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[1993-02-16-NJPW-Fighting Spirit] Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Kido & Hiroshi Hase & Tayayuki Iizuka vs Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara & Takashi Ishikawa & Ricky Fuyuki & Tatsumi Kitahara


Loss

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  • 4 weeks later...

40 minutes of awesome. They're still building up Tenryu/Hashimoto HUGE. Hash is not in this match, but he's at ringside and there's a great staredown with Tenryu before the match starts. This is one of the most heated matches of all time. Hase is awesome working the mat with Kitahara, finally biting his leg to get out of a headscissors then tagging out to Iizuka to start working over his knee. In a great moment, Tenryu comes in to kick Iizuka so Choshu comes in and kicks Kitahara. In other words, "Stay in your corner or I will come after you." Awesome.

 

Fujinami gets the hell beaten out of him for a while and sells it beautifully, as you'd expect.

 

This may be Iizuka's career performance. The headbutt battle with Hara is tremendous, as is his catching Tenryu off guard with a great dropkick and his great selling.

 

Already in February of 1993, I've seen two top 20 of the decade candidates for New Japan.

 

Even though New Japan wins two straight falls, this manages to be incredibly compelling. Choshu is put over strong, winning both falls for his team, to build to a match with Tenryu. After the Tokyo Dome win by Tenryu, it makes sense to rebuild Choshu for a rematch.

 

MOTYC once again.

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  • 1 month later...

These kind of Puro gang fight 10 man are one my favorite types of wrestling matches. This is 2/3 falls rather then elimination style and goes nice and long so each guy gets to stretch out a bit. We know what the WAR guys bring to the table, they are going to try to kick, stomp and punch divots in your skull. Tenryu is probably the greatest all time at throwing cheap shots, and he is constantly cracking folks from behind.The NJ guys really shine here as well. Fujinami and Iizuka probably take the biggest beating and both are masterful at receiving and firing back. Kido isn't in as much, but he pulls off some awesome flash armbars, really putting over his suddeness. Hase has a weird cool way of eating offense, I loved his sell of Fuyuki's clotheslines, and is great at catching people in sudden suplexes. Choshu is the BMOC, and he is as good an Ace as there has ever been. He gets the pins in both falls, as is so great at coming in and cleaning house.

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  • 2 months later...

Big Man on Campus? I don't know if that's what he meant, but it's a good description either way.

 

I thought this was fucking awesome. Feels like I'm being really hyperbolic, but I honestly thought this was up there with any multi-man match I've ever seen. The '84 gauntlet on the New Japan set is a different kettle of fish since it's basically a bunch of singles matches rolled into one (singles matches that build really well from one to the next, mind you), but I think I preferred this to the 3/86 and 9/88 matches that I had top 5 on my NJ ballot, and those two were pretty much my benchmark for multi-man tags.

 

Just a million great moments, everybody gets to shine, tonnes of heat, guys being SCUMBAGS, Iizuka slapping Tenryu and Tenryu fucking MURDERING him...man, this was amazing.

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  • 8 months later...
  • 11 months later...

The theme was Rikki's revenge as he scores both pins, but not over the man that downed him at the Dome. It had an appropriate big match atmosphere at the Ryugoku. Plenty of fun and would've been even better had it not lasted 34m for 2 falls. It was starting to get a bit repetitive by the end. There was a heel/face dynamic and a couple of nice FIP segments. The teams were mismatched for wrestler quality, but the format is a good protector and only Hara sucked. Even guys like Kido, Ishikawa and Fuyuki performed well, with Tenryu doing a great job of leading his troops.

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  • 4 months later...

Great match. NJPW winning two straight falls was fine as it’s good to not always go three falls but here there was plenty of time given to the first two falls. WAR guys actually looked better and kept coming in the ring non stop to break up submissions by NJPW. Choshu winning both falls himself kind of didn’t set well with me on paper but it was executed well with him being the closer by getting tagged into to put a weakened opponent away. Tenryu gets taken out late in the match with is too much for WAR to over come. The NJPW guys rushing into the ring to cut off the WAR guys was great since the WAR guys were interfering so much earlier in match.

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  • 3 months later...

MOTY right now. New Japan takes this in two falls but WAR is left with an "out" as the main man Tenryu suffers an arm injury at the hands of Kido and only rejoins the match about .5 seconds before Kitahara's tapout. So, so much to love here--I agree that these 5-on-5 New Japan matches are about the best match types ever. This felt even more like a WWF Survivor Series because you had that vibe of seeing guys interact that never would in any other circumstance--Kido vs. Tenryu? Hase vs. Fuyuki? If those guys ever faced off in singles matches, I sure don't know about it. This is the first time I can definitively see Fujinami as being "back"--it's easy to look better with 9 other guys, but when he's in he looks close to the Fujinami of old, which was refreshing. Iizuka takes another shitkicking of almost Steiner-esque proportions. Kido is the wily veteran of the match who almost plays a Ueda-vs.-UWF type pivotal role, as he's the one who rather improbably knocks Tenryu out of commission--that whole sequence was tremendous. Hase's FIP segment towards the end is terrific, as they really have you biting on the near-falls and buying into the idea that these WAR mid-carders are going to actually put Hase away. He makes a great comeback--Hase's golden arm bomber may be my favorite comeback move ever--and makes the hot tag to Choshu, who creams Kitahara with two lariats and there's a great moment as Tenryu finally crawls back into the ring, and the New Japan guys immediately swarm him and the rest of the team. Just a great way of getting over how vital Tenryu was to the team and how concerned Team NJPW was with keeping him at bay. I don't know if having Tenryu play the same role that Baba played in the famous 12/89 tag was intentional, coincidence, or just Tenryu suggesting a previously successful idea, but it was still a great nod to history.

 

More build to a big Tenryu/Hashimoto showdown before this. I really want to see that, and I'd really like to see the seemingly uninvolved Masa Chono get mixed up with this.

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  • 1 year later...

Love the WAR crew walking to the ring. Simply the best act in wrestling from bell to bell and in this case, before and after. Hash wants to go after the WAR team but they hold him back. Great job pushing him vs. Tenryu as the premier match you want to see. This is again beyond heated, and the quick tagging with great action only furthers that. I love the spot where NJ (I think Kido?) tosses Fuyuki to the WAR corner and tells Tenryu to come in. He does just that and they trade sick chops before Tenryu lays him out. What happened to Ishikawa after this feud? Hase on fire when he tags in, hitting Tenryu with a stiff elbow off the top and a uranage. Love the ref blocking Fuyuki from coming off the top on Fujinami while he's controlling Ishikawa. The WAR squad uses numbers to put Fujinami in peril, but NJ wins the first fall with a Choshu lariat on Ishikawa. Kido twice uses an armbreaker on Tenryu, which he sells like a boss the rest of the way, on the floor and in the post-match. Choshu goes after Tenryu on the outside but they're quickly separated. Choshu surprisingly wins this in 2 straight falls with a lariat and submission. Rehabs him from the Dome, gives NJ a big win to keep them strong in the feud, protects Tenryu's role in all of this and still leaves you wanting Tenryu/Hash. Just the best.

 

****1/4

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  • 5 weeks later...

It is the same Iizuka.

 

Not much more I can add in as this was nonstop awesome with some much action and intertwining hate. My favorite aspect may be that Hash wasn't even in there saving that altercation up even though we get the incredible staredown. This is right up there with the amazing multiman matches from the 1980's. Super stuff. ****1/2

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It is the same Iizuka.

 

Not much more I can add in as this was nonstop awesome with some much action and intertwining hate. My favorite aspect may be that Hash wasn't even in there saving that altercation up even though we get the incredible staredown. This is right up there with the amazing multiman matches from the 1980's. Super stuff. ****1/2

 

Wow, that is crazy.

 

This feud rules. Sucks it ended when it did.

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  • 1 year later...

It's too early to talk about Match of the Year, but this was definitely February's Match of the Month.

 

The thing I liked most was that everybody got a chance to really go, and there were all sorts of different styles to appreciate: Tenryu and Choshu grounding and pounding, Fujinami and Fuyuki flying, the shoot-style influence of Kido and Kitahara, and exciting mixtures of all of the above. Even Hara, whose offense seems to be limited to clotheslines and headbutts, really looks good doing what he does.

 

Both sides are left with positives: NJPW gets the sweep, with Choshu scoring both falls and Kido injuring Tenryu's arm, but WAR controls the body of each fall, working over Fujinami and Iizuka. The next time there's a match like this (the thinking on their side goes), all we have to do is keep Choshu out of our hair and we can beat these bums.

 

One trap that this match didn't fall into is trying to hide anyone. All ten guys got extended segments in the ring, although Choshu seemed to be in there just a little less than the others. Coming out of this, I'd not only like to see the obvious matches like Choshu-Tenryu and Hash-Tenryu, but almost all of the other possible combination in both singles and tag matches. I'd especially like to see if they follow up on the arm injury story with Tenryu and Kido.

 

Now that this feud is pretty much back on even terms, where will it go from here? I for one can't wait to find out!

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  • GSR changed the title to [1993-02-16-NJPW-Fighting Spirit] Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Kido & Hiroshi Hase & Tayayuki Iizuka vs Genichiro Tenryu & Ashura Hara & Takashi Ishikawa & Ricky Fuyuki & Tatsumi Kitahara
  • 1 year later...

Big 30 minute chaotic match in Ryogoku. Choshu looked super strong in this, getting both falls and always staying one step ahead when he was in the ring. He directed traffic for his side as well. The Maestro of Team New Japan. I like how both falls took their time and told different stories. The first fall was about New Japan wrecking havoc with WAR playing catch up. The second fall was WAR on top, taking advantage of Iizuka and Fujinami, isolating them. Tenryu beating up Iizuka with cheap shots and had chops was killer. Iizuka has a history of taking incredible beatdowns so he knows how to make the best out of it and use it to his advantage. Hase was a boss as well. He threw some sick uranage’s to Ishikawa. Great, great match. ****1/4
 

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