Posted September 6, 200817 yr comment_5434405 New Japan Pro Wrestling TV (December 9th & 16th 1983) 1. Curt Hennig & Andre the Giant vs Killer Khan & Tiger Toguchi - I saw little purpose in this one. 2. Akira Maeda, Kengo Kimura & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Riki Choshu, Yoshiaki Yatsu & Animal Hamaguchi - Too much action to describe. This didn't have any deep psych. It was just a 15-minute sprint with lots of moves and stiffness that kept the crowd in a frenzy the whole way. I'm not sure the world had seen many heavyweight trios matches like this in 1983. It was obvious that it would end in a countout, with all of them brawling outside. But that was fine in this case, because they brought such fire to it that the countout didn't feel perfunctory. I'll nominate this and I imagine it will do quite well in the poll. 3. Antonio Inoki & Hulk Hogan vs Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdoch - I enjoyed this most of the way. Murdoch and Adonis did a nice job of working Inoki's back and neck, and Adonis and Hogan broke into a wild slugfest midmatch. But I have the same complaint about this that I had about the Murdoch-Inoki singles match a few months earlier. After Murdoch and Adonis controlled the whole way, Hogan hit a sudden lariat, Inoki followed with his enziguiri and the match was over just like that. I wouldn't mind Inoki working a puncher's chance gimmick with his big move. But that's not how his wins felt. It was more like, "OK, I'll take all your shit, but I can win whenever I feel like it." That never leaves a good taste in my mouth. 4. Andre the Giant vs Killer Khan (7/12) - Yuck! 5. Riki Choshu & Animal Hamaguchi vs Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdoch (7/12) - They tossed in some cool sequences. I liked that Adonis paid respect to Ishin Gundan's double-team ability by fighting like a wounded animal every time they cornered him. I liked Murdoch deciding to control the match by punching Hamaguchi in the face a bunch. But neither side attacked in a very cohesive fashion, and the match was disappointing overall. 6. Hulk Hogan & Antonio Inoki vs Akira Maeda & Tatsumi Fujinami (7/12) - The first 2/3 of this felt a little too respectful to me. All the matwork didn't seem to lead anywhere. It picked up at the end as Maeda and Hogan exchanged blows. Fujinami then got Inoki in the scorpion, and Maeda kicked him repeatedly. If the whole match had built toward that, it might have been a nomination, but it struck me as too little too late.
