William Bologna

Tatsumi Fujinami, Mitsuya Nagai & LEONA vs Shiro Koshinaka, Akitoshi Saito & Taniguchi (NOAH 10/1/17) Welcome to Pro Wrestling NOAH's Great Nepotism Voyage in Yokahama. On this card, we have: Two modern Von Erichs Razor Ramon's extremely tall son WWE Hall of Famer Tatsumi Fujinami teaming with bizarrely-named son, LEONA I don't know why Fujinami named his child after disgraced American hotelier Leona Helmsley. Maybe the kid's mother insisted. Whatever the case, here he is playing the paint-by-numbers young lion role that you can see three or four times on an average New Japan card. What little you hear about Fujinamito makes him sound like the poor man's Daichi Hashimoto, so I wasn't expecting much. He comes off fine, though. He doesn't look like much - he resembles his father neither in face nor physique - but he throws some good elbows and a couple mean-looking dropkicks. His father, meanwhile, has settled into a pattern. He gets in a multi-man tag and doesn't do anything until he comes in, dragon screws two guys, and puts on a dragon sleeper. He does it every time, and it's usually all he does. The rest of the crew works around the legend, and this winds up being a fun match. Shiro Koshinaka turned out to be one hell of an old man wrestler. He's been solid in every one of these geriatric showcases, which I guess is why he's usually in them.

JYUSHIN THUNDER LIGER RETIREMENT MATCH Ⅰ Jyushin Thunder Liger & Tatsumi Fujinami & The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask vs. Naoki Sano & Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Ryusuke Taguchi Fujinami's really slumming it here. In the previous old man exhibition matches, he was surrounded by fellow champions. Here he tags in Great Sasuke for what I'm guessing was the first time in his career. It's also a lot better than the other ones. A lot of these guys can still go, but sadly Fujinami isn't one of them. He comes in, does a couple dragon screws, and then nearly fails to apply a dragon sleeper. That's about it. The other guys pick up the slack. Otani's great, especially when he boots Sasuke in the face while doing his boot-scraping bit to Liger. Sasuke tries to kill himself with a top rope flip to nowhere. Sano stiffs Tiger Mask with a spin kick, and Takaiwa crushes him with a to rope elbow drop. Tiger Mask is used the best way possible: Getting stiffed and crushed. Two more matches to go, and then we can put this thing to bed.

The Destroyer Memorial Night Nov 15,2019 Tokyo・Ota City General Gymnasium 2ND MATCH Shiro Koshinaka & Jun Akiyama & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Hiro Saito Fujinami got old. It was bound to happen, I suppose. Here he is heeled upon at the start and comes in for the finish, but he spends most of this holding the tag rope and watching Akiyama have a house show match with Tenzan and Kojima. Our man is still muscley as all hell, but his movements lack any fluidity. Koshinaka still looked OK, at least. So this was kind of a downer. Ashes to ashes.

POWER HALL 2019 -New Journey Begins- June 29,2019 Tokyo・Korakuen Hall THE FINAL RHAPSODY Riki Choshu & Shiro Koshinaka & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Keiji Muto & Togi Makabe Isn't this a pleasant stroll down memory lane? Aside from the two youngsters (both in their 40s), we've got Muto, who's popped up three or four times in this thread (he was pretending to be a demon from hell one of those times, but it still counts). Koshinaka's had a few appearances. And of course Riki Choshu holds the unbreakable record for most times wrestling Tatsumi Fujinami. Fun fact: Riki Choshu has been in nearly as many Fujinami matches as Fujinami himself! It's a retirement match full of grandpas, so I wasn't expecting much. Everyone looks pretty good, actually. Choshu's in pretty good shape, and his lariats don't look any worse than they ever did. Muto can only move in short bursts, but he looks fine when he does. Fujinami does almost nothing, which makes me wonder if he's not in as good shape as he looks. We have at least two more of these geriatric spectacles ahead of us, so I guess we'll see if he's got anything left. So obviously this wasn't any good, and it ends after Makabe knee drops Choshu four times. So long, Riki! I'll always remember that time you pinned Fujinami clean in the middle ring. If I recall correctly, it's the only time anyone did that to anyone in New Japan throughout the entirety of the 1980s.

Brady Fight Series August 30, New York, USA Madison Square Garden 1982 WWF International Heavy Gino Brito vs. Tatsumi Fujinami I don't know what "Brady Fight Series" means. Brito is the WWF International Heavyweight Champion, a title represented by a belt made of cardboard and tinfoil. It looks like the first backyarder title. We get a lot of armbars and shtick, and I guess I wasn't in the mood. The idea is that Brito keeps trying to punch Fujinami, which is against the rules. Deliberations over this last for 12 minutes until Fujinami wins, setting the stage for him and Choshu to fight over this hideous belt 138 times over the course of the early 1980s. I was bored for all of this. The Diamond match was all about workrate, and it was OK. This was about Brito heeling and stooging, and I wasn't going for it. The guy's apparently some kind of strongarm loanshark in real life, so he was playing against type here. In both cases, Fujinami gets a huge pop when he wins. Were they sweetening the audio, or was he really over in MSG? I could see the crowd being won over in the Diamond match - they worked really hard, and it was probably a breath of fresh air to a crowd accustomed to various Strongbows, but I don't see this one making any new fans.

New Year Professional Wrestling Special Dec 29, 1980 Madison Square Garden Tatsumi Fujinami ＶＳ Don Diamond We're getting to the end of this thing. All that's left is stuff from the beginning and the end, so now we travel back to 1980 to see young Fujinami back when he used to go to New York all the time to defend his WWF Junior Heavyweight title. Howard Finkel gets us started by introducing "Bad News" Allen Coage - he gets the full real name plus nickname. I don't know what he's doing there, but he points at Fujinami, who almost hits him. We then get ten minutes of gentlemanly grappling. Two handshakes, a lot of rolling around, some head-scissors and a lot of arm drags. Fujinami wins abruptly with a German suplex. The match has Japanese commentary. It's too bad - I was looking forward to Vince telling us what a scientific matchup this was dozen times and saying "look at this!" every time they did a move he didn't know. This was fine, but it didn't really do anything for me. Neither man showed any personality. Most of what they did looked fine, and they did a lot for it being 1980, but they could have switched places and it wouldn't have made any difference. I was able to find very little about Don Diamond, who wrestled for five years and then disappeared. He's kept a low enough profile that you start getting DDP and a guy from F-Troop on the second page of Google results.

Yeah, I didn't find the Cornette/Russo stuff too bad in the Montreal episode, but it was a bit much this time. It wasn't the best use of their talent. Jim Ross turns into a complete idiot when discussing Steve Williams. Jim Cornette turns into a maniac when discussing Russo. Vince Russo should never be spoken to. So no one was at their best. Bart Gunn looks like 90s Bart Gunn with aging makeup. I'd have thought it was fake if I didn't know he was that old.

1986 Other matches July 25, 1986 Akita prefectural gymnasium IWGP Tag Championship Tatsumi Fujinami＆Kengo Kimura VS Kendo Nakazaki＆Mr.Pogo KY Wakamatsu is here, complete with Mr. Pogo-style face paint. He never tried to look like a Strong Machine. Kimura spends a lot of time getting beaten on. They double-team him, beat him up outside, exploit his bandaged flank. Lots of teased tags - they even do the thing where Fujinami gets tagged in and starts kicking ass (nearly literally), but the ref didn't see it and cuts him off. Then they do it again! It's really strange how much time Fujinami spends remonstrating with the ref. Pogo and Nagasaki are secondary opponents - the referee is the real enemy. This is pretty corny, but it's also effective. The crowd is going nuts throughout, and the Akita Prefectural Gymnasium is filled with "Kengo!" chants. Fujinami finally gets in, but we eventually return to our main event of Fujinami vs. Ref as the villains resort to choking Kimura with wrist tape. The ref ignores it and again pushes Fujinami back into his corner when he tries to do something about it. What's going on here, ref? Did Wakamatsu get to you? I mean, Nagasaki is choking Kimura with a foreign object in the middle of the ring, and you're pretending you can't see it even as everyone is pointing it out to you. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Things wind up getting really out of hand. Fujinami piledrives one of them onto a chair. Wakamatsu gets in there and winds up getting whipped into Pogo. It'd bedlam until Fujinami pins Pogo after a clothesline. This match was a lot of fun and a good example of getting the most out of what you have. Nagasaki and Pogo aren't any good - they look like old men, Nagasaki likes rest holds, and Pogo throws the worst clothesline I've ever seen. I can't imagine they were perceived at having much of a chance to win the titles. But they get the crowd involved by working a different kind of match and adding a subplot about an incompetent referee.

Tatsumi Fujinami (C/V7) VS Jerry Lawler '89.3.16 [IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match] Lawler, in full royal regalia and bearing the USWA title, really underlines the incoherence of New Japan Pro Wrestling's rules. He throws punches. Lots and lots of them. Regular standing punches, punches off the top rope, punches from every position. And nearly every single time he does it, the ref admonishes him. What's the point? We all know Lawler's not getting disqualified for this. He even makes a face to that effect - "Can you believe this guy?" I haven't seen much of Lawler's work, but here he reveals himself to be a regular Tennessee Tenryu: lots of punches, big personality, and a certain awkwardness when he tries anything that isn't punching. He seems to be making some of these moves up as he does them. He, like, drapes Fujinami's back across his back and drops to his knees. I'm not describing it well, but I don't know who could. Fujinami spends much of the match outwrestling Lawler but being outpunched. The coolest transition comes when Lawler tries a fist drop from the top, but Fujinami catches his fist, which is goofy as hell, and then Lawler makes this amazing cartoon face to demonstrate how discombobulated he is at this development. Fujinami then proceeds to Lawler it up in the sense that he's all awkward all of a sudden. He puts on a figure four like it's his first time, and he gets the pin on a less than smooth vertical suplex rollthrough. It was fun to see Lawler in this context. The fans didn't seem to know who he was or think that he could win, which took away from things a bit.

Tatsumi Fujinami (C/V3) VS (C) Kerry Von Erich '88.12.9 [IWGP & WCWA Double Heavyweight Championship Match] We pick this up in progress. They spill outside and Kerry applies the dreaded face claw. I'm surprised at how downright Abdullish he was acting here - he even bit Fujinami's forehead. The bell rings, but I guess they both want to keep going so the ref lets them. After some regular wrestling, Kerry claws Fujinami to the outside, and then they really start brawling. Von Erich misses a chairshot, but Fujinami doesn't. I've never seen him act this violent, actually. He hits Kerry repeatedly with the chair, leaving him clinging to the ring apron with blood pouring down his face. When another Von Erich (I don't know these guys - he looked like Tony Hawk) rolled him back into the ring, Fujinami commences to stomping the head wound until the ref pulls him off. Both the ref and Tony Hawk Von Erich try to stop Fujinami from kicking the bleeding man in the head, but Fujinami will not relent. What has gotten into him? Finally the ref calls it, and Fujinami is briefly the WCWA Heavyweight Champion (he gave it back, I guess after his berserker rage subsided and he realized what he'd done). This was really something, and I want to thank @paul sosnowski for the tip. I would have liked to have seen the whole match - did they gradually build to all this violence or was it on from the get-go? The former could have made this really great. It's so odd. I've repeatedly criticized Fujinami for not bringing intensity when the situation calls for it, but here was gleefully getting Kerry Von Erich's blood all over the bottom of his boot. I guess those face claws really pissed him off.

IWGP Champion Series June 1986 6 days Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center IWGP Tag Championship Tatsumi Fujinami＆Kengo Kimura VS Jimmy Snuka＆Wild Samoan They're calling him Wild Samoan, even though it clearly says "Samu" on the back of his jacket and on his pants. It's a little dehumanizing. The man has a name. So anyway, these two dudes with perms and no shoes get a shot at the tag titles, but Snuka doesn't seem all that interested. He spends an awfully long time sitting in headlocks. Then he'll throw a couple chops and do a half-assed high spot and let Mr. W. Samoan take over. Samu puts in the effort, but he seems to be out of his element. Fujinami tries to start out slow with some armlocks and stuff, but Samu resorts immediately to bodyslams. That feels like more a five-minutes-in move. He does some nifty, fast-paced stuff (including throwing himself over the top rope in order to bounce Fujinami's throat off it), but he didn't impress. Finally Kimura hits a couple leg lariats and pins Samu, and everyone goes home. Forgettable.

85IWGP Tag League match December 10, 1985 Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium Tatsumi Fujinami VS Bruiser Brody Brody's a wildman! He throws the ref out of the ring before the match starts, which brings no repercussions. Honestly, New Japan Pro Wrestling, that's just going to encourage more wildness. I know Brody's an intimidating guy with his fur vest and fur boots and standard-issue K-Mart gym socks, but you have to stand up for yourself. I tried to keep an open mind, but Brody saved me some time by being annoying immediately. The ref tries to get Brody's chain away from him, and as Bruiser stomps away from him, Fujinami attacks him from behind. But it doesn't hurt Brody, who can't even bother to look inconvenienced before applying the chain to Fujinami's throat. But - and I hate to admit this - Brody actually uses his invulnerability for something useful in this one. Fujinami gets a long stretch on offense, and Brody very gradually feels the effects. He drops to one knee. Fujinami hits him again (mostly enzuigiris) and he drops to both knees. He stumbles. He staggers. Finally Fujinami takes him down with a backdrop, and the crowd is going wild. Everything after that is a letdown, as they rush to the DCOR and then brawl outside basically forever. The whole thing's only 10 minutes, and maybe half of that is the bell-to-bell match. It was almost really good, as Brody was downright Andre-ish in his role as a giant being gradually chopped down. ADDENDUM: I was in a hurry when I wrote this, and I've been thinking more about this match, which is an impressive feat of storytelling. These dudes had five minutes, and they told a damn story. It had well-defined characters and an arc. It started and ended poorly, but all the lame stuff was maybe a minute long, and the people who paid money to see it liked it anyway. They had not been conditioned to sit on their hands because they knew nothing of consequence would happen in the first 20 minutes.

Challenge Spirit '85 September 18, 1985 Fukuoka Sports Center Antonio Inoki＆Tatsumi Fujinami VS Giant Machine＆Super Machine With special guest referee Lou Thesz! I guess this match is a bigger deal than it seems. Super Machine is Bill Eadie, they tell me. He's not any good. Andre's not any good in this either, and he's usually awesome. The match isn't any good. Inoki isn't any good. There are about 40 seconds combined of cool stuff here, which I'll get to in a minute. The Machines, who are really missing Hirata here, spend most of their time holding Inoki and Fujinami down and doing unconvincing rest holds on them. It felt like a WWF match - Andre even busts out the double noggin-knocker (they no-sell it). Fujinami is just great when they let him do anything. He takes over on the smaller but still pretty large Machine and starts going a mile a minute like he did back then. Top rope shin drop, explosive drop kick . . . and then he's stymied by a bear hug. As if that weren't bad enough, Andre shuffles over and they do the worst double-team maneuver I've ever seen. While Super Machine holds the victim in a bear hug, Giant Machine waves his mighty arm vaguely in Fujinami's direction. Come on, Andre. I know it's a lot of effort to get yourself in a position whence your arm can reach the guy, but it would have looked a lot better if you had. They then do it to Inoki, and it doesn't look any better. Pretty disappointed in Andre here. I guess he figures we won't know it's him because of the mask. So that earlier cool part was 35 seconds, and the other 5 comes at the finish. Andre and Inoki brawl outside, and Fujinami backslides Eadie for the win. It was fast and crisp, and everyone was so excited afterwards. That was cool. The rest of this was garbage.

1985 Other matches August 3, 1985 Aloha Stadium Tatsumi Fujinami＆Kengo Kimura VS Gene Lewis＆Gary Fulton Whole different feel here as the Fujinami Show goes Hawaiian. This is a big NWA show (Polynesian Hot Summer Night! - Here's a newspaper article about it) in Hawaii, and I wondered about the crowd. They give the swole ref a nice hand when he's introduced. They boo the Americans and cheer Kimura and Fujinami. They even seem to know who Fujinami is - they pop when he tags in the first time. So I don't know. Were they just polite, or was the crowd full of tape traders and vacationing Japanese? Is Giant Baba there? Is Maunakea Mossman? Actually, there's a pretty good chance Mossman is there, right? He's nine years old at this point. Curtis Iaukea was apparently his uncle, so he was wrestling-adjacent. I guess Taiyo Kea isn't a big enough deal that we get the Mick-Foley-watching-Superfly treatment when something like this happens. I detected a styles clash. I think Lewis and Fulton were trying to make Kimura the face in peril, but he decides it's Fujinami's turn and just walks over there while Lewis is beating him up. I think he was supposed to make that a little more dramatic. The result is that they're both faces in peril. The vast proportion of the match is the Americans beating up on one or another of these guys. They're in full heel mode, using the rings ropes as a garrote and yelling at the fans to shut up. Bad 80s finishes aren't only a problem on one side of the Pacific, it turns out, as we brawl outside and the bell rings. Everyone looks confused until the ring announcer comes in, mumbles something, and points at Fujinami and Kimura. Hail to the victors! This just didn't quite work. It was almost a traditional FIP-style tag match, except the faces weren't on board. The bad guys took almost all of the offense, but it didn't work as a giant vs. underdog thing because they weren't giants and cheated the whole time. If these guys worked together regularly, they probably could have done something nice. No one looked terrible, and there flashes of a good tag match. This probably wasn't the match that inspired Maunakea Mossman to be a pro wrestler.

Burning Spirit-in-Summer August 1, 1985, the two countries Kokugikan Tatsumi Fujinami VS Jimmy Snuka I'm kind of punting on this one. Snuka skeeves me out out, and I don't like looking at him. Even if I didn't know he was a (alleged) (probable) murderer, he's just off. If you pointed him out to me and said "Hey, that guy killed someone," I'd be all, "The roided out guy in the leopard print underpants and no shoes with the gross perm who's making weird faces that suggest he doesn't perceive the same reality that the rest of us do? Yeah, I can buy that." So I spent most of this match looking at a different tab, but it didn't seem like anything special. They roll around on the mat, and then they do some stuff. Snuka flexes and makes faces. This does give us probably the worst-botched Fujinami finish, and that's far from an empty category. It's supposed to be the old top rope bodypress rolled over into a pin by the other guy. I can't even describe how they mess it up. Fujinami lands on Snuka, but his momentum takes him too far. He has a slide back over while Snuka clings to his legs. Fujinami makes a bridge over him for a moment before Snuka rolls him over and gets the pin. I'm glad I wasn't enjoying this match, because that would have ruined it. It's weird that Fujinami, who's so good at so many things, has all these awful screw-ups at the ends of matches.

1985 Other matches May 31, 1985 Omiya City Gymnasium Antonio Inoki＆Tatsumi Fujinami＆Kengo Kimura VS Dick Murdoch＆Adrian Adonis＆King Kong Bundy This is like a stress test. "OK, you four had a pretty good match last week. Let's see what happens if we add a couple of stiffs." I'm going to nitpick extensively about Inoki: Inoki's done this thing a couple times, and I don't like it. Before the match starts, he'll get all mad at someone on the other side and make one of his teammates hold him back. "Let me go, Kengo! I'ma get this fool!" "No, Antonio! It's not worth it!" As if he's going to face repercussions for starting a fight half a minute before it was going to start anyway. I think he missed Murdoch trying to build some drama. Captain Redneck is at whom Inoki is woofing pre-match, and he looks like he's going to be first guy for his team, but when we start, Adonis is in there. I think Murdoch was trying to do the thing where he teases us with the matchup we want to see, but Inoki wasn't paying enough attention to do anything with it. He also misses an opportunity when Bundy comes in. Everyone's been in the ring and exchanged headlocks except Bundy, who's obviously the most imposing man in the match. As soon as he tags in, Inoki runs over there as fast as a he can and gives him a martial hug. What he should have done was back off and maybe try to look intimidated or at least concerned at how he was going to address this threat. He's not good at subtleties. Oh, and at one point Kimura does what's probably a cool sunset flip to Adonis, but we miss it because the camera's showing us Inoki. This may be slightly unfair to Antonio even by my standards, but if I can blame Gedo for the state of NJPW World, I feel comfortable pinning this one on the boss. I liked Bundy! He moved well enough, used his bulk effectively, had some solid offense (including a really vicious-looking kneedrop), and showed some personality. Kimura took his time on a clean break, so Bundy just shoved him away and yelled at him. He hit Fujinami with a splash, but Kimura came in to break up the pin. Not missing a beat, Bundy transitioned into a headlock and took a minute to admonish the ref (swole, WWF polo) for not being able to control things. It's no surprise that Murdoch was great, but he was extra great this time. He's as good at the little things as Inoki is bad at them. In an early exchange, I said to myself, "Man, he's giving Kimura nothing." Kengo was trying to wrestle or whatever, but Murdoch wasn't interested, preferring to hit Kimura really hard over and over. Ten minutes later, the crowd pops huge as Kimura takes the upper hand and hits that leg lariat, which of course Murdoch sells like he was murdered. We wind up with an out of control, chair-swinging brawl leading to a DCOR, but it was OK. Things had been heating up enough that everyone losing their temper didn't feel perfunctory. I may be getting Stockholm syndrome with these terrible 80s finishes, though. I enjoyed this. Bundy turned out not to be a stiff after all, and for all his faults, Inoki is pretty good at getting beaten up and then looking angry about it. The participants played to their strengths.

1985 Other matches May 24, 1985 Kobe World Memorial Hall Tatsumi Fujinami＆Kengo Kimura VS Dick Murdoch＆Adrian Adonis This is what I was waiting for when I saw that Gedo added a whole new pile of Fujinami matches and realized that I'm never going to be done with this (this thread turned two years old a couple months ago. It has a favorite dinosaur and is speaking in intelligible sentences. Mostly about dinosaurs). This is for the vacant WWF International Tag Team Championship, which is made up even by the standards of pro wrestling titles. Still, our play by play man does his best to convince us that they're important. I can't understand half of what he's saying, but the other half is "WWF" and "New York." Look at what an insider this guy is, referring to the WWF as "New York." Yeesh. The titles on the line may be extra fictitious, but this is an event. Flowers handed out, and Adonis sets the tone by throwing his at Kimura. It's already getting chippy out there. It's a good match, and the crowd is pumped for every Murdoch/Fujinami exchange. After a pair of dueling backdrops (which Fujinami would re-use against Vader), Fujinami plays face in peril for a while. But we really get to see Dick Murdoch shine after a dropkick and a hot tag leads to Kengo Kimura beating the hell out of him. He's just a master of showing sudden vulnerability, and he makes Kimura look like a buzzsaw. That's been a theme here: People selling like crazy for Kimura. Were there plans for this guy that never panned out? People act like his leg lariat hurts more than anything Hase ever did. He's treated with more respect than you would expect for someone with his resume. This is a long match, and it reveals Murdoch's one weakness: Stamina. He holds Fujinami up for a Davey Boy-ish amount of time (revealing more of the Dragon's bikini zone than I ever wanted to see) and then just collapses. It counts as a brainbuster, but only technically. He can't quite get Fujinami out of the ring a moment later, and Adonis has to help. This leads to the finish. They brawl, but our heroes get the foreigners to run into each other, whereupon Fujinami dashes back into the ring for the countout win. Adonis and Murdoch do not take this well. They grab the belts, kick the trophies, rip up the certificates, and generally throw a tantrum. Murdoch flings a trophy into the ring and almost hits Kimura, who looks legit surprised. They're finally dispatched with a belt shot and double dropkick, and these hallowed, prestigious tag team belts are presented to our heroes. The WWF International Tag Team Championship, by the way, had been deactivated 13 years prior to this and would again be deactivated in October. Kimura and Fujinami were the only champions. But it's OK because this was good.

1985 Other matches May 10, 1985 Fukuoka Sports Center Antonio Inoki＆Tatsumi Fujinami VS Andr? the Giant＆Jimmy Snuka Have you ever heard Meltzer go on and on about why Andre got over while Paul Wight never did? You know, Vince Senior made sure Andre was a special attraction, didn't overuse him, etc. etc. It's nonsense because it assumes that all giants are created equal. But you look at Andre and you look at Big Show, and you can see that statement is not true. Even when he's not doing a whole lot, Andre has this menacing but engaging presence. And he's good at this job, too. This match is all about Fujinami and Inoki taking turns trying to wear him down, and he is very convincingly worn down. You believe that these twerps are gradually getting to the giant. The other smart thing they do here is keep is short. You don't want the man out there for 20 minutes, so let's get to our annoying DQ finish quick. Snuka was barely in this. Or maybe I didn't notice him as much because he wasn't a bellowing evil giant.

Those sound pretty intriguing. We're in a chronologically coherent stretch now, and those will fit right in as we proceed (again) through the 80s.

Big Fight 2nd series In April 1985, 18 days Ryogoku Kokugikan Tatsumi Fujinami VS Strong Machine No.1 We've been getting a lot of Strong Machine content lately, and now they're multiplying. They're rolling five deep before the match starts: KY Wakamatsu is there accompanied by no fewer than four Strong Machines. But Strong Machines 3, 1, and 2 make themselves scarce before the action. I feel like I'm missing something culturally with Wakamatsu. What is he supposed to be? He's got a lab coat, bow tie, derby hat, Mardi Gras beads, a crucifix, a megaphone, and a whip. Did they spring it on him right before a show? "Hey, Inoki says we need a manager for these here robots. Go over to the lost and found and get an outfit together." But if it works it works, and KY earns his paycheck this time out. Fujinami and Machine have a solid 80s match - the kind of thing where they sit in holds, get up and do a highspot, and then go back to the holds. Whenever the crowd begins to quiet, Wakamatsu yells into his megaphone, and they're right back in it. It works every time. This is a longish match, and there's something about the pacing and SM's deliberate, bodyslam-intensive offense that makes it feel like it's happening in the background of a movie. Like, our hero meets an informant at the sumo hall and they have a tense conversation while Machine plays to the crowd behind them. That's not a complaint - this is real solid stuff. Junji Hirata (the ring name Strong Machine #1 settled on after he took off the mask) always surprises me with how good he is, and this is when Fujinami could still move. We get a really dramatic finish. Hirata has Fujinami in a waistlock, and Wakamatsu hops onto the apron and throws powder. Fujinami ducks, and Hirata takes the powder followed by a dragon suplex for the pin. It was so good one fan let the spirit of the sumo hall take over and threw his cushion into the ring. And here we begin to see cracks in the Machines/Wakamatsu partnership. Hirata is understandably upset at his manager's tomfoolery; they come to blows, and Wakamatsu leaves without his #1 Machine. Fujinami follows, and alone in the ring Hirata seems to be having something of a personal crisis. Does he rid himself of his mask and manager? Or is the way of the Machine too Strong? This man vs. machine struggle gets over like crazy, and we fade out to the thunderous din of every fan in the building chanting "HI-RA-TA!" I had no idea this was going to be so much fun.

Hacks wouldn’t have imitated him if he did it badly.

December 6, 1984 Hiroshima prefectural gymnasium Super heavyweight battle royal Fujinami and Murdoch are pulling double duty! Later in the same evening as their epic double count-out showdown, both are here for the Super Heavyweight Battle Royal! This is my kind of battle royal. It's five minutes long, they get the chumps out of there quick, and it tells a story which despite its brevity is full not only of twists but also of turns. Inoki sees KY Wakamatsu (whose name is Japanese for "Jimmy Hart") and a couple Strong Machines outside the ring and is so incensed that he eliminates himself going after them. The swole ref in the WWF polo really has to put his foot down about Antonio getting back in. It's like, yeah I gave you a pin on a two count last time, but the rules of the battle royal are sacred. I'll have to keep an eye out for this guy - we may never see him again after he crosses the boss like this. I gather that there's an issue between Fujinami/Kengo Kimura and Murdoch/Adrian Adonis. Kimura and Adonis eliminate each other like they're Eteocles and Polyneices before one of the seven gates of holy Thebes. The rest of the match tells the tale of Murdoch, Fujinami, and the near-literal elephant in the figurative room, Andre T. Giant. Andre is down, and Murdoch takes the unexpected but expedient route, motioning for Fujinami to cooperate with him in dumping the giant. The crowd is thrilled. But can Captain Redneck be trusted? You will not be surprised to learn that he cannot. He betrays his momentary ally but comes close to eliminating Andre accidentally as Fujinami ducks a double team maneuver. Murdoch recovers to dump Fujinami, only for Andre to bring things to an abrupt end by dropping Murdoch atomically with such force that he springs over the top rope. It hurts more when you're a giant. My heart sank when I saw there was a battle royal on the docket. The last one I saw was that time the Rock tried and failed to convince everyone that Roman Reigns was extremely tough and cool, so I'd soured on the whole concept. But this was a hoot. Five minutes. Told a story. Made Inoki look stupid. A triumph.

1984 Other matches December 6, 1984 Hiroshima prefectural gymnasium Tatsumi Fujinami VS Dick Murdoch Finally we get some Dick Murdoch! He's been hanging out in the margins of this project, even giving Fujinami a postmatch handshake at one point, but this is the first time we see him in action. He's awesome, of course. The match is built around his peerless punches. Fujinami gets a transition off blocking one and complains to the ref (resplendent in a WWF polo shirt) about them. The crowd is good but unusual. They're just loud in general. There's a high level of background noise, but they don't always react to the things you'd expect them to. There's a repeated chant that I don't understand, but at least they're enjoying themselves. Murdoch is a perfect opponent for Fujinami. Consider: Fujinami is at his best when he's getting hit really hard. Hashimoto, Tenryu, Dynamite - these are the guys who bring the fighting spirit out of him. He's a pretty colorless guy unless he's getting pasted in the face, and Murdoch is happy to oblige. He has a tendency to get overshadowed and eaten up when he's in the ring with a dominant personality. I love the Hogan matches, but you don't remember Fujinami's performance in them. Against Flair he's the proverbial broomstick. Murdoch, however, complements him. He's got all kinds of personality, but he uses cartoonish selling to make his opponent look like a badass. He's physically imposing in spite of his physique (he towers over Fujinami), and his offense is as believable as fake fighting can be, so it really means something when he switches gears and starts staggering around after getting punched. This is a lot of analysis for a ten minute match with a typical 80s non-finish (DCOR), but man is Dick Murdoch good. I liked this a lot, but I'm not objective about this guy. He's the gaijin Tenryu - I'd watch him order lunch and give it four stars.

1984 Other matches November 30, 1984 Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium MSG Tag League Antonio Inoki＆Tatsumi Fujinami VS Strong Machine No.1＆Strong Machine No.2 This may look like a mismatch in the ring - you have a couple IWGP champions vs. Junji Hirata and some Korean guy - but the Machines have backup. KY Wakamatsu is yelling into his megaphone, and Hiro Saito is ready to make his presence felt. The good guys, meanwhile, have only a young, pimply Masa Chono in their corner. There's plenty of heat; the crowd is going banana as they brawl among the streamers, and the enthusiasm doesn't really let up. Not even when Inoki wraps a towel around his hand to punch a Machine. Must have been extra fighting spirit in it or something. Inoki is just not any good except when he's brawling (when he's really, really good). He lacks ring awareness or something. There's a spot where he gets one Machine (either 1 or 2) to run into the other one (either 2 or 1), and instead of following up, he just strolls in the direction of his corner while the Machine waits for him to do something. But it's far from the worst Inoki experience, since he keeps things moving and throws a lot of punches. The finish is very mid-80s sloppy. Whichever Machine loses (presumably the less Super Strong one) lands kind of under the ropes on an enzuigiri, so he has to move his hand and Inoki has to move his ass to stay in bounds for the pin, which I swear is only a two count. Different rules for the guy who owns the place. Hiro Saito immediately runs in, and we brawl again. One other thing about Inoki - in kayfabe, he's just an awful tag partner. Fujinami hit a dragon suplex, which got a huge pop from the crowd, the announcer, and me, and Inoki could barely be bothered to get into the ring to protect the pin attempt. Even worse is in the post-match brawl. Saito is choking Fujinami with a rope, and Inoki completely ignores it. He at least waits until Saito stops to raise his hands in triumph, but his partner's suffering is obviously not troubling him.

Absolutely. They're clearly taking the long view on this, willing to put unknowns in the spotlight and resisting the urge to hotshot. It speaks well to management.