Talk about it here.

Strong match. They've had better, but this is a worthy addition to the cannon. Choshu won the match, but Hashimoto dominated most of it, and Choshu gave him a big kickout off of his trifecta of lariats. It takes a while to get going, but it builds to an exciting finish.

When I was watching New Japan TV (that was like ten years ago), I enjoyed this much more than the Liger vs Benoit match, much to my surprise. Simple, basic work, but very efficient and pretty much ageless.

Ah... too bad the order is a bit off:

 

6. IWGP Jr Title: Pegasus Kid vs Jushin Liger

7. IWGP Tag Title: Keiji Mutoh & Masa Chono vs Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki

8. IWGP Title: Riki Choshu vs Shinya Hashimoto

 

I like the flow of Jr spot-a-thon then a tag that is spotty and dramatic and drive the crowd nuts then Top Guy vs Young Gun heavies come out to have an entirely different war. In that setting, taking some time to get going "works" - they had to follow two super exciting (especially down the stretch run) matches, so they built their war up.

 

John

Yeah, I was wondering why the IWGP Title match was going on before the juniors. Oh well, minor quibble. This did start slow and as a result I don't think it was as overall strong as their match from early in the year, but Choshu makes another great comeback that starts with a superplex. The series of lariats doesn't put Hash down the first time, and after a neat tease of Hash coming back but whiffing on a spin kick, one last Riki Lariat gets the win.

I liked this also a real good deal. Choshu gets a powerful win and has another amazing comeback. Hashimoto looks strong by dominating around 80% of the match. His spinning kicks also looked really deadly in this match.

Best match between these guys to date. As you'd expect, they kept it simple, but even the most basic stuff felt violent and fiercely contested. Choshu delivered another great comeback. It came off as a testament to Hash that Riki had to use the slightly dirty closed fists to seize the advantage. And the lariats into nearfall into huge final lariat on a running Hash made for a great finishing sequence. If Liger-Benoit featured a style I don't love well executed, this was a style I do love well executed.

 

Big picture, the two-week stretch that started with the 10/19/90 AJ six-man was about as strong a burst of wrestling as we've gotten on any yearbook -- something excellent from just about every style.

Hash winning both the standing and ground game over Choshu. Hash dominated most of match. And then Choshu dominated the finish. Simple as it gets. Hash provided little resistance to Riki at the end outside of the missed leg lariat.

Like JDW said this is excellent booking. There had just been two title changes plus Hashimoto had won their previous meeting, so the result was very much in the balance. Disappointing match though which didn't get going until too late.

Shinya gets the vast majority of this match, outwrestling Choshu to a shocking degree. But as long as Riki has the lariat, he's never out of any match, and he proves that again here, using four of them to pull off the win from almost out of nowhere. I like Choshu, so I would have liked to see a little more offense from him, but Shinya was effective enough that I didn't mind too much. He was strong enough on this night that four lariats was just the right number to take him down.

 

Not exactly a classic, but a perfectly solid bout.

Love the simplicity in this match. Very solid, not a real standout match, but I'm always going to enjoy a strong Hashimoto match.

I'm pretty sure this matchup will never go wrong with me. Hash getting most of the offense works because Choshu's offense is ALWAYS better in short, violent bursts.