Posted February 7, 200916 yr comment_5437086 DVD #9 ---------------------------------------------------- June 19th: Korakuen Hall Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Riki Choshu - I've seen people slag this match as a weak effort by Fujiwara, but I didn't perceive that at all. He threw some great shootstyle headbutts, made some nifty submission attempts from his back and awesomely turned a Choshu lariat attempt into an armbar. Choshu brought his usual fire and this was about all you could ask from a midcard match that lasted less than 10 minutes. It wasn't as good as their great match from 1987, but it's another nomination from this series. Kimura, Fujinami vs Gaspers - The Gaspers didn't brawl well, sell well, bump well, wrestle well or even use their goofy gimmick to much advantage. Vader, Saito vs Adonis, Murdoch - On the plus side, Murdoch ate Vader's offense like a pro and got into a nasty mid-match slugfest with Saito. On the minus side, Adonis didn't have much left to offer, the match lacked much structure and Vader had fallen into some boring cliches (always attempting a lariat or avalanche against the post and missing every time.) So the balance sheet doesn't look so good. June 24th: The Osaka prefectural physical education hall Vader, Saito vs Gaspers - Again, I enjoyed Saito firing headbutts to the hockey masked Gaspers. But this wasn't much of a match. IWGP Jr Heavyweight Championship / Hart vs Koshinaka - More clipped Owen. This was maybe six minutes of the last match from his title run. Owen was a great athlete, no doubt, but he just ran through a bunch of big moves here and no-sold a nasty looking head drop (which was actually a botch, I think.) Koshinaka kicked out a bunch and then won on a roll-up. I'm not sure the full match would make the set but no way in this form. The Owen stuff has been a real disappointment, because it's all so chopped up. IWGP Heavyweight throne decisive match / Tatsumi Fujinami vs Riki Choshu - I always end up nominating their matches. This started out less heated than their previous match as they mostly worked holds and tried for submissions. That stuff was good but the end run was great. Choshu knocked Fujinami off the apron with a lariat and Fujinami started bleeeding heavily. But every time Choshu tried to finish him with another lariat, Fujinami parried with a dropkick. Fujinami finally took control with a sequence of Inoki moves -- no coincidence given that they were pushing Fujinami as the new top guy. The last few minutes felt desperate and important from both sides. I liked the show of respect from Choshu after the match. This should move forward.
