Posted November 23, 200816 yr comment_5435897 DVD #17 April 27th: Ryogoku Shiro Koshinaka & Kengo Kimura vs Osamu Kido & Akira Maeda - Just a clip to set up footage of Koshinaka rehabbing from his leg injury. October 19th: Fuji Nobuhiko Takada & Shiro Koshinaka vs Hiro Saito & Super Strong Machine - And here we had Koshinaka back from his injury and teaming with one of his chief rivals. Match was't anything remarkable. Keiji Muto vs Steve Williams - Semi-squash by Williams to set up his next match with Inoki. Keiichi Yamada & Antonio Inoki vs Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami - A lead-in to the following match as Choshu and Fujinami killed Yamada before Inoki could even tag in ... Handicap Match／Antonio Inoki vs Riki Choshu & Tatsumi Fujinami - So Inoki said fuck it, I'm not leaving and I want to wrestle you both. This turned out to be a poor decision as Choshu and Fujinami handled him pretty easily. Fujinami appeared on the way to submitting his mentor when Choshu, apparently wanting the glory for himself, attacked his partner. They ended up brawling to bring an official end to their brief alliance. More of an angle than a match. If we do a package of extras related to the Choshu-Fujinami rivalry, this should be included. October 22nd: Yonezawa Kengo Kimura vs Steve Williams - I don't remember this. Maybe it was just a brief clip. October 25th: Ryogoku Keiichi Yamada & Shiro Koshinaka vs Kazuo Yamazaki & Nobuhiko Takada - The whole middle was cut out but the ending, at least, looked quite good. Koshinaka and Yamada appeared to weather the storm of UWF offense and started reeling off their finishers. In desperation, Yamazaki went after Koshinaka's injured leg with kicks. Takada then ruthlessly applied a leg submission for the win. Good action; not enough shown to merit a nomination. IWGP Heavyweight Championship／Antonio Inoki vs Steve Williams - I haven't enjoyed their match-ups. Williams got so much better later on at portraying the badass, super-powerful gaijin. Tatsumi Fujinami vs Riki Choshu - This was two out of three falls. Choshu won the first with a flash pin off of his lariat. Segunda caida was excellent, kind of a condensed, intensified version of their usual match structure. It was very back and forth but it worked, because these two had established that a lot of their high-impact stuff -- Choshu's back suplex and lariat, Fujinami's superplex, etc. -- could be used as sudden counters. Fujinami took it with a roll-up. They were building an outstanding addition to their rivalry as Choshu went after the leg early in the third fall to set up the scorpion. But then they spilled outside and Fujinami seemed to hurt his neck as he flipped Choshu back in the ring. He lost by countout. Maybe this was the planned finish but if so, it felt totally wrong and undercut the good work they had done. If he was legit hurt, well, bad luck. The unsatisfying conclusion cost it a nomination.
