Posted September 13, 200817 yr comment_5434544 I had been looking forward to this since I saw it in the match listing and it sure didn't disappoint. Fujiwara and Choshu both showed up with head bandages, so you knew the blood would flow. The crowd was hot and the action never slowed from bell to bell. Ishin Gundan started out by pounding the shit out of Fujiwara. Actually they did a nice job of controlling the match using their patented teamwork in the corner. Maeda and Inoki had their moments but this was really a Fujiwara story. When he came back in, Hamaguchi focused on his forehead and got the blood gushing. They worked the cut for about five minutes, with Fujiwara fighting desperately to tag out and selling like a champ. The only bummer came when the ref called a DQ because they wouldn't stop ganging up on him. Inoki then played avenging angel in the post-match brawl. I can't overstate how pleased I am to see Fujiwara introduced to the Ishin Gundan-Seiki Gundan feud. Easy nomination here. Appeared on 2/24/84 NJ TV, also on Classics 160
August 8, 200916 yr comment_5442622 Antonio Inoki/Akira Maeda/Fujiwara vs. Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu/Animal Hamaguchi - The early section with Fujiwara getting worked over was awesome except for his horrible selling. I mean, fuck, they do a top rope double team move into a Samoan Drop and he no-sells it to make the tag. I enjoy him much better on offense because he makes such a shitty sympathetic character. I love how Animal and Choshu go to town on his head until he bleeds buckets. Once the focus becomes attacking Fujiwara’s cut at all costs this match really picks up. I don’t think it is an easy nomination though. The ending really sucked, Fujiwara’s inconsistent selling hurt the match and we have much better 6-man tags on the set. Fun match but no vote from me.
August 17, 200916 yr comment_5442908 Will you are crazy. I thought the double team sell was a little weird too, but we are talking the first couple of minutes of the match, also Choshu's army stuff was worked sort of like an inter-promotional feud, you have that kind of grit your teeth selling in Puro inter-promotional matches. The working over of the cut was awesome and Fujiwara was spectacular as the underdog babyface tough guy fighting off triple teams. All of the Choshu's army matches have those kind of finishes, and I thought this was the best Army match I have seen and it absolutely needs to make the set.
August 18, 200916 yr comment_5442953 So about a decade ago I would occasionally correspond with Frank Jewett. And while he is a dick on line he is also a guy who in correspondence if you told him “I’ve never seen that” would immediately fed ex you a vhs tape. So I got some of his early attempts to put together Choshu stuff from NJ and All Japan on tape in the mail while he was still putting it together. And well this is my memory of Choshu’s army stuff. This is Japanese v Japanese as main event and kind of the way it works is you have Choshu, Yatsu beat Zambouie Express clean. Fujinami, and Inoki beat Zambouie Express clean. Then Choshu/Yatsu work Fujinami/Inoki in a match with a lot of heat lots of moves and workrate, thetype of no selling that you expect at the beginning of interpromotional matches, and really unsatisfying shmozz finishes. These are kind of big flaws and part of why I dig the UWF v NJ stuff so much better. But I went in with the assumption os how Choshu matches work at this point expecting the shmozz and post shmozz brawl and so no dissapointment...the shmozz finish and post shmozz brawl felt like a fine shmozz and post match brawl to me.
