Naoki Sano © vs Jushin Liger
NJPW Junior Heavyweight Title Match
01/31/90
Jushin Liger is far and away one of my favourite wrestlers of all time. When I first got into wrestling, I watched World Superstars of Wrestling on Eurosport, which was effectively dubbed New Japan. The focus was often on Liger, Shinya Hashimoto and Ricky Choshu, so they became three wrestlers that helped develop my formative interests in wrestling. With Liger, it was pretty obvious why; the mask, the bright colours and the dynamic in-ring work stood out to an eight year old who didn’t need to know anything about in-ring action to know that what he was seeing was good.
His feud was Sano, coming at the tail end of 89, was one that I only saw in recent years. Having seen his first run with the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title ended by Sano’s back superplex in August 89, Liger would lose his first attempt to regain the title a month later. Sano’s title reign saw him also defeat Owen Hart, before the Sano and Liger feud continued in January 90.
This match has been talked about for years and often touted as one of Liger’s best, and it is easy to see why. What starts off as a fairly ordinary NJPW Junior Heavyweight match gives way to an all-out destruction of Liger by Sano. With early use of the piledriver outside the ring and a tombstone piledriver when they are both back in, Sano takes control and doesn’t really let go for the next eighteen minutes.
What follows is a vicious beatdown by the champion, as he rips Liger’s mask almost clean off, busts him wide open and just continues to work him over. Between the two title contests, Liger’s appearance has been altered to the cleaner red/white contrast that would be his signature for years to come, but the mask ended up hanging around his lower face for the majority of the contest. Liger has the occasional hope spot, including a dive to the outside, but it is Sano who leads the majority of this match. At times, Liger was face down on the mat, barely looking as if he was still alive, let alone able to get back into the match. Puddles of blood were left every time Liger hits the mat. Sano uses a range of different suplexes (German, Tiger, Dragon) to attempt to put Liger away, but he was only ever able to get a nearfall from these pinning attempts.
There are a few spots that look blown, though rather than detract from the match, they seem to further emphasise the struggle Liger is facing to get back his title as he has to reach deep down to summon up every last ounce of energy to stop the Sano onslaught. One of these spots sees the tide turn, as Liger reverses a back suplex into a pinfall (though it does look very awkwardly completed), before following up with a German suplex of his own and a sitout Liger Bomb for the victory and the title. If you wanted to be hyper critical about the match, it doesn’t take much for Liger to go from the throes of death to winning the title back, but that really is nitpicking.
In the aftermath of the match, Liger throws down the title in disgust, seemingly frustrated at Sano’s attempts to rip the mask off. Considering a lot of the Cruiserweight/Junior Heavyweight matches I saw in my early New Japan watching focused so much on the athleticism of the wrestlers, it was great to see such heated interaction that carried on even after the bell. The ripping of Liger’s mask would become a motif of many of his more intense feuds in the years to come.
Sano’s departure from New Japan and eventual arrival in Super World of Sports to become their only ever Junior Heavyweight Champion effectively ended the feud between the two. The only ever singles match between the two after this one saw Sano, under the banner of UWFi, defeat Liger, defending his home territory, in 1995.
