Sunday, July 2, 2017

Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano (NJPW, 9/20/89)

This felt more like a "greatest hits" montage, with some neat callbacks to their previous two matches, but never really finding its rhythm or structure. They go in and out of the junior prom stuff, working the mat in between, but the groundwork isn't nearly as important as their August match and serves more to fill in the gaps. There's a little bit of testiness from Liger early on with some of his kicks but it goes away and the final half is mostly exhibition, with tons of piledrivers, including an awesome jumping tombstone from Liger. Liger also suplexes Sano to the floor and hits that gnarly diving senton from the top rope to the outside! They tease the double dropkick spot, Sano's able to hit a German suplex hold but Liger counters the super backdrop finish from the second match. Liger's last ditch effort is a rounding body press but after Sano throws him off the top, he slips over into a tiger suplex hold for the clean victory and Liger still can't beat Sano. Solid match but not it didn't feel as personal between the two -- more of a "going through the motions" rematch.

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