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| |  New Japan Pro Wrestling Juniors: A Lost Legacy | |
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I recently received another
New Japan tape. For those
wondering, it was the G-1 Climax 1995 special.
New Japan usually runs one or two big shows after the G-1 Climax
tournament comes to a conclusion. On
the second night of this special, Koji Kanemoto defended his IWGP Jr. Title
against Wild Pegasus. It was a
great match and clocked in around twenty minutes.
I’d rate it around ****1/4. There
were a few other good junior matches on that tape including a decent affair
between Jushin “Thunder” Lyger and Sabu.
Yeah, you can believe the hype; even Sabu had good matches at one point. When I hit stop on that tape, I sat back for a couple of
minutes. I thought about the NJPW
junior division as it was and as it is. It’s
really scary to think that the division that got me into puroresu has changed so
much over the years. Some of my
personal favourite wrestlers like Lyger and Shinjiro “BITCHMASTER” Ohtani
are no longer considered true juniors. It
almost pains me to think about the once great NJPW junior division.
I figured that I would write about the NJPW junior division as it was so
new folks know what to seek out. I
also thought I would look at the junior division of the present and whether I
believe it can achieve true greatness again. Please note, I’m going to
try and keep this to the New Japan juniors.
I realize there are many great feds out there putting out excellent
junior action like Michinoku Pro and Toryumon but if I covered all juniors, this
would turn into a book. IN THE BEGINNINGI’m
going to try to stay within the context of the modern NJPW junior division but
I’ll touch on the really old stuff for a little bit.
I have very limited knowledge and footage of the late seventies – early
eighties junior action. Odds are
that people have heard the name Tiger Mask and Dynamite Kid before.
In my opinion, those guys revolutionized wrestling back then.
Of course there were many other juniors back then making a name for
themselves. Tatsumi Fujinami was a
very good junior back then. If you
can believe it, Davey Boy Smith used to be a lot lighter and could work a very
fast paced match. Back in the early
eighties, there was no IWGP Jr. Title. The
New Japan juniors were usually fighting over the WWF Jr. Title (surprises just
keep coming eh?). The IWGP Title
didn’t come into existence until 02/06/1986 when Shiro Koshinaka beat The
Cobra (another guy that used to have great matches with Dynamite Kid in the
early eighties). It’s
interesting to see what has happened to this generation of juniors.
Tatsumi Fujinami moved up to the heavyweight division of New Japan and
went on to win the IWGP Heavyweight title on five occasions.
He is now President of New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Shiro Koshinaka also moved up to the heavyweight division and is now
assistant booker for New Japan. Satoru
Sayama (Tiger Mask) left New Japan in the mid eighties, and attempted to start
his own fed. Despite it’s popularity, it failed. Sayama ended up working a more “worked shoot” style for a
while, had a couple of high profile matches as “Tiger King” in the nineties
and that’s the last I’ve seen of him. The
Dynamite Kid is now a paraplegic as his hard hitting style couple with abuse of
steroids and other drugs have wrecked his body. 1986 – 1989 The IWGP Jr. Title changed hands nine times during this period: Nobuhiko
Takada beat Shiro Koshinaka (05/19/1986) Most of my footage for this era starts around 1988. At this point in time, The Tiger Mask gimmick had been sold to All Japan Pro Wrestling and was being used by Mitsuharu Misawa. The result was a lot less flip flop flying moves. Junior wrestling was a lot more ground based with a bit of flash thrown in there. That’s not to say it was mat based, but it was a lot like watching the heavies today only with a lot more speed and a lot less resting. The result was hard hitting stuff with a quick pace. The name Jushin “Thunder” Lyger did not exist at this time. There was only Keiichi Yamada. Yamada was young, built like a brick house and using some stuff that no one had ever seen before. On August 26th, 1987 Yamada did his first in-match shooting star press when he and Keiji Mutoh faced Owen Hart & the original Black Tiger. Just think about that, Yamada pulled off a move in Japan in 1987 that no one watching the “Big two” would see until 1996 when Marc Mero would debut the move at Summerslam. Despite all of the great ring work, Yamada lost matches. He lost A LOT of matches. He had some solid IWGP Jr. Title matches with Takada, Hase and some really great matches with the late Owen Hart. He was the guy you knew was going to give 100% but wasn’t going to get that coveted prize. As time progressed though, Yamada’s style of wrestling would again change the way that junior matches were fought. Yamada
slowly but surely added more and more flash to the hard substance.
Then In the fall of 1988, the Jushin Riger (that’s not a typo) cartoon
show debuted. Jushin means
"God of animals" and Riger is a combination
of Lion and Tiger (hence Lyger). The original Tiger Mask gained a lot of popularity because of
his cartoon series and the Ryger series was getting big numbers.
New Japan elected to give the gimmick to Yamada.
He left for Europe for five months and then returned on April 29, 1989 at
in the Tokyo Dome in front of 53,000 fans.
Jushin Lyger defeated Kuniaki Kobayashi in a solid match.
The first incarnation of the costume was horrid.
He looked like a weird monster. I
assume he patterned it exactly like the cartoon.
With the new costume came a huge push climaxing with the acquisition of
the IWGP Jr. Title on May 25th, 1989 after beating Hiroshi Hase in a
very good match. After that, Lyger feuded with Naoki Sano.
With each match came more and more flash in addition to the hard hitting
stuff. Their final match on
01/31/1990 was absolutely breathtaking for the time period and still holds up
today at *****. It was given Match
of The Year honours by The Wrestling Observer.
The style of match would be the new benchmark for juniors and would be
molded little by little into the junior style we see today. POUR THE GOLD AND LET IT TAKE SHAPEThe
days of the old guard had come and gone. The
hard hitting, more mat based style of junior wrestling had taken shape into a
far more flashy style. Takada left
NJPW to create his own fed. Fujinami,
Hase, and Koshinaka all moved up into the heavyweight division.
Owen Hart began working for the WWF.
New names were arising from all over the place.
Jushin “Thunder” Lyger had changed his costume in the version that
people are used to seeing today. He
was easily the top junior in the company and probably the world.
Norio Honaga was moving up in the ranks using the “old style” of
junior wrestling but still putting on very good matches.
Chris Benoit was fresh out of Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling and was
working in New Japan under a mask, calling himself Pegasus Kid. El Samurai was fresh on the scene and making a name for
himself as well. 1990 – 1992 The IWGP Jr. Title changed hands ten times during this period. Jushin
“Thunder” Lyger beat Naoki Sano (01/31/1990) Much
like the eighties, my footage from this era is a little spotty.
The stuff I went after was mainly for historical value.
The 11/02/1990 match that Lyger had with Pegasus was excellent.
The match had a Mask vs Title stipulation and with Benoit’s loss, he
gave up the mask. For the next
couple of years, Pegasus would wear the mask to the ring and then rip it off as
he was introduced. He adopted the
name “Wild Pegasus” after losing the mask.
The matches between Lyger and Honaga were solid but I don’t think I
have any of them rated higher than ***1/2.
The fans didn’t buy into Honaga as champion and it was noticeable in
the lack of heat he would get in the matches.
Honaga represented what I would consider a chain holding things back.
Everyone else was using a far more flashy style while Honaga stuck to the
hard hitting, no nonsense style. Recently I’ve noticed him in a referee
capacity. If anyone knows what
happened to him whether it be injury or simply retirement, I would appreciate a
clarification. Honaga never did change his style, which is unfortunate.
If you look at Gran Hamada, he uses the no nonsense style but he managed
to incorporate a few flashy spots into his moveset.
It has obviously worked for him as he’s still wrestling at the age of
fifty-four and still moving like a thirty year old. Meanwhile, Lyger was still
changing the way that people saw wrestling.
He came over to WCW as part of a talent exchange program and put on
amazing clinics with Brian Pillman. He
beat Pillman for the WCW Light Heavyweight Title on Christmas Day of 1991 and
defended it in the United States and in Japan.
He gained the IWGP Jr. Title in early February and defended both titles
for about three weeks before until losing the WCW title to Pillman in a superb
match (around ****1/2 by my count) at Superbrawl II. Back
in Japan, Lyger was having all sorts of crazy matches with various talent. One match that stands out in particular is his Best Of Super
Juniors 1992 Finals match against El Samurai.
Lyger put on the show of a lifetime, pulling out every last move you
could possibly think of (for that time period at least).
The match opened up the eyes of many people.
Lyger’s breaking out of move after move showed people what they could
expect out of the juniors. It
showed that there is a ton of potential just waiting to be used.
That match really put Samurai on the map as he took everything Lyger had
and kept going. Of course Lyger won
the encounter in the end. Samurai
took the title from Lyger in June and would defend it against all comers until
November when the Ultimo Dragon took it from him. The
Ultimo Dragon was an interesting case. Like
Lyger, he was told by NJPW that he couldn’t cut it in Japan.
Like Lyger, he went to Mexico, and made a name for himself.
New Japan was practically begging for him to work for them by late 1992.
The Mexican style that Dragon incorporated into his arsenal would serve
to mold the junior style even further. By
the time that 1993 rolled around, the style was pretty much set. The major evolution had ended.
Now it was only a matter of tweaking something great to make it just that
much better. To be continued in “The
Golden Age.” Justin Baisden
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