Posted November 2, 200816 yr comment_5435502 DVD 16 8/7/86: Matches also on Classics 241 IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Nobuhiko Takada © vs. Kazuo Yamazaki - I like the match-up well enough but also had a lukewarm reaction to this version. They wrestled too loosely during the opening mat section and the first third of the match felt like a waste of time. It picked up once they got kickier, and their submission attempts in the last section looked much tighter. I'll second the halfhearted nomination, but if Will is underwhelmed, maybe we should just punt it. It's not like either guy will be underrepresented on the set. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Alexis Smirnoff - One of those weird Fujinami pseudo-squashes in which he took all of the other guy's moves but then won almost casually as if he had another appointment or something. Antonio Inoki & Kengo Kimura vs. Bad News Allen & Steve Williams - Williams and Bad News really kicked the shit out of Kimura. Match didn't turn into anything special, however. 8/9/86: Match also on Classics 242 Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura vs. Kendo Nagasaki & Mr. Pogo - This was in Hawaii and they wrestled in a great big stadium before a crowd of oh, maybe 2,000. So the environment sucked. They rushed through it, with the faces controlling more than in their previous match-up. Very much a tossed off house show performance. 8/12/86: U.S. Tag Team Titles: The Fabulous Ones © vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura - This was somewhere in the States, so I assume we're not watching it for this set. It was interesting, though, because the U.S. fans treated Fujinami and Kimura as heels and they wrestled more and more like a U.S. heel team as the match went on. 8/17/86: Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura vs. Canek & Fishman - This was in Mexico City so again, no candidate for the set. Wrestling wasn't so hot anyway, though I enjoyed the pre-match footage of Kimura and Fujinami trying on sombreros and floating down the river in colorful boats (again, some very gay scenarios included.) 8/9/86: Match also on Classics 242 Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Johnny Mantell - We're back in the empty Hawaiian stadium for these three. Sakaguchi pretty much squashed Mantell. Keiji Muto vs. Jerry Grey - At least Mutoh popped the crowd a little with his moonsault. Antonio Inoki vs. Hacksaw Higgins - They barely got started before Dr. Death interfered.
