I'm not sure what to make of this. It was the singles league final and they did a great job of establishing big-match feel, but it was way overbooked. They opened with mirror sections. Hogan had a wrap on his arm, so Inoki landed an enziguiri to the elbow and went for the armbar. Hogan fought out and went for an armbar of his own. Once they fought to a stalemate on the mat, they traded suplexes. Inoki then hit the enziguiri and Hogan sold it well as usual, rolling to the outside for a breather. Crowd was nuclear at this point. Hogan went on a run of offense and they fought to the outside, where he hit a vertical suplex. The ref seemed to count them both out, but no one seemed satisfied so they restarted it. Inoki then went after Hogan's leg with kicks and slapped on the figure four. They ended up in the ropes, where Inoki either couldn't or wouldn't break the hold. Again, the match seemed over. Again, they restarted it. This time, Hogan gained the upper hand with two pretty fierce looking lariats. He hit a third on the floor, which seemed to signal the end. But Inoki beat the count. They brawled to the outside and Hogan whipped Inoki into ... a lariat by Choshu. Don't worry, Hogan wasn't aligning with Ishin Gundan. Choshu hit him with the lariat as well. Inoki rolled back in with help from Sakaguchi. Hogan could not. So Inoki won. Neither man seemed very happy with the course of events. It was a good, not great match if you only consider the wrestling. But the stops and starts along with Choshu's interference created a lot of drama. And the fans seemed to see this as a showdown between the two greatest forces in the promotion. So I'll throw it on the block for consideration.

 

Shown on both NJ TV 6/15/84 and NJ Classics 169

Antonio Inoki vs. Hulk Hogan (IWGP League '84 - Final)

- You can tell these guys were going long because after Hogan’s initial work on the back (which was cool to see Hogan focus on a body part) they got down to trading holds so there was a lot of laying around and “extended” holds. I don’t know what was really going on but it looks like both men were counted out and since there had to be a winner, they re-started the match. Is that right? I don’t know. I think I would rather watch Hogan and Fujinami for fifteen minutes than Hogan and Inoki for 30. No vote.

On rewatch, I thought the stop-and-start stuff was confusing and really dragged. Still a great atmosphere but the match didn't live up to it. So I'll let this one go the way of the dodo unless Phil loves it.

I came pretty close to loving this, the work isn't great, but you have to love the insane crowd, there is a guy who is having a stroke when Hogan gets a near fall on the clothesline. They also look like they want to lynch Choshu after his interference. It felt like a real Pat Patterson WWF main event, which I liked. I need to watch their other matches, but I think this should go on.