SEGUNDA CAIDA DECLARES WAR!!! NJ 11/23/92+12/14/92

WE DECLARE WAR

As part of our overarching WAR project, we are going to review some of the WAR v. NJ feud that happened in NJ. Guest starring Tomk visiting from the Big Easy.

Shiro Koshinaka/Kengo Kimura/Masashi Aoyagi v. Genichiro Tenryu/Takashi Ishikawa/Koki Kitahara NJ 11/23/92

TKG: This is kind of oddly constructed. Kengo Kimura is treated as the powerhouse of the New Japan team while Koshinaka is treated as guy in over his head who just gets wrecked by Tenryu. But their are large sections of the match where it really feels like Koshinaka is the captain( to borrow from lucha trios of his team). Koshinaka has a ton of awesome moments of selling, and comes off really sneaky and sadistic when he gets opportunities to take advantage of his opponents. Kimura looks like a powerhouse in everything he does, his flying knee kick which is a pretty weak looking move in the NJ80s set, here is superfast and violent looking. Kimura gets caught with an Ishikawa knee and then the three War guys take turns stomping his head in...essentially eliminating him from a large section of the match where Koshinaka has to take over for the NJ team. there is an awesome moment where Kohinaka gets Kitahara in the NJ corner and invites Kimura (still selling) to come in and give his receipts. And fuck I want to see Aoyagi v Kitahara as a singles match.

PAS: This was really a ton of fun. Tenryu takes a bit of a back seat as he often does in these trios match, and it was focused mainly on Ishikawa and Kitahara beating on the HI guys, and they are a pair of guys who can beat on someone. Kithara is the face in peril and he is way better at it then Orihara who usually plays that role. Koshinaka is awesome when he tees off on someones nose and he cracks Kitahara right on the bridge. Every Tenryu moment in the match was spectacular though and he is such a fucking superstar even standing on the apron. The NJ team was hurt by not having someone of his aura to play off of.

Tatsumi Fujinami/Akira Nogami vs. Takashi Ishikawa/Koki Kitahara NJ 12/14/92

TKG: The last match had Inoki in the audience and Tenryu. And well this doesn't and isn't as heated as a big interpromotional match. Fujinami eats a lariat from Ishikawa early in the match and you realize that Fujinami is a guy who has made a career of eating lariats. And his bump and sell is just super. Lots of cool Fujinami with the crowd getting excited about a dragon sleeper near fall and when Ishikawa taunts Fujinami by putting Nogami in a dragon sleeper.

PAS: Yeah this didn't have the heat or intensity something like this needs. It felt like an undercard heavyweight tag with some cool moments, but otherwise uneventful. Ishikawa v. Fujinami was a fun match up, Ishikawa works over Fujinami with some really nasty stomps to the shoulder, and wrecks him with some lariats. It got me excited to see their 1993 singles match, but outside of that this didn't do a ton for me.

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Shiro Koshinaka NJ 12/14/92

TKG: Tenryu is really amazing at selling for guys ranked way lower than him. Koshinaka does a big section of working the lariat arm. Nothing particularly memorable but Tenryu makes you totally buy it and buy Koshinaka. When Tenryu isn't making you believe in Koshinaka's runs of offense, he is beating the ever living shit out of him. Every chop lands right on the adams apple, his kicks look to bust Koshinaka's lip and nose open as well as opening up a cut above the eye. Koshinaka comes off realy tough for just taking the damage and then still getting in bits of comebacks, including an amazing top tope dropkick that may have opened up a cut on Tenryu.

PAS: I have talked about it before, but Tenryu's ability to have competitive matches with non-stars may be one of the most impressive things about him. Even when guys like Flair would do it, it was still all about the greatness of Flair's performance. Here Tenryu is really making Shiro Koshinaka a star, he isn't "guy carried by Flair" he is "guy who is hanging and banging with Tenryu". Brutal match, when Tenryu lays in a beating, he lays in a beating. Still Koshinaka looks less like an overwhelmed guy out of his league, then Rocky Balboa battling back and taking it to Apollo Creed. When Koshinaka hits that jaw jacking dropkick the places comes unglued. Great, great match and another piece of evidence for the Tenryu as GOAT case.