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| |  New Japan Pro Wrestling Juniors: The Golden Age | |
THE GOLDEN AGEThis was my truly favourite
period in junior wrestling. I have
done just about everything in my power to gain as much material from this time
period as possible. The talent that
was either resident or passing through New Japan Pro Wrestling was tremendous.
Between the years of 1993 – 1996, the junior talent included: Jushin
“Thunder” Lyger, Wild Pegasus, Black Tiger II (Eddie Guerrero), Shinjiro
Ohtani, El Samurai, 2 Cold Scorpio, Super Delphin, The Great Sasuke, TAKA
Michinoku, Dean Malenko, Sabu, Tokimitsu Iskizawa (now Kendo Ka Shin), and Koji
Kanemoto. There were so many
different styles of junior wrestling. It
was almost impossible to have a bad encounter considering the amount of
excellent talent that was working for New Japan Pro Wrestling. 1993 – 1996 The IWGP Jr. Title changed hands eight times during this period. Jushin
“Thunder” Lyger beat Ultimo Dragon (01/04/1993) The
idea popularly referred to as “Lucharesu” was in full effect by this point
in New Japan. Many of the wrestlers
brought in during this time period had just come from Mexico.
Spectacular moves such as the various version of the Tope (suicide dive)
were now commonplace. The luchadore
influence was a tremendous addition to the junior style of Japan.
I have always been of the firm belief that junior wrestling should be as
much about flash as it is substance. The
flash is what truly sets juniors apart from every other weight class in pro
wrestling. If you look at the tremendous “mega cards” that took
place during The Golden Age, you can see how the Lucharesu influence make what
would have been great shows all the better. Right
off the bat with the Dragon vs Lyger match from the January 4th, 1993
Tokyo Dome show, just about everything was amazing.
Please note that you should not use the Dragon vs Lyger match as a
benchmark because Dragon used to get the jitters in big matches and he slipped
off the ropes twice during that match. It
was still very good though. The
Best Of Super Juniors tournament was an excellent showing for the junior talent
in NJPW at that time. Lyger was put
out of contention in the tournament early (it’s round robin) with a leg injury
climaxing with 2 Cold Scorpio beating him in under a minute with a leg bar.
With Lyger out of the picture, everyone else stepped up their game and
the finals of the tournament was truly epic with Wild Pegasus beating El Samurai
with a top rope spinning powerbomb (simply awesome move) to win the tournament.
That was the beginning of a mega push for Benoit and he would ride that
win all the way to the most historic tournament in junior wrestling history. The
Super J Cup 1994 is the one and only show that I consider to be REQUIRED viewing
for all puroresu fans. It
represented junior wrestling at it’s very best.
If you go by the “star ratings” you may not think it was all that
spectacular but trust me, it must be seen.
I think this tournament was the final step into the style of wrestling
that is used by today’s juniors. What
was once “mat substance” became “flash substance.”
The semi finals and finals truly set this tournament apart from so many
others. In one semi final match,
The Great Sasuke took on Jushin “Thunder” Lyger.
Lyger had already faced Hayabusa and Ricky Fuji.
Sasuke got a first round buy and then beat El Samurai.
Considering this was a one night tournament, it’s a testament to the
skills and stamina of both men that they were able to put on such a great
performance. The end of the match
holds debate between many as The Great Sasuke was to springboard off the top
into a huracanrana for the win. However
he slipped off and had to recover with a rana roll up after the fact.
Some say it was part of the match, others say it was just a mess up.
Personally I think that he was just exhausted. I guess we’ll never know for sure. As for the finals, Sasuke would face Wild Pegasus.
Benoit also got a first round by. He
beat Eddie Guerrero in the quarters and then beat Gedo in the semi finals.
The final match itself is a testament not only to the junior style of
that day but a throw back to the junior style of old.
It was almost as if you could see Dynamite Kid and Tiger Mask go at it
one more time, eleven years after their last encounter.
The mannerisms within Benoit and Sasuke in comparison to Dynamite Kid and
Tiger Mask are all over the place. Back
in the day, it was Sayama flying all over the place and Billington bringing the
stiff shots. This time it was
Sasuke using the ariel offense and Pegasus bringing the sharp, brutal shots. Trademark stuff like The Space Flying Tiger Drop vs The Snap
Suplex. It was a truly great match
and a truly great event. The
1994 Super Juniors tournament was a decent affair.
It really showcased the “Lucharesu” style.
TAKA Michinoku and Super Delphin both participated in this tournament and
got to showcase the very flashy style of wrestling they had picked up in Mexico.
Unlike the year before, there were no truly stand out matches though.
The finals between Super Delphin and Jushin “Thunder” Lyger was
really good and clocked in around **** if I recall correctly.
Super Delphin was a few years away from becoming a really great wrestler
in my opinion. Today, though he
still exhibits some comedy within his matches, Delphin has become extremely well
rounded with a killer offense. One
thing I will give Delphin back then, he was truly over with the crowds.
His comedy routine would be eaten up with a big spoon every time he was
in the ring. His popularity would
carry with him from New Japan into Michinoku Pro and now into his Osaka Pro
federation. The
Super Junior Tag League was an idea that I wish New Japan had never given up on. The commercial release ranks in my personal top five tapes,
possibly even top three. All seven
complete matches shown on that tape ranged from above average to absolutely
amazing. The two matches between
Pegasus/Ohtani vs Sasuke/Tiger are must see for junior fans.
Watching The Great Sasuke around this time period was a real treat.
I would venture to say that he was more over than Lyger for a while which
is no small feat. Every time he
entered the ring, the crowd would pop on a level you just don’t hear anymore. Guerrero, under the guise of Black Tiger II, was really
clicking at this point. Over in
Mexico, he and the late Art Barr were the move hated heel tag team in Mexico.
If you have the cash, track down their 2/3 falls tag match with Octagon
and El Hijo Del Santo from “AAA/IWC: When Worlds Collide.”
It’s ranked very high among Lucha Libre fans and still manages to hold
up as an excellent match years later. Tag
team wrestling of the calibre seen between Sasuke/Tiger vs Pegasus/Ohtani in the
finals has not surpassed to this day. If
you look at the 1996 Michinoku Pro matches, an arguable comparison can be made.
However, the more renowned Michinoku Pro matches were either six, eight
or ten man tags. The two Sasuke/Tiger vs Pegasus/Ohtani matches make the tape
worth going after, especially the finals which is my second favourite tag match
ever. The
Best Of Super Juniors 1995 tournament is my second favourite BOSJ (just below
1997 which I’ll get to later on). The
main factor, which changed the way that things would unfold in this tournament,
was the absense of Jushin “Thunder” Lyger.
Out with a leg injury, it was up to everyone else to pick up the slack
and maybe elevate to the next level. Ohtani,
Kanemoto, Pegasus, Malenko, El Samurai and Black Tiger all brought their super
work boots for this one. I am
especially fond of the Black Tiger vs Pegasus semi final match as it was the
first time that I had ever seen the second rope tombstone piledriver.
The wrestling on the whole was extremely good from the above six guys.
The tournament consistently produced *** and up matches with a few of
them clocking in around ****1/2. Just
great stuff from everyone. The
Super J Cup 1995 was another great event for junior wrestling.
It was hosted by WAR instead of New Japan.
The Ultimo Dragon booked the event and used an interesting variety of
matches. If you look from match to
match, there is no match that looks the same.
The variety of styles with that year’s participants made for some very
unique match ups. A match to look
for on that show is Shinjiro Ohtani vs Masaki Mochizuki. It had a very “shoot” feeling to it. The “shoot” style of junior wrestling was very
interesting to see. John Williams
over at http://www.otherarena.com made
an interesting point that the style exhibited in a match between Ohtani and El
Samurai during January of 1996 should have been the next evolutionary step in
junior wrestling. It was wrestled
very much like the one between Ohtani and Mochizuki. The Ohtani vs Samurai match was a lot longer though and as
such was given sufficient time to develop unlike the Super J Cup 1995 match
which was under a time constraint because of the amount of matches for the
night. Unfortunately, the style was
never completely incorporated and the concept was forgotten (at least in New
Japan). Back to the Super J Cup
1995. This tournament didn’t have
the “magical” feeling of the last one but it was better wrestling across the
board. The Ultimo Dragon put on a
great performance with each round of the tournament.
He turned it up a notch with each round culminating in an excellent match
with Jushin “Thunder” Lyger in the semi finals. Lyger defeated him in a ****1/2 match. On the other side of things, Gedo got a monster push in this
tournament as he was a mainstay of WAR. Lyger
absolutely dismantled Gedo in the finals. Many
say that Gedo ruined this tournament with the push.
It may be best to say that he ruined the potential greatness of other
matches. Like many others, I would
have loved to see Wild Pegasus vs Ultimo Dragon in the finals.
I don’t think they’ve ever faced each other in a singles match (maybe
in Mexico?). Now
we enter 1996. This was THE year
for junior wrestling in my opinion. It
was the last year Malenko, Guerrero and Benoit would wrestle in NJPW on a
consistent basis. It was the year of a great BOSJ tournament. It was the year of
The Skydiving J. It was the year of
The J Crown. I don’t think there
was a better year for junior wrestling. NJPW
came out of the gates with a bang in the 01/04/1996 Tokyo Dome Show.
Koji Kanemoto and Jushin “Thunder” Lyger put on their best match
past, present, and with the way Lyger is wrestling now, the future as well.
Lyger won the IWGP Jr. Title in a ****1/2 match.
A few weeks later, Ohtani and Samurai put on the amazing match that I
talked about earlier. The
“shoot” style incorporated with the flash of the junior style used in this
match would be used again sporadically throughout 1996 but became a memory after
a while. It should be noted that Battlarts picked up on this idea.
It should also be noted that Battlarts is one of the best federations in
Japan today. Coincidence?
I don’t think so. Back
to New Japan as the Skydiving J was going on.
Eight junior title matches took place.
One of them was a great match between Kazushi Sakuruba (a mega star in
Japan today) and Shinjiro Ohtani. The
match used the “shoot junior” hybrid style and came across exceptionally
well. Two other standout matches
were Super Delphin vs TAKA Michinoku and Jushin “Thunder” Lyger vs Dick
Togo. Delphin had matured a great
deal between 1994 and 1996 and it showed in his match with TAKA. Lyger’s match with Togo is probably the best match Togo has
ever had. To his credit, Togo also
had a great match with Super Delphin in January of 2000. If you want to find that match, it’s on the “Osaka Wars:
Volume 2” commercial release. Back
to the Skydiving J as at the end of this string of matches, Lyger called forth
the other seven champions and put forth the idea of a true Super Junior title.
A single elimination tournament would be held with the winner of each
match taking the title of the other and moving on in the tournament until there
was one man with eight titles. And
so we have… The
J Crown tournament was everything you could have expected.
The semi final match between Shinjiro Ohtani and Ultimo Dragon is
heralded as one of the top five junior matches that NJPW has ever put forth.
I would definitely agree with that assessment.
The match was easily ***** and should be seen by all puroresu fans.
The finals of the tournament ended up being Ultimo Dragon vs The Great
Sasuke. It was shaping up to be
another legendary match but Sasuke cracked his skull on a suicide dive attempt
and they had to end the match early. The
interesting thing is Ultimo Dragon has no clue that Sasuke had cracked his skull
and kept going with the match as they laid it out.
The referee had to inform Dragon of the situation and then they wrapped
it up. If you look at the match,
you can definitely see a disruption in the flow of the match.
It’s unfortunate the match ended early considering you can have A LOT
of near falls and crazy moves used within two minutes.
Those two minutes could have been enough to create another ***** match.
I’ve watched a lot of tapes over the years but I have never come across
two ***** matches in one show before. Ah
well… A
couple of side notes. Shinjiro
Ohtani defeated Chris Benoit on 03/20/1996 to become the first ever WCW
Cruiserweight champion. From what I
understand, it was a double elimination tournament held over the course of a few
weeks of WCWSN. I also understand
that they didn’t know what the hell they were doing and Bischoff just said
“fuck it” and Ohtani beat Benoit over in Japan and it was called the final. Ho hum… Also, after Dragon beat Sasuke for the J Crown in
October, he went into Starrcade 1996 and added the WCW Cruiserweight title by
defeating Dean Malenko in an excellent match that I’d clock at ****1/4.
I don’t think that anyone has ever held nine titles simultaneously
aside from Dragon’s short reign. I don’t think there will ever be anything like The Golden Age. The pool of talent was easily the most rich that I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t simply the talent though, a lot of it had to do with the fans. With each passing year and with each changing of the junior style, the fans grew to appreciate the juniors more and more. This attention was exhibited in a lot of noise, which as most people realize, makes a match seem all the better. If you can find someone with a decent collection of junior material (if you wait about two months so I can get out of school, I’ll compile it), I recommend getting a compilation tape of the following matches during The Golden Age. - Wild Pegasus vs El Samurai: BOSJ finals ****1/2 - Lyger/Pegasus vs Hashimoto/Chono: Super Grade Tag League 1993. Obviously this wasn’t a straight juniors match. I recommend it though because the juniors went over the heavies, which almost never happens (like 1 in 1000 odds). - Jushin “Thunder” Lyger vs The Great Sasuke: Super J Cup 1994 Semi Finals ****1/2 - Wild Pegasus vs The Great Sasuke: Super J Cup 1994 Finals ***** - Wild Pegasus/Shinjiro Ohtani vs The Great Sasuke/Black Tiger: Super Junior Tag League ****1/2 - Wild Pegasus/Shinjiro Ohtani vs The Great Sasuke/Black Tiger: Super Junior Tag League Finals ****3/4 - Jushin “Thunder” Lyger vs Tiger Mask III: 1/4/95 Tokyo Dome Show. This isn’t recommended based on how great the match was. It’s recommended because it was Lyger’s title vs Tiger Mask III’s mask and TMIII lost. Historical more than anything. ***1/2 - Wild Pegasus vs Black Tiger: BOSJ 1995 Semi Finals ****1/2 - Wild Pegasus vs Shinjiro Ohtani: BOSJ 1995 Finals **** - Wild Pegasus vs Koji Kanemoto: G-1 Climax Special 1995 **** 1/4 - Wild Pegasus vs Lionheart: Super J Cup 1995 Quarter Finals **** - Jushin “Thunder” Lyger vs Ultimo Dragon: Super J Cup 1995 Semi Finals ****1/2 - Jushin “Thunder” Lyger vs Koji Kanemoto: 1/4/1996 Tokyo Dome Show ****1/2 - Shinjiro Ohtani vs El Samurai: NJPW TV 01/27/1996 ****1/2 - The Great Sasuke vs Jushin “Thunder” Lyger: Battle Formation 1996 ****1/4 - Black Tiger vs Jushin “Thunder” Lyger: BOSJ 1996 Finals ****1/2 - Jushin “Thunder” Lyger vs Dick Togo: Skydiving J 1996 **** - TAKA Michinoku vs Super Delphin: Skydiving J 1996 ****1/4 - Shinjiro Ohtani vs Kazushi Sakuruba: Skydiving J 1996 ***3/4 - Ultimo Dragon vs Shinjiro Ohtani: J Crown Semi Finals 1996 ***** Please
note, those are the matches that I pulled off the top of my head.
I tend to only buy commercial tapes.
As such, there’s a lot of NJPW TV out there with loads of amazing
junior stuff that I haven’t mentioned. Also,
before I leave this time period, I would like to strongly recommend getting
anything and everything you can from Michinoku Pro in 1996.
The Kaientai Deluxe vs M-Pro feud produced some of the greatest junior
matches you will ever see. To be continued in “What Comes Up, Must Come Down” Justin Baisden
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