Posted February 9, 200916 yr comment_5437105 DVD#11 ---------------------------------------------------- July 22nd: The Sapporo Nakajima physical education center Kimura, Fujinami vs Fernandez, Sawyer - This had a good comedy sequence from Buzz, but again, he and Manny weren't treated as serious opponents for a top team, so it's hard to nominate their matches. IWGP Heavyweight throne challenger decisive league match / Saito vs Vader - It was cool to see Saito toss Vader around with his suplexes. Good finishing sequence too in which Saito used his guile to outmaneuever Vader on the outside and earn a countout win. Those highlights aside, the match didn't rise to the level of the excellent heavyweight stuff the promotion was churning out in this period. IWGP Heavyweight throne challenger decisive league match / Antonio Inoki vs Riki Choshu - Great seven-minute match in which they traded bombs from the start before a frenzied crowd. Choshu did a sweet flying headscissors and drilled Inoki with a running powerslam. The ending, a big and surprising moment, looked absolutely brutal. Matches of this length don't usually move forward, but this felt like a big deal and gets an easy nod from me. July 25th: The Aomori citizen gymnasium Koshinaka, Fujinami vs Southern Boys - I'm tempted to nominate this, even though it was JIP and Fujinami took the pin pretty casually. It stood out because the Southern Boys looked fantastic -- more athletic than any heavyweight team in NJ with good selling and punches thrown in. I'm hoping we find a better match with them somewhere in '88 or '89. This one fell a little short. IWGP Heavyweight throne challenger decisive league match / Riki Choshu vs Vader - This started with the cool visual of Vader barreling over his smoking headpiece to get at Choshu. It's not hard to guess how the match went; they just blasted each other. Choshu hit some nice throws and a vertical suplex on the outside. They crafted another effective countout ending that left both guys looking strong. I'm going to put this on the block for now with the caveat that a future match-up between the two could push it off the set. IWGP Heavyweight throne challenger decisive league match / Inoki vs Kimura - This contained some boring stretches of Kimura holding Inoki in a sort of non-descript sleeper. But it got a little pissier when Kimura slapped Inoki and the king came firing back with a crazy volley of punches. They also produced a nice sequence with Inoki working from his back and Kimura attempting some rudimentary ground-and-pound. So I liked parts of the match, but it never transcended my assumption that Inoki would handle Kimura pretty easily.
