NJPW New Japan Pro Wrestling Vs. UWF International - 09/10/1995

Tokimitsu Ishizawa & Yuji Nagata vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara & Kazushi Sakuraba

In another universe, this could’ve been a very promising Junior Division, Nagata aside as he is clearly one for the future in the promotion. But a young Kendo Kashin was rather decent and Kanehara and Sakuraba were already very good low mid-carders in UWFI. Nagata once again shows his weight, being able to best Kanehara in the lock up exchange, taking Kanehara then mounting him. I noticed Kanehara wears little padding on his feet, which is unconventional considering the UWF look is the kick pads, like what Sakurabara wore. The New Japan side decided to do some cutesy double leg locks that popped the crowd but Sakuraba was able to fight out of it. Ishizawa had a cool look, constantly posturing for a takedown in an amateur style sort of way, avoiding Sakuraba’s low kicks before shooting for the take down. There is an awesome exchange where Nagata catches a kick from Kanehara and Kanehara throws wild hands and throws spinning heel kicks, then connects with a few up kicks when on the ground to try to escape the obvious heel hook that was coming next. Instead Nagata plants him with a suplex before tagging out. Tempers flared once or twice when it came to breaking in the ropes. Ishizawa was resistant to breaking his waistlock advantages. The New Japan duo show their worth once again when Ishizawa taps out Sakuraba (wow, I can’t believe I said that) after stuffing the takedown and locking in a triangle. Yet another NJPW V UWFI match where the New Japan wrestlers clearly look like the stronger and more skilled wrestlers. I’m not sure whether that was by design or not but it doesn’t matter to me. It comes off great as a match. A strong start to the Tokyo Dome event. ***1/2

Shinjiro Otani vs. Kenichi Yamamoto

The pre-match clips of Yuji Nagata training Otani how to block strikes was cool. The whole show feels like a semi-shoot fight show with things like these. But it still has the magic of a pro wrestling event instead of a Pancrase event. Yamamoto, despite never being that greatly pushed in UWFI or RINGS, was one of the more accomplished (although not better) shooters of the lot. While his record wasn’t that great, he won a UFC title There is a brief stand-up before Otani quickly shoots for the take down and has to be warned by the ref in order to refrain from hitting a closed fist in the mount. Otani has some swanky movement on the mat, allowing him to easily take Yamamoto’s back before going back to pro wrestling by violently yanking the hair and throwing Yamamoto out of the ring. Otani continues being a pissy guy, standing on Yamamoto’s face. All malicious. Yamamoto throws some good kicks that caught a refs count but gets floored once more by a takedown. He is able to get Otani in his guard but Otani grabs the hair and transitions into the cross armbreaker. Yamamoto continues to find success with his striking though, and then once with a german suplex into a cross armbreaker. Otani nails an ugly spinning kick and then a dropkick and drops Yamamoto with two dragon suplexes and taps Yamamoto out with a double wrist lock to add insult to injury. Yamamoto tries to regain his heat afterwards by shouting at Otani on the house mic but it’s futile. Otani was awesome. Imagine this match in front of a UWFI crowd and imagine the heat it would’ve gotten. ***1/4

Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Takashi Iizuka

Ah 1995, the days where Takashi Iizuka was an underpushed quality wrestler and Takayama was a lanky, skinny midcarder. Takayama is pretty fired up at the start. He threw some knees to the face and then even attempted a dropkick. He was the first of the UWFI shooters that didn’t look outclassed in the grappling department, being aggressive on the mat but also being wise to counters, whereas the previous lot seemed passive. Iizuka is able to snag a leg and jumps on it before trying for an ankle lock but Takayama was able to escape. Iizuka gets some success with suplexes, hitting two Uranages (Shout out Hiroshi Hase). Takayama was able to escape the following crossface chickenwing and double wrist-lock to apply his own armbar to win. The weakest match of the first three of the matches so far but it’s the first for the UWFI team. **1/2

Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Naoki Sano

The fifth and final instalment to the Liger and Sano series. Smartly, UWFI’s Naoki Sano wins the match to give them a very good win against New Japan’s ace junior heavyweight. They mostly get boned in terms of wins on the shows where it matters but Choshu does give them certain important wins, such as these. Perhaps I’m being kind as Choshu showed constantly when he had control of the Junior Heavyweights, that he had no care or regard for them, Liger in particular. Nevertheless, this is a good win. The match was all kinds of good. A very good match to put on the middle of the card. It was a good throwback to the 80s style of wrestling that the Junior Division had back then with great submission wrestling, a nice back and forth tempo and some aerial wrestling to please the contemporary Junior fans. The match begins as Sano rushes Liger with a kick before doing the stand up stance, in a cheeky sort of way. Liger immediately fired back with a palm strike and then attempted a dive but Sano came back in the ring, stopping that. Liger has always been more wrestling driven than people remember so this isn’t anything particularly special or different for Liger matches. There is a fancy monkey flip knuckle lock spot that gets turned into an armbar. Sano is calm and patient with his movements but Liger is crafty and is able to get Sano stuck in a position that allows Liger to do the Manji Gatame. Liger once again goes for the plancha but misses! Even more stunning, Sano goes for a tope and connects, getting the biggest crowd reaction of the night thus far. Liger was able to reverse the arm-breaker and turn it into his surfboard, which hurt Sano’s leg and Liger dropkicks the knee for good measure. Sano regained the match control with an STF but Liger came back with a back suplex. He abandons the UWFI style so more doing a cannonball in the corner, hitting a piledriver and going to the top rope but missing, allowing Sano to get back on top. I thought the finishing stretch was pretty cool. Liger got caught with a spinning back kick to the face and then got knocked out by a Dragon Suplex and then a Tiger Supex. ***1/2

Riki Choshu vs. Yoji Anjo

Choshu’s performance, or perhaps his attitude on this show is more or less the talking point outside of the main event but if the match turns out like anything like the tag team match on the September 23rd show, I’m perfectly sound with a 5 minute version of that. And it does that. They immediately run each other into ropes; first with Anjo doing knees and Choshu then throwing headbutts in the corner. Anjo goes for the arm but Choshu trips him. Anjo blocks well with a half guard, not once giving Choshu an in to cheap shot him. Anjo tried to unload some strikes but Choshu wasn’t affected. The crowd came ALIVE when Choshu hit some strikes which forced Anjo to the floor. Anjo transitions into a kneebar which forces the rope break and hits some low-kicks but Choshu wasn’t having that. Anjo was clearly trying to survive Choshu by this point, barely escaping the attempted Scorpion Hold but once Choshu hit a lariat, the Scorpion Hold was easily applied. This was a fun match. Choshu is such a presence that anything he’s involved in has some worth to it. ***1/4

Kensuke Sasaki vs. Masahito Kakihara

Kensuke Sasaki in many ways is a Riki Choshu clone and he adopts a much similar mindset towards the UWFI shooters as Choshu did. Only worse. Kakihara is wild with the palm strikes and kicks but Sasaki outright no sells them. Kakihara gets caught and tries to sit down on Sasaki, who impressively lifts Kakihara to hit a capture suplex. Sasaki works the arm, doing his Strangle Hold and then a double wrist lock. Sasaki continues to bully Kakihara, being able to break out of the guard by slamming Kakihara off the floor. Kakihara is able to get little things here and there but Sasaki is always quick to counter it. Countering it is one thing but there is no time for any drama to be implemented in the hold before Sasaki gets out of it. He does allow Kakihara to get into his guard by lying on the floor in the classic Inoki style of way but he takes the top quickly and locks on a tight headlock. Kakihara plants Sasaki with a nice palm strike but he then shoots for the leg. Sasaki stands then exposing the spot with a bemused look on his face before taking Kakihara’s back. Poor Kakihara. Sasaki’s nose is bleeding, likely from the palm strikes and he reacts furiously with a kick, which Kakihara blocks. Kakihara was finally able to get a meaningful knee bar on Sasaki who tapped out. Good for Kakihara but Sasaki didn’t really put him over. I found that appealing in a certain respect but Kakihara definitely got boned in this match. **1/2

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Tatsuo Nakano

There are two Doinks!!!! It’s funny how similar these two are in some ways. More are pudgy kickers who can really hurt their opponents when they snap. Hashimoto is the bigger of the two and makes use of it, pushing Nakano around the ring and into the ropes. Hashimoto is able to lock on a double wrist lock from a knuckle lock exchange but Nakano is able to loosen the grip a little. Nakano stalls Hashimoto’s moment with a long waist lock, which is pragmatic and effective as it led to a german suplex and a cross armbreaker. Hashimoto reacts wonderfully to that trap as well. He throws nasty chops to the throat and stiff leg kicks which Nakano takes full force. Nakano is able to survive the flurry and subsequent brainbuster attempt, locking on a sleeper for more -pragmaticism. He goes for a double leg takedown but Hashimoto hits a DDT. Nakano stood but was rocked. Hashimoto hits two kicks and finally hits the brainbuster. And Hashimoto submits him with a bad arm triangle. Good match. That’s what I wanted to see from these two. I enjoyed Nakano’s simple lay and pray tactics. Too many wrestlers are afraid to kill the match with that approach but it works for this setting. ***

IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Keiji Muto (c) vs. Nobuhiko Takada

Main event time! Come on guys, $6.1 Millon live gate, a claimed number of 57,000. It’s time to shine. It must have been amazing to imagine this match at the time. Takada looked like the future of the company before he left for UWF Newborn and Mutoh was also one for the future at the time too. And fast forward 7 years later and they are the stars they seemed destined to be. Takada goes for a leg lock, right away but Mutoh is wise to it and tries to do some leg submissions of his own before opting out of engaging further. This is a tense match with a lot of thinking attached to it. And for good reason. It allows for moments like Mutoh attempting a Judo throw but Takada getting out of it. They move around on the mat before Takada attempts a heel hook. Mutoh escapes just as well but he’s passive in his wrestling, doing very little except moving around Takada, not really interested in trying for submission holds but he does break up the lack of action for spurts like his spinning elbow, which misses, and then kicks, which do connect. Takada low kicks Mutoh, targeting his knees in response. Takada snags a knee bar but the rope saves Mutoh. Takada smacks Mutoh in the mouth with a head kick but Mutoh takes it like a champ and suplexes Takada around to big pops before attempting the moonsault. Takada kicks Mutoh on the floor and tries for the cross armbreaker. Mutoh desperately blocks, giving the match the first proper submission spot of the match with any real drama. Takada’s striking was good in the match. He brutalises Mutoh’s knee and legs. Takada drops Mutoh with a back suplex and the armbreaker is tried once more! Mutoh is in clear danger by this point, hurt by the kicks, showing his selling chops in the process. Mutoh catches Takada’s kick and hits the dragon screw, then applying the Figure Four and the crowd erupts. Takada tries to block it but his arm is too weak to hold Mutoh’s leg up in the air for long enough, leading to a rope break. Takada is able to stop the second attempt, hitting kicks which stun Mutoh briefly. The figure four is applied once again and it turns into what will give out first - the leg or the arm. Takada shockingly gives up, stunning the crowd. Mutoh taps out the real wrestler! The match definitely lived up to the height by the end but Mutoh’s passiveness earlier in the match, while not totally boring, caps the match due to the inactivity. The back-end is a hell of a match though. Great strikes and strong use of the Figure Four leglock. ***1/2

The Dome show, aside from being huge and remains one of the biggest shows in wrestling history, is a very good show with a lot of very good matches. The opener is probably the best match from start to finish but the main event peaks very high.