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Matt Watches 1989 AJPW/1986 NJPW on a Treadmill


Matt D

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AEW PPV slowed me down this week, but here we go.

2/28/86: Sakaguchi/Inoki vs THE JACKAL/BILLY JACK HAYNES: This was a weird one. It became pretty formless by the end and even just Sakaguchi and Inoki being dominant. There sure aren't clean finishes in 86 NJPW. Jackal is Jason the Terrible, I think. He's bald and tall and does some interesting things like a face-first Bret corner bump and nice downward strikes. He was in this a lot. Billy Jack mainly posed and preened and there was one hilarious bit where Inoki kept charging at him and he kept posing and Inoki recoiled and came from another direction. I wouldn't call this good. Sakaguchi kind of comes off like fake Baba. Is that just a me thing? I like him, but then I like Baba too.

2/28/86: Kimura/Fujinami vs Kido/Fujiwara: Yeah, this was good, but I feel like I won't do it justice. I'd have to take notes to do it justice because there were specifics that are important. The main vibe I got from this was that Kimura and Fujinami could take down Kido and Fujiwara. They could escape them. They just couldn't KEEP Them down. And Fujiwara and Kido knew it. They knew that they were better even if Fujinami and Kimura would work together and just wouldn't quit. So they goad Kimura and Fujinami (like a Fujiwara slap in the corner). Fujinami and Kimura would extend themselves to get an advantage and Fujiwara and Kido would shut them down. There was a really glorious moment here where Fujiwara took advantage of a moment like that and just started unloading with headbutts. Still, Kimura and Fujinami worked together and even hit the Inazuma Leg Lariat at one point but I'd never say the had a meaningful advantage here. It all sort of devolved into errant low blows and Fujiwara just dropping on Fujinami with the straight leg lock but I don't think he was the legal man and the whole thing probably got thrown out. Kimura's only 68. Maybe I'll write him a letter thanking him for the leg brace. I can more or less tell them apart now but still, it helps.

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3/4/86: Kimura/Koshinaka/Hoshino vs Fujiwara/Kido/Maeda: This was a HH, but it's a bit of a cheat because of Hoshino and Koshinaka's gear. That said, two months in, I definitely have a working knowledge of all of these guys. You know who brings me joy? 86 Fujiwara does. You get a huge chunk of what there is to love about the guy in almost ever match. He comes out just slapping Hoshino in the corner and it's great. The vibe on this one was as follows: whenever the NJPW guys tagged it was out of desperation or to try to press an advantage. Whenever the UWF guys tagged it was because they were bored or wanted someone else to get a turn. It was different because from their actions alone, the NJPW side would have come off as a bit more heelish but instead it all seemed warranted given the skill discrepancy. Koshinaka had a small female cheering section and that made you just want to see him get crushed. Maeda did it a bit but not enough. Kimura definitely had more of an it factor than his partners, but less of an it factor than Fujinami would have. The finish was pretty definitive as Fujiwara pulled Hoshino (I think) away from the ropes and dropped down with the leglock and shrugged and tagged so that someone else could drop down into it and get the pin. Post match they teased Fujinami vs Maeda with some scrapping and it was pretty great.

3/4/86: Inoki/Fujinami/Cobra vs Billy Jack Haynes/Jackal/Chris Adams: Chris Adams was such a welcome part of this match. I kind of dig Jackal here in small doses. He had size, those downward strikes and had interesting ideas (like a slingshot suplex that kind of turned into a slam instead) compounded by an inability to actually execute them that made things look awkward and painful. The big transition here was great as Adams just came in and superkicked Cobra when he had a hold on Jackal and Jackal then hit a big awkward powerslam over the shoulder. Imagine a world where only one guy in wrestling does a superkick and how amazing that would be and you have 1986 and Chris Adams. Haynes hit one big vertical suplex and had some strength stuff with Inoki again but that was just ok. Fujinami and Adams matched up really well. There's a long Adams/Jackal vs Kimura/Fujinami tag later in the month I'm looking forward to. One guy in the crowd with a really raspy voice kept screaming for Inoki and it made me miss Shinro's fan club.

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3/4/86: Yamada/Shunji Kosugi vs Takada/Yamazaki: I'm glad we had this one because it doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would normally make TV. Kosugi has a couple of years left on his career. He was just 26 at this point, and I wonder what his 90s would have looked like, because he's obviously the guy in the NJPW jr. heavyweight scene that I wanted to see. The first half of this was actually pretty great as they were just scrapping and sprawling and avoiding long holds. The UWF guys had the advantage for the most part, but Kosugi and Takada really had a go at it. They went more into the holds in the back half. Yamada couldn't keep up in general, but you also got the sense that him working these matches was very good for his overall career and rounding him out. He also had one ridiculous strength counter that felt superheroish but he still managed to pull it off. Takada remained fairly business like once it got going. You could try to jam him, but he was going to find some way to take you over.

Also, I learned yesterday that Dan Kroffat was the WON Most Underrated in 1989, which is a pretty absurd content. He probably wasn't the 5th most underrated guy in 1989 AJPW alone. 1989 WON readers ever frustrate. I really like 90s Kroffat but he wasn't there yet.

Edited by Matt D
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3/7/86: Fujiwara/Maeda/Takada vs Fujinami/Kimura/Koshinaka: This was definitely good. The first few exchanges rotated between Fujiwara>Takada>Maeda and Fujinami>Kimura>Koshinaka before it started to break down a bit more and Fujiwara vs Fujinami was electric to start. I imagine most people reading this understand how good Fujiwara was but it's one of those things I barely have the words for. Shoot style works by giving people small openings to capitalize on. With Fujiwara, it's almost like he takes those little openings and drives a truck through them but it still seems believable and inevitable but compelling and interesting. Just the first couple of lock ups he does this thing where he drops down to a knee and manipulates Fujinami around and it's the littlest thing but it was amazing to me. It was just so smooth and so matter-of-fact. Meanwhile, Fujinami hangs but he has to work at it. He had a driving energy where Kimura, for instance, felt somehow scrappier but less dominant. You keep waiting for Koshinaka to be the weak link but he has the Jr. belt now and he hangs in there, trying and failing to throw belly to back suplexes like a guy spamming a movie in a fighting video game and failing each time, until mid match where he gets suplexed repeatedly for his troubles. That breaks the cycles and gives the UWF team momentum, but he comes back, probably too much and the NJPW team shows superior teamwork all the way towards the finish where Fujinami gets a pretty decisive visual win with a Scorpion but the ref is lost in the chaos and Fujiwara can come in to break it up and get the match thrown out. The match would have been better if Koshinaka sold for most of the last third until he was able to get a hot tag to take them to that finish. Ah well. It's Japan, Jake.

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3/7/86: Inoki/Sakaguchi/Hoshino vs Jackal/Chris Adams/Nick Kiniski: Hey, this was actually pretty fun. Hoshino feels more like an AJPW mid-carder to me for some reason. Adams might be the best foreigner I've seen so far in 86. His stuff looks really good. He's got just enough attitude. The superkick is so useful in these tags. Loved the opening of this as after the heels beat on Hoshino a bit, Inoki tagged in and they immediately tossed him out to hit him with a chair only for Ueda to stop it. Then Wakamatsu(right? That's who that is) came out to be their new manager. Rest of the match was good but not as good as those first couple of minutes. Sakaguchi comes off as really smooth and dominant all the time. Jackal did the face first corner bump. Adams was all over the place in a good way. At one point he and Jackal did a Hart Attack off the second rope. I've seen a lot more Kelly Kiniski than Nick. He had a lot of ambitionat times but didn't come off as smooth. It's interesting that Inoki really doesn't come in for as much of these matches as I'm used to Jumbo (for instance) coming in for. Finish was more of the good stuff as Inoki went to finish off Jackal with the cobra twist and Adams Superkicked him. That led to the ring clearing and Ueda making the save by clocking Wakamatsu with the chair and fighting off his former cronies. Inoki wouldn't shake his hand though. Big drama. Good turn.

3/13/86: Yamazaki/Takada vs Koshinaka/Cobra: This was a HH and not super easy to watch at times, but worth it. Great early Cobra/Takada exchange with armdrags and things you wouldn't expect. Koshinaka and Cobra knew that they were in with the UWF guys and that means they just work their ass off. Koshinaka is a guy that I think I might only like when he's a jerk bad guy. Again, he worked hard, but he had this tendency to just come back too early from stuff or without selling it enough. His comebacks feel unearned because of it and it just makes the match less interesting than it could be. Cobra and Koshinaka worked well together but there was one flurry where Yamazaki and Takada were just hitting kneedrops and leg drops one after the other and it was great. Yamazaki had the sheer gall to no longer wear long pants but I could figure out who was who. He had this cool (yet ridiculous) double kick on Koshinaka/Cobra after they missed a double dropkick. Finish was a whole lot of nothing but it was good to see them in this setting.

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3/14/86: Fujinami/Kimura/Hoshino vs Fujiwara/Maeda/Takada: I'm boggled that this didn't make the set. It's 20+ mins if you include the opening (everyone shaking but Fujiwara and then the UWF guys huddling) and the post-match (Maeda not releasing the hold, Sakaguchi coming in to break it up, him ending up in the leglock, and everyone buzzing for Inoki to come in while brawling happens). This was the set up for the big 5 on 5 elimination before me and I have to be honest, there's just so much in any one of these matches that writing them up feels like a test that I should have taken notes for and I'm winging. There's a lot here. The match starts with Hoshino getting an errant kick in and Takada stumbling about ringisde for a bit. Kimura has a real fire underneath him but he can't outwrestle these guys. He has a lot of pride when it comes to not tagging out until he's scored a point though. Fujinami, on the other hand, created a ton of buzz getting in with Maeda and could hang with them by this point. Hoshino had a great burst out of the ropes at one point against Maeda (I think Maeda) but he got beaten down and suplexed for his trouble. It's really cool to watch these guys just jam each other on takeovers. The pattern seems to be that the UWF guys control for a lot of it on individual exchanges but between teamwork (all three guys coming off the top in rapid succession) and fighting spirit and who knows what else, the NJPW guys get some holds in down the stretch (crabs and the Scorpion here). There's just a ton to see here and it's hard to keep track of it all and I really didn't do this one justice. I will probably end up doing the 5 x5 match off the treadmill and taking notes, but I've got, at the very least, Inoki vs Billy Jack (and a few other matches actually, including Inoki/Ueda vs Fujiwara/Maeda which sounds really fun) ahead of me first.

EDIT: Actually let me pause. Here are the matches I have before the 5x5

  • 3/14 Inoki vs Billy Jack
  • 3/14 Koshinaka vs Don Arakawa
  • 3/21 Fujinami/Kimura vs Adams/Jackal
  • 3/24 Inoki/Sakaguchi/Ueda vs Adams/Borne/Jackal
  • 3/24 Takada/Yamazaki vs Koshinaka/Cobra
  • 3/24 Fujinami/Kimura vs Fujiwara/Kido

I'm pretty excited for all of those. I've hit the point where I have enough knowledge and context where I can be excited about Inoki/Ueda teaming or Matt Borne coming in to join Chris Adams and the Jackal, etc.

Edited by Matt D
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Bonus match: 2/2/79 (LA): Chavo Sr./Fujinami vs Twin Devils: I'm watching this disc of 79 NJPW mainly to see a Hoshino/Yamamato (Yamada Brothers) tag since I've never seen that act, and I'll watch the first few matches on the disc at least. This was juniors Fujinami and while he had some flashy escapes and a good dropkick and worked ok from underneath, Chavo was the star here and he was the second banana. Chavo worked GREAT from underneath, always seeming like a threat just waiting to explode. Twin devils had a good act, controlling the ring, basing, stooging, solid control offense, that paid off at the end of the first fall with a switch (set up in a funny way as one got knocked to the floor and sat in a seat for a bit) and a press up of one by the other onto their opponent. It was a shine>heat>comeback>banana peel>fall|heat continuation>comeback>fall||shine2>heat2>comeback2>finish sort of match but they still could have cut out a couple of minutes from that second shine. It was a little celebratory (full of big spots and clowning) but not nearly as fun as it gets in lucha. Otherwise, I had no problem with this one. Post match Ueda got cleared out by the babyfaces and had a great temper tantrum.

3/14/86: Inoki vs Billy Jack: This was minimalist and honestly, not so great, and that was on Billy Jack. What's the best Billy Jack Haynes match? Man there's a dark match with Hogan/Haynes vs Hart Foundation and Danny Davis? I should watch that. Anyway, he was chiseled and there were moments here, sort of, like Inoki slamming him twice to start only to get press slammed, but most of this wasn't super it. I talk sometimes about how having Brock on a card screws up not just the card but all the cards around it because it's an entirely different wrestling reality. It's a different volume. It's a different set of rules. A different overlayed shared reality. The UWF guys are a little bit like that. You can watch him win a knucklelock test of strength or get a top wristlock but without absolutely perfect timing and drama, without stakes and Inoki really selling it as something important, it's hard to get behind it. There was one moment in all of this that felt that way, right at the end when time seemed to freeze after Inoki ducked a clothesline but before he hit the back brain kick. That was perfect. Everything else? Not so much. Ueda raised his hand post match if you're keeping track.

3/14/86: Koshinaka vs Arakawa: I liked Arakawa here. Nothing was flashy but everything had a lot of oomph behind it and looked credible. He could have a real banger of a match with Fuchi or 89 Momota. I bet he and Kosugi could have a hell of a match. Hey, that is a match that happened, and on tapings. Maybe it's out there. Koshinaka feels like someone who would get all of his shit in every match and would do a bunch of unnecessary rolls and flips and flatliners and cutters if he was wrestling in 2022. Just that stuff didn't exist yet but he still does the butt butt and pile driver and whatever else. And I've seen him get eaten up but not exactly sell a ton. I don't know about that guy.

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On 3/23/2022 at 5:30 PM, Matt D said:

I'm watching this disc of 79 NJPW mainly to see a Hoshino/Yamamato (Yamada Brothers) tag since I've never seen that act, and I'll watch the first few matches on the disc at least.

Yamaha Brothers have aged really well, from the handful of matches I've seen. We've only got footage from their sunset period, but I think it's reasonable to assume there was stylistic continuity with their original JWA run. You can really see how Hoshino's energy in particular would have inspired the people it did, such as Mach Hayato and Masahiko Takasugi/Ultra Seven. (The latter ran a Hoshino fan club called Beantank, and he was the only person from that first generation of Japanese fan clubs in the 70s to actually become a wrestler, instead of a journalist like the Maniax guys.) Mighty Inoue & Animal Hamaguchi were the only other team in Japan at the time that were doing anything similar (the later Choshu/Hamaguchi team was very much Yamaha-inspired), and the Yamaha bros would definitely be an easier sell for modern fans than their All Japan equivalent, Kojika & Okuma.

Edited by KinchStalker
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What I have on tap is a 30 minute IWE match so I'll get to it but I'm easing in.

3/21/86: Fujinami/Kimura vs Jackal/Adams: I had been looking forward to this one but it was ultimately a miss. It really comes down to structure. This was long. 20+ minutes easy and I think Adams hit a Young Bucks amount of superkicks in it. That wasn't the problem though. The problem was that Fujinami and Kimura were just too dominant. They just came back too much. They were never really in any danger of losing. The heel team gave them too many opportunities to make tags. You might get an individual exchange with Adams and Fujinami or Kimura that was very good, but it never added up to anything. Adams held up one of the two for a Slaughter Cannon which I always love, but it didn't really mean anything. It wasn't even like the AJPW 89 Spike Piledriver which could be the nail in the coffin to someone fighting even and a real momentum shift. Later on Adams did a splashing clothesline while Jackal held up someone else. None of it sank in. Ah well.

3/21/86: Inoki/Ueda vs Fujiwara/Maeda: Really liked this. Big buzzy crowd ready to see it. Ueda vs Fujiwara was exciting to them and the story there was that Ueda couldn't hang on the mat with these guys but he hadn't changed one bit even if the crowd was behind him. He'd just goozle them or toss them out and scrap. But of course, they could scrap back, either Fujiwara with headbutts and head on or Maeda with flippy kicks and what have you. I loved how Ueda slapped Fujiwara in the corner instead of the other way around. At one point he tried a standing toehold on Maeda and Maeda just jammed it until he could drop down and do the ol' leg hug which take up 1/6th of any of these UWF matches. Sometimes he just tried to headlock a guy over for long enough to tag Inoki. You can only contain these UWF guys, not control them. Crowd went absolute nuts for the first Maeda/Inoki exchange and it built to Inoki powering out of a Maeda crab. The best bit with the two of them was later on when Maeda just plastered Inoki with kicks in the ropes. As with a lot of these matches, it seemed like the NJPW contingent was getting an advantage towards the end (but of course Fujiwara can end things in a moment), but they ran out of time so that was that.

3/24/86: Inoki/Ueda/Sakaguchi vs Adams/Jackal/Borne: I liked this more than the 3/21 tag. It had less time to fill with a couple more wrestlers but also it felt like traffic was directed better by the Japanese team. They had a period where they pretty gloriously beat down Adams and obviously they won off of a dodged superkick that cracked Borne in the face and the back brain kick, but all three took some heat as well. Borne and Adams came out crazy with chairs and Adams got to crack Ueda with one later on. The transitions were fairly good in this, either a distraction or a bit of interference or spirited comeback. More opportunistic than narratively brilliant mind you. Sakaguchi remains just really solid every time I see him.

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3/24/86: Takada/Yamazaki vs Koshinaka/Cobra: Another HH. This was very, very action packed. I would have liked a bit more selling from the Koshinaka/Cobra side but what are you going to do? I'd call this a sprint. I will say that Koshinaka looks a little more credible in there than he did against these guys previously, but there's still a real sense that he can't keep them down. Yamazaki had killer kicks while Takada was more of the full package. But we knew that. This was probably a better match altogether and my guess is that maybe it wasn't around for the 80s set. I don't have a ton to say about it.

3/24/86: Fujinami/Kimura vs Fujiwara/Kido: So we only get the last six minutes or so of this and the finish is just them tossing each other out and it breaking down and it was great. Best thing I've seen in this run so far. It kills me we only have six minutes of it. I want to write it out move for move. I'm not even sure how else to handle it. It was just so heated. Fujiwara starts with Fujinami in a chinlock. Fujinami tosses him off with an armdrag but Fujiwara drives him to the corner and whacks him in the face. He drops down into the leghug but Kimura reaches in for a tag and dives in with a knee drop. He hits a pile driver, tries a double arm suplex but Fujiwara retreats to the corner, so Kimura just beats the crap out of him there. Fujiwara recovers to a greco-roman knucklelock, but he uses his leg to open up Kimura and headbutts him. Then he tags in Kido and Kido lays in some nasty kicks. Kimura catches one, but unlike every version of wrestling ever, that doesn't stop Kido. He just jams him and drives him down with a Fujiwara armbar. Kimura gets out and tags in Fujinami but Kido nails him in the face with a dropkick. And it just keeps going from there. That's about half of it. Later on Fujiwara gets the armbar on and keeps moving his feet to control Kimura. Later on Fujiwara hits this great dangling double underhook suplex. Later on, he goes for a pile drive but Kimura does this really cool thing where he drives forward as Fujiwara is getting his head between his legs and gets a double leg and a crab attempt but Fujiwara bridges on his head and flips him over into his corner. And all of this leads to Kido coming and Kimura crushing him to a belly to back to set up the Scorpion attempt by Fujinami and Fujiwara breaking it up with a headbutt and everything breaking down. It's tough to analyze six or seven minutes of a match when it's all that great.

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3/26/86: 5x5 Maeda/Fujiwara/Kido/Takada/Yamazaki vs Inoki/Fujinami/Kimura/Ueda/Hoshino: I watched this on the treadmill on Thursday night and then, after watching a ton of wrestling over the next few days following had to double back and rush through it again this morning just so I'd know what to say about it. There's a ton to unpack. I'll lead with this. Every exchange is good and credible. Everyone brings something slightly different to the table. The story is great. There are small moments and big moments that hit. You get little callbacks like Yamazaki driving forward only to get eliminated by a backslide and then Hoshino, later, almost getting Fujiwara with a backslide before getting dropped with the deadly leg hug (though he almost escaped it; he'd escaped it earlier by turning and making it to the ropes). And you can go back to Hoshino being like a scrappy bulldog or trying to hold back Inoki before the match and getting slapped for his trouble since Inoki wanted Maeda to start and that probably wasn't the gameplan for team NJPW. And on and on and on. There's a lot here. Every suplex and every headbutt and every kick has some story, either short or long, behind it. Anyway, if you've seen this, you know the narrative. Yamazaki first on that backslide out of nowhere. Hoshino when he can't escape the deadly leg hug. Then Kimura after he gets kicked out brutally by Takada (and we should have known it was coming since he hits the leg lariat relatively early and to little effect). That makes it five on three. Fujiwara and Fujinami have a great exchange that ends with Fujiwara choking him out but Fujinami somehow able to dive over the top eliminating both of them. Ueda, who had been protected the whole match, comes in just to pull both he and Maeda out, sacrificing things so that Inoki had a chance against Kido and Takada. A lot of beating Inoki down and a few lightning back brain kicks out of nowhere and Inoki wins it. The crowd is up for everything, but they're especially up for all of those big moments that feel like big moments, defiant battling, sacrifices for the sake of the team, and, of course, whenever it seems like Maeda and Inoki will touch. They have that initial exchange and then one in the middle where Inoki survives a Fujiwara Armbar, and that makes up for them not having a moment at the end. This was four on the 80s set and it's undeniably great and I'm happy that I've built up my 1986 NJPW IQ enough in a month or two where I'm able to fully understand and appreciate it.

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That was a good little break point with Mania week giving me a lot of other things to watch, but I'm back on the grind here.

3/26/86: Keiichi Yamada vs Tatsutoshi Goto: I'm not super familiar with Goto. He was pretty good at leaning on Yamada here with some real bullying holds. What struck me was how polished Yamada felt on the mat, even if it was just chaining a muta lock into a deathlock, that sort of thing. I wish that Goto had sold the leg a bit more after that but what are you going to do. That said, this did not feel like a frenetic Tiger Mask/Rocco inspired sort of juniors match but instead a little more measured, a little more tactical, a little more technical, a little more grounded with less cooperation and more jockeying and struggle.

4/11/86: Inoki vs Masked Superstar: After watching the UWF guys in NJPW, it's hard to take any other sort of more traditional pro wrestling matwork seriously in the promotion. Something like Inoki vs Haynes just came off as absurd. That said, this worked for me, even though it was not in the least shoot-style-y. Very traditional stuff, but well worked and credible. That's absolutely a testament to Eadie and a testament to Inoki playing into his strengths as opposed to reaching in order to keep up with guys more strikingly talented than he. Nothing about this was breathtaking but it all worked. The finish was Inoki getting an advantage but going for the mask instead of the win and hitting the ref when he tried to stop him. I don't know if I need ten matches between these two in 86 but for the one, I enjoyed it.

What's next in April? Fujinami/Kimura vs Murdoch and Moondog Rex, Maeda vs Murdoch, Fujinami vs Superstar, Inoki/Fujinami vs Superstar/Murdoch, Andre! (vs Ueda, vs Inoki/Ueda with Kerry Brown, vs Maeda ... uh oh). I think we don't have a couple of weeks of TV maybe or maybe it just didn't air so it feels like we're missing Takada and Fujiwara and Kido and the Juniors, but there's some fun looking stuff on that list.

I made the mistake of looking at what else was on some of those tapings that didn't air: 4/11 had Fujiwara/Kido vs Arakawa/Goto. It's interesting that Chono and Hashimoto are working matches 2 and 3 as well. The 4/11 card had 21 year old Hash vs Yamada and the 4/25 one had him against Yamazaki. Anyway, we'll rejoice in what we do have and I'll look at the list of handhelds again just in case.

Edited by Matt D
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4/11/86: ANDRE~ vs Ueda: Andre has green trunks and is out with ... argh, I always forget this guy's name. Wakamatsu! There we go. I had to look it up. Anyway, Wakamatsu is like Memphis Jimmy Hart for New Japan. New foreign goons every month and now he's got the cream of the crop. This was absolutely a nothing match. Andre controls the center. Ueda brandishes a bench. Andre knocks him out. Wakamatsu bloodies Ueda up. Ueda comes back in and Andre beats on him and tosses the ref around. After the match Ueda runs Andre off with a chair sort of (with Andre still scrapping and Inoki involved). The end. I wonder if this led to a Ueda vs Wakamatsu match. Let me look that up too. Hey! It leads to something even better on 5/1. We'll get there!

4/11/86: Kimura/Fujinami vs Murdoch/Randy Colley: Colley is Moondog Rex, of course. He was good for a couple of nice quick spots or shots or bumps in a row. Not ten in a row, but a couple well placed and well positioned. A good hand and a good tag worker, the kind who could get knocked down on a hope spot but still catch a leg on the way down to cut off the guy from tagging. Murdoch is fascinating to watch as always. He comes at odd angles, always seeming organic right up to the point he anticipates a move a little too soon or is just a bit too eager to stooge. But then you forgive him for the wild abandon he throws into it anyway (not for being part of the Klan, but for the ringwork mishaps and affectations). The fans here jeeringly respect him. Interesting use of the izuma leg lariat here, first to stagger Murdoch when he had an advantage and then to set things up for a hot tag later. The tags just aren't hot enough. They get so close but it's all on the guy tagging. I don't know if he's afraid to seem that hurt. With these matches, a lot of the times, you have to not just have the aggressor miss a move or get countered, not just have an opening, but then capitalize on the opening before you make the tag. It makes the person tagging seem more in control and competent and tough but at the expense of all the drama that makes tag wrestling so wonderful. It's a shame because at points here, given the Americans and their skill set, things were almost, almost there. Kimura shows me a really great shot now and again, just a chop in the corner that will be surprisingly stiff. Fujinami won this one with a lariat though, and that seemed a bit dodgy. Hansen he was not for all of his other skills. This kind of made me want to see what the original Demolition would have looked like if it played out. Oh, there was a fun moment too where Murdoch went for calf branding on a corner whip only to get tossed off but then hit it later, very AEW house style.

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4/25/86: Murdoch vs Maeda: This did not make the 80s set. That feels a bit like an oversight. I could see it falling in the midsection or what not. Lots of matwork early with Maeda more or less eating up Murdoch. He'd give Murdoch openings and Dick would be skilled enough to make the most of them, but Maeda would just pry out an arm or even just hammer his way out. Murdoch stayed in it though, by catching kicks, sure, but mostly with some nasty, nasty elbow smashes. A few knees, a kick or two, but man did he make amazing use of his elbow in this match. Craziest thing was that Murdoch even hit calf branding! Not that it did him much good as Maeda kicked out but that's still hugely giving by Maeda when you think about it. Finish was Murdoch tossing him over the top for the DQ, I think. I didn't even realize that was a DQ here but it was pretty blatant. This was an interesting styles clash.

4/25/86: Inoki/Ueda vs ANDRE/Kerry Brown: This had a super cool moment. Ueda held the ropes to avoid the Andre big boot and Inoki snuck in behind him and hit the belly to back. Coolest thing. Otherwise, it had some of Ueda asserting himself by tossing people out and tossing them around, Brown and Andre leaning on Ueda otherwise, Andre trying to avoid Inoki as the match went on, Andre actually pinning him with the butt drop! And Wakamatsu taking his shirt off post match even as Andre just kept catching these chair jabs that Ueda tried to nail him with. The big tag match is coming, but it wasn't this.

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4/25/86: Fujinami vs Masked Superstar: Solid 13 minutes here. Solid is the word for it. Super well worked headlock to start. Eadie had great timing for his attempts to counter. Knew exactly when to do it and was very credible but also perfectly ready to stooge and fail when it was time. Fujinami looked like one of the most technical wrestlers ever here. I get the comparisons to Bret when you look at his sharp execution. Story was that Superstar could use power or skulduggery (mainly tossing Fujinami to the outside) to get an advantage, but Fujinami would find a way back to the arm and take back over. Eventually, Fujinami got a dropkick out of nowhere and turned the tables and then got a well-earned countout win with a masterful kick while Superstar was trying to keep him from getting back in. Nothing worldshattering but just good pro wrestling.

4/29/86: Inoki/Fujinami vs Murdoch/Superstar: We get this joined in progress. I really love how Murdoch uses calf branding in NJPW. It's not a finisher but it's a spot that the crowd and the announcers love. It feels like a transition move that lets him take over. Good heat on Inoki here as he bled and took a lot of stuff, which led to a big moment where he blocks a Murdoch punch and gets an actual, no kidding, no fighting spirit, selfless because he can be, hot tag to Fujinami who got to come in house afire. I watched Starks/Hobbs vs Lee/Swerve right after while having probably my best run ever and I've got the kids singing "I love my kitty cat" by Parry Gripp behind me right now so I forget the finish. This is why I do this on DVDVR and not Segunda Caida.

Edited by Matt D
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4/29/86: Andre the Giant vs Akira Maeda: I'll say this. The first half is actually very compelling. It's fascinating because of the reality, because of the constraints therein. The match starts with Maeda going for a double leg and Andre just jamming him with a single arm underhook and pressing all his weight down upon him and Maeda can do nothing, absolutely nothing. As the match goes on though, he's able to take Andre off of his feet. This is 86 Andre. This is pre-back surgery Andre. This is the Andre that couldn't carry Robin Wright on his back during the filming of Princess Bride. During that first half when they're still sort of working, it's compelling. Maeda will get an arm. Andre will just have too much reach. He'll be able to pull at the hair or goozle the face or get a choke or even just get his hands together, let alone the ropes. Andre just wants to press down and pin him to the mat with that underhook and Maeda learns and tries to slip free. Maeda tries the kicks and Andre catches one. Then that back half just breaks down and becomes an awkward standoff where they both seem wary to try anything at all, with Wakamatsu trying to keep people engaged and Inoki coming out and if I was Inoki maybe I'd pivot after this and turn things into a UWF vs NJPW vs Wakamatsu's group of foreigners (Andre/Murdoch/Superstar/Brown. Anyway, there was a pretty compelling nucleus to the first half of this and while I can see people saying "This isn't wrestling" there was still a patina of "working" going on there, enough so that I think those people are way off base and they're missing the obscene beauty that came from both wrestlers bumping up against the lack of options they had when it came to one another. Maybe?

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5/1/86: Inoki/Ueda vs Andre/Wakamatsu: Did you guys know that this existed? That there was an angle where Ueda turned face against Wakamatsu's stooges and Wakamatsu brought Andre in to crush him? That's one big difference in NJPW vs AJPW that I'm used to. Angles. What a novel concept. Anyway, this whole thing is wild. There's some crazy guy in a suit to start who flips a coin and I think that means that Wakamatsu has to wrestle but who knows. He has matching gear (red trunks) with Andre and that's a great laugh for everyone, let me tell you. Andre will set up Ueda early and Wakamatsu will get his shots in. Inoki actually slams (kind of) Andre too early into the match but that makes sense because remember, Inoki got opened up vs Superstar/Murdoch and Andre starts working the wound~ and biting him and then Wakamatsu gets in on that action too. Eventually, Ueda tries to stab him and Andre gets his hand on the scissors or whatever and it all goes a little crazy. In the end, Inoki kicks Wakamatsu in the head a bunch of times while Ueda has Andre busy and that's that. All of this was a fun scene and this could have easily been Sheik teaming with Fritz against Andre and Skandar Akbar or something.

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Ok I did the 5/1/86 5x5 series off the treadmill as it's 80 minutes long.

Takada vs Yamada: Real Wheeler Yuta survival performance here. Yamada had been working with these guys for a couple of months so he didn't get steamrolled from the start (well, he did get kicked in the head right as the match started and that was awesome) but he was able to hang to a degree. The problem for him was that Takada was just too good and had size and reach advantages on him past that. It meant that Takada was able to snatch victory away from Yamada anytime he managed even the smallest move. All he had to do was get into an arm's length of Takada and he'd lose a limb to him or get thrown. Yet, all the while, Yamada survived and as he did, the crowd got more and more behind him. He escaped a kimura by getting to the ropes, then another. He ate kick after kick but managed to get up. After finally catching a kick, he strung together a few offensive moves in a row and even dropped down into a figure four. Takada had an answer, though (like driving him down into a Fujiwara armbar as he tried to chain one move too many), and eventually it became less a matter of "if" and more of "when" but with a crowd that was happy to give him more and more of its heart with every kick out. If this was the only match of the night, it would have been a star making performance for him, but it was just the start of a guantlet.

Takada vs Sakaguchi: Takada had absolutely bullied Yamada and now it was time for he in turn to get bullied. There's always someone bigger. There's always someone stronger. Maybe if he came in fresh, he could have outlasted and tired out Sakaguchi, but he wasn't fresh. That's what Yamada had accomplished. So while he tried to throw his larger opponent with a slap or later on with some strong kicks, Sakaguchi just had his number, could out reach him, out strength him, could counter his holds. Those kicks bought him a moment at the end but he was desperate and whiffed on a missile dropkick and Sakaguchi just forced him up onto his shoulder for a Canadian Backbreaker and the tap. Comeuppance would be the word for it.

Sakaguchi vs Yamazaki: Yamazaki was fresh and had something to prove but he was just going to be able to chip away at Sakaguchi. He had the same problems Takada did. Sakaguchi was just too big with too large a reach advantage. Still, he was able to work on his leg and the camera angle when he had the legbar on was great, especially as he kept shocking Sakaguchi with shots to the face whenever he tried to sit up. Eventually though, size won out and Sakaguchi stood up and added in a legbar of his own to break it. Yamazaki managed one suplex and survived a half crab, but fell to the full crab. He did some damage though at least.

Sakaguchi vs Kido: Kido smelled blood and went after the leg but peppered in a bunch of nasty kicks to the stomach and chest too. In general, Kido would have done better than Yamazaki even against a fresh opponent. Even so, Sakaguchi was still able to bully him around for the most part but at a cost. The jumping knee did equal damage to both of them and the atomic drop left him open for Kido's roll up.

Kido vs Koshinaka: You can't say Koshinaka didn't come in with a gameplan; he did. He tossed Kido out immediately and then went after him on the outside, including a pile driver. This lagged a bit when Koshinaka was trying holds. There were a few fun moments of Kido really turning things around on him as Koshinaka tried to contain him including a great forearm off the ropes. Also a nice nearfall with the butt butt into a roll up. Anyway, Koshinaka remains punchable. I don't fully get the ending as Koshinaka either hit the floor first or was DQed for tossing Kido over the rail.

Kido vs Kimura: Fairly short. Kido tried to contain Kimura with good reason as when Kimura was free to move he took the fight to him. Kido tried, but all it really took was a few meaningful openings for Kimura to hit the Inazuma Leg Lariat and get a half crab for the win.

Kimura vs Fujiwara: Up until this point it's been professional, sometimes heated, some shots on the outside, a slap or two, hard kicks, but most of the time they've shook hands at the end. This was something else. It was Fujiwara going straight for the kill and Kimura bloodying him outside. It was Kimura looking as good as I've seen him going after the wound, getting Fujiwara down, maybe neutralizing him. Maybe not. What he got for his trouble was headbutts and choking. From there, it was gritty as hell, leglocks and the scorpion and armbar attempts. The visual at the end with Fujiwara holding him in the arbar, blood coming down either side of his nose, teeth grit, eyes wild, is absolutely amazing. They did not shake at the end. Instead, Kimura, Fujiwara's arm on his blood as if to point out the damage, bowed and left the ring and Fujiwara stood posed in the corner, waiting for Fujinami.

Fujiwara vs Fujinami: This is close to the best ten minutes of anything I've seen since starting this project, either for AJPW or NJPW. Close. Fujinami has presence and star power. Just him hyped up and daring Fujiwara to come at him at the start was electric. Fujiwara works from underneath in the sleepers here and sells what's going on with his squished, blood splattered face, as well as anyone's ever sold anything maybe. He has a way of snatching a leg at a key moment that's simply better than anyone ever too. You watch him do it and him make it look so easy and wonder why everyone isn't simply better at everything they do. The drama on the outside where it was obvious that Fujiwara just wanted to keep him out however he could to draw a double countout and the win for his team was just amazing during that first exchange on the floor. When they made it back into the ring it was more sleeper and more leg grabs and more twist out of a crab and then back to the outside. The only problem with this is that the count becomes somewhat meaningless and unbelievable and maybe that's because Fujiwara takes it too far with the pile driver to the floor on a now bloody Fujinami. Maybe he realizes that his gambit failed because the ref won't call for the double countout, but that's a lot to read into things. I was just so into this in the moment, and so into the drama of whether Fujiwara would force a double countout and it ended up being more about the the bloodying and the pile driver on the floor, etc. They set up a sort of expectation for me and then it shifted to serve the broader match. But the image of a bloody Fujinami turning him around with a backslide to counter a European Uppercut is just as beautiful as anything else in these ten minutes. Awesome stuff especially if you can wrap your head around that little blip the second time they're on the floor. And then the post match! Fujiwara headbutts him. Then he wants the handshake. Fujinami points to the floor and punches him in the face instead. So good.

Fujinami vs Maeda: I was a little worn out after everything, including the Fujiwara vs Fujinami bit, but the crowd sure wasn't. Maeda had a clear advantage here but he played with his food a bit too much. Fujiami got an early Scorpion but you almost get the sense Maeda gave it to him to set up some kicks later. Then he hit the dragon suplex ON Fujinami. Eventually, Fujinami gets some moments of heroism including turning a German and Fujiwara Armbar into one of his own, but the blood loss is too much and after some spin kicks, the ref calls it.

This whole thing was excellent with just a few down moments. It's less of a coherent whole than the March tag but the highs are higher. The idea is obviously to set up a Fujinami vs Maeda match which we'll get in June but man do I ever want the Fujiwara vs Fujinami singles that should have come out of this instead. It set that up. It set up another viable Kimura vs Fujiwara match. It elevated Yamada and made me want a straight up singles Takada vs Yamada match. Just good stuff all around with the Fujiwara vs Fujinami exchange being one of the best things I've ever seen.

Edited by Matt D
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5/16/86: Fujiwara vs Kimura: 56 on the DVDVR NJPW set. I can see that. It really feels like it follows from the 5x5 Gauntlet with Fujiwara attacking right from the start and bloodying Kimura almost instantly. No better way to target a wound than a slew of Fujiwara headbutts. Kimura tries to comes back with the sleeper that was so successful when used by Fujinami in the gauntlet, but this isn't a worn down Fujiwara. Maybe the bet bit is when he first gets a hold on and Fujiwara casually makes it to the rope and Kimura just chokes him out because this isn't a friendly competition but instead, it's war. Then, when breaking a hold, Fujiwara just chokes the life out of Kimura for good measure. Later on, Kimura tries to slam his head into the turnbuckle connector but this is the first appearance of the great Fujiwara skull no-sell in 86. The blood continues to flow and it's all Kimura can do to stay alive and stay in it and not pass out or give up and it maybe never quite leads to that big moment of comeback you'd want, but instead peters out as Fujiwara heads back outside with him and tosses him over the rail to end the match. This is such an amazing unleashed Fujiwara but the match needed 2-3 more minutes and for Kimura to turn it up another notch in desperation.

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5/16/86: Inoki/Ueda vs Andre/WILD SAMOAN (Samu): This might be the best pure 1986 Andre in Japan match so far. Nothing over the top great but it was solid and straightforward in a good way. Good bit with Ueda being Ueda and choking Andre in the corner (only for Andre to just heave him over the top rope). Big pop of the match was Inoki hiptossing Andre. My favorite bit was Andre using Samu's head for a weapon against Ueda. Samu looked pretty good. He brought some motion like a big missed diving headbutt at the end.

5/16/86: Fujinami vs Kerry Von Erich: Unfortunately, this lost some momentum from the really fun tag a month or two before. A lot has happened since then with crazy gauntlets and everything else. It was well worked though. Kerry just needs a bit more heel stuff as he gets by with the claw teases (and eventually the claw). The big moment here was Fujinami putting on a claw of his own but my favorite bit might have been Kerry doing the Flair strut just because he could. Too many dropkicks though. This actually had one of the better finishing stretches in 86 so far (Fujinami goes for a O'Connor roll off the ropes but both guys go tumbling between the ropes. They brawl. Kerry gets in first. Kerry tries to suplex Fujinami in. Fujnami goes up and over and hits a German with a bridge for two. Kerry gets a small package out of nowhere for 3). Again, Kerry's just a little limited in this role (especially compared to Kevin) but they match up well otherwise.

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Bonus match: 6/12/85: Hogan/Andre vs Sakaguchi/Inoki: This is interesting for a few reasons. First, it's so close to the period I've been watching. Second, it's de facto heel Hogan deep into his WWF title run. Third, it's him teaming with Andre. You have Sakaguchi with Inoki instead of Fujinami so there's less of a clear "smaller guy to get beat on". It's also a house show and a handheld. A number of things stood out. Sakaguchi's strikes for one. Not only does he hit hard with big sweeping shots, but he forces his opponent to react. At one point, he takes a huge shot from Andre just to turn him in the corner. Earlier, he was plastering Hogan in the corner and he needed to do these short peppering forearms to get out, something I've never actually seen Hogan do. Hogan could string together 3-4 power moves very effectively as a heel in 85. Corner back elbow. One-armed backbreaker. Shoulder breaker. Boom boom boom. It was interesting watching him try to get out of Inoki's cross arm-breaker too (he lifted the leg off of him to do so). Andre had some fun stuff too, mainly headbutts but he got to slam Inoki and Sakaguchi's heads together. He took a sunset flip too, which was wild. Best dramatic moment was him dropping Inoki with headbutts and a slam only to miss the falling one and then eat a back brain kick on his way up. The very best stuff was the comedy though, especially Hogan nailing Andre on the apron by accident and then Andre bellowing at him from the floor. Post back brain kick, Andre was walking around punching the air and that was so great. Then post-match, Andre was oscillating between belly laughs and selling himself barely able to stand due to a heart attack as Hogan reassured him. I have no idea what he was trying to do but it went on forever and it was something else.

Bonus Match: 12/10/81: Murdoch/Hansen vs Inoki/Fujinami: So I think I saw the match that came right after this before, being the Goulet/Andre MSG Tag League win, and I regret not having seen this first, because it's pretty great. So the idea, if I understand it right is that these two teams were tied for second place in the standings and the winner here would go on to wrestle Goulet/Andre in the finals. Goulet and Andre came out fairly early in the match to sit in the crowd and they got involved during a double countout scrum that led to the match being restarted. The big takeaway is that Murdoch/Hansen might be the best short term tag team of all time. As far as I know, past a shot here or there in the 70s and one omni six man in 83, this was the only time they really functioned as a team. They were great. Murdoch could stooge and let a guy like Fujinami shine but when they started on offense they were just brutal, a combination of Hansen's relentlessness and Murdoch's ability to hit you from any angle in interesting ways. They took over on Inoki just by pile driving the hell out of him one after the other and then beat down Fujinami with bearhugs and crabs and whatever else. Inoki finally got another hot tag and things spilled out. After the reset, it was great because they'd get Fujanami in a hold and Inoki would just come in and kick them in the face or whatever. The finish was Murdoch shouting out BRAINBUSTER and getting Fujnami up only for Inoki to dropkick him in the face. There are three other matches in the tournament on tape with these two including another long Inoki/Fujinami match and that's basically it of the pairing. Ah well.

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5/17/86: Takada/Yamazaki vs Cobra/Koshinaka: I have to admit, the last thing I wanted to see was another handheld juniors tag with Takada/Yamazaki on a handheld shaky cam with lines flashing, but this one was sort of great from the get go. It starts with Koshinaka, still with his jacket on, slapping Takada right across the face and whenever they had stand up strike exchanges or a new pairing, it was all chippy as hell. Lots of headbutts, lots of driving kick combos by Takada and Yamazaki, some great slugging back and forth. A couple of relatively hot tags too, first where Takada came in and just demolished guys and then when Cobra came in and hit an almost running tombstone. I don't need to see this sort of pairing again though, especially after this one. This is the only HH match we have from this card and it also had Kido/Fujiwara vs Tony St. Clair/Samu, Murdoch vs Maeda, and Heel ANDRE/Kerry Von Erich/Masked Superstar vs Inoki/Kimura/Fujinami which sounds like so much fun. Ah well, I guess this is better than nothing, but only because it was a step up from the last few HH Takada/Yamazaki tags.

5/18/86: Yamada vs Yamazaki: I can't speak for Yamada's 85 but he's gotten quite good at wrestling to his role and hanging if not overcoming by this point in 86. Lots of scrapping here, lots of competitive fighting over holds. Some kicks from Yamazaki when he gets the chance, including killing Yamada in the corner. When Yamada actually gets a hold on, he really wrenches. There was a moment at the end where Yamada hits the tombstone and you think they might put him over, but Yamazaki comes back with the kicks and gets a German for the win. Yamazaki isn't my favorite guy to see out of the UWF side, but I do kind of wonder about his 90s stuff. As for Yamada, I'd say the case for him goes back this far which was surprising as I never really hear about his pre-Liger work (save for some of the WoS stuff, but then there's a lot I haven't heard about). We're three years from him becoming Liger here!

5/18/86: Ueda/Koshinka vs Maeda/Takada: Another pre-match slap by Koshinka and some outside-the-ring brawling. What struck me here was how giving Maeda and Takada (but especially Maeda) were to Ueda who controlled for chunks of this and even got some kicks in. It all felt credible even if he had seemed limited in other settings and so much of that was Maeda not being stubborn and letting things happen to him. At first it started with catching a few kicks or sneaking an arm in to position him into the corner, but there were some real holds later on. The match turned on Maeda just sort of shoot exploder-ing Koshinaka followed by a Takada belly to belly. Maeda really did have so many ways to damage you between strikes and dropkicks and throws and holds. He had a great mix of size and skill and agility. It's undeniable no matter what else you think about him. Takada and Koshinka scrapped well down the stretch and Ueda came in with the kendo stick to draw the DQ. We've lost just a little bit of that side of him (you know, the drawing side) with this turn and in this feud and I could probably use a few more 3 minute matches where he just loses it and beats people down with a weapon.

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So, I'm not going to say I'm an expert on January - May 1986 NJPW now or anything but I have a pretty good sense of what's out there and what isn't for those months and this is absolute kismet. Your friend and mine, KinchStalker (tagging does not seem to be working), alerted us to a youtube channel earlier today and it has a match exactly where I am. 5/19/86. It's not the one I really, really wanted from 5/17/86, but it's pretty damn close and it's not been something in our circles ever, so I am happy to unveil to you and present to you...

5/19/86: Arika Maeda vs the Modern Day Warrior, the Texas Tornado Kerry Von Erich. I doubt it'll embed because I have to delete my cookies or something so here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwYQTyr6Y2s. Almost instantly you learn that Kerry did Track and Field as his primary sport in high school and maybe not wrestling and that he had been getting by for at least the last six years with a spinny punch instead of shooter skills. There's nothing he can do here that Maeda doesn't want him to do. It's never entirely unprofessional. This isn't like Andre. The crowd is fully behind Maeda and they see Kerry as muscle claw jock foreign guy.  That doesn't make the kicks less nasty. Later on, Kerry tries the claw and Maeda jams him and just throws a flurry of nasty headbutts. I don't think I've seen him use those much in 86. He kills him in the corner and the ref has to pry him off. Eventually, Kerry actually hits the discus punch! Maeda sells it. Kerry goes for another one. Maeda's done his part and ducks back throws a kick, and hits an enzigiri. Again, Maeda was playing along to a degree. He hit a snap suplex that was pretty shooty but then let Kerry lift him high for a standing vertical suplex. Of course he'd go right back to headbutting him. This ended with the claw and both guys going over the top for the double countout. I don't know, I think it's a fascinating 8 minute find. It was obvious that while Kerry could work with the NJPW guys and Maeda could work with the NJPW, maybe Kerry shouldn't have been working with Maeda.

5/19/86: Fujiwara/Yamazaki vs Ueda/Yamada: Interesting pairing here. I'm just glad it's not Takada and Koshinka in another tag (they're in a singles match but I kind of want to see that). Both Yamada AND Ueda looked pretty good here, with Ueda able to manage some nice flowing matwork early with Fujiwara. Yamada held strong on the mat early and then looked tough by enduring a lot of damage later on. He even managed a tombstone on Fujiwara which was a hell of a thing. In a kind of neat way, it ended with a bit more of that flowing matwork but this time, it was late in the game and Fujiwara can go all night but mere humans can't so he got three steps ahead of Yamada and armbared him to death. This was good though, and probably the best Ueda has looked in 86 (or maybe ever? Just saying). I really do believe that working the UWF guys night in and night out made everyone else better.

 

 

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