Assorted NJPW Handhelds

 

Koji Kanemoto vs. El Samurai, NJPW 3/17/1996

Crazy stiff match that builds to a huge finish. A nice reminder of how good the NJPW juniors could be in the 90s. Samura is fired up to begin, slapping the taste out of Kanemotos mouth before hitting a big dive. Samurai is this weird guy who is often dull but when he‘s on he‘s pretty great. He was on here working like Fit Finlay, dropping elbows across Kanemotos face, even headbutting him in the nose. Of course Kanemoto is a right fucker too and when he comes back he cracks Samurai with nasty stomps to the skull and kicks to the ribs. The whole match was pretty much all guys stubbornly sinking into submissions, not cooperating on basic moves and brutalizing each other. It builds to a pretty big crescendo, Kanemoto is slapping around Samurai, pulling him up spitting on him. He goes for a big German Suplex off the apron (you know, this was before moves like that were thrown out 10 times a month) but hits his own head weakening himself, his hatred got the better off him. Samurai in desperation mode trying to inch out a win after being beaten to a pulp was great, hell this whole thing was pretty great. Apaprently before there was only an 8 minute TV version of this available before so praise the lord for handhelds like this so we can get the full undistilled brutality.

2/3 Falls Match:  The Great Sasuke & El Samurai & Super Delfin & Gran Hamada & Norio Honaga vs. Koji Kanemoto & Shinjiro Otani & Dick Togo & Men’s Teioh & & Hanzo Nakajima, NJPW 5/3/1997

That is a serious amount of raw talent in this match. No way this wouldn't be good at least, and it ended up being more than that. Mostly the heel side (Kanemoto et al) playing the numbers game and double teaming the techicos. Kanemoto and Otani also got pretty scrappy and stiff with their opponents. Double teams were cool (dug the series of elbow drops and flip sentons, and the synchronized dropkicks from Kanemoto and Otani), and there was one badass moment where Sasuke had enough of Kanemotos shit and perforated his guts with crowbar spin kicks. Also due to the rules we got more than one really good finish. Nakajima and Honaga are kind of the odd men out in this lineup of junior legends, but they do fine. Honaga even gets some very nice face reactions for his scuzzy heel tactics amid a sea of talented flyers. Great dive sequence, too.

Shiro Koshinaka vs. Kengo Kimura, NJPW 5/3/1997

Two pissed off old guys slap the fuck out of each other, how can it not be good?! These two are fired up and the crowd loved it. Awesome bit where Kimura almost KO's Koshinaka with punches. Got a bit slow and rest holdy here and there, but they pick up in a big way for the finish. Just two mad old geezers dumping each other with crazy powerbombs and suplexes. Somebody really should steal Koshinakas flying butt to the back of the neck move.