Posted January 13, 20178 yr comment_5783346 Liger is still wearing the boss black suit. Tanaka looked a hell of a lot better here than in the BattlARTS match IMO as he takes it to Liger and they have really strong chemistry. The other two competitors were mostly there as apron decoration but Samurai also has a good sequence with Tanaka at the finish where Tanaka picks up the win and then gets chippy with Liger again. ***1/4
January 21, 20178 yr comment_5784445 About half of the 13:37 match is shown on TV. They are pushing the Liger-Minoru Tanaka feud hard, and New Japan seems to be a much better fit for Tanaka than BattlARTS, where the Sano match made him seem a little vanilla. Here, Liger toys with him for a while before he comes back with a surprise heel hook out of nowhere and Samurai and Kashin end up in a battle when Sammy tries to make the save. Very All Japan-ish in that moment. I think this needed more time to truly rank much higher for me, but I liked what I saw, and I certainly have a lot of time for a Liger-Minoru Tanaka feud. ***
February 16, 20178 yr comment_5788663 From the little bit shown this looked better than the other juniors tag from the same show. Liger-Tanaka had a decent sequence and I'm looking forward to seeing them match up more.
February 17, 20178 yr comment_5788719 Halfway into the match and it's good action. Can't put my finger on why but I liked El Samurai here. For some reason I got a sort of El Samurai as the Christian of NJPW vibe from these 5 or so minutes. They are really getting over the cross armbreaker of Tanaka and Liger goes absolutely berserk on him right at the closing bell to heat up the issue between these two. I'm intrigued.
March 3, 20178 yr comment_5790246 This was joined in progress. Liger in the black suit is very angry guy. He stomps and stomps Tanaka before Tanaka gets the best of him with the heel hook. I almost thought angry Liger might attack El Samurai when Samurai lost. Good job of building up a Liger/Tanaka matchup.
October 2, 20177 yr comment_5815662 I'm finally jumping back into the 2000 stuff after a long hiatus, and "black suit" Liger was definitely my favorite thing from the first few matches of February. What a nasty little boss. He brought some much-needed aggression out of Tanaka, and I'm eager to see more interactions between those two.
December 15, 20177 yr comment_5824109 Evil Liger is a total revelation at this point since I don't believe I've ever seen it before. Kendo and Samurai were having a decent little back and forth - with a great corner bump by Samurai - but Liger comes in and everything escalates. I LOVE how it seems that he's not coming off as sadistic or evil but rather pissed off that Tanaka has had the gall to attack him first. The stomps and slaps all come across as Liger thinking "OK, I'm going to put this little asshole in his place" Tanaka brought what he had to in a fun fired up babyface performance; Liger was snapping extra hard on his stuff but Tanaka was ricocheting and selling them perfectly. I'd prefer to see the opening minutes to see more Liger in the early stages but what we got was another continuation of what is some fascinating work from him.
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