Quebrada #44

by Mike Lorefice (M.L.Liger@juno.com)

to view this colum with its images visit http://ohmygod.simplenet.com/quebrada

8/7/98

NJ Tokon (Fighting Spirit) V Special Jushin Thunder Liger Premium Issue Commercial Tape

New Japan's main video distributor is Video Pack Nippon, but Valis also puts out some New Japan tapes. Those tapes are often compilations of matches with a theme, for instance Best of the Super Jr. IV Best Bouts is supposed to be the best matches from the 1997 junior tournament that didn't air on tv. With these Premium Issue tapes, Valis selects what they feel are the best or most notable matches they have already released on commercial tape of a specific performer and makes a compilation so they can make more money with little excess expense. Thus, this tape has some choice Liger matches, but it should not be confused with the best of his career by any means because Valis is selecting from the limited pool of Liger matches they have the rights to.

12/11/91 Nagoya Rainbow Hall: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Tatsumi Fujinami. This was a special dream match of two of the most important juniors of all-time. You had Fujinami, the guy who brought the WWF Junior title to Japan and popularized the division, and Liger, the best and arguably the most popular junior in the history of puroresu. There was one problem though, by the time these two met, Fujinami was a boring heavyweight in the midst of his fourth reign with the IWGP World Heavyweight title. Thus, this match was mainly contested on the mat, and had little, if anything, to do with what junior wrestling looked like in 1991.

This was totally worked Fujinami style, with Liger barely even putting his stamp on the match. As with all of Fujinami's 1990's stuff, it was very technically sound, but also as with all of Fujinami's stuff, it was dated and somewhat dull.

The fans rooted for Liger because he was the underdog, but this never had any heat because Liger never had Fujinami in any trouble. The way things work in New Japan a junior has almost no chance of beating a heavyweight, so Liger wasn't going to have any credibility against Fujinami unless Tatsumi put him over huge. To his credit, Fujinami was willing to sell for a junior even though he was the heavyweight champ, but he didn't put Liger over enough to make this match work. He didn't let Liger get his best spots in or push him at all.

The first big spot was Liger catching Fujinami with his abise-geri (somersault koppo kick) then following with a series of shoudas. However, Fujinami didn't really sell them and he regained the advantage. Later on, Liger softened up Fujinami's leg, and Fujinami did a good job of selling the injury as the match progressed. Liger hit a plancha, but Fujinami came back with his Billy Robinson backbreaker into his famous Dragon sleeper. Liger made it to the ropes twice then broke the third Dragon sleeper with a kick. He came back with shoudas, and this time Fujinami sold them.

Liger had his strongest run, getting a few near falls then Liger bombing Fujinami for a 2 3/4. Fujinami turned Liger's second huracan rana into a powerbomb though, then got a near fall with another powerbomb before putting Liger away with a backdrop.

This was a good solid match. It didn't hurt for Liger to lose to such a famous heavyweight champion, but I can't see how this match could have helped him any. He got to break the Dragon sleepers, but that was about it. It's a smart thing that New Japan doesn't do these junior vs. heavyweight matches often because they just reenforce the lack of size and the "inferiority" of the junior. 13:01 shown. ***

9/24/93 Sendai Miyagi Sports Center: Liger vs. Tiger Mask (Koji Kanemoto). Kanemoto wasn't that great at this point, but Liger carried him to a strong match that was an improvement over their first meeting at the Fukuoka Dome. This match wasn't that complicated for New Japan juniors, as they stayed within what Tiger could do and hit just about everything.

Whatever build there was didn't appear on this tape or the original release of this match, so this was just six minutes of signature spots back and forth. The crowd was hot and they did an exciting match to keep them popping. Both wrestlers were faces, but Tiger played subtle heel. Liger got "pissed" at Tiger for stomping him in the face when he was down, so he backed him into the ropes and shouda'd him across the face. Liger was hitting high spots, but Tiger rolled through on them for near falls. Tiger tried to revenge Liger's early pescado, but Liger avoided it and high-angle powerbombed (jackknife) him on the floor. Being that Tiger was Kanemoto, he had to comeback immediately from the big move on the floor.

Tiger kicked out of two Liger bombs for big pops. He came back and hit his rolling senton off the 2nd, but Liger avoided his moonsault. They switched positions back and forth trying for a German suplex, but Liger pulled Koji's hands through his legs and jumped on top with an inverted jackknife hold for the flash pin.

Hot action. Not nearly as good as their later matches, and maybe considerably worse given how much was shown, but it was their best up to this point. Liger had already made Tiger a star by jobbing to him earlier in the year, so this was his revenge. However, he got the win in a clean but non- decisive manner so Tiger stayed strong. 12:28 (6:37 shown). ***3/4

10/15/93 Tokyo Korakuen Hall Super Grade Tag League '93: Liger & Wild Pegasus (Benoit) vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Chono. This was a lot better than the Fujinami match, and really a great match when you consider the difference in credibility of the two teams. The Hall was at least half empty, so the mystique of this new match pitting the stars of the heavyweight division against the stars of the junior heavyweight division wasn't there.

What made this really good was that everyone played their role really well. Hashimoto, who was IWGP World Heavyweight Champion at the time, was a one man wrecking crew, totally destroying Liger with lethal blows. Liger showed big time fighting spirit, withstanding all kinds of punishment from a guy that looked to be 100 pounds heavier. Chono wasn't dominant like Hashimoto, and he did a lot to give the juniors the credibility they were sorely lacking. This was before Chono was shot physically, so he was very good here. Benoit didn't really get much offense in and mainly took his lumps, but he always recovered in time to save Liger.

Hashimoto stiffed Liger early with crisp blows, but Liger slipped out of his brainbuster and hurt Hashimoto with his second abise-geri. Benoit injured Hashimoto's knee then Liger caught him with a kneecap dropkick. Hashimoto had to tag, but he did a nice job of looking like he wasn't even going to be able to make it that far on the bad leg. Liger knocked Chono silly with shoudas and both men got near falls on Chono, culminating with a double diving headbutt (Liger idolized Dynamite Kid as well).

Hashimoto finally got back in and laid in the kicks on Liger for several near falls. Liger's selling was great, as he made every blow look like a knockout blow and Benoit constantly had to save him. Chono came back in and put Liger in his STF, but Benoit made the save, so Hashimoto planted him with a DDT. Chono failed to put Liger away his Yakuza kick and STF. Hashimoto was getting frustrated with Chono's inability to finish, so he would come in and do a move while Chono was regrouping from being hit on Benoit's saves. Hashimoto did a tremendous DDT where Liger bounced off the mat. He then went over to the ropes to block Benoit from making the save and signaled to Chono to finish Liger off. Hashimoto's back was to the action as Chono whipped Liger off the ropes and tried his blockbuster. At the last second, Liger turned the blockbuster into a flying crucifix. 1....2....3! Woo-Hoo! Mega upset! The fans went wild! Liger went wild! Benoit was in disbelief then he went wild hugging Liger. In a sense this was practically the best win of Liger's career since he pinned a major star of the vaunted heavyweight division. Boy was Hashimoto surprised when he turned around and saw that it was his teammate that was the one who was pinned. It's too bad the camera didn't get a good shot of him like they would have if it was All Japan. Liger & Benoit finished the Super Grade Tag League in next to last place with a miserable 4 points, so this was their big bone. Chono deserves a lot a credit for putting his ego aside, as he came out of this match looking really weak in comparison to his partner the champion. 17:22 (9:57 shown). ****

6/13/94 Osaka Furitsu Gym Best of the Super Jr. Final: Liger vs. Super Delfin (Michinoku Pro). This match had the aura of a final with a hot crowd and Delfin in a special ½ Liger ½ Delfin costume that he wore for this match only. Delfin has the charisma and popularity for the big match, but he was never that great in singles and he is a lot more hurt by working with a new opponent than Liger is. Liger was typically great here, but what kept this match from being great was that Delfin controlled much of the first half with weak offense. He didn't play heel or plant any seeds, but he did do a bunch of spots that served no real purpose. When it came to the high spots, there were some great spots. They were far from the most daring spots you'll see in a high profile junior match, but they were executed really well and they had more impact than normal.

Valis did a great job of cutting this match down because they got rid of almost all of Delfin's pointless matwork. This is not to say that matwork is pointless, but that Delfin didn't know how to set it up or make it have some meaning. Liger showed him how it's done when he made his comeback. He took Delfin's knee out with a kneecap dropkick to the front, a kneecap dropkick to the back of the knee, and a diving kneedrop to Delfin's knee before applying a figure 4. Liger "hurt his knee" hitting the corner when Delfin avoided his abise-geri. Delfin had done a couple of submissions to the leg before, and Liger was giving Delfin an opening to work on it by selling it big, but Delfin's don't bite.	After ducking a shouda, Delfin dropkicked Liger to the floor and hit a plancha. Back in the ring, Delfin got a series of hot near falls. Liger tried to comeback, but Delfin avoided his diving headbutt and did a Frankensteiner off the apron that didn't work that well. Delfin hit his swinging DDT then applied his Delfin clutch, but Liger kicked out at 2 1/2. Realizing he needed something bigger to win this final, Delfin tried to invent a dangerous version of his backdrop, doing it off the 2nd rope. However, Liger avoided the spot by shifting his weight and regained the offensive, highlighted by a great Hokuto style tope con hilo. With Delfin in trouble, Liger hit his nadare shiki no Frankensteiner, the move he used to beat El Samurai in the final of the 1992 junior tournament, which was arguably the best junior match of all-time, but Delfin kicked out at 2 3/4. Delfin turned a Liger bomb into a huracan rana, but Liger held on and took him over as if it was a sunset flip for a great near fall. Liger then did his nadare shiki no fisherman buster for the win.

This was as good as it should have been, but a letdown coming after the great finals of 1992 & 1993. Delfin lost, but coming out of a small regional promotion and getting all the way to the finals, like Great Sasuke had done in the J Cup, made him a star. 18:27 (12:34 shown). ****

10/9/95 Tokyo Dome: Liger vs. Naoki Sano (UWF-I). These two hadn't wrestled each other in a singles match since 1/31/90. Sano's career is a testament to how one bad decision can screw you for life. He was one of the best and most promising juniors coming out of his legendary series with his friend Liger. That series made him a star, and I'm sure he thought he was moving on to greener pastures when he took the money from Super Megane to join SWS and be the top star of their junior division. Sano's career had floundered there, as instead of improving by working with guys like Liger, he was working against guys that weren't that great. To make things worse he sometimes wrestled guys like Rick Martel & Jeff Jarrett whose styles were so dated. Money puroresu soon came to and end, but the stench of selling out to that league only left the guys that someone could make a lot of money off like Genichiru Tenryu. Sano wound up joining UWF-I, but his career from that point could best be described as forgettable. As a junior, he was a better technician than flyer, but in UWF-I he was an undersized guy (not that most of those guys had any height or weight) that didn't have the talent (in that genre) or charisma that Kiyoshi Tamura & Masahito Kakihara had (and they really couldn't break into the leagues elite anyway, although that wasn't their fault).

Finally after all these years Liger, now even a huger star than he was five years ago, renewed his series with Sano, now a midcarder. Considering that their series of matches in 1989-90 was one of the best series ever, that this was only a very good match should have been a disappointment, right? Actually, this match is better than it should have been and it is my favorite match on this tape.

Liger was a strong amateur wrestler, but he isn't a shooter, so you couldn't expect two guys who aren't very good shooters to have a great shoot match. This match was excellently booked though, and really got the most out of what the performers had to offer.

As with all the matches on this first NJ vs. UWF-I show that drew 67,000, making it the most attended show in the history of Japan, a record broken since broken by the Inoki retirement show, they worked somewhat loosely within the parameters of what is credible in a shoot. "Even though 5 years had passed since these two had their historic matches, they both still had something to prove. A big aspect of Liger's skill was negated because it wouldn't be believable in a match with a shoot-style

worker. One of the things that makes this match special and Liger the greatest junior of all-time is that he was once again able to have a very good match by catering to the needs of his opponent's style," wrote Hadi. It wasn't just shoot style though, which is really the beauty of the match. These two found a believable way to incorporate high spots that hold no water in this shoot style into their match. The match really worked because it was a change of pace from the earlier matches and it was innovative with the crowd in mind. The spots weren't rolled out or indifferent, they were excellently implemented or teased in a way that would get the crowd to pop without making them question the "legitimacy" of what was being done. On the topic of legitimacy, you have to remember that the very markish Japanese believed the matches on this show were legit shoots because the steaks were too high for these rival promotions to agree to have their performers lay down.

They started with a hot spot as Liger tried to sneak in an abise-geri before the bell. We know this is a legitimate move because we've seen it tried in his mixed match with Don Nakaya Neilsen and we've seen it for all intents and purposes singlehandedly end the career of Takeshi Misawa. Trying it so soon not only planted a seed, but it got the crowd into the match before they hit the mat.

Liger took the advantage, but Sano bridged to his feet and monkey flipped Liger for a pop then tried to go right into a jujigatame although Liger stopped that. Sano bent over to block a German suplex, so his upper body was prone and Liger was able to slap on a manjigatame (octopus). From there he went into two more "fake" holds, the abdominal stretch into a lateral guillotine, but he did it very smoothly so it looked "possible."

Liger softened Sano up with strikes then tossed him to the floor and tried a pescado. The crowd went nuts seeing such an "impossible" move tried in this setting. Sano wasn't in bad shape, so he avoided the unrealistic dive and Liger hit the floor hard. Liger sold this well and recovered slowly. As he was getting up, Sano caught him with a tope for a huge pop! Liger sold this big because attempting such a move in a "legit" match is taking such a risk that no one would try it if it didn't "do considerable damage to the opposition."

Liger came back trying a Romero special (la tapatia), but that move doesn't hold water so Sano wouldn't go up for it. Liger injured Sano's knee with successive kneecap dropkicks, which allowed him to apply a "fake" figure 4. This was a well set up spot, but it shouldn't have been done because what does it say when a figure 4 can't finish a UWF-I midcarder like Sano, but it can put away the groups top star later that night?

Sano took control, but Liger broke his headlock with a nice backdrop, which rocked Sano enough that Liger was able to catch him with his abise-geri. Sano was really hurting from that, so he couldn't stop a "fake" piledriver. Liger went to the top for a big pop and tried a diving headbutt, but there's no flying in shoot wrestling so Sano avoided. Liger DDT'd Sano so hard that it could have broken the ring and paused to make sure that Sano wasn't injured legit. Sano was shaken up, but able to continue, and they went on with the planned spot. This was unrealistic because the next spot was a Sano comeback with his rolling savate for a big pop. Sano did a deadly released Dragon suplex then pulled Liger up. He proceeded to dust off his old finisher, the Tiger suplex, for the win. If it wasn't for Liger himself wanting to put over Sano to create a new challenger, this show would have practically been a clean sweep for New Japan. Unfortunately, Sano going on to challenge Liger for the IWGP Jr. Title was another of Liger's ideas of how to use outsiders that went awry.

The downside of this match was that it was that the aspects that make worked shoots very good weren't really there. The timing, use of teases, and incorporation of high spots (which also masked Liger's lack of true shooting ability) in a believable manner was excellent though. 10:14 (8:53 shown). ***3/4

10/20/96 Kobe World Kinen Hall: Liger vs. The Great Muta. This was a rare garbage match for Liger, and it was garbage in more ways than one though not because of Liger himself. I reviewed this match before, but I vastly overrated it. I suppose overrated goes hand in hand with Muto/Muta because he's about as overrated, in terms of what fans think of his wrestling ability, as they come.

Muta called this match and, as usual, he didn't want to do anything, especially early on. When Liger would try to do something, Muta would immediately cut him off and bring the match to a standstill. He even did a Hawk imitation, popping up from a piledriver, so he could cut Liger off. The pacing in this match was terrible and the timing wasn't good. Liger's selling was strong, but a lot of the reason for that was that he had to do something during the 30 seconds after every spot that Muta just stood around and did nothing. As always, the only time Muta pushed the pace was when he did his regular sequence of high spots, which, as usual, didn't come until the last sequence of the match.	They did a few cool things, but the match was boring and frustrating to watch. The part where Muta goes under the ring to get a broom and Liger follows him under in actually a highlight because they actually taped Liger crawling around under the ring and I can't recall ever seeing them film that before. Liger surprising Muta by having his face painted and spewing mist in his face was a cool booking swerve. Also, Liger jumping off the top to the floor with a chair was cool because I can only recall seeing that done in NJ rings by Negro Casas in a match against Liger.

This match was too long, too slow, & too deeply emersed in garbage wrestling. Moreover, it was called by the wrong guy. It's really too bad that when these two finally met in a singles match, it turned out to be a match that had nothing to do with ring work. Even worse than that is that Muta couldn't even find the pride to not mail this one in. Muta eventually ended it with his moonsault. 17:35 (13:38 shown). *1/2

4/12/97 Tokon Retsuden V Special Super Dream Single Match: Liger vs. Riki Choshu. This match was too short and had no build. Choshu dominated early with seven Riki lariats, but he couldn't but Liger away. That move is too boring to be repeated so many times, but Choshu could always get away with it because he was a made man. Liger used his high spots for near falls, culminating with his jumping Liger bomb for a near fall.

Liger hurt Choshu with his shouda and abise-geri. He gave the cut throat sign then dusted off his rarely used stardust press, which is the move he used to win the IWGP Jr. title from Koji Kanemoto on 1/4/96. 1....2....3! What an incredible upset! Oh yeah, did I forget to explain that Tokon Retsuden is a video game?

5/26/97 Takamatsushi Sogo Taiikukan: Liger vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa. See following tape. ****

NJ Tokon (Fighting Spirit) V Special Volume 36-Best of the Super Jr IV Best Bout

5/16/97 Kiryu: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. (WCW). My how Chavo has improved in the past year. He must be 5 times better now than he was then, and even more so when it comes to his character. Here Chavo's work was less than fluid and quite mediocre. His selling was too over exaggerated and all he could really do was fly (and you'd think a relative of Eddy would have a better frog splash).

The match itself appeared to be average. No one in the building took Chavo seriously. He got a few near falls, including a moonsault press and La Magistral, but no one would confuse this with pushing Liger. Finish saw Liger catch Chavo with a shouda then deliver his jumping Liger bomb for the win. 10:20 (5:13 shown). ** range.

5/20/97 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Shinjiro Otani vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri (Big Japan). The expected high workrate. Otani was really excellent here both as a worker and an actor. His selling was really good and his facials were typically excellent. He also did a great job of playing the prick. Tajiri was out of his league as an overall performer. Being in Big Japan, it's hard for anyone to develop an all- around game because garbage wrestling isn't all around wrestling. He has great potential, and he's improved a great deal since this match took place to the point he's poised to break into the upper echelon. However, turning down Liger and pulling out of this year's Super Jr. isn't going to help him reach the level of greatness he's capable of. In this match, Tajiri could hold his own with Otani when it came to work, but he had liabilities elsewhere, for instance, his comebacks were much too quick and strong (and it's bad when your comebacks look bad in comparison to Otani's because he choses to comeback to fast on many occasions). The main difference in Tajiri now and Tajiri then is that now he sells really well and knows to put over the previous damage. This match was well booked because it pretty much hid the weaknesses Tajiri had at this time. The downside of this booking was to not expose Tajiri, the match had to be much too short.

Otani aggressively punked Tajiri for much of the first five minutes then Tajiri made a ridiculous comeback acting like he was in perfect condition as he performed high spots like a tope con hilo off the apron. Tajiri "injured" Otani's knee, and Otani sold it really well hobbling around and testing it in between spots. Otani's swandive missile kick was particularly awesome today.

Tajiri got a hot near fall with a huracan rana, and Otani petitioned to the ref because he feared he hadn't kicked out in time. Tajiri was on the apron and Otani stopped his high kick, but Tajiri kneecap dropkicked him through the ropes.

The finish was great. Both men were spent and they could barely stay on their feet as they slapped each other hard back and forth. Finally Tajiri ducked a slap and used his (and Otani's own) Dragon suplex for the win. Otani went nuts about losing, throwing a post match temper tantrum, which included throwing the ref down. The win for Tajiri was payback for jobbing to Otani in their first meeting on 1/4/97 at the Tokyo Dome. This match was a slight improvement from their first and it was clear they could do a lot better together if they wrestled each other more often. 11:44 (8:39 shown). ***3/4

5/20/97 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Koji Kanemoto vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa. This match had no direction or focus. Kanemoto tried to call and carry the match, but not surprisingly, he wasn't capable. The work was fine and the spots were nice, but the pacing was wrong and the timing wasn't there. The only storyline they worked was Takaiwa trying to be a bigger dick than his partner, but they just left that in the middle of the match for no apparent reason other than I suppose Koji established that no one could be a bigger dick than he is.

Kanemoto wanted to shake his partner's hand before the match, but Takaiwa tried to kick his hand instead. Takaiwa punked Koji with dickish tactics from the get go and appeared to bust his lip open. Koji applied a leg lock, but Takaiwa slapped him in the face several times and they began kicking each other in the face with their free leg.

At 9:15, Takaiwa no sold Kanemoto's stiff knife edge and gave him hard slaps across the face then put him down with a lariat. Kanemoto sold like he was out, so Takaiwa slapped him to "revive" him then stepped on his face. Takaiwa hit a nice pescado just before 11:00. He suichoku rakka brainbustered Koji back into the ring, which Koji sold big, but Koji avoided the diving elbow and did more selling of the head that looked like bad acting.

Kanemoto tied Takaiwa in the ropes and used a series of kicks. The ref tried to break this up, so Kanemoto knocked him down. Takaiwa took 100 years to get up from these kicks, which didn't fit what he was selling. Takaiwa made a comeback, but Koji cut him off rather quickly and did a Toshiyo Yamada-esque wheel kick, which both sold. Kanemoto got up first and tried his moonsault, but Takaiwa avoided and got a near fall with a Death Valley bomb. Takaiwa had Koji in trouble and he set up his Takaiwa bomb (successive powerbombs without releasing the opposition), but Koji turned it into a Toyota roll for a near fall. Takaiwa went to the top, but Koji dropkicked him and did his nadare shiki no reverse Frankensteiner with Takaiwa taking a nasty bump on Kanemoto's leg. Kanemoto tried his moonsault, but Takaiwa got up and did his Takaiwa bomb then Death Valley bomb for the upset win.

Very disappointing match even though there was little to complain about technically. The finish was rather unrealistic, but you take it from who it's coming from. Those who for some reason don't think Liger is the best junior in this division shouldn't try to compare head to head (which he wins anyway because he's the guy calling and carrying the match), but should focus on his matches vs. the other juniors in comparison to the supposedly better junior's matches vs. the other juniors. 18:19. **1/2

5/24/97 Okayama: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Gran Naniwa. This was a good solid match, but it was very disappointing because the pacing was rather slow and the action never got hot. The selling was very good, especially Liger's. The moves were logically set up, and you had to fight to get them off. Just like in their match at the Super J Cup ~2nd Stage~ the work for these two was subpar. I think the reason is that Naniwa simply doesn't work well with wrestlers he's not accustomed to working with.

Liger had the advantage after hitting a plancha, but both men were hurting and they sold the toll of the match when they collided with a double lariat. Naniwa took the advantage in a Liger-esque way, hitting a kneecap dropkick and a diving kneecap dropkick to set up a figure 4. Liger put the figure 4 over huge. He "couldn't" lay there still because he was in so much pain. Naniwa got a near fall with his spinning Liger bomb, but Liger stopped his nadare shiki no Frankensteiner three times in a row before holding on to the top rope and letting Naniwa crash to the canvas. Liger soon won with his nadare shiki no suichoku rakka brainbuster (superplex). 16:32 (5:22). ***

5/26/97 Takamatsushi Sogo Taiikukan: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa. Liger made Takaiwa his pet project last year, and man did it pay off. Takaiwa improved tremendously, although half the reason he looked so good was that Liger was always carrying him. Watch him in singles vs. Koji or Samurai, who can't carry, if you disagree.

This match was really good. Liger's selling was phenomenal for a guy who can't use facials because he wears a mask. It's pretty obvious that he's been influenced by AJ, especially Misawa, and he's taken some of the best aspects of that style and figured out a way to incorporate them into his own without forgetting his roots in the process.

Takaiwa launched an all out attack on Liger's bad knee that he injured earlier in the week against Doc Dean. Liger really put the knee over by shaking his head and body all over the place to show he was writhing in pain. He also made noises of pain that were effective without being over exaggerated. Liger tried to comeback, but he was hobbling too much, and Takaiwa was able to maintain control. Takaiwa used his diving elbow, but today it was to the bad knee, for a near fall.

Liger finally came back by back body dropping Takaiwa to the apron and hitting a running shouda, which Takaiwa took a great bump on where he literally dove to the floor. Takaiwa sold on the floor while Liger tried to pump himself up so he could go on in spite of his knee pain.

Liger tried to roll out the heavy artillery in between selling the previous damage, but Takaiwa stopped his nadare shiki no Frankensteiner. Liger then avoided Takaiwa's diving elbow to the knee and caught him in La Magistral for a near fall. Takaiwa avoided Liger's diving headbutt and came back with his Death Valley bomb and German suplex for a near fall. However, Liger did a go-behind on his subsequent German suplex attempt and hit a released German suplex which both sold. Takaiwa used his invention, the nadare shiki no Death Valley bomb, which was awesome. The impact was so great that Liger bounced to a sitting position then fell back to the mat like he was unconscious. Takaiwa didn't even cover him though, instead opting to drag Liger up, but Liger didn't go with this because he was "out." Takaiwa did his Takaiwa bomb, and it looked like he it was going to be enough for him to get the coveted first singles win over Liger. Not so fast though, as Liger pushed Takaiwa's head through his legs into a pinning predicament for the flash pin. Takaiwa was livid. He couldn't believe he had come that close only to fall prey to a desperation flash pin. 15:53 (10:52 shown). ****

5/26/97 Takamatsu Sogo Taiikukan: Koji Kanemoto vs. Ian Doc Dean (Europe). This was too chopped up to really make much of a judgement on. It was very stiff for a junior match due to Koji's blistering strikes. There were nice spots, and everything they showed hit. It appeared to be just about ring work though. The finish saw Koji catch Dean in midair with a great dropkick then Tiger suplex him for the win. Looked good, but I highly doubt I would think it was better than the Takaiwa match if I saw it unedited. 10:27 (3:15 shown).

6/1/97 Odawara Arena: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Koji Kanemoto. Both men came into the last night with a 4-1 record in Block A, so this would determine who went to the finals. This was everything you would expect from these two. They had chalked out a match of the year candidate on 2/16/97, but this was even better. It was worked in the same manner as the February match with the guy doing the job getting the better of the match so he came out looking really strong as well. There were two main reasons this match was better. First, since Liger was jobbing in the end, Koji turned this match into his best bumps demo reel, proving in the process that he's the best bump taker in Japan when he wants to be. By best bump taker I mean he takes incredible athletic bumps that make his opponents move look much more deadly than it actually is, but on the same token his bumps aren't ridiculously over exaggerated like Shawn Michaels are so they aren't laughable. The second reason was that Liger knows how to work on offense a lot better. Liger doesn't have the move set he once had or even the move set Koji has now, but his timing is excellent. He works the proper pace, which means he forces Koji to sell the tremendous bumps long enough, and all the while he's constantly selling the damage Koji did to him earlier in the match. In this case, the previous damage was mainly his bad knee. Koji wasn't as dickish in this match as he was on 2/16, but his psychology was better because he worked Liger's injured limb.

Koji swept the bad knee and did the fastest spinning toe hold ever performed by a wrestler not named Sayama. Liger screamed in pain, and escaped to the floor where he hobbled around in pain. Liger tried to come back with a Dragon screw that Koji made look excellent, but his knee wasn't good enough to stand, so Koji recovered and maintained control. Koji hit his overhead belly-to-belly, but he did it when he was already on offense instead of using it to start one of his idiotic quick comebacks.

Liger avoided Koji's moonsault, and came back with his abise-geri then decapitated Koji with a lariat. Koji took a flip bump on the lariat and hit his head on the canvas, which looked awesome, albeit very dangerous. Liger knocked Koji into the corner with two shoudas then knocked him over the top to the floor with a running shouda. Liger followed with a tope con hilo then knocked him over the security rail with a running shouda.

Koji reentered the ring at 19 only to be greeted by a running shouda, which he also took a flip bump on his head on. Liger had put everything into that shot, so he collapsed and sold his knee before pressing forward with his nadare shiki no fisherman buster that Koji bounced off the canvas from the impact. It looked like Koji was just about out, but he caught Liger's leg on his abise-geri and turned it into a knee lock. Koji applied a hiza jujigatame to the bad knee, and Liger was in excruciating pain, but he managed to make it to the ropes. Koji hit his rolling senton off the 2nd rope, but Liger avoided the one off the top and came back with a great jumping Liger bomb for a hot near fall. Liger hit his nadare shiki no suichoku rakka brainbuster, but he was so spent. He knew he needed something big to put Koji away, so he set up his shooting star press, a move he invented a decade earlier, but hasn't used in years because I assume he's not athletic enough to perform it anymore. Koji popped up, so Liger "had to" settle for a missile kick, which Koji matadored.

Koji tried to end it with his Tiger suplex, but Liger went behind and did a tremendous Doug Furnas-esque power hoist (released German suplex with an overhead flip). Liger set up the shooting star press again, but Koji once again popped up and gave him a nadare shiki no powerslam then ended it with his moonsault. The teases of the shooting star press were great psychology because the crowd recognizes the tease, and no one knows for sure that he can't still do the move. 23:58 (15:18 shown). ****3/4

This win meant Koji advanced to the finals, which was not as good as this match in my opinion. The reason it wasn't as good is that there was such a big decline in psychology, selling, and comebacks due to Koji being forced to call and carry the final in the absence of Liger. It's a matter of opinion, but to me a match that is great across the board beats out a match that is off the charts in some areas but mediocre at best in others.

Hadi says, "The greatness of Liger can be seen in this match against Koji. People often say that the Top of the Super JR. IV Final was The Match of 1997. The main basis for their opinion is the spots used by Koji, and certainly his workrate is fantastic, but the Koji-Liger match contained better selling and psychology. Koji is fantastic when he can be carried by the best damn Jr. of all time, and in these cases it was the difference between ****3/4 for Koji vs. Liger and ****1/4 for Koji vs. Samurai."

6/3/97 Yamagata: El Samurai vs. Shinjiro Otani. As with the Liger vs. Koji match, both men came into the final night of the block with a 4-1 record so the winner would go on to face Kanemoto on 6/5 at Nippon Budokan. I'm sure a lot of people think this is the best match on the tape because it is a complete spot fest. The work and moves were off the charts and the crowd was popping for everything, but there was little in the way of selling or psychology. We can't tell how the match built because they edited half of it out. These two worked stiffer than normal, and the execution was just about perfect.

From 3:30 into what was shown it was near falls back and forth and they used just about every great spot in their arsenal. Otani did a great Dangerous released German suplex, and for that matter every suplex looked great because they were all performed a light speed. Otani tried a nadare shiki no brainbuster, but Samurai turned it into a front layout superplex with Otani taking all the impact on his face. Samurai then won with his reverse brainbuster. Samurai advanced to the final. This was a great match to watch because of the awesome workrate, but what aired was flawed and there was probably a reason only half the match was shown . 19:35 (9:24 shown). ****1/4

In Quebrada #43 I asked for an explanation of how the Bud Grant-esque methods of Coach Yamazaki, specifically having the women run, crawl, and practice kicks in the snow with bare hands and bare feet when it was one degree Celsius would help anyone's wrestling ability. No one tried to explain to me how it would help anyone's wrestling ability, which I expected because that isn't the point of that style of training. However, Chris Martinez, a former professional wrestler who currently trains in Jiu Jitsu, offered a really good explanation of the purpose of training in that manner.

"I've trained this way before. It doesn't improve your wrestling ability, but it does improve

your endurance and toughness. It helps a great deal with your pain threshhold. One reason to	train in the snow is that it is much tougher to move in. Moving in the snow can be worse than	running in sand. It's also tougher to kick in the snow than it is to kick when standing on a	regular surface. Basically it all has to do with conditioning. It makes you tougher in the ring,	and it is much better to train harsh than to suffer in the ring. I must point out that we don't	know how often these women train like this or what happened before this session. Perhaps one	girl complained and that was a "punishment" training session? I doubt they train like this	every day, but we have no way of knowing for sure," wrote Chris.

I bought the original of ARSION OFFICIAL VIDEO VISUAL FIGHTER SERIES vol. 1 APHRODITE in YUMI FUKAWA. I figured a good way to shill the tape, which is on my August tape list update available at http://ohmygod.simplenet.com/quebrada/tapes/index.htm, would be to capture a few images from it. Just saying Fukawa in bikinis should be enough to interest people, and actually it gets better when she is rolling around in the sheets, but, you know, I've got the capture card lying idle anyway, and, well, um, a few Fukawa pictures would be a bit more pleasant for people to look at then the pictures of the rat bastard Kanemoto or the crab boy Naniwa. So, I've been up for a mere 18 hours after getting my usual 4-5 hours sleep the night before, but the column is done except for my little shill, and I figure I can finish this off in about a half hour if things go well. Four or five captures should be more than enough. It's just a matter of finding the right ones. So, I start capturing, and capturing, and capturing, because there are just way too many good images on this tape. Soon I have 100 captures. I begin trying to weed them out and the first 50 are pretty easy because they didn't come out quite right or I'd really be better off not showing this image on the web page. I'm still sitting here, trying to weed through all of these, and I begin to really appreciate these guys who can work on say the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. I can see how the magazine would be about the size of 8 issues if I was editing it because you'd need at least 50 Kathy Ireland pictures, at least 50 Niki Taylor pictures, and so on until we get to someone with implants because we can just leave them out altogether unless, of course, it's Angie Everhart. Soon I come to the realization that I'm never going to meet my goal of five pictures, but not surprisingly this type of thing is pretty common from me, the guy who wrote at least one page more than the maximum suggested length on his last 50 college papers. Finally, I get it down to seven pictures, and I'm almost proud of myself because at least I was able to eliminate 93% of my material. I figure I'll run them by a few people and see if they think the images do their job. I get the suggestion that I could use a picture that shows Fukawa's face from the front to show how pretty she is and also I might want to use one or two from her other videos. Somehow, among the 100 images I already had captured, the "perfect" shot of her face from the front wasn't there. Even though I decided not to even bother with Fukawa's first two videos because they weren't anything special, between taking some more from APHRODITE and taking the best stuff from Unbalance, which was a very good video in its own right although APHRODITE is five times better, I wound up with another 50 captures. So, instead of having a few Fukawa images in this column, I wound up with one image from Unbalance and a small APHRODITE gallery. Other than not to ever apply for an editor's job, I did come to a couple realizations in the process. I wasn't sure which I liked better, Fukawa's cute and cuddly old look or her mature hot and sexy new look. Now I'm sure that I prefer the new look. The other realization is that I am now certain that I was correct in thinking that this tape is right up there with Ozaki's and Shiratori's videos as the best "lifestyle" videos. Aside from Fukawa looking fantastic and making me not miss her wrestling attire, which is the hottest any real wrestler wears, this tape is also really well made. It keeps a good fast pace and is well produced and edited. It doesn't really contain any bad shots and "wastes" very little time. ARSION must have something to do with this tape being made right because TOSHIBA EMI's other offerings, Squall and Ore, tend to drag in points. Of course, that is one reason that the half hour videos in this genre are better than the hour ones. Squall is great in points though and it's definitely something you would want if you are a Megumi Kudo fan, and why wouldn't you be, but it's the type of tape where you also find yourself fast forwarding in points. Somehow, I wound up looking at this Fukawa tape and/or the images from it for the past four hours, so either it is really that great or I waste a ton of time because I am a "perfectionist" or I am incredibly bad at being able to weed out the unnecessary or I'm a hopeless Fukawa mark. Probably it's all of the above. In any case, I'm in a good mood because there's still three more of these ARSION VISUAL FIGHTER SERIES videos coming out, and if this is any indication they should be winners too.

Special Thanks to Hadi Motiee, Chris Martinez, Michiko Kubota, Michael Smith, & Ramon Lores