(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Naomichi Marufuji – NOAH, December 9, 2001

For most wrestlers getting injured is a warning sign to slow down and change how you wrestle. For Naomichi Marufuji, getting injured meant “I must be doing something right”.

The first few years of the 2000s was marked by enormous change in the wrestling business. What was happening in Japan mirrored whatever was taking place in North America; industry giants split and splintered creating more participants in a shrinking and increasingly competitive market. This led to both hyper-competitive promotions and wrestlers all vying to steal as much attention for themselves as possible. It also led to cooperation among companies, which in turn led to unusual and unexpected match-ups. Not exactly “dream matches” but more something more along the lines of “this never happened before so let’s see what these two can do together” situations.

If there was one guy that was going to go through many of these one-off matches it was Marufuji. But could he work magic with any opponent and regardless of his own physical state? Read on to find out.

The story

Most people reading this are probably at least a bit familiar with Marufuji since he’s the guy that has been copied in some way or another by almost every bigtime American wrestler of the past fifteen years. When it’s said that nothing’s new in wrestling and everyone’s ripping off everyone, odds are people are talking about Marufuji.

Takaiwa, on the other hand, may be a bit less known. He was a New Japan junior heavyweight who rose to prominence towards the late 1990s. He enjoyed some success teaming with Shinjiro Otani and won a few titles in NJPW but didn’t stick around long enough to really grow as a wrestler. That’s because Takaiwa was tight with Shinya Hashimoto and when Hashimoto left NJPW to form Pro Wrestling Zero1 Takaiwa went with him.

Come 2001, Zero1 was to New Japan what NOAH was to All Japan: a fledging smaller promotion trying to get attention in a crowded market. This struggle for attention led to many crosspromotional talent exchanges with wrestlers from one company winning another company’s titles. Takaiwa won NOAH’s junior title and Marufuji was next in line for a title shot. But not only was Marufuji out for title gold, he wanted to be the most impressive junior heavyweight wrestler in the country at the time. He wanted to stand head-and-shoulders above everyone else despite being only 22 years old and despite there being a high bar to reach given what the juniors of 1990s New Japan accomplished over the prior decade. But could Marufuji do all of this in one single match?

The match

This match took place on December 9, 2001 and was rated ****1/2 out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer. It’s for Takaiwa’s GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship. Also, for what it’s worth, this match took place before Marufuji suffered what was believed to be a major, career-altering knee injury in 2002. And yet once he returned in 2003 he embarked on an incredible run that featured some of the best singles and tag matches of the decade. So if he was that good after he got hurt, how good was he before?

The bell rings and – LARIATO! Takaiwa hits a double powerbomb and then toss powerbombs Marufuji onto the entrance ramp. Marufuji blocks another powerbomb on the ramp with a headscissor and then lands a superkick to create some space. Crazy and nonsensical start to the match.

Back in the ring Takaiwa stiffs Marufuji with forearms and applies a deep chinlock. He switches to an armlock but Marufuji flips and rolls his way out and lands a dropkick. Marufuji’s still not fully recovered so Takaiwa maintains pressure with a hotshot on the top rope. Both men trade leglocks and other grounded holds and then switch to a standing strike exchange which Takaiwa wins with another lariat for a two-count.

Takaiwa works over Marufuji’s arm and neck and then gets another two-count with a Brainbuster. Marufuji gets a ropebreak to end a half crab so Takaiwa gets heat by standing on Marufuji’s face. The crowd boos even more as Takaiwa hits more corner strikes and then he flips them off. Marufuji kicks out of a running elbow at one and then the action spills to ringside. Marufuji drives Takaiwa into the barricade, lands a superkick, and then dropkicks Takaiwa off the apron.

Marufuji follows with a huge dive over the top rope and goes for an over-the-rope suplex but Takaiwa counters and dumps Marufuji to the floor. Marufuji sells his knee (foreshadowing!) and in doing so basically gives Takaiwa a giant signal to attack the limb. Takaiwa sends him back into the ring but Marufuji then blocks a superplex, only for Takaiwa to sweep him down and drop him off the top rope. Takaiwa hits diving elbow drops onto Marufuji’s bad leg and then locks in a Figure-4. This goes on for quite a while and eventually Marufuji gets a ropebreak.

Takaiwa goes for a spider German suplex but Marufuji lands on his feet (how his knee doesn’t explode right then and there is a mystery) and lands a springboard coast-to-coast dropkick. Another diving dropkick gets Marufuji a two-count. He attempts an Irish whip reversal but Takaiwa counters with an armtrap bridging German suplex for a two-count of his own. Another counter and reversal sequence ends in a wacky sunset flip that gets Maru two once more. Marufuji tries a running headscissor. Takaiwa counters into a Death Valley Driver. One, two, Marufuji kicks out. Avalanche DVD! Takaiwa starts toying with Marufuji by breaking up his own covers. He hits a straightjacket powerbomb twice in a row and goes for a third. Marufuji lands on his feet but Takaiwa smashes him with another lariat. One, two, Marufuji survives again.

Takaiwa tries another avalanche DVD but Marufuji escapes this one and hits more dropkicks. Marufuji goes for a Super Frankensteiner and…something…happens. It looked like Takaiwa was trying to counter into a powerbomb but both of them still rotated in midair so both of them land on their heads at really awkward angles.

Marufuji gets up first and hits a superkick/Shiranui combo for a one-count. He tries another dive but Takaiwa catches him and hits a bucklebomb. Takaiwa locks in a sharpshooter but Marufuji gets a ropebreak. Takaiwa tries again but Marufuji counters with a cradle for a two-count. Marufuji charges again but runs into another lariat that gets two. Takaiwa tries an avalanche back suplex but Marufuji counters into a super Shiranui. Marufuji follows that with a shooting star press to get the three-count and win the title.

Winner and NEW GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion after 22:10: Naomichi Marufuji

Post-match, Takaiwa shows humility and professionalism by prostrating himself, hugging Marufuji, and then lifts Marufuji onto his shoulders to celebrate the new champion.

Review

This was interesting and exciting but nothing exceptional or historical. It was yet another crazy MOVEZ match with lots of high-impact flashiness but not much underneath. Part of that was the lack of connective tissue between different parts of the match: one minute Takaiwa was destroying Marufuji’s knee and nearly getting a submission victory and seconds later Marufuji was kicking and springboarding like that entire segment didn’t happen.

That’s why so many of these alleged ‘long epics’ don’t hold up to time: they might be exciting in the moment but in retrospect you realize that a lot of stuff ends up not mattering in the grand scheme of things. That becomes a problem when many people within the same industry start following this new trend of doing plenty of moves with many of them lacking in purpose. What’s the point of doing a ten-minute heat segment only for the babyface to comeback almost instantly? Why work an arm when the other wrestler will hit back with the same limb anyway?

If the whole point of this match was for Marufuji to survive everything and have his big breakout performance then he could’ve achieved the same goal with less. These guys could’ve shaved off about ten minutes’ worth of action and the match would’ve been much smoother. But if cutting action out wasn’t an option then reordering certain things could’ve been a better option. As it was the match lacked structure and follow through from move to move, sequence to sequence. The move placement came across as haphazard and thrown together, which made the action feel disjointed. Even if it had come “cool moves”, they were done in a way that made even the most casual viewer ask themselves “why?” or “what was the point of that?”

Final Rating: ***1/2

This match got rave reviews at the time but I don’t think there was much to it to deserve that. Sure, Marufuji did some crazy shit for a 22-year-old but doing moves just to say that you could do them doesn’t make a great professional wrestler. And while Takaiwa did some cool stuff as well, he also wrestled like he was just throwing things at random instead of wrestling with a purpose.

Luckily this wasn’t Marufuji’s best match; not by a long shot. He would go on to have outstanding and game-changing matches over the following five years, to the point that people all over the world started copying him or downright ripping him off. He really was that good in his prime, and proved that even debilitating injuries couldn’t slow him down.

Thanks for reading.