Posted August 21, 200817 yr comment_5434151 New Japan Pro Wrestling TV (May 6th & 13th 1983) 1. Akira Maeda & Seiji Sakaguchi vs Enrique Vera & Big John Studd - Who knew Studd was a masked wrestler in Japan? Anyway, there wasn't much to this. Maeda was allowed to look pretty dominant in taking out Vera. 2. Hulk Hogan vs Killer Khan - They worked the first half of this on the mat which, considering the participants, was slow going. Weird to see Hogan working the arm. He certainly used a larger, stiffer moveset in Japan. Anyway, this was a fine but lumbering affair and doesn't sniff setworthiness. 3. Andre the Giant vs Antonio Inoki - Inoki did some fun stick-and-move nonsense at the beginning, but Andre looked pretty bad here. He was nearing that phase when you worried every time he fell down that he might not get back up. Every move was such a chore that even when he caught Inoki, he didn't look good beating him down. So the match featured a lot of lying around in holds. They tried to get fired up at the end but couldn't rescue the thing. 4. Hulk Hogan & El Canek vs Killer Khan & Riki Choshu - This was a pretty good tag match, with Choshu and Khan using their normal double teams in the corner to control Canek. Hogan showed off more of his Japanese moves, including a jumping knee and an enziguiri. I like that he used the lariat as his finisher -- certainly looked nastier than the leg drop. This just lacked that extra kick in the pants that would make it a nomination. 5. Andre the Giant vs Akira Maeda - This was short and aside from a few cool spinkicks by Maeda, basically a squash. 6. Antonio Inoki vs Big John Studd - Ughh! Just a slow, ugly match. Studd was huge but really didn't have much going for him otherwise. His power moves lacked snap and he just didn't seem that coordinated. He sold the ending well, as Inoki chopped him down with leg kicks and finished him with the enziguiri. But that was about the only redeeming sequence.
