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J-Crown Title J-Crown Tournament Final Match: The Great Sasuke (c) vs. Ultimo Dragon (c)
What a disappointment this turned out to be. And what is worse is that any excuses for injuries don’t work since 1, it happens towards the finish, and 2, they did a lot of high spots but the issue was putting it all together in an interesting fashion. The effort to deliver was there from both but it never came together. It felt like things were happening but the hook of two maniacs in the ring never came to its full fruition. **1/2
G1 Climax 1996 Block B Match: Masahiro Chono vs. Kazuo Yamazaki
Another awesome Chono bout. And he gets the win which was very important going into the final day. Kazuo Yamazaki had a hot fire start, attacking Chono before the bell, which is unsportsmanlike for him (the fans didn’t care though) before trying for a quick submission win, going for the arm of Chono. Chono is strong and skillful enough to stay calm and defend against the submissions. From there, the match became more of a battle of the limb work with both guys being mainly focused on that aspect of the match, adapting to each moment as it comes. This was a match with few high spots but full of compelling grappling with a cool finish. ***1/2
G1 Climax 1996 Block A Match: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Riki Choshu
Like I said before, this was supposed to be Kensuke Sasaki’s big moment, beating his mentor and trainer but Hirata’s injury changed the booking and Choshu has to win instead. Sasaki will get his win eventually but not today. On top of the Mentor/Student aspect, Choshu is sporting a knee injury in the match, making him, effectively, the underdog. Sasaki works aggressive and stiff, out-powering Choshu in the initial exchanges and for most of the match. Choshu does great in his limited capacity, selling well, especially when trying to make his comeback which Sasaki cuts off.. Sasaki goes for the kill with his Stranglehold attempts and then his lariats but he got caught when he messed up his seoi-nage move and Choshu wrapped around him like a snake and applied a sleeper for seemingly ages. Sasaki fought and fought but the ref called it when he became unresponsive, allowing Choshu the eventual points that would allow him to be a finalist, with Hirata injured. A great finish in my eyes. Plus there is more in the aftermath: Sasaki wakes up and is mad at the ref, leading to Choshu to hit a lariat and pseudo pin him for the 3. Kind of a odd burial there but it was different. ***1/2
G1 Climax 1996 Block B Match: Keiji Muto vs. Shiro Koshinaka
This was very well done. Structured in a way that sort of mirrored the Juniors but the transition from the grappling to the nearfalls was much more effective and made sense for the match. Plus the grappling was really good, although never going anywhere. But then they started to do more technical high spots such as dragon screw counters, which led to Koshiaka getting a quick advantage and that led into the big closing stretch which was fantastic in parts. Heated and frantic in a competitive way. I thought this was one of the stronger matches of the G1 and was a very good main event. ****
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