Yearbook - NJPW - 1995 - Part 4
Greetings and salutations! We're back to New Japan and we're beyond the G1 Climax. A big focus at this time is the NJPW vs UWFi feud. I've watched a good sample of UWFi and the matches below aren't necessarily representative of their shoot style. That said, they company does start to incorporate the style seen in these feud matches. I digress. If you're interested check out my other blog at The Further Adventures of Puro + More where I'm covering shoot style like UWFi.
September through November
From the 09/23 show:
Lord Steven Regal vs. Wild Pegasus - Oh wow! This was tremendous. The first part was Regal's style. This was flawless and could have been done in 1975-80. Eventually Benoit found and opening and it became his high octane style. Neither man was completely out of his element. Eventually Regal was bleeding from his ear. This elevated the perception of true violence. The finish seemed imperfect at first but then made sense to me and was fitting given what had proceeded it. Near classic match and every bit as good as I had hoped for!
Riki Choshu & Yuji Nagata vs Yoji Anjo & Tatsuo Nakano - This is the first big match of the NJ vs UWFi program. What a doozy! Stiff as a starched shirt. Nagata gets a mouse/cut under his eye and a blood mouth. He re-pays the favor by repeatedly punch Anjo in the face and sealing his eye up (soon to a mother of a black eye). Choshu was intense and boss as hell. Nakano smartly played ball. This was organized chaos that while not a shoot, was more than just "stiff" or "chippy." Nagata looked great for being so young. Very good to great match! Definitely worth checking out :)
Jushin Liger vs Yuhi Sano (10/09) - This is the big Tokyo Dome confrontation of NJ vs UWFi. Sano is the same Naoki Sano & Takuma Sano. So not only is this company vs company but it is old rivals meeting again. Surprisingly they wrestled this in a more NJPW Jrs. style than a shoot style. Or it was more like some of the Kobayashi vs Tiger Mask I matches. I really enjoyed this for what it was. Sano never lost anything by moving to SWS or UWFi (or BattlARTS later).
The following take place in UWFi and are more of the NJ vs UWFi feud.
From the 10/11 UWFi show:
Tatsuo Nakano vs Kensuke Sasaki - So Kensuke is a bully and Nakano is the nerd king who stands up to the bully. It's a fun match. Generally speaking, Kensuke is a bit like Vader in that his power offense translates well into UWFi like Bob Sapp in K1.
Yoji Anjo & Masahito Kakihara vs. Riki Choshu & Yuji Nagata - Great tag match. Riki & Anjo really got the inter-promotional hate. Nagata was there to actually wrestle a shoot style match. His stuff was really enjoyable with the UWFi team. It made this very good technically and that hate from Choshu is what made this memorable and great overall.
From the 10/28 show:
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs Tatsuhito Takaiwa - OK match but Kanehara knew he outclassed Takaiwa. Takaiwa did hit a shoot Death Valley driver type move which actually hurt Kanehara somewhat.
Hiro Saito vs Naoki Sano - Good match because Sano was willing to meet Saito in the middle and work a UWF in NJPW style. Makes sense since Sano was great in NJ just a few years prior.
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Koji Kanemoto - Very good to great match. I wish it was a couple minutes longer because I was enjoying it so much. Saku was trying to get Koji in a Scorpion Deathlock - it was great! Just like his shoot fights! Koji also was trying to work in a couple pro moves here and there. But this was UWF style without a doubt. I'm not sure how many UWFi matches Kanemoto did but he's a great fit. Saku is Saku. If you like either guy, watch this!
Masahito Kakihara & Tatsuo Nakano vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Akira Nogami - Really good stuff! I dig UWFi tags because it's the little thing that reminds me "hey this is pro wrestling still." This match was very much like '86 NJ vs UWF. The NJ guys were doing pro moves but the UWF guys weren't going for it and would make them pay...but when they'd hit a drop kick it felt like they really laid it in. Everyone looked good and played their roles well. Hashimoto looked like a bear even versus the porky Nakano. The finish was really cool. Again, I wish this was a minute longer because I was having a blast!
Kensuke Sasaki vs Yoshihiro Takayama - This was pretty good stuff! It definitely could have been longer and more developed but the chemistry was apparent. They just laid into each other for 7 minutes... Takayama hitting especially hard. This definitely harkens back to the UWF invasion stuff in the late 80's...
Masa Chono vs Yoji Anjo - Whoa this was intense from beginning to end! This was pro wrestling done right. I'm sure these matches were under NJPW rules but yeah, the UWF style with traditional wrestling rules, psychology works best in my opinion. This is a great example of that. This is a legit great under the radar match.
This 10/28/95 show is pretty great 🙂
Kazuo Yamazaki vs Tatsuo Nakano (10/29 NJPW) - I think Yamazaki is with NJPW now because this match is in a New Japan ring. That and Nakano is sure going after him like he's a deserter. Holy cow! This is really spirited stuff. It looks like they are shoot head butting each other. Even the finish seems quick as if the ref was afraid this was going to go off script if he didn't call it. Under 10 minutes and really, really good.
Yoji Anjo & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan (11/25 UWFi) - Yes! Oh hells yes! Stiff as a wall ! A hate-fest fought at a machine gun pace. Anyone hesitant about shoot style needn't worry. This is pro-wrestling. It's a brawl more than anything else. It is fantastic! Just so much bad attitude from both sides. I loved this. It's a little over 10 minutes but I'm still going to call it a classic. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Love the picture below of Anjo mocking Tenzan's bull themed head gear.
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