Last year I went back and watched a bunch of Jushin Liger, which was really the first time I've watched much Liger in about a decade. A handful of those matches were either singles, tags or multi-mans opposite Ohtani and it's pretty consistently an awesome pairing. It also made me realise I never voted for Ohtani in 2016 and that definitely feels like an oversight. So here I am, going through some of the post-New Japan Ohtani like I said I wanted to before the 2016 deadline.
There's an alternate universe where Ohtani jumped to Battlarts in the late 90s and this became a years-long feud. He certainly had the approach of this being not at all a monkey show so he'd have fit right in. He went for Ishikawa straight at the bell, threw a handful of brutal strikes, then gave him probably the nastiest facewash in the corner of his whole career. This wasn't one of those where he hits a glancing blow with the sole of his foot brushing across the opponent's face, this was a wild rush where he tried to cave Ishikawa's face in with his shin. The whole match was basically an eight-minute highly uncooperative fight, which of course is something they're both absolutely top drawer at. Ohtani drags Ishikawa to the floor and wallops him with a chair then rams his head into all four ring posts. Ishikawa fights back, bloody forehead and all, with some hideous shots - headbutts, slaps, forearms and one enziguri that looked and sounded like it took Ohtani's whole jaw off. My favourite Ohtani is probably pissed off Ohtani and Ishikawa is naturally the sort of maniac to absorb quite frankly stupid amounts of punishment, so as a dynamic it worked great. A gurgling, bloody-mouthed Ishikawa trying not to pass out in the rear naked chokse is straight out of his old mentor's playbook. Obviously this ruled.
Shinjiro Ohtani v Kazunari Murakami (Zero-1, 7/16/07)
Pro wrestling really is the best of all the wrestlings. Maybe the best of all the THINGS. This is also just about the perfect representation of pro wrestling, the beauty of it, the vicariousness of giving your mortal enemies brain damage. Every time these two step in a ring together it's magic and this is their opus, their Born to Run, their Liquid Swords, their Blood on the Tracks, indeed blood all over the place if we're being literal. It is perhaps not something we - or simply I - should enjoy to the extent we - or I - do, as the aforementioned brain damage is a very genuine outcome that forced Murakami into a three-year retirement. Alas he's been back for ages now and by all accounts still terrorising people on a semi-regular basis so our guilt is softened somewhat. All's well that ends well, the poets tell us. After their matches in '01 you would never think these two maniacs could coexist, but based on the pre-match video package and a subsequent cagematch check it appears they'd actually been teaming for a while before this. So maybe you expect a good-natured contest along your Guerrero/Malenko lines, upholding of a Code of Honour and such. You would be dead wrong and know it immediately because Murakami charged Ohtani as soon as the latter got in the ring and it never let up from there. Ohtani was incredible through all of this but particularly while eating absolute hell during that early onslaught. He was only 35 here, somehow younger than I am right now, but Murakami made him look like an old man, such was the frankly unnecessary beating put upon him. Ohtani had been in more than his fair share of fights, spent a goodly number of years getting smashed in the face with the palm of Liger's hand, trading punches with the likes of Kanemoto and Ishikawa and Murakami himself, but he's a wrestler at the end of the day and a wrestler cannot comprehend the lawlessness of someone like Murakami. Ohtani doesn't truly belong in this sort of contest and Murakami overwhelmed him out the gate. His selling really was immaculate, getting blasted with kicks and punches, thrown over nine stacks of chairs, trying to get back to his feet and mount a comeback yet always staggering and stumbling into half a riposte at best, never quite enough to give Murakami real pause. Then he just rammed his head into Murakami's face and that'll do it at the end of the day. He gave every bit as good as he got from there and maybe I was wrong about him not being at home in this sort of pit fight. In all honesty he probably took the piss with it. The first chair shot was deplorable, landing on Murakami's head with the metal part of those Korakuen Hall folding chairs, opening a gruesome cut almost instantly. Normally the one delivering those shots would flip the chair around so the padded part connects with the recipient's head, folding with its natural hinge to create the cool visual of breaking across the head, the padded seat going flying. If I've ever had a folding chair broken over my head I've forgotten it now so maybe I'm not an authority on the matter, but you'd think that would be the safest way to break a folding chair over someone's head. Whether it was intentional or not I don't know, but Ohtani doing it the OTHER way was evidently not the safest way and the second shot was even more vile than the first, this one leaving the chair folded over Murakami's head by bending it in the way opposite to that in which it was designed. A decent amount of force would be required to do that so this was no mere love tap. You can tell Murakami's fucked straight away, but there were moments after it where I'm still inclined to credit him for some spectacular bits of selling. I've never seen someone roll with a punch and turn it into a backslide the way Murakami did here and it was probably the smoothest backslide ever recorded. The best moment of the match might be when Ohtani gives him the facewash in the corner, the sole of his boot soaking up the blood dripping down Murakami's face, and as Ohtani tries to pick him up Murakami just slumps to the floor as concussed as a person could be. I wondered if they weren't about to call an audible then but the next time Ohtani laid a hand on him Murakami spat in his face and burst into violent life, backing Ohtani into the corner with a flurry of punches before jumping fully on his head, Ohtani left glaring with open contempt as blood trickled from his nose. Even with only 70% of his motor functions Murakami is the greatest sneering enraged lunatic that's ever lived and the part where he and Ohtani rise to their feet locking eyes is perfect pro wrestling. The commentator says the word "zombie" twice and even with my less than stellar grasp of the Japanese language I know exactly who he was talking about. The finish is pretty fitting for a match of this sort as well. Nobody wins in something like this, there are only losers when it's said and done and both of them having to be dragged out of there like carcasses is how it was always destined to end. Phenomenal stuff and I'm glad Murakami can still blow his own nose.
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