NAVIGATE FOR EVOLUTION

February 17, 2002

Jyushin “Thunder” Lyger . . . whips the NOAH crowd into an absolute frenzy!

Takeshi Morishima . . . takes a man-sized beating from Team No Fear, enroute to winning his first title.

Yuji Nagata . . . appears to take out all of his recent frustrations on Kenta Kobashi’s left knee.

JYUSHIN LYGER/WATARU INOUE vs. YOSHINOBU KANEMARU/TSUYOSHI KIKUCHI

Strictly from a work standpoint this isn’t much of a match, but Lyger and Kikuchi put on a total clinic for heat mongering and keeping the crowd invested. The main reason that the work isn’t up to snuff is because Lyger leaves most of the actual wrestling to Wataru, who was only a couple of years into his career and still working young lion matches. Wataru does his best to match Lyger’s attitude, but he comes up short everywhere else. Other than his two big submissions, the Octopus and Triangle Lancer, all he has is typical young lion offense. That might have worked out alright for him if Kikuchi were paired up with KENTA or Kotaro Suzuki, but the grizzled vet and the former GHC Jr. Champion aren’t exactly threatened by his headlocks and dropkicks. A perfect example is after Lyger does some quick work on Kanemaru’s leg and does a figure four, which has the crowd positively molten (which is pretty much how they are when Lyger does anything), Lyger tags Wataru back in and he puts Kanemaru in a crab hold which plays to crickets. Of course, it doesn’t help that the NOAH guys don’t really sell hugely for him either. Relatively early on, he gives Kikuchi a seated figure four and throws some slaps, but instead of selling the hold, it’s just an excuse for Kikuchi to throw elbows to break the hold. The only time that Wataru seems comfortable is when he’s the one on the receiving end of punishment and having to sell, with his selling of Kikuchi’s mounted elbows being one of his best moments.

Luckily, the other three are more than capable of keeping the match together, despite Wataru’s inexperience. There’s not much of a story to the work, but there’s enough anger between them all to keep it interesting, and they manage to pack in quite a few good touches and great moments. Kikuchi’s armbar to Lyger may have been their best exchange, and considering that NOAH never really pushed submission finishes, it’s remarkable how well the crowd reacted to the hold, especially after Kikuchi maneuvered Lyger away from the ropes. Lyger’s arm wasn’t a constant target afterwards, but it perfectly explains why he has to tag out, even though he hadn’t been in the ring for very long. The only thing that comes off weird was Kanemaru’s accidental foul to Kikuchi. The spot itself was nice, but it didn’t have any big effect. Kanemaru’s realization at what he’d done is what gives Wataru the opening for the Triangle Lancer, but Kikuchi’s delay in saving him is because Lyger is holding him back, rather than the foul taking him out and Kanemaru needing to either escape or hold out until Kikuchi could recover. They even manage to get to the finish without going spot-crazy, Lyger makes the save after Wataru gets planted with both the Fireball Bomb and a moonsault, and Wataru does his best to stave off the brainbuster, but Kanemaru wins out and Kikuchi manages to keep Lyger at bay. This obviously could have been a lot better if Lyger had been paired up with someone more established, like El Samurai or Kakihara, but the fact that it’s still this entertaining and heated says a lot about the potential of this rivalry . ***¼

NAOMICHI MARUFUJI © vs. JUVENTUD GUERRERA (GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title)

It’s a good thing that there were better times ahead for the NOAH junior division, because this is pretty awful. The only thing that really works in the confines of the match is the fact that Juvi bumps and sells rather well, but the way that this plays out doesn’t really take advantage of that. So, while it’s easy to appreciate something like his reaction to Marufuji’s top head scissors, it doesn’t really mean anything. But that pretty much sums up the whole match. Marufuji and Juvi just trade off spots, and most of what they do doesn’t matter for more than two seconds. A good example is Juvi’s missed splash into the corner, the bump momentarily stuns him and allows Marufuji to hit a superkick with more good selling from Juvi, it looks like the perfect time for Marufuji to go for a Shiranui, or some sort of big spot to try to win the match. Instead, they do a ridiculous sequence for a contrived spot and the nice moment is wasted. One of the few times that Juvi lets his personality shine is when he starts putting Marufuji through the ringer and then picks him up when the ref counts two, because he wants to hit the Juvi driver. Marufuji counters the attempt into an inside cradle for a near fall and then takes over the match. Guess what Juvi manages to counter the Shiranui into? Does he go for the pin afterward for what would surely have been a hot near fall? Of course not! Instead, he climbs up top for a 450 that misses and sets up another Shiranui. To their credit, the finish sort of works, with the idea that after Juvi kicks out of the first Shiranui, Marufuji just plants him over and over until he finally stays down. But it wasn’t as though the match gave the impression that Juvi was a heartbeat away from taking the title or that Juvi’s heel antics had angered Marufuji to the point of him losing his cool.

YOSHIHIRO TAKAYAMA/TAKAO OMORI © vs. TAKESHI MORISHIMA/TAKESHI RIKIO (GHC Tag Team Titles)

Overall, this isn’t fundamentally different from the junior title match; just replace the flashy spots with stiff slaps, chops, and lariats, and it’s pretty much the same match. There’s an occasionally nice moment or decent spot that seems like it’ll finally lead the match to go somewhere, like Omori’s nasty crossface to Morishima, but it never does. Omori’s piledriver on the ramp is a perfect example. It’s easily the biggest spot of the match to that point and Morishima puts it over very well. It seems like the perfect time for No Fear to start working toward finishing the match. Instead, Omori tags out and Takayama starts stiffing Morishima with kicks so that he can make a fired up comeback. Rikio’s German suplex to Omori gets a bit more respect, Omori puts it over well and gives them a chance to double team Takayama for a bit. But, even after dispatching Takayama, they still need to unload a decent amount of stuff in order to finally keep Omori down and take the titles. No Fear’s title win was no masterpiece, but that was still well beyond this match. The fact that both the junior and now tag titles are on guys who weren’t really featured players during their All Japan stints may be laudable, but the lack of pretty much anything, other than clubbering, shows exactly how ill ready Morishima and Rikio were at this point.

MITSUHARU MISAWA/KENTA KOBASHI vs. JUN AKIYAMA/YUJI NAGATA

This isn’t great, but it winds up creeping up and becoming a good match. There’s not a whole lot to it, outside of the stiffness; and given Akiyama’s history with both Misawa and Kobashi, as well as Nagata’s capacity as a New Japan representative, the stiffness ought to be a given. There’s not much of a story to the match outside of Kobashi’s knees, but the few times that his knees become a focus, everyone does their part to try to make it matter. Even when Akiyama is working a crab hold, which nobody really buys as a genuine threat, Misawa still rushes in to break the hold. A few minutes later, Nagata calls for the Nagata Lock, which the crowd clearly does think is a threat, and before Nagata even gets it on Akiyama makes sure to knock Misawa off the apron so that he can’t intervene. Unfortunately, outside of the knees, the holds aren’t treated with much respect. Nagata’s other big submissions are when he traps Kobashi in a Triangle after a powerbomb, and when he gives Misawa a facebuster and then does the Nagata Lock II, and both holds get very little reaction. It’s too bad too, because a lot of Nagata’s work plays well in the context of the match, especially the bit where he blocks a vertical suplex and tries to take Kobashi down into an armbar. Kobashi escapes before Nagata can take him down, but his surprise and his flurry of work to escape still give credence to what Nagata was doing.

The only really odd moments of the match happen just before the finish run. The work had mostly been fine, all four were doing things that fit the situation, like Kobashi hitting a couple of running knees to the midsection and then giving Nagata an abdominal stretch. But they briefly stray from doing that when Nagata tags in Akiyama and Kobashi immediately spikes him with a sleeper suplex and then follows up with the Orange Crush which was only to set him up for Misawa’s frog splash. Nagata somewhat salvages things when Kobashi tries a powerbomb and Nagata hits a kick to the knee to stop it, but then they follow that with Kobashi hitting a lariat and Akiyama kicking out at one. However, they’re pretty much spot on after that point. Akiyama counters a lariat into his front neck lock for a bit to bleed him dry and then tries to finish him with the Exploder, and when Kobashi won’t stay down he hits the Exploder ’98 to finish him off. Kobashi’s kick out at one after the first Exploder might seem odd, but the dazed look on Kobashi’s face and the way he stumbles into the corner makes the moment work. This isn’t a classic by any stretch, all three of the NOAH guys had done better in a tag team setting, and it’s honestly more than a bit surprising that Nagata looks so good here, given that he was in the midst of the most miserable run of his career. ***

Conclusion: The two tag matches that bookend the tape are worth checking out, but the two title matches in the middle are both skippable.