Posted October 12, 200816 yr comment_5435147 DVD #8 4/5/85 (taped 4/5) They really did a nice job of building to Brody's big debut v. Inoki. This episode starts with a visit to his San Antonio home, where we watch him work out, prepare his training meals etc. Kengo Kimura vs. Billy Jack - God, among all the musclebound, shitty wrestlers of the era, Billy Jack was one of the most musclebound and one of the shittiest. I felt bad for Kimura having to job to that lazy oaf. Fujinami vs. Adonis - Their singles bouts never had that extra kick in the pants. The work was always pretty good, because both guys were so talented. But Adrian set aside his bumping and played more of a typical clubbing thug. And his style never seemed to bring out Fujinami's fiery side. We've already nominated too much stuff from these guys for something like this to merit consideration. Inoki vs. Murdoch - They worked a lot of holds early and did it well. But just as Murdoch moved to his bigger offense, the episode ended without giving us much idea where the match was headed. A shame, because I'd like to have a singles match between these guys on the set. 4/19/85 (taped 4/18) Antonio Inoki vs. Bruiser Brody - Well, it certainly had the big match feel and the commensurately hot crowd. But I'm not sure what they were going for with the match itself. Inoki showed up with his arm wrapped, and Brody went after it early. But he didn't work the holds well and then abandoned the strategy entirely. Some "intelligent monster." Inoki hit three straight enziguiris early in the match, but that didn't even lead to a pin attempt, and Brody was quickly back on offense. So that kind of sucked. I guess they were trying to show how awesome they were by shaking off each other's best stuff. But if they wanted to do that, why didn't they just come out and trade bombs at a fast pace for 15 minutes? I really liked one part of the match. After all his big stuff failed to stop Brody, Inoki said fuck it and tried to destroy the big man's leg. He came off really crazed and dangerous for those few minutes. But other than that, this failed to live up to the stage. I happened to watch the Dundee/Lawler match from 6/6/83 in the same sitting and it seemed like a good comparison because both were big showdowns between the two baddest assess in their respective promotions. What struck me was how much more devastating the 5-foot-5 (I'm guessing) Dundee looked than the 6-foot-5 Brody. For a supposed monster, Brody's offense just wasn't up to snuff. I know this ground has been covered by many others, but I can't believe how highly regarded he was at this time. I mean, you look at him against say, Hansen, and there's just no comparison. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Strong Machine #1 - They showed like the opening two minutes of this before the episode ended.
