Posted November 1, 200816 yr comment_5435487 DVD 15 7/25/86: Matches also on Classics 238 and 239 Akira Maeda & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Bad News Allen & Steve Williams - Bad News, more than anyone, seemed to love working spots based on the hardness of Fujiwara's head. For the finish, Bad News took down the top rope so Williams could drive Fujiwara's back directly into the exposed post and turnbuckle. The brawl then spilled outside for a double countout. This match wasn't real deep -- just four badassess trading big shots for about 12 minutes. I can get behind that enough to throw it on the block. Antonio Inoki vs. Alexis Smirnoff - This was primarily a set-up for Williams to run in and attack Inoki to build for their singles encounter on the next show. IWGP Tag Team Titles: Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura © vs. Kendo Nagasaki & Mr. Pogo - Kimura showed up with his ribs taped, and Pogo and Nagasaki did a fine job of attacking them with their dirty heel offense. But nothing they did had any real force or nastiness to it. These matches never seemed to get out of second gear, either in terms of pace or crowd heat. They weren't bad; they just weren't captivating. 8/5/86: Matches also on Classics 239 and 240 IWGP Tag Team Titles: Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura © vs. Akira Maeda & Osamu Kido - Fujinami and Maeda played off a lot of the same sequences they used in their classics singles match from June. Crowd was way into all of their interactions. Kido turned in an unusually energetic performance as well. It ended very suddenly, as Kido caught Kimura in a roll-up during what felt like a normal, mid-match exchange. Weird to have no build to the ending in a title change but I guess that was a nod to the more opportunistic, real fight style pushed by the UWF guys. I'll throw it a nomination because the wrestling was very strong throughout and it seemed like a significant step in the big factional rivalry. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Nobuhiko Takada © vs. Shiro Koshinaka - Only about a five-minute clip, so we'll definitely want to look at the Classics version. Their matches were always good and I expect this will end up pulling a nomination. Antonio Inoki vs. Steve Williams - They did the resourceful matador vs. super strong bull dynamic. The whole thing never quite clicked, though I can't put my finger on the reason.
