Matt Watches 1989 AJPW/1986 NJPW on a Treadmill

[No Point Stance]

5 hours ago, Matt D said:

Inoki tag: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HHqqEkMmolknN53lrmFogY7UOeQd6d0X/view?usp=sharing

Hase vs Tiger: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZWH042DLSoadx9gnuGRHsYDNOVpSFSNP/view?usp=sharing

 

Wow! Thanks, Matt - I can't believe you have the Hase match! D/L'ing now

[No Point Stance]

5 hours ago, Matt D said:

Inoki tag: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HHqqEkMmolknN53lrmFogY7UOeQd6d0X/view?usp=sharing

Hase vs Tiger: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZWH042DLSoadx9gnuGRHsYDNOVpSFSNP/view?usp=sharing

 

Wow! Thanks, Matt - I can't believe you have the Hase match! D/L'ing now

[Matt D]

I'm very far away from 91, but it wasn't too hard to track down. What WAS hard to track down was...

10/6/87: Seiji Sakaguchi, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Keiji Muto, Nobuhiko Takada, & George Takano vs. Riki Choshu, Tatsumi Fujinami, Akira Maeda, Super Strong Machine, & Kengo Kimura: Agh! I almost missed a 5x5 of NOW vs NEW. No Inoki here as he was off between the 4th and the 19th due to the Island Death Match. Takada had, in fact, switched sides at some point. I wish I had the story on that. I'm going to bug kinch. ... A day later, I have bugged Kinch and we don't know. At one point it might have been due to people being out and them having to fill cards, but who knows. Apparently the 10/19 Choshu assault on Fujinami is the end of the angle though. Very weird to run it for just a couple of months, to have the leaders mainly feud with each other, when you could have just run a Choshu's army deal instead, but it did make for some exciting wrestling.

This was a little hard to follow due to the HH nature of it but again, I know these guys now. It's always a little hard to tell Kimura from Fujinami or whatever but I mostly managed. They cycled through with nothing hugely standing out. Sakaguchi bullied guys. Kimura had attitude. Takano was kind of just there. Fujiwara wasn't in there too much until the end, Muto got to shine, Choshu really asserted himself after taking a surprising beating early, SSM is a beast, the crowd was most up for the idea of Takada vs Maeda. I know these guys. It's nice since I couldn't have done this this way a few years ago. Maeda somehow disappeared from the match. I went back and couldn't figure it out. After that, though, they peeled through the NOW side one after the other until it was Fujiwara vs the other four. He fought valiantly against SSM before going down to Choshu lariats. Fun stuff but doesn't quite reach the higher levels.

10/19/87: Steve Williams vs Muto: Poor Muto. He really tried. He took it to the mat and had some flashy stuff. He kicked. he dropkicked. He'd stagger Doc (Who they called the Deadly Professor) at times, but it was to no avail. Doc was just a beast. An absolute beast. And he would fight his way out of holds and no sell shots (appropriately) and charge back whenever Muto had any advantage at all. The finish was him powering out of the moonsault's pin, reversing a whip clunkily (in the best way) and hitting a stampede-esque powerslam before yelling at the camera. Beastly performance.

[Matt D]

I've been going through old Observers as I don't have a sense of what was up with Takada. Some notes.

• Dave hated Inoki. Constantly puts him up for most overrated and takes snipes. Some are accurate, some are not.
• Dave loves Takada. I don't really see Takada as a talent or a star relative to everyone else around him (he was good, sure, but so was everyone else).
• Interesting bits about injuries I can't really see from the text itself. Saito having visa issues or Super Strong Machine being out for a few weeks. Or Owen working at 50%. Apparently Kobayashi had a spinal injury and the jr. title is held up.
• Speaking of Owen, he was all the rage. The Jr. title tournament (and I had no idea one was even going on based on the footage itself) was a $138 tape with the September 5x5 and the Muto/Inoki tag and was considered by Dave to be one of the best ever or something. It was stuff like "Owen was injured, but still did a bunch of cool moves that I will now list." Obvious he was over the moon trying to explain Yamada's shooting star press and Muto's moonsault. 
• Lots of interesting stuff about Choshu being back but not allowed on TV yet and about ratings in general. Apparently the Yamazaki/Fujiwara title win (which Dave loved) tanked ratings. That's why they did the Island Death match. Dave said the low ratings were either because the Maeda-driven UWF style was good in live gates but bad on TV, because everyone was sick of Inoki, or because Choshu wasn't on TV and Inoki better hope it was the last of the three.
• He described that as "mostly rest holds" and this is why we don't have nice things in 2024 basically. Still trying to figure out Takada.

Edited June 17 by Matt D

[Matt D]

10/19/87: Saito/SSM vs Takada/Koshinaka: Shiro's first match in six months. They made a big deal that he was teaming with his rival. He looked pretty good in there to be honest. One great bit where he was in an indian deathlock from Saito and they were just paintbrushing each other. This went back and forth with Saito and Shiro more the weak links. SSM and takada matched up really well including one great exchange where they fought over a Fujiwara armbar and a few other things. Shiro did hit one amazing back drop driver too. Things occasionally got clunky with Saito. He got tripped on a dropdown and I don't think he was supposed to; that sort of thing, but he was a cruiserweight bully (they noted he was right at the top of the weight limit for jr. heavyweight) and he stood out as something different. A DVDVR sort of guy. This all sort of fell apart at the end but it was fun while it lasted.

10/25/87: Williams vs Inoki: Inoki's third defense of the title and vs the "American UWF" champ. So Doc had to be protected. This was honestly kind of excellent. Inoki came in with the hurt shoulder and Doc went right after it. In some ways, having something to focus on slowed him down. Inoki, about four minutes in took over with the pumphandles, but Doc fired back. Inoki hit a really neat enziguiri out of nowhere, but Doc grabbed his legs from the floor and started working on them. Inoki fired back with knuckle arrows, but Doc hit a low blow. There was a pres slam to the floor in there too. Inoki hit another enzi but Doc staggered around and got a lucky punch in. He finally set up the stampede but could only drop Inoki instead of slamming him. Finally, he went for a second charg into the post on the floor but Inoki shoved him in head first and hit a dropkick to get the last second countout. I'm probably not doing this one justice. It was good. and there's always that forboding sense now as we get closer to the end of the year for each monster Inoki vanquishes.

10/25/87: Koshinaka/Yamada vs Yamazaki/Takada: Jr. Showcase. We only get about five minutes of it. Things get super hot down the stretch though, including Yamada hitting the shooting star and Koshinaka hitting the butt butt and a German. Takada survives it all and Shiro misses a kneedrop off the top redamaging his knee. They just destroy it after that with Takada bending it the wrong way. Good for what we saw.

[Matt D]

10/25/87: Fujinami vs Choshu: This was the end of some tournament. I shouldn't look at cagematch to figure out what... Ok, I'm looking. Alright, here goes. On the road to this show, he beat.... Eli the Eliminator, Konga the Barbarian, and Daryl Peterson. Not great. Let's see what Choshu did.... Got nothing. This does not feel like a legitimate tournament... ANYWAY, this was 2/3 falls. Fujinami had been ambushed enough by Choshu in his life and he rushed right in. That turned out to be a mistake. Choshu was able to turn it around and hit the lariat to win the first fall in less than a minute. The second fall was Fujinami working from underneath. He'd get an opening but wasn't able to string moves together and it was all a little heartbreaking every time Choshu hit a belly to back out of nowhere, for instance. Or Fujinami would finally go for the German and Choshu would go behind and hit one of his own. Then when he finally did hit it, Choshu kicked out at too. But Fujinami was able to get a bridge back pin to even the numbers a moment later. Third fall was pretty brisk. They both clotheslined each other at one point. Finish was both on the outside and Choshu getting back body dropped into the ring, basically, and winning by countout. It felt unsatisfactory but still interesting.

11/9/87: Choshu/Saito vs Kimura/Fujinami: And after everything, here's Fujinami and Kimura teaming up together once again. Felt like a step back for both of them but especially for Kimura. He could have had a Jack Perry type run as a dissident, could have feuded with Inoki. Choshu coming in just completely blew him out of the water. Poor bastard. This was really set up to build him back as a babyface and give him sympathy however. Things were very even for the first half, building to a couple of big moments like a Saito scorpion or a Inazuma leg lariat. Eventually Choshu and Saito take over with one of their double teams (backbreaker + top rope move) in the corner and they open Kimura up on the outside. From there, he builds a ton of sympathy trying to fight back from it and make the tag as they really drag him under. They rarely do a good job of maximizing the timing of these hot tags and they didn't here either but Fujinami does come in hot. They hit a spike pile driver and Fujinami is so hyped up for Kimura to press the advantage that it's touching. Kimura gets another leg lariat but too close to the ropes and Choshu makes it back to Saito. they go for the slaughter cannon (belly to back with a top rope clothesline) but Fujinami is there with the enziguiri to the back of the head breaking it up and Kimura gets a roll up for a shocking-in-the-moment win. They spent a lot of the match explaining the point system and upcoming dates but you do get the sense that Kimura and Fujinami (even if they are no longer wearing matching jackets) are going deep in this.

 

[Matt D]

11/9/87: Sakaguchi/Fujiwara vs Pogo/Nagasaki: This is pre-tournament, presumably a warm up match for Wakamatsu's guys, but it's really a thinly veiled excuse for an angle. All angles all the time right now to try to heat up ratings. We come in JIP with Fujiwara doing his signature escape. There's some great stuff where he goes after Wakamatsu and actually gets him (revenge for screwing up the Andre match the previous year). Lots of big headbutts as he gets the hot tag from Sakaguchi but as he has leglock on, Nagasaki comes off with a chair and just crushes him. Inoki makes the save but he's injured. He was supposed to be Inoki's partner!

11/9/87: Dick Murdoch vs Muto: Super fun match up. Muto is theatrical with his offense and Murdoch is a game opponent. Pre-match Murdoch has something to say to Inoki who is ther efor commentary. Every time Muto got an advantage on the mat, Murdoch basically jammed him. Eventually, he was able to pry a leg out. Murdoch's selling was very good as he was hopping around trying to keep distance and shut Muto down. Muto went for the moonsault but couldn't get it (went for it too soon without the usual set up) and Murdoch got him with calf branding and a brainbuster. He sort of rubbed his shoulders post match and showed admiration then called in Inoki and made him agree to team with him in the tournament. They're really leaning much harder into coherent and ongoing angles to try to pop ratings.

[odessasteps]

I just looked at there are 2 Murdoch vs Muta 1989 NWA matches on YouTube. It would interesting to contrast them with the NJPW match. 

[Matt D]

11/16/87: Kimura/Fujinami vs Pogo/Nagasaki: Bit of an angle here to start, or at least some bells and whistles as Wakamatsu takes over the broadcast position and screams a bunch and that draws Fuji-mura to make the first strike. Just a little extra with ratings in mind thought you get the sense they mainly think the tournament matches can hold their own. Mainly. Nice bit of synergy early as Kimura was getting beaten on by Nagasaki (Eats guys up!) but he got a drop toehold, and then Fujinami worked over Nagasaki's leg until he reversed a leglock into something else. Then they worked Fujinami's leg for a while. Kimura definitely had a different sort of energy, and he still had the punches in a corner but they were waxing poetic on their big win against Inoki and Sakaguchi two years before and it had to be frustrating to him to be back there. It's frustrating to me! I keep mentioning it. Anyway thing went back and forth with them double teaming Kimura for a bit but he used strikes (kicks) to get out and got a spike pile driver on Pogo. Wakamatsu got up on the apron and got nailed and Fujinami let Kimura hit the Inazuma Leg Lariat on Pogo and then pinned him. Solid stuff other than the underlying issues.

11/16/87: Inoki/Murdoch vs Maeda/Super Strong Machine: Maeda/Super Strong Machine is a killer team. Yikes. This one definitely stood on its own. Murdoch and Maeda match up so well (which makes it painful how Inoki can't hang with Maeda and he really doesn't here, I don't even want to write about it, it's almost masochistic on some level). They started and there was a great bit where Maeda was kicking Murdoch in the corner, Murdoch grabbed the leg, got a standing toehold, tagged Inoki, Inoki rushed in like only he could, and hit a shoulderblock as Murdoch walked out of the ring, rubbing his arm. Just iconic stuff. Maeda hit the spin wheel kick something like three times on Murdoch, the second Murdoch spun with to deflect which was cool. But they all looked good and Murdoch wasn't afraid to take it. Before that he hit him with an absolute killer jumping knee; Maeda never does that and it looked great. Murdoch hit a couple of enziguiris too. Super Strong Machine was good in here, there's a great camera shot of him choking Murdoch in the corner. One great bit late where Inoki hits the kneedrop off the top and then makes Murdoch hit it too. This ended with them isolating Super Strong Machine (Inoki got the last laugh on Maeda by dropkicking him out) and Murdoch hitting the brainbuster on SSM for the win. They do seem to be building to a Kimura/Fujiwara vs Inoki/Murdoch final.

[Matt D]

11/16/87: Choshu/Saito/Kobayashi vs Muto/Takano/Koshinaka: Nice to have a six man in the midst of the tags. Kobayashi is back and good for him. He does really match up well with these guys. I'd like to see him more against Muto. He ate offense early but at one point, Takano wanted to do the Choshu's Army Double Clubber in the corner on him and Koshinaka had no idea what to do. It was funny because then he got isolated in the corner (he being Takanao) and they triple clubbered him. It built to a big hot tag and the butt butt from Koshinaka but he ate a Saito suplex out of nowhere and then the Lariat into the Scorpion. Good to have that end matches definitively.

11/19/87: Choshu/Saito/H. Saito vs Maeda/Takano/Hoshino: Oh man, so I didn't realize this was the Maeda/Choshu incident until I was through it. Plus i saw a seven minute version not realizing I had a 16 minute one. So I watched this weirdly and multiple times. As I was watching it, all I could think to myself was "Wow, Choshu and Maeda are electric. They're going to make money off these two." For some reason, I thought the incident was in 88. Obviously the fans are very into it whenever they match up. People point to a very specific kick when Choshu has the Scorpion on Hoshino but even relatively early, Maeda takes Choshu's face off with a kick and then there's a lot of posturing leading later to Maeda just absolutely stuffing Choshu, manhandling like no one else could, and Choshu coming back with a slap and Maeda, on the apron, egging him on. What I was going to write was that Maeda could take Choshu physically, but Choshu could get into Maeda's head like no one I'd seen, but obviously that wasn't exactly what was going on here. It was legitimate. Things break down and they do an ok job of switching up sides in breaking them up so there's always little bits of peppered violence. The finish is just odd as they set up Takada for a lariat out of nowhere and just pin him awkwardly as they just had to get out of there. This was basically Brawl In, where, if they could have just figured out how to work together, it would have been massive business. Ah well.

Edited July 12 by Matt D

[Matt D]

It has been a long, frustrating road since May. I've had congestion pretty heavily since then. My best guess (after a few attempts to treat bronchitis and some tests; more to come) is that it's allergy related and specifically to some mold we had in the house. But I've been coughing up mucus heavily since then and after a certain point had to stop running. I just saw an allergist (more to come there) and they said so long as I use the inhaler 20 mins before, I can run. I've gained a bunch of weight and really slowed down but i am giving it a go. Hopefully the meds they've given me start to work and this is, in fact, the issue.

Only one match today then.

11/19/87: Murdoch/Inoki vs Fujinami/Kimura: I feel for Kimura. This was his year and now he's right back to where he was two years ago, maybe just a little bit higher in the hierarchy. It's not even really his fault. He was working exactly as he should have been in October. It was the triple combo of Choshu coming back, the New vs Now feud, and the different styles fight to kick things off instead of him destroying Sakaguchi or Takano or something. I will say that he could more credibly hang with Inoki now but he should have had a singles match with him when Inoki was chilling with Saito or whatever. Fujinami comes off as an equal to both Murdoch and Inoki. He matches up very well with Murdoch who can feed for that "real sports feel" that Fujinami provides. There was a bit of scrapping with Inoki and Kimura, given that Inoki just loved the ability to fight a guy who was supposed to have boxing skills. Some chippiness with fujinami and Inoki too but that felt like a lingering effect of New vs Now and the points-based stakes. Hot finishing stretch where they had to break up a lot of big holds/bombs, before they went sailing over the railing together for the double dq (2 points each).