[1986-01-03-NJPW] Akira Maeda vs Nobuhiko Takada

I’m used to seeing Maeda in more of an elder statesman role based on 90s watching, and Maeda-Takada tends to go long in their 1990 series. Many of the matches are great, no doubt, but seeing them do a 10-minute version of their match with Maeda more grounded in his actual heyday makes for a really nice contrast. It’s easy to see why this style got over as something new and different at the time. It’s really just a modernized version of 70s style matwork, but it feels fresh because of the dynamic personalities and the faster pace of the matwork. Not in the top handful of matches these two have had against each other, but maybe their most accessible match, and a nice addition to their series.

***1/2