Ryan Navigates '90 - #7 (1/28 - 2/2)
Check your watch, because it's Jushin Thunder Liger o'clock!
Good day!
It’s a Jushin Liger-heavy article this time with not one, but TWO matches from the junior heavyweight trailblazer. One of those matches would win the Wrestling Observer’s Match of the Year award, so we’re in for the Good Stuff.
Aside from that, we’ll have a bit of Jake the Snake, Ric Flair putting the Ten Pounds of Gold on the line against the Z-Man, and a USWA tag team affair.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 28th
WWF Wrestling Challenge
“Mean” Gene Okerlund brings Jake “The Snake” Roberts to the interview platform for a chat. Jacob the Snakob (credit to Brian Zane for that one) comes out to a pretty big reaction from the fans. Man, when you were over in the WWF back then, you were OVER.
Roberts says that the only way to get suitable revenge on Ted DiBiase is to hit him where it hurts. He pulls the Million Dollar Belt out of the bag and tells DiBiase to come and get it.
Another short, simple promo to further build to the big showdown on Superstars of Wrestling. We’ll get to that one in the next issue.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 30th
Well, we have a double helping of Jushin Thunder Liger, so let’s talk a bit about the man himself.
After wrestling under his real name since 1984, Keiichi Yamada was given the name and likeness of Jushin Liger, a character from a popular anime at the time. His initial look was much different than what we’d be used to over the next three and a half decades.
In January 1990, to coincide with the character in the anime powering up, he was rechristened “Jushin Thunder Liger” and his costume was updated to match. The theme song still kicks ass.
It’s interesting that both him and Tiger Mask, two of the most revered junior heavyweight wrestlers of all time, got their characters from manga and anime. It would be like having wrestlers in North America based on He-Man and Lion-O. Actually, that would have been pretty sweet.
The character debuted at Battle Satellite in Tokyo Dome in 1989, defeating Kuniaki Kobayashi at the very first professional wrestling show to be held in The Big Egg. In another fun factoid, he’d also open the main card at the first ever January 4th Tokyo Dome show in 1992.
Liger would go on to incredible success as a junior heavyweight, winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship a record 11 times, including a landmark 628-day reign that only ended in September 1994 due to a fractured ankle.
He’d also hold the IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship six times, win the 1995 and 2000 Super J-Cup tournaments, take three Best of the Super Junior tournaments, and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2020.
North American fans will likely know him from WCW for his highly lauded matches with Brian Pillman, one of which opened the very first episode of Monday Nitro. Liger also competed in TNA, Ring of Honor, and against Tyler Breeze at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn in 2015.
Liger is credited with inventing the much-used Shooting Star Press and the Screwdriver, the latter of which would later be put to good use by Scott Steiner (and me in many a video game). His successful blend of high-flying and technical expertise had won acclaim from critics, fans, and fellow workers. Liger is widely considered one of THE greatest wrestlers of all time, regardless of weight class. Also, him in the black gear is one of the most badass things in history.
As was his sinister alter-ego, Kishin Liger.
Liger decided to hang up the kickpads at Wrestle Kingdom 14 in 2020 after over 35 years as an active competitor, appropriately closing out his in-ring career in the Tokyo Dome. He has since been working as a commentator and as a trainer in the New Japan dojo.
NJPW New Spring Gold Series 1990
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Owen Hart - This is the finals of a #1 contender’s tournament for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship that took place over this tour. Owen had been in the WWF in 1988-89 as the Blue Blazer but left soon after WrestleMania V to ply his trade around the globe. He spent quite a bit of time in Mexico, Europe, and Japan, and even had a few matches in WCW before returning to the WWF in 1991.
Owen slaps Liger in lieu of a clean break early on, so Liger pays him back in similar fashion. Liger continues grinding away at Owen, then we get a crazy little nip-up sequence to show how athletically similar they are. Liger regains control with a leg grapevine into a surfboard, then works that into a pin attempt, but Owen escapes and controls the arm. Owen locks in a crossface chicken wing, making his future co-conspirator Bob Backlund proud, then continues abusing the arm with various holds including a hammerlocked cobra twist.
Liger escapes, but Owen flummoxes him with flips and a front dropkick to send Liger out. Owen fakes a plancha but ends up hitting a dropkick off the apron. Soon after heading back in, Hart applies a Romero Special and almost gets a pinfall attempt out of it, then works Liger over with some chinlockery. Liger breaks via the ropes, but Owen continues working away, applying a Sharpshooter! This was actually about a year before Bret started using it in the WWF.
Liger makes the ropes, then starts to mount a comeback with a vertical suplex, a running senton, and a standing moonsault for a two-count. Owen avoids a dropkick, but Liger armdrags out of a powerbomb…but Owen sends him out and follows with a suicide dive!
Liger recovers and hits a missile dropkick, but Owen quickly gets a German Suplex for a very close near-fall! Owen hits his AWESOME belly-to-belly for another two-count, then lands a butterfly suplex. Owen misses a diving headbutt but gets a slick roll-up for two, before dumping Liger on his head with a Tombstone. However, Liger immediately recuperates and hits a superplex and a Ligerbomb for three!
***1/4 - There wasn’t much in the way of selling, but it’s still a very fun encounter with some state-of-the-art offense from both guys. They’d have better matches in the future, though.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31st
NJPW New Spring Gold Series 1990
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Naoki Sano (c) vs. Jushin Thunder Liger - And here's Liger getting his title shot! Sano is a 1984 product of the NJPW Dojo and has had several highly acclaimed matches with Liger, including beating him for the Junior title in August 1989. He'd go on to wrestle for Genichiro Tenryu's SWS promotion, PWFG, UWFi, and various indies, later changing his name to Takuma Sano. He'd end up teaming with Liger for the latter’s retirement match on January 5th, 2020, then would himself retire two days later.
Sano offers a handshake, but Liger SLAPS him. Oh, shit. Liger rains down palmstrikes at the opening bell and ousts Sano with a spinkick. Liger follows with a seated senton off the apron. In the ring, they aggressively grapple, with Sano tossing Liger out for a piledriver on the floor! Back in, Sano hits a Tombstone and begins to tear away at the mask! Sano rams Liger into the ringpost a couple of times, then continues the pummeling inside the ring. A nasty jumping piledriver and a legdrop to the back of the head follows as Liger is busted open.
Sano rams Liger into the exposed turnbuckle and resumes punishing the wound. Superplex gets two for Sano, then he lands a couple of vicious kicks before applying a Boston crab. Liger makes the ropes, but Sano doesn’t let up. A facebuster gets a two-count as Liger is looking ROUGH. As soon as I say that, though, he hits a corner headscissors and lands a tope con hilo to turn the tide! Liger continues the comeback, hitting a quebradora and a Romero special, but Sano breaks it up by going to Liger’s exposed eyes!
Sano regains control, again focusing on the cut. Fisherman’s suplex gets two, as does a German suplex, then Sano goes back to the Boston crab. Liger again finds refuge in the ropes, so Sano hits a slick dragon suplex for some more near-falls. Liger manages to clothesline Sano out of the ring, but he doesn’t have room to breathe. Sano rushes back in, evades a kick and blasts him with a lariat. Sano dropkicks Liger in the corner, then backflips to dodge a Liger charge and collapses to avoid a rolling koppu kick! Sano hits another spinning back kick, but Liger dodges another one and hits a headscissors. Liger charges and gets backdropped out, and Sano follows with a plancha.
Liger beats the count on the floor, so Sano rewards him with an inverted tiger suplex for two. Sano goes for a superplex, but Liger shifts his weight and gets a near-fall! Sano ‘ranas out of a Ligerbomb for a VERY close two, then lands a clean tiger suplex…but Liger barely gets his foot on the rope. Sano tries a Saito suplex, but Liger again reverses, then hits a German suplex for two. Sano tries for a ‘rana, but Liger catches him with a powerbomb for another two. Liger then drills him with a tombstone and hits a Shooting Star Press for three and his second IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship!
After the match, Liger is still so pissed off about Sano’s assault that he throws down the title belt and attacks some ringside attendants.
****3/4 - Yeah, this is still incredible. This was gritty, violent, nasty, and featured Liger taking an absolutely horrific beating throughout. Sano was fantastic here, hitting brutal kicks, flawlessly executing suplexes, and just being relentless in his assault. The battered, bloodied Liger showed palpable desperation and impeccable timing with his comebacks, and the final few minutes were truly exciting.
It’s definitely the best match so far in this series and absolutely worth checking out. Hell, watch their 1989 matches as well to get the complete picture.
While we’re on the subject, let’s take a look at the top ten matches of the year on the Wrestling Observer Award ballot:
Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano (NJPW, 1/31)
Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW, 6/8)
Midnight Express vs. Wild-Eyed Southern Boys (NWA, 7/8)
Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior (WWF, 4/1)
The Steiner Brothers vs. The Nasty Boys (NWA, 10/27)
Atsushi Onita & Tarzan Goto vs Dragon Master & Masanobu Kurisu (FMW, 4/1)
Keiji Muto vs. Hiroshi Hase (NJPW, 9/14)
Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger (NWA, 2/25)
Tommy Rogers & Bobby Fulton vs. Joe Malenko & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (AJPW, 9/1)
Yoshihiro Asai vs. Negro Casas (Hamada’s UWF, 6/7)
Definitely some interesting choices here, and a LOT of variety. We’ll have to see if Liger vs. Sano holds on to the crown by the end of the year.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2nd
NWA Power Hour
NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair (c) vs. The Z-Man - Z-Man is, of course, the late Tom Zenk. He had a brief WWF run as half of the Can-Am Connection with Rick Martel, most famously winning the opening match at WrestleMania III. They were quite over as a pretty-boy tag team, but Zenk left the Fed as he wasn't happy with the pay. He signed on with the NWA/WCW and was a solid, if unspectacular, undercarder for a few years, winning the World Television, US Tag, and World Six-man Tag titles. Fun fact: he was the final TV champion under the NWA banner and the first champion under the WCW name. More on the NWA/WCW branding change to come later in the series.
At one point, Z-Man was voted “WCW’s Sexiest Man”, but only because PN News withdrew his name from the ballot.
However, because Zenk wasn’t exactly a favorite of the bookers, he was pretty much relegated to job duty for a long time until he left WCW in 1994. After some work in All-Japan and local indies, Zenk called it a career in 1996 and pretty much stayed out of the public eye. He passed away in 2017 due to heart issues.
Zenk comes out to the Danny Elfman Batman theme, which is certainly a choice.
The Code of Honor is observed to start as both men are babyfaces, and we get some feeling out and clean grappling for the first little while. Z-Man gets a flurry of offense with a hiptoss and a dropkick to gain the upper hand, then he gets the best of Flair during a top wristlock battle. Z-Man grinds away at a side headlock, holding onto it despite Flair’s attempts to escape.
Flair eventually breaks free, and they get into a slapping match with Zenk again coming out on top. Flair backs Z-Man into the corner and shoulders his midsection in lieu of a clean break, but Zenk comes back with a back body drop and a flying headscissors. Flair again gets slapped down as Woman takes a seat at ringside.
Flair BLASTS Z-Man with chops, busting his chest open on one of them, but Zenk again fights back. They trade blows until Flair takes a moment on the floor to collect himself. Flair tries to bring the fight to the floor but ends up eating an Irish whip into the guardrail. Back in, they battle over a sunset flip until Zenk completes the hold for a two. Z-Man blocks a hiptoss and locks in an abdominal stretch, which he converts into a pinning combination for a few two-counts. Flair goes to the hair to escape, then hits some chops and a butterfly suplex for two. Flair batters Z-Man in the corner before hitting an inverted atomic drop.
Flair works a small package for multiple two-counts, which is something I’ve always appreciated. Pinning combinations force the opponent to expend energy to escape, so it’s smart graps. Flair lands some more chops, but Z-Man fights back with a sleeperhold, which Flair escapes with a back suplex. Flair heads upstairs, but Zenk intercepts and hurls him off! Zenk whips Flair into the corner for Flair’s over-the-top bump, then he suplexes Flair back in for another close near-fall. Zenk rolls Flair up, but Flair reverses and grabs a handful of trunks to win!
***3/4 - The NWA gives us another great television match. I really liked the story here, with the match being gentlemanly to start, but escalating in aggression throughout, with Flair working more heelish to overcome the young upstart. Flair’s always been “the dirtiest player in the game”, so, even as a babyface, he doesn’t shy away from underhanded tactics.
Even in victory, Flair made Zenk look like an absolute world-beater by bumping and selling his ass off, and giving Z-Man a LOT of the match to shine. Zenk was very game to hold up on his end of things. This may be his finest match, other than the Brian Pillman bout from Wrestle War ‘92.
USWA (Dallas)
Jerry “The King” Lawler & Billy Joe Travis vs. Jeff Jarrett & “Superstar” Bill Dundee - The tights on Jarrett are a bit goofy, but Dundee’s are absolutely ridiculous. It’s like what The Hamburglar would wear if he was moonlighting as a wrestler.
Travis grabs the mic, talks shit and runs around the ring, only for both heels to get punched out by Double J. Travis and The King regroup with Terrence Garvin on the floor as USWA ROLLS ON…
…and we’re back with Lawler getting punched around by both babyfaces, causing him to scamper to his corner. Jarrett responds by ramming Lawler’s and Travis’ heads together. Garvin complains about cheating over the house mic as the heels again bail to collect themselves. Things settle down a bit with Dundee taking Travis down with a flying armdrag and a stomp to the lower, looooowwwwer abdomen. Lawler and Dundee square off, with Lawler getting a flurry of punches in the corner, but Dundee withstands the onslaught and peppers him with his own series of fists.
Garvin produces a chain (take a drink) and slips it to Lawler. Lawler stealthily passes it off to Travis before referee Bronko Lubich can pat him down. The heels again fail to overtake Jarrett and Lawler, but Lawler grabs the hair to thwart a Jarrett armbar. Garvin then chokes Jarrett with the chain behind the ref’s back! The bad guys finally have a sustained advantage, working over Jarrett for several minutes with liberal assistance from Garvin and the chain.
However, Travis goes to ram Jarrett’s face into a chair held up by Lawler, but the fickle finger of irony strikes, with Travis’ face meeting the chair instead. Jarrett covers for the win!
**1/4 - This was fairly shtick-heavy as you would expect from these guys, but it was still quite entertaining. We had good guys who were valiant, and heels that weren’t afraid to show ass and cheat like crazy. I just wished we got more of a build to the finish. A hot tag to Dundee would have blown the roof off the Sportatorium.
After the match, Jarrett grabs Garvin and gives him a beating before the heels take over again. Dundee and Jarrett each take spike piledrivers as we close out the segment.
Now it's time for THE TUGBOAT TRIBUNE!
As always, the news comes courtesy of Dave Meltzer and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
There is rumor that Eddie Gilbert is going to resign with the NWA, but nothing is official.
Joe Pedicino has departed from the NWA's booking committee. The committee is now down to Ric Flair, Jim Cornette, Kevin Sullivan, Jim Ross, and Terry Funk.
Jim Barnett and Ole Anderson were also part of the committee, but they’re not actively participating at the moment.
Pedicino left because he was approached to play a dishonest preacher character (kind of like Brother Love, but more in the vein of the old Joe Isuzu character from the Isuzu commercials, a reference so dated that *I* don’t remember it), but he balked as he felt it would hurt his credibility outside of wrestling.
“Dr. Death” Steve Williams plans on leaving the NWA when his contract ends so he can work in Japan full-time. I’d say it worked out well for him.
NEXT TIME: A whole Saturday’s worth of stuff, with The Snake vs. The Million Dollar Man as the main attraction.
Catch up on the rest of Ryan Navigates ‘90
Also, check out my other series!
A few things.
1) I've always found it humourous to see wrestlers doing their finishers before they became finishers. Owen using the sharpshooter here to no effect makes me chuckle. It's like the Rockers hitting superkicks. You instinctively think 'this match is over,' but they just keep on going.
2) Fantastic choice of photo. Absolutely fantastic. Your verbal description of the Liger match was already getting me hooked, but the photo of bloody, no mask Liger looks so cool. Normally, there's a reason masked wrestlers wear masks. You don't really want to see them without. However in this case, bloody no mask Liger is my catalyst to seek this match out to watch myself.
3) I've strictly been an NA wrestling fan. I'm largely too young to have ever had any reason to watch Japanese wrestling. By the time I figured out wrestling in Japan was happening, the prime was long over. How do you watch this old stuff? Is there any official way to do it, or do you have to pirate it?
I enjoyed reading about Liger and Japanese wrestling from that era. I didn't start watching Japanese wrestling until a few years ago but remember Liger from WCW house shows in the early '90s.