As I've mentioned probably a hundred and four dozen times on this idiot blog, the 90s New Japan juniors will always have a special little place in my black and decrepit heart. That stuff was what I first started diving into when Scotland discovered the internet some time in the early 2000s and I ventured outside my WWF bubble. As I imagine was the case for many in my boat, going through John Williams' (or jdw to his friends and those who called him names on the internet for liking wrestling that you didn't) DVDVR best of the 90s rundowns was a gift from heaven and the perfect starting point for trying to figure out what to get. At that point you still had to fork out cash for someone to send you tapes or DVDs rather than just hopping on the youtube or whatever, so you had to be picky. When he voted this match his #1 New Japan match of the decade I figured sure, why the hell not lay down 40 quid for a tape that might get here in five weeks.
It's been over a decade now since I last watched it, but it still holds up as being pretty great, just like it did the last two or three times. The jdw talking point back then was that New Japan should've used this match as a stylistic blueprint for the juniors division going forward, rather than the bomb-heavy formula it eventually adopted. I tend to think Ohtani had the REAL right idea two years earlier when he and Orihara tried to put each other in the morgue, but I guess that match wasn't as readily available at the turn of the 00s so I understand this being the thing someone might latch onto. And to be fair, as far as match blueprints go, this wouldn't have been the worst new normal.
It's probably one of the best examples of a duelling limb work match you'll get. Ohtani was on the ascendancy in 1996, his real breakout year, a year in which he developed the attitude of someone who figured it was his time to be The Man. He had this match, the March title match with Liger and the J Crown match in August against Ultimo Dragon, each of them heralded for one reason or another. The thread that ran through all of them was Ohtani's emotions and how they drove him forward, made him a force - or at least gave him the potential to be one - but at the same time held him back in key moments. He was on the cusp of breaking into that true upper tier, but at every turn those emotions were a double-edged sword and often the deepest cut was to himself. He went after Samurai's leg early here, first taking him down with a mean ankle pick and from there he was a dog with a bone. Tenacious, intense, relentless, all of that shit. Without re-treading old ground, 90s juniors matwork can be a slog and there are plenty of times where you get the sense they're going through the motions until the taped-for-TV light goes on, but this was far from meandering and everything they did was gritty and nasty, Ohtani in working that leg and Samurai in trying to shake him. Ohtani had a point to prove and he did everything with a scowl. Samurai is one of those guys who either flies under the radar or just isn't all that interesting depending on who you ask, but even knowing his backstory already, having seen about all there is to see from him, he just felt like a veteran here, a calm and steady presence who wouldn't be fazed by adversity or allow his emotions steer him off track. With Samurai, the tail wasn't wagging the dog. Eventually he zeroed in on Ohtani's arm and the rest of the match was about whose point of attack would win out first.
What I really liked about the dives here were how they played directly into each man's strategy. Ohtani was hitting his swan dive dropkicks right to Samurai's kneecap, really brutal looking things that about snapped his leg in half. Samurai waited until late in the match before he fought that fire with his own, but when he did it was decisive and there haven't been many matches where those moves off the top felt as important, at least not within the context of 90s New Japan juniors. The longer it went the more desperate Ohtani got, at one point biting Samurai in the calf to break out of a cross armbreaker. Which fucking ruled, obviously. In the end I wouldn't say Ohtani veered too far off course necessarily. I guess he deviated from the leg work in favour of the springboard, but when you launch yourself 10 feet in the air and dropkick someone in the temple it's hard to ding him for following up with his finisher. His undoing was how he reacted after Samurai kicked out of the dragon suplex. Ohtani's weepy incredulous face is damn near meme material, maybe/definitely a wee bit hammy, but it absolutely ties into the story of him not being able to keep his emotions in check. Rather than cling to the ref' in disbelief, maybe dropkick him in the face again or something. Instead, after he spends precious time composing himself, he tries to go even bigger and props Samurai on the top turnbuckle. Of course it backfires and Samurai hits a flying kneedrop to the arm as Ohtani pulls himself up with the ropes. Samurai going straight to the cross armbreaker is the sort of move you see from a guy who's been around the block a time or two. He kept himself tethered in the moment when Ohtani got lost in it. Not for the first time either, and probably not for the last.
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