Posted September 25, 200817 yr comment_5434855 Disc 20 August 24th & 31st 1984: First two matches also on Classics 171 1. Riki Choshu vs. Bob Backlund - Decent match. Both guys were generally good at creating a sense of struggle in the early matwork, and they did that here. But it never built to any real crescendo despite the fact they traded some higher impact moves. I wasn't a fan of the ending. They tumbled over the ropes out of a Bob airplane spin and got counted out. The whole match was just missing something. 2. Tatsumi Fujinami/Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Roger Smith/Myers - Myers and Smith controlled almost the whole way, with both Fujinami and Sakaguchi working FIP. I didn't find their offense that interesting so the structure didn't so much work for me. 3. Riki Choshu vs. Jerry Morrow - Morrow tossed in some nice headbutts to what was essentially a squash for Choshu. 4. Kengo Kimura/Antonio Inoki vs. Roger Smith/Myers - I still wasn't digging the Smith/Myers tandem in the NJ context. They beat on Kimura in semi-interesting fashion. Inoki cleaned house a few times and won with the enziguri when he got tired of standing out there. 5. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Bob Backlund - Again, both guys excelled at bringing intensity to the early matwork. Fujinami worked Bob's arm and kept coming back to a keylock with such doggedness that it became a little strange. The crowd didn't react to Bob's struggle like the early '80s WWF crowds, so the match didn't quite take off. The ending wasn't shown on TV, so that knocks it out of consideration. But I doubt I'd have nominated it unless the unaired part was just spectacular.
