Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Shinjiro Otani 3/17/96 (aired 3/30) Amagasaki, Japan

Liger was defending his IWGP Jr. Title (which he has since lost). This match started off slow. Otani worked on Liger’s arm to set up moves for later in the match. Liger hit two consecutive kneecap dropkicks. Otani stomped Liger’s arm. Basically the story early on was when Otani was on offense he would use moves and/or submissions that focused on Liger’s arm, while Liger would work on Otani’s knee. They interspersed some high spots between the submissions, which is one thing that they do so well in Japan and so poorly in America. There are many matches in America where they do all the mat work and submissions in one bunch and then go to high spots, which makes the mat work boring because it lasts too long and there is no chance of submission. That was not the case here.

Liger used a brainbuster. They did stiff slaps back and forth. From this point on the match turned into a really hot match with awesome moves, crisply executed spots, great transitions, and great heat. Otani used two jump spinning heel kicks on Liger and as soon as Liger fell Otani slapped on the cross armbreaker. Liger whipped Otani into the turnbuckle and used his Koppo kick (rolling heel kick). In an awesome sequence, Liger whipped Otani into the corner, but Otani did his famous spot where he rolls over the corner landing on his feet on the ring apron (basically Flair’s flip bump done a lot quicker and without taking the impact of hitting the turnbuckle). Liger was charging the corner and right after Otani landed on the apron he dropkicked him which sent him to the floor. Liger ran across the ropes and it looked like he was going to do a tope but he did a nice handstand fake, then he went for a plancha but Otani moved out of the way, Otani got in the ring and did a springboard plancha (announcers called this a swandive body attack). This was truly a great sequence particularly because the timing was excellent.

When Liger got back into the ring Otani used his springboard leg lariat (a.k.a. springboard spin kick). Otani attempted a German suplex, but Liger countered with a go-behind and hit an awesome Doug Furnas like belly to back suplex with an overhead flip. As soon as Otani got up Liger gave him the Koppo kick. Liger set Otani up with a side breaker and used a splash off the top rope for a near fall. Liger used the new version of his Ligerbomb finisher where he holds the opponent at a high angle (like Benoit’s powerbomb) and jumps for a near fall. The crowd really popped when Otani kicked out of the great Ligerbomb. Aside from being a tremendous worker, Otani has awesome charisma and really pumps the crowd up during his matches. Liger tried the Ligerbomb again, but this time Otani countered it with a huracanrana for a near fall.

Otani hit a jump spinning heel kick off the ropes and then used the Frankensteiner off the top (which is one of Liger’s famous finishers) for a near fall. In a great spot, Otani hit a springboard dropkick and with a super fast transition put Liger in the cross armbreaker. Even though I don’t speak Japanese, I could understand the announcers going wild yelling “Gracie, Gracie” to get the move over. This is a legitimate finishing move in Japan (finisher of Takada who is the number 1 fake shooter in the country) and the combination of the hot crowd and the excited announcers really gets the move over on TV. Liger got out of it though by grabbing the ropes. Otani then went for a pumphandle, but Liger got his arm loose and got him in a sleeper. This was a new spot to me and it was really good because of the speed the counter was done at. Liger did a drop toe hold and then before you could blink used La Magistral, but Otani kicked out. Liger used his fisherman buster (cradle suplex set up into a brain buster) for a 2 3/4 count. Liger tried to fisherman buster Otani off the top rope, but Otani knocked him off then dropkicked him off the top. Otani used his dragon suplex on Liger, but let go of the pin at the 1 count. Otani dragon suplexed him again and it looked like he might have won, but Liger had his foot on the ropes. Otani went for a third dragon suplex, but Liger got a rope escape. Otani tried yet another dragon suplex, but Liger countered with a back elbow and ran off the ropes. Otani ducked Liger’s attempted clothesline and kept running off the ropes, on the way back Liger caught him in the chin with a palm blow for the pinfall. ****3/4

Note: Originally published 11/2/96

History of fake shoots and worked shoot promotions, Toyota vs. Kyoko 3/31/96 review

Antonio Inoki’s first venture into the Ultimate Fight world will come on 12/15 at the 69,000 seat Fukuoka Dome. While the promotion is Universal Vale Tudo, the show is being produced by Inoki. There is a lot of speculation that New Japan created the group and will be financing the show. If so, the reasons they are putting the show on will be questioned. This week I will look at New Japan and Inoki’s history as far as shoots, both real and worked, are concerned. Next week, I will look at the actual 12/15 show.

New Japan and Inoki’s involvement in fake shoots dates back 22 years. At the time New Japan was a fledgling organization. Inoki and Hiroshi Shinma realized that interpromotional matches that were so important that in theory no one would lay down would be great for business and greatly enhance Inoki’s reputation when he won. The first of these matches came when IWE (no. 3 promotion in Japan at the time) International Champion Shozo “Strong” Kobayashi jumped to New Japan. Inoki and Shimna promoted the match as New Japan Champion vs. IWE Champion despite IWE stripping Kobayashi of the title six weeks prior to the match. At that time Japan was like the U.S. is currently, in that the big organizations would never work together, so even though it really wasn’t an interpromotional match it was still a never before seen dream match. The match took place on March 19, 1974 before 16,500 (awesome crowd considering the time period and youth of organization) with Inoki of course going over.

Inoki continued to enhance his reputation by getting former Olympic gold medalist in judo Wilhelm Ruska to lay down for him. The match was the first mixed martial arts match in decades. The mixed martial arts style was much more realistic looking than traditional pro wrestling, which only added to the idea that the match was real.

Inoki and Shinma’s master plan to make Inoki one of the most recognizable faces on the planet failed. The match that could get this done was Inoki vs. the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time Muhammed Ali. It took place at Budokan Hall on June 25, 1976 and was available throughout the U.S. on closet-circuit. It was supposed to be a work with Ali pummeling Inoki until he bled heavily. Referee Gene LeBelle (before he built the Monster in the laboratory) would want to stop the match, but Inoki would refuse to allow him to check the cut. Eventually Inoki would make a storybook comeback, hit his enzuiguri on Ali, and get the pin. The controversial finish would be Ali’s out in the U.S., while the comeback would make Inoki an even bigger hero. Unfortunately, despite the fact Ali would be paid $6 million (more than he ever made for a boxing match), Ali got cold feet about doing the job and the match was almost canceled. From here there are various different stories about what really happened, but the majority believe that the two agreed to a shoot match without a predetermined finish (only legit match in Inoki’s career). Some rules were drawn up that basically took out most of the techniques that would benefit Inoki. Chokes, suplexes, & kicks to the head or throat were illegal. Inoki layed down on his back and for most of the match and tried to take out Ali’s legs. Unfortunately for Inoki this was 18 years before Yuki Nakai defeated the much larger Gerard Gordeau with this strategy. Though Inoki actually did a lot of damage to Ali’s legs, and some said Ali’s legs were never the same after the match, the audience hated this tedious style and that was practically all the “action” in the match. Inoki did get Ali down a couple times, but Ali grabbed the ropes before Inoki could get a submission on. You could count the punches Ali landed in 15 rounds on your hands. Since there was no action, the match was ruled a draw and Inoki’s greatest achievement turned into his biggest failure. Aside from the fact that Inoki lost the show flopped financially in the U.S. because it was portrayed as a farce (this was one of the reasons Ali changed his mind and did the legit match) and wasn’t promoted much by wrestling promoters because Inoki wasn’t in their organization.

In an effort to rebuild his reputation Inoki got several martial arts stars, boxers, and even a former Mr. America to put him over in supposedly legit matches. Eventually people forgot or at least forgave Inoki for the Ali debacle and he became the most recognized wrestler in Japan.

“Shoot” matches were really good to Inoki until a rebel former karate star named Akira Maeda came along. As a result of Inoki’s famous embezzlement scandal in 1983, Hiroshi Shinma, who aside from being New Japan’s booker and Chairman of the board, was the mastermind behind Inoki’s success became the scapegoat and was fired. The greatest junior heavyweight wrestler in history at that point, Satoru Sayama, was also fired because he was the scapegoat for the wrestlers failed coup. Shinma’s new group, the UWF, was the most realistic pro wrestling group to date. They eliminated all the high spots, so everything done was possible (though often improbable) in a real fighting situation. Maeda was the top star of the illusionist shoot group, which also included Nobuhiko Takada, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, & Kazuo Yamazaki. Sayama came out of retirement and joined the group, but didn’t get along with Shinma so the workers got rid of the group’s creator Shinma. The group had similar demographics as ECW in that they appealed to young adults and could only draw in one building (in their case Tokyo Korakuen Hall). Sayama and Maeda didn’t get along well and the group wound up folding after 18 months. Sayama unfortunately retired again, but the other key guys all returned to New Japan. Maeda vs. Inoki was the obvious big money match, but neither would put the other over or even sell for their opponent. The former UWF wrestlers were able to educate the crowd to submissions, but killed the TV ratings in the process causing New Japan to lose their Saturday night prime time slot on Tv-Asahi. All that being said, the NJ vs. UWF feud had some of the most heated matches in promotion history, and produced several excellent group tag matches.

October 9, 1986 was another disaster for Inoki even though the show was a sellout and drew a 29 rating. The show had a double main event with Maeda vs. former kickboxing champion Don Nakaya Neilson and Inoki vs. former heavyweight boxing champion Leon Spinks (who won the title from Ali). Both were mixed matches with “such high stakes that no one would lay down.” The problem for Inoki was that even though the New Japan stars were going over, Maeda’s match was great and Inoki’s was a disaster. Maeda’s popularity was elevated greatly, but when Riki Choshu returned from All Japan in 1987, Maeda’s chances at being the #1 star of New Japan were lessened.

In November of 1987 at Korakuen Hall, where Maeda’s popularity was the greatest, he did one of the most famous (or maybe infamous, definitely a 10 on the cowardly and reprehensible scale) acts in the history of Japanese wrestling. While Choshu was applying his scorpion on Maeda’s partner Osamu Kido, Maeda kicked Choshu as hard as he could in the eye. The kick, which broke Choshu’s orbital bone, left New Japan in a bad spot. If they admitted that the kick was legit they would be admitting that everything else they do is fake. Maeda was suspended and supposed to work Lucha in Mexico (since that would be the fakest most embarrassing style for a legit guy to work), but he quit New Japan forever.

Maeda reformed UWF and took his friends from New Japan Takada, Yamazaki, & Fujiwara with him. Two of New Japan’s most promising talents, Masakatsu Funaki (at the time billed as Masaharu) and Minoru Suzuki also joined the group. Since these wresters were over now and they had educated the fans to the submission style at the expense of New Japan’s TV rating, the group was immediately a hot ticket. Once the fans understood the realistic style, many liked it better than the fake New Japan style. UWF and its shoot illusion were not only a rival, but a competitor. From 1988-89, UWF sold out every show but 1. That is an impressive feat for any promotion even though they generally ran once a month. One of the most appealing things about the group was that there were no screw jobs. There would be no count out finish in the major match of the year like the Hogan vs. Inoki match for the IWGP title in 1984. The crowds began to boo heavily for all screw jobs in All Japan and New Japan and they had to stop protecting the stars and have clean finishes. Inoki even went back to his roots and got Russian amateur stars to with no pro wrestling experience to fight New Japan stars. The April 24, 1989 show at the Tokyo Dome drew 53,800 which was the largest crowd in Japanese wrestling history at that time. This was the show that Yamada debuted as Liger on, but the main attraction was the series of New Japan vs. Russian Amateur matches. Inoki’s reputation was already established, so he was able to job for Russian Shota Chochyashivili in an effort to give the feud some legs.

Unfortunately despite their great business run which included selling out the Tokyo Dome in three days in 1989, the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) folded in 1991. Their three biggest stars Maeda, Takada, & Fujiwara all formed their own groups. All of them were again “real” because their moves held water. Takada’s UWF-I was the most popular because they had the initials and most of the UWF stars. Fujiwara’s PWFG, which actually had the best real fighters in Funaki, Suzuki, and Shamrock was the least successful. Maeda’s RINGS was fairly successful despite having to establish everyone but him.

By 1993, the Union of Wrestling Force International (UWF-I) was the hottest fad in Japan. The group averaged more than 15,000 per show from 1993-94 (again once a month). The first Takada vs. Super (Van) Vader sold out a Tokyo baseball stadium to the tune of 46,000. Yoji Anjo, the group’s booker, ruined the promotion by talking the talk, but not walking the walk. Anjo made a grandstand challenge to martial arts legend Rickson Gracie where he said he could beat him in 2 minutes. He eventually went to Gracie’s gym and instead of beating Gracie in 2 minutes, lost easily and was embarrassed. You would have thought that they could have at least booked the match for one of their shows. Apparently Gracie thought he was Takada. The company and Takada were exposed when Takada didn’t challenge Gracie to save company honor (Takada knew he would also be embarrassed). The emergence of legit groups like UFC, Vale Tudo, K-1, and Pancrase had exposed people to what real fights looked like and exposed UWF-I as fake. The rapid decline of the group was apparent when the third match between Takada and Vader (4/20/95) where Takada was challenging for the title drew an awful crowd of 6,000 in Nagoya Rainbow Hall (12,000 capacity). The were coming off a great match and hadn’t even fought in eight months. The group was in financial trouble. It was hurt even more when Takada announced his retirement then changed his mind the same week. Takada announced he was running for the Diet (equivalent to Senate) on the last day and didn’t even get 1/4 of the needed votes. The matches with the three top stars Vader, Takada, and Gary Albright had all been done. Vader, Albright, Lou Thesz, hot young star Kiyoshi Tamura, and Yamazaki all left.

UWF-I was forced to go to New Japan to be saved financially. Unfortunately, when New Japan took over the company they decided to kill them off along with their shooter myth. The first New Japan vs. UWF-I Tokyo Dome show on 10/9/95 drew a record crowd of 67,000 and a record gate of just over $6 million. Again New Japan was able to capitalize on high stakes matches people weren’t supposed to see. Everyone figured UWF-I would get destroyed on the undercard and Takada would win the main event and the IWGP title from Keiji Muto. What actually happened was UWF-I was embarrassed. New Japan won 5 of the 8 matches including the main event. They could have won six, but Liger who books the juniors decided to put over his longtime friend and famous rival Yuhi (Naoki) Sano. Takada was disgraced by losing to a fake wrestler, one of the fakest in NJ even. To make it worse for Takada, he lost to a dragon screw followed by a figure four, both moves which don’t hold water. Choshu had succeeded in booking a show that made New Japan huge money and gave their wrestlers more credibility at the expense of UWF-I and shooting.

Despite ruining UWF-I at the box office for their own shows, New Japan was able to sell out another Tokyo Dome show on 1/4/96 for more UWF-I interpromotional matches. This time Takada defeated Muto with Muto sandbagging even worse, but the rest of UWF-I was downed. UWF-I lost the other three interpromotional matches including Choshu defeating the only wrester that was being protected, highly promising Masahito Kakihara, in embarrassing fashion. Choshu wouldn’t even sell for him.

By the time the next Tokyo Dome Show came around on 4/29/96 New Japan didn’t even use any UWF-I wrestlers other than Takada. Instead of doing what was best for business they blew off a years worth of hot matches and had Takada lose the IWGP title to Shinya Hashimoto in the main event. The group had just sold out the Tokyo Dome 3 times in 7 months with Takada on top, so why take the title away from him? The only logical reason would be to kill off shooting and “prove” pro wrestling was better.

Inoki had another failure at the box office with his World Wrestling Peace Festival. This time he had a shoot match in the main event. Inoki and Severn defeated Fujiwara & Taktarov in a worked match when Severn got Fujiwara to submit to an armbar. Was this the start of Inoki building shooting back up?

To show how bad off UWF-I was, on 8/17/96 they drew 5,000 people for a sold show at Jingu Baseball Stadium which holds 46,000. This was for Takada vs. Anjo and it was during a fair, which makes the number it even lamer. The group did come back on 9/11 at the same stadium and draw 30,000 for Takada vs. Tenryu, but that was the biggest match they could present without the help of New Japan or another shoot group. The crowd was also higher because All Japan allowed Toshiaki Kawada to work the show.

With UWF-I totally eliminated the only fake shoot group left is RINGS. Except they are now a cross with some real shoots and some worked shoots, so the totally fake groups are gone. Aside from All Japan, New Japan’s competition is the legit shoot groups. Pancrase, K-1 kickboxing, UFC through video rentals, and Vale Tudo. Do they want to get rid of them because they are exposing the company? Or do they see a new way to make money and want to join them?

Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue 3/31/96 Kanagawa Yokohama Arena

This weeks match of the year candidate is Manami Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue from 3/31/96. With these two you knew it was going to be a good match before you saw it. They had a 4 3/4 star match in 1992. Last year they did an awesome 60:00 draw that was an easy choice for match of the year. This was the first time the two had faced each other since the draw on 5/7/95, and it was the main event of AJW’s Wrestling Queendom’96 show which is one of the promotions biggest shows.

The match began quickly with Toyota running and trying to dropkick Kyoko as soon as the bell rang. Kyoko moved out of the way and then used her giant swing on Toyota. Toyota used her rolling cradle. The match slowed for a while with a lot of submission holds. When they kicked it into high gear, they never slowed down.

Kyoko whipped Toyota into the turnbuckle, Toyota jumped on the second and dropkicked Kyoko. Toyota then used a flying dropkick. Kyoko slammed Toyota and went for her patented reverse elbow drop, but Toyota pushed her off the middle rope to the floor. Toyota hit a sensational springboard somersault plancha. Kyoko went to the top rope, Toyota tried for a superplex, but Kyoko knocked Toyota off the middle rope. Toyota climbed again attempted a superplex, but Kyoko blocked it and got Toyota in a running powerslam position, Toyota slipped out and knocked Kyoko off the top, Toyota used a dropkick to the back off the top. Toyota hit two moonsaults and went for her Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex, but Kyoko countered and hit a German suplex. Toyota attempted a roll up opponent’s body huracanrana, but Kyoko powerbombed her. Kyoko went for a powerbomb, but Toyota rolled through and turned it into a sunset flip. Toyota went for a dropkick off the 2nd, but Kyoko leaped and got her with a flying headscissors. Toyota reversed an Irish whip so Kyoko jumped to 2nd for her springboard reverse elbow, but Toyota kicked her in the back which sent her to the floor, Toyota dropkick off the top to the floor.

Toyota did a Great Muta windsprint clothesline. She went for a second windsprint clothesline, but Kyoko fall away slammed her on the runway. Kyoko then did a windsprint clothesline. Toyota reversed an Irish whip, but instead of letting go she pulled Kyoko back and Tiger suplexed her for a near fall. Toyota used her Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex for a 2 3/4 count. Toyota attempted a Japanese Ocean with Kyoko on the middle rope, but Kyoko jumped backwards to get behind Toyota and attempted a German suplex. Toyota broke it up with a back elbow to the face and got on the middle rope, but Kyoko got up and belly to back suplexed her off the middle rope. Kyoko clotheslined Toyota, who did the flip bump, for a 2 3/4 count. Kyoko used her Niagara Driver (Splash Mountain) for a near fall. Kyoko went for another Niagara Driver, but Toyota rolled out of it and landed on her feet, Toyota attempted a German suplex, Kyoko go behind, Toyota go behind, Kyoko ran and attempted her springboard reverse elbow, while she was in the air Toyota dropkicked her in the back. Toyota used her Japanese Ocean Cyclone suplex finisher, but Kyoko kicked out at 2 7/8. Toyota then used Kyoko’s Niagara Driver finisher on her for the 3 count.

There wasn’t much in the way of new moves, but there were a lot of new ways to apply the competitors favorite holds. Each move was set up by the previous move. The counters and transitions were exceptional and they put the wrestlers in the right place for the next spot. As ridiculous as it sounds, the match was in a sense believable because the positioning of the opponent and the timing was always right to deliver the moves. Two garbage wrestlers could easily do the same high spots, without the counter holds to set them up, and debacle the match to the 1 1/2-2 star level. Toyota defends her WWWA title against Kyoko Inoue on 12/8, which should prove to be another classic. ****3/4

Note: Originally published 11/9/96
Quebrada #87

The best and worst singles and tag wrestlers, tag teams, biggest surprises and disappointments, and list of top matches

Having finished looking at a year’s worth of the AJ Chogei Selection show, I thought I’d put together some lists that would highlight how the wrestlers performed, and what was really good and bad about AJ in 1987. AJ Selection isn’t as complete as the AJ TV shows that aired o­n the network in 1987, it shows complete matches but attempts to showcase the "better" and "more notable" matches rather than being an entire rebroadcast of the year. Some matches that were skipped, and o­nes that were never shown anywhere could certainly swing my opinion o­n some wrestlers, but I think enough was made available that I could make a worthwhile survey.

1987 was not o­ne of the best or worst years in company history; it was a transition year. Riki Choshu and co. jumped back to New Japan in late February, leaving the company reeling. Though a plethora of talent remained, it took most of the year to reset the promotion to something workable in terms of booking. Big moves included Genichiru Tenryu leaving Jumbo Tsuruta’s side and former rival Yoshiaki Yatsu later joining it. These moves were detrimental in the short term, but would pay big dividends in 1988 when Tsuruta and Tenryu would begin their series of classic matches that changed All Japan, and actually for the better.

I’m not sure how much blame can be placed o­n Choshu, but 1987 was a far better year for tag matches than singles. Most of the big singles matches were good, and o­nly good, which is not something I’m used to from All Japan, a league that for many later years seemed to almost guarantee an excellent or better match simply by taking out Budokan. o­nly the junior division, the o­ne that Choshu had little effect o­n, really delivered in singles. However, there were a number of really strong tag matches. Perhaps this is because booking and rivalry was much more important to the heavyweight singles matches of the time than to the tag matches, which have more built in stories based o­n rank and injury?

Best Singles Wrestlers