Mike Reviews NJPW Rising The Next Generations In Osaka Dome – 08.08.1998

Happy Friday Everyone!

We’ve got some NJPW in Osaka for you today, courtesy of our friends over at F&C. This show took place in August of 1998 and the main match on the card sees Masahiro Chono, in full-on nWo Japan pomp, going for the IWGP Heavyweight Title against Tatsumi Fujinami. Elsewhere we’ve got Genichiro Tenryu battling Shinya Hashimoto and the exciting prospect of Great Sasuke and Jushin Liger going at it

Let’s see if New Japan can rock the Osaka Dome, or whether their big show ends up being more of a whimper

You can view the full card by clicking below;

NJPW Rising The Next Generations In Osaka Dome Card

NJPW Rising The Next Generations In Osaka Dome is emanating from the Osaka Dome in Osaka, Japan on the 8th August 1998

As usual with NJPW tape releases, the matches aren’t shown in order, but I’ll be writing them up as they appeared on the Cage Match link before the break-line so you can grasp what it might have been like for the fans live in Osaka

Kendo Kashin Vs El Samurai

Masked man action here, although their gimmicks are slightly different, as Kashin focuses more on shoot style submission based offence and standard Heel chicanery, whilst Samurai is more your standard Strong Style Junior Heavyweight. Kashin is going for MMA styled submission moves like a cross arm breaker right out of the gate, whilst Samurai tries to use Pro Wrestling moves like the La Magistral and a chin lock, so any first time viewers can automatically see a clear difference between the two and how they handle their business.

Kashin keeps going for arm based submission holds, with Samurai fighting them off as best he can whilst trying to gain a foothold in the contest. It’s all solidly worked, although the crowd mostly just watches respectfully and doesn’t make a tonne of noise, leading to plenty of echoes in the cavernous Osaka Dome. Samurai eventually manages to take Kashin down with a clothesline and follows with his signature Powerbomb variant for two.

Kashin replies with a low blow, showing off those previously mentioned Heel abilities, but Samurai survives the resulting clothesline from the second rope, leading to a series of counters that ends with Samurai getting a Reverse DDT. Sadly they botch the finish somewhat; as Kashin is supposed to bring Samurai down from the second rope with a cross arm breaker for the win, but it goes awry and they have to fart around in THE DREADED YOUNG LION BOSTON CRAB for a few moments before repeating the spot to give Kashin the submission win after 10 Minutes.

WINNER: KENDO KASHIN
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: Some solid wrestling there for the most part, it’s just a shame that they didn’t get the finish on the first try and had to do the sequence again

Tadao Yasuda and Takashi Iizuka Vs Kazuo Yamazaki and Osamu Nishimura

Yasuda is a bumbling former Sumo who would eventually find his way to the IWGP Heavyweight Title in the early 2000’s due to him winning some MMA fights and Antonio Inoki thinking that qualified him to win a belt in Pro Wrestling, because Inoki. He sadly passed away about a month ago. Iizuka would possibly be best known for one of two things to casual followers of Japanese wrestling, the first being that he was brutalised by The Steiner’s on a WCW pay per view and the second being that he was a wacky brawler towards the dying days of his career who would punch people with a metal glove. Yamazaki is a shoot style guy who used to work for UWFi and had a great G1 Climax run in 1998 that really got him over. Nishimura is your traditional “black boots and trunks” New Japan technical grappler, although he could do some comedy on occasion.

Yasuda makes use of his size in this one by slugging his opponents and pushing them around whenever he can, whilst the other three wrestlers mostly stick to technical and submission grappling. Iizuka can hang in there with Nishmura and Yamazaki in the technical wrestling realm, whilst Yasuda trying to overcome skill with raw power works well enough, so this is a watchable contest overall, although not a super exciting one either. It’s standard undercard Japanese Pro Wrestling, where wrestlers trade momentum and the work itself is generally solid because you normally don’t get close to a ring in Japan unless you can at least do the basics.

The pace picks up a bit when they head down the home stretch, with Iizuka busting out a dropkick and some suplexes onto Nishimura, whilst Nishimura uses both a sleeper and an abdominal stretch in reply. Yasuda busts out the sumo slaps, much to Osaka’s enjoyment, and Yasuda pops them even further with a big Enziguri. Yasuda wasn’t ever really much of a top level worker, so him busting out the crowd pleasing spots was his main appeal, so it was nice to see it here. However, Yamazaki eventually decides that he’s had enough of this nonsense and catches Yasuda in an arm bar for the tap out after 11 Minutes.

WINNERS: YAMAZAKI & NISHIMURA
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: Solid undercard stuff. Yasuda got to do a few crowd pleasing spots, Iizuka held his own in there with the two technicians, Nishimura sold for both of the opponents in order to make them look good, and Yamazaki busted out some cool submission styled grappling. For an undercard match, this hit the beats it needed to and the crowd got enough to enjoy themselves without being overstimulated for what was due to come later on in the show

Shiro Koshinaka Vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan

Koshinaka was a sometimes tag team partner of Genichiro Tenryu during this period and regularly scrapped with nWo Japan, of whom Tenzan is a member, essentially filling the role of lieutenant to Chono. Osaka seems to like the nWo tonight, so Tenzan gets a good reaction for his signature spots of Mongolian Chop and falling headbutt. They are scrapping pretty much from the opening bell, with little in the way of technical grappling and the focus mainly being on them walloping one another, with Tenzan mostly focusing on using headbutt’s whilst Koshinaka keeps trying to clatter Tenzan with his bum/hip/it’s his bum mate.

Osaka gets quite into it, especially when they keep popping up from each other’s strikes and slams in order to deliver one of their own. Considering that it came sometimes be a bit difficult to get big reactions for undercard bouts in a Dome setting, these two have done well to get the fans so invested so early on in the show. Koshinaka gets possibly the nastiest move of the match by giving Tenzan a German Suplex right on top of his HEAD, which Tenzan probably only survived because his neck was all gristle and roof insulation. Koshinaka gets a pair of Powerbomb’s following that, getting an impressive looking rolling jack-knife cradle following the second one for the three count after 8 Minutes

WINNER: SHIRO KOSHINAKA
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This was scrappy in places, but it had a really good energy to it and the crowd got invested, especially when they were hitting each other hard and throwing one another around. A good match, and the finish kind of surprised me as I thought Tenzan would pick up the win seeing as the nWo was getting a renewed push at the time

Kazuyuki Fujita and Yuji Nagata Vs Bull Powers (Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima)

Fujita was a protégé of Antonio Inoki and New Japan put a lot of their promotional power behind him in the 2000’s, to little success. Nagata had been on excursion to WCW and was starting to get a bit more of a push around this time, although he wasn’t the, then, record breaking IWGP Heavyweight Champion yet. Nakanishi had also had an excursion in WCW as Kurasawa, and was earmarked for a push around this time, leading to him eventually winning the G1 Climax in 1999. Kojima had been given a decent run in the 1998 G1 and was showing really good promise, promise he’d eventually deliver on with multiple title reigns in both All Japan and New Japan.

We actually get a video package prior to this one, showing Nagata heading down to the ring and cutting a promo in a suit, which I’m guessing was a “I’ve been to WCW and been managed by Sonny Onoo for a bit, so you can all take me seriously now” or words to that effect. Nagata actually gets pyro for his entrance here, and dubbed in music that is akin to something you’d give to a scary boss in an RPG game, so you know that New Japan was ramping up the Nagata push at the time. Nagata and Nakanishi make sure to eye one another up before the bout, as these two had wrestled quite a bit prior to their respective excursions and had even battled on the card of Dontaku in Fukuoka back in 1995.

As you would expect from a New Japan match; there are plenty of snug strikes in this one, with the crowd enjoying seeing Nagata in particular blitz the Bull Powers with some loud kicks. Fujita is the least experienced of the four, but he does just fine in there. Some of the clubbing strikes from Nakanishi sound BRUTAL, as he’s just clattering his opponents. This one subscribes to the usual Japanese undercard tag team match rules, with neither side really working Heel or getting the heat, with instead both teams just trading momentum and having sections where they control one of the opposite team. The Nagata Vs Kojima sections are by far the best bits of the match, but Nagata Vs Nakanishi is quite fun too just because they have the rivalry aspect going on.

Nagata eventually locks Nakanishi in his version of the Figure Four, called the Nagata Lock, but Kojima is able to save his teammate, although the live crowd was buying it as a potential finish. Bull Powers have some problems following that, as Nakanishi is too hurt to help Kojima double up on Nagata, leading to Kojima castigating his teammate whilst the bout is still taking place. Nagata and Nakanishi end up fighting out on the floor, which leads to Fujita getting a couple of near falls on Kojima until Kojima is able to get a lariat for the three count after 12 Minutes.

WINNERS: BULL POWERS
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This was good hard hitting fun, with the result kind of being obvious once it came down to Fujita Vs Kojima, but the action itself was still fun and the crowd really got into the near falls and submission teases, so it was a successful piece of business in the end and an entertaining snug slam and strike fest

The fight starts up again after the bout, with folks having to jump in and break things up. If that was an angle designed to get me interested in seeing these folks fight again, then it did it’s job

Great Muta and The Great Kabuki Vs Mad Dogs (Michiyoshi Ohara & Tatsutoshi Goto)

Muta and Kabuki both wear face paint, spit mist at people, and cheat outrageously (with Muta originally supposed to be the son of Kabuki in kayfabe). Ohara and Goto were a pretty meh lower card team, whose main role was to be punching bags for more prestigious tandems. They are here wrestling the wacky face painted dudes as they can eat a loss without it hurting their standing, because they don’t really have much standing to speak of. This is very much one those bouts that isn’t there for match quality but more for the spectacle of having Muta and Kabuki teaming up, with Muta and Kabuki both spitting mist right at the start in order to pop the Osaka crowd.

Once the actual wrestling starts; it’s not especially thrilling stuff, with everyone mostly eye gouging one another and throwing basic strikes. It’s essentially the best match you can get with these guys, as Kabuki was utterly past it by this stage and Muta usually had it in neutral most of the time, leaning into his gimmick for easy pops rather than actually putting on a proper show within the ropes. Mad Dogs do look to be trying, but they’re 5/6 out of 10 wrestlers on their best days, so they can’t really make up the difference to elevate the quality of the wrestling. Thankfully Osaka enjoys seeing Muta and Kabuki play the hits, so the match has a decent atmosphere at least.

Kabuki actually takes some decent bumps in there, especially for a 50 year old who walks around like he’s 80. Muta comes alive briefly to do the handspring elbow and face buster out of the corner, although an attempted Piledriver through a table outside of the ring on Ohara doesn’t quite go how they want it, with it looking pretty limp and unimpressive. Muta introduces a chair following that, which doesn’t lead to a DQ, because Japan, and that leads to Ohara and Goto getting misted by Muta and Muta/Kabuki respectively. Kabuki adds a Lariat to Goto and that gives us a three count after 11 Minutes.

WINNERS: MUTA & KABUKI
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: The crowd got out of this what they wanted, even though as a match it wasn’t very good. Kabuki was working hard at least, and seems to say goodbye to the fans once the match is over. Apparently he was due to retire in September 1998, although on Cage Match it looks like he wrestled for another 20 years after this, so that didn’t end up happening. It does explain why he was essentially saying goodbye though as he possibly thought this was one of his final matches at the time

Jushin Thunder Liger Vs The Great Sasuke

These two famously met in the 1994 Super J Cup, where Sasuke pulled off the big upset by catching Liger with a rana OUTTA NOWHERE. Liger was actually the Junior Heavyweight Champion at the time of this show, but the belt isn’t on the line here. Sasuke sends Liger out of the ring for a dive almost instantly, which is probably priming us for what we can expect to see here. You get the feel from the early exchanges that the Osaka crowd is treating this one as a big deal, which is nice to see as normally in bigger stadium settings like this you tend to get a lot of casual fans, so the fact they are on board with this warms the cockles of the heart somewhat.

Liger uses holds and mat wrestling to ground Sasuke following the hot start, which was a usual tactic that Liger would use when he was in there with a high flying and generally more sympathetic opponent to him, as Sasuke sells well and is good at getting fans to care about him when he’s getting battered. You can always tell that Liger is letting out his inner Heel as he starts using lots of stomps and slaps when his opponent is down, which Liger does here to show his displeasure at Sasuke defiantly refusing to lay down. Liger being willing to Heel it up on a show that his home promotion is holding against an outsider (Sasuke represents Michinoku Pro) is pretty selfless of him actually, as normally you’d want to be the babyface in such a situation.

Sasuke eventually starts fighting back, and FLATTENS Liger with a stiff looking Swanton Bomb, which leads to Liger getting mad and replying with a Brain Buster out on the floor, as this one is quickly escalating. Indeed, Sasuke is the next one to up the ante, as he delivers a big Asai Moonsault out onto Liger, with Liger getting crushed up against the metal railings and Sasuke then tumbling past the railings themselves onto the cold hard concrete past the barrier. I’m frankly amazed that Sasuke even survived the 1990’s if I’m honest. There are some really good near falls following that, with the crowd biting on most of them. Sasuke misses a wacky flipping attack from the top rope and Liger follows with the Liger Bomb for two in a tightly executed near fall.

Sasuke actually manages to survive a Brain Buster from the top rope, which causes Osaka to OOOOWAAAHHHHHH in the way Japanese crowds are want to do. In a case of history repeating itself; Sasuke catches Liger with the rana OUTTA NOWHERE, and that’s enough for the three count after 15 Minutes. Honestly, after Liger walloped Sasuke for the majority of the bout, the only real logical ending at that point was Sasuke gutting it out and getting a last gasp win, which was what we got to see here.

WINNER: THE GREAT SASUKE
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: Good stuff here, as Liger was a pretty effective Junior Heavyweight bully when he was booked that way, and Sasuke is always a great punching bag when in there with the right opponent. Not a classic or anything, but an enjoyable match that hooked the casuals in Osaka and gave us some very nicely executed near falls

Kensuke Sasaki Vs Don Frye

Sasaki had received a strong push throughout 1997, being an example of an IWGP Heavyweight Champion who also won the G1 Climax whilst currently the Champion back in 1997. He’d lost the belt to Fujinami in April 1998 to give the fans at the Tokyo Dome a feelgood moment. Frye was neck and neck with Scott Norton at the time, fighting over the status of “top foreigner” in the promotion, and would eventually go on to success in MMA, including two huge fights in PRIDE with both Yoshihiro Takayama and Ken Shamrock respectively. We get a pre-match video package here, showing Frye and Sasaki trying to fight their way through a bunch of Young Lions so that they can do battle with one another, suggesting that this one will be a bit of heated contest.

Osaka absolutely HATES Frye, with him drawing some really strong Heel heat, which is always fun to see in Japan as they’re usually quite respectful fans over there so you really have to be a jerk for them to boo you unprovoked like that. Frye hotdogs to the crowd early on, which leads to Sasaki clattering him with a couple of Lariat’s to cheers from the crowd. Frye replies with some MMA submission holds and refuses to break when Sasaki makes the ropes, drawing even more boos from the crowd, who do NOT like this bearded foreigner coming to their country and being so unpleasant. Sasaki turns the tables by catching Frye in an MMA styled arm bar at one stage though, which Frye is eventually able to survive by getting to the ropes, with Sasaki now refusing to break as a way to give the Heel a taste of his own medicine.

Frye eventually starts biting to escape another Sasaki hold, and then even delivers some blatant low blow punches to Sasaki, as they’re busting out all the classic Heel antics here and it’s working a treat with the Osaka crowd. It just shows that, regardless of what style of Pro Wrestling you practice in, if you push the crowd’s buttons appropriately you can always garner a reaction. Frye eventually goes too far with his cheating, delivering another low blow and forcing the referee to call an end to the bout after 9 Minutes.

WINNER BY DQ: KENSUKE SASAKI
RATING: **

Thoughts: As a match it didn’t have the best flow to it and the finish was pretty weak, but the heat from the crowd was fantastic and that kept the bout interesting throughout. DQ’s are generally pretty rare in Japan, as you normally get a finish most of the time, so when used sparingly they can work, and it worked here in my opinion. The crowd was mad about the finish, but it felt like it was “good” heat and not “bad” heat, where it made them mad at the Heel rather than the promotion for the finish. The finish was consistent with Frye’s character at the time and it left the door open to further matches without Frye having to take a clean loss

The fight picks up again following the bout, with Frye ally Brian Johnston getting involved and choking out some Young Lions as the crowd continues to shower the evil foreigners with boos. Sasaki has seemingly come up bleeding and is helped to the back

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title League Final
Dr. Wagner Jr. and Koji Kanemoto Vs Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa

The winners of this one will become the inaugural champions. Wagner Jr. is a big name in Lucha Libre, being the brother of Silver King, who fans of WCW might remember. Kanemoto was known for delivering punishing strikes and applying snug submission holds. He also had a brief run as the third Tiger Mask, which ended up being a bit of a duffer all told. Otani is one of the very best in-ring performers in New Japan Junior Heavyweight history in my opinion, having a great mixture of striking, submissions and high flying. Takaiwa is a stocky powerhouse who was known for doing multiple powerbomb’s before heaving his opponent up into a Spicolli Driver, which is a move you can give to your created wrestlers in the THQ/AKI wrestling games on the N64.

In a nice touch, both teams get grand entrances here, showing that the Junior Heavyweight’s and the belts they are fighting for are considered important. Granted that was not a sentiment that would totally last, but then again the Heavyweight tag belts are usually passed around quite a bit without much in the way of ceremony normally, so it’s less a weight limit issue and more a New Japan booking tag belts in general issue. There’s a fun dynamic at play here, as each team has a brutal striker and submission artist (Kanemoto/Otani) and a more power based technical guy (Wagner Jr./Takaiwa) so there’s always a case of either opposites doing battle or two similar wrestlers trying to better their equivalent on the other team, which keeps things interesting.

The quality of the wrestling here really is excellent, as New Japan’s Junior Heavyweight division during the mid to late 1990’s was one of the best divisions you’ll ever see, with a good mixture of Lucha, Strong Style, submission grappling, power wrestling and high flying all going on, so regardless of what style of wrestling you like there was probably someone for you. I do love in this one how you mostly have all four wrestlers beating the cheese out of one another, but occasionally Wagner Jr. will go back to his roots and bust out some kind of Lucha styled roll-up or pinning hold to remind you that he can do that stuff as well.

There are some big double team moves, some of which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, such as when Kanemoto gives Takaiwa a top rope Missile Dropkick at the same time that Wagner Jr. is giving Takaiwa a Razor’s Edge. It not only looked brutal but it was also a good twist on the usual DOOMSday Device move you’d see a tag team do. Speaking of which, he get a version of a DOOMsday Device here on Otani, but with a twist as Wagner Jr. gets Otani up on his shoulders and Kanemoto essentially does a Moonsault onto Otani to knock him down to the match. Again, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone attempt something like that since, but I reckon it would bring the house down if someone tried it today.

There are some fantastic near falls as the bout progresses, with Osaka biting on pretty much all of them, especially when Kanemoto gives Takaiwa a big Moonsault and the short powerhouse manages to kick before the three count. Things are actually looking bleak for Otani and Takaiwa, but they keep fighting and eventually manage to fight back. Wagner Jr. tries to put Otani away with a Michinoku Driver, but Takaiwa runs in to stop that, allowing Otani to get a Springboard Missile Dropkick before following up with a Dragon Suplex to win the belts after 20 Minutes. It looks like Otani’s dad was in the crowd to see it too, which is very cool.

WINNERS AND NEW CHAMPIONS: OTANI & TAKAIWA
RATING: ****

Thoughts: This was absolutely brilliant. Not only was the match itself excellent, but they actually made the new belts feel like they mattered by giving the four wrestlers a chance to wrestle pretty high up the card on a major event. All four stepped up to enter a performance to match the occasion, with the story of Otani and Takaiwa weathering the storm before finally finding a way to force their way to victory being very well told, with the finishing sequence being especially well done, with Otani realising that he probably only had a quick window to finish off Wagner Jr. due to how the bout was going, leading to two quickfire big moves to seal things before Kanemoto and Wagner Jr. could rally. Worth watching if you’ve never seen it

J1 Heavyweight Title
Champion: Genichiro Tenryu Vs Shinya Hashimoto

The J1 belt is a belt that belongs to WAR, hence why Tenryu has it. You can read more about the WAR promotion by checking out Maffew’s archives. These two had a bruising match during the 1998 G1 Climax tournament, that Hashimoto won, so we’ve got a rematch here in Osaka for Tenryu’s belt. They pick up where they left off in the G1 Climax by hitting each other really hard, which the crowd of course enjoys. Tenryu even busts out a TOPE SUICIDA at one stage, as they brawl around ringside and Hashimoto gets thrown onto some tables. This only serves to make Hashimoto mad though, which leads to him heading in the ring and kicking the roasted parsnip out of Tenryu. Note to self; should I ever time travel to 1998 then don’t make Shinya Hashimoto angry!

Tenryu fires back with some closed fist punches, which are the thing that actually gets him the biggest telling off from the referee. Ah Japan, where you can hit people with chairs and fling them onto tables without nary a peep from the officials, but if you use a closed fist then you’re treated like some kind of war criminal. What a country. The two wrestlers continue to just clobber one another, with Tenryu moving up to his signature Eniziguri move whilst Hashimoto actually takes to the air with a big elbow drop, in a move you didn’t see him do that much. Hashimoto gets a pair of DDT’s, the move he defeated Tenryu with in the G1, but Tenryu manages to kick out this time.

Hashimoto even busts out a dropkick at one stage, as he’ clearly pulling out all he stops for the Osaka Dome crowd. Tenryu responds with yet more Enziguri’s and some Lariat’s for good measure, but Hashimoto refuses to go down. Even when Tenryu finally manages to fell Hashimoto with one last big Lariat, Hashimoto still manages to kick out. They continue trying to viciously end one another, with Hashimoto throwing some stiff kicks. However, when Hashimoto goes for a Stinger Splash in the corner he gets caught by Tenryu and it’s turned into a Powerbomb for the three count after 14 Minutes. That finish could have gone a bit smoother, but I do like the idea that Hashimoto was so focused on destroying Tenryu that he did something rash and it ended up costing him.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: GENICHIRO TENRYU
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: This was two hefty lads just throwing bombs at one another until one of them stayed down. That type of match won’t be for everybody, but it was a good example of the genre and the live crowd had fun with it

Hashimoto shows respect to Tenryu following the bout

IWGP Heavyweight Title
Champion: Tatsumi Fujinami Vs Masahiro Chono

Fujinami won the belt in April 1998 at the Tokyo Dome during Antonio Inoki’s retirement event. Fujinami could still turn it on and have a good match during this period, but he felt like an odd choice to hold the belt at the time when you consider that the likes of Sasaki, Tenryu, Hashimoto, Muto and Chono were all arguably more over than him at the time. Chono was the leader of New Japan’s version of the nWo and had become a gigantic star following his mid 1990’s makeover, going from wearing bright colours like orange and green to instead wearing all black and being far more of a Heel. Chono hadn’t held the IWGP Heavyweight Title prior to this, which was kind of amazing when you consider how over he was during this period. This match was essentially there to give Chono his big coronation in a Dome setting to start him off on a big run atop the promotion.

The entrances highlight that this is a battle of Modern Vs Classic, as Chono gets loud angry music and struts to the ring with sunglasses on in all black attire as pyro goes off, whilst Fujinami just walks out to the sort of music you’d expect to hear on a sitcom from the 1970’s with sports jacket being his only special accoutrement. Chono audibly gets a loud pop for his entrance, even though nWo Japan are ostensibly Heels. Despite that though, Fujinami still gets a nice reaction when his name is announced and the crowd isn’t actively booing him or anything like that. They clearly prefer Chono and want him to win, but not at the expense of vilifying the legendary Fujinami, which gives the match a unique atmosphere. Chono doesn’t even get booed when he catches Fujinami with a mule kick at one stage.

They work this one mostly on the mat, as that’s what Fujinami likes to do. Indeed, most of Fujinami’s act around this time was that he’d wrestle the vast majority of the bout on the mat and/or selling but then bust out a few high spots to fire up the crowd and leave them feeling like they actually got a bit of a spectacle. Having a patiently built match on the mat isn’t really what Chono excelled at during this period, as he was normally a lot better at brawling and character work due to a litany of injuries slowing him down by this point. Fujinami is very mechanically sound when it comes to technical wrestling though, so Chono hangs on during the old school grappling sections and fires off some of his signature spots as and when he can.

A big part of the match is dedicated to Fujinami attacking the legs of Chono, using multiple Figure Four Leg Lock’s in an attempt to weaken the appendage whilst Chono lies on the mat selling. Chono’s selling whilst he’s in the hold is very good, with him doing a good job of getting the pain across. Chono manages to counter a top rope knee drop from Fujinami into the Step-over Toe-hold Face-lock, which he uses to wear Fujinami down a bit. Sadly Chono seems to pretty much ignore all the work on his leg prior to that, as he climbs up to the top rope with ease so that he can deliver a flying shoulder tackle, which kind of dumps all over Fujinami’s efforts. I get that shuffling around in a big Osaka Dome Main Event might not be the most thrilling thing for the folks in the crowd to watch, but you do still need to register all the work done to your leg and have it effect your performance somewhat. Chono eventually manages to catch Fujinami in another STF and that’s enough to win the Title after 20 Minutes.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: MASAHIRO CHONO
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: The crowd popped big for the Title change, but the match felt like it meandered a bit due to the styles clash between the two men, and Chono deciding he didn’t want to sell the leg work in the closing stretch made all the work done prior in the match feel like it was a bit of a waste of time. The finish was thankfully clean, with nWo Japan members Keiji Muto, Hiroyoshi Tenza and Hiro Saito being out there only for moral support and never actually getting physically involved

Sadly for Chono, he didn’t end up getting to defend his newly won belt, as a neck injury would cause him to have to vacate the Title, leading to Scott Norton winning it from Yuji Nagata in September 1998. This came at a pretty unfortunate time, as Chono was arguably the hottest act in the company at the time and the next tour was basically the nWo tour, whereby it would be presented like the nWo was booking everything and Chono was in control (he was supposed to be defending the belt against Norton because he decreed that only nWo guys deserved title shots). This should have been a big deal with Chono on top as Champion, but him being injured took some considerable steam out of things and Norton wasn’t much of a substitute, even though he was very over with the Japanese crowds

In something stolen from Maffew; let’s have a look at how this show was covered in the 17th August 1998 issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (available over at F4W)

A combination of a lackluster main event, a somewhat stale business and a severely weakened national economy have been among the things blamed for New Japan drawing its smallest Dome crowd in its history, an estimated 35,000 fans, on 8/8 at the Osaka Dome.

New Japan announced the crowd at 45,000 in what was said to be more of a face saving measure, in a building that the company drew a sellout 53,000 in last year for its debut show in the building headlined by the second Naoya Ogawa vs. Shinya Hashimoto match. That was with a world judo champion having beaten a world wrestling champion via submission in his first match and then challenging for his wrestling title. This year’s main event didn’t have the drawing power, as IWGP champion Tatsumi Fujinami in what will likely be the final world title defense of his career and possibly his last ever big show in the real spotlight, dropped the belt to Masahiro Chono in 19:53 via submission to the STF. The win began Chono’s first reign with the IWGP belt.

With only 20,000 tickets sold one week before the show, a lot of things were said, the biggest being that the crowd was down because it was not a line-up of the calibre expected for such a major show. The feeling was that it was a major arena line-up and not a Dome line-up, although New Japan has gotten away with weaker line-ups and drawn huge crowds many times previously at Dome events. Osaka has always been a tough city for wrestling and all entertainment, as it lives in the shadow of Tokyo and there is something of an identity crisis when it feels it is getting a second-tier product. In addition, both due to the weakened economy and the proximity of this show to the G-1, the feeling is that a lot of the Tokyo hardcores and fans in Northern Japan that would travel to the major show didn’t attend this one because G-1 nights are by tradition better workrate shows and in this case shows with more story impact than this Dome show figured to have. Whatever the reason, and all had validity, the workrate was said to be very good and we’re told the card was better than it looked to be on paper.

In Conclusion:

The Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title match was the clear highlight here, and definitely worth watching. There was nothing else that really reached that level for me personally, but it wasn’t a terrible show by any means. The Main Event was disappointing, even though the live crowd enjoyed seeing Chono win the belt. There were no matches that I’d class as truly awful, and the Osaka Dome setting was impressive. Not a New Japan show you have to rush out of your way to see, but hardly a duffer either