Posted November 16, 200816 yr comment_5435756 DVD #12 July 7th: Chitose Kantaro Hoshino & Masa Saito & Antonio Inoki vs Osamu Kido & Kengo Kimura & Akira Maeda - The crowd always got up for Inoki vs. Maeda, and I like Hoshino as the fiery little guy in these six-mans. But this one didn't rise above the pack for me. No vote. George Takano vs The Warlord - Weird pairing and a semi-competitive squash for Warlord. Keiji Mutoh & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Buzz Sawyer & Bam Bam Bigelow - Fun match-up with Buzz howling like a madman and tossing the ref around. Bigelow caught Mutoh in the middle of his somersault elbow and turned it into a German suplex. Cool spot. But there wasn't enough actual match here for a nomination. August 2nd: Ryogoku IWGP Tag Championship／Nobuhiko Takada & Akira Maeda vs Kuniaki Kobayashi & Super Strong Machine - Good to have Kobayashi back. It's easy to forget how good he was. This was an action-packed title defense with a bunch of good nearfalls and a hot closing sequence between Kobayashi and Takada, who would meet for the jr. title a few weeks later. The Maeda/Machine interactions stood out as well. Easy nomination. Goto & Keiji Muto vs Johnny Smith & Badnews Allen - Quick clip. IWGP Heavyweight Championship／Antonio Inoki vs Bam Bam Bigelow - Inoki finally conquered the monster, but Bigelow didn't do nearly enough in this match to make that moment much of a payoff. He spent the early portion rolling on the mat with Inoki and ate a bunch of offense at the end, with virtually nothing of note in between. Disappointing.
