NJPW Toukon Shidou Chapter I, Tokyo, Japan
I’ve never seen this match. It hit me the other day that despite Shibata being one of my favorite wrestlers of the 2010s, maybe my very favorite, I’d never reviewed a Shibata match on the site until doing Shibata-O’Reilly. I aim to fix this over time.
Shibata had been out of NJPW for a while, choosing to go freelance, but he’s back for the big Dome show to face Tanahashi, fellow young standout of the Japanese wrestling world. Tanahashi isn’t yet the glamorous superstar he would become, but he is clearly the flashier wrestler type, Shibata the cool, calculated fighter.
And that’s how we start, with Shibata basically kicking the shit out of Tanahashi and beating his ass until Tanahashi falls out of the ring and out to the floor. Shibata feeds Tanahashi kick after kick when Tana comes back into the ring, but Tanahashi does catch him coming in with a forearm and a dropkick, which doesn’t drop Shibata but does at least make Shibata respect the fact that Tanahashi is there.
Trading forearms now, with Shibata having the snap but Tana the meatier arms. The snap wins, and Shibata drops Tanahashi with a hard smack to the jaw, then kicks and stomps on him, including a mean stomp to the back of the head that sees the referee briefly check on Tana.
Through all of this, Shibata really gives the air — and believe me, I wasn’t watching NJPW at the time, and this commentary is Japanese, so it’s all in presentation — that he wants to come in here and beat the piss out of a New Japan golden boy, that he’s trying mainly to prove a point.
Shibata hits the dropkick in the corner, but Tana gets an elbow up on a charge to the other side. And then when he springboards for a crossbody, he’s kicked in the breadbasket, and Shibata’s inconvenience is only momentary again. What bit I’ve seen of younger Tana follows this formula most of the time, he gets his ass beat, he comes back, repeat, maybe he loses, but maybe he wins with a few moves, very John Cena for the NJPW style. I could also be wrong; again, hardly anything you’d call an expert on this period of NJPW.
Shibata grabs a sleephold and Tanahashi struggles like hell for air before getting the ropes. Referee gives Shibata a real telling-off. Shibata’s expression rarely changes, and doesn’t when the ref admonishes him in this match. And when the order is given to resume, he simply knees Tana in the kisser and destroys him with a backdrop suplex.
Back to the sleephold, then the dragon sleephold. Tanahashi blocks a PK kick and Germans the hell out of Shibata, then hits a shotgun missile dropkick, and another dropkick in the corner. This great Tokyo Dome crowd is making very little noise throughout this match, though a few of them clap when Tana kinda calls them on.
Exchange of hard slaps, and Tana is actually gaining some ground this time, but Shibata gets the better of it and also shrugs off an enzuigiri. When he pulls Tana back up, he gets stuck with one straight shot that staggers him enough for Tana to hit another German for two. Tana with a full nelson, possible dragon suplex attempt, but Shibata to the ropes.
Now we’ve got a Tanahashi sleephold, but then Shibata gets a guillotine sleephold. Lotta sleepholds in this match. They’re aggressive sleepholds and not glorified chinlocks, but even so. Japanese wrestling’s MMA fascination at the time was out of control, boys.
Both men down after a Tana kick or whatever. More Shibata kicks. Also a lot of MMA kicks but all of wrestling was hard over that and in many spots, still are. These were also the peak years of my own MMA fandom so I get it. And now more Shibata kicks. Tanahashi doing some Fighting Spirit about it as Shibata just unleases kick after kick, then a couple elbows and another kick, and yet again Tanahashi is demolished on the canvas, but surely will not give up. He Never Gives Up.
But there is a real count on this time, and Shibata is confidently bouncing in the corner, just waiting for Tana to rise, which he does, and then he thrashes Tanahashi with a few more kicks, and that’ll do it.
This is a match in which, for the most part, Katsuyori Shibata just beats the living fuck out of Hiroshi Tanahashi for 12 minutes. It’s not particularly compelling unless you really like Shibata, I’d say, but it’s pretty good if you like Shibata, which I do.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
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