(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Jushin Liger vs. Minoru Suzuki – NJPW King of Pro-Wrestling 2019

Professional wrestling is usually seen as a young person’s business. Given how serious of a toll it takes on the mind and body it makes sense for most wrestlers to get in when they’re young and get out by their forties. Wrestlers who keep going beyond, say, forty have been, up until recently, rare, and wrestlers stepping into the ring when in their fifties, sixties, and beyond, has been rarer still. There’s an obvious reason for this: once a wrestler hits a certain point where their physical declines become impossible to ignore people start to wonder if they’re better off hanging up their boots. But once in a while a story comes along in wrestling that seems to ignore the ravages of time. The last major feud of the career of Jushin Thunder Liger is one such a case.

The Story

In spring 2019 Jushin Liger announced that he would retire at Wrestle Kingdom 14 when NJPW hosted their annual Tokyo Dome show. This announcement was symbolic: not only was it the same venue in which the Jushin Liger wrestler character debuted back in 1989, but his retirement would coincide with the changing era brought about by a new Emperor assuming the throne in Japan. Since Liger was a Heisei Era wrestler and the new Reiwa Era was upon him, Liger saw this as a fitting pretext to let the next generation of junior heavyweights to take over.

And so Liger embarked on a retirement tour. Yet along the way he crossed paths with someone who really didn’t have all that much respect for him, that being Minoru Suzuki. Suzuki mocked Liger for not being able to go anymore and wanted to show everyone that the “Beast God” was nothing more than a fable. To really hammer this point home at one point Suzuki called Liger “Yamada” (Liger’s real name). The verbal bouts escalated into brutal ringside brawls, frequent chair-shits (a rarity in NJPW outside of acts like the Bullet Club) more American-style pull-aparts. Then things reached a boiling point: Suzuki tore off Liger’s mask and wig, leaving him a battered mess in the ring, his face concealed only by a towel thrown on him by Young Lions at the last moment. In response, a six-man tag match featuring Liger and Suzuki ended after about a minute when Liger became so enraged that he intentionally disqualified himself…and unleashed his demonic alter-ego Kishin Liger for only the fourth time in his career.

Kishin Liger proceeded to spit black mist in Suzuki’s face and attempted to stab Suzuki with a ring spike. The look on Suzuki’s face said it all: for the first time in years, Suzuki was afraid of something. “What hell hath Suzuki wrought?”, noted Kevin Kelly on commentary. Backstage, however, as Kishin’s attacks continued, Suzuki’s fear turned int maniacal laughter. Suzuki, a man notorious for terrifying his opponents whether they were rookies or headliners, was suddenly thrust into a whirlwind of emotions courtesy of a now-fully-awakened Liger. But would this level of intensity and animosity follow them into the ring when they finally squared off?

The Match

This took place on October 14, 2019. It was rated **** out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer.

Suzuki comes out first and gets his usual reaction. Then out comes Liger with a slightly different look: he doesn’t have his torso covered like normal and his mask shows his eyes and mouth. It’s the Battle Liger costume. Also, Liger is 54 going into this match and he is in INCREDIBLE shape for his age.

Loud and sustained cheering and chanting for Liger opens the match. After a tense stand-off Liger attempts an arm wringer but Suzuki slaps his arm away. In response Liger spits at Suzuki, sits down, opens his guard, and dares Suzuki to wrestle him on the mat. A solid amateur exchange ends in another stalemate. Another round of mat wrestling – a callback to Liger’s ill-fated MMA fight with Suzuki in 2002 – leads to a Kimura from Suzuki. Liger gets a ropebreak so Suzuki does the same and opens his guard this time. Liger wrestles into a heel hook and then a triangle choke but then Suzuki gets a ropebreak in return. Liger initially lets go but then tightens the choke for a bit longer, causing the ref to warn him.

Liger dropkicks Suzuki to the floor and launches him into the steel barricade twice. Liger threatens to use a chair but the ref stops him which gives Suzuki an opening to attack. Suzuki sends Liger into a barricade and then hits him with a chair right in the shoulder. Why Suzuki is given carte blanche to chair Liger to death and Liger gets admonished I’m not sure. Suzuki traps one of Liger’s arms through the barricade and with his other arm hand tries to rip Liger’s mask. Suzuki fails to get the mask off but in trying he pisses Liger off something fierce which leads to more trash-talking and a chop exchange.

Back in the ring Suzuki rips the mask some more and locks in his rope-assisted headstand armbreaker. The crowd rallies behind Liger as stiffs him with head-butts and forearms. With each strike Liger goes down but still fights to his feet. Suzuki continues shutting him down with kicks and corner strikes, but then Suzuki attempts a Shibata-style Penalty Kick and Liger catches his foot. Liger follows with a corner shotei palm thrust. Minoru Suzuki no-sells and fires back with elbows. He bounces off the ropes but Liger drops him with another shotei. Liger follows with a rolling koppu kick. Suzuki counters a Brainbuster into a sleeper. Liger goes limp but when Suzuki goes to capitalize Liger traps him in one of those ZSJ double armbars. Suzuki gets a ropebreak so Liger kicks his shoulder. Liger lands two over-the-shoulder armbreakers but Suzuki counters a third with a deep sleeper hold. Liger keeps fighting and powers out of a piledriver attempt. Liger with a running Lou Thesz press for a two-count. Sheerdrop Brainbuster out of nowhere. Suzuki kicks out. Liger attempts another shotei. Suzuki hits first with a dropkick. Palm thrusts by Suzuki. Liger fires up again. Stiff strike exchange. Liger keeps trying but finds less strength with each passing minute. Suzuki taunts Liger over and over while tanking his best shots. Liger tries one final time. Suzuki coldly no-sells him and spikes him with the Gotch-Style Piledriver. One, two, three! Suzuki wins!

Winner after 17:38: Minoru Suzuki

Post-match Suzuki grabs a chair and destroys the Young Lions who’ve come to help Liger. Then he raises the chair above his head, preparing to inflict more carnage on a helpless Liger. But then…he doesn’t. Suzuki throws the chair aside. Then he kneels down and bows to Liger. I’m not sure if he’s showing respect or apologizing for what he has just done. Either way it makes for an emotional visual as seen by some of the fans wiping away tears. Liger eventually gets up and says, “Suzuki…thank you” before leaving the ring in what ends up being his final singles match in New Japan.

Review

That was solid but underwhelming given the build and hype. Liger looked and move incredibly well for someone his age but as expected he was nowhere near his in-ring peak. And given both the storyline behind this match and the more theatrical aspects of the feud, it was expected that this match would follow that same logic. But it didn’t; the match didn’t match the hostility and more personal nature of the build. Instead, the match came across as a mix of exhibition and a showcase of Liger’s current condition. There were some minor throwbacks to their history going as far back as 2002 (which, incidentally, was the catalyst for Suzuki’s return to pro-wrestling fulltime) but it never got as heated as it needed to be. The personal barbs weren’t referenced. The level of physicality here was underwhelming relative to the build. Even the ending, which was supposed to make it seem that Suzuki was either sorry or remorseful, seemed unnecessary. Had Suzuki actually lived up to that hype with an appropriate level of violence or aggression then that post-match gesture would’ve been far more poignant.

On the other hand, there was still a fun little story of Liger persisting despite being so old and worn that he couldn’t do all that much. Age and wear-and-tear constrained him to a small handful of moves. This made him predictable and easy to counter for Suzuki. And yet Liger kept fighting and lasting longer than expected. Even if he wasn’t as strong on offence, for a time he gained a psychological edge by taking Suzuki’s biggest moves and still pushing forward. There was thing underlying sense of hope that made many Liger fans in attendance cheer, scream, and cry. He kept going and going with some people thinking that maybe, just maybe, he might pull this off. But in the end he lost to Suzuki’s piledriver after no longer being able to fight. It was a bit of an underwhelming finish relative to the match’s flow and disrupted it to a degree that it came off as flat and not as emotional as it could’ve been.

Final Rating: ***1/2

This was one of those rare cases where a Japanese wrestling matches needed more smoke and mirrors instead of less. Given how Liger was going for this old gunslinger vibe and wanted to take out a despicable opponent who was getting under his skin more than anyone else in his career the match should’ve had more violence, more aggression, and more of a display of unchained hostility from Liger. And yet everything in relation to his Kishin alter-ego was reduced to a single tease of a chair-shot that didn’t lead to any big payoff and instead led to a weird referee interference spot. The whole setup was meant to lead to this incredible showdown akin to a war but the final product was something far more subdued. It’s a shame: all the right pieces were there and the crowd was still fully behind Liger as their hero. Still, given the samplers and teases that took place in the lead-up and how Suzuki left the match so uncharacteristically calm and remorseful you’d think he had just done something truly wretched. Instead the bulk of the match was…just a match. It was…there, neither exceptionally good nor bad, just lukewarm in terms of heat, story, and tension.

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