Muto retains IWGP title in Tokyo
Full rundown of New Japan's Tokyo Egg Dome spectacular

Monday, October 11, 1999
By JOHN MOLINARO -- SLAM! Wrestling New Japan Pro Wrestling presented its third card of 1999 at Tokyo's Egg Dome stadium, drawing a paid crowd of 58, 000 fans as Keiji Mutoh retained his IWGP Heavyweight title, defeating challenger Manabu Nakanishi via cross-arm scissors submission hold.

Nakanashi, who wrestled briefly in WCW as Kurosawa, won the prestigious annual G1 Climax tournament back in August defeating Mutoh in the finals. As a result, he was given a monster push by booker Riki Choshu the past few months, leading up to this title match.

In the main event, NWA World Heavyweight champion Naoya Ogawa defeated archrival Shinya Hashimoto when Hashimoto was knocked out and could not continue. Ogawa dropped the title to Gary Steele at the NWA's 51st anniversary show September 25th in Charlotte, NC before regaining it on October 2nd, in Thomaston, CT. Pre-match speculation was the Hashimoto would win the title and defend it exclusively in Japan, but the NWA Board of Directors did not give the green light for the title change.

The two have squared off twice before in the Tokyo Dome, with the first match on April 12th, 1997 drawing over 60, 000 fans as Ogawa upset the then IWGP Heavyweight champion in a non-title affair. The second match on January 4th of this year before 62, 500 spectators ended in a no-contest.

Jushin 'Thunder' Liger regained the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title defeating Kendo Ka Shin. The victory marks Liger's tenth reign as champion, and secures his legacy as one of the most decorated junior heavyweight wrestlers in Japanese wrestling history.

In other results from the show: Japanese legend Genichiro Tenryu defeated Kensuke Sasaki with the Northern Light Bomb to score the win. Masahiro Chono teamed up with Don Frye to defeat Satoshi Kojima and WCW wrestler Scott Norton. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team champs Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa defeated Minoru Tanaka of the Battlarts promotion and former IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion Koji Kanemoto. UFC combatant Kimo made quick work of Yuji Nagata, scoring a submission victory in less than four minutes.

Tatsumi Fujinami and Shiro Koshinaka defeated Takashi Iizuka and Osamu Kidoh, Kazuyuki Fujita defeated American Kickboxer Sean McCully and Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Tatsutoshi Goto.

With files from Zach Arnold