2002 MOTY Project Update #22 - Yuji Nagata Edition

 Yuji Nagata vs. Kazuyuki Fujita, NJPW 10/14/2002

Great Inokiism style clash of the titans. Fujita has the gloves and you know what that means. Just the right mix of tense and a crazy fight. Nagata avoiding Fujita shooting in early and hammering him with knees was a great opening scramble. Fujita is a great freaky monster who will beat your fucking brains in, and Nagata may have had his finest moments ever in this match. He certainly had the crowd when he seemed done for and then made his big rally trying to kick Fujitas brain in. Real „kill or be killed“ feel to these kind of matches, and this was one heck of a Tokyo Dome main event in that style.

Yuji Nagata vs. Takayuki Iizuka, NJPW 12/23/2002

Really nice veteran match building to a Sleeper Hold. These two hitting the mat is surprisingly good, even knowing Nagata could be pretty good when he wasn‘t clowning around. I liked how they teased Iizuka working the legs but Nagata got the advantage back and Iizuka had to resort to locking in surprise sleepers. I love any kind of match that has an outmatched guy trying to pull off a miracle reversal and Iizuka was really good at his thing here, while Nagata makes a convincing ace.

 

Yuji  Nagata vs. Bas Rutten, NJPW 7/20/2002

Most intense 8 minute IWGP title match ever? Aside from his slightly awkward Shining Wizard, I thought Bas was really great here. Every single thing he did looked like it could plausibly end Nagata. Nagatas comebacks against Bas' onslaught were wonderful. It's tough to stay credible against a legit monster like Bas, but Nagata made me believe. Great stuff.

2002 MOTY List

2002 MOTY #13

 Carlos Amano vs. Command Bolshoi (JWP 9/23/2002)

WELL!! These are two of my favourite female workers, and really two of the more unique wrestlers in wrestling history, despite the fact you have to kind of scour the earth to find their good matches. Due to the special makeup of japanese womens wrestling these two are rarely in a matchup that allows them to shine. And for some reason, their matches over the years have never been quite white they should be. The 1998 encounter went far too long, the 2000 ones ranged between solid and fun exhibtions... fortunately, they finally delivered what the matchup promises on this one. This is a submission match and really worked like Negro Navarro vs. Solar in Coliseo Coacalco. It even had the kind of playing to the crowd and jokes that sort of match would have. 90% of this was grappling, and it was good. What makes these two so cool is not just their submissions but the cool unique trips and transitions they will come up with to get them. Plenty of unique spots and submissions to keep you entertained, and the finish was decided on the mat in an intense scramble as it should be. Really this felt like a Virus match and that's exactly what their strength is. No idea what took them so long to figure it out, but this was worth seeking out.

 

Great Sasuke vs. Dick Togo (Michinoku Pro 8/15/2002)

The 90s are over, all your junior heroes are broken down and old, and instead of highspots they work gritty technical matches now. This was centered around Togos pretty great selling performance, he comes in with a bandaged mid section and Sasuke spends most of this match torturing him with kidney punches and ab stretches. Ultra simple match but with plenty of cool moments. I really liked Togo desperately preventing Sasukes dive by clutching his leg and pretty much dragging him down then just throwing a chair at him („Fuck you, here's a chair“ is always a favourite of mine), really liked his nifty pin combo and desperate crossface attempts etc. A ladder gets brought into play and this as usual spells Sasukes downfall.  

Meiko Satomura vs. Chikayo Nagashima, GAEA 4/14/2002

Even though there was one obnoxious fighting spirit spot, this had more than enough solid, inventive pro wrestling to keep you entertained. Good opening matwork with both girls aggressively trying to dislocate eachothers shoulder. Nagashimas double stomps actually lead to a damn good Satomura selling performance with her looking vulnerable and struggling to reach deep and hit that Death Valley Bomb. The spot with Satomura trying to catch a flying Nagashima only to collapse was damn good. Satomura was also absolutely walloping Nagashima with nasty kicks left and right. There was a brief moment of struggle in the second half with Nagashima clinging to Satomuras leg and trying to prevent a flying move, only for her to eat an absolutely disgusting axe kick. It's these kind of moments that set matches like this apart from your average bombfest. Nagashima looked sharp, not blowing anything, whipping out cool submissions and rollups. Her use of the Cavernaria felt damn epic thanks to Satomuras selling. The ending run was 2,99999ville, but they never went overboard. Not a MOTYC, but a fun little war.

 Bas Rutten vs. Manabu Nakanishi (NJPW 5/2/2002)

  Rutten has been quite the consistent worker in NJPW. His strikes are so crazy that you buy him just caving in Nakanishis face any second. Rutten has such an aura that anytime Nakanishi can get a move in on him is impressive. There are a few spots that they pull off much better than you'd think, and Rutten gets thrown around. Nakanishis selling in the last couple seconds was shockingly good, not something I thought he had in him. Also loved him trying to power out of the flying armbar a split second after getting caught.

Manabu Sato (Manabu Hara/Suruga) vs. Hiroshi Shimada, Rainbow Promotion 3/21/2002

Really fun big vs. little grappling match. Shimada looked awesome here twisting up his opponent with amateur sugar holes. He also had some great violent looking knees on the ground. Talk about a guy who missed his calling as a shootstylist. Young Manabu, who seemingly could never decide on a last name, is more than solid here as a bantamweight grappler fighting a beast. 

 2002 MOTY MASTER LIST

2002 MOTY List Update #10

 Negro Navarro & Shu El Guerrero vs. Solar & Skayde (AULL 11/1/2002)

Nothing better than a lucha match that starts with about 17 minutes of straight matwork that the crowd eats up. This is one of the earlier Navarro/Solar matchups and what they did here was pretty different from what they would do later, altough it was all great. This is also one of the better Skayde showings I've seen as him rolling with Shu is much more interesting than him rolling with one of his skinny trainees. Shu is just so physical, he does this thing where he goes on all fours or tailor seat and dares the other guy to move him. So Skayde puts a nasty toehold on him before going for a rolling stretch. Really really neat stuff that feels competitive. The later portions that had Shu throwing dropkicks and flying clothesines were also pretty great. Shu also hits a really great senton really squishing Skayde underneath, and locks in a nasty arm triangle with the arm trapped. Then Skayde would torture him further by putting all kinds of leglocks on him. The submissions and pins also work as near falls. Finish is between Solar and Navarro and suitably good. This is really a borderline classic, 20+ of high quality technical lucha at it's finest.

Bas Rutten vs. Osamu Nishimura (NJPW 10/14/2002)

One of the more unique matches in wrestling history, it's a kickpadded uncooperative modern day shooter vs. A classy early 70s technician. Rutten was great at pro wrestling no doubt about it, his selling of Nishimuras holds was great (did a better job there than most trained pro wrestlers) and he was basically threatening to KO Nish every single round. Rutten not holding back at all is a big part of why the match worked. Nishimura ruled as usual believably locking Rutten into his old school carny holds or dishing out the european uppercuts. I think this may have been better without the rounds but it had typical european build closer to a german style match (Nishimura spent a lot of time in germany and austria) than british as it had that simmering animosity. Nishimura slowly getting destroyed but getting in Ruttens head was really cool. By the last round they completely ditched the striking and just stubbornly went for the tap out.

Jushin Liger & Minoru Tanaka vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinob Kanemaru (NOAH 4/7/2002)

NOAH vs. NJ part two. Everyone is on fire! Liger is a no selling douche! Kikuchi is a mad old bugger who will take a chunk out of you without blinking! Clever nutshot spots! Mask ripping! Submissions are important! This match did a great job milking and amplifying the heat of the feud. Lean and strong pace with an emphasis on masks ripped open and nasty elbows from mount, this is the direction japanese wrestling should've kept going. Watch the backstage footage too! 

Shinya Hashimoto & Naoya Ogawa vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Scott Norton (NJPW 5/2/2002)

This is one of those feel good matches you can just back and enjoy every second of it. Basically Hashimoto & Ogawa waltz in and just destroy everything in their path. STOs, nasty kicks and chops and various cool combination moves abound. Norton & Tenzan don‘t stand much of a chance but they try. You get a great little Norton performance as he sells all the nasty chops and kicks he takes to his shoulder in a big way. There is an art to selling in such a way that everyone can emphatize with you even when you‘re a giant muscled up dude like Norton and he had it down. Tenzan also doesn‘t suck! 

 

2002 MOTY MASTER LIST