Mike Reviews NJPW The Spiral – 14.10.2002

Happy Friday Everyone!

We’ve got The Spiral reviewed for you today; a New Japan Tokyo Dome show from 2002 filled with Inoki-ism and, hopefully, some decent wrestling interspersed between the madness. Big shout out to F&C for making this show available by the way. It’s something that’s well worth the investment in these post-WWE Network days.

We’ve got Bob Sapp making his in-ring New Japan debut on this show, as well as Joanie “Chyna” Laurer getting in there to clash with Masahiro Chono. Yes, that was actually a match that happened. Maybe they called the event The Spiral because it represented New Japan spiralling out of control at the time?

You can view the full card for The Spiral by clicking below;

New Japan Pro Wrestling The Spiral Card

The Spiral is emanating from the Tokyo Dome on the 14th of October 2002. New Japan announced a crowd of 50,000, but it was likely a false number that New Japan threw out there to save face and the real attendance was minus 40,000

Calling the action at different points throughout the night are Kazuo Yamazaki, Taku Furusawa, Kengo Kimura, Katsuhiko Kanazawa, Toru Nakamaru, Yu Manabe, Yoshihiro Takayama and Masahiro Chono

Three matches didn’t make the broadcast. They were;

Blue Wolf defeated Toru Yano in 6 Minutes

TEAM2000 (Gedo & Jado) defeated El Samurai and Wataru Inoue in 12 Minutes

TEAM2000 (Hiro Saito and Tatsutoshi Goto) defeated Shiro Koshinaka and Takashi Iizuka in 10 Minutes

The first two sounded like they might have been decent but I’m glad we didn’t have to watch that third one!

Tatsumi Fujinami does some kind of a speech at the start whilst the folks in the main matches stand on the stage, at which point we get the big intro video package hyping up the card

LA Dojo (American Dragon, Ricky Reyes and Rocky Romero) Vs Jushin Thunder Liger, Masahito Kakihara and Tiger Mask IV

Dragon, Reyes and Romero all trained at New Japan’s Los Angeles based dojo at the time, so they’re getting matched up with some established Junior Heavyweight stars as a way to showcase what the dojo was producing. Liger has a kid dressed as a mini-Liger with him here, which is actually kind of cool. Dragon of course makes a fighting stance at the kid when he gets into the ring, along with giving the “up yours” signal to the fans, showing us that he’s hamming it up and playing Heel here tonight.

There are some impressive dives from the LA Dojo to start, with Dragon getting the TOPE SUICIDA onto Liger whilst Romero gets an impressive TOPE CON HILO out onto Tiger. Things settle into the standard Japanese undercard tag match formula after that, with each team trading momentum and nothing we’d really recognise in the west as a heat segment or hot tag. The action is good, but the crowd doesn’t really get that invested in it, which is a shame as everyone is working hard and no one looks out of place in the ring on a big event like this.

Liger gets to splat Reyes onto the canvas with a big Liger Bomb at one stage, whilst Dragon gets to fly off the top with a Diving Headbutt onto Tiger before eating a dropkick on the way down when he tries another high flying move. Kakihara stands out from his teammates as he’s all about strikes and submission holds rather than high flying, so he does some nice submission style stuff with Reyes, with Liger actually having to recuse Kakihara at one stage when he’s trapped in a Reyes submission hold.

Romero has Liger trapped in a leg based submission soon after that for the big tap out tease, but Liger makes the ropes after the big sell job. Liger really put Romero over there with the sell job and rope escape, and he continues that by allowing Romero to kick out of a sit-out Liger Bomb when things break down. Romero gets Liger in a triangle choke following that, which requires a rescue attempt from Tiger, as the Japanese contingent are doing a good job making the LA contingent look like dangerous foes. Romero ends up missing a high flying move though and that leads to Liger getting a Brain Buster for the three count.

12 Minutes

WINNERS: LIGER, KAKIHARA & TIGER
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: From reading the Wrestling Observer recap of this show, Dragon supposedly didn’t impress people here, which feels kind of odd to me as everything he did looked good, but I do kind of get it. Dragon was focused on playing Heel and making the Japanese contingent look good here, wrestling for the match and not himself most of the way, so it wasn’t much of a showcase for him in that regard, outside of him displaying his professionalism. The match itself was good high tempo action, with the LA Dojo guys getting presented as an actual threat at many points in the match, as the Japanese guys had to rescue one another quite a few times over the course of the bout before picking up the hard fought win. The Dome crowd didn’t really care that much about it, but the wrestling itself was entertaining and fun to watch

The LA Dojo promises revenge after the bout

Minoru Fujita and Shinya Makabe vs. King Of The Hills (Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kenzo Suzuki)

Makabe was back from an excursion here, with the idea being that he would now become a star. It would take him changing his first name to “Togi” and hitting people with a chain in order to achieve that, but achieve it he did. Suzuki might honestly have been the guy in the KOTH team that New Japan was highest on at the time, which is kind of insane considering how good Tanahashi became eventually, but New Japan wasn’t the sanest wrestling operation at the time. Plus, Suzuki was physically more impressive to look at than Tanahashi at the time size wise, and wrestling companies will invariably push bigger people over smaller people, partly because they think bigger is better and also because most fans think that too, even if it’s only subconsciously.

Tanahashi is fired up and getting right in the face of the opposition team to start, whilst Suzuki hangs back, which might be a deliberate attempt to highlight how the two differ temperament wise. That or Tanahashi was just genuinely more eager to prove himself on the big stage here. Shockingly the King of the Hills seemingly win it after just 31 seconds when Suzuki pins Fujita following a knee strike. However, Makabe grabs a mic and demands the match re-start because he barely got to do anything, and King of the Hills agree, leading to Makabe essentially having to go it alone for a bit whilst Fujita recovers out on the floor.

Seeing as they wanted to showcase Makabe a bit, this does kind of make sense to some degree, as it makes him look gutsy that he’s happy to go in there and take on two opponents practically all by himself, but they could have set that up without having Fujita get pinned so quickly. For instance, you could have had Suzuki knee Fujita, with it being presented that Fujita is out, but Makabe could drag Fujita to his corner, tag himself in, and then you’ve got essentially the same story without doing the weird restart thing.

Makabe mostly just gets worked over whilst he’s at the numbers disadvantage, with him selling it all well enough but the crowd doesn’t really care that much or get behind him. KOTH stick to mostly basic stuff whilst working Makabe over, with Suzuki being a bit plodding and stoic whilst Tanahashi shows more fire and energy in there. The referee stands back and just lets both members of KOTH in there for most of it without really caring. In a nice touch, KOTH do the same knee strike combo that they did to Fujita onto Makabe, but Makabe actually gets to kick out, which the crowd mildly reacts to.

Fujita does eventually get tagged in after recovering on the floor, and they make up somewhat for making him look like a chump earlier by giving him some offence. The crowd actually seems like they’re kind of behind Fujita now, and clap when he survives THE DREADED YOUNG LION BOSTON CRAB from Suzuki to make the ropes. KOTH take turns in slapping poor Fujita around, but he’s able to dodge a double team attempt and tags in Makabe, who runs wild with clotheslines and gives Suzuki a Dragon Suplex for the three count.

7 Minutes

WINNERS: FUJITA & MAKABE
RATING: **

Thoughts: The bit with the quick pin and restart at the beginning of the bout didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it did allow Makabe a chance to survive whilst in there with two tough opponents until Fujita recovered, which had the combined effect of making both of the winners look gutsy for different reasons, so from a story perspective it kind of worked in the end. The wrestling was mostly basic strikes with the odd suplex thrown in, but it was mostly all executed properly. Watching this you could see why Tanahashi was the one who became the big star in NJPW in the end whilst Suzuki ended up moving on elsewhere, as Tanahashi had the fire and the energy whereas Suzuki felt like he was on autopilot for most of this one

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title
Champion: Koji Kanemoto Vs Heat

Heat is Minoru Tanaka, doing a time honoured Japanese tradition of playing a masked wrestler based on something from movies, television or Video Games. In this instance he’s playing a character referencing the Game Boy Advance release “Toukon Heat”. Heat has someone in the ring “singing” his entrance music, but it looks more like he’s miming and the commentary team talks over it all anyway. Kanemoto was one of the best wrestlers in the world at the time and would perhaps be known by fans of WCW in the 1990’s as he was one of the wrestlers who came over to battle the WCW wrestlers in the World Cup of Wrestling. Heat also has a child mascot dressed in his outfit, and it looks like the kid is fired up for making an appearance here at The Spiral.

Kanemoto’s “Bring It Back” entrance theme remains one of the best NJPW themes from this period in my opinion. I also liked that Gedo and Jado entered to “Caboose” for a bit. Speaking of those two; Gedo and Jado actually accompany Kanemoto to the ring for this one, as all of them were members of Team 2000 at the time. Kanemoto is kind of doing a Junior Heavyweight version of Masahiro Chono actually, what with the black gear, shades and goons backing him up. That makes sense seeing as Chono was the head of Team 2000 at the time. Tanaka was someone who was known for having a legitimate reputation, so him being the one chosen to be Heat is a bit random, although in fairness they picked Sayama to be the original Tiger Mask and I think he had legit credentials as well.

Whereas the first two matches of the broadcast were generally fought at a reasonably quick clip with a focus on action, this one is built more gradually with the two focusing on patient mat wrestling to start. The crowd doesn’t make a lot of noise for it, but they seem to be watching intently in that signature Japanese crowd style rather than actively disliking the wrestling on display. The mat wrestling has more of a hybrid feel to it, where it’s a mixture of classical Pro Wrestling techniques and the more modern faux MMA style, and it’s all executed nicely. Those who don’t really care for the focus on shoot style realism might not enjoy it, but execution wise it’s all acceptable stuff.

Things eventually turn into more of a traditional Pro Wrestling bout, with Heat throwing some dropkicks, leading to Kanemoto bailing to the floor to bait Heat into a Dragon Screw. This takes us into the next section of the bout, with Kanemoto targeting the leg of Heat and busting out a Figure Four Leg Lock back inside the ring. Heat pretty much ignores the leg work when it’s time to fightback, throwing kicks and busting out dropkicks, which kind of makes the leg based section of the bout a bit of a waste of time. It really annoys me when that happens, as it makes the previous section we’ve just watched feel it was there just to pad out the run time.

They up the ante a bit as the match moves into the closing stages, with Kanemoto trying to bust out bigger moves like rana’s off the top, and Heat throwing in some nice kick combos and suplexes. The crowd still doesn’t get that excited by it all, but it’s a decent home stretch for the most part. Kanemoto busts out a variant of the Emerald Frosion at one stage for a two count, which looked pretty devastating (but safe). Heat gets a big submission tease with a leg lock, with Kanemoto selling it well but being able to make the ropes, as the crowd ripples with applause. Kanemoto manages to catch Heat in a heel hook ankle lock though and that’s enough for the clean submission win.

19 Minutes

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: KOJI KANEMOTO
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: This was okay, but that was as high as it got for me personally. When you hear that Koji Kanemoto and Minoru Tanaka are getting close to 20 Minutes on a big show setting, you expect something excellent, and instead it was decent at best. I didn’t like how Heat basically ignored all the work on his leg and it didn’t really effect his performance in any way. There was plenty of solid wrestling going on, but the match felt both flat and also like it was padded out to reach the runtime. You may disagree if you watch it yourself and are fans of these two though

NWF Heavyweight Title Tournament Semi Final Match
(Special Referee: Kotetsu Yamamoto)
Tadao Yasuda Vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka

The NWF Heavyweight Title was the main belt in New Japan prior to the invention of the IWGP Heavyweight Title, with the belt often being defended by Antonio Inoki when he took on legitimate fighters from other combat sports. Thus they decided to have a tournament with shoot style guys fighting for the right to continue Inoki’s legacy, seeing as Inoki was obsessed with pushing “legit” guys at the time as part of his Inoki-Ism kick. Yasuda, who passed away in February 2026, won two MMA fights and thus earned his way into Inoki’s heart. Kohsaka had a legitimate judo background and used to work for shoot style promotion RINGS as well as doing real fights, so he makes sense as a competitor in this tournament.

Yamamoto is a troubleshooting referee who quickly stops Yasuda stomping Kohsaka in the corner, just so we know that he’s going to take the job seriously. This isn’t an especially good match, with them seemingly trying to give it a real fight feel. Kohsaka actually looks quite good doing that, especially when he’s going for legitimate submission holds and doing Judo throws. Yasuda doesn’t look quite as good in there, and he spends most of the match getting muzzled by Kohsaka on the mat until Kohsaka locks in a leg lock for the submission win.

2 Minutes

WINNER: TSUYOSHI KOHSAKA
RATING: N/A

Thoughts: Too short to rate, but it achieved the goal of making Kohsaka look like a dangerous submission expert who could tap out a bigger opponent in short order. The crowd didn’t seem to care too much about that, but I’m sure Inoki liked it and you’re ultimately performing for an audience of one when it comes to this stuff, so Kohsaka did what he needed to

Yutaka Yoshie Vs Ryushi Yanagisawa w/ Kantaro Hoshino

This is Pro Wrestling Vs Inoki here, with Yoshie flying the flag for New Japan against shoot style guy Yanagisawa. Yanagisawa actually enters to “Rollin” of all things here, and it’s the uncensored version as well, because Japan. Yoshie is the aggressor in this one, taking the fight to Yanagisawa the minute he steps into the ring. Yanagisawa soon fights back though, and does his best to rile up the crowd whilst taking the fight to Yoshie, although it doesn’t really work that well. This crowd have been hard work thus far in all honesty, even though the wrestling on display has hardly been terrible throughout the night.

Yanagisawa mostly just does strikes and crowd work, but he definitely has an element of charisma to him, especially when he’s trying to be cocky and wind up the audience. They do a knockout tease when Yanagisawa kicks Yoshie down, with Yoshie earning some respect from the crowd by rolling back into the ring and continuing to fight, where Yanagisawa continues to control things. Yoshie’s selling is decent actually, with Yanagisawa throwing some okay looking knees and continuing to be an acceptable cocky Heel in there.

Yoshie manages to catch Yanagisawa with a desperation Spicolli Driver and then wakes up the crowd with a back suplex for a two count. The crowd is actually kind of getting into this the longer it goes, with Yanagisawa taking a nice bump for a Yoshie elbow strike and selling well overall. Yoshie heads up top with a big splash, and that’s enough for the three count, although Yanagisawa made sure to kick out at 3.1 in order to try and maintain his shooter rep or something.

6 Minutes

WINNER: YUTAKA YOSHIE
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was okay. They kept it short but did everything they really needed to do with the runtime. Yoshie showed some fighting spirit, Yanagisawa was a decent cocky Heel, and the crowd actually got into it the longer it went. The back suplex from Yoshie is probably one of the best reactions we’ve had from the crowd on The Spiral so far

European Catch Rules
10 Rounds
3 Minutes a Round
(Special Referee: Tony St. Clair)
Osamu Nishimura Vs Bas Rutten

Nishimura is an old school black trunks and boots European styled technical wrestler, whilst Rutten is a bombastic shoot fighter who might be best known for his commentary in PRIDE and his bizarre, yet hilarious, guest role in GTA IV. St. Clair is a British wrestler who was a mainstay over here in the UK during the ITV Wrestling years. I don’t know if Rutten was ever a wrestling fan or watched much Pro Wrestling before doing it here, but he parlays his natural charisma quite well into doing it. He even busts out a leap without the sleep at one stage before pointing to his head and smiling.

There are moments where Rutten’s inexperience is on display though, such as when Nishimura goes to a wristlock and instead of reaching for the grip and trying to break out of it like most wrestlers do when locked in one, Rutten instead turns away from Nishimura and starts yelping, which would only make the hold hurt more and totally counter productive. I do like the operatic Nintendo styled music they play between rounds here. It makes me feel like I’m playing Star Fox or something.

There aren’t a lot of pin attempts here, which makes sense for Rutten as that isn’t his game, but surely Nishimura the Pro Wrestler just be looking to take the shooter out of his element and going for pins here? It could be that pins aren’t allowed in this one, but normally I’d expect there to be pins if you were doing a classic European styled rounds match. St. Clair doesn’t seem to be checking shoulders when guys are on their back, so I can only assume that pins aren’t a thing in this one.

The crowd is pretty quiet for this one, which has been a trend for most of The Spiral, but the wrestling itself has been okay. Rutten being more strike focused whilst Nishimura is more focused on trying to get it onto the mat does make sense, but there hasn’t really been enough Shoot Style Vs Pro Wrestling Style going on for my liking, which strikes me as the point of having a match like this. Styles make fights and Nishimura leaning into the fact that he’s a traditional Pro Wrestler, and maybe even using that to befuddle an out of his element Rutten, is probably the most interesting way they could have worked this.

St. Clair does eventually start counting some pins, so it seems like those are in effect here, with Nishimura trying to hold Rutten down a couple of times. That’s good, more of that please. Rutten is either great at selling or he’s genuinely getting knackered the longer this one goes on for. As they head into the fifth round, Rutten actually delivers a few dropkicks, with him seemingly trying more of a Pro Wrestling spin on this now after previously just focusing on working Shoot Style. Rutten even kicks Nishimura in the leg when he tries getting back into the ring at one stage, which earns him a yellow card from St. Clair.

Rutten stays on the leg after that, with Nishimura selling it well and the crowd starting to get a bit more invested now that there’s a babyface in some jeopardy who is trying to survive in there. Nishimura is very good at desperately fighting with a bum wheel, whilst Rutten is good at being aggressive and trying to force the issue. Nishimura again taps into Pro Wrestling technique in order to get himself back into a position where he can fight back, getting Rutten to actually do a test of strength into a knuckle lock, which Rutten is of course out of his element at applying and defending.

Rutten gets annoyed at twice being able unable to get the better of Nishimura in the test of strength, so he sweeps Nishimura’s leg and actually tries a pin for the first time in the match. Rutten is essentially doing a Pro Wrestling match at this stage, with Nishimura even busting out THE DREADED YOUNG LION BOSTON CRAB at one stage before following it up with more classic Pro Wrestling holds such as the Octopus, spinning toe hold and the Figure Four. The crowd reacts to each one, enjoying seeing Pro Wrestling being used against a shooter in a scenario like this.

Nishimura is able to use the rules to his advantage at one stage, as Rutten is going for a Cross Arm Breaker but Nishimura rolls over to put Rutten’s shoulders down, which catches Rutten unawares because in MMA you wouldn’t get counted out there but you will in Pro Wrestling. Nishimura is saved by the bell at the end of Round Nine when he gets knocked down a few times from Rutten strikes, including a Shining Wizard, but the round ends before he can be counted out.

Round Ten sees them head back to the mat where both try to pick up a submission victory to no success. Honestly if it were me, I’d have Nishimura bust out every pinning hold and move he knew here whilst Rutten kept looking for the submission, as it would be a nice addendum to the Shooter Vs Pro Wrestler story they’ve been telling in this one. It would also produce quite a few near falls and submission teases that would help get the fans onto their feet. Instead they just keep trading submission attempts until the round, and the bout itself, ends, which is a bit of a flat way to end things all together.

30 Minutes

TIME LIMIT DRAW
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: I quite enjoyed that, although I definitely don’t think it would be for everyone due to the Shoot Style elements and long running time. I liked how Nishimura essentially baited Rutten into working more of a Pro Wrestling style match the longer it went on, which led to Rutten being a bit out of his element. However, Rutten was able to Pro Wrestle it up more and more the longer it went on for, leading to a fun dynamic in the latter rounds. My only critique was that there should have been more of Nishimura using Pro Wrestling pinning holds and techniques sprinkled throughout the bout, such as busting out School Boy roll-ups and the like early on with Rutten having no idea what to do about it as you’d never do something like that in an MMA fight. At points this had the feeling of something you’d see in an anime like Baki or Kengan Ashura, where you see a Pro Wrestler actually be able to hang in a real fight with someone of a different discipline because they actually use the power of Pro Wrestling to put their opponent on the backfoot, and I’m basically a sucker for stuff like that

Masayuki Naruse Vs Kazunari Murakami w/ Kantaro Hoshino

This is two Shoot Style guys going in there to Shoot Style it up. Murakami in recent years has been dressing up like a character from the Yakuza series of games, but here he’s rocking the usual shooter attire of kick pads, shorts and gloves. Naruse survives a takedown attempt from Murakami early on and turns it into a submission attempt, which the crowd reacts loudly too. I’m just glad that they seem to be finally getting into something. Murakami does a great evil scowl throws away his mouthpiece before heading back into the ring and unloading on Naruse. It looks a bit sloppy, but Naruse sells it like death and Murakami plays a good violent psycho, so it works. Naruse throws away his mouthpiece and heads back in, almost getting a tap out with a leg based submission hold, but Murakami makes the ropes and ends up trapping Naruse in a choke for the submission.

4 Minutes

WINNER: KAZUNARI MURAKAMI
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: Too short to be rated any higher, but it was okay for what it was and it got some of the best crowd reactions of the night thus far. Murakami had some flaws as an in-ring wrestler, but he was very good at character work and that helped cover for some of his in-ring deficiencies here. It helped that Naruse was fired up and working hard to make him look good

Hiroyoshi Tenzan Vs GREAT MUTA w/ The Great Kabuki

This isn’t Keiji Muto in there but rather some dude called Troy Endres, who was supposedly trained in the WCW Power Plant. Tenzan was possibly one of the more popular wrestlers that New Japan had at the time, so he’s of course wrestling a fake Great Muta at the Tokyo Dome in a bout that no one could possibly care about, because New Japan didn’t know how to Pro Wrestle properly at the time. Kabuki actually gets his own entrance here and is immediately more over than the poor sap he’s managing.

MUTA can do a few power moves decently, but basically all of his strikes look pretty awful. The crowd doesn’t really care at all when MUTA is on offence, but they do enjoy seeing Tenzan fire off his signature Mongolian Chops and spinning wheel kick. Tenzan actually looks really good here whenever he’s allowed to do anything, and you can see why they had him win the G1 Climax in 2003. MUTA’s selling is practically non-existent, although some of his bumping is tolerable, mostly because Tenzan likely hits him so hard that he has no choice but to bump properly.

Tenzan gets to run through most of his offence, with him doing his best to get the audience to care about this useless throwaway match with a terrible opponent. Kabuki tries to get involved, leading to the referee taking a bump and missing Kabuki spitting red mist in Tenzan’s face. This leads to MUTA getting a Gunn Slinger for the three count.

7 Minutes

WINNER: GREAT MUTA
RATING: 1/2*

Thoughts: This was total mince, with MUTA looking awful and the crowd not caring about it. Tenzan at least getting a win could have possibly redeemed it somewhat, but instead they had him lose to possibly the worst wrestler on the whole show in a nothing match with a lame American styled finish. What a waste of Tenzan

Joanie Laurer Vs Masahiro Chono

Laurer was of course a huge star in the WWF at one stage as the woman who could mix it up with the guys during her Chyna days. However, Triple H left her for Stephanie McMahon, which already put Laurer on shaky ground, and then she supposedly started coming up with unrealistic demands, such as winning the WWF Men’s Title, so the WWF let her contract just run out and essentially retired the Women’s Title for a few months until officially stripping her of it and having it be decided in a match at Survivor Series 2001. Thus Chyna needed somewhere to work and New Japan was the freakiest freakshow in all the land around this time, so she’s shown up here at The Spiral to do battle with Chono.

Laurer gets carried out to the ring by two lads here, with this at least having some Tokyo Dome level pageantry if nothing else. Chono adds to that as well by entering in a limo, as they are at least making the most of this being a wacky freakshow fight by bringing in the special entrances for both competitors. Chono is chewing a big cigar on the way to the ring and has a bunch of security with him as well, as they always did a good job of making him look like a big deal during this period even if the company itself was on it’s arse. It probably helped that Chono had a lot of say in the booking around this time, so he could always make sure that he looked as cool as possible.

Laurer attacks Chono right from the opening bell, with Chono immediately replying with punches and clotheslines, that the crowd actually sounds totally fine with surprisingly. That’s probably why they had Laurer as the aggressor early on so that fans would be okay with Chono hitting her back. Laurer actually doesn’t look too bad in this one when she’s on offence. Make no mistake, her attempts at doing technical wrestling are a bit sloppy, but it’s not terrible either and Chono is a pro who is working with her as opposed to working against her, which helps with things.

There’s still a clear gulf between the two when it comes to doing the basics though, with Chono doing basic holds and counters with a smoothness that Laurer doesn’t really match. The biggest complaint I can have for this one really is that it kind of meanders a bit, with it not really having much of a focused flow. They do let Laurer pop up from a Chono Yazuka Kick at one stage, but then they just go back to trading holds again when they had the crowd up from the initial kick. The crowd generally loves it whenever Chono hits Laurer in some form, but are pretty quiet aside from that.

Some of Laurer’s clotheslines look a bit limp, but there is a funny spot where Chono gives Laurer his trademark knees to the balls, but she of course doesn’t have any, so she shrugs it off and then delivers the move to Chono, who does sell it. That gets a decent sized pop from the crowd actually. Laurer gets a close near fall on Chono with a roll-up at one stage and even locks Chono in his own Step-Over Toe-Hold Face-Lock. Chono works his way out of the hold though and puts Laurer down with another Yakuza Kick for the pretty flat finish.

12 Minutes

WINNER: MASAHIRO CHONO
RATING: *3/4

Thoughts: As a freakshow it kind of did what it needed to, but as a wrestling match it wasn’t good. The match didn’t have much in the way of flow and Laurer’s work was pretty sloppy for the most part. She was able to do some okay basic technical wrestling, but aside from that her work didn’t look that good at all, especially when it came to delivering strikes and clotheslines, and that’s always going to be a deal breaker in Japan, where they demand that stuff like that looks good. The crowd did respond at points, but I don’t think they really bought into Laurer’s act when in there against a top Heavyweight like Chono, and that’s probably why they didn’t stick with her for long following this show

Chono spanks Laurer after the match, so she gives him a low blow and then attacks the commentator to get her heat back

Bob Sapp Vs Manabu Nakanishi

Sapp was becoming a gigantic pop culture megastar in Japan around the time of The Spiral, due to his success in K1 and outrageous charisma, so New Japan decided to roll the dice on him to see what he could do for them in a Pro Wrestling context. Nakanishi was a big lug who had respect with the fans for being tough due to his strength and amateur wrestling credentials. Sapp thus tearing Nakanishi apart here in the Tokyo Dome would make his debut extra impressive, which is what New Japan were hoping for with this one.

Sapp takes Nakanishi down with a Powerbomb right at the start of the match, with Nakanishi having to roll out of the ring to recover. With one move they’ve already made Sapp look like a total monster and he’s over like a star. Nakanishi drags himself back into the ring to keep going, and even takes Sapp down at one stage to huge pop from the crowd, but Sapp is soon back up and no selling some shoulder tackles before sending Nakanishi out of the ring with a big clothesline.

Sapp even locks Nakanishi in a Torture Wrack briefly, which is Nakanishi’s signature move, but Nakanishi manages to get out of it and put Sapp in his version of the move as the crowd goes nuts. Sapp clubs his way out of that, but Nakanishi heads up with a big chop from the top rope and then preps for a big Lariat, only for Sapp to fire up and take out Nakanishi with a huge dropkick. The dropkick sends Nakanishi out of the ring to the floor and he’s out cold, leading to a count out victory for Sapp.

6 Minutes

WINNER BY COUNT OUT: BOB SAPP (OR “ZAPP” AS THE JAPANESE SEEMED TO WANT TO CALL HIM HERE)
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: This was an excellent debut for Sapp, with fans even accepting the count out because Sapp looked like such a monster in the match up to that point, which is rare in a company like New Japan where fans normally want a clean finish of some kind. Nakanishi was a total pro here, selling big to get Sapp over and being totally unselfish. They gave Nakanishi just enough offence that he didn’t look like a chump here, but the focus was on making Sapp look like a terrifying man who everyone in the promotion needed to be afraid of, and they absolutely achieved that aim here.

It’s surprising in some ways that WWE never threw serious money at Sapp around this time, but I guess he was just making too much in Japan and I also don’t think he would have been able to be booked like such a monster over in WWE as he was “only” 6 foot 4, which was about average height in the promotion at the time and would possibly make him shorter than even guys like Albert or Billy Gunn. In Japan he was basically King Kong in there with all the smaller Japanese wrestlers, but he’d have to be more of a standard Heavyweight wrestler in WWE, especially if they were going to promote him as a babyface, and he possibly wasn’t a good enough wrestler to thrive in that type of environment. His comparative lack of wrestling ability didn’t really matter as much in Japan because he had the size and charisma to just be booked in short matches as a monster, and fans would generally accept that, especially when he worked with talented guys who knew how to carry him to something watchable.

IWGP Heavyweight Title
Champion: Yuji Nagata Vs Kazuyuki Fujita

Nagata is representing New Japan here whilst Fujita is representing Inoki. Nagata sadly had no success in the MMA realm, but they kept sticking him in there anyway, which really hurt his standing around this time when he was arguably the best in-ring performer that New Japan had. Fujita was nowhere near as good in the ring as the likes of Nagata or Tenzan, but he actually could win some MMA fights, so he kept getting pushed to the top of the card. Granted, Fujita was hardly terrible, but he wasn’t close to being as good as Nagata during this era and it wasn’t even like he was an especially bigger draw than him in NJPW either. Even if someone is successful in a combat sport or capable of winning a real fight, it doesn’t mean they’re automatically going to be a good Pro Wrestler or a Pro Wrestler that people will want to pay to see. For every Kurt Angle or Brock Lesnar there’s a Gabe Steveson or a Cain Velasquez.

They try and work this one as shoot style, with the two going for MMA and amateur takedowns as well as throwing punches from the mount etc. Fujita eventually decides to Pro Wrestle it up a bit by refusing to break in the corner and throwing some knees, which essentially shows that he’s given up on doing a pure shoot style match. Considering that Fujita is the one who had more success in the shooter realm, it’s interesting that they essentially pushed the idea that Nagata is the better shooter there, as he stuck to the style until Fujita moved away from it. This leads to Nagata firing off an overhead belly to belly suplex, like real MMA fighters don’t, and the illusion is kind of broken at that point.

That is only extenuated when Fujita busts out a rana and then takes the fight to the floor, where he gives Nagata a body slam out onto the pretty blue mats. Fujita controls things for a bit following that, with Nagata selling well and Fujita’s work looking suitably snug. Nagata sells a head and arm choke really well, which gets the crowd behind him. Nagata continues to remain on the back foot, but he gets the odd flurry to show that he’s still alive in the contest and the crowd stays with him. Fujita annihilates Nagata with some knee strikes at one stage, giving us a knock out tease, but the crowd cheers on Nagata and he manages to make it back up to continue the fight. Nagata eventually manages to catch Fujita with a big kick and then moves on to wearing Fujita with a series of back suplexes. That ends up being enough for Nagata to hold Fujita down for three seconds.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: YUJI NAGATA
RATING: ***

13 Minutes

Thoughts: Nagata was great here, with Fujita holding up his end well enough, so it ended up being a good match. It didn’t have the epic feel that some of the best Dome Main Events have had, but it featured two lads both hitting and working hard in a competitive match, and that’s enough for a passing grade in New Japan. I think they could have done more build for the finish other than just “Nagata hits a bunch of moves and wins after getting battered for large parts of the match”, but the crowd were behind Nagata at least and that helped with things. The crowd were hard work all night in all honesty, but these two got them invested in the match and it ended up being a solid show closer when all was said and done

In Conclusion

The Spiral was pretty flat for a big Tokyo Dome event, which is a problem that New Japan ran into a few times during this era. It’s no surprise that New Japan had to eventually scale the Tokyo Dome events back so that they only did one a year, as running shows like The Spiral with such regularity in the venue led to the big Dome spectaculars no longer feeling special anymore.

That all being said; there was some decent stuff on The Spiral. I thought Nagata and Fujita delivered a solid hard hitting Main Event that helped make Nagata look like a fighting champion. Bob Sapp looked like a star in his match and that bout at least felt like a spectacle worthy of the Tokyo Dome setting. Bas Rutten Vs Nishimura isn’t going to be for everyone, but I enjoyed it and I felt that Rutten fit into the wacky world of Pro Wrestling rather well.

There were some clear negatives though, notably the matches with GREAT MUTA and Joanie Laurer. Simply put, neither of them looked like they belonged in this setting. Laurer had the look and a genuine star aura about her, but she just didn’t have the work to back that up. Sapp was hardly a top level worker either, but he was able to make his big spots and moments count in there so they were able to cover for it. By comparison, Laurer’s work was too light and sloppy for her to get over on a New Japan show, even during one of the company’s lesser eras. MUTA was basically worthless and I’m amazed they even tried to push him in all honesty.

You also can’t get away from the fact that pushing and focusing on the MMA guys is a big turn off when it comes to this period. Fans didn’t really like it at the time and it hasn’t improved with age either. It also led to some real tonal dissonance as well, as on one half of the card you’ve got MMA guys working short matches in order for them to look “real”, but you’ve then got classic wacky Pro Wrestling with Sapp, Laurer and a dude that spits mist at people. Meanwhile, you’ve got Yuji Nagata going out there and be a classical World Champ taking on all comers in good matches.

New Japan’s product was all over the place in 2002 and The Spiral highlights that quite well. I can’t say it’s a good show overall, but it’s certainly an interesting one in a “bus full of clowns flying off a ravine” kind of way, so if that has any appeal to you then The Spiral might be worth checking out. Otherwise, I’d suggest skipping 2002-2005 for the most part, outside of the G1 Climax tournaments and the gradual rise of the likes of Tanahashi, because most of it is incomprehensible junk

Maffew has also reviewed many Japanese shows as well, so go check those out