Posted November 2, 200816 yr comment_5435510 DVD 17 8/29/86: IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Nobuhiko Takada © vs. Black Tiger - JIP, but I think only slightly. Good junior title match though they didn't blend their shoot and pro styles as well as, say, Takada and Koshinaka did in their best matches. Instead, each section felt clearly delineated as a Tiger offense section or a Takada offense section. Takada was generous, though, in giving Tiger lots of room to show off his stuff. Good ending too, as Tiger fought desperately to block Takada's German suplex, only for Takada to scramble his brains with a high kick and hit the German anyway. Not a high-end juniors match but worth a look for further discussion. Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Madd Maxx & Super Maxx - God help me, the Maxxes are back. Mercifully, this didn't go long before they brawled into the stands. IWGP Tag Team Titles: Akira Maeda & Osamu Kido © vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Kengo Kimura - Fine match but it lacked the fire of the title change between these teams, largely because they minimized the Fujinami/Maeda interactions. Those two got into it on the outside, but only just before the match ended in a double countout. 9/5/86: Matches also appear on NJ Classics 242 and 246 Shiro Koshinaka & George Takano vs. Nobuhiko Takada & Yoshiaki Fujiwara - Takada seemed fired up for some reason, hitting all of his stuff with a little extra force. Fujiwara didn't have much to do in the segment shown on TV. It didn't strike me as a nomination, but it was JIP and it's worth checking out the Classics version before rendering a final verdict. Akira Maeda & Osamu Kido vs. Madd Maxx & Super Maxx - I found the Maxxes more bland than offensive, here, so that's an improvement. Match ended abruptly on interference from Wakamatsu. Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Jerry Grey - Not much to this. Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Steve Williams & Kevin Kelly - Don't think that was Steve Williams. Might've been Jackal again. Anyway, the episode ended mid-match, but it didn't seem headed for a nomination. Kelly brought an impressive Viking stature to the mix, but that was about it.
