Posted September 19, 200817 yr comment_5434702 Disc 16 July 06th & 13th 1984: 1. Seiji Sakaguchi/Antonio Inoki vs. David Shultz/Bad News Allen - Stomp, club, rinse, repeat. 2. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. El Canek - They seemed unable to sync their styles so it felt very my turn, your turn with a finish that came out of nowehere. 3. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Riki Choshu - Their rivalry had lost some heat with Choshu becoming more of a rival to Inoki. They did a lot of the same stuff as in their 1983 matches but in quick run-through form. Eventually, Choshu flipped out and nailed both Fujinami and the ref with flurries of closed fists. This seemed designed to piss off Inoki as much as anything else. Fujinami bled a lot, at least. 4. The Cobra vs. Dynamite Kid - This was all chopped up and unfortunately, it doesn't appear on Classics. I say unfortunately, because it looked like it was probably their best match, with a lot of well-executed action. But the edits remove all the transitions and slower periods, exactly the stretches they tended to fuck up in earlier encounters. So I can't judge it fairly. It should probably go on as an extra, given that it made some "best of the decade" lists. 5. Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. El Canek - Better than the Fujinami match because they were both prickish (Kobayashi was the only NJ guy of this era who believed in mask ripping.) But they still had trouble finding fluidity, and this didn't build any real drama. 6. Yoshiaki Yatsu/Riki Choshu vs. Mike Davis/Bad News Allen - Bad News and Choshu both came across as bad asses, so their brief squareoff was cool. This mostly revolved around beatdowns of Yatsu and Davis. Nothing special. 7. Cobra/Fujinami/Antonio Inoki vs. David Shultz/British Bulldogs - Famous match rated by Jeff Bowdren as the 20th best of the decade. It featured eight or nine minutes of crisp action with some cool spots (Davey dead lifting Cobra out of an armbar to set up a missle dropkick by Dynamite was particularly swank.) But it didn't tell much of a story and didn't even build into an epic spotfest that drove the crowd bonkers. I mean, I'll nominate it, because it's one we should probably discuss. But I'm not even sure it was one of the 20 best NJ matches in the first six months of 1984. How Bowdren thought it was better than, say, any Jumbo Tsuruta singles match that decade, is an enduring mystery.
September 21, 200817 yr comment_5434732 I'll ask Dan if that DK-Cobra match appears complete anywhere.
