[1991-04-30-NJPW-Explosion Tour] Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This feels like the time period when Hase was at his best. Athletically, he is an animal in this. The snap in his execution and the way he applies holds is really crisp and intense. Choshu as the elder statesman who doesn't have to do as much as his opponents because every single he does he makes count is a dynamic I always enjoy. Sasaki and Fujinami are fine, and Choshu was good, but in the end, it was Hase who stood out to me more than anyone. Solid match.

[shoe]

I enjoyed this and it had a battle of the guards to it. I thought Hase was great here with a lot of the nuances. I thought Choshu brought the holy shit factor with some of those lariats. This had a lot of drama to it and built to a satisfying conclusion .

[Childs]

I liked this a bunch and thought it made an awesome 1-2 pairing with Liger-Honaga. I agree that Hase was very good in the match, but honestly, everyone brought plenty of intensity. I've liked young Sasaki a lot more than expected as the power-explosiveness complement to Hase the workhorse. Choshu was one of the great tag wrestlers of all time because of his ability to make the big moments count. And he certainly did that here with those lariats. No fat on this match.

[PeteF3]

Definitely a standout performance from Hase, who clearly seems to be a superior worker as an underneath heavyweight than as a junior. His offense was awesome and his selling as Fujinami & Choshu tore apart his lower body at the end was just as good. Fun clothesline-fest of a match, with Hase & Sasaki using teamwork to maintain advantages but just not being able to overcome the innate veteranness of their opponents.

[Kevin Ridge]

Felt a bit down on this after watching Liger/Honaga but agreed on Hase performance in match. Hase tapped out very quickly on figure four. Bit too fast for my taste as far as drama but Choshu/Fujinami were working it over pretty good.

[soup23]

Really liked this one a lot as it represented a old vs. new premise in New Japan that would really come into play later in the year with clear assertion of Muto/Chono. Good beefy action and a dramatic finish with the old guys picking up a big victory. Both all Japan and New Japan had two great shows in April.

[Zenjo]

The action was decent enough as a stand alone, but this was severely lacking in structure and psychology. There was no overriding theme to the match, and with veterans vs youngsters this should have been straightforward to do. Guys just got in the ring and worked a few minutes before tagging out. There were no beatdowns or periods of momentum. It stood out how much Sasaki was trying to be Rikki Jnr. The former tag champs gained nothing in defeat and I didn't like the booking.

[garretta]

I thought this was very good, but I agree that it did no favors for the former champs. To be fair, though, Fujinami had a date with Flair at SuperBrawl, so it was in NJPW's best interest to portray him as unstoppable. I like the way they worked over Hase's knee with the scorpion to set up the winning figure four from Fujinami, and I don't think it was a coincidence that he used the figure four as his winning hold. New Japan was probably trying to promote Fujinami as superior to Flair in every way, so why not have him steal Flair's hold and get quick submissions with it?

 

I don't know how much was made of the historic feud between Fujinami and Choshu here, but they certainly worked together well for former sworn enemies. Even at his age, Choshu is a tough old buzzard that can both give a hellacious bearing and take one.

 

We'll get a better idea of how these teams match up if there's ever a match booked between them when Fujinami's not getting a (justifiable) monster push. For what this was, this was good. The only question now is, what's going to happen to Sasaki and Hase after back-to-back high-profile losses (the first one being to the Steiners at the Dome show)?

[dawho5]

Weird spot early on where Choshu is in trouble and Fujinami is smiling on the apron. Choshu in short bursts is always the best Choshu. Fun heavyweight match but could have used a better overarcing story than young guys vs. old guys.