Posted June 11, 200817 yr comment_5432163 New Japan Classics 93 Kengo Kimura vs. Tatsumi Fujinami (NWA International Junior Title) (9/25/80) - Off the bat, I thought Kimura botched an arm drag attempt but a quick rewind shows that it looked like he made a mistake and Fujinami captialized on it. In fact, there were several points where I had to rewind the footage to catch something I didn't pick up on in my initial viewing. Just some beautiful sequences early on. One sequence has Kimura breaking a knuckle lock, getting his leg swept and kicks Fujinami in the face all in about a second. What started off as a nice technical match gets a little testy as Kimura and Fujinami just start kicking each other and later, Kimura slaps Fujinami in the face. They play off the earlier theme of Kimura unable to capitalize as he tries to hip toss Fujinami out of the corner but Tatsumi holds the ropes and slips out of Kimura's grip. I also like that they go back to earlier sequences such as Kimura controlling a head scissors after Fujinami had worked him over with one earlier in the match. It gets a little sloppy towards the end but Kimurra drops Fujinami with an UGLY piledriver. In the end, both guys hit some big moves and get nice and bloodied. The match is stopped when neither man can get up after a ten count but this was a SLAM DUNK nomination. Antonio Inoki vs. Stan Hansen (NWF Title) (9/25/80) - This was like the accelerated version of the match from Classics 92. However, after Hansen misses a lariat, Inoki catches him in a backslide for a quick three count.
