Jushin Liger v Norio Honaga (New Japan, 5/31/91)
Pissed off and out for blood Liger is by far my favourite Liger. That usually comes in one of two forms, the first being inter-promotional Liger where he's out to put some M-Pro fools in their place or NOAH rock into town and he'll try and murder Kikuchi. The second tends to be something that happens over the course of a match, and the best examples are ones where someone foolishly goes after his mask. It's not surly Liger like you get against Ohtani and Kanemoto. He was always in a foul mood against those guys, but that's because they were punks and coming for the crown. When someone like Sano or Samurai tried to take the mask, that was when you'd get Liger going full and proper psycho. It went beyond the bounds of a wrestling match and you never wanted to push him that far. Liger was firing on all cylinders to start this, looking crisp in the early exchanges and picking up a well-earned round of applause after wiping Honaga with a plancha. He was looking like The Ace and you figured Honaga was in for a long night, but there was never inherent malice to what he was doing. He was going about his business and his business on the night was to win a wrestling match. Then Honaga went low and practically tore the whole mask off. Who knows why he did it. Maybe he thought Liger would lose all composure and it might actually give him a shot at getting into the match, maybe he just wanted to poke the bear to see if it would bite. Either way Liger goes apeshit and this was about as murderous as I've ever seen him. He demolishes Honaga to the point where people start booing him. Honaga is gushing blood from a cut and Liger is punching him dead in that cut, trying to peel the wound open further, just hammering him every which way. I thought they probably could've shaved it by a couple minutes and it would've felt a bit tighter, but I suppose it's hard to complain about getting TOO much psycho Liger. That they went and threw us a curveball at the finish was awesome and I should probably watch this feud in its entirety. How do I have no recollection of seeing it at all? This was peak Liger.
Any chance to see Kurisu and Aoyagi lay into each other is one worth taking. This was more of a whimsical house show version of a Kurisu match, where moments built around him throwing an opponent to the floor carry a little humour rather than a lot of dread, but they played their hits and in the end we go home happy. Early on Kurisu throws Koshinaka out the ring, but Koshinaka immediately jumps back in as Kurisu follows him out because he and everyone else in attendance knows what the wee fella's plan is. Kurisu wants to smash someone with a chair and the longer that can be avoided the better it'll be for Koshinaka. Of course the payoff to that later is as nasty as you expect and Kurisu jabbing the chair into someone's cheekbone will always look brutal. Some headbutts were thrown, hip bones were jammed into faces, Aoyagi belted people with kicks, a good time was had.
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