketeers as their new generation of Ace’s. Keiji Muto, Shinya Hashimoto, and Masahiro Chono. 90s NJPW is a murky place of interpromotional feuds, shoots and worked shoots, weird choice of foreign talent (Sabu at the dome hell yah), incredible juniors, and the mysterious nWo Japan. NJPW world does not help with this as there are many missing matches from NJPW World and the complete TV is only available from traders. So watching along is tricky but I'm going to do the work and watch and provide all my sources so you can too. I don't have all the time in the world so I'm just going to be focusing on what Muto, Hash, and Chono are up to. So the Jr’s will be largely ignored, plus they have had their time in the sun. I will link the matches letting you know if there are any stinkers or some cant miss stuff before I post my words, gifs, and ultimate rating later. That way if you don't wanna watch the match you don't miss out on the cool spots!  from left to right. Keiji Muto, Masahiro Chono, and Shinya Hashimoto I've picked the 1992 G1 tour as a start date, start dates are largely arbitrary but here is my reasoning so we are all on the same page. Firstly Chono wins his second g1 in a row once again beating all the top NJPW talent. Secondly Muto as the rockstar wrestler of the 90s wins the IWGP Heavyweight title at the G1 special the next night putting away Riki Chosu the rockstar wrestler of the 80s. Thirdly, the WAR invasion starts shortly after and I love Tenryu Genichiro and invasion angles. So I'm going to go from there month by month watching their singles matches, big tag matches, and anything else that seems important. Wrestling is best when you know the context and history going into a match so heres a short (and incomplete) history to catch us up to what the 3 of them have been doing and introduce some key players. The young lion class of 84’ is the 1st really stacked with talent year. It included not only the 3 musketeers but also Keiichi Yamada who became Jushin Thunder Liger and Akira Nogami who while not as famous was still a good wrestler and is in fact still wrestling today as AKIRA. In 1984 when that class debuted NJPW was bursting with talent due to the closure of the 3rd major promotion in Japan, the IWE in ‘81. This means the younger talent is stuck in the midcard far too long for their tastes. Particularly Riki Choshu and Akira Maeda who both debuted in the late 70s and felt it was his time on top. Also Inoki was funnelling the profits NJPW was making to a falling Brazilian biotech company and not paying the boys more. So in 1984, after finaly having enough of being stuck behind Tatsumi Fujinami. Riki Choshu and much of his group Ishin Gundan (included Yoshiaki Yatsu, Haruka Eigen, and Masanobu Kurisu) left the promotion in the middle of a hot feud with NJPW they form a splinter group aligned with AJPW. that group barely lasts 3 years and before the end of it Choshus crew is fully in All Japan. Akira Maeda would also split shortly after. He along with like a dozen other NJPW wrestlers (including eventually Tiger Mask, Gran Hamada, Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Rusher Kimura) formed UWF (the 1st shoot style promotion), more on them shortly. This left a big hole in the NJPW roster and Inoki slotted the young lions right in. Muto would excel early but all of the young lions were showing great promise. He was sent on a short excursion to Florida returning in late 1986 as the Space Lone Wolf but it was quickly dropped as the UWF invasion feud was getting super hot. That's right they are all back in NJPW this time as invaders! This was a very hot angle but Maeda is still having problems with management. In 1986 Meade would famously refuse to lose to Andre the Giant leading to a brutally boring match. Inoki eventually comes out and thankfully stops the match. Hashimoto was the next sent out ending up in Stampede in 1987. Chono would be the 1st to win anything of note taking the 3rd young lion cup in 1987. Its then off to the American Territories, not returning until 1989. Hash would also spend more time in North America but most importantly in Memphis where he goes to Graceland and gets his signature Fat Elvis look. Muto would also find a very important part of his persona in 1989 when he debuted in WCW as the Great Muta gimmick jacking The Great Kabuki and forcibly adopting himself as his son. He was very popular in america and he was also very popular in Japan. During all that, back in Japan Maeda is still unhappy backstage butting heads with Choshu the booker for NJPW at the time. Choshu suddenly left AJPW and returned to NJPW in the middle of 1987 (This was a big deal). This animosity led to an incident in a 6 man tag match in late 1988 between the teams of Riki Choshu, Masa Saito, and Hiro Saito against Maeda, Nobohiro Takada, and Osama Kido. Chosu and Maeda are stiffing each other throughout the match leading to Maeda full blast kicking Choshu in the face to break up a sharpshooter. He breaks his nose and damages Choshus orbital bone and NJPW management suspends Maeda. He left and reformed the UWF with the rest of the crew in late 1988. We will have more on them later in the 90s. Hashimoto returns just after the UWF re-exodus and the next year he and Masa Saito win the IWGP Tag titles. By 1990 all 3 of the musketeers are back in Japan and by 1992 all have racked up a few accomplishments (beyond title and tournament wins Chono wrestles Lou Thesz in his last match). The 3 of them sit ready to take down the old guard of NJPW and lead the company into the future and beyond!  1992 G1 Climax and Vacant NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship Tournament This puts us at the start of my project, The 1992 G1 Climax. The 1991 g1 was won by Chono beating Choshu and Hashimoto to go to the finals. Muto won his block beating Fujinami and NJPW monster Vader but he lost to Chono. 1992 is a single elimination tournament and is also for the Vacant NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship. Round 1 saw our heroes advance to the quarters with Muto beating Barry Windham, Chono beating Tony Halme, and Hashimoto beating The Barbarian. So for our 1st matches of this project we have: Rick Rude vs Shinya Hashimoto Pre match promo warning Rude drops a slur. Keiji Muto vs Steve Austin Masahiro Chono vs Scott Norton All 3 matches are a good introduction the the wrestlers characters and solid matches. Muto and Austin is i think the best of the 3 and Austin does some pretty wild stuff in the match. I will post my recaps on Monday giving you the weekend to watch a match or two or three if you want!
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Jun 15, 2023 13:46
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I'll be watching along with ya, Liberace! There's so much wrestling happening all the time that I rarely have the time to go back and watch some of the foundational stuff so this will be a fun project for me. For instance, other than Muto, I don't think I'd seen a single match of any of these wrestlers or their opponents before. I'd probably heard their names before, but only vaguely. I watched the Muto Steve Austin match first. Obviously I know about "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and I knew he had a different gimmick prior to the bald jean-shorts badass. Muto is also a legendary figure in pro wrestling, and it's nice to watch a match from his heyday. These guys move fantastically. I love they way they come off the ropes. There's a crispness to everything that just really works. Really good mat wrestling. Crazy how into it the crowd gets. Of course you wanna watch Muto do some moonsaults and he does. He also botches the one at the finish in such an exaggerated way it looks like a worked botch. Maybe it is. Anyways, this was really good poo poo. Next I watched the Hashimoto Rick Rude match. I know the name Rick Rude and have probably seen people mention Hashimoto before. I couldn't get into this match. What the absolute gently caress was Madusa wearing? Lmao. I'll have to pay more attention to the subsequent Hashimoto matches because he didn't do anything for me here. Rick Rude gets the win after some interference. The Scott Norton Chono match is like the platonic ideal of a wrestling match. These guys tell a story perfectly. Scott Norton comes in with tape/bandages around his midsection. Despite that he really throws Chono around, taking advantage of his size. Scott Norton has the perfect wrestler's body, to me. Just a huge man. Both guys bump hard for each other and things start going Chono's way when he starts to work on Norton's legs. With his legs weakened, Norton can't get out of the way of kicks to his injured midsection. He can't get out of the way of the cobra twist, but is too willful to submit. Without his legs and midsection, Norton has to kick out simply by pushing Chono off of him with his massive arms. Chono gets pushed off like this a couple of times, then finally goes for a pin that Norton would need to use his legs and abs to get out of and he just can't do it. Chono wins. That last match was my favorite of the bunch. Hope more folks will do some write-ups and I'm looking forward to yours, SL.
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Jun 17, 2023 21:04
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apophenium posted:For instance, other than Muto, I don't think I'd seen a single match of any of these wrestlers or their opponents before. I'd probably heard their names before, but only vaguely. You are in for a treat then in a few more uh chapters when we watch a Hiroshi Hase match, Then again when Tenryu shows up! The end of the Austin Muto match is very weird, the more i watch it the more im sure muto does it on purpose. Dusty in the front is fun to watch he pops up for him falling. Then when hes outside Dusty yells something at him and the NJPW President beside him laughs. Its really a testament to how over mutos moonsault is that the crowd still lost it when he hits it because they have lost them. Austin kicking out at 3.1 *chefs kiss*
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Jun 18, 2023 03:38
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Welcome to Night 3 of the 1992 G1 Climax! It is August 10th and we are broadcasting from Ryogoku Sumo Hall in front of a sell out 11 500 people. Its round 2 of the G1 and in the 1st match we have Kensuke Sasaki taking on Terry Taylor. Terry advanced over Hiroshi Hase who injured his shoulder in the match and Kensuke beat Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. Sasaki beats Taylor in 9:35. Up next we have Rick Rude vs Shinya Hashimoto. Rick Rude made short work of veteran Super Strong Machine in his first match. Lets see how he fairs against the Strike Machine Hashimoto!  Rude vs Hashimoto Both of these dudes are clearly very popular with the crowd. Hash comes out he's the big over, massive chants and claps. Hash throws a wild kick at Rude that misses but the crowd gasps and cheers. Rude and Medusa are stalling and it's annoying Hash who is standing on the 1st rope in the corner looking grumpy as hell. Crowd is chanting for hash as the bell rings. They reach out to tie up but Hashimoto throws a low kick and Rude bails into the corner. They again go for a grapple but Rude starts to club Hashimoto. Hash kicks him when he ducks for a back body drop and tosses him outside. Rude takes a few seconds to compose himself before trying to get back in. Hash is menacing him as he's getting into the ring. He takes control and starts to kick him and the crowd is loving it. Backbreaker into backstretch rude rakes hashes eyes to get out. Rude is hitting some not great looking knees and the crowd chants for hash. Rude goes to body slam but his back is hurt! The crowd laughs and Hash destroys him with a lariat. Rude dodges a flying heel kick in the corner and ascends to the send rope and clotheslines the back of Hashimoto's head. Rude locks on a steiner recliner "what about your boy now!" he yells to boos. He breaks the hold to do his sexy taunt but his back is too hurt again to gyrate as the crowd pops. Nice missile dropkick for 2 from Rude. Hash starts to hulk up from Rudes punches. Hash lays in some kicks including a stiff thrust kick in the corner. Hash falls into a huge cross arm breaker in the centre of the ring. Rude does a good job rolling through into a bow and arrow lock. Rude knees his back and goes up top but Hash recovers and deadly drivers him. Rude rolls out of the way of a leaping elbow drop and hits a perfect piledriver for 2. Back to the recliner, the face on Rudes rear end is staring at me like it's hypnotoad. The crowd fires up Hash and he stands up with rude on him for a big electric chair drop. He chops him down and then belly to bellys him for 2. hash lines up a pinpoint accurate kick into Rudes chest and he does so again. Rude whips him and locks in a sleeper to avoid those. Hash drops down for a stunner but doesn't affect Rude much and he just goes up top. Hash is down playing possum though and boots him on the way down. More kicks then Hashimoto's trademark spin kick but rude kicks out at 2.5 big oooohhhhh from the crowd. Madusa grabs Hash’s foot when he hits ropes and rude capitalises by jumping over him and ddting him. It's not enough to keep him down and as rude is climbing the turnbuckle hash grabs him and back drops him off the top for 2.9! Leaping ddt! But he's too close to the ropes and it's only 2! Hashimoto ascends the turnbuckle and Rude grabs at him. Medusa is on the opposite buckle for some reason while rude and Hashimoto fight for control. Rude hits a crazy ddt off the top rope and a beautiful knee drop to put hash down for the 3. Lets checkout the highlights! https://i.imgur.com/OzQdGdO.mp4 I liked this match a lot. Really good action, minimal downtime and when there was the face was making it enjoyable, and some big moves you wouldn't expect to see. This was Ricks 3rd match in japan and hes fitting in really well, he was taking those kicks full force. Im not usually super into Rudes exaggerated selling but it was working tonight. Hash was in control for most of it and really laid some of those kicks in which gets big points from me..The ending was outside of madusa getting up on the turnbuckle pretty hot. That top rope DDT was picture perfect and the crowd was really into it. **** After the match Hash is menacing Rude and Medusa after and starts to kick him. The rest of the NJPW crew holds him back and he falls to his knees and smashes the mat in frustration. Rude advanced to fight the winner of the main event in the semi finals, but before that our next bout. Stunning Steve Austin vs Keiji Muto! Muto vs Austin Austin gets no reaction when he comes out unlike Muto who gets a huge chant. Muto flips over the ropes and gets huge height. The code of honour adhered to from both men. They start with some nice wrestling. Austin has the upper hand but Muto pushes him out of a head lock and uses his agility to hop over Austin and drop kick him. Muto grabs a side headlock on the ground. Austin fights up and rainmakers Muto to regain control. Austin beats him up for a while tossing him around the ring. Muto counters an irish whip and drills Steve in the mouth with a spin kick. Muto grabs a leg lock in the centre, then slowly he rolls him over and crosses his legs, he bends back and MUTA LOCK! But Steve gets to the ropes. They stand up and circle each other, Austin drop toes Muto but can't keep control on the ground and Muto is back working Austin's legs. Austin fights him over into a pin for 2. He drops a bunch of knees on Muto then hits a Chono style running big boot. Muto dodge rolls a clothesline and crossbodys Austin who catches him and hits a Stun Gun. Deep headlock on the ground and the crowd is trying to fire Muto up. It works and Muto fights up and spin kicks Austin again. His follow up dropkick is avoided by Austin holding on the ropes and Austin puts him in a neck stretcher. He whips Muto into the corner and does a crazy fast rolling spear! Muto dodges and sends him into the ropes for a huge back body drop. This is Mutos chance and he starts to get his poo poo in, space rolling elbow, taunt, ribreaker, moonsault! Muto lands on his feet as Austin rolls out of the way! Muto is waiting as Austin gets up and dropkicks him outside and then a big house show dive! Austin dodges Mutos space elbow outside and Muto crashes into the barricade. Austin suplexes him and leaves him for the count out. Crowd is really hot for Muto getting back in so Austin decides to beat him some more and the crowd gets hotter. Muto is barely crawling up the apron and Steve grabs his hair, pulling him in getting a pop from the crowd and approving applause. Austin is in control now. A long single crab and Muto rolls outside. Austin pulls him back, stretching him over the top rope and clubs his chest. He drags him in and Austin flips Muto into a canadian backbreaker, crowd is chanting Muto and he flips out and back body drops him for 2. Steve trys again but muto flips out and bull dogs him. Muto goes for a crazy nice top rope elbow but Austin rolls out of the way and pins him for 2.9 and a huge pop! Austin goes up top! Big Splash!! Muto rolls out of the way and runs up the turnbuckle for his moonsault but he falls off to the floor. Austin brings him in but Muto quickly regains control and its rib breaker into moonsault for the 3. Lets checkout the highlights! https://i.imgur.com/xmYT70e.mp4 Fun match both guys were bringing speed and cool stuff. Muto was at times going so much faster than Steve was ready for. He clapped his hands like 3 times before one spin kick! Even with that they gelled very well and the match was heated. The crowd was really into Muto the whole time trying to fire him up. Austin was doing some things in here that were really impressive. The actual finish isas i posted earlier, weird. The crowd still popped for the ending so good on them. ***¾ Muto is quick to leave the ring and get the hell back stage before the Monster in the next match comes out! Its time for the main event, the last match of the quarter finals! Masahiro Chono vs Scott Norton! Chono vs Norton From reading the observer Nortons ribs are taped up because they're broken, which if true is incredible how active he is in this match. Starts off with Norton and an unbreakable headlock. This pretty much sets the story of the match, Scott imposing his brutal will on Chono. The 1st few times Chono manages to break from Scott he's punished with brutal shoulder tackles. Eventually Chonos whipped into the ropes and uses them to stop and deliver a massive boot to Scott's face. He's taken down and Chono slaps on the STF but Scott scrambles to the ropes quickly. Scott quickly reverses Chonos headlock with a back suplex. Lots more suplexes come Chonos way but he manages to use his speed to get behind Scott and take him down into the STF! Scott is much less quick to get to the ropes this time and Chono repositions them a few times before its broken. Chono starts to target Nortons leg, kicking it, stretching it, and eventually back into the STF. Norton fights hard and gets the break. Norton gets control of Chono when they are back up and back drops him. Its hard on him and he cant capitalise fast and gets 2. Nasty Gutwrench suplex for 2.5, top rope shoulder tackle for 2.5!. Norton whips Chono but he grabs the ropes again and boots him in the head. Chono boots him in the ribs a few times before Norton clobbers him with a rising lariat! POWERSLAM but Norton is too hurt to cover and Chono kicks out at 2.9. Norton is hurt and slow to stand up allowing Chono to start striking him in the ribs. Chono ties Norton up in an octopus stretch and after stretching his busted rib aparts rolls him back for the 3! Roll the Highlights! https://i.imgur.com/Ie5mPxI.mp4 This is a sweet match with lots of big tough suplexes from Norton. Chono survives them and manages to outlast the damaged Norton. For a big guy Norton sells a lot and hes good at it. The crowd was there for the moves but it didn't feel as hot as the other 2 matches. Still the action in the ring made up for it. *** 1/2 After the two beaten competitors shake hands in the ring and the crowd cheers and we go home happy! That is night 3 in the bag next up we have the semis! Rick Rude vs Kensuke Sasaki and our 1st Muto vs Chono match! Let’s introduce Kensuke Sasaki and see what hes been upto! Kensuke Sasaki is a rarity in pro wrestling, one of only 5 men to hold the IWGP, GHC and Triple Crown (the other 4 we will see eventually). Plus he has a winning MMA record but that is all several years away. Right now in ‘92 hes still low on the pecking order. He debuted for Choshus splinter promotion JPW in early 1986 before joining AJPW with the rest of them. Sasaki would follow Choshu when he defected back to NJPW the next year in 87. Sasaki would wrestle on the undercard until he was sent on an excursion to North America. He returned in 1990 becoming a tag team specialist, teaming with fellow Choshu trainee Hiroshi Hase to win the IWGP tag title from Chono and Muto that same year. They would lose and regain the title one more time before injury splits them up. Late 1991 Kensuke breaks his ankle and is out for 10 month. In May 1992 he returns and loses to his tag team partner Hase before teaming up again with him. This brings us to the G1 for him. Alright so for some reason I seem to be an outlier in that I wasen't vibing with either of the next G1 matches. Dave gave them 3 ½ and 4 starts respectively and cagematch has Muto and Chonos match at 8.2 so maybe it was a me problem. So i will watch them again perhaps i was just not feeling it that day. But just in case im right, here is a very fun heated and short tag match from the 1st night of the tour. Masahiro Chnono vs Keiji Muto once again rude drops a slur in his pre match promo Kensuke Sasaki vs Rick Rude Tatsumi Fujinami and Jushin Thunder Liger vs Jim Neidhart and Pegasus Kid
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Jun 19, 2023 15:42
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apophenium posted:Next I watched the Hashimoto Rick Rude match. I know the name Rick Rude and have probably seen people mention Hashimoto before. I couldn't get into this match. What the absolute gently caress was Madusa wearing? Lmao. I'll have to pay more attention to the subsequent Hashimoto matches because he didn't do anything for me here. Rick Rude gets the win after some interference. Stick with Hash, he won't let you down. He's one of my favorites of that era, because he was exactly what he appeared to be -- a 300 lb. Japanese brick shithouse who wasn't going to do Space Flying Tiger Drops, he was just going to kick your sternum in and then drop you straight on your skull and there wasn't a goddamned thing you could do to stop it.
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Jun 19, 2023 21:59
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I think Masahiro Chono is overrated. Even from before his neck injury, I thought he was the weakest in the ring out of the musketeers.
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Jun 19, 2023 23:08
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Sure, as a wrestler, but his Yakuza gimmick is basically the mold that every guy who did a cool heel gimmick in the back half of the 90s ripped off wholesale. Like, by the end of this, I feel like people will be like “man, a lot of people stole Muto’s match layouts, stole Hashimoto’s striking and legitimate badass persona, but holy poo poo did everyone who wanted to be cool grab a pair of sunglasses and try to act like Masahiro Chono every time they cut a promo.”
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Jun 20, 2023 02:39
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The Cameo posted:Sure, as a wrestler, but his Yakuza gimmick is basically the mold that every guy who did a cool heel gimmick in the back half of the 90s ripped off wholesale. I have a weird love hate with Chono. I think he has a boring move set and as a bonus he doesn't use it very well. His running boot rules though so i dont mind seeing 10 of those a match and his shoulder tackle off the top is nice. I am very into him though when i watch him wrestle, he has quite a lot of charisma in the ring and I think he is great at selling. I have not seen a single chono match post heel turn so i am actually excited to get to that, im ready for Cool Chono and Young Hiroshi Tenzan Team ChoTen! Muto is great, he has some painful off nights but i think on the whole it trends to great. I had seen his whole wcw run and it was good but nothing crazy good. Ive watched ahead so i can prep some of the writing and watched up to Muto losing the title. Turns out I love Muto. Hes got the same weird jerky movements that i liked from Muta but hes a big babyface so he just goes full tilt on offense. Muta is also sweet and his american heel bullshit i was digging in a fun way maybe to the detriment of the matches. Hash just always ruled. I had seen a few of his big matches and i always saw him as the proto angry giant baby wrestler, like Morishima. I still think that and feel we are better as a sport for it.
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Jun 20, 2023 03:09
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Gonna work on a longer writeup at some point this weekend but I keep losing my mind during some of these matches when they get in a hold and someone (who??) starts going "huah huah huah huah huah huah" the whole time. What's up with that? E. It must be Muto it just sounds insane, like he's wearing a lav mic apophenium fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Jun 23, 2023 |
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Jun 23, 2023 17:26
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apophenium posted:Gonna work on a longer writeup at some point this weekend but I keep losing my mind during some of these matches when they get in a hold and someone (who??) starts going "huah huah huah huah huah huah" the whole time. What's up with that? That match is full of wtf stuff, I think chono is making wario noises at the start. I had to fix my bike yesterday cutting into my wrestling time so i will have my stuff up later tonight.
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Jun 26, 2023 17:48
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 Hello and welcome back to a sold out Ryogoku Sumo Hall. Its the G1 semi finals here in NJPW. Tonight we find out who is going to be duking it out for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship, next week in the G1 finals. Will it be the extremely Rude but very deadly Rick Rude? The powerful warrior Kensuke Saskai? Lets watch and find out This time Rudes promo is not getting cheered, quite a bit of stalling at the start. Rude complaining to the ref, Medusa hopping onto the apron. I think the crowd starts to chant Nihon, cant say i remember hearing that before.They tie up and Rude pushes Sasaki into the ropes and shoulders him on the break. Kensuke takes control and there is a nice flurry of offence until he locks in a bear hug. Rude breaks free but is immediately cut off. Kensuke works him over and eventually goes for a sharpshooter but Rude is fighting it. Kensuke fights harder and stomps his foot over and locks in the hold. Rude gets to the ropes but Kensuke drags him beast style to the center and slaps on a Boston crab. Rude is trying to pick his ankle but Kensuke just goes deeper and forces Rude to stop. Sasaki puts him in a recliner until he just starts to stomp his back out. Rude gets control by reversing a whip into a shoddy kitchen sink. He makes up for it by loading up a pretty nice lariat then Rude does his dance but its hard on his back. Rude slaps on a grounded headlock. The crowd starts chanting for Kensuke as rude slows it right down. Kensuke fights up and breaks it with a back suplex. Rude dodges the follow up elbow and regains control. They go outside and Rude tosses Kensuke into the barricade before getting back in. Kensuke gets on the apron and counters a suplex into an electric chair drop. Rude stumbles back into the corner and donkey kicks Kensuke stunning him. Huge droop kick from the top catches Kensuke in the mouth taking him down for 2.5! Rude starts cranking on Kensuke's head and just working him over for so long! Kensuke breaks free and slaps on his own sleeper which the the crowd loves! 15 minute mark, I can't tell what they are chanting. Rude drops into a stunner (learned it from Hash) and they start to wail on each other. Sasaki is coming out on top until rude rakes his eyes and starts to throat thrust him, then chokes him. Sasaki fires up and manhattan drops Rude which he sells like a duck. Kensuke is firing up. Pushes him into the mat, then starts to throw him into the turnbuckle. Running dropkick and Kensuke signals it's time to die. Backdrop suplex 2! Powerslam 2! The crowd is lively now. Rude counters sasakis top rope attack with superplex, he floats over for a cocky pin for 2. Body slam, big knee drop from Rude that Dusty really liked. Crowd is chanting Rude now, he goes up for another one to the back of kensuke head and puts him down for the 3! Rude to the finals, time for the replays. https://i.imgur.com/0ODAUoH.mp4 I was not into this match in the beginning, both dudes had long hold sections that neither really had the skills to make interesting, they tried though. They were hitting some hard chops on each other and some big suplexes points for that. Nothing was bad, just as a whole not great. Killer ending stretch, Rudes knee drops are beautiful. *** Rude leaves and some young lions tend to Kenukes crushed head. Our next bout is the 1st of 100 Chono vs Muto matches, this one determines who will fight Rude next week. Mu-To-Ah! Cho-Noo! Crowd is loud for the entrances. Hot start trading a running blows and ending in an anime pose down. They tie up and Muto grabs a headlock and flips Chono over but he reveres and gets his leg around Mutos head and they break and stand up. nice wrestling that ends with Chono slipping Muto into the octopus pin. Chonos face gets kicked during the kickout and Muto tries to go for the cross arm breaker. Chono blocks it and trys his own. Muto also blocks it and snaps his leg to break out. The stand up gingerly tough fingers for a little test of strength that leads to a cool pin exchange. They end up in the ropes and Muto rolls to the opposite ropes but Chono rolls outside. He gets back in and they go to link hands but Chono kicks him. Muto grabs the next kick and takes him down into a leg section, leg lock, half crab, into bow and arrow, finally into Muta lock. Muto releases and reapplies the hold 3 times! Chono finally breaks the lock by going after his eyes. Muto back drops him for this and Chono rolls out of the ring clutching his head. Muto doesn't seem interested in fighting him outside. Chono gets back in and is piledriven on his hurting head. Chono spins away from the Space Elbow but Muto was ready and catches himself and jumps up to the top and splashes him for 2. Backdrop 2. A bodyslam sets up the moonsault but Chono rolls away. Muto lands on his feet and does the same counter splash off the top. Chono rolls outside again to recover but this time Muto goes for a running plancha but misses. Chono goes for a diving attack but muto side steps that. Muto brings him in and gets a two. Running bulldog for 2. Nasty gotch style piledriver for 2.5. crowd lightly claps. "Finish him" muto says and germans him for a nearfall. Crowd is making more noise now. Muto tries his own octopus pin but rolls the wrong way and doesn't put him down properly. Chono punishes this by kicking him in the head, giving him some headbuts, and putting him in the octopus stretch. Crowd is chanting for muto. Eventually the strain is too much and Muto breaks free and they tumble to the mat. Mutos does Chonos octopus stretch into pin but they fall apart. Chono kicks mutos head as they are getting up and chono grabs his own octopus stretch. He cant hold it after a while and they both tumble down exhausted. Muto grabs chono again for another octopus stretch, he cant hold it and they fall again. Chonos turn and he just falls back into the pin forcing Muto to grab the ropes. He goes up top but Muto catches him on the way down with a drop kick. They both drop kick each other at the same time and the crowd gasps. Muto locks in a neck crank or dragon sleeper. Muto breaks it and picks him up in a headlock but Chono lightning fast dumps him on his head. Chono lines up a running boot but Muto gets his arms up to block. Chono tries 3 more times. He breaks through Mutos guard but is cut off with a dropkick and goes for the moonsault but Chono rolls away and he locks on the STF! muto fights to the ropes and gets the break. I think the crowd is split evenly on the chant here. Chono running boots him, no block this time but muto dropkicks him right back. Chono does it again and the same happens. tries a 3rd time and same thing. 4th time same result. Crowd starts to clap. less gusto on the boot but muto still responds the same. 2 more times until Chono dodges Mutos dropkick and locks on the STF! Muto immediately taps and Chono is going to the finals! What a match lets look at the highlights https://i.imgur.com/j018SMY.mp4 I had such a hard time with this match. On paper it sounds good but on my tv it was very uninteresting. Not to say Muto and Chono were lazy, they were doing lots of stuff just none of it was landing with me. I really liked the strike blocking they were doing, making like an arm cross that should come back. The finish was super anti-climatic to boot. ** Ok those were not great, but boring matches make the good ones that much sweeter. This week its the G1 Finals and the return of Good Matches! Up 1st is the undercard as Keiji Muto and Kensuke Sasaki team up to fight the Steiner Bros. In 1988 the Steiners started to tag in the WCW and by this time 4 years later were not only former multiple time WCW tag team champions but the current IWGP Tag Champions. Then its the main event, the G1 finals, Rick Rude vs Masahiro Chono. I thought both matches kicked a lot of rear end and are both well worth watching. Keiji Muto and Kensuke Sasaki vs The Steiner Bros Rick Rude vs Masahiro Chono
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Jun 28, 2023 13:45
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I enjoyed the Rick Rude match. I have to flip a switch in my mind when I watch some of these matches that there are gonna be long periods of holds. Rick sold all of his pretty well I thought. And he sells the back like he did in the Hashimoto match where it twinges while he's doing his hip gyrating taunt, which is fun. His tights are wild, with the ladies lips pursed over his butthole. Very distracting. And like you said, the knee drops in the finishing stretch were sweet. I posted a bit about Chono and Muto but mainly just about the weird noises. I don't remember much else from the match to be honest. So it's Chono and Rick Rude for the finals! Fun stuff. I'll watch the tag match too, cause early 90s Steiners were very cool.
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Jul 3, 2023 22:25
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apophenium posted:
How could you forget Muto and Chono doing the same kick dropkick sequence like 10 times and then the match ending, i was very upset. The worst part is they have an even worse match in WCW at the end of 92. G1 finals rule, that is an all time great match.
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Jul 4, 2023 12:21
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Welcome again to a rabid, sweaty, and sold out Ryogoku Sumo Hall. Tonight is a night based around history. Someone will win the 1992 G1 climax and also add their name to the list of NWA World's Heavyweight champions. But before we get to that the undercard comes first. Liger and Pegasus kid have their best match, there is a fun big guy 6 man, and the IWGP Champion Riki Chosu and Takayuki Iizuka lose to Tatsumi Fujinami and Osamu Kido in a tag match. Leaving the top two Championship matches, 1st up is The tag champions champions the Steiner Brothers vs Keiji Muto and Kensuke Sasaki. Keiji Muto and Kensuke Sasaki vs The Steiner Brothers People are losing their minds for my guy Keiji Muto, he's doing the hogan taunts! Muto and Scott start and Muto is fired up. They circle each other and neither wants to move 1st. They eventually both go in and it quickly goes to the mat. Muto grabs Scotts arm but Scott picks his leg and spins him over. Muto manages to grab the ropes. They reset and this time Muto flips Scott out of the tie up and pins him down for a 1. He tries that a few more times before they get up and Scott flips him out of it. Scotts got Mutos head now so Muto backs them up and Kensuke tags in. Scott tags in Rick, he does a lap and assumes the dog pose. https://imgur.com/VeY88cu.mp4 They tie up but Rick ducks under and grabs him around his waist and takes him down. Kensuke manages to counter it into an arm bar but rick shortly back in control. They stand up and Kensuke gets dumped by rick. He runs over and knocks Muto off the apron pissing him off. Scott gets into stop Muto with a clothesline and a crazy overhead belly to belly as rick does a slow and strong side belly to belly. Big taunt from the brothers and big pops. Muto and Scott tag back in. Scott dumps Muto on his head immediately. Muto rolls out of scotts whip and spin kicks him in the mouth! He runs over and drags Rick and whips him into a flying shoulder block from kensuke! A dropkick from Muto sends scott flying outside and Muto does rick's run and dog pose with Kensuke to a huge pop. https://imgur.com/X6h5p7U.mp4 they are so OVER! Scott and Muto are back in the ring and Scott looks like he's taking Muto a little differently. They tie up and Scott pushes him into the corner but Muto whips him to the opposite side. He kicks Muto out of the space elbow and tries to put Muto in a bow and arrow hold but he fails. He picks up Muto and whips him, Muto holds the ropes dropkicks him and leaping elbows him. He tags kensuke in who backbody drops Scott, stomps him, elbows him, and drags him to muta and tags lol. a rough double knee crusher and Muto tosses him outside. time for the elbow to scott in the barricade, this time it's a walk off elbow and his momentum takes him into the crowd. Throws him in and comes off the top with a knee drop. Kensuke is back in and picks him up for a canadian backbreaker that he uses to fully display scott to all 4 sides of the crowd twice before slamming him into the corner. Rick gets in illegally and Kensuke is pointing at him and saying something. Rick is yelling quite a bit now as Muto stomps his brother out. Muto tags in and Kensuke puts Scott in the sharpshooter in the middle. Rick distracts the ref and Muto gets in and pushes kensuke back in the hold. I’ve never seen that before, the ref sees it and he stops it. He does it again and the crowd loves it. Scott is getting clubbed as he's getting up after Kensuke dropped the sharpshooter. He gets a shot in Kensuke's gut and ddts him. Kensuke grabs him and tags Muto in. Scott just grabs him and back drop suplexes him Muto immediately nopes out and tags in Kensuke as Scott baby crawls to his brother. kensuke back the gently caress off then rick gets in. They grapple and Kesuke backs him into the corner and chops him in the break and Rick starts to punch him in the head for it. He boots him to the ground and picks him up for his own canadian backbreaker running buckle attack. It looked so scary. Rick slaps on a boston crab and motions for Muto to come in. Muto kicks him but Rick grabs the kick while keeping on the crab that was sweet. Scott just takes Rick's place and when the ref says hey you gotta tag scott tells him to ask the people lol. Kensuke's massive legs power out of the hold but scott drops him with a nice abdominal stretch slam. Ricks in again and clubs Kensuke. Kensuke tries to fight back but Rick just hit him harder. Scott tags in and whips him into a perfect kitchen sink. Rick is tagged back in and Kensuke counter ricks something with a powerslam for 2. Kenuske gets to his corner and tags in Muto. Dropkick x2 and Rick is in the corner for a flying elbow but he catches Muto and catches an elbow from Muto who then tries to jump off the ropes and splash him but he catches him and pouts him down for 2. yaaaaaa!! yells one of the announcers. Rick picks him up for the doomsday device but Kensuke kicks ricks leg and Muto counter lariats Scott on his way down!!! Kensuke hit stereo suplexes Mutos get 2.9. Scott butterfly suplexes Kensuke as Muto moonsaults his brother. Scott breaks it up at 2.5! Scott shows Muto how to do a frankensteiner. 2nd rope springboard doomsday device to Kensuke. OMG STEINER DDT FOR THE 3 on Muto! Steiners retain! https://imgur.com/qkVlcn9.mp4 This match was so fun! The two teams worked really well together and did lots of cool sequences. Big suplexes and big strikes plus the crowd was rabid. I can't ask for more in a match. **** G1 Finals Rick Rude vs Masahiro Chono Big Chono chants after Medusa leaves the ring. They jaw jack before the bell and Rude slaps Chono and he fires up with a bunch of laritis. Rude flair bumps and Chono is a little confused but pumps his arms and pops the crowd. Rude rolls out, pounds the mat and gets back. https://imgur.com/cFOaUlN.mp4 They start to grapple,.Rude gets the better and the crowd boos! Chono grabs his head and arm in a hold. Rude counters Chonos front facelock with a nice suplex but Chono keeps his hold through it. He brings up Rude, whips him into the ropes and sleepers him. Rude counters with a stunner. Rude punches him but he lacks urgency and Chono counters his clothesline into a sleeper. Rude tries the same stunner counter but Chono just lets him drop and re-applies it to him on the ground! Rude tries to push his head up but Chono grapevines him. rude bridges him for 2. Rude hits him and takes him down into side headlock but Chono quickly counters it into a leg guillotine. They cut to Bill Watts and Dusty for way too long. Chono has grabbed Rudes wrists by now and rude is attempting a headstand escape. He jumps left then right and stands as tall as he can but Chono brings him back down. Rude manages to slip his head after and grab his feet. Hes pulling hair! Rude quickly slides into a side headlock but Chono’s fighting up. Chono lifts him into a kneebreaker. Rudes holding his leg and Chono starts to kick the poo poo out of it. Rude goes down and Chono grabs his leg. Rude trys to grab his head but Chono pulls tighter causing him to recoil in pain! Another Kneebreaker then a figure 4! Rude flips it over and the crowd starts to chant Chono Chono! Chonos tries to flip it back but Rude is fighting! One last big push flips them over but too close to the ropes and Rude quickly crawls to them. Chono starts to kick Rudes knee as he's recovering in the corner. Rude starts smashing him with donkey kicks then a nice clothesline. Rude goes up top getting the crowd going but he's too slow and DEADLY DRIVER! Chono grabs his bad knee and tries to flip him for a half crab but settles for a bow and arrow lock that he flips over into after a few pins a cross arm breaker. Rude tries to employ the just stand up technique but Chono starts to yank on his arm till he falls back down .Rude fights out of the armbreaker and hits a beautiful piledriver. Cut to 40% of the side of Inokis head. 2 count from the piledriver, the crowd is getting louder! They both go outside and Rude whips him into the barricade before rolling him back in. Rude goes up to and the announcers are screaming double knee drop but no, it's a big chop once Chono gets up. rude slaps on a steiner recliner to a loud Chono chant. Cut to the back of Hashimoto and Muto’s heads ringside as they are watching in rapture as their friend gets reclined. Goatee Fujinami is beside them. Chono struggles but he eventually stands up with Rude on him and electric chair drops him. Both men are spent. Chono picks Rude up for a big drop kick. Chono slowly goes up top and rude sidesteps Chonos dive. Rude goes up for a Missile dropkick! 2.9!! Rude does something to elicit boos but the camera is running past the fans. Rude does a cool jumping ddt for a serious 2.9! 20 minute call and i can't believe it. Huge swinging neckbreaker for 2.5. Rudes pissed, the crowd is loud. Hashimoto is loud. Rude goes up top but chono climbs up after him and superplex. https://imgur.com/Wn0btKl.mp4 Chonos too spent to capitalise and gets a close 2.9! He goes up top and rude superplexes him for 2.9. huge pop! Rude spins chono over for a tombstone but Chono flips them over and crushes Rudes head. 2.9! Rude reverses Chonos whip and slaps on a sleeper. Chono chants start. Chono kicks of the buckle and bridges rude for 2.9. Chonos spent and Rude pushes him to the mat as they are getting up. He pulls him up by the ears, Chono is leaning on Rude. He gets whipped in to the ropes but he grabs them. He runs at rude big kick to the head. RUDE Ducks the next one and lariots him. Chono rebounds off the ropes and boots him in the face! Chono whips him into a back body drop and Chono STF’S RUDE! They are in the corner but rude is too spent to grab. They get up at the same time and Rude knees him in the gut and another beautiful piledriver. He goes up top! Hash wants chono to dodge the knee drop so bad but it lands. Rude counts his own pin early so chono kicks out of the refs one count lol. https://imgur.com/OGk7qnc.mp4 This works big time and the crows loses it! Chono is back to leaning on Rude but he counters him with a backdrop and STF IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RNG! CROWD IS GOING CRAZY! Rude gets the ropes and rolls out of the rung. Chono throws a dead on the outside Rude into the ring to a nice pop. ENZIGURI! OCTOPUS STRETCH! Rude throws chono outside but Chono is too fired up and he flys up the turnbuckle and hits a top rope shoulder tackle for the 3 that rude kicks out of at 3.1! https://imgur.com/GTl6G99.mp4 Absolutely incredible match, these guys were going at it hard. Minimal down time everything looked great. Rudes knee drop destroying everyone else but Chono fights through it all. Loved it, probably one of the top 5 g1 finals to me. ****½ https://imgur.com/spciPoq.mp4 The NJPW wrestlers storm the ring to celebrate with the champion Masahiro Chono! None more happy for him than his fellow musketeers. The fans are on their feet, screaming and throwing their programs as we go off the air! Allright that is the 1992 G1 Climax in the rearview mirror up next we have the uh 1992 G1 Special night 2. Another IWGP Tag Championship match this time subbing in Chono and Hashimoto for Muto and Kensuke and then a quasi rematch for the IWGP Championship. I say quasi because back in may the champion Riki Chosu took on and beat Keiji Muto. This time he's not fighting Muto but The Great Muta and he's bringing all the stuff hes learned in America to njpw. The Steiners vs Hashimoto and Chono Riki Choshu vs The Great Muta
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Jul 7, 2023 14:22
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Really enjoyed the tale of the 1992 G1. Still warming up to the early 90s style. The Steiner match was a wall to wall banger, a lot of fun, with some goofy character work by all the guys. The G1 finals were a a bit slower. They worked holds a lot. Chono's looked all right cause Rick Rude was selling the hell out of em, and Madusa was hollering and stuff. Chono didn't give Rude much help when it was Rude's turn to work a hold, especially the camel clutch later on. Maybe it looked better from the crowd, but with the camera close up on Chono it just didn't look like he was in any peril. But luckily the crowd was super into it, losing their minds whenever Rick Rude went up to the top turnbuckle. This highlighted another downside of the match to me. Despite all the damage to his legs, Rick Rude doesn't really sell the damage done. He can still go up to the top rope, albeit a bit slow. He can still escape Chono's STF, which is Chono's finisher by the way, not once but twice. Small things from a modern wrestling viewer. I'm sure if you were a fan there in 92 it would have been one of the best matches you'd ever seen. Funny enough I was looking through some Wrestling Observer awards and Chono and Rick Rude went on to have a rematch at Halloween Havoc, just a couple months from this match, that was voted the Worst Worked Match of the Year. I'll have to read more about that. I imagine we'll watch it, but I remembered that the Muta scale match was 1992, I feel like I might have seen that one before. The Muto/Muta thing is very interesting to me so I'm excited to see how the rest of this Three Musketeer's stuff plays out. I'm much more familiar with Muto's career than the other two, and at this point I've barely seen Hashimoto.
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Jul 7, 2023 18:43
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Muto scale is coming as is two dogshit chono matchs
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Jul 8, 2023 00:09
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apophenium posted:Really enjoyed the tale of the 1992 G1. Still warming up to the early 90s style. ive been thinking about 90s njpw vs 90s ajpw. They feel very different to me in the sense that NJPW is way more up and down in a good spectacle way. AJPW is so much more based in traditional pro wrestling that makes it easier to watch now. NJPW is still in its awkward growing phase of absorbing more shoot style stuff. It feels like sometimes the holds are more to just control the levels of the crowd than anything to do with internal match story. These are all just my imo's as im having coffee and watching hash and chono vs the Steiners. This promo is the best ive ever heard https://i.imgur.com/WwwlYTf.mp4 you can really see the gears turning in Scotts head as even he is like wtf is Rick saying
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Jul 10, 2023 15:11
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The Steiners were so loving good. Loved both of their matches with the New Japan guys. The singlet will always be my favorite wrestling attire. The Muta Choshu match was weird. As you alluded to, Choshu beat Keiji Muto to retain the IWGP title back in May of 92. You'll probably write it up better, but it looks like Muto and Choshu had been tagging together prior to the May singles match for the title. From what I can tell, Muto didn't use the Muta persona a lot in Japan, so this was kind of a big deal. It's an oddly laid out match, with Muta spraying the mist and then sandbagging outside the ring for a while. Choshu stands his ground. The first contact of the match is a big lariat that lays Muta out and goes on a tear, with stomps, a brainbuster, a kitchen sink, but is unable to lock in the sasori-gatame. He puts Muta up on the top turnbuckle but Muta's mist recharged and Choshu gets a face full of the stuff. From there on out it's the Great Muta show. He beats on Choshu outside with a bulldog to the concrete, hits him with a water bottle, smashes him with a piece of the ramp. They finally get back in and Muta goes to work with the best elbow drops in the game. I love these things so much. He comes of the ropes, slows down a bit as he approaches the downed Choshu, then does a little freak out and EXPLODES downward with the elbow. They look so cool and I think are one of the defining moves of Muta/Muto. There's another brief bit of Muta laying in the hurt with a barricade outside of the ring, and then the match can only end one way from here. Muta goes up for the moonsault, hits it, but Choshu kicks out! So, to finish off Choshu, Muta goes up for a second moonsault, and that's enough to put the veteran Choshu away for three. There's very little back and forth in this thing, which only goes for 11:26. The first half is all Choshu, Muta sprays the mist, and then it's all Muta from there on out. I'm curious how the Muto Choshu match went and if there was a bit more from each guy. Still an interesting match, and a great example of the otherworldliness of The Great Muta. Though I wonder why Muta never gets DQed for the mist...
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Jul 14, 2023 21:42
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 Hello and welcome to a possibly sold out 9000 strong at the Fukuoka Convention Center in Fukuoka Japan! Its Night 2 of the G1 Special and tonight in our main event we have Riki Chosu, The man to beat in NJPW for the last 5 years taking on A Demon from America The Great Muta. Riki has defeated the 3 musketeers many times, Only losing to Chono once and Hashimoto thrice across many singles matches. The Great Muta has wrestled a handful of matches in Japan but nothing this high profile. Will tonight be the night that Propels Muta into superstardom?! Find out after the Steiners defend their IWGP Tag Team Championships against the relatively new team of Hashimoto and Chono. They started to team in 1991 in trios matches but only a few months before this they started to have tag matches together. In fact the night before Chono and Muto defeat Hashimoto and Iizuka, talk about protecting your dudes! Lets see if they can put that loss aside and defeat the The Steiners This comp includes a bananas Rick Steiner promo. Dubbed Themes booo. Someone does something off camera to elicit a gasp. Handshakes all around. Hash throws a wild kick that rattles Scott but he’s able to quickly dump Hash onto his head and slap on an STF! Hash tags in Chono and Scott immediately picks his leg and STFS him! Hash breaks it up and gets a belly to belly for it, so does Chono in fact and they roll outside as Rick runs around and ends up under his brother. https://i.imgur.com/emvKEPX.mp4 Chono slowly gets in and tags in Hash. Scott starts to club him and whips him into the ropes but Hash kicks him on the rebound. A few more and Rick gets in to stop this assault but Chono stops him and the njpw boys hit their signature running strikes to send the Steiners outside. Hash then runs around the ring, but no way he's going under Chono so he stands behind him and they pray. Rick tags in and Hash and him stare down! Rick gets down on all fours and starts to bark. Hash does the same but Rick just stomps him when he's down. Hash takes it to him though and starts to kick Rick's leg. Tags in Chono for a double gut buster. Chono hits 2 moves and tags hash back in. A big jumping elbow leads to working over Rick's arm until Rick fires up and counters a whip with a big body block. He pins Hash but he's too close to the ropes. Scotts in and grabs Hash’s arm to crank it. Then his head to crank it, Hash gets to the ropes and the crowd applauds. Stalling bodyslam and Rick is tagged in. Rick points away so the ref looks and he stomps Hashimoto's balls. Big backdrop for a fall Chono breaks up. Scott tags in and drop kicks hash into Chono. Chono tags and tries to put Scott in the octopus stretch but falls into a pin instead. Chono grabs his head and tries but quickly gives up on a stf. They get up and Chono is striking Scott, Scott blocks Chonos German and Chono whips him into the ropes crisscross style. Scott jumps over Chonos drop toe hold and Chono gives him this poo poo look. Scott boots him and octopus stretch slams him.light ooohhhs Rick is tagged in to work over Chono. he puts him in a crab eventually and with great effort. Hash kicks him in the chest! He absorbs the 1st one but the 2nd takes him down. Scott tags in and belly to bellies chono for 2.5. Scott puts him in a sloppy boston crab that chono slips out of. He wrenches scotts arm and tags in hash. Hash belly to bellies scott for a pin that rick breaks up, he calls the ref a son of a bitch. Facebuster then a stiff kick takes Scott down. Hash grabs Scott so Chono can shoulder block off the top. 2 running boots the 3rd scot jumps up for a frankensteiner but Chono grabs his legs for The STF!!! Rick breaks it up and Chono goes up top but Scott recovers too fast. Belly to belly from the 2nd! Scott charges Chono but gets flipped over the rope. Chono smashes his shoulder into him off the apron. He rolls in and taunts Scott while the ref counts but Rick slams him with a perfect release german. Scott rolls in and is far from his corner. They both slowly crawl and tag in their partners. Hash hits his spinning wheel kick for 2.5. Then a series of kicks for 2.5! Big ddt Scott breaks it up. They are both spent and slow to get up. Hash hits the ropes but Scott kicks his back. Rick is bringing hash up the turnbuckle weird. Scott picks hash up and all makes sense: steiner bulldog and Scott boots Chono off the apron so they can get the 3. Lets check tthe out the highlights https://i.imgur.com/uSC8AtF.mp4 This match was fun but lacking in intensity. There was nice wrestling exchanges and no one was sitting around but it never really kicked into 3rd gear for me. I love the around the ring Steiner taunt and all variations on it *** 1/2 Its time for the main event Muta takes on the IWGP and Greatest 18 Club Champion Riki Choshu. The dubbed themes are killing my soul WHERE IS POWER HALL WHERE IS MUTA! Stoic Muta mists the air to start and leaves the ring flipping up the aprons. Ref starts the count and Muta rolls in then out and the crowd ohhhhhhs. Riki is pissed and seems to demand the ref get him in. Muta slowly gets in further infuriating Choshu. Muta does a cocky jump off the buckle and his head is removed by Choshus lariat. Choshu starts to kick his head in and just dominate him. Kitchen sink, big suplex. He stomps Muta in his back and says something that clearly pisses Muta off. He goes for the SDL but can't flip him. Choshu is back to just dominating him including a lariat where he screams MUTTTTTA! Crowd chants Muta big time after that. Riki puts him up on the buckle but Muta mists him. Riki rolls outside and Muta diving bulldogs him on the outside, badass. Muta breaks the refs count with a long roll through the ring through the ref. The young lions block the view of a move. More rolling by Muta and the crowd is ooohhhhing. Choshu gets his head slammed into the walkway (its elevated) and then muta slams the side piece into him. Huge diving head kick that lands fully flush. Choshu is bleeding another crazy bulldog. Choshu is crawling up the ropes bleeding, this rocks. Muta is kicking his face in now. Choshu tries to fight back and now the crowd is big time chanting for him but Muta cuts him off. A series of nice lower style Muta elbows. Choshu is starting to put a few strikes together but Muta gouges his eyes in the ropes and goes back to stomping him out. They both go outside and Muta smashes a crowd barricade into Riki. They get back inside and Riki eats a space rolling elbow into a moonsault for a 2, the crowd is so loud! Rib breaker! Moonsault and the 3!!! Big pop the NJPW pit is going crazy lots of clapping Muta puts a cross arm breaker on and then just runs away lmao my champion. Muta is back with a fire extinguisher and is killing the young lions and blasting Riki Choshu with the juice. This guy is a mad man watch this https://i.imgur.com/bSM6HfG.mp4 The match these two had back in May was about Muto just not having enough to put down Riki. He was easaly controled and all his offence was countered or Riki would cut him off with a lariot or something untill he finaly won. This match started slow but built Muto as force that connot be abosrbed that way. Hes gonna take you outside and smash you on concrete, hit you with parts of the ring, and just destroy you. Riki is two sizes larger than Muto yet they manage to make Riki seem like the underdog by the back half of this 11 minute match. I love that about njpw, Sometimes you just get a really heated short main event. Very good match I really liked it **** And so we finally end the 1992 G1 tour, Masahiro Chono has won his second G1 and became NWA Worlds Heavyweight champion. His fellow musketeer The Great Muta is now the IWGP Heavyweight Champion and Greatest 18 Club champion (A fake Inoki championship that will be forgotten about in a few months). Leaving poor Hashimoto belt less and with a stinging loss to Rick Rude in his mind, hopefully he can recover. The next tour is Battle Autumn which is apt because WAR is coming to NJPW in a few short months. But before that the return of Scott Norton, Hase vs Hash in war to trip me up typing, and the last Kensuke Sasaki singles match in NJPW for a few years Shinya Hashimoto vs Hiroshi Hase Scott Norton vs Keiji Muto Masahiro Chono vs Kensuke Sasaki
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Jul 18, 2023 16:30
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apophenium posted:Though I wonder why Muta never gets DQed for the mist... I guess spitting on your opponent isn't technically against the rules.
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Jul 19, 2023 03:52
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thats true its just spitting out something that your body naturaly make. I think spitting on your opponent in general should be a dq, thats just nasty.
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Jul 19, 2023 13:38
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Hello everybody tonight we are ringside at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium along with 6350 packed in rabid fans. Its September 10th 1992, the 1st night of the Battle Autumn Tour and we have some interesting developments in the Japanese wrestling world. Tenryu Genichiro, the man behind SWS and WAR, is talking about wrestling Riki Choshu or Antonio Inoki at the next Jan 4th show at the Dome. At the same time Kengo Kimura and Shiro Koshinaka who have been feuding with NJPW management in storyline have been announced as wrestling on the September 15th WAR card against Samson Fuyuki & Tatsumi Kitahara. That's in 5 days, tonight Kimura and Koshinaka are up to something else. (I cant find this match online so thank you Dave for summarising the angle.) During the Tatsumi Fujinami and Osamu Kido vs Akitoshi Saito & Masashi Aoyagi match Fujinami got Saito in a chicken wing. Saito wouldn't give up and was also unable to break free so the ref called it for Fujinamis team. This infuriated the Karate guys Aoyagi and Saito who didn't leave ringside and when Riki Choshu and Takayuki Iizuka came out for their match, Saito and Aoyagi started to whoop their asses. Kimura and Koshinaka (Riki and Takayukis opponents) came out and joined with the Karate guys in destroying Riki and Takayukis. Koji Kanemoto and Hiroyoshi Tenzan run out to make the save and an impromptu 8 man tag is started. Kimura pins Izuka beginning the Anti-Players Association with Koshinaka, Aoyagi, and Saito. Pretty hot way to start the card lets see if the back half is as good. Hiroshi Hase vs Shinya Hasimoto The Tokon dvd has an interview before, he sounds very calm. Hases dubbed music is so bad but his shirt is so cool, someone boot it please. Hashimoto kicks the air when he gets in. Hash starts with a n explosive couple drop kicks into a slow over head belly to belly that sends Hashimoto outside. HASE DOES THE RUDE GRIND! Hashimoto is not impressed. https://imgur.com/5bTlgXR.mp4 They tie up when he gets back but Hase quickly slips around back. Hashimoto manages to grab his arm and escape but Hase twists under his arm into a hammerlock. He grinds Hashimoto to the mat but brings him back standing to elbow his arm. Hase puts on a weird standing on him butterfly lock .Shinyua dumps him and menaces him as Hase is on his back ready to defend. Shinya goes for the Pride stomp but Hase moves and takes him down grapevining his leg. He wrestles him into Mutos setup bow and arrow and then bridges into the MUTA LOCK! Hash bites him and headbutts him to break the lock so he can get the ropes. Hash has had enough and boots Hase right in the face sending him flat to the mat. He recovers to flip out of Hashimotos suplex only to have his lariat dodged and booted in the face again. Hash is selling his leg stretching as hase is recovering and the crowd chanting with him. Hashimoto is starting his kicks up and hase is getting taken down by them. He trying to stay up and the second always takes him down. Hashe is choking and coughing from the blasts to his chest. he ducks the next one and he counters hash with a urinage. He drags him up slowly another urinage. Hase goes up top with a crazy diving knee that should have blown out his knees 2 count. Hases strength is at its limits he barely gets the next urinage and he's too slow to go to the top and Hashimoto rolls away causing Hase to land right on his knees. Hashimoto is still a little stunned and Hase sling blades him before he can fully recover. Hase next knee drop stopped when Hash climbs up after him and they fight on the buckle! Hase is headbutting him and he climbs the last buckle and takes down the groggy hash. 2 count Hase standing him up for the urinage but hash counters with a DDT! Hase is selling his arm being broken screaming and clutching it. Hash smells the blood and starts t o focus his kicks on it. 2nd leaping ddt and Hase is down for the 3. Punishing stuff lets look at the highlights https://imgur.com/E47wbh2.mp4 I really liked this match of Hase having a game plan (use my big moves) and Hashimoto just enduring it until he can find his opening to kill. Hashimotos DDT doing arm damage is a cool touch **** 1/2 Scott Norton vs Keiji Muto This is not for the IWGP Championship so we have good old Keiji Muto. Scott Norton is what I assume Chris Beniot wishes he looked like, including the ribs all taped up. A feeling out process as Muto hugs the ropes testing them then hits a flash spin kick to space flying elbow. He hits a couple big top rope dropkicks then a splash for 2. Very nice inoki abdominal stretch that Muto is not strong enough to keep on and Norton fights up and tosses him. Norton jackknife powerbombs him then samoan drops him. Muto dodge rolls the lariat and hits two big drop kicks and a muto elbow. He goes back to the octopus stretch! He gets flipped again after a longer struggle and Norton drops a big headbut to the grounded Muto. Muto dodges Nortons charge into the corner and hits a big bulldog and he's back to the abdominal stretch. He gets the leg up for an octopus stretch this time and the crowd is getting into it slightly, Norton dumps him again. Norton hits a short arm clothesline but Muto counters his powerbomb with a rana for a real nice near fall. Norton dodges the SFT this time and hits a power slam out of the corner but his ribs are too hurt to cover! He hits another powerslam but he's too hurt to cover! Muto spin kicks him right in the chest but on the rebound Norton takes his head off with a lariat and hits his powerslam and finally gets the 3. https://imgur.com/3SeERfy.mp4 Very fun match, Muto really trying his best to bounce around the wall of meat that is Norton but eventualy muto slips up and gets killed. Norton has great looking offence love his jackknife. This will probably lead to a match against the Great Muta i wonder if that same strategy will work. **** Masahiro Chono vs Kensuke Sasaki Kensuke Sasaki injured his ankle on a dive in a match back in 1991 this seems to be a video package about his return. The return match happened before the G1 what are you doing Tokon DVD! He sounds very pensive and the rumble of the semi trucks give this a weird feel. I'm not 100% sure but I think he's worried about his future after these injuries but he's in good spirits! It cuts to the ring announcer who is wearing a suit comically large for him. I skipped to the match at this point. A returning Kensuke Sasaki (maybe) vs Masahiro Chono. Chono charges out of his corner at the bell but so does Kenuke and his lariat wins. They then trade running strikes until Chono is knocked outside. He takes his time coming back in and they collar and elbow up. They are really fighting in this but Chono manages to grab a side headlock. Sasaki powers up and tries to get Chonos arm but Chonos blocking it. One more burst of strength and Sasaki gets control of his arm but Chono is quick to take him down. They are quickly back up and back into a test of strength, I think Sasaki has this. Chonos down on one knee but fighting back up so Sasaki just flips him onto his back. A quick cover for 1 follows and both men are back up. Chono goes for a grapple but Kensuke drop toe holds him down and starts to work on his knee. Kensuke after that, stomps on him and it fires up Chono who launches upright. This doesn't seem to intimidate Sasaki and he slaps Chono causing him to wisely leave the ring. He returns and is quickly overpowered by Sasaki and suplexed. but the second time Chono takes him down and clasps on a headlock. Kensuke is fighting and he gets back to standing before Chono headlock takeovers him back down. Kensuike is not stopped though and he keeps fighting, He bridges up but Chono kicks him in the bread basket to take him back down. Chono then transitions into a leg guillotine, Sasuke manages to flip him and wiggle his head out. He quickly tries to apply a sharpshooter but Chono is using his arm to block the flip. Kensuke applies the slap to the problem and starts to slap Chono until he flips him but Sasaki is quick to the ropes. Another test of strength that chono is winning. Chono wrenches his arm and smashes it onto his shoulder so he can force kensuke down. He floats over into a pin for 1 and decides to work towards the STF and flips him over in a headlock. Kensuke fights up to a knee but is taken back down into a simple rear naked choke. Kensuke slowly rolls towards the ropes not with much energy. Ref breaks it, they stand a few strikes from Chono and it's back to a leg guillotine for a long time. Kensuke gets the ropes and the break but he's too tired to stand. Chono neckbreakers him for 2. Kenuke is trying to fight back punching Chono as he rises but Chonos back to the headlock. A desperation leaping arm wrench makes enough distance and damage that Kensuke looks to be getting back into this fight. Chono has his head again but Kensuke fires out and starts to kick Chono right in the chest. Running dropkick for 2, the crowd is getting louder as Kenuke snapmares him and applies his own rear naked choke. Chono is constantly asking the ref to check the sleeper is not a choke but Kensuke has it locked in deep and is now also smothering him with his body. Chono manages to roll towards the ropes and also spin the choke to get top control and a 2 count. Chono is back in control, arm wrench to russian leg sweep for a 2 count. Chono is circling his prey and booting him in the head. Kensuke has had enough and fires up with a massive kitchen sink. then a pair of brutal lariots to Chono. 3rd one hits and Kensuke is maybe a little too fast in going for a top rope move as Chono runs up to stop it, maybe headbutting him. They fight on the turnbuckle with Kensuke raking his eyes and hitting the shoulder block. Chono recovers only to get lariated in the back of the head for 2.5! Kensuke loads another lariat but Chono drop toes him in to the THE STF! Quick rope break and Chono whips Kensuke for a sleeper but he gets suplexed. Running bulldog for 2.5. Another running bulldog right in the centre 2.5! Crowd is kicked up! Awesome piledriver and Kensuke puts Chono in a sleeper. The crowd is chanting but i can't tell for who. Kensuke releases him when he goes limp and piledrives him! the ref is checking on on Chono to make sure he can still fight. the ref says yes and Kensuke piledrives him again. Another rear naked choke and Chono is fighting like crazy to not pass out. Again kensuke releases but this time he puts on a crazy butterfly hold that is killing Chono! Chono eventually squirms his way into breaking the hold. kensuke re-applys it though. Hase is too fired up and is getting told to stay back from the ropes ringside. Chono drags them to the ropes and takes advantage with a boot to the back of Kensuke's head as Kensuke is getting up. This allows Chono to try and get control but Kensuke is quick to lariat him. Savage dropkick sends Chono outside. Kensuke follows him and powerslams him on the outside. Chono takes till 16 to get in. Another massive kitchen sink, Kensuke tries again but Chono catches his leg and rolls him up for 2.5. A desperate standing engizuri rocks kensuke and sends him to his knees. Another engzuri and Chono has the energy to lock in the octopus stretch! chono tries to back drop suplex kensuke but he's too weak to get a full extenson and his legs give out. Once Kensuke recovers, Chono tries another octopus stretch but he's hip tossed. Chono blocks the power bomb and flips over for a back slide and a 2. Kensuke then powerbombs the poo poo out of him for 2.9! Everyone in the crowd thinks it was 3, Hase is pissed! Kensuke starts to kick Chono not letting him stand up. Chono weakly blocks one the kicks but quickly slaps on the STF and fires up! After a little bit Kensuke gives up! What a struggle lets look back at the action! https://imgur.com/PRN92fB.mp4 It started off really good but the long middle segment killed the match for me. To many repeated moves even though they all looked killer. There was 2.5 minutes of just piledrivers. Its the main event but it could have had 5-7 minutes chopped off. The ending was hot but the crowd hated Chono kicking out of that powerbomb and the resulting finish felt really unearned. I gotta say Chonos ability to sell with his face is so good, during the crucifix i was so into his struggle to get out and lots of times after a big move by him or Kensuke his look of exhaustion would stick with me for a while. *** And with that match we sign off for another week. We will be back for the conclusion of the Battle Autumn Tour with the Battle Hold Arena show and a match from a joint WAR/WWF show. At the Battle Hold show we have The Great Muta defending his IWGP and Greatest 18 Club gold against Shinya Hashimoto and Masahiro Chono defending his NWA championship against Steve Austin. Now i will not be watching the Chono Austin match as i dont like to watch matches with horrible injuries. NJPW has helpfully not provided the Steiners vs a reunited Kensuke and Hase match from the undercard so we will purchase tickets to a joint WWF/WAR show. We can watch the 1st inter promotional match between the two companies instead. The Great Muta vs Shinya Hashimoto Kengo Kimura & Shiro Koshinaka (NJPW) vs. Koki Kitahara & Samson Fuyuki (WAR) Cant say i know anything about Koki Kitahara or Samson Fuyuki but i do know a bit about Kimura and Koshinaka. Shiro Koshinaka joined NJPW in 1985 after being frustrated with his push in AJPW. After feuding with Takada in the UWF invasion Shiro would win the IWGP Jr Title 3 times before graduating to heavyweight in 1990. He would team with his Jr Title rival Kunaki Kobyashi against the Karate Guys Akitoshi Saito and Masashi Aoyagi before they all form The Anti Players Association. None of that matters because Koshinaka will be forever linked to his trademark move the hip or rear end attack which he invented. Kengo Kimura debuted in JPW in the early 70s. Spending his excursion time in Mexico before joining NJPW in 1980 joining Fujinami in pioneering the Jr Heavyweight style. Teaming with Fujinami they are the inaugural IWGP champions beating Inoki and Sakaguchi, they will capture the belts 3 more times after. Kengo never fully steps out of Fujinamis shadow and hes kind of just a tag guy to this point, Him and Koshinaka have been teaming for a few months now. Maybe this wild group can help with that but i dont know if they are ready for the boss of pro wrestling, who is knocking at their door. 
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Jul 26, 2023 16:41
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