Riki Choshu vs Keiji Muto, NJPW 05/17/92 Options

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

It's early in the decade, but at this point, this is the best I've seen Choshu look in the 90s. I am unsure if I'd call it his best match, but it is my favorite performance from him. I love the early matwork because it has the feel of an old-style classic world title match, and Choshu really caught me off guard when he did the flying headscissors into the takedown out of nowhere. There's a really struggle and authenticity to the matwork that is rare. Muto falls short, but makes a strong showing, and the match just really hits the right note in Choshu winning but giving Muto just the right amount of offense. I'm guessing this is the highlight of Choshu's IWGP title run.

[jdw]

01/04/92 Riki Choshu over Tatsumi Fujinami (12:11)

05/01/92 Riki Choshu over Scott Norton (10:31) **1/4
05/17/92 Riki Choshu over Keiji Mutoh (15:55) ***1/4
06/26/92 Riki Choshu over Masahiro Chono (17:57) ***1/4
07/31/92 Riki Choshu over Super Strong Machine (11:43)

08/16/92 Great Muta over Riki Choshu (11:26)

I can't find the ratings for the Dome match. The title change to Muta was only on commercial tape if I recall as New Japan was pre-empted a ton that year. Dave skipped a ton of recaps due to the August trip, so the SSM match fell through the snowflake cracks if it was on TV (I don't remember it as all).

A come between Jumbo's last run, Hansen's last run (since he was one-and-done in 1995), Fujinami's last sustained run on top and Choshu's last run in 1991-92 doesn't come out all that great for the New Japan legends. Choshu was a bit hurt by not having a defense against Hash.

John

[jdw]

It's early in the decade, but at this point, this is the best I've seen Choshu look in the 90s. I am unsure if I'd call it his best match, but it is my favorite performance from him.

Have you seen his 11/01/90 defense against Hash?

John

[shoe]

I enjoyed this. The selling of struggle was great. Agreed it had a total old school feel to it. Towards the finish, they seem slightly off, but still a good match.

[Kevin Ridge]

Headscissors by Choshu was well done. That was out of nowhere. Better of the Choshu matches but there seemed to be a mix up late in the match with a clothesline and DDT that didn't look right. They were able to recover enough though.

[jastrau97]

Why do we have an English ring announcer here? Slow matwork to start with a focus on Choshu's knee, including a long figure four spot. Choshu's backdrop suplex gets a pretty big big crowd pop. Muto's hot stretch sees him break out a a moonsault and dive, pulling out all the stops against the champ. Nice finish with Muto withstanding one lariat but not a few. Reminiscent of a low-rent Misawa-Hansen in that regard.

***1/4