Posted October 4, 200817 yr comment_5435006 Disc 27 December 07th & 14th 1984: Last three matches also appear on Classics 178 1. Kengo Kimura/Kantaro Hoshino vs. Strong Machines - Basically a squash for the Machines. 2. Tatsumi Fujinami/Antonio Inoki vs. Adrian Adonis/Dick Murdoch - Not a perfect match but certainly an epic tag by 1984 standards. They started with a wild scramble before Adonis and Murdoch went into a long control section, working Fujinami's arm. This was perhaps the weakest stretch in the match as they failed to suggest much purpose beyond killing time. After about 10 minutes, Fujinami snapped off a dropkick and tagged in Inoki, who worked Murdoch's leg for the next stretch. He didn't work the holds all that well, but Murdoch sold the damage effectively. Match picked up after that as Adonis and Murdoch maneuvered Fujinami into their corner and proceeded to unload all of their biggest offense on him. He kicked out over and over, which seemed more dramatic because they didn't do that too much in NJ in these years. He finally hot tagged Inoki, but Murdoch quickly cut off the rally with a chair shot (ref pretty much let this go.) That led to a shorter section of Inoki in peril, which had the crowd going nuts. He punched his way out of trouble and this led to toe-to-toe slugfests between Murdoch and both Inoki and Fujinami. Dick took and delivered punches as well as anyone so you know that part was good. Finally, Murdoch hosited Inoki up for a big double-team move, but Inoki managed to kick Adonis before he could come off the ropes. Fujinami then distracted Murdoch long enough to finish Adonis with the enziguiri and octopus hold. This felt like the best two teams in the promotion emptying their bags in an attempt to win the big match. So they achieved their goal, despite some slow points early. Nomination. 3. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Dick Murdoch - Solid match with Dick using his punches and dirty tricks and Fujinami using his quickness and leg attacks. It didn't rise above diverting filler. 4. Antonio Inoki/Andre the Giant vs. Strong Machines - Inoki and Andre were wary of each other as old rivals but united by their hatred of those pesky Machines. This actually sucked as Andre worked most of the way and the Machines couldn't do anything with him. No hit-and-run or fun "chop down the giant" schtick. They all just sort of stumbled around the ring, and Andre flattened them every so often. 5. Super Heavyweight Battle Royal - I'm shocked, shocked I tell you that Andre won a battle royal. Inoki was eliminated because of Machine distraction, so I guess we're not rid of the feud yet.
