[1992-06-26-NJPW-Masters of Wrestling] Jushin Liger vs El Samurai

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Okay, awesome. Liger offers a handshake -- again. Samurai spits in his face -- again. Liger knocks him loopy with a high kick, then drops a knee off the top rope. And we're getting the slow destruction of El Samurai, specifically in Liger working over his arm. Samurai favors his arm even when things are going his way, almost like a wounded animal defending himself. Sammy has flashes of offense here and there, but it's pretty rare. He manages to catch Liger off guard with a sunset flip and get a flash pin to win the IWGP Jr. title. Another outstanding match between these two. But it also makes me look at the BOSJ final in a different way. Liger went over strong there, but when seeing this match, Liger was clearly building himself up strongly so that Samurai pinning Liger would be a big deal. And it was a major upset. And it's funny that it felt like an upset considering how much Samurai outclassed him on 4/16, but Liger brought his game to such a new level on 04/30 that I was genuinely surprised that Samurai would ever be able to beat him again (well, not genuinely, I knew the finish of this match before watching it, but work with me). All three matches are worked as part of a series, and I think they look better in context than as individual matches by themselves. This is probably my least favorite of the three, but it's still very much worth seeing as a chapter in the feud. While Samurai won the 4/16 match more convincingly than this one, I think this victory did more to really put him over, because Liger was stronger here than he was on 4/16. Not just a great match, but really smart booking.

[Tim Evans]

Real good match with Liger looking vicious and both guys hiting nice dives. It's just a shame the camera totally missed Liger's kick after the spit to the face.

[goodhelmet]

I need to rematch this as a series because i never thought of following the progression of the feud for NJ juniors. Need to put this in my rewatch file.

[Kevin Ridge]

Great start with Samurai slapping Liger and getting a kick in the face for his rudeness. Liger was really pounding him early on. One of Liger's dives he bounced off the guard rail. Samurai connects with two nice ones back to back. The exchange big moves and it looks like Liger is going to put Samurai away but he gets a nice looking reversal for the pin. Felt like Samurai would have no chance here after pissing Liger off early but he pulls out the nice upset.

[WingedEagle]

Liger offers his hand, Samurai rejects it and the war is on with a Koppo kick. An awesome palm strikes KO Samurai and then Liger focues on Sammy's arm for an extended period. After selling for much of the match Samurai reverses a tombstone but Liger again turns the table on him before Sammy shockingly takes the fall and title with a roll up. This felt like a major upset and win in the wake of their April matches.

 

This feud is easily best in the ring of the year.

 

****

[PeteF3]

Samurai does a fantastic job of selling his arm throughout this match, even to the point of being unable to hold Liger for stuff like the tombstone and German suplex. Sammy looks completely done from the opening bell when he gets KO'd by a rolling kick, but slips through Liger's legs and locks him in a sunset flip for the shock victory and IWGP Jr. title. This obviously wasn't as epic as the Super Junior final but it wasn't supposed to be--the flukish nature of the victory was the only one possible in the story of the match, and the fact that the match was shorter adds meaning to every single near-fall in any conceivable New Japan match, because you never really KNOW if a big title match is actually going to go 20+. Classic staples of Choshu booking--or, if Liger was booking the juniors at this point, of a guy who clearly studied under Choshu. This feels like something more than the typical "Liger gets upset for the title" match--it appears after a few years of trying that Liger has found a replacement rival for Sano.

[MikeCampbell]

This wasn't at the level of their Super Junior final, but this was still pretty damn awesome. I love me some good limb work, and Lyger working over Sammy's arm was awesome, and Sammy brought some damned good selling, even when he was in control of things. The finish comes off like a fluke, but it still works.

[garretta]

The story of this match was Samurai coming back after almost having his arm ripped off by Liger. Most guys would have just curled up in a ball and sold, but Samurai kept up his end on offense, even on moves that could have hurt his arm worse, like the dive to the outside and the tombstone.

 

Liger had quite a few chances for a quick win early on after he knocked Samurai out, but he chose to try and injure Samurai instead. He did, but it wasn't enough.

 

The winning pin showed resourcefulness on Samurai's part; he knew he'd never be able to pull Liger to the mat with his injured arm, so he used his legs instead, catching Liger completely by surprise and picking up the clean win. The pin being clean was important because Samurai needed to be established as a champion who could actually wrestle. He relied on heel tactics for the most part in his previous two bouts with Liger, but here he showed that he's at least Jushin's equal as a wrestler and an athlete. I'm sure there will be a rematch soon, and it's going to be interesting to see if we can have another classic bout with both men at a hundred percent throughout.

[dawho5]

I liked this match better than the others.  Liger's matwork all had purpose: to kill Samurai's arm.  And it worked, right until Samurai rolled him up with his legs.  Not only that, Samurai sold the arm really well all the way through.  My favorite juniors matches are the ones that don't stick to the formula, and this one was really great besides that aspect so I loved it!

[xlynwoodx]

Liger tried to shake hands to start and was denied so he kicked Samurai in the face, knocking him silly.  Liger was super aggressive to start as a result, dropping a knee off the top rope and working in Samurai's left arm.  Samurai did a great job selling the arm throughout the match.  He would throw a lot of punches with his good arm to fight back.  He hit Liger with a pair of awesome flip dives, Liger came back with a huge one of his own that nearly sent him over the guardrail.  It looked like Liger was on his way to win when Samurai rolled him up out of nowhere and got the win and the title.  Nice match that left me looking forward to a rematch.