New Japan Pro Wrestling TV (Ferbruary 10th & February 17th, 1984)

Disc 5

February 10th & 17th 1984:

1. Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Animal Hamaguchi - This was pretty awesome but probably too short to make the set. Fujiwara came out with a bandage on his head and Hamaguchi immediately ripped it off and bloodied him with punches and some biting. Of course, that didn't stop Fujiwara from head butting the shit out of him. He then blatantly choked Hamaguchi. They went back and forth in hateful fashion for about five minutes before Choshu and company swarmed Fujiwara on the outside. I wish this had lasted 15 minutes because it would have been a slam dunk. As it was, what a relief to see two guys who understood pro wrestling after all this juniors crap.

2. The Cobra vs. Davey Boy Smith - JIP. At one point, Davey dead lifted Cobra out of an armbar and threw him on his head. Later, he military pressed him from the outside into the ring, only for Cobra to spring up and nail him with a tope. Such exciting moments aside, this had no semblance of story and it was a fairly brief clip, so no nomination.

3. Dynamite Kid vs. Davey Boy Smith - JIP. This was tighter than their match on the previous disc. But these guys still had the annoying habit of slapping on rest holds just when the action seemed to be building. Dynamite played the opportunist again, suplexing his younger partner to the outside and scrambling back in to beat the count out.

4. The Cobra vs. Dynamite Kid - I actually really liked the opening of this. Dynamite was pissed about his previous loss to Cobra and he really came out firing with drop kicks and power moves. But for a seven-minute match, this had an awfully long stretch of pointless matwork in the middle. Combine that with the usual no-selling and poor transitions and you get a no vote.

5. Antonio Inoki vs. Bad News Allen - JIP. This seemed like a pretty easy win for Inoki which was weird, given that they'd spent time building Bad News as a threat.

6. Yoshiaki Yatsu/Riki Choshu vs. Iron Mike Sharpe/Hulk Hogan - Crowd was super hot for this, especially when Choshu and Hogan squared off. But the work didn't really live up to the atmosphere. Yatsu and Choshu isolated Sharpe a lot. No surprise there. But then Hogan took out Yatsu almost casually with the lariat. Oh well.

7. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Rusher Kimura - Boring match.

8. Kengo Kimura/Akira Maeda/Antonio Inoki vs. Bret Hart/Iron Mike Sharpe/Hulk Hogan - This wasn't very memorable either. Bret didn't seem to have much of a role.