Posted November 17, 200816 yr comment_5435778 DVD #22 Summer Night Fever Vol. 1 8/19/87 IWGP Jr. tourney: All of these first-round matches are too clipped to be included on the set, which is a shame, because a lot of the highlights look excellent, especially those from Funaki/Kobayashi and Takada/Yamada. Honaga vs. Gotoh Yamazaki vs. Hiro Saito Kobayashi vs. Funaki Takada vs. Yamada ---5 on 5 elimination----- Inoki/Fujiwara/Sakaguchi/Hoshino/Mutoh vs. Fujinami/Choshu/Maeda/Kimura/SS Machine - Twenty-five minutes of great, violent action before a white-hot crowd. This match had a ton going on, from awesome interactions between Inoki and Maeda, Fujiwara and Kimura and Fujiwara and Maeda to the powerhouse alliance between Fujinami and Choshu. It wasn't quite as great as the 3/26/86 5-on-5, because it didn't have the overarching UWF vs. NJ storyline, and the ending was less dramatic (once it got down to Mutoh vs. Fujinami and Choshu, any suspense about the outcome disappeared.) But it's probably Top 20, and it had me wondering why U.S. feds rarely use this format. It almost can't miss. Anyway, slam-dunk nomination.
