Super-Force Group Declaration 2001: WrestleFile Historical Verdict

Katsuyori Shibata and Shinya Makabe opened the June 6 Budokan card by defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kenzo Suzuki in 8:14. The eight-minute tag is an unusually useful starting point for this particular event: four New Japan wrestlers put a home-roster result on the board before the series of New Japan versus All Japan singles matches began. Shibata and Makabe were the winning pair, not Tanahashi and Suzuki, and no championship changed hands here. The C+ / 6.5 assessment gives the opener credit for establishing that contrast without treating an introductory bout as equivalent to the later forty-minute Muto-Hase match. On a selective replay, this is worth a glance for those following these wrestlers' early-2000s careers. Its main documentary value is the exact four-person pairing and winner, followed by the card's very different inter-promotional sequence.

Masanobu Fuchi represented All Japan against New Japan's El Samurai in the second bout at Nippon Budokan and recorded the victory in 9:32. The result matters specifically because it was the first in the card's run of labeled New Japan-versus-All Japan singles contests; it did not decide an overall promotion championship. Fuchi's win put an All Japan representative on the board before Kakihara and Nagai followed with further visiting-side results. The C+ / 6.5 grade judges the match as an early part of the full evening rather than elevating the inter-promotional branding into a claim about match quality. Anyone interested in how this June 2001 show staged the visiting group should retain this result; viewers focused on the strongest in-ring picks can move ahead to Muto-Hase or Fujita-Nagata. El Samurai's loss is a recorded outcome, not evidence that the remaining New Japan team members lost their separate matches.

Masahito Kakihara beat Minoru Tanaka in 6:21 in the third match, giving the visiting All Japan side another victory during the card's specifically labeled inter-promotional program. Both participants are essential to this result: it was Kakihara over Tanaka, not a generic faction contest or a championship defense. At 6:21, the match was shorter than Fuchi-El Samurai before it and Nagai-Iizuka after it, and WrestleFile's C / 6.3 assessment reflects its supporting role in the show. Its historical usefulness lies in making the promotion-by-promotion results legible: All Japan claimed this result, yet New Japan's Nakanishi would defeat Mike Barton later in the same segment. A full replay is most relevant to viewers charting these competitors or the June 2001 New Japan-All Japan exchange; it should not be advertised as one of the night's two B- or better attractions.

Mitsuya Nagai defeated Takashi Iizuka at 8:00 by referee's decision in another of the New Japan-versus-All Japan contests. The recorded manner of decision distinguishes this fourth bout from the neighboring singles results; the historical record supports the referee's decision wording, but not an invented description of an injury, interference or a particular finishing maneuver. Nagai's victory added to All Japan's earlier Fuchi and Kakihara wins, even though the evening was not an All Japan sweep. WrestleFile grades the result C+ / 6.5 and places it in the supporting half of the Budokan program rather than among the late matches recommended for full viewing. For readers comparing the event's cross-promotional pairings, it is useful to retain both the precise result and how it was rendered. For viewers picking only two matches, the later Muto-Hase and Fujita-Nagata singles bouts offer stronger editorial scores and more central placement.

Manabu Nakanishi defeated All Japan representative Mike Barton in 4:42, a New Japan victory inside the evening's sequence of inter-promotional singles matches. The outcome interrupts any simplistic suggestion that the visiting promotion won every singles exchange: Fuchi, Kakihara and Nagai had already prevailed for All Japan, but Nakanishi took this fifth bout for the home group. At under five minutes, it was among the shortest documented matches at the June 6 Budokan event, and the C / 6.3 grade appropriately keeps its evaluation below the closing singles attractions. This was neither a title change nor the end of the cross-promotional segment. Toshiaki Kawada would subsequently defeat Satoshi Kojima in a considerably longer All Japan-versus-New Japan pairing. The match is a meaningful result for a promotion scoreboard and participant history; it is not a stand-alone recommendation ahead of the stronger matches later in the card.

Toshiaki Kawada defeated Satoshi Kojima in 15:16 during the sixth bout, one of the most recognizable name pairings in Super-Force Group Declaration's New Japan-versus-All Japan portion. Kawada represented All Japan in the recorded result while Kojima represented New Japan. The bout received a C+ / 6.8 rather than the B assigned to the later Muto-Hase and Fujita-Nagata singles matches, a useful distinction between historical prominence and this site's evaluation of one evening's presentation. At over fifteen minutes it also had more time than any of the preceding inter-promotional singles bouts, including Nakanishi's 4:42 win against Mike Barton. Its placement closes the sequence of singles meetings before Liger's team takes on TEAM2000, so this is a natural entry point for viewers interested in the promotions' 2001 relationship. The result should be described as Kawada's singles win, not conflated with the closing IWGP title defense.

Jushin Thunder Liger joined Taiyo Kea and Jinsei Shinzaki against TEAM2000's Masahiro Chono, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and AKIRA, with Liger's three-man side winning in 16:51. This seventh bout was a six-man team match, not a one-on-one Liger-Chono confrontation, and its outcome belongs to all six participants. It followed the event's series of inter-promotional singles contests and led into the two prominent closing singles attractions. The B- / 7.1 evaluation positions the faction contest above most of the early singles matches but below Muto-Hase and the IWGP heavyweight defense. Kea's presence alongside Liger and Shinzaki also makes this match a distinct cross-roster combination rather than another result for the same visiting singles representatives. For a shorter watch, it is a sensible middle choice after the two higher-graded singles contests; for match history, the full sides and the fact that TEAM2000 lost should be preserved without suggesting championship stakes.

Keiji Muto defeated Hiroshi Hase in 39:08 immediately before the IWGP Heavyweight Championship main event. The length is the striking fact in this result: Muto-Hase ran far longer than Fujita's subsequent 10:57 defense against Yuji Nagata, yet it was not the match for the heavyweight belt. WrestleFile's B / 7.7 is the highest individual score on the nine-match card, above the main event's B / 7.5. Those distinctions justify presenting it as the first full-watch recommendation rather than assuming the final title match must be the best-reviewed bout. The record establishes Muto as winner and Hase as opponent; it does not require an invented account of the closing sequence or the crowd's reaction. As an extended near-main-event singles contest it gives the Budokan show a second clear attraction after the promotion-versus-promotion portion and before Fujita's championship retention.

Kazuyuki Fujita retained the IWGP Heavyweight Championship by defeating Yuji Nagata in 10:57 to close Super-Force Group Declaration at Nippon Budokan. The champion entering and leaving was Fujita; Nagata was unsuccessful in his challenge, despite this being the main event after a much longer Muto-Hase singles match. WrestleFile awards the defense B / 7.5, just below Muto-Hase's B / 7.7, which means both bouts can be recommended without flattening their distinct purposes. Muto-Hase was a long non-title attraction, while Fujita-Nagata supplied the card's explicit heavyweight championship conclusion. This result also sits apart from the earlier New Japan-versus-All Japan series: it was a New Japan title defense, not another visiting-promotion win. For fans tracing the 2001 IWGP title chronology, the exact champion, opponent and retained outcome are the essential facts; for a short replay, pairing it with Muto-Hase captures the event's two strongest closing attractions.