#201: Kurt Angle vs. Yuji Nagata, NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 2 (1/4/2008).
Hello, readers, and Happy New Year!
This coming weekend is one of my most highly anticipated of the entire year – Wrestle Kingdom weekend! New Japan’s biggest show of the year quickly approaches, and this year, we are fortunate enough to get two straight days of Tokyo Dome action, as the supershow Wrestle Dynasty will be taking place the following day. To celebrate the occasion, I wanted to focus on previous Wrestle Kingdom matches this week for the blog.
Starting things off is a Dream Match for the time between New Japan’s captain of Blue Justice, Yuji Nagata, going toe to toe with Kurt Angle, all around wrestling legend and at the time TNA World Heavyweight Champion. This is for Angle’s IWGP 3rd Belt Championship, also known as the IGF version of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. I won’t go into the whole story of why these two wrestling legends are fighting for an inauthentic championship, but you can thank future attempted sex trafficker Brock Lesnar for it.
This match also aired as apart of TNA’s “Global Impact” special, which focused on many of its stars who competed on this very show. Fun fact: this is the only Tokyo Dome appearance of Christian Cage, who teamed with AJ Styles and Petey Williams to defeat Minoru Tanaka, Milano Collection AT & Prince Devitt, who you may know better today as Finn Balor. Other TNA representatives on this show include Abyss, Team 3D, Christopher Daniels and Tomko.
I’m watching the Global Impact version of this match, so we get Mike Tenay and Don West on commentary. High fives all across the board!
Angle attacks right away, and the bell rings. Tiger Hattori is the referee for this. Hell yeah! Angle drives his boot into Nagata’s face in the corner. They shove each other, and Nagata slaps him and pops off some forearms. Angle fights back with a belly to belly suplex. Nagata with a release version to Angle, and the champion rolls to the floor to avoid a vicious kick. Angle returns to the ring, and Nagata takes control of the back.
He twists the arm around, and Angle reverses into a side headlock takedown. Nagata uses a head scissors to go into a side headlock takedown of his own. Shoulder tackle by Nagata, followed by a drop toe hold. He goes for a Crossface, and Angle quickly gets to the ropes. Tenay and West run down the historic events that have happened in the Tokyo Dome, which is a nice touch. I forget that this is a stadium used for baseball games.
Back in the ring, Nagata takes the back, and Angle reverses it. He twists the arm around, and Nagata reverses it into arm control of his own. Angle with a forearm, and Nagata responds with hard kicks to the leg. He misses a kick to the head, and Angle hits a belly to belly suplex. It gets him a 2 count. Nice uppercut by Angle, and he eats a back elbow for his troubles. Nagata applies the chin lock. Angle shoulders into the left leg of Nagata, which causes him to roll to the floor.
Angle follows him to the floor, and pops off some kicks to the thigh. He brings him back into the ring, and continues his attack on the leg. Nagata kicks him away, but Angle is like a shark, and he’s right back on the leg with the Figure Four Leglock. Nagata uses all of his will power to turn Angle over, but Angle immediately turns him to his back again. Nagata inches his way to the bottom rope, and he trash talks Angle too. He finally touches the ropes to break the hold. Angle bends the leg into his own, and he looks for the Ankle Lock, but Nagata uses his free leg to kick him away, and then he locks in the arm bar! Nagata rolls his eyes in the back of his head, as he’s adding more and more pressure. We get a commercial break, and Angle is in the midst of several German Suplexes. Angle has the straps down, but Nagata hits an Exploder Suplex for a nearfall. Nagata with a suplex, and a Brainbuster. Angle blocks a third and he goes for the Ankle Lock, but Nagata blocks it and applies the Crossface!
Angle grabs the foot, and turns it into the Ankle Lock! Nagata reverses that back into the Crossface. Angle nearly taps out, but he takes the ankle again. Nagata kicks him free, and goes to the Crossface again! Good reversals from Blue Justice! Angle gets to his feet while in the submission, and pops off the Olympic Slam! Angle covers, but Nagata is able to kick out. Angle goes to the top rope, and misses his beautiful moonsault.
Nagata with a running knee right to the jaw in the corner. He place Angle on the top rope, and hits a belly to belly suplex to the mat below! He covers, and Angle somehow kicks out. Nagata goes right back to the Crossface. He transitions to a side slide pin for a 2 count. Nagata looks for the Saito Suplex, and Angle counters it. They exchange forearms and uppercuts in the middle of the ring. Angle comes off the ropes with a huge clothesline.
Nagata with the Saito Suplex out of nowhere! Tiger counts, and Angle just barely kicks out. Nagata goes for a kick, but Angle catches it and locks in the Ankle Lock! Angle turns it into a Half Crab Ankle Lock, and then grapevines the leg. He twists and twists, and Nagata taps out. Angle retains the 3rd Belt. Post match, they shake hands and hug, as Angle raises Nagata’s arm. A really good match that, like Angle’s other major singles matches in New Japan against Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura, was the first step to an even better match.
Both guys showcased tremendous chemistry here, and the back and forth counter wrestling was a beauty to behold. Seeing this match makes me wish that they could’ve wrestled more, because there’s something there that could be an instant classic. Alas, we have this one and only singles match between Angle and Nagata, and it was a doozy. Despite Angle’s worldwide reputation in wrestling, Nagata never looked out of place against him, standing strike for strike, and hold for hold with one of the very best to ever do it.
A really solid outing for both men, and another accomplishment for Angle, who was very much in the midst of his prime around this time.