Posted November 26, 200816 yr comment_5435974 This is Disc 25 from Ginnetty's 1987 season set. 4/27/87 Antonio Inoki vs. Masa Saito - This started slowly with Saito dominating Inoki on the mat but turned into an awesome spectacle by the end. Saito moved from the mat stuff to his higher-impact lariats and suplexes. But when he couldn't put Inoki away, he started crotching him on the ropes over and over. That led the ref to rule that the ropes should be taken down entirely, something I've never seen before. Inoki rallied and bloodied Saito on the post. Hase, serving as a second to Saito, slapped handcuffs on his mentor's wrist. Saito used them to batter Inoki and then cuffed himself to his rival. That set up a fierce ending as they basically stood chest to chest, pounding each other. Inoki got the better of it and wouldn't stop nailing Saito, so Hase finally tossed in the towel and threw himself between them as a shield. Meanwhile, Choshu, not officially back in NJ but sitting in the crowd, ran to ringside in a fury. He slapped Fujinami and thus, reinserted himself with a bang. This was certainly not a great technical match but it reminded me of something like Austin/Rock at Mania XVII -- two huge stars trying to kill each other and wrapping in a bunch of big storylines. Nomination. 5/30/80 Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Antonio Inoki - Some good wrestling here but it ended pretty abruptly with one of those Inoki victories that seemed to shit on the other guy's work.
