Posted August 27, 200817 yr comment_5434235 New Japan Pro Wrestling TV (July 8th & 15th 1983) - First two matches also on Classics 147 1. Tiger Mask vs Isamu Teranishi (7/7) - There was plenty of action in this, but as in many Tiger Mask matches, the offense felt disjointed. Kobayashi sat ringside and eventually, distracted Tiger Mask when the action spilled outside. Teranishi took advantage to dropkick Tiger Mask hard to the back and send him to the floor. He then nailed him with a beautiful splash from the top turnbuckle. Cool, I thought, Kobayashi is going to cost Tiger Mask a win. But no. After selling for a few seconds, Tiger Mask hopped up and pinned Teranishi with a sunset flip from the apron. Now, I didn't mind him winning, but come on. At least give Teransihi a few minues to beat on him, get cocky and then get caught in a roll-up or something. I see Will nominated their match from August so I hope to enjoy that one more. 2. Riki Choshu vs Tatsumi Fujinami (7/7) - Maybe at some point, I'll run into a match between these two that does nothing for me. But this was another worthy one. Fujinami, trying to regain momentum in the series, immediately caught Choshu in armbar. Choshu fought out and applied his own armbar. Fujinami escaped and went for the figure four, which had served him well in their previous match. But Choshu reached the ropes. Next, they tossed in some intense counter exchanges on the mat. Choshu had seized the advantage in the series by being the more explosive wrestler. And this match seemed headed that way too as he hit a lariat out of noweher and slapped on the scorpion. Fujinami fought to the ropes but then Choshu caught him with the back suplex and went to the scorpion again. The crowd went nuts as Fujinami fought out one more time. Then, he caught Choshu with a lariat and went for his own scorpion. Choshu fought to the ropes but Fujinami simply reapplied the hold after the break. Choshu fought to the ropes again but this time, Fujinami wouldn't break the hold and got disqualified. He must have held it for three minutes, even as others brawled around them. Cool ending that re-established Fujinami as Choshu's equal. They had gotten really good by this time at playing around with sequences created in earlier matches. This had to be one of the best feuds of the decade. 3. Tiger Mask vs Kuniaki Kobayashi (14/7) - Good match but I think that after their January showdown, they couldn't find much more to do with their striker vs. stretcher formula. They went for a big match vibe here with a lot of feeling out early. Tiger Mask stiffened his strikes as well. But this never built the drama or crowd heat of the nominated match from Jan. 6, so I'm comfortable leaving it off. 4. Riki Choshu & Animal Hamaguchi vs Akira Maeda & Tatsumi Fujinami (14/7) - Choshu and Fujinami skipped right past the matwork and commenced to drilling each other. Cool. Actually, most of this featured Maeda in peril with other members of Ishin Gundan grabbing Fujinami's legs to keep him from helping. I'm not sure I expected Maeda to be good at the Kobashi-style young lion in danger routine. But he sold willingly, took athletic bumps and certainly had big enough offense to pop the crowd with his comebacks. His downfall? He was too bullheaded to tag out when he rallied, so Choshu and Hamaguchi were always able to maneuver him back to the corner for more big double team moves. Some might find it unsatisfying that Maeda never made the tag, but I liked it. It told me something about his character and also created a drama of frustration for Fujinami in his feud with Choshu. The whole match was exciting and kept the crowd hot, so I'll give it a nomination.
