Twenty-five minutes of great, violent action before a white-hot crowd. This elimination 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.

 

Summer Night Fever, Night One (Ginnetty '87 season, disc 22)

Slam dunk pick, although I liked it a little less then Childs. The Fujiwara stuff owned, and I also dug the fuck out of Hoshino, but I thought they could have done the two on one finish better. The crowd was hyped for it, but I thought it fell a little flat. So not top 20 for me, but an obvious selection.

Elimination Match: Old Generation (Antonio Inoki, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Kantaro Hoshino, Keiji Muto, & Seiji Sakaguchi) vs. New Generation (Tatsumi Fujinami, Kengo Kimura, Akira Maeda, Riki Choshu, & Super Strong Machine) (8/19/87)

 

The angles leading up to this match were awesome getting over this “generation” battle and the return of Choshu to New Japan which at this time he still couldn’t wrestle on TV Asahi due to the legal battles with Baba & NTV. Sumo Hall was rocking and rolling from the intros which of course were awesome for these type of matches. Fujiwara came out with this look that he was ready to kill someone from the start then Choshu’s music hit and the roof blew off the place. Then of course you have Inoki and this was ridiculous nuts the way the crowd was chanting. The Inoki/Choshu storyline was still red hot here after 3 years of Choshu being gone then you throw Fujinami leaving Inoki’s side and Maeda’s UWF history and this is filled with tremendous back stories. Hoshino was awesome in these matches being the firecracker and pesky little fuck for his opponents. Maeda contra Fujiwara was great because they didn’t give a fuck and worked stiff against each other no problem. Muto looked great here as well as the young prodigy showing off his athletic skills and heart facing all of the well established stars and then you had Fujiwara being like his big brother at times slapping and headbutting the guys that had him in trouble. The eliminations would soon start and that was when the action really got fast and furious with guys pulling out all stops like Maeda dropping Fujiwara on his head with a Capture Suplex then Kimura following up with a piledriver. The Fujiwara/Choshu almost elimination sequence was great stuff with Fujiwara battering Choshu but Choshu hanging on by a hair. Maeda celebrating his double elimination with Inoki as a victory was awesome as he sacrificed himself to take out the leader of the other team. Then you have Muto & Hoshino as the only two left against Choshu & Fujinami which told a great story of the underdogs against the leaders of the other side and how they had to beat gigantic odds to win but the story would kinda fall flat as said already as Hoshino would get quickly eliminated and Muto who did what he could had no chance against Fujinami & Choshu. This was an awesome match and a home run nomination.

Hoshino was great as the little engine that could who ended up as everyone's whipping boy. The crowd went through the roof just at the thought of Inoki-Choshu. In the first ten minutes, the only real awkward moments came when Mutoh matches up with Maeda. The crowd was hot for the matchup though. You could tell they were trying to build Mutoh up because he was featured more than any other wrestler on his team and survived the longest. Choshu-Fujiwara was great. Ah shit, as good as the Maeda-Inoki elimination was, I was bummed when Fujiwara got eliminated via backslide. I know you guys thought the finish was flat but I really liked the destruction of Mutoh. Awesome match.