This started with a fast and neatly set up elimination. Hoshino was always great in this setting as he could pop in to hit some guys in the face and then get killed without having to carry too much of the action. The match turned on an awesome sneak attack from Choshu on Fujiwara. I love these elimination matches, and this is another nomination from the genre.

I was a little bummed that Kido was dumped so quick, but this was great, that lariat by Choshu was incredible, Kimura was great here, he is turning into one of my favorite guys in NJ

Yeah that lariat to the back from the apron. Sheesh. Hoshin v Fujiwara was a blast and I wish we had more matches with the loosing team.

#316 2/19/98

11/11/88 Antonio Inoki/Riki Choshu/Kantaro Hoshio vs. Kengo Kimura/Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Osamu Kido (Sky A 111)

- Poor Hoshino. Not only does he get his ass kicked every time he is in the ring, but Choshu keeps setting him up for some double teams and he gives us some fairly weak offense. However, it served its purpose when he eliminated Kido nearly right off the bat. I love Fujiwara refusing to engage Choshu and tagging out but jumping on Hoshino later on. I enjoyed this but it seems like it was to different matches. There was the Choshu and Hoshino match and the Inoki match. Whatever story those guys were telling sort of went out the window when Inoki came in. the eliminations were well done for the most part except for kimura’s. He kicks Inoki’s ass, and Inoki shakes it off to win with the backdrop suplex. I liked 5 out of the 6 guys here so I’ll give it a recommendation.