Juventud Guerrera, fired from WCW about one-half of a year before this match, is wrestling for the NOAH here. This is of course in Japan. He's taking on a member of Jun Akiyama's Gundan, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, who I'll refer to as Yoshi. This is the final round match of the GHC (Global Honor Crown) World Junior Heavyweight Title Tournament, so the winner is the first-ever GHC Junior Heavyweight (the equivalent of the U.S. cruiserweight/light-heavyweight) Champion. To get to the final round, Juvi defeated Satoru Asako and then Naomichi Marufuji, and Yoshi defeated Pathfinder and then Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. So, the final round match saw Juvi vs. Yoshi.
Pro Wrestling NOAH Show
Final Round Match of the GHC World Junior Heavyweight Title
Tournaemnt
June 24, 2001
Juventud Guerrera vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Woman from outside camera range: "Today's fighting...umm...commence, please."
Juvi: "OK...today 'The Juice' is gonna' be - he's gonna' give another...another juicy night and...uhh...een Joppon and I'm so very happy to be here, and I know there's a lot of juicy fans here in Joppon, so I'm gonna' do my best to get you crazy and get you the best match that you ever see in a long time. You can be ready for that."
Woman from outside camera range: "How about 'Kanemarr'?" Juvi: "Kanemaru sucks - sucks for me. I don't know if you know what that means, but it really means that to me, I'm gonna keek his ass tonight and I'm gonna prove why I'm 'The Juice'...So, the juice is just all about the juice."
Clip.
Yup, Juvi...couldn't have said it better myself. Jeez! This guy has got to learn English! His pronnunciation of the words is terrible! The only time he's good on the mic is when he does his impression of The Rock. Anyway...
Yoshinobu Kanemaru, who looks a lot like Mr. Gannosuke of FMW (just with way less hair), is then given some interview time in front of the camera. I don't know what he said, though, because I don't speak Japanese.
The entrance ramp goes red and some cool music hits. Out comes Yoshinobu Kanemaru. He gets a nice pop. He runs against the ropes a few times. Juvi has exited the ring. He tapes his wrists. He enters the ring. Juvi is introduced first, and holds his belts high. He gets a nice pop. Yoshi is then introduced, and gets a nice pop. Some streamers are sent into the ring, and they're eventually cleared. The referee checks them for foreign weapons. Juvi takes off his vest and ties his pony tail.
He backs up toward the beginning of the ramp and charges Yoshi. He flips himself into a reverse powerbomb positions, and Yoshi flips him up. Juvi changes positions in midair and bulldogs Yoshi on the ramp. Juvi tosses Yoshi through the ropes back into the ring. He climbs in himself and hits a nice suplex. 1-2-No. Rear chinlock. He hammers Yoshi a few times. Yoshi eventually rises. Juvi transistions into a side headlock. Yoshi reverses it into a reverse armringer and brings Juvi down to the mat with that submission. He releases and hits a snapmare, but Juvi gets on top and locks on a facelock, and then an armlock. Juvi twirls around and locks on a wierd pinning combo, but Yoshi escapes at two. Juvi with a facelock, but transitions into a side headlock. Yoshi rises. Whip. Dropdown. He dropkicks Juvi out.
Yoshi slingshots himself over the ropes and onto the apron. He kicks Juvi. With Juvi's back to him, he leaps over and somersaults, tossing Juvi across the conrete with a somersault headscissors. That's the first time I've ever seen that. Juvi reverses and whips Juvi into the guardrail. Juvi charges, but misses, and he's now bent over the guardrail. Yoshi charges leaps up onto the guardrail, leaps up, and comes down on Juvi's head hard, pushing his neck into the guardrail. Claps.Yoshi rolls back into the ring, and Juvi eventually does. Yoshi drills a DDT. 2. Rear chinlock. He turns it into a shoulder-mounted headscissors on Juvi's face. He scoop slams Juvi and places him in the tree of woe, and baseball-slides into his face. He gets him out of the position and pushes him outside.
He hits a pescado (slingshot press) to the outside. He hammers him with forearms and kicks, but Juvi fights back and throws him over the guardrail. He rams Yoshi's head on the rail. They go back in, and Juvi whips Yoshi and dropkicks him back out. He hits his own pescado! Juvi rests, and then tosses Yoshi back in. He hits a nice slingshot leg drop and covers.1-2-no. Rear chinlock. Now a grounded inverted sleeper. Juvi picks him up and sits him on the top-rope. Frankensteiner! 1-2-no. Yoshi fights back and dropkicks Juvi down. Double-leg boston crab. Yoshi eventually releases. He corner whips Juvi, but it's reversed. Juvi charges and attempts a splash, but misses. Yoshi charges and is backdropped over the ropes, but lands on the apron. He hammers Juvi, and attempts a slingshot headscissors, but Juvi doesn't go over, and instead pushes him head-first into the mat.
Juvi hits an electric chair drop (shoulder-mounted reverse powerbomb drop)! 1-2-no! Ouch...Juvi picks him up and hits either a nodowa otoshi (chokeslam) or a uranage (rock bottom). It's hard to tell which. 1-2-no! His piledriver is reversed into a backdrop, but he brings Yoshi down with a sunset flip. Yoshi, though, rolls through it, and then rolls over, and they're now in a grounded bridge. They roll around and eventually rise, and then roll through again, until they're in a back-to-back crucifix. Juvi looks to be going for another nodowa otoshi or uranage, but Yoshi elbows out of it. He goes for a powerbomb, but Juvi flips out and bashes Yoshi's head into the mat. Hot sequence. Yoshi is down. Juvi powerbombs him. He heads up top, but Yoshi hits the ropes, and Juvi tumbles off hard. Ouch...Yoshi immediately climbs up and hits a top-rope splitlegged moonsault! 1-2-no!
He goes up top again and misses a moonsault, but lands on his feet. Yoshi locks on a waistlock, but Juvi does a standing reversal. Yoshi kicks back and low blows him! He runs off the ropes and goes for a quebrada (springboard moonsault), but Juvi catches him and spikes him on his head with a Juvi-Driver (Sitdown Splitlegged Bodyslam Piledriver). Juvi's exhausted, but covers. 1-2-Yoshi gets his foot on the rope. Irish whip by Juvi. He hits a short sitdown powerbomb. He riles up the crowd. What the FUCK?!?! Could it be?!?! He throws his elbow pad, does the arm cross thing, and runs off the ropes. He steps over Yoshi and goes off the other rope. Yoshi starts getting up, so he kicks him. He drops the PEOPLE'S ELBOW, but Yoshi moves out of the way!!! HaHa!!! Juvi kips right back up, and Yoshi immediately charges him, but gets dropped with another sitdown powerbomb. 1-2-no!
Whip's reversed. Yoshi kicks Juvi in the ass as he's (Juvi's) charging toward the other rope. Juvi does this terrific slingshot twisting backflip thing on the rope, landing on his feet. Yoshi charges, and is backdropped over the ropes and onto the entrance ramp, but he lands on his feet. Juvi forearms him, and then connects on a springboard crossbody press on the ramp. Juvi back way up on the ramp, and charges. He hits a terrific headscissors takeover, sending Yoshi back into the ring. Juvi then climbs to the top-rope and leaps off, but Yoshi meets him in midair with a dropkick! He sits Juvi up on the top-rope. Juvi fights him off and pushes him off. He then goes for a 450 splash, but...what the hell...he purposefully does it toward the rope, so he bounces off the top-rope and lands on his feet. It's a good thing he did that, because Yoshi had moved out of the way. Yoshi immediately kicks him, lifts him, and drops him hard with a brainbuster!
He picks Juvi up, but Juvi gets an inside cradle! 1-2-no!!! He spins into a reverse powerbomb postion, hooks the legs, and rolls Yoshi up with a victory roll. 1-2-no! Juvi ducks a clothesline and locks on a waistlock, but Yoshi uses a standing reversal and locks on his own. He leaps up and sweeps Juvi's legs down from under him, slamming him to the mat with an awesome waistlock/reverse powerbomb combo! 1-2-No!!!!! He picks him up and drops him with another brainbuster! He picks him up again. Scoop slam. He quickly climbs to the top. Moonsault! 1-2-3 (17:17)!!!!!
Anyway, this match was great. It dragged at some points, but it was overall very good. It's rare that you see a match of this length that's so good. Juvi's slingshot backflip manuever where he landed on his feet and his 450 onto the ropes were amazing. I never expected either of those moves in a million years. Kanemaru looks like he's talented. You could see that Juvi did a lot of the offense, so it's obvious that Kanemaru is fairly young and new in the sport, but he still put on a great match. Both of these teriffic athletes deserve respect. The People's Elbow was a great way to add a couple laughs to the match, as it was a bit draggy at that point. That move was hilarious.
I don't see the reason for the two almost consecutive sitdown powerbombs by Juvi, as they were repetitive. One is fine, but two that close together is pushing it. It'd be one thing if one was Kanemaru's but they were both Juvi's. I still stand by my claim that Juvi needs to learn better English. He's terrible at it. Nonetheless, I'm not grading on microphone skills, so this match is gonna' get a good rating. The draggy parts will bring it down a spot, but it still was a very well-performed match. Juvi has done teriffic matches in WCW with guys like Billy Kidman, Psychosis, and Rey Mysterio Jr., and this match was no different. He and Kanemaru did some teriffic manuevers, and unlike a lot of the time, they performed them right and didn't notably botch any.