NJPW Battle Final 1993
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Shinya Hashimoto (c) vs. Keiji Muto - NJPW Battle Final 1993 - Day 18 10/12/1993
The match worried me a bit with the really boring grappling portions of the match. It wasn’t the usual Muto lazy stuff, they were fairly snug and clearly tried to give the match a grand feeling and a big build. But it just failed to be interesting until they moved out of that. But the latter stages of the match more than made up for it with its drama and epic sequences with Muto invading Hashimoto’s dangerous kicks and strikes. The crowd once they woke up were rabid for this. It’s clear what they were going for but it only half worked. ***1/4
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Shinya Hashimoto (c) vs. Power Warrior - NJPW Battle Final 1993 - Day 20 13/12/1993
What a way to end the year on. A very non-descript title match that didn’t capture my attention. Not too big on Power Warrior as a singles wrestler. Kensuke Sasaki yes but this is not that. But it was fine and had a hot crowd. **1/4
Year End Awards
Match Of The Year: Hiroshi Hase vs. Masahiro Chono - NJPW G1 Climax 1993 - Day 5 05/08/1993
This was a real surprise. It’s praised by most people that watch it but this really blew me away at the highest degree. I was very close in giving Chono vs Hase the full 5 stars. Most people prefer their matches to be fast paced but I like a deliberate, slower pace to my matches to fully capture the little details that go into matches like these. And this is full of them. But not only that, they are able to fully capitalize on that to great effect. But this also has the feeling of an epic, grand main event with a rousing crowd. The submission work was immense from both, the use of strikes and slams was excellent. It was just a near perfect match.
Wrestler Of The Year: Genichiro Tenryu
There were only two real contenders for WOTY in 1993 with Tenryu being one and Hiroshi Hase being the other. However Hase’s claim didn’t really get going until the Summer. His peaks were the most entertaining aspects of the year but there wasn’t enough in the full year unlike Tenryu who was around from January to September. Tenryu was able to have the classic Dome main event with Riki Choshu, extra heated tag matches with his fellow WAR wrestlers against New Japan and a few great clash of the bull matches with Hase and Hashimoto later in the year. Great year for Genichiro Tenryu who deservedly won the MVP Award in the Tokyo Sports Awards too.
Feud Of The Year: WAR vs New Japan
Man different components in this one. You have the head of the feud in Riki Choshu vs Genichiro Tenryu which transforms into Tenryu vs Shinya Hashimoto. The side feud between Fujinami and Takashi Ishikawa was really good, including the Dome show. Hase vs Fuyuki was pretty cool as well. Just a really good feud.
Most Disappointing Match Of The Year: Great Muta vs. Masahiro Chono - 04/01/1993
After having two classic matches in 1991 and 1993, I was hoping that the 93 edition would be good as well but that was not to be the case. The Great Muta gimmick fails again to give a great performance and Chono wasn’t much better.
Top Five Matches Of The Year:
1. Hiroshi Hase vs. Masahiro Chono - 6/8/1993
2. Hiroshi Hase vs. Shinya Hashimoto - 3/8/1993
3. Shinya Hashimoto vs. Genichiro Tenryu - 8/8/1993
4. Hiroshi Hase, Osamu Kido, Riki Choshu, Takayuki Iizuka & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Ashura Hara, Genichiro Tenryu, Hiromichi Fuyuki, Koki Kitahara & Takashi Ishikawa - 16/2/1993
5. Akira Nogami, Keiji Muto & Shinya Hashimoto vs Ashura Hara, Genichiro Tenryu & Takashi Ishikawa - 5/2/1993
See you next time with Tenryu vs Inoki! I believe 1994 is where the action gets a little more "Juniorish". :)
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