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MAR.27.2020

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The week that was in NJPW World history (March 21-27)

An unprecedented March without new events is certainly a shame, but the NJPW World archives continue to provide, including these picks from the past week in history!

 

March 21, 1991: Double Gold Dragon

We start this week by going to the Tokyo Dome, and NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair facing IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami with both titles at stake. Starrcade ’91 in Tokyo Dome had been built around the concept of America and Japan’s finest wrestlers tying up, and the main event was the absolute epitome of that idea. Fujinami and Flair were two masters of their field in their absolute primes in 1991, and the match was as competitive as the crowd was fervent. Mat mastery would eventually give away to rougher tactics however, both men spilling to the floor, and Flair bloodied by a guardrail outside. 

Then, controversy. Referee Bill Alfonso, representing WCW, tried to get Flair and Fujinami into the ring as both brawled outside. Both champions listened to his commands, Fujinami following Flair in, with Alfonso in the rear. Flair charged at Fujinami, who ducked as the American referee went flying out of the ring. 

Flair soon followed as Fujinami sent him tumbling over the top rope. As the NWA Champion tried to get back inside, the IWGP champ  caught him with a suplex, and went for a cover. Back-up referee Tiger Hattori slid in to count the three, and the Tokyo Dome crowd exploded as Fujinami left with the NWA and IWGP Championships. 

While Fujinami’s double title win was celebrated in Japan, the situation was different in the US. While Alfonso was incapacitated and unable to call the end of the match, he did see Flair tumble over the top rope right at his feet; under NWA rules of the time, a disqualification. Hattori’s three count would have been legal were this contested under NJPW/IWGP rules, but not in WCW/NWA’s. Fujinami’s NWA reign went unrecognized in the States, and he and Flair wrestled again to settle the issue back in the US, in Florida that May; a match Flair won to become undisputed NWA Champion, while Fujinami retained the IWGP.

Relive the match here!

 

March 23, 2013: Rainstealer?

One of the most disappointing things about the unfortunate cancellation of the New Japan Cup was that the brackets were so very tantalising. An extremely competitive field of 32 was present, sure, but so was the promise of tag partners facing tag partners in multiple matches across the brackets. Indeed one of the most intriguing aspects in a tournament like the Cup is the element of every man being in it for themselves. faction members frequently clash with no love lost, and that was the case in 2013 when Kazuchika Okada, trying to make it to the finals of his first New Japan Cup, had to beat Toru Yano in the semi-finals to do so. 

Yano for his part had been in every New japan Cup since 2006, and the iron man of cup history was only a couple of matches away from taking his first trophy. Beating Okada to do so however, would take all his physical skill and mental wiles…

Relive the match here!

March 24 1994: Young Bull Powers

March 24 1994 saw the finals of the Young Lion Cup in Kyoto. A seven man league in 1994, the tournament was missing the prior year’s winner Hiroyoshi Tenzan, as he went on excursion to Europe after his win. The remaining members of the Third Generation then, had a lot of focus upon them, and were shining bright. As well as future top junior heavyweight stars Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Yuji Nagata was prominent this year too, but Manabu Nakanishi and Satoshi Kojima were the top names to watch. 

An incredible campaign for Kojima had seen him positively blow through the cup field, with wins against every opponent in the group stage to put himself in the final. That included a win over Nakanishi that served as sweet revenge after the young ‘yajin’ defeated Kojima one year prior during the cup.

Nakanishi had an impressive run of his own though, and his only loss during the league stage was against Kojima. This final, then, had much at stake when it came to not only determining the Young Lion Cup winner but also serving as the rubber match in a tournament rivalry between the two muscle bound young stars.

Relive the match here!

March 25, 2018: Liger in Long Beach

After successful summer 2017 G1 Special events in California that saw instant sellouts and the new IWGP United States Championship inaugurated, 2018 saw NJPW on a larger scale on the West Coast. In March that meant Strong Style Evolved from the Walter Pyramid, and a dream junior heavyweight matchup on the table. 

A video message earlier in the year from legendary high flier Rey Mysterio Junior declared that he would be coming to NJPW, and coming with the intention of wrestling Jyushin Thunder Liger one on one. In Rey’s long career, he had spent time in Japan, but in WAR and not NJPW, and had wrestled Liger once in 1996, but in WCW, again, not in the cerulean blue. A rarely seen matchup was made all the more fresh in the circumstances, and anticipation was immense.

Sadly, just days before the bout was to take place, an injury forced Mysterio out of the running. The dream match was off the card, but a phenomenal replacement was on. Will Ospreay took on Liger one on one instead, as Mysterio watched on from ringside, and a Villain waited in the wings…

Relive the match here!

March 26 1987: Last chance in Osaka

One of the featured matches of Fighting Spirit Live in Osaka Jo Hall in 1986 saw not only IWGP Tag Team Championship gold on the line, but a good deal of personal and professional pride. 

A match made official on short notice, Akira Maeda and Nobuhiko Takada took on Keiji Muto and Shiro Koshinaka in a rematch from the Korakuen Hall main event just six days earlier. There, Muto and Koshinaka were victorious to become IWGP Tag Team Championships after the titles were vacated by Tatsumi Fujinami and Kengo Kimura in February; that team deciding to go their separate ways with Fujinami focusing on singles competition. 

It would, incredibly be the only time new champions would be crowned in Korakuen for almost 33 years, but the new fighting champions were not going to have time to rest on their laurels. Akira Maeda in particular had been vocal about regaining the tag team championship gold he had held with Osamu Kido the prior year, and in so doing, earn power for the UWF.

Maeda had been the centerpiece of the UWF promotion in its brief existence through 1984, and when the UWF contingent returned to New Japan, he was the most incendiary of its members. Meanwhile, ‘Incendiary’ was certainly the word to describe his relationship with Muto.

Muto’s generation of Young Lion trainees had worked in tough high pressure conditions when promising young figures like Maeda and  Takada suddenly left NJPW to form the UWF in the first place. when the UWF contingent returned, Muto was especially resentful, and words and vicious blows would be exchanged not just in the ring, but with cameras off outside of it too. This all resulted in a powder keg of a tag team match for the sold out Osaka crowd.

Relive the match here!

 

 

 

 

 

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