The Twenty Greatest Wrestlers Ever by Lee Flattery

19. JOHNNY VALENTINE: The great thing about watching professional wrestling reteroactivally is that you come across guys like Johnny Valentine, who you can instantly tell has had such an incise influence upon its evolution. He was certainly a forerunner in terms of sheer presence. The black and white footage of the 1960's shows Johnny Valentine as the larger than superworker that wrestling was crying out for. Tall and muscular, yet one gets a sense of vicious propensity from him, a certain bite to his work that the other wrestlers of the era seemed to lack. His punches looked amazing (especially for time) and he was the epitome of intensity.

Of course after her 'prime' we get Memphis Oz (1996-present). Obviously injuries hampered the more ostentatious side of her wrestling, but like all many great wrestlers she was able to successfully modify her style to remain, to use more WWEspeak, in the game. As the highspots decreased the overwhelming personality of Ozaki became main predicate of her work in addition to an increase in brawling. Fortunately Oz to this day can brawl like a motherfucker and nobody can put together a better finishing sequence. Ozaki's student Chikayo Nagashima has clearly been taught these very qualities - and well. In fact a lot of the GAEA style has its roots in Ozaki if you think about it.

I am a big fan of the genuinely intelligent wrestler, the wrestler that understands what makes wrestling great and delivers this greatness in the ring. If that a description of an all-time great wrestler, and I think it is, then there is no doubt that Mayumi Ozaki is one of the very best ever to step foot inside a wrestling ring.

You'd think as the eighties became the nineties and Tenryu turned forty then maybe his career might fizzle out. The fact that the man produces world class matches to this day solidifies his wrestling legend. Think about it since turning forty he has worked extremely physical stormers with Chosyu ('96), Hashimoto ('98) and Kawada ('00) to mention but a few. It is frightening to think about the level of work he could have produced if he had stayed with All Japan and got to work Kawada, Misawa, Taue, Kobashi and company in their prime. In fact Tenryu v Akira Taue would be an uber-dreammatch for me. Not to mention the fact that in 2001 Tenryu has dragged Keiji Mutoh to his best match in years and in February 2002 carried Satoshi Kojima to the best bout of his career. Genichiro Tenryu: built to last.

Through sheer virtue of being place on such a high pedestal Lawler became a great wrestler. If there was ever a wrestler that understood wrestling's minutae it was Jerry Lawler. Was he particularily gifted technically? No. The essence of Lawler's skill from his innate understanding of his environment and how to manipulate it. Physically it was all bumps, punches, fistdrops and the odd piledriver. What made Lawler so effective, either as a face or as a heel, was his ability to make every aspect of what he did seem relevant and of interest. As pure babyface he is unparalled by any other American wrestler, he controlled the crowd by knowing what to do when, where and why. Its such an effective predicate for good wrestling yet is ignored by no many today - maybe the AJ Euroboys of the world need to sit back and think 'What if I was watching my own match?'. Lawler was also one of the great southern heels. Again Lawler's success was in the complexity of its simplicity - he always got the other guy over. There is a famous series of matches from the early 90's USWA where Lawler was working heel against Eric Embry (another southern legend!). The basic foundation of the matches was Lawler attacking Embry with (what we enlightened smartarses know) is a fictional object which he continues to hide from the referee. The crowd buy into it and go bananas for Embry. Maybe the crowd are stupid. Possibly they are stupid rednecks rubes, but if Johnny DailyMail can suspend belief when western governments talk about humanitarian intervention or Jane Fuckskull can read 'Hello' and live vicariously through Posn n' Becks then you start to wonder how stupid the people that enjoy the theatre of pro-wrestling really are. Any way you slice the cake, the point is that Jerry Lawler made it work because used his mind to work wrestling matches.

Did Jerry Lawler ever resort to cheap tactics in his career? Undoubtably he did. One should remember though that kings, saviours and southern wrestling stars are not infallable. The sleazy charm is of Jerry Lawler is at least in part responsible for his greatness and I for one salute him for it. Real in Memphis? You know it.

1993 All Japan is regarded as the pinnacle of that wonderful promotions history. It has also been dubbed as the 'year of Kobashi'. Upon reappraissal of AJ '93, esteemed RIMite Wael Fadda stated that (and I'm paraphrasing here) '...people call 1993 the year of Kobashi. In fact, it was the year of Stan Hansen.'. This is an astute observation. Indeed, a solitary viewing of the Kobashi-Hansen bouts suggests who the superior wrestler actually is. 1993 also brought one of the most underrated and one of my very favourite All Japan matches; Stan Hansen v Toshiaki Kawada from January of that year. It is worth watching if only for the stunning visual effect of Hansen lariating Tosh and the subsequent momentum causing him to stumble through the ropes to the floor. That is the beauty of Hansen; he does not profess to be superman like Hogan or even Flair, he is as fallable as the rest of us but goes out there time after time to kick ass because he's Stan Hansen and this is what he motherfucking does.

I will never forget the Tenryu v Hansen match from the 2000 October Giant Series. There are a multitude of reveiws on the net about how bad this match was. To me though it was an affirmation of Stan Hansen's greatness. Barley able to walk due to a back injury, a fifty year old Hansen steps out and goes toe to toe with that grumpy git Tenryu. Visibly racked with pain, Hansen delivers a big 'fuck you' to the world by sticking it out until the end. He even hit a tope suicida. I do not think we will see his like again.

Blue Panther has an almighty command of his wrestling ability; if Blue Panther wants to turn it on then he can deliver asa close to perfect a performance as humanly possible. The most recent examples of this would be two March EMLL PPV matches a year apart from 2001 and 2002. Panther's greatness indeed seems to be never-ending, but perhaps his greatest work came in his classic fued with the legendary Art Barr in the early 1990's. Barr was not only one of wrestling great tragic figures - in the words of Vampiro we 'don't NEED TO KNOW what was up' with Art - he was also a tremendous performer with a certain magic. Love Machine was over big as a babyface and was the perfect foil for Blue Panther and his godlike Rudo stylings. The fued showcases just how great a physical actor Panther is; despite wearing the mask he could convey a plethora of wide ranging emotions, could make himself completely despicable. The hair v hair and hair v mask matches were both classics and the fued rocked.

When I think of what makes Blue Panther great, I think of Sherri Martel, managing Jake Roberts and Art Barr in some sleazy Mexican theatre (AAA motherfuckers!!!) distracting El Maestro with her womanly assets. Panther sells the whole debacle like a king, the master of body language. Maybe I'm a fool.

Bret had a very subtle, strong and silent wrestling style (Excellence of execution!), like the calm, cool and tough older brother you never had (remember the Owen angle?). That is probably why his heel turn in 1997 was so effective; much more affecting than Hogan's turn, as Hogan was an explicit fraud anyway. I would subjugate Hart's turn only to Santo's. Speaking of the heel turn, we cannot forget the match at Wrestlemania XIII. It was the single best piece of booking the WWF ever utilised. Bret turning heel, Austin turning face, the image of the Austin in the sharpshooter doublejuiced. It was a great match.

Bret's matches speak for themselves; the Memphis-esque I-C title match with Hennig at Summerslam '91, the clever bout with Piper at Wrestlemania VIII, the two matches with Davey Boy, Michaels at the '92 Series, the Lawler fued of '93, the matches with Owen in '94, the Diesel carryjobs, the '96 Series belter with Austin and the subsequent rematch, the Benoit tribute match and so much more in between. Real in Calgary, eh?

Misawa's 'Tiger Mask' days were lacklustre by his own later standards, but Baba obviously saw that he had what it took to be 'the man'. As most of you will know, Misawa's big break came with his matches against Jumbo Tsuruta in 1990. Lauded as classic, Jumbo v Misawa was the epitome of a legendary wrestler putting over a young wrestler in need of establishment. Misawa was more than fit to live up to his new status. Producing classic after classic, everything All Japan did was centered around Misawa in the 1990's. His tag team with Kawada kicked ass and took names, before the inevitable split produced the greatest prolonged fued of the decade. Most famous is the wholly artisic display of 3/6/94, where Misawa and Kawada put on maybe the best pound for pound singles match that there has ever been. Not restricted to singles, Misawa and Kawada tied up in many tag team spectacles that added further fire, and in the case of the 1996 RWTL final a sense of finality, to the fued. Misawa's matches with Kobashi, while for the most part inferior to the Kawada series, are even more widely regarded. The Misawa-Kobashi bouts from January and October of 1997 stand out from that end. As All Japan declined artistically towards the end of the nineties, Misawa sometimes lapsed into spotfest territory. There were still some final testaments to him as a great worker though; his matches with Vader from '99 and the best singles match of Jun Akiyama's career in February of 2000. This legacy cements Misawa's rightful place among the very elite of professional wrestling.

If you have ever been fortunate enough to watch a particular NWA title match from Mid-Atlantic between Harley Race and Rick Steamboat you will have seen one of the best matches of all time. Race takes absolutely everything Steamboat has got right up to the time limit and does it with what I can best describe as an extremely grumpy form of 'Styling and Profiling'. Not that this match was an isolated incident, far from it. Harley did something very similar with Giant Baba in All Japan. Not to mention a classic or two with a young Mr Tsuruta on that continent.

Domestically, Race carried himself like the truest of NWA champs. He would travel the territories, kicking ass and putting over the local heroes. You might want to look out for his Texas Stadium match with Kerry Von Erich, where he carries a game, albeit coked up Kerry to the best match of his career in that inimitable Race fashion. While you are at it, track down his title match with Dick Murdock from Mid-Atlantic, where they pound the fuck out of each other on course to a classic match. The proof is in the pudding and Harley Race's pudding is a very rich one indeed.

Kawada's great performances are well known. The Misawa-Kawada series in one sense or another WAS All Japan in the 1990's, let's face it. Which of these matches do we recollect with the warmest of memories? 9/6/95! 3/6/94! RWTL '93! RWTL '96! These are so prolific that I need only to refer to their abrieviated forms for people to know which matches I speak of - and they were all uberperformances from Kawada. Post-Misawa saw no decline in the output of Tosh - consider what he did with Kensuke Sasaki at the Dome, the manly classic for the TC with Tenryu in 2000, giving Yuji Nagata the best bout of his career in December of 2000 and even getting some decent matches out of a washed-up and clownish Keiji Mutoh. There seems to be no place that Kawada cannot go and produce the finest of goods.

Nietzche once wrote of voluntary death and the importance of dying at the right time. We can draw an analogy to present day Kawada. It seems that at long last Kawada's body is sucumbing to the same decomposure as his old compadres Messrs Misawa, Kobashi and Taue. Those three individuals have really left it to late to leave wrestling at the right time, Kawada though still has artistic vitality. There happens to be a young man named Takayama reigning supreme in the wrestling world at the moment and it seems that his and Kawada's paths are ineluctably on a collision course. Should he face Takayama and then like Akira Hokuto head for higher ground he would finally seal his own immortality.

His early work was exemplary. For evidence you may wish to observe his funky matfests with Mil Mascaras, his ubermatches with Harley Race, his series with Flair (especially the 2/3 falls match from '82) and the Real World Tag League '79 match where he teamed with Giant Baba against those crazy Texans, Dory Jr and Terry Funk. This form continued into the mid-late eighties where Jumbo would get into it with a variety of any combination of Chosyu, Hansen, Dibiase, Yatsu, Gordy, Brody etc. - often in classic bouts.

In my opinion the crowning jewels of Jumbo's career were his matches with Genichiro Tenryu in 1989. Jumbo, now a grizzled veteran, excelled as never before when faced with this equally morose opponent. 5/6/89 stands as one of the true landmark matches in professional wrestling history - in my opinion beyond any Flair-Steamboat match from the same year. It was basically the match that 'invented' ninties All Japan style wrestling. Not only was the story of the match, especially in the context of the fued, strongly layed down; the match also saw the birth of weighty heavyweight highspots and lead-density stiffness as the staple medium for the future of AJPW. It was a fantastic bout and a definite precursor of Misawa-Kawada and Misawa-Kobashi. It was everything Jumbo was about coming to a head at once.

In 1990 Jumbo partook in the most significant passing of the torch in wrestling's history. Not only was 6/8/90 a great match, in the style that Tsuruta was so instrumental in the creation of, it also marked the rites of passage ceremony of Mitsuharu Misawa who would become one of the greatest ever in his own right. This is a perfect analogy of Jumbo's career; while his matches were splendid on their sheer merits, they gain an even greater significance in relation to the effect that they had on posterity. For this reason we cannot ever underestimate the importance of Jumbo Tsuruta.

On professional wrestling, Roland Barthes wrote that the audience itself is aware of the pretence and that nobody (except for maybe the fat lady with the handbag!) is fooled. Therefore traditional pro-wrestling is all about signs * without content, just as theatre or opera is. It is merely a respresentation either alluding to the presence of some reality or masking the absence of reality; the second and third stages hyperreality **. The 'WWE' of today reaches the forth stage, total hyperreality - its signs act as simulacra *** of themselves, bearing no relation to any form of reality whatsoever.

(Note: * - 'sign' = the symbol of something, not its actual concept. ** - 'hyperreality' = more real than real. *** - 'simulacrum' = images.)

When we use a term such as 'real in Memphis', we are alluding to some element of wrestling that maintains its relation to some form of reality, to the purely theatrical, to the artistic! Therefore, in deciding who should be considered the greatest wrestler of all time, one should consider which wrestler has brought the medium as close to pure theatre, to art as possible. For me at least, such a wrestler can only be Akira Hokuto.

Dreamslam is Hokuto at her finest. The match does not follow some exhausted Flair-like formula in its storytelling; everything about it comes through heart, through determination, through the quality of acting, through the imagery, through the cries, through the emotion, through the blood, through the flesh. There is no need for elaborate near falls and elaborate false finishes. The end comes only with the complete draining of the combatants energies, the victor triumphant through will and will alone. There is a profound theatrical joy that one derrives from Hokuto-Kandori; it affects us like great art should.

While I believe that this match will never be surpassed artisically, it should not solely stand as the basis for making Hokuto the best ever. Let's look at six other incendiary, and very different matches from Hokuto's illustrious career.

Akira Hokuto v Mayumi Ozaki (JWP 12/93): A personal favourite, as it features probably the two bitchiest wrestlers in joshi puroresu trying ernestly to outbitch one another. An extremely intelligent and subtley worked bout; cunningly built throughout towards its logical conclusion. It is a shame that they did not do more with this pairing back in joshi's boom period.

Akira Hokuto and Aja Kong v Dynamite Kansai and Yumiko Hotta (2/3 falls AJW 2/94): Hokuto is almost a Ricky Morton in this match, albeit a very malicious and bitchy Ricky Morton. Kansai and Hotta are all fired up and intent upon destroying the opposition. Aja is as meaty as they come and takes as good as she gets. However, Hokuto shines through as the relatively skinny wrestler in peril, selling the impact of the ass-stomping to prefection and retaliating with her own special brand of brutality. Great match.

Akira Hokuto and Shinobu Kandori v Aja Kong and Bull Nakano (AJW Queendom 94): This is one of those crazy parejas incredibles deals. Hokuto and Kandori, as Dreamslam a year earlier attests to, despise each others guts but have to work together to avoid being demolished by the awesome duo of Bull and Aja. Hate is the theme here, and nobody does hate like Hokuto. Hokuto's performance is awesome; not least for the pernicious looks that she casts in Kandori's direction.

Akira Hokuto v Mima Shimoda (AJW 30/8/95): Teacher versus student match, with all the bitchiness of Hokuto-Oz, only this was more of an out and out brawl. Hokuto is at her grumpiest here and spitefully encourages Shimoda to redouble her malicious efforts.

Akira Hokuto v Manami Toyota (AJW 2/9/95): The one where Hokuto insisted on putting over Toyota. Hokuto espouses a complete mastery of her craft, reeling in Toyota's irritating excesses and creating an emotional epic. A complete performance from the complete performer.

Akira Hokuto v Meiko Satomura (GAEA 4/01): After giving birth in the late nineties, Hokuto's work became quite erratic. People wondered whether or not she still had it in her. This match was her final one fingered salute to the wrestling world. For this one night Akira Hokuto was once again the best wrestler in the world. A gloriously attritional battle with Meiko stepping up to the challenge big time, Hokuto delivered her final truly great performance with a beautifully sold finish; Hokuto being so decapacitated that she could no longer stand.

Akira Hokuto: Greatest ever.

Jack The Bull vs Toru Yano
Well, this was short! Jack is the unfortunate victim of genetics, as he has facial features that make him look like the lovechild of Berlyn and Wifebeater. By the time this match starts and finishes, you still won't have got that horrifying thought out of your head. Jack won, and Toru will have to make do with providing entertainment on NJPW shows by getting paralytic at wrestlers weddings for the forseeable future I reckon. Maybe in 6 months time he will move up slightly, to the point where he loses matches like this in just over 5 minutes, rather than well inside it.

Shiro Koshinaka, El Samurai and Wataru Inoue vs Hiro Saito, Jado and Gedo
New Japan fans absolutely love Koshinaka's hip attacks! I just think "Goldust", but what can ya do? They pop for Hiro's sentons as well, but probably only because his belly has expanded both ways to the degree that it looks like taking the move could hurt a guys ribs. Especially if you're a skinny bastard like Inoue. Thankfully, Samurai was rendered a human pancake tonight, leaving Inoue to stand out as the only guy doing something that wasn't by the numbers. This plodded along for a bit, before Dustin Koshinaka came in to obliterate Gedo with a few of those GOOFY AND ANNOYING AS FUCK hip attacks, before pinning him with a powerbomb. Blah.

Scott Norton vs Blue Wolf
Along with 'Where is Lord Lucan?' and 'Was Marilyn Monroe murdered?', the mystery of 'Why and how the fuck does Scott Norton get bookings with ANY wrestling company, let alone New Japan?' remains unanswered. Can't complain about this though, it was short enough to cover Norton's crapness, and was okay while it lasted. Wolfie took a ton of stuff, tryed to fight back, got nowhere, and lost to a powerbomb. Pity about the winner, but if it gives Scott Norton as little time as possible on my TV, I don't care. Not bad at all.

Shinya Makabe and Minoru Fujita vs Masahito Kakihara and Masayuki Naruse
Naruse is the new face of Elastoplast. That shoulder of his must be absolute murder, because he's had it taped and plastered for at least 6 months. I had some good hopes for this, as in this match being where things start picking up. It looked that way as well, with Kakihara especially looking pretty good with some mean kicks. This one turned out to be shorter than the previous match though. Makabe, who is technically now a heavyweight, blasted Kakihara with a weak lariat, a german suplex that looked impressive, followed by a slightly less crap lariat for the pin. Not surprised with the juiced up Makabe winning, but I was with Kaki losing. Ah well.

Jushin Liger, Heat, and Tiger Mask IV vs American Dragon and The Havana Pitbulls
This was the start of the Triathlon Survivor concept, which saw a singles match, a tag between the other four guys, followed a six-man if necessary (they reversed it the other way for the heavyweight version later on). American Dragon has been trying to show some more intensity or something in Japan, unfortunately, from what I've seen, his methods of yelling and gurning make him look like Crash Holly after ODing on Nescafe, and sound like a prize pillock. The painful sound of silence greeted Liger and co's entrance, after a cock-up with the production meant the music didn't even start. This meant one very painful delay, before Heat's music, which is up there with Liger's in the cheesy but catchy stakes, eventually started. It started out with Heat vs Crash Dragon, and again, it was bloody short, just over 5 minutes.

Dragon hasn't really impressed me much in New Japan yet, but that could be due to his indy rep preceding him, and me expecting gold as a result. Heat won with a fisherman's suplex/buster after a decent mini-match. This left Liger and TM vs Pitbulls (I can't tell one from the other, and if you've seen them you will know exactly why). Now I really dig the Pitbulls. They don't do all the yelling and stuff that Dragon does, they just go in there and do the business. It's this, and their look and demeanour that has led me to think NJPW were really looking to capture Low-Ki, but went with Ricky and Rocky instead. The two really worked well together, and this included one kick-ass double-team that saw one Pitbull hold TM in a backbreaker position, while the other came of the top and blasted Tiger with a reverse DDT. One of the Pitbulls eventually pinned Tiger Mask, which meant the six-man was on. At this point, it turned into a sprint, with a dive sequence from a few guys, before Dragon cut off Heat with a lariat. Tiger went into super-worker mode as well, as he went balls to the wall with all three of the American guys. Indeed, Tiger was the best guy overall in this, so it was appropriate that he got the deciding pinfall with a Tiger Suplex on one of the Pitbulls. A good start for a new concept, but I reckon Liger had one eye on his Pancrase fight, as he allowed Heat and Tiger to shine here. The Pitbulls I like, and want to see more off, Dragon....well, I now really want to see how Low-Ki has gone in Zero-One so far. While he has had the benefit of working with guys he knows (Spanky, AJ Styles etc:), it will be interesting to see how he compares to Dragon, who has been a little bit restrained and unimpressive in my view. With time he will get better, and more used to the surroundings. I hope so anyway, because he deserves to succeed out there.

Kenzo Suzuki and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Joanie Laurer and GREAT MUTA
Who said New Japan was bereft of silly gimmicks? GREAT MUTA bears precisely no resemblence to the original (although there was one by the end of this, wait and see), instead coming to the ring, waving sticks a la Steve Blackman, and blowing coloured mist everywhere. Laurer looks a hell of a lot nicer since she stopped buying from the same vitamin supplier as HHH. It was the future Mrs Waltman who worked most of this match, as she went to the mat with Tanahashi, and looked, rather bloody impressive. It was hardly Akira Hokuto or anything, but considering what she used to do in her matches, the improvement was there to see. How this would have gone for an extended period though, we couldn't see, as MUTA came in, went to press Tanahashi, and pop went the knee ligaments (see the Mutoh comparison now?). MUTA went to get up, and promptly keeled over again, which can't have helped either. Suzuki carefully got him out of the ring, and that was it. Laurer and then The Great Kabuki (who had accompanied MUTA) came in and started weakly brawling with King of the Hills, just to eat some time up while the medics got MUTA out of there. Suzuki and Tanahashi won by count-out, and the best laid plans (Laurer and MUTA were to challenge for the IWGP Tag belts the next night) had gone to pot. All on live pay-per-view.

Koji Kanemoto vs Bas Rutten
I'm not really a fan of shoot-style works (my reasoning being that if I wanted to see shoots, I'd see UFC and PRIDE where they were fighting against each other, as opposed to working with each other). There's an art to it I'm sure, but I've always seen it, with a couple of exceptions maybe, as a lot of poncing about on the mat with one guy trying to work out where to place his limb to ensure the opponent can execute a realistic transition etc: I tryed to put that aside for this match however, and after the opening matwork exchanges, which I'm pretty sure saw Koji literally pointing out to Rutten what he should do next, fingers and all, Rutten started to dominate, whilst Kanemoto used quickness to avoid the attacks, and didn't get much luck. There was some heat for this, as the fans got behind Kanemoto. I hadn't given Koji a hope when I first heard the match announced, and the fans hadn't been expecting too much by the sounds of it either. This made the pop even more special when Koji finally outsmarted Rutten, locked an ankle hold, and got a quick tapout victory to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title. Not a bad match, and this showcased Kanemoto's ability and versatility as a worker, as he went shoot-style, something I haven't seen much of from him. It will probably take longer before I start liking worked shoots as a whole though. Now where's those Maeda tapes?

Tadao Yasuda, Kazunari Murakami, Ryushi Yanagisawa and Makai Masks #1 (Hirata) and #2 vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Manabu Nakanishi, Osamu Nishimura, Yutaka Yoshie and Takashi Iizuka
Oh Christ, another of those New Japan 'matches within a match' concepts. Triathlon Survivor earlier, now we see a singles elimination match. While it does break the flow of a match considerably, it can make for some good stuff, and with the Makai Army being loathed like they are (and with Tadao Yasuda leading them, and that short-arsed little runt Hoshino managing, can you not hate them?), this should be fun. Iizuka went to work straight away, submitting the second Makai geezer with a sleeper hold in just over a minute. This caused Hirata Makai to come in, and within 4 minutes Iizuka was out of there. The falls were short throughout, Nakanishi coming in, complete with the Jim Duggan routine (HOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!), and beating Makai #1 with an Argentine backbreaker. He was followed by ex-RINGS guy Yanagisawa, and here's where the Makai heelishness came into play. Destraction by the other Makai's at ringside caused Manabu to turn around, lash out, turn back around, and get walloped with a high kick from Yanagisawa. That was it for Hacksaw. In came Tenzan for Team New Japan, and the fans came alive as he started knocking crap out of Yanagisawa, before pinning him with a TTD inside 2 minutes. Here's Yasuda! Yes he is shit, but he is also about the most over heel in the company. After surviving a bloody awful looking TTD and a diving headbutt, Yasuda kicked Tenzan in the bollocks, allowing him to lock a front sleeper for a submission win. In came Yoshie. This could have monumentally sucked, but was kept short enough so it couldn't. Yoshie survived the submission attacks from Yasuda, but was getting momentum when Murakami kicked him in the head from behind, knocking him cold, and allowing Yasuda to get an easy pin. New Japan had only one guy left, Osamu Nishimura. He outsmarted Yasuda, who thought he had it won already, using a Ground Cobra Twist to get a popular victory over the gormless one. Murakami then jumped on Nishimura's back, locking a sleeper hold, and falling back with it. Nish had no option but to tap, and Makai victory was assured.
Well, that was fast. the longest fall went just over 4 minutes, and the decider lasted all of 33 seconds. As a result, the flow of the match as a whole was even more broken than usual, as no one wrestler was in for any extended period of time, just constant eliminations, with no build or anything. It built up the string of Makai victories, and got Murakami over (he challenged for IWGP Title afterwards), but other than that, a pointless exercise.

Yuji Nagata vs Masahiro Chono
Here we are then, the main event of this PPV, and an IWGP Heavyweight Title match to boot. Last time they met was during the G-1 Climax opening day, and the match itself was boring. How this goes, we shall see. Chono makes his entrance to his fucking ace music, while champ Nagata is wearing 'the gown' and 'the chain', which means this match is a biggie. The start was fairly quick, as they went for kicks and the like, before settling down to the mat for the best part of 25 minutes. Nagata got the advantage after a few kicks at Chono's leg, and went to work on the bad wheel thereafter. This culmanated in a figure-four from Nagata, before Chono went to the outside and eventually got an advantage via a piledriver on a table.
The last 20 minutes or so of the match were where the match really came alive. After great build in the 40 that preceded it, both men started to break out the big moves and holds in an attempt to get the win. Chono used more and more Yakuza Kicks (on the leg that wasn't worked over), and a cross-legged version of the STF that had Nagata screaming in agony. He also used moves he doesn't normally use, such as a power lariat (from Chono!) and a Scorpion Deathlock. Nagata hit back with a top-rope exploder, followed later by another exploder that probably would have made neck and vertebrae surgeons across Japan wince at the sight of Chono's neck smacking the canvas. All the while the fans were buying the near falls and submission attempts by both men. Nagata was laying in the kicks more and more, and got a cross-armbreaker locked on in the last minutes, but the bell rang to indicate that the 1 hour time limit had expired. An epic match had come to a conclusion, and it was time-limit draw that didn't leave you feeling short changed.
This match was a hell of an effort by both men. After an explosive start, it settled into a pattern of matwork and long holds for much of the first half of the match. While this could be considered boring by some, it built to a heated war in the last 20 minutes, with both men desperate to get the win. Nagata delivered big, in perhaps his most engaging performance since his pure fury made for a great Tokyo Dome main event on 4/1/02 against Jun Akiyama. The look on his face whilst he held Chono in the figure-four screamed "I've got you now motherfucker!" without any words being uttered. Chono also gave a hell of an effort as well, and it was this combination of the two wrestlers delivering like this that made this match so memorable. It EASILY smoked the G-1 Climax match, and I would say it was the best New Japan match, singles or tag, of 2002. Truly an epic, I loved it, and if you disagree, I don't give a fuck. Deal?