Sabu, in the midst of his exodus from ECW, wrestled numerous throughout 1995 for NJPW. Two days before the return bout against Koji Kanemoto for his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, he faced off against Guerrero as Black Tiger on the promotion’s Fighting Spirit Legend tour.

The match starts off pretty so-so and the clash in styles makes for some awkward, stuttering exchanges. Guerrero is his usual smooth as butter self. But this is a Sabu match and we’re not here for the holds, we’re here for the violence. About halfway through things soon pick up as Guerrero brings a chair into the ring, bad move.

Then we have the first of two big moments that make this one worth checking out, as a chair-propelled jumping leg lariat makes Guerrero take a nasty (but expertly executed) backwards spill to the outside.

The usual brawl around ringside ensues and Sabu soon sets up a table with Guerrero placed across it for the highlight of the match. Predictably, that Japanese table has no give and the crowd reacts for the crash landing.

Guerrero marshalls proceedings back to the ring and plants Sabu with a beautiful brainbuster. There’s something deeply satisfying seeing a good brainbuster like that. The little leg kick from Sabu, the small twist as they snap into the drop, deeply satisfying stuff.

The finish, not so satisfying though. Sabu gets the knees up to avoid the frog splash before hitting a springboard moonsault for the three. The crowd felt similarly as the finish seemed to catch them by surprise.

Sabu, perhaps still aggrieved at the table’s refusal to budge earlier in the match, gets his revenge and one last crowd pop in the most Sabu way.

Overall, a fun watch to see these two mix it up in Japan. The opening exchanges were fine, but this one is worth checking out for the chair, table and brainbuster spots alone. If you can’t find this one in your own collection then there’s a Daily Motion video you can check out here, just be aware it’s not the best quality: