Spotlight on Japan

Rush vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (NJPW) by JAHMAL1111

Rush vs. Shinsuke Nakamura NJPW 1/18/14

So early on in wrestling fandom I would get really excited when one of my favorite luchadors would work Japan, or one of my favorite Japanese wrestlers would work Mexico. And it almost always sucked. I loved Minoru Tanaka in 2000/2001 (boy how the years change things) and then Heat came to CMLL and bored me to tears. Often when they go to Japan luchadors just match up against another lucahdor also along for the ride. I've seen fun lucha matches in Japan (I'm thinking the great man/woman/tranny/mini match from Hustle 3) but the only luchador vs. puro match from the last 15 years jumping out at me as killer is Gran Apache's run from W*ing. I think LA Park worked a Tag League but I'm not sure any of it ever made tape. I don't know if there's a tough language barrier or a style clash or what, but it just doesn't seem to happen often.

So I saw Rush vs. Nakamura happened and I was instantly jazzed as Rush is one of my favorite luchadors and Nakamura is one of the only current Japanese guys who excites me. You never get top stars from lucha mixing up with top stars from Japan. It's not like Hijo Del Santo vs. Kawada was ever going to be a thing that happened.

And Rush/Nakamura went out and had a killer little 10 minute match. Nakamura looks like a complete nutbar with weird body paint and brings all the cool kick combos and knees and doesn't puss out on taking Rush's beastly corner dropkick. Rush also hits a brutal running dropkick off the apron that sends Nak flying and is one of my favorite spots of the year. Rush tries working heel by throwing out some silly "Mexico is best" chatter, which, well at least he tried working that dynamic.  There was no overkill (match may have actually worked better as a 2/3 falls match in CMLL) but this was a fun beatdown with nice hope spots. I'm a big fan of an easily digestible short match, and this match ticked a lot of fun boxes for me.