King(Samoa)Joe vs Shinjiro Ohtani 8/4/2002 Review

This was a group stage match in the 2002 ZERO1 Fire Festival tournament.

There’s some ages old fundamental type of stories in wrestling that always hold up no matter what. One of those stories is an angry young upstart on the horizon out to make a name for himself by trying to take down a legend. This match embodies that story to perfection. This early part of Samoa Joe's career is not something that I hear a lot about and I really wonder why because he's so phenomenal here. Regardless, what I could gather was that Joe was already out of the tourney and had nothing to lose so he just wanted to beat down the legend in Ohtani who had to win here to qualify for the finals giving both of them the incentive to go all out…And they did!!! Joe tries to go straight at Ohtani from the beginning but he counters with a kick and then takes Joe down with a crossbody from over the top rope as the action spills to the ringside. There's a moment here after Ohtani is back in the ring that Joe just throws a chair at the ropes and that really helps to show his frustration to the viewer after already being eliminated and then not being able to take Ohtani down from the get go. They really work stiff and fast before Joe takes the control and batters the legend. The best moment of this match is when Joe goes after ohtani’s eye and he just screams so loud in pain that I can't help but feel bad for him. That part of the match really showed how Ohtani excels at getting everyone behind him. With blood all over his face and the look of disbelief makes for a really compelling visual as Joe has absolutely rocked him. From here the urgency in the match is absolutely transcendent as Ohtani knows he won't last long, his comebacks are always fantastic and they dial up the speed to 100 and try to finish each other with every move until Ohtani just escapes with a roll up. This is a fantastic sprint that really packs up a lot of stuff in just 7 minutes and makes Joe look like an absolute monster even in loss and Ohtani the ultimate babyface. A dream match that delivered. Highly recommended.