[1994-09-23-NJPW-G1 Climax Special] Jushin Liger vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Phil Schneider]

This was kind of the 90's version of the Fujiwara v. Tiger Mask matchup. Liger is the striker flurrying with palm strikes and slipping in sneaky kappo kicks, while Fujiwara is trying to take him down and slow him down. Some very cool stuff here, including Fujiwara being pretty punishing, landing a big right hand in the corner, and really laying in a beating on Liger when he had the mount, including some nasty bodyshots. Finish run was pretty nifty with Liger having Fujiwara on the ropes with a big kappo kick and a nasty dropkick to the knee, Fujiwara however reverses an irish whip and when Liger dives off the ropes, he side steps him and slaps on the Fujiwara armbar for the finish, it is the kind of counter wrestling finish which Fujiwara is the master of.

[Loss]

Lots of fun. All the stalemates are really well-executed, and Fujiwara throws more strikes and kicks than he has in previous matches I've seen from him. Fujiwara is trying to lure Liger into losing his temper as well. Sure enough, Liger gets a little peeved and Fujiwara is ready for it, mounting him and throwing some ugly punches to his ribs. Great finish too, as he lets Liger do the dirty work for him. All he has to do is casually side step a koppo kick from the middle rope and Liger beats himself.

[Kevin Ridge]

Seeing the match listing I was hoping for lots of palm strikes to Fujiwara's face. Liger does get in a nice flurry. Fujiwara is all about taking this to the mat where he can dominate. But he gets in some impressive looking strikes also. Fujiwara mounts Liger and hits him with punches while pressing his forearm up against his face also. Loved the finish with the armbar off the reversal. Fujiwara is slowly growing on me.

[Exposer]

Great match. Fujiwara is the master at standoffs and quick exchanges. He's also proven himself to be the master of New Japan sprints. Liger is great here as well but Fujiwara is the man here. I love Fujiwara's stiff shots to the body while he was trying to ground Liger. In the end, Liger beats himself as Fujiwara catches him off the ropes with a simple side step and Fujiwara arm bar for the submission.

[soup23]

Nifty little match with Fujiwara mixing in stiff strikes with resourcefulness to pick up the victory.

[PeteF3]

Fun stuff, and the most "pro-style" Fujiwara match since his pre-UWF days. It occurs to me that I think this is the first time I've ever seen him run the ropes. He also brings back his old "iron head" spots just because. Liger puts up a fight but makes the mistake of attemping a blind move and falls right into the wakigatame. Good finish to a very cool, "these guys wrestled each other?" type match.

[GOTNW]

I'm not promising a five thousand word post on it but Liger is someone whom I really don't consider a great wrestler anymore. A big part of that is probably that I don't care for his average performance-and that the constant revision of him annoys me to no end. "Don't forget about Liger! Don't forget about Liger!" Well, maybe people wouldn't "forget" about him if he was so great in the first place (and as GWE rankings showed-they really don't). This was an interesting Liger performance, and I'm finding it increasingly difficult to find those. It's not like it was brilliant display on his part or anything-but it was nice to see him go toe to toe with Fujiwara on the mat and match him in aggression. Fujiwara firing himself up while Liger slapper on him was a great moment, as was them just punching each other out on the mat. Lovely counter finish. ***1/2