Posted June 11, 200817 yr comment_5432165 New Japan Classics 97 Antonio Inoki & Riki Choshu vs. Hulk Hogan & Paul Orndorff (11/6/80) - Hogan has the Hollywood Hogan beard here, except it is real. Pretty good teamwork from Hogan and Orndorff here. They keep the natives cut off from their side of the ring and keep thinigs moving. Nothing earth-shattering but Hogan using Orndorff's knee to execute a back breaker was a nice touch. However, after Choshu makes a hot tag, this descends into nothing. Inoki was in for about 20 seconds before Choshu comes right back in. That made no sense. Blassie interferes shortly after and gets his team disqualified in the 1st fall. In the 2nd fall, Inoki takes advantage of the gaigin by kicking their legs. Then they have to kill my goodwill with Hogan selling a dropkick that missed by a foot. This set up a knee drop from Inoki on Orndorff to take the 2nd fall and win in two straight. THe match was actually looking good before the silly ending to the first fall. The 2nd fall was too short and the bad dropkick prevent this from being considered. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Steve Keirn (WWF Junior Title) (11/6/80) - I love watching Fujinami work holds in and out of the head scissors because I think he does more withthe hold than any other wrestler I have seen. Seriously, Fujinami is becoming a Top 10 guy of all-time for me at this point. I love how these guys move from hold to hold. I ussually like when a body part is the focus of an entire match or is the main theme but these guys work different holds in an attempt to exploit the other's wekanesses. I think I like the other two matches better but this is still worth a look. Also, Keirn hits a NASTY enziguiri. THat is what Inoki's should have looked like against Backlund.
