.:: New Japan 30^th Anniversary Tokyo Dome Show, May 2^nd 2002 ::.
Review by Tom, 2nd August

This tape is the live BS-Asahi feed of New Japan’s Tokyo Dome show on May 2^nd. It begins with the Hashimoto/Ogawa-Tenzan/Norton tag match and proceeds up to the IWGP Heavyweight title match with Yuji Nagata facing NOAH’s Yoshihiro Takayama. This edition comes from Niall Boyle, PalTaper, so the VQ is perfect as all his videos are. He is the only UK based trader to get New Japan and many other Puroresu promotion weekly TV. UK based Puroresu fans have never had it so good, so go check him out.

After some tomfoolery between Antonio Inoki and Masahiro Chono, we cut to the Tokyo Dome as Inoki’s theme hits, which draws a huge reaction from the crowd. Inoki appears with Chono, who gets on the microphone and after a bit of talk, goads Ogawa and Hashimoto and we begin our first match.


Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Scott Norton Vs Naoya Ogawa & Shinya Hashimoto

There is something special about OH GUN’s entrance, just seeing Hashimoto back in a NJ environment is great. The Z1 duo are flanked by the Z1 corps, complete with Ohtani waving the flag. This was a good match, a combination of the novelty of seeing Hashimoto being back in a NJ ring, the surprise of seeing Ogawa actually attempt selling a move and Norton reduce the no selling down to a minimum (but not removing all of it). The match itself is an average bout, but considering how Ogawa and Norton can kill a match, it was a nice surprise. There are some good spots here, my favourite being when Norton tried to power bomb Hashimoto, but Ogawa runs in to make the save, hitting an instant STO. The finish was logical, with OH separating Tenzan and Norton, then hitting their German Suplex/STO combination for the 3 count.

As mentioned earlier, this was a pleasant surprise as a match. No one was strictly bad, although the match dragged when Norton was in, as the match reduced to just a chop-fest, he was not terrible. Norton almost went a match without any no selling, but could not resist it at the end, no selling some Hashimoto chops which did annoy me. Ogawa was ok too, which is a huge improvement for the man who can kill a match as fast as…well, Scott Norton. Hashimoto was ok, providing the stiff kicks, but disappointingly, not a lot else. The best man there was Hiroyoshi Tenzan, putting in another sound display. Tenzan put across the T2000 ill feeling to Z1 that threatened to disappear from the match. The match was not advanced, but of an ok standard. Each man hit their moves and at least the ending was logical, and also not a DQ or count out.

After a few commercial breaks, we see footage from Inoki’s LA Dojo that lead up to the Yasuda-Frye match. Yasuda turns up late, which Frye takes exception to and the two break out in a scuffle. That leads us to…


Tadao Yasuda Vs Don Frye

But hold on a second! Frye rushes out and jumps Yasuda before he can reach the ring. Yasuda is taken out of action. After a bit of confusion the next match begins. So we have…


Bas Rutten Vs Manabu Nakanishi

Rutten has experience of the worked-shoot style of pro wrestling and has performed a few times with BattlARTS. Even with that in mind, fears were high for this match, but once more, I was to be surprised. Ok, so this is not the greatest match, but it never was going to be, but it could have been a lot, lot worse. Rutten looked ok, selling well and generally having a grasp of timing. Poor old Nakanishi was ok, doing what he had been told to do. I feel genuinely sorry for Nakanishi – after Mutoh et al’s defection, Nakanishi underwent an image transformation, and then subsequently did the “teaching with Karl Gotch” angle. And here he is being fed to Rutten. I don’t agree with it, but I can see the purpose – feed some wrestlers to Rutten to build him up, then feed Rutten to Nagata. It’s not the ideal way to build things up, but nonetheless it is the approach New Japan use more and more these days.

The match centres around strikes, then progresses to the mat, working a sequence built around a Rutten choke sleeper. Rutten counters Nakanishi’s Torture Rack into a choke sleeper, with Nakanishi hitting backdrops to break the hold. The match then goes back to strikes with Rutten applying a triangle choke, which Nakanishi tries to power bomb his way out of, but fails and taps out. This was both men trying a worked-shoot style match, and while it was ok, it was nothing wonderful. The style is not Nakanishi’s style, more suited to Rutten. But Nakanishi was there to put Rutten over. It was kept relatively short at six minutes, so it did not get the opportunity to become terrible. One thing that really bugged me about the match was Rutten’s palm strikes – they looked horrible. The fact that Nakanishi sold the first one like he’d been shot was almost laughable. However, palm strikes aside, this was not bad, but not that great either it was, however, another nice surprise, far from the horror of a match I thought might happen.

After a commercial break, we’re back with Yasuda, now recovered, attacking Frye. So I guess we’re back to…


Tadao Yasuda Vs Don Frye 

Yasuda forces Frye out of the ring with knees and punches. Frye comes back in, takes control with some of his punches, then applies a figure four Achilles hold and Yasuda taps. We’re done and not even two minutes have gone. How much of a match can you expect in two minutes? Nothing. It was kept short, very short, to which I’m sure the whole world is thankful but these PRIDE style matches are just a waste of time. Next!

Oh my god! The next figure on my TV makes me long for Yasuda’s pretty face…for it is Joanie Laurer. She walks to the ring, pointing to her NJ T-Shirt, as if to say “I’m New Japan”. Yeah, right. Not with the look that is shown on Masahiro Chono’s face backstage. His face reads something like, “What the f….”. I’m sure you can guess the rest. Anyway, next up is…


The Steiners Vs Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kensuke Sasaki (w/ Joanie Laurer as special referee)

“Power, speed, technique” declares the Steiners’ promo package. Well, they’ve got power that’s for sure. Don’t know what happened to the speed or technique. Poor, poor Tanahashi. New Japan’s top prospect gets a kicking tonight, thrown around clumsily by both the Steiners. Both Steiners target Tanahashi, which makes some kind of sense, being the young guy. Unfortunately, the Steiners control of the match reduces it to mediocrity. Sasaki, though good when he actually got in the ring, was kept to a minimum on the apron as the match just boiled in average-ness. The pacing is slow and occasionally nears boring, as the Steiners throw Tanahashi around with various suplexes. Needless to say the Steiners are stiff as hell, highlight by Rick throwing Tanahashi with consecutive sick release German suplexes. However, Tanahashi still shows immense potential, looking good in what he did. Sasaki too looked good. Highlight of the match was Tanahashi and Sasaki doing the Steiner’s dog pose, which was damn funny.

The Steiners however, get the win when Scott uses the Steiner Screwdriver on Tanahashi. The ending was again logical, with Sasaki being separated from the young lion. The match was not terrible, far from it, but with the Steiners controlling such a large proportion, the pace was slowed down and the wrestling reduced to nothing. And finally, we turn to Joanie Laurer. Apart from almost making me sick at one point where Tanahashi runs the ropes straight into her, goes down and she flex’s her muscles as if to say she can overpower New Japan’s top young lion (still makes me feel sick), she really has no bearing on the match. But that’s a bad thing – she was supposed to be the referee. Plus, we were subjected to her saggy boobs as well. Not nice.


IWGP Title: Yoshihiro Takayama Vs Yuji Nagata

Takayama comes out when Kazuyuki Fujita, and wears a fantastic T-Shirt which says, “I’VE NEVER LOST (But I have been a little behind when the time ran out)”. The build up to this match is simple. After Nagata downed Yasuda on 5^th April to win the IWGP Title, Takayama, who was watching from ringside, jumped into the ring to shake Nagata’s hand. Although suspicious, Nagata accepted, but was hit by a Takayama elbow and a German suplex as the challenge was laid down.

This match is great. Both Nagata and Takayama give spirited performances. I like both men, but Takayama can be lazy when he is not motivated, but here he was good. The match is primarily built around stiff strikes and both men are ultra stiff.  What I liked the most about the match was that it concentrated on building the fighting spirit of Nagata. At many times they teased knock out spots, caused by Takayama’s stiff kicks and knees. The beaten Nagata would slump down, but would always drag himself back up. Not only did it put across Nagata’s spirit but also his determination to keep the IWGP Title. There was also an atmosphere of home team support, with Sasaki, Kakihara and other New Japan guys at ringside urging him on. The stiffness of the strikes creates immense crowd heat, which grows and grows as the match progresses into a hot finish. There are some Nagata near falls, from which the match progresses into a strike fest, with elbows and punches flying before Nagata ducks a Takayama high kick and hitting two high kicks of his own for the win.

I really liked this match, it put across Nagata’s own fighting spirit and his determination to keep the belt. Takayama was just as good, and the match sustained good crowd heat, which New Japan’s January Dome show failed to do to this extent. There was not enough emphasis on wrestling to make this a great bout, but the stiff strikes and the story told within the match make it a very good bout.


CONCLUSION

While the January Tokyo Dome show was only just “good”, this live feed of the May Dome show is a lot better. The highlight is of course the IWGP Title match, but there is a lot of interesting stuff here. The Tenzan/Norton Vs Ogawa/Hashimoto match was much better than anticipated, as was the Rutten-Nakanishi bout. Only the Yasuda-Frye match looked to bomb, but that was cut down to nothing. There is nothing bad here, but alas, baring the IWGP Title match, nothing is really that great either. While there have been better Dome shows, this one was ok and I recommend fans to go for it.

ENTERTAINMENT – 8 – The IWGP title match drags this score up a notch. Only really the Steiners-Tanahashi/Sasaki bout threatens to break out the boredom. Still, the worked-shoot and PRIDE style matches may not be your thing. Generally though, an entertaining NJ show.

WORK RATE – 7 – Good and bad evident, with more good on show. Respect to Messrs Norton, Ogawa and Takayama for not dogging like as they occasionally do. All three worked far better than they usually do. The Steiners were as they usually are, which drags it down a notch. Nothing to complain about though.

.:: FINAL RECOMMENDATION – Continuing New Japan’s “solid” work during the middle of 2002, a good show with a lot to like::.