[1997-05-20-NJPW] Shinjiro Otani vs Yoshihiro Taijiri

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Pretty good match, but it does play off of Taijiri's cockiness in their Tokyo Dome match a little, so I wish we could have included that match too. Here, Otani isn't so quick to underestimate Taijiri and goes after him aggressively right away. Taijiri works from underneath doing stuff like chop blocks and flash pin attempts to come back from Otani's offense. When he goes after Otani's knee a few times, it's not part of any game plan, it's more because it's the only thing he can do to create some space. Taijiri manages to make an impression with this crowd, and they pack a lot of action and energy into this 11 minutes and 44 seconds. Taijiri gets a huge upset, which I absolutely hate as a finish, but everything else about this is golden.

[Childs]

I was half paying attention to this the first time I watched it, so when I saw the dragon suplex, I assumed Otani won. But then I saw Tajiri celebrating. So yeah, it felt like a bit of a cheap finish, though I guess it was in the same spirit as 1-2-3 Kid beating Scott Hall. It was interesting to watch Otani play the Liger role, with Tajiri as the upstart. He did the cocky thing well.

[Kevin Ridge]

Tajiri’s yearbook debut I think? Ohtani’s repeated forearm to face rub is so great. He starts off the match standing on Tajiri’s head as much as possible. It is a random type finish with using the Dragon Suplex out of nowhere. Ohtani’s cockiness and arrogance leading to his defeat continues to show up on the year books.

[soup23]

I liked this a lot. Otani showed some stiffness and Tajiri stayed there with him and was able to pick up the big upset. This went the right amount of time for the story they were trying to tell.

[PeteF3]

Always fun to watch two Japanese male wrestlers wear their emotions on their sleeves like this. Otani's confident but freaks out with every two-count--both for him and against him. Tajiri is woefully overmatched and can only fight to keep his head above water, but busts out a dragon suplex for a 3-count and another holy-shit, audible-gasp moment for me. This may be another case of NJPW cute-for-cuteness-sake upset booking in hindsight, but it worked for me. Tajiri's celebration and Otani's reaction are gold, too.

[Zenjo]

The early going was all sorts of fun as Ohtani's boots had a magnetic attraction to Taijiri's face. I was then thinking it was a bit weird how they jumped from start to stretch. It wasn't until afterwards that I realised they'd clipped out the middle. I wasn't a big fan of the upset finish.

[Chess Knight]

Utterly vicious offensive showing from Otani, repeatedly digging his heel into Tajiri's face, stomping the shit out of him in the corner, grinding his forearm across the cheek, etc. He even does Tajiri's tree of woe sliding dropkick (maybe that's where Tajiri got it!) and we get a close up of Tajiri's squished face after it. Tajiri gets a few hope spots in those first few minutes but it's usually killed by Otani using his superior size and tenacity. Tajiri's actual competitive comeback starts with a fucking awesome spot where Otani blocks a high kick with his forearms, but only manages to hit a limp slap in retaliation, so Tajiri uses the ropes for momentum and launches his feet at Otani's leg. Can't believe how much heat they managed to create within the time, and I can't believe what has to be one of the best Tajiri matches happens in 1997.