Liger v Kanemoto (IN FULL!)

Jushin Liger v Koji Kanemoto (New Japan, 2/16/97)

I watched this practically back to back with the heralded Liger/Ohtani match from a week before this. The Ohtani match is routinely talked about as one of the best juniors matches ever, compared to Misawa/Kobashi not necessarily in terms of quality, but for the story they told being quite similar. And well, I liked this way more than the Ohtani match. One of the very first comps I ever bought had the clipped up version of this on it and I remembered reading about it on one of the old DVDVRs. It sounded spectacular and was a bit of a dream match for me at the time. Kanemoto was one of the first guys from Japan I became a fan of and Liger was maybe the very first, being familiar with him as I was from the WCW appearances and some old magazines. So naturally the eight or nine minutes I saw of it blew me away. I watched it again about ten years ago, probably the same JIP version, and still loved it. The full version isn't exactly a holy grail for me at this point and I never figured one would ever be made available anyway, but I guess New Japan decided to throw us Kanemoto stans a bone and drop the unedited version way back when. And hey, the full version was great! And those missing minutes added rather than detracted from the match!

It's not a perfect match by any stretch and there are some iffy parts. A few bombs could've been sold better, they could've made a little more of one or two elements, maybe the brief limb work could've had more of a payoff, that sort of thing. I think this being about eight minutes shorter than the Ohtani match kept me a little more engaged as well, and in general I thought they used their time better (though I understand that Ohtani and Liger probably needed longer to tell their story). This had some matwork in the first half, some targeting of Liger's knee and arm, but it was mostly Kanemoto kicking the shit out of Liger. Kanemoto never exactly worked over the knee and/or arm, he just briefly went to the kneebar or armbar in between those longer bouts of striking. Liger acknowledged that the arm was giving him some grief, but it wasn't the central focus of the first half and it was all the other grief Kanemoto was giving him that had him sweating. It's sort of amazing how a guy in a full bodysuit and ridiculous mask can be so expressive, but Liger is awesome at conveying the story through body language and his body language said "what the fuck am I even doing here?" He'd been put through the ringer a week earlier and straight from the bell he's being booted out of his costume. Isn't The Ace supposed to be given a break once in a while? Why be The Man if you can't flex some political muscle now and then? The first half is like 90% Kanemoto and even the moment where he basically no-sells a powerbomb didn't annoy me because it was the first bit of real offence Liger had mustered. Plus for any questionable moment like that you get two or three awesome ones in return, like Kanemoto flipping Liger the bird mid-Figure Four or chucking him around by the horn on his mask. Or generally being a wee prick and punting him in the spine and such. The transition into Liger's comeback is a real corker. Kanemoto comes off the top with a moonsault, but as Liger moves Kanemoto's able to land on his feet, charging right at Liger only to have his nasal bone drilled through his brain with the meanest shotei ever. This was just hideous and, like it did against Ohtani the week before, establishes the shotei as Liger's most reliable and lethal weapon. Liger is really great from here on out reasserting himself and repaying Kanemoto for all that horseshit earlier. The brainbuster on concrete felt huge here too. In the Ohtani match they did something similar with Ohtani taking a powerbomb on the floor, but he was literally up and about like nothing had happened ten seconds later. Kanemoto really milked this though, waiting just until the ref' got to nineteen before sliding back in the ring. Liger briefly going after Kanemoto's knee during the stretch run felt a touch out of place, but it had a payoff later as Kanemoto builds up another head of steam before missing a moonsault, and from there he can't quickly follow up because he dings his knee on the landing. Liger using the shotei to set up the avalanche brainbuster was a great finish as well and there's that trusty palm strike getting him out of bother again.

I doubt this is even a top 10 match of 1997, but it's one I've always had a soft spot for, have fond memories of even reading about, and the full version totally delivered everything my teenage self could've wanted.