Posted September 15, 200817 yr comment_5434597 Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Isamu Teranishi Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Nobuhiko Takada Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Kengo Kimura Kengo Kimura vs. Animal Hamaguchi Animal Hamaguchi vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara Antonio Inoki vs. Riki Choshu Following Phil's precedent with the 5/1/86 gauntlet, I'm going to treat this as one match. That's really how it's best appreciated anyway. Seiki Gundan opened with Fujinami in hopes of clearing out the lower ranks of Ishin Gundan. Good strategy but Fujinami came out with his hand taped and as the first match went on, Kobayashi attacked it more and more. Fujinami gave him a lot of offense in an exciting contest but overpowered him with a German suplex. Next came Teranishi, who focused on the hand to an even greater degree. Fujinami sold the pain quite well (for example, he couldn't pull off the German he'd used to win the first match.) The injury allowed the lower ranked Teranishi to abuse him far more than expected. Fujinami ultimately showed a lot of fire in rallying to put Teranishi away but you knew he'd be in trouble in his third match. He tried to rush Yatsu and put him away quickly, but sure enough, Yatsu destroyed his hand on the outside. Yatsu then drop kicked Fujinami off the apron every time he tried to get back in the ring. After the countout, Yatsu seemed to have an easy draw in Takada. Not so fast. The youngster turned in a star-making performance in one of the best NJ matches of the year. He emptied his bag of big moves to push Yatsu to the brink and got the fans incredibly behind him after they seemed dubious at first. Yatsu finally finished him with a powerslam but what a shot of adrenaline. Kimura next took advantage of Yatsu's fatigue in perhaps the weakest match of the challenge. But the veteran Hamaguchi broke Kimura's momentum with some early stalling and then beat him up. That set up a nasty brawl between Hamaguchi and Fujiwara. Ishin Gundan hoped to use Hamaguchi to wear down Inoki before Choshu got to the kingpin. Fujiwara wouldn't allow it. Hamaguchi busted him open, but he fought through it and dragged Choshu's lieutenant outside, where he used his superior sense of positioning to lock Hamaguchi up for the countout. That set up the much-anticipated one-on-one between a fresh Choshu and fresh Inoki. I thought they worked on the mat too much at first, taking the crowd out of the match. But they ultimately fired it up and hit all their big offense. It was good that Inoki let Choshu fight out of the octopus hold once before finishing him. I had never seen that in two years, and it made Choshu look strong in the loss. Taken as a whole, this was a tremendous dramatization of the factional rivalry at the center of the promotion. It featured great ebb and flow, from Fujinami's hand injury to Takada's gutsy breakout to Fujiwara's sacrificial stand. I have to think that if we keep it on the ballot as one match, it will be top 10. The eight matches appear in full on NJ TV 4/20/84 and 4/27/84.
May 4, 200916 yr comment_5439053 This was fucking awesome, Childs covered it well, but some stuff he didn't mention include Fujinami's lunatic bumps off the apron, Yatsu's awesome suplexes and Fujiwara's 22 punch combo in the corner. I loved the Inoki v. Choshu stuff too, great great match
May 7, 200916 yr comment_5439200 This is awesome. I don't know about the Kimura v Yatsu section being weakest as that was one of my favorite parts. Also, haven't watched a ton of 84 but wow is Kimura on the gas.
September 5, 200916 yr comment_5443854 Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi - They picked two of the best to start off with as there is some great back and forth action and a real hot crowd. Fujinami's hand plays a role as it is bandaged up. too bad Kobayashi didn't focus on it more. This could have been a low-end nomination by itself. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Isamu Teranishi - Awesome, Fujinami attacks him before the bell. I love this shit. Teranishi does what Kobayashi should have done and just fucks the hand over. Badass. HEADBUTTS TO THE HAND!!! I am going nuts. Skoppy piledriver by Teranishi. he should stick to HEADBUTTING THE HAND.... oh fuck, and he does!!!!! Great ending leading up to the Sharpshooter. This match is a strong nomination by itself. That may have been one of the greatest things I have ever seen in wrestling. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu - OOOHHHHH FUUUUUUCKKKK! That bump off the apron was sick. FUUUUCKKKK... make that two apron bumps. Fujinami is a warrior. Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Nobuhiko Takada - These guys kept up the pace with some wicked back and forth. One section has Takada pounding on Yatsu's chest non-stop and hitting a high leg drop only for Yatsu to come back and rip his head off with a flying lariat. The crowd is amped. Great exhcange after the slap contest where Yatsu misses a dropkick only for Takada the upstart to land one right after. Fuck, these guys are bringing the fire. Great stretch run where I thought it could have been over after any number of big moves including Takada's AWESOME dropkick. More greatness here. Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Kengo Kimura - This was a little sloppy as you can tell Yatsu is drained. To fuck with him even more, Kimura lays in some nice headbutts. Still, the motherfucker won't quit. Nice stretch run in this one as well. Kengo Kimura vs. Animal Hamaguchi - These mind games by Hamaguchi are great. He knew he couldn't outdo the insane spots from earlier so he opts for somce psych. Good shit. I love those Animal elbow drops where he just drops Kimura everytime he lifts himself from the mat. Another hot run although this was considerably shorter than the other rounds. Animal Hamaguchi vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara - Fujiwara just lights him up from the get go. When Animal came in, his strategy was to stall. Fujiwara's is attack mode. So after a quick ass-whipping, Animal goes back to stalling. Excellent. Great choke takedown by Fujiwara. Fuck yeah, Animal attacks the bandage after taking a ton of headbutts. Great run by both guys with Fujiwara taking one for the team so Choshu and Inoki could square off one on one. Antonio Inoki vs. Riki Choshu - I thought the matwork early on was pretty fucking good actually. And I can't recall a time that the crowd was silent. The match was a change of pace from the earlier rounds where one guy who just went through a war would get abused by the new guy. Fuck, that deadlift spot was fucking cool. This actually had all kinds of cool shit going on. So far, this smokes every single thing that Fujinami-Inoki tried in their Thesz match. That end run was fucking great and I really thought Choshu was going to take it even though I knew better. OK, after nearly 90 minutes of a roller coaster ride and reflecting on how many super mini-matchups were part of this thing, I think this is my current working #1. Every match-up had something memorable or had a purpose.
September 5, 200916 yr Author comment_5443855 It's a strong contender for my No. 1 as well. It's hard to maintain that kind of tension and intrigue for 90 minutes. A truly spectacular combination of wrestling and booking. I've never seen anything quite like it.
September 5, 200916 yr comment_5443856 Yeah man, I compared it to the 1986 match in my notes and that was a contender but had some real slowdown in parts. This one never let up and each guy or match-up brought something different.
