Mike Reviews NJPW Fighting Sprit (7th Feb 98)

Happy Toukon Friday Everyone!

I’m going back to New Japan World today by looking at a show from the Fighting Spirit tour in February 1998 that they’ve uploaded. Some of the matches seem to be jumbled up, but I’ll present them as New Japan does on their service. I’m sure we’ll see plenty of Fighting Spirit (hey, he said the name of the show we’re watching!) in the Main Event, when Kensuke Sasaki takes on Osamu Nishimura!

You can view the full card for Fighting Spirit (as well as the correct order of the matches) by clicking below;

NJPW Fighting Spirit Tour Night 10 Card

Fighting Spirit is emanating from Sapporo, Hokkaido on the 7th of February 1998

Majority of pics come from Quebrada

Calling the action are Masa Saito, Soichi Shibata, Yu Manabe and Yoshinari Tsuji

Heisei Ishingun (Akira Nogami and Shiro Koshinaka) Vs Osamu Kido and Tatsumi Fujinami

Heisei Ishingun is Koshinaka’s anti-New Japan faction, and Kido hasn’t liked them since the early 90’s due to them poaching his tag team partner, Kengo Kimura, so he’ll probably be looking to slap Koshinaka silly given the chance. Fujinami would eventually be getting an IWGP Heavyweight Title shot in April, so with that in mind and Nogami being a Junior Heavyweight, I think I can predict the finish to this one, but lets see if they surprise me because Koshinaka could always end up pinning Kido I guess, because who really cares about Kido?

Koshinaka and his goon squad jump Fujinami and Kido prior to the bout starting, which leads to Kido getting worked over in the Heel corner for a bit until he’s able to tag in Fujinami. I must apologise for doubting whether folks would care about Kido though, because the crowd reacts massively whenever Kido starts fighting back, so they clearly like him quite a lot. Indeed the most heat in the entire match comes whenever Kido is taking the fight to Koshinaka and Nogami.

Fujinami doesn’t seem remotely over by comparison to his partner, which is kind of terrifying when you consider that Fujinami would be going after the IWGP Heavyweight Title soon. Still, I’ve always felt that Fujinami’s run with the belt in 1998 was a bit of a damp squib, but there are some that will disagree with me on that front. The crowd does finally get into Fujinami when he starts firing off Dragon Screw’s, but Koshinaka uses the power of his “hip” to put a stop to The Dragon’s rampage.

Kido manages to pop the crowd by kicking out of a Hip Attack at one stage, and almost taps out Koshinaka with an arm bar until Nogami makes the save to thunderous boos. Kido makes Nogami pay though by catching Nogami in the hold soon after and that’s the submission win for Fujinami and Kido as the crowd goes radio rental.

WINNERS: KIDO & FUJINAMI
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: A basic match that was elevated by the crowd going nuts for Kido, who did step up his game in fairness. Honestly, watching this, they should have given Kido the Title shot instead of Fujinami, although Fujinami did turn it on for 30 seconds and looked like an actual star again for a bit. Koshinaka and Nogami were mostly just kicking and punching, but they were fine at that and drew some decent heat for it

Akitoshi Saito Vs Yutaka Yoshie

Saito is a former martial artist who I think was still part of Koshinaka’s crew during this period, Yoshie is a Young Lion at this stage, so I fully expect him to eat a loss here. Yoshie would end up tagging and feuding with Hiroshi Tanahashi for a bit in the early 00’s until Tanahashi left Yoshie behind and moved up the card whilst Yoshie milled around the lower-middle. This is your standard New Japan undercard match between a more experienced wrestler and a Young Lion, as the work is competent but they don’t try anything that will expose the rookie, with it all building to the more experienced wrestler getting into a position where he can make his experience count and pick up the victory.

It’s mostly mat based, with Yoshie also getting a chance to throw in some punches and kicks at points as well. Saito has better more lethal kicks than Yoshie though, owing to his martial arts background, and eventually Saito gets a chance to show that by unloading with snug shot after shot. Yoshie takes his beating bravely, and he even gets a chance to fight back a bit, getting a Spine Buster for a two count at one stage, as well as leg drop from the second rope, before locking in THE DREADED YOUNG LION BOSTON CRAB. Saito eventually decides that he’s had enough to this mother frigging Young Lion on this Monday to Friday Fighting Spirit event though, and swiftly kicks the fudge out of poor Yoshie in order to pick up the win.

WINNER: AKITOSHI SAITO
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was standard lower card fare, with Yoshie the Young Lion getting a few flurries before getting his clock cleaned by his more experienced opponent. Traditional New Japan Rookie career path stuff really. Saito’s kicks looked really good and he was reasonably generous with the youngster until it was time to get serious and kick Yoshie’s head off his shoulders for the finish. Decent stuff all in all

Heisei Ishingun (Kengo Kimura, Michiyoshi Ohara and Tatsutoshi Goto) Vs High Voltage (Kenny Kaos and Rob Rage) and Kazuyuki Fujita

Kimura, Ohara and Goto are middle ranked guys who tended to trade wins with those at their level, defeat those below them and usually always lose to guys that were above them in the pecking order. High Voltage are two young lads from WCW who both consumed A LOT of chicken but never really got anywhere in Atlanta. Kaos had a brief stint as Tag Champ with Rick Steiner, although technically it was Judy Bagwell who was the Champion and Kaos just wrestled in her stead. Fujita would end up becoming a multiple time IWGP Heavyweight Champ thanks to having success in MMA back when that was an easy way of getting you a push in wrestling due to Antonio Inoki’s influence on NJPW.

Ohara and Goto are dressed like Tommy Dreamer here, with a t-shirt and slacks combo going on, which looks wildly out of place in a company like New Japan, but the crowd seems accepting of it. Rage and Kaos actually look okay here, as they keep it simple and don’t do anything too silly that exposes them. The Heisei Ishingun guys mostly stick to things like chops, stomps and headbutt’s, meaning the action is basic but not awful either. Fujita gets to show off his legitimate credentials by throwing in some suplexes along with the standard Young Lion offence. There is one moment where Goto has Kaos primed for a back body drop but it goes awry, however Kaos is able to think on his feet and suplex Goto in order to rescue it. High Voltage get to do some double team moves in the closing stages, which the crowd actually pops for, but ultimately they end up on the losing side when Ohara catches Fujita with a Powerbomb for three.

WINNERS: HEISEI ISHINGUN
RATING: *3/4

Thoughts: Not much too this one. The less experienced wrestlers managed to get through it in one piece and the more experienced wrestlers ended up getting a somewhat hard earned win in the end. It was all a bit kick-punch, and there were a couple of communication issues, so that keeps it below **, but it was mostly okay, just a bit nondescript

Two out of Three Falls
nWo Japan (Big Titan, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, nWo Sting and Scott Norton) Vs Shinya Hashimoto, Kazuo Yamazaki, Tadao Yasuda and Junji Hirata

WCW had such success with the nWo gimmick in their promotion, that New Japan decided to try it themselves by having Masahiro Chono put together a faction of big meaty foreigners and slighted Japanese guys to terrorise New Japan. It was highly successful, but then WCW decided to ruin it by dictating who could and couldn’t join, and eventually New Japan decided to drop the nWo name and just start referring to the group as Team 2000 instead.

Titan would perhaps be best known as the fake Razor Ramon from 1996/97 WWF, with this being an attempt to wash the stink of that off of him. Tenzan was always someone who had a bit of American flair to his style, so he not only made sense in a group like the nWo but he’s always been a good person to point to if you are new to Japanese wrestling and want something that feels familiar so that you can ease yourself in. nWo Sting was one half of Thunder and Lighting in WCW, where he’d been a mostly colourless muscle dude. However, nWo Sting benefitted from the same thing that most moderately big American wrestlers do, in that his size was really extenuated in a promotion that generally had smaller wrestlers, so he was able to come to Japan and essentially be a monster, which worked wonders for him and he ended up being a much more entertaining wrestler as a result. Norton was essentially the top foreign wrestler in New Japan during the 1990’s, and he’d end up winning the IWGP Heavyweight Title before the decade was out.

Hashimoto was one of the biggest drawing cards New Japan ever had, with his pudgy physique hiding the fact that he was an absolute beast when it came to stiff kicks and punishing head drop moves. Yamazaki came from the shoot style world of UWFi and ended up becoming a commentator when health reasons caused him to step away from the ring. Yasuda is similar to Fujita, in that he won some MMA matches and got himself an IWGP Heavyweight Title run out of it. Hirata had previously been the masked Super Strong Machine, but he’s wrestling unmasked here, although I can’t remember how that one came about. I’m sure he ended up under the mask again at some point. In fact, I think he went back to wearing the mask when he joined Makai Club in the 2000’s, which was a faction with great entrance music and little else.

nWo Japan quickly wins the first fall in seconds, as Norton puts Yasuda away with a Powerbomb after a quick brawl. Well, okay then. I’m not saying Yasuda didn’t deserve to get smashed so quickly, but it doesn’t help with making the New Japan guys look like an actual threat that they got webbed so easily.

nWo Japan wins the First Fall (Norton defeats Yasuda – Powerbomb)

nWo Japan continues to control things from the restart too, with Yasuda continuing to get walloped. Hey, I’m not complaining, hammer that hapless sumo! Team New Japan eventually helps out somewhat, which allows Yasuda to briefly fight back and tag in Hashimoto, which leads to Norton taking some stiff kicks from the Human Doughball. The momentum ebbs and flows between both teams following that, with the crowd reactions being good and the action generally being decent due to the match having more decent workers than bad in it. I actually include Norton in the decent category too. He never really clicked in the USA, but as a big scary foreigner in Japan he was perfectly cromulent in my opinion.

nWo Sting does a very credible bit with Yamazaki at one stage, highlighting both Yamazaki’s talents to bring other wrestlers up to his level, and Sting’s capability to work as a big foreign power based slugger in a company like this. It’s crazy to think the nWo Sting was in the incredibly bland Thunder and Lightning tag team in WCW when you watch this, as he actually has quite a lot of energy and fire as a fake Sting. Wearing that facepaint must have allowed him to tap into his inner charisma reserve or something. Titan and Yasuda are the two guys who are generally dragging things down for their respective teams, but Titan is barely in there and Yasuda is only really in there to get beaten up, so neither of them drag the match down too much. Titan does have a very nice looking corner clothesline at least, so I’ll give him that. Yasuda ends up being stupid enough to walk over and attack Norton, which goes about as well for him as you’d expect, but that does succeed in distracting the rest of the nWo long enough for Hashimoto to even things up by pinning Tenzan.

New Japan wins the Second Fall (Hashimoto defeats Tenzan – Brain Buster)

Norton continues to viciously chop, clothesline and just generally batter anyone stupid enough to get near to him, and it is genuinely quite entertaining to watch in a multi-person tag match setting like this, as Norton’s infamous lack of selling doesn’t really drag it down much because he’s in for a bit and then out again quite quickly. Hirata finds himself trapped in the nWo corner, wherein he takes a pretty severe kicking until things breakdown with all eight wrestlers going at it. This leads to Big Titan actually doing a dive out of the ring onto Hirata and Yasuda before putting Hirata back in the ring for a big running shoulder tackle from the rampway into the ring, which gives Titan the three.

nWo Japan wins the Third Fall (Titan defeats Hirata) – Shoulder Tackle from the Ramp

#LolNwoWins (sorry, force of habit)

WINNERS: NWO JAPAN
RATING: ***

Thoughts: I thought this was a good outing, as it was all-action and the match format allowed them to keep the lesser workers from staying in the ring for too long. Norton was an absolute beast here, and very entertaining as a result, whilst Hashimoto came in with his trademark stiff shots whenever he got the chance to. It left you wanting more from certain match combinations whilst still giving you a fun match, and that’s what these multi-person tag matches were invented for

Koji Kanemoto and Tatsuhito Takaiwa Vs El Samurai and Kendo Kashin

Kanemoto had a stint as the third version of Tiger Mask before going back to himself, which involved him wearing kick pads and kicking the crap out of people. The latter was imminently more popular than the former. Takaiwa is probably best known for inventing the multiple Powerbombs into a Spicolli Driver combo move, which most of us probably gave to a created wrestler at some point either in WrestleMania 2000 or No Mercy for the N64. Samurai was a masked wrestler who could either be awesome or deathly dull depending on how much effort he felt like putting in on any given night. Kashin is another masked wrestler who essentially had his career destroyed by losing some MMA fights back when winning or losing those was important when it came to whether you’d be pushed or not.

Samurai and Kashin have someone with them that I don’t recognise. It sounds like the commentators are saying “Anjo” but that doesn’t look like Mr. 200% so I’m guessing that I’m hearing it wrong. The Kanemoto and Takaiwa team seem to be very unhappy that Samurai and Kashin have this second with them at any rate, and they take it out on the masked men with their usual brutal offence of slams and strikes. Things soon slip into the usual formula for one of these undercard tag matches, as both teams trade momentum and take it in turns to control the other one.

Takaiwa and Samurai look to be the designated kicking bags for their respective sides, with Kanemoto and Kashin generally being presented as the more capable and competent in there. Takaiwa just outright lamps Samurai right in his katana at one stage, with the referee mildly admonishing Takaiwa before the bout just continues as normal like it wasn’t even important. What a great way to totally minimise the effectiveness of a low blow. The action is quite good, with lots of nice snug offence and big moves, but not much in the way of selling, as wrestlers pop up from big moves and almost immediately start fighting back most of the time. Kanemoto keeps going after Kashin, even when Kashin isn’t the legal wrestler, and that allows Samurai some openings for some near falls.

The closing stretch is exciting stuff, with some big moves on display, including a Reverse DDT off the rope from Samurai to Kanemoto at one stage. Takwaiwa ends up going at it with Kashin in the ring, which leads to Takaiwa getting two powerbomb’s into a Spicolli Driver, but Samurai makes the save, and that allows Kashin to catch Takaiwa in a leg hold for the submission win.

WINNERS: SAMURAI & KASHIN
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: Some of the no selling was a bit annoying at points (especially when they treated a low blow like it was a transition move) but the crowd really bit on the near falls and it led to an exciting home stretch with some cool moves and big spots. Kanemoto and Kashin was clearly the match they were building to, with Takaiwa and Samurai there to take the loss depending on which team was going to eventually win, and that ended up being Mr. Multiple Powerbomb’s. A fun match

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title
Champ: Shinjiro Otani Vs Jushin “Thunder” Liger

Otani is one of the best Junior Heavyweights from this period, mixing in stiff strikes, vicious submissions, flawless high flying and brutal looking power moves in order to be a total beast. Sadly he’s really struggling health wise these days. Liger actually had his excursion here in the UK as Flying Fuji Yamada before returning to New Japan and getting a masked gimmick based around a popular anime show that was around at the time. Liger ended up long outlasting that particular show over a multi decade career that saw him have some fantastic matches.

Liger gets the early two count with a Shotei (running palm strike) just to show that he means business, as this one starts at a quick pace before they settle down into trying to out wrestle one another. Liger was probably past his peak as far as high flying went by 1998, with wrestlers like Naomichi Marufuji and Taiji Ishimori eventually going on to surpass him on that front when the 1990’s turned into the 2000’s. Liger was still a tremendous wrestler though, with solid work on the mat making up for the fact that Liger wasn’t quite as revolutionary in the air anymore. Otani was always a technician and striker first before he was a high flyer, but he could take to the air when needed and could hold his own with any of his rivals from this period.

Otani makes a point of targeting Liger’s arm with his mat work, perhaps because he was spooked by the Shotei early on and now wants to try and take it out of Liger’s arsenal. The work on the mat is really well done, with everything looking like it would actually hurt and both wrestlers doing a good job of making the other one look like a credible grappler. Liger gets salty over his arm being worked over and actually delivers a face wash to Otani in the corner, which is normally an attack that Otani himself would perform. This being Pro Wrestling, we of course get to se Otani deliver the genuine article to Liger when the opportunity arises, with Liger’s face getting washed so thoroughly you’d think it’d wash out the colour from Liger’s mask.

We of course eventually move onto the dives and head drop’s, because this is a New Japan show and we’ve got a Title match going on. One of the more gruesome head drops sees Liger giving Otani a Brain Buster out on the floor, although Otani manages to shake it off and beat the count back onto the apron, before following up with his trademark Springboad Dropkick. In a nice touch; Liger was throwing some more palm strikes whilst Otani was on the apron just before the big move, but because Liger’s arm had been weakened the effect of the attacks were minimised, meaning that Otani was able to shrug them off and deliver the dropkick when the angle became open for it. I believe that’s what the cool kids like to call “psychology”.

Otani eventually tries to get the submission victory with a cross-arm-breaker, but Liger is able to hold on and make it to the ropes. Otani keeps going after the appendage though, with Liger continuing to sell it well and the crowd buying into the submission teases. Liger is probably in a fully extended arm bar for a little too long without tapping at one stage, which is difficult to ignore in a world where MMA was starting to become more visible and folks were aware that a cleanly applied straight arm bar = almost immediate submission. Liger does struggle and move his body around just enough that it isn’t totally egregious, but it was noticeable.

Liger fires back from the arm work by getting an incredible Brain Buster off the top rope onto Otani, but The Champ amazingly manages to kick out from it. Otani’s sell job both for the move itself and the aftermath are excellent, as he looks out for the count but just aware enough that he can survive without it looking too silly. We get some more near falls following that, with both wrestlers throwing some bombs at one another, with Otani busting out a Springboard Spinning Wheel Kick at one stage, which Liger only just manages to kick out from. Liger keeps coming though, with some more Shotei’s setting up one last Brain Buster off the top, and that one is enough for three.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: JUSHIN LIGER
RATING: ****

Thoughts: This was excellent wrestling, with some very nice work on the mat building up to the near fall extravaganza at the end. The only real critique would be that Liger perhaps stayed in some submission holds a little bit too long in a way that stretched credibility. I do like how Liger’s weakened arm meant that the usual power of his Shotei was lessened though, meaning he had to spam the move a bit for it to be effective before busting out the big epic head drop move for the three count. Otani was superb here, especially when he was selling that he was out on his feet but still alive in the contest due to his Fighting Spirit (Hey, he just said the name of the show again!). Liger was always a solid option as Champion around this time due to his ability to hold his own with all of the top stars and the fact he had big mainstream appeal in Japan due to his gimmick. That all being said, I would have been just fine with Otani winning here, because Otani is awesome, but how can you dispute the brilliance of Liger?

IWGP Tag Team Titles
Champs: nWo Japan (Masahiro Chono and Keiji Muto) Vs Bull Powers (Manabu Nakanishi and Satoshi Kojima)

Chono had managed to get Muto to ditch New Japan for the nWo in 1997, and it had really strengthened his faction, especially when Muto would bust out evil nWo Great Muta when required. Nakanishi was a former amateur wrestler that New Japan had big plans for, but he never truly reached his potential and his only IWGP Heavyweight Title win came as a thank you for your service moment in 2009 and didn’t end up lasting that long. Kojima is another wrestler who had an excursion in the UK, and you can find some of his matches from Welsh promotion Reslo out on YouTube.

Kojima shows some real charisma in this one, taking the fight to both Champion’s and even taunting them at points, showing that he has no fear when it comes to poking the hornets nest with a big stick. Nakanishi is a bit blander, with his work being a bit more lumbering, but he still looks okay here. Muto is basically moving in slow motion at points during this due to his litany of leg injuries, which would eventually lead to Muto toning down his style and adopting the Shining Wizard as his finisher, leading to Muto improbably becoming Wrestler of the Year in 2001. Both Chono and Muto take their fair share of punishment from the challengers, which helps make Kojima and Nakanishi look like credible opponents who can actually give the Champs a run for their money, even if the Champs are definitely the bigger stars.

Muto’s legs end up causing him some issues in the story of the match, as Muto goes for his trademark handspring elbow in the corner, but his leg goes out and that leads to both challengers targeting the injured appendage. Muto’s selling is actually really good, as he uses facial expressions and body language to get across how much pain he is in. Chono has to constantly come into the ring in order to rescue his partner from a series of submission attempts by Kojima and Nakanishi, as most of the match has seen the challengers on the up with the Champs trying to find a way to hold on and get back into the contest. Chono eventually runs in without a tag and tries taking it to both challengers, but that just leads to Mr. August taking a double clothesline and a suplex out on the ramp, with the latter coming from Nakanishi.

Kojima looks to have it won with a Figure Four on Muto following that, which leads to the crowd chanting for Muto whilst he gallantly holds on until Chono makes the save. Wow, and I thought it was just WCW booked this whole nWo thing arse backwards, it looks like Japan wasn’t immune to booking the supposed Heels like babyfaces either. Kojima eventually misses a Lariat attempt and catches the ring post instead, which leads to nWo Japan being able to work Kojima over for a bit, with Kojima selling that well until it’s time for Nakanishi to come in with some scary power moves. Hot tag guy was a good role for Nakanishi actually.

The closing stretch is done well, with Chono only being able to survive a Cozy Lariat due to Kojima’s arm not being at full strength. In a good sequence, Nakanishi traps Muto in the Argentine Back Breaker (Torture Wrack) on the rampway whilst Kojima tries to put Chono away, but Chono ends up locking Kojima in a Step-over Toe-hold Face-lock, which means that Nakanishi has to release Muto in order to make the save, which eventually leads to the challenger’s undoing, as Muto comes back in to take out Nakanishi and that allows Chono to lock Kojima in a version of a head vice for the submission victory.

WINNERS AND STILL CHAMPIONS: NWO JAPAN
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: Kojima was really good in this one, showing a lot of charisma and raising himself to the level of his opponents. Nakanishi was less effective, but he did reasonably well and his offence looked okay. Some of the psychology was a bit backwards, with Muto getting sympathy heat from the crowd despite supposedly being part of the main Heel faction in the company. Aside from that though, this was a solid effort and a decent match overall

IWGP Heavyweight Title
Champ: Kensuke Sasaki Vs Osamu Nishimura

Sasaki was a protégé of Riki Choshu and spent some years as a partner for Road Warrior Hawk as Power Warrior before eventually ditching the face paint and going back to his own name, leading to him winning the US Title in WCW before finally going on to claim the IWGP Title, as well as the G1 Climax in 1997. Nishimura was an old school technical wrestler in the style of a Fujinami, so it makes sense that they’d have him get a shot here so they can lay the foundations for Sasaki and Fujinami later on in the year.

Sasaki just destroys Nishimura with Lariat’s in the early going, with Nishimura even taking the Inoki bump off the apron at one stage. Nishimura is completely on the defensive following that, with Sasaki seemingly all set for a quick win. However, Nishimura manages to slip out of a Northern Lights Bomber (Snow Plough/Scoop Brain Buster) attempt and then starts fighting back using the power of technical wrestling, leading to a more even battle as the two exchange holds. Sasaki continues to use his size to his advantage, with this quickly becoming the Power Vs Technique contest that you’d think a bout between these two would be. Nishimura eventually manages to use holds and good old fashioned elbow grease in order to actually weaken Sasaki a little bit, as we see that Tatsumi Fujinami has headed down to ringside in order to watch the action.

One good thing about the story of the match is that you can tell that Sasaki is gradually seeing Nishimura as more of a genuine threat as the bout progresses. In the early going it looked like Sasaki was thinking that this would be a quick night, but as Nishimura has doggedly held on and had more and more success, Sasaki has realised that he’s got an actual match on his hands. Sasaki sells it all with a combination of frustration, determination and respect, in that he appreciates that Nishimura is a proper challenger but it’s only making the Champion all the more determined to pick up the win. Nishimura at times gives the impression that he’s got the bull by the horns and is holding on for dear life, but he isn’t scared by it, almost as if he’s thinking “Hey, I’ve not been killed yet. That’s unexpected. Guess I’ll try and win this thing then”.

Nishimura even attacks Sasaki with a chair outside the ring at one side, as he’s got the bigger wrestler on the backfoot and he’s trying to make the most of it, even if it means abandoning technical wrestling and going to classic old school fighting techniques. Sasaki doesn’t even seem to be angered by this either, almost as if he appreciates that this is a battle and that Nishimura will be trying everything he can to win. Nishimura comes off the top rope with a series of Missile Dropkicks, as he continues to up the ante here now that he’s managed to survive the initial onslaught from the Champion and actually has a chance that he might win. Sasaki is able to avoid getting pinned from all of those, but he’s clearly very worn out from it and the Title is genuinely in jeopardy. Nishimura goes to the well one too many times though, which allows Sasaki to bring Nishimura down with a Northern Lights Bomber and hit one more Lariat for the three count after a real challenge.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: KENSUKE SASAKI
RATING: ***

Thoughts: The story of the match here was actually really well told, with Sasaki totally in control in the early going, but then being completely on the backfoot at the end and only just being able to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat. Nishimura looked good for being able to weather the early onslaught before having the Champ on the ropes, whilst Sasaki looked resilient for being at defeats door but still finding a way to win. I could see some not liking this because Nishimura is a bit of an acquired taste and Sasaki was a bit colourless during this period, but it was solid work with a good story, so I liked it

In Conclusion

Fighting Spirit was a solid effort from New Japan. Otani Vs Liger was the obvious highlight, but nothing was truly bad here and most of the matches were good. New Japan probably had better shows in overall quality in 1998 (the G1 Climax tournament in particular had some great matches and some really good booking that year) but if you’ve got a New Japan World sub then this is a decent way to use it