In this next installment of the NJPW World Gems series, we turn the clocks back to January of 2000. In one of the final WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING and NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING crossovers, Chris Benoit (widely known in Japan as Wild Pegasus) took on one of the promotions most beloved in Hiroyoshi Tenzan at the biggest show of the year held at the Tokyo Dome! With Benoit’s hands firmly in the WCW World Championship picture stateside and Tenzan tearing it up in the heavyweight ranks of NJPW, I was interested in how the former junior wrestler in Benoit had evolved in the main eventer he had become against a tried and true Japanese talent! Why was it worth the watch? Find out now!
Looking to get more out of your subscription to NJPW World? Well, that’s what I’m here for! Now, bear with me. I recent purchased the highly sought after WWE-produced Chris Benoit documentary DVD from 2004, entitled Hard Knocks: The Chris Benoit Story. So, to say that I’ve been on a Chris Benoit in-ring kick is fair. He wrestled some of the best years of his career in the early 2000’s, so after a innocent search on NJPW, I was surprised to see a match featuring him at that time. As a matter of fact, I was unaware that WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING still cross promoted with NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING as late as 2000… Especially seeing as the company would close in the first quarter of the following year! Nonetheless, here we are. I thought it was doubly as cool, when I saw he was being billed as Wild Pegasus! Kudos to WCW for letting NJPW call him as such, seeing as in Japan, that name was synonymous with in-ring perfection in the junior heavyweight class annals. This time being billed as such was a little different, though, as since his last appearance for the company, Wild Pegasus graduated to the heavyweight ranks in a big way!
Hiroyoshi Tenzan, on the other hand, was no stranger to his position in the heavyweights. As in 2000, his career was seeing a resurgence on the tail end of becoming the founder of nWo Japan a few years prior to this match, as well as having an impressive reign as one-half of the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team champions. To say Tenzan was well established at this point in his career would be an understatement. He toured the world, including several instances in WCW, and was now a made man in NJPW. To prove his worth against one of the companies former up and comer foreigners served as a nice little feature for NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING’s Tokyo Dome card in 2000. With that said, let’s head down to the ring!
Again, the entrances have been skipped. This seems to be the norm with these singled out matches on NJPW World, though I’m sure I didn’t miss much. During the intorductions, Pegasus got quite the in-house reaction from the crowd, which was good to hear that they hadn’t forgotten. In full intensity, he raised an arm and spat in Tenzan’s direction on the mat! Most likely due to the nWo ties, no doubt.
Once the preliminaries were over, it was all action, as the two ferociously locked up and backed into a corner. In the corner, they exchanged stiff chops and punches, the intensity between the two that brewed over immediately seemed to surprise the crowd (myself included). Pegasus sent Tenzan to the outside and caught him off guard with a nice baseball slide. The Canadian followed this up by delivering a chop that folded Tenzan and made my hair stand.
I quickly began to realize that this was a test on both parts for these guys. Wild Pegasus was here to show how far he had come in strength and ability, while Tenzan looked to protect his territory and credibility as a tough customer from this dangerous foreigner. Eventually, Tenzan would turn up the heat and began getting the better of Pegasus, egging the Japanese fans on simultaneously in his hubris.
This wouldn’t last long, however, as Wild Pegasus began firing back with some of his signature offense from the past and present. After throwing a serious snap suplex, backbreaker, and a few quick pin attempts in against Tezan, the mat game got underway. Pegasus stretched Tenzan with a nice couple of holds. Tenzan would find an answer for Pegasus’ flurry of moves with a few well-placed headbutts of his own and a spinning wheel kick.
Then, out of nowhere, Wild Pegasus was able to get the Japanese star up to the top rope for a superplex for a near fall, one of his old finishing maneuvers in the land of the rising sun! He follow this up with a chained pair of German suplexes and signaled for his diving headbutt with his signature cut throat taunt. The crowd erupted for that taunt and as Pegasus got up to the top and lept off to hit his famous headbutt, I thought for sure that was it! Alas, Tenzan kicked out and I was pretty stunned to see that!
Hiroyoshi Tenzan was able to capitalize on his survival, reverse a standing tombstone piledriver into one of his own, but missed with a huge moonsault. At this point, I really wasn’t sure who’d be walking away the winner of this one. Good stuff. I felt bad for Tenzan’s chest though, as it was pretty well welted up and red from the knife-edged onslaught at this point in the match!
These two guys really pushed the limit in the time that they were given. That said, following some more back-and-forth battling, the finish came. A stolen finishing maneuver secured the win here for the man that I was not expecting to come away with the victory. In a nice little match on a huge card, it was good to see a classic exchange of two of the greats of the sport.
Though, I am not a fan of Hiroyoshi Tenzan in the slightest, I had to give it up to this one. His style worked well with Benoit’s here, and to the credit of both men, they were able to match this match a something out of nothing! It is worth the watch due to the fact that both men here were in the prime of their careers, crossing paths here and only here, in the center of the Tokyo Dome. If you are a fan of either, take the ten or so minutes to watch this one. For the hard hits, signature execution, and return match feel, this match delivered more so than even I thought it would. These guys treated it as a big time fight and I enjoyed every minute of it. No wasted movement on either man’s part meant no wasted time for me to watch! What was the finish? Who came out on top? You’ll have to tune in to find out!
So, what are you waiting for?