Posted August 18, 200817 yr comment_5434103 This was the start of the feud, and was pretty great with Yamada playing the role of roided Kikuchi as he takes a pretty sizable beating and firing back on Kido and Tanaka, Inoki is also really great as fired up legend. Nomination NJ v. UWF 1 disc 1
October 25, 200816 yr comment_5435367 Terrific tag to set off the UWF-NJ war. Everyone played his role well. It's funny that Phil referenced Kikuchi in describing Yamada's performance, because I thought exactly the same thing. Takada was also very good as the UWF young gun who wouldn't back down from Inoki. Easy nomination. Shown on NJ TV 2/5/86 and NJ Classics 224
November 28, 200816 yr comment_5436025 Antonio Inoki & Keichi Yamada vs. Nobuhiko Takada & Osamu Kido (02/05/86) - Phil was right... Yamada takes an ass beating. Takada and Kido just shrug off any offense he tries to produce and kick him square in the face or gut. This is sort of two matches in one.... kicking and slapping the fuck out of each other combined with laying around on the mat. However, when Inoki counters a Takada kick into a leg grapevine (?) then the matwork sort of makes sense. This should definitely move forward but I am not going to call it a slam dunk pick. I could see it dropping off the list because of the huge amount of shit out there.
August 10, 200916 yr comment_5442683 Osamu Kido & Nobuhiko Takada vs. Antonio Inoki & Keichi Yamada (2/5/86) Yamada is so awesome here and yes there are the Kikuchi comparisons but I think he was more like a younger more athletic Hoshino here not backing down from the punishment the UWF boys give him especially Takada. Yamada finally gets the tag to Inoki and the crowd goes apeshit of course especially when Takada comes in and slaps him right in the face. Yamada comes back and tries to shine on Takada who just beats the piss out of him with kicks and slaps which was awesome. I liked the Kido/Yamada legwork sections as Yamada tried to show Kido he could hang with him but Kido would find a way to always keep the advantage. I loved Inoki countering Takada’s high kick into a leglock that showed Takada who was still the master especially leading into an enzuigiri. Yamada then came back in scrappy as hell but would end up eating a German Suplex hold to lose the match. Very fun stuff and a match where Yamada got to prove he was inching up the ladder. This is a fairly easy pick here.
