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[2000-01-04-NJPW-Wrestling World 2000] Shinya Hashimoto & Takashi Iizuka vs Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami


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Love this match and haven't got a heap to add to all the previous excellent observations.

 

A few things I have to mention. 1) Murakami is the bomb. 2) It's super refreshing to see someone apply a realistic triangle choke in a pro wrestling match for once. 3) I loved the realism of the finish, when you're in a RNC like that you either tap immediately or pass the f*** out. Murakami portrayed this perfectly. Excellent psychology.

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This is a shining example of Inoki’s shoot fetish working. The shoot style brawling with Murakami and Iizuka right off the bat was great and became greater when Hashimoto started throwing. The pull-apart built up to a crescendo when inoki and his stick re-started the match. Then we saw more great ground and pound from Murakami and Iizuka fighting out. Hashimoto tagging in and kicking Murakami’s head off made my day. The show-down with Hashimoto and Ogawa was epic, especially with Hash taking his glove off and slapping Ogawa. Their spill to the floor with Hash trying to destroy Ogawa’s arm while Iizuka came back and got the rear naked choke in the ring was fantastic. Loved this.

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Vacillates wildly between completely falling apart into a hot mess and the most intense, wild bomb throwing fest you'll ever clap eyes on. I've seen the Hash/Ogawa matches before but never this one and I think it's very interesting to compare the two. With Murakami and Izuka in there as well this feels more poised in terms of the variety of stories that can be told and the tag structure makes for obscenely satisfying pacing r.e the bigger spots (usally suplex or strike flurry based) because of the ebb and flow or having different combos in there.

Considering Ogawa/Hash is a feud that is often pointed to as an example of the worst excesses of Inokism (although I have to say, I love the matches) in terms of eventually removing a lot of the aura surrounding one of his best draws, this match really manages to keep everyone looking incredibly strong and really jumps off the screen as one of the hottest feuds on the entire planet at that point.

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This was fun and everything, but it felt like more of an angle or a segment to me than a fully fleshed out match. Hashimoto's charisma and fire carried things nicely, but am I the only one who thinks that by slimming down he lost some of his aura? I mean I get that Ogawa was this huge, monumental challenge and that he needed to get into the best shape of his career to stand any chance of beating him, but he's not as badass as the rotund Hashimoto. Still the baddest man in the match, though. It's kind of hard putting yourself into the mindset for this considering that Ogawa never really went anywhere, and Ogawa kind of sucks... The STO is like a shoot style version of the Rock Bottom except that the Rock Bottom is probably a better move... but it does come across as a strong angle if you ignore how maligned "Inokism" is, and I can understand why this thread has a couple of pages of people saying they love it as I imagine it appeals to most people's pro-wrestling sensibilities. But personally I'm not sure it was better than the Chono vs. Anjoh feud. Hashimoto's intensity may have been, but Anjoh's work lapped circles around anything Iizuka, Murakami or Ogawa did so I'm leaning toward this being in the same ballpark.

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Oh my holy Christ I've somehow never seen this. Unbelievable atmosphere, wild Tokyo Dome crowd, and the crazy bloody mayhem at the beginning did not hurt that. Everyone's so nutso violent in this that when they're standing on the apron calmly, and not pacing like crazed guard dogs, it almost seems completely out of place. Hashimoto/Ogawa being a flop yet still being something that felt like a big deal is such a testament to Hashimoto's aura. Hashimoto giving Murakami some time to lay off of Iizuka before getting fed up, blasting his a couple times, then calling Ogawa in the ring was a total six stars moment. His timing of surprise! spots (like the headbutt here) is completely ludicrous. I swear to fuck I feel like I could play-by-play every single offense move Hash has ever done and feel like I could spent two sentences explaining why it reasonably adds to the match it's taking place in. I could watch this twelve times over right now.

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  • 1 month later...

I wasn't going to watch much of the AJ/NJ/NOAH stuff for this project because I've seen so much of it already and don't have much to say about it, but I figured I'd rewatch this one since it's literally a top 50 match of all-time for me. Good god, the atmosphere from this right from the start is so intense. Iizuka and Hashimoto wearing shoot gloves lets you know from the start that Shit Is On~ and this is going to be wild. And how wacky is it that this match begins with Hash and Ogawa showing such restraint and class as it's Murakami and Iizuka who go at it to start. Murakami is one of the meanest fucking dickheads in the history of wrestling, and he is just so good here. He takes down Iizuka with ease. He goes and grabs a mic that (apparently) isn't even plugged in at first. Then the AV department figures it out and he starts yelling as Hash. Then Hash begins to fuck him up and the crowd goes bonkers. Then they finally get the next chapter of the Hashimoto/Ogawa saa, and it is perfectly uncooperative and chaotic.

 

Then we get a bell for a DQ/no contest and trash starts being thrown. This is the real main event of this show, do not be fooled by the card placement. Iizuka's skull is probably fractured again, who knows. Hashimoto gets on the mic and calls the shooters a couple of fucc bois (presumably) and orders the match to be restarted (I guess?) and the Inoki gets in with his big stick (lol) and restarts the match. What the hell is even going on.

 

Match is restarted and Iizuka gets a cross armbreaker on Murakami and the whole Dome is losing their collective shit. This is maybe Iizuka's greatest performance. It's either this or the NJ vs. AJ tag from December 2000. Murakami makes it to his feet and goes for a spin kick but gets GRAPPLED and ends up struggling for the ropes. Man, everyone is so good in this. Murakami is fighting from his back in an incredible display of desperation as Iizuka tags in Hash. Hash lets them fight for a moment, then obliterates Murakami with a pair of kicks. Holy shit. The struggle between Spirit vs. Skill here is palpable, it's an easy story to tell in theory, but to tell it this well requires months (years) of build and some very talented and willing individuals. The moment we finally get Ogawa vs. Hashimoto is electrifying. Ogawa keeps his distance with skillfully placed kicks, but at some point Hash gets in close and just headbutts that ugly motherfucker in the jaw and it's brilliant. Then he just rains blows upon him until Ogawa has to roll outside. Hash tears off one of his MMA gloves and starts throwing open palms. This rules. It's honestly better every time I see it.

 

Hashimoto's reluctance to work the ground against Ogawa is such logical storytelling. He just flat out refuses, gets him to come back to his feet, and deadlifts him for one of the ugliest, sloppiest, realest looking suplexes I've ever seen. When he finally does end up in Ogawa's triangle, the crowd immediately gets quiet. Hash then makes the ropes and Ogawa doesn't let get for a good ten seconds. The sequence that follows is incredible, with Ogawa just STOing everyone, mounting Hashimoto, and then Iizuka dropkicks his ugly mug off and out of the ring. Things break down further, Hashimoto maintains some kind of hold on Ogawa on the floor, and Iizuka gets the ultimate redemption by CHOKING MURAKAMI OUT for the win.

 

Post-match is more chaos. I wrote a lot here. This match rules. Best thing in the project so far. I've seen this match probably ten times and I love it more each time. So many little details. Total chaos. This is the best kind of pro wrestling.

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  • 2 months later...

This was my first time watching this, and I don't think I've got anything new or revelatory to add but I thought all 4 guys were amazing in this.

 

I often think back to a quote that I think Samoa Joe said Hash told him about intensity and fire being in your eyes, and those pre-match staredowns totally made you believe shit was gonna go down. Murakami picking up the mic and shit talking was amazing, as was Hash's 'gloves off' moment. I loved the finish too, pitch perfect and the way the choke was sunk in made you believe that was the f'n finish!

 

This whole thing just had a wild, chaotic and organic feel to it that is very much missing from most wrestling today. ****1/2

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  • 3 weeks later...

Years after his introduction to NJPW, and the beginning of his heated feud with Hashi, Ogawa is still running rampant throughout the promotion and Hashimoto still hates his fucking guts. The opening moments elicited a “what the hell am I watching?!” reaction due to the Murakami storming out the gates and beating the living shit out of Iizuka. I mean, the fight is so intense that Inoki has to enter the ring, attired with a pimping white tracksuit, and threaten each man with a large stick. UNREAL~!




Hash takes no prisoners, either, in his quest to fight Ogawa. Sensing Murakami won’t let up any time soon, Hashimoto calmly walks into the ring and kicks his head off, before gesturing for Ogawa to bring it. And boy do they bring it in front of this molten hot crowd.


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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

The Hashimoto/Ogawa interactions were off the charts. What am I saying, this whole match was off the charts. There's only one thing I didn't get, was the hair cutting at the start? Murakami comes off like the biggest dbag at the party, and the finish payed it off perfectly.

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This one of the best representations of what pro wrestling is to me. Wild, chaotic, sketchy, weird, a spectacle, all of it. Ive always seen this as like New Japans version of Memphis. A red hot brawl with internal psychology, but with much more going on outside of the in-ring action. I think Iizuka might be my favorite performance here, although everyone is so great its hard to pick a favorite. Him as the underdog who fights and scraps to get an armbar on murakami, and later a leglock. He even gets some strikes in and eventually he picks up the win! Iizuka has a fascinating career with his high end tag matches, between this, Wrestlewar, and the AJPW vs NJPW tag.

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  • 1 month later...

The crowd was crazy from the start to the end of this match, you could feel the hate between the teams. Great match, with great heat on the biggest stage. I really liked the match but these are not my personal favorite matches, I personally prefer a more athletic match than a shoot-style mixed with some real hatred which I don't really find in most shoot-style matches I have seen. I still would call this a four star match though.

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As far as I know, this is one of the first New Japan matches that I remember watching since I began getting semi-heavy into wrestling outside of major leagues 90s promotions. Ive seen it probably a dozen times and heard maybe a few dozen people talk about it, but man alive I love that the general consensus about this match/segment is that it is fuckin great because Big Daves 3 star rating is atrocious.

 

Yall have said a lot already about this and I was going to skip it for this project because I have it rated, as well

Familiar with it and everything, but this is one of those matches that doesnt get old to me. This is one that matches the intensity with the proper length and the atmosphere and its just awesome. I dont care about context, what came before and what came after, because right here, for these 22 minutes you get the best of wrestling. Going into this project, this is my favorite match of 2000 and while I wouldnt be surprised if something supplants it, because it isnt perfect - its a fuckin joy.

 

I love this and probably always will. 4.75/5

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  • 4 months later...

Man, the first few minutes of this are brilliant. Murakami coming out right away looking like a completely prick destroying Iizuka, leading to a super heated Hashimoto vs. Murakami exchange, followed by Ogawa stepping in. It feels completely chaotic and unhinged, and the crowd is there for it. The stoppage and restart works here and actually feels warranted and not too ham-fisted as can happen with these things. Love that Iizuka is still recovering while all of the craziness is going on. Then upon the restart, Murakami attacks again, but Iizuka counters with a great armbar, then shows tons of fire in his comeback.

 

Everything in this match feels like it serves a purpose. The Hashimoto kick to Muakami is SICK, and for a second it looks like Ogawa realizes he doesn't want anything to do with Hashimoto. The Iizuka/Murakami exchanges are what really glues the whole match together, and the finish was incredible too. My only complaint is that it could have gone on a few minutes longer, and if it did it would be an all-time great. Still pretty great anyway.

 

****1/2

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  • GSR changed the title to [2000-01-04-NJPW-Wrestling World 2000] Shinya Hashimoto & Takashi Iizuka vs Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami

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