Posted November 23, 200816 yr comment_5435898 DVD #18 November 9th: Korakuen Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Seiji Sakaguchi vs Mr. Pogo & Kendo Nagasaki - Not even Fujiwara could transcend the shittiness of Pogo and Nagasaki in NJ. Keiji Mutoh vs Dick Murdoch - Dick told Inoki beforehand that he would prove his worthiness as a partner for the tag league. He started out working Mutoh's arm. Mutoh transitioned to offense by attacking Dick's leg. The legwork was so-so, but Dick sold it well, limping throughout the match. He eventually subdued the younger man with his usual finishing run of offense. I don't know that I'm digging honorable Murdoch. Without his little touches of brutality, Mutoh didn't come off as an interesting underdog, and the match lacked much zing. The Japan cup contention tag league game／Kengo Kimura & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Masa Saito & Riki Choshu - I think we time-warped back to 1983, because Saito and Choshu kicked the shit out of Kimura during two face-in-peril sections that dominated the match. They excelled at that so no complaints. They could never isolate him for long enough however. Fujinami hit a cut block on Choshu's knee during an attempted double team, and Kimura rolled Choshu up for the surprise win. Simple, effective match structure. I'll toss it a low-end nomination, though it might ultimately fail to stand out with so much good tag wrestling up for consideration. November 16th: Miyagi George Takano & Keiji Mutoh & Shiro Koshinaka vs Kuniaki Kobayashi & Masa Saito & Riki Choshu - The result seemed inevitable given that no one on the babyface team ranked anywhere close to Choshu or Saito. Their only winning strategy was to isolate Kobayashi and to their credit, they tried it. Of course, it wasn't meant to be. This featured pretty good action for a mismatch but nothing that cried out for a nomination. The Japan cup contention tag league game／Kengo Kimura & Tatsumi Fujinami vs Mr. Pogo & Kendo Nagasaki - More crap from Pogo and Nagasaki. Why did they keep bringing them back? The Japan cup contention tag league game／Dick Murdoch & Antonio Inoki vs Super Strong Machine & Akira Maeda - Maeda vs. Murdoch produced the best stuff in this one as Dick ate a bunch of kicks and a sweet running knee. Inoki and Maeda, surprisingly, produced very little heat and the match in general failed to achieve the intensity that Maeda was adept at producing. This might have been his last NJ match that made tape.
