(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Jushin Liger vs. Ultimo Dragón – WAR Super J Cup 1995

One look at these two names and you know you’re looking at greatness…supposedly.

Jushin Liger and Ultimo Dragon are two of the most famous luchadores in the world outside of maybe Rey Mysterio. Liger is a certified legend, one of the few Japanese wrestlers to overshadow heavyweights in a country that very much emphasizes weight classes and the preconception of “graduating” from junior heavyweight to full heavyweight. Meanwhile, Dragon is a legitimate record holder, having held more singles titles at once than any other wrestler before or since.

But is he really deserving of this stellar reputation, both as an in-ring performer and as a booker?

The Story

Maffew covered this show in its entirety earlier this year and I did a 30th anniversary cover of the original Super J Cup back in April. But basically the junior heavyweights who prospered in Japan following the success of the original tournament wanted to follow-up with a second tournament a year later. This time, however, the tournament would be held under the WAR (Wrestling and Romance/Wrestling Association R) banner.

The 1995 tournament switched a few things around in terms of both talent and production/booking, with Liger no longer booking this tournament as he had the first one. Instead, booking fell to Ultimo Dragon, who was also a participant in this year’s edition. There were also some noted roster changes as well: FMW’s Hayabusa was replaced by Damián 666, Negro Cases was replaced by Dos Caras for CMLL representation, and most of the Michinoku Pro Wrestling guys (including tournament runner-up Great Sasuke) were replaced by WAR guys. This edition also featured a special attraction match between Rey Mysterio and Psicosis to serve as an intermission of sorts between the semi-final and final matches.

Aside from these differences, the ’95 tournament largely follows the same format as the ’94 one. Fourteen wrestlers are brought in with two of them getting byes into the quarter-final round. Liger is one of these two because, a) he won the Best of the Super Juniors Tournament and b), he’s Jushin goddamn Thunder goddamn Liger.

Once the tournament was underway both men had impressive performances. Dragon made short work of Shoichi “SmackDown’s #1 Announcer” Funaki in the first round and then Shinjiro Otani in the second while Liger skipped to the second round where he made easy work of comedy guy Gran Naniwa. From there it was anyone’s guess who’d win: would it be Liger with his stellar reputation and existing accomplishments, or Dragon with his influence and radically different lucha-inspired style?

The Match

This took place on December 13, 1995. It was rated ****1/2 out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer

A Greco-Roman knuckle lock ends with a headscissor from Liger. This leads to a chain counter sequence with Dragon escaping. Dragon works Liger’s leg but Liger counters until Dragon escapes again. Liger wrestles into a sort of Romero Special but Dragon escapes that and lands a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker which gets mild applause. Then Liger hits the same move and gets louder applause, again, because Liger.

We get more mat wrestling and submissions exchanges for several minutes until Dragon counters a back body drop and goes into lucha mode leading to another stalemate. Liger attacks Dragon’s knee with a barrage of kicks and then launches him with a release German suplex. Liger applies a figure-4 leglock and keeps it in for a very long time but Dragon gets a ropebreak. Dragon tries to counter a prison lock with a small package but Liger’s too smart for that and blocks it. Dragon manages to counter into a half crab hold into a Muta Lock which doesn’t last that long because Liger cranks Dragon’s chin.

Dragon maintains leg control and then sends Liger into the opposite corner and lands a handspring back elbow. A Perfect-plex gets Dragon a one-count so he applies a Figure-4 of his own until Liger gets a ropebreak. Now both guys are hobbling on only one good leg. Both guys rush each other but Dragon wins with another handspring back elbow. Dragon, having brushed off the ill effects to his leg, does a backflip followed by a suicide dive through the ropes and a top-rope senton to the floor.

Back in the ring Dragon lands a folding powerbomb for two and a bridging Tiger suplex for two as well. He follows with an abdominal stretch but then sends Liger into the ropes and misses a dropkick as Liger holds on. Liger catapults Dragon to the floor and lands an apron senton. Dragon recovers ringside but upon returning to the ring Liger plants him with a kneeling powerbomb for two. Liger follows with a nasty Brainbuster but only gets two again so he lands a Tombstone followed by a diving head-butt…for two, yet again.

Dragon blocks a follow-up attack and the two men trade victory rolls until Liger’s gets him another two-count. Dragon ducks a shotei and lands a bridging northern lights suplex for yet another near-fall. Liger reverses a corner whip and hits a rolling koppu kick. Liger tries his avalanche Fisherman buster but Dragon counters into a majistral cradle for two. Dragon lands a quebrada and a rib breaker and goes for a moonsault. He misses which allows Liger to land a Ligerbomb for two. Dragon counters another charge with another majistral but still can’t get the job done as Liger counters the pin with his own to get the three-count out of nowhere.

Winner and advancing to the finals after 17:19: Jushin Thunder Liger

Review

This was a disappointing and disconnected match that wasn’t and isn’t worthy of neither the praise nor your time. It was a sterile move exchange without anything resembling heat or tension. Though these two men had solid chemistry and worked well enough to not make any glaring mistakes, there was no real sense of tension here. Though it was only their second-ever match together they didn’t do all that much to give this the high stakes feel it needed. It came across as an exhibition match and not a tournament semi-final match. And as I did in earlier, I need to compare this to the previous year’s tournament which featured Liger in the exact same position…and in a SIGNIFICANTLY better match.

In the 1994 Super J Cup Liger found himself facing down fellow lucharesu enthusiast Great Sasuke. Sasuke, like Dragon, was more of an acrobatic high-flyer. But there was something in that match that set hit head-and-shoulders above this one and that was the match booking. Liger booked himself to be as dickish as possible while still retaining his impressive arsenal of mat and technical moves. That match saw Liger adapt to a serious in-match botch in a way that improved the match significantly and gave Sasuke more of an emphatic win. That match was, in my opinion, the best thing in the ’94 Super J Cup, the best match of Liger’s storied and legendary career, and miles better than the finals match between Sasuke and Pegasus/Benoit. This, though, is something fat less impressive.

In theory one could swap Sasuke for Dragon to get this match but the sad truth is that Dragon, for all the positive talk around his in-ring innovation, was something of a downgrade for Liger here. He just hit moves without selling them consistently and maintained the same pace towards the end of the match as he had at the start. The lengthy limbwork and matwork segments meant nothing once the high spot sequence began. Both guys just brushed big moves off without showing even the slightest hint of being bothered, which rendered many earlier moves ultimately useless. Though this made the closing sequence a bit tenser as a result, it left the opening half of the match meaningless as well. Why bother showing off all those moves when they don’t play a role in the match? Why waste the audience’s time with something flashy and supposedly painful when the person taking the move won’t really show any ill effects?

Once those elements are taken out of the equation we are left with a fairly bland technical MOVEZ exchange that might’ve looked impressive in 1995 but doesn’t hold a candle to anything to have come in the near three decades since. You get more exciting and wild matches like this on a regular basis on the indy scene, in NJPW, and in both AEW and WWE, the latter being a company notorious for not usually treating smaller wrestlers that well or giving them the freedom to do all that they can. Hell, this match was completely overshadowed by the special attraction between Mysterio and Psicosis in terms of quality and money for time investment. When that match started both luchadors got laughed at for being so small and lithe, yet those guys left basically every competitor, including the two men in this match, in the dust.

Final Rating: ***

I’ll give credit where it’s due and say that Liger and Dragon had a passable match here but that’s about it. There wasn’t any historic greatness here, nor was anything truly outstanding compared to Liger’s other classics both before and after this. As I mentioned before his ’94 J Cup match with Sasuke was tremendous, and was their rematch at Summer Struggle ’94 a few months afterwards. Liger, who is largely deserving of his status as a legend, would also have, in my opinion, amazing matches against the likes of Shinjiro Otani in 1997, against NOAH’s Yoshinobu Kanemaru in 2004, and in a ludicrous tag team match opposite KENTAFuji in 2003. Any of those would make for a much better use of your time than this.

As for Ultimo Dragon, I’m sure sooner or later I’ll find one of his matches that truly stands out as worthy of its historic praise. Until then, though, it’s better to skip him and look at other great wrestlers of his time instead.

Thanks for reading.