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.

 

Inoki Superbouts 4 aka Ginnetty '87 Season, Disc 25

Yeah this was fucking spectacular, I could see it finishing way high on my ballot. The removing of the ropes was awesome as was the handcuff together spot. Godamn does Saito bleed like a freak. Plus the crazy finish with Choshu in the crowd, I could see this in my top 10. Slam Dunk pick

The thing is I dug every single part of the match. The early mat section was neat. The whole Inoki pisses off Bihari by selling like he's dead while Saito abuses him by repeatedly tossing him over top rope, dropping on top rop, crotching him on rope section was kind of awesome, and then the whole restart was spectacular.

The early matwork wasn't like some Inoki matches where they will lay there in the exact same position for 5 minutes but I wish they would have had more focus on either a body part or there was a clear strategy being laid out. Saito started focusing more on the legs, leading to the first Sharpshooter which kind of neutralizes my impatience with the first few minutes. After this, the match picks up, with Saito using the ropes as a weapon. I thought the match without the ropes was much better than what was going on earlier on. Fuck, that handcuff battle was insane. Inoki hsould have bladed after being pummelled with the handcuffs though but he makes up for it by beating Saito senseless. Definitel nomination but this won't crack my Top 20.