Yearbook - NJPW - 1995 - Part 2

Hi folks! I'm back with the second installment of the 1995 New Japan Yearbook. There's a good mix of Junior and Heavyweight action this time. The Junior matches are ones that haven't gotten much positive attention in the past. I thought they were worth another look. There's a bunch of quality NJPW wrestling this time. Take a look!

April through June

Gran Hamada & Koji Kanemoto vs. Shinjiro Otani & Wild Pegasus (04/13) Haha we're off to a brilliant start. Koji steps to Otani during introductions. Otani responds by slapping Koji. This was a heck of a tag match. A nice mix of lucha & puro along with a bit of nastiness too. Pegasus/Benoit & Hamada were more neutral but the animus between Koji & Otani was ever present. It had the right tone exemplified by the hard chops everyone was throwing. I thought this was a near classic junior tag match. With its flawless execution, move complexity and story, it could be on TV or PPV today...the closest style it resembles was mid-late 2000's TNA tags with Daniels, Joe, AJ, Sabin, Shelley and others. I dug this one!

From the 06/12 show:

Koji Kanemoto vs. Gran Hamada - Very good wrestling and nice moves at the end. It's a milder version of the Junior formula but there's a lot to like here. Fun match! Fan of both so I'm glad I saw this. Nice follow-up to the above bout. I hope I see more of them tagging. Any Gran Hamada match, is a welcome Gran Hamada match!

Sabu vs. Black Tiger - Heirs of the Camel Clutch/La De a Cabello face off! 😋 I'm am sooo glad that I finally saw this. Negative reviews put me off watching this but they were wrong to me. This was a great match! Eddie was just as crazy as Sabu and both guys bring the excitement here. Sabu doesn't get enough credit for his selling because most people don't know that he's not always hurt. Certainly there's times where he is but most of the times he's putting things over. This match, he does a great job selling his back after the culmination of moves. He starts selling it right after flipping out of a back body drop. Normally, a wrestler will shoot back onto offense but he shows that the move took it's toll. He forces Eddie to slow down and let the match breathe between maneuvers (Eddie & Chris were move machines at their worst). Here by slowing down, we get denied the flurry until the final third & we are pumped for the excitement. Highly Recommended for fans of Sabu & Eddie especially.

Shinya Hashimoto & Junji Hirata vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan - Great tag match! Gutsy performance from Hirata & Hash! ChoTen are an excellent heel team...excellent heels but also a cohesive team. They seem to be on the same page all the time here. Good storytelling in this match as well. I'm only coming into this here but if you know the basic interactions of this generation of NJPW then that's all you need to know to enjoy this. I've seen this rated ****1/4 and I can get with that.

Keiji Muto vs. Kensuke Sasaki - I gave this one a shot as I was hoping Sasaki's power move style would be a focus but there's too much Muto leg work to kill time here. Even the last few minutes are not that interesting...ah well...but at least I saved you the time. SKIP IT

From the 06/14 show:

Riki Choshu & Kensuke Sasaki vs Masahiro Chono & Hiro Saito - If you dig lariats and Chono kicking people in the f-ing face, you'll want to see this 😄 It's a simple match but it does everything right. Chono is disrespecting Choshu & Sasaki throughout. See the pic below with Chono putting Riki in his own Scorpion Death Lock! Hiro Saito is an excellent beefy toadie. Riki & Kensuke are in assault mode. It is the match you're looking for. Great stuff!

Sabu vs. Koji Kanemoto - Oh shoot, I think this is better than the Black Tiger match. It was more rough and tumble. Sabu intentionally* muffed a couple spots which really added a gritty sense of reality to the match. Additionally, he and Koji were smacking and punching each other throughout! This doesn't have clean mat wrestling then transition to the highspots like most NJ Junior matches. I think old heads who've soured on that trope may enjoy this as a result. Additionally it's more contemporary in that way. I thought this was a near classic.

*As an aside, I think there's a lot of people that don't realize that Sabu would botch things on purpose. This is a thing he had admitted to this on shoot interviews. Paraphrasing: It's not a trick anymore if you can do it 100% of the time. That was what made Sabu different... he would be reckless and willing to risk it. It looked crazy and the crowd went wild. Again, he says something about this in shoot interviews. In this match, this particular miss gives Koji the opportunity he needs to take over & injects the match with psychology now. The mad man is hurt. He sells it very well and it avoids the tired pattern we see in NJ Junior matches of "work a body part" and it doesn't go anywhere. Here Sabu is a wounded animal & vulnerable, that makes him more dangerous. That's the psychology that he brings to his best matches...like an beast in a life or death situation...all or nothing...Now I can't say that for every Sabu match but I can for this one.

Keiji Muto vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan - Battle for the moonsault! Tenzan's busted wide open, Muto's pissed, Tenzan has an answer for Muto's moves. This absolutely is what Muto can deliver when he's motivated. No laying around on the mat or even messing around with dragon screws teasing figure four bores. This is about fighting. This could have been a true classic if it went on for maybe 30 seconds longer but honestly this was as long as it needed to be. I dug the heck out of it and definitely why I watch Muto matches when they come up. I don't know why or when but, he absolutely has excellent matches in him. And I'm not talking much about Tenzan because he's a solid player who can deliver very good to great matches just by being tough, hitting hard and showing attitude. Muto takes that, brings his A-game and deliver a low end classic. RECOMMENDED

06/14/95 was a nice night for New Japan wrestling! This is a really encourages my curiosity in 1990s New Japan. Like many of you, I had the feeling that New Japan didn't have much to offer in 1990s except their Junior division. Sure there were a dozen heavyweight matches worth watching but, most of it could be skipped over. And if I were still buying DVDs, I would still may have that mindset. Anyhow, I definitely recommend checking this stuff out especially if you don't mind hunting a little bit online. If you're still buying DVDs, then I think that's awesome! Consider adding this DVD to your next order if you're interested or looking for variety.

Thanks for reading!!