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Matt Watches 1989 AJPW/1986 NJPW on a Treadmill


Matt D

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9/16/86: Antonio Inoki vs Bruiser Brody:

I survived it. I did not fall off the treadmill. Like anything else in life, there was good and there was bad. There were things which happily surprised me on a small scale and things that disappointed me on a large scale. The first thing that you need to know is that even though the video is ~1 hour and 2 minutes, it is a sixty minute match. We don't get entrances or post-match silliness. I've never quite seen a Brody match like this, which is not to say that it is not a Brody match. Because it is. In some ways, it can pay off the promise of Brody as 1986 Brock, larger than life, indomitable, unbeatable, impossible to harm. Part of why I hate his work is because it tears down everything around it. If Brody is going to take a huge bump, bigger than what anyone else was doing, especially factoring in his size, only to jump right back up a moment later unharmed, it puts him over every move and every other wrestler taking bumps. It puts him on a pedestal above every other wrestler on the roster. And you know what? It worked for him. It got him booked. It got him paid. It kept him protected. And it has people who don't actually watch the footage thinking he's this legendary figure as opposed to just some jerk who refused to earn his way through following the narrative rules of the game.

In a setting like this, however, you can justify chipping away at him, can really lean into the mythos that he's created for himself to the point where hurting him, harming him, having him in danger, surviving him for an hour, holding an advantage, taking him to the limit, could really make someone. Of course, the flip side is that it was Inoki in there, who didn't need to be made even though maybe he needed to be sustained.

But Inoki did not maximize the opportunities here. Inoki was a very, very smart wrestler. He was a cinematic wrestler, maybe the most cinematic Japanese wrestler of the 20th century. He understood the value of moments, things that could be built to, that fans would remember for the rest of their lives. I don't think the match had enough of them. I'd be curious if this is some big legendary match in Japan but it's not talked about in the states, and if you ask me what the big iconic moments of the match were? I'd say that there was Inoki launching a knee off the top and accidentally hitting the ref. That barely had a meaning in the match. Someone else rolled in. Maybe Inoki had a phantom pin on a double arm suplex. Maybe. I think considering what Brody kicked out of following that, he probably would have kicked out anyway (the match got that wrong, see?). Maybe Brody hitting a pile driver on the floor on Inoki but again, they flubbed the follow up. The ref had to practically beg them to roll into the ring instead of it being one of those amazing, dramatic, NJPW countout moments where someone just barely gets in. There was Inoki surviving the knee drop or finally hitting the belly to back (teased earlier) but the former just didn't feel dramatic enough and the latter should have been timed with the ringing of the bell instead of Brody kicking out and the bell ringing after. The former makes you think Inoki might have won with it. The latter makes you wonder if Inoki might have won with anything at all ever? Inoki is amazing at creating memories. He had such a canvas to do so here and he came up short.

What did work, for the most part. was the story for the first third-to-half of the match. Inoki came in outwrestling Brody in a big way. My headcannon is that this is due to him trying his skills against the UWF guys, like in some sort of action anime where the hero trains to level up and the villain who gave him so much trouble previously has no idea what they're getting into. Brody's able to shrug him off, though, right until the point Inoki locks in the UWF leglock/kneebar thing, which, let me tell you, is 100% the MOVE of 1986. and for the next fifteen minutes, Brody sells. So the hold itself is NOT good because I don't think Brody has any idea how to actually sell in a hold. Not compelling. There's also 1-2 long chinlocks from Brody throughout which are not compelling and Inoki going back to the leg with a long figure four which is also not compelling. The leg-submissions are symbolically compelling in theory because of the damage they are doing but in execution and emoting, they're terrible and long and frustrating. But I did like Brody's selling after the fact. Inoki's able to stay on him because he's got one leg, but he's always danger and able to catch Inoki on the outside when he tries to capitalize (that starts with a chairshot and ends with a chinlock so... y'know Brody). Brody missing the knee and getting kicked a bunch is kind of a compelling moment too. And if they somehow went to a finish towards the end of 30 minutes or so with that being the big heart of the match, maybe it would have worked. But they don't. Instead Brody comes back and after a while decides that nah, his leg's ok. All good, boss. Enough of that. He takes over on offense. Inoki comes back and hits the ref. They go to a bunch of bombs. At some point Inoki hits a bunch of enziguiris and Brody walks back and forth like he's in a shooting gallery. They kick out of a few too many things. It's a draw.

What's weird about the match and something else I'd change if I wanted an outcome that was a better match and not just Inoki seeming like the world's greatest hero, is that Inoki takes so much of the match. On the one hand, that's not so bad because it means Brody never really offended me with crummy offense. But it messes up the drama to a degree. If I was shifting things around, I'd have Brody have some control before Inoki finally solved the puzzle with that legbar. Chop some time off the last quarter to do that. It'd give Brody another section of control, make Inoki work for things more, and mean that there wasn't so much meaningless bomb throwing and bloat towards the end. The best thing I can say about the match, I suppose, is that I think you could make it a lot better with just a few edits, which means that there was something there in the first place.

It just wasn't nearly enough given how good Inoki usually is at working this stuff out (for all his other faults) and the fact the match goes an hour. However good Inoki is at finding moments and crafting narratives which will paint him in the best possible light, I think this task was just a bit too big for him and opportunities were lost, big and little, in a match that he really couldn't afford to lose any.

But hey, it didn't kill me, right?

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9/16/86: Hacksaw Duggan vs Inoki: Obviously we've got a date issue here. Let me dig into this. Ok, this is...

9/19/86: Hacksaw Duggan vs Inoki: We only get 4:50 or so before the episode ends. It's probably a shame too as the first couple of minutes are a lot of fun. Duggan does the Inoki criss cross running really well especially how he just totters over on the drop toe hold. He really bullies the hell out of him with some high impact offense too before going to chinlock land. There's a great leapfrog at one point too but we have no idea what happens as it cuts off.

which leads to me to...

9/16/86: 5x5 Elimination! Maeda/Takada/Fujiwara/Kido/Yamazaki vs Fujinami/Kimura/Hoshino/Koshinaka/Takano: See, this was listed as 9/19 which is why I was messed up. People who saw the Brody Draw also saw this. So this is sort of the reward for sitting through the Brody match for me. Kotetsu Yamamoto is the special referee but it doesn't come into play. This show also had Kevin Kelly vs Don Arakawa, Yamada vs Black Tiger, Tatsutoshi Goto vs Duggan, and Maxxes vs Sakaguchi/Ueda, and a couple of other undercard matches, so yeah. What a roller coaster of a show.

Again, the cool thing here is that I know all these guys on sight and by wrestling now. I've built up a certain level of mastery. It's a lot of fun just to watch them go too. It starts with Maeda and Fujinami and the crowd is super into it. The other pairings are Takada/Koshinaka, Hoshino/Fujiwara, Kido/Kimura, and Yamazaki/Takano. It's all good. The UWF guys have an advantage on the mat but the NJPW guys can hang by now. There are a couple of double eliminations over or through the ropes. The Hoshino/Fujiwara one has him basically just charge Fujiwara through the ropes and the Maeda/Fujinami one is super dramatic as it looks like Maeda just maybe might hang on. Fujiwara is awesome in this. I love the angle that he takes people down into the armbar. It's just so vertical and nasty. We haven't seem Yamazaki for a while so it was nice to see him again; he, on the other hand, has such a weird over the top angle when he comes down with the legbar; I bet it's not as technically sound but it looks cool. The Koshinaka/Takada exchanges are all good. I like them more in this setting than in a standalone maybe. And they need to be good too because it ends with them! Takada goes over in the end and I have to admit, since Takada's champion anyway, I would have had him do the double elimination with Fujinami (which would have elevated him AND the belt) and then have Koshinaka come close a couple of times against Maeda instead of coming close against Takada. It would have really made Koshinaka all the more while not hurting Maeda at all since he was going to win. But what do I know, right? This maybe isn't as good as previous ones, but it's still good! Very good. Plus it's only 20 minutes or so.

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9/19/86: Fujinami vs Brody: Brody's so uneven. It's ridiculous. He's really good at selling after a limb has been targeted, but not when he's in the hold. He refuses to sell when he's in the hold but then he'll sell after. All of his holds are so bad. He's got this side headlock/front facelock that's like a headhug. He just has Fujinami in the corner wrenching the head, but it's just sort of putting his hands on him. But then he'll do this amazing drop back to get out of an Octopus attempt where both their bodies just go sailing. Sometimes he'll do a terrible chop, sometimes he'll do a great one. He'll dramatically lift up his opponent for a slam and just kind of lightly drop him. That's what makes Brody infuriating (I mean that and the blasphemy of bumping big and then refusing to sell, though like I said, the hold selling is the exact opposite). Fujinami hung. He had control for a chunk working the leg. He got the moral victory. Let's move on.

ALSO, here's what I'm thinking.

1. I get through 86 and find a logical stopping point. Could just be the end of the year.
2. I watch all we have of 1990 SWS~! That shouldn't take more than a month or so maybe? Otherwise, I was just going to watch Tenryu.
3. I go back to 1990 AJPW and go until I find a logical stopping point.
4. I take a look at 1987 NJPW. This will all take me a while obviously. By 2050 I get to the Musketeers and WAR.

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I'll get there. Unless I blow my hamstring out or something. This is a marathon and the wrestling isn't going anywhere.

Had a really fun night of watching stuff last night actually.

9/19/86: Takada (c) vs Koshinaka: I take these as they come. Obviously I have some sense of how I'm going to feel about certain things by now, but each match gets a fair shake as I start it. Informed, but fair. I know this one was fairly well regarded compared to some of the other junior stuff around it, even with the same wrestlers, but I'm happy to say it was really good. The story, as best as I can say it, and this reminds me a lot of the Fujinama/Maeda match actually, is that Koshinaka had to wrestle his absolute best match to stand up to Takada. He had to be one step ahead, ready for everything that came his way. And he was! It is one of those things that you can do with these UWF guys after a string of dominant matches from them, but I don't think it's all sustainable. In some ways, a big story of 1986 has been Koshinaka leveling up, first having no right to be in the ring with these guys, to losing his belt to one, to trying to find a way to solve the puzzle, to this where he's absorbing three kicks to get a takedown on the forth. There's a moment fairly deep into here where Takada slaps him across the face, mimicking the slap that Koshinaka did in a lot of their encounters early to try to get him to make a mistake. That, as much as anything else, shows how far Koshinaka came. Things were given time here. Nothing was rushed. Everything had weight. There was no real popping up. Things were built to. Towards the stretch the near-falls really mattered and were exciting. This isn't the best match in 86, but I do think it's the best match that these two could have and it's still a testament to how far they, and especially Koshinaka, had come. It's a great moment when he wins the title back, one of the best of the year, and I think the guy is super punchable, so good on them.

9/23/86: Fujiwara vs Yamada: Man, this was good. It was Fujiwara putting Yamada through the paces, but you could tell just how much regard he must have had for him, because he kept giving him openings to try things and look like he belonged in there. Yamada could have spent his whole career in matches like this, working the mat, trying some tricked out submissions using his speed and agility, fighting from underneath, working towards the rope, and yes, playing into Fujiwara's traps, and we'd think that he'd be great at that alone, and then he went on to do so much more still. For all that we talk about Fujiwara's skill or his attitude or his spirit or his credibility, he just had this mastery of the moment which is almost unprecedented in pro wrestling history (Terry Funk, Negro Casas, and that's just about it, right? Maybe a guy like Eddy at his absolute best?). Fujiwara just got it. It's like he could pause time and gauge a thousand imperceptible little things between his opponent and the crowd and every match that came before him and many that would come after and just could just pull and tug at he strings of fate and then start time up again. Like he was walking through air and everyone else was walking through water. The finish is amazing, with Fujiwara locking in the armbar, only for Yamada to get to the ropes and then try something different, just to end up back in it. Four times. It made Yamada look like a star for surviving. It made Fujiwara look like a god for being able to put it on him again and again at will. It's this sort of magical finish that felt so light and effortless and brilliant and was light years above what everyone else was doing and he just made it seem so easy. And after the match he seemed so happy to have gone through it with Yamada and so proud of him even if he wasn't one of his factionmates. Just magic. Fujiwara is magic.

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9/23/86: Fujinami/Kimura vs Maeda/Kido: Handheld and at first it's so blurry I had my doubts, but it comes into focus. This was a title change, but it was also a nutty sprint for a while. Really, it never entirely settled down. By this point, these guys had worked off and on for two-thirds of a year and the sequences were more complex. Things like Kimura ducking the spin wheel kick and Maeda then hitting a dropkick instead of it going right to the leg lariat. That sort of thing. When you combine that with the driving force of the UWF guys, it does sort of feel like the best of both worlds between shoot style and pro wrestling. Finish was fairly exciting with Kido doing a couple of armbars in a row like we'd just seen in the Yamada match (maybe he'd been watching?). I'm not sure it ever really narratively became anything, and for a title change you really would like it to, but what are you going to do? The action was good. It was exciting. It all made sense in the moment and followed its own internal rules. It was just that implicit storytelling we get more often than not. It's interesting that they got belts off of all the UWF guys at around the same time. I have no idea about politics or anything at this point.

10/9/86: Hashimoto vs Masaharu Funaki: This is not the earliest Hash match on tape (I think that's a tag from 85) but it's maybe the first singles match? One of the reasons that I'm even doing NJPW is so I can get to the musketeers eventually and Hashimoto especially, but there's not a lot to say about this one. Funaki eventually becomes a Pancrase legend and all that jazz but here they were two young guys coming up through the system working a mostly mat based match. They looked very competent. It was a far off handheld so you don't get a lot of intangibles, and I'd argue that maybe Hash picked up a lot of those in Memphis anyway, and all of that was to come. I'd say Funaki asserted himself on the mat just a bit more but Hash got to hit some big moves towards the end to pick up the win. A good base to build on.

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10/9/86: Antonio Inoki vs Leon Spinks: You know what? This actually almost worked. No lie. I'm not even kidding. If three or four things happened differently, it would have not just worked but been a monumental success. Even as it was, it still feels like a small success. Here's the most important thing: Inoki learned from his previous mistakes. He spent the first two and a half rounds more or less boxing with Spinks and he got his ass handed to him! 100%. He was getting pummeled in the corner. His best offense was a cheapshot after a hug, and the fans still sort of appreciated it since at least he was trying. He went down to a knee now and again. It was only towards the end of that third round that he started throwing a kick or two or maybe even teased a takedown. I mean, who knows what the rules even were. Maybe it was set up as X rounds with gloves, X rounds without? But here's the point. The only thing anyone in that crowd probably remembered in six months was that Inoki took his lumps and stood up to Spinks at his own game for almost three rounds. From there he started to come back with kicks, takedowns and submissions (though he knew enough to give Spinks one big knockdown at the end of the 5th).

So, the four things. 1.) Inoki probably shouldn't have gone down to his butt for the kicks so much. Who cares if it really works. It made him look cowardly when a standing kick to the leg wouldn't. He should have thrown some higher kicks to keep his distance instead (but not the enzuigiri! more on that in a second). 2.) They weren't clear to me on the rules, but the first time Inoki gets a submission, Spinks is in the ropes. Later times, the ref breaks it after a five count. Spinks should have always been near the ropes. Inoki could get him in a bunch but only when they were near the ropes; that's the story, or it should have been. 3.) Too many back brain kicks when Spinks wasn't going to sell them at all. Either convince him to sell them a bit or just don't do them except for maybe one big one to shock him and signify the momentum shift even if he doesn't sell it.  4.) My god, the finish. Look, there were points in this when Inoki was getting rocked where the crowd chanted his name as loud as I'd ever heard it. Towards the end, he finally, finally could have gotten the belly to back and then a pin. He tries it but Spinks jams him and just kind of falls and Inoki pins him and the ref counts to five and then goes down and counts a five count pin as they just lay there and it's terrible. If Inoki had just paid him enough to actually take the belly to back the place would have exploded and it certainly would have seemed more genuine and real (and protected Spinks even!) more than the actual finish.

Still, I bet people remembered him taking those early round shots more than the finish or him sprawled on his butt or anything else.

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Bonus match!

10/10/74: Antonio Inoki vs Kintaro Oki: This was great. It starts with Inoki demanding a handshake as Oki's slowly getting his robe off and getting checked over by the ref and Oki just doing his thing as Inoki gets more and more pissed and offended. Inoki throws the first punch, a cheapshot, the crowd goes nuts, and everything gets pulled back to allow the pressure to build again. The crowd ends up going big for just Oki shrugging off his robe in preparation. You don't see it every match, but occasionally Inoki really does have something of a petulant streak in his matches. I don't quite put it to the level of Hogan-As-A-Beloved-Bully, a bit more like Jumbo as he's facing Revolution (but not quite Grumpy Jumbo against the kids later), where the fans sympathize and see him as more human and relatable for it and they accept it if not outright approve of it, and see the value in "action." It's still an interesting dramatic choice that makes you think about Inoki the man and the culture he's wrestling in.

Once they start to lock up, it's measured and gritty. Nothing is given. Everything is worked for and nothing is taken for granted. Inoki isn't going to just get a headlock without Oki trying to roll out of it. There's a great moment where Oki goes for a spinning toehold or a figure four and instead of Inoki kicking him off when he's turned away from him (foot to butt) like you get most of the time this happens, Inoki throws his foot up into Oki's gut. The fact that they went with a less visually appealing and standard way of doing the counter made it feel more visceral and gripping and wild. It didn't feel like a clear/clean/well executed "spot" but like a desperate moment in a fight. Later on, when Inoki has Oki down, he really grinds the forearms into the face in away I've rarely ever seen him do before. Again, this goes back to that petulance. There's a real sense he's going too far and taking liberties but it only heightens the feel of the match and the animosity underpinning it.

Eventually Oki chooses not to break clean in the corner, throwing a low headbutt to stun Inoki and then a series of high ones, again and again and again, knocking him out of the ring, opening him up, building to that. This is another think about Inoki that I saw in the recent Spinks match, but in other places as well; there are times where he creates a mood where you truly wonder how he's going to possibly come back. As the headbutts kept piling on, even as he tried to power through them, it felt almost impossible. Generally the answer is a leaping kick to the back of the skull, but here, it was just squaring up and throwing a huge, defiant, earth-shattering fist into Oki's face. So much of the match up until then was about being cautious, about avoiding a mistake, about not allowing your opponent to get even a potential advantage, but bloodied and battered and all but hopeless, Inoki had no choice but to dare, but to gamble everything on one swing. And of course, he's Antonio Inoki, channeling the hopes and dreams and adoration of everyone in the crowd. You can imagine what happened next.

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I was going to upload a bonus (Sakaguchi vs Andre from 74) today. Usually what I do is upload these as drafts in youtube so I can watch on my phone on "your videos" and that dodges the copyright strikes. But it gave me a weird "Terms and References" thing and wouldn't upload.

That made me wonder if any other videos I'd uploaded previously had been flagged with that. I found one.

So.

Missed match: Takada (c) vs Yamazaki 8/7/86: It would have been a huge shame to miss this one actually. Yamazaki really sort of drops off the map footage wise in 86 relative to the other UWF guys and it was always weird that Takada didn't give his buddy a title shot and here it is. The VQ on this is amazing so it was probably some later release that came out after the DVDVR set because there's no way this wouldn't have made the set. For the most part it feels like a UWF match but with a NJPW crowd and NJPW stakes, and maybe a little more open and freer at times. It's a ton to cover as they do a lot in twenty minutes, but there's a clear progression. Early on no one can get a clear advantage with Yamazaki going for the cross arm breaker. As things open up, Takada hits the first front chancery suplex and scores earlier kicks with Yamazaki only able to get advantages by throwing kicks of his own. Takada's better at most things but Yamazaki probably has the kick advantage. Takada sweeps him out and unloads on him and then it's up to Yamazaki to throw anything he can to stay in, but Takada's generally able to handle things. He eventually gets some big submissions and Yamazaki has to make it to the ropes, all building to when he gets a triangle and Yamazaki somehow powers out of it. The crowd, towards the end here, is really chanting for him, and throughout he does a great job of portraying desperation (an escape for a second tombstone where he's just flailing wildly comes to mind). Takada is just better across the board but there's no quit in Yamazaki and you can really feel the difference in skill or hierarchy but also how good both guys are portrayed as. Very credible. They trade some bombs and there's an exciting finishing stretch where it looks like Yamazaki might clasp the hands on the chicken wing and get a win, but Takada gets out and goes from hold to hold until he gets the triangle again and wins. It's one of the most "UWF-y" matches of the year and probably the best junior match though it's almost a cheat, since it was less of a hybrid.

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10/9/86: Maeda vs Don Nakaya Neilsen: Maeda vs a Kickboxer, rounds. This was interesting. I'm not as sure what to make of it. The general idea was that Nielsen's every kick got jammed by Maeda who turned it into a takedown. Nielsen had quite a bit of luck with punches including a big one in the first round that rocked Maeda. Maeda's kicks weren't super effective and he even threw out big things like the spin wheel kick that obviously missed. The thing is that every time Maeda got him down and tried for a submission, he WAS right in the ropes, so that's what I wanted for the Spinks match and it more or less worked here. I liked his second hyping him up between rounds including between the second to last and last round when he said that everyone would love him. And they sort of did after he submitted to a half crab when he couldn't get the ropes. Post-match, Takada was so excited for Maeda and the fans bought this in a way that was far easier than the end of the Inoki match. They hugged after the match and it was a nice sign of respect. This probably wore out its welcome overall though.

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Bonus match. I'm about to make it to Muto so i'm watching a few things.

9/13/85: Keiji Muto/Keiichi Yamada/Kengo Kimura vs Shinya Hashimoto/Shinji Kosugi/Kantaro Hoshino: This is not at all what I expected. I think this put this thing on TV. Honestly, it felt like the 80s NJPW version of Cavernario, Dragon Lee, Negro Casas vs Cachorro, Hechicero, Virus. Kosugi and Hoshino were mean and beating guys down and Hashimoto was a tank (that liked to do spin wheel kicks) just tossing guys about. I thought the young boys would be on the mat mostly, doing simple things but instead they're throwing all the spots, quite literally. Yamada's tombstoning Hashimoto, because why not? Everyone's missing dives. There are tandem double teams. Muto gets to hit his handspring and moonsault. It's all pretty wild. There's a bit of control on Muto's leg which he doesn't really sell so that was kind of disappointing but past that it was just guys coming in and hitting stuff for the most part. Hard to get a real sense of anyone or anything. Muto felt kind of lanky actually and Hashimoto was still coming into his size and power. Yamada looked more polished than the other younger guys and Kimura hung with Hoshino and Kosugi certainly. Kosugi was awesome using his head and Hoshino had great strikes, but we knew that. Anyway, this was something.

7/20/85: Shunji Takano vs Keiji Muto: This was more of what i was expecting. Headlocks and the like. Takano already had his size and some presence. Let me put it this way. He had more presence here already than Taue had in 89. Muto had a little bit of flash, the elbow drops, the handspring, and yes, the backbreaker into the moonsault (it got him two). Some odd angles at times. A nice athletic escape out of a headlock. They did escalate as they went, leading to that finishing stretch and Takano powering a reversal into the corner so he could hit a German. I'd probably have come out of this one in 85 thinking both of these guys were people to follow in the years to come.

9/18/85: Tony St. Clair vs Keiji Muto: There are some tags but these are the single matches for him in 85. St. Clair put him through his paces, two series of holds, one early and one later, some rope running. A lot of dropicks. Muto had a headstand escape out of an armbar and a nice dropkick to follow. He had a big elbow drop and moves, at times, like a young Randy Savage maybe? He had both a big dive out of the ring (though it doesn't do him much good) and the handspring elbow/backbreaker/moonsault (Which gets him a 1 maybe? But a pop). This was competent stuff and had some flash but everything hadn't come together as of yet, of course.

10/86: WHITE NINJA (just called the Ninja; this is Keiji Muto) vs Lex Luger: Lex was pretty rough here, including fudging a body slam off the ropes. Very simple, very basic stuff from Muto. If he learned anything on this excursion, this match wouldn't show it. No crazy karate. He even did a full nelson so Luger could power out. This ends with Nagasaki and Ron Bass hitting the ring to get Luger as he was about to use the Rack and Windham making the save. White Ninja would have Windham would have been a hell of a lot more interesting.

10/4/86: Keiji Muto vs Jerry Grey PPW: This was from Hawaii and it's pretty good. Muto is polished by this point and they do a couple of fairly complex chain wrestling exchanges. It doesn't go long. The announcers go nuts for Muto's tombstone/moonsault combo. Grey had more of an idea how to work NJPW guys I think. Nothing that really stood out but another step in the progression. I will say that at one point Muto put on a cravat like he'd do a snap mare and just dropped down but the camera missed it, but it felt ace crusher-y. Probably a miscommunication but who knows.

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All of this leads up to ...

10/13/86: Tatsumi Fujinami vs Keiji Muto: Space Lone Wolf! I get that in the grand scheme of things this is sort of a start and stop, one of a few for Muto but it feels like a big deal. He's very different from anything we've seen in 1986, especially from a Japanese native. There's almost this shine of sports entertainment or at least "pro wrestling" on him as opposed to Inoki-ism or the UWF shoot stuff and the way that drove NJPW throughout the year. It's a certain attitude, a certain way he moves, how he throws strikes, a sheen. I can't really explain it well. It's big flourishes instead of small, close-up matwork. There's some chippy bits here early though, culminating with Muto just smashing Fujinami with a chair on the outside which opens him up. It's really striking how much of this Fujinami gives Mutoh. At one point he hits just a huge, huge moonsault but doesn't put his all into the cover. Fujinami comes back and almost tears his arm off. When Muto tries a second moonsault in the match after an exhausted handspring elbow that barely hits, Fujinami moves and Mutoh lands on his feet but eats a backslide for the finish. Post match, Fujinami tries to show respect and Muto swipes at him. All of this felt sort of electric in its own way.

Here's the Space Lone Wolf gimmick btw:

Spoiler

r/SquaredCircle - Keiji Mutoh as Space Lone Wolf prior to becoming the Great Muta.

10/13/86: Inoki vs Doctor Death Steve Williams: This was the end of the program so we just get three minutes. Doc rushes him to start and tosses him about and it then ends up more mat-based and that's it.

10/20/86: Inoki/Takano vs Konga the Barbarian/SUPER MARIO MAN: No idea what the Super Mario Man thing was about. They had Wakamatsu managing them and it's Ray Candy in a mask and a weird get up. Doesn't seem anything like Mario but he's imposing. He actually looks really good here, overpowering guys, having Inoki bounce off him, knowing just how much to give, etc. Konga is pretty good by 90 and quite good by 91 but he's not there yet. He has a good jab, a great slam, but this position is probably beyond him. At one point Konga and Inoki really mess up a sunset flip for instance. Still, he and Candy are a huge step up from the Maxxes though. Finish here is Candy crushing Takano, Inoki stopping it, and Konga taking Inoki out so that Candy can crush him again.

I'll gif a Slaughter Cannon for you guys so that you can see what Candy looked like in the gimmick:

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Edited by Matt D
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I soldier on. If for no reason than to get Brody off the top of this page.

10/20/86: Koshinaka/Kimura vs Takada/Kido: Some good stuff in here but I'm not sure how well this came together overall. The good stuff included the escalating slaps where instead of Koshinaka slapping Takada in the corner or vice versa, now one guy did it and then a minute later the other guy did it, etc. It also included Kimura vs Takada with some fun stand up jockeying for position we haven't seen before and Kido taking three shots to get one takedown as he would. Midway through Koshinaka got planted by a Takada tombstone and the UWF guys had an advantage for a bit but it never really meant anything. Finish was fun with an Inazuma Leg Lariat out of nowhere and things spilling to the outside. Nothing was resolved.

10/27/86: Fujinami vs Barbarian: Barbarian had some pretty great music here. I thought it was going to be Dr. Feelgood for a second but it went a different way. I have no idea what. Individual pieces of this were actually very good but overall it was all backwards and upside down. For one thing, Barbarian got knocked over with a shoulder block right at the beginning. Just dumb. A minute or two later, he'd be eating brutal chairshots from Fujinami and that's where he should have went down for the first time. Basically, Barb had the presence on offense at this point but not when taking stuff yet. Finish was really cool though as Fujinami slipped out of a suplex and actually hit a bridging German on the big guy for a win. This would have been better a couple of years later.

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10/27/86: Muto vs The Jackal: This was sort of chinlock city. Important news. SPACE LONE WOLF comes out to The Final Countdown, which is pretty awesome. Muto was really uninspired fighting from underneath even if he had that sort of odd, abrupt way of coming at you when on offense. Disappointingly listless. Jackal was just there, all size and no presence. Crowd loved the moonsault. Really, this showed me Fujinami's greatness for orchestrating the match they had together. This was a TV match and his second match back so he shouldn't have been dogging it or anything. Post match, Kevin Von Erich~! comes out to brawl with him and challenge him. I'm looking forward to that.

10/27/86: Inoki/FUJIWARA vs WILLIAMS/Bad News: Fujiwara had saved Inoki after the Super Mario Man tag so now they're teaming, but they don't quite get along yet. Beginning of this was awesome. Bad News and Doc ambush to begin and double up on Inoki by lifting him up and slamming him right into the post on the outside shoulder first twice. Fujiwara? He's hanging out on the apron waiting for a tag stoically. Fujiwara helps those who helps themselves. Doc's offense here is amazing. Just sort of deadlifting Inoki into a powerslam or inventing new offense left and right by turning one lift into one slam, hefting people up and dropping them. 86 Doc in Japan is just an all time beast even if he's a somewhat unfocused one. Eventually, Fujiwara gets fed up at the double teaming and starts to help. That's enough to let Inoki get a tag. From there, it's very AJPW where Fujiwara had to just endure long enough for Inoki to be recovered. He spends some of his time doing headbutt games in order to kill that time and it's all fun, especially Doc's reactions to it. The match loses some urgency after Inoki gets back in, with some more double teaming on Fujiwara, mainly carried by Doc's stuff. Bad news is savvy and knows what he's doing in there, so it's all technically sound but even a bloodied Inoki getting revenge had lost some of the early focus. If they had done it tight like the Tenryu/Hansen vs Baba/Rusher match with Inoki taken out early, Fujiwara able to get in but slowly getting swept under, and Inoki finally able to come back to push it to an emotional finish, it would have been an all time. As it is, it ends with the show's end credits with Inoki clearing house and it's just ok.

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