Super Dragon vs. Samoa Joe JAPW 10/30/04
ER: Samoa Joe will be in the main event of Full Gear in a week, and this match against Super Dragon from 20 years ago got posted recently. I had never seen this match and I don't think I saw any of the SoCal Dragon/Joe matches live. I don't know if I even knew they had a match in JAPW. Joe was my favorite wrestler in the world around this time. He was so fast and powerful in 2004. This is billed as "ROH vs. PWG in a JAPW ring", but Samoa Joe wrestles this like a guy who had done some tours with Zero-1 and was throwing in tributes to guys he rode the bus with. He buzzsaws through a legsweep like Hashimoto, rears back a headbutt like Fujiwara, he does a great magic trick of the Ole Kick into the guardrail just like Otani. Now, Otani would just actually kick guys in the face but Joe's magic is in how he builds up steam and accurately kicks just past Dragon's face into the railing, twice! He focuses on speed and impact rather than breaking faces and it's impressive as hell. I like Zero-1 Joe. It turns the match into something more than "ROH vs. PWG"; It becomes Guy Who Went to Japan vs. Guy Who Had Great Ideas With His Friends in a way I'm very nostalgic for.
Super Dragon throws some of the hardest chops you can throw, like a 19 year old backyarder hitting his friend as hard as possible. His somersault senton tope is an insane dive to do in the Rahway Rec Center, flying past the ringpost and connecting flush with Joe while also hitting his head on the floor in a way that looked like Joe credibly reversed the dive into a sitout powerbomb in one motion. It's one of those moves and moments that defines that era of New Jersey indie wrestling, just incredible risk + innovation.
They also weren't an easy crowd. Dragon hits a high concept enziguiri that doesn't quite read and the Jersey crowd starts chanting AVERAGE DRAGON. I thought these two would light each other up but instead I wound up impressed with how well they worked a lot of their strikes, hitting hard on chops but not killing each other with potatoes. Joe's ole kicks are an all time great worked act of violence, going in fast but only grazing. I've seen Dragon murder people with strikes and stomps but I thought it was cool how he "pulled" the double stomp off the top. That said, Samoa Joe holds onto his Death Valley Driver like a monster, straight into the pin, looked disgusting. There is nothing average about what they did. I loved wrestling so much in 2004.
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