Back once again with another first here at DRS2EBRaSAGG. In our short lifespan we, the royal we, have kept our focus on series of matches that involve the same two guys. Here we take a look at feud spanning an entire promotion. Or you know six guys against two really. So sit back and relax and we’ll see where this experiment takes us.

The nWo came from a trip Eric Bischoff took to Japan to do business with the New Japan office. In the 1990s New Japan saw a boom in live attendance and one of their go to angles during that time was an outside invasion of another promotion. New Japan sold out stadiums by bringing in guys like WAR’s Genichiro Tenryu, UWFi’s Nobuhiko Takada, FMW’s Atsushi Onita, and even having their own version of the nWo. The heat of the foreign invaders coming in was always off the charts. I mean the age of the comment section is all you really need to take a look at to see how irrationally tied to a product people can get. Look at how the Nintendo, XBox, and Playstation fanboys bicker at each other. However, in the US this angle has never particularly panned out well.

The two most famous iterations of it were abject failures. When Jim Crockett Promotions bought Bill Watts’ UWF and when the World Wrestling Federation bought World Championship Wrestling. However, unlike those the types of invasion angles done in Japan involved companies that still existed which is a world of difference. Such angles as when New Japan’s Yuji Nagata and Hiroshi Tanahashi made advances upon Pro Wrestling NOAH.

Let’s take this match by match. The first match pitted Mr GHC vs Mr IWGP. Kenta Kobashi defending the GHC Heavyweight Championship against former IWGP Heavweight Champion Yuji Nagata. Kobashi was 6 months into his epic 2 year reign as GHC Champion while Nagata was coming off his year as IWGP Champion which included a record 10 successful title defenses. A record that will stand until Sunday when he loses to Hiroshi Tanahashi ironically. Right off the bat Budokan Hall is hot in its hatred of Yuji Nagata and its usual unconditional love of Kenta Kobashi. So Nagata does what anyone would do in that situation. He slaps Kobashi right in the face. The problem for Nagata is that this angers Kobashi. Cancer angered Kobashi once. Cancer lost. Kobashi goes berserker mode on Nagata raining kicks and chops and stomps on the poor man. Nagata is able to regain control with an over head belly to belly suplex on the ramp outside the ring. Then Nagata goes to work on the arm of Kobashi setting him up for his plethora of Nagata Locks. That is another interesting thing about this type of feud. Different promotions have different styles.

New Japan employed Strong Style which featured many a submission whereas All Japan where Kobashi came up employed King’s Road Style where there was nary a submission. Kobashi is smashed this way and that by Nagata including the sickest backdrop suplex ever. Kobashi being the monster he is just keeps coming to the delight of the fans. Kobashi’s facial expression are the best in the history of wrestling. Hell maybe the best in the history of Earth. Kobashi’s reaction to an enziguri is amazing. That Nagata followed that with 5 more enziguris is just awesome. This is a all time great match in the midst of a period where Kobashi was not only the biggest draw in Pro Wrestling, but may have been the best wrestler period. And his knees were beyond shot. This match is a must see and cannot be recommended enough.

Having failed at his chance for Kobashi’s singles title Nagata went back to the drawing board and decided to make a bid for the Kobashi’s other belt the GHC Tag Team Championship. He brought in another double champion to combat Kobashi and his partner Tamon Honda. Nagata choice of a partner was IWGP U-30 and IWGP Tag Team Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi. Tanahashi was getting a push after he returned from injury. The injury caused by his ex-girlfriend plunging a knife into his back. Literally. So this match you know who the captains of the teams are. You have Kobashi and his drinking buddy against Nagata and that guy who got stabbed by a girl. Shows how things change since now Tanahashi is by far the biggest star in Japan and has a solid case as being the best wrestler in the world. Since Nagata had already lost and he and Tanahashi were scheduled for the next couple of big shows they were obviously winning. Nagata was already over so this match had the task of getting Tanahashi over to the NOAH audience. They almost book him as a babyface. He takes a wicked beating from Honda and especially Kobashi. Despite that he keeps getting up though. So you can see them portraying Tanahashi as a tough competitor. The beating is wildly entertaining though. Second best match of this bunch. Shocking that both feature 2003 Kenta Kobashi.

The first GHC Tag Title defense for Nagata and Tanahashi came against the team of Takeshi Morishima and Takeshi Rikio better known as Wild II. Wild II had previously held the titles after beating No Fear and then lost them to Jun Akiyama and Akitoshi Saito. The Bunka was rocking for this match. Nagata and Tanahashi were super hated and doing things like Nagata flagrantly choking Morishima and Tanahashi accosting the referee for refusing to count the pin got nuclear heat. Interesting that once again there is a long stretch of time where Nagata is laid out and Tanahashi takes a beating. I understood the point of it the first time, but it really doesn’t work here. The match is still very good, but most of the best stuff is in the first half with Team Shin Nihon being all evil. Post match is a great with Tanahashi cutting a promo and the fans throwing stuff and the NOAH guys starting a brawl which set up a Tanahashi vs Naomichi Marufuji match a few days later on a New Japan show.

There are some things learned in the match where Nagata and Tanahashi lost the tag titles. For instance 4 Tanahashi elbows equal 1 Misawa elbow. Also Yoshinari Ogawa can kill a crowd. The crowd in Budokan Hall is really hot to start off, but there is an insanely long segment of this match devoted to getting heat on Ogawa that is really really boring. Like John Cena being beaten up by Miz and Truth boring. The fans were interested in Ogawa at first. Really like seeing Misawa beat up Tanahashi. Were mostly there to see the Misawa vs Nagata matchup. It cannot be said just how badly this thing dies with Ogawa selling. Boring boring match.

Finally we come to the failed GHC Title reign of Takeshi Rikio. Rikio ended Kobashi’s two year reign as GHC Champion. At first there was some buzz, but that quickly died after a disaster of a first title defense against Akitoshi Saito and the match with Hiroshi Tanahashi at the Dome was not helpful. There was real talk going in of Tanahashi winning and of the two was far more over in front of the 55,000 fans at NOAH Destiny. Even if the U-30 belt was one of the uglier belts ever. This is a rematch of sorts from Nagata and Tanahashi’s defense against Wild II. Rikio tried to muster any crowd support after Tanahashi slaps him and he goes off all Kobashi and Nagata but it really isn’t the same. Tanahashi works circles around him in this match and really should have won. The best spot of the match was three consecutive suicide dives by Tanahashi.

Next Time: Hardys vs. Dudleys vs. Christian & Edge