Posted November 6, 200816 yr comment_5435565 DVD 22 11/24/86: Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Akira Maeda - JIP. Methodical, physical match that went to a DQ after about seven minutes. Tatsumi Fujinami & Keiji Muto vs. Nobuhiko Takada & Shiro Koshinaka - No feeling out here as Takada and Koshinaka started off throwing bombs. I thought that as natural rivals paired at the last minute, they might hint at some uneasiness. But they worked together seamlessly. This match ended up focusing on Mutoh vs. Takada with Takada always cutting off Mutoh's bursts of offense and really punishing him. It featured a restart but they did that screwy thing where they wiped out one shitty ending only to go to another. Still, there was enough action here for it to move on. Antonio Inoki & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Dick Murdoch & The Masked Superstar - JIP. Some good interactions between Fujiwara and Murdoch, but this wasn't a standout among so many excellent tag league matches. 12/8/86: Matches also on Classics 251 Akira Maeda & Osamu Kido vs. Nobuhiko Takada & Shiro Koshinaka - I had never heard this pimped, but it was one of the best matches I've watched for the project. Crowd was molten and all four guys just went at it hard from the opening bell. The Takada/Maeda exchanges were particularly heated and violent and it felt like it would be a really big deal for Takada to pin his mentor. Again, Koshinaka and Takada worked smoothly as a unit. They whipped the crowd into a frenzy at one point when they stomped Maeda to the mat in tandem. Decent ending too as it was conclusive without taking away from anyone's great performance. Slam dunk nomination. Antonio Inoki & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Keiji Muto - Good though not on the level of the match before it. I can't rate this version, because the ending didn't make TV. But it could prove to be a nomination off Classics.
