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DIR Return to: Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week
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#Post#: 21262--------------------------------------------------
Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week; Paid for by the NWO (Tokyo O
ffice)
By: SheriffLonestar Date: November 30, 2013, 2:38 am
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1999, a good year for wrestling all over the globe and today we
look at not one PPV or big event but a bunch of them. This is a
best of the year DVD disc, freely available on youtube
thankfully that shows how good that promotion was in that year.
I guess though that is not hard to believe, wrestling was good
in most places (well okay except WCW who had started their
terminal decline). What Japan had though, and what WCW gave up
on that year, was the N.W.O. You see WCW had a long standing
agreement with WCW, a talent swap agreement in fact that had
seen Tatsumi Fujinami challenge for the WCW world title in the
Tokyo Dome in a unification match with his IWGP title on the
line. That ended in a right set to with Fujinami pinning Ric
Flair to take the WCW belt, before WCW rescinded the decisions
on orders of the WCW referee Bill Alfonso, yeah that Fonzie,
because Fujinami had thrown flair over the top rope, not a DQ
under IWGP rules but it was under WCW rules. Oh by the way the
NWA who also had their title in that match as it was still
officially their Big Gold Belt let the decision stand (home
court rules apply). Confused? Yes so was everyone else, but
other ideas flourished. Like Jushin Liger challenging Flying
Brian Pillman for the WCW Light Heavyweight title in some breath
taking matches. The first Japan vs USA tournaments. Some epic
stuff. So when NJPW decided they liked what they saw in the New
World Order I was intrigued as to what would happen. The company
that eschewed complicated stories was going to take on the
biggest angle in wrestling history. It could be great. It could
be a disaster. This is what happened. Well actually much like
the N.W.O. in WCW it took a long time to play out. This is the
tale end of things. The key players being Masa Chono and Keiji
Mutoh.
To make comparable references you should really see Masa Chono
as Hulk Hogan and Masa Saito and Scott Norton as Hall and Nash.
Chono was a much loved member of the Three Amigos, not a group
per se, but a link of three wrestlers NJPW had pinned as the
future of the company back in the late 80's. Along with Shniya
Hashimoto and Keiji Mutoh New Japan knew they had three world
class heavyweights who would change the way wrestling worked in
Japan, and for two of them this was their zenith. For Hasihimoto
it was his swan song. He was soon gone to form Zero One with
Junior Heavyweight stalwart and best friend Shinji Ohtani.
However, back to the story. The N.W.O. formed with Chono as its
leader in late '97. Based on the comparable squad in WCW, it had
a similar effect. Chono was coming off of an near career ending
broken neck as a result of a botched pile driver by Steve Austin
(before he was Stone Cold he was Stunning, a little to stunning
in this case). He came back not being able to work his usual
bump heavy technical style and had to adapt, so he became a
super brawler (sound familiar?), and super heel. His formation
of the N.W.O. pretty much killed any sympathy he had from his
neck injury and and created a ton of heat. As the N.W.O. steam
rollered its way forward they began recruiting Keiji Mutoh in
earnest. Mutoh in return began to play mind games, wearing an
N.W.O. T shirt then saying he had nothing to do with them, then
helping them out as The Great Muta, then saying he had nothing
to do with them, before eventually The Great Muta (even though
he is played by Mutoh he is really an entirely separate
character) joined The N.W.O. and Mutoh staid with NJPW which as
you can imagine caused no end of tension. Eventually he turned
full heel, retiring Muta for the time being, and Chono and
himself echoed The Outsiders by taking the IWGP Tag Team titles
and spraying them black showing disrespect to the titles, IWGP
and NJPW. Then disaster struck, as the populariser of The
Moonsault, Mutoh had taken a lot of bumps on his knees down the
years and they eventually stopped working. So while he recovered
the N.W.O. was left in the hands of Chono, who in turn received
another neck injury which sidelined him. By the time Mutoh came
back he was back in charge of the N.W.O. he took the IWGP title
from Chono's closest ally Scott Norton. Not in a finger poke of
doom pushover either. Having gained control of the N.W.O. he
turned face, the whole organisation coming with him, which
angered Chono no end. Chono was kicked out and went on to form
Team 2000 with Masa Saito and Atsushi Ohnita and that became the
showdown everyone was looking forward to. This disc pretty much
tells the story of that feud, along with other New Japan goodies
along the way. Jushin Liger's continued dominance of the Junior
Heavyweight Division despite suffering from a brain tumour and a
shattered ankle just a couple of years before. Manabu
Nakanishi's rise through the ranks to the G1 Climax tournament,
which was not bad from being an Olympian in 1992, seven years to
the main event. Nakanishi was really the closest thing NJPW had
to Goldberg, except he was talented, and had more than four
moves, and he liked wrestling. In fact he is still there
wrestling in the tag division 15 years later. Yuji Nagata was
another relative youngster back then, and his development to
main event status is shown this disc.
What is also shown on this disc is the way NJPW managed to get
an Indian Summer out of two ageing stars; Genichiro Tenryu and
Atsushi Ohnita. Tenryu, by the nature of splitting from All
Japan wrestling and forming SWS in 1990, was without a home
promotion. His home base of WAR began to decline as the majority
of stars from other promotions had plenty of stuff going on in
their home territories and didn't need the pay day. He began an
earnest come back in NJPW which led to an IWGP World Title run
which made him the first Japanese man to be both AJPW Triple
Crown Champion and IWGP Champion (Vader had beaten him to it to
be the first man ever). Atsushi Ohnita, by the nature of
splitting from All Japan wrestling and forming FMW in 1989, was
without a home promotion. His home base of FMW began to decline
as the majority of stars from other promotions had plenty of
stuff going on in their home territories and didn't need the pay
day. Sound familiar? Mr. Liar was out of work, and as FMW was
trying to recreate itself as a story line based promotion, there
was still some money to be made signing with the opposition.
Ohnita began by challenging Chono to one of his ludicrous No
Rope Barb Wire Exploding Double Hell Death Matches, which you
can see on this disc. Having won Chono's respect he was invited
to join Team 2000 and began a feud with Keiji Mutoh over the
IWGP (N.W.O?) World Title. Resulting in a No Rope Barb Wire
Exploding Time Bomb Double Hell Death Match. Also highlighted on
here in which Mutoh wrestles as Muta and Ohnita wrestles as his
Muta inspired gimmick The Great Nita.
Though this disc is only a highlight reel there really is a lot
going on here and well worth a watch. If you want to know a lot
about Japanese wrestling in a hurry this is it. It may also
inspire you to find the complete matches most of which are
doozies.
What is remarkable and, highly ironic, is that the N.W.O angle
was entirely a copy of a real life situation that happened in
New Japan in 1984. Riki Chōshū had formed a stable
called Ishingun to feud with Antonio Inoki. His stable mates
where Animal Hamaguchi, Isamu Teranishi, Yoshiaki Yatsu, and
Masa Saito (there is that name again). As the feud continued
tensions arose back stage and the entire stable (along with
several others) left to form their own company Japan
Pro-Wrestling. Needing work and exposure The JPW guys forged a
working agreement with All Japan Pro Wrestling and “invaded”
that company in in a three year long feud. What goes around,
comes around I guess.
Enjoy the show;
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaUcghbvkO4
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