I know the G1 Climax is over, but covering G1′s for me will probably continue to fall under this banner. At least the finals, which has mostly been what this series is about. This was voted on by my sole patron, who had 5 options to choose from and being a 10 dollar backer I’ll cover something at his suggestion in the near future as well.

Tournament Format

The tournament in 1993 was single elimination 16 man tournament.

Hiroshi Hase beat in this order : Shinya Hashimoto, Kengo Kimura then Masahiro Chono in the semi finals.

While Tatsumi Fujinami beat in this order : Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Osamu Kido and

Keiji Mutoh in the finals. Mutoh was Hiroshi Hase’s tag team partner at the time.

Hiroshi Hase vs. Tatsumi Fujinami(link for those with NJPW World)

Who’s who?

Tatsumi Fujinami was heir apparent to babyface Inoki as NJPW’s wrestling face. He was the japanese guy holding the IWGP Heavyweight title the most in its early life from 1988 to his 6th reign in 1998. A record that wouldn’t be beaten until Hiroshi Tanahashi had his historic 7th reign in 2014. Fujinami didn’t defend as often as some of the later era champions like Hashimoto, Mutoh, Tanahashi and current champion Okada. Beyond the IWGP Heavyweight Title Fujinami also held NWA belts, WWF belts and throughout the 80′s was awarded various things by both Tokyo sports and Wrestling observer newsletter. So, by the 1993 G1 he was already a very well established singles competitor.

Hiroshi Hase, while not the well established IWGP Heavyweight Champion that Fujinami was going into this match. Hiroshi Hase was 2 time IWGP Jr. Champion at this point. One of the early champions in that belt’s linage. He was more known as a tag team player though as he had the IWGP tag belts 3 times before this match, with partners : Kensuke Sasaki and Keiji Mutoh. I covered one of these great tag bout with Hiroshi Hase a few months ago as a part of the series on WON’s MOTYs.



How’s the match?

Starts slow, but it picks up after things go outside the ring. It might be a little too submission heavy for some peoples taste. I think that once throws do start happening it gets a little better. Lacks in strikes completely though, I think you could count the strikes on both hands. That doesn’t make it a bad match, but it’s a little disappointing.

When this match got hot though, it gets real hot. I love the ending 5 minutes, but hated the first 3 minutes which had me worried the whole match was going to drag.

The takeaway I had after researching the match is a sadness for Hiroshi Hase who really shines here, but never really got a main event run after this or even a singles run of any significance.

Great match, but probably not going to be in the top 5 I’ve covered. It’s just that the G1 Finals are full of fantastic matches, I’d recommend watching it still though. Hase and Fujinami are in top form throughout.

