NEXESS II

July 6, 2004

Like the May ‘04 Dome show, this is a redo of a review that I wasn’t happy with the first time around. The original was like the bonus paperback chapters of “Have a Nice Day” - full of grumpy Mike who hated NJPW and their direction in 2004. It’s been five years and we’ve since made amends, so another look is in order.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan . . . teaches young punk Toru Yano a thing, or five, about being a real bad ass and not a pretender.

Shinya Makabe . . . thinks that he’s Jun Akiyama circa 1996 and he’s wrong!

Shinsuke Nakamura . . . barely pulls out the win over Kanemoto, and this is the supposed young ace of the company?

EL SAMURAI vs. TAKASHI IIZUKA

Although this has its cool moments, like Iizuka pitching Samurai to the floor when Samurai tried his Tornado DDT, this is rather forgettable. It starts off slowly on the mat with them not really doing much, until Iizuka starts working over Samurai’s arm, and then it’s still a while before he really gets nasty with it. Samurai makes a comeback and hits a diving headbutt to Iizuka’s knee and then tries to wear him down with a figure four. But the limb work is just filler, neither of them seems to care about making it matter very much. Iizuka tossing Samurai to the floor is less due to Samurai’s arm being hurt than it is the fact that Iizuka just wasn’t worn down very much. Samurai catches Iizuka with a series of cradles, and winds up winning with the Kido clutch, but it’s completely tacked on. There’s nothing to suggest that Iizuka was close to being able to finish him off, and despite the fact that this is between a heavyweight and a junior, it’s not like Samurai was a huge underdog.

OSAMU NISHIMURA vs. YUTAKA YOSHIE

Fifteen minutes of Yoshie. I’m starting to remember why I hated this promotion so much at this time. As useless a comment as it is, the following phrase sums up the match perfectly: It wouldn’t have sucked if anything good had happened. This is ugly more often than not, because Yoshie wants to work the match like an extended squash, and Nishimura wants to work his 1970's ode to Dory Funk, Jr. style of match, so this never comes together all that well. There are times when they seem to be on the same page, such as Nishimura’s inability to armdrag Yoshie, and needing to push off the ropes to get the leverage for it, as well as Yoshie’s missed splash leading to Nishimura dropping a knee on his leg and then going to the figure four. But, those nice things are exceptions to the rule, more often than not, Yoshie is hacking away on Nishimura and being as uninteresting as he’s always been, there’s nothing wrong with them working a size versus technique story, in theory, but they both needed to bring more to the table than this.

TIGER MASK/MASAYUKI NARUSE vs. HEAT/MASAHITO KAKIHARA

We’re now three for three with matches that don’t seem to come together all that well. The best parts of this are the Kakihara/Naruse exchanges, more due to the fact that they try to work shootstyle, which looks fresh relative to what TM and Tanaka work in their exchanges. But this is another case where it never feels like they’re trying to take the match anywhere with their work. Aside from the Kakihara/Naruse section, there’s one nice moment when Tanaka surprises TM with the cross armbreaker and Kakihara keeps Naruse from saving, so TM is left to his own devices to get to the ropes. The finish itself comes off odd, but since nobody really stood out as a weak link, pretty much any finish would look out of place, short of the Minoru Special or any other flash submission. TM stuns Kakihara with a head kick, and then traps him in a crucifix hold and pins him. At least he threw the kick in there to help explain why he kept him down, I shudder to think at show present day, ultra lazy, TM would have done.

JYUSHIN LYGER/GEDO/JADO/KATSUSHI TAKEMURA vs. WATARU INOUE/RYUSUKE TAGUCHI/HIROOKI GOTO/KATSUHIKO NAKAJIMA

Word Association: This match: massacre (in a good way). CTU attacks on the floor and opens up a big can of the ass-whip on the green boys. They take the match into the ring and all four take turns making Goto into their bitch. Takemura, the lowest ranked member of the team, winds up getting in trouble and allowing Goto to make a little comeback and tag in Wataru and Korakuen Hall comes apart when the green boys start returning the favor to the punks. Inoue looks to be on the verge of pulling off the upset of the decade with the Triangle Lancer on Jado, before Takemura redeems himself by making the save. CTU regain control and Taguchi is on the wrong side of a four-on-one situation leading to him taking pretty much all of their big spots (shotei from Lyger, Complete Shot from Gedo, superbomb from Jado) leading up to Gedo dropping the Superfly for the win. As far as the work goes, there’s nothing special or surprising, aside from seeing the fans roar to life when the green boys made their comeback, but this is the first match to really have some personality to it. ***

HIROYOSHI TENZAN vs. TORU YANO

It’s easy to see that this is a rather fun match. Yano’s heel act was fresh at the time, and he milks it for all he can. Tenzan is no stranger to being a heel himself, and he’s not afraid to use Yano’s own tactics against him, as well as throw in some of his own dickish things. But, this never gets going enough to be anything more than fun. The main reason is Yano’s apparent lack of ability to really work. Literally everything he does is based around his heel character and the various sorts of weapons he uses. It’s fine for a time, but eventually he needed to quit dicking around and actually do something, and he never does. Look at Tenzan to see how to pull it off. He got the nice pop for spitting the sake in Yano’s face or grabbing the wooden shoe from Yano and giving him a taste of his own medicine. But he follows that up with something original, such as headbutting Yano in the mouth, doing the Mongolian chops, or the grave digger from the corner.

The disqualification ending when Yano throws the salt looks like a copout to get Yano out of jobbing and/or not put Tenzan over cleanly. If anything, it’d have made more sense for Tenzan to get disqualified for going too far when he’s teaching Yano a lesson about his cheating tactics. Tenzan was on his way to winning the G1 and finally getting some real redemption after a horrible first half of the year, so it’d have been cool to see him start here by taking out one of the lower-ranked young lions that were getting pushed en route to the G1 and going after the guys who were taking his spot.

KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. MANABU NAKANISHI

Wow, could this have been put together any worse? Shibata was next in line to challenge for the IWGP Title (7/19), so why make him look good throughout and give the impression that he might give Fujita a run for his money? It’s not like Nakanishi needs protecting. Instead we get five minutes of Nakanishi treating Shibata like a total non factor, until Shibata gets the sleeper as a counter to the Argentine backbreaker. It’s fun to watch Nakanishi try to break the hold, but be unable to, and when he does, Shibata is quick to get it back. Shibata finally runs Nakanishi out of gas and debuts the swank PK as a finish to put him away.

MINORU SUZUKI vs. BLUE WOLF

It’d be easy to blame Suzuki for Wolf not looking too good despite winning, Suzuki isn’t exactly the most giving wrestler there is. But, realistically, he did everything he really could to give Wolf some rub. The problem with Wolf was that he just didn’t seem to really have anything to do while on offense. So he spent most of his time laying on the mat and “controlling” Suzuki in rest holds, it looked like one of those Inoki main events from the ‘70's that I can’t stand, because I’m just waiting for one of them to do something. Suzuki tries to set up Wolf for runs on offense with things like Wolf escaping his sleeper and piledriver, but Wolf doesn’t follow through. All Wolf really bothers with are the Mongol slam, the grounded knees (which miss badly), and the lariat to headlock that pins Suzuki. Yes, this was going to be considered an upset no matter how it was worked, just because Suzuki is ranked so much higher, but it’d have come off much better if Wolf had stepped up and showed that he’d earned the win, rather than just having handed to him because he won a K-1 fight.

YUJI NAGATA/SHINYA MAKABE vs. KAZUNARI MURAKAMI/MITSUYA NAGAI

This is fun for a time, although it’s really nothing more than a far inferior version of a Misawa/Akiyama ‘96 tag match, with the underlying theme of Akiyama’s (Makabe in this case) ability to pull his weight. The Makai Club spend upwards of five minutes keeping Makabe in the corner and clobbering him as much as possible, until Nagata just strolls in and takes them both out with ease and tags himself in. Nagata winds up in trouble too, and Makabe is far too beat up to help him. Makabe finally does show up and help, but he runs right into a knee from Murakami to get back in trouble, so Nagata causes Nagai to misfire the Hype Knee Tiger and hit Murakami. Makabe takes advantage of the opening and winds up finishing off Nagai with the lariat.

The Makai Club aren’t the best heels, nor the worst. They’re content to clobber Makabe and Nagata in the corner and do little else. Murakami occasionally does something new, such as choking Nagata on the floor with the cable or the low blow that gets him out of Nagata’s armbreaker. Although he was the one who scored the pin, and who the match seemed to be centered around, Makabe was also rather low-key. He didn’t seem especially interested in really *doing* anything, which was probably supposed to play off Akiyama’s role in their tag matches, but Akiyama pulled his weight by making it look like Doc and Ace were a hair away from winning, compared to Makabe who lays on the mat like a sloth and does little else. It’s great that they went out there and tried to tell a story when putting Makabe over, especially after the ho-hum manner that Shibata and Wolf were put over, but none of these four were anywhere near their June 1996 counterparts and it shows.

SHINSUKE NAKAMURA vs. KOJI KANEMOTO

I suppose the way this match was worked gave Koji some rub going into the G1, but other than that, I’m at a loss for what whoever put this match together was thinking. Koji works the bulk of it doing what he does best, clobbering his opponent with chops and kicks like he’s nothing. Nakamura also works it by doing what he’s best known for, taking the abuse, selling big, and then pulling an armbar out of his ass to seemingly snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. So, while it means that these two are on the same page, they’re reading from the wrong book. At this point in July of 2004, Nakamura headlined the Tokyo Dome twice, unified the IWGP and NWF Titles, and was considered by many (for better or worse) the uncrowned ace of the company. In short, he didn’t need to get dominated by a junior heavyweight for the bulk of the match. I’m not saying he should have squashed Kanemoto like a bug (although Kanemoto wouldn’t have been hurt by the loss), but Nakamura needed to step up and show he could control Kanemoto and win the match in a somewhat dominant fashion, and he didn’t do that.

The fact that they’re on the same page does mean that they create a few nice moments. Nakamura’s uses his mat prowess to escape the ankle lock in a different manner than the same tired ways everyone else does. There’s also a nice KO spot when Nakamura avoids the moonsault but runs into a knee from Kanemoto, it looks like a KO shot, and Nakamura sells it as such. Their other good one is Kanemoto’s Shining Triangle that Koji is able to block and pin Nakamura down for a near fall. So, while this certainly isn’t mind-numbingly dull or eye-gougingly horrible, it doesn’t surprise me in the least that it was nearly four years before Nakamura got near the IWGP Title again.

KENSUKE SASAKI vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI

There isn’t anything wrong with the broad message that this sends. The young generation had put in a respectable showing at this show, with Shibata, Wolf, Makabe, and Nakamura all winning their matches, so it doesn’t hurt that Tanahashi comes up short. Sasaki winning isn’t bad, he was the next IWGP Champion and his win here established him as being a wall for the young guys to have to climb over before truly making it to the next level. What’s wrong with this match is that Sasaki does the bare minimum to make Tanahashi look good before he beats him. As much as I hated NJ’s direction during this year with the super push of the next generation, mostly because none them were ready for the push, matches like this are counter productive to what you’re trying to accomplish.

Sasaki has never been a great seller, but he never even really gets that far in the match. He gives Tanahashi precious little to work as far as being in control. He’ll fire off some chops and slaps, and when Tanahashi starts firing back, he’ll hit him with something bigger to halt his momentum. Tanahashi only gets one true offensive run, when he surprises Sasaki with a bulldog, hits an elbow drop, and a suplex. Sasaki decides that’s enough for him and goes back on offense himself, only to have Tanahashi counter his lariat into a Dragon sleeper (and the crowd pop should have told Kensuke that they were on the right track). But, Sasaki escapes the sleeper and hits the NLB for a double KO spot. The finish sees Sasaki get a near fall from a lariat and then quickly hit the Volcanic Eruption to win. He didn’t give Tanahashi a single near fall of his own or even any real hope spots beyond the sudden lariat counter. Despite Tanahashi’s huge upset over Sasaki in 2002, I don’t think anyone gave him a chance of winning here, but the idea is to create doubt as to the outcome, and Sasaki failed miserably.

Conclusion: It’s certainly better overall than the dome show, because there’s nothing as horrible as some of the undercard from the dome. The flip side of the coin is that there’s nothing as overall fun as the main event from the dome. 2004 was far from a banner year for New Japan, so I’ve got no problem saying to skip this over.